Commissioning The Love Boat

Posted on Wed Jun 30th, 2021 @ 6:48pm by Captain Maho Takahashi & Commander Ichika Misono & Lieutenant Satt & Lieutenant Dominic Costa

1,439 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Love Boat
Location: Holodeck One

Maho stood on the Myogi's holodeck dressed in the uniform of a Princess Cruises captain. The program running at the moment simulated a pier, and above her loomed the historic Earth cruise ship Pacific Princess. It was said to be a smaller ship, especially by early 21st century standards, but even sitting idly at dock, the ship held a certain amount of charm the mega liners of the early 21st century seemed to lack.

"Incredible." Maho muttered, as nobody had shown up on the holodeck yet. "When they scrapped this vessel in the early 21st century, they said no man would ever walk her decks again." She smiled. "It's amazing how far technology has come since then."

As if she had willed it to be, the doors to the holodeck slid open with a loud whoosh, and a rather bewildered (though simultaneously curious) Lieutenant Commander Misono stepped into the suite.

"Pardon my intrusion, Captain," she apologized when she spotted Captain Takahashi. "I mistakenly assumed that nobody was using the holodeck; shall I leave you to your business, then?"

"As a matter of fact, feel free to stay, Lieutenant Commander." Maho responded. "I was hoping someone would show up to help me kick off our summer festivities."

Ichika tilted her head to one side, a puzzled look on her face. "Um... Festivities-?"

"Did you not get the memo?" Maho asked before cursing in Japanese under her breath. "I really need to fix how memos are relayed..." She muttered to herself.

Ichika blinked. "I didn't get a memo...?"

Satt had barely looked at the holodeck interface as he barrelled in - he was sure that he'd reserved this time for his own calisthenics routine. The Bolian was much perturbed when he instead stepped out on to a an early 21st century Earth oceanside dock, and a looming liner above her. The Security chief spied two of the senior officers and wandered over. 'My apologies,' he rasped, 'I thought the holodeck was free at this hour?'

Maho looked past Ichika to the Bolian Security Chief who had just wandered in. She could tell he had entered expecting a different program loaded.

"I believe you may have missed a memo or two, Lieutenant." Maho explained. "As a matter of fact, it seems the whole crew has missed those memos..." She sighed. "In summary, all holodeck reservations have now been allocated to Holodecks 3 & 4, so that Holodecks 1 & 2 may run this program 24/7. It's an important summertime tradition here on the Myogi."

Ichika glanced over at Satt and shrugged.

Satt shot some side-eye at Ichika before turning his attention back to Takahashi. 'Forgive me Captain, but we're requisitioning half the holodecks for ... this?'He waved his hand before carrying on in his gravelly voice, 'what is this tradition, if I may ask?'

Maho glanced down at her old-fashioned watch. It was still fairly early, and Misono and Satt were the only ones there, but since her Chief of Security was asking, perhaps it wouldn't hurt Maho to start now.

The doors to the holodeck opened once again with an almost inaudible mechanical hiss. A man in a Starfleet uniform walked into the room, and the holodeck exit disappeared almost immediately after the doors had shut behind him. The man looked around, taking in the sights, sounds and smells that were all surrounding him.

Dominic stepped forward, a broad smile on his clean shaven face. He stood to attention as he approached the gathered Myogi crew. “Captain, Commander.” He nodded towards Maho and Ichika in turn before acknowledging Satt with another slight nod. “Lieutenant Dominic Costa, Chief Engineer reporting.” At times like this, Dominic didn’t know whether to extend a hand or not. So he continued to stand there statue-like to attention.

Satt raised a bald eyebrow and extended his hand, 'Lieutenant Satt, Chief of Security. And Tactical,' he added as an afterthought in his rough voice. 'A pleasure.'

“Nice to meet a Bolian Security and Tactical Chief, I’d say they’re pretty rare in those departments.” Dominic pointed out, his Italian accent surfacing for a moment. He shook Satt’s hand with a firm grip and smiled again. “I look forward to working with you, Lieutenant.”

Satt nodded dourly, the scar lines on his hands turning white as they were gripped by the Engineer. 'There are some of us, few though we are. We're like a special club,' his gravelly voice carried on inexorably, 'The Bolian Policemen's Union. How do you find being an engineer?' he was eager to move on from talking about himself.

Maho was a little startled by the Chief Engineer's arrival right as she was about to explain. However, Dominic's arrival meant that there was now a decent enough amount of people there to kick things off; she cleared her throat rather loudly so as to attract everyone's attention:

"First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who showed up for coming out here." She said. "Now, some of you might be confused as to why we're here, and why the need to run this program on two holodecks; well, beginning in the late 20th century and going into the 21st century, roughly up to around the beginning of World War Three, every year, when the temperature warmed up, and the season of summer came, humans would go on a cruise: They would board giant passenger ships, just like this one, and head to tropical destinations for a week or so of fun in the sun (or, at least, that's how it was supposed to go). Cruising was popularized by a little tv show called 'The Love Boat', which heavily featured this exact ship, the Pacific Princess. Many of the mega liners of the early 21st century owe this little ship a debt, for if it weren't for her, cruising might have looked a lot different."

Maho shook her head.

"Now, here in the present day, this all started with just a few of the senior staff who were passionate about keeping late 20th and early 21st century cruising, as well as the spirit of 'The Love Boat' alive." She continued. "Well, eventually, things caught on with Senpai, and every time the season of summer has rolled around, this holo-program has been run 24/7 on holodecks 1 & 2 for the entire season. Some crew even looked forward to the start of summer, so that they could experience the program openly with their fellow crew without the need to invite them to the holodeck."

Maho then proceeded to pick up the bottle of champagne that had been sitting on the ground by her feet.

"So, with all that out of the way; how about we get started?" She asked.

"Are we expected to drink that, Captain?" Ichika inquired, her ears twitching nervously. "Not to be disrespectful or anything, but this may be an activity I'll have to sit out on..."

Satt looked up at the cruise ship, then back down at the Commanding Officer. 'I see. So this is a group bonding exercise. That will be good for morale. Perhaps, for the new transfers, we should schedule them some time so they can come to appreciate the ... uniqueness of the program, and its significance to Senpai, though I'm not familiar with that crewmember.'

The Bolian instinctively felt that this was not for him - seeing a senior officer bounding about on such a ship would lessen the respect for his position. He envied the lower ranks that would be able to fraternise without thought, but conceded that the privileges of rank also came with some consequences. Besides he liked a book better than the pool anyhow.

Maho shot Ichika a quick look of disgust before turning to face the ship:

"On this day, here in the presence of the crew; I hereby commission the Pacific Princess! May this year's voyage be even better than that of the previous year!"

Having concluded her rather short commissioning speech, Maho threw the bottle as hard as she could at the bow. Upon contact with the ship's metal, the bottle shattered into many smaller pieces, the champagne splattering onto the bow and into the water below along with the pieces of bottle.

"Computer, remove glass shards." Maho ordered.

On demand, the now-floating pieces of broken bottle vanished from the water's surface.

Posting by:

Commander Maho Takahashi
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Commander Ichika Misono
Third Officer

Lieutenant Satt
Chief Security and Tactical Officer

Lieutenant Dominic Costa
Chief Engineering Officer

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