Lt. JG Lyra Voss: Poor Unfortunate Soul
Sarah Terry
((OOC: My idea for Stellar Cartography is based on the attached image - just a smaller version that only takes up one deck! Maybe 1.25 decks... 😉))
((En route to Stellar Cartography, Deck 3, USS Aurora-A))
Well, this was a scenario she had not anticipated! The moment Luxa had seen Tori, she leveled a positively *scathing* look at him. Something about being ditched at the… oooooh. Lyra suddenly remembered seeing the way the Caitian’s tail flicked sharply while she stood at the bar last night with A’Mayri and Sol. At the time, she’d wondered who might be the unfortunate soul on the receiving end of Luxa’s considerable annoyance and apparently she had just discovered him.
For her, Luxa remained all smiles.
Lorana: Of course, now prepare yourself Lyra. You've been spoiled with that department on the StarBase. This isn't going to be what you are used to, the Ronin also had a one deck Stellar Cartography. It's cosy, they do have their charms, these smaller vessels.
Ysatch: I'm surprised they were able to cram it in at all!
A gulf of silence opened after his comment.
Oh Four… Tori had no idea what he’d done, huh.
Um, well… nothing for it but to press on. She tried to surreptitiously slide between the two parties as if a little more physical distance might help (it did not).
Voss: So I was looking at the name “Aurora.” I knew the Terran word from the aurora borealis, but apparently Aurora was an ancient goddess of the dawn in an early Terran culture. They really let the humans name everything, huh? Does Cait or Bajor have a dawn goddess?
Lorana: Caitians don't have gods or goddesses. A few mythologies, but they are more children's stories. Back at the Academy I did a holo about a sleeping princess called Aurora. It was a lot of fun.
She could suddenly feel a deep, complex, and troubled emotion from Tori at the mention of Bajoran religion. Oh jeez, really?? How was she so good at unintentionally asking people fraught questions?
Ysatch: The question of whether or not the prophets are gods is under constant debate. But there is a story that the Orb of Prophecy and Change was discovered during a period where the planet was shrouded in darkness. The prophets sent a vision that the sun would rise on Bajor again. So that Orb is often depicted in religious artwork as a symbol of the dawn.
Voss: ::nodding with slightly too much enthusiasm:: That’s really interesting! Most Betazoids worship the Four Deities, but they’re not really literal deities. More like representations of our highest ideals. But I like the idea of a goddess of dawn - it feels very poetic.
She was genuinely curious about other religions and cultures, but Tori could have started yapping on about paint drying and she would have acted interested, just to try to diffuse a little bit of the tension as they approached the door to Stellar Cartography.
Luxa winked at her with an excited smile, which swiftly disappeared the moment she locked eyes with Tori. The poor Bajoran was reeling as he tried to figure out what he’d done.
Lorana: After you, Lyra. It's your space. You're looking especially nice this morning, don't you think, Ensign? New ship flush or something else?
She’d barely raised her hand to the door’s sensor when she heard Luxa’s thoughts about her… *disposition* this morning, and whether it had anything to do with Tori. On top of that, when she heard the words out of Luxa’s mouth, she nearly balked. Wait, and she even *smelled* different to a Caitian? Like a hormonal change from being in love or… the thought of it turned her cheeks bright red and she immediately let out a nervous laugh.
Ysatch: Yeah, uh, you look great Lyra!
Voss: ::with wide eyes at Tori:: No! ::*crap…*:: No, I mean, thank you! That’s very nice of you to… ::to Luxa:: But no, not... ::back to Tori:: But you’re great! ::to Luxa:: But not him. oO Move along, girl! Oo ::pained laugh, awkward single clap:: Um! Anyway! Let’s check out this lab, huh?
She was just about ready to walk into the warp core after that, but thankfully, she got to walk into Stellar Cartography instead. She smacked the sensor and the door slid open with a faint little “whoosh,” accompanied by a breath of cool, ever-so-slightly ionized air.
((Stellar Cartography, Deck 3, USS Aurora-A))
For a blissful moment, the sight of the lab pushed every other thought out of her head. Luxa was correct that she’d been spoiled by the enormous three-deck screen on the base, but this lab was set up to utilize every possible inch. Beyond the door wasn’t a room, so much as a wide walkway, suspended a few feet off the ground, that continued out into the center of the lab, where it turned into a small, circular platform. Lyra took a few soft steps into the room, regarding the space with the same wonder one might reserve for a cathedral. But then, this *was* her cathedral.
The holo-projector screen wrapped around the entire room, above and below the platform, effectively turning the lab into what felt like her own personal planetarium. On the center platform, there was a half-circle console, just about wide enough for the three of them to stand in front of comfortably.
Lorana: Lyra don't leave us waiting, power her up!
Ysatch: We were just in the Drakos Cluster, why don't we load that up, see how it looks on the fancy Starfleet displays.
She hardly needed convincing. The control schema was very similar to the HUD they used on the base - it only took a few practiced movements to bring the console to life, set a destination, and soar through images of space until they hit the Drakos Cluster.
It looked absolutely gorgeous on the brand-new projectors - bright, rich orange and red clouds of dust, lazily floating asteroids, the hulking shape of Drakos Prime… from a distance, it was easy to forget the challenges of the mission and see only the beauty of the system’s natural arrangement as it hung against the blackness.
Voss: ::with a hushed breath:: Oh it’s beautiful!
Ysatch/Lorana: ?
She started flipping through different wavelengths of light and different areas of the Drakos system started coming in and out of focus.
Voss: Look at the resolution! This is just… ::zooming in on a random asteroid:: I mean… I could count the craters!
Ysatch/Lorana: ?
Voss: I have an idea! Let’s really see what these sensors can do. I want to send a message… ::randomly entering a set of coordinates in the Gamma Quadrant and finding a small. lonely planet, far away from any known habitable area:: *there.* I don’t care how long it takes to get there - I just need to plot the path for the signal, taking into account stellar and planetary bodies, black holes, gravity waves - anything that might interrupt it during the 70,000 lightyear trip. Can we plot a safe course?
They’d done a similar exercise in one of her Academy classes and she was eager to try it with the Aurora’s state-of-the-art equipment.
Ysatch/Lorana: ?
