Work Text:
In space no one can hear you cry.
Rok-Tahk feels her lower lip tremble. She's been alone now, for a very long time.
In the canteen dirty dishes pile high. There is no one to remind Rok to clean, no one to wipe down the space after her.
The replicator always takes a good minute to respond, sometimes going as far as to request maintenance before serving her. But today she's lucky, the machine spits out her usual gruel with only a twenty second wait.
She’s hungry. Lonely, she eats.
‘I wish someone was here with me,’ she thinks, focusing on the memory of everyone's voices.
Eating is the only time she allows herself to mope.
Today she's teaching herself science. Herb seedlings are arranged on a cleared bench. These are something called garlic chives according to the computer. They smell spicy, a sharp lingering taste that cuts through the wet smell of the old gruel.
She’s learning to plant them. Her instructions say they'll need a small amount of water each day. The experiment is technically about over watering but now she has all the materials prepared, Rok can't help wondering if it's a waste. She could just follow the seedlings instructions and have more chives to eat.
It's just, the smell is so strong. It's nice even. Rok's never smelt anything like this. There's no bitter, no blood, no unpleasantness attached to this scent.
Over the next few weeks Rok tries different seedlings.
She makes a hydroponic light. These instructions prove harder. But the different plants make it all worth it.
Watercress is her next project. It grows so easily, no soil required. Rok leaves sheets of it suspended over Zero's abandoned bunk. She adds it to her gruel, enjoying the spark of pepper. It's not too heavy, but the texture is strange. The leaves are slightly fibrous, taking extra work to chew through.
Months go by. She focuses on the more theoretical sciences, pushing past the basics of biology quickly. She doesn't need to know that much to succeed. But physicals, warp machanics, it quickly becomes consuming.
Maths had been hard enough.
Left to her own devices, Rok forgets to eat. But the smell of the watercress, the rosemary, the tea plants… it reminds her, it connects her. She needs food and she needs breaks.
After a year, she cleans the canteen. The mouldy piles of dishes were doing no one any good. Instead the space smells of a garden. The fresh, wet scent of soil, the dry peppery scent of all her favourite plants. Even the lamps produce a smell, the subtlest hint of singed.
She settles a pot of thyme on the bench. It's a new journey, a new thing to try. Tomorrow she’s going to try Vulcan mint. It's apparently stronger, faring better with almost no water. In cracked, dried soil, the seedlings are planted.
Rok knows how to grow so much. From the heat lights, she regains her own levels of vitamins missing from the sun.
She can think more clearly. The different foods revitalise her in a way she's never felt before.
Today, she's going to try harvesting tea. She can't wait to see what it tastes like.