milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

The voyage to deep space was nearly over. The Enterprise was once again in the heart of Federation territory, a week from Sector 001. From Earth.

And not a moment too soon for a crew that was tired of malfunctions and a senior staff that was hoping for a better, more rewarding assignment that involved less diplomacy and more exploration. Jim had finished filling out the requisite forms to get his ship a stem-to-stern inspection, and had also approved shore leave for himself and much of the crew. He would leave the efforts to get a good mission till he beamed down to HQ, though.

A bit of quiet in the Bar therefore seems a good idea. As he plans a rare vacation and a not-so-rare fight with the brass.

[ooc: Mun around for 90 min. or so before sleep and slowtime.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Kate is--

Kate is not phasing through a couch, she reminds herself, and stares at it for a minute, almost confused, before walking around it.

It's a little strange to see, admittedly, a woman who seems confused by a couch in her path.

It's the bar, though.

There are weirder things, and the small purple dragon trailing her may be one.

It's the dragon that catches Jim's attention. And even though he's seen all manner of flora and fauna, he's never lost the innate curiosity that drove him to the stars in the first place.

"Hello. That's a rather interesting creature you have."

Kate blinks, and then smiles.

"He is, yeah. He's a dragon."

It's obvious...if you know what a dragon is, but it's bar; not all worlds know about them.

"Alien dragon," she corrects with a roll of her eyes as Lockheed hisses primly.

"I would have guessed that, given that - which the exception of one timeline I know of - dragons are creatures of legend on Earth. I take it he's sentient?" That look at the woman had enough expression to it to get such an idea through the veteran explorer. "What planet?"

"He is, yeah. His name's Lockheed. And--we just call it the dragon planet, basically."

It works, and when the dragon hisses more than anything else, it's the best move you have.

Lockheed...the name is vaguely familiar. "Are you in an exploration fleet? I'm Captain James Kirk, by the way. Earth and Starfleet, 23rd century."

"Not exactly. We just get out a lot. Kate Pryde. Earth, 21st century. Early. Most the time."

Beat.

"It gets complicated."

"I hear that a lot here. Though that you're from a timeline with that kind of space travel in the 21st century is promising.

"Would be foolish to ask for any actual explanation?" As noted, he gets curious. He signals Kate to sit, if she wishes.

"I've been staying with Chinese-speaking space folk of the future. It's sorta a sabbatical," she says wryly, and settles readily.

"Home's--interesting, in how the space travel works. For a long time a lot of people didn't know much about it. And the aliens. Now they do."

Alas, he's never heard Mal Reynolds speak Chinese.

"That's usually how it works. First contact changes everything. Though in my timeline, it still took the better part of a century for Earth to find it way into the stars without being held back.

"but you've done all of your space travel with these...Chinese speakers? Did you meet them here, or are you also a time traveler?" His tone suggests that he's one himself.

Kirk misses the best parts!

"Um. Sorta 'all of the above,'" Kate admits with a grin. "Not all with them, no. I did...a pretty good amount back home. But I met these particular people here, yeah. And the time-traveling is sort of a job hazard more than a profession."

Jim is vaguely confused. "So you were invovled with something rather unusual before you came here?"

[ooc: Alas, they are about to unplug my computer! So, slowtime again.]

"Oh yeah."

There's some emphatic nodding there.

"A, uh, group. That tends to deal with kinda exclusively unusual things."

"Like Ray Stantz's organization? Or Rachel Gray's?" His horizons have stadily expanded. He doesn't entirely understand those horizons, but they are a lot bigger now.

"A lot like Rachel's. Kinda exactly like Rachel's."

"Ah. That explains a lot." He doesn't really get anything about Rachel, but at least he now has that rarest of things, context. "And that would make you a...super-being?"

She laughs a little at that.

"Mutant, but--yeah. I go intangible."

"Intangible...you walk through walls?" An interesting idea, but not one he can readily envision.

"Walls, tables, floors, people--pretty well anything. And I walk on air. It's not flying, but it's the next best thing."

"That sounds...somewhat useful." He's not entirely sure how, though.

"It's particularly nice when someone's trying to kill you, I've got to say."

"It's to hit what isn't really there, right? I think Starfleet was working on doing that, but the science needed is still way beyond us."

"I'd be really curious to see if they ever make it work," she muses.

"I've only met two or three people like me, and except for one it wasn't exactly like me."

"That anyone exists who can do that at all is remarkable." Some others might suggest some sort of study of her abilities, to replicate them. But not Kirk, ever.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only