Back with James and Mariner

“Jacey?!” Mariner shouted before you could get a word out. A good thing too because you were about to shout ‘Joanne’. ‘Jacey’ gained a brilliant smile full of too bright teeth. Jacey was a brunette with plump lips and red eyeshadow. And while she was wearing heeled sandals, she was still almost a head shorter than Mariner.

“I knew you wouldn’t forget me! Everyone always confused me for Joanne,” Jacey cheered as she stepped down from the palanquin. She walked up to you and Mariner, she didn’t stop and suddenly snapped up you and Mariner by the neck and pulled the two of you into a hug. You glance at Mariner as you awkwardly give Jacey a pat on the back as she did the same. “I haven’t seen either of you since graduation!”

“Yeah, it's definitely been awhile, lots of things have happened,” you say while Jacey kept holding the two of you tightly. You did your best to remember anything about Jacey other than the fact that she was in most of your StarFleet Academy classes and that you had a brief fling with her while Starfire explored Mariner. You also recalled that Mariner had a thing with her and that they were some kind of friend afterwards.

“I bet! The two of you and Starfire were always getting into something, like apprehending the Topila thieves and beating up those burly guys during the First Contact Day parade of ‘71,” Jacey finally let you and Mariner go and gave you a peck on the cheek before giving one to Mariner. “I also got my own adventure after graduating.”

“Really?” Mariner prompted, ignoring the dozen beachgoers shaking their heads in a panic. Even Diana was waving her off. Suddenly, Jacey started on a long-winded story about how she had been assigned to CR-102, a deep space communication relay, where she had been stationed with two other people who subsequently got married and left and never returned.

“I was all alone with only my ant farm and a city builder holoprogram for two years,” Jacey continued while drinking a frozen margarita drink. The story took so long that she led your group over to a cabana with amazingly comfortable seats that seemed to get more comfortable the longer you sat. She continued for a bit before starting to stare at nothing. “When suddenly they arrived.”

“The Borg.” You grimaced.

“They assimilated me and for a few years my body was the command unit for Cube 355912-b…” She continued…and continued… You were starting to remember how she was in the academy.

“And by applying Yakta’s computation method for higher dimensional inverted fractals, communication delay between networked nanobots can be reduced by approximately 3.5899 milliseconds. Improving surveying accuracy of the Teqli-series probes by 17%. If you–”

“And I’m going to have to cut you off there, cadet Lorenza.” Professor Varoka announced as she got out of her seat and turned on the light; Professor Varoka was an older Andorian woman with long hair that went down to her mid-back. Jacey looked surprised as the holoprojector was taken out of her control and turned off.

“But I wasn’t finished! I was almost done with the improvements Yakta’s invention gave to our understanding of how high velocity communications can be accomplished with high enveloped quark particles in phased subspace,” Jacey whined as she was sternly but gently pushed away from the podium.

“That’s what you said two hours ago and there are others who need to present,” the professor scolded her. Jacey pouted but relented. She gathered her presentation materials and shuffled over to her seat quickly.

“I thought your presentation was worthy of a mahberi song,” Starfire whispered cheerfully as the professor called another student to start their presentation. You leaned back in your chair as Jacey sat down next to Starfire.

“I think you might’ve taught us more about Yakta’s studying habits than even he knew,” you commented while appreciating how the tight cadet uniform skirt made Starfire’s butt pop.

“You think so?” Jacey asked excitedly, causing the professor to shush her. She wilted at the chastisement but she blew you a kiss when you gave her a thumbs up.

“At least it was better than James’ presentation,” Mariner blew a strand of hair out of her face as she took notes on the current project. “You probably can’t use psionic waves like that.”

“I can show you the math, its really–”

“What was that?!” You jumped as suddenly you were back in front of Jacey, Mariner, Diana, and Boimler in the cabana. Jacey nonchalantly drank her beverage as if nothing was wrong while beachgoers in the distance groaned and complained.

“We were back in the academy during Modern Communication midterms,” Mariner said with a blank expression. Boimler, you idly wondered when Boimler got involved in the conversation, perked up.

“You two had Professor Varoka too? Aren’t her theories on multi-phasic particle acceleration a work of art?”

“Not the time Boimler,” Mariner shoved an open palm in his direction, shutting him up.

“Yeah, this virtual world of ours has a few bugs,” Jacey admitted. “Think too hard and associated memories can just pop out at us. ALL of us.”

“Really?” Boimler asked. Glaring at him, you blinked as you were briefly shown a scene of a crowd of farm girls trying to blitz Boimler as he speedwalked to a shuttle and dodged their flirtation and offers.

“You saw my academy days and decided to think about your family’s farm and the remarkably attractive workers,” you gave him a disappointed look but as soon as Mariner and Diana weren’t looking you gave him a thumbs up and mouthed ‘nice’. You were a little confused on why he just looked away awkwardly.

“Yeah eventually the memory thing decreases so don’t worry about it, we are all used to embarrassing pasts,” Jacey giggled a bit as she nudged a buff human guy fanning her. The guy who never bothered to introduce himself just rolled his eyes. Jacey perked up as a thought crossed her mind. “Hey you know if you think hard enough, you might be able to see what your bodies are doing.”

“Oh? Are we working in engineering or making calculations or something?” Mariner asked with a mildly intense interest. Jacey gave a lopsided smile before you were vision blanked.