10 Forward After Hour Revelries

Posted on Sat Jun 28th, 2025 @ 6:16am by Lieutenant Urvasi Elandorn & Lieutenant Commander Ash Randall

2,928 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Short Treks
Location: 10 Forward
Timeline: 2439-04-15, 1730 hours

It was a Friday Evening, after work hours, and the Vulienrey Vixen was doing her usual hobby, programming for a holodeck adventure. It was only over a month on board, so she had not really created any new friends yet. Acquaintances, yes, friends, at least, not yet. Looking up from where she was sitting, Urvasi took a sip of her Speyside Scotch, then looked out the window. The starfield was showing warp drive as the ship did not need to cover a vast distance with its Quantum Slipstream, while at this time there was not any Coaxial Warp testing being performed.

Within her mind, she began following navigation encoding matrices from when she earlier in the day helped plot the curved current course for the Enterprise. There was only two large gravitational fields to watch for, and there were warnings built into the course at the console to look for and check course coordinate when the ship got near. She shook her head to clear it as she took another sip of her wonderful Scotch Whiskey, the Speyside type low on 'diesel' taste but high on whiskey region taste. She once more engrossed herself into the force field inter-plays on trying to get the good tree limb to have rotting parts past a certain point that could hold some weight to a certain point, but be able to creak and warn just past that point, but then break and fall without also taking along the rest of the good limb. She kept sipping her whiskey, not noticing when her glass ran dry. She stared of the holoscreen being projected from her wrist computer as she used two padds, one for each hand, for the programming and point jumping.

"That's an interesting approach." A voice stated from near by. The small felinoid, chief engineer, had unobtrusively, seated herself at an adjacent table and sipped her own scotch while she observed what Urvasi was working on.

Urvasi heard the voice and recognized the Chief Engineer from her time on the bridge. She turned to look at the felinoid even as her nostrils flared in finally getting a chance to get a 'smell' of her to try and identify her species. The pheromone markers and chemical scents were nothing she had encountered before. Within her mind she just catalogued Ash as another 'unknown'. She had encountered a lot of those on the Enterprise, which seemed to be a true melting pot of sentients from around the galaxy.

She noticed Ash looking at her display and seemed to be following what she was doing. Well, Urvasi never claimed to be the only good Holodeck programmer, but it was rare to find another. She smiled as she replied, "I'm glad to find another who can follow along." She looked back at the display, then said, "Well, I am trying new vectors. The holodeck programming has never been designed for true limb rotting processes, so, I am trying to figure out a way to create the quick shift bondings of the rot against the not rot, while enabling free form action of the limbs to create as true an environment as possible. But.. it is slow going." She yiffered gently, then turned to Ash and asked, "Do you have a suggestion for getting a better simulation of proper tree limb rot creep?"

"Book time on the holodeck and interactively set your parameters and have a lot of fun in the process." She replied, and took another sip of her scotch, a black label by the smell of it. Not the best but good enough for carousing in the estimation of the Tuansee.

Urvasi yiffered once more as she contemplated what Ash had said. She replied, "Well, I tried that. The existing programming parameters only allow for good or bad, no creak, not twinge, no shift, just good, or your falling. So, back to the mundane underlying shift programming, same as I have done for others holodeck adventures. I made a few credits from that programming, at least." She looked across the table, then asked, "So, Commander Randall, would you like to join me at my table, rather than talk across the distance?" She glanced at her glass, realizing it was empty. "And, it seems I need another Speyside Scotch... umm.. how are you doing with your, umm.. *Sniff* Lowland or Campbeltown Scotch? Need me to get us a refill?"

"Certainly...Johnny Walker, Black." Ash stated as she crossed over and took a seat next to Urvasi. "The dynamics of rotten, mostly rotten, partially rotten, completely healthy and the accompanying squeaks, creaks, cricks and cracks might be handled the same way that the squeaky and creaky, rotten, boards in haunted house simulations are." Ash suggested.

Urvasi was getting ready to get up, then paused. "Wait, Haunted House Simulations?" She was undecided for a second, then said, "Okay, something I am not aware of. Be right back Commander." She trooped up to the bar, ordered her 12 year single malt Speyside Scotch as well as the Johnny Walker Black Label for Ash. She returned to the table with the two glasses, both a double pour. She carefully sat the snifter with the double pour in front of Ash, then she sat down with her snifter with its double pour. She moved her wrist computer to be towards the back of the table while putting the two pads into place, one before her, one before Ash. She smiled as she stated, "Two double pours, I figured we might be here for a bit. However, please, whenever something else takes your fancy, go for it. I will not take any umbrage whatsoever. Now, that said... haunted house simulations.... "

Urvasi quickly typed commands across the right side padd, and shortly there were several scenarios listed. She yiffered in humor, shook her head, then smiled to Ash, "And, there they are. I would never have had thought of that. Thank you so much, Commander Randall, I never knew about these." She blushed, then asked, "Umm, Sir, for off duty sake, please call me Urvasi. Is there a vernacular name I may call you?"

"Okay, Urvasi. I go by Ash." The Commander replied, with a little smile. "My fur was an, ashen, grey coloration as a child so I was named Ash by my adoptive parents." She explained, her fur was more an off white with small, black rosettes now. "Only took 40 years to reach puberty and for my juvenile coloration and markings to come in." She added, with a little laugh. "I'm told that, when I finally reach maturity, I'll be a rather rare individual amongst my people and either solid black or solid white in coloration. Auropaths always are, one or the other." She elaborated, with a shrug.

Urvasi was going through coding on how the haunted houses handled their creaks, shifts, and going through floorboards by the protagonists as Ash explained about her fur coloration, puberty, and that she wasn't to full maturity yet. The final description, 'Auropath', was something she was not sure about. She paused her code searching to shift her focus fully onto Ash. Her whiskers were out from her muzzle, her ears full cupped, while her hands folded in front of her on her knee. Her tail came around to be by her calves as it shifted subtly back and forth.

Urvasi murred gently as she replied to Ash. "You take longer than my race, according to Terran years. In Vulianrey years, we enter puberty around 8 years, or 15 years Terran. We mature by age 12 to 14, I was at 12, but in Terran years that is 22 to 26 years. I am 21 years of age in my years, or 40 years Terran right now." She yiffered gently as she continued speaking, "I very much look forward to seeing your fur coloration at full maturity. I myself am as I am. *Blushing* Umm, I don't understand the term 'Auropath'. Can you elaborate, Ash? If not, don't worry, I won't press further."

Ash listened intently while Urvasi spoke, her bearing one of being fully engaged in what was being said and nodded, as Urvasi asked what an 'Auropath' was. "My people have psi capabilities. Every Tuansee has empathic and telepathic capabilities to, one degree or another, and then a third psi capability that is, generally, very powerful; telekinesis, pyrokinesis, cryokinesis, Clairvoyance, electrokinesis, etc. This ability is, generally, of a very high order. An auropath, instead of having one, high order, primary, capability has all the capabilities but at extremely low order and is capable of using multiple capabilities at the same time." Ash explained.

Urvasi paid close attention to what was being said. She yiffered in wonder as she replied, "Wow, that is so much more than L'Tandrey or definitely Vulienrey. I have Telepathy and Telekinesis, only out to 75 meters. Umm, I do have Impression Empathy out to 1AU where I can pick up Warp, Hyperspace, and gravity field interference, but that pretty much is sensing only, not affecting." She yiffered gently, then interjected, "Sorry, not about me. So, where in the spectrum do you fall if you don't mind me asking?"

"I'm a touch telepath and empath, that's how low order those capabilities are. However, an auropath is able to facilitate something for Tuansee that they are unable to do otherwise; combine capabilities across many Tuansee into one effort. Imagine the power of thousands of, high order, telekinetics and clairvoyants combined together..." Ash revealed.

"Wow, you're a catalyst, a joining force, for when it is necessary for you and your race, to overcome when needed for the race. That is really cool." She giggled lightly, then added, "And, probably why you are so good with technology, you have an intuitive understanding of how various aspects of technology can work together as you are an auropath. Thank you for sharing." She paused, then asked, "Umm, now that you know I am psi myself, did you have any questions of me before we return to getting rotting limbs to work properly in a holodeck adventure?"

Ash smiled. "A rotting limb could be treated the same way that ice is for those who enjoy mountain climbing. Ice is treacherous, not always stable, creaks and cracks, and runs, roughly, the same range or conditions that a tree limb might without outwardly indicating what that condition might be." She stated, pivoting back to the holodeck subject and letting the discussion about psi capabilities and what an auropath is, drop.

Urvasi gladly jumped right back into the coding. As she only used her psi once in a while, or among other psi users, she didn't pay it any mind of the subject dropping. She yiffered lightly as she began checking on ice simulations while mountain climbing. As she did, she noticed some similar code between the ice and the floorboard hauntings. She isolated that further, then looked at the current code for rotting limbs. Her face lit up as she exclaimed, "There... there there there. I found what is going on." On the projection screen, the three sections of coding were highlighted. She grabbed her glass to hold up to Ash in salute, then took a sip.

Putting her glass down, Urvasi stated, "Those were outstanding suggestions, Ash." She turned to look at the screen, "The current code for rotting limb is just that, treated as a tree add on. The ice simulations shows a fracturing from a combination of weight and ice thickness, while the haunted house adds an ambience and an embedded code for weight with wood fiber audio transmissions. If I combine the two into a wood limb stressor to create a breakpoint for the rotting limb while allowing the good and mostly good to remain, that would make for a much better tree limb simulation allowing the feel of the limb as well as the creaks to show how far and how much... well, for those used to finding such in trees." She looked over the code as she began copying and then tweaking and creating code for the limbs. She looked at Ash and asked, "Anything you want to add or shift? I think this is a great starting point, but since you are a full fledged Engineer and this is just my hobby, I defer to you."

Ash held up her glass in salute as well and took her own sip in celebration and then followed along with what Urvasi had identified in her suggestions and how she pulled the relevant code and integrated it into the tree limb coding for her simulation. It would be adequate but she felt Urvasi would find it lacking as much as Ash would. Tuansee were tree dwellers and, though Ash had not grown up in the trees she was no stranger to moving through a canopy faster than she could run on the ground. While Urvasi worked, Ash called up her Big Sur in November, Surf Break simulation to introduce Urvasi to the, four dimensional, algorithms she had designed to capture the unpredictable nature of a, chaotic, coupled, non-linear system as represented by a surf break.

Urvasi's wrist projection widened when Ash touched the other padd. As the simulation came up and then the underlying code appeared, Urvasi watched the deep algorithms with awe. This was way beyond her skill level, but boy, were they very interesting.

"You might find this helpful in generating a certain, depth to your simulation." Ash offered, as she showed Urvasi how she approached simulating a 'chaotic' system.

Urvasi followed along as Ash walked her through the code and how it affected the simulation of the Big Sur. She gasped out a very well earned "Wow!" as she looked between the code and Ash. She realized the code was base, as in, it would affect the higher order programming according to what the programming type is. She copied it from Ash's simulation and applied it to the splicing of the rotting code in how it grew from the good wood code. She ran a short loop, then beamed as she exclaimed, "This is working sooo good." She blew Ash a kiss, then continued, "I am so glad you made it base code to integrate into whatever type of simulation of the natural world as needed. Thank you so much, Ash, this makes my day. I ran through so many tree roads with my brothers and sisters that anything less than this would have been... okay, but not really 'okay'. You, my dear lady engineer, are a literal life saver." She saved the program, then looked at Ash, "So, this looks good? And, any time you need a favor, I owe you, mm'kay?"

Ash smiled. "I'm glad I could be of help." She replied, simply. "I think it'll work out pretty well for you. My only other suggestion would be to set the safety level to just high enough to avoid, life threatening, injuries. There's something to be said for there being an element of risk and consequences if you make the wrong move at the wrong time. If I make a mistake catching a 12 meter wave I'm going to pay for it, dearly, but not with my life. There's nothing like getting rolled under, sucked up by the undertow and then slammed into a bunch of cobble stones to let you know something was a bad idea." She mused, with a little laugh. "I'd love the favor, but you don't owe me anything." She observed, and took another sip of her scotch.

Urvasi yiffered gently as she replied, "Understood, not expected, but offered anyway. I owe you that favor in the future, honest." She yiffered again, then replied, "I understand on the safety level, very much so. I had an incident in my youth in building a tree house... I would rather not experience those punctures and bruises when not necessary." She took a sip of her Speyside, smiling, then held out her glass, "Cheers to a hopefully growing friendship."

"Cheers." Ash replied, and held out her glass as well. "To a growing friendship." She agreed.

Urvasi leaned over to clink glasses with Ash, then took a sip. She quietly murred out at the taste spreading across her tongue and wafting through her nose. Her whiskers moved with her 'murr'. Then, she heard and felt her stomach growl. Her eyes widened slightly as she said, "Umm, sorry, I seem to be hungry." She glanced at the chronometer on her display, then realized it was already 2030 hours. She had been at the programming for 3 Hours. Ash's help had kept her so engrossed she had not noticed the time, and she had not had any supper yet.

She blushed lightly as she said, "I just noticed the time, it is after 2030 hours. I really need to get something to eat and then get to my quarters." She made sure she had saved everything as she got ready to pack things up. She turned to Ash to nod and finished off her Speyside. She said, "I will contact you when I get the program up and running in one of the holodecks. I think we both will enjoy trying it out. Sounds good?"

"I look forward to trying it out." Ash replied, barely suppressing a giggle at the stomach growl. "Let me know a time and place." She added.

Urvasi stood up with her gear and replied, "I sure will, Ash. Take care and we will meet soon, count on it." Urvasi hurried off, needing to stash her gear and then get something light to eat before she got some rest.

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