We Plants are Happy Plants (part 2)

Posted on Mon Jun 19th, 2017 @ 3:07pm by Lieutenant JG Elizabeth Jackson & Veronica Kiley

1,090 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Pulling Together
Location: Arboretum

[CONTINUED]

[OLD]

"It's not the same. Real trees have a feeling about them. They're alive. They have sap running through their trunks and branches, they take nutrients from the sun and soil. Theyfeel different. If you hang around trees often enough, you learn to tell the difference."

[NEW]

Lizzie led her to a partially-hidden staircase that went behind the waterfall. She opened the door and let the girl go first. "It's safe. There's a force field that keeps you from falling. Go ahead, have a look."

"Mom told me the same thing. How trees and all that is alive.", the girl said, "But she's lucky. She had real trees and all that when she was a child. Unlike me.", she frowned.

Veronica was not sure if the strange arboretum lady was telling her the truth or she was just trying to lure her into some trick so she would end up talking to plants or something. Neverthless, the waterfall thing was intriguing, and she bravely went ahead through the door.

The spray was held back by the force field, so the two were dry as they walked up to the edge of the ledge behind the waterfall. Lizzie put her hand out and touched the forcefield. "See? You're safe. This place wouldn't be here if it were dangerous. But the view is pretty awesome." The waterfall created a curtain of water that made the arboretum look like it came from another age. The trees rose over the fern forest, hazy shadows in the mist. "You can see why I like this place. I keep waiting for King Kong to appear."

Closely keeping with the woman, Veronica walked up the ledge and looked through the waterfall. She had to admit, it was beautiful. The sight of the forest through this wonderful curtain was something definately out of this world. The girl wondered how could something like this exist among the confines of a starship hull. "It's really pretty.", she said softly, then tilting her head the way she does when she doesn't understand something, she asked, "Who's King Kong?"

TAG

"Okay, let's go have some cookies and ice cream. I like to bake my own cookies. The replicated ones aren't quite the same." She led the girl back down to the workroom and into her office. There was a large table along one wall and a large sofa in the back. "Sometimes I sleep on the sofa. It's easier than going back to my quarters." She opened a cupboard and pulled out a tin of homemade chocolate chip cookies and set them on the table. Then she replicated two bowls of vanilla ice cream and set them on the table as well. "Sit down and dig in."

Veronica looked around the office. It was very different from the one her mom had. It looked like if it were a child's room than an adult's office, the place where grownups keep themselves busy with so-called important things all the time. "Thank you.", she replied in a well-behaved manner as she picked up the cookies and the bowl of vanilla ice cream.

"I've never been to such a place like this.", the girl admittingly said, as she - left-handed just like her mother - began to spoon up the ice cream.

"Good. That means it was set up properly." Lizzie grinned at scooped a little of her ice cream onto her cookie and took a bite. She chewed happily for a moment and swallowed. "We didn't want this to be like every other arboretum. Did you know we even have a working steam engine on the ship? I don't remember which deck it's on, but it does laps around the saucer section and school kids occasionally go on rides."

"Steam engine?", Veronica looked up surprised, while enjoying the ice cream, "But... that's ancient technology. They don't even exist anymore.", she said, trying to comprehend what the lady was telling her. This ship was nothing like the Benecia, that's for sure.

"Computer, what is the location of the steam engine?" Lizzie asked.

"The steam engine is located on deck 6."

Lizzie grinned. "See? We picked it up, quite literally, floating around a planet. It was even used once to keep life support working." She nodded sagely. "This ship has had some very odd encounters."

Veronica rolled her eyes in disbelief. "Weird ship with weird steam engine and weird arboretum lady.", the girl said while her stuff mouth with ice cream, then realizing what she just said, suddenly looked at Lizzie with an apologetic face, "Sorry."

"Don't be. You're right. This is a weird ship, and I wouldn't have it any other way." Lizzie grinned at turned back to her ice cream.

When they were both finished, Lizzie smiled at Veronica. "Do you want to climb a tree now or save that for another time?" There was always time to climb trees, but the botanist didn't want to push too much onto the girl all at once.

"Why not... start a plant?", Veronica asked quietly with an innocent face, as she pushed aside the empty ice cream bowl. She felt like if it were some sort of a confession, with her giving up her pretented notion that plants were actually boring. All what she's seen here so far, were starting to convince her otherwise.

"Okay." Lizzie stood and gathered their dirty dishes. "What sort of plant would you like to start? Herb, flower, fern, shrub, miniature tree?" She put the dishes in the replicator to recycle then and turned to the girl. "I have all sorts of plants here."

Veronica went over the list in her head, and then, without much thinking, chose the strangest sounding one. "Miniature tree?", she asked with a curious face only a girl of her age can provide.

"It comes from Japan, on earth. It's small and needs to be shaped. I think it looks funny, but that's part of its charm. Come on, I'll show you."

Lizzie took her into a second workroom and pulled out a flat of tiny, misshapen trees. "These are bonsai trees. Do you want to start one3?"

The girl still couldn't admit to herself that she was actually intrigued by plants, yet she felt more and more interested in what the arboretum lady was showing her. The miniature trees looked cute and funny, in a way which sparked Veronica's interest. Did she say they need to be shaped?

(To be continued...)

Veronica Kiley
Alexandra's Daughter

Lieutenant JG Elizabeth Jackson
Botanist

 

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