Part XV: Sneaking Around Starfleet

It's been four days and I've still heard nothing from the roll-playing site, The Shipyard. Come to think of it, every time I've been there I've only seen a few people in the vicinity. I think my imagination has run away with me again, Torchy. I had this grand vision of a large community of nerds interacting and having adventures when in fact it was pretty sparse and devoid like a lot of 2nd Life venues. Sure there might be 50,000 people logged on at the time, but 2nd Life is vastly vast. It's a lot of space to spread out a lot of folk. Maybe it wouldn't have worked anyway. It's the first time I had a prolonged agenda. It was the first time I broke my vow of poverty, now loaded with $16. I'd probably end up breaking some protocol or not log on enough to the site forum or something.

Unlike The Shipyard, the most popular roll-play site, United Federation Starfleet Something Er Other, is accessible and not blocked off from the regular joes like me. I think I'll sneak around it a little. Get this Trek shit out of my system. This is the same place I came in dressed like Darth Vader and got razzed.

Aside from some monuments, a mini mall and the introduction building there wasn't much to see. There were shuttle crafts docking and taking off again but I had yet to figure out how to ride one.

Until now. They move really quick but I right clicked it and was able to select "ride" before it took off again. No control at my disposal, I take a ride into the unknown and semi-restricted.

I rose up and up. It appeared like we were headed toward a space station of standard Starfleet design.

At a pivotal moment we broke through the night sky only to pop out behind it to another horizon. So I guess it's true what some ancients say. The night sky is a black sheet with holes in it. Who would have known it would be proven in virtual reality. This must be a ginormous station.

My ship docks, I disembark and the shuttle quickly scuttles off. Time to snoop. Looks like there's only 5-10 people wandering the place. I'll have to make sure I stay inconspicuous. Don't want to cheese anybody off and get more bodily harm on to myself. Torchy, you're going to have to stay hidden on this one. You might draw unnecessary 17th century attention to us. Have to put on my Neptune pattern shirt and black valuer pants to try to fit in as best as possible.

I find a transporter to whisk me around the station.

First I stop off at the observation deck. Oh, if only I could get to that ship out there.

I then headed to engineering. I was worried there might be someone on duty. What was I thinking. If you are going to be online then the last thing you want to do is hang around in a room and wait for snoopers like me to come poking around. Even if it is a roll-playing site, that might get kind of boring. A lot of these rooms are unfinished. The warp core seems to be missing its housing unit. The core itself is suspended in midair. There is control panel in front of it with five settings. I select overdrive and the warp core starts spinning madly as it works overtime. When little wisps of smoke start to appear I decide it's time to shuffle off. I doubt it will explode but I decide to leave it going to see if anybody notices. What the hell does a space station need with a warp core anyway?

Oh no! Someone's spotted me. Run!

Actually, I didn't run. I just used the turbo lift to escape to another floor really quick. Next stop: Astrometrics. The room is empty except for a few control panels. I start to push all the buttons I can and things start appearing. First a ship floating in orbit, then a few planets, next all the planets and finally other parts of rooms. This was great.

I had the whole room going and was pleased. Time to leave everything on and leave. I was headed toward the turbo lift when it opened and two officers in yellow uniforms emerged from it. Now, if you know anything about Star Trek The Next Generation, you'll know yellow uniform means "security". I didn't wait to find out if the jig was up. I had my teleporter on hand just in case trouble was to be had. Whether they would have thrown me in the brig or just chatted me up I'll never know. My guide defaulted to the botanical gardens and I was there with a quickness.

That's enough Trek for now, I think. I should get back to the winding, unpredicted mode of adventuring that I've neglected. No more planned schemes for us, Torchy. Unless The Shipyard gets back to me about my application in a couple of years or something. Those lazy nerds.

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