Ensign Jovenan – If it looks like a prey...

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Jovenan

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Apr 28, 2023, 5:58:13 AM4/28/23

to USS Artemis-A – StarBase 118 Star Trek PBEM RPG

((La’kso Canyon, Meranuge IV))

The tricorder didn’t seem to work properly. Jovenan placed it back to her belt, although she began to wonder if she would need it at all during the hike. Unnecessary extra weight was rarely a good thing when intending to walk great distances.

Jovenan: We’re within the kelbonite deposit for sure. Scanners will be quite useless for now.

Savel: Since we are unfamiliar with the area, I recommend everyone be vigilant for potential threats.

Kader: In that case, I'm locking the shuttle. The password will be, let see here, 81287.

Jovenan nodded. 81287. 81287. Easy remember, at least until she would forget that. Hopefully the others were also putting effort in remembering that or write it down.

Lorana: I took some orbital scans while we were descending, before the kelbonite could interfere with the scans. Nothing out of the ordinary. :: To jovenan quietly :: I'm glad we're getting a chance to do this together, I had been hoping to spend more time with you before shore leave finishes. I'm hoping we'll eventually be good friends - if you can handle me that is!

Jovenan: Ha-ha, I’ll try my best!

She discreetly checked her backpack side-pocket before flinging the bag to her back. Since it was summertime here, they had plenty of light hours ahead of them, but that still didn’t mean they could delay their departure much longer.

Jovenan: Anyone want to tell a story while we walk? What’s something interesting you all have done and want to share?

Her hiking partners were thinking for a moment. As they began their walk, she had to fight her desire to run. The Edo moved around by running, and while she had learnt not to do that in company of other species, now that she was facing an open terrain and no obligations, she had to remind herself that the others might not appreciate her sprinting off.

Savel: Our journey reminds me of a Vulcan holiday, Kal Rekk. Are any of you familiar?

Lorana: Vulcans take holidays? I thought I'd be the joker of this group. I haven't heard of it, Savel. Why don't you tell us about it?

Kader: A Vulcan story? Do tell.

Jovenan: Can’t say I’ve heard about it. Please, tell us.

Savel: Vulcans spend Kal Rekk in solitude and silence, with the goal of atoning for past transgressions. Not an observance of guilt or shame, merely finding the logic behind mistakes.

Jovenan could see why the milieu reminded the Vulcan officer of his home, considering how dry and rocky much of Vulcan was. That being said, she wasn’t entirely sure how silence related to their trip. She stepped on a large stone, enjoying being almost as tall as the other ensigns before leaping back on the level ground.

Kader: You mean this journey is like a, pilgrimage of some sort?

Jovenan: Oh, that makes sense. I guess you could compare this trip to a short pilgrimage.

Savel: It originates from an order of monks on Vulcan, the Ulann. The Ulann strongly believe an individual's achievements and contributions hold more merit than any words spoken.

Jovenan: So, would you prefer if we continued in silence, in honour of this holiday?

Savel: It would be illogical for me to expect three non-Vulcans to observe this holiday, as our trip has been referred to, in silence. Though I believe it is a worthy goal to make our journey and observations useful to the people of this planet. An atonement for the unfortunate events that have befallen them.

Jovenan nodded. They were on a shore leave and they had – most of them at least – had a rare chance to forget the stressful missions for a hike in the seemingly empty wilderness. Still, they were on an alien planet that had recently experienced a major catastrophe. Honouring the deceased would be the least they could do.

Kader: I have to admit, that's a very noble pursuit Savel. Say, you mentioned atoning a while back. Surely you don't have any mistakes that heavy on your conscience right?

Savel: Response

Jovenan: Well, I guess I could have been working better and faster during the three missions I’ve been on. And on the last shore leave, during a training exercise I dropped my holographic patient – and she died… But nobody real has gotten hurt because of me, I can probably live with that. That reminds me, do you want to hear what we did on my first shore leave on the Excalibur?

She couldn’t continue when they heard a loud screech of a bird. Jovenan turned her head left and right trying to see something, before turning to the sky.

Lorana: Savel, what size is this creature of yours?

Savel: Response

Jovenan: Th-they don’t eat people, do they?

Suddenly, something flying above them cast a shadow on them, accompanied by low flapping sound of enormous wings. There might not be large predators on her homeworld, but the fear reaction was a genetic remnant from long gone days from whichever part of the universe the Edo had originated from. She crouched little, despite the fact that the bird was flying far above them and seemingly not paying attention to them specifically.

Kader: I know at least one of you saw this as well.

Jovenan nodded. She hadn’t seen the bird in full, properly, but there had definitely been something big flying above the canyon. The large bird both intrigued her and scared her. Simultaneously she wished to take scans of the mighty beast of the skies and run away questioning why she had agreed to this trip.

Jovenan: Looks like it went that way ::points::. Does anybody know if they can be a threat to us?

Jovenan scolded herself in her mind. She was a science officer, and while those weren’t her primary fields, she had taken courses in ecology and exobiology. Yet she had failed to study the wildlife of the area and had to resort to asking the others.