In the silence of the deck 12 corridor, each twitch of Akki’s nervous mandibles sounded like a collapsing mountain. The clatter of each minute, uncomfortable movement seemed to echo down the empty corridor like a stone dropped from the peaks of Olympus Mons, sending ripples of anxious energy into the ether.

She had pressed the doorbell twice and received no answer. Did she dare a third time? The computer had confirmed that Captain Harrison was within, and Akki could hear the faint shuffling of activity from beyond the metallic blockade. But as her finger hovered over the doorbell once more, its sharp needle-like point frozen millimetres from the small panel, she could not shake her nerves. In truth, she should report their findings to Lieutenant Commander Bahir first, as acting executive officer the chain clearly led through him first, and the Suarian officer was nothing if not a stickler for the chain. Unfortunately, his coral form was prone in his quarters as the ship passed through the gamma shift cycle, and the one thing Akki feared more than interrupting the captain was waking Bahir.

“Perhaps it will be fine,” Akki whispered to herself with a complete lack of confidence. “Perhaps she’s listening to some music and didn’t hear the doorbell?”

If Akki could roll her eyes, they would have disappeared so far into her skull they would see the wall behind her.

“Maybe I should just wait until Bahir is up,” she muttered, allowing her finger to retreat from the panel.

In her other hand, the slender silver padd chirped abruptly, forcing a glance downward away from the ominous brown door that hid her quarry. Another message from Rommigan, another sensor sweep that failed to find the civilian relay ships. That was the third sweep without success, sufficient to confirm their absence was not simply an accidental misunderstanding of sensor data.

“Come on, Akki, just press the button,” she chided with a quiet clatter of her mandibles. ”The captain needs to know about this.”

Suddenly, the doorway slid aside with a serpentine hiss of air, revealing the frowning face of Captain Anyanka Harrison. Her thick white curls barely tamed by a dark velvet headband that set her already sharp features into diamond edges.

“Are you going to enter or not?” She asked in a voice that could bring the Klingon Chancellor to his knees. As quickly as she had appeared, the older woman disappeared back into the brightly lit room.

A mumbled apology buzzed across Akki’s mandibles as she stepped inside, her large, unblinking compound eyes twisting to adjust to the bright interior.

The scent of dirt and soil filled the air as Akki beheld a most unexpected vision: a verdant flowering garden hidden in the depths of deck 12. Gorgeous, manicured bushes framed archways and trellises laden with climbing vines and delicate petals. Rows of colourful blooms meandered through the dark soil before erupting into tall bundles of slender flowers, each one painstakingly cultivated and cared for. Within Britannia’s forgotten spaces, it seemed the captain had grown a slice of Eden.

“Grab that trowel!” Harrison called from across the room where she stood barefoot amongst a small cluster of shrubs. “I need to plant this hyacinth.”

“Captain?” Akki could feel her exoskeleton loosening in strange counterpoint to her nervousness. The air was damp and moist and several degrees warmer than the ambient temperature of the ship, an insectoid’s dream.

“The trowel in the corner, bring it here, Lieutenant.” The captain waved towards a small caddy in the corner of the plot of land as she plucked some stray branches from a nearby bush.

Dutifully, Akki rushed to the caddy and lifted a small trowel from the haphazardly stacked tools, its pale pine handle heavily work-worn from use. With some trepidation, she stepped into the makeshift allotment and joined the captain near the window where the woman waited with open palm.

“Did you not hear me say come in?” Harrison chided as she eased to her knees, a slight pop accentuating the groan that escaped her lips.

“My apologies Captain, I did not.”

“I said it twice, and I am not in the habit of repeating myself.” She turned a stern eye to the young Xindi. “Perhaps you need a hearing check?”

The young officer twitched nervously as her fingers beat out a barely audible rhythm on her thorax where it clutched the padd like a shield. How was she meant to answer that?

“Or perhaps you were simply nervous?” Harrison gave a slight smile as she turned her attention back towards the small hole in the soil and began shaping it with the trowel.

“I thought you might be busy, Captain. I didn’t want to interrupt you.”

“Whatever it was must have been important enough to interrupt me twice with the doorbell.”

Akki felt her stomach turn in panic. Perhaps waking Bahir would have been the lesser of two evils.

“And what is it that’s so important that you need to find me here in my garden, Akki?”

“Well, we found something on the last comm test.”

Harrison’s eyes lit up with expectation as she placed the trowel into the soil, even the practised facade of the professional captain could not hide her need for good news.

“A success with the comm relay?” She asked with a hint of hopeful relief from the monotony.

“I’m afraid not, ma’am.” Akki cowered slightly, a disappointed look spreading across the captain’s face as she turned back to her small dirt hole. “The three civilian vessels assigned to act as comm relays back to Risa have disappeared.”

“And we’re sure they haven’t just wandered off?” Harrison’s voice had returned to the cool tone Akki was familiar with, not so much cold as it was distant and considered.

“We have run several sweeps for them; either their transponders are inactive, or they have moved outside the reach of our short-range sensors.”

“Which do you think is more likely?” The captain asked. Satisfied the hole was a suitable depth, she lifted a small green plant in a pot and, with a firm thump on its base, slid the cluster of roots from the round vessel.

“I do not believe they have wandered off, Captain.” Akki’s antenna twitched as she considered the options. “I believe they have deactivated their transponders.” She paused, allowing a gulp of nervous saliva to slide down her throat. “I believe they are attempting to avoid detection.”

Harrison placed the plant into the ground and wiggled it into the small divot. With each shake of the plant, the scent of the purple blossoms shook free into the air, filling the nodes around Akki’s maxilla with its intoxicating perfume. She swallowed another gulp of saliva, lest it begin to slide down her mandibles.

“That’s quite a hypothesis, Lieutenant. Your proof?” Harrison took a handful of soil from a nearby pile and began pushing it into the ground, filling the air with yet more distractions for Akki’s sensory glands.

“We have detected faint impulse trails but no other energy signatures that might indicate a vessel in distress. There was no instruction or apparent reason to change location.” Akki could feel the thick pollen in the room beginning to cloud her senses; something deep in her body wanted to give in to the blissful ambience. It was everything she could do to maintain her focus on the captain’s shock of white hair and equally shocking cheekbones.

“That’s no reason to assume they are hiding. Perhaps they are having a system fault.” Harrison mused as she plucked a broken blossom from the plant.

“All three ships? I do not believe our luck is that bad.” Akki’s antennae were quivering now, the quicker this conversation was over, the better.

Harrison pushed the trowel into the dirt with a gentle effort and rose to her feet.

“Yes, that would be exceedingly unlucky.” Harrison sighed as she wiped her hands on the front of her dark green overalls.

“Very well then, Lieutenant, let’s set a course back to Risa via the relay ships. Let us hope we have simply been unlucky.” Harrison made for the door, pausing to slip a pair of moccasins on at the edge of the makeshift allotment. “You can come back and smell the roses later.”

“Captain?” Akki turned slightly too fast to face the older woman who hovered at the door’s edge, and her balance wobbled as her antenna found new and interesting scents in this corner of the garden.

“The roses, they are just about to blossom. No doubt your astute senses have picked that up?” She nodded towards a cluster of red roses that trailed across a wicker panel in the corner of the room. Several dozen blooms bulged against the constraints of their green outer cases, desperate to erupt forth into beautiful flowers.

Akki shook her head slightly, the scent was noticeable to her keen senses even from this distance.

“I shall head back to the lab and inform the team, ma’am.” Akki took several steps towards the door where a waft of fresh air from the corridor mercifully began clearing her senses, much to the frustration of her base instincts.

“Oh no Lieutenant, we’ve got to go wake Bahir.” With a wave of her arm, she called the young Xindi into the empty corridor before offering a wicked grin over her shoulder.

“You can have the honor of pressing the doorbell.”