The BLTS Archive- The Captain's Number One: How it All Began by Jazz Man (jazz_man@email.com) --- Disclaimer: Startrek and anything remotely connected belongs to Paramount. Not that I'd claim otherwise. --- How much longer will he be? thought Will to himself. As if in answer to his silent question his comm badge chirped. "Riker here. Go ahead." "It's Jean-Luc. I'm afraid that I'll be late, Will." "Paperwork?" "Yes." "I feel for you," he paused, "How much longer will you be?" "Not long, I hope. It won't take me long to finish the work, so unless something else happens, I'll be there before you know it." "Good. See you then, and Jean-Luc, don't be too late. Riker out." Jean-Luc had been late the first time, their first 'date'. It was something he hated being and Will had felt it deserved at least a little teasing. That had been a long time ago, the two had been together for four years now. It had all begun on a holodeck adventure of Jean-Luc's. --- "Oh, come on, Will. You'll enjoy it." "Sir, I'm not so sure. I don't even know how to ride a horse." "Well, I'll just have to teach you," interrupted Jean-Luc. "And we're not on duty; call me Jean-Luc." "Uh, okay. That doesn't change anything, I'm still not convinced." "If you want we could give the horse part a miss. All we'd have to do is rescue a beautiful maiden from the tower, kill the evil king and escape back to the forest." "You make it sound so easy." "It is, but if you worried you won't be able to do it . . ." "Of course I would be able to," said Will before realising the trap he had just walked into. "Let's get on then." The two walked through the holodeck doors and into a clearing in a forest. Two large, black stallions stood grazing. "You want me to ride one of them," said Will, almost ready to turn around and leave. "Not if you don't want too. I can change them to something more docile." Will nodded. "Computer, replace program elements 34-7 and 34-8 with 1-0 and 1-1." The two horses were immediately replaced with two smaller greys. "Do these two look as frightening?" "The first two did not look 'frightening'." "I'll call them back then." "No, no. You don't have to go to the bother." "Oh, it's no bother," said Jean-Luc, clearly enjoying himself. "Please don't change them," said Will almost pleading. "All right, if you insist." "What do we have to do now?" "Get on the horse," said Jean-Luc smiling. "And how do you do that?" "I'll show you," said Jean-Luc walking over to one of the horses. Effortlessly he swung up into the saddle. "He makes it look so easy," said Will under his breath, moving toward his horse. "Just do what I did." Will put his foot in the stirrup and swung up, not without some difficulty however. The two rode around the forest. Will was doing well for a beginner. That is until Jean-Luc started jumping. There was a fallen tree on the path in front of them. Without a moments hesitation Jean-Luc jumped the tree, clearing it by a large amount. Will stopped. Jean-Luc turned around in the saddle. "Are you coming?" "You want me to jump that?" Jean-Luc nodded, "You're not afraid, are you?" "No, I just wasn't sure how to jump it." "Ah, so that explains it. Go back up the track a bit and then jump it." "Okay," said Will turning his horse. Jean-Luc waited patiently as Will turned to face him and started back down the track. "You're doing fine," he shouted, "Just keep going." Will's horse took the jump, soaring through the air as she did so. This was all well and good, but when the horse landed Will bounced onto the horse.s neck and fell off. In all this confusion Jean-Luc had swung down from his horse. He had also tripped on a root and fallen. The two landed at almost the same time. On top of one another. Will looked up into Jean-Luc's eyes and saw something he had never seen before - except in his dreams. "I think I might be ready to ride that stallion now," was all he said. --- The door swooshed open. "Hello, Will," said Jean-Luc walking in the door. "Since I was late, do you want to go out for that ride now?" "Why bother to go out?" asked Will with a devilish grin on his face. --- The End