PNPC Lt. JG Rhodium Wells - The Hedge Witch of Deck Five
Teayl Thorn
((Arboretum, Deck 05, USS Ronin, In Orbit of Endicronimas V))
Kel: :looking up and down:: Are we here? Is this where the problem is?
Wells: Something that does not belong, imported… and awakened.
She drew aside another veil of leaves. The tree behind was young by her standards—20-eath-cycles—but healthy, except for the swollen bulge distorting its bark. A faint aquamarine bioluminescence pulsed beneath the surface, slow and deliberate, like a living heartbeat embedded in wood.
Kel: ::furrowing his brow:: Is that some kind of tumor?
Wells: Call your most steady scientist, mon ami. :: Flashing a grin:: Because this is going to be fun.
Kel: =/\= V'Len to Om-Zora, Poagie and k'Oar-€l. If you're available I could use your help in the Arboretum. Our new Xeno-botanist has found something highly unusual. =/\=
As the commander made his call, Rhodium admired the beautiful if deadly—for the Ronin—glowing growth in the innocent tree. Marvelling at the uniqueness and deadly potential of what she suspected, the strange passenger the Ronin had contracted.
Om-Zora, Poagie and k'Oar-€l: =/\= Response? =/\=
She listened curiously with half an ear to the voices of other science officers in the department, her future colleagues. Kel sniffed the air, then cautiously extended a bare blue hand toward the glowing mass.
Kel: It's warm. Seems unusual.
Rhodium moved instantly. She hooked a finger into the cuff of his sleeve and yanked his hand away from the surface of the bark. The aquamareen pulse beneath the bark quickened and gained a slightly bluer hue.
Wells: ::sharply:: Ne touche pas! ::gently admonishing:: It's best not to touch it with bare skin. It would be most embarrassing for me to allow my new department head to be eaten on my first day.
Kel blinked, then—slowly—knelt, sniffing closer to the bark. He stood again, inhaling. Rhodium rested back on her heel and enjoyed the show. She wondered how old Kel was, the symbiont, and if his lifespan rivalled hers.
oO Likely not. Oo
Kel: There's a smell, sweet like a flower. Is that coming from this mass? Seems more concentrated up here rather than lower down.
She leaned closer, gave Kel a long sniff, and shook her head. Then, careful not to touch the tree, took a deep whif of the anomaly. He was right, the smell threw her back in time, all the way to her first life, and her expression softened with recognition.
Wells: Ah, it smells like barbe Ă papa, non? Have you ever had the Earth candy, daddy’s beard? Perhaps more commonly known as cotton candy. A self-defence mechanism, I think. "Oh, if I smell harmless, nostalgic, delicious… you hesitate". Or worse—you touch!
Kel: ::shuffling:: I have an extensive collection of fungi from several quadrants. I've worked hard to keep in quarantined, but fungi, like all life, finds a way. Any chance this could be a fungal issue?
Wells: Oui, non, peut-être! This is nothing your fungi could have done. Be at ease about that. But your instincts are every bit as formidable as rumoured to be. I suspect this is a very rare, unusual, and potentially hazardous issue, more cnidaria than fungal, and over time, it could be detrimental to the ship and its crew. I have no idea how the larva got picked up from its nursery world and transplanted here. It has probably been doing its best just to survive.
She pointed at the leaves of the tree and at the extremities of the roots. Pulled out her tricorder and scanned the tree in its entirety. She showed the readings to Kel. The tree was dying, its cells depleted of energy, but the strange mass beneath the bark shone brighter, as if all the tree's energy had been transferred there.
Kel: Response
Wells: I have not encountered one of its kind before, and probably never will again, but I do know of it. It is a living organism, one that is poorly understood. ::eyeing him expectantly:: My recommendation at this stage is that we transplant it—carefully—and do our best to provide what it requires to thrive. Do you have any shuttles that you don’t need? Something old or damaged or just thought to be unlucky?
Kel: Response
Wells: ::careless shrug:: Then it will continue to do what all life does. Grow. Change. Adapt. It’s just a baby, Commander. In some respects, it has grown here, on the Ronin, and under your watch. One might even consider it… your baby.
She gave a shrill cackle as she poked a bony finger into his uniformed shoulder, ignoring any formality, then she plucked a stray leaf off his jacket and casually popped it in her mouth. The leaf disappeared behind even, pearly white teeth and was gone.
Kel: Response
Wells: I guess we could co-parent. ::gaze sharpening with a playful edge:: How old are you, Commander? The Kel symbiont, if you don’t mind me asking?
Kel: Response
[Tags / TBC]
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Science Officer
USS Ronin - NCC-34523
As simmed by
Security Officer
USS Ronin - NCC-34523
R240107T14