Lessons In The Morning

Posted on Sat Dec 11th, 2021 @ 12:49pm by Ensign Duncan McManus & Ensign Nuna Lepine
Edited on on Sat Dec 11th, 2021 @ 12:51pm

Mission: Mission 5 - Babel
Location: Deck E - Mess Hall
Timeline: Day 272 07:00
1152 words - 2.3 OF Standard Post Measure

Daniel stumbled into the mess hall with a frown on his face as he attempted to wake up quicker than his body liked. He was still aching from the spacewalk that he had completed the previous day. He was just not designed for that type of thing anymore when you spent days of your life just lying in awkward spaces trying to fix items that kept breaking. Breakfast was always the best meal of the data but there stood in front of the options he could not decide. "What are you having?" He asked from the person in front of him recognises her as one of the scientists on the ship. They were so few after the science lab accident and he was normally on a different watch that he could not place the name straight away before it came to him Lepine.

Nuna replied, "Cereal." The reply was not a grunt, but a clearly spoken word. Even in that single word, you could hear a sing song quality to Nuna's speech pattern, with a strange overlay of proper British.

Nuna didn't flinch or cringe when spoken to by a crewmate she never interacted with, but neither did she look back or otherwise indicate she wanted to continue or expand on this discourse. The question had been asked and answered. There was no reason to continue the conversation.

The man had been expecting something more but shrugged when she did not turn to even look at him. “Cereal?” Daniel repeated the work over in his broad Scottish accent. “Hmm… no that won’t do. I need something more.” He mused looked at the selection again.

Nuna didn't react to the engineer's declaration, instead getting a bowl of warm oats. There were a bowl of what looked like blueberries, which Nuna had placed on her oats before finding an empty table to eat.

Daniel was not put off in trying to having a conversation with someone who he had not spent much time with. “Looks like you are stuck with me a bit longer. No space else where. Nuna right? Science?” He wondered putting down his own tray that was filled with eggs and bacon.

Nuna looked up long enough to brush an errant lock of hair out of her face and give the engineer a silent nod, before returning her attention back to her warmed oats. There was a momentary look of surprise when she put one of the "blueberries" in her mouth, but it was obvious not a unpleasant surprise, as Nuna continued eating both oats and berries.

The engineer just shrugged and sat there deciding to just enjoy the silence company. “Some of the hydroponics bay is coming into season.” The man offered as an explanation of why there was berries. When he saw Crewman Jones he would be offering his congratulations on the harvest.

"I was not expecting misâskwatômina," Nuna observed, lifting a spoon of the large berries. She paused before adding, "Genus: Amelanchier, species alnifolia, common name Saskatoon berries." Without another word Nuna returned her attention to her oats.

The man smiled. “And you know the variants because?” He wondered absently as he took a big gulp of coffee savouring the taste. It was bitter but the warmth helped him wake up.

Nuna tilted her head at the use of the word 'variant.' Did the man's use of the word 'variant' mean he thought Saskatoon berries were a variant of blueberries? Although the two berries resembled each other, Saskatoon berries were more closely related to apples.

Since Nuna hadn't specifically discussed the three varieties of Amelanchier alnifolia (alnifolia. pumila and semiintegrifolia), he obviously couldn't mean that.

Nuna decided not to press the use of the word 'variants' and instead address the reason behind her knowledge of Saskatoon berries.

"For all practical purposes," she began, "Saskatoon berries had gone extinct by the mid-twenty-first century. Some shrubs existed in privately controlled greenhouses but said greenhouses were controlled by independent militias. In time, Saskatoon berry shrubs would have disappeared. Fortunately, their seeds were stored in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Reintroduction of the Saskatoon berry shrubs into the wild were part of the Northern Great Plains Restoration Project. I oversaw the reintroduction of the Saskatoon berry shrub in the Kootenai tribal area as a class project when I was nine." Nuna returned her attention to her oats and berries.

Duncan nodded into his coffee to show he understood her words and what she was telling him. "Quite impressive at such a young age. Cannot say we had anywhere as anything for a class project." He mused aloud. It had not heard much of any of the restorations projects outside of Scotland but now that he was thinking on it, it made sense for everywhere to have similar projects. "Got to love a good seed vault. So is that your speciality then? fauna?" He wondered.

"I'm a generalist with practical experience in applied earth and life sciences," Nuna answered, "And advanced degrees in theoretical and mathematical biology." Nuna poked at her oats with her spoon before asking, "Yourself?"

“Damage control.” He said simply. He did not have as much experience as others on board but he was eager to learn and had nothing but time now. “So Earth and alive science eager to get to the planet below then?” He wondered moving from him. He did not overly want to talk about himself at the moment.

Nuna nodded, her face a neutral mask as she continued eating her breakfast.

"Not much of a talker are you?" Duncan wondered with a smirk. He could not blame her as he was a talker and could not help himself but normally it brought out others talking.

"And you enjoy talking," Nuna remarked. The science officer took a pair of utensils on the table and laid them out so they formed a ninety degree angle. She then took a third utensil, bisecting the right angle, with one of the new angles formed being seventy degrees and the other twenty degrees. "Complementary," she observed, before returning to her breakfast.

“Of course I do.” The man did not ever get to talk enough. Engineers were often solemn creatures especially on a ship like the Atlantis where engineers are few and far between with so much work to do. “Geometry lesson in the morning.” He mused.

The science officer silently finished the last of her oats. As Nuna emptied her juice glass, she stood, gave the engineer a solemn nod, then made her way to the rack for empty trays.

“And that is that.” Duncan said with a shake of his head as he watched the woman leave the table with only an nod. He had not even been able to offer a bye or a have a good day. If he had not know better he would have thought her Vulcan but nope certainly human.