Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Hayley Marshall (Chief Medical Officer) in Side Sim - Arboretum - Tag Ensign Fayth :)

[snip]

”..Well alright..” Tel’eck said once her friend nodded her assent. The two girls fell into step to see this area of the larger aboretum.

Sharah led them over to a very large bed, big enough for a small ball field. There were trees, shrubs, rock formations, plenty of places to hide and climb. “Anywhere in this bed is free for you to play. As rough as you want. Here, and only here it’s okay to rip the plants up as you play. They are coming up anyway for replanting. So the harder you play, the more you help, and more importantly, nothing here can hurt you. Okay?” Sharah asked. She had loved playing outside when she was younger, and she was glad there was a place like this on board for the children, but she wanted them to be safe. She started to turn away, “Oh, Tel’eck, you aren’t supposed to be in school or somewhere else are you? I don’t want to have to fend of security for you.” She grinned at the girls and left them to play.

”..Nu uh! Sarah and I are out of class till 0800 tomorrow! We got our work done early and each got 100% to boot!” She said proudly.

Sharah smiled, “That’s good work, girls. So how about you two do your laser tag over here. When I’m done with the doctor, maybe you can help me with a special project?”

(SNIP)
As directed, Hayley starts using the pestle to break up the flowers, working some water in a little at a time, until a paste starts to form. “Do you ever dry the organics first? Or use an oil rather than water? Or does that affect the composition?” Hayley continued to work the mixture until it was fairly uniform in texture.

Jr. Lt Marshall, CMO

Sharah moved over to the other side of the table and began working with another one of the flowers, making a salve as well. “For the purposes of my research we only used water. The idea was to be able to make the medicines out of things that would be readily available. So the plants themselves and water. Oil is not the best medium, as it can make the salve too slick, though there are oils that have strong medicinal purposes. But it takes a long time to extract oil by hand to make enough to use to make the medicines. Honey can be used, but that can take time to track down.” She works breaking up the flowers by hand, pulling the pieces apart and then mixing them with the water by hand. “So the flower can be dried, and kept to be used later. Of course if we take this up to the chemistry lab we can make something more potent and that can be administered by hypo as well.” Sharah looks over to what Hayley has made and nods. “That’s a good consistency. Now, let’s heat it.” She pulls out a Bunsen burner with a stand to go over it. “We want to warm it to just below simmering. A simmer is actually okay if you aren’t going to use it right away. You don’t want it too hot that it burns if you are going to use it right away.” While the salve warmed Sharah pulled out a PaDD and downloaded a file to it and gave it to Hayley. On the PaDD contained the basic information concerning her research (OOC: Rough draft, I haven’t updated it yet. And just so everyone knows, please don’t actually use this, it’s for RP purposes only. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ercGjQ3QW8VXBL-TafHqreAU6LdoxfO5ktjnsVeHCEg/edit?usp=sharing)
En Fayth, Science - Botanist

While waiting for the compound to warm, Hayley looked over the file with interest. “Have you had many chances to work with non earth-native plants yet? I would imagine similar environments and climates would produce plants with similar characteristics and chemical composition to those on earth.” She paused for a moment, So what exactly set you off on this area of research? Is it something you have always had an interest in?”

Jr. Lt. Marshall, Doctor

“I had plants from many of the worlds in the Federation to work with while doing my research. The actual file that goes on the tricorders actually looks for similar chemical compositions instead of specific plants. Usually they look similar if you line them up, but looks subtly different due to ecology.” Fayth checks the salve and nods, “this one is ready.” She carefully lifts the hot container off the burner and turns the flame off. She gets a small container and scoops the slave into it and the places a lid on it. She puts it to the side. “For you. Take it to sickbay and run tests on it, try it out.” She places a label on it indicating the plant it came from. “Just be sure to double check for allergies first.”

Sharah considers her last question. She smiles fondly at the memory. “When I was 10 my parents took me to Vulcan to try and get me help for my condition.” Hayley know all about that after the previous day. “The ship we were on, the Galileo had a small arboretum. It was cared for by an amazingly young En Oliver Loughty, who,” she smiles again, her eyes far away for a moment, “he took me in hand and taught me all about plants. That was the first time I knew that plants could be used to make medicines. He told me. And I was…desperate for something to help me. When we returned to Betazed, I bugged my doctors to no end about traditional remedies, trying to find out of there was a native plant that would work. And while doing that I found that there was almost a whole other side to medicine I hadn’t been aware of. And it kind of grew from there.”
En Fayth, Science - Botanist

“It sounds like you are equally passionate about both your fields of study. Don’t be too quick to label yourself as just one or the other. They don’t have to be mutually exclusive you know.” Hayley collected the salve from her. “Thank you for this, not just the salve, all of this.” She gestured to indicate their general area. “I don’t think I have been this relaxed since coming aboard.”

Jr. Lt. Marshall, CMO

Sharah chuckles. “I don’t think I could separate them if I wanted to. I love being a doctor and I love working with plants. It’s very soothing for me.” The symphony she could ‘hear’ in this large of an arboretum was soothing and relaxing. Only two people in her life knew she could ‘hear’ or feel plants. It was a secret she held very closely. “I’m glad you enjoyed it. Joseph picks on me for spending so much time with plants. He thinks it’s especially funny when I talk to them while I work.” She laughs, “his parents got a kick out of it too. You know you can come back at any time. There’s always work to be done if it relaxes you, or you can simply sit and enjoy.” She points towards the middle of the Arboretum, “There’s even tress big enough to climb.” She turns back to the table and puts the other plants in containers to work with later. “There are several types of medications we can make this way. For a ship this big I would love to have the ability to make medications if supplies run low. She’s made for deep space, is my understanding. And space is unpredictable.” Sharah was usually very painfully shy, but Hayley being a doctor and Sharah getting to talk about a subject she was passionate about eased some of that shyness and she was actually relaxed despite the ‘noise’ of the ship. “I have found that there is nothing like being in a natural setting to help you relax.”
En Fayth, Science - Botanist