Plants On The Brain

Posted on 13 Feb 2015 @ 4:12am by Ensign Arandon Khnailmnae Ph.D. & Commander Norvi Stace
Edited on on 13 Feb 2015 @ 6:00pm

1,731 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 07 - Sojourn
Location: USS Galileo: Chief Science Officer's Office
Timeline: MD 43 1700 Hours

ON:

After his taxing journey from the shuttlebay, to Commander Blake's office, to his quarters to unpack, and now to Commander Stace's office, Arandon was beginning to feel a little taxed. He rubbed his temple a bit as he walked down the hall to the Commander's office, he gripped his transfer orders and credentials tightly. His first day and already Arandon was beginning to feel the stress of deep space, and the Galileo was still docked. Arriving at the Commander's Office, Arandon sighed for a moment before pressing the chime, which didn't do much for his growing headache.

As the chime sounded in her office, Norvi looked up from her padd and then cleared her throat. She powered down her console, moved it to the side and then bid entry. It seemed to have been a long morning already; three meetings and not even lunch time. "Come in," she called into the middle distance.

The doors opened and Arandon was able to view the Commander's office for the first time, with a Trill woman sitting behind the desk. She had her hair brown hair back, displaying her spots that ran down the side of her face and neck, characteristic of the Trill. Arandon had seen many of them throughout his life and he could sense that she was joined. He could control his telepathic abilities to not slip into the thoughts of another, but he could still feel the ambient activity of thought all around him, non descript as it was. He felt the presence of two lifeforms where Commander Stace stood.

"Ensign Arandon Khnailmnae, botany specialist, reporting as ordered sir." His tone was soft, but his words and accentuation were robotic and stiff.

"Ah, Ensign Khnailmnae!" Stace called out, standing up from her chair and brushing down her uniform. She extended hand out and smiled widely. "Come in, please."

Arandon stepped further into the office. "Thank you Commander," Arandon outstretched a hand of his own, this one with his transfer orders in PADD form. "My transfer orders, as written by the Martian Terraforming Institute and cleared by Starfleet department of Personnel."

Stace scrunched her nose up and smiled, indicating to the desk in front of her. "I'm aware of your assignment, Ensign. You wouldn't have managed to get past docking security, and all the way to my office if you weren't meant to be here. She smiled more widely now and then nodded to her hand. "You can just leave the padd there."

Arandon nodded and gently set the PADD down on the Commander's desk. It was too early to tell but she seemed like a woman who was on top of things, to the point and she didn't appear to have an aversion to formality. Well

"If truth be told," Norvi continued, now stepping out from behind the desk and heading towards the door, "I've needed to stretch my legs all morning. Shall we take a walk to the arboretum. See what you're dealing with?"

His eyes shifted around the room for a few moments. Arandon stood rigidly in the middle of the Commander's office as he considered the proposition. "All right Commander," he said in his normal, soft tone of voice that was perhaps hard to hear. The nod of his head made his acceptance of the offer known though.

Stace strode passed him with a confident, but friendly smile. "You'll son find that on this ship it'll take you less than two minutes to get to anywhere." She paused as they left the threshold of her office and wagged a playful finger at him. "No excuses to being late on shift, mind!"

Arandon followed the Trill woman out the door, keeping pace with her rather easily, considering the vast difference between their walking strides. His was near militant, heavy but somewhat graceful, though a bit uneven. "Commander I wasn't aware of an arboretum on a ship this size."

As they rounded the corner and entered the turbolift, she smiled and then faced the door with her new recruit. "Deck Seven," she said calmly and then turned to face Arandon. "We're a specialised science vessel. Commodore Saalm has seen to it that the Gally be equipped for everything. Especially for the sciences."

The familiar whirring of the pod slowed to a stop as the turbolift doors abruptly opened. They both stepped out and she led the way, taking the only left to the arboretum. The doors opened as the unusually large space opened up before them, a holomatrix ceiling reflecting a beautifully blue sky above them. She took a few steps in and then took one of the paths through it. "As you can see, we use this space for both recreation but primarily for research." She walked over to one of the larger plots and extended her hand. "This is my work. This I need for some of the minor research projects I'm conducting but this portion here," she indicated to a slender strip of the plot, "is for my pleasure. We'll get yours divvied up in a day or so, I expect."

Arandon never cared much for holodecks, growing up on the most beautiful planet in the quadrant made everything else seem cheap by comparison. Mars had its own, particular crimson beauty; the sands, the two moons, the spectacular view of the sky from any of the many plateaus. This simplistic recreation was mediocre in Arandon's eyes. It had no breeze, no fresh scent of air that accompanied it. Still, the verdant plants were nice to see, so too was the blue sky, if nothing else.

"I thought I'd be working out of the botany lab on Deck 4, I would have brought larger samples with me," he said with a look around the Commander's handiwork.

Stace's eyes furrowed in amusement as she broke out into a weak smile. "You won't just be restricted to the arboretum, Ensign." She turned and then walked them both over to one of the benches by the pond. "Please, take a seat." As they both lowered themselves onto the bench, Stace turned to him and crossed one knee over the other, allowing her hands to fall in her lap. "From what I ready of your service record, this is your first posting onboard an active ship, am I right?"

His answer was simple, "Yes." Arandon would have gone on to explain that this assignment was far from his choice, but that wouldn't exactly be ingratiating himself to his new department head. Plus it wasn't nearly as bad as he had thought it, at least not yet. It wasn't going to be easy flying under the radar here, but a hundred man crew with more important things to catalogue and study other than plants would perhaps give him the cover and lack of notoriety he desired.

She smiled at his response and then scrunched up her nose affectionately. "Things will most likely take a little getting used to as an officer on aboard a starship, Ensign. It won't be much like what you remember from your space tour at the Academy. And, being a scientist on a science-specific vessel, will be different for you again." She relaxed and, twisting herself to face him almost squarely, she leant an arm over the back of the bench. "You'll have duty-related responsibilities, which I will be responsible for. And that could have you working down here, in one of the multi-purpose labs and the botany lab. But Commander Kohl will also task you with some of the research we conduct while we're out here. Naturally, you will also be allocated duty-time that you will have to conduct yourself. Your own projects, and the such. And anything you need, I'll help obtain for you. You need only request it."

A Nova class starship would certainly lack the resources of the Institute, but Arandon had gotten by on what he perceived to be little while he was there. Still, he certainly didn't want for anything on such an expansive and well funded base and knew how to get it if he did. That reality might be different on a starship which had naturally limited stores and could often be in deep space for long periods of time without resupply. It was one of the reasons why he had avoided a deep space assignment until now. "I'll keep that in mind Commander." He said in his soft, almost mumbling tone of voice. His mind also turned to the duties he might be performing. Where once his duties had been relatively similar and repetitive, and spread out amongst a dozen other people in his own specific department, he was now one of only two botanists assigned to an entire planetary science division. Arandon could only hope that if the surveys were meant to be thorough, that they were also of appropriate length.

Stace widened her eyes at the lack of interaction she was attempting to foster. She'd dealt with her fair share of shy, quiet, science-types, and for someone so fresh into the Fleet on active tour duty, this 'slow to warm' reaction was common place. But the ensign hadn't just been birthed from the academy; he had a wealth of experience from the institute, but Stace decided to allow the dust to settle to see how he interacted with the crew. "Good," she replied confidently. "And if you haven't already, check in with Commander Kohl. He heads up the Research side of things."

Arandon got up from the bench, rising gracefully and then standing rigidly. "I'll see to it Commander," Arandon said with a nod. "Is there anything else? It's been lovely talking with you but I'm... well there's something I need to take care of." He was referring to his growing headache but tacking that on to his previous words would have surely made it an insult.

"No," Stace replied with a smile. "See to what you have and if there's nothing else then I shall see you on duty." She paused and smiled widely. "If there's anything you need a hand with then please contact me. We're a friendly bunch here so you shouldn't struggle too much. Good luck with your new assignment, Ensign." She nodded his dismissal but remained seated.

OFF:

Lieutenant Commander Norvi Stace
Chief Science Officer & Second Officer
USS Galileo

&

Ensign Arandon Khnailmnae PhD
Botanist
USS Galileo

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