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“Rapunki!” Kayshon drew his knife, but still hesitated to strike. He had to switch to a one-handed grip to hold on to the roaring monstrosity’s spines. He ducked when it swatted it’s heavy tail against where Kayshon was holding on to its back.
“Rapunki disarmed!” Kayshon panted. The damn translator was Kimarnt, measuring firewood .
“Stand down!” he repeated in Federation Standard.
If this alien monster had heard him, it either didn’t understand or didn’t care. It continued it’s rampage undeterred, trampling plants and knocking over hydronics basins left and right. There went Kayshon’s dandelions.
“Watch out!” Haubold warned Sezan and shoved her out of the way.
Kayshon had a second to brace for impact before the monster roared again and threw itself at the wall where the two security officers had been standing.
“Gramble’s mistress!” he warned, raising the knife. He doubted it would do much apart from annoying this thing.
The doors hissed. There was a blue and green flash at the far edge of his vision.
“Shaxs... Kayshon!”
It was Tendi. She stood in the door, entirely unarmed — not that the phasers were much help right now — and waving her arms. That would definitely draw attention.
“No, Zenrox!” he called out. The bear pack had this. They had the beast cornered in the hydroponics bay, at least until Tendi had unlocked it with her medical authorisation, Shaxs was just waiting for a moment to strike. Nobody had to get hurt while they figured out a way to contain an enraged beast that didn’t respond to phaser stuns. They had this.
Tendi’s distraction worked as well as Kayshon had feared. An angry snort from the beast’s muzzle as it turned and spotted the new target. It reared on it’s hind legs with a screech. Kayshon, white-knuckled, held on.
Tendi didn’t even flinch. She roared back.
“Zenrox, tilling-his-fields-in-spring!” he screech-shouted.
The damn thing was galloping right for her and Tendi made not move to get out of the way. She threw herself into a charge, headfirst at the monster.
Kayshon plunged the knife into the tough hide, as far as it would go. It did nothing at all. On the bright side, that was an extra handhold.
Tendi launched herself into the air. She flew towards them.
Another roar. Then suddenly, the monster bucked and shuddered and fell. It skidded across the deck plates into on of the more intact plant beds, tearing roots as it went. When Kayshon dared to open his eyes, he saw Shaxs standing over them like the beast at Tanagra. He shook out his enormous right hand, rolling the shoulder with a reverberating click, and watched the monster with a wary glint in his eye.
Tendi appeared from behind a lump of alien muscle. She raised her hypospray in a triumphant arc.
“Ha! Got you!”
There was a hiss and once again Kayshon tried to hold on. The monster was shrinking rapidly. The spikes slipped out of his hands now, shrinking and melting like the fools’ treasure, guarded by firelight. He jumped off of its back, looking for Tendi.
She was fine. She landed in a textbook perfect three point touch on the deck next to Kayshon and clapped her hands. Evidently she was satisfied with her work.
“Can you believe Stevens leaned against the Sacred Beast Rock of Chimera II again? That’s the second time this week!” she told him with an exasperated smile.
Kayshon could believe that. He shook his head regretfully. “Chenza at the court."
“I keep telling him not to lean on things,” Shaxs said.
Stevens’ naked unconscious form laid peacefully in the destruction he had caused among Kayshon’s ornamental brassicas. He must have torn his uniform completely during the transformation. The only piece of equipment on him was…
“Sokath, his eyes teary!”
Tendi pulled the knife out of Stevens back, wiped it clean against her trousers in a gesture that seemed entirely to well practiced for Kayshon’s liking. She flipped it and offered it back to Kayshon handle first. He took it cautiously.
“Don’t worry about it”, she said. “This is like his least serious injury from leaning against things. Sickbay, two for direct transport!”
They dissolved into sparks and a faint static tingle. Kayshon sighed.
“Everyone all right?” Shaxs asked. The scattered bear cubs in the room checked in one by one.
“I’d like a moment, sir”, Kayshon said with a look over the destruction.
Shaxs laid a heavy palm on his shoulder. “The earth isn’t salted, baby bear. Your garden will grow again. Take your time.”
“Thank you”, he said. Federation Standard was woefully inadequate to express the gratitude he felt for Shaxs giving him time. Just so he could grieve for some silly plants. He smiled at the old Bajoran, hoping to convey some greater emotion than the simple thank you. “Kiteo when he opens his eyes. Kiteo, healing.”
A smile softened Shaxs’ craggy face. “You’re welcome. We’re your Caves of Wossname.”
“Garanoga,” Kayshon supplied
“Gesundheit”, Shaxs said in English.
The rest of the bear pack filed out, and that left Kayshon to contemplate the mess.
***
He still stood taking stock of his collection of asteraceae. There was a thin layer of them spread out over the deck plates and plant beds. Kayshon idly wished that he had picked a plant family for his project that could be propagated from leaf clippings. He felt a bit like he had grown roots himself, like Kayshon, his garden destroyed, because he couldn’t yet bring himself to step on the shredded leaves and flowers to fetch the broom and sweep them into the composter to rot.
The door swished. Kayshon was briefly driven by the irrational fear that the newcomer would step on the leaves and looked up.
It was Jack. Jack was not stepping on the leaves. He stopped just short of the mess and looked down and whistled quietly.
“Stevens really did a number in here, huh?”
With two large buckets held in his hands, Jack looked almost like an ensign. If he had come to clean up, that was an ensign’s job. Consoling a friend though, that was Jack’s job. The realisation warmed Kayshon like Nayra, keeping the embers.
“Well,” Jack told him brightly, “it won't get better from staring at it. Let's do this!”
Jack handed Kayshon a deep bowl from the depths of his buckets and took one for himself. Finally, he opened up a folded piece of cloth into a large, sturdy bag.
“Leaves in here,” he said, waving his bowl. “Fruits, stems and seeds in the other one. Anything inedible goes in there.” He pointed at the bag.
Kayshon nodded. He squared his slouching shoulders in a trained reflex to the order. He didn’t question Jack’s system, since it made sense to separate the easily compostable materials from seeds and tougher wooden debris. He simply picked a deckplate to sort and let himself work, slowly, peacefully. It was meditative, like preparing a seedling bed.
That didn’t stop Jack from making conversation. “I think it’s cool that you have such green thumbs. Didn’t you say you grew up in a cave?”
Kayshon looked at his hands as he was sorting through the dying plants. Not for the first time he wondered at Human colour vision. To him, his hands, thumbs included, looked closer in colour to Jack’s uniform than to the leaf litter he was picking up.
“No, I’ve lived in a cave,” he clarified. “But gardening there wasn’t all that different than it is here.” He patted the raised bed next to him. “It’s still hydroponics.”
Jack collected a handful of branches. "That makes sense. My aunts had a plot in Watney Dome back in Tycho City."
“Jack’s aunts, their thumbs green?” Kashon asked with a raised eyebrow, curiously eyeing Jack’s thumb as he collected broken artichoke heads.
Jack chuckled and offered Kashon the bowl in which he had collected sunflower seeds and chamomile flowers. “Yeah, they are pretty serious about gardening,” he said.
So the green thumb thing was a metaphor.
Jack grinned. “I don’t have the patience for it though. I like harvesting. And snacking!”
Kayshon raised his shoulders in a helpless shrug. “Then this is…” He mentally picked one of the many Federation Standard compounds for Kiazi’s children in the thunderstorm. “... bad luck for you. Most of these would have been edible.”
“Is that why you’re growing so many Earth plants?” Jack raised an eyebrow, as well as the dandelion leaves he had been sorting.
Kayshon smiled broadly. “Asteraceae. It’s a very versatile family of plants. There are edible and decorative varieties that grow in almost all of Earth’s climate zones. I’ve wanted to see how many different ones I could get to grow on the Cerritos.”
To demonstrate he showed Jack the remains of his rainbow celtuces.
It took some doing, but together they had soon cleared and swept the paths between the beds. Jack straightened up and stretched his shoulders.
“There. Ready for the next step, Kayshon?”
Kayshon sighed with a regretful look into their containers of soon-to-be-compost. “Aye.”
“That’s the spirit. Catch!”
Shaxs’ training was paying off. Kayshon caught the bottle that Jack threw him without dropping it. It was unexpectedly heavy. He mustered it thoughtfully. “A carbon scrubber would be more efficient than this.”
“A carbon… Kayshon, that’s not a cleaning solution. It’s vinaigrette!”
Vinaigrette. Oil and vinegar, seasoning to taste. The acid would be good for removing stains, but the oil would leave more behind.
“Karno, when his mind was fogged?”
Jack collected their containers of plant debris and moved them to the deep wash basins next to the entrance.
“Like you’ve said, most of this is edible. Since Stevens decided to harvest, we’re going to cook now. We’re making a salad!”
“That’s… not a bad idea, Jack.” Kayshon laughed and remembered his English lessons. “Life, when it gives you lemons?”
Jack grinned broadly. “That’s right! When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.”
Kayshon joined him and chuckled softly. The destruction, mess, garbage under their hands turned into ingredients. Jack handed Kayshon a cutting board. Kayshon drew his knife. He didn't hesitate to strike.