Poe Dameron (flyboydameron) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2020-07-21 00:01:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, james kirk, poe dameron |
Who: Poe Dameron & Jim Kirk
When: Backdated: Early June
Where: A Park
What: Space Dudes meeting and talking about space
Rating/Warnings: Family Friendly
Status: Complete
At first Poe had been weary about taking BB8 out of the house in public. He’d been worried that if people saw the astromech droid they would ask a lot of questions and things would get awkward when Poe didn’t have the answers to those questions. However, after the Fourth when the droid had gone with him to fight off a bunch of Stormtroopers it had become clear that no one was really paying too much attention to his droid so Poe had started letting BB8 come with him to the park that wasn’t too far from Poe’s house so that he could roll around somewhere besides Poe’s house and backyard.
While they were out the only people who really ever asked any questions were kids and they were easily placated by Poe telling them that BB8 was just a toy, which the droid always responded with a series of indignant beeps, much to Poe’s amusement.
At the moment Poe was sitting on a bench while BB8 rolled around exploring the area they had stopped in, but never going too far away from Poe.
Now there was something you didn’t see every day. At least outside of the OC. Kirk had been getting some fresh air; being cooped up on the Enterprise wasn’t always good for his health. But he’d noticed a little rolling robot exploring around and had been instantly curious. Was this from someone’s dream? Had a student built it? Was it actually a Dreamer turned into a robot? Stranger had happened.
He glanced around and cautiously approached it, pulling out his tricorder to scan it. As an old friend would say, fascinating. “Hello there.”
Poe had his head back, eyes closed, enjoying the sun on his face when he heard someone speak nearby. Turning his head, he cracked an eye open just in time to see BB-8 extend his arc reactor towards the thing that the man was holding out towards him, “Hey, buddy!” Poe called, now on his feet, not wanting BB-8 to accidentally fry whatever piece of equipment the guy was using, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” BB-8 beeped indignantly at the man, swiveled his head slightly then rolled over towards Poe. “Didn’t want him to fry whatever you’ve got there.” He also didn’t really want anyone scanning BB-8, if that was what the man had been trying to do.
“It’s shielded,” Kirk assured him, the readings on the tricorder already going wild. The tech was like nothing he’d ever seen before, but he politely closed the top of the tricorder, “So I don’t think he’d fry it. But thank you.”
He studied the handsome man for a moment before holding out his hand, “Jim Kirk. This little guy yours?”
Something told Poe that this guy might also be a dreamer, based partly on the strange tech in his hand and the fact that he didn’t really seem shocked at seeing BB-8, “Poe Dameron,” He said reaching out and shaking the other man’s hand, a small smirk upon his lips, “And yeah, that’s BB-8.” He glanced down at BB-8 who was sitting by his feet, rolling back and forth slightly, “You familiar with droids?” He wasn’t going to give up too much information until he knew for sure if he was right about the other man.
“In a manner of speaking,” Kirk replied, looking back down at the roly-poly-robot. “Though we call them robots and androids and the latter are sometimes hard to distinguish from an organic being. They’re not uncommon in … some places.”
While he was certain this man was a dreamer, best to be cautious.
Poe nodded, “Sounds more or less like ours.” It definitely sounded like this guy was referring to dreams and it also sounded like both of their dream worlds were similar as far as the robotics went. He was sure that there were probably differences, but that wasn’t really important at the moment, “Droids are pretty common in most places in my dreams.” As he mentioned the dreams, Poe watched Jim to see exactly how he reacted to it since he had a feeling that some places meant dreams.
“It’s always fun when you’re dancing around the dreams,” Jim said, grinning at him, and then at the droid as well. “Can’t say I’ve ever met one as cute as this guy. Most were attempts to mimic humans, develop AI, or accidental AI.”
“Can’t be too careful. You don’t wanna say the wrong thing to the wrong person and have them think you’re crazy,” Poe said, smirking then glanced down at BB-8 as the droid beeped and chirped in response to Jim’s comment, “He says he prefers to be called badass.” Poe shook his head and he looked back up at Jim, “So what are your dreams about?” He was curious now that he knew that robots and droids appeared to be a common factor in their dreams.
“I’ve had personal experience with this,” Jim said, thinking about some of the odd looks he’d gotten once or twice, when he’d thought someone had been a dreamer. He listened as the little droid beeped and booped, and wondered if the universal translator could work with him. Something to play with, anyway. “I command a starship. A vessel of exploration and peaceful contact with other planets.”
Poe chuckled and nodded, “Yeah, I don’t have any desire to make people think I’m crazy.” Not that Poe had had that experience yet since he’d only really talked about his dreams to people on Valar, but he knew that he didn’t want to ever had that experience, “A commander, huh?” His brows rose slightly, lips turning up into a smirk, “Me too. I command a squadron of pilots in a Resistance.”
“Captain, technically.” Jim winked, “The rank system is pretty similar to Naval powers on Earth.Though I can’t say I’ve often commanded a squadron, at least until I became an Admiral.” Fleet command was a lot different from commanding a Starship, and he’d had many regrets about the promotion.
Should have stayed in the captain chair all along.
“I am very familiar with the Navy. Served ten years.” Poe said, glancing at BB8 as he rolled around nearby, exploring the area. “Admiral, huh? That’s really impressive. I don’t know if I’d want that responsibility. It just seems like a lot.” While he still had to answer to someone else as a Commander, he did have some freedom to do what he wanted since Leia trusted him to make certain decisions. “So what’s the most bizarre thing you’ve seen on another planet?”
“I’d say if you ever have the chance, turn it down. Better to be in the Captain’s chair, or in your case, leading your squadron, than stuck behind a desk or trying to deal with the kind of Captain you used to be.” Though there were few Captains quite like Kirk.
“Most bizarre thing, that’s asking a lot.” He grinned. “Pollen that drove up your sex drive, space hippies ... There was also a planet that evolved similarly to Earth, but where the Roman Empire never fell. And the planet where Alice in Wonderland came to life. You'd also be surprised how often we'd encounter Alien beings who inspired Gods on Earth, such as Apollo or Kukulkan or literally Satan, and the time we encountered a universe where time runs backwards. And then there were planets were a previous explorer accidentally or intentionally contaminated, so they’d build a society based on left behind books."
And there were so many more, but those were the ones he could think of off the top of his head.
Poe nodded, “Yeah, I’m not exactly great behind a desk. It’s why I’m glad I got offered the flight instructor job after my discharge. Desk work is not for me.” Before his discharge, Poe hadn’t really been sure exactly what he was going to do once he left the Navy, but he’d gotten lucky with the flight instructor position.
“Wow.” Listening to the various stories Jim was telling made Poe realize that most of the planets he’d been to in his own dreams weren’t half as exciting, “That all sounds extremely exciting. I’ve never encountered anything quite as interesting as those. Most of our stuff is extremely political and we’re fighting a war so it’s a lot of reconnaissance and spying.” Although now he couldn’t help but wonder if there were any planets in the galaxy, in his dreams like the ones in Jim’s.
“There was some of that. I fought in a few wars myself, but mostly it was border disputes or the odd proxy war.” He thought of the times the Federation and Klingons or Romulans would vie for this world or that. Or the time he had to supply weapons to counter the weapons Klingons had given to people.
He’d hated it then, and he hated it now.
“Ours is this big war that’s basically between good and evil. We’re Team Good.” Poe smirked as he thought briefly about his dreams, “So, do you have a ship?” It may have seemed like an odd question if he were talking to anyone else, but considering the things that happened in the OC, Poe didn’t think it was an odd question at all. If he and Yondu, who both had space rested dreams that ships then didn’t that mean that others might as well?
“Wish our wars were as simple as that,” Jim replied. Klingons weren’t evil, even if in his dreams he’d occasionally had personal issues with them. Not proud moments, no. Even in enlightened times one could have prejudice that one had to work to get over.
“But I do. Enterprise. She’s a starship I typically keep hidden behind the moon.”
Poe couldn’t help but laugh a little at the thought of what they were doing in his dream world as simple. “Really? How do you get up there? Do you have another ship?” Poe had been on his share of starships, in the dreams, and he wondered what Jim’s was like, “I have a starfighter. Got it a few months ago. Mine’s called Black One.”
“While I’ve used shuttles as needed, the ship is equipped with matter transporters. The moon is about the effective range and can instantly transport anyone from the ship to earth. And anywhere on earth.” Jim grinned at him, “A starfighter? Fast, agile and sexy?”
None of which would describe one of the shuttles, but there were similar vessels in Starfleet. Usually for spectacular shows, and the occasional war.
“That is so cool. So, you can just beam yourself aboard?” This was honestly all so fascinating that Poe could have stood there and talked about space and spaceships all afternoon long. “And you know it. Think of a jet, but so much cooler.”
“Definitely sounds cooler than any jet.” He even had some experience with a jet, even if that had nearly rewritten the timeline. Oops.
“If you go by number of transports to transporter accidents, transporters are the safest mode of transportation in history.”
Poe nodded, “I wouldn’t really know anything about transporters. Haven’t come across anything like that before.” Having transporters in his dream world would definitely make some things a lot quicker and easier, but at the same time, he enjoyed flying more so it was unlikely that he’d even take advantage of the teleporters that much, “But it definitely sounds awesome.”
“Maybe sometime I’ll beam you up,” Jim replied. “If you give me a tour of your fighter.”
Was he coming onto him? Maybe, a little, but mostly he just really enjoyed acquiring new knowledge and sharing the wonders of the Enterprise.
Poe grinned at the thought of getting to take a look at the other man’s starship, “I think that can be arranged. I’m guessing you’re on the Net? I’ll drop you a message when I can take you over there.” He’d have to let Yondu know that he was bringing someone to the junkyard and honestly, he should probably show Rey and Finn Black One first before anyone else got to see it; he knew how much they wanted to check it out.
“I’m pretty easy to find, and I’m usually free. Though this is the time of year where I have to do more of my day job.” Somehow, leading people through the wilderness was still fun to him. He hoped that sense of wonder never changed. Even if it was a smaller scale kind of wonder.
“I’ll leave you and your buddy to your day, though.” Jim held out his hand again, “It was nice to meet you.”
Poe wanted to ask what Jim’s day job was, but BB-8 made a slightly impatient sounding beep, signaling that he was tired of being ignored, causing Poe to laugh, “Yeah, probably a good idea. It was nice to meet you too.” Poe smiled and shook Jim’s hand, hoping that he’d just made a new friend.