Revelations

Posted on 27 Jan 2015 @ 9:09pm by Petty Officer 1st Class Pieter Van Zyl Ph.D.

2,419 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 07 - Sojourn
Location: USS Galileo, Deck 4, Botany lab
Timeline: MD41 - 1100hrs

[ON]

It was the honorable thing to do.

That's what Pieter kept telling himself as he walked closer and closer to his destination. T'Vanna was a fellow officer, and a decent person. Hell, even if she wasn't, no one deserved the treatment she was getting from her so called 'lover'. It made Pieter sick to his stomach, the idea that Oren would go so low as to betray someone's trust like he did. It was disgusting.

Carrying her baby in the mei-tai, T'Vanna approached the botanist in his gardens. To draw his attention, she tapped him on the shoulder, then waited for him to face her before speaking. "You wanted to see me?"

Pieter frowned at her sympathetically, then immediately schooled his expression into something more neutral. He nodded, glancing down at the baby then back at T'Vanna's face.

Not one to draw out bad news, Pieter pursed his lips before speaking. "Ensign," he signed, not one to throw formality aside, even if this was a deeply personal issue. "I have something to tell you. Perhaps you'd like to sit down," he suggested, glancing at the empty chair in his lab.

Arching an eyebrow at him, she moved to the chair and sat down, while resettling the sleeping infant in the carrier. "What's wrong?" she asked him, "the plants in my quarters are still very much alive, and I'm taking good care of them too. As I promised I would...unless you have cultivated others that are better suited?"

Pieter was a little thrown at what she thought the problem was. He quickly shook his head, holding one hand up in a signal she'd hopefully take as 'let me explain'. "No, the plants are fine," he just told her before taking the plunge.

"It's about your relationship with Dr. Idris. It is none of my business but I believe you deserve to know this," he said.

"He's cheating on you."

The second eyebrow joined the first as she simply stared at him in surprise. "Cheating on me? How do you know this, and why are you telling me this?"

She didn't seem distraught, as far Pieter could tell. But, thinking on it, he figured she had the right to be skeptical. "I know the person he cheated on you with. They told me, and I have no reason not to believe him. And you deserve to know."

"They? There's more than one?" Still, T'Vanna seemed less than disturbed by the news. Oren and she had never discussed the parameters of their relationship, and she'd felt that he was free to pursue any romance he desired. "You're right, this is none of your business Mister Van Zyl, and certainly not for you to judge on what our relationship is based on."

Pieter was taken aback. Was she angry with him? But he'd done the right thing, telling her about Oren's indiscretion, he was sure of it. Maybe she was just in shock and lashing out at the only person there?

"I apologize," he said, trying to appear as calm as possible.

"Why." Her statement was simple. "Why did you think to tell me? What gain do you have by telling me this?"

Pieter tilted his head to the side, confused. 'Gain'?

"I gain nothing. Cheating on someone is wrong," he replied just as simply. "No one should be lied to like that," Pieter added, then shook his head apologetically. "I assumed you were in a monogamous relationship. I apologize for my mistake." It was the only thing Pieter could think was reason enough for T'Vanna's calm when faced with the idea that her partner was unfaithful. Pieter felt slightly awkward, even though it wasn't the first time he'd jumped to a conclusion like this.

"You assumed wrong," she told him, "and it shows Humans aren't very perceptive either. There's nothing going on between Oren and I."

Offended, Pieter frowned at her. He was the most perceptive person he knew! Without hearing, he prided himself on being able to notice things most people didn't even think about and now this?

"Yes, there is," he argued pointlessly.

"No Pieter, there isn't. There really, really isn't. There is absolutely nothing going on between Oren and I. Nothing romantic, nothing."

"Then what are you doing?" Pieter knew Oren was very affectionate (physically at least) but the way he'd been with T'Vanna looked more intimate than Pieter'd seen him be before.

"We were conducting an experiment," she explained patiently, "we were going to see how fast gossip traveled, and it seems that it was somewhat of a success. The best we ever did was kiss, and that was in sickbay, weeks ago. Sure, he stayed the night but we were never intimate. If anything he's probably a sort of little brother, even if he's what...three times my age?"

Pieter said nothing, still unable to believe their relationship was fake. Oren had mentioned T'Vanna on a few occasions around the Science department and his feelings had seemed genuine. Was the El-Aurian that good at faking? The idea unnerved Pieter.

"Again, I apologize," Pieter repeated, feeling incredibly uncomfortable now.

"There's no need, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone. We are, after all conducting a scientific experiment."

Pieter nodded. It still didn't feel right. Something about it just didn't fit in with how Oren was acting.

"You have my word," he told her anyway. If he was wrong and everything was above the board, the least Pieter could do was not interfere.

"Thank you." Gently she touched his arm and smiled. "I appreciate your concern and your honesty, but really..sometimes it's just for the best to say nothing, however much it may eat you. And for the record, Oren's been nothing but a true gentleman in my presence."

Pieter rolled his eyes. Of course Oren would be a gentleman.

"Well I think honesty is still best. You're a single mother who has enough on her plate without a cheating bastard for a boyfriend."

"Yes honesty is best, but now you now there's nothing between Oren and I and there never will be. He's just a friend, and we're conducting a scientific experiment."

"How is the experiment going?" Pieter asked. Somehow he still had trouble believing this whole 'experiment' theory.

"Well...you're observant, and you believed something was going on right? ANd no doubt you shared gossip on the matter with others?"

"Of course not. It's none of my business. I detest gossip," Pieter said indignantly. As if he would skulk around the ship, gossiping like some schoolboy.

"Perhaps you should," the Vulcan woman chuckled as she patted his arm,
"it's a great means to gather information."

"I'm not interested in private information of the people I work with. Unless someone is getting hurt, it's none of my business," Pieter explained. He knew more about the private lives of his coworkers than he'd ever admit, gathered just from observation alone. When you didn't hear what people were talking about, patterns in their behaviour were easy enough to notice.

"So you wouldn't want to know who took great care of their plants, and who absolutely neglected them?" She arched an eyebrow at him, her hand still resting on his arm.

Pieter narrowed his eyes slightly, trying to figure out if she was joking, or mocking him or if it was a simple, honest statement. Vulcans were always so difficult to read, even the hybrids.

"Once they pick up their plants, I try not to make it my business." He didn't tell her about the weekly articles he sent people about the plants he knew they owned, detailing the newest research about proper care.

"Liar," she chided him, releasing his arm. "You care too much about your green friends here to go let them off into the unknown just like that." She pointed at a random plant with gorgeous red flowers. "So if I took that one you'd never check on me to see if it was still alive in say, a week or so?"

"I'd never let you take that plant, it's unique, I bred it myself."

"You did?" She leaned closer to it, pressing the infant closer to her chest, to sniff at it. "It smells a little odd. Roses, but not quite. And why wouldn't you let me take it?"

"Because I'm observing it. It's for work," Pieter explained before reaching over and running one fingertip over the soft leaves.

"Observing? As in, watching it grow?" She arched an eyebrow at him as she straightened. "Can I touch it?"

"You can touch the leaves, not the flowers," Pieter explained. He hated when people went around, grabbing stalks and touching the petals. Savages, the whole lot of them.

"That delicate?" she asked as she gently ran her fingers along the leaves just as she'd seen Pieter do. "What did you breed it of? Surely, it contains rose? I smell a faint hint of rose."

"No. No rose," Pieter said, shaking his head as he watched her touch the flower. "It's a special breed of Nicotiana bred under artificially created harsh conditions. Despite that, it's still very delicate."

"So you didn't get to breed out the delicacy?" she asked, clearly interested. "What are it's solar requirements? Can it survive in the dark, or does it need more sunlight than your average flower?"

"It's very resilient actually. It can survive with minimal sunlight, just an hour a day. It's not even very sensitive to temperature changes, but physically...." Pieter trailed off, making a face and shaking his head at the plant in dismay, as if it should feel ashamed of itself.

"Don't be mad at the plant Pieter," T'Vanna chuckled, "it can't help who it is any more than you can. Perhaps a next generation is more resilient?"

"Not if it this one doesn't gets its act together," Pieter said, taking a nearby spray bottle and using it on the offending plant.

"Act?" She stared from the plant to Pieter and back to the plant, then back at Pieter a final time. "A plant cannot act Pieter, it has no brains to make anything a conscious act."

"Sometimes I wonder," Pieter said, setting the spray bottle aside once again and giving the plant a suspicious look. Whether it was for play or if he was seriously considering the sentience of a plant was uncertain.

"Has it ever told you anything? Responded to anything you did to or for it?" T'Vanna questioned.

Pieter gave her a look. "No," he replied, his gestures saying 'Of course not'.

"Then it has no capability of responding," she replied logically, "and therefor, it has no brains or even feelings."

Pieter just shook his head in response. This is what he got, trying to joke with a Vulcan.

"But you do," T'Vanna continued, "and I can see this frustrates you. Why?"

"It isn't frustrating me. You are. I was joking. I don't actually think plants are sentient."

"I'm frustrating you?"

"Your logic is."

"Why does that frustrate you, because I'm right?"

"Because you can't tell when I'm joking," Pieter returned, then glanced down at his wrist and the device there. It wasn't often that Pieter thought about his limitations, but when he did, he couldn't help but wish he could just use sign language sometimes. At least when people knew it, without the blasted VOICE, they got when he was joking.

Following his gaze, she reached out again this time brushing her fingers against his cheek. "Don't let that hinder you," she said. "That thing may not convey what you feel but your expression speaks volumes. I may not understand humour, but I can learn. You are a sweet man Pieter."

Feeling her touch against his cheek, Pieter leaned away. He wasn't a fan of strangers touching him so his first instinct was to move away. "Don't do that," he said for good measure.

"Don't do what?" She watched him, not quite sure what he didn't want her to do.

"Don't touch me, I barely know you," Pieter clarified.

T'Vanna sighed as she pulled her hand back. "It's the only way to understand you," she clarified in return, "and to make you understand. Like I said, that thing doesn't convey your feelings..there's no emotion coming from that thing, it has to come from you."

"I know that, but I don't like strangers touching me unexpectedly," Pieter explained with a shrug.

"It wasn't exactly unexpected, I've been just about touching you the whole time."

"Well, I would prefer you didn't," Pieter pointed out bluntly.

"Then point it out sooner," T'Vanna shot back in a very un-Vulcan like manner.

"Maybe you shouldn't touch people you barely know," Pieter retorted, frowning at her.

She gave him a shrug of her own. "Why not... As long as I don't make any skin contact, I don't really see a problem. But with you, since that device of yours doesn't convey any kind of emotion, and expressions aren't everything either, it seemed a good idea at the time."

"A lot of people say that after doing stupid things," Pieter pointed out with a serious expression.

"Well it's still true you know." She smirked at him, reaching to smoothen the frown on his face. "Don't you frown so much....it might just stay that way and you're not half as pretty frowning as you are when you don't."

Pieter blinked at her, surprised. Suddenly, he felt his face heat up and he hoped he didn't look too red from her comment. He suddenly found the plant sample across the table incredibly interesting, then stood up. "I have work to do," he told her, still blushing to the tips of his ears.

"Ah...caught you at a loss for words?" she smiled, watching him stand. "That must be a first... really though, don't frown too much..."

A man who used his hands to speak suddenly found himself unsure what to do with them. Eventually, he settled them on his hips and nodded his understanding.

Patting his shoulder, she walked past him. "It was very sweet of you to voice your concern," she told him, "but not necessary. I'll leave you with your plants now. Goodbye Pieter."

Pieter just nodded again, turning back to his plants and letting T'Vanna leave.

[OFF]

PO1 Pieter Van Zyl
Botanist
USS Galileo
[PNPC Idris]

Ensign T"Vanna Murray
Asst Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

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