Holodeck Overrun

Posted on Sun Jun 21st, 2020 @ 7:09pm by Lieutenant Callum McDowell

516 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Cleaning Up
Location: Holodeck 4
Timeline: Mission Day 1 | 2242 Hours

The sun was high in the sky and the feel of the simulated sunshine on his skin felt good. Callum straddled his surfboard far enough out that the waves were behind him. With his eyes closed, he felt calm as he took deep lungfuls of the simulated sea air. It was wonderful to be able to escape to one of his favourite places after a long day, and it had been a long day.

“Jesus!” Callum shouted in surprise when he opened his eyes. Standing on the surface of the water was a man dressed like someone from revolutionary France. “Who are you?”

The man in question was clearly annoyed. “I’m Xander Young. You’ve been eating into my holodeck time for the past five minutes.”

“Oh, sorry ‘bout that.” Callum moved to a standing position on his board as he spoke. “I guess I lost track of time. Computer, end program.” The scene around them dissolved in seconds and was replaced by the black and yellow hologrid.

Young let out a frustrated sigh. “Well I’ll just have to make the most of the time I have left.” He groused as Callum moved to the corner of the room where he had left a towel and began to dry himself off.

“What’s the program you’re planning to run?” Callum asked, wondering what the period costume was for.

Having moved to the control panel, Young was already selecting his program. “Les Misérables.” Was the rather terse reply.

“Novel or musical?” Every time Young answered a question it only threw up another one for Callum to ask. He was sure he was grating on Young’s final nerve.

Another frustrated sigh emerged Xander Young before he gave another terse reply. “Novel.”

“Ah, I prefer the musical.” Callum told him, not that Young cared in the slightest.

“That’s fascinating. Now, if you don’t mind…”. He trailed off and motioned toward the door, a not so subtle hint that Callum should get out.

With a smirk on his face, Callum left the Holodeck and returned to his quarters, drawing many looks along the way dressed in his board shorts with a towel slung over one shoulder. Upon entering his quarters, he tossed the towel on the floor as he moved towards the bathroom.

He emerged twenty-five minutes later, freshly showered. Today had been their first full day in space and had been filled with work to prepare for their job in stripping what was left of the Starship Enterprise to ensure that neither unfriendly powers nor the pre-warp civilisation of Veridian IV when they finally made it as far as their neighbouring planet. Starfleet technology falling into the hands of a civilisation at that stage of development would have massive negative repercussions.

Fully dried, Callum fell back onto his bed and stared up at the ceiling, his eyes already feeling heavy. He settled himself on the bed, choosing to lie on top of the sheets instead of under them and slowly succumbed to his body’s desire to sleep.

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