Reaching Out For Somebody’s Hand

Posted on Tue Dec 3rd, 2024 @ 3:05pm by Lieutenant JG Rose Andrake & Commander Damian Morgan

1,930 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: To Boldly Go...
Location: Arboretum

Arboretum, hydroponics bays... Basically the same thing, right? Rose knew how Starbreaker's had been built, and which bay was to be the arboretum. Moreover, she knew how to build. Her father had, after all, wanted her to be a shipbuilder, had been a hydroponics engineer. And spacer children are often taught everything their parents know from infancy. So the empty bay stood as a blank canvas for Rose, sweeping across the floor with a heavily modified tool to blast the duranium alloy with crystalline aluminum oxide to form a near sixteenth inch layer of monocrystalline white sapphire across the bay floor and hundreds of bits of stock she planned to use as pylons. A solid seal of a single continuous crystal matrix. Then the pumps could be installed, near the door and where she planned to put a staircase that would offer a cinematic climb up the steps, the sides made of transparent aluminum arching over the bay doors to offer a view of the soil and access to the pumps, across from where she built a ring of transparent aluminum and sealed to form a pond almost a full meter deep, with shelves to hold wetland plants that would pull from the simulated water table she was building, pump into the wetlands filter dominating the back wall,drain into the pond, and the pond drain so preciously slow into the water table. She was so careful with her measurements. Ten inches deep for the table void, plastic baffle to hold another ten inches of gravel, eighteen inches of water on the floor, with another three times the table volume in the pond, pumped, filtered, recycled endlessly to water and feed the plants. She would work with the ship's children to select specific animals to build a closed ecosystem in here. But she wouldn't be so granular as to select soil fungi, microbes, algae, or insect life by species and strain. She wouldn't expect the level of involvement to select soil chemistry or help her build the foundations of the walkways.

And so she worked, setting the tool aside to begin placing baffles, her sport bra and cargo pants clad form more reminiscent of a Utopa Planitia shipbuilder than a Starfleet officer, especially with the phase welder on her hip and the loud music reverberating across the bay, just barely overpowering the sounds of the ship, her scar deformed tattoo work shifted as she worked, sweat heading across her brow with the labor of building something special for her ship, her home, and her crew. Sure, a ship of this class should only fly for forty years, not the centuries of service a freighter might. But maybe Rose could build something here that could be removed, installed in another hull when Deliverance was eventually permanently retired. After all. Why not build to outlast the ship itself?

————————————————————

Commander Morgan had some time before his duty shift and decided to pay Lieutenant Andrake a visit. Despite her struggles and the ordeal through which she pushed, he found her to be brave, intelligent, and extremely capable.

“Computer, locate Lieutenant Andrake,” he asked the computer.

“Lieutenant Andrake is in the arboretum,” it replied.

Morgan left his quarters and entered the nearest turbolift and announced his destination.
Arriving at the arboretum, Morgan stepped through the doors to hear a cacophony of sounds and remnants of construction materials strewn about the once-new and immaculate bay.

“Andrake! Are you here? It’s Morgan! Andrake?”

There she was, down at the back corner, laying the last of the foundation seal, before dropping her tool and leaving a stack of plastic dividers to her shoulder. She looked back, offering a quick wave before she approached. "XO Morrgan! I was just about to start prefill on the pond and testing the pumps. The botanists know what's going in, but had no plans for how the bay would be constructed. So I took over that bit. What can I do for you?"

“This is impressive, Lieutenant. You’ve done all this by yourself? An ambitious endeavor, I have to tell you. I can’t wait to see it when it’s done. To be honest, I was just checking in on you. I felt like our initial meeting didn’t end the way I would have liked. I have tremendous respect for your circumstances and I apologize if I offended you in any way. You’re an important part of this family. And this crew is a family. My job is to ensure we mesh and work together as a team. I would be negligent in my duties if I didn’t at least emphasize that,” Morgan said as he brushed some floating dust debris off his tunic.

Rose cocked a hip, a confused look crossing her face as she considered his words. "You didn't insult me at all, sir. I respect the faith you've put in me so far. And yeah, I've been on my own on this. Daddy wanted a shipbuilder. This is just the foundation, It's gonna look like any other garden when it's done."

Sitting down on a pylon, Rose pulled a bottle of water from her pocket and took her break. "Sir... Why are you lying to me? I'm the Sciences equivalent of an old school redshirt."

“Scoot over,” Morgan said as he sat next to her. “Rose, you have to stop being so hard on yourself. You are as valuable as anyone else on this ship. Perhaps even more. Can you find a stellar cartographer who can build an arboretum? Come on, Lieutenant. give yourself some credit. We’ve all done things we’re not proud of. I’m asking you. Please don’t punish yourself any longer. If we didn’t want you here, you would not be. I could order you, but I don’t want to. What do you say, Rose?”

Scooting over, Rose gave a small chuff of laughter. "I say half the people on my crew, and anybody who was born on a ship is gonna be highly skilled at a young age. And I'm not just a cartographer, I also lost my first ship in battle. So yeah. I'm a little hard on myself. I have to be if I wanna earn back my right to command. You think I still punish myself for that? It was two K'Tingas against a freighter. I did everything right and even took one of the fuckers with me. I'm proud as fuck of my crew. Just still looking for other survivors is all."

“I can appreciate that, and that quality and attitude is part of your makeup as a leader. That’s to be commended and even admired. One of the many things I respect about you. That being said, you have to look at the bigger picture here. You’re part of something bigger now. You’re a member of this community. I’m not asking to abandon the folks with whom you served. I’m asking you to trust me and Captain Nairut. Your opportunity will come. I just can’t tell you when. I know you can succeed here. I see that when you put your mind to something….hell, look at this place! Do your job, Rose. The rest will come,” Damian said, trying to reassure his young charge.

He put out his hand, hoping Rose would take it as a shake of agreement. “You’re not alone, Lieutenant. You keep putting up walls and it’s not necessary. Let people in. Make friends. Start trusting people again. The counseling will help and, more importantly, I believe in you, Rose. I said it earlier-anything you need. All you have to do is ask. I know what you’re going to say. And what I say sounds cliche, but I’m not just your superior officer, I want to be your friend.”

"Long as you're not trying to be my dad," Rose laughed, taking the hand. "Building this place has been nice. We should be ready to begin planting... Three weeks, assuming Engineering decides they can't read my diagrams and I gotta do it myself. A lot of this is pre replicator tech. Most of Starfleet... Even the big shipyards don't understand this tech anymore. Did you look at my proposed drainage chemistry? Or my biosphere calculations?"

The gravel she planned to use, when combined with the mesh would turn the lower portions of the bay into a multi thousand cell zinc air battery, capable of powering the bay for nearly a century if the rest of the ship lost power. Hell, her additions to the sealants would make it radiovoltaic. And more... Radioluminous, the sapphire outputting electricity and simulated sunlight when exposed to non ionizing radiation. The graphene inclusions were both structural and conductive. If she built up the walls and ceiling, Rose firmly believed that this single room would be the most heavily armored portion of the ship, capable of surviving even exposure to hard vacuum, bolstering the life support system and converting over the course of a few weeks to a food producing bay capable of sustaining the crew for an extra few weeks of limping.

"I know the sealant layer looks rough as fuck. I'm not exactly a master with this crystallizer and I had to break a few of the safeties to get the inclusions right." She was deflecting. Everyone had a tell. And she had never learned to mask her emotions. "I'll brief damage control."

Morgan put up his hands as if fending off a mosquito attack. “Hang on a minute, Rose. I’m a little out of my element here. Needless to say, I can confidently say you have the situation well in hand. The Captain and I will support your efforts here. Let us know if there’s anything you need. Keep up the good work, Lieutenant. I have to go to work. Oh…and, Rose, don’t be late for your shift.”

"I won't--" Rose cut herself off as her eyes narrowed. "What's got your knickers in a twist? You know I can't read people, I'm sorry for being a dork, and I'm sorry I can't tell if I lost you. So let me know. Seriously. I... I never learned to read people growing up. I had telepathy. My whole family does. I lost those powers. And it's really exhausting and isolating without them. It's like..." Her voice trailed off as she stood, hefting the tool in her hands to get back to work. "It's stupid, sir. Nothing to worry about."

“It’s nothing, really, Lieutenant. Forget it. What I meant is that all this—-what you’ve accomplished here is a lot. The technical aspect of it is not my cup of tea. My expertise revolves around exploration and aviation. Look, Rose….you keep being a dork. Don’t change for me, for anyone. I like your dorkiness. Finish up and get out of here. I’ll see you around, Lieutenant.”

"I... Thanks, sir. See you around. I'll finish up this crystal layer and get some sleep. Big mission over the next few days." She nodded. "I'm on Bravo shift. It's Charlie hours right now. I'll sleep through Delta and be up and at the books for Alpha. Standard routine."

“Big mission, indeed. And many questions about what’s going on down there. We’ll need you at your best, Lieutenant. Thanks for your time and…..um….nice talking to you, Rose.”

Mission 1 Aside by:

Commander Damian Morgan
Executive Officer
USS Deliverance

Lt. Jg Rose Andrake,
Astrocartography
Uss Deliverance

 

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