Water dancing

Posted on 12 Aug 2013 @ 4:14pm by Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Ensign Natalie Chevalier
Edited on on 12 Aug 2013 @ 6:28pm

2,626 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4 - Arboretum
Timeline: MD-01 - 0830

ON:

It had been hectic time and finally a little bit of off time had finally arrived. Allyndra needed more than anything fresh air, or at least as fresh as could be had on a ship.

She had noted that there was Arboretum on board and the specifications had indicated that due to the botanical research that it was larger than what would normally be found on this ship this size.

Deck four, was perfect and she made her way there and was pleasantly surprised as the doors opened to what appeared to be both a jungle and a menagerie of botanical life. Blossoms exploded in bright arrays of colour and many of them had beautiful streaks of patterns. There were a few clashes to her eyes, but none the less the place was breathtaking.

She felt like a weight had lifted off her shoulders and she began to stroll along one path turning as she was positive she heard the sound of water running. Soon enough one path headed along a small stream and she followed the clear brook when the foliage pulled back suddenly to present the vista of a beautiful lake. It was not gigantic and perhaps large pond might describe it better but it called to her deep in her soul.

Kneeling, Allyndra let one hand brush the surface watching the little ripples spread as her fingers did a little dance. The feel of the cool water was tempting perhaps too tempting and looking around Allyndra figured she was alone right now this early in the morning.

Thought became momentum and in less than a minute boots and socks were discarded. She spread the great double pair of translucent wings and gently waved them up and down letting the flight muscles warm. She took deep breaths of bracing air and then the pace of wing beats increased until they were a near blur and she lifted herself into the air.

Ship's gravity was more than home but not so much that she would tire that quickly and slowly with practiced ease she edged forward over the surface and then lowered until her bare feet told her where the surface was.

Allyndra made a curtsey and deep bow and then snapped straight and with a spin stirred the surface of the lake and with pointed toe of her right leg lifted sharply drawing a bit of water with it which gleamed in the artificial sunlight.

She laughed and spun, and began to dance to a music she hummed, letting feet and toes dance on the surface and send cascading streams over and over.
She was soon lost to herself.

The rush of excitement the previous day had kept Nat up all night: her first time on the Bridge, her evening with Jared, the strange encounter with Jac: it had all conspired to keep her up throughout the night, and by the time she wandered into the arboretum to check on the pond, she was bleary eyed and dishevelled.

Well, more bleary eyed and dishevelled than usual.

Sun was up in the arboretum, the holographic sun anyway, and she squinted through straggly bangs. She was holding her coffee in one hand, a PADD in the other, with a trowel tucked under her arms. Her new overalls, thanks to Lt. Cho, were surprisingly clean. A good hour clearing out the pond weed before taking up her post on the Bridge would take care of that, though.

Ahead, a rustle startled her: she jogged coffee down the front of her overalls and dropped her trowel. Sometimes the Caitian Walking Vines were active early on, but she'd potted them in a different corner. And the computer breeze settings were on low, because she didn't want to scatter the delicate Trill spring blossom. What was making noise?

She pushed through the rushes, and gave a gasp at a wondrous sight. Ahead, a tall blue woman had spread giant translucent wings and was twirling on the surface of the pond, sending up splashes as she skimmed across the surface.

Entranced, Nat approached quietly, and stood watching, not wanting to interrupt the life affirming display.

Allyndra danced for a bit longer than she had planed. The place seemed to encourage that and then she realized that perhaps she should not be here and flitted to shore letting her toes trail through the water.

On the shore edge once more, she made a very deep and very formal curtsey. "Thank you for wind and wave, mind and body that like the Twins we may dance our joy." Though the wind was but a breeze and the water but a pond it was a formal thing.

She gathered her footgear though it was reluctantly since it would remind her of duty and being bound to the ground again. Well, she had to let her feet and toes dry.

Behind her, Nat stepped up. She didn't want to startle the woman - those wings were forbidding - but she felt she owed it to her to announce her presence. "Excusez-moi? I'm Ensign Chevalier: welcome to the Arboretum."

Allyndra turned to see a petite dark haired woman. She suddenly felt foolish indeed standing in her bare feet with her boots and socks in hand and she had not quite understood the first two or was it three words. "Oh! Oh? I did not think anyone was around, forgive me for my rather undignified state."

Allyndra made a small bow. "I am Ahh'ee'lyn'dra," on a rising note. "EEElllm," holding that note and then on a slightly tonal downward with a trill of the r's and hum of the m. "Warrrrr'ah'kquimmm. Allyndra had been formal and she had forgotten to leave out all the formality of her name. She felt colour creep even further into her cheeks.

Nat awkwardly reciprocated the bow. She had not followed one syllable of the woman's name, so she tried a way around. "Most people call me Nat..." She hoped it might lead to something a little easier to pronounce.

"Nat, Allyndra, I am so sorry. I did not mean to go into all that." Allyndra set her footwear down. "I hope I did not disturb anything? The water and the place so inviting I just could not help myself. If I might what does esss'cusee mah mean?"

"Allyndra," Nat repeated carefully. Then she grinned: it hadn't occured to her that her own words might be just as confusing. "I was just saying, excuse me: that I did not want to startle or disturb you."

She gestured to the pond. "As for this: I am so glad to see someone making use of it! It is the very reason I put in a pond. Nature is meant to be enjoyed, not stared at from afar. May I ask what you were doing? Was it - exercise, or dance, or ritual?"

"Ah, I see it must be a Terran dialect. As far as that," Allyndra waved a hand and smiled. "We, Akkadians that is, call it Water Dancing. It is mostly art though it celebrates life as well as a tribute to the Twins."

Nat nodded uncertainly. She had never been much of an anthropologist. "The Twins?" she asked. "I'm afraid, I'm not very familiar with your people's history."

"It is the short term of what we refer to the twin suns that Akkadia orbits around. There is old mythology surrounding them." Allyndra decided that unless asked she would not get into that, but now her own curiosity had been aroused.

Nat nodded, interested: many cultures seemed to attribute mythic status to astronomical phenomena. As a woman who'd always been more interested in the ground, it still fascinated her.

"That dialect that you used earlier. It is Terran?"

"In a way. It's an old Terran language called French, but the dialect I speak is called New French, and it's quite different. I wasn't born on Earth: there's a human colony called New France, and, well, over time, the accent and idiom has changed." Nat gestured vaguely: she wasn't a linguist. "I like to use a little smattering of it, just to acknowledge my roots. I'm an ecologist: I take an interest in keeping alive things that should probably be extinct."

Allyndra listened politely. She knew there were various differences on Earth and in fact many worlds had variations in language if not different ones. She had learned a few of this and that but though a good mimic, languages unless she used them did not stick with her. It was probably why she only ever listed her native and Federation standard on her record.

"An ecologist? Are you then responsible for this lovely place?"

Nat smiled at the compliment: one of the few the arboretum had received thus far. "The Science Department as a whole tends to it, and lots of officers have contributed. But yes, this is very much my little project. It was in a bit of disrepair when I came aboard, but I've been tidying it up, putting in some new varieties, expanding the pond. Of course, it's all for nothing if no one makes use of it, so I'm happy to see you enjoying it."

"Yes, indeed it shows a real artistic layout along with the various ecological niches. However, I did note that the blue and violet flowers did clash." Allyndra placed a hand out hoping Nat did not take offense at the touch.
"I can see into what most call ultraviolet range and the patterns have an sort of clash." Allyndra winked, "When it comes to red though I will have to take your word for it. My eyes are not so good in that range."

Nat laughed, though not unkindly. "You see, that's one of the things I enjoy about floral displays. I can never predict how different species will perceive them. For some, it's the colours, for some the smells. Some of them, I think, the taste, even! " She led out an arm, gesturing Allyndra to join her in walking towards the bank of flowering plants.

She gazed over them, trying to discern the patterns the Akkadian had seen. But to Nat, they all looked - just kind of blue. "If you'd like to suggest any changes, well, feel free. Biodiversity is my forte, really, not colour coding." She had never had much of an eye for aesthetics.

"No not at all. It is an amazingly good piece of work." Allyndra brushed her hand over one set of flowers. "If I can, perhaps I can get some Blood Flowers from my home world. They are big," Allyndra held her hand to her waist, "when full grown with big red and yellow petals and the most intense almost arrow patterns. At the base of the flower a fruit develops that is very sweet and very nutritious. We use them as a supplementary food source."

"It sounds intriguing. I'll look through the databases to see whether we have the biological patterns on file. Tell me - I'm trying to institute a seasonal feel for the arboretum. Autumn, when summer starts to turn. Do you have a similar season on, um, on your home planet?" Nat asked.

Allyndra smiled and thought: 'good luck'. There was little of Akkadia on file for a lot of reasons but she was not going to say anything. "We have eight actually or at least call it eight seasons as the Twins dance one around the other. However, though we do have a sort of a set of seasons Akkadia is most closely described as a bit like Earth's South Pacific, mostly warm and humid. The planet is almost all water with many islands mostly near the equator. There have been times when the poles may have ice but it is rare. One only really sees major seasonal variations in the mountain areas."

"I understand. I've done a lot of holomodelling of seasonal climatic shifts in binary systems, but I've never actually been on such a planet long enough to observe them first hand." Nat pointed up, at the holographic 'sky' imposed on the arboretum roof. "I hope it's not too disorienting only having one sun modelled here? Perhaps we could create an alternate subroutine that would allow you to change the settings to a more Akkadian sky when you wanted to make use of the arboretum."

"No I have long gotten used to seeing a singular in the sky. Oh, I do miss seeing the Twins but..." Allyndra paused. "If you would like sometime I have a holopainting of my home in my quarters. You may enjoy it."

Nat nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, yes, I'd love to see it. I mean, if it weren't an intrusion..." she added hastily. Sometimes her scientific curiosity tended to run on ahead of her instincts for social decorum, and that curiosity had definitely been aroused by Allyndra's home planet.

"But of course, I have a gamma shift though as a doctor it tends to sometimes run over, but late alpha or beta please feel free to call upon me." Allyndra made a little dip curtsey.

"I'll be sure to take you up on that. I'd offer you to come by my quarters, but honestly they're a total mess. Spending too much time here, I suppose." Nat grinned: her tone was unapologetic and reflected her passion for her work. Still, after going on so long, she felt bound to ask about the other woman's.

"So, you are a Doctor? I was in Sickbay the other day: hurt my thumb on a thorn bush, but it was Lieutenant Kohl there. How are things going down in Medical?"

"Everything seems well. How is your thumb doing?" Allyndra could not help but ask. It had become as second nature to her as her occasional curtsey.

Nat laughed. "It's fine. It was nothing, and less than nothing once Kohl had finished with the dermal regenerator. Really: I can't even remember which hand it was, now." She looked down, inspecting each in turn, but the thumprints of both appeared unbroken; there was no sign of the scratch. "Amazing how a little tool can just, bam..."

Allyndra laughed her musical sounding laugh. "Just like water dancing, amazing how an errant gust of wind can just," Allyndra brought her two hands together, and made a sound of 'kerplunk'.

Taking her somewhat literally, Nat pointed out that the environmental controls could be adjusted within the arboretum to vary the wind parameters. "So you can turn the breeze up or down as you'd prefer."

Allyndra laughed again. "I see, well I was just making a point that the skill is in the unexpected. I would rather just enjoy the work you have done and save the real skill for a replication of Akkadia on the holodeck." She again put out a hand. "Now, I should try to get some rest. It was a pleasure Natalie and again thank you for letting me dance on your pond."

Nat returned the gesture, meeting Allyndra's hand and giving it a light squeeze. "The pleasure was all mine: and please feel free to make use of our pond whenever you like. I hope we see each other again soon!"

With that, she let Allyndra leave, and picked up her PADD again, looking over the work she had to do today.

Allyndra nodded politely. She stopped to put her footgear on and thought that it would be nice to dance again on the pond. She also would see if she could get a hold of the bloodflowers for the garden.

[OFF]

Lt jg Allyndra illm Warraquim
ACMO
USS Galileo

Ensign Natalie Chevalier
Ecologist
USS Galileo

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