Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side - sim: In Memory of Jay

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side - sim: In Memory of Jay

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side - sim: In Memory of Jay
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
It wasn’t that the reasoning or synthesis of the data wasn’t there, but the examples and proof of the where the data came from. Rand just needed to find the specific section and link it in the report. Just to make sure it was thorough and Science command didn’t send it back. Rand went over to the counter and set the kettle to keep the water hot. She had a feeling there would be a lot of tea consumed that day. She waited to see if he wanted to sit at the computer or on the bed and work from his PaDD. Then she joined him and then put the disk in and let it load. She held is hand in her left, the stylus in her right, and made sure she wasn’t holding any tension in her shoulders.

Rand

They first thing Rand it was set the kettle back on. That was appreciated. Roman drank way more tea when he was upset. In typical British fashion, of course. He picked the computer desk, mostly because technically, he was on duty and it was more professional. She put the disk in and let it load and then took his right hand with her left. Roman leaned back, squeezing her hand, as the first video saved on the disk began to play. It was from the earlier projects, by the date, just after their second landing party to the planet surface.

Rand didn’t know exactly what would be on the disk, what animals or plants or samples, but she flipped back through the report she was creating to the appropriate date. She knew this was going to be hard and she didn’t want to have to make Roman rewatch it if she missed something.

The video was taken in the Ardent’s lab, at a desk in the lab, just like Roman’s current one, and to start with, it was a slightly younger looking Roman in the middle of the scene, his hair and his uniform as neat as ever, except when he raised his arms, it only had one gold ring on the sleeve. A Lieutenant’s uniform. He was only four years younger (this was nearly a full year before the attack), but he looked different, more relaxed. Almost like he had that first day he’d teased Rand by taking his shirt off. Carefree and playful. There were a few other science officer milling about in the background, going about their jobs. A few enclosures for small animals were visible in the background. The lab was, though only partly visible was obviously much bigger than his lab aboard the Sentinel. Roman was grinning slightly as he started to to speak in the video, holding up a small bright blue frog, with his bare hands. The frog was shorter than his pinky finger, maybe two or three inches long, and cobalt blue. “We found this little guy on the planet surface, under a Hikagua berry bush.” From the reports, they’d know that a Hikagua berry bush was a small bush with spiky, jade green leaves, and bright yellow, like dandelion yellow, berries. Jay had noted in that report that he’d sneakily tried one when Roman wasn’t looking, and it was really sweet, like candy. ”We’re calling him a Cobalt Hopping Frog. Little guy jumped what must’ve been six feet.” said Roman on the video tape.

Rand couldn’t help the small smile that crossed her face, but it was tinged with sorrow. Roman rarely looked that relaxed, and certainly not during a research video. She noted the time stamp to link the Cobalt Hopping Frog with the Hikagua berry bush. It was tiny and adorable and like most of the animals in the lab now it seemed perfectly content with Roman.

Then the camera shook and from behind it came another officer, wearing the blue science uniform. The golden band on his sleeve was dotted, a junior Lieutenant. He had messy red hair and freckles across his cheeks. He was very good looking, like Roman, but in quite a different way than Roman. He was only an inch or so shorter, but lankier, with sharper features. His eyes were a greenish hazel, always seeming to carry a bit of a mischievous quality. He looked athletic, but more like a track runner. Roman, by contrast, was larger in build, not like a wrestler or anything, but not as small as Jay. “Nearly jumped away from us, little bugger. He was my catch though, don’t let Roman here, fool you.” His voice was a bit higher pitched than Roman’s and he was smiling as as he elbowed Roman playfully. It was notable that every time Jay referred to Roman, throughout the video, it was always by first name. Anyone else, as Rand would know, called Roman by his last name or his rank. Never, ever his first name, except for Rand. “Jay, this is supposed to be an official report video. I’m going to submit it along with the written reports to Starfleet command. They don’t care who caught the frog,” said Roman in the video, but he scooted over in the shot to make space for Jay. Jay shrugged and grinned. “It’s important information!” Roman gave a noticeable eye roll and continued on as Jay sat next to him. They were sitting so close, they might’ve been sharing a chair.

When Jay came into the video Rand was fascinated, not only by her first glimpse of Jay but the interaction between them. No doubt that Jay was good looking, but she didn’t think he held a candle to Roman. She would happily hold onto that bias too. The easy way Jay was joking with him, and in his own way Roman was too. She would never call Roman, ‘Roman’ on duty, even though he probably wouldn’t mind. She fought the grin that tried to sneak out at the mischievous way Jay kept prodding Roman. It reminded her of the way Randy teased her. Jay would have given her massive panic attacks, but she thought she would have liked him. Rand felt Roman squeeze her hand tighter and then lean into her. She laid her head on top of his, she knew he was crying but he hadn’t asked to stop.

Jay was always teasing Roman, trying to make him ‘lighten up’, have more fun. Rand would see more of that in the rest of the videos when they got to them. But he also had the capability to be very serious when he needed to be. Roman would’ve told her, if he knew what she was thinking, and he could’ve, that Jay never pushed someone past good fun. If he could tell Rand was getting upset he would’ve stopped teasing her, been more serious around her.

Roman was letting the little frog crawl all over his hands, keeping one hand cupped over the other so it didn’t jump away. “He’s not poisonous, we’ve run the proper tests, of course.” Then video Roman went on to explain in technical detail the tests, pointing to the frog and showing different parts of it as he spoke. Occasionally, Jay would speak up and interject something, and Roman would just nod. “He seems quite fond of heights, definitely a tree frog,” Roman continued. It was just like hearing him talk about Mushu or Nibbles or the Chinzillas. He was very into it and looking at the little frog fondly, like a pet. So was Jay, of course. In a moment of silence, Jay blurted, “His name’s Blue. I just decided.” Roman scowled and looked at him. “He’s not supposed to have a name. He’s a lab frog, not your pet.” Jay pouted, “He’ll be Blue in my notes.” Rand would notice, that in the accompanying notes, any of the ones written by Jay, the frog was indeed referred to as Blue. Roman in the video got back on topic. “He’s a bit shy, but not like I’d expect of a prey animal like this.” He went on to describe the frog’s behavior. Like with the more technical topics, Jay would interject frequently and add detail to his statements. Several times throughout the video the two would look at each other while they were talking. The video ended when Roman grinned and said, “I’ll look forward to keeping an eye on this little guy.” And Jay, as Roman reached to turn off the camera said, “He’s cute! You’ve got to put him right over there, next to the-“ and then the video cut off as the Roman of the past turned the camera off.

Rand managed to jot a couple of time stamps down for the tests and and behaviors of the frog. But when Jay said the frog’s name was Blue she thought that was very unimaginative, and from the look on Jay’s face he’d done it on purpose. The look younger Roman gave him was the same one he’d gave her when she’d started calling the mouse ‘Nibbles.’ Indulgent but annoyed. Unlike Jay though, Rand never used ‘Nibbles’ in her notes. At the time she hadn’t wanted Roman to tell her she couldn’t come back to the lab because she was too unprofessional. Now she wondered if her having named the mouse bothered Roman, and she’d inadvertently been making him sad all this time.

Jay had done that on purpose. Researchers could tag an animal however they liked in their notes so long as that tag was defined at the beginning. Jay had followed procedures. He made it his job to tease Roman like that, always professional and within regulation, but to be less serious and have more fun with things.

There were a few more videos on the disk, but these were obviously going to take time. Roman of the present was having trouble with the first one. He hadn’t made them pause it, it was only a few minutes long, a four or so minute clip, but Roman was crying like in his office, when he’d broken down in front of Randy. He’d started as soon as Jay had come into frame, but he hadn’t started crying so hard until Jay in the video had said, “His name’s Blue!” Now, he was leaned onto Rand, trying in vain to get himself together, one arm around her, his other hand still in hers, squeezing tightly. He tried to take a deep breath, but instead, he sort of cry-hiccuped and entered a new cycle of sobbing.

~ Roman

Rand stopped the videos and set her PaDD away, wrapping her other arm around him and held onto him while he cried. She let him cry. He needed to, but she didn’t know what to say. The video kept playing in her head, and she now knew without a doubt that loosing Jay would be like her loosing Randy. She couldn’t make that better. Pipkin was pawing at her leg and she let go long enough to lift the rabbit onto her lap. Just like in the video of Jay and Roman squeezed into the chairs, almost in one seat in order to see the frog and record, she and Roman were sitting the same way. Except Roman was devastated.

Rand

Roman cried a good while, hugging Rand tightly. When he could finally get a full breath in, he asked for a cup of tea. Then he let go of her, slowly, and reached for a tissue to wipe his face with. He had to do better than this. There were a lot more videos and audio recordings, most done by both of them together, some would be one or the other. And they’d only get harder for him the later on the dates were.

~ Roman

Rand wasn’t sure if it would work the same way, but after her…illness she hadn’t been able to watch any of her recordings, look at pictures, or even read a script or book of something she’d done. She’d lost herself, not someone else. But eventually she had looked at them and it was hard, like this was hard for Roman. But the more she watched, the easier it got to remember the fun rather than the failure. She could only hope it would be the same for Roman.

While the tea steeped, she handed him a bottle of cold water and a cold cloth for his face. After she handed him the tea she sat down and moved through the video again. It wasn’t playing she was looking at the still frames, making sure she had to correct time stamp and then linking them into the report. She didn’t start the next one. Instead she got up making herself a cold citrus tea, just to drag the time out a bit before Roman had to face the next video. Then she returned and just hugged him, much like she had that very first time when he’d finally told her about Jay. She just wanted him to know he wasn’t alone.

Rand

Roman took a long drink of the tea when she brought it over. Then he wiped his face with the cold cloth while she made herself citrus tea. When she returned and set her tea down, she turned and hugged him quietly. He hugged her back, his head tucked into her shoulder for several moments. Soon he was ready to try the next video.

This one was taken in a different part of the lab, the camera focused on one of the animal’s enclosures. It was larger than the enclosures on the Sentinel, but then again, there was a lot more space on the Ardent. Roman stood to the left of the enclosure, Jay to the right. Roman wore bite proof gloves. Jay had a PaDD and stylus in hand. Jay’s left hand was bandaged. In the enclosure was a quadrupedal animal with long legs but a short body and a head with a sharp snout. It had a short bob tail. It was hairless, with reddish brown skin and it didn’t have ears, really, more just holes in the side of its head. Its enclosure was more than half full of dirt so it could dig underground. The paws were definitely built for digging, they were big relative to the body with toes that bent to make a scoop to shovel dirt. “This is one of the more interesting Chearian oddities,” said Jay, grinning at the camera, “He’s quite vicious.” Jay showed the camera the bandaged hand. “Got me once already. Roman’s all geared up this time. He’s called a digging devil. I call him Snappy.”

Snappy, Rand liked it. She’d seen the name in the notes, but hadn’t seen any photos of the creature. Just the image of the terrarium that was in the video and a mound of dirt that was obvious where something had dug. She leaned in slightly surprised by how big the bandage was. The mouth didn’t look big enough to cause that much damage.

Roman of the past carefully opened the enclosure, reaching in. ‘Snappy’ as Jay had decided to name him, turned instantly aggressive, running at an impressive speed across the surface of the dirt and bit down on the gloves Roman was wearing. “Ouch! Even through the gloves there’s power in those bites,” Roman commented. He slipped his other hand careful under the creature’s belly and lifted him. “Careful, or you’ll get a matching bandage,” Jay commented, earning himself one of Roman’s looks. Snappy let go of Roman’s hand and he quickly moved his grip to secure the little animal. Then Roman held still for a few moments and the brown creature began to relax. Roman pointed carefully to his paws and then his mouth. Sharp fangs protruded from under thin black lips, several sets. “Those teeth do quick damage, ripping and tearing with deep punctures. Made to tear apart prey before they can get away. His claws are dual purpose, to rip predator and prey alike apart, and to assist in digging. He’s got a short tail, we haven’t been able to decide whether it has a function or is simply an adaptation evolution left behind. His skin is dry and coarse and thick. I think he lived underground because he lacks fur to regulate body temperature with.” Roman went on to list a few more characteristics before turning to put Snappy back in the enclosure.

Jay picked up where Roman left off. “As soon as he puts him down, Snappy’s going to start digging.” It was happening as Jay spoke. Roman placed the critter back on the surface of the dirt and then quickly withdrew his hands, closing the top of the enclosure. As soon as paws hit dirt, dirt started flying, hitting the glass wall of the terrarium behind Snappy, his feet rapidly pressing into the soil and pushing back. “He digs fast and hides underground any time he’s not looking for food. We’re going to do a bite strength test, see how strong his bite really is, and plan on watching him.” Jay listed several behavior cycles they didn’t know anything about, mating rituals, hibernation, other sorts of things like that. Roman was taking off and putting away the protective gloves in the background and then returned to the side of the enclosure. They ended the video with a few speculations as to what might a predator to this animal look like, and how its young might be and then Jay turned off the camera.

Rand had been leaned in looking at the animal as best she could through the video, like she did in the lab, absorbing whatever the lab crew was telling her. She sat up a bit at how fast the thing ran, it looked so unstable on those legs and feet and her eye twitched in a sympathetic wince as it bit Roman. And then when she saw the multiple sets of fangs she understood the bandage Jay had. Rand made a quick notation of the actual facts provided in the video. There was a lot of speculation along with tests and observations needing to be made. She had an actual notepad that she wrote those down on to remember to look for those later in the videos and reports. Rand most certainly would remember ‘Snappy’ being mentioned later and could recall what was said, but right now she needed to make sure she didn’t miss anything, so taking the notes it was. She wasn’t going to go flipping through things right now. This time she knew she had the time stamps correct. Though she enjoyed watching Roman interact with Jay and the animals, she wasn’t managed to not focus on it, so she didn’t have to go back and double check them.

The mood of the whole video was a little more serious than the last one, possibly because both of them had been being careful so they didn’t end up in Sickbay with a nasty bite. Jay had still managed to get a few playful comments in, it seemed he always did. By the end of it, Roman was crying again, not quite as hard, but hard enough he rewet the cold cloth with the water from the water bottle and wiped his face again. Then he took another long drink of tea and a big, deep breath, squeezing Rand’s hand again.

~ Roman

Rand leaned into him a little bit, supportive and squeezed his hand. “I like him. He still likes the animals no matter what they do.” Rand approved because it was just like her. Even though Mr Wyvern scared her she still liked him. She’d spoil him if she could have found a way. It was even possible that she let herself be scared just to amuse the cobra. The one thing about the videos was that they took up more room on a disk than just the text files. After a minute Rand asked, “Do you want more black tea or something else?”

Roman’s voice was quiet when he managed to speak up, “You kind of have to be that way in this job. Otherwise, you’d end up hating all of them. They’re all wild animals, all capable of harm. Some just more so than others.” Then he nodded to her question and replied, “Something else, something soothing.”

That wasn’t what she meant. All the scientists accepted it but they are best were in different to the animals, had no feeling at all. Jay liked them. Despite being a single example of a unique species he saw them individually too and liked them for it. Even naming them. But Rand didn’t point that out. It was painfully obvious that Roman knew it. Rand got up and this time made peppermint tea. Soothing but wouldn’t put him to sleep.

She brought it back but also some plain crackers and set on the desk. Only to help settle his stomach if he needed it and not out of trying to make him eat. They still had awhile before lunch.

Rand

Rand brought plain crackers and set them on the desk. Roman didn’t want them right now, but he appreciated that they were there. He was tired already, he wasn’t looking forward to more of these videos. He was also very happy for the cool cloth Rand had given him, now draped across his neck the way she normally put it, to help with the headache all the crying was sure to produce.

The next few videos were the same sort of stuff, there were several from the same week in 2246, all Roman and Jay, or Roman or Jay talking about and showing the animals and occasionally other samples from the animals. These videos were all early enough that most of them were basic observations and then speculation for later. In some of them, Roman and Jay would work with some of the other science officers, and Rand would certainly notice the difference between how Roman acted then and now. He still always called them by last name, but he was friendly with most, if not all of the officers in the videos. One thing hadn’t changed, though he was now more strict with safety precautions he had always insisted on them. Protective gear was always worn when needed in the videos. There were a few audio clips of Roman and Jay while they were doing experiments as well.

As they went through them Roman seemed to have cried himself out. He wasn’t actually crying anymore, but he looked upset and tired, and he was leaning against Rand. He’d ended up munching on one or two of the crackers half-heartedly, in between sips of his drink.

~ Roman

Rand noticed the difference in his behavior between his officers. She wondered what Scott would make of it. Make her words kinder or harsher. She would never say anything though.

Rand kept the cloth cool, and in fact brought him a second one for his face so he could keep the other on his neck. She continued to make the notations as the videos played. They worked through lunch. Roman had seemed to cry himself out. It was still hard but he seemed to be numb at the moment or more like simply exhausted. Rand wanted to get the disk done so he could stop for the day. If the process repeated the next day she wanted to get as many out of the way as possible.

When the disk was done she didn’t put in another. She sat with him for awhile, until Pipkin decided she had to check on things, again. Rand picked her up and the bunny made her way into his lap. Rand got up handing him another bottle of water to combat the dehydration from all the crying. “I am going to go check on Nibbled and Mushu and grab a lunch tray. Why don’t you try and take a shower and then,” she took out the frozen ‘doll pillow’ (as Roman called it), “put this over your eyes for a bit?”

Rand