Taylor walked in with her comrade, Teva. She pulled out a key card and slid it in a little slit in front of the steel-thick door. "Did you get a good look at those guys? Sheesh- bunch of emotionless, bloodthirsty soldiers." The door beeped and she leaned over. A optical scanner flashed a red light on her eye before she placed her open palm on a flat screen near the handle.
'Access confirmed.' said a robotic voice from above.
Taylor walked through and let Teva in before closing the door promptly behind her. She took a deep breath, already smelling the luscious green scent that emitted from the greenhouse sector.

"Yeah, so good to know we are in such caring hands," Teva replied sarcastically, and rolled her eyes as she pulled a home-made cigarette from her pocket. With a lighter, she lit it expertly and put the small trinket away, puffing on her cigarette. It had an odd odor for such a thing, something like spearmint and wet wood. She took a long drag and let it out slowly as she thought. "And that our hard work goes to such a worthy cause." She shook her head, then nodded down the way she, at least, had to go. "I need to check cell 18D42A. The beans were really concerning me. Did they even bother to check them in artificial air before sticking them on this ship?" It was a rhetorical question and she shook her head, disappointed in this whole operation.

"After that, please." Taylor glanced at her cigarette. She didn't really care that Teva smoked, as long as it was in the hall like this. It could be dangerous in the lab or negatively effect the plants. "I'll be in the lab." she turned towards that direction, but hesitated, "Did you leave your notes on the 68G-protein plant experiment on the table? I would like to look over them again."

Teva looked blank for a second as she tried to recall. "I think so," she said finally. A pause, then she nodded, sure. "Yes, it should be there. And I know, I know-" She held out the cig as if to show her the item of which she was speaking. "'No smoking in the greenhouses'," she quoted, then stuck the cig back in her mouth, turned and waved over her shoulder as she walked down the hall.

Taylor turned and headed to the laboratory with a shrug and a grin. Taking the goggles from her jacket, she started to placed them on her face, adjusting the strap accordingly. In the lab now, she headed to the back table where there was an active experiment to inject a life form's daily proteins in one vegetable-bearing plant. Finding the notes Teva had left, she read them over and examined the plant once more.
After about an hour of tinkering, she put her notes away and cleaned up. Still no positive result.

"Well that's not the sweet smell of success," Teva said as if to herself from her position leaning in the doorway. She seemed to have finished her cigarette though, as she no longer had one. She was making a face and looking around as if she smelled something terrible, but then frowned seriously and looked at her colleague's less than enthusiastic expression. "What happened this time? Anything at all?"

"Still nothing." Taylor sighed as she cleaned up, "I mean the direct implantation of protein into the pea pods was, of course, a failure and even injecting it into the seeds resulted in dead seeds." She slipped her goggles off. "Though I'm not even sure our protein formula is stable to begin with." Taylor paused and looked up at Teva, "What was wrong with the specimen you checked on?"

"I think it's, for lack of a better explanation, water clots," Teva said with a sigh, not taking her eyes, or her saddened expression, off her superior. "I think the pressure is causing the glucose in them to clog parts of their circulation systems... Nothing a small shift in the pressure of the house can't fix," she assured the other woman.

"Ah, well that's not a big deal at all." Taylor washed her hands up in a small sink. "So what do you think of our handy dandy crew up there?" she asked, pretty much knowing her reply.

"Rag-tag," Teva replied, but she sounded thoughtful. "I can deal with a possibly incompetent crew, not a captain. Did you see his face? How he acted? I wasn't any kind of people-oriented major in school, but he looked like a kid at a coctail party... out of place, and up way past his bed time." She sighed and brushed some stray hair from her face. She nodded her chin in Taylor's direction. "What about you? What do you think?"

"Pretty much the same. They are a bunch of misfits. Careful what you say about the Captain though." Taylor glanced around at the security cameras, "I'm not sure if those are just video or not." She dried her hands off and leaned against a table, near Teva, "I never did care for people in uniform like that. They just seem so... military, you know?" She sighed, "Well, want to take an early lunch?" 

Teva nodded. "Sounds good." She turned and stepped out into the hallway, looking back at Taylor, smirking. "The Captain is Big Brother, and he's watching you!" she said in a supposed-to-be creepy voice. She chuckled before looking up at the camera and waving, smiling sweetly.

Taylor chuckled a bit and waved at the camera too as they passed it, "Not like they can do anything if they could hear us. They would all starve to death." She sighed as they headed to the elevator before the two went up to the Social sector

---

After stepping out of the elevator, Taylor and pilot, Dresden made their way down the hall. Everything was white and spotless. Even the air was sterilized. Approaching a steel door, Taylor brought out her ID card and swiped it in a crease near the door frame. She then leaned in and allowed for an optical scan while simultaneously she scanned her hand on a flat screen near her hip.
'Access confirmed.' said an ominous voice. The door opened quickly, allowing the two in.
"Bare with me, I'm not an official tour guide." Taylor warned him. Leading him into one of the first rooms, she gestured, "This is where most of the experiments are held." It was a large room with various lab tables with various beakers and Bunsen burners on them. All along the right wall there were cabinets with glass doors, displaying plants of all kinds with proper labels on them. "All those are current experiments, mostly regarding the protein bonding that I told you about earlier."

Dresden nodded, his eyes absorbing all of the equipment in the room. His optic implant told him more about those he lingered on. He walked with his hands politely folded behind his back as to avoid contaminating anything by touching it. "Very cool."

Taylor led him back out and down a hall. "A lot of these other rooms are storage unites, pressurized coolers and other various labs." She smiled, "But enough of that- wait until you see the finale." Taylor brought him to a door labeled, 'Decontamination'. "In order to visit the greenhouse, we have to eliminate any foreign chamicals not suited for the produce." Shuffling him into an airtight chamber, she pressed a few buttons on the wall. "You might want to close your eyes and hold your breath." A white mist poured out of a shower head-like device and covered them completely. Luckily it dried almost instantly.

Dresden quickly shut his eyes and closed his throat as the white contaminant dissolved on his skin. On the ships he'd been on before, the greenhouses had biosuits you had to wear, but this ship was bigger than any shuttle or even warship he'd piloted. "No hazard suits," He said. "Very convenient."

"They are too hard to move in." Taylor noted, opening the next door into the greenhouse. It was massive. Greenery stretched out for miles. Taylor led him down a set of stairs to the main floor.

"Ah- fuck!" a pained voice greeted them. A rather harried, seething looking Teva stumbled out of one of the rows and paused, glaring back down as if the plants had offended her. Shaking her head, she was about to address something on arm, with a similar scowl, when she caught sight of her superior with- who was that? the pilot? Curious despite herself, she headed in their direction, ignoring the freckling of green on her arm. Teva, unlike everyone else in the greenhouses and such, did not wear gloves, she didn't even keep her sleeves down, instead preferring to roll the sleeves up to almost her elbows to work. It made her look like she was purposely trying to get something volitile on her. "Oi, eh Taylor?" she called in both greeting and questioning. "What's, ah... going on?" She nodded just the smallest bit to the pilot, still looking at Taylor as she approached.

"I met Dresden here at the bar. He seemed interested enough so I thought I would give him a little tour around the greenhouse. Are you...alright?" Taylor asked, seeing how out of breath Teva was.

Teva's face darkened, the anger not directed at Taylor. "I don't want to talk about it," she half pouted, then relaxed back to herself, brushed some hair out of her face with her good arm and addressed Dresden. "So what's a man with his head in the stars, care about dirt?"

"Professional curiosity," Dresden replied with an easy smile. "My love is movement, and there is no movement without fuel, no life without sustenance." He shook his head, awed by how huge the greenhouse was. "This place must span the entire length of the ship."

Teva just raised an eyebrow at him, as if formulating an opinion, but in the end dropped it and looked at Taylor again. "Experiment 420TA69 crashed. I split a sample open, it ate my scapel."

"What!?" Taylor's eyes shot open, "ATE it? You mean melted from the acidity levels, right?"

Teva nodded in confirmation. "I didn't do anything to it, I swear!" she tried to assure her superior with a frown. "I just took a small sample, and was going to look at it to check the progress, and it didn't much like me dicing it up. I think it developed some kind of defense mechanism. If I didn't know better, I'd say it had a mind of its own, and half of it was was to maim me." She sighed. "70-75 seem fine though. Happy as clams. Well... as happy as a crassula can be without feelings."

"Well quick! Go neutralize it with a base! Baking soda maybe." Taylor suggested, "Hurry up before it contaminates the others or melts through the table!"

"What do you take me for? An idiot?" Teva accused, looking annoyed. "I'm only telling you now so you don't go looking later, all 'where's 420TA69 Teva?' and I'd tell you exactly what I just told you, and what would you say? 'Why didn't you tell me sooner!' So, I am telling you sooner, I'm telling you now instead of later." She huffed. Honestly, she might not be in charge, but she wasn't stupid. "I have it neutralized and ostracized." She crossed her arms and gave Taylor a look as if to say 'you're next command, miss high and mighty?' before her face slacked and she looked down at her arms, uncrossing them again to get a look at the green speckling on her arm. She sighed, seeming to figure something out that was unpleasant.

Dresden quickly shoved his hands in his pockets and stayed out of the argument. He gazed up at Teva as she argued with Taylor, who was shorter than he was by a bit. It was an odd dynamic.

"I don't take you for an idiot. You just barreled out of the aisle and said a plant ate your utensil, how am I supposed to know everything is secure?" Taylor shot back. "And what's the attitude for?" Taylor asked, a bit pissed off that she would go and mouth off to her like this in front of a guest. 

Teva visibly stiffened, barely stopping herself from glaring at the moment. It took a moment before she looked at her. "Sorry... ma'am," she said, barely managing to keep it from sounding sarcastic. She took a calming breath. Serious time eh? Trying to impress some man? Whatever. She could play that game. "I have the situation under control where experiment 420TA69 is concerned. But now I have work to do, so please excuse me while I return to my duties." She placed her good hand to her chest, gave a polite, albeite hinted with sarcastic, bow to Taylor, then to Dresden. "Please, enjoy your tour, sir." She gave Taylor another look, just barely not outright annoyed, before turning to a small table nearby, grabbed a very small set of what looked like a cross between wire cutters and scissors, and headed back into the thick foliage.

Taylor sighed and rolled her eyes. That wasn't exactly what she meant. It was obvious that Teva didn't mean anything she just said...at least not that sincerely. Taylor wasn't even sure what she did to offend her comrade. She would have to be sure and chat with her later.

Dresden clicked his heels and saluted Teva. "Yes, ma'am," he clipped, frowning with exaggerated seriousness. He relaxed only once she was out of sight. "Is it always this exciting?" He asked Taylor.

Taylor rubbed her temple, "Riveting as always I guess?..." She cleared her throat, "That buzz kill aside, this is the main greenhouse. And you were correct, it spans 80% of the ship's length and width. This is where all of the food for the residents are harvested and grown. Those drain-like caps on the ceiling take in and the O2 and distribute it throughout the ship as well."

"Are all your crops as acidic as all that?" Dresden asked.

"Hm?" Taylor raised a thick brow, "Oh, you mean 420TA69. No, that was just one of the perimeters. Another failure obviously if it eats through metal." she shrugged her shoulders. "Other then that,...there really isn't much else to see really." There was a pause before she elbowed him a bit, "Sorry about the tour. Not my profession, you know."

"No trouble," Dresden said with a grin. "Thanks for the look-around. I'll leave you to your sciences, eh?" He turned to go back.

"Really? That's it? Not even a 'See you around' or anything? Ah well." Taylor shrugged her shoulders. Guess 'uniforms' were all the same once the alcohol wore off after all?

Dresden paused. "You're not going to walk me out?" He asked, half-smiling.

"I suppose I should, hm?" Taylor walked along side of Dresden before going back up the stairs, and through a side door so they wouldn't have to get sanitized again. Taylor stretched back and yawned, the alcohol finally subsiding a little.

"Hey, maybe I'll see you at the bar sometime soon, eh?" Dresden said once they reached the elevator. He grinned and offered his hand to shake.

"I'm sure you will." Taylor shrugged with a smirk. She reached her hand forward and shook his firmly. "Oh and good luck with the navigation girl." 

"Ha, and you with yer astrophysicist," Dresden replied. "See ya 'round." He stepped back in the elevator and headed for the quarters.

Taylor waited for the elevator to close before she stretched her arms up for a moment, hesitating before getting back to work. Heading to lab area, she looked around for Teva.

Teva, sitting at one of the tables with her one arm on the table and the other hand holding a pair of tweezers, looked up when Taylor joined her. It was such a common occurance, that Taylor to be the only person to join her, that she wondered vaguely why she looked up at all. With that thought in mind, she looked back to her arm and continued pulling out tiny thorns that had gotten stuck earlier and dropping them into a small glass petri dish to keep them contained.

"Alright, what's wrong? Was it something I said?" Taylor asked her seriously, sitting on a stood on the other side of the table.

Teva snorted unattractively, still working on her arm. "Some uniform comes around and you pull rank. You ask to make sure I handled it, which if I hadn't would be a rookie mistake, instead of what went wrong," she explained without looking up. "I don't much appreciate you insinuating, I'm sorry, that I can't do my job. If you can't trust me to do it, fire me, right now. I'm not going to sit down here and have protocol asked of me. You have to trust that I'm going to do all the basics. Results, that's all the questions we need. If something goes wrong, or if it was out of control, you gotta trust me to come to you with those kinds of questions, that I wouldn't keep them from you. I'm not stupid. It could have damaged the lab." She didn't sound sad or hurt, just hinted with annoyance, but at the same time she was not attacking Taylor. She was just talking to her friend. She didn't even flinch as she pulled another thorn out of her arm with a small jerk of the tweezers and deposited it into the dish with a soft tick noise.

Taylor opened a drawer and pulled out some Neosporin and bandages. "Listen- you KNOW I trust you more then anyone else working on this heap. That guy bought me a drink and seemed interested in our work. So I showed him around a bit. It was the least I could do."

"I don't care that he was here," Teva stressed as she set the tweezers aside finally and held her hand out for the neosporin. "I care that you pull rank. I get it, you are my superior, but really? 'Go neutralize it with a base!' You honestly thought I hadn't already?" She frowned at Taylor, barely resisting the urge to sigh again.

Taylor handed her the bottle and rubbed her forehead, "Listen, I'm sorry about that. When I saw you, I guess I assumed you were frantic or something." She paused, "And I don't appreciate the mocking."

"It's not mocking if it's true," Teva pointed out as she attempted to repair her arm. "And I was frantic because I was working with the plants and I got my arm stuck in some thorns. I only just got it out when you arrived, but I figured telling you about 420TA69 was more important than this-" She showed Taylor her forearm with what seemed to be red freckles on it. She put it back down and started wrapping bandages on it. "You have to admit, if I hadn't told you then, you would have done exactly as I said."

"Alright alright- jeez, don't get all personal about it." Taylor scratched her chin. Figuring to change the subject a bit, she leaned in to see her arm, "Damn...how's that feel?" she asked sarcastically.

"Like being licked by puppies," Teva replied just as sarcastically, smiling at Taylor falsely. She let it fall as she went back to work on her arm, finally fixing the bandage so it would not fall off or come loose. Nodding in satisfaction, she crossed her arms on the table and leaned forward on them to look at Taylor with a serious frown. "So that guy. He's driving?"

"Yea, he's the pilot. Though apparently the ship is on auto for the next three days. Wish everyone would stop eating for three days so we could get some time off, right?" Taylor chuckled.

"Oh yes, it really is such a shame that we do not have a crew of anorexics," Teva sighed with a melodramatic posh tone before grinning at Taylor again. "Did you meet anyone else from the uniforms up there?"

"Nah, just that Dresden character. He seemed pretty nice to be honest." Taylor explained, trying to be optimistic. She rested her chin on her palm and yawned.

Teva made a thoughtful noise, her eyes staring off to nothing for a moment before Taylor yawned. "Do you need a nap or something?" she asked. "I can handle this down here for an hour or two."

"You know, that doesn't sound too bad. I always have energy crashes after I drink a few too many." Taylor shrugged her shoulders and slipped off of her stool, "Alright, thanks a lot. What time is it by the way? It's got to be past 6..." 

"Something like that," Teva confirmed with a nod as she stood as well and looked around her as if prioritizing. She finally came back to Taylor, frowning slightly. "Go nap," she said with a small nod to shoo her superior. "I've got everything under control."

"Alright alright. See you later...if not, tomorrow." Taylor waved at Teva before slipping out of her coat and heading to the ship living quarters.