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Sha'Rel entered Holodeck three, only to be blasted by cold wind and sparkly white flecks the moment the doors opened, making her shiver. Holloway had advised that she dress warmly, but she didn't think she'd be walking into a freezer. Ducking into her sweater and wondering what kind of program Holloway had prepared for her this time, she wheeled into the room, wishing she had her all-terrain tires as the layers of white sparkly stuff crunched beneath her tires.
Thankfully, the initial blast of air was just from air pressure, and inside there wasn't even a breeze. It was still chilly, but there was warmth from the artificial sun, so it wasn't unpleasant.
The program seemed to be modelling some alien planet, with its sparkly white blankets covering everything, but the evergreen foliage seemed Earth-like. The smell of pine filled her nose as she followed a little trail through a copse of the trees, and a pile of white stuff fell from one of the branches as she brushed against one. She shivered as some of the stuff fell down the back of her sweater. It was cold! And... wet. Great. But she continued on.
Sha'Rel spotted Holloway as soon as she emerged from the trees. Holloway was gliding along the surface of a frozen pond, wearing strange bladed shoes. He waved when he spotted her at the edge of the pond, and changed direction towards her.
"So what do you think?" he asked. Despite his scarf and woolly hat, his face was red from the chill. He didn't seem to mind.
"It's certainly interesting," Sha'Rel said. "What planet is this supposed to be?"
Holloway just laughed. "It's Earth, silly."
"Oh," Sha'Rel said, surprised. "I wasn't aware that Earth had any of this—" she gestured broadly at the ground "—stuff."
Raising an eyebrow, Holloway asked, "you mean, snow?"
"Is that what it's called?" Sha'Rel asked. When Holloway just looked at her like she came from another planet— which she did —she said, "what? I haven't seen it before."
Holloway shook his head, grinning. "Well, that makes this even better," he said. "I'd assumed you'd never been skating before, but I didn't think you'd never seen snow before. So this is a bonus!"
"Skating?" Sha'Rel asked. She looked at the frozen pond, then at the bladed shoes Holloway wore, and remembered what he had been doing before she had shown up. "You know the chair isn't just for decoration, right?" she asked, flatly.
"I know," Holloway said. "Come on, come out onto the pond." He moved his feet strangely, skating backwards away from her. Sha'Rel eyed the ice warily, wishing for the second time that day that she had brought her all terrain tires, but pushed herself out onto the ice anyways. When she stopped pushing, her chair continued in its trajectory, even once the wheels stopped spinning.
"What's happening?" she asked, startled by the odd movement.
Holloway grinned and reached out his hands to her. "It'll be fun, trust me."
After a brief hesitation, Sha'Rel took his hands, and Holloway began to skate backwards, pulling her along with much more ease than she would have thought possible.
"This is strange," she said, feeling nervous about the unfamiliar movements but trying not to show it as Holloway towed her along.
Suddenly, Holloway let go of one of her hands, and used the other to propel her into a turn before letting go. Sha'Rel yelped and clutched at the arms of her wheelchair as it continued sliding forward in a lazy spin like some kind of Klingon curling rock. She felt like her chair should be toppling over and throwing her onto the ice, but it didn't. She sat hunkered down in her chair, white knuckling the arm rests with alarm on her face long after she came to a stop at the edge of the pond. When she regained her composure, she noticed Holloway lying on the ice, laughing.
Sha'Rel narrowed her eyes and gathered some of the snow in her hands, pleased to find that it stuck together. She then lobbed the ball of snow at Holloway, which smacked him square in the face. Now they both laughed.