Plants Don't Need You To Smile - Chapter 3 Intrusion
Data x Gender-Neutral Reader
First Chapter
You press your hands deeply into the moist soil and scoop out a good amount. Then you fill the pot with it — not too much, though, so the plant has enough space to grow roots. You are engrossed in your work and don’t notice what happens around you right now. You are almost alone in the arboretum. Only Keiko is scanning some small habitat and making sure everything is growing as it should. You would have done that as well, but she insisted that you do the gardening part of the job today and leave the rest to her.
Because she still thinks you need a break.
You pick up the still small but already impressively beautiful flower. You don’t wear gloves today. You want to feel every part of this. It calms you down. And you damn well need that after the evening you had.
When you look at the Sonara orchid you are currently planting into the pot, it all floods back to you — almost rolling over you in a rush of memories.
You see yourself again, sitting between Kelly and that Andorian whose name you cannot remember. Kelly is blabbering like a brook, telling you all about her day.
“Security sounds fun,” one person says, and Kelly slaps a hand on the table.
“Warriors don’t have fun, warriors fight,” she imitates Lieutenant Worf, her supervisor.
You bite your lip at that comment. What if somebody heard her? Maybe even the lieutenant himself.
The others, though, seem to enjoy Kelly’s presence.
And then comes the comment that brings you back into reality.
“I just can’t sometimes with Commander Data. I gave him my report on the last away mission and he asked me like a thousand questions about it. Apparently, we need to document everything — the temperature down to the degree, the wind, and every piece of unnecessary garbage you can think of.” The Andorian sighs.
You feel a pain in your chest. It’s like a little poke. Like a sharp finger pointing at you.
So, you take your glass of syntheholic beer and drink a couple of sips.
“And what did you do?”
Suddenly they are all looking at you.
“I was in the arboretum,” you state and try to smile at Kelly.
She frowns. “Wild,” she mumbles. “But what did you do?”
“I cared for the plant life and logged a couple of species. I also monitored—”
You get cut off by Kelly. She shakes her head and laughs a bit.
“No, no. What we mean is what gossip can you bring to the roundtable?”
You frown. The table is a square.
Oh. Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table — it’s an idiom.
“Gossip?”
“About your commanders or lieutenants, or really anyone,” Kelly clarifies.
You look into your glass of beer. Just a couple more sips and you have done your due diligence. You can go soon.
But right now, they are all still watching you like vultures.
“My commanding officer is Lieutenant Seral. I like him,” you mumble.
“He’s a Vulcan, right?” the Andorian asks, raising one of her eyebrows.
“Yes,” you reply, setting your glass down again.
“I hate working with Vulcans. They can be so… harsh,” she says, shaking her head in thought.
“You are harsh most of the time,” Kelly laughs at her — right into your ear. It rings.
“I like working with Vulcans,” you hear yourself say. Nobody else does, though…
The Sonara orchid isn’t quite in its blooming phase. When it is, you can hear the flower hum softly. When touching the red petals, one can even feel the vibration.
You have planted the small lady that you call Daphne in her new, bigger pot. She looks not quite right there — too dainty and small — but you know that soon she will grow bigger and fit right in.
Unlike you did yesterday.
Because after having to navigate through endless loud, somehow rude comments, the negative climax of the evening occurred.
Again, you feel as if you are back there. And in your mind, you never really left Ten Forward anyway.
A server comes to your table, bringing the group — you are four — more drinks. You remind yourself of your rule, your requirement:
One drink.
And by starting a new, second beer, you have already more than fulfilled that.
As the server puts down the four glasses — Earth pint glasses, you notice — you ask yourself if it would be considered rude to drink only half.
It’s replicated. It can go right back. It wouldn’t be wasteful, right?
But it would be rude, you muse.
Suddenly, your table falls quiet. And you only notice why when it’s too late.
Too late to flee or stop your physical reaction.
“Commander,” the Andorian greets him.
“Ensigns,” he greets back.
You look into your full glass — partly to drown out the noise and partly to hide your red cheeks behind the rim.
“I have noticed you sitting here. I am aware that you are off the clock, so to speak, but I wanted to inform you of the important meeting tomorrow afternoon. At 1500 hours.”
The Andorian nods. “Thank you, Lieutenant Commander Data.”
“You are welcome,” he replies gently.
After that, he stands there.
It’s still silent. So silent you could hear a self-sealing stembolt drop.
Kelly coughs awkwardly.
“Oh,” he then suddenly speaks up, “I am intruding on your private time. I apologize. I wish you a nice evening.” He nods courteously and turns around again.
As soon as he is out of earshot, Kelly starts giggling.
“Stop it!” the Andorian says. “He is my commander!”
“I know,” Kelly snorts. “Every day. You have to work with him every day.”
The Andorian sighs. “I honestly try to hear it as background noise.”
You bite the rim of your beer glass. Only now do you notice that you haven’t moved since he left.
You put the glass down again, sigh, and then muster the courage you need for this.
“What are you talking about exactly?”
Kelly and the Andorian look at you. The fourth member, another human, grins at them both. He hasn’t said much until now — he mostly laughs at Kelly’s jokes.
Now, though, he speaks up. “We mean that he’s weird.”
Weird.
The needle is back, poking your chest. This time there’s more than one.
They find him weird — you try to process the information.
“Why?” you ask. You try to sound casual, just asking some friends about something you don’t really care about. But really, you do care. A lot.
The smell of the soil brings you back into the present moment.
As you set Daphne over to her friends — other orchids and the like — you frown.
Just thinking about it makes you queasy. Sweaty.
They called him weird.
Him, of all people. A lieutenant commander. A unique being. Weird.
And what makes you even more nervous is thinking about what they might call you if he’s weird.
What are you? Plant person. That’s right. You’re still not sure if it’s a nickname or an insult.
But it is accurate, you muse, as you get started on the next orchid. This one is already in bloom. You listen to its sweet, low hum and close your eyes for a moment.
“Hello, Keiko,” you hear a voice then — bringing you back to life. Or rather, making you want to thrust yourself between the flowers you just replanted.
Just try being quiet, you tell yourself.
You are already crouched down, sitting on the ground cross-legged, as you like to do. Keiko has offered before to just put the pots on the table and plant everything there while standing, but you like sitting on the floor. Sometimes you even feel the warp core somewhere below you, pushing the ship through space.
You have settled on your plan: you will stay here, hidden, silently working and waiting until it’s over.
“I have a problem with the Auravines,” he starts off.
“Oh? What is it?” Keiko asks back — probably smiling, as she does.
“I am not sure. It seems they need less water. I told my team about the requirements of the plants, and they said they would follow the instructions your ensign gave me. But I believe they might not have.”
Your heart starts pounding a kilometer a minute as you feel the redness return to your cheeks. Maybe now you really can hide between the flower pots.
“Oh, you know how plants can be,” Keiko laughs softly.
“I do not,” he answers matter-of-factly. “I do know how some specific plant life can be. But with this one, I have no experience.”
“Right, right,” you are sure you hear Keiko nodding to herself.
It dawns on you then.
“I really am not the specialist when it comes to those plants. My colleague found them.”
Your eyes widen.
“Where can I find your colleague?” Data asks.
“I think you just have to go to the orchids over there,” Keiko says, probably pointing right at you.
Your hiding spot has been discovered.
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