An Ounce of Intervention

Posted on Thu Oct 8th, 2020 @ 12:55pm by Commodore Jane Saulitis

Mission: End of Line
Location: Starbase Adna
Timeline: MD2
1420 words - 2.8 OF Standard Post Measure

After the topsy-turvy, up and down emotional roller coaster of the first day of leave, Lieutenant Lilith Sullivan made a conscious effort to slow the frantic pace of activity. For a moment, she considered dragging out her hammock and staying aboard the Majestic, suspended between her two favorite trees in the arboretum surrounded by her fowl friends. However, the novelty of being attached to a station made the relatively small effort of walking over to Starbase Adna and using its rather impressive holographic capabilities to facilitate her lounging seemed to be worth it. Leaving her quarters with headphones in hand, Lilith casually loped down the corridor and began to made her way towards the airlock.

A series of alcoves along the outer perimeter of a large chamber made up the botanical garden and arboretum aboard the station. Each recess contained a microclimate from a different part of the galaxy with facsimiles of the flora and fauna of each biome to complete the experience. A forest of towering redwood trees represented Earth in the collection, and though Lilith had walked through briefly during her tour with Lieutenant T'Par the day prior, she made a note to return and spend more time there. Having grown up a short distance away from the real redwood forests of the North American continent, seeing the massive trunks and the soft, filtered sunlight through the canopy conjured up memories of home.

Making a simple request with the station's interface, Lilith soon found herself swaying in a holographic recreation of a hammock. It came with its own stand as the redwoods were far too large to tie a rope around. With her music on, she flirted with the line between consciousness and slumber before noticing movement during one of her waking moments.

"It's lovely here, isn't it?" Sullivan called out to a familiar face. "Reminds me of home."

Jane turned at the sound of the voice and smiled slightly. "How so?" Jane asked seriously wanting to know if the smell was the same or if it was just the image of the trees and flowers that triggered that little bit of longing she was all too familiar with. The feeling of home. The tug and pull at the heart strings when something was the same as where they had come from. Despite all the beauty that could be seen in the universe it was nothing quite like where you came from, that was, if you came from someplace you loved.

"I grew up less than a hundred kilometers from the redwood forests back on Earth. Our family visited once or twice a year to get away from the city. It can be good to disconnect from everything once in a while, so how appropriate that the station has a simulation of the very place I used to do that, and we just happen to be on shoreleave," Lilith smirked as she maneuvered herself out of her hammock and stood on her feet.

"And all the journey's I've taken, I've not once seen them. Ironic I suppose that I should have grown up on Earth so close to them and never been and yet I've traveled to distant galaxies and seen quite a bit of the universe." Jane shrugged a bit but didn't take her eyes off of what she was staring at.

"Good to see you again, Commodore. What have you been up to so far during leave?"

"Ugh, that makes me sound so old, don't call me that on shoreleave. Jane will do just fine. I've been . . . . thinking. Not sure if that's good or bad." In order to take the focus off of her she asked, "I heard you've done some thinking of your own. You received transfer orders?"

"Ah yes, the other redwood tree in the room, if you'll pardon my appropriation of another idiom," Sullivan sighed as she walked over and stood next to her off-duty commanding officer. "Well, Comm.. er, Jane, I want you to know that I never put it a request to the BUPERs. I love it here. I love our crew. I especially love Cassie, who has been an unexpected blessing to me since we first met. But nevertheless, the existence of those orders cannot be disputed, nor can their contents," Lilith's voice trailed off slightly as she craned her neck up to gaze at the treetops some several dozen meters above them. "So, with that in mind, and given your slightly higher clout with the powers that be from your promotion, I am asking as an officer, a department head, and as a friend for you to see if you can, I dunno, intervene? I want to stay."

"Well I had already intended to do so actually. Cassie mentioned that you'd received orders and that it wasn't in your design to leave. I just wanted to make sure. I can't guarantee anything but I can possibly call in a few favors. Until then, don't pack your bags. I always believe in being unprepared for something you don't want to do," Jane joked. "Perhaps we could sit down and have dinner, the four of us, and we can discuss it?"

Sullivan remained frozen as she worked her way through the double negatives and giggled as she realized what her captain was telling her. The accomplished lieutenant knew it was unfair to expect any certainty of outcome, but hearing that Commodore Saulitis was at least willing to plead her case relieved some of the stress building in the creases on her forehead.

"Thank you. I wouldn't impose, but it seems like Lieutenant Commander Bastian handles all of my cases. Knowing how status driven that guy is, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he thought he was helping me out in some way," Lilith shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Boys, ugh. But yes, dinner sounds nice. I don't want to think about packing. I'm going to ugly cry the entire time, and nobody wants to see that."

Chuckling, Jane gave her back a pat. "No we don't. We also don't to let on that I'm a softy and would probably get choked up right along with you. How about dinner tomorrow? I should have an answer for you by then."

"It's a deal," Lilith nodded and took a half-step back towards her hammock before she realized. "But before I let you go, I've been wondering about how we came across this station. Have you been getting any reports from anyone about weird stuff going on during their stays on the station? The reason I ask is because of an interaction that T'Par and I with one of the holograms - the Bolian one."

"I heard of it through fleet chatter honestly. Seemed like the crew deserved a little break and other Captain's recommended it. What happened with T'Par?" Jane knew that Vulcan's didn't always follow jokes and misunderstandings were bound to happen, but they were generally relaxed in most situations given their nature. She'd found T'Par to be very typical.

"Hey listen, I'm not here to judge what people get into during their free time, but the holograms seem a bit... keen to appeal to some of the activities on the more debaucherous end of the scale. I mean, it's probably nothing, I'm sure being a neutral station that this place is well known in this sector for providing just that, but I found it a bit odd," Sullivan shrugged, wondering where the sudden propensity to tattle had come from. "Especially since the station clearly has a xeno-cultural database. You would think it would know not to display a very scantily clad Trill male to a Vulcan not in pon farr."

This raised Jane's eyebrows. " I will look into it. " She made a plan in her head to meet this hologram. " in fact I seem to have some time right now. I'll see you tomorrow if not before. "

"Thank you Jane," Lilith offered up an apologetic look, knowing that her commanding officer had probably not accounted for tracking down a misbehaving hologram while divvying up her time, but remaining quiet about that bizarre encounter the day prior didn't seem right. As the commodore walked away, Lilith scrunched her features, questioning whether she had done the right thing. As she quietly laid back into her hammock, her mind drifted off of the subject and started brainstorming ways she could think of to thank her captain.