A Bit of Home, For the Road

Posted on Sun May 4th, 2025 @ 7:55am by Lieutenant JG Rala

Mission: Lower Decks
Location: Holodeck 1
Timeline: The day after "We've Got Hostiles"

“Increase scale by thirty percent,” Rala said, studying the ‘miniature’ holographic tree floating in front of her. “I need to see more detail.”

The computer beeped its acknowledgement, and the two-meter-tall tree disappeared to be immediately replaced by an identical one nearly three meters tall. Its crown was wider than it was tall, resembling a cluster of miniature Earth sycamore conifers fanning outward in all directions from the center. From the bottom of the “trunk” branches hung numerous thin vines, tangling with each other as they reached for the ground. Ones that had already reached were thickening into additional trunks, surrounding the massive central trunk, itself seemingly composed mostly of older vine-trunks that had fused together.

Rala stepped forward, moving through the currently-immaterial hologram, looking closely at the vine-trunks. Each one that had taken root was sprouting miniscule fruiting branches. She nodded to herself and stepped toward the center. The central trunk-cluster was above her head. “Lower by one meter; clip through the floor.”

Another beep from the computer, and the tree obediently sank into the floor, allowing her to see where the top of the main trunk cluster split into the main conifer-like branches. The center of the crown was an empty space, shaped like a wide bowl with an uneven, flattened rim. Just outside the rim, the innermost of the main branches curved sharply upward, never quite reaching fully vertical.

Rala stepped back out of the hologram. “Good. Set normal scale for this to five hundred times current value and add it to program Rala-Four-Two-Alpha at pre-defined location; adjust surrounding environment to accommodate.”

The computer took almost a full second to process that one.

“Load Rala-Four-Two-Alpha in edit mode; show me the environment at one-ten-thousandth scale.”

The bare hologrid surrounding her vanished, replaced by a miniature representation of a forested coastline, sloping gently upward to a range of tall, jagged mountains in the distance. The tree she’d just imported rose above the rest of the forest, nearly four times the height of the other trees.

“Simulate effects from a prior century of weather.”

The treescape changed subtly, as did the coastline. Rala poked her face inside the imported tree’s canopy. One of the outer main branches had snapped off about halfway down its length, crushing and toppling several of the smaller trees below, and the bowl at its center was now full of water.

“Save environmental parameters,” she said, pulling her face out of the holographic tree. The computer beeped confirmation at her. “Set entry position one about here—” she placed a clawtip at ground level near one of the larger vine-trunks, “—and entry position two up here,” another clawtip touched the rim of the bowl.

Getting another confirmation beep, she stood up and stepped back. “Save program, restart in normal mode, and run from entry position one.”

The environment vanished, briefly showing the hologrid again before reappearing at full scale, the forest surrounding her and the tree she’d just finished towering over her.

A hint of a breeze filtered through the trees. Rala closed her eyes and breathed it in, impressed by the holodeck’s ability to mimic scents. She sank her toes into the soft soil and listened to the sounds of various forest creatures in the distance.

It felt like a little piece of her homeworld—one she could take with her almost wherever she went.

She opened her eyes and looked up at the nearest vine-trunk. Numerous small branches sprouted from it, between one and three meters apart, bearing clusters of bright pink berries.

Rala smiled, stripped off her uniform, and tossed it toward where the corner of the holodeck should have been. Then she took a jogging start toward the trunk, leapt, kicked upward off it, and hauled herself up onto the nearest branch. Grinning, she reached up toward the next branch and began climbing.