COMMENCE VOYAGE

[bathymetric]

Fun Fact: Did you know the Atlantic Ocean has a surface area of 41.1 million square miles? No reason.

...

There's something uneasy in the air as you come to.

Well, "come to" is an interesting word in this case. It implies waking up, which is not exactly what happens. None of you are in beds, nor are you really asleep in the traditional sense. One moment you're somewhere else, doing something else with your time, and the next? You're somewhere on board a massive cruise ship - maybe lounging on a deck chair by the pool, maybe getting some Gains in the exercise room, maybe enjoying the tasteful décor in the buffet - and you have no idea how you got here or how you might get back. This is not your beautiful house. If you have a beautiful wife, she isn't here.

What you do have, apart from 25 other unlucky souls, is a small smartphone-like device in your pocket with only a handful of things on it: a clock reading 11PM, a pdf of a ticket in your name on a special Atlantic Liners New Year's Eve Cruise, an app labeled Passenger Profiles with some basic information on your traveling companions, and a message:

Welcome aboard, passenger! Please feel free to partake of any of the facilities while you wait for the big event! Remember: when midnight comes, you better make your way to the theatre at the back of Level 1 for the main event! The Captain and the First Mate will be there to take care of you all personally, and to help you ring in the new year in style!

Well, that's a start. But what you do until then, it seems, is up to you!

Comments

[ahelpingpaw]

We sure have! But only to the moon. We're just getting started!

[As long as 'getting started' is in the recent 100 years, but yeah]

[ltcommandroid]

[Data smiles slightly.]

That is no small feat. You should be proud of your progress!

[ahelpingpaw]

I guess it's kinda amazing!

[Filbo responds really well to praise, it seems -- even if it's not directed at him]

But there's plenty more to do, right? I mean...that's got to be only the start. We probably will get further after my lifetime. But then again...I'm here. With you all.

No matter how I see it that's another step forward. Just...not one that was planned, I guess. And nobody's going to believe a word of this if I ever mention it to anybody.

[ltcommandroid]

[Data nods. That seems sensible.]

Sometimes it can be best to take things at your culture's natural pace. It can be difficult for some people, to learn that the universe is bigger and contains more things than they imagined.

[ahelpingpaw]

I know, right? I feel like my brain is about to explode.

[It's great to know everyone here exists? But seriously, it's also overwhelming]

I'm sure it was like that for...for...uh, for you all the first time.

['You all', he says, because he realizes he doesn't know what to call Data's species -- not even realizing he's, well, a tin man, so to say]

[ltcommandroid]

[He tilts his head slightly, considering this.]

I am an android, the only one of my kind. I do not have a people to speak of. But my first encounter with Starfleet was...memorable.

[ahelpingpaw]

[Oooooooh, an android! A...a robot. He's talking to a robot, and quite an advanced one, it seems. He'd have never been able to tell this was an android.

Filbo quietly shoves this realization faaaaaar deep into his mind or else it's one thing more for the pile of overwhelming stuff he has dealt with during the last 25 minutes]

Really? Did Starfleet find you somewhere?

[ltcommandroid]

They found me deactivated in the remains of a former colony on the planet Omicron Theta. A spacefaring entity had killed all of the colonists. My father managed to escape, but he left me behind.

[Which, I can hold enough of a grudge about that on Data's behalf.]

Before doing so, he wiped my memory of my early development. The first thing I remember now was being reactivated by Starfleet officers who had come to investigate.

[ahelpingpaw]

[That first half sounds absolutely horrible, and hearing it from someone who doesn't show the strong emotions you'd think someone who had gone through that would feel is eerie as all heck. Filbo can't help but feel a shiver down his spine]

So it's like you started your life over again. I'm glad you got to start all over, even if it was in that kinda circumstances.

[Does it count as starting over when literally everything that happened to you was because of someone else? Someone else destroyed everything, someone else reactivated you?

Well, probably what matters is that Data is alive]

[ltcommandroid]

[Data considers that silently for a moment. Obviously he's not having any feelings, he's just thinking.]

I suppose so. It was difficult, but I am glad that it happened.