Barney in the Blue

Posted on Tue Feb 19, 2019 @ 1:01am by Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Lieutenant JG Camille Lévesque PhD

1,696 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Plaga Navis
Location: Holodeck Two

Camille was greeted at the entrance of Holodeck Two with a warm, gentle breeze and the smell of sand and salt water. She smiled at the sensation. This was no winter at Tremblant, but she appreciated a nice day on the beach as much as the next person.

As instructed, she came to the holodeck wearing a fully-body wetsuit over swimwear. She also wore a pair of goggles that she replicated, whose lenses matched the prescription for her glasses.

Camille looked at the holographic people enjoying their day and the speech, scanning the crowd until she found the one real one. Once identified, she walked through the same towards her.

Penny heard the footsteps behind her, timed their arrival, calculated the distance and then turned smiling. "Bienvenue!" she said, grinning. They'd planned a surf lesson since the poker game, but things kept getting in the way, and with Penny doing double shifts, recreation time was at a premium, so she was happy to be back in the holodeck. Penny looked her up and down. "Good choice, that should keep you warmer." Penny's own two-piece wasn't as protective a dress, but it kept her modesty. "Computer," she said, "delete all beach-goers." The volume level dropped significantly as the crowd vanished.

"Okay," she said, clapping happily, "boards are by the water, are you ready?"

"Ready!" said Camille enthusiastically. She had never gone surfing before, and was excited when Penny agreed to give her a lesson. She also appreciated Penny's use of Camille's own mother-tongue. It was an unnecessary gesture that made her smile. "Be warned though that I wasn't exaggerating when I said I was a beginner! I can swim fine, but this is entirely new to me."

"That's fine, we're all beginners at some point!" Penny said as they walked to the boards. "Okay, lesson one. We're going to throw the board into the water and get on. Your hips should be just below the center of the board and you're toes pointing to the back end. Paddle out with your arms till you reach me."

She grabbed her board, threw it into the water and leaped on, paddling out into the Pacific.

Camille grabbed her own board and threw it into the water as Penny did. She managed to get onto it, and while it took her a moment to balance herself on her stomach in the right spot, she got comfortable and began paddling. Small waves bobbed her up and down, and salt water splashed into her face. But it wasn't long until she reached Penny. She gave her instructor a thumbs-up.

Penny sat up as the waves gently rocked under them. "Lesson two, sitting up." She watched as Camille struggled to get upright. "Keep your hips straddling that sweet spot or--" she stopped as a wave knocked up the front of Camille's surfboard and she went backwards into the water, her board popping up. Penny gave her a moment to bob to the surface while she laughed. "Keep just behind center so the water doesn't knock you back!" she called.

Camille stuck her tongue out at Penny and grabbed her board. She had figured out how to get on the board in shallow water and while it was more difficult now, she managed it fine. Putting her hips in just the right place, and offering a silent prayer to whomever would listen to minimize the waves for a moment, she managed to sit up. The waves picked up and threatened to knock her over again, but she managed to say on, clutching the board. Satisfied, she looked at Penny and smiled.

Penny smiled back. "Okay, now you have to actually catch a wave. Watch me."

She laid down flat on her board, her toes touching the back edge. "You catch the wave like this, then get your elbows like chicken wings." She brought her hands down on the board beside her breasts and kept her elbows behind her. "When you catch it, push up with your hands," she raised her torso up, "and jump in with your legs and stand."

She leaped to her feet, bracing herself on the board. She immediately began to sink and put herself back down. "One foot back for support, one forward to steer. Don't worry about steering, just try keeping upright. Watch for a wave with a good foamy white crest." She looked out over the water. "Like that one." She dropped down and paddled out, then turned sharply and began paddling in line with the wave. As it caught her, she leaped to her feet and rode it back in towards the beach. As her momentum slowed, she dropped down onto her board again and paddled back over. "And that's that."

Camille saw a wave that looked promising. She managed, awkwardly, to get into position, on her stomach, hands to either side of her chest, elbows in the air. She caught the wave, pushed up, moved to stand, and promptly fell into the sea. She shrieked in surprise as she fell, and laughed as she got control. She retrieved her board and moved to try again. “Any advice? What did I miss?”

"The wave," Penny said, snickering. "Just takes practice to find the posture. Give it another shot."

Camille stuck her tongue out at Penny as she got back on the board. She got back into position and found another wave. As she caught the wave, she lifted and got her feet under herself just so. One foot in front and one behind, she managed to keep her balance and rode the wave. She laughed as she surfed for the first time.

Penny whooped and cheered, clapping her hands. "Good job!" she said. She turned and paddled out to another wave, catching it as it began to curl and rode it down to join Camille, landing in the water as she reached the end of the ride. "Good job!" she said, grinning.

The two paddled toward another wave. Camille allowed Penny to go first, and once she was out of earshot, she softly spoke. “Computer, lower water temperature to two degrees Celsius.” She grinned widely and paddled herself into the wave behind Penny.

Penny steered herself along the wave, then shivered as she felt the icy spray suddenly was over her. She looked back and stuck her tongue out at Camille, then dove in the water, swimming to shore and rushing out into the sun.

Camille laughed at her failed prank and jumped into the water, following Penny to the warm sand. She unzipped and stepped out of her wetsuit, revealing her very cute blue two-piece swimsuit. She joined Penny further up the beach. “Thank you for the lesson, Penny. What next? We relax in the sand?”

Penny thought for a moment. "Computer, take us to my spot, 0500 hours. No lights."

The beach, their boards and even the sun disappeared as the scenery changed to another beach under a starlit sky. Penny walked down to a spot on the beach and sat down cross-legged in the sand. "Night after night I'd sit here watching the water, watching the stars, watching the horizon. The sun comes up just over there," she said, pointing due-East. "It's amazing."

Camille sat next to her friend, crossing her legs in the same manner. “Wow,” she said, looking at the star-filled sky, the Milky Way brighter than she’d ever seen it.

“As a girl, we did a similar thing with sunset. Not at home, but when we vacationed in Cap Breton. The island’s west coast was rocky, but you could find a spot at the end of a pier and watch the sun dip below the horizon. I was always amazed by how fast it disappeared.”

"I say it a lot," Penny said, watching the stars, "but humans are weird. For millennia after millennia, they had this view. It's perfect. And then they made lights that blocked it out. So they went into space, and then they spend their time looking at planets." She shook her head. "Every night I'd watch the sun come up and marvel at how perfect it was. I could predict the timing fairly well, but not the first shade of color. I could follow the currents, but not predict the waves. It's perfect chaos."

“That’s beautiful,” said Camille. “And humans are weird!” she laughed. “We did everything we can to spoil this planet, when it was near perfect from the start. Hopefully we’ve learned. But I suspect we never really will,” she added cynically. “Thank you for showing me this. I had fun today.”

Penny smiled. "I'm glad I could be of service," she said. She tilted her head in her thinking look. "Do you think humans are good?"

“I think we generally try,” Camille answered. “We’re better now than we were. And overwhelmingly people want to help each other and be kind. As long as we continue to work to improve ourselves, then I think the label ‘good’ can apply.” She turned to Penny. “Que penses-tu?”

"Je ne sais pas," Penny sighed. "Every time I think I have a handle on humans, I meet one who defies my predictions. Some are good, some are not. Some I can't understand. Some are beautiful, some are ugly, and they don't all function well together. Imperfect chaos."

“I like to think,” Camille said, “that I’m doing the best I can to be good, and that that’s enough. I can’t control others, but I can control my own impact. If I can end my life knowing I did more good than harm, and affected more people positively than negatively, then I’ll die happy. Though hopefully not for another century at least!”

"Hm....fascinating," Penny said. She turned and looked at Camille, smiling. "You're clever."

Camille grinned. “Merci! I’d never heard humans called ‘imperfect chaos’ before. It’s apt.”

"I should write a paper," Penny said, looking back at the horizon as the sun started to rise. "Ironic though how much humans try to control chaos." She shrugged, watching the sun. "Maybe they should sit back and just watch it more often."

 

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