Rocket walked down the hall, attempting to redo her messed up hair. She had just split up a fight between two crew members: one had thought that the other was a pirate who had somehow gotten on the starship. I wonder if I should recomend that guy for counseling. she thought, giving up on her ponytail and letting her hair down. Deciding that it was best to do so, she jogged over to the turbolift.
As she rode down, she thought about her home in New York City. She remebered how her mom used to paint pictures of central park, while her dad put toy boats on the pond and her sister played softball. She hadn't even been away from home for a year, but the events on the starship Athena made it seem a lot longer than it was. Pushing away her homesickness, she fiddled with her hair, wondering if she should get it cut.
The turbolift opened, and Rocket walked down the deck towards the councilor's office. As she walked by the holodeck, she noticed that someone was in it. She could hear the sounds of bats on balls and announcers telling the score. Curious, she poked her head in.
Rocket immediately recognized the game, as her family had always been big fans of baseball. She saw the ship's engineer playing as an umpire, totally absorbed in the sport. She waved at him in greeting, hoping that he wouldn't be upset that she popped in.
[Holodeck]
"Out!" Dylan called, as the runner tried- and failed- to slide into second base. It was very close, but Dylan was pretty sure in his call. Following the programming, the scoreboard updating, the red bulbs for the "outs" now blazing two. The crowd reacted in kind, some booing, some cheering, and others just screaming because they could. The score was four to three in the bottom of the fifth. Two men on, and a third coming up to bat. The aroma was just as it should be, and the environment was almost perfect.
Though on some days Dylan might have preferred to take on the sport, today he felt like not playing, and observing the scenarios around him as the umpire. The next batter walked up, and Dylan resumed his position between second and first bases, watching. With a man on first and third, and the team at-bat down by one, what Dylan would have done was to aim for either a hard hit outside the park or a line drive down one of the foul lines. They only needed a base hit to get this game tied. What happened next, however, was very different from what he had expected.
The runner on first faked a steal, starting to move toward second. The instant the player moved, it was called out by the first baseman. The pitcher heard, and turned, firing the ball straight to second faster than a rocket, as the runner on first doubled back. By that time, the runner on third was halfway toward home. Before the fielders could react, the second baseman had fired the ball at first, trying to cut off the runner, to no avail. By now, the runner was almost home as the catcher called out in futility. The ball was quickly spun and shot toward Home, as the runner at home dove headfirst into home, barreling over the catcher as he dove, the ball reaching the catcher a half second too late. Run scored. The pitcher screamed for interference, but Dylan shook his head. The programming and reactions were very human, almost perfectly so. With the argument presented and denied, the game continued, the gutsy play having payed off.
Dylan saw the holodeck open, and as the next play resulted in the third out, called the out. The ball was a line drive straight toward the center fielder, who ran backwards and caught the ball off of an off-leg jump. Keeping possession, as the teams filed into their respective dugouts to receive their gear and switch sides. An announcer's voice boomed over them. "And a terrific play by Peterson sends us into the top of the sixth, with one left on. It's four four today at Great American Ballpark!"
Indeed, the field around them was a perfect imitation of the field, before it had been destroyed in the nuclear wars of Earth's past. Dylan waved back at the figure who had entered the deck. As if it had been planned, one of the teams called a timeout, and Dylan was more than willing to oblige. He walked over to the new arrival, a foolish grin on his face. He wasn't in his Starfleet uniform anymore, he had sometime changed into appropriate clothes for his role.
"Ms. Rose. Welcome to my little corner of the galaxy." He said with a chuckle. He wasn't upset at all with her coming, he did feel a bit self-conscious about how into the game he'd been. "What can I do for you?"