The Concert - Part II - Setting Up

Posted on Mon Apr 1st, 2019 @ 8:35pm by Captain Brady Dering M.D., PhD & Deveron Raziel & Commander Sonia Dalca & Cadet Freshman Grade Gwen Morgan
Edited on on Mon Apr 1st, 2019 @ 8:37pm

Mission: Ready For The Weekend!
Location: The Subspace Cafe
Timeline: 2388/08/30 2015 (Sat. Aug. 30 2388 8:15pm)

Kelly headed into The Subspace Cafe with her violin case and PADD in hand, a smile from ear to ear. "C'mon, Gwen," she called behind her. "We'll be late starting if we don't get set up as quick as we can."

"I'm here..." She called. She mostly focused her sight on the back of Kelly's head but her sense of situational awareness took in the gathering crowd, exits, and other information. Feeling the panic start up again she focused on analyzing the information coming in. Hiding in her intellect as it were. Where were the exits, what was the best path to them, did anyone look dangerous and so on. If she focused on the data instead of raw knowledge of an audience coming to see them it was somehow easier to deal with.

So she felt rather than really someone approach he was a harmless looking bolian carrying a box. Gwen remembered he was one of Sito's friends, "Jon asked me to give you this..." He said passing over the box and with a wide smile headed back to his seat.

Gwen opened it and saw a note:

"Sorry I going to miss the great concert, already made plans with the lady fair but I am sure you will be amaz-balls. Just in case you get nervous, don't worry can't see much with the spotlight on you but just in case. Love Your Big Brother Jon...PS someone will record it for me, no pressure." Shaking her head she looked in the box. It was a pair of rectangular sunglasses. She raised them to her face and immediately everything dimmed into a gentle shadow. A small, almost invisible button on the left changed the lighting allowed dimming or undimming the lenses as needed. "wing nut.." she muttered fondly.

At the control booth, Ensign Wells, aka DJ Phantom - the name she went by when working at The Subspace Cafe started warming up the growing crowd of young cadets with a mix of techno and dubstep which pulsed with the timing of the lights as she worked the control board. She looked up as she saw two young cadets come in with an unusual style of clothes and noted that one was carrying a violin case. She flipped a switch that sent a signal to Mister Raziel to notify him of the evening's entertainment arrival and went back to working the board.

"Sunglasses, Gwen? Really?" Kelly asked as she looked around. "Wow. We're not even ready and already the place is starting to get filled up."

"Can't be afraid of what you can't see right? And they look stylish..." She defending her other friends gift as she put them on the rectangular glasses that currently had only a lightly dimmed set of lenses but could be increased as needed. "What you don't think it looks good?" She asked.

"They do look good and if they make you feel better, then who am I to judge?" Kelly asked. "Besides, half the crowd is probably going to be wearing some type of shades for enhancements. I hope the DJ has some good holographics to go with the music."

Gwen brightened, "Me too, My Uncle does some great ones in a kind of music video format." She said now looking around to see if she could spot the holographic emitters et tal. It had been one long crazy day for emotions and she was glad to have something else to focus her attention while she waited. Another part of her mind went over songs in her head, tweaking, tuning and generally improving on the plan for the night. It was mental exercises like this that helped to settle her as much as anything else.

Along one side of the nightclub, near the bar, was a private turbolift, and it's doors swooshed opened unheard due to all the music, laughter, and conversation. Deveron Raziel and a very close friend of his, Brady Dering, walked out and both looked out among the growing crowd.

"This is great!", Brady nearly needed to shout, although Dev was standing right next to him.

Dev smiled and pointed out Kelly and Gwen to him, and motioned for him to follow as he lead them over to one of the VIP seating booths that surrounded the dance floor.

Undoing one button of his casual dark suit jacket he wore over a purple dress shirt, Brady took a seat at the booth Dev lead him over too.

"Excuse me, Brady," Dev said to him and then went heading towards where he seen the girls, near the stage, only stopping once on his way to direct an employee to get Brady a drink.

DJ Phantom began to play the theme of The Subspace Cafe as she saw the Boss enter and kicked the holographics into action, showing several young humanoids in dance cages appear around the corners of the room moving to the music.

"Ohh...look, Gwen!" Kelly said when she saw the holograms activate. "I wonder if they're programmed to move with any music or just what the DJ plays? It would be so cool if they danced to our music, too." She stopped when she saw Mister Raziel approach and nudged Gwen gently to get her attention.

Gwen was startled a little when things kicked on. The music thrummed through her, ramping up already a hyper alertness. She turned at Kelly's nudge, "I have the suggests for the lights and such for the DJ, just in case..." She said patting a pocket as she looked at Mr. Raziel's approach and smiled softly from behind and to the left of Kelly.

"Well, it's Bardtastic," he said with a smile, extending his arms out to the two girls in welcome as he approached them. "Kelly, Gwen, welcome to the Subspace Cafe. Now how are you both doing?"

"Doing great!" Kelly exclaimed as she stepped aside deftly to reveal Gwen. "We're ready to bring the house down, too."

Gwen smiled gamely but said nothing, too busy taking deep, calming breaths.

"I couldn't ask for anything more," Dev said, while casually taking them both in, "and you both look fantastic."

"Thank you," Kelly said. "Will we have access to the holographics and lights? Gwen has some ideas for the concert she wants to do."

Dev raised an interested eyebrow. "Absolutely," he smiled, and then gestured over to the DJ booth, "You'll need to talk to Ailyssa. Just let her know what you need."

Gwen smiled shyly and nodded, grateful to have something to do that would help occupy her. She then headed over to Ailyssa while holding a storage device with her ideas on it. She started explaining what she was thinking.

Dev turned, "Okay.." and watched her. Feeling amused, he turned back to Kelly, "Any other questions, Kelly?"

"Do you have any mild tranquilizers on hand for Gwen?" Kelly asked jokingly. "She's a bit nervous, which is why she's wearing sunglasses inside. As for me, I'm fine and looking forward to the concert.

Half smiling, Dev replied, just knowing, "She going to be fine too. Now there's forty-five minutes til show time. Do you think you can be ready?"

"Ready, willing and able!" Kelly said enthusiastically. "I just need to get my music PADD to your DJ and I'll be ready to go."

"Sounds perfect, Kelly," he smiled, loving her enthusiasm, "I'll see you at show time," and then walked away.

Mean while over at the DJ area...

Ailyssa took the storage device and smiled. "I'll get it up and running in a minute," she said. "I'm looking forward to the concert."

Gwen smiled her usual quiet smile, focusing on the items rather than the thought of her being on stage. "Those are just some general ideas. I'm not a professional for lights et tal so please feel free to modify. The notes here should give you an idea as to the intentions for each song..." She pointed at the screen.

"Thanks," Ailyssa said as she looked at the screen. "I'll get it all synced up with no problem at all when you start playing. Do you have a playlist?"

Gwen nodded and tapped a few keys bringing up the playlist known only to her, Kelly, and now Ailyssa fully. She looked a little concerned about how someone else might feel about it. This would be the first time they performed it in public or indeed in front of anyone.

"Cool," Ailyssa said with a smile. "I'll be looking forward to it. You must be really excited to perform."

Gwen smiled an enigmatic smile, in her mind she wasn't so sure but it seemed rude to everyone else's excitement to downplay it. So she said, "Hearts definately beating a mile a minute that's for sure. Is there anything else I can do to help you with this?" She asked looking over at where Dev talked to Kelly then back. She wanted to help but didn't want to get in the way and she wasn't sure what else she might have to prepare with Kelly.

Kelly arrived a minute later with her PADD. "This has my backup music that I use with my violin," she said as she handed it to the DJ. "The list is programmed in with the songs that we're doing, so I'll give a cue by raising my bow before we launch into the next song."

Ailyssa took the PADD and hooked it up to her equipment. "I'll be looking for it," she told Kelly before she looked at Gwen. "Just remember to breathe and everything will be fine."

Gwen gave a nervous laugh, "That obvious huh? Good thing we're not actresses..." She said the last to Kelly. "Should we go and practice? Or something? Waiting around is not going to be good for me..."

Ailyssa smiled. "Just a bit," she said. "You'll do fine."

Kelly looked at Gwen. "Well, the stage is behind the booth here and not raised, but we couldn't go live yet. Do you want to practice?"

Gwen smiled back at the genuine feelings coming from the other and nodded to Kelly, "Soon." They all worked for a few more minutes on fine tuning the lights etc. Finally, they'd worked it out and she and Kelly headed for the backstage area as Gwen kept her focus on what needed to be done and raw information rather than what was coming. The information flow was a comfort in its way and she clung to it as she had her friends, and Kelly's support as she kept her eyes on the back of Kelly's head while they walked.

Once they got there, Kelly sat down and pulled her electric blue violin out of the case, followed by her bow. She began to tune it while she looked up at Gwen. "Fast solo, then two with lyrics, another solo, then one with lyrics followed by Shatter Me, right?"

Gwen nodded, "Let's do this before I can change my mind.." She said with a small smile and forced her mind to focus on the music that would carry them both, then hopefully the audience to some interesting places.

Meanwhile, The Subspace Cafe began to fill up with curious cadets and those who wanted to see and hear something new. Cadet Barim Kalre entered and headed downstairs after he made sure his mental shields were firmly in place and took a seat off to the side.

Lance Parker entered a bit later and hoped to get a chance to relax since he heard that the venue was a violinist duo and he wondered what style they would be playing.

Sonia Dalca entered and kept to the back. Normally she avoided the cadet areas in order to give them their own space without worrying about instructors hanging about but she'd heard interesting things about this new musical group on campus so wanted to give them a listen.

Max walked in and smiled as he saw Ailyssa at work at the DJ control booth, and the steady growing number of cadets already out on the dance floor. After walking down the center isle that ran between all the over-sized seating booths, it wasn't long before he was joining in.


Ensign Ailyssa Wells
Dorm Officer/DJ
Magellan Campus

♫ Cadet Kelly Khan ♪
Flight
Magellan Campus

Lance Parker
Massage Specialist - The White Lotus
Magellan Campus

Cadet Barim Kalre
Security
Magellan Campus

Captain Brady Dering
Commanding Officer
USS Solace

Deveron Raziel
Club & Cafe Owner
Magellan Campus

Cadet Gwen Morgan
Intel Cadet
Magellan Campus

Ensign Maxwell DeLorian
Dorm Officer/Grad. Student Researcher
Magellan Campus