Trills and Tea (Part 3)

Posted on 13 Jan 2013 @ 4:22pm by Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Lieutenant Lilou Zaren
Edited on on 13 Jan 2013 @ 4:39pm

2,495 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 02 - Resupply
Location: USS Galileo: Deck 2, Messhall
Timeline: MD15 - 1620 hrs

[Continued]

Kiri looked rather shocked, "No," Even if it was sterilised a Tribble would scare the life out of everyone at home. She remembered that once a boy said he'd seen one and half the village went to find it and kill it before it could multiply. It had turned out be a woollen hat but still. "Maybe a cat, or a snake, a spider?" Kiri thought about the animals she had seen while walking on Vega, the tiny birds she liked were a little small. The snake was large, or the crab, or the sky blue birds. None of them really leapt out at her.

"I don't... think I've seen any of those. Only reason I know about Tribbles is because we had to check incoming ships for them," Lilou grinned. "What are they?"

"I guess on a biological level they can be considered an apex of evolution," Kiri had studied them for an afternoon once, "They are small mass of flesh about half a foot wide or less, normally brown or grey. They have a small mouth and can eat almost any food. They are born pregnant and can have a litter of six to twelve babies every ten hours. Those babies have their own ten hours later and so on, in a few days there could be millions of them from just one." Taking a breath she finished that part, "Before the Klingons all but wiped them out they were able to destroy entire colonies by eating all the food. They are rare now and most places ban them but sometimes people have them as pets, they are easy to look after."

Lilou chuckled, "No. What is a cat, snake, spider? I know Tribbles."

"Oh," Kiri looked rather confused, "You didn't see them on Earth?" She thought that they were quite easy to come across.

Scrunching up her face, she thought about it. "I saw birds; lots of those. And... a whale, I think, once. At least, they said it was a whale. It could have been an odd wave..." She paused, looking at Kiri. "I spent a lot of time in the labs," she explained with a small shrug. "Not... sight-seeing."

"Okay," How to explain? "Well a spider is a small creature like an insect, it has eight legs, lots of eyes and makes webs to catch flying inspects. They live everywhere and if you don't clean your house they make webs in the corners," Kiri quite liked spiders, at least the ones that weren't dangerous, "Some of them are poisonous though." That was one, "A snake is like a legless lizard, they wriggle on the floor and have stripes and spots, some are huge. They are also poisons and they bite, but they can also sense heat with their tongues. And cats are mammals, normally small and come is lots of colours and patterns. They hunt pests and like being warm, they are fluffy and nice to stroke and make nice noises." All of that didn't paint a good picture to her eyes, "I can show you them, on the holodeck." Then she realised something, "What are the animals like on Trill?"

"I didn't see any when we went to the holodeck. Just people." Lilou let her tea rest on her tongue for a beat. "When I was nine, my parents sent me for phaser training and I broke into a lab and built a hovercraft. What did you do when you were nine?"

"Maybe we can go to a zoo then?" Kiri then thought about the question harder, "I did lots of school work and reading, I think I took apart my computer to fix it when I was ten."

"Maybe you should replicate her a bunch of tools," Lilou suggested.

"There wouldn't be anything for her to work on," Kiri answered, there wasn't even a combustion engine to take apart. "I don't know if she likes those sort of things, maybe something more generic."

"You could ask." Lilou pulled her ear, "What does one do with a stuffed cat? At least with tools, you can do things. Make things. Change things. Who wouldn't like that?"

"I don't think my parents would approve, maybe a construction toy set then? With tiny girders and bolts and things?" Kiri was reaching out to toy she didn't ever play with. No would would have a problem with that and if Sarah wanted to play with making things that was safe.

"You parents didn't approve of your disassembling your computer?"

"That's different," Kiri took another bite of the apple, "It was my computer and it wasn't working properly." It was just about the only part of complex electrical that she had access to, "I don't think Sarah has anything of her own to take apart, my parents don't have anything really."

Lilou's brows drew together. "They have a replicator, yes?"

"No," Kiri wasn't sure about the look she was getting, "The nearest one is the public one in the nearby town."

Lilou pulled her ear. She'd never lived anywhere without a replicator. It was hard to imagine a situation where she couldn't just get at least the parts of the thing she wanted. "Why?"

"Because they don't need them. Almost all the food is grown in the village and most other things are made there," Some things were but none of them were every day things that couldn't be collected once a month.

The engineer looked at her quizzically. "Oh." She paused, "But... then..." She looked down at her tea, "So what does someone do with a toy cat?"

"They hold it at night, or when they are sad," Kiri started to feel rather embarrassed, "Sometimes I would talk to mine, or create things in my head." It wasn't a cat but a iguana with silky fake scales and she couldn't sleep without it being nearby. She could pretend it was her friend but she didn't want to say that.

Lilou crunched her apple thoughtfully. "All right," she said finally, accepting the information with a shrug. It wasn't in her experience, but then again most things weren't. "Do you miss it? Living - you know - without all this?"

"Sometimes, but not normally, I miss my parents more," While it was her home and she understood why the people in the village lived the way they did, she didn't agree with it completely. While she still wouldn't take a short cut when she could do it for real she did embrace new technology completely. Cooking her own food, growing it still made sense to her and tasted better.

"Do they-" Lilou cut herself off, shaking her head. "Sorry. It's none of my business."

"It's okay, its not that hard to find out about," Kiri had discovered herself that despite few people in the village having access there were several pages of information on the network about them.

"No, I just... do they miss you?" the half-Trill asked softly.

"Oh, well yes. They were used to be being at the Academy but my parents always say they miss me, I miss them." Kiri smiled but that didn't last long, "Do yours?"

Lilou screwed her mouth up subconsciously and busied herself refilling her teacup. She honestly didn't know anymore. She'd never felt as though her parents didn't love her; of course they did. They'd made every effort to see her needs and talents met and accounted for. They were good people, with purpose. But the lack of concern they'd showed over her last message to them, and before that, the way they'd waved away her terror on the Algonquin. Even her promotion to Chief had been taken with a nod and an 'of course, well done' before the short conversation had moved on to her father's experiments. "Do you play any instruments? My father always wanted me to play piano, but I could never get a handle on it."

"No I don't," Kiri answered, "But Maenad plays the violin and the piano, I can't though. She said she might teach me though." That didn't answer her question though, was it something that she didn't want to talk about?

"If you learn... I would listen. If you wanted someone to, I would."

"It would be a long time before I was any good, if I was any good," Kiri smiled never the less, "Thank you though, I'll let you know how it goes but would you not like to learn?" To Kiri the implication that Peers's parents wanted her to do something meant she should do it.

"Not really much point," Lilou shrugged. "I tried it for a while when I was younger, bored me silly and I didn't ever feel very connected to it. To the music. Might as well do what I'm good at, right?"

That was what Kiri mostly did, "Yes but sometimes different things can be fun, I'm not good with people but this is fun."

"Well, I'm not good with people either. I think it might be an exception, at least on my part. Maybe you are, and you just don't know it."

"Maybe but it doesn't feel that way," Smiling she added, "You seem fine to me."

"Thank you?" Lilou said quizzically, hiding her embarrassment and her smile by taking a sip of her tea.

Kiri smiled too and took another bite of the apple, this was by far the least strained talk she'd had in weeks.

"I've been working on it," Lilou admitted. "In my head, not in practice really, but I've been working on it. Trying to. Quinn's great with people. You have to be, I think, or at least try to be, to be a good leader. And they made me a leader despite- I can't not work on it. You know?"

"Yes, I've been trying since I joined the ship. I don't think people dislike me but I can't really tell if they like me." Kiri was starting to realise that Peers could well be a study buddy when it came to social studies and development.

"It's difficult, yes. Moods are so changeable." She wrinkled her nose, "And apparently just telling people to do the things you need them to is rude. I'm still not entirely clear on why that is."

"I find it better to ask," Kiri found it strange that she was giving advice, "They know they shouldn't refuse me and it is politer. If they do then you have to give orders but, I think it helps to be nice when you can."

"It's not orders. It's their job." Lilou sighed. "Why am I supposed to ask? We're all supposed to be working together, aren't we? If I need something from Operations to make things run more smoothly for all of us, why shouldn't they just do it and not worry about how I went about telling them I needed it?"

"It depends how you do it, I think it takes more working out to tell rather than ask." Kiri wasn't sure she was right but knew she didn't like being told all the time, "Operations has to work with all departments and they as busy too. While what you want is important maybe there is something else more important. Asking makes it seem you value their time and effort, its nice to be valued." Pausing she added, "When you know them well it might not be such a problem, to tell them rather than ask."

Lilou considered this. "Then why doesn't anyone ever ask us?" she wondered. "The only times we're ever asked to do anything, it's aesthetic and unnecessary. The necessary functions we perform - no one asks. They just tell us where to go and we do it. Because... that's what we're supposed to do." She cocked her head to the side, "Obviously we prioritize. I expect everyone does. If there's something more important they need to do before they can assist us, why would I have a problem with that?"

Kiri considers a moment more but really she didn't know what to do about that. To her being polite was a way of life, to Peers it didn't seem to be. Finishing the last bite of her apple she finally answered, "I like being polite, I don't know if I can't be."

"Why?"

"It was how I was brought up," Kiri wasn't sure about Peers but most people were brought up like that weren't they? "I always worried about what people think about me, being polite helps make a good impression I think."

"I worry what people think of me, too," Lilou frowned at her tea. "I just thought I'd do what I was supposed to or stay out of the way." She glanced at Kiri, "Now staying out of the way gets me noticed by the Captain. Socialization is a fickle beast."

"I used to stay out of the way," Kiri looked very sad for a moment, "It's very lonely though." At the time she hadn't noticed how isolated and stupid she was being, "I like doing things with people."

Lilou smiled a little sadly, letting her gaze drop, "Sometimes lonely is better than the alternative."

"I used to think that," Kiri started to think she was looking at a time displaced mirror, "I was scared of people not liking me, or being mean that I didn't want to talk to them. But no one on the ship is really mean, and I'm careful."

Yet, Lilou thought. No one is mean yet. She shook her head slightly, trying to push away the thought. "What sort of tea is that?" she asked, nodding to Kiri's pot.

"Melon Seed," Kiri answered trying to make more sense of Lilou's reaction, "It's soft but slightly spicy, I find it good for thinking."

Lilou hummed in the back of her throat, taking a final sip of her tea. The pot was empty and so was her cup. "I guess I should- make sure we're ready to fly tomorrow." She stood, clipping her PADD to her waist and sorting her tray, then paused, "This was nice."

"Oh, yes," Kiri didn't notice how long they had been talking. There were things she should be getting back to as well, "Thank you for your time." Then with a smile, "I will see you soon?"

Lilou ducked her head shyly, "Sure." She grabbed her tray, "See you."

Kiri watched her leave, she hadn't fallen out with her after all. They could be friends, they were also similar like she thought. Someone that struggled with people and shared her problems. Someone that Kiri wanted to be around more, someone that made her smile. Her mind was already on the meal they could have together, she needed to impress Lilou. Then there was a holodeck visit to Trill, that was a bit scarier.

[OFF]
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Lieutenant (JG) Kiri Cho
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

ENS Lilou Peers
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

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