[Paradise-IV] SD970401.21 JL "Kylee vs. the vanBuren brothers." (Lt. Kylee Nix, Science officer, Paradise IV, Lt.(jg) Connor vanBuren, Chief of Security, USS Orion, Ens. Jackson vanBuren, Science officer, Paradise IV

[Paradise-IV Logs]

<Holding Area, Docks>

It was like being a kid in a candy store, or rather, just outside the
candy store. There it was. A full field studies suite of gear, six
pre-packed probes with a modular launcher...so many toys that would
let Jackson start actually working at his own specialties. So close,
and yet so far away.  Jackson sighed, and turned, only to find himself
looking at a very familiar face...or rather chest. A very wide chest.

"Connor. See you finally made it. You're late."

His brother shrugged. "Had to tie up some loose ends on board."

The two, standing together, were clearly related. They were fraternal
twins, but by no means identical. Jackson was of slightly more then
average height, of average build. He was fit enough, well within
Starfleet standards. Connor was something else again. Over two meters
of muscle, a bit spare in build, but there was no doubt of the power
and size of his frame. Jackson had a fairly dark complexion,
reflecting the latino part of the VanBuren-Sanchez clan, Connor was
tanned, but very much the pale blond dutchman.

Jackson shrugged. "Doesn't matter, CR. I got someone I want you to
meet. She's around here somewhere..."

Connor grinned. "If you mean the Klingon gal you described, she's
right over this way, JB. I saw her on the way to find you."

"Fine, since you saw her, lead the way." Jackson scowled at his
bigger, and fractionally younger, sibling.

"Sure thing." Chuckling, he went over to another part of the holding
area, looking around with great interest at what was going on."

Jackson approached Kylee, albeit gingerly. "Hello Lieutenant."

Kylee pulled her arm back quickly as the plant snapped at her. "Okay..
soo.. we got some of the carnivorous plants.." she muttered, chuckling
softly. She glanced up as she heard Jackson's voice, dusting her hands
off as she stood up. "Hey Jackson, finally show up to help haul the
flora and fauna to the lab?" she asked, her eyes glancing to Connor,
before looking back to Jackson, her brow arching.

Jackson hadn't actually thought of it in those terms, but her words
brought a faint smile. "Well, I hadn't come here with quite that plan
in mind. Lieutenant Kylee Nix, meet Lieutenant j.g. Connor vanBuren.
He's security chief on the Orion. Connor, Kylee is pretty much in
charge of our science department here on Paradise." A very different
plan was forming in Jackson's mind, as he introduced the two of them.
The old adage about the "unstoppable force meets the immovable
object."

Kylee nodded slowly, taking a step away as the plant tried to bite her
leg. "I see... you two look so different for brothers," she said,
smiling and offering her hand to Connor. "Nice to meet you. Welcome to
our little slice of hell.. be careful of the plant.. it's poisonous
and cranky.."

Connor took her hand, and shook it, his grip was strong, but very
restrained. "Nice to meet you, too." After a moment, he said, "You've
been taking my brother out for some adventures, I hear." He stayed
well away from the plant, having his own experiences with unusual
lifeforms to teach him caution.

Jackon rolled his eyes just slightly. "Before you two start swapping
superhero stories, I noticed earlier that the heavycat had some
kilometers put on it. What did I miss?"

Kylee shook his hand, her own grip strong before she let go. "Yes..
well.. more like we keep stumbling on people that want to shoot at
us," she said, chuckling softly. She smirked as she heard Jackson.
"Careful, don't forget you still owe me some training time," she
pointed out. "As for the cat... another one from the Orion wanted to
check out our et ceteras.. that reminds me.. Etc is around here
somewhere. Really need to find him.. her.. it.." she said, glancing
around, letting out a soft whistle, and nearly bowled over as a kind
of catlike creature dropped on her shoulder, Etc looking far different
now without fur.

Jackson swallowed audibly. "You know, Connor here has all kinds of
advanced training in hand to hand combat.
While he is here, I'm sure he'd provide a much better training
experience for you." Etc's appearance startled him a bit, a part of
him considering the havoc such a creature could make in a well-ordered
science facility like his section was going to be.

"Quite a beastie, there. Don't reckon I've ever seen anything like
him...or her, before." Connor looked at Kylee's pet with genuine
interest. "What was that you called it?"

"You sold me out to the hospital.. you're the one I am sparring with,
though if Connor wants to spar, more than welcome to join in," Kylee
said, her eyes turning to settling on Jackson as Etc curling up on her
shoulders. "It's called the et cetera.. oh.. and if Zelen still wants
one or two.. tell her they seem to handle being inside well enough,"
she said, looking back to Connor. "And, they're only found here..
genetic engineering and all.. they're a but furrier in colder
situations."

Connor looked closer at Etc. "You say Zelen wants to bring some of
these things aboard Orion?" He wondered about the wisdom of that, then
shrugged. Zelen was chief engineer, if she thought it was alright to
bring them onboard, he wasn't going to raise security issues. The
whole byplay about sparring just made him chuckle. "Ma'am, I don't
usualy spar for fun. J.B. can take his own lumps."

"It's not for fun.. it's for training. Have to keep sharp somehow on
this place.." Kylee said, her nose wrinkling slightly. "He'll get his
lumps.. earned them quite well." She grinned impishly as she looked to
Jackson. "And yeah.. she wants one of them.. from what I can see..
should be safe.. This one has been with me some time.. rather social..
hence why if she wants to bring them on board.. I recommend taking
two.. less easy to let a creature follow you about on a starship, and
they can keep each other company."

Jackson sighed. "Alright, though it was for your own good..." He met
Kylee's gaze steadily. "You know, we are scientists, not security
personnel, Kylee. I can see keeping skills up, but I don't want to
fight anybody."

Connor fished out a PADD, and recorded what he could of Etc, and then
grinned. "Quit squirrelin' bro. Just take your lumps." Then he looked
at Kylee. "So, then, did I hear you say you needed something hauled
somewhere? If I'm going to be called dumb security muscle by my
charming brother, might as well live up to the name."

"On this planet, you need to keep your skills up. May not want to
fight anyone, but the civilians aren't exactly fans of us," Kylee
pointed out. "It's not that bad.. just sparring." She glanced to
Connor as he spoke, chuckling softly. "Well, I am working on getting
these over to the new botanical lab. I've got the temporary holding
area set up, and want to get all the plants and animals there and
under lock down. There are two separate shipments, though the ones
from the Orion is mostly the garden plants."

Nodding, Connor said, "Alright, point me at what you want hauled
first. Sooner started, sooner finished. You didn't say anything about
the civilians here being unfriendly, J.B."

Jackson scowled. "Didn't seem worth complaining about, C.R. Aside from
a riot, I honestly haven't had much contact with the civilians here,
other then a few glares in the streets. I'm usually either wandering
the wastes with Kylee here, or buried in a lab or garage."

"It's a regular day around here when we get glares from the civilians.
Part of why I tend to stick to jobs away from others, though they seem
to dislike when we go to the 2nd dome.. a lot. Group of about 10 the
last time," Kylee said, shrugging slightly. She furrowed her brow,
looking around the collection of plants. "Umm.. well.. I think we'll
start with the easy things.. get the garden plants over.. then can
grab the more fragile plants. Animals are already taken care of."

"Ten? Sheesh, four seemed like plenty to me, last time." Jackson,
despite himself, followed Connor over to the garden plants, and picked
up some, to load. Connor of course picked up a much larger plat of
them. "Told you she was a superhero."

Connor just chuckled, and went about the business of efficiently
lifting and carrying things.

"No superhero.. just actually train.. and Zelen was with me," Kylee
said, chuckling softly, carefully moving the biting plant out of the
way. "These plants will be going to the holding area. That has a lock
to prevent anyone from bothering the plants. I actually would like to
distribute the fruits and vegetables from these, not have them
stolen."

"A lock? Kylee a lock wouldn't stop me, let alone someone who actually
wanted to steal your plants." Jackson glanced at her as he followed
Connor, the brothers carrying their respective loads towards the
destination indicated.

"Lock as in secured door. Also expecting most of my time to be spent
there for the next few weeks. Have the cave habitat, and the aquatic
habitat to set up, and that will take a lot of work," Kylee said.
"So.. instead of security, I'll likely just crash there. Nothing wrong
with a few blankets and pillow on a cot.."

"Right." Shaking his head, Jackson kept on working, feeling he had to
keep up with Connor on loads, even though the security guard was
easily hauling four times the weight per trip. "Who is Zelen?"

Connor answered that. "She's engineering boss on the Orion. Was
executive officer for awhile. She's no slouch in a tight spot,
either."

Jackson sighed. "Great. Two of them." Then he looked at Kylee. "So
what did you guys do out at the terror dome?"


Kylee chuckled softly, moving over to help load up the plants. "Two of
them, and terror dome?" she asked, smirking as she looked at Jackson.
"Zelen definitely held her own in that last fight.. also went down in
the tunnels.. found some airlock door.."


"Airlock door? Really?" Jackson looked around. "So when are we going
out to open this door? I can get my gear bag and we can go."


"J.B. can't abide a mystery." Connor smiled, and finished loading up
the hand truck he' d been filling up at a prodigious rate. "Still,
that does sound interesting."


"Yes, and will be going down there once I get a chance to breathe. The
science department is not exactly large, and I would rather not have
civilians anywhere near this project. Too many valuable plants and
animals that can get damage or killed," Kylee said. "I'll see about
going down in the next couple days, at least after I get all of both
shipments under lock and key, and under guard from security, and know
that they will survive."


"I can go, after we get this stuff moved over to your holding area."
Jackson smiled. "It'd be interesting to see what is in there. I'm no
good with plants and animals anyway. Connor could come along, he's
security enough."

"I ain't security on Paradise, J.B. Well, I am, but its not my duty
station. I cant just run off and change whatever protocols are set for
going to wherever this terror-dome place is. Lieutenant Nix, what do
you think?

"Yeah... no.. I get in enough trouble with my superiors here.. don't
need your captain breathing down my neck for your brother getting
hurt, Jackson," Kylee said. "If he wishes to go with you and security
from here.. maybe that would fly, but this planet has enough things
that try to kill us. I want to take every precaution over in that
dome, especially with the fire power that was used last time."

Connor smiled. "Well, I do thank you for the concern, Lieutenant."
Just the way she said that tempted him to go to the dome. But he
realized how juvenile the impulse was and set it aside. "Besides,
J.B., best to deal with one job at a time. What if going through that
airlock opens a whole big can of worms? From the looks of things you
guys have a good bit of work ahead getting these labs set up."

Jackson scowled. "Y'know, if I'd wanted to be a dirt farmer I'd have
stayed home." Then he grinned, realizing how silly that sounded. "Not
that I won't help, Lots of technical work I can do to leave Kylee time
to handle the direct research."

Kylee looked to Connor, smirking slightly. "You can handle yourself
just fine.. besides, your brother has done just fine," she said. "Lox
wants to go down in the tunnel as well. If you really wish to go that
badly.. ask him and head down there. Then you don't have to play with
dirt, as you put it," she said, looking to Jackson. "I can handle the
lab just fine."

Jackson chuckled. "I know. Its the engineering half of my brain.
Working on the habitats technical side actually sounds pretty
interesting."

"Too many brains for your own good, J.B. Whereas I, with my simple
security training, can just focus on the fun and adventurous part of
life." With that he lifted another big plat of plants into the back of
the snowcat. "So, after we finish loading this beast up, anyone for
lunch? Lunch is fun. Especially with pie."

"If you want to go check out the airlock.. just inform Lox and go. I'm
perfectly fine working on the habitats on my own," Kylee said, turning
to head over to shipment, picking up several pallets and carrying them
to the snowcat. "That's okay.. not really that hungry."

Connor chuckled. "What, you don't like pie?"

Jackson spoke up a moment later. "You do intend to eat though, right?
At some point? You just got out of the hospital, you know."

"Nothing wrong with pie, but rather work on this," Kylee said, her
eyes turning to look at Jackson. "Yes, I know.. I was there.. I'll eat
when I get a chance."

Jackson just looked at her. "Right."

Connor looked at his brother, and then at Kylee, and shook his head,
returning to steadily loading the vehicle up.

Jackson scowled at his larger sibling. "What?"

Chuckling, Connor shrugged, and kept right on loading. "Don't worry
about it, bro, soon as we're done loading and unloading at the far
end, we can go grab something and catch up."

"Screw it." Jackson put down the plat he was carrying, in the snowcat.
"I'll go get the heavycat warmed up, C.R." Then he started away.

Kylee quirked a brow, looking between the two. She blinked at Jackson
walked off, looking to Connor questioningly. "Umm.. that seemed a
bit.. excessive.. of a response," she said. "He okay?"

Connor looked at her, and laughed outright. "This from the gal who is
going to beat my poor little scientist of a brother to a bruised pulp
because he took you to the  hospital?" The laugh faded to an amused
grin. "Not that he'll bruise up too bad. He's a lot tougher then he
lets on. But something does have his sombrero on sideways, and that's
the truth."

Kylee shrugged slightly. "Was likely not going to do that anyway.. I
have too much work to do, plus he has been complaining too much about
it," she said. "Still not sure exactly why he's mad about my eating
habits.. that had nothing to do with my hospital trip.."

"Too bad, about the beating. Often with J.B. he uses complaining to
mask what he's really thinking. If I know him, he's all for working on
the technical challenges of your habitats and so forth. And he's
probably a lot less unhappy about this training then he sounds. He at
least used to be pretty scrappy." Connor put the last stack of
seedlings on the snowcat. "But, it looks like I better to catch up to
him, before he goes off and does something he'll regret later."

Kylee furrowed her brow, now looking confused. "Thanks.. just confused
everything completely now," she said, sighing softly as she pinched
the bridge of her nose. "I really prefer the straightforward
approach.. if you like something.. then say it. Complain about it..
and I'm going to think you dislike it," she said. "This is why I stick
to plants and animals.. easier to understand."

"Welcome to a man's world." Connor grinned. "Anyway, I'll go corral Jackson. Nice meeting you, Kylee Nix." With that, he was off, long-legged stride taking him quickly off in the wake of his retreating brother.

=< End Log >=

Lt. Kylee Nix, Senior Science Officer, Paradise IV

Lt. (jg) Connor (CR) vanBuren, USS Orion

Ens. Jackson vanBuren, Other Science Officer, Paradise IV