(snip)
Sharah was sad to be leaving the arboretum. She’d be back of course, because it was part of her work, but she was going to miss the little office area that the arboretum staff had made for her. Of course it really wasn’t an office, it was just a work bench with a chair so she had somewhere to keep all the plants and things she was working with. Now she actually had an office. A real office. The Chief Science Officer’s office. She had spent the morning working in the arboretum, checking on some of the new flower beds. Mostly she’d sat and dug her hands deep into the dirt and listened to the symphony, letting it soothe her over taxed mind. She’d been working back and forth between this, the main arboretum, and the smaller one down near engineering today. The smaller one was going to be set up for the ship’s business, as they had all come to call it. Plants grown for medicines and other research. It was still a beautiful layout, but access would be restricted to adults only. Just to make sure that none of the children on board would get into anything dangerous.

But now towards the end of her shift, she was back in the main arboretum on deck 14. There was a smaller flower bed that was empty. The civilian staff hadn’t been sure what to do with it, and Sharah had taken it for herself. The border was edged with Ivy all the way around. Red and yellow roses were along the back edge of the bed. Then scattered along the middle was Queen Anne’s Lace, Lavender, and Sage. Sharah had planted them to make swirls of color rather than straight lines. She was happy with the effect. The roses had come from her pot in her quarters. It had allowed her to thin the pot out just a bit so the roses didn’t over crowd and strangle each other.

It was a strange combination of flowers to put together. But currently there were three matching ones in the quadrant. One on Challenger, one on Europa and one in the gardens near the green house where she’d conducted her research. Most wouldn’t notice the significance, but she did, and it made her feel better. A person would have to know about the Victorian period of Earth’s history. This flowerbed told a story, using the flower language of that time: Queen Anne’s Lace for sanctuary, Lavender for happiness, Ivy for faithfulness, Sage for respect, and red and yellow Roses for love built on friendship.

Sharah sat there for a few more minutes and then she collected her tools and went to put them away. She’d requested materials for a flower box to be dropped off later today at her new office. For now she was going to go find it and then see what work had been left for her to take over.
Lt. j.g. Fayth, CSO