Lt Commander Samantha Palmer CONN Officer USS Chimera NCC 96899-A = Bridge "Commander Palmer, please set the course for the Living dream hotel, full impulse". "Aye, aye sir" Samantha replied, her fingers tapping on the controls in front of her as she plotted the course. Shane turned to Foster and told him to announce R&R for the ship until the warp drive problems were sorted out. Samantha found herself hoping it would take a while; the hotel seemed very inviting and she was eager to explore it. She almost felt like a little child about to open a big Christmas present, and couldn’t wait. "Engage!" Shane said, sitting down in his chair. Samantha followed his order, and the Chimera began to move towards the hotel. The hotel’s architectural design was very strange, something Samantha had never come across before. It had a basic hexagonal shape with docking pylons spiralling outwards. The decks sloped upwards and inwards and she counted about fifteen of them, though there could be more. The hull plating looked almost like it was made of ivory and as they moved closer, she could make out The Living Dream Hotel written across it in several scripts. Suddenly one of them started shifting and changing, morphing itself into a completely different script. The Chimera moved slowly over an Oberth class vessel that was docked at one of the pylons. Samantha wondered to herself what an Oberth ship was doing at the hotel; as far as she remembered the last one had been decommissioned more than twenty years ago and the class had systematically been replaced by the more efficient and up-to-date Nova class. Her train of thought was interrupted when lights blinked on her console, signalling the docking port was ready for them to proceed. “Initiating docking sequence,” she said, switching to the computer’s automatic docking systems. The Chimera slowly turned forty degrees to port and hovered in between the half-moon shaped berth atop the pylon. Another flashing light informed her that tractor beams from the berth had been deployed and were holding the Chimera firmly in place. “Docking sequence complete.” “Thank you, Commander,” Shane said, standing up from his chair. “Mister Foster, please send Lieutenant Cortez to my ready room. You have the bridge.” “Aye, sir,” Foster responded as Shane left the bridge. Andersen cast a guilty glance at Samantha and then returned to his work. She still couldn’t remember what their little misunderstanding had been about at the Christmas party. Turning back to the helm console, she continued to lock the controls and make the necessary adjustments that would keep the ship stationary while they were docked at the hotel. She got up from her seat and at the same time Lieutenant Cortez stepped through the turbolift doors, making his way to the ready room. She hadn’t spent any significant amount of time with the man, but it seemed like he was always brooding about something. Samantha left the bridge and walked to the Officer’s Mess. The hall was completely back to normal after the Christmas party, and now was mostly empty as most of the officers prepared to take leave on the hotel. She was too hungry, however, to wait until she’d done packing and gotten to the hotel to find something to eat. But then again, she didn’t have much to pack. Perhaps now she’d get some time to shop for personal things to make her quarters feel more like home. As she walked up to the bar to order something, Lieutenant Foster spoke over her communicator. “Commander Palmer, Captain Guzman would like to see you in his ready room please.” “I’ll be right there,” Samantha sighed, tapping her badge. Deciding she’d get something to eat later, she left for the bridge. = -- ___________________________________________________ Play 100s of games for FREE! http://games.mail.com/