Dr. Chaparral, I Presume?

Posted on 15 Jan 2015 @ 9:47pm by Seleya Qellar Ph.D. & Jonah Chaparral M.D.

3,005 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 07 - Sojourn
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4, Quarters 04-2320 EN
Timeline: MD 44: 1300hrs

[ ON ]

Seleya determined that the dimensions of the Nova-class vessel were nowhere more apparent than in its enlisted crew quarters. Its laboratory facilities were adequate, but the living conditions were absolutely appalling. She dropped her bag on the empty bunk after taking a mere two steps into the room and turned around in place to observe where she'd be spending the next year of her life.

It left much to be desired.

Jonah, who had been reading something that he probably shouldn't have been looking at and was by no means looked up from the computer screen, minimizing the page.

It wasn't as if he were ashamed, there was little he could be caught at that would embarrass him and besides he'd only been reading. On top of that he was s civilian, what did he care if some uptight Starfleet type caught him?

He looked towards the new occupant, apparently his new roommate, or someone who had just gotten lost, since she had just placed a bag on the bed.

"Well good afternoon," he offered pleasantly enough, "make yourself at home. I'm Jonah Chaparral, I guess we are going to be roommates. And yes I do sleep on the top bunk, usually anyway."

Seleya finished her 360-degree turn to examine the room and settled her eyes on the man propped up in the bed. She recalled his name from the message she'd received from the quartermaster assigning her to these quarters. It would be a defining moment, this. She had to decide what sort of tone to strike with the man, who was evidently as informal as every other human she'd ever met. They were all so...ingratiating.

"Good afternoon, Dr. Chaparral. I'm Dr. Seleya Qellar, this vessel's new biotechnologist. My apologies," she said, leaning forward far enough without moving her feet to retrieve her bag but remain where she was standing; no need to close the distance between them any further. Clearly, she should have looked before tossing her things around. His casual comment about the top bunk struck her as the sort of territorial remark she'd ordinarily make a quip about, but it seemed better to try to start off on the right foot. "Are there any other personal preferences I should know about before settling in?"

He did his best to keep a straight face, and managed, mostly, to pull it off. "None that I can think of now,"he replied, "but I've learned to not sweat the small stuff. And if we are going to be a bit more detailed, "I am an epidemiologist, so we do have something in common, at least professionally. I was just finishing up some, research, then I was going to replicate me something to eat. Would you like anything?"

Seleya had grunted at his comment about 'sweating the small stuff,' as that's virtually all she did. The devil was in the details in every aspect of life, and if one didn't 'sweat the small stuff' then you were likely to end up dead. Or, worse, considered unsuccessful in life. His question drew her attention to the small replicator in the wall, and she wondered if he would be taking all of his meals in their quarters. Would she be subjected to offensive aromas and the sounds of mastication at all hours of the day and night?

There was nowhere to go in this cramped space. It offered no escape and afforded no privacy. This was one of her first times on a Federation starship, especially one this small, and the room felt more like a prison cell than living quarters. By comparison, Romulan starships were palatial. In her service to the Romulan Ministry of Agriculture, she was often ferried from one place to another aboard one of the Empire's many D'deridex-class warbirds, and they were truly enormous in scale. All that space afforded one luxurious living arrangements, especially for a senior member of the central government. Here, there was one chair, one desk, one bed, one lavatory. It seemed like something better suited to a first-year graduate student, not a visiting scientist or even a low-ranking member of Starfleet.

"No, but thank you," she finally said in answer to his question, trying her to best to keep her composure. "Where I come from, accepting a replicated meal from a stranger is dangerous. You might as well open the bottle and swallow the poison yourself." In her shock at the state of the compartment, she realized she'd let slip something she might ordinarily keep to herself. "My apologies. Old habits are difficult to break. I meant no offense."

Jonah shook his head slightly at the revelation and looked more closely at the woman, "I would say that you come from a very interesting place. No offense taken, but I can assure you, I'm no threat. Of course if I were, I wouldn't have to slip something in your drink, or food. There are some really deadly pathogens that are passed by close intimate contact, or air born, or injected with a hypospray.

But I do have to ask, have you had someone trying to kill you?"

"I come from Romulus," Seleya replied, as if that was in and of itself a sufficient answer. She placed her bag on the floor and with freed hands removed her hat and lifted the heavy bangs that covered the characteristic cranial ridges of her people. "I was a member of the central government before the Hobus incident. In the aftermath, vestiges of the old regime were seen as a threat by any one of the many factions that formed to scavenge and pick over the remains of a once great empire." Without the aid of a mirror, she did her best to readjust the perfect curtain of hair but opted to leave the hat off. "Just because I'm in Federation space doesn't mean someone, somewhere, hasn't stopped trying to kill me. Just not recently."

"Well, I'm glad you're not currently a target, it will make me sleep a little better at night, though I think you're pretty safe on a Star ship, I doubt there will anyone on board the ship that would try to kill you." Jonah was beginning to wonder if she weren't a little too full of herself, but he wasn't going to say anything about that now.

Seleya picked up her bag again, set it in the chair and opened it to reveal its contents. As she began putting her personal effects away in the closet, she continued talking.

"Pathogens are an inelegant and impersonal method of murder. A disruptor blast or a slit throat is more our style, and poison is even better. But pathogens? A Romulan would never use them to kill just one person. They're much better suited for planetary genocide." While arranging a collection of scarves in the closet, she leaned back so she could look him in the eye while asking the question. "Are you aboard the Galileo to develop weaponized biological agents for Starfleet, or do you have a more benign purpose?"

The corners of Jonah's mouth curled up. "No, if the Federation wanted me to develop weaponized biological agents, I wouldn't be working for them, not voluntarily that is. No, the Federation may be many things, a lot of which I don't like, but they are not capable of something like that. I am actually here to study pathogens and to eradicate them. What about you? Why is a Romulan biotechnologist doing on board a Federation vessel?"

With her face hidden inside the storage closet, Seleya felt no need to hide the skepticism. She was certain everyone on this side of the border thought much like the epidemiologist, that the Federation would never condone biogenic weapons. But outside its borders, there was a heavy dose of apprehension about what the Federation and Starfleet, especially, would and would not do.

"Research and development," she replied. "My specialty is agriculture, specifically gene manipulation. In the short term, I've been tasked by the Bureau of Colonial Affairs to help design genetically modified organisms for food production on three planned Federation colonies. And perhaps somewhere during the ship's mission, something else of interest will happen. I imagine there are a great number of similarities between our work, though I tend to focus on keeping things alive rather than killing them."

Jonah's face remained impassive, but his cheeks colored ever so fractionally. "Actually our focus is the same then, I focus on keeping things alive too. I thought I had just made that clear."

While turned to close the doors to the storage closet, Seleya smiled a little to herself over the rising color in his cheeks. By the time she turned back, the relatively blank countenance had appeared again. "You focus on keeping one thing alive by eradicating another thing, is that not so? A pathogen might be a lesser lifeform, but it is alive nonetheless. You'll get no argument out of me about wiping out the dangerous sort, so forgive me if I seemed critical of your work."

Jonah hadn't notice the subtle change in the Romulan woman and even if he had, the wasn't gong to push the issue, because like it or not he had to live with her. A thought flashed through his mind. A very disconcerting one.

His father and mother had met under similar circumstances, he a doctor, her an Intel operative. They had been at each other's throat for months and it had finally come to a head early one morning and they had almost come to blows and instead their physical altercation, became a physical tryst.

That act had resulted in his birth and his father turning from a gay single man, to a not so gay married man.

But he had no intention of something like that happening now. It had happened because his father had let his passion and emotions affect his judgement. Jonah loved both his parents and he, like they had no regrets, but it wasn't something that he wanted for himself. So the best way to deal with it was to keep calm and rational, no matter how many of his buttons she pushed. Intentionally or otherwise.

"Apology accepted," he intoned, "Perhaps we should discuss a different topic. Like maybe setting some rules of conduct, Guidelines as to how we are going to live together and get along."

"That's an excellent idea," Seleya said with something of impish smile, already anticipating what was likely to turn into a row. She crossed the room, gracefully eased down into the room's only chair, and then set about carefully adjusting the hem of her skirt before speaking again. "There are a few things that will ensure a well-functioning environment. I'm sure there are many other things to discuss, but these can serve as something like preliminary guidelines.

"First, if you insist on eating food outside of a two-hour window around the ship's generally accepted meal times, I would ask that you do so in a public area of the ship. I find the aroma of most non-Romulan food to be a pungent and annoying distraction. Second, if you wish to have sexual relations with another member of the crew I will require a 24-hour notice in order to make arrangements to be out of the room. And finally, never touch my belongings."

Jonah kept his eyes on Seleya's eyes the entire time, not once looking down as adjusted her skirt. He shook his head slowly. "Well the first commandment I have no real issue with. I will occasionally have a late night snack but I will try to eat those out side of the quarters at least if its reasonable to do so. I don't want to be annoying. However I can't help the fact that you don't like the smell of non-Romulan food. You should really try popcorn or chocolate, or bacon, you never know until you've tried something before you like it.

And I surely have no problems with touching your belongings. I won't touch yours, if you don't trust mine.

As to the 24 hour notice thing, well that one may not work. Sex, is sometimes just spontaneous, its not something you schedule like a physical or a counseling evaluation. I will of course try to be discrete or if I bring a guy back here for sex, I don't really want an audience, so I'll try to go to his place if things look like they are going to get steamy.

But maybe we can work out some alternative to that, you know, like locking the door so we can't walk in on each other. Assuming, of course that you have sex."

Seleya listened patiently but didn't bother to keep eye contact. The room was impossibly small, so it wasn't like it was necessary to look one another in the eye to indicate you were listening. There was nothing to do but listen, much to her consternation. The last thing she wanted to hear today - or any day - was any sordid detail about the man's sex life. He struck her as the type with a proclivity toward that sort of thing, though in all honesty so did most other humans. The way they were always pawing at one another it was a wonder they hadn't populated more than half the galaxy already. Thankfully, while blunt and informal, he at least saw fit to spare her any details and proved to be more amenable to accommodating her than she'd expected.

"I appreciate your flexibility on the matter," she said flatly, narrowing her eyes ever so slightly at his last comment. "So long as you take measures to minimize any incidents and confine your activities to your own bunk then I'm more than willing to vacate the room in the event things get...'steamy'...as you say. Any other ground rules? I'm sure you'll find me to be a quiet and unassuming roommate as I tend to prefer to stick to myself."

"Mutual respect for each other is a start. No snooping in each other's business would be part of that. I'm pretty much of a neat freak, but I try not to be an asshole about it. I would appreciate your keeping your things orderly and neat.

Other than that, I can't think of anything off the top of my head."

"You never have to ask a Romulan to be neat. We're very much like our Vulcan cousins in that way. 'Snooping' comes to us naturally, too, I'm afraid, but I assure you I'll do my utmost to respect your privacy," Seleya said lightly. She allowed herself a smirk at that, as if there was some clever joke told that only she really understood.

"Let me see if I've got this straight, you warn me not to touch your stuff, which I am fully committed to doing, but you're only willing to do your best to respect my privacy?. Don't you think that is a little unfair.

Respect is a two way street. I certainly hope that you will do more than do your utmost, I hope you just commit to keeping your nose out of my business."

Seleya raised an eyebrow in curiosity, though it couldn't be seen beneath her hair. What sort of life did he lead that made him so intensely concerned about maintaining his privacy? She'd grown accustomed to similar emotional outbursts from her students at Cornell, which allowed her to meet this one with bemused, practiced patience like a parent dealing with an unruly child. She tried to keep the look of amusement off her face since that would probably only antagonize him, but it was difficult to say the least.

"You'll have to forgive my attempt at humor, Dr. Chaparral. Romulan and Terran comedy aren't exactly compatible, so it's often hard to find common ground on that front. I only meant to reference Terran stereotypes about the Romulan tendency toward espionage and covert operations," she said, uncrossing and then recrossing her legs to get into a more comfortable position. She hooked her hands on the raised knee and used the leverage to keep her back straightened. "I will, of course, respect your privacy."

Jonah cocked his head to one side studying her. "Thank you for that, but my apologies. I'm sorry. I did overreact. I think we can agree to stay out of each other's business. Perhaps we should talk about something else."

"I'm sure our tenure here will be rife with misunderstandings, but I'm confident we can smooth them over if we remain level-headed," Seleya said, waving her hand dismissively. It was something of a back-handed comment but before he had room to respond, she stood up abruptly, smoothed down her skirt, and continued speaking without making eye contact. "I would love to stay and chat, truly, but I'd like to finish settling in by inspecting my duty station and the laboratory facilities aboard the ship."

"I understand," Jonah said, "and I will let you leave so you can do all the things you need to do. I will see you later and it was nice meeting you."

"Likewise, Dr. Chaparral," Seleya lied, giving an odd sort of curtsy by way of excusing herself.

It wasn't that she had anything against the man - at the very least he seemed to have more pluck than the average human - but it was a rare occasion that she actually enjoyed meeting anyone at all. Nevertheless, he seemed like a person she could at least get along with at a bare minimum. And thankfully, he wasn't in the security department. How she'd managed to have the luck of avoiding a handler like that, she'd never be entirely certain...

[ OFF ]

Dr. Seleya Qellar
Biotechnologist
USS Galileo
[ PNPC - Mott ]

Dr. Jonah Chaparral
Epidemiologist
USS Galileo
[PNPC-Nicholas]

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