Getaways

Posted on Sun Oct 27th, 2024 @ 12:45pm by Lieutenant JG Elysian "Elly" Clarke & Lieutenant JG Rose Andrake & Ashley Chandler

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: To Boldly Go...
Location: Holodeck 1
Timeline: one of the rare opportunities Rose took downtime.

Stepping up to the door, Rose inserted a data chip to the console, gently directing the computer to run the program. The holodeck hummed to life as the doors slid open, revealing a lush hydroponics bay. The air was thick with the sweet scent of blooming flowers, mingling with the earthy aroma of plants, and the gentle trickle of water echoed softly. Tall towers of greenery stretched up toward the simulated sun, casting dappled shadows on the crops. Beneath the aquaponics system, fish swam leisurely, their movements shimmering in the warm, golden light that filled the room. And then the redheaded new astrocartographer stepped inside, leaving the sterile corridors of the starship behind. The metallic clink of the door closing faded as she inhaled deeply, savoring the familiarity of the space. Dressed casually in well-worn civilian clothes, she surveyed the scene—her recreation of the agricultural bays that had been the lifeblood of freighters like the Starbreaker.

The virtual assistants, designed with the whimsical charm of Animal Crossing characters, greeted her with cheerful waves. They moved with purpose, tending to the plants and livestock in their own animated way. Snakes, slithering gracefully among the hydroponic towers, flicked their tongues as they passed. Near a patch of simulated sunlight and a cleverly designed heat pump, a bundle of reticulated pythons basked, their kaleidoscopic scales catching the light as she casually double checked that the computer had gotten the morphs right.

Rose made her way toward one of the hydroponic towers, her hands instinctively reaching out to inspect the plants. The soft leaves pressed under her fingers as she checked their health, and a holographic display responded, hovering in easy vier to indicate nutrient levels, which she adjusted casually. One of the digital assistants handed her a small tool, its exaggerated expression of enthusiasm bringing a brief smile to her face. "Oh, Gary, could you check the salinity in the recyclers? The coffee's starting to get a little salty again."

Near the back of the bay, chickens scratched at the decking, clucking softly, while honeybees buzzed between the flowers, ensuring the crops were pollinated. Every detail was painstakingly accurate—an ode to the sustainable living of her childhood freighters, and a reminder of how far she'd come from that life. And a careful balance of pest to predator, crop and livestock. As she gently picked up one of the snakes, she gave a small smile, watching the forestm length garter exlore her skin. For a moment, she felt a deep calm, her surroundings grounding her in a way few things aboard a modern starship could.

Elly approached the Holodeck. She, too, was going to play "build an Arboretum." The young blonde stuck her face through the door. "Can I join you?" She didn't wait for an answer, instead, she entered some commands into the computer, and the scene changed slightly, adding in some waterfowl and a grove of coconut trees. "Coconut trees. My favorite," she said. She made a beeline for the grove. "Wanna sit under it with me? Ooh, a butler!" She said. "Computer, may I please have a synthol Pina Colada?" She asked.

This was her sanctuary—her way of holding onto a piece of home, and as this botanist came into the simulation, Rose could feel the balance carefully crafted by centuries of spacers just like her crumbling before finding the perpetrator. "Computer, allow modifications to the scenario... Do not save any changes."

Finally, she strode towards Elly, the snake on her shoulders seeming to lift her hair into an ethereal fireball that could only really be pulled off with the expression of a telepath's wrath. "A faithful recreation of a two hundred year old hydroponics and aquaponics bay capable of keeping an eighty man crew eating fresh food daily and indefinitely, of raising children! And a coconut tree?! I..." Her breath caught before she seemed to deflate, pulling her hands up to start gently unwrapping the banana reticulated python from her shoulders. "I should have realized that the holodecks are public unless privately booked and my programs can easily be stored and rebalanced according to the whims of those who join. I'm Rose Andrake. Astrocartography. Have a snake."

Rose gently dropped thirteen feet of snake on the botanist's lap as she looked on curiously, one earth covered hand on the spacer jeans' hip, the other scratching at her shoulder, revealing the torn and patched Starbreaker crew tee's Captain emblem before Rose pulled her jacket more securely onto her shoulders, the free hand keying a holographic screen as she rand the balancing equations to add the small grove of palms into her hydroponics network. "I should be mad. But if you really want a coconut palm in here, I suppose I can rebalance a few things... Can't grow wheat for two cycles till the equilibrium comes back... Could cut corn a bit, maybe I reduce the herb garden to compensate with flax, we have plenty of dried herbs... Yeah, I could make this work."

Elly sat up. "Absolutely," she said, unfazed. The Botanist picked up the snake. "A Banana python! I haven't seen one of these since I was back at home and Andy took me to the Zoo!!" She said. "Oh, yeah, sorry about that. Coconut trees are my favorite. They are cool. Did you know they are the only species of palm that aren't toxic to humans? And coconuts aren't actually nuts. They're actually a fruit, a drupe! Like a grape or an avocado, except that we eat them unripe, so the seed hasn't had time to grow!" She said. She moved the python carefully. She was used to poisonous and otherwise fauna. "This is a cool setup. What do you mean, can't grow? It's a HOLOGRAM," she said. "Though the Captain is allowing me to set up a small Arboretum," Elly said. "Say, I am Elly Clarke, staff Botanist." Elly herself was wearing jeans with her Starfleet jogging top and a zip-up sweatshirt that read "Risa" across the chest. "What's your name?" She asked. "Those birds are LOUD, can you turn it down?" She clamped her hands over her ears.

"Not turning down the chickens. This hologram is a running simulation of the hydroponics bay of the Starbreaker. Jiminy, could you please deal with the chickens? The ducks must be freaking them out." With a practiced hand, Rose directed an anthropomorphic raccoon character before she turned to Elly and let her brows furrow. "I've never seen one in person. Palm tree, I mean. Dates are good, though. And acai. But... They take a lot of water and nutrients and grow too big for the bay. We usually got coconut flake with our mulch shipments. Coconut husk or Andorian oak chips. I'm Rose Andrake. Astrocartography, former captain of the ship this simulated bay's out of, and resident freighter chick. So excuse my spicy attitude. Let me rebalance this so if the computer ignores my request to not save changes, the next time I open this simulation I don't find a dead bay. You're the one commandeering a cargo bay? I'll volunteer my skill. You know. I only sorta grew up expecting to retire and run one of these."

Her fingers kept flying across the keys for a moment, inputting values and grow plans to balance the simulation out. "And before you say it again, you see a hologram. For me it's the last living piece of my home. A ship that was lost with all hands according to official record five years ago. Take that as you will."

Ashley stood outside the holodeck doors wondering whether or not to enter. The computer had informed her that Elly was inside and she was wanting to discuss her being tutored by the science officer for her biology class. She finally mustered the courage and entered to find a simulation of some sort of biodome in progress. She stepped in and looked around, but heard voices coming from the foliage head. She was perhaps five steps in when an albino boa dropped from a tree limb onto her head and shoulders. She let out a loud and long shriek of terror.

Elly made a face at Rose but nodded. "Believe it or not, I kind of understand," she said. She did not share more. Not yet. "Sure, you can help me make up the arboretum," she said. "I could use a few extra hands," she said. She opened her mouth to speak again, but a childish scream interrupted her thoughts. She whirled around.

Rose didn't speak, hearing the scream, she just turned and tore down the deck playing in a full sprint to make sure no one got hurt. Much to her surprise, a fourteen year old girl screaming her head off and stressing out the overly adventurous boa that had fallen off a hydroponics tower. One that could be forgiven for being mistaken for a tree, given its rust and the fact that it had layers of trellises to grow a perennial tomato. But still, Rose approached quickly, scooping the snake off Ashley as she spoke gently to the Animal in an incoherent mishmash of languages that needed a translator to catch one word in three. What she said wasn't important, more the gentle tone and then calm and soft way she handled the boa, apparently named Tula.

"Ashley!" Elly exclaimed. "What are you doing here?" She said. "Shouldn't you be studying?" Elly glanced at her wrist chronometer. She supposed it was late enough in the day that Ashley would be done with her work. "Where's your father?" She asked, hoping he knew that she was in the holodeck alone. A young woman could get into some trouble down here by herself. Elly would know. She shook her head. "And stop screaming. It's a hologram," she said. "This is is...who ARE you?" She asked, realizing that she hadn't gotten the woman's name. "This is Ashley Chandler. Her father is the Chief of Strategic Operations," Elly explained. "I am helping her with her science work," she said. And the fact that her father was kind of cute didn't hurt, either.

"Wait, Drew Chandler's kid? Holy shit, last time I heard about her she was still knee high to a console! Her dad pulled my ship out of a few tight spots back in the day. Granted he also arrested me then last time I was accused of sketchy shit. I'm Rose Andrake, for the third time, miss Clarke. First time I'm meeting the squirt in person and she's freaking out over a four foot boa. Just wait till she meets Bertha." Rose gave a small chuckle as she released the boa into the lower growth of a nearby tower, scooping up a garter that curled around her wrist before shooting up her jacket to rest in the book of her shoulder. "Sorry about Tula. She can be a little... Adventurous. Doesn't really pay attention where she's climbing and tends to fall. How's your parents?"

Ashley was still a bit shaken up from having a snake drop on her. She shuddered a bit, but regained her composure after a moment. "I'm OK now. Just startled." She looked at both Elly and Rose for a moment. "I don't mean to interrupt. I just wanted to talk to Elly about a school project for my biology course." She looked around at the holographic arboretum. "Actually, one of the projects on the list was creating a biodome and studying how different plants and animals coexist." She turned to Rose. "My dad is OK I guess. Mom... we lost her in the Breen attack on Earth five years ago."

Elly simply nodded. She guessed she hadn't been listening. Story of her life. She talked too much. "That's an interesting topic," she said. "And yes, that sounds about right for Drew," she said.

Rose's brow furrowed as something deep within her stirred, threatening to break loose. "I will give you an unedited copy of this bay simulation for your study. It's the hydroponics bay of the Starbreaker, last of the mighty Monumental class freighters, the tug boats that helped build the mighty Starbases and shipyards of the Federation and before, her keel laid at Mars in 2143. It's a complete ecosystem capable of supporting up to a hundred humans indefinitely, despite our crew being only eighty. When I dragged her out of a breaker yard, her bay was still alive after seventy years abandoned. All I ask in return is that you carry a hug to your dad for me. I know what it is to lose someone so special. If I had known, been able, I would have come as soon as I could."

Kneeling, Rose spread her arms to offer a hug.

Ashley gave Rose a tentative hug. She didn't know this woman or how Rose knew her father. She would have to ask him later. "I will pass on your message."

Elly watched the interaction between kid and Rose, smiling. "That's a nice offer!! Much better than anything I could help with. I am just a botanist," she said.

Ashley broke the hug and turned to Elly. She fished out a PADD from the back pocket of her jeans. "I got the course syllabus and wanted to go over it with you if that is okay? Maybe plan a tutoring schedule."

"Computer. Send a copy of this simulation rolled back one hour to the inbox of Ashley Chandler. Send an email to Andrew Chandler stating that... I'm sorry to have heard about Kelly. It shouldn't have been Ashley to tell me. I know that pain, and for what it's worth I'm sorry. She's gotten so big and I know how proud of her you must be. I'm sending Ashley back with a couple gifts to help in her studies. One she'll find in her inbox. Another later." Rose gave a small smirk about the holographic garter snake that had slipped down Rose's arm, off her wrist, and into Ashley's pocket. With the hologram projectors all through the ship, all it took was one little bit of code on a projected console under Rose's hand to allow it to show up anywhere on the ship.

Elly looked horrified. "You can't just SAY that!" Elly said. "Who ARE you, anyway?" She asked Rose. She made a face but turned back to Ashley. "I am sorry about that. Let me see your syllabus. Perhaps we can work something out when I am done here. Which is going to be in a few minutes, because my colleague here can't keep her mouth shut," she said. Which, yes, was rich coming from HER but Elly was never tactless, just chatty and neurotic. "Ooh, a simulated frog dissection. I haven't seen one of those in YEARS," she said. The Blonde brushed her hair away from her eyes. "Anyway, this was fun but I am going to go get some coffee and maybe a sandwich. Anyone care to join me?" She asked. The woman had a short attention span, and was easily distracted, especially by her stomach.

"Keepin' mah word. The man better not arrest me for something I didn't do again, just gives me ideas! Besides, nobody's getting hurt today and the guy hasn't heard from me since my ship's death took my-- You really aren't the brightest knife in the drawer, are you?"

Ashley made placating gestures with her hands. "Maybe we should all just go grab a bite." She wasn't particularly hungry,

Elly nodded. "OK!" she said. "Rose? Care to join us?" She asked. "We can use Officer's Mess, I'll just tell them that Ashley is with us," she said, with a shrug. She didn't care much about stupid rules like that one. The bigger ones, yes, but who came and went from a specific eating hall? No. She had more important things to worry about.

Rose was silent for a few moments before she shrugged. "Yeh, I could go for a snake burger. Lead the way."

"A WHAT?" Elly exclaimed. She shook her head. "I don't think the replicators have that," she said, making a face. She could only imagine. She had heard that they tasted like chicken, but she wasn't sure. She wasn't super adventurous when it came to food, though, so what could she know? She preferred tried and true things, like steak and potatoes. "I will stick to a regular burger myself," she said. "Ash?" She asked the teenager as the trio turned off the simulation and made their way out of the holosuite.

"What, you think we raised these things just for pest control? I mean, with fish and poultry, beef was kind of a rare treat. Besides. Replicator food always has this weird hollow taste and kind of a bitterness to it. Veggies especially." Rose idly wondered if the garter snake that had slipped into her pocket would use the ship's network to appear as the EMH could, anywhere on the ship. Would be a fun surprise for later.

(We can end here or make it longer, IDC)

Lt. JG Andrake
Astrocartography

Ashley Chandler
Family Member

LtJG Dr. Elysian "Elly" Clarke
Botanist

 

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