trans_9 | Animal Watching [Open]

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Animal Watching [Open]

Among the things that Cassie had learned about the ship where she now made her home was that there was a section of it that held a large number of alien animal and plant species. Although it had taken her longer then she thought it would to get there, she had finally found her way to Hydroponics, where the animals were supposed to reside. Her eyes twinkled happily and a smile played across her lips as she wandered through the area. The animals that she saw were incredible. Nothing like those that she was familiar with, but that didn't matter. They were all amazing in ways that were unique to them and that was wonderful.

She spotted a strange green creature out of the corner of her eye and spun to get a better look, but, to her disappointment, it vanished before she could see much more. Cassie moved towards the area where she had last seen it, hoping that it might still be lingering nearby or that there might be more like it still within range. She moved slowly and quietly so as not to startle any animals still nearby.

She continued on for a while longer, managing to get at least a glance of a number of other animals and in a few cases she did better then that, although she didn't know enough about them to put a name to any of them. She sighed contently as she walked, feeling more comfortable at that moment then she had since she arrived here. Even the house that she lived in on the ship, the one that resembled her home on Earth, still felt strangely foreign to her for some reason. But here... the animals and physical surroundings might be alien, but this feeling of being surrounded by so many wonderful creatures was not. She felt surprisingly comfortable here.

She might just have to come here more often.

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"Well, a lot of other people are too," he added. "In my case, since I can't fight, I want to have some way to help everyone out. And I'm good at this, so..."

He smiled some more. "You can see them any time, I don't mind! I can show you when I'm done eating if you want."

"The fact that others help doesn't suddenly lessen your accomplishments," Cassie told him. "Without those foods we might be at a serious disadvantage. And it's always best to play to your strengths. I still have to figure out where I fit in on this ship."

"I'd like that," Cassie returned his smile with one of her own. "Do you mind if I sit with you for a moment? I'm kind of tired. It's been an incredible walk, but a long one."

"Thanks. I'm sure there's something you'll be good at."

He nodded. "I don't mind! Oh-- My name's Fletcher. It's nice to meet you."

Cassie grinned at Fletcher. He seemed to be a sweet boy.

"I'm Cassie and it's nice to meet you too." She paused and then, curious about her new friend, she asked, "So, what do you do when you're not here?"

"I like to play with my dog, and hang out with my brother Russel." Although his face fell just slightly as he finished that sentence. What was up with Russel lately, anyway...? But he moved on. "And I really like the media library. There's so much science I have to catch up on..."

Cassie noticed Fletcher's response when he mentioned his brother. She hesitated, not wanting to offend the boy by prying where she didn't belong, but she also wanted to help. "Your brother's name is Russel? It's nice that you two are able to spend time together." She bit her lip before pressing on again, "Is something wrong? Maybe I could help. Sometimes it helps to run a problem by fresh eyes."

"No, it's nothing. He's just been really busy lately." And Fletcher forced the smile back onto his face. He probably did need to talk about it with someone, but he didn't want to dump all of that onto someone he'd just met. "So I haven't seen him as much the last few weeks, that's all. But he's here, so I'm really glad."

He chewed on his sandwich some more.

Cassie didn't really believe the denial- she had forced a smile enough times herself to recognize one that was clearly forced- but she also wouldn't press Fletcher if he'd prefer not to talk about it with her. She could understand. They barely knew one another. "If you ever need to talk, I'm always available, Fletcher. I might not be able to help, but I'd certainly try my best. And sometimes it's nice to just to have someone there to listen. I've been told that I'm pretty good at that." She offered Fletcher a friendly smile.

"So, you mentioned learning science. Are you a science student then or are you just interested in it?"

"...Thanks." He nodded, but moved on when she did.

"Back where I'm from, there's a science called alchemy that lets people deconstruct matter and reconstruct it into a new form. My brother and me study botanical alchemy." If there's one subject that cheers Fletcher up, it's alchemy. "But it doesn't seem to be very common in other universes, so mostly I've been reading about stuff like particle physics and quantum mechanics... it's all really weird though, I don't think I really get most of it."

"Ah, what kind of science do you have in your world?"

Alchemy? It was a term that she'd heard before, but she knew very little about it. Did it play a role in her own world? If it did, it was not something that she'd encountered before this. "How do you study botanical alchemy?" she asked curiously. She was pleased to see that Fletcher seemed to have cheered up a bit.

She wasn't the best science student, but she knew something of it. She'd have to have a solid knowledge of at least chemistry (organic chemistry in particular, but she wouldn't have been able to study that for a few more years if things had progressed normally in her world) and biology if she was going to reach her dream of becoming a vet. "Ah, well the one that I like the most is biology. That's the study of animals. There are a lot of other types of sciences though. Chemistry and physics are the first ones to come to my mind."

"We use it to alter the way plants grow. That way we can make them grow a lot faster than they would normally. And there're lots of other things we can do to make them grow better, too." To hear Fletcher tell it, alchemy was more or less the best thing ever.

"We don't have physics where I'm from, but it seems really interesting," he replied. "I really like biology and chemistry, too."

"Really?" Cassie asked curiously. "That sounds fascinating." Something about his mention of altering the way the plants grew set off warning bells in her head though, even if Fletcher's tone was cheerful and positive about it. "And it's safe? Do you use chemicals or something like that? I don't really know anything about alchemy."

"Not usually. We use our own energy to manipulate them on a molecular level."

Cassie nodded, surprised by what she'd heard. She knew enough scientific terminology to be able to understand fortunately, even though her education had been seriously disrupted during the war. It hadn't occurred to her that such a thing might be possible. But, to an extent, that didn't sound like science to her either, at least not the type of science that she was familiar with. It sounded more like some kind of storybook magic to be able to use your own energy to alter another thing, which she might have discounted as a possibility under normal circumstances, but it didn't seem like that much of a stretch to believe that magic existed given what she'd already seen on Stacy. "Your own energy? What do you mean by that? Is it like magic or something?"

"Um... well, sort of, I guess," he admitted, looking a little uncomfortable at the comparison. "But it follows a strict set of scientific rules."

Cassie noticed the shift in Fletcher's demeanor and quickly decided that it might be best to shift the topic away from the physical workings of alchemy. She didn't know why her comment had caused the boy discomfort, but she hadn't intended for that result. "I see. That's interesting to hear. Thank you for sharing all this information with me. I have so much to learn."

She smiled brightly at Fletcher. "Have you worked with plants long?"

"You're welcome! Um, I think I saw some things on alchemy in the media library," he said. Hopefully that would be better at explaining than he would.

"Yeah, ever since me and my brother were little kids. We had a garden back home before we came here."

"I'll be sure to check them out," Cassie promised.

"That sounds nice," she smiled. "It must have been fun working on that together. I've never had any siblings, but I used to help out with my parents' work with animals back home. My father had his clinic in a barn by our house, so I'd spend a lot of my time helping with the animals."

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Animal Watching [Open]

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