The Beach; Early Birds (Part 2)

Posted on 09 Jan 2013 @ 12:46pm by Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Lieutenant Theron Rhodes & Chief Warrant Officer 4 Cyrus Kiwosk & Chief Petty Officer Juliet Finch & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Lieutenant JG Nenokah Ral & Petty Officer 1st Class James Watt

2,380 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 02 - Resupply
Location: Vega Colony, Puam Digh
Timeline: MD9 0730

[ON]

In her current state Kiri could just about understand half of that. Falling silent she recanted to herself and tried to fill in the gaps, "I don't know what my strengths in chess are, nor your weaknesses." Kiri might be saying something stupid but to her they were evenly matched, she'd just taken a slight upper hand to win.

"I find it difficult to adequately define," Liyar admitted. He attempted to clarify. "Your strength lies in anticipating the intuitive nature of the game. Mine is the opposite. Were we to play a balanced version, it is likely we would be even in skill. The game itself does not conform to purely rational sensibility." He looked at Athlen, floundering for an explanation.

"Oh, the age old conundrum," Athlen filled in with a lazy smile. "Emotion, logic, rationality, intuition. To be good at chess is to be good at all of those things. You," he pointed at Kiri, "Understand emotion and intuition and probably feel an emotional attachment to the game. For example: winning and losing," he explained. "He," the finger moved to Liyar, "Is detached and rational. You saw him go for the assault right off. No fuss, just - attack." He clapped his hands together slightly. "Then - countering his own move - he didn't realize he was mirroring you until it was too late, he didn't anticipate it and it got through." He tapped his skull knowingly. Athlen tipped his face up into the sun and let the rays shine on him. This place was dry. Dry was good. "Have you ever played kal-toh'haulat or fhaet'yrik?" The question directed at Kiri.

Kiri nodded, she got most of this this time but she still didn't quite agree. In reply to the question she smiled, "I have played Kal-Toh before but not fhaet'yrik," Kal-toh was easier than chess for her but it was a much longer game and you had to have the gamestand, you couldn't make your own.

"Kal-toh'haulat is much the same, except for that there is a different set of rules," Athlen said animatedly. "Each person has to mirror the other, while guiding the sphere telepathically. It inserts an intuitive component to a usually completely rational game, as each person has to effectively mirror and then refute the other to build the structure. Wavering and failing to effectively combat-mirror results in a lose. They consider it krilan-vo'ektaya c'thia, harmonious truth."

"Interesting. The game you describe is simply called kal-toh where I am from," Liyar commented, tilting his head.

"I'm completely unsurprised," Athlen laughed. "Regular kal-toh is more or less a solo game, but it has been adopted for two-person play where the winner essentially integrates the most pieces."

Athlen then looked up at Dea. "So, flight chief, right?" he asked. "Did you land the Galileo on Vega IX?" the Rigelian prompted the ...Betazoid. ...Betazoid? His eyebrows shot up. That wasn't the sense he'd gotten from any Betazoid in his life. It felt like she was merged or something. Bonded? No. Odd...

Turning to face Athlen, "Yes I'm Galileo's Flight Chief." Silent for a moment before answering his question, "I was the one at the controls when we landed on the planet." Noticing his expression, "I can see by your expression something about me is confusing you."

Athlen nodded mutely.

"Let me help you out. Yes I'm Betazoid at least in part. I'm also Trill. Under emergency circumstances I became the host to the Mialin symbiont."

"I wasn't aware that was possible in the long term," Athlen admitted with a curious smile. "I didn't mean to pry," he said holding his hands up slightly, "It was just a rather unusual sensation," he finished sheepishly.

Dea understood his comment, "In most cases I think that's true. For some reason I'm one of the rare cases where the Trill authorities and medical staff on both sides agreed that the only solution was to attempt a long term joining. I can't say I fully understand it all even now."

"That must be extraordinary," Athlen said sincerely. "I'm sure you probably get a lot of comments about it, so we do not have to discuss it if you do not wish," he said with a look that could only be described as empathetic. He looked back between Kiri and Liyar, and then to Dea. "Would you guys care to play a game with me?" he asked suddenly. "We would need an item to use as a throwing ball."

Liyar looked up. "You cannot be serious."

"It is perfect!" Athlen said, beaming.

"Pid-nahk is a children's game." Liyar gave him a long expression.

"It's a bonding experience." Athlen smirked. "And, it's fun! Don't give me that look. If you like running and catching, that is. Oh come on. Tell me you didn't play shaya-zehl or pid-nahk when you were a child--"

"I certainly did not--"

"Liar, liar, pants on fire," Athlen sing-songed. "Get in touch with your inner child," the Rigelian espoused dramatically, eyes gleaming.

Liyar gave him a look that could only be considered scathing, if he weren't a Vulcan. As it were, he communicated it quite well with The Eyebrow alone.

Kiri was confused, why were they acting like children? It was something that secretly she welcomed but it puzzled her no end, she also didn't have a clue what kind of game they were talking about and she didn't have a ball.

Athlen was looking around, and on the outer edges of the beach spied what he was looking for. He pointed at it. "Over there. Tertiary Supplies!" he announced brightly at the portable transporter unit, encased in a blue box, bounding over and kneeling down near the unit. He tapped something in and a bright red ball that resembled a football emerged. He grabbed it and threw it quickly at the Vulcan on the other side of the beach. The force of his strength easily sailed it over to Liyar, who caught it almost reflexively out of surprise.

Athlen ran back over. Liyar was holding the thing as if it were positively alien, and tossed it to Athlen calmly. "So, you guys up for it?" the Rigelian asked enthusiastically, throwing the ball up and catching it unconsciously.

From a distance, Lamar saw a group of Galileo's crew members huddled together, then saw what appeared to be a football being casually thrown into the air. He had arrived only several minutes earlier and had planned to have a casual day at the beach, but the sight of a possible sporting event perked his interest. He made his way over to the group and stood next to the familiar Vulcan diplomat who he had met three days previously in the holodeck. "What's going on here?" he wondered out loud, arms folded across his chest as he looked at an unfamiliar crewman who was tossing the ball up and down.

"Crewman Athlen is attempting to engage us in a childish pursuit." And there was absolutely no reason Liyar was still standing there. Nope.

"I still bet you can't beat me. I am the reigning sri-tor champion!" Athlen goaded knowingly.

"Your capacity for irrational thought continues to astound," Liyar shot back, with an extra-slow blink, just for good measure.

Athlen addressed the gathering. "On Rigel, we call this one sri-tor, or jackpot. Vulcan children call it pid-nahk, High-money." A slow grin was appearing over his face as Liyar looked a little more severe than usual. "The point is for someone, for instance me, to stand over here, and call out numerical values attached to each throw. They can also call negative values which decrease your points. Whoever catches the ball earns the points. I have to stipulate if they're are earned if you catch it in the air, or after it's touched the ground," he explained to the small gathering. "So if I say, 100, earth, then you have to wait until it touches the ground and whoever gets it gets a hundred points. But if you catch it while it's in the air, then you lose a hundred points. Same if I say 100, air. If you miss, whoever touches it loses 100 points, so the one with the highest amount of points would touch it. I can also call both, which means it doesn't matter how you catch it," Athlen explained. "The goal is to get 1000 points. Whoever does, wins. I can also call jackpot, at any point, and whoever catches it will automatically get a thousand points and win, then they would become the thrower."

Kiri understood the rules but she was quite terrible at catching balls. As a child she played football when she was very little and generally took track and field as her options for sports at school. So she wasn't very optimistic but would take part anyway. It would be almost like being a child again, she didn't know adults could act like this.

"Do you want to be the thrower first?" Athlen asked Kiri, who was looking a little unsure. He gripped the ball in his hands a bit, turning it before tossing it lightly over to her.

"Sounds fun," Lamar commented with a nod while removing his shirt, then slowly walked down the beach until he was a suitable playable distance from the slender Trill officer who now possessed the ball.

Kiri's eyes went wide and her face flushed slightly, it was a beach and she knew it would happen. People undressing and showing skin still made her extremely uncomfortable. Taking the ball in both hands she took a few steps into the open, taking a moment to look at them all. Now was the part where she might make a fool out of herself, "Air 50?" With an underarm toss she threw the ball into the air, falling slowly and not going very far.

Ears perking up, Athlen immediately made a dive for the weakly thrown football in a heroic leap, arms outstretched, missing completely and landing in the sand face first. Liyar leaned over and caught it just before it sailed a little past Athlen before it hit the ground and threw it back to Kiri. He arched an eyebrow down at the Rigelian. Athlen pulled himself up, face bright green. "...So, pid-nahk champion might have been an understatement...!" Athlen mumbled, shaking the sand out of his hair. "I can do it, I promise! I'll catch the next one," he snapped his fingers, "No problem." He grinned. "I'm so up for this!" he said to the various... stares.

Kiri watched with tired surprise as he dived to the ground. She didn't do diving at all, even when she was forced to play football where she was sometimes put in goal she'd never dive. Getting a face full of sand or mud as well as risking damaging yourself were deterrent enough during a game. Catching the ball rather clumsily she looked back at the group of people, should she do the same again? Over arm this time she tossed the ball high but not very far, "Earth 60?"

Making a break for the ball, Lamar sprinted and covered a good distance of ground before he strategically positioned himself under the ball's projected landing zone. Making sure not to touch it until it hit the ground, he did his best to box out any nearby crew members so they wouldn't interfere. As soon as the ellipsoid-shaped ball hit the ground, however, it took an unpredicted bounce and began to tumble along the sand. Lamar chased after it in hot pursuit, but inadvertently barreled into Crewman Athlen sending them both tumbling into the sand while the ball bounced away. "Ooof!!"

Athlen got up too slowly, and the points ended up going to Lamar who pilfered the ball off of the ground once again. While Liyar stared at them like over-indulged children, the game began to pick up pace shortly after that as several crewmembers wanted to join in and their group got bigger. After a while, Lamar won the first round and the game started anew.

Another Vulcan officer won the second, and at the height of the game, called a full negative 1000 with the force of all his strength behind it. Liyar ran, jumped off of one of the blue crates at the side, and caught it mid-air (to much laughter) and Lamar won again. Athlen won zero, despite his claims to being Awesome, and Liyar won the next. He simply called jackpot! Earth and air, and threw it with far less strength than he normally would have at home. It sailed over to Kiri and landed in her arms, declaring her the winner. After a while, the game wound down. Athlen finally won one, purely by accident, but the heat of the environment was starting to get to many of them and the crowd began to disperse, seeking to find water and other refreshments.

"Oh, pffth," the Rigelian stuck his tongue out. "Just when I win!" he called at the back of a few officers, who laughed and kept going. He stopped in front of Lamar, Kiri and Liyar, stretching cat-like in the mid morning sun and tossed the ball in the air to himself.

Kiri adjusted her wrap, standing small with the others next to him. She didn't say anything but did whip her brow with the end of the wrap. It might be better if she did sweat more, she wouldn't get so overheated all the time.

OFF:

Lieutenant (JG) Liyar
Diplomatic Officer, VDF/SDD
USS Galileo

Crewman Athlen
Sociologist, SCC
USS Galileo

WO Lamar Darius
Support Craft Pilot
USS Galileo
NPC'd by Lirha Saalm

Lieutenant (JG) Kiri Cho
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

CWO Kiwosk
Security/ Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

RSS Feed