N'vok Dances (Roll Call Post)

Posted on Sat Jan 4th, 2025 @ 8:41am by Lieutenant N'vok Holv

Mission: Season 6: Episode 5: A church beyond heaven
Location: Holodeck 3
Timeline: Imprecise but while we are docked at the church
581 words - 1.2 OF Standard Post Measure

It had been a one-note joke to amuse Rin, but, for reasons he could not explain, he found that the practice pleased him greatly. He had been studying the various dance crazes and styles that were popular in the Terran twentieth century but he kept coming back to disco and he could not justify why. Modern jazz, fine, the Charleston, intriguing, the Robot, he somehow thought would annoy Rin no end. But this discotheque, why did it call to his soul? It was a paradox that he could not yet solve.

He stepped onto the holographically created dance floor, the other dancers, for his amusement were a mix of members of the Federation, Humans, Caitians, Andorians, even a pair of Bynars. All dressed appropriately to the Terran west, specifically New York City, c. 1972. He struck a pose in his white leisure suit and the music began.

N’vok has learned to set a timer, otherwise he would overstay his allotted holodeck time, lost in the music and motion, which had happened once. He was not embarrassed to be seen in his disco costume, but he did not like inconveniencing others, that was impolite and he hated to be impolite.

The Tellarite DJ announced that this was the last dance of the evening, to the disappointment of the holographic crowd, and, to be just, to N’vok as well. K. C. and the Sunshine Band’s That the Way (I like it) started up and he grabbed the hand of a Caitian woman is a silver dress and they danced the last song away, nothing else but the dance and the music mattering. At the end of the song, he bowed to his partner as she and the rest of the dancers faded away along with the dance club itself.

He walked over and pulled on a plain robe over the leisure suit, trying to explain it took too much time and usually gained the asker no enlightenment, so it was just simpler to avoid such entirely. He made his way back to his room, stripped out of both robe and leisure suit for a sonic shower, into which he had programmed the echoes of various dance hits for his amusement. Then he pulled on his uniform and headed to the science offices.

Taking a seat, he called up the data for the modified probe, a simple device, the thought that it might just be the device that ended the rule of the Slavers fascinated him. Though the odds were against it, they were impossible to calculate given the variables involved but he thought the classic “one in a million” of Terran lore was probably accurate. He added a small program, taking a grain of memory, that would play “I will survive” every time it entered and exited warp and when it began its transmission. Not one would ever hear it, it was perfectly pointless, but it struck N’vok as necessary for the mission. Sometimes, seeking the right gestalt was needed and this satisfied him for this project.

He idly tapped out the tune as he finished the last touches on the probe’s programming. Music was hope for many, perhaps it would prove to be for those oppressed by the slavers. As a final touch, he arranged for the probe to be given a name, the Dancing Queen, to be painted in Thia’leahan on the nose. Let the music set you free he thought as he closed the file.