Lt. Cmdr Robin Hopper: How Do You Know?
Robin Hopper
((Hopper’s Apartment, Beijing District – Amity Outpost))
Robin pulled the vinyl carefully from its cardboard sleeve, admiring the clean and unworn edges of the box. The cover of the album depicted a group of four people – three women, and one man – wearing shiny white clothes, dangling from a rope, over a background of space – stars, whirling galaxies, and nebulae. Nightflight to Venus – the third studio album by the genre-defying euro-caribbean disco group known as Boney M – had evaded her collection for nearly a decade… Well! No longer.
Hopper: ::Quietly:: Sabra, I owe you a very nice Christmas present this year…
Setting the sleeve down on the table in the center of her conversation pit, she carried the vinyl over to the turntable in the corner, and delicately set the record on the wheel. With a slight twist, activating the device, she lowered the needle onto the record and the satisfying warm and deep tones of the analog recording began to play over her apartments’ sound system.
A robotic voice, processed through a rudimentary vocoder, began speaking – and Robin had to cover her grinning mouth to stop from bursting out laughing.
Robotic Voice: Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome aboard the starship Boney M… for our first passenger flight to Venus… Ready for count-down: 10, 9, 8…
Hopper: ::Shaking her head, amused:: Oh my god…
Singer: Nightflight to Venus… Way out there in space… Nightflight to Venus… Our new fav'right place… Nightflight to Venus… All systems are go… Nightflight to Venus… The sky is aglow…
As the song continued in the background, Robin made her way out of the conversation pit and back towards her dining table. There, a holographic projection of a 3D Chess board sat waiting for her. The message that had accompanied the gift from Sabra, Robin’s roommate and fellow physics student at UC Berkeley, had included her next move in their long-running turn-by-turn game. Studying the board, reacquainting herself with the particulars of the match, Robin sighed.
It had been nearly four years since she’d seen Sabra in-person, and their game had begun. Of course, starting a game against the Ukrainian math prodigy had definitely been a mistake. Robin reached towards a piece, hesitated, then retracted her hand – thinking better of it.
Hopper: It’s not fair. ::Grumbling:: Your grandfather was a 3D Chess grandmaster…
‘
A moment later, the puzzle still unsolved, Robin’s thought process was interrupted by the buzzing of her door chime. oO Saved by the bell! Oo She thought, happy to have a reason not to sit and agonize over her doomed chess match.
Hopper: Computer - lower music volume and reset holo-emitters.
The computer intonated a confirmation as Robin moved to answer the door. When she opened it, she was surprised to see Evelyn Beake – Scotty’s partner.
Beake: Hiya Robin! I know I come unannounced. May I come in?
The two had met a few times, but with Evelyn stationed aboard the USS Kitty Hawk, they hadn’t had much time to get to know one another. She was certainly not the first person Robin would’ve expected to turn up at her door out of the blue – but, as Jane Austen had written, friendship is not bound by familiarity, but by the warmth of kindred spirits.
Shrugging in a “Sure, why not?” sort of way, Robin nodded and stepped back into her place, gesturing for Evelyn to come in.
Hopper: Yeah, sure! ::Stepping aside:: Come on in… Make yourself comfortable wherever.
Beake: Great! Thanks! I wanted to talk to you about something.
Robin nodded and followed her guest into the living room, standing between the two armchairs which sat across the ‘living room corner’ from the sofa, resting a hand on the backrest of each chair, as Evelyn took a seat on the mint-green couch.
Hopper: You did? ::Tilting her head in thought:: oO What could she want to talk to me about? Oo Is everything alright? The Kitty Hawk hasn’t run into another subspace fissure, has it?
Those damn things were going to be the bane of her existence until she and her team had found a way to reduce the warp field reactivity of the benamite in the region.
Beake: No, no! Nothing like that.
Robin let out a relieved sigh, happy to hear that it wasn’t any sort of disaster. In fact, Evelyn seemed fairly cheery. oO Maybe it’s good news, then? Oo
Beake: It is more that I will be officially transferred to Amity soon, but I am not sure how to break the news to Scotty.
Evelyn smiled, obviously unable to contain her excitement at the prospect. Robin’s eyebrows rose, and a congratulatory chuckle escaped her lips as she responded.
Hopper: Ooooh-ho-ho! I see…! You two are really getting serious, hmm? ::Slapping the tops of her chairs:: Good for you.
With that, Robin finally settled into one of the chairs opposite Evelyn, sitting cross-legged and leaning forward, propping her chin up with her elbow rested on her knee. She recalled, nearly a year ago, having a conversation with Scotty and Evelyn about the prospect of her transferring to Amity and the Starfleet logistics involved – and, more importantly, she’d offered to help, if she could…
((Flashback – 2399, Wet Goods Tavern, Amity Outpost))
Reade: Maybe I can talk to Rivi or Wil.
Hopper: ::Shrugging, speaking encouragingly:: It couldn’t hurt! ::Smirking:: I think Rivi’s a bit of a romantic, anyways. I’m sure she’d be supportive of finding a way to work that sort of thing out.
S’Raga: Well, hopefully they can make it work for you two eventually.
Beake: Maybe I can help your case out. ::laughing::
Hopper: Well, I wish you both luck on that front. And, hey, it’s not exactly my Department, but if you need any back-up, let me know, okay? ::Looking around the table:: Now, are we getting lunch or what?
((End Flashback))
Hopper: Now, I seem to remember that you surprised him with your posting here in the Delta Quadrant… Why do I get the feeling since you’re here ::indicating her apartment:: that something similar is going on this time?
Evelyn’s continued grin seemed to confirm Robin’s suspicions.
Beake: Yes, that is correct; he does not know yet, and I want to surprise him later this month once it's official. How should I proceed with this?
Robin paused, leaning back in her chair and looking upward in thought – as if the answer would be found on her ceiling. While she enjoyed surprises, and was no stranger to planning celebrations, this seemed to her like a far more intimate occasion…
Being honest with herself, Robin’s history with managing her interpersonal relationships, especially the ‘romantic’ ones, had been (charitably) less well-organized – and the ‘surprises’ were rarely nice ones. She could still clearly recall the devastated look on Egan Retel’s face when she’d told him she was transferring off the USS Wall Street and that she didn’t think long-distance would work for them. It was, by all accounts, the exact opposite of what Evelyn was looking to do.
Hopper: Uhhh… Well, I have to admit, Evelyn, I may not be the foremost expert on “this sort of thing.” ::Folding her hands in her lap, feeling a little guilty:: I’ve never actually moved closer to a boyfriend… ::Thinking:: Maybe I can still help though.
Beake: I see. What do you have in mind?
Hopper: I’m sure you’ve already put a lot of thought into it – and nobody knows your relationship better than you and Scotty… But, you know, I’ve stepped on my fair share of romantic ‘land mines’, so if you want an expert in what not to do, feel free to use me as a sounding board. ::Shrugging:: Let’s hear your ideas.
She steepled her fingers in front of her, almost as if she were taking on the role of counselor.
Beake: Response
Hopper: How do you think Scotty would react? I mean, I’m sure he’d be happy, but do you think he’d find a surprise ‘fun’ or ‘confusing’ or…?
She trailed off, hoping to spur Evelyn into explaining her thought process and ideas a bit further.
Beake: Response
Hopper: What made you decide to request the transfer, in the end? Or, maybe it’s more accurate to ask – what ‘pushed you’ to get over your reservations about making ‘the ask’ to Captain Rahman and Ambassador Vataix? Obviously, it’s a big decision - and it’s one you’ve been thinking about for a while.
Beake: Response
Evelyn seemed so confident in her decision, and perhaps that was sign enough that her plans, no matter what the specifics were, were likely to succeed. When it came to matters of the heart, Robin had never felt confident. People, herself included, were so ever-changing, so fleeting, and commitment so seemingly ‘permanent’ that they’d always struck her as ill-fitted.
Of course, recent events had made her begin to doubt even her doubts. The Robin Hopper who had left her home, eager to explore Earth; who had left Earth, eager to explore space; who had left the Wall Street, eager to explore the Delta Quadrant, had finally found a situation she no longer wanted to fly away from.
Suddenly, before she’d even really realized what she was saying, Robin found herself asking Evelyn for advice – even though it was Beake who’d come to her.
Hopper: Do you mind if I ask… How did you know? ::Trying to find the words:: I mean, I guess, how did you decide that Scotty was ‘the one’ – I don’t mean in some sort of spiritual sense, just, in terms of, oof, making that commitment? Transferring to the Kitty Hawk, moving across the galaxy, just to be a bit closer…
Beake: Response
TBC
