Mutualistic Associations

Posted on 26 Mar 2013 @ 6:16pm by Raifi Zaren

1,830 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo: Deck 2, Maenad's Quarters
Timeline: MD05: 0100 hrs

[ON]

Zaren hung a left as he headed back from the arboretum. It was late, but he and Zimm had gotten into a very long, drawn out conversation about the history of symbiotic plant species and the time had gotten away from him. Still. She had asked him to stop by. The least he could do would be to knock, see if she were up.

He paused beside Maenad's quarters and gave a couple quick raps, listening. A chime would wake her if she were sleeping, but the knocks she would probably only hear if awake.

Just after she'd turned out the lights, Lilou on the couch and Liyar on the floor, Maenad got herself a glass of water from the replicator before heading to bed. It was late, and after having a pleasant evening with friends, she was ready to sleep. But as she stated for the bedroom a tapping sound came from the door. She frowned, recognising it immediately as someone at the door.

As she passed by the counter she set the glass down, then opened the door. Raifi was standing there. At one o'clock in the morning. Nevertheless, a wide smile spread across her lips. Even though she was smiling, the purple beneath her eyes made her look more raccoonish than usual. "Mister Zaren," she exclaimed just above a whisper, she glanced over her shoulder, then stepped into the corridor. Maenad didn't want to wake Liyar or Lilou.

"Miss Mae," he grinned, then followed her gaze over her shoulder into the darkened room, just barely making out the two sleeping forms inside. "Are you running a hostel?"

She followed his eyes inside. "It seems that way," she grinned, her eyes sparkling. "When I didn't hear from you today, I thought you weren't coming," Maenad was still whispering.

"I was talking with Zimm," he explained sheepishly. "We got onto symbiotics. And the sky never changes in the arboretum; you people should do something about that. How is a guy supposed to keep track of time?" He ducked in and kissed her on the cheek. "So you thought I wasn't coming and you decided to host a sleepover."

The sky did change in the arboretum. "What do you mean the sky didn't change?" she asked him, still barely whispering. "What are they doing down there?" Maenad shook her head, thinking she would deal with it in the morning. "I didn't plan this," she smiled, then looked around to make sure they were alone in the corridor. "I completely forgot."

"Regulating mutualistic associations between vascular plants and ectomycorrhizae," he murmured against her skin. "It was all terribly academic and utterly fascinating." He kissed her lips lightly, "You've been drinking."

"Stop," she laughed quietly, pushing him back with one hand against his breastplate. "Not here," Maenad looked over his shoulder a little nervously. "Come in for a while. But, we'll have to sit in my bedroom, and only for a while."

"What have you been drinking?" Zaren whispered, chuckling.

"I don't know," she bit her lip. "Something Vulcan; sheekuya na, I think." Maenad turned to lead the way into her quarters, pausing to add "It's quite strong." She took him through the darkness of the living room, past the slumbering shadows of Lilou and Liyar, and into the bedroom where she closed the door before turning on the small lamp beside the bed. She sat down, rubbing the bone behind one of her ears. "How did you get into an argument with Doctor Zimm?"

Zaren chuckled. "Not arguing. Talking. That guy is awesome. Terrible breath, though; I have no idea what he eats, but I need to avoid it." He flopped onto the bed next to her, idly running his fingertips over her back. "You drink with Liyar," he said thoughtfully.

"Yes," she admitted. It was unintentional, but she thought back to all the times that she had in recent memory, and most of them had been with him. But then, she suddenly stood up, breaking away from his touch. She looked down down him, skeptically. Although she mostly trusted him, she had only known him for a day, she wanted to make sure. "You had better not put any of this in your reports. Whatever we do and say, it is always off the record," she told him.

Zaren sighed, flopping back against the bed. "Have you read any of my reports? Talking about my love life has never really fit into any of them."

Love life? She held her eyes on his for several seconds. "I'm sorry, I haven't," Maenad confessed. "I meant not about you, but about me. I don't want you writing about what I do with my friends."

"Yes, I'm sure the network would be overcome by the idea that officers drink with each other. Breaking news on every channel," he chuckled. "Come back here and stop interrogating me. I promise I will tell you when I'm on the record. Okay?"

She watched him, studying him like he were beneath a microscope. After a long moment, she smiled. "If you don't," she warned, tilting her head. She walked to her closet and pulled out a nightgown. With her back to him, she removed her uniform jacket and tunic, then slipped the gown over her head. She removed her skirt under the gown's and then her tights before returning to her seat on the side of the bed. "Donald is one of the most opinionated people I have ever met. But his opinions," she laughed, "are on some of the strangest things."

Zaren watched her shamelessly. Not that he could really see anything - except the line of her spine, the smoothness of her back, muscles shifting - but it was a kind of intimacy that was really very pleasant. "Has he given you his thoughts on the importance of thunder to varieties of the flax plant? That was a particularly interesting lecture."

"No," Maenad lifted her legs up onto the bed and folded them beneath her. She turned to look at him beside her, laying out on the bed as if it were his own. "How was your day?" she looked down at him.

"Let's see..." he hummed thoughtfully. "Had a nice chat with your drunk friend in there. He's a character. And the sociologist, met him. Great taste, that one. I hadn't had ice cream in YEARS. Before that... Ah, talked to some of my contacts on a couple of other stories I'm managing elsewhere. Talked to Zimm." He thought about the morning with Jool and sighed under his breath, "Oh, and talked to the crewman apprentice in Engineering. Rothgra. Cool kid. And his sister's a kalaq'zhian. All in all, not a bad day."

"Oh," she grinned. Nothing that he had said was all that interesting, though she was glad to hear about it. "It was more than I did. I spent most of the day on the bridge, a few hours in the arboretum, and then by chance stumbled in on Ensign Peers and Liyar working in one of the labs. Then we came back here, and well, I was just about to go to bed." She tapped him with the back of her fingers, "And now you're here."

"You're in bed. You were successful." He smiled up at her. "What does one do on the bridge all day? It's really a secret gambling den, isn't it? You all go up there, pretending to work, then you roll out the tongo wheels..."

"As a science officer, not very much unless we are doing actual work. At high warp, I watch numbers, read sensor data, go over reports, give orders," she flashed her eyebrows. "Stay awake."

"Ever sneak books up there on your PADD?" he asked with a sly grin.

"Maybe," she smiled back, laying herself down beside him.

"Anything I'd like?" he asked, slipping his hand into hers.

"I don't know what you like," she whispered, rubbing the side of his palm with her fingertips.

"Mystery? Intrigue? Ectomycorrhizae?"

Maenad sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "Then no," she told him. "Your friend Jool thinks I'm a water fowl," she said.

"You do have a very swan-like neck."

Maenad raised her fingers to trace along the side of her neck. "Do I?" She liked swans, but she wasn't sure she wanted to look like one.

"Mmhmm," he leaned over, kissing her shoulder. Then gently kissing his way to the base of her neck. "Quite lengthy. Graceful. Curved." He grinned against the skin just below her ear. "Or am I thinking of a giraffe? So many things with long necks."

She laughed quietly, breathing out through her nose. "I would offer you something, but they're asleep," she said after a minute. "I'm sorry I forgot about tonight," she whispered into his ear.

"I'm reminding you," he murmured and nibbled her earlobe. When he'd satisfied himself there, he leaned over her, searching her face. He was quite happy to just study the angles and try to figure out how they managed to not look abstract when placed all together. He kissed her with all the abundant fascination he felt.

Maenad closed her eyes and let herself be kissed. What excited her most was the idea of being the object of someone else's affection; it seemed that even Lirha hadn't been so enthralled with her that she couldn't restrain herself. She kissed him back one, twice, but then had to make him withdraw by softly giving him a push against his chest. "It's late," she whispered.

Zaren flopped back to her side, rolling off the bed bonelessly. "Yep. I'm going." He paused in the doorframe, looking back at her, "Dream good dreams, Mae."

She sat up, flinging her legs over the side of the bed, feet on the floor. "Oh," she said, sounding disappointed. "Well, I won't forget next time. And don't show up at oh-one-hundred," she sighed.

He laughed, near-silent hitches of air out of an opened mouth. "I'll work on it," he winked. "Good luck tomorrow. Today."

Her silence thanked him as her eyes shone up at his. Maenad's eyelids were suddenly very heavy and she hunched a bit. She fumbled with her fingers in her lap as she watched.

"Ta," he gave a little wave, slipped his thumbs into his pockets, and tiptoed past the sleeping bodies out into the corridor.

Maenad watched the bedroom door close and made a small pout with her lips. She let out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding, then leaned to switch off the map beside the bed. When she crawled under the covers, she felt Zaren's warmth still on the sheets by her feet. She closed her eyes with a smile on her face, wishing that she hadn't sent him away.

[OFF]

Lieutenant (JG) Maenad Panne
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Raifi Zaren
FNN Journalist
USS Galileo
(pNPC Lilou Peers)

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