Bienvenue a Nattopia

Posted on 29 Jul 2013 @ 12:58pm by Ensign Natalie Chevalier & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton

2,151 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 2, Holodeck 2
Timeline: MD 12 - 1900 hours

[ON]

Work in the arboretum could be physically demanding, but it had its limits as far as a workout went, and after half an hour of wrestling with roots and scrabbling in soil Nat found she still had energy to burn. But she remembered Mr. Darius had told her about a makeshift gym in the cargo bay area, so she decided to check it out. Heading back to her quarters, she changed out of her grubby uniform into her workout clothes, and took her mat, a towel, and a replicated bottle of water with her on the way down.

Unfortunately, she didn't have much luck rooting around in the Cargo Bays, and began to remember his description of the gym as "makeshift". Very makeshift, it seemed to her, and as much as it seemed a waste, the holodeck would probably be a better bet, she resigned herself. And it would make for a more interesting view while exercising than a solid bulkhead or a stack of equipment boxes.

Returning to Deck 2, she found the holodeck vacant and began looking through the hololibrary for interesting programs to use as a setting for her workout. The ship had a few standard programs, mostly based on survey missions they'd performed. She also found that some officers had opened up their personal selections for public use.

"Martial arts, martial arts, martial arts, wrestling, martial arts, warriors of history, FIBUA, martial arts...I thought Starfleet was meant to be an agency of peace?" she muttered to herself as she read over the program titles. Eventually she chose a kind of city building simulation file, and spent a few moments configuring the parameters to set up a giant public park in the middle of her eco-friendly city based on renewable energy resources - Natville, she had decided to name it.

Jacob walked to the Holodeck as he did every other day to either train, wrestle or just have fun with one of his many creations. He saw that one Holodeck was already in use; he was about to turn and walk to another one when he noticed that his City Building Simulation (which he called 'Your Ultimate City') was running and was intrigued because until now, no one but him seemed to be interested in running it. He looked and saw that the occupant had left the program open so he smiled to himself and just had to see what was being created. He walked into the program.

He found himself standing near a large park and lovely female officer that he realized was the Ecologist on board, working hard on developing an eco-friendly city, which was almost cliche and ironic in so many ways. He walked up to her and cleared his throat so as not to startle her too much. "Nice work so far Ms. Chevalier, so did you decide to use solar, wind or hydroelectric power for your city?" He smiled broadly at her.

A stealthy approach was no doubt hard for a man of Jacob's size, and Nat was not surprised: but she still had to take a step back as he approached, necessitated by the sheer height difference between them. "Actually, I reprogrammed the environmental configurations to add active geothermal currents, and then installed a facility to harvest them. And I changed the grassland into a coastal estuary and added a tidal power generator."

Turning away from the scene of her creation - which she'd already decided would actually work better as Nattopia - she squinted at him. "I hope you don't mind me running your program, Lt. Pendleton. But I was looking for somewhere interesting to do my exercises, and a grim little cargo bay doesn't really cut it."

"Mind? Are you kidding? I put this on the open list so all could enjoy it, and I must say, I already love what you are doing here..." He looked around and took a deep breath. "...I have over twenty cities created and enjoy them all. If memory serves, your city would be connected by road and rails to one of my cities: Fernandez in fact. So, I hope that when you un-pause the simulation, you will be trading with my city as well as receiving tourists, shoppers and maybe even some workers arriving in your city." He smiled at her.

Nat shrugged. "Perhaps. I've not tried a simulation like this before, but I suppose the people are what really makes it come to life." Her eyes flashed wickedly as she added: "But anyone coming to Nattopia will have to pay the 'Green Tax'. Computer, add toll collection booths to Ecobridges 1 and 2 and the Hydrogen Train Station."

She watched her new additions grow, with an approving nod, then turned back to Jacob. She was already thinking about ideas for New Nattopia: perhaps an aquadome that would be less harmful to the coral forests than the ones she had researched on Regulus. "So, what kind of cities do you design here, Lieutenant?"

"Please, call me Jacob for one and two, I have all types of cities as I try new and different ideas. The city nearest you, Fernandez, is a 'balanced' city which has industry, commercial, residential zones of course as well as a theme park, a stadium and even a few touristy places to boot." He looked over to some of the buildings she intended to build, "So what kinds of transportation are you focused on? I have a city that is almost entirely based on heavy and light rails as well as streetcars. A 'throwback' city if you will."

Nat was delighted to find someone else on board willing to nerd about the finer points of development, so she bounced on her heels and replied with glee. "That sounds interesting. I've thought about including some mag-levs, kind of a throwback thing. Such antiquated thing, I mean, I think they probably got rid of them in, like, the 22nd century!"

She laughed at the absurdity of the old fashioned technology, and continued: "But then again, I've always been curious about canals. We didn't have anything like that on New France, but a city built around that kind of transport could be really interesting. And I like the idea of how - slow it would be. Nattopia isn't a place to rush around," she declared, somewhat self-importantly.

Jacob looked around, "Sometimes making sure that people stop and smell that proverbial rose is a very good thing Natalie, a very good thing indeed." He walked up to a beautiful hedge of flowers and took a whiff of their incredible fragrance. "I am so impressed, so impressed indeed. You definitely have the knack for being a good mayor." He walked around a bit enjoying the various eco-friendly aspects she had put in. "This small lake you put over here, will it have a fountain or just beautiful fish in it?"

Nat frowned. "Fountains are a waste of energy. It can have some fish, but I don't see why they have to be beautiful." She walked to join him on the edge, staring down into the water. After a moment, a bubble broke the surface, and beneath, something slimy rippled. "You know, back on Earth in the 20th, 21st centuries, there were these creatures called sea slugs, which were considered 'ugly'. And several species of them died out. Everyone made such an effort to save the pretty dolphins: but not the sea slugs. Same for lots of other species, too, across the galaxy."

Jacob nodded, "Agreed, agreed. So what about tourism? Other than parks and lovely places like this you've created, are you going to have amusement parks or other such attractions?"

"I hadn't thought I would," Nat answered, shooting him a quizzical look. "I'd prefer that my open spaces were their own amusement parks of sorts." She gestured around her. "Why would you need some artificial attraction when you've got a few good trees to climb?"

Jacob smiled, "Good point; however, what if you cannot climb a tree? Some people of the galaxy do not have arms, or perhaps you are person with a disability who uses a powered chair, or perhaps, what if you come from a world where the trees are dangerous or even deadly... what about if you are a person with agorophobia? Diversity is always a good thing Natalie, and not just in the multitudes of species within the galaxy."

Nat pulled a face. She was in no mood to be lectured, and somewhat doubted that the reason that some planets despoiled their natural reserves to construct gaudy amusement parks was to cater to people with agoraphobia. "If I couldn't climb trees, I wouldn't come to Nattopia. I'd go somewhere else!" Then she made a squawking sound and ran into the woodland bordering the lake, leaping up into the lower branches of a sturdy tree and starting to climb.

Jacob walked easily over to the tree where Nat was; took a moment to admire her feminine form as she climbed and then, playfully, wrapped his arms around as much of the tree as he could, and even though it was a large and sturdy oak like tree, he used all of his mighty physical strength to shake the tree just enough to playfully "scare" Nat a little.

With a squeal, Nat came crashing down, the shaking enough to dislodge the branch she was just about to step on. Leaves, bark and twigs showered down around Jacob; fortunately, Nat herself did not: the holodeck safety protocols were set on in Nattopia, and a convenient lattice of soft green branches conveniently appeared to catch her fall. She was dangling upside down, a few feet above him, messy brown hair hanging down, clearly a little surprised, but none the worse for wear.

"Uh...you wouldn't mind helping me down, would you?"

Jacob playfully walked up to her, "Problems Ms. Natalie?" He gave her a wry smile then gently grabbed her by the waist and as easy as a person of "average" strength would lift a kitten he plucked her out of the tree, turned her right side up and set her down gently on her feet. "Better?" Again his voice was playful and teasing.

Nat ruffled her hair, a few acorns and leaves spilling out; she was flushed, bringing out her freckles, and a little shaken, which gave her eyes a wide, flitting quality. Nonetheless, she the accident had not harmed her: she nodded gratefully to Jacob. "I'm fine, thanks for that. I forgot to program in park rangers for Nattopia. I might have been hanging there a while..."

"We wouldn't want THAT now would we?" Jacob continued the playful teasing. "Of course, there were no programming that would have helped you deal with big, powerful guys who like to be a little mischievous." He chuckled at bit surprised that Natalie wasn't about to try and get him back in some way.

Though he no doubt meant it as a joke, there was something a little uncomfortable about the way Jacob had phrased that: nothing that would help her deal with a big, powerful guy? Yeesh. The last vestiges of Nat's rueful smile faded away, and she rolled down her sleeves. "Yes, well, thank you for showing me your program, Lieutenant," the return to his rank title a subtle emphasis that things had grown a little cooler between them.

"But between here and the arboretum, I've worked up a bit of a sweat, and I think I need to go hit the sonic shower. Perhaps we can save the changes to Nattopia and continue another time - I might be interested in exploring this program further." She shrugged, half-apologetically, half-determinedly, and made to squeeze past him to the exit arch.

Jacob's face saddened as he felt like he stepped in "it" again, a reoccurring of past flirtation failures. "I.. yes.. you can save the changes, pause it, even work on it while its in "run" mode... I.. I hope you had fun with it.. if there's anything you wanted to see added to the content.. I.. I can write in in... and.. um... thanks for the fun time Natalie.. maybe you could help me with my latest city, 'Masonic Junction' sometime..." He really hoped he hadn't already ruined a friendship from the first time out.

Nat turned at the arch, and nodded. He looked a little downcast that things had ended so abruptly. "Of course, another time - I'd be happy to take a look at your city with you. Just make sure it's up to Green Code!" she added with a flash of her eyes and an attempt to leaven the situation with a little humour. Then she turned, and stepped through the arch.

[OFF]

Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Natalie Chevalier
Ecologist
USS Galileo

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