Brrreakfast

Posted on 17 Aug 2013 @ 5:45pm by Ensign S'Ranna T'Srrr'Kharh & Ensign Natalie Chevalier

2,058 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 2, Mess Hall
Timeline: MD02 - 0630 Hours

ON:

S'Ranna had not managed to sleep well after the discovery of the Venture, and she rose early after only a couple of hours of sleep. Once she had completed her morning grooming routine, dressed in a fresh red uniform, and slid a dozen carved bone rings onto her tail, which swished behind her purposefully as she padded barepaw to the Mess Hall.

She looked over the items available: most of them were human foods, and there was nothing specifically Caitian, but she had become used to such fare while living on Earth. She filled her plate with bacon, sausage, and biscuits, and then supplemented it with some choices from the replicator, more specific to her tastes: a slice of bloodmeal loaf and some diced greeta breast. Carrying her tray and a mug of warm milk to a free table, she sat down and began digging in heartily.

Nat's morning grooming routine consisted of grabbing a comb and tugging it through her mess of brown hair as she pulled on a pair of odd socks, and the dishevelled sight she struck was a contrast to the neat precision of certain other crewmembers. But however she was dressed, she was hungry: one of the first to arrive in the Mess Hall, she picked through the fresh fruit approvingly, selecting some grapefruit, mango, and tangerine slices to eat with her yogurt.

She ignored the pastries - on New France, they would eat fresh pains aux chocolat and croissants from the bakery next door, and she found the Starfleet versions almost inedible by contrast - and ordered an espresso from the replicator. Looking around for somewhere to sit, she saw a Caitian woman sitting alone. She approached her, bobbing her head at the empty seat: "Do you mind if I join you?"

S'Ranna held her paw out. "Please do!" She grinned: she had not met many people outside her department yet. She slid her tray back to make room for Nat's, and then introduced herself. "I have the honourrr of being Ensign S'Ranna T'Srrr'Kharh, Flight Contrrrol."

"Natalie Chevalier. Nat, really. I'm an ecologist." Sitting down, she glanced at the Caitian's plate and quickly regretted it.

"It is being a grrreat pleasurrre to meet you, Nat." The name sounded odd to S'Ranna, lacking any of the lyricism of a typical Caitian name; but it was not her place to judge. "You arrre an ecologist? How fascinating."

Nat shrugged modestly as she began slicing the fruit with the edge of her spoon and stirring it into the yogurt. "It has its moments for sure, but a lot of it is just data collection and sampling. And digging. Always with the digging." Glancing up, she explained further: "I'm renovating the ship's arboretum. It's a lot of work, though I think it'll be worth the effort by the end. You should come down see it!"

"Perrrhaps I will." S'Ranna smiled. Though she was not much of a nature buff, the human's enthusiasm for her pet project was obvious, and she did not wish to disappoint her. "Do you have any Caitian plants in the arrrborrretum?"

"I don't think so, no," Nat admitted with a rueful shrug. Having stirred her fruit pieces into her yogurt, she began eating, chomping thoughtfully on a spoonful of yogurt and mango as she tried to remember. None came to mind. "If there's anything, it would be grasses, in the meadow area. But I suppose that's not very exciting. Are there are any Caitian flowers or trees that would help the place feel more homely?"

S'Ranna did not answer for a moment: she was peering inquisitively into Nat's bowl. She could not imagine starting a day without meat. A little bit of fruit was not enough for a strong tail and a shiny coat - but something told her she should hold off on making that recommendation to the human.

"I would suggest some tessarrr trrrees. Theirrr barrrk is most wondrrrous forrr sharrrpening claws. But, theirrr rrroot lattice is verrry extensive." She tried to portray multiple roots intertwining with her paws, which made for an interesting gesture. "Perrrhaps some firrreflowerrrs would be a betterrr alterrrnative, orrr some Ferrrasan rrraspberrry bushes."

Nat was tickled by the Caitian's purring accent. She hid her grin behind a big, dolloped spoon of yogurt, but the memory of S'Ranna pronouncing 'raspberries' would always stay with her. "Those sound like some interesting choices. I'll be sure to look them up in our database."

She continued on, enthusing about her project. "I'm really excited about making the arboretum somewhere all the crew can enjoy. The Akkadian doctor made a lot of very interesting suggestions, and I'm thinking about applying some of Lieutenant Pendleton's planning ideas to the expansion of the pond. I'm willing to do the work myself: I love it to be honest. I just need the input from other people so that we can really make it work." She beamed happily.

S'Ranna's reaction was somewhat less happy. At the mention of the word 'pond' her face feel and she gave a hiss, drawing back sharply. The fur of her mane and tail fuzzed up, and her body posture was tense and stiff. "I see. Actually, I am verrry busy. I am not surrre I will be able to visit the arrrborrretum afterrr all. But please, good luck with yourrr prrroject." She took a big glug of her milk, trying to calm down as the vision of all that water swam before her golden eyes.

Nat frowned. The Caitian woman had suddenly become closed off: her earlier enthusiasm disappearing and being replaced by a wary, almost aggressive attitude. Confused, she tried to think what she might have said that could have caused offence, but nothing came up. Perhaps she had simply been going on for too long about her own work.

"So, um, you're in Flight Control?" She was hopeful changing the topic to something on S'Ranna's terms could restore the previously friendly mood.

S'Ranna's good cheer was restored quickly. She was not fond of even thinking about ponds, cold ponds, ponds full of cold water, oh the horrrrrorrrrr... But nothing brought her joy like talking about flying. "I am. I am just a juniorrr officerrr so most of my duties arrre in the shuttlebay, not on the Brrridge."

"When I was on the Bridge before, the helmswoman was Lieutenant Mialin. That was during the ... search and recovery." Nat's face fell, and she looked down into her now empty yogurt pot. After a minute of silence she asked, without looking back up, in a quiet voice: "Were you piloting one of the shuttles that found the wreck?"

S'Ranna's face - and tail - fell. She nodded sadly. "I was on the rrrunabout Marrrina. Seeing the ship like that - it was, quite affecting, I have to say. A Galaxy class, rrreduced to rrrubble! And just a few morrre hourrrs and I would still have been aboarrrd the Venturrre." She shivered at the thought of those cramped escape pods - and worse fates.

"You were on the Venture?" Nat reeled in surprise: with her furry appearance and distinctive manner of speech, she thought she would have remembered meeting the Caitian. But then, a Galaxy-class was so much bigger: fewer chance meetings over breakfast. "So was I: I came aboard a couple of days before they disappeared. You?"

"Just the verrry day beforrre," S'Ranna confirmed glumly. She was less surprised by the coincidence than the human seemed to be: she knew of others aboard the Galileo in a similar position. But she was still shaken by the loss of the ship.

Nat shivered: it was a scary thought. "They say they don't know what happened yet, and they haven't even found all of the survivors yet. Have you heard anything?" she whispered in a low voice, unable to avoid gossiping about even so tragic a subject. "I was on the Bridge, but you saw it up close in the runabout."

S'Ranna did not approve of idle gossip. "I have filed a complete flight log," she said primly. "If you wish to rrreview it, I am surrre you arrre quite welcome. But I do not want to speculate pointlessly. I am surrre we will be told when the seniorrr staff know morrre."

She realized her tone was a little forceful to a young scientist just expressing her natural curiosity, so she added in a softer voice: "But do not worrry. The Galileo is quite a fine ship. We will not be in dangerrr."

Nat was not convinced at all, but she made a show of nodding along. "Sure, whatever," she said in a low voice as she contemplated the last scrapings of her yogurt. Just like the last scrapings of the Venture they had come across. It was a very profound thought. Or maybe it was just a bit of yogurt.

She motioned to stand. "S'Ranna, it was nice to meet you, but I should get going: I need to start the morning watering in the Arboretum. You are welcome to come down and look around some time."

S'Ranna quickly raised her paw. "One morrre thing, Natalie. I have been worrrking on some ideas forrr a piece of rrresearrrch I am being most interrrested in conducting. I feel I may need some help frrrom Sciences. Would you be interrrested?" Her gold eyes glinted keenly and her tail swished purposefully.

"A research project?" Nat sat down again. She was curious as to what S'Ranna meant.

"A rrresearrrch prrroject," S'Ranna repeated. "I am wanting to investigate ourrr new supporrrt crrraft. I brrrought one of them to the ship myself, the rrrunabout, Marrrina. To see how they rrreact to atmospherrric operrrations, and maybe whetherrr differrrent species cope differrrently!"

As she had been talking, she acted out the various components of her research with bits of food from her plate, zooming a sausage and a chunk of bloodmeal loaf over her cup of milk.

Nat watched the little demonstration with a raised eyebrow. She thought she understood what the Caitian meant, but wasn't sure how helpful the whizzing bits of meat were really to her understanding. "O...kay. So you're looking for someone to analyse the ships? Or the crew? Because the first sounds like engineering, the second like, uh, biomechanics? Either way, I'm an ecologist - I'm not sure I'd be best placed to help."

"No no, not engineerrring: I mean morrre like this 'bio-mechanics' you arrre speaking of. I am surrre you could be of help even though you arrre not a specialist, but if not, then, hrrrm, can you at least rrrecommend someone frrrom yourrr deparrrtment that I might speak with?" S'Ranna wiggled her ears purposefully: she was not going to be dissuaded from her research plans easily.

"Well, I'm still fairly new myself, but I guess there are a few biologists. Maybe Jacob, actually. I mean, Lieutenant Pendleton," Nat corrected hastily. "He's the Research Officer: he mentioned he was looking for some projects to oversee, and everyone kind of drew a blank. He's not a specialist, but he'd be able to help you with the logistics and stuff, and recommend specific people to talk to. Yes, definitely: go see him."

"Lieutenant Pendleton, the Rrresearrrch Officerrr," S'Ranna repeated, softly sounding out the bizarre alien name. "Verrry well! I shall go to see him at the starrrt of Alpha shift. Thank you, Natalie, you have been of the verrry grrreatest assistance to me. It would be my honourrr to rrrepay the favourrr some day."

"It's a pleasure, S'Ranna." Nat stood again; this time, she offered her hand to the Caitian. "Good luck with your project: hopefully I'll see you around soon, and remember, the arboretum is open anytime."

S'Ranna nodded uncertainly. She would not be going anywhere near a pond anytime soon, but she did not wish to be rude to her new friend, so she limited herself to a non-committal mew and then resumed her breakfast. She would go see Lieutenant Pendleton: but only after she'd finished her bacon.

[OFF]

Ensign S'Ranna T'Srrr'Kharh
Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Natalie Chevalier
Ecologist
USS Galileo

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