Syl O'Connell
Flight Control
[TI8]
Posts: 662 Likes: 9
Rank: Lieutenant Junior Grade
Position: Flight Control/Caldonia 5
Species: Human
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Post by Syl O'Connell on May 28, 2021 1:33:31 GMT
[Ens. Syl O'Connell - Kerelia - Unsinkable II]Following the Captain onto the vessel, she took the other seat in the cab and started looking over the controls. Starfleet sure did try to keep all their vessels pretty universal, and she had taken extra courses in ground and water vehicles, just for a little more enjoyment (and a little more time away from the man that controlled her life.) Her hands passed over the console, flipping switches and pressing buttons as she went through the start-up procedure. Glancing down at the cooler, she nodded in understanding and gave the other woman a small smile. "Thank you," she replied simply. Having eaten before leaving the station, she doubted she would be hungry for awhile... but the drinks would definitely be useful. The boat rumbled and vibrated to life, and she disengaged the maglock securing them to the pier. "Anchor's away," she reported, and gradually guided the vessel towards the open water.
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Judith Eastman
Civilian
Grandma
Posts: 2,593 Likes: 84
Rank: Civilian/other
Position: Civil Servant
Species: Human
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Post by Judith Eastman on May 28, 2021 3:07:34 GMT
[Capt. Judith Eastman(-Williams), PhD - Unsinkable II]Judy saw the smile, however small, as a win. Standing there in sickbay, however long ago, this didn't seem possible. And then, they were off to the races, slowly but surely, on the calm waters. It was a perfectly pleasant day, and Judy took off her jacket, draping it on the back of her chair. "Have you gone boating before?" she asked. "Just for fun?"They were here to know each other better. Best get started on that.
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Syl O'Connell
Flight Control
[TI8]
Posts: 662 Likes: 9
Rank: Lieutenant Junior Grade
Position: Flight Control/Caldonia 5
Species: Human
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Post by Syl O'Connell on May 28, 2021 3:33:47 GMT
[Ens. Syl O'Connell - Kerelia - Unsinkable II]Syl nodded, keeping her eyes on the water ahead, her fingers barely moving over the controls as she kept the boat on steady course away from the pier. "Occasionally," she answered honestly. "Despite being a city girl all my life, I've always loved outdoor activities. Whenever my friends would go camping, or skiing, or boating, they'd always invite me along. After I turned 18, I started branching out into my own adventures. Rock climbing, sky diving, hang-gliding... Though only thing I was able to do on a regular basis though was ride horses." There was only so much time she was able to spend away from home before it started making the situation even worse than what she was trying to avoid. Once they were in deeper waters, she laid in the route, and quickly reached into the cooler to grab a water bottle and set it in the cup holder next to her.
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Judith Eastman
Civilian
Grandma
Posts: 2,593 Likes: 84
Rank: Civilian/other
Position: Civil Servant
Species: Human
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Post by Judith Eastman on May 28, 2021 13:41:09 GMT
[Capt. Judith Eastman(-Williams), PhD - Unsinkable II]Judy cracked a smile. Syl reminded her of herself, in a way. "I was like that myself back in the day; still am, despite the aging. You just need that fresh air sometimes," she observed. "As for horseback riding, how did that come about for you?"For Judy, riding horses was something she'd done intermittenly over the decades, not a regular hobby.
Tag Syl O'Connell
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Syl O'Connell
Flight Control
[TI8]
Posts: 662 Likes: 9
Rank: Lieutenant Junior Grade
Position: Flight Control/Caldonia 5
Species: Human
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Post by Syl O'Connell on May 28, 2021 14:26:02 GMT
[Ens. Syl O'Connell - Kerelia - Unsinkable II]This was something she could talk about easily, no matter who was asking the questions. The times in her life that she had been truly happy, and free from the burdens of expectations and abuse. The times she truly felt alive, and knew who she actually was as an individual. "My roommate in my first year at the Academy had been raised on a ranch. Horses were her life, before Starfleet. So immediately after moving to San Francisco, she found this stables just outside the city, and invited me along for a trail ride as a bonding thing. We ended up going out there almost every weekend." After Syl had pushed her away a couple years later, she then turned to the holosuites to satisfy that need to fly without ever leaving the ground. But she didn't particularly feel like going into that part of the story, lest it bring about questions regarding the part of her life she didn't feel like talking about to just anyone.
Tag Judith Eastman
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Judith Eastman
Civilian
Grandma
Posts: 2,593 Likes: 84
Rank: Civilian/other
Position: Civil Servant
Species: Human
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Post by Judith Eastman on May 28, 2021 15:58:19 GMT
[Capt. Judith Eastman(-Williams), PhD - Unsinkable II]"Oh, that sounds lovely," Judy said. "During my college days, I went to Berkeley for my undergrad, our thing was bicycles. We'd just ride around the Bay Area," she added, drawing on her own memories from that era. "One time, a friend and I decided to ride the length of the Bay Bridge, through the fog. That was... well, the hubris of youth. I don't think we would've survived it on horseback"It was no Boston, but between Berkeley, Stanford, and Starfleet Academy, the Bay Area had plenty of recklessly irresponsible students of prestigious ancient colleges.
Tag Syl O'Connell
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Syl O'Connell
Flight Control
[TI8]
Posts: 662 Likes: 9
Rank: Lieutenant Junior Grade
Position: Flight Control/Caldonia 5
Species: Human
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Post by Syl O'Connell on May 29, 2021 2:13:17 GMT
[Ens. Syl O'Connell - Kerelia - Unsinkable II]Syl chuckled softly as she tried to imagine a group of riders urging horses across the bridge in the fog. "You would have been lucky to even get a horse to go into the fog," she replied in amusement. Opening the water bottle, she took a sip before setting it back in the cup holder. "My biking days were over before I even left the Academy. Too many leg injuries." Okay, she hadn't been preparing to go there, and she darted her eyes down to the panel in front of her to make sure they were on the correct course. "So do we need to do anything specific, or just sail along and let the sensors do their job?" Part of her was trying to move the attention away from her moment of oversharing, but she also wanted to make sure they weren't too caught in their conversation and missing what they should be doing.
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Judith Eastman
Civilian
Grandma
Posts: 2,593 Likes: 84
Rank: Civilian/other
Position: Civil Servant
Species: Human
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Post by Judith Eastman on May 29, 2021 2:42:43 GMT
[Capt. Judith Eastman(-Williams), PhD - Unsinkable II]Judy was somewhat familiar with O'Connell's personnel file, but the comment about leg injuries caught her off-guard. No, that wasn't something she'd expected. And it didn't seem like something the young woman had meant to say, as she course-corrected the conversation. "Just general-purpose scans. If we find anything interesting, that's a problem," she explained. However, her mind wandered back to the matter of the injuries. "You know, there's a way past injuries. I've got two bad knees, a big metal plate in my ass, and a mechanical heart, and I'm still active."Somewhere in Judy's subconscious, she was speaking to emotional injuries too.
Tag Syl O'Connell
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Syl O'Connell
Flight Control
[TI8]
Posts: 662 Likes: 9
Rank: Lieutenant Junior Grade
Position: Flight Control/Caldonia 5
Species: Human
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Post by Syl O'Connell on May 29, 2021 3:08:56 GMT
[Ens. Syl O'Connell - Kerelia - Unsinkable II]Syl paused, staring out at the open water ahead of them. With the 'duty' aspect of their trip only requiring general scans, she wouldn't be able to keep the conversation centered on work. So she took a steadying breath and nodded in agreement with the comment about repairing injuries. "Everything from back then has healed enough to meet and maintain Starfleet fitness requirements for pilots. The problem comes with every time a bone breaks, it just becomes easier to break again. It gets to a point where there aren't enough healthy cells to regenerate." She ran her fingertips beneath the brim of her hat, scratching at a sudden itch on her scalp. "Dr. Baker and I discussed it when we came back. I'm looking into bone grafts for my left arm." While she wasn't in need of them yet, how easily it had fractured when she was grabbed in the ambush was a cause for concern for them both. A simple fall might break it beyond repair. "And if I have one more concussion to my prefrontal cortex, I'll need a neural implant to help with short-term memory." Thankfully, as the Captain had described, modern medicine did have ways to keep a damaged body going. Had she gone through what she did even one century ago, her career would have been over before it even started.
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Judith Eastman
Civilian
Grandma
Posts: 2,593 Likes: 84
Rank: Civilian/other
Position: Civil Servant
Species: Human
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Post by Judith Eastman on May 29, 2021 4:38:40 GMT
[Capt. Judith Eastman(-Williams), PhD - Unsinkable II]Judy nodded. "Personally, I'm a big believer in preventive care; fix it before something happens. Dr. Baker knows better than I do, but if she thinks it's a good idea, I'd look favorably at the grafts."Judy took in a breath of the ocean air as she contemplated whether to add more unsolicited advice. "Beyond that, you look for the lifestyle changes that help you get the most out of your body. I made a switch from jogging to swimming a few years back, for the sake of my joints, and I can tell you that had a huge impact. Plus, the right diet does wonders."Then, another, totally unrelated thing came to mind. "I hope you used sunscreen before we left," the captain said, gesturing at her handbag.
Tag Syl O'Connell
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Syl O'Connell
Flight Control
[TI8]
Posts: 662 Likes: 9
Rank: Lieutenant Junior Grade
Position: Flight Control/Caldonia 5
Species: Human
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Post by Syl O'Connell on May 29, 2021 13:00:18 GMT
[Ens. Syl O'Connell - Kerelia - Unsinkable II]Syl nodded in agreement at the advice about preventative lifestyle changes. It was a conversation she'd had with Dr. Foust before leaving the Academy, and with the exception of the mining she'd been forced to do for a month, she had made adjustments to her levels and types of physical activity. The conversation turned to sunscreen, and a wry grin lifted the corners of her lips as as she nodded once more. "I've had enough sun burns to last me a lifetime." Though the Kerelian sun was so mild compared to that over Caldonia, she doubted it would be able to penetrate her tan. But especially now that she was being eased back into work, it was a risk she didn't feel like taking.
Tag Judith Eastman
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Judith Eastman
Civilian
Grandma
Posts: 2,593 Likes: 84
Rank: Civilian/other
Position: Civil Servant
Species: Human
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Post by Judith Eastman on May 29, 2021 17:34:23 GMT
[Capt. Judith Eastman(-Williams), PhD - Unsinkable II]Now there was another thing Judy could understand. She'd never been to a labor camp, but she had been sunburned quite often in her life. "That's something I've been through as well. I've been sunburned sitting by a window for too long, and not just once."With her very pale complexion, Judy was an authority on the subject. "Heck, one of the main advantages - for me, personally - of serving in space, is freedom from sunburns."She pushed her reading glasses down, letting them hang by their chain, and put on her sunglasses.
Tag Syl O'Connell
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Syl O'Connell
Flight Control
[TI8]
Posts: 662 Likes: 9
Rank: Lieutenant Junior Grade
Position: Flight Control/Caldonia 5
Species: Human
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Post by Syl O'Connell on May 29, 2021 20:41:52 GMT
[Ens. Syl O'Connell - Kerelia - Unsinkable II]"Thankfully, I've never burned that easily," the younger woman replied with a degree of amusement in her voice. "I lucked out with my mom's complexion." Her father was a bit more fair-skinned, hailing from the Western-European regions of Earth. Her mother's ancestors were Mediterranean, and their olive tone had passed down well throughout the lineage. Her attention was drawn to the navigational console as it chirped, and her fingers slid across the panel to correct their heading in order to stay on course. The Captain had been right about this being an easy job, and Syl was happy to enjoy the fresh salty air, and the gentle rocking of the waves beneath them.
Tag Judith Eastman
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Judith Eastman
Civilian
Grandma
Posts: 2,593 Likes: 84
Rank: Civilian/other
Position: Civil Servant
Species: Human
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Post by Judith Eastman on May 29, 2021 22:59:46 GMT
[Capt. Judith Eastman(-Williams), PhD - Unsinkable II]"As you can see, I didn't," Judy said with a hint of laughter. "It's those Jewish genes. The skin, and the nose."What had been a hurtful stereotype generations ago (the prominent nose), was now something Judy enjoyed joking about. Enjoying the pleasantly warm day, Judy took off her turtleneck, showing her fit - and very pale - arms in the sleeveless uniform undershirt.
Tag Syl O'Connell
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Syl O'Connell
Flight Control
[TI8]
Posts: 662 Likes: 9
Rank: Lieutenant Junior Grade
Position: Flight Control/Caldonia 5
Species: Human
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Post by Syl O'Connell on May 29, 2021 23:37:57 GMT
[Ens. Syl O'Connell - Kerelia - Unsinkable II]Although she relaxed back in her chair and took another drink from the water bottle, Syl did not follow suit by reducing the amount of layers she was wearing. One lingering side effect of being so malnourished for so long, and her body having adjusting to the blistering, suffocating heat of the Caldonian desert, was that she still tended to get cold easily. While she acknowledged it was a beautiful day, and once upon a time she'd be wearing as little clothing as she could have gotten away with... now she knew the wind that blew over the waves would cut right to her bones if she gave it the chance. That particular topic of conversation seemed to have come to a natural end, and Syl wasn't sure what else to bring up, so she took another drink of water and waited to see if the Captain had anything else in mind.
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