The Greenhouse

Posted on Mon Sep 28th, 2009 @ 9:16pm by Hank Tasco & Lee Pierce

995 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Session One - Jailhouse Rock
Location: Compartment 17
Timeline: Backpost

Having arrived slightly earlier then the agreed time, Miller was walking around the edges of the compartment when Lee showed up. “Morning.” He said, stopping mid stride and walking over to her.

"Good morning," Lee said with a broad but lazy smile as she stretched her arms and walked towards James. The green skinned nurse was specially silly that morning for whatever reason. She had a great night of sleep, breakfast was good and she had a feeling today was going to be good. "How did you sleep, Mr. Miller? Well I hope."

“I slept fine.” He lied, not bothering to tell her the truth that he was up most of the night tossing and turning in his quarters, before he had decided to go for a run in one of the empty cargo bays. Despite the charm that Miller felt when Lee was around today was different and it probably showed when he got straight to business. “So where do you want to start first?”

"Hmm," Lee began, taking a look around the compartment. She could tell James was more serious this morning but she figured he just wanted to get the work done. "Perhaps we can start with the environment settings?" the Orion girl suggested, turning to look back at Miller and offering him a tight-lipped smile. They had to make sure the lights, temperature, humidity of air, and pressure were compatible to the plants native environment. "It's just an idea but we can start with whatever you feel like it."

“The environment settings are a good place to start I guess.” Miller said. Walking over to one of the cargo bay walls Miller removed a panel and began to change the environment settings. He was half way through changing the settings when the lights went out in the compartment leaving them standing in the dark. “You got a flashlight?” He asked looking to where he remembered Lee standing last.

While James fiddled with the environment setting, Lee took measurements of the bay and tried to come up with a basic design for the 'inside structure' of their greenhouse. "Are we building an automatic watering system?" she asked as she bit bottom lip and looked up at the compartment ceiling. If the system was automatic they could set a pipeline along the ceiling. Suddenly the lights went out and she looked at the general direction of James. She couldn't actually see him.

"Hmm...nope," Lee replied making a face. She probably should have brought one but she didn't think they could be in the dark. "I can try to reach the hatch..." the orion girl said thoughtfully. She grabbed her medical tricorder. "Maybe I can use the tricorder to generate a little light for us." The device's screen couldn't do much but it brightened a little the path if she waved it around.

“Come over here and shine it on the panel for a sec.” Miller said seeing the faint light given off by the tricorder as Lee waved it around. As Lee made her way over, Miller despite his bad mood could see some humour about standing in a dark compartment with the only light being given off by a tricorder to help them see.

Lee held the tricorder towards the panel so James could benefit for *all* that faint light but it was all they had right now. She examined his face for a moment and pursed her lips as she tried to think of a reason for his bad mood. Lee wasn't taking it personally. She didn't think she had done anything to him but she couldn't deny she was curious about his reasons. Nothing eventful had happened aboard the Warden since they last talked, at least as far as she knew.

"Why the bad mood?" she asked flatly and wished she could take the question bad just as it came out of her mouth. Lee really had to mind her own business. She offered him an apologetic smile. "Sorry, none of my business I know but," she said then, shifting her gaze from him for a moment. "I'm curious...if maybe I did something?"

With the help of the faint light given off by the tricorder Miller was able to see what he had done to shut off the lights and quickly set about undoing it. “No you did nothing wrong… I just woke up in a bad mood.” He said thinking back to the hours of sleep he had lost tossing and turning.

Having returned lighting back to the compartment Miller turned to Lee. “Now what were you saying before I accidentally cut the lights?”

“I was saying are we going to build an automatic watering system?” Lee said repeating what she had said before Miller had turned the lights off on them.

“We shouldn’t need to.” Miller said as he finished adjusting the environment settings. “With the environment settings now adjusted all we need to do is bring in the hydroponics equipment which we can replicate at the replicator station on deck nine.”

“Okay.” Lee said, as she took back the tricorder from Miller.

On the way to the replicator station Lee attempted to make small talk with Miller however he responded to everything she said with a monosyllable, and after a while she gave up. It only took several minutes for the ship to replicate them the equipment they needed, and with it being to big and bulky to manually move it to the compartment it was decided that they would transport it there using the transporter.

Dragging the equipment on to the closest transporter pad with Lee’s help, Miller set the time delay and joined her shortly before both of them and the equipment were transported to compartment 17.

Putting the equipment together took less time than he had thought it would. “Looks like we’ll have time to spend on the planet.” Miller said looking at Lee.

“Looks like we will.” Responded Lee.

 

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