#14 Sea Mammal Lifeguards

Posted on Wed Jun 19th, 2024 @ 12:28am by Lieutenant JG Sheyla {Meji} & Lieutenant Commander Kristian Long & Lieutenant Tara Herculoid PhD

Mission: Shakedown II
Location: Meji Sea, Danvers
Timeline: current

ON:

Sheyla returned to the open, sandy beachfront, the whale pod following her as she did so. She had explained to them that she needed to speak with others of her kind, which she called humanoids so they understood that it meant similar, not exactly like her. One of the younger pups who had met her just after they came into the world had formed a strong bond with Sheyla, often times swimming speedy circles around Sheyla in a form of playing, trying to avoid being touched by the Andorian while at the same time enjoying bonding time with her. Due to the circling Sheyla had affectionately named her Dizzy since she liked to swim in circles as a form of teasing and chasing.

Breaking away from the pod with a heartfelt goodbye, Sheyla swam along the bottom of the sea floor, this area being nothing but white sand. Eventually, she came up out of the water since it got far too shallow to swim any further, the water waste deep as she stood and removed her starfish, placing it on her shoulder as before. The clear gelatin enacted immediately. Walking forward, getting to knee deep, Sheyla heard a bunch of splashing behind her and whale-like squealing. Spinning about she saw that Dizzy had tried to follow her, sure that her pod had told her no, but the stubborn pup thought she knew better. Going back to the pup Sheyla found the depth to be just above her knees since Dizzy had rushed to catch up with her and during a heavy wave front hitting the beach she was able to go much further than anticipated. "Dizzy! Bad girl! You're stuck now." Her body was halfway above the water, which meant she could breathe through her blow hole, but being stuck on the beach would allow the pup's weight to crush her and prevent breathing due to that factor. "Rock back and forth," Sheyla tried to instruct, grabbing her dorsal fin to show Dizzy what she meant by that. Side to side, while the fins and body tried to dig out a shallow trench for her to use to get back to deeper water.

Sheyla needed help since all the Core use today had her tired and she needed to meditate to recoup her energy. Standing tall and looking along the beach she spotted Tara Herculoid and Kris Long sitting in the BBQ area for the beach roughly 100 meters away. She cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted. "Tara! Kris!" When the two heads looked her way and pointed Sheyla waved for them to come over, her waving in done in a way to denote an emergency.

Tara and Kristian didn't waste time in running over to the water's edge. Both entered the water at the same time and swam over to where Shelya was.

Kristian and Tara seeing the nearly beached pup. "It's in a pickle," Tara commented as she splashed water on it to keep it's body moist.

"Let's see if we can get it back into deeper water," Kristian said.

"Rock her back and forth to get the sand to move around with the current." Sheyla said. "I'll dive under and start pulling sand away from her tail so she can use it to try and power her way out." Pulling the starfish from her face Sheyla placed it over her nose and mouth like so many times before and went under. Sheyla began to shovel out mounds of sand with her hands, creating a shallow trench for the tail to move but, as she did so she noticed the other problem. Dizzy's snout was still pointing inland, not out to sea. Digging her heals in Sheyla grabbed her tail and began to try and turn the whale's body around enough that Dizzy could power out with no worries, her snout towards her pod. But, with Dizzy starting to panic she kept trying to thrust out and battered Sheyla as she did so.

Sheyla popped up in the waist deep water, talking through the starfish on her face. It was muffled but understandable. "Turn her nose to sea." She pointed further out to the pod at the surface, their blow holes overactive as they were worried about the little one as they swam back and forth calling to the youngling. She began to push on the right side of Dizzy's 'lower' body, to help try and get her pointed where they needed. It was a chore with the whale's belly beached on the underwater hill of sand, but with the efforts of them all and their feet moving about, the sand was starting to give.

Tara dove under the water and came up under the whale's snout and turned it so it would point out to the rest of the pod while Kristian began to dig the sand from under the whale's tail and at the same time began to shove it toward the deeper water.

Tara swam gently gripped the whale's snout, doing a side stroke pulled on the young whale's snout to encourage it to head to the deeper water.

Using her throat and pressurizing the air coming up through it, Sheyla gave out a few whale notes telling Dizzy to swim hard and go towards her mother. Dizzy, sucking it up, began to really thrash her tail in the water, each dunk of it causing sand to dislodge and giving her a couple of inches of giveaway. Instinct told Sheyla she was going to break free so she grabbed an arm on Long and one on Herculoid and pulled them back and away. With a few more hard kicks Dizzy got free and kicked up more sand as her belly went free and she left the shallows as quickly as her exhausted body would let her. As she swam towards the pod waiting for her, Sheyla felt relief as she reached up and removed her starfish and placed it on her shoulder again. When they all were standing in the waist deep water Sheyla spoke. "Sorry. She was going to break free so I yanked you out of the way." She was breathing heavily. "Little Dizzy, always trying to follow me."

"She's cute," Tara said watching the whale as she swam off

"I'm glad we could help," Kristian said pulling her wet hair from her face. "I think I'll watch her a few minutes to make sure she's going to be okay."

"I'm just glad we were here and I did study whales on my cadet cruise and I know they need to be kept wet. She'll be tired for a bit. How did she come to follow you?"

Sheyla, standing up up from her bent over, breathing heavy pose as she went back to normal breaths, gave a grin. "You know how little sisters can be. Always want to go where big sis goes." She gave a laugh. "I named her Dizzy because she likes to swim as fast as she can in circles around me to tease me." She held a hand up with a sheepish look. "Okay, that really didn't explain anything. And, Kris, I wouldn't go too close to her pod. They don't know you and she is only a couple of days old. They are...overly protective."

"No worries there," Kristian said as she turned to look at Sheyla "Are you okay? Your still breathing a little heavy, need me to check you over just to make sure?"

Sheyla gave a casual wave-off to denote thanks for the concern. "I'm fine. Been pushing myself the past few days. Just feeling the affects. It's why I was coming back here, to take some time out of the water. Every muscle in my body will be at its peak performance with all the swimming I've done the past 48 hours." She began to slowly walk back up to the dry sand, her legs weighty and sore from all the use in the water. "I'll sleep good on Euphrates tonight, for sure."

"I'm sure you will, just remember if you need anything come see me. I'll be crashing on Tara's shuttle with her, Alesha and Alesha's little girl," Kristian said.

Sheyla got to the dry sand but then turned and stopped to look at Long. "I'm a doctor, too, Kris. I've been swimming for days and training as a Meji at the same time. I'm tired, that's it. If there was something else wrong I would let you know." She got herself moving again as they caught up and all three were now out of the waterline and walking along the dry beach. "I am bringing a plethora of samples back to Amandora. Alive and well in a large aquarium Captain Green let me place in the Euphrates. Can't wait to do some research." Sheyla gave a smile to them both at the excitement of it.

"I've been taking samples as well," Tara said "I've got my own shuttle crammed full of any science equipment one could possibly want. It was a gift from my dad a couple of years ago. If you'd like to use any of it while we're on the surface feel free."

"We probably could have gotten guest quarters on the star base but I'd rather breath air until the new ship gets here and we report aboard," Kristian commented.

"The Meji Sea is a wonderous place and I am so glad Master Ro got it secured as a nature preserve. Seamother and her pod will be safe from hunting and unlawful tagging." Sheyla said, her joy at it all coming through in her expressions and voice. But, like any Andorian, that changed in a matter of moments as her voice took on a defensive edge. "This is now my home when not on ship and I will defend my family." She motioned out towards where the whales were surfacing casually as they swam along in the distance. "Seamother named me her adopted pup." The smile returned at that and the blue hue of her cheeks darkened slightly as she blushed over it.

"I think that's quite an honor," Kristian replied "My home planet doesn't have whales, we have something similar to dolphins. That's about the largest mammal we have in our waters."

"We have some that are purple." Tara spoke up.

"Nice." Sheyla said as they got back to the picnic tables and she sat down. Her suit was already dry. "Ohp. Be right back." She ran over to the rocks and reef portion near to them and pulled the starfish free of her body and placed it in the water on the reef then hurried back. "There, that little guy deserves his rest too."

"I never understood them. We have them back home, they're protected," Tara said. "We don't remove them from the water."

Sheyla gave raised eyebrows. "Well, it is a different planet. These starfish, at least that species, create that clear gel around themselves to stay protected against drying out. Probably a defense mechanism too, against predators. But, not willing to taste the gel myself just yet, I'll have to test that theory scientifically. Good science is good observation, after all."

"That it is," Tara agreed "Our starfish have very soft shells, when out of the water they dry up pretty quickly. Out of the water they will only live five to ten minutes. We do have an entire underwater city. It's in one of the deeper oceans."

Giving a pleasant nod to that Sheyla responded. "Seamother says that the beasts that inhabit the deeper waters here are massive and not to be messed with. They don't like interlopers in their territory. She herself almost attacked me until she realized I was not a threat. Instead, she chose to bump and rub on me to see how I would respond. Glad I kept my cool."

"Most wise as she may have been testing you. We're only guests of those who live in the waters," Kristian commented.

"We've been exploring our oceans for sometime and we're still learning from it and those who live in it," Tara replied.

Sheyla's face went more serious. The mirth was still in her eyes but her countenance was one of momentary sadness. "I have no one left on Andoria. Both sets of parents have passed on and my siblings and I don't get along. So, this," She raised her arms to show the world around them. "Will be home when not aboard ship. Plus, being Meji, it is expected that this will be home to some degree. Danvers will now be protected by more than Starfleet on a daily basis." Her smile had returned as she was speaking."

"My planet would welcome you," Tara said sincerely "I'm an only child and I often regret that don't have a sibling. Both Kristian and Alesha have brothers."

"My mum and Tara's mum are sisters and they didn't get along for a few year but now they're best friends. Perhaps one day you and your siblings will get along. But Tara is right our planet would welcome you," Kristian said.

Sheyla had made her choice, and with as nice as she found that offer, she would have to decline. Seamother did not live on their planets, nor did the whales she had come to love. And, this was just one of many pods she had yet to meet. "I thank you for that kind offer but the Amandora and Danvers are my home now. I have the Starfleet family, I have a Meji family, and now I have a whale family." As she said that Sheyla remembered something she wanted to talk to Tara about. "Tara, would you consider allowing me to serve in the Diplomatic department?" She figured she would just blurt it out and see how it went. Typical Andorian.

"I'd welcome it," Tara said "I could use a good assistant and you'd be perfect. So welcome to the diplomatic department."

"Thanks," Sheyla smiled. "I will never give up being a doctor-slash-scientist. Resolving disputes without a fight interests me now that I am Meji. Diplomacy just sounds good for me."

"My first love is and will be science, and there are better ways to solve issues that in fights. But sometimes that does not always work. But I do try," Tara replied.

Sheyla let out a big yawn, covering her mouth until it was over. She shook her head. "Damn. More exhausted than I thought. Thanks for the company you two but I really need to hit the rack." She got to her feet and went around to their side of the picnic table, giving each a one-armed hug. "Thanks for the company. You two have a good night." Then, off she went towards the jungle path that led to where the USS Euphrates was parked.

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