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It turns out being on a fancy starship doesn't make boring days any less boring. There's always the holodeck, but after the whole Kobayashi Maru thing, Dal thinks he's spent enough time there for the next ten years or so. With no new leads about Janeway's previous crew and no exciting planets to check out, though, there's little more for him to do than just sit on the Bridge and wait for each day to turn into the next.
The boredom has got everyone else a little on edge, too. Gwyn and Zero spend all their time trying to find more information about, well, anything, and they get all pissy if they're interrupted, Jankom keeps tinkering with the engines and accidentally turning off the power and all Rok does is suggest childish games on the holodeck that only Murf wants to participate in. Dal is sick of it.
The light flickers and he groans. "Janeway!" he calls out. She materialises in front of him and the Bridge feels a little less empty.
"Scan for planets again," he says.
She raises an eyebrow at his tone, but after a few seconds, a holographic planet is floating in front of Dal's face. He sits up. "Can we go there?" he asks eagerly.
"Yes, but there's nothing of interest. It's an L-class planet, barely habitable. No animal life, just plants and a lot of snow."
"Can we breathe there?"
"Yes, but-"
"Alright, we're going. Dal to all crew, report to the Bridge. Janeway, plot a course."
Dal sits back and cracks his knuckles. Finally, something to do! Exploring a new world! But of course, Janeway just has to put a damper on his fun.
"You're not really going to an L-class planet for no reason," she says disbelievingly.
"It's not no reason. I'm bored. Any second now, I could die of boredom. And the rest of the crew needs a change of scenery just as much as I do. Hey, Rok!" He waves as she enters, bright-eyed and excited with Murf in her arms.
"What's going on?" she asks. "Are we going to explore?"
"Hell yeah, we are! Oh, wait, you're a kid. Eh, who cares? We're going there," he says, pointing at the holographic image of the planet.
Rok frowns. "Aren't L-class planets barely habitable?"
Dal makes a show of rolling his eyes. "Ugh, that's what she said, too. But come on, I'm sure it's fine!"
And there Jankom, Gwyn and Zero are, the latter two still muttering about some linguism stuff. The muttering dies down when they look at the projection of the planet.
Jankom speaks first. "There is no way Jankom Pog is leaving this ship again after Murder Planet." Rok nods.
"It does seem unwise to seek out danger," Zero agrees.
Dal can feel his dreams of time away from this ship slipping away. "It'll be fun!" he says. "Come on, you guys have been spending all your time working. It's got to be driving you crazy. L-class planets aren't that bad, right, Janeway?"
"Well-"
"It's just some snow! We can handle some snow! And it's a chance to get off this ship. Who's with me?"
To his surprise, Gwyn speaks up. "Maybe it's not a terrible idea," she says. Okay, not the enthusiasm Dal was hoping for, but it's something. "Dal's right. We've been cooped up here for weeks, and we're barely making any progress on our work. Maybe we need to take a break, come back fresh."
"That's the spirit!"
"Provided we learn as much as we can about the planet first and take some precautions," Gwyn adds.
"Yeah, yeah. We're going on shore leave!"
It took some convincing, a lot of research and scans and above all, a thousand vocations of worry from Janeway, but they're here! Everyone, even Murf, is wearing standard Starfleet winter gear like Janeway demanded. Dal barely feels that it's freezing.
In his desperation to do something new, he may have been exaggerating a bit about how safe an L-class planet could be, but it's honestly not that bad. There's no snow storm happening, no icy winds biting into their faces. A sun is shining gently on them and like Janeway said, there's a lot of snow.
"This stuff is amazing!" Rok, who has apparently forgotten her reservations, squeals. "It's so soft!" Dal smiles as he watches her sit down and run her gloved hands through the piles of snow around her.
Zero's having their fun, too, floating a little further away from the beam-down coordinates to scan things, Dal doesn't even know what. But judging from the little ohs and ahs they keep emitting, it must be interesting. Only Jankom is still disgruntled, but Dal hardly thinks he should've expected otherwise.
"What's Jankom supposed to do now, huh?" he complains. "There's nothing to work on here!"
"I think that's the point," Gwyn says with a chuckle.
"But if you really want to work on something, you can engineer us some chairs to sit on," Dal adds. Jankom storms off, grumbling. But he's going into the direction of trees that have apparently been blown down by previous storms and flexing his mitt. Dal and Gwyn share a look and smile.
"Don't go too far!" Gwyn shouts at him.
Dal sighs and takes in the view. It's eerie, a planet with no signs of sentient life other than themselves. Even on Tars Lamora, he sometimes heard birds. Not here. And it's so big, too, the snow reaching beyond the horizon. A seemingly endless expanse of white, much like the expanse of space he's been staring at from the captain's chair all day. Instead of feeling listless, though, a strange sense of calm settles over Dal. Rok's happy noises certainly don't hurt. Dal feels bad for brushing her off whenever she wanted to play a game now.
"It's peaceful here," he says softly. Gwyn turns to him.
"Yeah, it is." Even the possibility of a snowstorm seems remote: there's not a cloud in the sky.
"Let's take a walk," Dal says. He wonders briefly if Rok will be okay on her own but she and Murf seem to be having the time of their lives playing in the snow.
They don't speak much. There's so much Dal and Gwyn haven't said to each other yet, so much to apologise for, but this seems like neither the time nor place so they just walk alongside each other in silence, content to have each other in this frozen landscape. Dal's heart skips a beat when Gwyn turns to smile at him.
Approximately a second after getting back to where Rok and Murf are sitting, Dal is hit with something. Snow, and a good amount of it. It's a good thing this winter gear is waterproof or else he'd be soaked.
It's Jankom, tinkering in the snow, mindless of where his movements are throwing it. Dal grins. Revenge. He crouches down, takes a few handfuls of snow and throws it back at Jankom as hard as he can.
"Who just hit Jankom with snow?" Jankom yells.
"You hit me first!" Dal shouts back and then it's on, no semblance of the earlier quietude left. Rok looks upset and says something about not fighting, but Gwyn goes over to her and says something and then Rok relaxes.
Zero floats over to watch. "Hurray, Jankom!" they cheer when a snowball of his hits Dal right in the face.
"Gwyn, come over here and help me make a supply!" he shouts.
"On it." And then they're a team of two, Gwyn expertly shaping snowballs - where did she even learn that? - and Dal hurling them at Jankom with all his might. Jankom summons Zero to help and Rok hesitantly joins Dal and Gwyn's side, though she still seems unsure of the point of all this.
Murf turns out to be an excellent shield, and he seems to like the snow! Dal holds him up when Jankom throws snowballs at him and Murf squeals excitedly when hit. Somehow, he manages to swallow a snowball and he looks quite content about it. Rok finally smiles at that.
It's not like they'd ever run out of snow on this planet, but after a while, Dal gets tired and his throws get messy. It must be the same on Jankom's side, judging by how easily he accepts Dal's time-out. They shake each other's hands and it hits Dal just how ridiculous the whole thing is. It's exactly what he needed: something to take the edge off, a way to release all his frustrations. Turns out a snowball fight works pretty well for that. He can't help but laugh at the happiness he feels at his boredom-induced anxiety finally being relieved and soon enough, Jankom is bursting into laughter, too. Rok sweeps them both up in a hug.
Jankom's managed to make some kind of bench from one of the fallen trees and it's long enough for the entire crew to sit. The previously smooth field of snow is now filled with footsteps, a visible marker of their presence. Dal sighs.
"Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all," Rok says.
"Everyone does seem more relaxed," Zero adds. "You were right, Dal." Dal can't help but preen a little at the praise; Gwyn rolls her eyes. Jankom says nothing, which says enough.
The moment is disturbed when Janeway hails them and says there's a storm headed their way. Time to return to the shuttle, then.
"Good to see you're all still in one piece," Janeway says in lieu of greeting. "How was it?"
"Oh, it was great! I wish you'd been there. Gwyn and I absolutely wrecked Jankom in a snowball fight."
"You called a time-out!" Jankom complains. The conversation devolves into friendly bickering, but Dal doesn't miss Janeway's smile.
She tells them about a traditional Earth beverage for this kind of day and off they go to the mess hall, Rok especially curious to try it. When she finds out you can put marshmallows in hot chocolate, she's sold. It's a little sweet for Dal's taste, but it's nice to see Gwyn enjoying it. Despite the low temperatures, to Dal, the day has only brought warmth.