When We're Rollin Through the Wild Wild West

[geonomy]

Who: Everyone! EVERYONE!
Broadcast: IF YOU WANNA
Action: Everywhere! EVERYWHERE!
When: Mid-September - Mid-October

[How's your ship doing, pardners? Is it still pretty damaged? Is it glitching out hardcore? Well, there is one place to land to take care of all that, and that's on a dusty old moon in front of a planet that no one wants to go to. On this moon, you'll find a civilization that looks a lot like one's stepped into a wild west movie, hardened cowpolk and mutant horses and all. Will you become a vigilante, hunting bounties and stopping gangs from doing their dirty work? Will you go exploring planetside, with a cowboy hat and a stalk of wheat in your mouth to complete the look? Good luck with that; there is no wheat. This town ain't big enough for all you flooters, but make it so! For the ratings!

In other words, it's a planet mingle! Get 'er done!]

[September Planet info here]

Comments

C!

[geonomy]

[It's not hard to get that impression, seeing how Clay's got his arms hanging over the sides of the horse while he looks up at the stars. As it is, he's not expecting to bump into anyone else. It's the fire he notices first, if only because the light's making the stars just a bit dimmer, and it's when he squints in confusing that he hears the cracking of the fire and the sound of a voice calling out.

So he tilts his head back at first, realizes that it's a bit too far to crane his neck, then carefully sits up to turn and look instead.]

Oh, hey! Yeah, I'm all right. I was just looking at the stars with Cassie here.

[dancingmd]

[Beverly sighs in relief.]

Oh, good!

[Then she looks up at the night sky herself. It reminds her of her first night of survival training, out in the Mojave desert.]

The stars are beautiful out here, aren't they?

[geonomy]

Yeah... they really are. This is probably the clearest view I've seen of them in a while, besides actually being out in them. [Which is still, after months of being out here, the biggest thrill for him. As he sits up a little more, he wobbles a bit, but soon slides safely off of the horse, hands staying on her back as he looks up at the sky above him.]

Back at home, there was always so much lights and pollution that even on the best of nights, it'd never get like this. I never thought I'd see a night sky like this unless I actually went out there myself.

[dancingmd]

Mmm... sometimes I take the stars for granted. It's good to be reminded, in a place like this.

[geonomy]

Yeah... especially in a place like this.

[Heeee doesn't like it here very much. With that, though, Clay runs his hands along the horse's back, gives her a pat, then heads over to sit by the fire. Gotta greet this person for real, after all!]

You're from the fleet, right? [He holds out his hand for a shake] I'm Clay, captain of the Vanquish.

[dancingmd]

[As soon as he says who he is, her face breaks out into a wide, excited grin.]

Oh! [Whoa calm down that handshake there, Bev.] You're Allen's Clay! The astronaut!

[geonomy]

Uh - huh?

[WOW that is one excitable handshake. Looks like she already knows him - Allen's Clay? That's - well, okay]

Y-Yeah, that's me! I'm the astronaut! Ha, am I that famous around here?

[dancingmd]

[She laughs sheepishly and relinquishes his hand.]

No, no... I'm just friends with Allen. He told me about your date and said he thought we ought to meet, that we had a lot in common, so I've been looking forward to getting a chance to meet you!

[geonomy]

Really now? [Now that gets Clay even more interested than before, and he sits cross-legged beside her with an excited grin.] Then this meeting must've been written in the stars! What kind of things did he say we had in common?

[dancingmd]

Well, I suppose you could say I'm an astronaut... [Though not exactly. It's a little different when your whole society has access to space travel.] At least, I live on a spaceship at home too.

[geonomy]

You are? You do? [ANOTHER ASTRONAUT. Clay looks like a puppy who just got shown a brand new person to bond with, all that's really missing is the furiously wagging tail.]

Where do you live? What's it like for you? Isn't it amazing, being out there?

[dancingmd]

[Chuckling, she holds up her hands in surrender to his barrage of questions. She'll do her very best to answer all of them.]

I am a doctor and commander aboard a starship, the USS Enterprise. It's an exploratory and research vessel, the flagship of the Federation, which is an interstellar republic consisting of over 150 member planets.

As for what it's like... it's a strange mixture of the mundane and the awe-inspiring, and sometimes, the frightening. I wouldn't trade it for any other life.

[geonomy]

[There is... a whole other set of reasons why he's inwardly flailing like an embarrassing fanboy right now, and his eyes are probably starry from the revelation.

USS Enterprise. The Federation.

Oh. My. Stars.

Clay's been good about keeping what he knows about other people a secret, and this is no exception. But good lord, once he's done, he needs to go straight back to his quarters and scream into a pillow and kick his legs or something. Right now, he'll be excited over something else.]

You actually live in space? I mean - we're living in space now but - that's your whole job? We've been exploring, but we've only made it to Mars so far, and our moon - we only know about the planets in our solar system and a few outside of it, but nothing like 150 of them!

[dancingmd]

Oh, don't say it like that: only Mars. Mars was an important first step to getting where we are today... I wouldn't be here without astronauts like you to pave the way!

[geonomy]

[Oh... oh, that gets him to give a happy blush and duck his head a bit. Gosh. Gosh, a woman of the Federation is thanking him for paving the way to where they are in their time? Gosh. He feels completely honored by that.]

Well - Yeah, in my time getting to Mars was an astronomical achievement that made the history books... But I still couldn't even imagine actually getting to visit the other planets in my lifetime. [He looks at her again with a big smile.] Knowing that it helped you do it is... It's huge to me, you know?

[dancingmd]

[Oh no, Clay, you're simply too adorable. Beverly returns his smile with an equally big one of her own.]

It is always good to know your efforts mean something to somebody, isn't it?