Kestra

"Taking the Long Way" starring Avery Tynte and Kestra Miral (OOC: This is an expanded version of an in sim conversation from last week) "Are you coming?" "On my way" Avery said, stuffing another hypo in his lab coat. He found himself slightly amused at the sight of Kestra halfway dangling out the Jeffries Tube. Hopping up behind her, they began to plod towards the next level. Kestra picked up her pace. "This had better work," she mumbled to herself, her voice echoing through the tubes. Avery sped up to keep pace with Kestra. "If it does not, do we have enough packs in reserve to power the ship?" He asked as they neared the end and Kestra swung over the edge, grabbing the top rung of a ladder. "We don't have enough of just about anything at the moment. It's driving me crazy. I'd hate to be the reason we lose even more." She barely paused as they reached a junction, glancing around and continuing to climb. Avery followed, noting how easily Kestra moved through the tubes. "This is not your fault Kestra; you are doing all you can." "You know, everyone always says that. 'It's not your fault.' But sometimes, it is someone's fault. I'm not saying it's my fault they were infected, but I could have caught it sooner." "Yeah, and I could have caught that infection in the Revin sooner." We live and learn," Avery swung down another ladder and followed Kes down a long tube, "it is what makes us better officers." Kestra hesitated slightly as a brief wave of dizziness passed over her. "I've got a lot to learn," she replied quietly. "Don't we all," Avery halfway muttered to himself. "You feeling ok?" he added. She swung around to face him, grinning. "Would you believe me this time if I said yes? Anyways you're the doctor, you tell me." "Oh, I believe that you believe you’re alright." He returned the grin. "As for my opinion, well I would need a tricorder...and someone still has mine..." They reached a junction and Avery paused against a corner. "I'm glad you know where you are going; these all look the same to me. You would think I would get used to it, all the ships and stations I have been on." Kestra smiled to herself as she led him down the next corridor. "The one thing I am sure of would be my sense of direction. Hasn't failed me yet. Probably more useful for an engineer than a doctor anyway. How did you decide on medicine?" She immediately wondered if he'd be offended by her prying. "I was," Avery paused, just that half instant of hesitation, "I was inspired." As they reached the next junction, Kestra slowed down and leaned against the bulkhead. "I'm sorry, I'm weaker than I realized," she explained. She looked over at him. "Inspired, you were saying?" Avery felt the sir grow cold in his lungs, that all too familiar pressure returning to his mind. He looked down. "A memory, from my childhood...I," again he paused. "I watched a team of medics during triage, trying to save lives. Succeed or fail, they went after their goal the same." His eye's glistened...just a bit. He looked up. Quickly....too quickly he said. "As for joining Starfleet, well I followed my Mother there." Kestra looked at him and then ducked her head down. "I'm sorry if I made you recall something unpleasant." She fought to take a deep breath and will away her dizziness. "No it is ok, Kes." He shrugged. "I long ago learned to deal with these things." He pushed the last bit of sadness from his face. "What about you? What made you want to tinker with ship's systems?" He smiled playfully. "They're not people," she answered simply. "I don't have to worry about insulting them, or getting embarrassed." She flushed slightly for what felt like the tenth time that day. "I don't have to concern myself with their feelings. They're so much easier to fix." They moved a bit further down the corridor, and Avery opened a hatch. Climbing out he extended his hand to Kestra. "I can see how you would prefer that. Your empathic abilities must make it difficult to work around sentients sometimes." Avery was immediately regretful of his words. "That was rude of me, I apologize." Not wanting to appear impolite, she took his hand and climbed out the hatch after him. "It's not rude. Some empaths prefer to work around other people, and even enjoy it. I simply don't." She suddenly realized how stand-offish she sounded. "That's not to say I don't enjoy company," she said hurriedly. Avery smiled. "We all need company sometimes." He looked up at her. "Plasma conduits and warp cores have their charm," He raised an eyebrow, "But sometimes embarrassment, conflict, and well...life's little oop's are what make it worth living." The doors to Cargobay 1 shooshed open, and conversation turned to gel packs.... and pumpkin pie.

I think Roddeberry declared as much at some point. I don't think it's a big deal really, but some people are really into that sort of thing. If you like it, you watch it, you fit it in with the rest of the Trek universe. If you don't, you don't.

Congrats and Happy 21st then, Zephrah. :lol:

Cute. :lol:

I'd recommend the DS9 relaunch series of novels. They're some of the best Trek novels I've read and they expand on what happened in DS9's last season.

What, Red Star Westler doesn't get into the spirit as well? :lol: Hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Years! Or if you're like me and loathe the holiday, hope you get through with a minimum of grumbling. :lol:

Within a ten minute walking distance from my apartment building ... I can think of at least three off the top of my head. There's actually a coffee shop in my building but it's not Starbucks. I can't even begin to imagine how many there are in the city. There's one on my way back from volunteering that is only big enough for a counter. I was once in there with two other customers and someone had to step out because it was too crowded. Of course, there is also the wonderfully large 24-hour Starbucks on the North side of town. Always packed no matter what time of night.

Maybe you shouldn't waste all that time writing trashy love logs, Travis. Spare the rest of us! :lol:

Hope you all decide to join us tonight for Joenakhavus bash! There will be drinks and good food as always, plus we decorated the place! B)

::suddenly realizes she could've passed Moose up on the street any number of times:: :rolleyes:

Yeah, I split my time between downtown during the week and one of the suburbs on the weekends.

I've seen all of them but I only really know the TNG ones so ... Generations followed closely by First Contact.

Hey Rach, welcome to STSF! :rolleyes:

The closest person I can think of offhand is my bartending buddy, Aaron. :rolleyes:

Yep, "Ex Astris Scientia" is the site I pulled the joke from. A number of his partner sites are interesting as well.

I'm not big on jokes in general, but I found the ones on Bernd's EAS site quite humorous. I'm only posting one in particular here. Check them out; they're very funny. Anyone who has spent time looking at fan Trek sites on the internet knows how irritating they can be. I found this list hilarious, even though it's very sarcastic.

"Mess Hall Musings" (a conversation between NPCs) “What was that all about?” Harris watched as the dark haired lieutenant threw something into the trash recycler and stormed out of the mess hall. Alayne shrugged dismissively. “I’ve heard she’s dated half the men on the ship.” She looked over accusingly to the science officer sitting to her right. “Seya, I thought you were going to tell us what happened on the bridge.” Seya took a sip of her water and then paused. “There’s not much to tell. It’s obviously a trap. No one would just leave a fleet sitting around like that, unless they wanted to really draw us in.” “But you said there were Klingons,” Harris reminded her, turning back around. “How is that even possible?” “Not just Klingons,” Seya said as she leaned in closer to the other two tauntingly. “Breen.” “Breen?” Alayne regarded her skeptically. “I’m telling you that’s what I heard,” Seya continued. “I don’t know much more than the name though. But I had the impression that no one else really did either.” Harris leaned back in his chair. “So we’ve got an abandoned UFP fleet, Klingons showing up out of the blue—” “A Klingon ship, not necessarily Klingons,” Seya corrected him. “—A Klingon ship, an unknown ship you’re calling ‘Breen’, and then whatever is on that god-forsaken planet,” he finished. “Why do I get the feeling the UFP isn’t doing so well?” Alayne asked with a smile curving on her face. “Other than the fact that they have an entire fleet sitting around abandoned?” Seya rolled her eyes and took another sip of water. Alayne ignored her and turned to Harris. “Think about it. If these are Klingons, where have they been? What have they been up to? They haven’t been aiding Duren, obviously.” She saw that she had her colleagues’ attention and continued. “Then there’s that other ship, the Breen. There is a strong chance that they were either allied with Duren or strongly considering it. Maybe something went wrong.” “And they took out the entire Third Fleet? Where are the bodies, then?” Seya was wholly unconvinced. “Maybe it was the Klingons.” Harris said. “We still don’t know what is, or was on People’s Head. What if the Klingons have been hiding out there? What if they have control of something, some weapon?” “And they used it on Duren’s ships?” Seya was being drawn in, slowly. “What sort of weapon though? And why are we still alive then?” Harris thought for a second. “If they are Klingons, chances are they aren’t in any shape to really take anyone on. Maybe the UFP took them by surprise and they were forced to do something before they were ready. I still don’t know how the Breen figure in, or what could make everyone just disappear like that.” Seya’s eyes darkened slightly. “I wonder how much information is being held from us.” Alayne looked at both of them. “Either way, the answers are going to be on that planet. And how much do you want to bet we’re not going to like what we find?”

Just wondering who spends time reading a lot of other logs out there. I try to read them when I have time because we have quite a few talented writers here. Off the top of my head, here are some of my favorites. "State of Engineering Address" by WxMurray "Government Conspiracies in the 24th Century" by Laarell Teykier and "Karaoke Vulcan" by T'vin. There are dozens more that I have enjoyed but those were just the ones that came to mind immediately. They're each good for different reasons. :rolleyes:

I'm obviously thankful for the cages. :D I've had a lot to be thankful for this year. Friends, family, good health, and good times, among other things. I hope the US STSFers enjoyed their Thanksgiving, and have a good weekend.

Thanks Travis, sometimes it's nice just knowing someone else is reading your logs. So now the question is, which Kes is better? Arc or Reaent? :D Chances are if I've had the chance to interact with someone on STSF, I've read at least a couple of their logs. I love seeing how different or similar a player can be from the character they set up.

I was creating a birthday thread today and thinking about how inevitably we often miss people's birthdays. Maybe you see it is someone's birthday on the bottom on the screen but don't know that player very well and are hesitant to create a new thread about it. Or not many people happen to be on the boards that day, or just don't notice. Since it's an ongoing thing, I was wondering if we could have some sort of stickied "Birthday Thread" where people can post announcements about their birthdays or those of other people's. It's just an idea I thought I'd throw out there. :rolleyes:

Anyone else have a favorite or two?

Actually I got the idea from another forum I frequent which has something called the "Off Topic Discussion, Birthday, Hello/Goodbye Thread." B) In addition to birthdays people post whatever RL events they feel like sharing, and if they're not going to be around for a bit, among other things.

Hmmm, that mousepad looks pretty awesome, and the Ambassador class has always been one of my favorite classes in terms of looks alone.

Kestra listened carefully to the conversation on the bridge. She personally thought they were crazy to even give up a chance at the 3rd fleet. Sure it was a risk. What wasn’t? Sitting in this ship, wondering what was holding it together, she knew she would want to chance it. But then again, she wouldn’t be the one out there, doing recon or salvage. They would probably be sending out the fighters again. The fighters. She scowled and hastily jabbed some controls in front of her, suddenly in a bad mood. First Simon somehow thought it would be appropriate to pester her with personal messages over the comm, Zhu was trying to convince her that there was some sort of evil on the planet, and now this. “We should just try to get some of the ships and get out of here,” she mumbled to herself. Zhu heard her and turned to question her. “At what cost?” She frowned, thinking about it. At what cost? Surely they could conduct a salvage operation without being destroyed. The Breen though … who knew what else was out there? Kestra glanced down at her readouts again, as if to reassure herself that there was nothing else out there. She refused to let Zhu’s vague statements get to her. Not a bad guy though, she thought. She was definitely starting to enjoy his company on the bridge and the fact that their shifts coincided. Maybe if she could get out of those dinner plans with Simon … “Those ships would be invaluable to us. Look at the shape we're in,” she challenged him, disrupting her own thoughts. Engineering was doing a good job but no one could deny the fact that some new ships could make a huge difference to the NFA. “Maybe, but something just doesn't feel right,” Zhu replied quickly. Kestra almost laughed at that. “When does it ever feel right?” she asked him, grinning. She noticed movement behind him as Kroells entered the bridge and quickly turned back around, studying her console carefully again. “Yeah,” Zhu said quietly. She almost didn’t hear him mutter his reply. The smile was gone from her face. Maybe he was right. Maybe there was something evil down there, waiting for all of them. Between the Breen, the UFP, and the planet, Kestra wasn’t sure what to worry about first. She ran another scan to make sure no lifeforms had appeared on those ships and sat quietly, hoping she wouldn’t find anything.