Let the Ice Take You [1/2]

Posted on Sat Apr 25th, 2026 @ 6:30am by Lieutenant JG Elen Rell & Sergeant Jace Morven

1,848 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Prologue
Location: Holodeck 2, USS Guinevere
Timeline: Early 2389

There was something long-suffering in the way that Jace Morven looked at the ice in front of him. Not many knew him well enough to recognise the set of the shoulders, or the way there was a slight pinch at the mouth. It was a look that he did not exhibit often, in fact he did so very rarely…

But today, he did. And the reason for it was standing next to him, practically bouncing on her heels, her hair tied up and wearing what he would usually call an impractical outfit. Certainly not something that looked warm. White leggings, a red coat that seemed like a dress, with a hood. And fur. The smell of it, faintly, made him want to wrinkle his nose. It didn’t smell dead. Replicated things never smelled like that. It smelled…artificial, static, it smelled like the sensation of dragging fingertips over something that would snag on them.

Worse though was what she had in front of her, hanging from her hands. Skates. Ice skates. Two pairs...which was concerning. And there was no hope for extraction.

“My Mum taught me how,” she declared proudly, turning to face him. Her eyes ran over him and he knew she was surveying what he wore. She had insisted he wore training clothes, but warm. Jace, not knowing better, had put on the dark navy workout trousers that was part of the kit he had, but to stay warm put on the winter gear jacket. Now that he was deducing what she was asking of him, he wished he had ignored her invitation. “And, well…it might be a fun activity for us to do. Something new for you!”

Jace raised an eyebrow just a touch. Exhaled, slowly, looked at the skates. At least he knew what it was, but only because Kerren had once passionately discussed Earth winter sports with Banik, and Jace…had overheard it. And somehow, it had stayed. But he had never been on them. They looked...thin. The balance. He knew they were bladed. “How did you get my size?” he asked, because it distracted from her statement.

“Oh, the ship’s computer and I are BFFs. Seriously, getting your size was minor, didn’t even have to convince it I was the Captain or anything dodgy,” Elen said and sat down on the bench, removing her shoes to put the skates on. “So, it’s really easy…well, I think it will be easy for you, your balance is amazing. You just…have to move different, and I can show you. And I think underneath it all, you’re an adrenaline freak.”

Jace’s eyes drifted to where he knew the arch would appear if he asked the computer for it before looking back at her. He sat down, slowly unlacing his combat boots. He had spent a lifetime making sure that spike of chemicals was pushed down, so his heart wouldn’t race when he needed to take a shot. And here she was, thinking he liked adrenaline. “I think you’ve got wrong info.”

“I think the lady doth protest too much,” Elen countered and smiled, fondly, her eyes on how he did his laces. “Seriously, you got this with no problem. And I haven’t skated for years and...well...I had this dream last night Mum was skating with me. So I thought...we should skate.”

“Skate,” Jace repeated, looking at the ice. A frozen lake. Safeties would make sure it didn’t crack. Not like walking on real ice, where you had to judge it. One bad move, one weakness, and you’d be dropped into the icy depths. He felt the involuntary shiver down his spine and locked his body. “And you think I know how?”

“Oh, I am pretty sure you don’t know,” Elen grinned and stood, balancing easily and stretching her back. She moved her hands almost gracefully above her head, just to straighten her spine a little. “But I know you’ll learn it quickly. You got good balance, you know your body better than most...yeah, you’ll pick this up, easy peasy!”

He gave a small nod, exhaling, before he stood. It took him a moment to find his balance on the blades, just standing there. His hands hand down by his sides, his back remained straight. Eyes fixed forward as he just absorbed this new way of keeping his balance. Like walking on knives. His eyes flickered down to the skates on his feet. Now that was an interesting way of viewing them...foot-weapons.

“Perfect!” Elen said and moved, a little bit carefully, onto the ice, having no idea of any potential thoughts Sergeant Morven may or may not have on the application of ice skates. Once on the ice she smiled, pushing away to slide across the ice. “Come on! If you fall...well, you’ll have a bruise, max! All good right? That’s what dermal regenerators are for.”

“That is not what they are for,” Jace said before he moved. One step. Two. Finding the balance, the way to move. Then the ice. He stepped onto it carefully, gliding a little just with the force of his step, his hands coming out to try and balance himself. There was a difference between standing on the ice in his combat boots and moving on it on skates, and Jace realised that almost immediately. Standing was balance. Standing was a controlled adjustment of weight over something unfamiliar, a quiet argument between instinct and discipline...but the ice under the blades was unknown, where a single pebble could stop him in his tracks.

Moving became something to consider. Too much and he would shoot ahead, and without knowing how to stop or turn efficiently, he'd fall. If he fell, the holodeck safeties would take care of him to a point. But. He'd be vulnerable. There was no backing down. He shifted the skate a little, pushing away...and the blade carried him further than he had expected. His shoulders tightened. The correction through his spine and hips was quick, sharp, and Elen, of course, noticed at once.

“Oh, no, don’t do that!” she said, already pushing herself back toward him, her skates making that soft scratch-whisper over the ice that made the whole thing look a lot easier than it should have been. She slowed as she reached him, one hand lifting halfway toward his arm before she stopped herself and let the gesture become part of the explanation instead. The cold had changed her colouring subtly rather than dramatically, darkening the tip of her nose a little, bringing more warmth into her face and making her eyes look brighter. “You’re trying to fight it. Don’t fight it. It’s not ground, it just sort of...pretends to be, until it decides not to. You have to let it take you a bit. Tiny pushes…not steps, not marching, just…push and go, and...and don't freeze up. Be fluid...not...like real fluid, obviously, I mean more just keep relaxed and move with it.”

Jace looked down again, not really at his own feet but at the ice itself, at the shine of it, the slight scoring left by blades, the clean lie of the surface. No grip worth respecting. No give. No texture that offered anything he could count on. His jaw set faintly before he spoke. “I don’t like not having grip,” he said, his voice low, the words coming after a second as if he had already come to that conclusion and was merely informing her of it. He had started to see that things went easier with Elen when he answered rather than just pushed through.

“Yeah,” Elen said, softer now, the quick humour in her settling a little as she took a breath…getting herself slower, calmer. Just for a moment on his wavelength rather than her own busy one. “Truth is, no one likes not having control...” She shifted her weight with ease and held out a hand, not grandly, not even really as help, more like she was offering him a piece of equipment. “Here. Just for a second. You can think of it as...gear.”

His eyes dropped to her hand. There was a pause there as he watched it. Not long, but long enough to exist as a choice. He was not someone who enjoyed touch. But this was offered, not imposed, and clear in its purpose. He sighed, because this was Elen, and she would not lower her hand if he did not take it. So, he reached out and took it, his calloused hand in hers. Not…hard, not light. Just there, firm, like a tether between them.

“Okay,” Elen said, and there was that shift in her then, the one where all the noise in her seemed to line up behind one thing as her world narrowed down to the moment. “Shift first. Yeah, there. That’s better. You’re already trying to correct too hard before anything’s happened, so don’t. Just push. Small. You don’t need force. The ice does half of it, it’ll carry you...trust the ice...”

He followed it. Not because he trusted the instruction in itself because trusting the ice was the opposite of what was safe, but because he trusted his own capacity to adapt if the instruction failed him. A smaller push. Less force. The glide that followed was smoother, not graceful exactly, but cleaner. Less resistance in his body. Less immediate tension in the line of his shoulders.

“There,” Elen said at once, lighting up so quickly the reaction looked like it had started before she even meant it to. “That. You did it then!” she nodded, gently letting go. “Now just…do it again.”

“Do it again and glide in the direction I want to go?” he asked, almost to clarify. Somehow, it seemed...strange to him. Something that unsteady was now something he knew. He would lock this in his mind, and then whenever he need it...he’d know how to do it.

“That is what skating is,” she told him, grinning, and then, because she was Elen and standing still for too long was clearly an act of violence against herself, she pushed away again with more confidence. He watched her go, bright red against the pale spread of the ice and snow-laden edges of the programme, moving with a looseness that did not come naturally to him at all. It was not perfect. He could see that. There was care in it now, not certainty. But it still looked like something her body remembered even if her mind had not visited it in years.

She tried to turn. Not fully. Just enough to show him something, maybe enough to show herself she still could. And then...

...her blade caught.

TBC:

Sergeant Jace Morven
Platoon Sergeant, Alpha Squad
Federation Ground Forces Detachment
USS Guinevere

&

Lieutenant Junior Grade Elen Rell
Engineer
USS Guinevere

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