Lt Alex Storm - Chocolate, the Panacea for What Ails You
Karen Morris
((Holodeck 4, Deck 3, USS Artemis-A))
Alex was a patient person - in almost every circumstance. And when she wasn’t patient; she was patient. Or more to the point, she knew two specific ways of how to handle that antsy feeling in the pit of her stomach.
One - chocolate. Chocolate was the panacea for anything that ailed her. Feeling down? Chocolate bar! Needing to soothe rumpled feathers? Hot chocolate. Feeling tired? Drink a Mocha! Feeling hungry? Chocolate chip scones! Need a pick-me-up? Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. Alex felt that if there were more chocolate in the universe, its inhabitants would behave so much better.
The second way she handled the unsettled feeling which accompanied waiting? Exercise to the point of exhaustion. Now, granted, Bancroft had … hinted at … suggested … explained that she wasn’t supposed to go on all cylinders when she was exercising anymore - Cortisol levels and all that - but he obviously didn’t understand the way she felt when she was waiting for the queries about her husband and daughter.
So, she decided on a compromise - instead of climbing through two decks’ worth of Jeffries’ tubes before her workout, she’d take the turbolift and THEN work herself into the ground. One of the most pleasant ways of tiring herself out, almost to the point of exhaustion, was rock climbing. And her favorite destination was Janaran Falls on Betazed. On each side of the falls was a cliff face mostly straight up. The northern face of the cliff was straight up for about forty meters, then there was a ledge for resting before taking the next thirty-two meters to the top. The southern face of the cliff was a straight 67m shot without a ledge upon which to rest. oO Which one should I do today?Oo she asked herself as she exited the turbolift.
She padded the short distance between the lift and the holodeck doors barefoot - the same way she liked to climb. Feeling guilty - though only a smidge for - …ignoring was such a nasty word … disregarding? … no, not that either … maybe overlooking fit the bill best - the doctor’s orders, she decided that she’d climb the side with the ledge so if he heard about her escapades, she could honestly say that she did the easier of the two climbs.
She stepped up to the interface outside of the holodeck and called up her climbing program. Setting the spray distance of the waterfall to within ten meters, Alex ensured that the rockface would be mostly dry to the touch. She had programmed the time just an hour and a half before sunset. That gave her an hour to climb up and thirty minutes to enjoy the sunset from the vantage point of the top of the waterfalls. Activating the program, she stepped to the doors.
Even before she reached the inside of the holodeck, the roar of the falls was nearly deafening.
Storm: Computer ambient volume to fifty percent.
Without a word, the computer reduced the volume by 50%, but the tactical officer didn’t move further. She placed her hands on her hips. The sun’s rays were refracting off the lower levels of the clouds floating in Betazed’s sky. Right now, they were pinks, golds, and light oranges. In one place, she could see a sunburst through a hole in a patch of cloud cover. The wind was only a light breeze. The gulls danced overhead, and a bird of prey swooped down over the river above and pulled a fish from the stream.
Alex took a deep breath. It didn’t quite smell like home, but it was close enough. Close enough for memories. Close enough for deep emotions that she wasn’t wanting to surface, so instead of giving those emotions place, she jogged over to the taller cliff face with a resting perch partway up.
She had climbed this cliff enough to know the first part almost blindfolded. Her muscle memory took over, and before she knew it, she was about twenty-five meters into the air. This was where it got a little trickier, and she couldn’t just rely on rote memory anymore. She wedged the toes of her right foot into a hooked hold, this put a lot of pressure just behind her toes, but it also gave her the ability to get a better reach with her right hand. Now her left foot found its next hold in a three-inch deep crevice, but as she was about to go for that next handhold with her left hand, the atmospheric pressure seemed to drop, and fifteen seconds later, she heard a voice from below, though she couldn’t identify who it was over the raging of the waterfall.
Bancroft: Response
Alex was balancing on just three of her limbs, and one of those was in an uncomfortable position. She ignored the figure below for a moment longer, while her left hand found its hold. After which, she craned her neck around to see Doctor Bancroft.
Storm: I can’t hear you. Can you repeat that? ::Inclining her head toward the waterfall, though she wasn’t going to turn the volume down in case he was going to chide her.::
Bancroft: Response
Storm: ::Over her shoulder:: I tell you what. I’m over halfway to that ledge up there? Do you see that?
Bancroft: Response
Storm: If I stop here for too long in this awkward position, my muscles will freeze up. Let me get up there, and then we can talk.
Bancroft: Response.
~*~
Tags / TBC
~*~
Lt Alex Storm
Tactical Officer
USS Artemis
O240103SK2