Tyson's Punch is better than His Bite

Posted on Mon Jun 24th, 2019 @ 4:34pm by Lieutenant Alexander Pierce & Chief Petty Officer Nathan Kline

Mission: Mission 9 - Daucina
Location: Holodeck 1, USS Cosmos
Timeline: TBD
1257 words - 2.5 OF Standard Post Measure

Ever since the ship had left drydock, the holodecks had been a bit off. Reports of glitches and personalities not exactly flowing organically had made their way to Alex's desk almost daily. With a bit of a lull in the activity, he finally found time to dig into the problem. After seemingly spending the entire afternoon on the problem, the Chief of Operations felt like he had squashed a majority of the bugs. He just needed to test the system. "Computer, run random program," he called out.

With a negative buzz, the computer retorted, "More specific information is required." Sighing with a bit of a chuckle, the man replied, "I don't know, maybe something with a bit of action, some intense personality. I really need to push the holodeck." The computer's response was a chirp of affirmation as the scene materialized. Alex quickly found himself in the middle of a square competition ring with a large crowd gathered. Electronic banners from the light boards read Tyson vs Pierce. An older man dressed in a grey shirt walked toward the middle and practically yelled, "Let's get it on!." The crowd erupted and the bell rang three times as a large looking man with combat gloves approached Alex with a certain intensity that was a bit terrifying.

Nathan took great pride in the accuracy of his holodeck simulations and it wasn't that he wasn't happy to share he just appreciated when someone asked. When the notification came across his display that someone had access his Tyson 09 program he smirked. He was a non-com and the person using his program was an officer, a junior officer but he outranked him just the same. He headed off towards the holodeck and soon found the doors parting to reveal a man about to get clobbered by a holo program. There was a war going on in the sensor specialist. Intervene or let it play out.

Looking down, Alex noticed that he was wearing combat gloves along with his uniform which made a ridiculous combination. Falling back onto the combat training that Starfleet gave all of its officers, he assumed a defensive posture and maximized the space between himself and the assailant. As Mike Tyson approached like a predator closing in on their lunch, Alex let loose a punch that, while strong, probably did more to infuriate the boxer. With a quick one-two, Alex quickly found himself on the ground. A slight ringing sound rang in his ears as he attempted to find himself.

It was then that he noticed the older gentleman above him, calling out numbers. The bald man with the black bowtie motioned with his hands to indicate which number he was on, which looked to be four. Using the ropes to pull himself up, Alex looked to Tyson as the referee briefly checked him over for injury. Satisfied, the man called the fight on again and Iron Mike again approached. Knowing better than to make a similar mistake, Alex took a defensive posture meant to wait for the opponent to close in before doing anything.

Nathan watched the fight play out. Like all holodeck programs the outcome was determined by the skill of the actual participants and from the stance the officer was in he had to admit he was impressed. He watched as Tyson and the officer exchanged a few blows. "Need any help, sir?" He called out as he finally moved inward from his perch.

"Does he have any weaknesses?" Alex called out to the voice. He fortunately dodged a few blows that would have surely ended the fight while getting in a few jabs. Being a few centimeters taller than the beast in front of him helped with reach, but Alex knew that he was a cruiserweight fighting a heavyweight. Things could turn ugly very quickly, not that they were great right now.

Nathan thought for a moment. "He is weak up close and lacks stamina." He grinned. "He is wicked fast and powerful at mid-range." He added. Moving close to the boxing match. Leaning against the ropes to get a closer look.

Get close and let him wear down, Alex reminded himself. Taking the advice, the man suddenly rushed forward and managed to land a fairly solid uppercut with a right hook before bouncing out of Tyson's reach. Seeing that the method worked as Tyson took a moment to shake off the last volley filled Alex with confidence. This operations officer had a chance, he thought as he again closed the distance for another go.

However, this time Alex was met with a hard punch to the gut and a hard hook to the side of the head which sent him down to the mat. With the room spinning, Alex had a bit of trouble getting his head out of the clouds. Around the time where he felt like he could get up, he heard a nearby voice, "Eight... Nine... Ten!" Bringing himself to a sitting position, Alex heard the bell ring. Mid victory celebration, the other fighters and the crowd disappeared, leaving him sitting in the corner.

Nathan couldn't resist and gave the officer a few loud claps. "Impressive." he said truly. He moved a few steps closer to the man sitting on the floor. "You held on pretty well." Reaching out his hand to offer his assistance as he introduce himself. "Chief Petty Officer Kline."

"Lieutenant James Pierce," he replied, taking the offered hand. "I got in a few lucky shots, it ended the only way it could," he said, "but thank you." Motioning to indicate the arena, James asked, "Just guessing, but is this your program?"

"Yes, Sir." The chief petty officer replied. "I designed a few programs based on historic sporting events. I have a few boxing program, baseball, hockey." He listed. "It is nice to meet you, Sir."

"Nice to meet you as well," James replied. Explaining what he had been doing in the program, he admitted, "We just got done fixing the bugs in the holodeck's personality matrices. Hopefully everything should act more... real."

Nathan nodded. He would appreciate that. He spent a lot of time on his holo programs trying to get realism just right. "I am sure that will be greatly appreciated by all." He grinned. "One of the fun parts of designing holo programs is getting the people to act like people and not, uh, robots." He hooked his hand behind his back. "I apologize for barging in, I have notifications set up whenever anyone access my programs. Bit of a control freak I guess you could say."

"It's not a problem," James started. "It helps to make the upgrade fixes what needed to be repaired. Because you wrote the program, you'd have the best insight into your characters." Shrugging and motioning to indicate the room, "What did you think? Did the computer handle your personality matrices better?"

"Tyson was less, uh, glitchy" Nathan had to admit. "His movements were less plotted and more, natural." He grinned. "Thank you, sir."

"I'm happy it helped," Alex nodded. Before he could continue, his commbadge chirped. It seemed that the last update to the gravity generators had accidentally made Deck 24 almost impossible to traverse. "I better get to that, maybe next time you can show me how to take on Tyson," the Operations officer chuckled.

---

Lieutenant JG Alexander Pierce
Chief Operations Officer
USS Cosmos

Chief Petty Officer Nathan Kline
Sensor Specialist
USS Cosmos
(PNPC Tasha Belikov)