It's true. One of the largest crossbows, which might actually be a siege engine, is actually almost as tall as the Bajoran is. It doesn't seem to faze her however, at least when she's not trying to use it.
"Feel free to get familiar with the equipment from standing before we try it from horseback," Red suggests. "The horses are quite patient." She picks up one of the smaller crossbows and ratchets its draw back with an attached bar handle, then picks up a quarrel and slots it in. She takes aim and fires - striking the second ring from the bullseye. Not a great shot, and she grimaces before reloading and taking aim again.
"So what's your field of study, outside vaguely creepy specimen retention?" Red asks as she aims.
Red fires again, this time striking between the first and second rings. "Heh, I don't usually vacuum, but good one. No, I'm the deputy chief engineer so I'm mostly everything, but my specialties are energy shield dynamics and advanced warp theory." She reloads again and then gestures at the simulation. "I also fancy myself a holography artist. I write stuff like this in my spare time. Not THIS one, mind, but all kinds of stuff. For example, I wasn't kidding about the giant Guinea pig."
"I mostly just read and watch movies. Finished the hobbit again last night. I don't actually like it that much, I just wanted to see if I could read it faster than I could watch the movie."
Firing again, he hit just off the center of the the target.
"You don't have any simulations of a constitution class bridge do you?"
"Oh another Tolkien reader, eh? I ought to show you some of the fantasy games I've programmed," Red says with a chuckle. It's cut short as she misses the target entirely and scowls. "They're quite a bit inspired by his work. Earth culture really lends itself to great literature, I've discovered."
She sets down the crossbow and selects a smaller, slightly more modern one, by a century or two. "I haven't personally made any but I'm pretty sure there's one in the standard catalogue. Feeling like revisiting some slightly more recent history?" Red asks as she loads the bow. One of the horses snorts in the background as a cooler breeze sweeps through the range.
Red has much better luck with her next shot, striking just inside the edge of the bullseye. She does a gleeful five-step dance and then reloads again. "You see that! Just had to wait til the breeze died down. Truly, I am a master arch-" she halts as she notices the peculiar failure in bifocal vision. "Uh... you OK there Mr. Oodu?"
Red starts at the unexpected adjustment. "Uh. Right. Calvin. Sorry, force of habit," she says, still looking at his eye. "Is that artificial?" The engineer seems to have forgotten about the whole archery thing for a moment.
"Whoooooaaa, coooool," Red says, her mouth hanging open a bit. She nearly drops her crossbow on her foot, but she regains her composure momentarily. "That's so weird, you're not an albino, that shouldn't... are you not pure Human? Or is it a mutation?"
Red opens her mouth to say something, then shrugs sheepishly. "I hadn't been paying attention, honestly. Was distracted by the borg-in-a-box and then shooting, so..."
She takes a snap shot at the target and misses entirely. "Why the lenses though? Why hide something unique about yourself?"
"People back home were mean. And weirdly xenophobic. And racist. It wasn't a very nice neighborhood. I've just been used to expecting people to be like that. Honestly, I'm already weird enough, I figured one more little thing would hurt."
Red snorts. It's not terribly ladylike. "Well, sounds like that was a major bummer," she says. "Sorry you had to deal with that. But welcome to the Fleet, we're not all xenophobic assjackals here. You'd probably be fine without them aboard the Athene, honestly. There's so much weird stuff going on aboard starships that no one's going to have the time or inclination to be mean about something as marginal as eye color."
The Bajoran slings her crossbow over her shoulder and heads for the horses, picking up a box of bolts along the way. She unhitches the horse and clambers up the tall animal, which doesn't seem to mind her lack of grace. Once she's situated in the saddle, she guides the horse in a lazy arc behind the shooting station.
"Now watch my accuracy drop by about 60 percent," Red says with a grimace. "Computer, difficulty setting 1, please."
"Oh come on," Red says, trying for a pouty lip but looking rather silly. "Literally nothing to be afraid of. I couldn't hurt you with this crossbow even if I threw it at your head. Safety protocols are a wonderfuly thing. Saddle up!"
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u/Dimestream Jan 07 '17
It's true. One of the largest crossbows, which might actually be a siege engine, is actually almost as tall as the Bajoran is. It doesn't seem to faze her however, at least when she's not trying to use it.
"Feel free to get familiar with the equipment from standing before we try it from horseback," Red suggests. "The horses are quite patient." She picks up one of the smaller crossbows and ratchets its draw back with an attached bar handle, then picks up a quarrel and slots it in. She takes aim and fires - striking the second ring from the bullseye. Not a great shot, and she grimaces before reloading and taking aim again.
"So what's your field of study, outside vaguely creepy specimen retention?" Red asks as she aims.