"Sightseeing"

[Webmaster 20]

Subject: "Sightseeing"

Date: Sun, Oct 5, 1997 8:47 PM

From: Ens Alpha

 

 

 

"Sightseeing.."

Alpha Orion

 

 

 

The yellowed squares of a standard Federation holodeck gleamed abit, sending reflections of the illumination around the large room.  As suddenly as the room had held it's solidarity, though, two things managed to occur at the exact same time. The walls shimmered for a brief instant, suddenly manifesting themselves into something else.  The specific details of this setup would make most raise there eyebrows, but the explanation would soon become

clear..

 

Alpha Orion entered at the exact same time, the yellow eyes scanning the interior of the Republic's holodeck.  He looked around to find a small gyrocopter in the distance, the bright, holographic sun shining down on his pale complexion.  Earth's Illinois praries and corn fields stretched to and fro, the afternoon of some random date.  Winds whipped across the landscape cooly, offering a comfortable breeze..

 

Alpha really cared nothing for comforts.  However, his recent reports indicated it was time to try a few tests on his emotional responses.  This, unfortunetly, was one of them.  The logic of flying around in a slow to modern day standards, archaic craft seemed useless and illogical to the Orion series of Androids, but who knew.  

 

"Doctor Orion did say this triggered some responses in Epsilon," Alpha said aloud.  Something else in his regiment was to document thoughts through audio communication.  Alianna had said it was to better document his responses, but he had an inborn ideal that it was not for that purpose, but to turn him more towards human..

 

Humans often talked to themselves, for some odd reason.  Alpha almost called it pathetic, but he caught himself.  His eyes instead rescanned the horizon, features tensing with the results.  He didn't 'feel' anything, no response.  But, the program called for more, Alpha's positronic net told him, and he strode briskly to the gyrocopter in the distance.

 

The machine mind inside of the android processed what was going on, and subsequently accessed the needed records for piloting such an era of ship.  Alpha was extremely intrigued as to why Doctor Orion had ordered that he not read 'everything' there was to read about this type of gryocopter, to facilitiate expert piloting, but only the bare minimum.  However, she had insisted that he not know the reason, and it was her choice.

 

Alpha climbed slowly into the 'copter, and quickly flipped the necessary switches.  The motors hummed brilliantly to life, as did the rest of the mechanics of the ancient flying machine.  Propellers spun to high speed above of him, and he pulled briskly against the steering system.  The gyrocopter rised, not at all smoothly, to his command, and sailed into the clear sky..

 

 

 

*  *  *  *

 

 

 

Machines on the small craft whirred quietly at operational standards, climbing altitude to a safe location, and then steadying out.  Alpha's hands gripped the steering stick, following Alianna's instructions to, well, fly around.  Her instructions were rather unclear, to follow a plan around the olden divided state of Illinois, moving in a north pattern, around Chicago and continue over the Great Lakes.  

 

Alpha closed his eyes, and brought the emotion chip to maximum power.  His hand swung the small ship in and out among the low altitude, his eyes opening to look out again.  Another clause of the Doc's, something she'd never ordered....max power to the chip.  He hadn't tried it, there was little reason..

 

The small ship broke through the waters of the Decatur River, sailing swiftly across the small, central industrialized city, and passing her city limits as quickly as he had arrived.  The ship continued northward, weaving east briefly to passover the city's then capitol of Springfield.  Alpha made no attempt to catch himself, his visual sensors actenuating and magnifying the view of Abraham Lincoln's old home..

 

He had smiled.  He was feeling something, but he did not yet know what.  The craft continued at high velocity, and Alpha suddenly sped it to maximum speed, the wind whipping the shortened black, artifical hair on his head.  Propellers's sped up both lateral and aft, and the craft began to close on a horizoned lake in the distance, an encompassed city.

 

Chicago Heights, and Lake Michigan finally showed themselves.  The Great Lakes cascaded together with all there beauty as the 'copter closed on the skyscraping city of Chicago, then zoomed past over the lakes.  Alpha was growing more and more entranced with the images, and he slowly lost control of the Gyrocopter.

 

Alpha blinked from his trance, returning the emotion chip's output to normal, the logic returning to his eyes.  He gripped the control stick and attempted to pull up as the rafters below skimmed the water's edge.  His strength pulled tighter, but it was already showing that the momentum he had gained was too powerful.  The propeller's on the ship arched downward, and the archaic flying machine landed full brunt into the holo-waters of Lake

Superior.

 

The holodeck grid shimmered briefly, as the computers' voice blinked to efffect.  "Holodeck safeties enabled, discontinueing program."  Alpha watched everything disappear, but he regained full recollection of what happened.  His uniform was soaked still, the water had yet to disappear, considering it was replicated, not holoimages.**  

But, whatever had happened, he needed to explain.  "Computer, log an appointment with Counselor Llewellyn, as soon as she has an opening."

 

Alpha brushed off his soaked uniform, and headed for the exit.

 

 

** - Debateable, but some books indicate that holo-water is in effect replicated water, not simple holograms, while others say otherwise.  Just thought I'd throw that tidbit in