I Don't Mind a Reasonable Amount of Trouble, Part I

Posted on Tue Dec 23rd, 2025 @ 1:20pm by Ensign Garabed "Garo" Hakobyan & Ensign Tenzi Sh'reyva & Master Chief Petty Officer Vashti Rao & Petty Officer 2nd Class Zal Rixi & Crewman Emiliano Echevarria & Sub-Lieutenant Osirin Acainus & Josef Forstinger & Lieutenant JG Jason Williams III & Ensign Luciana Aguila & Petty Officer 3rd Class Dallas Reese

1,036 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Shadow in the Static
Location: Holodeck 2, Deck 4
Timeline: 1830 Hours

Heat rushed in first. Not the same kind of heat from engines or plasma coils, but the dusty warmth of Los Angeles in the late afternoon. Asphalt shimmered. Somewhere nearby, a streetcar bell clanged with a tired insistence. The smell hit them next: cigarettes, hot oil, something sweet and rotting from an alley that probably never saw the sun.

Main Street stretched out in front of them, sun-bleached and busy in its peculiar wartime style--everything moving but never really thriving. Cars nosed past one another like suspicious oversized mice. A newsboy shouted headlines about rationing and something called Operation Reckless. Overhead, a billboard loomed smugly, promising that Luckies were 'toasted' and therefore good for you, which everyone knew was a lie but pretended otherwise.

Vashti stepped through and felt the heat on her cheeks immediately.

The dress settled around her hips as though it belonged there. While not a slim woman, she was shapely and attractive in ways others would find very alluring--especially in that dress. The weight of it was different from her uniform. Lighter, but no less binding. Daphne Delaney was taking shape around her like a second skin: the ache of too many late nights, hope woven deep beneath a smile. The city looked at her with an appetite.

She paused on the sidewalk, letting the program wash over her. Somewhere behind her, a radio crackled with swing music through an open window. The sound was bright.

"Well," she said softly, "this place hasn't missed anyone."

Garo came through with less ceremony, one long step and then another. He was now Frankie Mancini, letting out a slow whistle while he adjusted his fedora in the bright sunshine.

"Yeah," he muttered, hands finding his pockets. "I've visited our Los Angeles once. Looked nothing like this one."

A wine red Packard Clipper backfired down the block. Garo flinched--only for a half-second--then smoothed it away, as though he were simply brushing lint from a good jacket. San Quentin hadn't been part of the program briefing, but he tried to let it live in his bones all the same.

Rixi and Tenzi followed together, linked by an elbow, laughter spilling out. They turned heads along the sidewalk--Vera and Sophie finally arriving like perfume to the holograms--sweet, distracting and extremely difficult to ignore.

"Tenz," Rixi said, her eyes darting this way and that, "if this town doesn't chew us up, I'll be disappointed."

Tenzi tipped her chin up toward the billboard. "I give it three hours before someone breaks my heart."

Emiliano came through next.

He stepped out slowly, fedora settling low over his forehead. The weight of his suit felt heavier here. Hank O'Malley took a breath and tasted only dust and automobile exhaust. Glancing down the street, then back at the group, he locked eyes with Luci--no, Ruthie--standing just behind Josef.

"Well," Emiliano said, voice low with skepticism, "I've had worse first days."

Luci made her way out from behind Josef and took in the sights before her. It was exactly like what she'd read about in her romance novels, and she had an almost overwhelming sense that this was going to be the day her character Ruthie broke some barriers.

She sidled up to Hank and placed a hand on his shoulder, a steadying kind of gesture, "Good luck, it looks like you're gonna need it."

Dallas let out a whistled as he felt the changes take affect and he became Johnny Marino, the clubs bartender who knew everyone and everything. His normally Midwestern accent changed to more of a Transatlantic accent when he said, "This might seem like a strange thing to say, but I feel like this is exactly where I belong." Even if the taste of the air around them wasn't nice, the views were amazing and more than made up for it.

Josef felt strange stepping through, taking a bit longer to adjust to everything around him than the others present. Dragging his foot across the street, hearing its texture rub against his boots. A far cry from the sterile hallways of the spaceship, he had grown accustomed to the past few days to weeks; he had lost track of time. And now looking up, felt the sun hit his face in what felt like forever, or at least it seemed to be the sun.

"Well, not quite as I remember my home. Then again, we're an ocean away. Strange to think my grandfathers fighting G.I's right now." he reminisced. Trying to picture the memory of his jolly old grandfather in a warzone, which was nigh impossible from what he knew of the man.

He continued by walking up behind Tenzi and looking up at the Billboard, letting out a light chuckle at the tagline before tapping her reassuringly on her shoulder. "Oh, please, I think at the club it'll be you and the girls doing the heartbreaking. And remember, Hollywood's just around the corner. One right move and you might be the next movie star, plus it's better than having to move crates all day," he encouraged her, as well as Rixi.

Stopping himself there, the man continued by cracking his knuckles with loud pops, adopting the character of Herbert Smith. His accent switches to a more Americanised one. Checking the watch affixed to his right wrist-revealed after having rolled up his shirts sleeves. "Well, 'bout time I start heading down there for my shift."

Rixi let Josef drift ahead before she moved, savouring the way the sidewalk felt beneath her heels. Vera had learned early on that city people liked confidence--they opened their doors to it, leaned in closer, shared secrets faster. Los Angeles was already watching her. She glanced over and noted how a pair of sailors slowed their walk, clocking her before averting their eyes.

She slipped her arm free of Tenzi's and smoothed her skirt. "I never imagined Earth would seem so..."

"Coarse?" Vashti offered with a smirk.

Rixi shook her head and grinned. "I wouldn't have said that. Did you see the way those men ogled me?"

Tenzi snorted. "Puh-leeze Vera," she said, rolling her eyes. "They were ogling yours truly."


~To Be Continued~

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