Ensign Lyra Voss: An Innocent Little Flower
Sarah Terry
((Inside Holodeck 1 - Starbase 118))
Lyra gripped the wheel tightly. Left, right, stop, go - how hard could it be? Well, truth be told, she expected there was a lot more to it than that, but if she didn’t shoot directly off the road, she’d count it as a win. She looked over at her fellow ensigns - Mi’shune was positively raring in go, S’zurak had crammed himself into the bubblegum pink racer with steely determination, and Dylan was letting a little bit of excitement peek through her initial hesitation. They didn’t have any more time for deliberation though - a booming voice suddenly cut through the arena.
Disembodied Voice: Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Ensign Grand Prix! Can you make it to the finish line? Let’s find out! Are you ready? Three… two… one… GO!
Voss: ::screaming as she slams on the pedal:: Ahh!
There was a split second where it seemed like nothing was going to happen, and then her car lurched like a starship kicking into warp. She sped forward, though not nearly as quickly as Mi’shune, whose bright yellow car took off like a shot.
sh’Sonora: YEEEEEHEHEHEHEHE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So long!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
S’zurak zipped past, right on the Andorian’s tail, which left her and Dylan following up as they tried to get a handle on the controls. Lyra pressed the accelerator all the way to the floor as the track underneath her pulsed and shimmered with rainbow lights. An upbeat dance track started pumping throughout the stadium. Maybe the actual bingo challenge was not going into epileptic shock? Before she had even begun to feel comfortable on the straight-away, she saw a curve coming up in the road.
Mi’shune managed it just fine, but S’zurak skidded wide and narrowly avoided the edge. Lyra missed whatever preparations Dylan was making for the turn, because she panicked, pulled the wheel hard to the right way too early, and the world suddenly became a technicolor smudge as her car started spinning.
It only stopped when she remembered there was another pedal for breaking. Her stomach lurched into her throat as she squealed to a halt.
Voss: oO Okay, gentle turns! GENTLE! Oo
Through some miracle, her spin out left her facing (approximately) the right direction, so she cautiously pressed the accelerator again and the car took off at a slightly less manic pace. She went wide on the first turn, but managed to make it without spinning again. She could see the other three ensigns ahead of her when she suddenly heard a crashing crescendo coming up behind her. Another car shot past - all black with red lights and a suited driver she didn’t recognize.
Voss: Uh… guys? I think we’ve got company!
Thankfully, the helmets seemed to have some communicator capacity because she was able to hear the voices of her companions when they answered.
sh’Sonora / S’zurak: ?
She reached the second turn a few moments behind the mystery racer. Dylan’s car had slipped a bit and wasn’t too far ahead of them as the track started to even out, with S’zurak and Mi’shune narrowly leading the pack. From her vantage point behind them, she saw their extra participant slam a button on their dash, and then her mouth dropped open in shock.
Voss: Veck’a thell! They have tribbles?!
Sure enough, three bright green tribbles appeared and started orbiting around the black car. Oh she was gonna be teaching them aaaaall the Betazoid curse words today.
sh’Sonora / S’zurak / Bryce: ?
Lyra was so focused on what the mystery rider was doing that she almost didn’t notice the track start to angle upwards. They were reaching down to grab one of the tribbles and hold it in their hand and then – Lyra let out a sudden shriek as the track ended and her car was launched into the air. It was her first zero-g training all over again - every muscle in her body wanted to close her eyes but she had to force them open so she didn’t lose where she was going. Somehow, her car sailed straight and fast, and she landed with a powerful thump - just in time to see the rider of the black car start hurling green tribbles toward her fellow ensigns.
Voss: oO Oh absolutely not! Oo
She felt a fierce protectiveness for her fellow ensigns rise up inside her. There was a button to handle this, wasn’t there? She started slapping her dashboard, trying to take her hand off the wheel as little as possible, until she found the “item” button. Little images spun by before finally stopped on… a flower? What the hell was a flower going to do?! It appeared on the roof of her car, just bopping in the breeze, and then she saw another word had replaced “item” on the button. Now the button said “fire.”
Voss: Well, here goes nothing!
She slammed down on the accelerator and pushed the “fire” button. The innocent flower on the front of her car immediately spewed an enormous ball of orange flame. How the fire wasn’t forced back into her face by the car’s motion she wasn’t sure, but she wasn’t about to look a gift incendiary device in the mouth. The first fire ball bounced off the track and into the void, but now that she knew what it did? She angled her car toward the mystery rider and bashed the fire button down. The flower vomited another fiery orb and watched as it took two bounces and BAM! Right into the black car, which immediately toppled end over end to the side as she sped past.
Voss: ::giddy:: EAT FIRE BALL, BUDDY!
sh’Sonora / S’zurak / Bryce: ?
It was a glorious moment. A brief glorious moment. In her celebration, Lyra kind of forgot about the whole steering wheel business and suddenly had to pull the wheel sharply to the left to make it around the next turn. Her car squealed like a thousand screaming mice before she managed to right it again. She saw a flash in her rearview mirror and realized the black car had righted itself as well.
Voss: Okay, apparently fire balls are just a minor inconvenience? Who else has something fun?
sh’Sonora / S’zurak / Bryce: ?