Botany Bay

Posted on Tue Dec 18, 2018 @ 7:08pm by Lieutenant Cassandra Kennings & Lieutenant JG Camille Lévesque PhD

1,666 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Plaga Navis
Location: Gardens

"Count backwards, five, four, three, two, one, exhale," Cassandra said. The two people standing with her exhaled, one sharply, one slowly. Cassandra turned and put her hands on her hips. "Cal," she said, slowly, "you're supposed to let it out slowly."

"Slowly, quickly, I waited the five seconds, what's the difference?" the young medtech said, folding his arms defensively.

"The difference is establishing discipline," Cassandra said, "and a sense of self-control. Impatience is the enemy of enlightenment. If you want to be more focused in Sickbay, you need to learn to stop rushing."

He shifted his feet. "All right, all right."

"I'll see you both next week and we'll try again," she said, smiling.

As they left, Cassandra checked her compact and smiled. As she closed it she looked up and saw a new face coming around a column.

"Hello," she said, smiling. "Can I help you?"

Camille had entered the garden a moment earlier and was in awe at the diversity of plant life around her. She slowly walked around, looking closely at the flowers in bloom and the trees and shrubs. She cleared a column and saw a particularly nice specimen, but was distracted by the question posed by a lovely lady she presumed to be the Counselor.

“Salut,” said Camille. She didn’t approach yet. “I’m Camille Lévesque, the new Chief Science Officer. I knew we needed to speak at some point, and I thought I’d find you here. Doctor Anderson told me about your garden. Is this Centaurian red lilac?” she asked, pointing to the flower before her.

"It is," Cassandra said, smiling. "Not an easy plant to grow in these conditions, but it's blooming rather well." She gestured to another column. "Are you a botanist by trade?"

“Xenobiology generally,” Camille answered. “Focused on animal life, but anything in the life sciences fascinates me. Plants, microbes, anything.” She walked closer to the Counselor. “I tried doing a bit of research on you before coming, because I get the sense that Nicole was having a laugh at my expense. Should I really avoid eye contact with you? Or call you ‘Excellence’?”

Cassandra bit back a laugh. "Not at all," she said. "I prefer Eminence." She laughed and shook her head. "You must have caught her in one of her rare good moods."

“She was a bit aggressive at first,” Camille conceded. “Especially because she had to come find me instead of me going to sickbay. But I offered her tea and we talked a bit about home. She told me about some of the things people do for fun when off-duty. She mentioned your occasional girls’ nights, for example. Those sound fun!”

Cassandra smiled. "Well I keep them a bit more confined to quarters than my predecessor, but we enjoy ourselves. A little food, drink, gossip. The three essentials of life." She gestured to a nearby bench. "Please, have a seat. Tell me about yourself."

Camille took a seat on the bench. It was comfortable, reminded her of so many parks back on Earth. “Well, I’m French Canadian, though that’s obvious from hearing me talk. Maintaining a connection to our culture was important for my father, and he passed that down to me. Though he took it to the extreme; I was 14 before I learned Federation Standard. I’ve been a scientist my whole life, ever since that first trip to the Montreal Biodome when I was a little girl.”

"That's quite the juxtaposition, being an xenobiologist without having left Canada," Cass said.

“I left eventually,” replied Camille. “Went to the UK and then France for civilian education. Labs and museums have so many specimens from countless worlds. Scientists could cease fieldwork for a decade and still have plenty to study and publish. Got my PhD, but I discovered I needed to be out in space, out in the field. Joined Starfleet. Left Earth for the first time! First assignment still didn’t permit much field work. But now I’m out here, pushing the frontier, far from home.”

"Quite the jump, from Sol to the Delta Quadrant. How are you feeling about the transition? Any homesickness?"

"Un peu," Camille answered. "But far from home is where the best field work is done. Even on a combat ship, I might be able to make new discoveries our here. Ever since I read about the Delta Quadrant in those first journal articles published by the Voyager science department, I've wanted to see what life was like this far out." She shifted a bit on the bench. "Papa and Maman and my sisters understood. And we still send each other messages when we can. If you don't mind me asking, how do you like it out here?"

"It has its moments," Cassandra said. "I once had the same fire for the frontier as you. I went to the academy and in my early twenties thought I was ready to take on the universe. I shipped out as far as I could go. I loved, I lost, I saw parts of the galaxy that I didn't think I'd ever have a chance to see, and beyond. It's wondrous and it's terrifying, all at the same time. Back then, I thought my future was in the stars. Now, my future is waiting for me at home, planning our wedding. So for me, this far away from Earth is exciting, but tempered with the balm of experience."

"Well, first, congratulations on the upcoming wedding!" said Camille. "I assume experience will temper me too, though in which way I can't be sure. Maybe that which awaits you on Earth awaits me out here, or in any future assignment. Metaphorically, I mean. I assume your fiancé isn't waiting for me around the next star." Camille couldn't help but smile at the terrible joke her brain led her to.

"Yes, I'd imagine that'd be quite the shock for both of us," Cass said, chuckling. "And what is it you're looking for?"

“You’re asking the tough questions!” exclaimed Camille.

Cassandra smiled. "Well it's my job to nudge and probe. And often times it's those simple, tough questions that we deny ourselves answers to. So, what are you looking for all the way out here?"

“I’m not sure what I’m looking for yet,” finally answered Camille. “I’m hoping to know it when I find it. In the meantime, I want to learn and discover, maybe in ways that Papa never permitted by wanting us to stay in Québec. I suppose there’s some urge to rebel in there too. Is it possible to miss home terribly but also desperately want to be free of it at the same time?”

"Oh absolutely," Cassandra said. "I'm a small-town Kansas girl at heart and always will be. My maternal ancestors had collectively decided to stay on Earth and make it our home, but I broke the mold and went for the stars. There wasn't a day I didn't want to walk back into that farmhouse and curl up in my feather bed. However, there also wasn't a day that I didn't love flying to parts unknown and meeting new species."

She sat back and crossed her legs. "But, if there's anything that the younger-yet-wiser can tell you, it's this: never be afraid to speak when you're right, always be honest with yourself, and never--ever--date an Admiral." She grinned slightly.

Camille smiled widely at that. "Good advice on all counts!" She thought a moment about something the Counselor said. 'Younger-yet-wiser'. Was Camille older than some of her senior officers? She supposed she took quite a bit longer than others to figure out they wanted to be in Starfleet. Most applied to the Academy between age 17 and 19, but she wasn't there until she was 26. It was so strange to be among people who were her senior in terms of experience, but younger in terms of age. Jupiter Station was massive, and so while she knew she was older than the Ensigns in her team, she still quite a bit younger than the Lieutenant they all reported to. And the Ensigns never left her out of their fun because of her age. Those 22-year-olds knew how to have fun!

"Sorry," Camille said, realizing she'd paused a bit long. "I was fixating on age for a second. I shouldn't, because it legitimately doesn't bother me, but I took so much longer before applying to Starfleet. I jumped straight into third year, but I was already six years older than my peers."

She was looking around the garden again, and something caught her eye. Before the Counselor could reply (and possibly even interrupting her first syllable), Camille exclaimed "Wait! Is that a Dwarf Rixx Apple Tree from Betazed?! How did you get it to grow without acidifying the soil? And are the fruits edible?" She stood and looked at a mature, bright pink fruit dangling from a low branch on the short tree.

"I'm glad you noticed," Cass said, proudly. "This was grown from a graft I received from a conference on Federation agricultural diversity. The white-leafed plants around the base are acidifying the soil by their waste products, and the ring of purple plants around them are neutralizing it to prevent it from spreading to other plants. Separately they require a lot of maintenance and are extremely vulnerable, but together they are stronger and protect and nurture one another. It's one of the hallmarks of the Symbiosis Movement." She examined the fruits carefully. "As for edible, they've got another week I'd say."

"Incroyable," said Camille. "I think I'll be spending a lot of time in here. With your permission, of course. And with you, if possible!"

"Well this is an open space for all the crew, so avail yourself of it whenever you wish," Cass said. "But for now, I have a few more rare specimens, if you'd like the dollar tour."

"I would love that!" an excited Camille answered.

 

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