An educational encounter

Posted on Friday 14 August 2020 @ 08:04 by Civilian Sansa Draxx-Jones & Civilian Jacob Carson & Lieutenant Commander Hayley Godding

Mission: A Whale of a problem (We're going to need a bigger boat)
Location: The Library
Timeline: MD 3 1600
1722 words - 3.4 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Sansa had decided to visit the ship's library to see if they had any more information on Humpback whales. When she entered, she was quite surprised to see along with all the computer terminals, there was a great deal of actual books. Quite logical for a library, she thought to herself.

She approached a tall man with silver hair not in uniform, but in a very elegant suit and tie. He was going over some information on a PADD. As she approached he looked up and smiled at her warmly. He studied her for a few moments. "Ahh, you must be..... Melody's daughter. Welcome, my name is Jacob Carson but, you may call me Jacob.

Sansa smiled and held out her hand. "Yes, I'm Sansa. How did you know I was Melody's daughter?"

The man smiled at her "You have your mothers eyes, plus the hair. How can I help you, Miss Jones?"

Sansa smiled widened at the very charming gentleman. "Well, I'd like all the information on Humpback whales, please. Why they went extinct, how they came back, their biology... everything.

He raised an eyebrow. "Very impressive. Please sit." He led her to a table and pulled out a chair for her. "Let me see what we've got. Would you like a drink? I have some jasmine tea."

"Ohhh, that sounds interesting" she replied.

He returned a moment later with a tray with a very ornate tea set from which he poured her a cup of aromatic tea. He then headed off to fetch the information she requested.

Sansa took a sip of the tea as her gaze went around the room. Incidentally, he had not sat her at a computer terminal.

Hayley had just come off watch and decided she wanted to see what Sansa was up to. Aware that once things kicked off properly with the mission, the available free time she'd have to spend with her girlfriend would be extremely limited, so was taking full advantage of the free time she had to make the most of it. After asking the computer for her location, she was surprised to discover her in the library. Hayley herself had never actually set foot inside the room, despite acquainting herself with almost the entire ship. There was something about the place that kind of put her on edge, so she'd never ventured inside. After all, if she wanted a book or to reference something, the computer did it from a terminal, why would you go to a 'library' on a ship?

She entered the larger than strictly necessary room, noting the computer terminals off to one side for computer library access, but the main space was filled with huge wooden bookshelves filled with archaic paper filled and leather bound books. It was like something out of a holo-novel of 'ye olde mystical library' of a wizard or something. Her attention was so caught by the sight of the huge racks of books that she almost walked into where Sansa was sitting.

Sansa's face lit up as Hayley approached. "Hey there Sweetie. What brings you here?" She asked as she reached out and took her hand, indicating the seat next to her. "I'm just doing some research on humpback whales."

At that moment, Jacob returned with a stack of books. "Here we are, Miss Jones. These should get you started. I warn you, some of the pictures on whaling are quite graphic and it doesn't paint a flattering picture of 20th century Earth. They made some mistakes during those times, but they were starting to correct them. Of course, I made my own mistakes back then when I visited. Spandex.... what was I thinking?" he mused to himself as he placed the books down.

He snapped out of his reverie and looked at Godding."Ahhh, a new face. Welcome, Lieutenant. Here to see Miss Jones are we? She's certainly pleased to see you. Can I get you some Jasmin tea?"

Hayley had taken her seat next to Hayley and smiled at the older man. "I'd love some, thank you." She said. "Yes, I'm here to see Sansa, although didn't expect to see her here... wait... did you say spandex? I don't think you have the figure for that. Now me or Sansa... we'd make that look good..." She smirked playfully. "I'm Lieutenant Godding, Chief of Security. I assume you're the librarian here?"

“It was the 1980’s and I was having what you would call a ‘rebellious phase’. Not exactly my finest hour.” He said shaking his head as he poured her a cup of tea. “Believe me, I did not look good in a mullet.” He slid the cup towards her. “Yes, Miss Godding you assume correctly. I’m Mr Carson, the ship's librarian. Miss Jones here is on a quest for knowledge and she has come to the right place.”

Sansa had picked up one of the books on whales and was flicking through the pages before she paused “Wait. You were on Earth in the 1980s?” She asked incredulously.

“Why yes. They certainly knew how to party back then but also some...., questionable fashion and music.” He replied.

Accepting the tea, Hayley smiled. "They made some pretty decent movies back then though. ET, Batman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars 5, The Terminator, Back to the Future... so they weren't all bad. Although the fashion was incredibly questionable. Why women needed to wear power-shoulders to look important, I will never understand..." She took a sip of the tea. "Nice blend." She replied. "So, after our swim with the whales, you got interested then, eh?" Hayley asked of Sansa.

Sansa nodded as she continued to flick through the books, her face had fallen and she shuddered slightly as she came to pictures of whales being dragged aboard ships and sliced open. She shut the book.

Carson placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder "I did warn you the pictures were quite graphic."

Sansa nodded "It's just hard to believe that we... humans could be so cruel... I mean it's not like they needed them for food or anything like that."

He nodded "As I said, the mistakes of the past. What's important is that you learn from them so you don't repeat them. Wouldn't you agree, Lieutenant?"

Nodding in agreement, Hayley took Sansa's hands. "I would." She said. "Life is a learning experience, and one of the defining characteristics of our human sentience is our ability to learn from our history and mistakes. Something humanity as a species hasn't been all that good at, if you read enough history."

"Unfortunately, Miss Godding is correct. In the past, people were still quick to judge and slow to change but now I think it's safe to say that significant progress has been made. If you'll excuse me, I have some filing to attend to. It was a pleasure to meet you Miss Jones, Miss Godding." He inclined his head to both in turn before heading back into the rows of books.

Hayley watched him go back to his books. "So, that's an El-Aurian eh? I've never met a listener before. I wonder how old he truly is..." She turned to look at Sansa. "You can never tell as they don't age like normal humanoids. They can look in their thirties and be over eight hundred years old. Considering he actually looks like an old man, I bet he's well into the thousands. I'd love to listen to some of his stories... a true witness to history..." She sighed, a complete history fanatic as she was, she was captivated. "If I'd known he was here, I'd've visited sooner."

Sansa nodded as she picked up another of the books that Jacob ha brought. "Mum says he a valuable addition to the crew and at this point, I tend to agree." She looked up and gave Hayley her best smile. "Well, there is certainly a lot of information here on whales. It says here that they live around 50 years. Whalesong, which is sung by the male can last for up to 24 hours and whales from different areas have different songs that change each year. Wow... I don't think I could sing for 24 hours."

"Shame, you have a lovely singing voice," Hayley replied.

Sansa blushed at her "You know flattery will get you everywhere."

"There are different species of whales as well, beyond the humpbacks. I honestly thought you'd be interested in dolphins. Most girls think they're cute..." Hayley said.

Sansa thought for a moment. "I like dolphins too but whales are more... majestic. Gentle giants roaming thousands of miles. They seem so friendly and curious yet their song sound so lonely and sad... Who knows what they are saying.."

"Well, apparently Commander Tillatix can understand them somewhat, after a fashion." Hayley said as she picked up one of the books and casually leafed through the pages to find the pictures. "You would've thought that after the Kirk mission to save them, Federation scientists might've spent a bit of time trying to understand the song or programming the computer to understand it like the universal translator..."

"Apparently this was tried and failed," Sansa said and then elaborated. "I was looking while I was writing the holodeck program," An institution was set up by the marine biologist that returned with Captain Kirk from the 20th century and they did the most comprehensive study on the whales, their migration patterns and behaviours but they still couldn't break the language barrier. Just think... If this mission is successful and we can make contact with a race that can communicate with them..." She then did a double-take. "Sav'ena can understand the whalesong?"

"That's what your mother said," Hayley replied, still casually flicking through the book. "Something about her species being sensitive to the harmonics. She's heading up the efforts to try to understand them prior to our arrival, in the hopes of improving our first contact chances."

"Oohhh. Sounds interesting. Tell you what. Let's see if we can borrow one or two of these and then go see if Sav has managed to find anything more about what these whales are saying?" She took hold of Hayley's hand and gave it a squeeze.

"Sounds like a plan." Hayley smiled. "It's a library, I'm sure you can borrow the books..."

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