milliways_bar | (no subject)

"Interesting view." A 50ish man in a sweatshirt and jeans is not too far away.

"It's beautiful," spoken quietly. She turns toward him. "Not something one ever gets used to, I'd expect."

"I'd hope not. Though I would guess some people do." He gives a bit of a smile. He's in a really good mood today. "Jim Kirk, Earth, 23rd century."

"Helva, xh834 to some. A pleasure to meet you, sir."

She has a serial number...or that's shat he'd guess. "Jim will do. I'm off duty here, and you aren't in Starfleet, I'd guess."

"No, nor have I heard of it. Is 'Starfleet' the government's space exploration or commerce program, where you're from?" she takes a guess.

"The former. It's the exploratory branch of the United Federation of Planets. We also serve as a defense force on occasion, but our chief mission is going where no one has before." He says this with just a hint of the bombast such statements often have. "I didn't catch when and where you're from?"

"No one, or no one from the Federation?" she teases gently. "But I know about the itch to go exploring new galaxies, all right. My partner and I spent a long time doing just that, on our own.
I was born on Earth, in England or that's what it was called then...It's the year 2204 there now."

"I suppose there's no way to know for sure that no one has ever been to any one point in the galaxy. But there are probably points that if they were visited, haven't been visited in ages." He isn't about to ask the fleet to change the motto, though.

"Still, it's also good to meet a fellow explorer. Especially one who's managed to do it without a fleet behind you. I've been considering that possibility." He still expects to be drummed out of the fleet for his actions, even if he's now also a hero. He still thinks he'll have to think about buying a ship of his own.

"My partner lives in England, north of London." He isn't assuming that what she means by "partner" is what he means, though it could be the case.

"Originally I was contracted to our version of a space fleet, B&B Services, when I started flying," Helva adds.
"I bought out the contract eventually, which let me retain the ship for my own purposes. I still take on missions for various agencies, but as a freelancer. I haven't seen Earth in some time."

"A private fleet...that's an interesting notion. There were early pioneers in my timeline who tried that approach, but ultimately, the scope of first Earth's fleet and then the Federation fleet made it impossible for any non-governmental organization to do it alone without becoming essentially a government as well.

"Freelance exploration is not unheard of. It must be nice to pick and choose your missions and your bosses." Not that Jim really wants that. He likes being in a fleet.

"B&B and Lab Schools are government agencies, but personnel aren't contracted for a set term. Only until they can repay the cost of education and so on. The ship goes with the pilot, if a contract's paid off," she clarifies. "Some never try, they're happy to remain in service."

"It is," she agrees emphatically. "I enjoyed working with them, but anyone worth her salt is going to want to be free to choose sometime."

"Sounds like an interesting system." He wouldn't mind less bureaucracy, though he'd guess that it would only be trading one form for another. "What part of the galaxy are you in when you aren't in the Bar?"

"It's not Earth's galaxy. Our star charts designate it as 'Andromedan' space, if that helps."

That draws a rather shocked bit of silence. "That's...the Andromeda galaxy is over 2 million light years from Earth. Even at the fastest speeds we have, it would take thousands of years to get there."

Helva's lips twitch. "It was a long trip, but no, that old I'm not yet." Helva's 'verse doesn't have anything like the Prime Directive; there's no prohibition against adapting or acquiring more advanced technology, if the creators don't object. "Though suspended animation voyages were sometimes undertaken, to places outside the galaxy. Usually those were meant to be colonization efforts."

"Then how did you travel that far in a lifetime? Wormholes?" There is a theory that if you go to the highest level of warp speed - someplace in the neighborhood of warp 100 - you could be everywhere at once. But Scotty always called that a joke engineers like to play on captains.

"The technology I use isn't all Terran in origin. Yes, but also, my definition of 'lifetime' wouldn't likely be yours. I was given certain...modifications, for the work I do."

"Modifications?" Kirk's curiosity is rising. "Is this something you can tell me about? Or are there restrictions?" In the Bar, Jim isn't likely to pay that much attention to the Prime Directive - why start now?, some might ask - but he's still careful not to say too much. So the same could be the case here.

"Part of it is that I age very slowly, now, aren't as vulnerable to injury or illness, and the other...surgical alterations that gave me a direct neural/cybernetic link to my ship.
It allows me to act as the ship's mind, in some ways." It's not restricted, and in any event, she'd prefer honest curiosity to unanswered questions or confusion.

"Ah. I've heard about experiments in both those fields. The latter have proven unreliable for us. And our computers operate very well under current conditions." Though for Jim, that's always meant with a Vulcan adding his mind to the mix. "The former have advanced quite slowly. Though people do live longer in my day than in earlier years.

"Would it be rude to ask your age?" That ancient notion about never asking a woman her age? It's remained stubborn in some circles, and applies to some men as well.

"No," sounding puzzled. "Ah. Different customs, I think. I wouldn't have brought up the subject if I'd minded." She has her own kind of vanity, but age isn't tied into it.

Stops and counts back. "It's 2204 now, I was born in 2126."

"You don't look a day over 60," he says a bit coyly. He's not trying to flirt, but it might seem like his is. "That must be strange, though. Assuming the rest of the world ages normally." He recalls Einstein's twin paradox, a problem resolved by the development of the non-Einsteinian warp drive, and sees it's not as dead as he'd thought.

She laughs softly, then bats her eyelashes exaggeratedly. "Why, thank you, sir."

"They do. It's those that are linked to ships as I am that don't, and those sort of changes...aren't made often, or casually.
Oh, in my day, we've met other worlds' races, who might not age at the same rate as humans, but that's another story."

"Do you captain a ship, too?" curious now.

"I did. Some years ago. It was called Enterprise." There is a bit of sadness, a bit of wsitfulness. "But that was then, and now I'm just another admiral waiting for his court martial."

"That's an...unusual way to leave the service," wryly. "What, you run afoul of commanders or politicians?" looking sympathetic. She and Niall had had their share of such tangles, it was yet another reason why she'd been determined to buy out.

"I actually broke a good number of orders and rules. To help a friend. It's complicated. But I did what I needed to, and I'm waiting to face the music." Yes, he might have saved the world, but he still expects to be drummed out of the service.

"Oooooooooo! I don't remember space looking like that."

Homer presses his face up against the window, hands at either side. He watches the stars swirl and move awed by their beauty.

"First time for everything?"

Homer turns to see the woman sitting behind him.

"I've been to space but the stars weren't so pretty. There were ants though and chips."

"It's always better to see them up close." She blinks. "Chips, now, those I could do without."

"I was an astronaut you see, they picked me out of all the people in the United States and I was the first civilian in space."

Homer doesn't really seem to be paying attention to what the woman is saying. Instead he's concentrating on trying to sound impresive and important.

Typical guy meeting a girl, in other words? /ducks

"Like a really big lottery win?" she feigns being amazed. "Wow."

Homer is anything but a typical guy and while he likes people to be impressed by him he is in no way hitting on her. Marge is the only woman for him.

"I guess you could say that. I've also been a great artist, the biggest attraction at a freak show and I beat up an ex president." It's all said with great pride in a matter-of-fact manner while counting on his fingers.

One of a kind! Helva can approve of that.

"Which ex-president?" she asks, starting to grin. "Man, that's a
list and a half. Is there anything else?"

"George Bush Snr. Oh yeah I've done loads. I was a Carny, a boxer, a monorail inspector, I was in the Navy, I was Sanitation Commisioner, I managed a Country and Western singer."

He's still ringing the list of on his fingers when he sees a waitrat scoot by.

"Wow, what the hell is that thing?" He points excitedly at the rat and chases it like a child, trying to pick it up.

(ooc: Bed time, look forward to tagging you again though.)