Ugh! Life, Man. What Gives?

Posted on 11 May 2013 @ 3:47pm by Nesh Saalm & Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm

3,022 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo: Deck 2, CAPT Lirha Saalm's Quarters
Timeline: MD06 - 1610 Hours

ON:

After all of Nesh's hard work the previous day collecting data on the maps she was copying, she was looking forward to the end of the day. She began to transfer all of the information from the screen in front of her to the isolinear rod that connected to her portable comm unit, when the screen flashed a few times and then went down. Nesh tried her hardest to get the material back, but it wouldn't budge. She growled lowly in her throat and contemplated breaking the stupid console. Two days of work. Gone. She rested her hands in her hair and yanked.

***
The doors of Lirha's quarters parted for her after she hit the chime and Nesh felt like crawling in and living in a corner somewhere. Instead, she walked across the room and flopped into Lirha's couch. "ReeHee, unngh," she whined miserably. "Today sucks. So much. What's up?" she asked her sister, pressing her forearm against her eyes.

The older Orion was sitting at her desk scanning trough data on her LCARS console when Nesh barged in and decided to make herself at home on the couch. Had it been any other crew member, she would have thrown a fit, but Nesh was her little sister which meant that Lirha hardly minded. Besides, it has been her idea to bring her aboard Galileo and look after her.

Swiveling in her chair to face the green teenager, Lirha let out a soft yawn. "I'm just looking over the mountains of data we've been gathering on the solar system and the two Class M moons." she answered in their native tongue. "Did you know we've managed to catalog over five hundred new plant and animal species in a little over a day?" she asked with a small grin, obviously impressed with her crew's performance. She paused for a moment then shook her head as she realized she was ignoring what appeared to be a rough day for Nesh. "Sorry...I'm sort of excited." she admitted. "What's wrong?"

"At least your work is going all right," Nesh mustered up with a smile. She peeked out of her fingertips over at Lirha. "I just lost two days of mine. There was some dumb glitch in the computer." She rested one of her long legs on top of the other. Her sister's excitement was infectious, though, and like she knew it would do, she began to feel a little better.

"A glitch?" Lirha repeated with a frown. Glitches were rare but two days of work was a lot, and she sympathized for her sister. "Show me what happened." she instructed as she stood from her chair and motioned for Nesh to take a seat at the desk's console.

"Yeah," Nesh whined unhappily. "I've been copying maps for Lieutenant Cho. She said it's good practice, and I kind of like doing it," she said conspiratorially as though it were a secret. She propped herself up and padded over to the console, keying into the program that had previously held her saved work. It was blue and static, bits of information at random, useless code. "It ate them all. I've got like a couple of backups but I still lost at least two day's worth of work," she said. "What kind of stuff did you guys find on the planets? Will we get to see any of it in the science department?" she fired the questions rapidly, obviously enamored of the idea that they were circling an alien world.

"Hmm..." Lirha mumbled as she leaned over Nesh's shoulder and studied the corrupt file. For now, she ignored the questions about the scientific findings, at least until she could find a way to retrieve the lost data. With the skill a former Operations and Intelligence officer, the captain began to skilfully navigate the LCARS interface with delicate taps of her green fingers on the various buttons. It didn't take long before she had accessed the ship's computer core and redundant backups, after which she located the root file which was the source of the problem. Quickly deleting it and authorizing a file-restore protocol, the data was quickly retrieved and then the screen blinked to display Nesh's file in its perfect entirety.

"There we go." Lirha said with a smile and gave Nesh a gentle squeeze on her shoulder. "Good as new."

Nesh was hunched over the console with a hopeful look on her face, as if silently willing it to work. Once Lirha pushed the button and a few intricately detailed map thumbnails filled the screen, she grinned and zoomed in on one of them. It was of Rigel system, including Vajripam, their familial homeworld. "You are a total lifesaver, ReeHee!" Nesh crowed happily as she went through some of the first and second layers, loading them up. "I've been kind of working on this. It's not great, I was going to finish it and print it out for you. What do you think?" she tapped the screen and brought up the detailed sphere that looked as though it had been painstakingly hand drawn in the program and then filtered with computer graphics simulations.

Lirha looked over the map which Nesh had created, much to her own satisfaction. "This looks great...how did you find and input all of the data?" she wondered out loud. Nesh had been born and raised on Earth, but her knowledge of their homeworld was surprisingly strong.

"Well, I work in stellar cartography all day," Nesh pointed out with a smile, pleased that Lirha seemed to genuinely enjoy it. "I had to piece bits together from other maps to create this one. All of the planets and rotations are in the Federation database, but few of them are actually all in one place. They're just scraps here and there. So I combined all the pieces I could find and Thanis helped me make a computer code so the system could guess the rest of it!" she said triumphantly. It explained the small errors on the continents and shorelines.

"Thanis..." Lirha repeated, mostly to herself to try and figure out who Nesh was referring to. After a short couple of seconds of staring at the map, her mind settled on one of the Engineering crew. "You mean Crewman Rothgra?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. Apparently Nesh was on a first-name basis with the young man, which made Lirha suspicious.

Nesh cleared her throat. Very un-suspiciously. "I mean - yeah. Crewman Rothgra. That's the one! He's doing school with me, with that teacher lady. Anera?"

Lirha nodded at the mention of Anera then took a seat on the corner of the desk. "Yes, Anera. I think she's a very nice lady...are you enjoying your time with her?" she genuinely asked. "Obviously school isn't always fun, but she seems to be one of the more calm and relaxed teachers whom I've met..."

"Oh really? I heard she was a Deltan," Nesh smirked.

"Yes, she is a Deltan." the captain answered simply, not exactly sure where Nesh was trying to go with that.

Nesh only shrugged serenely. "She's nice. She made a bet with me that she could make me enjoy calculus," Nesh said, eyes glinting.

Lirha raised a curious eyebrow. "What kind of a bet?" she asked, hoping that it wasn't anything too major or embarrassing.

"She said, if I win, then she will make me something called lemon liqueur. And if I lose, then I have to make her a painting. Weird, but nice," Nesh summarized. "So, tell me about that planet," Nesh leaned back in her chair.

Lemon liqueur...strange, but could possibly be tasty, the captain mused with a mental chuckle. She didn't mind Nesh having a few drinks here and there, as long as she was able to handle her liquor and report to her shifts on time. She was almost a grown woman, after all. "Which planet?" Lirha finally asked, wondering which of the two moons Nesh was interested in.

"Tell me about the Borg one. What is it like? Are there any Borg left?" Nesh asked with the morbid, eager enthusiasm bestowed to her by youth.

The older Orion shook her head, a bit displeased with her sister's lack of disdain for the Federation's most terrible nemesis. "No...we have not found any Borg as of yet. Fortunately." she commented, then looked Nesh straight in the eyes. "The Borg are terrible, Nesh. They have destroyed countless worlds and enslaved entire civilizations and races. They have killed millions of Federation colonists and decimated our fleets over the past fifty years...so...they are not a species to be taken lightly or used in jest." she scolded, then sighed and rubbed her forehead. Again, she was being a bit harsh on her sister, but this time she felt is was for her own benefit. The Borg were not a species to become excited about...they were to be feared, destroyed, and avoided at every opportunity.

Nesh sighed. "I know all of this, ReeHee. It's just - you don't wonder about them at all? What they're like? Why they do what they do? What their homeworld is like? Who the Borg queen must really be? Was she ever really a person? Can they save people who are drones?" Nesh asked, adopting a little more serious of a tone.

"No, not particularly." Lirha answered. "The Federation and countless other races know what they're like, and we have all seen it first-hand. They are conquerors. They can't be reasoned with or negotiated with. They don't compromise. They don't value other species' sovereignty or their right to exist. And they're relentless...they won't stop until they have achieved their goal of 'perfection', which for them means assimilating every world in the known galaxy." she explained, then let out a soft sigh and looked down towards the carpet.

"We're lucky that their threat has subsided over the past years...if they had originated somewhere in the Alpha or Beta Quadrant, you and I probably would not be here today, nor any other Orions. We would instead be mindless drones, our bodies dissected and reassembled with their technology imbedded in us. We wouldn't have any free will, no choice to go out and explore the stars or pursue art or whatever else you might enjoy during your life. I, for one, am grateful for my individuality." she finished with a soft laugh to ease the tension she had created.

"I wonder what would drive an entire species to do that," Nesh said after a long moment of silence. "What's the point? It just causes pain and suffering. No one likes them. No one works with them. They exist all by themselves in a bubble. For what? Perfection. Why do they consider that perfect? They just have millions of drones that all do the same thing. Isn't individuality perfect?"

Lirha shook her head and gently rubbed the top of Nesh's shoulders. "The Borg don't value life as other sentient species do. That is what makes them so dangerous. For example, damaged drones are often disassembled...'cannibalized' and used for parts for new drones. Simply because it is more efficient." she said solemnly.

"It's kind of tragic in a lot of ways," Nesh said. "They take whole, special people and turn them into husks. And that's their future, forever. They will never contribute again. They'll never make art or draw maps, or invent a new engine, or cure a new disease. They'll never write poetry or philosophy. It's so meaningless." She frowned and then straightened up. "Well, that's the spirit, huh?" she quipped lightly.

"Tragic, indeed." Lirha concurred. "But the galaxy's a big place and they are now far away from us with no real means to travel across entire quadrants anymore. At least, not since USS Voyager destroyed their transwarp network."

"So they can't come back and hurt us," Nesh determined with a sage nod. "It's so weird. And sad. This whole planet was assimilated. Is there anything left?" she asked.

"A few ruins and what appear to be former metropolis centers seem to still be intact...but so far there's been no signs of the original inhabitants." Lirha answered.

"Have you been down to any of the planets yet?" Nesh asked curiously.

Lirha shook her head again and waved her hand to dismiss the notion. "No. My place as captain is here with the ship, but I have sent Commander Holliday down to two of the moons to lead the expeditions. He gets to have all the fun." she explained with a wink, then moseyed from the desk area back towards the kitchen and to the replicator. "Are you hungry? Thirsty?" she offered her sister as she replicated a small salad for herself.

"You mean you don't get to go out of the ship at all?" Nesh was incredulous. "Yeah, can you get me a zix? Stone had me try one, they're not that bad."

Having never heard of the drink before, Lirha did a quick search of the replicator's database and discovered that it was some type of almond-flavored energy drink. When it materialized, she procured the juice pack from the machine and moved back over to the couch where she took a seat and offered it to Nesh.

"No, I don't get to leave Galileo often. The captain is a ship's most valuable crew member and I'm also responsible for the well-being of everyone on board." she casually explained, then began to take small bites of her salad with her fork. "But on a fun note...we've discovered a long-period comet in the system and I'll be taking a shuttlecraft to explore it in the next few days. I was thinking you'd like to come with me?" she asked.

"Absolutely!" Nesh was thrilled. She didn't think she'd get to do anything quite that exciting. Going on a mission of exploration sounded serious, important. She grinned quickly. "Maybe I can take some holoimages of it," she wondered aloud curiously. It would make an excellent subject for a painting, she thought, but didn't say that was her motivation.

Lirha smiled at her sister's enthusiasm and gave her a nod. "Sure, just be sure to remember to bring your camera. Or if you're interested, maybe you can talk to a member of the Press Corps and borrow some of their equipment?" she suggested.

"Oh, man," Nesh crowed excitedly in Standard. She switched back to Yrevish. "I heard that Justin Baker is on board, he is the best of the best! And, not bad on the eyes, either..."

The captain continued to eat her salad and gave a slight nod. "He's on board for now but will be leaving to go back to USS Venture in the next day or two when they depart to study the nearby Setisar Nebula." she explained, then took another large bite before swallowing and continuing. "But it's worth asking him if he can leave a camera behind for you to use...as long as you promise to take care of it and not break it." she smirked.

"I hear he has special cameras that are guided by robots and sensors..." Nesh had a tendency to gush when she was excited. "That's a perfect idea. I can't wait! This is going to be brilliant. Nesh Saalm, exploring the final frontier," she proclaimed boldly, pulling a Serious Face.

"Yes, REMO I think it's called." Lirha added, then flashed Nesh a friendly grin. Her enthusiasm was infectious at times, and she loved that about her. "If you really want to have some fun, you can spend some time in the holodeck and complete basic EVA training...then you can accompany me on a space walk on the comet's surface."

"EVA training - you mean, like astronaut training? Like - I'd get to go out in space?" Nesh blinked a few times and shook her head like a wily cartoon. "Is it safe?" she asked warily, but the thrill she felt at the idea wasn't diminished in her voice. "Well. Of course it's safe. What do I have to do to get trained?"

Lirha waved her green hand dismissively as if to indicate that it was wasn't an overly complicated task. "Basic EVA training can be completed with several hours of study followed by simulator practice in the holodeck." she explained rather simply. "It consists of three modules, one for zero-G training, one for suit operations, and one for emergency procedures."

"Sign me up," Nesh beamed.

The captain nodded and continued to eat her salad.

Nesh smiled to herself and plopped back down onto Lirha's couch, sipping at the Zix she had clutched in her hands. She stuck her feet up on Lirha's table and leaned her head back, listening to her sister chatter excitedly about the Rojar system and their upcoming spacewalk.

OFF:

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Nesh Saalm
Captain's Sister/Scientist's Mate, CIV
USS Galileo

 

RSS Feed