Save Christmas!

Posted on Sat Jan 16th, 2021 @ 1:25pm by Ensign Elegy Nascimento & Crewman Finn Jones

Mission: Mission 4 - Eden
Location: Deck E - Hydroponics
Timeline: MD 151, 23:45 hours
1079 words - 2.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Narrowing his eyes at one of the hydroponic reservoirs in particular, Elegy Nascimento took a hesitant step closer to the shelving unit. His face looked flush after one too many cups of mulled wine and he'd... lost his Santa suit... somewhere along the way. Instead of his Christmas costume, Elegy was down to a uniform undershirt and Starfleet track pants. He supposed the Santa suit would have been far more protective right about now. As if to prove the point, a pink blossom --as large as an Andorian's fist-- snapped at him from the reservoir. The teeth of the Beauregard Weeper plant were thin and needle-like, but they looked awfully sturdy from where Elegy was standing.

"Do you think..." Elegy said, thinking aloud, "we could move it... to a further corner of the Hydroponics bay?"

Finn looked fearful with a black eye and clutching tightly to a broom. He was not going any closer again after his first discovery and the shelf he had banged into at the teeth snapping. “You can try for sure Sir.” He said holding his thumps up at him.

Maddison stood with her hands on her hips, watching the plant. "Whose idea was it to bring that damned thing aboard anyhow?"

"It was a gift for them" Finn said looking at the woman for a second before looking back at the plant. It had been a gift for the Xindi. One of the many random gifts of peace they had brought onboard. "Do not take you eyes off it." He said knowing how ironic that was with a black eye that was closing over.

"I'd be happy to just vaporize the thing with my phaser and be done with it," Maddison suggested, having seen one too many horror vids of carnivorous plant.

"We caaaaaan't. It's aliiiiiiive," Elegy retorted, the vowels elongated into a sing-song. His tone was meant to playfully chide Maddison for every suggesting such a thing, because, "It's Christmas," he said. Stepping back and digging in his overnight bag, Elegy retrieved a container of freeze-dried algae. The kitchen was overflowing with the stuff from back when the protein resequencers were on the fritz. After tossing a couple of balls of algae into the weeper's gaping bloom, Elegy supposed, "If we keep it fed, it'll be happy enough. No reason to lash out."

Finn had no issue with vaporizing the thing it had nearly tried to eat him. It was only quick reflexes that had saved him to allow him to raise the alarm. What would have everyone thought if he had indeed been eaten? "It nearly eat me. I was nearly a Finn pie." He reminded the group.

The dubious frown that crossed Elegy's features was of the type that might come if Finn had been telling a tall tale, like if his dog had eaten his homework. "Now, let's not be dramatic, dear Finn," Elegy said in a placating tone. Even Elegy's palms gestured from a posture of moderation. The orders to Ensign Elegy Nascimento had been clear: lethal force could only be used against the plant in the most extreme of circumstances. "Given the dimensions of the Beauregard Weeper's leaves, it would have nipped you at best. It may have bitten off enough meat to make a Pop Tart or a hand pie, at most."

"Still a pie," Finn murmured under his breath wincing. He was not backing down on his dramatics as he has been scared by the sudden lunge in the useless silence of the hydroponics bay. He was used to occasionally having visits in Mattias or Lexi or them sneaking down to have a few moments somewhere different.

Elegy cocked an eyebrow at the murmur. As soft as they were, the words were still caught by his cochlear implants. "Still a pie," Elegy echoed, acknowledging Finn's point with a nod. Elegy took a swig from his water bottle and took a couple of steps back from the carnivorous plant. "What would you all be doing tonight instead?" Elegy asked, looking around. "If you weren't guarding vegetables? ...If you weren't on the wrong edge of the alpha quadrant?"

Maddison shrugged as she thought about it. "That's hard to say but hopefully spending Christmas home in Australia, Earth. What about you?"

Finn sighed softly as he thought about what he would be doing if he was back on Earth, back in Newcastle. He supposed that he would have gone home to one of his cousins or aunt but he was not sure at all. Maybe one of his roommates would have brought him home. He shrugged a bit before finally speaking up. "No idea myself. I do not really have a home back on Earth. This is more of my home." He shrugged ignoring the looks that he was sure were going to come his way.

"You don't have any family?" Maddison questioned, raising an eyebrow as she did so.

“I have aunts who would take pity on me but I do not have siblings or parents.” He said with a bit of a shrug. It was not a big deal and why he was coping worse with the death of his roommates rather than the grief of being so far from home. It was not hard to not miss things when you had nothing there.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Maddison said sincerely. She wanted to ask what happened to his parents but thought better of it. "Well you have a family here aboard the Atlantis," she continued after a momentary pause.

Finn shrugged. People had it a lot worse than him and he really was not bothered anymore. He knew that Atlantis was his family and he knew that things could get better and would get better than it had been. He just needed to survive a plant that wanted to eat him. “I appreciate it but let focus on this wee beasty hmm?” It would do them no good to by side tracked especially by his story.

Elegy tossed some more freeze-dried algae in the chompers of the Weeper plant. "He'll be good," Elegy vowed, looking to the others. "The crew is going to have a perfect Christmas dinner if it kills me," Elegy said, entirely hyperbolically. He cringed and he said, "Oh," and he waved a hand of placation at Finn. "...And that dinner won't be Finn pie."