Janeway Lambda Two | Glowfic Constellation

"I see."

He clears his throat. "It seems galling, to me, to have no way to respond to insult. But I suppose you all must be used to it. ... In a way it might be more convenient. I had an ensign once who would not cease from challenging everyone in sight. I wonder what became of--"

"Well. Nothing became of him, I suppose."

The ensign, of course, was fictional. Like the rest of his life up until recently.

"Yeah."

He picks up a glass of wine and stares at it, annoyed.

"You know, for a conversation like that, it would be really nice if this were real alcohol. The Maquis have that right, at least."

It's kind of deflecting, but he has no clue what to say to that. Sorry your whole life is some holonovel?

"... real... alcohol?"

Boy, his life involves a lot of stupidly repeating other people's statements lately.

"Yeah, you can't actually get drunk off of stuff from the replicator. It uses some other chemical that tastes pretty much exactly like alcohol. 'Synthahol'."

He looks outraged. "It will not produce true alcohol at all?"

He takes a huge swig of wine, as if to drown his sorrows over the fact that this wine will not drown his sorrows.

"Nope! Starfleet doesn't approve of getting drunk."

Laurence looks at his wine with disgust, but drinks some anyway. "Appalling."

"So, how did you meet Captain Janeway? What role was she playing?"

Tom isn't quite sure about this line of inquiry, but figures if they're going to pretend to get drunk he should pretend to get drunk. And he's really curious.

"Role?"

"... oh. Yes. I suppose it was that."

"When I met her I was told her name was Lucy Davenport, a governess who had taken passage on my ship across the Atlantic."

He takes another pointless swig of wine.

"Huh. I guess it's not shocking that she wasn't a captain, since, you know, she can do that here. Not sure I would have expected a governess though..."

"Do you happen to know what the name of the holonovel was? I was entirely obsessed with the sea as a kid, read everything I could about naval adventures. I might have heard of it."

"Really! I was obsessed with the sea as a boy myself-- though perhaps moreso, since I ran away from home to join a ship's crew at twelve."

"As for the holonovel, I believe it was The Adventures of Captain William Laurence."

"I don't think I've heard of it."

Actually, it sort of rings a bell, but he definitely hasn't played it himself. Hmm...

"Ah, but you see, these days it's a lot harder to run away."

"I actually planned to join the naval patrol when after I graduated high school. But my dad wasn't having any of it."

He's a little shocked by this. "You would have run away, but your father... what, clapped you in irons?"

"Oh no, not at all."

"But, well, for one thing, the naval patrol only takes adults, which these days is defined as 18 year olds. So obviously a 12 year old couldn't pass. But even if I was, say, 15, they'd ask me for my name and they'd look me up in the computer and it would say 'Born 2347' and then they'd call my parents and ask them to pick me up."

"Good Lord." It's not as if Laurence thinks a boy of fifteen is a man, exactly, but to keep him from all freedom? All useful employment? "I cannot imagine for the life of me what I would have done were I forced to remain in my father's house until the age of eighteen."

"And what prevented you when you did reach that age?"

"Now that's where you've got me."

"I told myself that a Starfleet admiral could make my life difficult in the Naval Patrol. But really, I just wasn't up to standing up to him back then."

"Ah."

Whoops. He didn't really mean to call Tom out for rank cowardice, but it kinda seems like he did.

"So you joined Starfleet instead? ... And your father was an admiral?"

"Yep and yep. Still is, unless something's happened in the past 2 weeks."

"I see."

Laurence knows what it's like having a father who is powerful and overbearing. He... can't really imagine what it's like to choose to knuckle under to him instead of making his own way. It makes him feel sorry for Tom, a little.

"Well. If you still want that Navy post, the pair of us could both imagine our way to sailing on the holodeck," he says, half-joking, half-bitter. He drinks.

"I think I'd like that."

Laurence nods, not fully trusting himself to speak. In truth, he has no desire to go on vacation in the graveyard of his former life. But perhaps something will change... or perhaps they could visit a different holonovel. One with no people in it that he needs to mourn.

He's quiet for a while.