Lovely Night For Horror Part 1

Posted on Wed Oct 19th, 2022 @ 9:49am by Leiddem Kea (*) & Delaney O'Callaghan

Mission: Mission 16: Hysperia
Location: Deck 7- New holodeck
Timeline: MD02 18:00
4359 words - 8.7 OF Standard Post Measure

Leiddem could not believe that the fact that the ship was going to have a simple holodeck had passed his girlfriend by so much. It was not exactly a small project taking up a lot of deck 7 but it was easy to miss if you were as busy as they had been on other areas for three months. “It’s small but will it do what you need it to?” He wondered leaning against the door looking at the arch. He had no ideas what programs were loaded or if had been properly tested yet but at least showing it to the woman night alleviate some of the issues from the prison incident and put him in her hood books.

In her defense, or at least the one she would have constructed if required to, Delaney had emerged from their low-powered ordeal with several distractions vying for her patience. The most likely culprit for her missing the news on the intended upgrades had been the health issues that had dogged her in the initial week or so after they'd limped to safety, when the dizziness and nausea had finally culminated in an unexpected loss of consciousness and a barrage of tests that had revealed a minor heart defect. She was still trying to wrap her head around it, especially since the prognosis was that she was generally exceptionally healthy and that the problem was unlikely to cause her any significant issuesunless she found herself subjected to similar extremities in the future. That had been the sticking point that had lead to several discussions with a certain Betazoid, whose way of dealing with stress was to try to manage problems before they started. The only way to manage this to that degree was removing the likelihood of a repeat exposure, but that meant no space travel at all.

Delaney had been...less than supportive of the idea.

And thus stubbornness had kicked in, and she'd split her attention between resource management and deconstructing her supply stash in the cargo hold, and immersing herself in the local culture. Then the festival had been announced and the need for costumes had become a pressing one. Really, the actual travesty here wasn't so much that she'd missed the news about the holodeck entirely, but that neither her boyfriend nor her best friend had mentioned it once. Leiddem was partially forgiven because he'd probably been mildly concerned that she'd overdo it and never sleep if she had another distraction.

Curtis, on the other hand, had some explaining to do.

For now, she was content to stand, with arms wrapped around herself, and just stare in beatific gratitude at the new installation. "Given the power restrictions that are likely in place to keep it from draining the system of everything, the size of the programs it can run will probably mean some limitations. 'Decks this size typically fare better when you run episodic sequences, where the majority of the changes in location and supporting characters are handled by a stop-and-start-again reload. You can still do quite a lot with that."

“Well then a chapter a day will keep the doctor away and make sure you can sleep then.” The man said as he pushed from the wall and walked over to her wrapping his arms around her as he stared over her shoulder at what she was looking at properly. “I want to do a lot but I also want you to not over do it and to spend some time of you in our world instead of a story.” He said grinned kissing her neck quickly before giving her some space again.

Gradually, over time, Delaney was noticing that Leiddem's physical affection was increasing. That had taken a little work, some conversation about boundaries and the fact that she really didn't have that many, not in the way some others safeguarded their personal space. Obviously she didn't want just any old person stepping into her intimate zone but once she'd opened the door, it tended to remain open. It also helped that she was entirely capable of holding onto her preoccupations regardless of outside interference. The occasional spontaneous embrace often did very little to deter her from her current focus.

It was cosy though. Without even really thinking about it, she leaned back into him and thwarted his attempt to escape.

"I know I'll have to share it." The pout in her voice was mostly for show. "And I still think the Captain will end up stipulating some sort of usage quota because the power drain if it's overused will be considerable. Having it at all opens up the possibilities for actually completing projects again though. I can deal with having to be moderated about it. Real life isn't so bad," Delaney added, tilting her head right back to look up at him, upside down. After a moment of openly enjoying the view, she grinned. "Is it ready to try out, do you know?"

“Aye Reuben is likely to introduce some type of system mostly to get at you though.” He teased. He grinned as she moved in closer leaving him no choice but to wrap his arms around her tightly. Reuben would not even think on the woman in the grand scheme of things but it was nice to tease her. The man agreed whole heartedly that real life was so much better but it was not about to tease her anymore. “I do not I am afraid but I shall we find out?” He questioned indicated he would be willing to test things out if she was willing.

"Okay," Delaney replied, needing no second prompting. She knelt beside the exterior access console and slipped the isolinear rod from her pocket into the docking port. Eventually, she could work on getting some of her collection into the computer archive, but that in itself probably required construction before it could be populated. If Curtis hadn't been approached regarding that, then it wouldn't be too long before he was. Even Laney wasn't above admitting he'd be much faster at it than she was. "Let's see what this thing can do."

Leiddem just indicated that they could go ahead with it all. He was interested in what the new boredom killer could do to get rid of that. It had been so long since he had something so readily available.

When the main doors opened, it was onto the faintly-swaying grasslands of an open field. In the distance, hills created a rolling horizon of gentle green slopes, set against a grey and misty backdrop of rugged mountains barely visible through the cloud-cover. Stepping into the scene didn't offer much more definition, the scenery seemed to stretch in all directions without the interruption of civilisation to impact the natural beauty, but there was the sound of trickling water somewhere off to the left. Delaney stood for a moment and simply stared.

It was home, or at least as close to home as she'd ever programmed. Back when university studies had made regular visits tricky to schedule, the program had compensated as a means to clear her head and find her way back to herself, especially in the immediate aftermath of her messy breakup. It was a program designed for the simplicity of hiking, for wandering familiar pathways without the intricacies or potential heartache of including the homesteads and people that truly made it home. The lack of excessive detail, aside from an admittedly significant longing for family, had been the reason for Delaney's choice in loading this program first. If the systems handled it, they could try to ramp it up.

"Welcome to Ireland," she murmured softly, arms settled across her stomach as the doors closed behind them and deposited them in the middle of the field.

Whilst the woman stared around the man found himself just staring at her and taking her in. Everything about her was mesmerising sometimes that it distracted him senseless and stood there with the slight wind picking up her hair was one of those times. He slowly strode over and wrapped her up in his arms intertwining their fingers. “It makes you more beautiful than ever.” He whispered.

In certain moods, Delaney had a tendency to deflect outright admiration with humour, a natural by-product of her upbringing. During their quiet moments alone, she had shown a capacity to engage in romanticism on a far deeper level, though it had taken a little while to chip away at the nervousness that counted as distrust, the remnants of a wary heart that had taken a battering and then never really recovered from it. She'd confided in him by now about the relationship that had tried to drag her under, and the measures it had taken to maintain her optimism, chief in part being an absolute avoidance of any relationship that tried to venture into serious commitment. Graduating had been her focus and it had only been once she'd stepped away from Earth and into the path of someone who seemed so utterly, fundamentally like her in every way that mattered, that Delaney had relaxed enough to let herself fall in love.

Ireland was distracting, however, and though she heard his words and had come to understand their sincerity, her gaze was still locked on the distant horizon with the same kind of whimsical distractedness that often plagued her when she talked of home. His appreciation radiated warmth, however, which made up for the slight chill of the breeze. Delaney tucked her head beneath Leiddem's chin and exhaled softly.

"I used to lose count of the hours I spent just walking these hills. Wind, hail or shine, you couldn't keep me inside for anything." The memory, and the irony given her current situation, prompted a huff of laughter. "Time's change, I guess."

The man could have said the same about his own planet. He could remember vividly just leaving the house and walking outside. Where he had lived on Betazed it had been jungle more than anything else and then when he moved to Earth it was just not the same being the middle of a city. Ireland just from the Holograms looked beautiful just like Betazed. “Okay so let’s pick a direction to start walking then or do you have a location in mind?” He asked.

"They're all good." Unravelling herself from him took some effort, mostly because it would have been easy to just stand there for the next hour with him and not say a word. Being comfortable with silence was an unexpected gift of their relationship, as much as the easy-going nature of their ability to retain independence whilst remaining entirely connected. It had taken very little time for them to gravitate towards a shared living space, Laney spent more time in his quarters than hers now, but that hadn't lead to an over-saturation of interaction. The amount of times he dozed off with his head in her lap whilst she watched another in a long line of cheesy action movies had surpassed Delaney's ability to keep track of. Using up her holodeck time just standing with him in a field didn't seem as ludicrous as it might have once, but the invitation to show him around eventually coaxed her to take his hand in hers and pull him towards the creek.

"I spoke to Móraí last night," she mentioned as they picked their way through the long grass. Her grandmother, perhaps more than any other member of her family, tended to take the time to log actual video calls rather than relying on the back-and-forth of text communication. "Her house, if the simulation actually extended to include the homesteads, would be up there." She pointed towards a distant hillside, and a copse of trees that did look somewhat out of place without a purpose for being there. "Our place is further around, the creek runs between the two properties." With a slight jostle, Delaney pursed her lips to control a grin and added nonchalantly, "She asked after you."

"Oh did she?" Was all the man said as he happily followed her and started taking in everything the place had to offer. He noticed the creek and saw what could only be described as a tyre swing close by. He could imagine a tiny red-headed child swinging all over that and ending up in the creek without very much effort. It just felt easy when he was there with her, more so than it had been with anyone else in a long time.

"Mm-hmn," came the intentionally unhelpful response, accompanied by the furtive merriment of controlled mirth. She was teasing him; one might argue it was difficult to find a time when she wasn't, except for the fact that there were layers to their private interactions that many others didn't get to see. With a swing of his arm, Delaney continued. "If you follow the road along for a few kilometres, you get to my uncle's place. He and my aunt had four boys, the youngest is just a few months older than me. Seven boys in total," she calculated for him, eyebrows quirked as if making a point. "It's like we lived polar opposite childhoods."

Well, that was helpful... he observed with a roll of his eyes that did nothing to help the nerves he felt when it came to her family. "Mm-hmm." He responded to her observation and making a point with the same pointed look as he let go of her hand and strode up to the swing testing it to see if it would support his weight.

It earned a soft huff of laughter, entirely kindly in intent, as Delaney followed behind and stood to watch him a moment before negotiating several familiar rocks to sit up on a perch overhanging the running water. Her legs dangling over, the redhead regarded the curve of the road as it disappeared around the corner and remained silent for a moment.

It had been a good childhood.

"We still haven't been very good at populating either side of the family tree with girls," she continued, an indication that the point of her mini-lecture into family dynamics was, in fact, leading towards the information he wanted. Like the road below, she was just meandering lazily in her efforts to get anywhere with it. "Aidan's got two boys, Ronan and his wife are expecting in a few months and haven't found out, and Keenan..." Laney screwed up her nose at the mention of her youngest brother, closer to her in age. "I don't think kids are his highest priority."

Stretching out on her back, her head cushioned on her hands, Delaney gazed up at the clouds and continued after a brief pause. "Myles, one of my cousins, has two girls. Jared, the older brother, has a step-daughter. Still, there's another six boys scattered across that side of the family so far. And my mother only has a brother who never had kids, so no help there either."

The conversation seemed to reach a point without any immediate clarification as to what it was. Turning her head to look across at him, Laney's eyes sparkled.

"Grandma's....somewhat relatively pleased that I'm dating someone with a strong history of females in the family."

"My mother will be pleased then. Oh, so they want me to get you pregnant pretty quick then?" He laughed as he swang the swing in a direction and held on for dear life as he flew through the air for a moment before it stopped moving and he was back to where he had started grinning still.

"Oh, I'd be halfway through my second trimester if she had her own way." Whether that even worked mathematically wasn't something Delaney bothered to calculate, since the point was made easily enough with exaggeration either way. Smiling as she watched his antics, very reminiscent of her own escapades once upon a time, Laney considered the situation a moment, and her beloved grandmother's obvious inclination towards adopting Leiddem entirely on face value, and closed her eyes. What heat the sun had radiated back against her splayed hand as she patted the rock in thought. "Knowing her, she's just happy I'm not out here without someone keeping an eye on me." Pat, pat, pat.. "Actually," she added softly, "knowing her, she's just figured out already how good you are to me."

“Well it’s a good job both of us are responsible adults and on contraception.” The man laughed loudly as he flew through the air one more time before climbing off. He looked her over as he walked towards her and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I am a good boy sometimes.” He promised. “I don’t set out to break Bajoran hearts or be the bad ass stereotypical marine that people believe I am.” He said not realising how much that accidental error of judgement had cost him in his friend.

From her vantage, stretched out on her back on the warm rock, Delaney peered up at her boyfriend and grinned as an outstretched hand became an excuse to yank him down with her. After the minor scuffle, and the momentary shriek that heralded her near-miss avoidance of rolling off into the creek, she pinned him on his back by propping herself up on his chest and flicked him playfully on the chin. "Just an unfortunate side-effect of being too desirable, huh?," she teased. As much as there were hints of nervousness that appeared naturally after such a rough separation the first time around, Delaney hadn't allowed the dramatics of frayed tempers to linger as a bad taste. Pragmatics meant that, if Leiddem had any intention on capitalising on other people's interest in him, then nothing healthy would come from trying to stop him. It helped, of course, that he'd given her no cause for concern in that regard, but it spoke to something fundamental to the woman's core that she couldn't bring herself now, even after the infidelities of the past, to allow insecurity to rattle her.

“Seems so.” He said uncomfortable despite the teasing by the comment. He wiggled just a little to move her into a more comfortable position. “Just unfortunate for them I am a one woman man. That type of thing has never interested me.” The man admitted looking up at the sky from where she had flicked him on the chin making him look up. It was not always that way for Betazoids but it seemed in his family it was just that way. Jeassaho and Reuben were stable, his parents were deeply in love and his other sisters were monogamous as far as he knew.

It was repetition for her benefit, Delaney understood. A reassurance after understanding the role unfaithfulness had played the first time around, though not in any way that she'd been able to stay in control of. The heart-breaking thing at the time had been that, due to the nature of extenuating circumstances, she'd been willing to work through it and move on. The spiral of self-hatred from the other side had ultimately been the reason for their split and so it had been the pervasive and insistent feeling that she'd abandoned someone at their worst that had left its scars, not the drunken mistake that had lead to the house of cards tumbling down around her.

The twist of her lips remained playful, but the expression in her eyes conveyed her gratitude.

And then, in studying him further, Delaney noticed the return of a certain degree of pensive anxiousness. It took her a moment to figure out the cause, or at least a likely contender, and her best guess softened her expression further. "You know I trust you," she affirmed softly, "And my family aren't really the type to hold onto preconceived ideas about people. Grandma's sincerely keen to get to know you, she wasn't prying out of any sense of over-protectiveness."

Maybe one day they would get to Earth like Kalahaeia, Nollel and Burnie had for the inquiry. The man slowly rolled onto his side and cradled her close on her side. “She can pry all she wants. I really am an open book, Delaney. I have nothing to hide from you or anyone.” He whispered nudging her neck with his nose.

"Oh, I'm not saying she won't chew your ear off." Turning her head towards him to nuzzle his forehead, Laney laughed. "She's no telepath though, despite seeming like it half the time." She hadn't made a secret of the fact that meeting his family was equally as intimidating, though it did make it easier that Jeassaho was already an ally.

The man laughed and kissed her deeply as she tried to nuzzle him again. The kiss left him breathless. “I bet she is telepath. I bet somewhere in the Irish family tree there is a Betazoid or Vulcan… something remotely telepathic would do it.” He teased as the cloud above them darkened suddenly. “Night time already.” He mumbled lying back on his back to look up.

Having an actual telepath in her lineage would certainly make things simpler, though Delaney was very sure that if you dug back into her family tree, all you'd end up finding was potatoes. Craning her head to glance up at the sky, she watched the swirling mass of clouds and eased herself into a position that allowed her to stargaze beside him. "I forgot I'd programmed the night cycle," she admitted, "And the weather cycle by the looks of it. Rainy Irish Nighttime is a staple."

“Yeah.” Leiddem felt something uneasy about the sudden change and despite the fact he let back down looking up at stars. “So different to the ones I grew up staring at.” He admitted changing the subject from his unease and talk of pregnancy. “All the wrong way.”

"Leave it to Ireland to turn the cosmos upside down," Laney quipped, though her own distraction with the rapidly depleting light was responsible for the vagueness of her tone. If they were actually back on Earth, then nothing about the fading light would have been unusual; night fell quickly, especially in the winter months, with the mountains in the surrounding area providing the sun with ample hiding space. This was a holodeck, however, and more than that, this was her program.

"Oh."

The pin-drop of realisation fell quietly as a drop of water into a bucket. Rolling away from Leiddem a little to stretch out on her back and gaze up the hill behind them, Delaney pulled a faint grimace and then glanced back, furtively sheepish. "Uh. So, funny story. It's been a while since I used this program...," she started.

He knew that tone and did not like it at all. “Oh?” Leiddem questioned quickly as he sat up himself ready for whatever was coming his way.

The safeties are probably fully-functional, even though I didn't actually check...

It was a thought that hammered through the normal tumble-dryer of Delaney's head with such precision that it was probably wishful thinking to expect a telepath not to pick up on it. Sitting up slowly, she craned her head to look behind them and then turned back the other way to consider the darkening woods across the other side of the field. "Do you know anything about Irish folklore," Laney asked, striving a little too hard to keep her tone light and airy.

"I know nothing about Betazed mythologically let alone an earth one," Leiddem admitted as he narrowed his eyes. Something was wrong, he could just let by the sudden sweetness of the tone.

"Ah." As a response, the brevity of Delaney's hesitation didn't instil much confidence.

"What is coming?" He demanded clearly alarmed as he rose to his feet.

"Um. Well, that depends." Still sat beside him, Delaney offered what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "From memory, when I programmed this, it had a few options in the randomisation sequence." A quick study of his expression saw her deflate and, clambering to her feet, the novelist spread her hands in defeat. "We turned it into a kind of...race? Puzzle? Just something a bit spooky for Halloween one year on campus."

Turning towards the woods, Delaney extended an arm to point. "There's a place about halfway into the trees where the creek forms a pool. In the centre of it, there's a rock. In reality, it's a great place to jump from, or stretch out on, bigger than this one. Catches the sun through the break in the canopy overhead."

Eyeballing his impatience, Delaney hurried on.

"We programmed a...sword. In the stone. It's kind of a...thing, mythologically speaking. The whole point is to be the first to get there, pull the sword from the stone, and not get caught by anything." Smiling brightly at him again wasn't working. "Banshees, púca, The Abhartach, Dúlachán...Headless Horseman," she translated, though that didn't help with the other entities. "I think they ended up programming a werewolf, maybe a zombie or two. " Delaney winced, watching his face. "Um. A big-ish spider."

Honestly, she felt stupid. With so long away from the ability to use any kind of holodeck program, and no need to remember Ireland when she'd graduated and returned to the real thing, it had completely skipped Delaney's mind that her group of friends had spent their last Halloween together intent on terrifying each other. There was no inherent risk, the fail-safes were actually programmed to shut down the program entirely if you ended up being 'caught' by whatever ghastly horror the randomiser had chosen to send after you. To the best of her recollection, that hadn't stopped it from being utterly horrific...in a fun kind of way.

She raised her eyebrows at her boyfriend, a slow grin chasing the last of her apology away.

"You did say you wanted a sword.”