From: 96906700afk@nene.ac.uk
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 1997 17:55:35 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: USS CHESAPEAKE: Lovebirds ?

MD 6.1530
	The thermals carried the eagle gently higher.  Motionless, with
stretched wings, he glided across the sky.  The thermals were lower over
the canyon.  A deep, narrow gap in the ground, sixty meters wide at the
top but only three meters wide at the bottom, and sometimes even lower.
The eagle followed the thermals, gliding down along the canyon walls, the
brown, layered walls.  The animals at the bottom of the canyon, 300 meters
below, did not know of the eagle.  In an instant it could swoop down and
kill anything it saw.  Here, it was the ruler of the sky.  There was
nothing that posed a threat to it.
Its sharp eyes spotted a lone gopher, looking out of its burrow.
Instantly the eagles wings folded and it dived.  There was lunch.
Eagles have very good eyes.  They can see a penny on the ground from a
height that was too high for humans to see the ground.  Unfortunately,
eagles only look down on things.  It's an eagle thing.  They are born that
way.  'I'm up here, you're down there.', the seem to think.  Eagles have
never heard of 'behind'.  And they don't have very good ears.  They don't
need them.  Usually.
	A small X-fighter, chromed, screamed at terrifying speed towards
the diving eagle.  It did not mean to hit the eagle, it was a simple case
of coincidence.  Eagle and fighter would meet in a few seconds, both
perfectly unaware of each other.
	Twenty meters above the ground the pilot cursed in twelve
different languages and banked, nearly scraping the wall, and missing the
eagle by half a meter.  Half a split-second later purple energy bolts,
intended for the first x-fighter, hit the eagle, turning it into a very
large roast chicken.  Before its remains hit the ground a second X-fighter
screamed past it, guns blasting.
	[I got you now, O'Graeach !  You can't hide from me !], a female
voice shouted through the comsystem.
	O'Graeachs reflexes kicked in.  Conditioned by - well, a bunch of
nasty aliens, really - his body had developed a handful of useful survival
behaviours.  The first rule of survival was: PANIC !!!
	He hit the accelerator and, for good measure, slammed his hand on
the afterburner as well.  The fighter shot forward, leaving a long trail
of smoke behind, and screamed around a tight corner.
	Clarissa Darling, Combat Pilot extraordinaire, whistled surprised,
but was not to be outdone.  Speeding up, she followed, at harebrained
speeds.  It took everything she had to avoid smashing into the walls, but
if *he* could do it then she should be able to any day.
	The second rule of survival was to be as far away from any danger
as possible.  This usually mean running away as fast as possible.  On the
other hand, flying through a narrow canyon at the speed of sound was a
pretty good way of ending up at THE OTHER PLACE, whatever that was.  So he
kept flying merely as fast as he could without risking life and limb.
	She had to asmit, he was good.  But good wasn't good enough.  She
had been good when she had entered the academy.  Now she was *perfect*.
She knew it.  There was no way he'd escape her.  For one, he had just
appeared on her scanner.  And he had slowed down.  She speeded up, guns
blazing.
	The beams of energy impacting in the walls was a bad sign.  It
meant she was here again.  He speeded up.  She held pace.  He kicked the
accelerator, but she was prepared this time.  Purple lightning streaked
past his windscreen and blasted holes into the canyon walls.  He took his
fighter down into the canyon, to the bottom.  She followed.
	The two fighters screamed along the canyon floor, one of them
blasting away but missing, as the first one was twisting and banking to
avoid hitting any of the walls.  The next curve was gentle, a smooth left
bend, with the walls a bit less than three meters.  The first fighter
banked slightly and entered the bend.
	Clarissa smiled.  "I got you now, O'Graeach !", she smiled, as he
appeared in her lock.  Just a few short moments, and she could blast him
out of the sky.  She was tracking him, following him into the bend,
tracking him - following him through the bend, tracking him - and fired !
	The bolts of energy shot from her guns just as the first fighter
pulled up and banked to the right.  She cursed - in english - and tried to
pull her fighter to the right.  The bolts missed, but that was not
important right now.  What they hit was a small, ragged edge, protruding
slightly from ground and wall.  She had been so busy shooting that she had
missed it.  The X-Fighter pulled away, but not enough.  The wing scraped
the edge, spun out of control and hit the wall.
The canyon disappeared and both stood next to each other in Holodeck 3.
	[The score is O'Graeach 2, Darling 2.], the computer reported
unemotional.
	"That's not fair !", she protested.  "You didn't kill me a single
time !  The first two times you died within ten seconds after trying, and
I blasted you to hell and back !"
	"You didn't the second two times.", he pointed out amused.
	"You didn't face me and fight.  You didn't even try to !", she
accused him.
	Oz laughed.  "He who fights and runs away - wastes valuable
running time."
	"It's not fair - just because you can't shoot.", she teased him.
	A smile crept across his face.  "Well, it ain't my fault if you
can't fly.  You died twice, and you shot me twice.  Better call it a day,
before you lose even more."
	"I can't fly ?  If it hadn't been for that stupid bird I'd have
had you there and then !", she argued good naturedly.
	"And it wasn't very nice to kill it.", Oz reproached her.  "Even
though it was only a holo-eagle."
	"I didn't mean to.  I had meant to shoot you.", she replied.
	Putting his arm around her waist and drawing her softish body
closer to his he said, "Story of my life.  Women only want one thing."
	"What's that ?", she asked.
	"Me dead.", he said and kissed her gently.  To his surprise she
did not draw away, which was the standard reaction, apart from screaming,
and going after him with a sharp weapon, but turned towards him and kissed
him back.  Holding each other, their hot lips pressed together, the stood
for half an eternity.  Time seemed to stop, and neither of them wanted it
to continue.  It did anyway.
	"Um - excuse us -", a timid voice shook them from their trance.
"Uh - it's 1604 now, and we'd booked the holodeck from 1600 'till 1700."
	They turned surprised and stared at a small groups of rather
embarressed people.  Blushing, Oz and Clarissa hurried out, not meeting
anybodys eye.
MD 6.1630
Scene: Security Office
	He didn't like it.  Not at all.  Going down here, voluntarily or
not, was against his instincts.  The smell, the sight of guards, the
buzzing sound of energy fields, the empty cells - it all only lead to a
cramped stomach, raised neckhairs, and a bad case of flashbacks.
He didn't want to be here, but there wasn't much he could do.  Either he
got the transfer for Clarissa, or he would have to hope that her schedule
matched his.  And he'd really like to work with her.
	"Yes ?", the receptionist asked coldly.  How come that every
receptionist was ugly and unfriendly ?, he wondered.  Did they clone them
?
	"I've come to see the CSO.", he said with as much dignity as he
could muster, which was not much.
	"She's out.  Come back later.", she replied bored.
	"Oh, I'll wait for her in her office.", he smiled, waving his FCO
Id card.  It was black, with gold on it, and it looked quite flash if
moved very quickly, which he did.
	When the door closed behind him he sat down on the chair behind
the desk, put his feet up and waited.  For about half a minute, before his
curiousity won and he started looking through her desk.  
	First it was just looking, without touching.  He just wanted to
see what she had in her drawers.  Then it was picking up and looking.
Then it was picking up and opening and looking *into* things.  Then the
door opened and she strode in.
	"I heard you wanted to talk to me - WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING
???"
	Oz jumped up guiltily, still holding an open box, and stared at
her.  "Hi- I'm O'Graeach, the FCO.  I - it just fell into my hand, honest
!  I - can I invite you to a drink ?", he stammered.  Clarissa wasn't
actually forgotten, but it wasn't as if they were having a proper
relationship yet, and this woman was really quite beautiful.  
NRPG:
Lynnaea: Tag, you're it.  Just don't kill him :)
Masako: Oh, he'll eventually get down to Sciences when Anne is there.
Soon, in fact :)
All: Meet the new *protected* NPC, Clarissa Darling.  171cm tall, short
brown hair, superiority complex, Combat Pilot, assertive (some say
aggressive).
Love, Fabian
playing
Ens. Ozwald O'Graeach, FCO, USS CHESAPEAKE
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'We can beat gravity, but the paperwork is overwhelming.', Werner von
Braun
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