Rocky and Rollwinkle

Posted on Wed Apr 6, 2016 @ 7:25pm by Senior Chief Petty Officer Samantha Summers & Lieutenant Penelope Naroot

987 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: The Fall
Location: Crew Lounge
Timeline: Day Before Arrival

Penny liked taking her lunch break at weird times. The lounges were typically quieter and sometimes she was lucky enough to have them empty and could put on some music and stretch out.

She was lucky enough to have one of those times, and had her boots off, and feet up on an end table, music rocking as she bounced her toes to the beat. She loved music; she considered it one of the defining achievements of organics. Any computer program could string together a series of frequencies, in fact she'd tried it herself a few times, but it seemed to be a distinctly organic ability to put them together in a way that brought out people's emotions.

Unfortunately her deep appreciation for the tempo and the volume precluded her from noticing the lounge doors opening behind her.

SCPO Summers walked into the lounge and looked around. Spotting Lt. Naroot toe dancing, she tried in vein to stifle a laugh. She approached the Lieutenant and asked. "Hello, mind if I join you?"

Penny let out a squeak of surprise and tumbled off the couch trying to turn around. She jumped up and slipped her silver wand out quickly, tapping it and cancelling her music and putting it back to the usual background music that played. "Sorry," she said, giggling nervously. She brushed herself off and stuck out a hand. "Aloha," she said, grinning. "Penny Naroot. Who're you?"

Samantha took Penny's hand and shook it. "Samantha Summers, nice to meet you. That music you had playing sounded nice, can you bring it back on, please?"

"Oh, sure," Penny said, pointing her wand at the ceiling again, bringing the music back, albeit at a lower volume than before. "There you go," she said. "Not everyone goes for 22nd century synth pop. You've got a rare taste in music."

Samantha chuckled. " I like good sounding music, period. " She sat down and looked over at Penny's feet. " *That* looks like a great idea too. Would you mind? " Samantha pointed at her feet.

Penny looked at her socks and blushed. "Not exactly regulation, but I won't tell if you won't," she said, dropping back into an armchair and sitting in the lotus position. "So, what's your take on the Borg situation?"

Samantha took her shoes off. " Gosh...what I wouldn't go for a bowl of cool water for these tootsies... Ahh, the 'Borg Situation.' We'll win in the end, of course. Now, I am *not* a defeatist, understand that, but when it comes to the Borg, and what we can throw at them, and what they can throw at us....well....."

Penny's head tilted. "Well what? We'll win right? Isn't that kind of the human advantage? The Borg can't adapt to us?"

Samantha nodded her head in agreement. " Of course. We have something they don't have: independent thinking."

Penny nodded thoughtfully. "I wonder why," she said after a moment. "What made them think that one opinion was so good that they should all follow it."

" I don't believe they actually think like what you're stating. I think that they're able to communicate with each other almost like one person would be thinking in their head. Does that sound reasonable?"

"Not exactly," Penny said, smiling. "But then, having talked with a few, they all describe it differently. Kind of an odd thing; diversity of opinion on the uniformity of mind....oh I should totally do a paper on that." Her eyes lit up and she grinned. "Sorry, I can be a bit scatter-brained when I get ideas."

"So you like your lunches at odd times too?" she said. "What else do you do for fun?"

Samantha sighed. " Mostly I read or water my plants." Samantha then had a slight grin on her face. " Once in a while I head to the holo deck for a workout fighting the bad guys."

"Who are the bad guys?" Penny said. "The Borg?"

Samantha just grinned. "Nope. Just 'bad guys.' Say you are walking down a dark alley...when suddenly someone confronts you and wants to do 'damage.' What would you do?"

Penny blinked, tilting her head again, trying to extrapolate why she would be walking down a dark alley in the first place. "I would apply pressure to their major blood flow points and induce unconsciousness," she said, matter-of-factly.

Samantha laughed out loud and patted Penny on the shoulder. "That's the spirit! But wouldn't it be more fun to make a 'game' of it?"

"Like..." she said, tilting her head again, "a race?"

"Noooo." Replied Samantha. " You see, " She began, warming up to the dialog, " The attackers begin as beings, taller and nastier than I. *But,* when I begin to fight back, they begin to *shrink,* and soon they're no more taller than a mouse!" Samantha laughed an diabolical laugh. "And then, that's when I produce the cage. Their little prison. "

"Oh," Penny said, slowly. "That sounds rather unfair partway through. Hurting those holograms when they're smaller and weaker than you doesn't seem like a human thing to do."

Samantha nodded. " You're right. Next time I go in I will release them and terminate the program and put back the original one - an outdoor gym."

"Probably for the best," Penny said, nodding sagely. She shook her head. "Humans," she said, "weird." She shrugged and jumped up, slipping back into her boots. "Well, my break's over. Have fun here without me." She waved and headed for the door.

Samantha called after her. "Perhaps sometime you'd like to join me in the gym? We could take turns with the bench press."

Penny paused and tilted her head, then got a wicked grin. "Okay!" she squeaked then skipped out of the lounge.

Samantha watched her walk out, then gathered her half eaten desert to take to her quarters and left.

Penny Naroot
CFCO

Samantha Summers
Senior Chief Petty Officer

 

RSS Feed