Surveying The Land... And Coming Up Short

Posted on Sun Jan 15th, 2023 @ 3:40am by Ensign Tobias "Toby" Dienstag & Lieutenant Thraxina
Edited on on Mon Jan 16th, 2023 @ 8:34am

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: A Fool’s Errand
Location: Deck 18: Recreation Room 1 "Henderson Field"
Timeline: M1 MD04 (2268.19.05) 1400

Recreation Room 1, known affectionately as Henderson Field was filled with a variety of officers taking breaks between the constant workload as the ship was preparing to launch. At one of the tables sat Ensign Dienstag who was playing Tri Dimensional chess with the ship's computer. His skills were improving even though the best he could hope for was a draw. He tapped the side of his cup of hot Earl Grey tea and contemplated his next move. His normally wide doe eyed expression was one of intense concentration. His brow was furrowed.

For her part, Thraxina had come to check out the place which had been toted to her as 'the Happening Space' on the ship. 'Happening Space'?! It looked like nothing much interesting had happened here in a long, long time. No talent. No fun, no laughter, and, importantly for an Andaran, no beauty. Oh, except there was a rather pretty man-boy sitting in the corner with, perhaps, the only friend he could make: a computer game.

The only alternative was going back to her dreary little room, so she trolleyed over to polari with the 'boy' who was, in fact, only one Earth-year younger than herself. As she did, she heard the chess set's female voice program announce mechanically "Check Mate, Ensign Dienstag, would you like another game?"

Thraxina, in a short casual mini-dress which left little to the imagination, towered, hands on hips, over the seated Toby.

"Hello Big Boy, how would you like to take on a REAL woman?!"

"As opposed to a fake one?" Toby enquired with a raised brow. He offered her the seat, anything was better than another frustrating game against the computer. Also it was Toby's first posting and he was still meeting the rest of the officers.

Thraxina was about to remind him about the female fun-bots that had recently short circuited on Wrigley's Pleasure Planet and killed six men and a dog, but instead accepted the proffered seat and looked over the multilayered, cake-tray-like chess set with curiosity.

"Oh, it's like chess, but three dimensional!" she exclaimed "You might have to explain the rules to me."

"It's a complicated mess, but I certainly will try," Toby offered.

You look like you might be a bit of complicated mess yourself!, she thought, but said nothing, just tipped her head and pulled her I'm listening face.

"It was developed in the 19th century and called Raumschach in my native tongue or space chess in English."

The Andaran girl, whose ears as well as her eyes were attuned to beauty, tried not to pull her face at the horrible guttural sound of the German word, especially as the man-boy rolled the 'R' in that horrible Austrian manner.

"Let's call it 'Space Chess' then shall we?" she smiled.

"The game is fairly popular in the fleet. Each piece moves exactly the same as regular chess except these moves have three dimensional freedom if there are available consecutive squares."

Toby explained the rules with the sort of clarity and logical order one would hope for from a Federation Science Officer, even a relatively newly commissioned one, and was soon asking "So, how do we decide who moves first?"

"White always moves first," Toby responded, "And traditionally the color assignments are left to chance."

She tried not to roll her eyes. She had rolled her eyes so many times since she had been living amongst Earth humans that they were starting to wear out.

"I mean... sigh... how do we leave it to chance? Flip a Quatloo?" she asked. "Remember, this is all new to me. We do have a similar version of this on my planet, but in that, both players move at the same time."

"Oh, ah usually one player puts one piece of each behind their back, mixes them up and then the other player picks a side," Toby explained, "Ever heard of a shell game?" He was entirely unfamiliar with Thraxina's culture, which wasn't surprising.

"Oh, you mean Shrodinger's Pea?" she replied. She liked fun games that involved the paradox of quantum superposition.

"Ah, sort of," Toby responded and then he picked up the king of both colors of pieces and put them behind his back. He mixed them around. "Alrighty, which hand do you choose?" He asked as he moved his hands back to the front of his chest.

"The one with White in!" she said, decisively.

Toby rolled his eyes, "No, no, left or right hand?" He asked, more clearly this time.

"Left!" she said, and when the opened hand revealed the black King, quickly corrected "No, MY left, not yours!"

"Alright, alright, you can go first," Toby responded before handing her the white king. He sat back down, "Your move then," he said as he returned the black king to its starting spot.

It wasn't so much the actual moves the pretty, fresh faced girl made, it was the way she made them: slowly, almost... sensually, and she kept her gaze fixed on Toby's big sad eyes as she did so. Weird didn't even start to describe it.

And when the game was over she collapsed back into her seat with a sort of ecstatic groan and wiped beads of sweat from her brow.

"A very good game," Toby declared with a smile before leaning back into the Burke chair, "Although you should not have left your rook so open. That was your downfall. Are you sure you haven't played this before?"

She was breathing heavily, panting even, as she looked at him queerly.

"Toby, what are you talking about? That is how we make love on our planet. We have just made love. I left my rook open deliberately to... to let you in!"

The young man's eyes widened even more as his mouth gaped open. He lowered an eyebrow, all he managed to say was, "I feel like I need a shower."

The Andaran woman shook her head threateningly.

"Uh uh. Sit down pretty-boy: we're going again, and this time I'm on top. And I am going to take your pawns like you never got them took before..."

"Be gentle," the young man responded, his eyes even wider and full of uncertainty.

 

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