Taking Time Out to admire the View

Posted on Mon Feb 24th, 2020 @ 1:05pm by Division Admiral Celeste Yamaguchi-Hobbs & Major Daisy Rohr-McKnight
Edited on on Mon Feb 24th, 2020 @ 4:09pm

Mission: Mission 12: Hitchhikers are Escaped Convicts
Location: Various Locations - USS Shadow
Timeline: 1200Hrs - February 15th, 2390

Commander Celeste Yamaguchi sighed softly as she stood before the display, considering what
program she wanted to run. In truth she had no idea as she heard a set of footfalls behind her,
she turned her head ever so slightly. "Captain." she commented. "You coming here?"

"Hello Doctor Yamaguchi." Daisy greeted Celeste. "Yes, just a quick refresher program." she
answered. "And please feel free to call me Daisy. I'm sure given our two positions on this ship
we will be seeing a lot of each other." Daisy said with a mischievous grim.

"Mmm... Well I could use the training...." Yamaguchi commented.

"I could run a hand to hand simulation or maybe a firefight program. If you don't feel like
training we could enjoy the view from Oak's Landing. It's a scenic view from my homeworld
of Korcyria III. I promise you'll think it's pretty." Daisy told Celeste.

Yamaguchi raised an eyebrow. "I've never been there..." she paused. "Sure.. show me your
homeworld."

Daisy let out a slight giggle. "Most of my homeworld is arid scrub land. There are a few notable
exceptions. Computer, Oak's Landing base of trail" Ruhr ordered the computer.

"Program running" the Computer responded.

The Holodeck's doors opened and Daisy rushed through.

Yamaguchi raised an eyebrow as she followed the other woman through the doors and what
she found was not what she had been expecting.

Through the Holodeck portal was a verdant forest on the side of a mountain. The air was filled
with a cool mist. On the forest floor was a trail of grey pebbles. About ten meters ahead on the
trail was a Torii gate. The gate was tall, unpainted, and made of natural wood. Vines were
already entangling themselves on it.

Daisy turned around to address Celeste. "The Torii gate is the only thing we added. Everything
else you see here was the way we found it when colonists first arrived here." Daisy smiled widely.
She explained hastily, using her hands and arms to help her story. "Let's go to the top!" and
with that Daisy turned and headed up the trail.

Yamaguchi followed the other woman in silence as she took in the scenery, she found herself
liking this place more and more as she arrived at the top a few minutes after the other woman.

Daisy continued down the path. The left side of the forest opened up to a mist filled chasm and
the roar of a waterfall. Up ahead was a vegetation covered mountain face and waterfall. The
trail went up into a cave. Daisy turned to Celeste and waved her to follow her.

Yamaguchi silently followed the other woman into the cave, she noticed the sheer amount the
crystals imbedded in the walls and ceiling, this was truly a masterpiece of evolution or simple
physics.

The cave was a smooth tunnel that came out to a chamber behind the waterfall. Sunlight barley
lit the huge chamber. It was over a hundred meters across. There was no floor, there was a cliff
that dropped down into the water several hundred meters below. The ceiling was about twenty
meters above the tunnel exit.

Across the great empty space were several large two meter flat slabs of stone. They were
arranged to form a bridge over the chasm. The stones seemed to be suspended in air and
not touching each other.

"Crazy, isn't it?" Daisy asked Celeste rhetorically.

Yamaguchi raised an eyebrow. "That's not the word I'd use.."

Daisy started over the stone bridge. "Don't worry. They have never fallen." she told Yamaguchi
as she crossed. "Scientists have studied them. They are just ordinary stones. Yet they float in
air."

"Stones that float in mid-air." Yamaguchi responded. "How does that happen?"

Daisy turned to answer Yamaguchi "Nobody knows. These are just ordinary rocks found all over
the planet."

The bridge ended at another smooth tunnel. Daisy moved up the tunnel. It exited on a large
plateau.

The grass covered plateau was the top of a mountain. It overlooked a great mountain lake that
fed the waterfall. The other side had the great fall that was about six hundred meters wide and
plunged several hundred meters. Down below the water cut its way through a thick carpet of
forest out to the ocean in the far distance. Green, wooded mountains surrounded everything.

"Wow.... I've not seen a place like this... since I was a child." The larger woman responded,
before she looked down, before she realized she was about to walk off the edge, she smiled.

"The lake is actually a spring. The spring is over five kilometers deep. This whole place was
like this when the first colonists arrived here." Daisy explained to Yamaguchi.

"Did someone build this place?" Yamaguchi inquired as she regarded the other woman. "There
are too many wonders in too small a space."

"That's what just about everybody thinks. The weird thing is no trace of who built this can be
found." Daisy explained. "The lake was probably an ancient reserve for who ever built it."

Yamaguchi smiled. "I think I just found my happy place.... I'll bring my children here after my
shift." she explained as she regarded the taller woman. "Thank you for sharing this with me."