The Arboretum is Drowning!

Posted on 04 Oct 2014 @ 10:52am by Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant JG Grayson Jones

2,371 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 7, Arboretum
Timeline: MD 08 - 0928 hours

[ON]

It felt, to Andreus Kohl, like every tribble in the arboretum was staring at him. Staring right at him with judgement and contempt. Tribbles don't have obviously apparent eyes, but he felt certain they were staring at him. Considering there were tribbles in every corner of the arboretum, that was quite a lot of staring. There were tribbles piled in the grass, hanging from trees, cluttering the walking paths, lounging on benches, and even munching on the flowers; they were everywhere Kohl could see, and more than a few places he couldn't.

Standing, as he was, in the middle of the pond, Kohl was hip-deep in cold and murky water. His uniform trousers, motor-assist bands and boots were soaked through, and he had been bare-chested ever since he'd left his jacket and tunic hanging from a tree branch. Kohl trudged across the pond, clutching a tricorder close, and stabbing at it's controls with an index finger. The more he reviewed the readings on the tricorder's display, the more Kohl cursed to himself absently.

It was hate. Loathing. Grayson despised the tribbles. They were messing up everything, everyone, everywhere. So far today he had no peace from them and the rest of his day looked to be no different. On way to the arboretum, he picked up his engineering kit, his eternal cheery personality and a less than forced smile.

His usual cocky personality quickly took over as he entered the arboretum announcing, "Never fear. Grayson is he-". Suddenly the personality faded away as he looked before him. "Hello hands..." Stopping the rest of the sentence before it came out, Grayson put the breaks on his impending warp speed approach. He swore if it was not for the tribbles he had died and gone to a happy place. Bringing himself back down onto the deck plating, regaining some form of composure that was not a form of flirting, Grayson continued in a rather serine tone, "How can I help?"

As soon as Kohl caught sight of the broad-shouldered engineer with faded Trill spots, Kohl murmured out a desperate, "Oh, thankyou." He hung his head back and allowed his arms fall to his sides. His hands, and the bleeping tricorder, splashed into the water. The impact sent droplets of water splattering his torso. And then Kohl snapped his attention towards Grayson, and he spoke in an urgent manner, when he asked, "Do you know anything about irrigation systems?"

"Not overly so, but it is a ship system, I have the specs and technical data memorised." Grayson nodded, getting his 'game face' on and trying to forget the distractions before him. "Other than the obvious, what seems to be the problem and where?"

Kohl pressed his palms flat against the surface of the water, and then raised them up by half a metre. "The water levels. In the pond. Are rising," Kohl said, breathlessly. It was like talking about the problem was causing all his panic about the problem to rise up again. Using his tricorder hand, Kohl waved over at one edge of the pond. He said, "The amethyst gladiolus garden, my garden, is under water." As Kohl's tricorder came up into his field of vision, he said, "All of the diagnostics on the irrigation system are coming back in the red. Very dark red." --And then he pursed his lips, and his mien turned inquisitive with a cocked an eyebrow in Grayson's direction-- "You have the whole system memorized?"

"Yeah, I have a weird memory that way." Grayson smiled as he started thinking about all the possibilities and solutions to the problem at hand. Heading to the nearest console, quickly he tapped in his engineering code to authorise shutting down the water system to the section. The faint hiss and rush of water a trained engineer's ears would hear stopped instantly. "I'm guessing there has been some kind of problem in the regulation system for the water, probably tribble related or tribble adjacent like everything else on this ship today. "Grayson tried to remain cheery during that sentence, but he was sure some signs of frustration and sheer exhaustion.

"Next step will be to clear out the water and fix the regulators..which will be messy." Grayson began to think to himself how great the rest of his day would be, despite eye candy before him. To fix the system, Grayson was about to get wet. Very wet. The only way to fix it was to dive into the jeffries tube below and fix whatever problem. On this though, Grayson anticipated a sudden rush of water to fall over him and soak him to the bone.

Wading across the pool, Kohl closed the distance between himself and Grayson. As Grayson was standing on higher ground, Kohl's sapphire eyes looked up at him with more than some relief. "I find myself oddly comfortable in a mess," Kohl remarked. "It's how I live, I suppose. Could you find a use for another pair of hands. These hands in particular."

The whole situation was like one of the trashy holonovels Grayson used to play through. His throat was dry, he gulped hard and loud. A variety of curse words were circling his head, partly to keep him from acting on any perceived signals, the other part to stop him of thinking any more into it. "Well, as long as you don't mind getting a little more wet." Grayson grinned, at this point now thinking if he should just let his uniform get wet or remove some layers to minimise this.

"Ensign, I grew up in an Argelian city by the sea," remarked Kohl. He took the remaining steps to Grayson's side, and he holstered his tricorder on his dripped wet trousers. "I was born to get wet. How do we begin?"

"We head down that access port there." Grayson pointed to a nearby Jefferies tube hatch coving, "Crawl down between the decks to just under the current small lake formation here. That is where the regulator we are looking for is. I'll need you to take a hyperspanner and hold the valve open as much as possible while I try and redirect the flow along several channels so we don't flood the system. We on the other hand, will be soaked through by the time it is all over. All in all, it should take less than 90 seconds, but will be tough."

"I'm up for it," affirmed Kohl, with a smile and a nod. He took the first steps in crossing the grass towards the jefferies tube. Looking over at Grayson, Kohl admitted, "I don't know that I've touched one since the Academy, but my hands know their way around a hyperspanner."

"Follow me then." Grayson said with a glow as he headed towards the hatch. Popping it open and sliding the door beside, he slid in head first, engineering kit in tow. It was only mere moments before the pair were at their intended destination. "Right, take this, " he handed over a hyperspanner, "see the junction there, where the cross hairs of the valve meet? I need you, when I say go, to turn it around ninety degrees clockwise and hold it until we get done." Removing part of the top layer of his uniform right now seemed like a good idea, he stripped to his yellow engineering under-shirt and hung it over a near by pipe. "Ready?"

Although Kohl had heard enough to raise the hyperspanner to the crosshairs of the valve intersection, he wasn't entirely certain he had taken in all of the instructions. His gaze had drifted from the cold cylinders of the hyperspanner and irrigation system, and had landed on the natural form of Grayson Jones. Blinking hard, Kohl winced out a smile, and he said, "I'm sorry, what?"

Being used to repeating instructions, either because people were not sure or because Grayson went too technical, he let himself brush past and slightly into Kohl to give a more visual demonstration. Grayson was now between Kohl and the valve. Turning over his shoulder to look at Kohl, he repeated, "When I say go, turn it this way." He grabbed the spanner and Kohl's hand, rotating them ever so slightly to the right. "There will be a bit of pressure trying to force it back. I need you to keep it there the best you can." Turning round to face Kohl, hoping he was keeping up with it all now. "All O.K with that?"

Having been raised without a single shred of the Human concept of propriety, Kohl hugged his chest against Grayson's back and pressed his arms along Grayson's arms. He took the lead with the hyperspanner this time, lined it up at the appropriate spot and twisted it as instructed. Kohl asked, "Like so?"

'Oh crap'. Grayson thought as he felt Kohl press against him. He kept telling himself he was on duty, he couldn't. He shouldn't, even though he really wanted to. Managing to spin himself around (in order to free himself and nothing more, so Grayson said to himself) he brought his head perilously close to Kohl's in what many would consider 'making a movie'. "Yeah, j-just like that." he managed to stutter out. 'Please just touch me again.' flashed across like a beacon in his mind's eye, hoping Kohl wasn't a mind reader or particularly astute at the art of reading body language.

Kohl's psi-talent was debatable, but he could read body language like he was born to it. When Grayson leaned in close, Kohl refused to blink. He leaned his face his closer, but he managed to keep their lips from touching. Kohl tilted his head and he touched his forehead to Grayson's forehead. "Thank you for teaching me something new," Kohl said sweetly.

"It is my pleasure." Grayson replied, enjoying the touch. It wasn't something he was used to and was feeling exhilarated by it. He smiled, his cheeks flushed. "Think we are ready to get started then?"

"For sure, we are," Kohl said with some enthusiasm, if not much volume. "Let's save those Tribbles from drowning," he said, and then he heard what he said, and he winced. "Or..." he started to say, but he couldn't come up with anything more than that. Kohl scrunched his face in an uneasy expression.

"Don't worry, " Grayson said with a soft, easy smile. "As much as they are ruining my day, well, every day right now. I don't want to commit mass murder on them." After a few taps of a nearby sunken control panel, he guessed they were as good as ready to begin. Having placed himself under the area that would receive the most water soaking, he nodded to Kohl. "Okay, if you could turn the valve...and brace yourself." He half joked.

Just like Grayson showed him, Kohl turned the valve. Using his left hand, he grabbed hold of a protruding pipe, just in case. With his right, he held the hyperspanner in place when it started to fight back.

As the valve was turned, Grayson hit the commands to begin draining the system. With the overflow pipe above his head a torrent of water began to cascade upon him. Quickly it became very difficult to keep his head up, vision clear and tap in the correct command sequences to route the flow so ships systems were not overcome with a flood. With around half the time left, he called out to his...hopefully dry assistant. "Half way to go. Are you okay?" He half had to scream it over the rushing sounds of the water while inhaling what felt like half a swimming pool. Grayson's hair was beginning to get in the way. With a free hand he tossed it aside, looking down, he was already soaked through.

Further down the accessway, Kohl was crouching in knee-deep water, but he was mostly spared from the oncoming spray. "I survived graduate school, Bactricia and the Borg," Kohl said. He was grinning at Grayson, and his manner landed somewhere in between cocky and vulnerable. "I can manage twisting a hyperspanner and watching a stunning man in the shower."

Grayson blushed. "Not the kind of shower most people would like," he replied as the torrent finished. Looking like some poor unexpected water park victim, he slumped to his knees allowing himself to rest there as the wall behind him quickly became his support. "You might find some soggy patches still above still. I think that is the majority of the water though," Grayson smiled, "At least there are no tribbles just now." He tried to joke.

Kohl met Grayson's eyes, and he made his way towards the other man on his hands and knees. "Thank you, Grayson," he said; "Thank you for all you've done.'

With his blush reddening somehow he managed to get out a reply, "It is no problem at all. It's my job after all."

Elongating the vowel, Kohl remarked, "Weeeeeeell, thank you for doing your job terribly well." Then, Kohl shook his head and he squirmed when he felt a chill across his bare skin. He moved to crawl out of the access shaft, and as he did so, he said, "I'm sorry; don't let me keep you from your other duties..."

Feeling a sense of relief, Grayson continued onwards. "First thing is first is a quick break to shower, change and warm up." His own chill spread through him, goosebumps felt like they covered his body and his jaw gave a small chattering of teeth.

Grabbing hold of the ladder rungs, Kohl began to climb up the vertical shaft into the arboretum. Still aching from the last mission to the mines, Kohl's legs wobbled whenever he extended them. He halted his climb, and filled the pause with a thoughtless, "I'll join you on that. I think I'm chilled to the core."

Grayson internally freaked and hoped he didn't mean actually join him...or did he?


[OFF]

Lieutenant Andreus Kohl
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Grayson Jones
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

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