A Trip to the Old West

Posted on Tue Nov 1st, 2016 @ 12:44am by Captain Tim Williams
Edited on on Thu Dec 1st, 2016 @ 9:20am

Episode: Out of Sequence
Location: USS Highlander - Holodeck
Timeline: BACKPOST - Before discovery of the DeSalle

The patrol along the Klingon border had led to a relatively uneventful few months for the Highlander and her crew, and as the time wore on, more and more the crew found themselves in need of new diversions from the daily routine - and their captain was no exception. Tim had found a new programme in the holodeck databanks the other day, and had decided to book himself some time to check it out.

It had become a regular sight aboard starships over the last few decades to see officers walking the corridors in all kinds of strange attire on their way to the holodeck, and so he didn't draw too many stares as he strode through the corridors of his ship dressed in the typical outfit of an old Wild West 'cowboy', complete with leather chaps and the distinctive hat. The programme he was going to run was a little different from some of the others he had tried over the years - mostly, he prefered programmes with machines in them, such as autoshops in the 20th and 21st Centuries, working on classic cars, or in the days of early manned flight, with the primitive machines of the era. He had occasionally dabbled into the holonovels set in earlier time periods, such as Roman times, but even then it was usually to experience the engineering of their empire, from the building of the roads to their seige machines. The Old West would be something relatively new to him.

When he got to the holodeck, he did a quick check to make sure that nobody was already in the room, and then activated the program. Stepping through the holodeck doors, he found himself walking into a small staging area, with nothing more than a table and another door. On the table were the holographic weapons of the era; a gunbelt with a pair of revolvers and a number of holographic bullets, and a large hunting knife. He wrapped the belt around his waist, make sure it all fit correctly, and then stepped through the door into the simulation.

He found himself on an old steam train, as it trundled its way across the plains. The atmosphere was gentile - there was a bar serving drinks, and most of the travellers in the carriage were rather well dressed for the times. He took a seat at the bar and motioned for the barkeep to fetch him a drink, which came from a nondescript bottle and was poured into a shot glass. Tim took that to indicate that he should drink it like a shot, and so downed the beverage in one. The default settings of the program didn't seem to be set to give it too strong a taste, so he motioned the bartender to pour him a second while he turned to enjoy the views out of the window.

From the details he had read about this program, the region in which it was set was entirely fictional, and didn't line up with any real location in the old United States, but as he gazed out of the window, he could imagine how those expansive plains would gradually get taken up with roads, then cities, then metropolises, gradually consumed as human civilisation grew and needed to use up more and more of the planet's landmass to live on. He shook himself from the view as the conductor began walking through the carriage calling for tickets, and he pulled out one that had been part of the replicator pattern from his pocket and handed it over, receiving it back with a small hole punched out of it.

"Next stop: Redgorge!" came the shout a short while later. Recognising the name of the town in which the narative was to begin, Tim finished his drink and stood, moving towards the end of the carriage.

TO BE CONTINUED