Evasive Statements

Posted on 23 Feb 2015 @ 5:04am by Commander Andreus Kohl & Ensign Arandon Khnailmnae Ph.D.

2,405 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 07 - Sojourn
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 7, Arboretum
Timeline: MD 44 - 0139 hours

[ON]

Having landed himself hip-deep in the pond again, Andreus Kohl came prepared this time. Rather than his standard duty uniform, Kohl was clad in a wetsuit the same shade of indigo as the Starfleet Science division. It had thick grey bands running down the sides, and adorning the trim. Kohl's honey brown hair was slicked to one side, and it was wet, because he kept running a hand through his hair idly, forgetting how wet his hands were. Kohl waded deeper into the pond, and an antigrav cart filled with tools followed him. He retrieved a bulky sensor device from the cart and sank it's protruding probe into the murky water.

It was an interesting sight, watching Commander Kohl wade into the water to conduct just whatever he was doing. Sitting close by at his own plot of soil that Commander Stace had allotted to him, he watched from afar, occasionally turning his head up to look on the Commander's progress. Water chemistry could have been done from the shore of the pool, and based on the equipment it was something substantially more involved and complicated. "Is there anything I can help you with Commander?" Arandon called out from across the Arboretum.

Kohl looked up from the LCARS display on his sensor, and laid his eyes on the statuesque young man on the other side of the arboretum. "Oh, I never turn down an offer of help," Kohl called back. An easy grin came to his lips, as he explained, "I'm collecting samples from each of the habitat zones in the pond. We used to grow Callitriche verna here, but we can't seem to keep them alive, not anymore. This isn't really my area of expertise, but I feel responsible."

Arandon gave a slightly puzzled look. Cellitriche Verna was a wild plant, it grew in the small streams and rivers of North America, it didn't require much upkeep and the fact that it couldn't survive certainly spoke to just where this department's strengths lay. Getting up from his plot and walking over, his natural off balance being accentuated by the small grooves in the Arboretum's terrain, Arandon arrived across from the Commander. "Might I ask why you would be trying to grow such a mundane plant?"

"Oh..." was all Kohl could think to say at first. Kohl wasn't even sure who had selected the flora and the fauna in the arboretum, and so he pondered on a response, as he watched Arandon's awkward gait carry him closer. "That's a good question. I can't say I know," Kohl said, with a mild shake of his head. "But it prompts a worrying question of its own: if the damaged little ecosystem of our artificial pond can't sustain a mundane form of plant life, how will the rarer breeds possibly survive?"

"Well it might be something simpler than that," Arandon said as crouched down by the pool, trying to do a quick visual scan of the body of water. He could think of a few reasons why the plants wouldn't be growing, but he decided to stick to the ones that presented less of an insult to the rest of the department and a bruise to the ego of Commander Kohl. "How deep is this pond?" Arandon asked, looking up. "And what was the data of the last water chemistry? PH, nitrates, things like that."

Kohl reached for a slim PADD that was resting on the antigrav cart, and he touched the display to call up the information Arandon had asked for. To fill the silence, Kohl explained, "Our team had to replace every speck of life in the pond, after I flushed it out during the last mission. The plumbing got clogged up with tribbles, and the arboretum was flooding." --Kohl handed the PADD over to Arandon, and he pointed at a patch of dirty not far away-- "The only flower garden I planted, I planted it with my ex, it got washed away. It was like pathetic fallacy, summing up our failing relationship...."

The story had come out of Kohl in one long stream of consciousness, and then he blinked hard. "Oh. Why did I tell you that?" Kohl shook his head, and he said, "I don't even know who you are!"

Wishing to spare the Commander another bruise to his ego, Arandon held back telling him that this was hardly a new situation for him. He grew up on Risa where people drowned their sorrows at bars, said too much to the pretty native and then wound up sobbing in bed. Yes, Arandon was used to this, even without the Ja'risia something just made others tell their deepest secrets. Freudian slip didn't begin to cover it. "All right, it's controlled but this shouldn't be stifling the growth of plants," Arandon said, returning to the PADD. "How deep is this pond?"

Kohl cleared his throat twice and he tilted his head to the left, watching Arandon reading from the PADD. "At it's deepest," Kohl replied in his formal timbre, "the pond is around 90 centimetres deep." He looked down at the readings on his sensor device, allowing Arandon silence in which to think. From Kohl's perspective, he could only assume Arandon's brevity with words was due to a greater comfort with flora than with fauna.

No, meter deep, that was the optimal depth for the Callitriche verna, the problem had to be with the water chemistry, or something else entirely. "What else were you attempting to grow here?" Arandon asked as he looked over the water chemistry of the pond.

"I don't know off-hand. It should be there if you tab through those reports there," Kohl replied, and he waved a hand at the PADD he'd handed over to Arandon. "I can't say I'm too involved in the day-to-day operations aboard. I offered up my hands today, because I felt responsible for flushing out the old pond. Really, I'm responsible for research aboard Galileo. I'm Andreus."

"Yes Commander I'm aware," Arandon said bluntly, though he said it softly and quickly, almost at a mumble. He was engrossed in the data of the water chemistry, simple as it was, trying to extrapolate from it just what could have caused such a resilient and widespread plant, to simply not grow in the Arboretum.

Kohl cleared his throat, but such a basic vocalization didn't distract Arandon from his water chemistry figures. After abandoning his sensor device on the antigrav cart, Kohl admitted aloud, "I'm afraid I'm not as well informed..."

Arandon didn't look up and stopped his rapid eye movements for a moment. Yes, he was developing a habit of not introducing himself. "Arandon Khailmnae, Botanist." He said, briefly looking up and then returning to the contents of the PADD.

"Ah, yes. Ensign Khailmnae. It's a pleasure to meet you, Arandon," Kohl said in his most formal timbre, and there was only a narrow slice of sardonic undertone to his words. As he crossed one arm across his chest, Kohl said, "I hope the Galileo is proving to be satisfactory to you. Our facilities aren't as... expansive as the Central Terraforming Institute."

Well, the man had read his file. "Yes, nor are they quite as specialized. We had dozens of biodomes, all far larger than this entire vessel, each replicating the most basic planetary environments and their different stages of development," Arandon explained.

"How will you cope," Kohl asked, "with such limited resources?"

Oh what an interesting question that was. "I have no other option," he said quickly, almost under his breath.

Perhaps too bluntly, Kohl asked, "Do you regret your transfer orders to Galileo?" There was only concern in his voice, and no accusation. Although Arandon wasn't looking at Kohl, Kohl was looking right at him. Looking for micro-expressions and body language, since he couldn't be sure how much Arandon would communicate through words.

"It is not a matter of regret Commander," Arandon said, his eyes flicking between the PADD and the water itself. "I just didn't request this assignment, I cannot regret what was not my choice." His tone was not bitter, hopefully Commander Kohl would pick up on that. "Still, it has been interesting so far, deep space."

"Oh, yes? What has interested you most of all?" asked Kohl. He took a couple of sloshing steps towards the edge of the pond, and gradually walked himself up onto dry grass.

Well the Commander had called his bluff, Arandon really should stop lying to make conversations more pleasant. "The infinitesimal size of it, among other things." Not precisely a lie, but a rather evasive statement.

"I've heard that a lot, lately," Kohl remarked, and he pulled the antigrav cart out of the pond with him. He shook his head, and he admitted, "I can't say space, as a romantic concept, ever resonated for me."

The very small, very sick poet in Arandon almost died at the notion that space wasn't romantic. The Universe was awe inspiring, grand and infinite in ways that could evoke terror or passion, like the greatest Romantic novels of Earth or any other culture. "I'm... surprised," Arandon said with a bit of a look on his face, still engrossed with the data but peering at Kohl with a cold look of confusion on his face. "I thought most Starfleet officers had some romantic notions of space, if not peace and exploration." He was of course speaking of himself, who had some sense of it, though he would rather observe it on his own terms.

Tentatively, Kohl said, "Yes..." With his eyes on his tool cart, Kohl nodded his head to pass the time while he parsed Arandon's words. Exploration certainly held a grip on Kohl's imagination, but the concept of space itself wasn't quite so gripping. He looked to Arandon, and Kohl said, "Yes, I suppose most do."

Arandon looked up with a slightly raised eyebrow and a flick of his bangs, his eyes being revealed. "But you're not one of them?" He asked with a certain look on his face.

And that was the first question Arandon had asked about something other than the pond, Kohl supposed. Kohl had been evasive a few heartbeats earlier, closed off. That look from Arandon softened him a touch. "Exploration has its appeals, and it was duty to the Federation that first called me," Kohl replied. "But space... Space is just space. It's the waiting in between before I get somewhere."

"That's rather... simplistic, is it not?" Arandon asked, his question perhaps more academic than personal. He was not surprised by the attitude, but merely the fact that it was coming from a scientist. Although in a certain light it did make sense. Kohl did, after all, command the planetary sciences division.

Nodding at Arandon's assertion, Kohl said, "Romantic notions live in the basest parts of me." As he spoke, he tapped and prodded at the tools on his cart, saving all of his sensor readings and switching the tools into energy-conservation modes. "I can't truly feel what I'm feeling, if I'm analyzing it too hard."

Arandon could sympathize, he wasn't one to over think things. Things were what they were, there was a rhyme and a reason. Or perhaps that wasn't what Commander Kohl meant. "So you believe mixing your personal sense of adventure with a scientific curiosity is harmful?" His tone made it sound like he was following a logical progression.

But to Kohl, there was no logical progression in this matter. Rather, it was a never-ending battle-cluster between head and heart. He shook his head. "No, I don't believe I say anything with that much certainty or clear definition," Kohl remarked. He shook his head again. "I don't know what I mean."

Arandon just looked away, once again trying to divert attention from Kohl's more personal showings of emotion. "I...." He struggled to find a trivial piece of data to distract himself from involving himself in Commander Kohl's personal struggles. But something about him, perhaps something either Risian or his own ability to sense the tempo of the Commander's thoughts led him to set the data down and sit properly on the grass. "... sense you're a bit pained." He said, showing an unusual amount of empathy, both telepathic and in the traditional sense, though his voice was a bit strained, not knowing fully what to do.

"I... uh..." Kohl started to say, but the words wouldn't come. He braced his palms on the edge of the antigrav cart and he looked away. "I have been pained. I have been pained for some time now," Kohl said. He found it easier to use Arandon's words; it helped him get started. "But I've been recovering for some time too. Every day is stronger."

"Well that's.... good to hear." Arandon said with an unusual empathy. He grew up on Risa. People frequently bared their tortured souls to the pretty natives, and Arandon had some feeling of what to do.

"I am charmed to have met you, Arandon," Kohl said, but they may have just been words. He tapped on the tricorder to send the collected sensor readings to the team who would be working on improving the pond. That done, he offered the other man a polite smile. "I'm pleased I had the opportunity to do so."

Arandon gave an equally polite if forced and somewhat confused smile with a nod of his head. "Likewise Commander Kohl," he said with an equally polite tone and exchange of affection.

"Now," Kohl said, "I really must be getting back to Nautilus. Enjoy the rest of your shift, Arandon." Moving towards the passageway, Kohl strode away from Arandon, and dragged his antigrav cart behind him.

Left alone in the middle of the Arboretum, Arandon just stared off into the distance for a moment, trying to make sense of what had just occurred in the past few minutes. He had been roped into a pond mystery, Commander Kohl's personal life and had been left flat. Not exactly an unusual occurance where he was from, but still. "Well no one ever said Aliens weren't strange." He said with a shake of his head.

[OFF]

Lieutenant Commander Andreus Kohl
Chief Research Officer; Acting Executive Officer
USS Galileo; USS Nautilus

&

Ensign Arandon Khnailmnae, PhD
Botanist
USS Galileo;

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