Posted by Lieutenant Markus Woods (Chief Science Officer) in side sim - Plant Food

(snip)

Working the ingredients over, he mixed stirring and flipping to make sure everything rotated and shifted to cook evenly. At her silent comment he just smiled. Pride and enjoyment rolled off of him, but mixed with frustration at the lack of data. Silently he called into question some of Betazed’s scientific practices but quickly waved it away. There was nothing he could do about that. No sense stressing over it. Much less in a way that she might take it as a personal matter. It wasn’t her fault. On any part of it.

‘In the words of the famous Sherlock Homes… “Data, data, data. I cannot make bricks without clay.”’ he mused silently, then went back to stirring. “What do the myths and legends say,” he asked out loud. There was always a grain of truth in those matters. Somewhere. Even if it was a dust mote, floating in a sunbeam. It started somewhere.

Mark

There was an echoing feeling of frustration from her. There was no reason to not have more data. Betazed had been technologically advanced enough for centuries to have data and be able to track and analyze her condition. She sighed reaching into a drawer and pulling out a PaDD and scrolled through. “The earliest stories talk about demons who can control the minds of whole armies. Some mention great leaders who were able to predict with absolute certainty the actions of others and keep the people safe. Some talk about children who were possessed by the minds of demons, peacekeepers, shamans. They are all dotted with tales of immense pain and strangeness in the behaviors of the person. Later stories....many people cast the children out, left to starve, shunned them, afraid of them, some ran away on their own. Some returned, claiming to have been cured, many of the stories end, claiming the child eventually found ‘home’. The way they are written though it’s difficult to tell it home was an actual place or more an abstract idea.” At the word ‘home’ she pulled the swiveled display over and stared hard at the myriad multicolored markers and lines.

She tossed the PaDD down, frustrated. “We have more mythical and legendary stories of super-sensitives than we do hard data.”

Sharah

“My history is a little rusty,” he said, stopping what he was doing as the gears of his mind turned, rolling and turning the data, the stories over in his head. Yes, they were anecdotal, but there was no reason for anyone to lie about those events, so far as he knew. His own people had their own accounts of psychic and paranormal abilities. Hell, he’d tested high for ESP potential when he’d joined Starfleet. And then the encounter with the device seemed to have brought it out in a very big way. He was living proof.

“When did your people first attain warp drive?” Odd question, he knew. But perhaps the answer wasn’t on Betazed. Even more so, perhaps those folks had gotten offworld y other visitors. Or there had been outside influence by a species with no Prime Directive. Perhaps even the same species that made the device.

“The Avandar launched in 2139. These stories go back to our ancient history.” Following his train of thought easily she seemed willing to accept the idea that some off world alien visitors had something to do with it. There were legends of demons of pain and anger attacking whole villages. Instead of a super sensitive being out of control it could have been aliens. “Tam Elbrum left with Tin Man. His last message said that he had finally found his place, he was home.” Sharah sighed then, “But that was the last we heard of him. We have no idea if he is still alive or not. I would give almost anything to be able to talk to him.”

At the same time the universe was interesting. Everything had an equal and opposite. Balance of mathematical precision. Cause and effect. It stood to reason that if someone like Sharah was so strong and wobbling out of control in an erratic orbit, there had to be a stabilizing force. All life flows in a circle, and it can be terribly out of balance until one finds their center. Center, which one could think of as home. Maybe it was a place. Maybe it was a person. Maybe it was both. Maybe it was finding a missing aspect of ones’ self. Or even all of those things.

No closer to answers, he frowned and went back to attending to the frying and steaming food . REaching over he turned off the heat, then gave it a few more tosses, stirring it around, sending up billows of steam.

Markus turned back toward her, his stirring ladle in hand, half pointed in her direction. “Do any of these stories involve them having a partnership, sidekick, lover, etcetera? Or a place they visited often? Not necessarily the same place for all of them, but somewhere personal to each individual.”

Markus

Sharah was stilled momentarily by the focus Markus was giving the topic. She wasn’t sure what to make of it, no one, not even her doctors on Betazed had really looked at her research, not the social research anyway. She pushed it away though, she’d think about it later. She picked up another PaDD and scrolled through. “That’s what this is,” she pointed to the screen with all the color. “I’ve been trying to track where they lived, where they moved to or traveled. My planetary science expert on the Ark Angel helped me some. Trying to account for plate tectonics and climate change of time. If it’s there, I don’t see it. There are a few places, here, here, and here where they seems to over lap, but it’s by centuries at least. I would love to visit these places. I never got the chance.” Then she was quiet for awhile, going through notes and cross referencing stories from the first PaDD. She shook her head, “All those that claimed a cure or having found ‘home’…the ones who returned/went back, had a companion. Some married…the stories aren’t clear. At quick glance there are a few, the older ones, that talk about great leaders and such speak of spouses, but some seemed find and others not…wait…” she went back into the stories and then nodded. “All of them…the ones claiming to be healed, home, finding their place, they all either had a companion/spouse or spoke of one. There aren’t any details about them though.”

Sharah

Carefully he went to plating a few moments later, then shifted the wok back into the replicator along with the cooking gear, then brought over a steaming stir-fry with vegetables, rice, and what would have been beef it it hadn’t been replicated. This he sat down at the ow table in front of the couch. “Well, that’s a pretty good data point. We should take a closer look at it. A common through-line for a solve. It may turn out to be coincidence. Or it could be very important. For now… let’s get some food in you. In both of us. Bring your pads over here.”

This might turn into a working dinner, but he didn’t care. As long as she wasn’t miserable, and they could make progress, then that mattered the most. But in truth he was just happy to be able to spend time with her, and maybe help her. Rather than sitting in his quarters like a bump on a log.

Mark

Sharah grabbed the too PaDDs and stood, too fast, and paused, hip leaned against the desk. She turned the swivel monitor to cover the disorienting throbbing and then moved toward the couch. It certainly wasn’t the worst day she’d had. It was a matter of always being mindful, of always being aware, of checking herself. That thought brought a slight smile to her face, a memory of someone berating her for doing just that, for not trusting herself. Sharah pushed the memory away with regret. It didn’t matter anymore. She sat on the couch and put the PaDDs between them on the table. Sharah didn’t even consider it a working meal, not really. She was too caught up in the excitement that someone, anyone, was willing to discuss it. Even if only once, it was additional insight she didn’t have before. She was really happy it was Markus, though. She had always found one-on-one interactions easier, but she really enjoyed his company. It was strange, perhaps, since she’d only known him very briefly, but she was comfortable in his presence, and that was a rare gift.

The PaDD containing the notes and research had a file simply named ‘Home’. It contained every reference about a cure, peace, home, anything like that. Sharah had already considered Markus’ possibilities, but it was just notes. There was no qualitative nor quantitative data to support anything, yet. Sharah had stared at it for years now though. “I thought maybe tracking them would show somewhere…maybe having to do with the planets magnetic poles, or some strange electro-magnetic field, or even a rare flower.” She picked up a plate and ate silently. He could ‘hear’ the thoughts tumbling over each other, contemplating, making connections, discarding, looking at it again with an attempt at a new perspective.

“You know I have considered that the reason it doesn’t show as a genetic anomaly is because it’s not. The stories have been around far too long. Is…”she felt uncertain, maybe she was fooling herself…trying to rationalize, make herself legitimate rather than a mistake. “Is it possible that our evolution requires, our species requires, people like me to survive? Or did in a much harsher world than we live in now?”

Sharah