Lewis stared down at the screen of his workstation with a look of slight puzzlement.....His orders were to...."take shore leave."<em>Shore leave?!we're in orbit around a planet docked with a space station while Arkaria does have several large bodies of water it seems strange for us to take samples of the shorelines of a known planet.</em>Lewis re-read the order. Their was no mention of ranking officer, reasons for testing, what diagnostics were needed, even the duty schedules were absent....<em>Wait...several key members of command are actually not scheduled at all!!!!</em>Now Lewis knew something was wrong. Either with the orders or with his understanding of the mission. He decided to check before petitioning the EMH to have the Captain removed for Mental Deficiency.<br/><br/>-/\- Computer, define shore leave. -/\-<br/><br/>-/\- Shore leave is the leave that professional sailors get to spend on dry land. It is culturally infamous for its excess.<br/><br/>During the Age of Sail, shore leave was often abused by the members of the crew, who took it as a prime opportunity to drink in excess, indulge in other pleasures denied to them aboard the solely masculine ships, and desert. Many captains were forced to take on new members of the crew to replace the ones lost due to shore leave.<br/><br/>Various books, films, and songs about sailors on shore leave have been written throughout the 21Th century and continuing into the present  including Jean Genet's 1953 novel, Querelle of Brest; Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen's 1949 film musical of Leonard Bernstein's On the Town; and Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel's 1964 ballad "Amsterdam".<br/><br/>The US singer-songwriter Tom Waits wrote a song entitled "Shore Leave" in 1982, and included it on his album of the following year Swordfishtrombones. As well as describing the excesses noted above, it also details the loneliness that many sailors feel when they suddenly find themselves with free time but without loved ones to share it with. His separation from his wife (he's in Hong Kong, she's back in the USA) is most poignantly put in a beautifully haunting line: "And I wondered how the same moon over this Chinatown fair/ Could look down on Illinois, and find you there". Several Risan films and Songs also mention Shore leave and the pleasure the Risans take in the arrival of "weary souls with unbound morals."<br/><br/>In the case of species capable of interstellar travel, such as the Federation or Klingon Empire, shore leave has the same basic principle, but is more metaphorical, as a spacecraft crew will not necessarily be disembarking to a planetary location with a shoreline; sometimes said crew will not visit a planet at all, but instead spend their shore leave on a space station with recreational facilities for crewpersons on leave. "Banned from Argo", (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7mK79i0tF8#) a popular Folk comedy song details a embellished report of the debauchery and chaos caused by the Starfleet crew on shore leave from the Enterprise USS Enterprise NCC-1701. Would you like me to play any of the audio files mentioned?" -/\-<br/><br/>-/\- "Just the last on please, computer." -/\-<br/><br/>-/\- " Playing audio file" -/\- the computer chirped before the sound of rapid tinny strings filled the engineering bay and a shaky female voice picked up the Lyrics.<br/><br/>"When we pulled into Argo Port in need of R & R<br/>The crew set out investigating every joint and bar<br/>We had high expectations of their hospitality<br/>But found too late it wasn't geared for spacers such as we<br/><br/>And we're banned from Argo every one<br/>Banned from Argo just for having a little fun<br/>We spent a jolly shoreleave there for just three days or four<br/>But Argo doesn't want us anymore<br/><br/>Our captain's tastes were simple but his methods were complex<br/>We found him with five partners each of a different world and sex<br/>The shorepolice were on the way -- we had no second chance<br/>We beamed him up in the nick of time in the remnants of his pants"<br/><br/>The grin that brightened up the holograms face as he listened to the lyrics stretched from ear to ear.<br/><br/>"hmm....maybe I am going to enjoy this shore leave thing after all."