A Gift A-Buzz

T'Pren had slept from the moment she got home from the bath house until the next morning. She was refreshed in a way she hadn't been since arriving and spent her time before going on duty working out and eating a hearty breakfast. And while she was on duty, working with the Orb and studying the new Romulan tech specs and dealing with a handful of ensigns who were all a little too familiar with their old schoolmate, she decided to give Da-an a gift in return.

But what does one get for the plant who has everything? Soil? Sunlight? A bird? Some kind of pollinator? But it would have to be something that wouldn't eat the plants.

And that's how T'Pren ended up replicating a beehive and growing several Terran bumblebees.

When she went off duty for the day, she and the bees, all contained in a little clear stasis box, and the beehive made their way to the Pleasure Gardens.

Just as with the day before in her own room, the beauty of the place stopped her in her tracks and took her breath away.

This contained jungle was now thick with crawling vines and fragrant, colorful orchids in every hue. Da-an was pruning back the foliage peacefully, humming to themselves when the Lieutenant arrived with her box of bees.
"Lieutenant? Are those for me?" they asked.

The smile that T'Pren gave Da-an in greeting was a bright one and not tired even a little bit. "I wasn't sure what to get you in return for the enormous favor you've given me, but I had DNA available and I thought you might like some pollinators."

She pointed at the beehive with her chin. "The queen's already inside. She should start laying by tomorrow."

Their faceless form hunched over the skiff, and began to hum atonally to the bees.
"Lieutenant, this is a lovely gift. I'm not used to being so well received."

The lieutenant smiled broadly, relieved that she had managed to give a gift that didn't horribly offend the faceless entity. "You ought to start getting used to it," she pointed out. "Once you start bringing a little more nature to this place, you're going to be very popular."

She reached out to touch the clear stasis box affectionately. They didn't move. They were in stasis. Obviously. "Have you ever had experience with Terran bumblebees?"

"I have, I've had three hive varieties of Terran bees when I worked in experimental agriculture at the academy. They have a nice color, don't they? Golden and small."

"There was a pseudoscience rumor during the 20th century on Earth," T'Pren said with a thoughtful, amused smile, "called the 'bumblebee argument'. The premise was that it was physically impossible for bumblebees to fly because they were not aerodynamically shaped and their wings were too small, so that it was believed that they must fly out of pure strength of will and belief. They flew not because they were designed for it, but because they believed they could." Her smile grew. "I've always liked that."

"Our only choice, it seems," said Da-an. "Is to release then from stasis and see for ourselves. For science, of course," they added.

That made T'Pren grin. "For science," she agreed, and pressed a button on the side of the box. It opened slowly and the bees inside began coming to life. They shook themselves off and cleaned their feet and then took to the air in clumsy, bobbling circles. "The power of belief," she said with an air of wonder.

One stray bee landed on Da-an's berry-like head structure.
"Science be damned, they fly," they said. "Thank you again, Lieutenant."

The Chief Science Officer's smile softened as she looked at Da-an's...head structure, untroubled by their lack of expression. "Thank you, Da-an." After a moment, she nodded at the equipment she'd brought with her. "I should get this back."

"Drop in any time, won't you?" they said. "I'll help you add to your quarters."

She hesitated at that, visibly struggling with some kind of conundrum. Because how soon is too soon in a relationship to offer to look into saving someone's species? Is a second conversation too early to request a DNA sample?

"...I hope this isn't too forward and I certainly don't mean to offend you, but...my specialty is genetic engineering. I certainly don't think that somehow I could succeed where so many others have failed, but..." She flushed green and shook her head. "No, I'm sorry. This is rude. I apologize. Pretend I didn't say anything please."

They discolored to a shade of yellow before returning to an unripened pale green hue.
"The Federation has taken quite a lot of samples from me, they aren't accessible to you?"

They were both such nice shades of pale green. "My father's techniques are--" T'Pren waved a hand again. "Our approach is different and their samples are not always as useful as I might like. But please, I...I don't want you to feel like an experiment or..." Her color deepened. "I'm so sorry. Sometimes my scientific curiosity gets the best of my Vulcan sense."

"I didn't say no," they said. "What do you need?"

T'Pren's eyes shone at Da-an's response and she pressed her lips together. "I understand that...in pleasurable situations, Phylosians exude a particular secretion..." Her cheeks were parsley green. "I would provide you with whatever you needed and a stasis container and you could drop it off whenever is convenient for you."

"You can come by with a container later," they said, more softly. Their tentacles drooped a bit.

Pren looked deeply guilty. "Oh, Da-an, I'm sorry. You don't have to do any of this. I can make do with the information the Federation has on file. I never want anyone to feel like an experiment."

"Do you really believe you can help?" they asked Pren, sounding strangely earnest in their own buzzing way.

"I am the product of two humanoid men," T'Pren confessed sincerely to Da-an, her brows lifted. "My father was..." Is? "...a genius. He was doing incredible things with genetic engineering. He made me. He made me so well that the Cardassians came after me to find out what made me tick. And that was twenty-nine years ago." She gave a helpless shrug. "I can't guarantee results, but I can guarantee that there are things the Federation hasn't thought to try yet that I know how to do."

"If that's the case, you can count on me, Lieutenant," they gingerly shook her hand with a tendril.

There was absolutely no worry for T'Pren in this handshake because there was no danger of her accidentally tapping in to non-humanoid brain. So she closed her fingers around the tendril very gently and gave Da-an a reassuring smile. "I'll come by later with a container," she promised. And tried very hard not to think about whether or not that container would be filled with Da-an in Val's company.