Good Morning, Sunshine

Posted on 14 Mar 2013 @ 9:00pm by Nesh Saalm & Anera & Petty Officer 3rd Class Thanis Rothgra

2,369 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo: Arboretum
Timeline: MD04: 0900

ON:

"Man, this place is gorgeous," Nesh said, swinging her arms beside her as they walked through the grass. She had her shoes off, digging green toes into the dirt. She was trying to think about what Lirha told her last night, and she had an edge of... agitation, surrounding her like a nervous bubble, but she kept her step light, almost furtive, as she walked alongside Thanis. "They say it spans for like, two decks! How cool would it be to design something like that." She pointed at the illusory sun.

"It's a hologram," Thanis shrugged. "It'd be cooler to build an actual star."

"Do you really think we could do that?" Nesh asked, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Build a star?"

"It's theoretically possible."

"True," a quiet voice murmured nearby. "So why do you think no one has?" A fabric draped face peered out from the other side of a lemon tree, apparently connected to a multicolored pile of colorful frothy robes and skirts.

"Maybe it's too hard?" Nesh ventured, and she puffed up her shoulders on her next breath. Anera wasn't human, she was sure of that. She didn't know why she thought that, though. She smelled differently. "We should totally be the first ones to do it." Nesh smirked.

"That's certainly a possibility." Anera patted the patterned cloth she'd spread beneath the tree, "Have a seat if you like. It's possible it's too hard. But that wasn't my question." She smiled. "Why do you think that no one has built a star?"

Thanis squinted at her. "Because they haven't."

Anera lifted her brows. "Epsilon 119. By Gideon Seyetik."

"That was reignited - not built."

"A star is not a wick that burns out and flames again when touched by a match." Anera smiled. "When Dr. Seyetik re-ignited the remains of Epsilon 119 with proto-matter, what he essentially did was rebuild the star where it had been before."

"I have no idea what you just said," Nesh said serenely, plopping down beside the woman. "Which sucks, since I probably... should. But I remember we learned about that doctor in school. Didn't he just launch a shuttle into it? 'Cause building stars is cool and all that, dying, not so much."

"He piloted his shuttle into the center of the star's remains and there released a proto-matter burst with a heat twenty-thousand times the heat of the expanded star. He could have remote-released it, or time-released it. He didn't. There's debate on why. No one has a clear answer on that." Anera folded her hands in her lap. "So - a star has been built. Now we return to your original answer, Nesh. Why haven't more been built? Stars are good, aren't they?"

Nesh frowned. She had the distinct feeling of being in school all over again. She totally thought she'd gotten out of that. "Um, because they're... hot?" she said a little hesitantly. The frown deepened. "Like, a star system is pretty much, dependent on the star, isn't it? Like, if you're making a sun. So," she was speaking more quietly now, "The more of them there are, it'd like, make it all weird." She tilted her hands.

"There's a cycle to everything," Anera agreed. "And a balance to the way the universe manufactures itself. Who's to say that even the rebuilding of a star that was once there - or a planet that was once there - isn't somehow disrupting the natural cycle of the galaxy?"

"Because it's space-" Thanis paced behind Nesh, picking up a fallen lemon and tossing it back and forth between his hands. "It's not... like... some kind of ecosystem."

"Isn't it?" the rainbow-wrapped woman asked curiously.

"Well, who's to say that it isn't natural to build it anyway?" Nesh asked, eying the lemons longingly. "We're part of space, too."

Anera beamed at her. "That's a good point. I'm Anera, by the way," she bowed her head over hands that lifted to form some kind of flower out of fingers. "I'm pleased to meet you. And you," she smiled at Thanis.

"Great," Thanis nodded, tossing the lemon again.

The Orion leaned against the tree. A lemon fell into her lap. Convenient. She grinned to herself and began peeling it by digging the points of her sharp nails into the top. "So why are you here?" she asked.

"They're putting us back in school," Thanis grumbled. "I graduated, you know."

"I know," Anera nodded, absorbing his frustration. She looked to Nesh. "Your sister brought me on board to attend to Lily Blake's education. And since I'm here, she thought you both might find me useful as well."

"I'm, like, almost graduated," Nesh muttered to her lemon. Only another year. Then she'd be off to Jmhari, if all went well. She hoped.

"It will come sooner than you think," Anera assured her. "And in the meantime, we'll learn about some amazing things and teach Lily some really cool stuff too. Sound good?"

"No," Nesh mumbled, but sighed and deflated. "But okay, I guess. If Lirha said so. But we've got like, work to do. So we can't like, do school school. We work 8-hour shifts," Nesh explained.

"I shouldn't have to do school at all," Thanis mumbled.

Anera laughed. "Okay. Why don't you tell me what you mean by 'school' school, and we'll go from there."

"Like. Homework. And long days. And, stuff." Nesh concentrated on her lemon.

"Hmmmm," Anera said, considering this explanation. "Well... days vary in length depending on a starship's chosen hour medium or a planet's rotation, so I don't have any control over that." She wiggled her brows. "But so far as I'm concerned, you both have a lot of responsibilities to juggle on your shifts and I certainly have no wish to add additional stress to your days. Homework and stuff..." The Deltan hummed thoughtfully. The first time she'd heard the word 'homework' she'd been on a Federation starbase. For some reason, the word conjured up restlessness in everyone exposed to it, though the definition sounded entirely like Delta's research studies. She couldn't remember anyone being frustrated or wary of those. Perhaps it was the lack of 'grades'. Or something about the methodology? She wasn't sure. "How's this - I think if you're interested in finding out about something and really understanding it, you'll probably want to research it in your own time. And if you're not interested in it, then we probably shouldn't be studying it just yet."

"Works for me," Nesh smiled. If she had to do school, at least it wouldn't be stupid.

"Thanis?" Anera inquired.

He crossed his arms, staring down at her. "Maybe. Just so Nesh isn't bored out of her mind."

Anera spread her hands happily, "Good enough for me." She looked between them, "Do you have any particular interests you'd like to learn more about? Any goals I can help you achieve. I understand there's some sort of standardized Federation testing system that's elective. I've had a couple students choose to engage in it, others not. So... I can go either way on all that. It really depends what you want to learn."

"What, like an IQ thing?" Nesh shrugged. "I've got one already. They had to do it for Jmhari's initial phasing. It's like 110. I kinda think they're stupid, though. How do you even measure that, anyway?"

"Intelligence can't be quantified," Anera waved a hand. "No, the university standards. The..." she snapped her fingers, "F... something S."

"FDS - Federation Directional Standards," Thanis supplied. "For if you want to go to a secondary or tertiary training academy somewhere outside your home educational system."

"Thank you," Anera smiled. "But you were talking about Jmhari?"

Nesh nodded. "I'm supposed to take that on Gal this year," she said. "Uh, the ship. Here. I don't even know how to study for it. They told me to just do what I always do. Whatever that means." She rolled her eyes.

"You took an initial phase of it previously?"

"Yeah, they took my portfolio and stuff." She flushed a little and made a face. "So I had to do some stuff they told me to. Like one of them had me draw a garbage bag." She smirked.

"I'd love to see your work," Anera quietly enthused. "We can toy a bit with different styles and mediums, as you like. And see if we can't cover some other bases along the way."

Nesh shrugged. At this point, she was still riding high on the fact that she was on the Galileo in the first place, and more willing to accept doing things that were boring since not doing them meant she might get sent back home. And she sorely did not want that. "Sure. So like, what are you even going to teach Thanis anyway? He's already done with school. And he's got a job. He's like an adult." She paused. "So am I. But you know what I mean. I'm still in school. It'd be like teaching Athlen or something. What's the point? Will you be teaching everyone? Or just kids?"

"You both have jobs," Anera clarified. "And - as I said - I'm really here to help facilitate any educational goals that anyone on board is interested in pursuing. Captain Saalm wanted me to offer these services to you both first, because your interests might be more immediate. Of course - if you don't feel you could benefit from my assistance, by all means - I encourage you to pursue the furthering of your own understanding independently."

"Yeah - and what makes you able to do that?" Thanis crossed his arms, lightly squeezing the lemon in his hand. "You're - what - a couple years older than us?"

"I've taught a number of subjects, to a wide range of age levels," Anera explained with a small shrug. "And I'm interested in finding the best ways for each individual to grasp new subject matter. I can facilitate mentorships - work with experts you're interested in learning from to make sure that you're making the most of your experience with them. The basic fact of the matter is that I'm more interested in my students and their growth than I am in anything else. That makes it pretty easy for me to focus on finding the best ways for you to learn what it is you want and need to. There's always more to learn. More to experience. Not just for educational goals, but for personal growth. To stop learning is to stop living. That's my opinion, anyway. All that said," she grinned, "if you'd rather go your own way, you're welcome to."

He stared her down. "The Chief told me to talk to you."

Anera lifted her brows slightly.

"You talked to her?"

"She talked to me."

"About me."

"She wants you to expand your knowledge of shuttle operations. And she wants to make sure you have something to occupy you so that you don't feel suppressed by your sister's skillsets." Anera folded her hands, "I'm not an engineer, but I am a very good listener. If you'd like to give another shot to your shuttle-making, I'd love to sit with you. You could explain the process to me. It might help."

"Talk you through building a shuttle model."

"Sure."

"You don't have anything better to do?"

"My schedule's fairly open at the moment," Anera chuckled.

"Hey, it might be cool," Nesh offered in an encouraging tone. "And if it sucks then you can just blow it off. She said you could. What's there to lose?" She tipped her head sideways. "As long as I don't have to do math, I'm fine," Nesh grinned.

Anera's eyes twinkled. "How do you think you'll be building stars without math?"

"Magic," Nesh answered gravely.

"I see," Anera smiled, "but even magic requires rituals. And rituals require math. Measuring particular components for the spirits and Great Elders. Tracking the days and the path of the stars and moons. Understanding the physics of fire and how certain chemicals will react with it." She lifted her brows a couple times. "Math is all around us in everything we do. It's in the balancing a sculpture so it doesn't fall over. It's in the creation of new colored paints, the fragmentation of light through prisms, the movement of a body through dance... once you understand it, you become the magician and nearly everything is possible."

"Yeah, but that's instinctive stuff," Nesh said skeptically. "Like I learn about angles and stuff in graphic design, it's called isometric. And depending on the kind of design you do, for tablets, you have a space to work with each pixel, then you make more spaces. But that's easy. Proportions and stuff. Calculus on the other hand," she pretended to vomit.

"How about this - I will bet you a homemade lemon liqueur that we can find a way to make calculus peripherally interesting to you."

"You're so on," Nesh grinned. She didn't have any homemade anything, but she was confident she wouldn't need it. There was no way that calculus would ever be interesting.

"Excellent." Anera smiled, leaning back against the tree again. "And if I win - I would like a painting of yours."

Nesh made a face and crossed her arms. She was definitely going to win. "Fine," she pouted a little.

Anera nodded. "Lovely. I'll get a hold of your schedules, if that's all right, and see if I can't find some time around your work. We'll start tomorrow if you like."

Thanis shrugged. "If it's what the Chief wants." He tossed and caught the lemon.

"Yeah. And, you know. Well. I guess the captain already... said so." Nesh pressed her lips together. She supposed that was that.

[OFF]

Anera
Teacher
USS Galileo
(pNPC Lilou Peers)

Crewman Apprentice Thanis Rothgra
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo
(NPC Lilou Peers)

Nesh Saalm
Captain's Sister/Scientist's Mate, CIV
USS Galileo
(PNPC Liyar)

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