Brown Noses and Green Fingers

Posted on 05 Aug 2013 @ 3:36pm by Ensign Natalie Chevalier & Lieutenant JG Jacrux

1,348 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4, Arboretum
Timeline: MD 12 - 1830 hours

[ON]

After the science meeting was over, Nat couldn't wait to get back to the arboretum. It hadn't been tended well prior to her arrival and there were some menellen trees she was a little concerned about. It seemed as though the roots were in danger of starting to work their way into a join in the bulkheads. Long term, it could be a minor risk, but she wasn't about to dig up a healthy plant just out of minor concern over some insignificant little detail like a hull breech. Rolling up her sleeves, she went to the terminal to download some information on Betazoid plant life, and prepared to get to work.

The meeting had been uneventful, as far as Jac cared. Scientists were an interesting crowd best approached alone to keep from overwhelming the fragile scientist psyches. The Galileo's group seemed to be split nearly down the middle. Half were the usual quiet and self-contained group, easy to overlook and ignore. The other half were a bit more outspoken than usual. Outspoken, opinionated, and somewhat lacking in social graces, Jac had found the more outspoken members of the department to be quite amusing.

Not content with simply returning to his room, Jac went snooping. Something one of his fellow scientists had mentioned piqued his interest. The arboretum, an ecosystem inside a spaceship, and something that interested Jac for more than scientific curiosity. The arboretum lived up to expectations, full of plant life covering many more colors than simple green.

Spying someone familiar at the terminal, Jac sauntered over to the woman, giving her a wave of greeting. "Already back to work? That's quite industrious of you," he commented, leaning leisurely against a spare terminal.

Nat waved back, sizing up Jacrux. He remained a somewhat mysterious figure to her thus far, and she was intrigued enough to be glad they now had a chance to talk outside of the meeting. "I'd rather work than have to sit through another of those meetings," she chuckled. "It was a bit dry..." Stepping away from the console, she wiped her hands clean - clean-ish - on her uniform, and offered one to shake.

"I'm Nat," she said, dispensing with formalities quickly. "Welcome to my little corner of the ship!" She'd been aboard one day, and already the arboretum was very much hers: there were signs of extensive replanting, and she'd added a dozed new varieties to try to make it a little less monotonously Terran.

The halfbreed respected formalities, the Romulan society was based on traditions and customs, but he still didn't quite understand the tradition of shaking hands. The act of getting that close to a stranger and allowing one's limb to be manhandled, voluntarily, seemed unnatural to Jac. But a half decade of experience had Jac accepting the female's hand without hesitation, giving it a shake and withdrawing. Nat, as she called herself, cut a fairly unimpressive and unintimidating figure, covered in dirt as she was. To his credit, Jac did not wipe his hand off after contacting the other's dusty grip.

"Call me Jac," the Ensign offered. He shifted slightly to the side and forward to look over the much shorter officer's shoulder. "The meeting was a bit, oh, enlightening, wasn't it? It was only dry if you listened to the words," Jac mused out loud as he looked over the arboretum's stats.

"Jac it is," she grinned, pleased to move to a first name basis quickly; it saved so much bother. But she cocked his head curiously at his comments: she had always been more of a student of wildlife than of human - or in this case, Romulan - nature.

"Was it? I suppose, it showed a little how the different personalities in the department work, if that's what you mean. I don't know: I've never really been very good at all that kind of political stuff."

A first name was all Jac offered to anyone in Star Fleet, as he had left his other names behind until a suitable occurrence arrived when it would be fitting for him to claim his clan and station once again. He doubted a chance like that would ever arrive, so Jacrux it would be.

"The different personalities, yes, but the interactions were much more interesting. I believe some might call it brown nosing?" Jac grinned at the crass human slang, "I did happen to notice your priorities lay outside of office politics." The young woman had certainly arrived in a disheveled manner.

"Aha, leche-cul," she laughed, using the approximately equivalent vulgarity in her heavily accented French. "Yes indeed. A little of that. But who cares about that kind of stuff, really? One Department Head's as good as another so long as they let me do my work. And with my record, I don't think I'll be climbing the career ladder myself anytime soon."

"We call them hnafi'oallea," Jac returned the human dialect with his native Rihannsu, "Ear bugs, because they're always annoying and sometimes need to be disposed of." He had no patience for the obvious inefficiency and annoyance he'd witnessed back in that room.

She brought up a schematic of the arboretum on the display. "Here," she pointed, "I'm thinking of installing a small pond. It'd allow greater variety of plantlife and add to the overall aesthetic. Plus, I just plain like splashing around in ponds!" She grinned at him. "What about you? Have any plans now you're here on the Galileo - ponds or otherwise?"

He wondered what sort of record Nat implied would keep her from promotion. "I'm waiting to see what sort of opportunities present themselves," Jac offered with a one sided shrug. He scrolled through the pond schematics with his flesh hand. "Why not a larger pond? I doubt the CRO," dubbed Lieutenant Brown-noser in the safety of Jac's head, "Can even swim in one that size. He'd take one step and trod on a half dozen experiments." He flashed the shorter Ensign a grin.

Nat laughed at that. To a woman of her size, Lt. Pendleton did seem scarily big: the image of him floundering a pond was strangely comforting. Still, it was but a momentary dream. "Maybe. But I want to at least start small: to see how the ecosystem responds. Besides, bigger isn't always better - I should know!" she grinned.

Jac nodded. "At least between him and Cho, they have every perspective covered," he mentioned, noting the Trill officer's shorter stature.

It was getting late, and Jac hadn't been back to his quarters to change or freshen up after a long shift going through the endless amount of information recovered from the surveys. He inclined his head politely at Nat.

"We should get going. I want to see if there's anything fresh left from the starbase stopover," Jac said with a shallow bow. Maybe not all of his shipmates were hopeless.

"Of course." Nat, for her part, was thinking about going exploring the ship further: she could spend all day in the arboretum, but this was actually the first time someone else had stopped by, and she didn't want to become a recluse.

"Please, go on: I have to stay and pack up a few of my things," she said. "But - maybe I'll see you around? We're both new, and, I think it'd be fun to get to know one another better."

Jac had to admit, Nat's earnest nature was kind of cute. "I'm sure we'll see each other, unless you plan on taking up residence in the pond. Even then, I'll be sure to come by and feed the fish occasionally and keep you up with the ship gossip," Jac flashed a charming smile.

Nat giggled and waved: he was certainly the most friendly Romulan she'd ever met, and her curiosity was already aflame.

With the final joke, Jac gave a final hope to see you again, turned on his heel, and departed.

[OFF]

Ensign Jacrux
Anthropologist
USS Galileo

Ensign Natalie Chevalier
Ecologist
USS Galileo

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