Posted by Captain Willow Taylor (Commanding Officer) in Side Sim: Arboretum

Posted by Lieutenant Alexis Bonner (Assistant Chief Medical Officer) in Side Sim: Arboretum

Posted by Captain Willow Taylor (Commanding Officer) in Side Sim: Arboretum
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻

<snippy snip snip>
Cai gave a chuckle and tossed the ball for her. When she was after it he glanced around to make sure no one was looking and then pushed into some of the plants looking for the network of tubes that supplied nutrients and water to some of the plants, he found them quickly enough and with another glance around began rerouting the contents and then digging a medium sized one up.

By the time Frigga was back for him to toss the ball again he had his tube in one of the water areas cleaning it and a few scattered fragments of computer and wire in his possession. He measured the ball against the tube and seemed satisfied.

“Now…where would we find some duct tape…” he said looking around then tossing the ball before heading towards the supply and cleaning store.

Frigga kept running back and forth with the ball. She was starting to get the feeling that this human pup was more like her mommy than the patience she worked with. So she dropped the ball and laid down next to where Cai was working and waited while he wandered off again. She’d learned when Alexis got that look on her face it was better to just wait.

Willow shook her head again. “So that was Cai.” She said as if this was both explanation and apology. “I’m not sure the botanists will be quite as forgiving of him damaging through their plants”

Willow and Cai

“Does he like being on a star ship?” Alexis was curious, at 17 she had just graduated from the Academy and was leaving to serve on the Hathaway. She wondered how other teenagers saw it. Alexis had been eager to learn more, do more, to feed her mind. Nothing else had mattered at the time.

Bonner, AMO

Willow seemed to consider her words very carefully a moment. “Well…things are better than they had been but considering he was re-hueing the walls of his bedroom black yesterday I would say not entirely no. However, things back on Earth weren’t going too well…three schools, a few misdemeanours and an unfortunate incident where he hacked the school network, stole the math final and spray painted the answers onto the wall of the gym building the night before the exam…let’s just say I’ll take a black bed room.”

Willow and Cai

Alexis nodded, “Compared to that I would too.” Alexis couldn’t empathize with the boy. She loved learning so the idea of going through several schools, trouble with the law, giving away test answers! “It seems like being on the ship has been a little better? I would never paint my room black, but I’d put bulkheads in place of windows.”

Bonner, AMO

“He…gets bored easily,” Willow said as if by way of explanation. “Oh goodness don’t give him any ideas.” She laughed. “I’m glad to see things settling since you managed to deal with that particularly troubling experiment we discussed.” She said. Her tone was light and conversational.

Willow and Cai

It had been a long time since Alexis was ‘bored’. She’d learned when she was very young to find things to satisfy her mind and stop from being ‘bored.’ She never relied on anyone for that. Mostly because what they wanted to do was not interesting to her. She wasn’t even sure what a ‘regular’ teen would be interested in. Children was not her area of expertise and so she had nothing to offer by way of that. Alexis considered Taylor’s last statement and then nodded. “I am glad they have settled.” She hoped it stayed that way. It had been long enough for someone to find the shuttle Soulis had taken, the not knowing bothered her to an extent but not enough to go asking. “I am immensely excited to resume my duties in medical. I enjoy medical research and intend to continue, but…” Alexis wasn’t sure how to put the feeling into words. That even though she didn’t always show it, she loved being a doctor. “I know I am not the most…expressive person…but I am extremely grateful to you, Cmdr Myqian and Cmdr Walker to have this opportunity back.”

Bonner, AMO

Willow smiled as they moved, “we are delighted to have you back in medical. No expression of gratitude necessary, besides the important thing is that each crew member has the opportunity to grow and develop how they want.”

Willow Taylor
CO

Taylor seemed to understand what Alexis meant, so either she understood Alexis or Alexis clearly expressed herself. Alexis wasn’t one to dwell on such things (at least not before she met Solomon. She didn’t think it was a bad thing, but different for her.) Alexis suddenly slowed for a few paces and sighed, waving her left hand slightly before resuming her pace. “I don’t know what to do with it, it’s not what it appears.”

Bonner, AMO

Willow glanced at her and matched the pace. “Oookaaaay…it’s not a Dimond but rather an andorian moon stone?” She asked. “How so?”

Willow Taylor
CO

Alexis took a deep breath and looked around. “It’s part of that troublesome experiment.” The ring was more than just a ring and after the woman from intel, that she’d made the deal with, had spoken to them over the comms from wherever she was, Alexis just didn’t trust to talk out in the open. She didn’t know how else to say it to Taylor. She shouldn’t have said anything at all, but Taylor had been…the most supportive and personal with Alexis out of everyone on this ship…excluding Solomon. She was horrible at the game of spooks. She was only supposed to do research not be dragged into it all.

Bonner, AMO

“Oh.” Willow said as she felt the area above her clavicle pull slightly uncomfortably. She frowned and rubbed the area. you idiot think about what she just said. a small voice inside her said and then she turned her head again to look at Alexis. “Oh.” She said again with a tiny bit more inflection. “So Kane didn’t buy it.” She shook her head, hair swaying as she did. “It’s always a nice gesture getting given an heirloom ring, but you know…it’s not always everyone’s cup of tea. When I got one…my fiancé’s grandmothers. All I could think of was that ring belongs to someone else. He marriage sucked…so if I wore it would I be stuck in a similar situation. Bad joojoo sort of thing.” She nodded as if she got it and gave Alexis a meaningful look.

Willow Taylor
CO

Alexis didn’t miss the frown and rubbing the area. It didn’t seem severe and Taylor was a doctor so she didn’t say anything. Everyone had injuries. Honestly, Solomon had made sure the torn muscles and tissue were healed but sometimes she felt like it was still injured. She probably should talk to someone in psychiatry about it, but she couldn’t talk about what happened so....

It took her a moment to figure out what Taylor was talking about…she really sucked at this kind of thing, but once she allowed her mind to switch gears it all fell into place. “Well and as an heirloom it’s old, I don’t want anything to happen to it.” Alexis sighed but played into the story, “People are nosey and I’m just not good with explaining things so they understand. If I take it off they will want to know why.” Then the rest came out in a bit of a rush, “I was engaged once…and it ended and I didn’t know how to deal with that either.”

Bonner, AMO

Nodding along as they moved Willow considered. “Are you ok with keeping it on or should I talk to Kane about getting you something more…. your style and putting the tone away, securely. Of course we wouldn’t want anything to happen to it.”

Alexis was quick to shake her head ‘no.’ “No you don’t need to say anything. That’s something that I should do, isn’t it?” That was the thing, Alexis didn’t want to take it off, but she was supposed to. She didn’t have a lot of great experiences with relationships and she couldn’t exactly analyze it and study it and be impartial or read a book about it. They, she and Solomon, hadn’t talked about it, not since the ‘experiment’ ended. And that’s who she should be talking to, she just hadn’t realized she had anything to say about it. She also wasn’t sure what she had to say about it, just that she probably did.

Her expression became a mixture of sympathy and regret. “I’m not sure anyone ever really does know how to deal with that. It’s difficult.”

And maybe that was it. The first one was just a trick, played on her. And this one was…not a trick but it was…or wasn’t…it was confusing. Her father would tell her to stop thinking with her head, but the rest of her was just as confused.

Meanwhile Cai now stood holding a large tube like thing that more resembled an old earth bazooka than a plant feeding tube. He tapped into the twinkling computer components and then removed his mini PaDD from the attached wires and taped them down.

“Ok…so if I got the components of the plants correct…not so sure about that Pyrathrum hispida…it’s a bit drier than I thought it would be. I wonder if the moisture settings need tweaked…” he became distracted a second looking at the overhead water systems that maintained the atmospheric moisture levels. Shaking the electric blue hair out of his eyes as he remembered what he was supposed to be doing he bent down and taking Frigga’s ball popped it into the tube.

“Anyway as I was saying…if I got this right you’re gunna have to run as fast as you can to get this one. If it’s not right well let’s just say you’ll need to run as well but in the opposite direction….” and aimed the thing across the arboretum.

A boom sounded followed by a whistling as a flaming tennis ball shot by fairly close. Emergency internal klaxons sounded. She pulled up short and took a few running steps second to regain her balance and not fall. Spinning around she sought the source of the commotion.

“Oh no…please…” willow whispered more for herself than anything. “CAI…WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO!” She yelled.

Alexis come to an abrupt halt and heard Frigga barking loudly and turned and took off toward Cai and Frigga. She also heard the exclamations of the other people in the arboretum.

Cai, his hair sticking up slightly and his face a little blackened with pollen and soot. “Well £@&” he muttered and coughed. “The moisture levels were off. “ he coughed to Frigga.

Willow and Cai

Frigga’s tail was down and almost tucked. Human pups are not safe on their own. Someone needs to keep an eye on him. He set my ball on fire! She whined and then seeing Alexis she barked twice and stopped and then twice again and stopped. “Good girl Frigga.” It’s her signal that everything was fine. Taylor could check her brother. Alexis took off at a jog, calling Frigga with her, to the other side where the flaming ball had landed. There were a couple people around. “Anyone hurt?” she asked above the klaxons. There were several ‘no’s’ as Alexis checked them each one by one, but one little girl who was crying. “She’s okay Dr Bonner, it sound just scared her. What was it?” Alexis knelt down next to Frigga, “Frigga, help,” and she pointed to the little girl. This Frigga could do. She walked over and then laid on her belly, tail up and wagging and whined until the girl looked at her and then she crawled over so the the little girl could pet her. “I’m not sure. I heard the boom and then saw a flaming ball go past.” One of the botanist was putting out the fire on the ball and examining the plants it had landed in with a sigh. “I think it will be alright.”

“GALEN” =/\=Yes Dr Bonner?=/\= “Cancel medical assistance call, there are no injuries as of this moment.” =/\=Should I cancel the alert klaxons?=/\= “Not until Cpt Taylor tells you to.” =/\=Thank you Dr Bonner.=/\=

Alexis took the burnt ball and left Frigga with the little girl and made her way back towards Cpt Taylor checking with anyone she passed to make sure they were alright. More being startled than injury. Approaching Taylor and her brother Alexis shook her head, no injuries, and waited.

Bonner, AMO