Waters embrace

Posted on Sun 1st Jan, 2023 @ 3:00am by Lieutenant Claire Minelan & Lieutenant Commander Gwy'llim Menoit

1,397 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: A Fresh Perspective
Location: Deep dive swimming pool.
Timeline: MD 3: 1600

The deep pool was a good place for Gwy to relax in the comfort of the waters embrace. It was a piece of her childhood that she missed dearly, and was overjoyed to have the allowance for more deep dives while onboard the Starbase. It wasn't the assignment she was expecting to get, since she'd been bouncing from assignment to assignment recently like a child's ball. This one though, was catering to her strengths, not only professionally but those of her species as well. To dive with a Xindi? Such an honor she couldn't hold in her mind lest it overwhelm her senses.  

Her people were aquatic, but not by design. Their cities had sunk due to environmental issues eon's ago, and they had created or re-created them on the sea floor. Her species had redesigned their entire culture to living at the depths of the oceans of their world, and the crystalline and coral structures that made up their capital city was a masterpiece of engineering.  Some of it she knew just because she was of the Cities, some more she knew because of her brief internship to the higher cities and the great pumps that kept everything oxygenated.

The masterpiece of engineering also included the technology they used to keep themselves from succumbing to the pressures and temperatures of the depths. Everything was layered so that one system depended on the others. A great cascade failure, like the one that had driven her people to the surface would have spelled disaster to her entire species. That cascade had killed thousands of her people. Gwi gave a shudder in the skin-suit in atavistic fear of the cascade that she'd heard so much about in her primary classes, and pressed a tiny malleable ring of silvery material to her nose and pressed it gently onto cheeks and chin. It flexed with her, and stuck lighting up in odd patterns when the water touched it. Its function was the same as a set of gills were for the creatures of the deep, taking the oxygen out of the sea's water. It worked just as well here. Her breath would pull in oxygen and keep it molded to her face so that no matter what she did, she could breathe.

The skin-suit itself was a mottled blue, similar to her skin, and designed to allow her camouflage in the water when she cut through it with her body. It was designed for her, specifically with webbings and underpinnings of heat in the places she most needed it but also keep her comfortably cool in others. Gwy preferred her fingers be warm, but her feet and legs she preferred to be cooler while she worked. The use of them made them warmer in the suit than she was usually comfortable with- hence the lower insulation rating there. She cared for her skin-suit as meticulously as she did her navy blue curls and the cerulean skin that she was graced with. Her family unit was blessed with a particularly lovely shade of blue for their skins.

She moved with the sinuous grace of a creature born in the sea, and she moved through the water with ease. The gloves that normally hung from her waist were clasped around her long fingered hand, and pinned at the wrists. They were webbed, and she used the webbing to her advantage.  Her earrings too served double duty. The ring that pierced the tragus of both ears held a microprocessor, that would allow her hearing and the pressure in her ears to not be affected by the depths of the dive. It was good to test her equipment as well as ensure that the beautiful rings still looked good, glinting golden on her blue skin.

Minelan walked onto the platform which made up the edge of the dive pool, and scanned the decking until she found the bright green and gold bag that signified that Lt. Commander Menoit was in the tank. They were friends, Claire and Gwy and they spent time together frequently when not on duty. Her deck shoes were soft enough to not make noise on the pool deck as she walked towards the bag.

"Commander Menoit?" The call was soft, from the botanist sent to find her superior, for the next set of meetings that had been scheduled. There was a protocol in place when the woman was in the water, that one spoke quietly to her first, because of the strength of the technology that she alone aboard the station bore. The assets of her culture were why she'd been sent, so that they could present humanoids that were as at home in the waters as the whale like species that they were welcoming aboard.

Gwy startled, as the sound was relayed to her through the receptors in the suit around her throat. That had been Minelan's voice and it made her smile to hear it, even as she'd been startled by it. Gwy'llim had adapted her suit, so that the comm badge would work at all times, and was always on 'open' while she was in the water so she could hear the conversations topside, just as if she herself was present. It was her own personal adaptation, after some months of discussion with homeworld engineers, and required a transmitter to be left topside. Her personal one, was in the bag she'd brought in, which Claire happened to be standing beside. It had more than proved itself useful, and the money she'd spent in its adaptation was well spent in her assessment of the scenario.

Waving her hand gently through the water she flickered her fingers in front of her face, blowing out a lungful of air, so she created bubbles that Claire could focus on from the top.

"That's helpful, thanks." Claire thanked her as would have been stupidly difficult to find her, otherwise. The suit she wore gave her a sort of camouflage in the water that was super effective. The bubbles caught the light and sillohuetted her in flickering silver for an instant. Long enough for Claire to focus on her, and track her through the water.

"I live to serve. What's going on up there?" Gwy's voice was a little tinny as it was transmitted through the water and through the clothing that was in the bag.

"Oh, the usual. There's another technical meeting scheduled and they're wondering if some of your species engineers might be willing to make the trek here so that structures can be built that will allow easy interchange between the aquatic and non aquatic. It's not just the xindi tech that needs to work, but ours as well. I think it would be nice to come through the advanced force field systems like your people use for a front door to your living areas."

"I've made inquiries, but there are few enough of us in Starfleet that can help. That's kind of a specialty engineer that doesn't often leave the homeworld. I do have a cousin or two that works on the Great Structures that might be interested in an adventure. " Gwy flipped her body in the water so it was pointed more in the direction of Claire, and scissored powerful legs so that she was propelled in that direction. The water barely moved around her as the suit compensated for the displacement and eased the eddies as much as it was able.

"That suit is a marvel, I don't think I've seen you swim in it before. Can it be adapted for humans?" the flame haired scientist asked as she watched the Tekkorian woman dance through the deeps without a care in the world.

"It probably could, though your body and mine would require different settings. Not to mention, they require a good swimmer to utilize the stealth portions."

"Oh I never doubted that, I was just curious is all. Starfleet issue dive suits aren't so...graceful as yours." Claire muttered darky, thinking that she'd likely look like a baby in a bathtub floundering around in a suit like that. But wouldn't it be fun? Laughter bubbled up from the deeps and also came through the transmitter in the bag. Claire settled down into a crosslegged position as she surveyed the humanoid entrance to the deep dive pool. "I am glad that I am not an engineer."

"Me too."

 

RSS Feed

Comments (1)