Star Trek: Foothold - To Relieve Paine

Crash Course Biology

Buban looked up from the console, back out into the holocomb observation bay. She watched the silent light-squid drifting across her friends' exposed bodies, and knew that only her close relationship to them had garnered her the privileged access that few on the crew shared to come and gawk: waivers and releases and standard will contracts were common on ships which defined the looser protocols of patient confidentiality in situations like this, and 'observation' became open to theater if it were deemed to have some value for one party or another. The Tiburonian, Mella A'mella, wasn't someone she knew well, but her species had a Type 1 immune system, which meant she was a bit of a wild card in the accident. Solnus and Tovan Den, though, were people she'd gotten to know well after The Dip, as she'd spent more time in the menagerie to, admittedly, get close to Tovan while she had little else to do. There were others like her who hadn't been caught up in things, but unlike them, Buban had been there to see it happen...

"It's remarkable, truly remarkable," Solnus had said, her long fingers trailing over the tricorder as she collected different readings. Mella A'mella was looking at the results from under Solnus' arm, her much shorter stature making it easier to see that way, and her broad eyebrows didn't seem to bother the Saurian when they brushed against her. The pair were close, being by trade the ship's exobiology and exobotany specialists, and the slime mold which had encompassed almost all of one corner of the menagerie had attributes which intrigued both of them. "It seems to be distributing information through its network, but not only simple stimulus. I think some of the smaller fibers can orient to sound, although I don't know what it does with that information."

They often had conversations like this, and while she watched them, cleaning up one of the nearby enclosures as Sheyl'ren had directed her to do, she wondered whether their professional intimacy extended into true friendship beyond the research at hand. The enclosure she was in belonged to the little ape creature she had tacitly named Freyd since getting to know it, who she was somewhat worried about: Freyd had seemed out of sorts since the Dip, although none of the medical scans indicated more than a heightened immune response that suggested it could be reacting to the event unfavourably. Freyd was currently sulking in a crate nearby, suckling on a fluid pack while Buban cleaned up the mess of its enclosure with anti-sceptic disinfecting spray that would decompose with its contaminants when she exposed it to ultraviolet light, but wouldn't do much good if she just sprayed and didn't scrub.

While she was distracted, Tovan Den managed to come up alongside her, and surprised her by grunting at the two scientists hard at work. "They seem to be enjoying this, but aren't the ones who have to clean up the mess, hey?" he'd commented, informally. "Perhaps if they spent less time gawking and more time cleaning, we'd also be able to get back to doing our real jobs." He finished with the typical Tellarite decorum. Their species had a reputation among the civilized cultures for being brash and abrasive, but a well-known cultural identity that the Human Admiral Archer had disclosed early in the formation of the Federation which helped others embrace the fact that they weren't actually aggressive or rude, but that it was part of their language and posture that helped establish a rapport. As such, most species at least tolerated informal Tellarite when they encountered it, and most Tellarites had adopted a formal method of communicating for managing cross-species dialogue more gently. On shift, on the bridge, Tovan would never say anything like he'd just said, but out of uniform and off duty, both Solnus and Mella would probably appreciate the compliment that he'd be willing to banter at their expense. It was complex.

Her fur bristled nonetheless, an autonomic response to surprise or embarrassment. She liked Tovan, and she enjoyed his attention. It gave her a thrill to think he would share informality with her, because it suggested he might actually like her too, and not just be being polite. Extending her arm for a hand up, she climbed into the enclosure she was cleaning before responding. "I don't really mind it, you know. Freyd... the... the animals are just trying to do their best, like the rest of us. We're getting by." She offered in a rare bout of sincerity. It was nice to have something to do which meant something to someone during all this, even if she couldn't fix power systems, or wasn't cleared to handle debris or maintain the drones.