Of bottles and Gorn.

Posted on Fri Dec 3rd, 2021 @ 7:51pm by Lieutenant Myne Redal & Commander Sthilg
Edited on on Thu Dec 23rd, 2021 @ 5:25pm

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: Sthilg's hut
Timeline: MD08 0900
2192 words - 4.4 OF Standard Post Measure

//ON//

A gentle breeze was blowing over the doctor's face as he bent down and scooped another load of water into his two buckets. A smile was on his face as he walked back to the bank and from there to the small log cabin he had built. Outside was the fermentation equipment he had been working on. After his first load of spruce beer he had been eager to try it again on a large scale.

Myne was skipping across the corridor in a jumping step that made her look ridiculous, especially as she was humming a song, but hey, gotta do something to ward away the boredom of getting from point A to point B, right? Speaking of boredom! Opening the door to the holodeck, Myne stepped in triumphantly and raised her voice. "Aha!! I finally caught you in the act you leech!!"

The gorn jumped almost dropping the barrel he had been carrying. " Ah, Myne I didn't hear you come in." He said calmly lowering the barrel.

"Oooh crap, Chief Doctor, I did not know you were here. Someone else was scheduled for this holodeck. Erm... you won't report me for calling you a leech, right?" Myne relaxed and victorious stance and smiled nervously. "This is just one big misunderstanding unless you are the leech... in which case I'd better call Security!"

The gorn chukled. " Off courssse not my dear. Welcome to my cabin and my own little garden of paradissse. " He said his arm moving around the small farmstead he had been working on.

"Erm, sure! I did not expect you would have a cabin here. On... erm... what is this place by the way? Since you are not my mysterious energy leech, might as well!" Myne shrugged and approached the Gorn, looking around. "What do you have in that barrel?"

" 300 miles north of new york pre french Indian warsss. " The gorn explained. My own little ssspace place for when i need a break from the future. The barrel has water my dear i'm making ssspruce beer."

"Wait, three hundred miles of... the words after that just sound like gibberish to me. What planet is this supposed to be on? Betazed?" Myne asked confused. "Future? You mean our present? Is this like Betazed's past?" She asked before eyeing the barell. "Spruce beer, never drank any. Curious on what it taste like."

" Earth my dear and yes by the future I mean the present. When you get passst the firssst one hundred yearsss it all ssstatsss to blur together. You can have some of the beer if you'll give me a hand." He said picking up another of the empty barrels.

"Why would you go to the past thought?" Myne asked and nodded. "Sure, I can help. Picking up a barrel right?" With that, she approached one of the empty barrels and began dragging it after her. Lifting it up being quite a bit beyond her. "You know, I am like four hundred years. I have nine previous hosts. That's a lot of years there, and even I can track time better!! And I am a known airhead!"

Sthilg coughed as he nodded for the bucket he'd been meaning for her to carry. " You have the benefit of a fresh mind every know and again my dear. All i have is my old mind that'sss crammed with medical information. "

"Makes sense I guess. Yeah, I do have a fresh enough mind at least. So what do we do with the barells? Jump in them and take a trip down the river? Human style?" Myne asked still dragging her barrel along, completely ignoring the cough and the bucket. Nonverbal communication was not her strong suit, so she just shrugged it as Gorn being Gorn.

The gorn let out a chukle. " No my dear we need to place them in the river to chill the beer." the gorn explained.

Sighing and letting her barrel fall to its side, she began just rolling it towards the river. "Well, this is one way to pass the time. Do you do this every day?!"

The gorn let out a chukle. " Not if my two grankidsss have anything to sssay about it."

Finally reaching the river, she let herself fall down next to the barrel and breathe a bit heavily. "Grandkids? Oh right, you did talk about them. So what now, got the barrel here!"

" Now we need to thread them so they don't wasssh away in the river. " The gorn replied walking over to a rope he'd made.

"Thread them? Can you help me out here with that? My experience with rope is not the type that one should brag about. And it never involved barrels of... whatever this beer is." Myne said looking at him expectantly.

The gorn chuckled at that guessing said experience. Oh to be young again. " Sssimple my dear. We need to thread the rope through the sssmall hooksss on the top." He said demonstrating as he did so.

"Yeah, you make it seem so easy!" The Trill sighed and tried doing the same thing rather clumsily. But she did it, on the third try. Then she undid it and spent three more tries just to line the rope perfectly from all angles. Not an obsession, nope, certainly not.

" It'sss okay my dear. Do you want to ssshow me how it'sss done." The gorn said as he walked over having already threaded his two barrels.

"I mean, I know how to tie someone up, but barrels are different. No limbs, you know? Sooo, yeah, could do with some teaching here if you got the time!!" Myne said smiling and waiting eagerly to learn something new.

" How do you know how to tie sssomeone up?" The gorn asked with a grin as he showed her how to do a simple anchor knot.

"Erm, if you really want, I can tell you doctor, but that will most likely ruin our friendship and it will leave a bad taste in your mouth." Myne replied without changing her demeanor. But instead watching him do an anchor knot and trying to mimic the act herself. Being slightly better at it.

" Very well. " The elderly doctor replied as he stopped and corrected one of her hand motions to do up the knot.

"Hmm... ooooh, so this is how it goes! Yep, much different from ankles or wrists! Or necks for that matter!" Myne chuckled and managed a correct knot. She took quite a bit of pride in finally making it. "So what now? What comes next? We drink the beer after tying the knot?"

" Firssst we get the barrels in the water. " The gorn said as he hefted one of the barrels onto his shoulders before striding out into the river.

"Erm, yeah, I can't do that." Myne called out and just rolled her own barrel into the river, letting it float away before taking her PaDD from the holster at the back of her pelt. A few commands later and the barrel rappers in front of her and remained stationary in the running water. "But I can do this." Myne chuckled and smiled proud of herself.

" Very cleaver." the gorn said as he paused and picked up a crate full of bottles from the river and carried it over to the riverbank. " Here have a bottle. Be careful the cork can come out with quite a pop," he said offering Myne one.

"I know!" She chuckled and accepted the offered bottle. Looking a the cork for a bit, she struggled for a while before popping it out. The cork very accurately shot out against her forehead and made her yelp and shake her head after. Yet, unphased she took a swig from the bottle and looked a bit conflicted, her lips and tongue tasting the flavor. "Erm... I guess it is decent for an Earth brew. Must be the Gorn touch that gives it a bearable taste."

" I'm sssorry you don't like it." The gorn replied slightly disheartened as he activated his scanner to just give her a quick check.

"Nah, don't be. It is, erm, passable. Sorry doc, I just can't really stomach Earth based foods and drinks. The black fizzy drink one makes me nauseous and the coffee makes me want to puke." Myne explained smiling. "Actually this is the least revolting Earth beer I ever had!"

" Coffe is one of the few thingsss that keep'sss me going sssome daysss." The gorn said as he took a swig before reaching into a basket at his feet and pulled out two bowls and a soup flask. " Would you care for sssome fish sssoup? I made it myself."

"Yeah, I don't get that. How is drinking poison helping to get you going?" She asked confused and sighed shaking her head. "Sorry doc, if it's Earth fish, then nope. Rather not spend the next few days bedridden. Unless you got Bajoran fish there? Those are so delicious!"

" Sssorry it'sss earth river fisssh." The gorn said slightly disapointed. " Ssshall i replicate you a bajorian fisssh ssstew?" he asked

"Well, you should first of all stop being sorry for Human things. Not your fault doc! And yes, I would love some Bajoran fish stew! Fresh water if possible!" Myne nods eagerly, her stomach rumbling a bit at the thought of a tasty Bajoran stew.

" Computer a bajoran sssouth sssea'sss fisssh ssstew with a bottle of fresssh water." Sthilg replied percking up slightly as a bowl and bottle appeared next to Myne.

Smiling and shaking her head, Myne reach out to pat the nice Gorn on the arm. "You are adorable big doc. I meant freshwater fish. Computer, dematerialize the fish stew and accompanying water. Then please replicate a Bajoran freshwater fish stew." She said and waited for her stew to appear. "Doctor, you so seem as if you are from a different age at times."

" I am from a different age my dear. I was born only a few yearsss after Archer ended his term as federation presssident." the gorn replied with a chuckle.

"Oh, I still remember the day the Federation made contact with my people. That was a freaky day. The galaxy was so much smaller back then, right? It felt a lot emptier and colder." Myne mused starting to eat from her stew.

" I remember looking up at the ssstarsss and wondering what was out there. Then they crassshed onto my homeworld and i ended up in a nightmare." The gorn responded as he paushed from his stew.

"A nightmare? Why do you say that? Sounds kind of fun being able to remember the Federation under Archer. It couldn't have been that horrible from a Gorn perspective." MYne said looking at him worriedly.

The gorn was silent before he quietly replied " Less than three daysss after i found out the federation exisssted i had to bury all of my family. I woudn't wisssh that on anyone."

"Alright, yeah. Guess that would do it. Sorry to hear about it doc." She said raising her bowl and using it as a glass to toast respectfully. After all, she had no drink to do it, nor did she want any of the beer. "It has been a long time since however. How have you been holding up?"

" I've been okay, but it'sss all being dragged back to the sssurface." He replied rubbing his head. " Part of me doesss feel like i've been running away from home for ssso long and now i have to go back."

"Well. You know, if you ever feel the need to just have someone to stand with, eat fish and watch a river, also NOT drink Earth beer... I don't mind being that someone. Leeching off your dark thoughts might help me with mine. I think it's called empathy or something like that." Myne said with a comforting smile, trying to lighten up the mood slightly.

" You are more than welcome to stop by my dear. By the way who did you think was using the holodeck? " The gorn replied with a warm smile.

"Oh... erm, I still have no idea. Someone on the ship is making holodeck programs that are poorly optimized and use double the amount of power they should. It's not a real problem, but it is a drop that keeps gathering and messing with my optimizations of the power grid. Your program doc is not exactly optimized either, so I thought I might have caught my culprit. But one of these days..." She trailed off shaking a fist in the air.

" Well, i'm sssure you'll find out who'sss ruining your power grid. I appologise for not being able to run thisss one correctly." The gorn replied with a warm smile.

"Yeah, I know. It's just a matter of time. Don't worry doc, I'll optimize your program after I finish eating. You won't have issues with it I promise." Myne offered.

" Thank you my friend." Sthilg replied as he finished his soup and just allowed himself to relax in the warm sun.

//OFF//

Commander Sthilg
Chief Medical Officer
USS Elysium

Lieutenant JG Myne Redal
Assistant Chief Operations Officer
USS Elysium