boldygoing | Giving the Tour [for losthunter]

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hunter,
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Giving the Tour [for losthunter]

It has been a week or two since the Enterprise was in any kind of condition to entertain visitors. A supply run here, a survey mission there, nothing close to casual enough for Captain Kirk to justify setting aside a little time to have a guest aboard, his days taken up by the duties of command. And certainly not out in the middle of deep space, where an unexpected visitor would be more likely to be seen as a stowaway or intruder, no matter if the captain vouched for them or not.

But it has been six months since the crew's last chance for shore leave, so after the debriefings are complete, Starfleet Command gives the slightly weary crew a brief three days off while the ship's systems are inspected and recalibrated. And it's a perfect opportunity to make good on his offer from a while ago.

Jim sits at a shuttle terminal in downtown San Francisco, a gold-shirt in a small sea of red and blue, all Starfleet personnel waiting to be taken up to various starships in orbit or in Spacedock. He knows it might be a few minutes before Hunter arrives, and keeps himself busy reviewing reports on a padd, keeping an eye out for the distinctive tattoos of his invited guest.

[OOC: Image links to replace invalid links below:
Spacedock
USS Enterprise
Warp core
Officer's lounge]

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There are a few other settings that Jim asks Hunter to change, all controls that are labeled in English, until the last thing that Hunter does is bring up a holographic display of their plotted trajectory, a thin white line arcing up from the surface of the planet towards some point in orbit.

"Good," Jim praises him, smiling. "Now comes the fun part... tap that button on the left, the one under Communications. That'll open a channel to Shuttle Launch Control."

And once Hunter has done so, Jim puts on his command voice, probably a little more formal and serious than Hunter has heard him behave so far, without a hint of flirting. "SLC, this is Copernicus, requesting clearance to launch."

"Clearance granted," a woman's voice replies, and without further delay, the shuttle lifts off the ground under Jim's steady hands.

The holographic display is very cool. Sure, there is some technology in Hunter's dimension that can do similar projections ... but they are not widely used. And he resists the urge to pass his hand through the display.

And while there is no flirting in the formal and serious tone, Hunter still has that little flutter of attraction for the Captain all the same.

Feeling the shuttle lift into the air, Hunter gasps a little. He is used to airplanes, or jets, and the gradual asset into the air. Even a helicopter doesn't compare to this. "SLC is sort of like mission control?"

Normally, the motion of the shuttle wouldn't be perceptible by the occupants except in cases of sudden, high-velocity impacts, but Jim had Hunter turn down the inertial dampeners just for that reason, to be able to feel the kinetic feedback of the craft as it climbs quickly into blue skies, leaving San Francisco and the glittering Pacific Ocean far below. And it doesn't take long at all before the blue begins to fade to black, countless stars blanketing the vast void out the front window.

Jim glances over at Hunter, unsure what he means by 'mission control.' This isn't a mission, technically. "They keep track of shuttle traffic so no one runs into somebody else. It's procedure to let the local SLC know when you're about to pop up on scans so there aren't any nasty surprises."

Hunter leans forward slightly, so that he can watch San Francisco disappear below. And when the blue fades to black, he is on the edge of his seat.

"I guess when you have so many shuttles, it is a good thing to have someone tracking them all."

"Yeah, there's a lot. Hasn't been any collisions in a few years though."

Jim glances over at Hunter, grinning in delight at the rapt fascination on the other man's face. He slowly rolls the shuttlecraft, and yaws it to the right, bringing the glowing blue globe of Earth into view.

From orbit, the planet is enormous, a massive sphere hanging in the void, swirled with white clouds, underneath which the familiar shapes of the continents are sketched out in brown and green, wrapped in the deep blue of ocean. It's daytime on the west coast of North America, but the terminator line is visible over Russia and Australia, and in the darkened parts of the world, countless lights shine up like stars themselves, marking the biggest cities currently in the midst of night.

If Hunter was on the edge of his seat before, he is off the seat by inches in awe, trying to capture as much of the vision before him that he could. Seeing the planet like this was amazing, and really opens his mind to how enormous it truly is. But, even more amazing, it is jut one tiny sphere in a whole universe.

His artist eyes are capturing every shadow. Every countless light. And one can guess that he will be making a drawing from this.

"So... what is it about the shuttle that makes it so your ears don't pop?" Hunter tries to understand the science behind the technology.

"You mean because of the altitude?" Jim asks, making sure he understands what Hunter's asking. "Structural integrity field. It handles the kinds of stresses that'd breach a hull instead of the physical material taking it," he says, knocking the back of his knuckles against the wall panel next to him. "It also takes on the stress of pressurization, so the hull doesn't have to. No hull flexing, no pressure differential. Like being in a bubble."

"That is really cool." Hunter is still very awed by the whole experience. He reaches over a hand, to place it on Jim's legs.

"And seeing Earth like this... is incredible."

Jim smiles appreciatively at the contact, and he's mostly just happy that he's put that look on Hunter's face, the awe and wonder that comes with seeing your home from space for the first time. And he would totally make some innuendo about joining the Twenty-Two Thousand Mile High Club if they didn't have an even better destination waiting for them.

"Nothing quite like it," he says instead, turning the shuttle so that the craft follows the curvature of the Earth, the holographic display tracking their progress towards their destination.

Hunter leans again, following the curvature of the Earth with his eyes as the shuttle moves. "You are one lucky bastard. To see this frequently."

"It never gets old," Jim agrees. "Though I gotta say, being in orbit around a whole new planet is three different kinds of exciting on top of this."

In space, it can be difficult to pick out a faraway object until you get very close. And as the tactical display slowly narrows the distance between the shuttle and their destination, a shape slowly looms out of the blackness, getting bigger and bigger as they approach. A great wheel in space, miles across from spoke to spoke, with tiny-looking spaceships attached to the discs at the end of each spoke. But the closer they get, the more obvious it is that the ships aren't as small as they look, each one nearly half a mile long. And Jim steers the shuttle towards one in particular.

The sight of what is waiting for them is enough for Hunter to be out of his seat, leaning as close to the shuttle window as he can. "Holy Fuck..."

The great wheel looks like is big enough to match the moon. And at first, the ships look small, but as they get closer Hunter quickly realizes that these are no where close to Cruise Ships. That they are much bigger than he realized.

And as they get closer and closer to Jim's ship, Hunter drinks in every inch to it. "She is beautiful..."

Jim absolutely beams, and the look in his eyes when he gazes upon his beautiful silver lady is the same kind of look a newlywed might give his spouse. Pure, unadulterated love, a kindred soul, his other half. And he is proud as fuck to see her being admired by another, that even a twenty-first century fellow can see the beauty and grace of the greatest ship in the fleet.

"That's my girl," he says warmly.

He doesn't make a beeline for the shuttle bay at the rear of the ship, however, sweeping the shuttle in a wide arc around the ship, lingering over her arching warp nacelles, panning over the broad saucer, her name emblazoned on the hull in massive black letters. USS Enterprise, NCC-1701.

Hunter is memorizing every curve, every angle, every shadow, and every graceful inch of the ship before him. He can see that Jim is beaming with love for his ship. And he has to smile softly. Perhaps it is why Jim isn't destined to be with a monogamous relationship... because his true love is the Enterprise.

And he is breathless for a moment at how Jim sweeps around the ship, allowing every inch of the ship to be appreciated completely. He feels honored to be in the co-pilot's seat for this moment.

With the entire ship now captured in his memory, Hunter feels that he will be able to create a miniature Enterprise in clay for Jim now.

"Incredible..."

In Jim's opinion, mere pictures really would never do her justice. There's something about her, almost a presence, that mere visual representations would never capture. She's his beautiful leviathan, a shining silver shape against the black, a sleek and graceful creature of the stars. You have to see her to truly see her.

And he can tell that Hunter does.

It's almost a shame to steer the shuttle towards the back of the ship, and the open bay doors that await them there. But the only thing better than seeing the Enterprise from the outside is standing within her beating heart, and he's eager to return to her embrace.

Jim sets down inside the ship, parking Copernicus flawlessly in the space marked out for the shuttle, and pops open the hatchway. Inside the shuttle bay is somewhat similar to the aesthetic one might find in a submarine, a wide open space ringed by metal gantries and catwalks, and a half dozen other shuttlecraft line the walls in their designated areas. There are few personnel present, almost exclusively wearing red shirts, and almost no one looks up at the arrival of Jim and Hunter's shuttle.

Hunter moves back into his seat, so he is sitting by the time that Jim is parking the shuttle inside of the Enterprise. He looks around the shuttle bay, as much as he can, once the hatchway is open.

He doesn't immediately feel the warm embrace of the Enterprise, yet. But he is still a stranger to her. And not as acquainted as her Captain is.

Once again, he spots the red shirts, and has to resist the urge to ask Jim about their significance. "Time to start the Grand Tour?"

"Absolutely." Jim grins and spreads his arms slightly as they step out of Copernicus, using the shuttle's nacelle as a step down to the deck. "This is the shuttle bay, obviously. The Enterprise has ten in total, but there's a couple out being re-certified right now. Most people just beam back and forth, but there's nothing exciting about starting a tour without even seeing what the ship looks like."

Hunter follows him down to the deck.

"Beam?" He asks softly, still a little nervous about being overheard.

Nobody seems to be paying them much attention, at least. A pair of red-shirts approach the shuttle with scanning equipment, ready to make sure the shuttle is shut down and stored properly. Jim doesn't seem terribly concerned about them either, though he does lower his voice slightly, out of deference to Hunter's caution. "It's called a transporter. It converts your body into a stored energy pattern and rematerializes you somewhere else. It was invented to move cargo around but it's been safe for people for decades now."

Hunter blinks a few times. Taking his time to comprehend what Jim just told him. In a way it seems impossible. He has seen people 'teleport' using magic... or even a special skill. But for science to come this far...

"Wow. That must save a lot of time."

Turnabout is fair play, it seems. But Jim doesn't laugh at Hunter's disbelief, just nods a little. "Yeah, it does. We can't use it every time, though. Beaming next to a high gravity source or through an ion storm isn't possible, and there are factors that can make it riskier. But honestly, it's still safer than flying in a shuttle or driving a car."

"I would have to take your word on it." It won't be something that Hunter is anxious on trying right now, not until he understands it better.

"Yeah, I expected that," Jim says, but smiles at Hunter to show that he doesn't mind. "Honestly I probably shouldn't be explaining too much about our technology in detail, but I don't think twenty-first century tech would be up to replicating it anyway."

"Come on," he says, waving Hunter ahead, continuing the tour. "Main Engineering's this way."

"You have one advantage that I am no where close to be a scientist, that I couldn't explain it, even if I tried." Hunter chuckles lightly.

"So before we get there... what do the colors on the shirts mean?"

Jim has been around Starfleet his entire life, in one form or another, so it hadn't even occurred to him to explain. "Oh, that's the three specialization divisions. Red is for operations, which includes security, engineering, and communications, among others. Blue is for science, and gold for command." He holds up one hand, so Hunter can see the stripes on his wrist. "These are for rank. Generally the more stripes you have, or the bigger the stripes are, the higher the rank."

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