A Pucking Good Time

Posted on Sun Mar 15th, 2026 @ 5:34am by Lieutenant Kally Kellerman & Ensign Henry Taylor & Lieutenant JG Raven Windancer & Tessa di'Orion

Mission: A Princess Of Tial
Location: Holodeck 1
Timeline: I'll figure it out

Kally walked down the corridor, looking people over as she passed. She paused as she saw someone walking into the lounge. She hurried her step as the other woman entered the room.

"Lieutenant!" she called.

Raven's head snapped up, and saw a young, blond woman headed her way.

"Eh, what's up, Doc?" Raven joked, playing the part of an Ancient Earth rabbit.

Kally caught up and gave a wave. She'd met their helmswoman briefly during staff meetings, but they hadn't socialized much. "So, Raven, I need your help. My head nurse and his girlfriend has challenged me to some kind of two-on-two recreational battle Terrans engage in, and I need a partner. Are you game?"

"Battle huh? That could be any number of things. Any idea what he had in mind?" Raven asked, giving the blond the once-over.

"Honestly? I have no idea what it is," Kally said. "He just said find a partner with good hand-eye coordination. Who better than you?" She gave Raven a grin and bounced on her toes. "So....you game? Holodeck One in an hour?"

"Sure! Heck, I was getting a little bored." Raven laughed, energized by this girl's excitement.

"Great! He said dress for a fun day out. See you in an hour!" She walked away quickly to change out of her uniform.

---

Kally walked up to the holodeck and saw Raven coming from the other end. Kally was in a simple tshirt and shorts and sneakers, ready for anything. "Hey!" she said, brightly. "Ready to do battle?"

"Hey yourself! Sure am!" Raven was dressed in Capri style long shorts, t-shirt, and all-terrain sneakers with her hair tucked under a 'Thundering Lunkers' baseball cap

"Here we go," Kally said.

Kally stepped in front of the holodeck doors, and the assault was immediate. A wall of sound flew out at them, a cacophony of bells, whistles, dings and pings. Lights were flashing, blinking and swirling from the various machines in the warehouse-sized room.

The women stepped inside, the doors closing behind them and disappearing, replaced with a set of glass doors showing a sunny day and a parking lot.

"What in the hell," Kally said, looking around.

"Over here!" Henry said above the din. He and Tessa were standing among a few large, rectangular tables, beckoning them over.

"An Arcade!? Dang, ain't been in one of these places since my first winning race with the Thundering Lunkers," Raven chuckled softly, appreciating the retro feel of the place.

Tessa was there with Henry, eyes bright and blue as she spun one of the blockers in the palm of her left hand as she grinned at Kally and Raven. "Lady Windancer, Lady Kellerman, thank you both for coming!"

"Raven, may I introduce my Head Nurse, Henry Taylor, and our Resident Trainee, Tessa Orion," Kally said, gesturing to her two coworkers.

"Greetings, Tessa. Hi, Henry! This is quite an interesting place." Raven greeted, slightly puzzled by Tessa calling her 'Lady' Windancer.

"Welcome to Past Times Arcade," Henry said, grinning. "The best place to visit in Youngstown. Well, just outside of it." He waved his arms around. "They've been around for centuries, and specialize in old-fashioned games of chance and skill. Tessa and I were discussing what we did for fun on our home worlds, so I thought I'd introduce her to some things."

"And he's absolutely right!" Tessa agreed, "The things I do for fun at home are um... Not as colorful as this? Then again, there isn't really much to do for fun on Tial that has even this level of technology!" She grinned widely, "And so he's been showing me some things and this is so much fun we decided to invite someone for a battle!"

Kally looked between them, then settled her gaze on Henry and shook her head. "This new 'cheery' version of you is still getting some taking used to," she teased, but she was smiling. "So what's this 'battle' you're talking about?"

"It's called 'air hockey'," Henry said. "Take your positions on the opposite side of the table and I'll explain the rules."

"AIR HOCKY!? YES!! I haven't played that since my last year at the Academy!" Raven whooped, then covered her mouth, blushing as the holodeck teens gave her death glares.

Kally was immediately double-glad she'd picked a Terran for her partner. "Well, since I'm the only one who doesn't know this game, someone clue me in?"

"It's pretty straightforward," Henry said. "We each have a paddle," he held up the blue object in his hand, as did Tessa. "You use that to strike this puck," he held up a thin, round disk, "across the table into our goal, and we try to get it into yours to score a point." He indicated the two slots on either side of the table. "Most points in five minutes wins. The puck hovers on a thin layer of air so it moves smoothly. Block our shots, get past our defenses, and you win."

"But good luck on that!" Tessa grinned widely at both of the others, "I've gotten the hang of this one and I'm better than him about it." She gave a quick glance up at him, even though it may not even be true. She was just having too much fun with it.

"Oh it is on!" Raven was so excited about playing Air Hockey again, bouncing on her toes as she waited for the game to begin, batting the paddle back and forth between my hands.

Kally grabbed her paddle and stood next to Raven. "I am so glad I picked a ringer," she said, grinning. She took a stance similar to the others and braced herself. "Ready...I think."

Henry hit the activation button and the table lit up as a row of lights flew around the edge and the tabletop lit up. Henry put the puck in the center of the table where it floated and put his paddle on the table, the others doing the same.

The indicator above the table beeped and a countdown started. 3...2...1....

Henry's hand lashed out and connected with the puck, sending it speeding past Kally, knowing the weak link on the team. Kally missed the puck going by because she'd chosen that moment to blink. The puck ricocheted off the wall and straight into the goal.

"And that's one to us," Henry said.

Kally looked at Henry and Tessa's grins, then at her partner. "You serve, I'll protect. Let's destroy them."

"Right! Hit me with your best shot!" Raven started singing an Ancient Earth song that she'd come to love as she got ready for the next attack. The counter hit zero and Raven whacked the puck squarely, sending it flying toward Henry's goal.

Tessa's reflexes were ready and equal to the task, her paddle flashing between the puck and the goal, adding some sideways movement to it and adding her own shot to it, the puck zipping off of one wall and finding it's way between both Kally's and Raven's panels to the corner where it bounced back the way it came right at Tessa again who added more angle to the puck to bounce it off the wall in a shot that would bank directly towards the opposing goal.

"On it," Kally said, watching the puck move. She brought her paddle back towards the goal to block it, and as the puck came close she knocked it sideways towards Raven.

Raven smacked the puck left, then it jinked right through Henry and Tessa's defenses!

This time Tessa wasn't able to react in time and scowled at Raven as the puck squeaked past her and into her goal. "Lucky little.." She muttered as she retrieved it and placed it on the table before giving the puck an intentional hard bouncing shot that zipped past the questing paddles of both Kally and Raven, then off the opposite wall and flashed right back past the two women once more before they could react to it, but then past Henry's and Tessa's own before unerringly sliding back into her goal. Tessa flushed red and withdrew the puck and handed it to Henry this time wordlessly.

"If I had a gold plated latinum bar for how many times I'd done that, Tessa, I could buy Chimera myself!" Raven tried to cheer the other woman up.

Henry grabbed the puck and placed it on the table. He knocked it hard to the side towards Kally, but she was ready for it this time and returned the serve. Henry intercepted again and this time sent it towards Raven, taking a moment to kiss Tessa's cheek. "Get 'em," he whispered.

As the puck came back at them, he pulled his paddle back, defending their goal, letting Tessa go on the attack.

Tessa's eyes lit up as she kept her eyes on the puck, bringing her arm back in preparation to launch a brutal shot. Her hand whipcracked forward, her shot clearly about to carom off one board and in, drawing Raven's paddle towards the edge of the goal and she whiffed, drawing her own paddle off to the side as Henry's paddle came forward and took the open shot direct into the goal. "Yesss!" Tessa spun around from the momentum she had and smacked Henry on his butt in glee, "Knew that would work!"

Henry jumped high enough to risk hitting the ceiling at the attack to his rear and gave a shy smile. "Well, I can't argue with celebration," he said.

"I'm good with it," Kally said, putting the puck down and lashing out, knocking it straight into their goal while they recovered from their celebratory slap. She smiled and nudged Raven. "Feel free to give me one of those if the spirit moves you," she said, grinning.

"Sfg g hhjtcfddms hf a yeowwvn." Raven sputtered out something unintelligible, whether from embarrassment or just straight shock, she wasn't sure.

Henry scowled and put the puck back on the table, firing again, aiming for between them, hoping they'd collide trying to defend it and lose control.

"Oh no you don't! Enguard!" Raven smacked the puck...and it flew off the table!

"Aaaaand that happens every once in awhile too." Raven giggled.

"And that's a point to us," Henry said smugly, adjusting the score.

"That does not earn you a celebratory spank," Kally said, although she left it open as to whether she was talking to Henry or Raven. As Henry sent the puck back over and Raven blocked, Kally smirked at them. "So what else have you two been doing for fun?"

Henry shrugged as Tessa hit the puck back. "Chess, dancing. Currently working our way through the Oz books."

"And those are brutal!" Tessa took the rebound shot from Kally and gave it a sharp hit to get it bouncing of the walls again, "A story about a serial killer that's supposedly meant for kids? I mean, you have a stranger coming to town where she kills a prominent citizen, steals her prized possessions, only to join with three others to go on a question to kill another! Tell me that's not creepy!"

"As I've explained, that is not the point of the plot," Henry said as the puck slid past him. "Not that the second book is much better, to be fair." He quickly corrected and sent it flying towards Raven again.

"Not happening! Seriously, that's messed up!" Raven barely deflected the puck before shaking her head at the weirdness of the book.

"Oh yes, the second book." Tessa mentioned deadpan. "Princess gets kidnapped and transformed into a boy. That isn't happening when we have our children, our girls will remain girls! And hopefully it'll be soon!" She smacked the puck as it came into her reach, send it past the frozen Kally with her jaw dropped open, scoring the next goal, "What? Cat got your tongue?"

"I....was not aware you two were definitively trying," Kally said.

"Surprise," Henry said, sheepishly. "On the bright side, I can safely say our children won't be set upon by a wicked witch."

"Those green-skinned bimbos will have to go through me, and they'll have their work cut out for them!" Tessa declared.

"There was only one, and she's already melted," Henry said, tracking the puck as Kally shot it towards them. "The bimbos were the Oz city guards after the coup, and they're happily back to bimbo-ing." He returned the puck and watched it go.

"I assume this makes sense to Terrans?" Kally said, glancing at Raven as she watched the puck ricochet off the side away from her.

"Define making sense." Raven shook herself to realign with reality after what she'd just heard, trying desperately to remember if she'd known the two were a couple beforehand...and coming up empty. Raven smacked the puck before looking at the scoreboard.

Henry saw her eyes flicker and hit it back, aiming it towards Raven while she was distracted. Kally, however, reached out and intercepted, sending it careening wildly back and forth towards Henry and Tessa.

Henry and Tessa followed it and both reached out together, their combined paddles canceling any trajectory they'd been trying for and instead sending it dead center down the table.

"NOPE!" Raven yelped, hitting it at just the right angle to shoot across the table, come back to her side, and zip back!

"Ha! We're tied!" Raven whooped, bouncing on her toes.

Kally also let out a cheer and gave Raven a playful smack on the rear. "Now that shot was worthy of celebration!" she said, grinning.

"EEEP!" Raven yelped, bouncing higher in surprise before rubbing her rear.

Henry put the puck down and shot it, hoping to use their distraction again, but Kally was ready and fired back, not letting the same trick work twice.

Tessa intercepted and used a bank off the wall to try to get behind Kally's paddle but had it returned to her right away. She changed her angle again to make a similar move to Raven's side but changed it enough to force the two to intercept in the middle so that their paddles bounced off each other, the puck ricocheting off Kally's, then Raven's and finally into the goal, "Ha!"

"Oh drat!" Raven huffed, rubbing her hand which had gotten bruised in the collision. Raven retrieved the puck, looked at the table for a moment, set the puck down slowly...and hit it fast! The puck ricocheted clear around the table as they watched, then slowed precisely in the center.

The four players watched the puck, then their teammates, then their opponents. Four paddles lashed out. Tessa's arm struck out like a cobra, years of training having honed her reaction skills. Kally's surgical skills made her hand-eye coordination top-notch and she could rush to the puck without having to check where her paddle was in relation. Raven's years of playing air hockey gave her a skill advantage that trumped both other women's natural talents.

Henry was 6'3".

His arm shot past the others and he hit the puck strong before the others got there, sending it shooting straight to his opponent's goal.

The board lit up with their scores: Henry and Tessa had six points, Kally and Raven had four. The air closed off and the table went dark.

"Congratulations," Kally said, looking at Henry. "You're on Delta shift for the next two weeks."

"Ah shucks. Good game, guys. It was really good to be able to play again." Raven held her hand out to Henry and Tessa.

Tessa intercepted Raven's hand first, but her jaw dropped at her boss, "You can't do that, Kally! That's not fair! Raven, tell her it's not fair!"

"Um...it's not fair?" Raven'd apparently missed something, but she was ok going along with this for now.

Kally smiled at Raven, plucking at her sleeve gently.

"C'mon, Kally. Tell her you were kidding," Henry said.

"I love that top," Kally said to Raven, examining Raven's shirt. "Wanna come to my quarters and let me try it on?"

"Kally," Henry said.

"All right, all right," Kally said, rolling her eyes. "I'm just giving you a hard time. No Delta shifts." She glanced at Raven, smiling. "I do like that top, though."

"Ththanks. Er...it's from a place on Thrax IX." Raven stammered, messing with the shirt's hem self-consciously.

[Yesh! Why the heck can't I take a compliment!?] Raven thought with a soft huff.

"Rematch?" Henry said, twirling his paddle.

The ladies grinned at each other and Henry dropped the puck back onto the table.