| abstract
| - It was Spring Leave for the cadets at Starfleet Academy; everyone was ether using the time to get some needed rest, or just going off to enjoy their time in some tropical paradise. Some of the more stupid cadets even decided to get themselves expelled during the Academy Leave. Ivah however didn't want to do any of that; she had never really liked being on planets, but she had no choice right now. Ivah had tried to book a free Transpo-Shuttle flight on a two week trip too the best of the Sol system; but there was no more booking spaces. So Ivah had just decided to stay bored. All Ivah had planned for leave was catching up on some reading she had been doing. She sat in the Academy "Bar" (a good bar that is), reading a PADD with a 22nd century book on it. Ivah was reading "To Boldly Go...", by Johnathan Archer and eating her favorite dessert, chocolate-coffee ice cream with toffee. A few hours into reading, four of the "more intelligent cadets" at the Academy came over to her table. One of them was a woman and the rest of them were men. "So Ivah," said one of the four, "what are you going to be doing over the next four weeks of leave?" "Oh, just read and catch up on some stuff." Ivah didn't know the four cadets that well because she wasn't really that talkative -- Ivah had aways been shy around people that she didn't know that well. It was only until she had a good relationship with someone that she could talk about almost anything. "Is that it?" asked another one of them. "Well -- yeah, ----- I don't really have anything else to do." One of them sat down. "If you want to keep spending all your free time reading --- then you should keep reading, but if you want to have some actual fun this leave --- you should go with us to Pluto." "So your going to go have a camp out and look at the stars?" Ivah joked. "No silly," the youngest said, "the four of us actually decided on going Orbital Moon Jumping." Ivah thought about it for a second. She knew it was okay for cadets to go off-planet during leave. She also knew that Moon Jumping was legal around Pluto. So Ivah decided to go. "Well," Ivah said, "you offer is so nice that it doesn't seem I can decline and I've never done it before, so -- I'll come." "I knew you would." said the one sitting at the table. It was cold in space -- very cold. That was one of the reasons for wearing spacesuits when Orbital Moon Jumping. So after the five cadets finished putting spacesuits on they headed out for Pluto's highest peak, Perkins Peak. Three of the cadets went right away. "So Ivah," said the last cadet, "Orbital Moon Jumping is simple, -- all you have to do is aim for the side of one of Pluto's three moons, and jump. Doing this will allow you orbit around the moon and land back on Pluto safely." "What if I jump too far?" Ivah asked. "It's okay, you can never jump hard enough to jump 'too far.'" he replied "Oh, ------ well what about ending up miles and miles away from the base?" she asked again. "Then just tap your combadge and the base will beam you back." Ivah was scared. She knew it was safe, but she also knew that space was huge and that this was literally making the Universe your playground. She had a few second thoughts for a moment, but she still decided to do it. "I'll only go if we go together." Ivah demanded. "Well okay Ivah, but at some point your going to want to try it by yourself." The two held hands tightly -- and jumped. As the ground of Pluto got farther and farther from their feet and almost nothing seemed to surround them, everything seemed to stand still. "So how come you can have so much fun between your studies?" Ivah asked. "Well," he paused, "I was always told by my parents that you need to 'learn to breathe' differently to incorporate fun into your life." "Oh."
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)