Outdoor Festivities, Part 3: Eight Crazy Nights / Christmas

Posted on Wed Jan 17th, 2024 @ 8:29pm by Captain Ryhl th'Zeles & Lieutenant Commander Jorel Torin II & Lieutenant Pharos Ventari & Lieutenant Sava
Edited on on Thu Jan 18th, 2024 @ 11:10pm

2,492 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Mission Zeta: An Eerie Evening
Location: Holodecks
Timeline: 1900 hours

Feeva waited for Keena, and then ushered her, the Turner children, and Leena indoors. She took a post by the window again, as Keena and Peter helped the younger kids get their chocolate.

Another Snowball missed its mark and fell in Kas’s direction, the Hybrid drove and caught the snowball in the air and hurled it back in the direction it came from hitting a young human woman in the side of the head. Kas ducked behind the rail fence, picked up a couple more snowballs, and began throwing them at the young officers; the cold projectiles found their marks and the Ensigns all drove for cover.

Keena approached the window to see her Papa throwing snowballs and giggling, “Papa doesn’t miss.”

Feeva nodded. "I know," she said. She had learned that early. "Do you want to go back out?" She asked Keena. She still had the boots on, though her skirt had gotten slightly wet.

Keena nodded. Fee sighed, but spoke. "Alright, put your coat back on. Leena, mommy is going back in the snow with Keena and Mr. Razka, ok?" She said. The little girl just nodded, content to drink her cocoa. Feeva sighed-fighting her daughter about sugary drinks wasn't a thing she wanted to do tonight. A moment later, she stepped out into the snow, her boots on and a parka over her sweater.

Bella looked out the window at the snowball battle unfolding, smiled grabbed a jacket, and turned to the room. “There’s a snowball out there and Razka is outnumbered if anyone wants to render aid.”

Bella ran out the door crouched down and made a snowball and threw it at the group that was attacking Kas, the Hybrid looked up and smiled at his friend who was keeping his opponents from flanking him. He made gesture and she moved where wanted her to go. They were positioned so they couldn’t be flanked.

Kendri popped up to see what the commotion was about. "Kas and Bella are ganging up on a bunch of ensigns. Let's go join them," Kendri said laughing. There was a rack hanging with coats, cubbies above held gloves and hats, and boots were stored below.

"C'mon," she said as she pulled on some gloves and grabbed a coat.

“Wait for me! Hey, what did you say about Kas? Oh, boy…. sounds like fun! Let me grab a coat and gloves!” Kobi said.

He half smiled as he rushed to put on the cold weather gear.
Kobi’s goal was to help out his friend Kas, but the first thing he did was make a snowball and waited to get Kendri’s attention.

“Kendri, Kas needs help over there, but….” Kobi tossed the snowball right at Kendri. It struck her in the midsection right above her waist and disintegrated immediately.

"Focus, Tomm. This is a battle scenario clearly. Us against them.We'll show those junior officers whose in charge around here. As two snowballs came flying in Kas' general direction, Kendri sent two back that way in quick succession hitting one of this officers in the neck.

"Ha! Got him," she laughed.

Kas smiled seeing Kobi and Kendri joining the snow battle, the Hybrid made a vocalization to get Kobi's attention. He made a sort series of gestures. It was his peoples sign language, he was hoping the Trill remembered from his last host. He needed them to engage the Ensigns and try to flank them,  so that he and Bella could sneak behind them.

Tomm snapped his fingers realizing what Razka was doing. He wasn’t just gesturing, he was communicating!

“Ha!,” he said to Kendri. “Kendri, do you see what Kas is doing? He’s using a gestural form of Quath’Mar! He knew only I would recognize it. He wants us to get the Ensigns attention-flank then and engage them. We pretend to throw from our side and he and Bella will catch them off guard with a sneak attack from behind. Let’s go.”

"I know what flanking means, Kobi," Kendri responded. "Alright, let's run around and catch them from the other side," Kendri responded, taking off before Tomm could respond. She ran out a few meters past from where the action was taking place before making any forward movement. When she did, she did so swiftly, holding a snowball in each hand, but she waited until the junior officers noticed her before throwing them.

"Come on, Keena, please be careful of the adults. They might not see you," she said. Feeva stood there for a moment, assessing the situation. While she hadn't been as well-trained in combat maneuvers as the rest, she was also a smart person. She calculated the risk quickly, and made her way, along a perimeter route, towards where Kas stood, flanked by Bella Rodriguez. She held tightly but carefully to Keena's hand.

“Your move chief,” Bella whispered. She recognized the hand signals and was ready to follow his lead. She couldn't help but smile at how seriously he was taking this fight, ’Never mess with a warrior’s offspring.’ Bella thought as Kas sighed for her to follow him

"We're here-Keena wanted to come back out..." She said, as loud as she could.

Kas smiled seeing Fee and Keena and put a finger to his lips, then he signed for Fee to stay with Bella. He nodded to Keena and began to move toward a barn that was behind the junior officers. As he moved, Keena ran and in one smooth motion caught hold of Kas's arm, jumped and landed on the Hybrid's back he adjusted her into a piggyback position without slowing down.

Bella chuckled as she made a snow and threw it, she let out a cry to distract their opponents from Kas's movements. "Let's get them Fee!"

Feeva moved into an attack position, armed with a perfectly-formed snowball. She might be a little serious sometimes, but she knew how to throw a ball, and she knew how to fight back. "Ready?" She aimed...fired...and HIT her target square in the face. Oops. Oh, well. With a shrug, she bent to make another snowball.

Kas smiled seeing that six of the Junior Officers were distracted by his friends. He made his way behind the large barn.

The holodeck doors cycled quietly as they opened, and Lieutenant (JG) Pharos stepped inside, engrossed in the contents of a PADD as he went over the root cause of a replicator failure across two decks that had kept him occupied till now. Diagnostic reports were abruptly forgotten as he stopped, spines tensing in surprise as he looked down where he was suddenly standing barefoot in snow. "Environmental system failure?" he whispered under his breath; but no, as he looked around and started to take note of the activity and goings-ons of the other crew and officers present, he realized the winter snowscape had been deliberately programmed. He was less sure about the apparent snow-based warfare he could see from his current location, and not wishing to engage in a conflict he knew nothing about, he instead opened his mandibles and began following the scent of hot beverages back to what he hoped was neutral and uncontested territory.

Bella swatted a snowball that would have hit an officer she saw heading into the lodge. She shook her head these Ensigns were being quite careless with their aim.

*********

Back in the warm, cozy interior of the holo-house, Paisley led Jason back into the bar area. They had explored a bit more, but now she'd need more food and drink and then she'd need him to take her out of there. She found Sarah and Sar in an embrace themselves, and giggled.

"Hey!! Why is Lt. Ventari on his PADD?" She frowned. It was CHRISTMAS. She hurried to the man's side. "No working!! Don't make me order it, you know I will," she said. "It's a party, come say hello!" She said. She pulled him along with her, parking him firmly at the bar. "Everyone, say hello to Pharos!" She said, loudly, before returning to her boyfriend.

Protesting unsuccessfully as he was pulled inside, Pharos found himself deposited at the bar, and he carefully sank down onto one of the stools, folding his lower hands over the PADD and keeping it out of sight in his lap, as he clasped his upper hands onto the bar. "Hello," he greeted to the others present, before he signaled to the barkeep. "Bloodwine, please. Hot in the bottle."

Dramin instantly felt like he'd under-dressed for the occasion as soon as he stepped through the holodeck doors - a change from his usual habit of being somewhat overdressed, but not a good one, mind. To think he'd foolishly assumed that he'd endured enough Kaminar winters to withstand the biting cold of snow with just a parka on (one that didn't quite fit him, like, why wasn't there one smaller than this on file?) - oh, boy, was he wrong. A snowball sailed past him metres away as soon as he entered the holodeck - was this a snowball fight? Dramin had never much liked snowball fights. His snowballs had always been way too oval-shaped and ugly and broke apart midair - and not to mention the feeling of having freezing water dripping down your neck and back when they did hit you. No thanks.

It took him several seconds of shuffling through the cheering crowd to finally reach the bar, where he would hopefully avoid being dragged into the vicious game happening behind him. He sat down by the humungous insectoid officer and ordered an ice cold tranya.

Upper hands wrapped around the warmth of the syntheholic bloodwine, Pharos slowly took a drink as he tried to nonchalantly glance to his side at the new arrival. He'd never seen a Kelpian before, and though curious, he was trying not to be too obvious about it. After a moment, realizing it might be ruder to appear to ignore the new arrival as opposed to staring, Pharos gave his best friendly nod to the Kelpian. "Hello," he rumbled softly. "Come here often?" Ah, yes. Are you a regular in this holodeck program that was just recently created for this particular holiday? Smooth.

Dramin blinked and stared at the large insectoid... well, assuming that this individual was male was probably one of the more harmful things he could do, he reckoned - in his legal experience insectoids tended to take typical gender conventions and toss them out the window with their sexual dimorphism. "Um. I can't possibly have come here often given that this program was only created recently." He admitted, stuffing his hands swiftly into the pockets of his parka. "But I do find it quite pleasant. Much preferable to the frigid winters of Kaminar, at any rate."

"An advantage of the holodeck," Pharos agreed, only too happy to move on from his previous dumb question. "It can be set as harsh or as mild as you like, and still have plenty of snow for..." He gestured a hand vaguely in the direction of the snowball fight outside. "...activities. And you're right, it is rather pleasant." He raised his bottle of blood wine in a casual salute before introducing himself. "Pharos Ventari. New onboard."

"Dramin. Not quite as new aboard - I've been with the Columbia since she launched. Attorney of the Judge Advocate General Corps." Evidently they were both equally as bad at socializing, it seemed. Dramin scanned the crowd, searching for familiar faces. None - so far, at least. Perhaps they were all wrapped up in fluffy parkas or whatnot humans had going for them in that department.

"I hope you've settled in alright. In my experience insectoids haven't had the easiest settling-in experiences, especially those that don't walk on two feet. Petty Officer Chaka of the Titan for example-" Stop it. You're not at work. He had to remind himself. He was supposed to be here to relax. "Never mind. You are settling in alright aren't you?"

"I am, thank you." Pharos dipped his head slightly. "My greatest obstacle so far has just been learning my way around and getting caught up on the systems specific to the Odyssey class; it's a lot of ship to get to know. The crew on the other hand, have been nothing but welcoming, though I admit I've only interacted with a small percentage of them so far."

Glancing around the bar area, the Rechakan could hear the volume of the snow battle outside raise briefly. "Tell me, are social gatherings such as this, commonplace onboard? As I understand it, this one celebrates an event known as 'Crossed Mass'?"

"'Christmas'." Dramin corrected gently. "It is a holiday of Terran origin that promotes the spirit of gift-giving, to my knowledge. I've seen it celebrated all manner of ways. Including this one. I promise they are not quite as commonplace as you might suspect - least of all this one, where people make balls of snow and throw them at each other." The Kelpien sighed. "It isn't my cup of tea, sadly - but I am here to socialize. I assume the same goes for you."

Pharos nodded once in agreement. "Indeed. I felt it might be useful for meeting more of my shipmates, even if I wasn't familiar with the holiday itself." He picked up the bottle of bloodwine, tipping it slightly in a toast. "Here's to meeting new people."

"Hear, hear. To meeting new people." Dramin clinked his glass against the insectoid's, drank and sighed, seeming more tired than anything else. He took a moment to drift before glancing back at the other. "Pray tell, Pharos - what species are you, exactly? I've not seen or heard or even read of one of your kind until now, and the Starfleet legal database is ridiculously expansive with cases from all over the Federation. Few mention large bipedal insectoids such as yourself."

"Rechakan," the lieutenant replied before taking a swig of his bloodwine. "We hail from the outer rim, well beyond the Federation border. We're not members, but do have a cooperative relation with the Federation, which is why I was permitted to try joining Starfleet. For the rest, I suppose it depends on what the legal definition of 'insectoid' is. Pseudo-insectoid might be more apt. When dealing with species that evolved under different conditions, on different worlds, around different suns, it's no surprise that they'll all follow different rules. Xindi Insectoids are likely closer to the standard definition of 'insectoid', but even then, they're tetrapods. Rechakan's on the other hand are hexapods, and internally speaking, are probably more similar to yourself and most of the crew onboard." He shrugged slightly. "Perhaps sickbay can provide a more apt classification when I report in for my next physical."


*********

End Pt. 2

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