Tree House
Posted on Sat Jul 6th, 2024 @ 3:48am by Captain Remy Johansen & Civilian Alexandra Winters & Civillian Sara Winters & Lieutenant Commander Razka Kas & Lieutenant Commander Nash Winters & Lieutenant Chrysanthe Capulet & Civilian Brunel Winters & Civilian Meressa Keena
1,405 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
Side Plots
Location: USS Astrea, Arboretum
Timeline: After Mission Close, "Helping Brunel"
The Treehouse was complete. So Chrys contacted the several children on board and their parents. She gathered them in the arboretum and then led them all into the area she had chosen to have it built.
She waved a hand at it with a grin at Keena.
Keena squealed with delight, ran to the ladder and began to climb, "Thank you Chrys!"
Chrys laughed and called "You are welcome."
Brunel looked over at his sister and signed, "What is it?"
When Alex's eyes first saw the treehouse, they widened with awe. She'd never seen anything quite like it outside of a holodeck, and definitely not on a ship's arboretum. Alex giggled at her brother's question. She responded, "It's just what it looks like. It's a treehouse!"
"Can we go inside?" Alex asked excitedly.
Brunel looked back at the strange construction. "We did not have such things back on our planet."
"It's like the playground at school. It's a place to play, or just hang out and have fun," Alex said.
This Brunel understood. Though, while he had only been to the playground once, since he came aboard ship, he did remember how much fun it was. "I'll race you!" he then took off, as best he could. While he was out of Sickbay, he was still not as strong as he was before. He became winded very easily, if he overexerted himself.
Alexandra rolled her eyes as she chased after Brunel. "Be careful, Brunel. We don't have to race!"
Chrys stepped back to the adults. Smiling she watched the kids play.
Nash caught Capulet’s eyes first and waved her over to where he and Sara were gathered.
“Nice job, Lieutenant. It’s really amazing what you’ve done. If anything can get bring Brunel some sense of normalcy, it’s this. We want him to just play like a kid again. So thank you for this. I might try to climb up there myself.”
"Feel free" Chrys laughed. "Its for everyone"
"I wanna go on the bridge," Alex said when they got to the bottom of the ladder.
Brunel nodded, as he stood, trying to catch his breath, before attempting the ascent into the tree house."
"No more running," Alex said softly. "It's not a race."
Brunel nodded, smiling weakly at his sister. "Okay...no mors running." He then carefully climbed up the ladder, into the treehouse. Once inside, he sat down and smiled at Alexandra. "Go ahead...I'm gonna rest here and watch. Have fun for both of us?"
Alex held out her hand for Brunel, "Let's go sit on the bridge! I want to show you something."
Taking his sister's hand, Brunel smiled softly and nodded to her.
The drawbridge wasn't far from where the two young teenagers had first climbed into the treehouse. When the got in the bridge Alex walked slowly so as to not lose Brunel, but gave a gentle stomp to make the bridge move, almost like the waves in an ocean - though much louder. She laughed.
"We can sit down there, and look through the ropes, and the slats in the floor," Alex said pointing to the middle of the bridge made of wooden planks and thick rope.
He then allowed her to lead him to where she wanted, then sat down next to her. He waited patiently for what she wanted to show him.
Alex got down on the floor of the suspension and sat cross-legged. She rocked her weight to try to make it swing, but the bridge was too heavy and it didn't move much. "There are a lot of hiding spots out there. We can go there, or there," Alex started pointing out different areas of the treehouse that were cornered off as smaller play areas. "We can come hang out after school and stuff."
After he looked over at the areas she had indicated, Brunel nodded and replied. "Well, the first thing that would have to happen, is that I will need to start in your school first." he paused, considering his next words. "Do you think I would be in your class, or would I have to start at the beginning of school?"
"You wouldn't be at the beginning. They would give you a test to see what you know, and start you in what whatever you needed for every subject," Alex said. She got up briefly to hang from her knees from the edge the rope bridge, lowering her self back inside so that she was facing Brunel, just now upside down.
"If you were behind on anything - like say geography or something because you don't know the current planets, they'd catch you up fast though," Alex assured him.
The young teenager nodded quietly. "I hope I don't cause you any problems in school with your friends."
"Why would you think there would be problems with my friends?" Alex asked.
He shrugged a bit shyly. "Before the welcome dinner, when you came up to me, and we played hacky sack....I....I was never around other children before. Back on our old world, my parents kept me hidden, because of my...handicap. if they weren't as highly placed as they had been, I would have been taken from them and killed. The Ataran ruling class does not abide...defects of any kind."
"I mean, everyone is different from each other here. No one really cares about about stuff like that. Some races don't have vocal cords, and some can't see with their eyes like we can but it doesn't both anyone." Alex put her hands on the floor of the bridge and kicked her legs off the edge of the bridge and did a sort of half walkover motion so that she was standing upright.
She crouched back down. "Everyone goes to school. It's nothing to worry about."
Hearing her comforting words, Brunel couldn't help but smile at his sister. "Thank you for your patience, Ally. I know have much to learn from this new life. I hope I never do anything to cause you, or your parents, to doubt welcoming me into your home and family."
Alex scooted down so that she was fully sitting on the planked floor of the Bridge. "Don't think like that. You are our family now. No one would ever even think that."
Brunel had no words for how what Alexandra had just said to him. So, he chose to hug her instead.
Alexandra embraced her brother, giving him a squeeze. As they let go, she moved positions, so that she was sitting next to him. Alex started talking to him about how the different subjects were divided up in school, and the types of stuff he'd probably be tested on. "You can study first of course," she assured him.
Sara was standing next to Nash half watching the tree house as they talked, when she saw Alex's boots peak over the edge of suspension bridge. "What is she doing?" Sara asked shaking her head. "I don't remember thinking I needed to climb on everything at her age the way she does."
“Oh, she’s just letting her hair down, Sara. Something about having Brunel around is allowing her to let loose. She’s relaxed and having fun. It’s a beautiful thing,” Nash said.
Chrys smiled. "It’s a novelty for them I am sure. It will die down. But I figured they needed a place to blow off some steam."
"Oh, it's perfect," Sara responded. "I wish we'd been somewhere that would have had something like this when she was younger. Holodecks are fine, but you can't always be on a holodeck. This is great."
“It’s perfect, Chrys. We should make this available to all the children on board. Maybe make it a part of the physical education curriculum. A nice way to let the kids burn off all their energy and stay active at the same time,” Nash added.
Lieutenant Chrysanthe Capulet
Chief Science Officer
USS Astrea
Lt. Commander Nash Winters
Chief Engineer
USS Astrea
Lt. Commander Razka Kas (& Keena)
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Astrea
Brunel Cal-Torin (Winters)
Civilian
(NPC-Spello)
USS Astrea
Sara & Alexandra Winters
Civilians
USS Astrea
RSS Feed