Joint Duty Log - Capt Ivanova & LtCmdr Waterhouse - "Reichenbachfall"

Posted on Mon Nov 3rd, 2014 @ 3:32am by Admiral Rochelle Ivanova & Commander Amelia Waterhouse

3,162 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: All Hallows’

It had taken Amelia time to hunt down enough historical reference to start from. She'd pulled holoscans of restored buildings of the era, TV and movies from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries with reputations of being more historically accurate, and books from the era with the more flowery descriptions of the architecture. All this she'd poured into the sausage machine program her mother had put together to quickly flesh out settings. That was only the start, but it laid a foundation that left them with a breathtaking view, a dreary sepia-toned atmosphere that sucked the color out of anyone who stepped foot in the holodeck, and a ball room that echoed her breath across it when she stood at rest and otherwise wouldn't normally be able to hear herself.

Out came the lime green PADD that was her interface with the Duct Tape Program. The first thing changed was the color settings, Amelia wanted to see the color in all the masque costumes and enjoy decorations grand and bright. She settled cross legged in the middle of the marble floor: green Connemara from Ireland and white Covelano Vena Oro Argento providing the pattern for the tiles that only subtly contrasted with each other to form a checkerboard pattern. Fingers danced on the PADD in hand, and grand fabric drapes of black that faded to orange hung from the edge of the railings that lined the second and third floor's gallery and looked out on the main dance floor.

A couple flicks of the same fingers and tables lined a wall with large double doors. Originally there was going to be a kitchen there for Mr. Bernard's use... but the man was leaving the ship. Cecil had made mention of overhearing something about an insurance policy that his father wasn't aware of as a result of the damage done in the battle with the Romulans. Now where there had been a kitchen, there was a smaller side ballroom with a stage. The main floor would have period appropriate band — probably a Silver Band — and the smaller side floor would have something with a little more pep with perhaps an Irish kick to it.

She was pleased to note that the fabric drapes had softened the echo some, and she manually tweaked the physics simulators in the program to dampen the sound a little more. Laying back, one ankle resting on her other knee, she pondered the chandelier a long moment before telling the PADD to fill its delicate crystals with candles that flickered and danced from the winds that teased from the doors opening onto the large balcony. The willowy redhead sprung to her feet, the soles of her lime green converse softly slapping the floor as she headed to take in the view afforded by the building hanging precariously on the edge of the swiss alps.

The alps were filled with fall color, soft echoes of water cascading down the falls below, and the bright sunset fighting with deep shadow as the sun set behind the crag that supported them. For now, it stayed paused at that moment, but when it came time for the party, the sunset would play out as everyone arrived, slowly falling to darkness and a clear moonlit night. Amelia stood at the railing, hands spread wide as she leaned forward and drunk in the view, the green PADD floating next to her at about shoulder height as skinny jeans and a union jack shirt graced her form and a low pony tail fell down her back.

"No detail is ever spared." Rochelle half-sighed to herself as she entered the holodeck. While she hadn't seen the program yet, the explanation had been enough to catch her attention and the ballroom she'd now been presented with was truly magnificent. It was aged and glorious, fit for a Halloween masquerade like no other and once again proved that Amelia would leave no stone upturned when it came to creating the simply marvelous.

Across the floor she could see Amelia perched on the balcony, watching as the sun set to paint the sky in the most vibrant of blush tones. It was almost a pity that the beauty of that time of day would be lost and exchanged for the darkness of night as per tradition. Midnight. The masks would come off at midnight to reveal the identities of the people hidden beneath, the spell would be broken and Halloween would be over.

Though Amelia had intended to move the anchor point of the holodeck arch out into the entryway, perhaps even dig up an AI to announce people as they arrive, for convenience she'd anchored the arch at the main entrance into the ballroom for now. It was there Rochelle made her way into the program. Rochelle's voice echoed across the vast chamber and Amelia could hear her feet echoing across the floor. She still wasn't sure if she'd dampened the echo enough or not, but she'd test it later with more people.

"I'm still not sure about it, but I suspect I need a band playing before I'll be convinced if it's right," Amelia returned, walking in from the balcony and smiling at her friend.

Greeting her friend with a nod and smile, Rochelle couldn't help but agree. Empty the hall seemed almost drafty and hollow. "I suppose the only way to find out would be to strike up the band." She shrugged, looking around as the last rays of daylight played through the rafters and banners, casting the entire ballroom with an ethereal glow. It almost felt like magic. "Candlelight only after dark?" She asked, gesturing to the setting sun.

"There are wall sconces that will hold candles too, I can light them if you'd like?" Amelia offered, collecting the floating PADD. She flicked at the screen a few times, scrolling through a list. "A brass band, perhaps even a silver band, would be period appropriate," she mused, and twirled her finger with a little flourish before tapping a particular name. At the end of the hall, across from where the refreshment tables stood, a large band with silver-plated brass instruments shimmered into view.

Rochelle shifted her weight from one hip to the other and raised an eyebrow at the band that appeared on the outskirts of the room. Their dress chased away the immediately thought of high school marching band, but the little Captain was still far from convinced that they were ideal gig. If she protested immediately, Amelia would argue their merit. A sore neck and general battle fatigue convinced her to cut to the chase. "Let's go ahead and light everything, see how it comes together?" She offered.

Amelia nodded, and turned her focus to the PADD. Stout pillar candles appeared in the glass holders mounted to the walls, candelabras materialized on the food tables filled with tall orange and yellow beeswax candles, and on the wick of each was a happily dancing flame. The addition of all these new little light sources stretched shadows across the floor, shifting and playing with each little gust of wind in from the balcony. The red-headed willow looked towards the band, and spying her attention the leader cleared his throat. All of the instruments were quickly at the ready and their players awaiting direction.

The tune they started to play spoke of spy movies and martinis shaken, not stirred.

A smile quirked at the Captain's lips as the big, heavy, thought provoking first few notes came blasting through. She'd recognize the theme anywhere, anytime. One of her all time favorites, but still not quite what she had in mind for a masquerade ball. The lighting, however, was beautiful. It was just quiet enough to bring about a certain sense of romance, and spooky enough with the shadows to fit the theme and mood. In a word, it was perfect. As always. "I'm impressed with the candle light. Nice touch." She grinned, turning slowly to take in the atmosphere of the grand ball room. "If we're in the alps, there will be snow this time of year, though. Maybe the first snow fall of the season..." She mused gently. Rochelle had gently joked on Notura with Landon about a vacation in the alps, it was funny how things came to pass and pieces slowly fit into the puzzle called life. The vast majority of the crew had come to think their resilient little Captain was over his death, but in truth she simply hid her sadness well.

"Not a fan of the band?" Amelia mused aloud, though the lack of comment said enough. She left it playing, as it was clear the song itself amused Rochelle. "As for snow, well, I could have it start snowing just after sunset? I do love the fall colors, especially bathed in the sunset's hues, and we can always compromise with the upper peaks being capped and the lower valleys holding the fall foliage." Amelia had already started to scroll through the list of band AIs again, she was pretty sure something a little more strings heavy would go over better, and there was bound to be something period appropriate of that nature.

Caught. "Not particularly." Rochelle admitted, "never really been a super fan of brass ensembles so it's nothing against them." Stepping away from Amelia, her footsteps were swallowed by the sound of Goldfinger. In front of her, the grand windows beckoned her closer with an elaborate view of the mountains. They had since swallowed the sun and left nothing more than shadows and a hint of autumn trying its best to hang onto its territory in the sky. "After sunset." She nodded in agreement, "And a dusting across the peaks. Quintessential alps." Her hands folded across in front of her as she came to a rest in front of the windows. "I'm impressed as usual."

"Mama made it easy, her program's like a meat grinder... what you get out depends on what you put in," Amelia insisted with a shrug. Her finger tapped a listing for a string quartet that included a cello, and the silver band disappeared. The quartet that materialized wasn't entirely human, but their clothing style matched the era, so chances were good that they'd provide an authentic atmosphere. A smirk teased at her lips as they started to tune their instruments, since she knew they wouldn't need to, and the sounds of careful adjustments filtered through the room.

The shorter redhead nodded, casting a quick glance over her shoulder at the quartet and back at Amelia. "Regardless, it's pretty amazing. Last shindig we threw has been talked about a lot." The grin was back, brilliant and proud as she regarded the other woman and couldn't help but note the authenticity of the quartet as they adjusted the pitch of their instruments. "I honestly thought about skipping out on this one... But... Then I wondered what the crew would think if their Captain was absent from a party meant to celebrate the liberation of the Federation." The grin faded to something deeper, something more melancholy. "And Noah... Noah's been hard at work on my costume and I can't even begin to want to break his heart like that." She sighed, turning her eyes once more to the darkening landscape beyond the glass. "He's a good kid, Amelia. Nuttier than a box of fruitcakes, but a good kid."

Amelia giggled and shook her head. "He has been talking up a storm to me about your costume. What little he's allowed me to see... wow. We tolerate his religious beliefs because we love him. If he wasn't already blood, we'd adopt him into the family because of his art." This she said plainly, as if it were fact and nothing more. The quartet wrapped up its tuning, and paused a long moment before starting to play. The notes moved through the space softly, almost like a spectre, teasing just on the edge of hearing for the moment.

"I can see that happening." Rochelle replied, studying the darkness beyond the glass and her ears strained to pick up the lilting notes. Strings seemed so much better, playing through the great hall without the brashness of the band. "Them." She said as the song became clearer, her choice coming easily.

"I'll see if I can get them tweaked so they have costumes," Amelia returned, looking at the band a long moment. "I'll put a rowdier band in the side room, for those of us who might want to kick up our heels a little more than this would encourage." She still smiled softly as the song built up, filling the space gradually with their lovely sound.

"Sounds like a plan." The Captain nodded and finally turned away from the nightfall. "People will enjoy having options for sure."

"It'll also hopefully minimize the chances of someone taking over the music like last time," Amelia returned with a laugh, thinking about her turn on the floor with Dani. She was wearing something without heels this time, since she absolutely wanted to dance, and keeping up in heels? Murder. The spunky engineer wouldn't be at this party though, she went off with the Bristol after the battle.

The spectacle between the XO and the Engineer hadn't gone unnoticed, nor had Amelia's mile high stilettos. Rochelle chuckled and shook her head, reaching out to pat her friend's shoulder, "Here's to hoping."

"By all rights, I should be able to lock people from changing the program, but my mother's tools are intended to make it easy to change thing," Amelia returned with a shrug. "Besides, we have enough engineers with a mischievous streak, it might not even be worth asking my mother to fix it, they'll just break through anyways."

Zola immediately came to mind, or to be more accurate, her chicken foot high heels did and the pensive creature couldn't help but laugh. It was an honest laugh, chest deep and rung like bells before Rochelle could cover her mouth. "Zola..." She managed to say, her eyes glittering as she tried her damnedest to explain why she'd suddenly cracked. Truth be told the little Ferengi was one Hell of an officer and Rochelle was damned proud to call her a Vindicator, but she was an eccentric and excitable little thing and definitely prone to changing things to her liking. Yes. Zola would be the first suspect on her list if things were changed this time around, especially with Dani away.

The Ferengi was not the first person that came to mind for Amelia, even taking into account Dani's absence, but she silently smirked. No need to draw Rochelle's attention to Dustin. He seemed to be keeping his head down anyways, though it might just be that Almar wasn't letting him up for air with all there was to repair. She was hoping to track him down soon.

"Zola is a special creature. She's actually started to grow on me... Did you hear about how she was dancing with the warp cores while we were on Qo'noS?" Amelia giggled and shook her head.

"Dancing with the warp cores?" Rochelle asked with an incredulous lilt to her voice. Oh how it felt good to be this amused and down right giddy. The season had given her an unmistakable shift in morale... Or was it the end of the war? The party? The joy of simply being alive? Of course there was the off handed chance that her brain been tweaked more than Rotek had let on by her concussion.

"Apparently as we were being encouraged to leave Qo'noS, Zola was performing maintenance, and the returning crew found her dancing as she was re-calibrating or something? All I know is that the next day Cecil would not stop talking about it... not directly to me, mind you, I think he's convinced I'm going to eat his face off if he speaks to me, but to anyone else who'd listen." She shook her head.

"He's... Sensitive." The shorter of the two redheads quipped in defense of her strange Yeoman. Sensitive was the understatement of the year, but it worked... For now. "I'm sure Zola keeps Almar highly entertained."

"At least he's good at his job," Amelia said with a head shake. "What are we doing about food, since we lost our catering?"

"He's very good at it." Rochelle agreed and sighed. Norbert's departure after the destruction of the lounge had felt wrong... Painful, even, and she hadn't even liked the man. "Anne?" She suggested, "She's done it before."

"The Griffin was a smaller ship... and while tasty, I don't think I could do that to Andrea and Logan. I'd feel bad having to send Cecil to clean up the mess after the fact," Amelia bit her lip to try and fight back a smirk.

"Good point." The Captain nodded and scratched her chin, "I don't suppose your family has connections that could reach us in time?"

"We've got an epic collection of replicator patterns from many sources in the family, that's about the best I can do. At least Mama thinks ahead and rigs her programs to interface with the replicator system." She shrugged. "Should be able to pull up some AI to serve and maintain the tables too."

The option wasn't perfect and certainly far from ideal, but Rochelle knew they simply didn't have a choice. "I trust you can find something suitable, just work around the menu we gave Norbert." She replied with a shrug.

"Of course... if you can spare Cecil, he might be useful on getting our hands on a few goodies though. He's crafty, when he wants to be." Amelia shook her head, thinking back to the cheese that had gone into that pizza she christened her quarters with and shared with Rochelle.

"Consider him spared. After this entire debacle, some alone time might be nice." She nodded in thought, "I promised Rotek I wouldn't work, after all."

"Gotta keep the Doc happy. I'll keep Cecil busy and out of your hair until you're back on duty." Amelia sighed softly as she looked at her friend. "Anything else I need to worry about, or should we be good once I finish fluffing?"

"Perfect." Taking a final glance around, Rochelle shook her head, "No. I think it's perfect." She smiled and reached up to pat her friend's shoulder.

"Good. Then all you have to worry about now is recovering before the party," Amelia returned, laying a hand on Rochelle's. "If you need anything else, even if it's not duty related, you let me know. Got it?"

"Scout's honor." Came on the break of an overly flourished mock scout salute. "I'll be in my quarters. Thank you again, Amelia." She said and turned to leave the evil genius to finish tweaking and fluffing her program.

---

Captain Rochelle Ivanova
Commanding Officer
USS VINDICATOR, NCC 78213-E

&

Lt Commander Amelia Waterhouse
Executive Officer
USS VINDICATOR, NCC 78213-E

 

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