Beauty and the Beach

Posted on Fri Apr 8, 2022 @ 11:49am by Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Lieutenant Commander Zachary Addams

1,804 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: We Will Take Care of You
Location: Holodeck Two
Timeline: 1900 Hours

Penny walked quickly down the corridor to the holodeck. She was dressed simply and ready to swim, but wasn't sure where she wanted to swim yet. She was running through a few hundred locations when she suddenly thought of her spot on the beach, but decided she wasn't ready to share that yet. She also ruled out Da Vinci Falls, as her calculations showed that re-visiting an old date site would give Zach the wrong impression. She had it narrowed down to fourteen locations on Pacifica when she got to the holodeck and saw it was already in use. She tilted her head, confused, then realized Zach had most likely already gotten there. The door was unlocked, so she walked in.

She wasn't sure what she expected, but she had not expected a large, circular stone floor, surrounded by a low stone wall with a crenellated row of stones on top. She stepped inside and saw it looked like the top battlement of a castle tower. Seated in an old-fashioned wood beach chair was a familiar back of Zach's head.

"Zach?" she said.

Zach stood up and smiled at her. "Hello," he said.

"I thought...we were going swimming," Penny said, tilting her head.

"We are," he said, beckoning her to the edge of the tower.

She walked up and looked out over the edge. They were in what looked like a forest surrounded by trees, but down a path was clearly a rocky shore, and down from that was a white, sandy beach.

"Where are we?" she said.

"The top of a watchtower from the American Revolutionary War that once overlooked the Atlantic," he said. "I grew up just a couple miles from here. I swam in the Atlantic all the time, and my siblings and I would run up here and pretend to watch for British ships trying to storm the beach."

Penny smiled. "Cool." She looked around and spotted a narrow set of stairs. "Should we head down?"

"Sounds good," Zach said, leading the way.

The tower wasn't as tall as it first appeared and they reached the ground quickly and started down the path. As they broke through the tree line, the ocean stretched out in front of them and Penny took a deep breath of salt air. "It smells different than the Pacific," she said.

"I'd imagine so," Zach said. "Different water, different animals, different history. That's going to produce some very different experiences."

They followed the dirt path down to the edge of the beach. It was quiet without the usual crowd of people from the town Zach normally had to contend with, but he thought some privacy might do them better than something overwhelming. He already had towels, chairs and a large cold-storage container waiting on the sand and stopped, gesturing to the chairs. "Here we are," he said.

"How..did you plan all this so fast?" Penny said.

Zach shrugged. "You said swimming. That made it rather easy. This is something I've done countless times. I could pack this up and get to the beach blindfolded."

Penny tilted her head. "So this isn't anything special for you," she concluded.

Zach blinked, a bit put off. "Well...." he cleared his throat. "It is today."

Penny was going to ask what he meant, but then a memory jumped into her mind.

“So, you went to Peshla lake?” Penny said, lying back on Camille’s couch, her legs dangling over the arm.

“Mmmhmm!” Camille answered, returning to the sofa with a pair of drinks in hand — glasses of synthehol Chardonnay. She set Penny’s on the table in front of the couch and took her place on the chair, her drink still in hand.

“It’s pretty there,” Penny said. “I’ve only seen pictures, but it looked like a nice area. What did you do?”

“Quite a lot!” Camille explained. “Camping, hiking, swimming. Cheers.” She held her glass up toward Penny.

Penny swung her legs back in front of her and sat up, tucking her legs under her and grabbing her glass. She held it up and clinked Camille’s, then took a sip. “Kāmau!”

Camille took a sip, enjoyed the smooth and sweet flavour, and set her glass on the table. “Nicole was also very tolerant of my sample collection. I got so many good ones!” Camille bounced in her seat excitedly, remembering fondly the great time they had.

“Sounds fun,” Penny said, then tilted her head as a thought struck her. “Wonder why she’s never taken me?”

“Our relationships with her are different,” Camille said. “She loves us both, in different ways, and so she wants to share different special places with us.”

“Well…she’s been there plenty of times,” Penny said. “What made it special?”

“Hmm…” Camille sat up straight and tried to think. “Imagine…is there anywhere you’re particularly attached to? A place that you went to all the time as a petite Penny. Where is it?”

“Well….technically I wasn’t a ‘petite Penny’,” Penny said, giggling. “But the spot where my parents found me on the beach….I would sneak out of the house a lot at night and go there to watch the sunrise. Before I knew I needed to be repaired, I liked sitting there, thinking maybe if I kept watching, I’d remember things. It’s really pretty there, and I really loved just sitting on the sand and watching the waves.” She thought for a moment. “And there was a park my parents liked to visit in California that I enjoyed going to every summer. It was pretty normal though, but we had fun.”

Camille nodded. “Lots of fond memories, oui? The best holiday ever. Doing something you love for the very first time. A first kiss.”

Penny nodded. “The first time I surfed, I knew I was going to enjoy doing it all the time.”

“I think Peshla Lake is that for Nicole,” Camille explained. “And it was an act of love to open herself up to me and share a part of herself like that.” She picked up her glass and sipped it again. “It’s intimate to share parts of yourself like that. I brought her to Montréal, first on the holodeck and then actually. Mont Royale park is to me like Peshla Lake is to her. A special place, with warm memories.”

Penny mulled it over as she drank her wine. “So it’s not that the place is special, it’s that her feelings about it make it special, and since you’re important to her, it’s important she shares it. Interesting.” She was already thinking this was going to make for an interesting letter home. “Organics really put a lot of importance on subjective views about things, don’t they?”

“Yes, we do,” Camille agreed with a smile. “But remember when we were just becoming friends. You took me surfing.”

“Oh yeah!” Penny said, brightening. “I get it now.”

“I knew you would!” Camille said. “Have you ever been to Montréal? Snowshoeing in Mont Royale park in the winter?”

Penny shook her head. “No, I didn’t get to the mainland much before I left Earth.”

“Want to see it now?” Camille stood and held her hand out to Penny. “I think holodeck two is free. Just make sure your heating system is working properly.”

Penny jumped off the couch and put her glass down on the table. “I can just replicate a coat,” she said, giggling.”

The entire memory played out in the blink of an eye and she looked up at Zach and smiled in what she hoped looked apologetic. "Sorry," she said. "I didn't mean that the way it sounded. It's a really pretty spot, and if it's special to you, then I respect that."

Zach looked a bit relieved and let out a breath. "Yeah...well...definitely special to me," he said, mustering a smile. "My siblings and I had a lot of fun here. My dad taught me to sail here. Even got to...see..." he paused as Penny took off the beach robe she'd been wearing, revealing a modest, but flattering one-piece. He shook himself again and did his best to look anywhere else. "So...shall we dive right in?"

Penny noticed his attention and blushed, smiling. "Sounds great," she said. She walked quickly towards the shore, the water a bit far from the low tide.

Zach watched her for a moment, then ran after her into the surf.

What followed was one of the better times Zach had had at that beach. He'd be lying if he said he'd never taken a date there, but not all had taken to the water like Penny had. They'd compared their skills at swimming, splashed a bit, he'd taken her to a sandbar far out from the shore where they could watch the fish swim by, and they even built a small sandcastle around a tidal pool, creating a small kingdom for a couple of hermit crabs who'd gotten stuck in the exposed sands of low tide.

The whole time, she'd had a smile on her face, and to his surprise, so had he. He found her cheer infectious, and it managed to push back his usual reserve, which both elated and scared him. Nevertheless, sitting back against his backrest on the blanket with her resting against him, watching the waves approach the edge of the moat was something he felt he could do for hours.

Penny, for her part, was relieved. She had been a bit scared to try another date, given her last few, but their time together had gone rather well. She wasn't sure if it constituted being labeled "special", but it was fun and it was nice. Then again, that's what her research said a first date should be.

There was no need to pack up their things, they could save it for next time. They stepped off the beach and back onto the path to the tower. "I hope you had fun," Zach said.

"I did," Penny said, smiling. "I'd like to do this again."

"Good," Zach said. "Same here." He called for the exit and stood awkwardly. "So...I'll see you on the bridge, I suppose." He still had an easygoing smile on his face, but it was tinged with nerves.

Penny tilted her head, trying to figure out what he was waiting on, then realized he was deciding, and figured out what it was he was trying to decide to do. She grinned and stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. "See you on the bridge," she said.

Zach blushed hard, but grinned wider. "You bet," he said and watched her go, leaning against the doorway.

OOC: Special thanks to Camille!

 

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