Dancin' with Company

Posted on Thu Mar 23rd, 2023 @ 7:31am by Lieutenant Heather Honey & Lieutenant Commander Venn D'Sai

1,269 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Season 1, Episode 1: Wanted: A Few Brave Men
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Shortly before lunch

The music cod be heard almost for three decks around the sick bay. Being left alone for so long had driven Heathwr up the wall until she had routed her music through the sick bay comms and turned the putout volume to maximum. It was enough to damage a normal person's eardrums in seconds, but Heather was no normal person.

She danced in the middle of the sick bay and she danced like no one was watching, which for all she knew was the case.

The science laboratories shared a deck with medical services -- which most called 'Sick Bay' which he thought was odd but probably also an idiom of some sort -- and he couldn't concentrate. Unusual for him because Venn was good at filtering out extraneous noises but this? This was ... impossible to ignore and it was, in point of fact, ruining his concentration. That left only one course of action. Find the source.

Since it wasn't anywhere in the science labs (of that he was absolutely certain), it made sense that the next place to look was medical which was how he found someone dancing and concluded, through the haze of pounding rhythms, that this was also the source of the ... music? Yes, it could be music. Course, the follow-up line of inquiry to that would be ... did it have to be so ... loud?

He spoke without visible effect and so, he did what any reasonable science officer would do. He found the rhythm and joined in.

Being so into her dancing, it took Heather a rather long time to notice she was not alone. Far longer in fact than she would ever admit to. Bit when she did finally notice, she did what any sane and rational person would do, she screamed.

But recovering quickly she hurried to a call panel and cut the audio, ending the music.

"Oh my blessed lord, you scared the bejeezus outta meh," she said resting a hand on her chest and breathing heavily.

Her scream, an indication that she had at last noticed she wasn't alone, brought the end of the deafening musical interlude at least. "I don't know what a 'bejeezus' is," Venn said, "but I do apologize for scaring it out of you." He paused for a second, his midnight blue eyes twinkling, "I was trying to get your attention by more conventional means, I swear."

"Oh, I b'leive ya, just wasn' specting anyone to be around these parts. Half the place feels empty after all," she intoned shaking her head, her accent hanging thick. She hated her accent, but she also refused to get rid of it. It was complicated. "But yes, can I help ya? I suppose you're needin' a Doctor for somethin'."

"Until the rest of the personnel show up, we're sharing a deck," Venn said. He cocked his head slightly to one side, in an approximation of a shrug. "I'm Science. Working on setting up the labs and ..." his voice dropped off for a second as he struggled to find a polite way to phrase the next part. "... and well, it's been a bit .. ummm ... hard to concentrate?"

"I know what ya mean," Heather said nodding wanly. "It just feels so empty round here. It's nearly impossible to concentrate." She shrugged and sighed. "But when I get my music going'." She stomped her foot for emphasis and smiled broad. "I can't help but get t' moving'." She did a gleeful little dance. "I can't help it."

"Yes, your music," Venn murmured. "It's loud, you know? Carries clear across the deck." And, he thought, drills its way into my brain when it gets there.

"Yeah, it really breaks up the silence of this place," she replied with a bright smile. "I mean this place is so big and so empty. I can barely take it." She shook her head and folded her arms across her chest.

Among his people, plain-speaking, was a widely accepted practice but then, on a world of telepaths, understanding was more complete than it ever could be among the Ro'Iwar. At the Academy, he had struggled most of the first year to learn a more delicate approach, one that could be understood without causing unintentional harm because he had blundered badly in those first encounters. And so, as he listened to her, he saw that here was someone who might prefer plain-speaking as he did. And if she didn't, well, it was yet another blunder in a long line of blunders, wasn't it?

"Your music is too loud," Venn stated. "I find it difficult to concentrate and frankly, it's causing me ... pain ... what you call a ... hmmm ... headache. Perhaps you could set the decibel level to something that won't escape your Sickbay?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," she apologized clapping her hands. The station had felt so big and empty. "I guess I didn't think my music would carry far enough for anyone to be bothered by it." She flushed slightly. "I will try and keep it from getting so loud."

Softening, he thought because passive thoughts, especially those of the Ro'Iwar could be heard so easily. This needs softening.

He was Amarin, a mono-gendered people, but Federation Standard had no pronoun that suited and so, Venn had chosen to use 'he' and 'him' for no other reason than it was 'she' in his own tongue happened to be an unpleasant term. Masculine and feminine meant nothing to him which meant that his off-duty outfits tended to be more than a little surprising. It also accounted for his hairstyle and his manicure, among other things.

"It's the curse of having spent so much time in labs," Venn said, ducking his head slightly so that the white-gold mass of his hair fell forward across the plains of his face. Well-manicured hands held together waist-high, which on his world was a sign of respect, he studied her for the time it took to blink and then continued on. "I enjoy music and dancing, I do. But scientists tend to work in very quiet environments." He smiled slightly. "Reducing the number of variables introduced, I believe I was told when I questioned the policy."

""I guess I can understand that," Heather replied, her shoulders dropping. The last thing she wanted was to be a bigger, but when things got to quiet her mind would wander, and that was never good. "Plus music tends to be good for the healin' processs. Maybe if it's not so loud." She shook her head. "Again I am so sorry for botherin' you."

"It's already forgotten," Venn said as he touched two fingers on his left hand to the right side of his chest. "Have you had lunch yet? We could be a crowd of two and maybe, together, we can figure out where we're supposed to go."

Heather smiled brightly. She could go far longer without food comfortably than she would admit, but lunch sounded delightful. "That sounds like a terrific idea," she said happily. "Honestly I am not 100% sure I know where the mess hall is. I know I found it once before, but we shall see."

"We shall indeed," Venn said, smiling in return. "And failing that, I may just have to start growing vegetables in the Botany Lab."

"I don't rightly know if that's a good idea or a bad one," she said smiling broadly and walking over to the door. "Well, as I have somewhat of a guess which way to go, I guess I'll lead. At least 'till we get lost."

 

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