Tetakutai Beach

Posted on Mon Dec 19th, 2022 @ 5:40am by Captain Samuel Woolheater & Lieutenant Myne Redal

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: HOLODECK
Timeline: MD02 - Early Morning
3458 words - 6.9 OF Standard Post Measure

//ON//

The white sands of Tetakutai beach here on Pacifica were warm, fine and powdery. They felt wonderfully smooth under the feet. It was warm, perfect weather. The ocean here along the shore was so perfectly clear, it was venturing on almost unreal. The fishy's swam about in the crystal clear water. And the water was clear all the way down to the ocean floor meters below. 'Tetakutai' in Selkan meaning "Little Islands".

Samuel Woolheater was going snorkeling today. He loved floating in the water and being so close to the Selkan biodiversity here that he was using some of his downtime to just relax. He would see Andrinn probably later but he was working at the moment.

He had been swimming for about twenty minutes now. And he was going deeper and deeper into the perfect lagoon that was here on Tetakutai Island. At the moment, he was floating on his back. His face to the blue sky. His arms outstretched and in knee-high swim trunks. His muscled torso being warmed by the sunlight. He took a deep breath and let his body go limp.

The holodeck doors opened in the middle of the lagoon. A young-looking woman, on the shorter side, entered while staring into a strange PADD. By the dots going down on the sides of her neck and temples she was a Trill, wearing a yellow uniform and holding a PADD that looked Starfleet at a first glance but failed to give the same impression at a second one.

She did not fall into the lagoon, but actually was walking on water as she was muttering to herself. As the holodeck doors closed behind her and disappeared, Myne looked up at the sun and tapped a few commands on her PADD to lower the intensity and heat before touching the air in front of her. A sort of holographic console appeared in front of her and she began to tap commands.

At no point did she notice Samuel who was floating in the lagoon. Nor did she seem to care much for the environment around her. Instead she kept muttering to herself while holding a small frown.

Sam had his eyes closed in a very relaxed pose. With his body stretched out like a cat on a hot kitchen floor, he was buoyed up and just kind of floated along. When the sunlight dimmed, he thought it was overhead passing clouds. It was not unheard of that a cloudburst of rain could happen. Pacifica was a very tropical climate and had a huge mid-range tropical zone. So Sam didn't think anything of it. His ears were under the waterline too and so, while it was possible to program the holodeck so that you could breathe and hear underwater as if you were still above the water, Sam did not do so. It would only remind him that he was on the holodeck. And he really wanted to be on Pacifica right now.

Something caught Myne's eyes, there was a glitch in the program, which was what she had been hunting when she entered. Sighing the console in front of her moved as it guided her along, expanding into a third-dimensional representation of the program's code. All split into pieces and bits that represented parts of what the holodeck was creating to make this program work.

Moving to the side to look at a different part of the program and her eyes looking up at the program in front of her and the third-dimensional representation, Myne stepped on Samuel's face without even noticing. She kept moving and circling around the figure in front of her before she started typing on the holographic keyboard in that materialized in reach of her hands. She began to fix the errors as she watched for changes in the code.

"Buh! Humpff! Wha! Pfft!" he said in shock as he felt something unexpected press on his face and push him underwater. Sam reacted without thinking and grabbed a hold of what felt like someone's leg and pulling down and rolling over. Kind of a water tackle. Then, pushing himself away and opening his eyes and clearing the water from them he said, "What the hell?? Hey!!" He didn't know who it as or what they were doing here. He didn't know if he was being drowned or what.

Myne yelped as her leg got pulled under the water for a brief, chaotic moment until she could 'climb' out with it. Once she got her footing right on the water once more she looked down confused and saw someone. "What are you doing here?" She asked upset and disturbed as she focused on the man struggling in the water.

Sam didn't recognize the person and his eyes alighted on her rank, they were equal rank here. "I can ask you the same thing Lieutenant. This is my holodeck time." Sam wiped the water out of his eyes. "This is my program too. I had a damn reservation." Sam felt his face and said, "Did you step on my face?"

"On your what now?" Myne asked looking down on the man in the water. "I do not recall that, if I did, I am sorry. I did not notice the holodeck is in use." Myne explained looking suddenly a bit embarassed. "Erm, I am chasing down a nasty bug in the software running the holodeck and my alerts flared up a few minutes ago." Stopping to check her surroundings and becoming suddenly aware of what was being projected around her, Myne's genuine self made no effort to conceal that she really hasn't been paying a ounce of attention to what was going on in the holodeck.

"Ooooh, wait, I remember this simulation. Yeah! This is famous lewd simulation with the Orion male belly dancers! Ha, I thought I axed this one last week, it was a annoying drain on the system and poorly coded." She nodded her head a bit proud of herself for catching this one.

"Computer? Pause program" and the simulation stopped. There was a table and a chair with Sam's uniform and a fresh towel on it. He stood there a moment, pissed. "Look. Lieutenant...??? Whoever. I don't know what program you think you had, but this one is mine. This is Tetakutai Beach on Pacifica. And there's ain't no Orion belly dancers on Tetakutai Beach" he said irritated. "I see you're in OPS right? Or Engineering? So, you could..." he stopped himself and shut his mouth. He walked over to the table and got a towel for himself and a hand towel for the Lieutenant. He was steaming but he was cooling off.

He tossed the hand towel to her. "I didn't mean to grab you. I thought...somebody was trying to drown me. And I reacted. I didn't expect anybody to come in when I have the time reserved. I'm almost done and I'll get out of your way and you can diagnose whatever you want. Computer? End program."

Myne cocked her head to the side. "Computer, restart program." The beach reloaded around them as Myne smiled at the man. "I am almost done by the way, but if what you are saying is true, you should totally see this." Bringing back the holo console she tapped a few command on it before she spoke. "Computer, resome simulation and load evidence RS#98374."

On the beach next to them, Sam now also walking on water next to Myne, appeared two dozen, rather strikingly beautiful, scantly clad Orion men. All were oiled up and were moving on the beach getting ready for a show seemingly, with a lounge chair in the middle clearly meant for someone. Lots of fruits, drinks and other pleasantries abound on tables around them. Myne pointed with a huge grin.

"Someone has been using your program for naughty naughty things. I am Lieutenant Myne by the way, assistant chief ops. I am almost done with my fix then I am moving on, if you want you can use this console right here to lodge a complaint about me. If it will make you feel better. Really sorry I did not notice the holodeck being in use and that I stepped on your face. I tend to have equine spectacles when working." The young looking Trill butchered the Earth saying with a innocent smile.

"Ohhhh....fuuuuuuck me!" Sam said as he watched the hijacked holo-program play. "Fuuuckin' aye man!" Sam shook his head. "Computer, pause!" And the program stopped again. "Who did this? Can you tell? Lieutenant Myne? You can find that out right?" he asked.

Myne's smile widened as she was clearly enjoying herself greatly. "I could, I could, but on the other hand, I am ops. I cannot tell, oaths sworn and all that fun stuff. Plus, you operate on the premise of it just being one person! All I can tell you, this beach destination of yours is rather popular!" She patted Samuel on the back trying to comfort him. "Sorry I busted in, and no, I will not let the male Orion belly dancers stay for your enjoyment. That's just a save state I kept as evidence. I purged that out of the code of you program last week."

"A popular program huh? Well, I guess there worse things that could have happened." He started getting dressed into his uniform. "Well, thanks for bringing it to my attention. I guess Security could help me find out who it is. Bah, I could just set trace of user activations too." he said as he got his shoes on. "How did you discover that it had been compromised? You mentioned poorly programmed code?"

"I mean, maybe you shouldn't. Feels harmless enough, and I've seen worse of what people do with the holodecks or holosuits. Honestly, I would recommend an environmental suit when walking into one." Myne laughed and stretched her arms, tapping a few more commands and making the dancer saved state disappear and ramping the sun back up to its original setting. "Listen, erm, oh Captain and a Marine! Nice! You must be getting all the nurses in sickbay fawning over you. But yeah, I have programs monitoring the holodecks since these are the biggest drain on power and processing capacity on the ship."

Sam shooshed and with a quiet voice said, "...don't like sickbay. Stay out of it if I can....". It was almost a stage whisper.

Leaning down to touch the water with her fingers, she smiled. "Everything has a purpose on the ship. Everything is working towards keeping the Elysium running at peak capacity and the crew alive and comfortable. And we have many redundancies to that effect too. But the civilian parts as well as the holodecks are a extra load basically. The holodecks require a lot of power and processing. Most of the times it is harmless, other times people do not pay attention to what they put together and their programs drain a bit more than they should. Sure I am talking about tiny percentages, 0,004% in your case, but you are just one user you see. Add all the holodecks and suits together and these percentages add up. So I monitor such things and when I get a hit I come here and boot up people's programs and optimize them. People do not notice, really. The naughty parts that someone added to your program was a 0,08% drain. That's why it stood out to me."

He stood up, his spikey blond hair and rough, sandpaper face wore irritation. He flipped the towel over his shoulder and said, "Lieutenant..." he was pissed. But he took another breath and said again this time in a better humor, "Lieutenant, I hear you. I do. Of all the things to get bent out of shape over - this is not one of them. But, I don't like surprises. And I don't like other people having access to my personal holo-programs. Not because I got something to hide or I don't want to share. It's because they should ask first. Lots of people have private programs of their...y'know...precious memories. And other people should respect that. Somebody here didn't. Messing with the program is not the point. And....I'm upset. I'm tired. I came here to try and relax and I can't even do that. Don't worry. It's not your problem. Excuse me please."

He started to walk away and got about halfway and stopped. Paused a moment and then turned and asked, "Is it your program?" He looked at her, "The dancers of course?"

Myne winced at his reaction and her shoulders slumped. However as he turned and asked, Myne smiled timidly and chuckled, before shaking her head at him. Closing off the console she approached him and looked up at the marine. "Nah, sorry to disappoint, not into Orion in this lifetime. More of a Ferengi and Klingon girl if I had a say in the matter." Her smile dripped to one a bit more sad as she placed a hand on his and avoided his look.

"Listen Captain, I am really sorry I walked in without checking if the holodeck was in use. I assumed my own program booted up yours before I stepped through. You should stay and enjoy your time off. But if I told you I know who did this, could I convince you to let the matter rest? It is a big ship after all, and this can simply be something innocent without any intent to cause you ill or harm." Looking up at him once more, she tried to channel as much of her puppy dog eyes as she could. "It is not really worth it and I can hack proof your program if you want."

He heard what she said and her face told him that this was honesty. This was the truth. Sam's bad day went from bad to worse in just a few seconds. He lost his temper and it was the fact that he read her as telling the truth that he could simmer down now. Well, that and the touch. And the look. "Apology accepted. Thank you" he said. "Thank you for telling me the truth." He pursed his lips and grimaced and said, "....aaaaaawright! We'll try it your way. You can hack proof the program? I'd like that." He looked away and then back and didn't know what to say next. He sure as hell wasn't going to tell her that this holodeck time was part of his grief therapy. He was a private kind of guy and he didn't like to share emotions. So, he stumbled over them most of the time. "How...will I know when you're done? I mean, programming it hack proof so...so..so I can use it again?"

Visible relief washed over Myne and she smiled to release the anxiety building up. "Phew, thank you Captain. Who ever said Marines aren't made out of fluff and pudding were clearly wrong. Yeah, you don't to worry, give me like five minutes at most? You can resume being like a dolphin in a lake? I think that's the correct Earthling saying?" She said as she brought up the console once more.

Lines of code started streaming in front of her as she began to type quickly as she worked. "I'll proof your program don't worry, that's what ops is here for! And you got the best coder on the ship with you, erm, by mistake, but the point still stands!" Another more relaxed chuckle and she worked. "The ones who did this are cadets Captain. It was a challenge as far as I could tell, no ill will intended. But you know how cadets are, getting into trouble is part of coming into your own after all. And I have an idea how to mess with them later when it is dramatically appropriate."

The idea of having his beach program sullied by Starfleet cadets was...irritating. But he wore a grin-and-bear-it face. "I should go. I'm not going to be able to...unwind here anyway. I mean not now. Maybe later. He said, "Thanks for helping me out. Getting my program back." He nodded and set to leave. He stopped and asked, "I feel bad that I blew my stack. I'm...usually pretty able to deal with the unexpected. Maybe you could let me make it up to you sometime? Buy you a drink at the lounge?"

"Aaand, done! Your program is extra tightly secured! Just don't write your password for it any piece of paper, or anything like that." Myne made the holoconsole go away and turned to look at Samuel. "You know, I did deserve that. I did kinda step on your face. If it helps, your face at the very least makes for more high end grade pavement." She chuckled trying to brighten the mood.

"Oh good, well at least there's that. Premium grade material" he said as he listened.

"I am free now if you want to go grab a drink and vent a bit about that annoying Trill ops officer that ruined your relaxing time off at the beach? She's such a poopy head, I got all the dirt on her!" Leaning in conspiratorial like, with a playful smile, she whispered. "Also I am sure that annoying Trill is not on duty right now. She must be pulling double shifts without her chief knowing. So if you wanna get her in trouble, count this as a freebie on my part."

There was certainly a lot to unpack. Lieutenant Redal was effervescent and bubbling over with ideas and wit. It was certainly more than Sam was used to. He remembered his grandfather had a saying when someone was more than what was bargained for. He would say that person was a little more "peppermint" than we're used to. And that seemed to fit the bill here too. Lieutenant Redal was strong peppermint here. Sam listened and understood that she was trying. He did his best with the grace and tact that he had and said, "You're very kind of course. And I thank you for locking my program down. However, I am aware that if someone can lock it down then it can also be unlocked. And, I think that as much as I loved having this program and enjoying the illusion of privacy; today's... events... have shown me that it was just an illusion. Just like the program itself. I don't think I'll be able to enjoy it as I have. You know? Now that I know it's been used for, well, other purposes. And even knowing that you kindly put a lock on it. It'll never be the same. No, it's OK though. I will find another program and I'll remember to lock the doors and put a trace on the program so I know when its been run. And while those additional safeguards might also be defeated; I won't know if they have and I will be able to reclaim the illusion. But, I do thank you for trying. You keep it. Enjoy it. It's a beautiful place. I spent good times here. Very good times with someone I cared about. Someone I loved." He ended by saying, "I've had a long day; pretty tuckered out. A raincheck on that drink I think is best. It's past my rack time anyway. Thanks for the tip too; I'll keep an eye on the processing power on marine simulations. Note any discrepancies and send them to your department for analysis. Well. I'll be off then." He nodded, removed the towel from his shoulder, smoothed his short hair and excused himself.

Myne rubbed the back of her neck and sighed. "Yeah I guessed I messed up badly. Sorry I ruined this place for you." Taking out her PaDD, Myne tapped a few commands on it. "I will save and archive your program then. I've sent you the code to reactivate it. I have no use for it. While it does look love, it has an emotional connection to you. I honestly can barely get two or three hours of sleep in day. So even if I wanted to, I can't really enjoy this place Captain."

Saddened, Myne waited for the marine to leave, nodding at him and waiting for him to be far enough away so she can mutter to herself quietly. "Another grade A fuck up Myne. Nice going! How did I not see this place was used, stupid stupid stupid." She sighed and shook her head, ready to head out herself.


//OFF//

Captain Samuel Woolheater
Scout/Sniper
USS Elysium

&

Lieutenant Myne Redal
Assistant Chief Operations Officer
USS Elysium