"A Little Down Time"
Written by Cyndi Fryar
Commander Rhea Kennit, First Officer

Sito and Utex left the room, Jackson in tow between them, while Kennit took care of Raye Jackson. The little girl seemed to be taking all of this in stride, and even lead the way back to the quarters she shared with her parents where Kennit soon managed to find one of the ship's child care workers who helped with the daily tasks in caring for the children who lived aboard the Victory-A while their parents were working to come and watch over the little girl.

Leaving the child in safe hands, Kennit returned to the Bridge for a moment to check that everything was still running smoothly. All systems were nominal, the sensors showed nothing out of the ordinary. Not questioning her good fortune, the XO did not stay on the Bridge long and soon left the Bridge to the beta shift crew.

It was late. Rhea had a feeling she should go back to her quarters and get some sleep. However, she wasn't really all that tired. Instead of going to her quarters, she found herself at the entrance to holodeck two. After setting it for the program she wanted, Kennit entered. The first thing she noticed was the heat, she'd programmed the holodeck for a tropical beach along the main island of Hawaii and the instant she walked into the holodeck she was hit with a blast of hot, humid tropical air.

Using a replicator set conviently inside the arch, she requested a bathing suit and then changed. More comfortable in the two-piece swim suit she'd requested Rhea was now ready to relax for a little while before going to her quarters to sleep.

Barefoot, feeling the soft heat of the sand under her feet she crossed the open beach towards the water line where the breakers roared up over the smooth white sand in a hissing spray of foam. Feeling the holographic sun on her skin, Kennit let herself relax and stretched out on one of the blankets spread on the sand. She'd set a few parameters for the program. While there were blankets and surfboards on the beach in easy range, no other people populated the pristine white beach. The only sounds were that of the wind, the surf, and the gulls which soared in great swooping spirals over the waves.

After perhaps a half hour of just enjoying the warmth of the tropical Hawaiian sun on her skin, Rhea rose. Walking up the shore, she selected a surf board from several which rested lined up neatly on the sand and then carried it towards the water. The waves were perfect for surfing, no big surprise since she'd programmed the simulation accordingly.

Wading out into the surf, she pushed the surf board before her until the water reached her waist and then with a light foreward jump she mounted the board and lay flat on her stomach to paddle the board out to deeper water. Paddling out with strong, sure strokes she guided the board out far enough from shore to be able to catch the waves as they roared towards the beach now some distance away. In the back of her mind was the knowledge that she wasn't *really* in the ocean, but even so this was better than lying in her bed back in her quarters staring up at the ceiling.

A wave was coming in now, its swell beginning to rise steadily up from the ocean surface as the wave began to move closer towards the shore. Turning, she began to paddle strongly towards the beach and caught the wave's edge as it swept beneath the surf board and began to carry her towards the shore. Standing, she rode the wave back into the beach glorying in the roar of the wave, the crash of the wave as it began to crest overhead to then come crashing down around her. Loosing her balance as the water became too rough with the wave's violent final rush towards the shore Kennit found herself in the water, swimming towards the surface to gasp for air before following the tether attached to her ankle back to surfboard to paddle back out to sea for another ride.