If At First You Don't Succeed

Posted on 30 Aug 2019 @ 12:43am by Captain Jonathan Reynolds & Lieutenant Commander True Keading

Mission: Mission 1 - In the pale moonlight ...
Location: Holodeck 2
Timeline: MD7 16:00
1724 words - 3.4 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

True had talked about teaching Eddie fencing but somehow giving him a stick with a semi sharp point on it, even balled off, did not seem like a good idea to her. She really didn't want to end up with bruises and slashes all over her body. True heard the doors to the holodeck open and she turned around with a smile on her face. "Welcome. Step right in. I took the liberty of putting up two changing booths since neither of you knew what I was planning ahead of time." She was standing there in a one piece bathing suit of dark blue, her hair pulled up behind her in a tight bun.

Both father and sons mouth dropped taking in the sight before them. Jon recovered first but needed to clear his throat. “What exactly do you have planned counselor?”

"Swimming, surfing? Maybe some water polo. Mostly staying away from pointy objects," True replied cheerfully. "Be a good sport and humor me. It will be fun!"

Jon tried to stop his eyes wandering and grabbed his son who was grinning like a cheshire cat walking him to one of the booths. “Come on don’t keep the lady waiting.”

He looked back before entering the other booth. She had no idea how good she looked in that bathing suit. He wasn’t impressed with his though. He stripped off and made it back before Eddie. Leaning in he whispered in her ear, “i only had the one piece of pie the other night you know,” he demonstrated how roomy his shorts were. “Im going to have to tie these pretty tight.”

"Well I guessed," she laughed. "You could always have the holodeck give you news ones. Just make sure you remember to change before leaving the holodeck though. That's a sight of the captain not a lot of people are expecting to see. Might keep my office full for a bit though. I can do pros and cons."

“ ermmm,” Eddies face appeared at the door to his cubicle. I might need a bigger size here.”

"Maybe you both better get new ones. Sorry, I was just trying to be helpful." She couldn't help but lose a tiny bit of her enthusiasm, she should have just told them what they were going to do ahead of time. "I'll be in the water if anyone needs me."

“Ill be right there Tru,” eddie said cheerfully. “Dad can you...”

“On it,” jon replied. He requested the right sizes and a minute or so later they joined her in the pool.

"So . . . .I took the liberty of replicating a few surf boards, I thought maybe we should just try getting on them in the water first before we move to actual waves. I'm no expert by any means but I did do some surfing in my home town. Of course the water there is frigid so I'd be wearing a wetsuit but the boards are really similar. It's all about balance and movement." True hauled herself up on the board and sat down with her legs on either side of the board to show how she usually did it.

“These are really cool. Been years since I've been on something like this,” jon said with a grin. He followed suit and sat on the board draping his legs over both sides.

Eddie made several attempts but kept sliding off the board. “Im think I'm just going to swim,” he said grumpily.

"Nice shorts Captain. Penguins?" She grinned at him and then looked over at Eddie. "It just takes some practice, no one expects you to be able to get on perfectly right away. Here," she said slipping off the board, "I'll help you." She swam behind him and held the board in place for him.

Eddie went slightly pink at how close she was to him. Jon felt a shudder of jealousy. He batted it back. This was his son struggling with hormones. That was so selfish of him. “Come on Eddie. You can do it,” he tried to encourage. “Yes penguins,” he added. “Reminds me of someone.”

“Im up!” Eddie said with a cheer. Then he nosedived into the water again. “And now I'm down. True you will kust have to help me again” he said innocently.

"Uhuh, now you're just showing off." True said, letting go of the board. "Try it without my help for a bit," she said giving him a small smile.

"And as for you," she pointed to Jon. "I think we should try some waves while he practices here. Computer, reduce size of pool to half and create an additional pool with four foot waves repeating in thirty second intervals."

“Yes maam,” jon said laughing inwardly at Eddie. He slipped off his own board, pulled it along with him and swam to the new pool. “You know he did that on purpose right,” he laughed.

"I suspected. He flailed too much to have it be believable. Plus, given that he likes to ogle at practically every woman he comes across . . . it made sense." True was under the impression that Eddie did not know about them. Not that there was anything to really know, nothing too serious had happened between them yet. “So, does tomorrow work for you with the date? I found my program and it's all ready."

“Yes I'm looking forward to it. And getting you all to myself again,” he said gently locking eyes with her.

A jolt of adrenaline shot up True's spine at those words. She didn't know how her entire body wasn't red from a response like that. He was so intense. She sucked in a breath and broke the eye connection. "Well wear something appropriate. Jeans, rubber boots . . . a rain jacket. Alaska weather is unpredictable and often cold."

"Gotta," Jon said placing his board in the new pool and sitting down to dip his legs in. "I can sort that. And if it gets too cold I'm sure we can find a way to warm up again," he said innocently winking at her before slipping into the pool.

He waited a long moment before smiling, "They have hot chocolate in Alaska right?"

True shook her head with a smile. Then she realized he'd asked her something. "Oh, yes, of course. There are replicators. We're still on Earth for the most part, even if the locals like to pretend otherwise. It's not so much a contained place like it used to be in ancient times."

Jon pulled himself up on to the board again. "You will have to explain why it was contained," he said getting his balance. "I like ancient history now. All started with reading up on Andromedas namesake."

"Oh well it wasn't really. But it was much more contained than it is now. Originally there were native peoples there and when white settlers came in they built one road so there was only one way in or out unless they wanted to take a boat which took a long time to get to the lower part of the continent in. Can you imagine spending weeks traveling in an automobile or a boat to get to your destination? Think how cozy that would be?" They just seemed to be sitting there and not surfing and when she glanced back at Eddie he didn't seem to be too happy about the fact that they were talking close together. "Maybe we should do something else next time?"

"I imagine it would have been claustophobic and .... maybe smelly in places," Jon commented giving it some serious thought. He looked over at his son. "Hes suspicious but yeah. We will find the right activity. You did a great job trying with this one though. Thank you True."

She grinned at him. "You are welcome. We'll find something he likes," she turned her head and smiled at Eddie. "Just out of curiosity, how often do you pick up my emotions?"

"I try not to go looking," he answered. He was a little worried now. Was she mad at him. Uncomfortable? "I know people get worried about that sort of thing. And their culture is not the same as mine. They are not that comfortable with sharing. But when we get closer thats going to be harder. And sometimes things just hit you out the blue. You can't help it. But you learn to ignore bits you know. Fred blogs fancies Fran, not my business, Joeys pissed off right now ... ok leave him too it ....."

"Oh It doesn't bother me really. I never was very good at keeping my secrets from anyone. The only thing is . . . I do have patient confidentiality to protect. I'll try to keep my thoughts clear of that when we're around each other. But I think I can trust you to keep quiet about anything you pick up from me in that area."

"Not my business," Jon said. "Unless you need to make it for official reasons. And when we are around each other I don't want you worrying about anything okay."

"I'm not. Well I can't promise I won't worry at all, but I won't about this. I'm pretty much an open book. I often share my life with my patients after all. Come on, we should get out of here before Eddie pops, he looks strained from getting off and on the board so many times and he's about a burn a hole into my head with his laser vision."

Jon nodded. "Yeah I think I might need to do a father/son talk there …. you know on women and how to act around them. Keep your eyes from the neck up. That sort of thing."

True smiled. "It's cute at this age, not so much when they get older. Have fun with that. Maybe I should leave first and leave you the opening?" She swam to the edge of the pool and pushed herself up so she was sitting on the side. "I'll see you tomorrow," True said softly.

Jon nodded "Definitely," he said letting her go. "Eddie. What you say we get dressed and go get an ice cream?"

OFF:

●● Lieutenant True Keading
Chief Counselor
USS Andromeda


●●● Commander Jonathan Reynolds
Commanding Officer
USS Andromeda