Place Holder (Backpost)

Posted on Fri Mar 20, 2020 @ 3:04pm by Lieutenant Penelope Naroot

1,053 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Nibiru
Location: Planetside
Timeline: During "Back to work"

After the snake incident T'Mira needed to clear her head. She had told the others she was scouting around to ensure there was no danger and she was but she was also trying to get some solitude and trying to calm her mind. That snake had shaken her more then she thought it would. It was harmless yes but she disliked it all the same.

As she walked she heard a rustling. Her senses were on high alert. Was someone following her? The rustling came from her left, then in front of her, then her right, then behind her. It was circling, drawing closer, ready to attack.

Suddenly the underbrush parted and the creature leaped towards her, silver wand pointed directly at her. "Found you!" Penny said, triumphantly. "Why did you run so fast? Were there that many snakes around?"

T'Mira had not exactly been surprised by the appearance of Penny. Nonetheless she wasn't sure it was Penny so she'd had her phaser out. When she was certain of the woman's identity she holstered it. "I needed to scout the area." She realized that her tricorder could have helped and she pulled it out again. "As for snakes they are vile vermin that have no place." There was more emotion in that comment then she'd intended. She looked at Penny. "Why are you here. You should be in the safety off the camp"

"I was, then you took off," Penny said, head tilted. "This is cool," she said, excitedly, "I've never seen a Vulcan lie before." Her brow furrowed. "You're not very good at it."

She raised an eyebrow. "What am I lying about." She seemed to relax a little.

"Why you're here," Penny said. "Humans lie a lot so it gets easy to spot. Vulcans are harder to read but it's the little things. But it's okay, even Vulcans have phobias. Snakes aren't all bad though, you know."

"I am here to scout and ensure safety, if I should rid the world of those creatures it is...what you humans say a bonus. As for snakes not being bad I venture to guess you would change your mind if you had to spend any time surrounded by them."

"I have, actually. The little ones are cute. And since when do Vulcans advocate genocide of a species?" Penny said, folding her arms.

"It is not that. It is pest control." She started walking leaving Penny to follow. "Stay close you could get hurt. We still do not know what is here."

Penny tilted her head as she quickly caught up and kept pace . "The 8th verse in The Teachings of Surak states, 'As far as you are able, do not kill./Can you return life to what you kill?/Then be slow to take life. ' You don't seem slow."

She stopped and turned looking at Penny. "I see." She'd have to know Surak. "You are not making my dislike of snakes easy you know."

"Was I supposed to?" Penny said, tilting her head. "Seems like it comes easy to you already. Why do you hate them?"

She stopped and then looked at Penny. "It is a long story." She found this to be an odd turn of events. Penny seemed to genuinely want to know. She looked at the woman. "May I ask a question?"

"Sure," Penny said, smiling. "C'mon." She nodded back towards where the others on her team would be heading out. "We can meet up with one of the exploratory teams and you can ask me on the way."

"Indeed." They started towards the way that Penny had indicated. "Why did you come after me?"

"Oh, that's an easy one. Starfleet regulations require teams of two whenever possible to avoid the chance of a crewman becoming incapacitated without help," Penny said. "And because Nicole told me to. My turn: why are you scared of snakes?"

She guessed she'd walked into that one. She sighed. "I suppose that it is only fair and logical. I dislike them because I spent an entire week getting bitten by them and Vulcan snakes can be...dangerous and if not their bite is painful."

"I like to surf on my vacations, but to each their own," Penny quipped. "What were you doing spending a week with poisonous snakes?"

"Assignment that went wrong." She said. She wasn't very good at this conversation bit even though she desperately wanted to be.

"Well, that's a relief," Penny said.

"Oh?" She raised an eyebrow and stopped to look at her companion.

"Well, if it was an assignment that went right, I'd question your rationale in taking assignments," Penny said.

Her lip twitched. "I see. That would indeed be something to question. I sometimes ask myself that same question--in terms of why I take assignments." She rubbed the back of her neck as they resumed walking. "I must apologize."

"For what?" Penny said, tilting her head.

"I am not really good at conversation," she said honestly.

"I'm not always stellar at it either," Penny said. "But so far we're doing well. You said something, I said something, you said something, I said something. I never thought Vulcans were much for 'small talk' though, or am I wrong?"

"No." She paused. "We are not." She put up a hand to stop Penny. "Over there." She pointed to a creature that resembled a small rabbit with fangs. "A beautiful creature." She scanned it. "Venom but beautiful." She looked at Penny. "We are about ten minutes from the main group. What do you wish to talk about now?"

*That settles it, full grade Ophidiophobia,* Penny thought. What she wouldn't give for Jasmine to pop out and prank them right now. She mentally shrugged and looked at T'Mira. "We should probably get running, because I'm due to team up with Nicole, and you're going to suffer the Captain's wrath if she heads out one team member shy. So, race you back!" Penny took off through the trees, jumping over the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog and disappearing.

T'Mira looked after the woman. She stayed back a moment and then broke into a full run. She didn't understand it but the young Penny might run into some other creature on the way back so she put on an extra burst of speed to catch up.

 

RSS Feed