Post 340: Beneath; Part One

Stardate:70802.1200
Title: Beneath, Part One
Author: Acting CO Zanh Liis
Scene: The Arboretum
Time: 2330 hours, the same night as "First Impressions"
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"With their brand new time transporter, they'll think maybe I fought to get away; but with all their great inventions, and all their good intentions, here I stay." ~ Rain is Falling, by ELO
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=/\=

Acting Captain's Personal Log, Stardate 70802.

The repairs to the ship are going amazingly well, especially considering my two senior engineers are unavailable to me at the moment.

Things are humming along. . .everything is quiet. Almost too quiet.

I am finding that the first moments of solitude that I've had in weeks are turning out to feel emptier than I'd imagined they would.

But then, I always did hate trying to fall sleep without him. End Log.

=/\=

She knelt in the flowerbed, trying again to fathom how it was possible that there were so many weeds growing already in this man-made, climate-controlled garden.

Of course the actual explanation was simple. Tiny tendrils of the offending plants had been easily transplanted along with the roots of the more desirable ones. Hiding just beneath the surface of the soil. Waiting to steal nourishment, water, the very life from the beneficial plants upon which they had stowed away.

The plantings here were all still new. There hadn't been sufficient time yet to weed out every last leaf of these malevolent interlopers. In time, the problem would lessen and then should, with careful care and tending, eventually be completely eradicated.

*If only it were that easy with the rest of life,*she thought. *Weed for awhile, until you could exterminate all remaining fragments of threat and danger. Then you could really get on with the business of living.*

Liis couldn't help but get lost in that thought for a moment. Wouldn't it be nice. . .

Her mind began turning over a hundred different scenarios of potential threats to the safety of the crew, and the Federation itself. Threats which always seemed somehow to be lurking just beneath the surface, just like the weeds she was pulling. She wondered how long the tranquil silence around them could last.

Never long enough for her liking.

*Maybe I just haven't adjusted yet to the idea that we are living in a period of peacetime. Or that I'm living, at last, in one straight line of linear time. It's still so new to me.*

The nagging worry at the pit of her stomach and the bottom of her soul was something that she just could not entirely shake. She had to be on her guard, that was her job. Just like any other command level officer worth their salt. Peacetime, or not.

How had she slipped into such a reflective mood? It had to be this place. Something about it encouraged the cultivation of deeper thoughts as well as plant life. The atmosphere leant itself to introspection. Maybe that was why Jariel felt so strongly that every starship should have an arboretum.

Even though she considered herself to have a 'black thumb', she had promised him that she would keep up with his work here while he was away. This promise made after he had worried, adamantly stressing to her that it only 'takes a day or two for trouble to root and sprout.'

He did so love his plants, and she loved him. So here she was, on her knees and pulling weeds even after a double duty shift earlier.

Honestly, she wondered how Jariel had the energy for all of this. Now that word was out about his new position as ship's chaplain (and ad hoc counselor) his schedule was filling up quickly. Still after a full day of talking with people, hour after hour, he would come here and work. He said it helped him keep his own thoughts straight. So she'd do her best for him, in this as she did in all things.

But she was going to require some help.

Most of their usual volunteers around the arboretum (T'Ana, Biggs, Grace,) were away, too. That being the case she decided it was the perfect time and place to meet, greet, and otherwise size up the newest additions to the Indy's crew.

"Computer," she stopped pruning a rosebush momentarily, her eyes drifting up toward the ceiling. "Is the musical database back online?" It was one of the directories that had disappeared when the virus was playing havoc with the less secure computer files.



"Bless Xhian. I owe that guy a ractachino, at the very least." Zanh found that no matter where she'd gone in her life or what time she'd been living in, music had been one constant that she could call on to draw strength. Even if she was only able to replay the songs in her head from memory when facing trouble.



"List the song collections on file for. . ." she mumbled, "What mood am I in?"



"Oh,fine." Her tolerance for the narrow vocabulary of the computer was legendarily low. "List available song collections by Terran musical artist Jeff Lynne."



"Electric Light Orchestra."

Face the Music. A New World Record. Out of the Blue. Discovery. Xanadu. Time

"Time! That's the one I was looking for. Begin playback, volume at 80 percent." Zanh concluded. "The louder, the better. Good thing this deck is isolated."

She'd come to appreciate this recording years ago, after it had been recommended to her by that living jukebox known as Dabin Reece.

He thought she'd find the work amusing given her line of work at the time. Instead she found the lyrics to be something she could entirely relate to, given her experiences in that line of work.

The music began to play, and she continued with her weeding. She checked the time. It was late, 2345 hours now. But runabouts carrying new people were arriving at all hours, and since she was up and had the time, she figured there was no time like the present to introduce herself to some of them.

First on her list, Indy's new tactical officer.

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Zanh Liis
Acting CO
USS Independence NCC-90791