Sharing a Bit of Home (backpost)
Posted on Thu Nov 20th, 2025 @ 7:39pm by Lieutenant JG Rala & Lieutenant JG Kally Kellerman & Lieutenant JG Katie Kellerman & Tessa di'Orion
Mission:
Lower Decks
Location: Holodeck 2
Timeline: Sometime between "Mistaken in Time" and "The Next Arrival: Tial"
Kally's combadge chirped. “Rala to Doctor Kellerman,” came the slightly-tinny, translated voice of Starfleet's only Draakri.
Kally paused the viral simulation she was running and tapped her combadge. "Hey there, Rala," she said. "What can I do for you?"
”Got some free time soon? I've been working on a holoprogram that's a...mostly accurate recreation of part of my homeworld, and I thought you and your sister might like to see it.”
Tessa's ears perked up as she was going over the inventory of a drawer of emergency medical kits and she looked over at the Draakri and Kally's conversation. "Is there room for one more, maybe, My Lady?"
"I'm game, and I'm sure Katie would love to join. Mind if we bring along Tessa?" Kally said, grinning. "We're all off shift in about four hours."
”Excellent, I'll see you then. Holodeck 2. Bring swimwear.”
Kally looked at Tessa with a raised eyebrow. "Swimwear...right..." She tapped her combadge to call her sister and bring her up to speed.
Kally, Katie and Tessa arrived at the holodeck together. The twins had on shorts and tshirts, and Kally had a tote bag slung over her shoulder. She pressed the chime and waited. Tessa toed the ground, having put on a tank top and skirt instead of what the twins had.
"So...what's this program about?" Katie said.
"No clue," Kally said. "But if it involves swimming, I'm in."
"I don't have any swimwear." Tessa added.
"A fact you could have let me in on hours ago," Kally said, rummaging in her tote bag. "Good thing I assumed as much and came prepared." She pulled out a modest two-piece similar to the one Katie had on under her clothes and handed it to her protege. "You can change once we get inside," she said.
The holodeck doors opened to a forest floor, sparse underbrush struggling to grow beneath the kilometer-and-a-half tall Tikkana tree. Scattered in the vicinity were what seemed to be meter-ish-wide tree trunks with short, stubby branches growing from them, but looking up revealed that they were actually vine-like tendrils growing from the Tikkana tree’s main branches, far overhead. Ahead and to the right, the scattered vine-trunks thickened and gradually merged into the main fifty- or sixty-meter wide main trunk.
Rala, wearing a one-piece swimsuit that covered about eighty-five percent of her front and maybe ten percent of her back, swung down from one of the stubby branches and spread her arms, welcoming her trio of guests. “Welcome, ladies, to the island where I hatched—or at least a fairly close approximation of its eastern edge.”
Katie let out a whistle, grinning and looking around as they stepped inside. "Aw wow...Rala this is really pretty!"
"Agreed...this is gorgeous," Kally said, looking around and smiling.
“Absolutely, this is sensational!” Tessa looked around in wide-eyed wonder.
Rala smiled. “Thanks. It’s not perfectly accurate; the geography is all recreated from memory, including the placement of the Tikkana tree,” she gestured to the enormous tree overhead. “The rest of the foliage is mostly accurate to type, but I left placement to the computer, and I didn’t bother adding any signs of civilization...mostly ‘cause I got lazy.”
"No, no, no, you weren't being lazy" Katie piped up, snickering. "You were being 'environmentally traditional' by showing a depiction of the natural surroundings before they were shaped by civilization!" She winked at Rala and giggled.
"Leave it to an engineer to come up with a good excuse for doing something," Kally teased.
“Don’t need to be an engineer for that,” Tessa disagreed, eyes glittering, “Though I may borrow one of you to help me recreate a bit of home for me, time permitting before we get there? I could possibly put together the castle so that you all would know how to get around.”
"Also a good idea," Kally said as Katie began picking her way around the trees.
Katie walked up to one of the larger trunks and tried to follow it up with her eyes. "How high do these go?" she said.
“The main branches you’re seeing are about seven hundred meters up,” Rala said, gesturing as she spoke. There are others above those; similar but without the smaller trunks coming down from them, gradually getting more vertical. The highest ones reach another seven or eight hundred meters above, for an overall height of approximately a kilometer and a half. Once, there were thirteen of these Tikkana trees on my world; only twelve remain, and two of those are badly damaged.”
She glanced at Tessa. "This is the program I mentioned during our conversation in the arboretum. I'm glad to finally get the chance to show it to you." Returning her gaze upward, she continued, "When I first got it to a point I was happy with, I climbed all the way up to those lowest branches, then took a break in the pool at the heart of the tree." She pointed to where the branches met the main trunk. "I was still relaxing up there when I got an unexpected but not unwelcome visit from the Cap—er, Cal—" she shook herself and settled on, "Calypso."
“Lady Skyie visited?” Tessa asked spinning in place to get a look surrounding it, “None of our trees even come close to this, the largest one I’ve ever seen was maybe seventy meters? Was wide at the base, but even then it was master of its own thicket, daughter trees all around.”
Katie touched a few of the smaller trees. "Gault has some pretty old forests," she said. "I don't think the trees are as tall, but they get pretty wide. Definitely good for climbing." Kally nodded in agreement.
“She did,” Rala said to Tessa. “She accidentally showed up early for a period of time when in which she had the holodeck reserved for private use. I invited her in.” She looked up again. “Of course, I don’t expect everyone to climb most of a kilometer straight up just to get to the main attraction. Computer,” she called, “Restart program from entry position two.” The computer chirped obligingly, and the hologrid was briefly visible before the environment returned. The four of them now stood near the pool in the heart of the tree, surrounded by the enormous conifer-like main branches.
"Ohhh yes, now we're talking," Katie said, immediately removing her tshirt and shorts, revealing a modest two-piece suit. She stepped out of her shoes and folded everything up, putting it safely to the side. She looked down over the edge. "Wow...how deep do these reservoirs go?"
“The center is about ten meters deep,” Rala said, “but the sides are shallow, so be careful with any dives from the edge."
Tessa nearly jumped, still not used to the Holodeck and their ability to change so suddenly. The swimsuit in her hands was squeezed tightly between her fingers, “I wouldn’t try diving in any case, but..” She glanced nervously around, “Is there somewhere I could change before we do go swimming?”
“Computer,” Rala called, “generate a privacy screen, angled to block sightlines between the pool and the far side of the screen.” A confirmation chirp sounded, and the screen obediently appeared a few meters away.
"Read my mind," Kally said, grinning. She quickly shucked her own clothes, revealing a more revealing bikini that was less modest than Katie, but still covered the essentials and tied securely in back. "Are we good to dive in?" she said.
Katie bounced on her toes excitedly. "I definitely want to try a dive," she agreed, nodding.
Tessa vanished behind the privacy screen and there was the rustle of clothing as she first removed her clothing and then shimmied into the very modest two piece swimsuit that bared her midriff and she glanced down, noticing some of the differences from when she'd first arrived on board. The bottoms were short shorts in appearance and she ran her thumb around the waistband, "Diving? I think not for me, but I'm a decent swimmer, home does sit by the ocean and it wouldn't be good to not be able to."
Rala turned to Kally as Tessa disappeared behind the screen. “On the off-chance you’re speaking literally, make it a long, shallow, distance dive; like I said, the sides are aren’t very deep,” she said. “But in more general terms,” she concluded her answer by grinning, then turning and dashing toward the water.
She repeated the same sprinting long-dive she had when Calypso had visited, hitting the water about three meters out and coasting toward the center. She heard the splashing impacts of others entering the water behind her, and surfaced, shaking water from her head and looking back the direction she’d come from.
Kally immediately sprinted after with Katie shouting, "oh c'mon wait for us!" and taking off after them. Kally dove forward, swimming out towards the center of the pool rapidly, although no match for the native. She finally came up to the surface and smoothed her hair back, turning and floating on her back. "Now this is nice," she sighed, floating along.
Katie came up beside them and shook the water out of her ears. "Oh man...I needed this so bad," she said, flipping and diving straight down before coming back up and joining her sister floating.
Tessa took it slower getting in the water, one foot first and then the other before walking out up to her chest in the pool, but staying where her feet were still touching the ground. "It's warm, not cold!" She stated, though whether it was a good thing or a complaint wasn't clear, so she corrected herself with a laugh, "Good thing!" She crouched to her shoulders and shimmied back to a place where she could watch and sit at the same time.
Rala smiled at Tessa. “Realistically, it probably should be a bit colder, but this is one point where I decided to take a bit of artistic liberty. Warmer water is just too much nicer to swim in.”
"And good for relaxing the muscles," Kally sighed happily. She looked over at Tessa and raised an eyebrow. "Tessa....do you know how to swim?"
"I do!" Tessa said with a considered lack of excitement, "Light's End is by the ocean, it would be silly for me not to know how to swim living there. I just like the water in general." She reluctantly pushed off the ground and out towards the other girls, her stroke clearly nowhere near as refined as Kally or Katie, more a thrashing of the water than anything else, breathing becoming more labored as she struggled to make it towards the middle.
Rala immediately moved toward Tessa, coming up beside her and supporting her with two arms. “Easy there, Tessa,” she said softly. “It’s okay, I’ve got you.” She helped the young girl back toward the edge, where she could stand. “Absolutely nothing to be ashamed of,” she said, moving to look Tessa in the eyes, a gentle smile on her face. “I’ve met plenty of people three times your age who never learned how to swim, most of whom never will, and my planet’s surface is over eighty percent water.”
“That said,” she continued, tilting her head to one side, “I think we can do something about that.” She stood a bit higher and looked back to the twins, smiling. “Ladies? I think our relaxation just got preempted by some swimming lessons.”
"I can too swim!" Tessa argued, though relieved that she was standing again. "And don't abandon having fun just for me, I'm fine over here, I promise!"
"We're abandoning nothing," Katie said, defiantly. "Besides, what fun can we have, knowing you're stuck there?" She dove forward under the surface and glided over to Tessa. "So, you watch us, learn to float, try a few strokes, learn to tread water, and you'll be a fish in no time!"
"I predstav'te, kak obraduyetsya kakaya-nibud' medsestra, uvidev yeye v kupal'nike," Kally said under her breath, snickering.
Katie splashed her sister hard and as Kally sputtered and coughed she turned back to Tessa. "Okay, first thing's first. Floating on your back. You have to have a little faith in your own buoyancy. Relax, let your body drape into the water, and let physics do the rest." She moved to stand in front of Tessa and held her arms out. "Lie on your back on my arms and I'll help you get used to the feeling."
Tessa took a deep breath, then as she laid backwards, thrashed for a moment as her feet lost their grip on the bottom of the pool. She hyperventilated for a few seconds as she prepared to go under, but didn't as Katie's hands supported her and kept her above water, "I've never been a floater."
"You don't have much choice if there's air in your lungs," Katie said. "Just relax. Let the water come up along your sides and trust." She held Tessa at the surface, letting Tessa half float in her arms. "Breathe normally and calmly. Find your center of calm."
“I’ll let you two take the lead on this,” Rala said, smiling. “If we had a student with four arms and a tail, then I might have more useful advice.” She tilted her head to one side and scratched the underside of her jaw. “Although, judging from the bit of fun I had with Calypso when she visited, I should make a pretty good lifeguard.”
The young woman focused on her breathing to bring it under control, which fortunately was easy because of Cass. Despite that, she had zero faith in her own botany, arms out and still twitching as she tried in vain to try to get into a more ‘floaty’ position, but even that was proving difficult. She trusted Katie, plus Rala and Kally when it came down to it, but she was concerned about what would happen if and likely when Katie let her go. “I, I think I’m as relaxed as I can get? But hopefully no life saving needed, Lady Rala?”
“The holodeck’s safety systems wouldn’t let you actually drown,” Rala said, carefully not mentioning that those safeties could be turned off, or the handful of known instances of them failing. “But the simulation seems real enough that your body doesn’t know that,” she continued, “and panic is certainly no fun. So I’m here, just in case.”
"We all are," Kally said. "So don't you worry." She drifted over to the other three and bobbed up a bit, treading water. "See? Even upright, with a little effort, your body stays up. Just have to have some faith."
"Faith." Tessa repeated, willing her body to relax, getting a little better at it, "You see, I'm just not used to doing this, it's just not normal for me, always having someone there watching to make sure I don't do anything stupid to get myself hurt, couldn't let the Heir do something to get her seriously injured." As she talked, Katie had removed her hands in support and Tessa drifted there, bobbing slightly as ripples from the others washed past her.
“Simply getting accustomed to being in the water like this, letting it support you, is the first hurdle to clear,” Rala said. “And look!” She beamed at Tessa. “You’re already getting the hang of it.”
"But if," Tessa looked over at Rala, "Wait, I'm wh-" Her eyes opened wide and she went back under the water as her posture changed and she flailed as she tried to regain the surface and she did her best to conserve the half-breath she had, but bubbles were escaping even as she did.
Katie immediately reached down, scooping under the girl and lifting her back up to the surface. "I gotcha...I gotcha," she said as Tessa sputtered and coughed. She helped her to her feet and hugged her tight, patting her back. "Easy."
Kally swam over to the edge of the drop to the deep. "You okay, kid?"
The sound that came from Tessa's cough as her lungs were cleared of the water that had entered was horrible, but she held onto Katie for dear life, nodding at the question from Kally even as her nose dripped. "I'm fine, I'm fine, just breathed when I shouldn't have. You all make it look easy."
"Well, like anything else, it takes practice. Before you know it, you'll take to water like a fish." Kally grinned and flipped forwards, diving straight down into the depths of the pool before erupting through the surface again, spraying water everywhere.
Rala watched Kally dive and resurface. As the doctor was distracted, Rala glanced at Katie and Tessa, giving them a wink, and slipped back into the water herself, submerging and and moving as quickly as she could without leaving a wake.
The Draakri surfaced, as quietly as she could, directly behind Kally, then said, “So, you want to show off in front of our student, huh?”
Kally let out a squeal of shock and spun around. "Don't do that!" she said. "And I'm not 'showing off'," she said, making exaggerated quotation fingers. "Just demonstrating." She looked at Rala warily. "Why?"
“Do me a favor,” Rala said to Kally. “Float on your back in the middle of the pool for a moment. I wanna try something.”
Kally's eyes narrowed, warning bells going off in her head, but pride not letting her make the smart choice. "All right," she said, laying back and rising to the surface. "But if this is just an excuse to pinch my ass, I'm going to splash you to death."
Rala made an exaggerated thoughtful expression. “Now there’s an idea. But no, maybe later.” She gave Kally a smirk, then flipped into a surface-dive, descending all the way to the bottom, where she flipped over and pushed off, intending to repeat the same leap she had startled Calypso with. As she began her ascent, a thought crossed her mind, and added her arms to the mix, pushing for all the speed she could muster. If I screw this up, I’m going to owe her an apology, she thought.
She launched out of the water just to Kally’s left, angling over her, twisting as she went. Her speed, angle, and an arch of her back as she twisted through the air allowed her to—just barely—leap completely over Kally like an Olympic high-jumper clearing the bar, without touching her. She crashed back into the water less gracefully than she’d hoped, and remained submerged, looking up to to see what reactions her stunt had prompted.
Kally, for her part, had started to close her eyes nervously as Rala leaped over her and almost missed the show. She turned to see where the Draakri had swum to, then looked down, seeing her below the surface. She gave her a thumbs up, moving lazily back towards the others.
An uncharacteristic—but not entirely unfamiliar—surge of mischief struck Rala, and she grinned. She started swimming, remaining submerged, building up what speed she could from where she'd been. She easily overtook Kally, and when she was about three meters away from Katie and Tessa, she breached the surface again. She didn't get as much height, only getting a bit over half her body out of the water. She turned as she rose, and came back down back-first at an angle that threw up a sizable splash—mostly aimed at Katie, but Tessa would surely catch some of it too.
Katie been so enthralled by the display, she hadn't realized what was coming at her. "Excellent!" she shouted, just as the splash doused her. She coughed and sputtered the gallon or so of water that had been flung into her open mouth.
The tidal wave of a splash that the landing had caused also smacked Tessa in the face before she could even think to move, as she'd been in awe of the leap. She spluttered again and wondered if she could just grow gills so she wouldn't have to breathe.
Katie patted Tessa's back as they both recovered and she looked at Rala. "That was mean," she said with an evil gleam of revenge in her eyes.
“Sorry,” Rala said with a grin, trying to sound genuine but with limited success at best. “Being in the water seems to bring out my playful side.”
"Oh, likewise," Katie said, the evil gleam reaching her smile. She'd grown up near a lake and knew just how to deliver a wave of her own. She reached back, twisting around and put her arm to the surface, springing back around quickly, her hand cupped, sending a wall of water flying directly at Rala.
Rala saw the attack coming, but figured it was only fair, so she took the splash with a grin, merely closing her eyes and turning her head slightly just before it struck her.
As she turned her head, she wound up facing Kally who sent a similar, more directed jet of water right at her, striking her directly in the face. "Less of a comeback when you know it's coming," she said, grinning. She swam over to Katie quickly, high-fiving her sister.
Just as Rala was closing her eyes, something—a sound, a shift in the water, maybe a slight movement from Tessa, she wasn’t sure—tipped her off that Kally was up to something, but too late for her to react, and so she got Katie’s attack almost square in the face and Kally’s seemingly directly in her right ear. “Ack!” She shook her head, tilted it to the right, and shook again, finally getting most of the water back out of her ear canal.
Tessa almost didn't, but then she did. Both arms twisted in the water, coming together and sending a torrent of water at both of the twins. The deviousness of her surprise attack would certainly come to haunt her, but it would be fun while it lasted.
Katie let out a shriek and fell backwards into the water. Kally spit out the mouthful of water she wound up with and coughed, staring at Tessa shocked.
Rala glanced at the twins on either side of her, overtly bemused, but one eyebrow and the corner of her mouth on the side away from Tessa twitched upward as she did.
Kally caught the look, as did Katie and they nodded at Rala almost imperceptibly. The three of them turned in sync and immediately drove eight plumes of water directly at Tessa, attacking her from all sides.
It was Tessa’s turn to shriek in laughter and hold her hands out desperately to stem the unstoppable tide of water that buffeted her from all angles. “I surrender, I surrender!” She somehow got out from between the waves.
Rala moved forward, grinning and gesturing at the twins to stand down, if they weren’t already. “Smart girl,” she said, pulling Tessa into a side-hug, gently mussing the Tialan’s hair. “Picking your battles, knowing when you’re outmatched...learning that alliances can sometimes change swiftly, and that treachery—” one ear gave a minuscule flick in Kally’s direction, “—must be answered.” She took a breath, released Tessa, and submerged, pushing off the bottom at an angle and heading for Kally.
Tessa's eyes opened wide, but she'd surrendered and wasn't about to open hostilities again unless attacked once more, but there wasn't anything she could do.
"Shit shit shit shit," Kally said, desperately trying to rapidly swim away.
It took only seconds for Kally to learn the same lesson Calypso had: Very few humanoids can out-swim a healthy Draakri. The bikini-clad doctor didn’t make it very far before Rala came up beside her, grabbed her across the hips with two arms, rolled her over and pulled her beneath the surface.
Kally let out a shocked scream then quickly inhaled before going under. Katie watched them both, giggling and watching Rala pull her sister along.
Tessa covered her mouth as Kally vanished under the water at Rala's behest, but knowing that nothing bad would happen.
A few seconds later, Rala resurfaced, with Kally in tow. She had Kally’s back to her chest, her lower pair of arms wrapped around Kally’s ribcage, but she hadn’t felt the need to completely restrain her as she had Calypso. “Now, now,” she said, “You made a choice; now you’re going to face the consequences.”
Kally shook water and hair out of her face and looked at her other half. "A little help?" she shouted.
"I would but I'm alllll the way over here!" Katie said with an evil grin.
"I'm going to get you for this!" Kally said as Rala moved again and she began hyper-oxgenating her blood before taking another deep breath.
Rala briefly considered taking Kally to the depths, as she had with Calypso, but decided against it. Instead, she took a breath just as Kally did, then pulled her down and started swimming laterally, about a meter and a half below the surface, angling for a spot at the edge of the pool a few meters away from Katie and Tessa. When she reached it, she shifted her grip on Kally, picking her up; then walked up the sloped edge of the pool until the water was below her knees, crouched, turned, half-leaped and threw Kally at an upward angle back the way they’d come, sending her nearly two meters into the air and over three meters back toward the center of the pool.
Tessa watched as Kally flailed in the air, trying to get some sort of purchase as if she were a fish trying to swim in mid-air. Her smile grew as Kally began her inevitable descent.
There comes a point in the parabolic arc of an object ascending and falling where it reaches a point of maximum height. At this point, the force of gravity equals the force of upward momentum, canceling each other out. With no force acting upon the object, its acceleration is zero, and at that point in its curve, its velocity is zero. And since distance divided by velocity equals time, and velocity is zero, there should be an infinite amount of time at that maximum height in which to contemplate one's position, and plan for one's return to surface in a safe, graceful, low impact manner.
Unfortunately, physics is not aware of this mathematical reality and Kally immediately plummeted like a rock and hit the water with the force of a cannonball, creating an impressive splash as she hit the surface.
She sprang back up a moment later, spitting out a mouthful of water and glaring daggers at Rala. She stuck her tongue out, blowing an impressively loud raspberry and swam over to the other two girls who were laughing far too much for her liking. She swam over and saw Katie almost doubled over laughing and Kally rolled her eyes. "It wasn't that funny."
Katie pulled herself together, mostly, and grinned. "Okay, one: yes it was. Two: You left something behind."
Kally looked confused and turned back to see a piece of blue fabric floating in the water, then looked down and realized her top had come undone in the landing. She sighed and swam back out to get it.
She had almost reached it when it rose from the water, dangling from one clawed purple finger; followed a second later by an equally purple, smiling draconic head. "Is this yours?" Rala asked.
"Hush it," she said to Rala, grabbing her top as they then swam back to the other two. "Not a word," she said to Katie and Tessa as she sat back against the edge of the pool, trying to sort out the now tangled straps.
Tessa giggled as she watched Kally, only a slight blush on her face as she saw her mentor’s upper body, then leaned over to Katie and whispered a bit too loudly, “Not a word, that means we can tell the story in many words, right? To as many people as we can?”
"I mean, I can't refute that logic," Katie said, laughing.
"How would you like me to convince Cass to have you work double shifts for the next week?" Kally said, sticking her tongue out at Tessa.
"I'm sure that she would feel it would be character building, My Lady, and you know I have no problem spending more time learning." Tessa stuck her own tongue out at Kally, "Besides, so long as she's not there..." She trailed off with a slight blush.
Kally gave her a knowing look. "Uh huh. Solitary work inventorying the cargo bay's medical stores isn't as fun as it sounds."
Tessa scowled at Kally, "But since he'll be off duty for the second shift, he may join me of his own volition," she challenged.
"Not if he's in Sickbay recalibrating every tricorder we have in his double shift," Kally said in a warning tone.
The Tialan's eyes opened and her mouth opened to speak.
"Tessa?" Rala chided gently as she swam slowly toward the trio of humanoids, only her head above the surface. "Remember that bit about picking your battles?"
There was a hesitation and Tessa closed her mouth and crossed her arms over her chest as she looked over at Rala, "Fine." Her eyes went to Kally, "I'm sorry, My Lady." She was all formal because she was having a snit and had to get one last thing in.
Kally finished fixing her top and put it back on, adjusting it to a comfortable position, then swam over to Tessa and gave her a hug. "I'm sorry, too."
With that gesture, Tessa's heart began to melt and she freed her arms to hug Kally back, "No, I really am sorry.. I don't mean to be a bitch sometimes."
"'Sometimes'," Kally quoted teasingly. "Other times you're leaning into it?" she grinned at her and kissed her cheek.
"Or maybe I'm getting nervous about getting home again." Tessa admitted, "Thanks, Rala, for bringing me back to the ground."
Rala moved in to give Tessa a four-armed hug. “Of course, little one. We all need someone around who can give us a reality check sometimes.”
Kally gave Tessa a squeeze and a kiss on the cheek before diving back to the water and doing a quick lap around Katie.
“Now,” Rala said, withdrawing her arms, “I believe we were in the middle of some swimming lessons?”
"Right." Tessa agreed, glancing around the three other women, "So long as we promise not to drown me."
"Kinda the opposite of the goal," Katie said.
Rala chuckled. “Of course not, little one. Now, you were starting to get the hang of floating. Let’s work on getting you used to moving in the water...”
