Ecologist's Personal Log #2: Cleverly Reflecting How I'm Becoming Less "Green", Perhaps?

Posted on 01 Sep 2013 @ 8:43am by Ensign Natalie Chevalier

719 words; about a 4 minute read

It's only been a couple of days since I last wrote, but things move fast on this little ship.

The biggest news is our mission. We caught up with the Venture: or, what was left of it. It's been destroyed. Incroyable. An entire Galaxy class, just gone, nothing left but shrapnel and debris, and a few dozen escape pods. I don't know what was worse, seeing the scared faces of the people they rescued and recognising some of them from when I was on board waiting to transfer, or realizing that other faces that I remembered weren't among them. I don't even want to think about what's happened to them, but it's hard not to, and there are some ugly rumours swirling around the crew based on what they've heard. The worst... - merde, I don't even want to say it. I'm sure we'll find out soon: maybe this evening. I heard a rumour there might be a meeting to discuss the findings, but maybe it's just the kind of gossip that bubbles up when people get twitchy.

I've met more members of the crew: a lot of junior officers, but also the Captain herself. It was a little weird: she'd come to pick some flowers as a gift, and we ended up going from plant care and colour schemes to Romulan intelligence missions. But she invited me to dinner, so I can't have come across too crazy! In fact, she was very friendly, more so than I'd expected given how aloof most senior officers are, even on a ship like this. I can't imagine Commander Holliday inviting me to eat with him after the way he reacted to my uniform. But maybe a ship needs both kinds of person to run smoothly.

Speaking of senior officers, there's been another change in our department. Jacob is now the Chief Science Officer, for a little while at least. It's strange to think of him as my Department Head given how much fun I've had hanging out with him in his world building sim. I hope that now he's Senior Staff we don't have to stop: I'm really interested to learn more. And maybe he can help me fix Nattopia: I tried introducing some green police to make sure everyone fixed up their gum and cigarette butts, but that only seems to have made them angrier!

Even if I do have to give up on that, though, there are other things to do in the Holodeck. I'm trying to think of something fun to do with Jared. We had a nice time in the end: he took me out dancing and showed me a little, and I just about managed to avoid letting him realize I have two feet in the same shoe. But this time I want to do something a bit more active. I'm torn between orbital skydiving, which is fun but not exactly great fodder for conversation, or climbing, which can have its slow moments but maybe offers more in the way of a social experience.

The Arboretum is going well. Several people are starting to use it in the way I intended, as a sanctuary for peace and relaxation. Allyndra's morning water dancing, Andreus taking his lunch there, even the Captain searching out flowers. The bloomweeds came through nicely and the Trill blossom is beautiful. But the pond needs more work or it will end up getting overgrown: there's going to be a lot of busy work. I really need to thank Kiri for the overalls: they're going to get a lot of use.

The message cut off as the Captain's announcement broke in.

Merde. Just as I thought. I'm going to have to go: I'll talk more, about my strange meeting with Jac, about the funny Caitian I had breakfast with, about my ideas for getting to know the other scientists like Victoria and Ariadne a bit better - another time. For now I don't want to be late, or turn up in a mess: this meeting could be really important, and having the XO frown at me through the whole meeting will rather spoil the mood. Oh, and I still haven't written to maman: double reminder for next time.

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