Tilt!

Posted on Wed Jun 24th, 2020 @ 2:56am by Commander Mindo & Lieutenant Alexandra Alves MD & Veronica Kiley
Edited on on Fri Jul 10th, 2020 @ 5:42pm

Mission: Death in Paradise
Location: Little Caesar's arcade (aka The Palace)
Timeline: current

ON

As the small little plumber man was hit by yet another barrel, sending him to his death, Mindo grunted with dissatisfaction. He was usually better at Donkey Kong than this. Maybe he was just tired. Training a new assistant and dealing with this whole Terrekal issue, plus preparing a statement for the murder investigation, was making him tired. Added to this were his responsibilities for Little Caesar's, the arcade program permanently running in what used to be one of the Holodecks, but was refurbished for Mindo's pet project. He'd named the place after an antique arcade he frequented whilst at the Academy called "Caesar's Palace." Because of this, he often referred to the place as "The Palace," though not intentionally. There were many, many arcade games of all shapes and sizes in the gigantic space on the bottom floor, with a cafe/bar up on the second, which also contained two air hockey tables, a few pinball machines, skee-ball, and a few other novelty games. The place was consistently loud, with the beeps and boops of the various games, plus the lively music playing at all times, which ranged from Troyian dance themes to old Earth rock and roll, plus everything in between.

Because of the noise, and also his concentration, he didn't hear or see Dr. Alves and her daughter enter the establishment.

Mother and daughter were both amazed when they looked around. It seemed like a separate little fantasy world, located inside a hidden corner of the ship. It was the very first time for Veronica to see such ancient devices, and Alexandra wasn't really familiar with them either. They seemed like some sort of magic items, which belong to this mysterious little magical elf, who happened to be the chief engineer.

"Wow! Moom! Look at that!", the girl pointed at a machine which looked like a soccer game with miniature figures, but her voice was lost among all the noise.

"Hello!", the doctor shouted, hoping that her voice will be loud enough to be heard, "Mr. Mindo!"

Mindo turned and saw the good doctor with Veronica, her daughter.

"Hello Doctor," he said, jumping off the small platform on which he had been standing. "Welcome to Little Caesar's, also known as 'The Palace.' What do you think?"

"Quite an impressive collection.", Alexandra said with a friendly smile, "Must've taken some time and effort to find all these little treasures."

"Mr. Mindo... can I... can I... play with that soccer game over there?", Veronica then interrupted, on a truly eager voice and with puppy eyes, pointing in the direction of the machine she spotted earlier.

"Er, yeah," said Mindo. "Grab one of those crates so you can see the screen," he added, pointing to one of the crates resting against the wall. "Just push the 'Start' button to begin. Every game is free." He looked back to Dr. Alves. "What kinds of games do you like?"

"Can I? Pleeeeeease!", Veronica turned to her mother, who gave her sign of agreement by a gentle nod. As the girl rushed to the soccer game machine, Alex turned back to Mindo, "I like soccer, and know a bit about playing cards, thanks to Starfleet Medical Academy. But, honestly, I'm not an expert in arcade games.", she admitted, "Anything you might recommend?"

"Oh gosh," said Mindo. "Where to start?" He looked around the large room packed with different kinds of games. He finally settled on something he considered a classic. "Try this one, it's called 'Pac-Man.' You control a yellow disc that goes around the board and eats little dots. And to make it interesting, you are also chased by different colored ghosts. Clear the screen of all the dots and you advance to the next level. Wanna try?"

"Sure!", the doctor nodded, and looked at the machine curiously. Although she considered herself more of a classic bookworm than a holodeck-addict, she belonged to the generation who grew up playing holonovels. Such an ancient game like 'Pac-Man' seemed quite odd to her, which raised her curiosity. "So... I need to push some buttons, right?", she asked, turning to her host.

"Use this joystick to move Pac-Man around," said Mindo. "You don't need buttons for this game; that's why it's a good game to start with if you've never played old video games. It's a lot like taking manual control of the ship, only way less dorky and so much cooler."

"Sounds fun.", Alex smiled, as she grabbed the joystick, "Ah, so I move the little yellow guy left and right, up and down with this. Awesome."

Mindo stood on another platform and watched. "You're quite good for a beginner," he observed. "I wonder how Veronica is doing..."

"Thanks.", she said, while trying to evade those nasty ghosts, "It's a fun game."

Meanwhile, Veronica was doing as she was told, standing on top of a crate, so she could be eye-level with the screen. She wasn't exactly sure how to operate the game, neverthless, she tried to find out. "Heeey!", she shouted, "I pressed this button, but now everything went dark!"

Mindo looked over his shoulder. "Did you try... pushing another button?" he asked, only half-interested in the response. He was enjoying watching Alexandra. She had a warm affect about her, and she also smelled nice.

"Which button?", the girl looked at the engineer with a curious and eager look, "Besides, I want to play the team in the red jersey not the blue one."

Mindo pursed his lips, trying to remain patient. "Hit the top left button to start the game. You can pick your jersey at the team selection scene. Use the joystick to move around and use the two other buttons to pass and shoot." He turned back to watching Alexandra just in time to see the little yellow disc being eaten by the light blue ghost. "Ah! They caught you, but don't worry, you have two lives left."

"Okay.", Veronica nodded, and tried to follow Mindo's instructions. She wanted to ask something from him, but by then, he disappeared.

"Nice.", Alexandra looked back at Mindo with a smile when she noticed him, "I wish it'd work the same way when I'm treating a patient."

"You think that worked?" said Mindo, looking back at Veronica.

"Err... what? What do you mean?", the doctor asked with a curious look, not exactly sure what the man was referring to.

Mindo looked back again. "You know, with kids? I'm not really around a lot of children. I seem to do OK with Aoife, Lieutenant Brennan's daughter, but she's quite younger than Veronica."

"Ah, don't worry.", she replied with an assuring smile, finally realizing what the man was referring to, "Veronica tends to be a bit difficult sometimes. Afterall, she's half-Irish, half-Brazilian, she's got the genes for being difficult.", she laughed, "But kids in general are not so hard to understand. They're actually not much different from us. They're just... smaller.", she said, without realizing Mindo was actually almost a foot shorter than Veronica, "Oh, sorry. I didn't mean it that way."

"Yes you did," said Mindo. "But I understand your intentions. Having to stand on a box to play arcade games isn't ideal, but I have the same problem with my standard-issue Starfleet furniture. I had my office desk in Engineering chopped down to my height, though."

"Again, I'm sorry, and I assure you it wasn't intentional.", Alex apologized with a reddish face. Despite having a fondness for xenobiology, she never actually thought about how different races might have problems with fitting in an envrionment designed for other races who differ in size from them. "And that was a wise move.", she smiled, trying to ease up any possible tensions, "Afterall, an ideal work environment is essential for our good health."

Mindo smiled. "And you should know; you're a doctor after all."

"That's right.", she smiled back, still feeling embarassed by her own instinctive slip of tongue. Fortunately, her daughter always knew when to save the day.

"Mr. Mindooooooooo!", a loud shouting voice echoed from the distance, "Look what I just did!"

Mindo turned around and, activating his LEGs, hovered over to where Veronica was playing her soccer game. "What did you do?" he asked looking at the screen.

"I touched this button and this one and this one.", the girl showed the pattern, trying to repeat it, "And my player did this jump and this kick... and suddenly I scored a goal from the other side of the field."

Mindo's eyebrows went up. "That's... very impressive," he said. "I haven't played this game much, but you're already really good at it. Keep it up," said Mindo, patting Veronica on the shoulder and then turning to go back to the lovely doctor.

"Don't you wanna see me score another goal?", Veronica looked at the man with wide puppy eyes.

Still facing away from the young girl, Mindo closed his eyes and clenched his teeth for a brief moment. His "date" with the fine-looking new doctor was not going as he'd intended.

"Suuuuuuure!" said Mindo cheerfully as he turned back around, smile forced on his face. I'm so glad I'm incapable of breeding with other races, he thought. Fesarian children can't possibly be this needy.

"Awesome!", the girl cheered, and began pushing the buttons so she might replicate her previous stunt. "This is truly awesome. I've never ever played anything like this.", she bubbled, "But I can show you the real stuff as well. I'm quite good.", she boasted, "But not as good as my mom. Did you know my mom was able to do four-hundred kick-ups in one stand when she was younger?"

"I can't even imagine!" said Mindo, glancing back at Alexandra, who seemed consumed in her game.

Meanwhile, the doctor was actually having fun playing the ancient arcade game. She felt it was a nice little exercise for speed and reflexes, and became better and better in it as she played. It seemed her daughter was having fun as well, together with their host, so why bother? She glanced at them for a moment, and caught Mr. Mindo glancing back at her, "Anything wrong?", she asked.

Mindo didn't know what to say, so he just shrugged. Does she have an off button? was what he wanted to say, but he wasn't sure how that would go over with Alexandra; and he also didn't want to hurt Veronica's feelings. As awkward as Mindo was around children this age, he still knew how people felt about such things. He understood why people had children, but never wanted any of his own, and this was the exact reason why.

"Mr. Mindooo! Look, that was a really good corner kick!", Veronica shouted, trying to regain their host's attention.

However, her mother, who realized what was going on, turned to the girl in a gentle manner, "Mr. Mindo is apparently quite impressed by your playing skills.", she said with a smile, "But I'm sure he'd also like to try out another game himself, or help me with the one I'm playing."

"Sure!" Mindo said immediately, then caught himself. Don't mess this up, man, he thought. So he cleared his throat and took a more serious posture. "That is, only if you need assistance, of course, ma'am... Doctor! Er..." Ah crap.

"Oh, well, it seems I'm doing quite well...", Alex smiled, "But maybe you can teach me some tricks.", she quickly added, "Or show me another game. Like that one with the monkey.", she pointed at another machine.

Mindo smiled. "Oh that game..." He led her over to a game called "Donkey Kong." It only took a couple of minutes to explain the game, with Mindo ending with the note, "I don't know why the giant ape is called 'Donkey Kong,' but it doesn't seem to be a topic of great discussion around the game. At least not in the few historical articles I've found about it."

"Maybe because donkeys are known to be stubborn in Earth folklore.", the doctor explained with a curious smile, "So he's a stubborn monkey?"

"Pretty sure someone's called me a stubborn monkey at some point," said Mindo. "Maybe I should learn to throw barrels at jealous lovers. Have any?"

"Jealous lovers? Me?", she laughed, "Raising an eight-year-old daughter alone plus running a starship's medical department, I long forgot that the term 'love life' even exists."

"Then don't worry about a love life," said Mindo. "Just enjoy the moment..." he hit the "Start" button on the Donkey Kong game, "...and try to save that Princess. I suggest using the hammer, if you can get to it."

Alex deliberately didn't mention her little night out with Lieutenant Boucher, which she throughoutly enjoyed, but kept between herself and the man. She didn't even know if there'll be any continuation to it, or if it was simply a one night stand. "Hammer. Okay, got it.", she looked at Mindo, while hitting the Start button.

Meanwhile, Veronica, due to the short attention span of a child of her age, and also to the envy she felt when she saw their host concentrating his attention on her mom, abandoned the soccer game, and approached the two grownups.

"I wanna help saving the princess!", she said, then turned to the engineer with a curious question, "Are there any kind of animals on your planet, Mr. Mindo?"

Mindo couldn't help but give a nervous sideways glance at Alexandra before answering Veronica. "Er, yes... yes we have many," he said, and absent-mindedly added, "Do you like animals?" Inwardly, Mindo cursed again for his incredibly stupid question.

"I do! I do!", the girl replied with an eager look, "Can you guess my favorite animal?"

"Um..." Mindo tried to think of a kind of Earth animal. "Dogs?"

"No.", Veronica said firmly, then lurked over to see what her mom was doing, "Mom told me when she was a little girl, grandma and grandpa had a pet capuchin monkey."

"Fascinating story, my darling, but you can tell it to Mr. Mindo later.", Alexandra quickly interrupted and looked at Mindo with a smile, "Anyways, this game is even better than the last one!"

"It's also very different, isn't it?" said Mindo. "Wait 'til you've seen the pinball tables upstairs!"

"Pinball tables?", the doctor turned to their host with curious eyes, "Why didn't you start with that?"

Mindo shrugged. "Because they're upstairs?"

"Right, right.", she nodded, while diverting her attention between the game and Mindo.

"Can I see the pinball machines?", the ever-watchful Veronica looked at her mom, then at Mr. Mindo with puppy eyes.

"Sure!" said Mindo. He began heading to the stairs. "Follow me."

Veronica jumped in joy, as she grabbed her mother's shirt to make her hurry up, as they headed for the stairs.

They went up the staircase into the upstairs room where there were several tables at which to sit, pinball machines, a couple of Skee-Ball ramps, and of course, Air Hockey. Mindo grabbed another crate for Veronica and led her to the pinball machines. "These are pinball tables," he said. "Pinball is pretty simple. Pull the handle here and then use these two buttons on the side to flip the flippers at the bottom. The objective is to use the flippers to keep the ball bouncing off those bumpers and not let it get go to the bottom of the table. I'll demonstrate."

Mindo proceeded to start a game, pulling the handle and ejecting a silver ball onto the table. The ball bounced around on the bumpers before tilting down to the flippers. Mindo hit the buttons on the side and the ball shot back up, bouncing off more bumpers on its way back down. This lasted a good thirty seconds before the ball drifted down off the table. "Got it?" said Mindo. "You try."

The girl watched in awe as their host operated the pinball machine, which was so vastly different from anything she'd ever seen, that it fascinated her quite much. "Did you see that, mom?" she turned to her mother, still in awe.

"Simple physics.", Alexandra shrugged with a sarcastic grin Veronica knew very well.

Veronica stepped unto the crate and grabbed the control handle enthusiastically, looking at the engineer with an eager nod. "Ready, Mr. Mindo."

Mindo nodded with a smile. "Pull the handle," he said, then added, "Good luck!"

"Thank you!", the girl smiled at Mr. Mindo, full of affection, as she curiously pulled the handle and released the ball. "Ohh deeaaaar!", she shouted in excitement, as she tried to push the buttons quickly enough to intercept it, but it seemed to be quite a task.

The ball ricocheted off a few bumpers and then fell through the flippers. "Awww, dead ball," said Mindo. "But not unusual for a first-timer. Go on, try again!"

Veronica looked quite sad, seeing her own failure. She turned to Mindo with a desperate face, "You really think I can do this?"

"Sure," said Mindo. "Think of it like you're being a goalie in soccer."

"I'm a striker!", the girl declared on a firm voice. Noone's gonna mistake her for a goalie! Noone! "But...", she twitched her nose, "I get your point.", she nodded, while pulled the handle now for the second time.

This time Veronica was focused and ready, and several times the ball hit the flippers in time for her to send it back up into the bumpers. Mindo looked up at Alexandra, who was standing next to him. "She learns fast, doesn't she?" he said, rather impressed.

The doctor was pre-occupied with her thoughts, but she noticed just how miraculously her daughter handled the machine for the second time. "Wow.", she said, looking at Mindo, then turning to her pinball wizard daughter, "That's impressive."

"Thank you, mom!", Veronica smiled happily, her disappointment completely vanished, as she tried to maintain control over the tiny iron ball. "And thank you, Mr. Mindo!"

"You're welcome," said Mindo, who turned back to Alexandra. "You know, Doctor, we should get a drink some time. Maybe just the two of us?"

Alexandra thought about Mindo's invitation for a moment. Well, why not? The chief engineer was a jovial kind of guy, and a friendly little get-together is always fun. "Surely! I'm up to it.", she spoke up with a friendly nod.

"Splendid!" said Mindo. "We can work out the details later. For now, have you ever played Skee-Ball?"

"Surely.", she replied, then lowered her voice, "Honestly, I always enjoy some quality time away from my little rascal.", she smiled, "Skee-Ball? No, never heard of it, unfortunately."

Mindo grinned. "It's really great. Let me show you..."

OFF