When Mint Plants Get Lots of Love…

Posted on Sun Sep 28th, 2025 @ 4:43pm by Petty Officer 1st Class Alina Tevaris & Sergeant Jace Morven

3,587 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: Prologue
Location: Arboretum, USS Guinevere
Timeline: Early 2389

The doors parted and the green struck him again, though less alien than before. The air here was warmer, softer, thick with moisture. It carried the weight of soil and leaves, a taste unlike anywhere else on the ship. Breathing it was like filling his lungs with something alive. Before, it had always made Jace Morven think of jungles during the War, where each step was a balance between efficiency and control. This was different. He was associating it with something else. He caught the sharp edge of his own plant through it all, mint leaves pressing their scent against the sweeter notes that hung in the air.

He slowed his step, because the place demanded it. Vines curled along trellises, wide leaves reached into the light, and even the smallest stems looked fragile against a careless shoulder. He remembered what Alina had asked from him, almost a year ago. To be careful. So he kept his movements tight, careful not to brush against anything.

The pot was awkward in his hands, light but ungainly with its stems bending under their own weight. He had noticed the plant growing, and now it looked like it might spill out of the pot. He had noticed a small crack, hairline, but still there. Still a vulnerability. He had to act. He had asked the computer where to find Petty Officer Tevaris, and it had brought him here.

He spotted her a few rows in. She stood with her sleeves rolled back, hair tied loosely behind her head, a basket of cuttings balanced against one hip. She moved with an ease that made her look part of the place, unhurried, steady. She looked like she could light this entire space up with a smile. He did not understand that ability, the ease, but he did not need to understand it. He just needed to respect it.

He stopped a pace away, holding the pot steady so the soil would not spill, and spoke without preamble. “It needs a bigger pot,” he said, before adding, with no shame yet voice pitched for this space rather than a training field, “And I do not know how to do it.”

The familiar voice cut through the silence of the arboretum and brought Alina Tevaris out of her focus. The voice was direct and to the point, but that last part carried with it an openness and vulnerability that made her heart swell. He wanted to learn. He cared to do it right.

She turned to face him and smiled as warmly as that first time they met. “Well you’ve come to the right place!” she said cheerfully. “There’s a metal work bench two rows that way.” She pointed deeper into the arboretum. “I’ll meet you there in just a minute, I just need to get some things.” She set down her basket of cuttings and sauntered off in the opposite direction.

Jace's eyes followed where she had pointed and he gave a nod to show he understood. He made his way over, stepping carefully, eyes mapping as they went. The bench itself was well worn and he studied it. It looked slightly uneven and his eyes followed the legs down, seeing the issue. He carefully moved closer and nudged it, seeing it wobble slightly. He could fix that.

Alina joined him right when she said she would, carrying two pots, stacked together, each larger than the one he had. Inside the top one were a handful of tools as well as a water bottle. “Okay! Welcome to Re-Potting One-Oh-One, with Professor Tevaris! Before we begin, let’s look at this little guy.”

She gently examined Jace’s mint plant, her fingers touching everything as her eyes and nose guided them. “Looking nice and lush. Smells wonderful.” She touched the soil and nodded. “The right amount of water. He’s been caring for you, hasn’t he?” she said to the mint. She faced him and grinned. “Have you been talking to them?”

Jace met her eyes before he gave a small, solemn nod. "You said I should," he said, but didn't elaborate. He had followed her instructions, had remembered them. And he had talked to the plant. Quietly, about small things. The environment, the the training. And late at night, when others were asleep, sometimes about Martinez, his old squad. "It grew quicker than I expected," he added after a pause, his eyes going back to the plant.

“Mint’ll do that when it’s well loved,” she explained. “So, let’s do this. Step one: we need to very slowly and gently remove the plant from the current post. This is easiest when the soil is wet, so we’ll pour this in.” She dumped her water bottle into the pot, giving the mint a good drink. “Now if you hold the pot sideways, I’ll ease it out.”

Jace did as instructed, moving his hands slowly. His eyes flickered to her, briefly, watching her face before he looked down at the pot again. The silence hung there for a moment, not uncomfortable or thick, just focused on the moment. "You...do it so easily," he finally said.

“Calm and gracefulness comes with training and experience,” she said as she gently teased the unwieldy plant out of the pot, shaking away the soil as she did so. “Whew, this is a big one!” she said as she looked over the root ball. “But very healthy. And congratulations are in order.”

He looked at her with surprise at the congratulations, at the health of the plant. He glanced down, his expression softening for a fleeting second. It warmed him, briefly, in a way he wasn't familiar with. So he pushed it aside as he swallowed. "I only did what you told me to do," he said, meaning it. He hadn't done anything except following her instructions.

“This plant is so full of love that a single body isn’t enough,” she explained, giving him a wink. “So we’re going to split it. Two pots. Twice the mint. Twice the responsibility, but you’ve proven you can handle it.” She picked up the knife she’d brought with her and held it by the blade, offering the handle to Jace. “Do you want to do the honours? I can coach you through it.”

He looked at the handle before he gave a curt nod, taking it after a moment's hesitation. This was her weapon. Her knife, and she handed it over to him so easily. He weighed it. It was well made, but...it wasn't a weapon. She had made it not a weapon but a simple tool for her tasks.

In her hands it had looked harmless, natural. In his, he noticed the grip was different. In his hands, it was still a weapon. He made himself change the grip to how she had held it, his breathing steady as he watched his hand on the knife as if suddenly it would fall off.

“Now the root ball looks like a tangled mess but if you’re gentle, you should be able to separate this cluster of stems from this one by slowly sliding the knife from here to here.” She pointed as she spoke, a serious tone casting over her usual lighter demeanour. Splitting a root ball was serious business, after all. “A lot of the roots will part for you. Some will be cut but don’t worry, that’s normal and they won’t hold it against you.”

Jace glanced at her eyes for a moment before back at the root. He gave a nod, shifting his grip on the knife again. Gentle. He wasn't known for being gentle. A muscle in his jaw clenched and he moved his hand, to cut. He tried to be gentle, watching what he was doing. It parted for him, slowly, and like she had said a lot of them did part. Some didn't, and cutting them reminded him of the sensation of cutting a ketracel-white tube. Just no white liquid leaking out afterwards. The scent of the soil made him frown, but the fresh scent of mint felt at odds with what he was doing. He couldn't reconcile both in the moment. When he was done he stood still, hand still on the knife, his face blank as he watched.

Alina watched the procedure unfold, holding what she could of the mint to make his cut as easy as possible. When his knife was through the root ball she very slowly pulled the plants apart. She looked up and grinned at him, eyes twinkling in celebration of their success. "That was some good knife work, Jace. Cressida would be impressed. And now, you have not one but two sources of mint!" She cocked her head toward the two pots she brought. "Start scooping soil into those, please, while I hold these in at the right depth."

He blinked, and it pulled him away from whatever memory he had half-entered. The words registered, the praise. It sat oddly with him, settled somewhere unfamiliar. He didn't dismiss it, but he decided to put it somewhere quiet inside of him. He offered the knife over to her, his hand steady as he watched her face. Not her eyes. And then a thought came to him. "What happens when there's more than two?" he asked, a slight frown coming to him. He could have space for two, but he had limited space in the barracks. More than two would be too much. Did he give them away? And in which case, who to? Elen? No. He dismissed that thought. It would be dead within a week. Alina? She had many plants, last year's plant op had proven she had to smuggle in plants so that Vale didn't realise the ever growing greenery around her. Montoya? She might like a plant, yet offering a gift like that didn't sit right with him for his counsellor. He had to cut the thoughts off, finding himself distracted by it. And this, with Alina, was important knowledge.

"I'll tell you what," Alina said, taking the knife with a free hand and put it in the gardening tool belt around her waist. "Next time you need to re-pot, or even if they're getting out of hand, bring them back to me. We'll split more off and find homes for them. Some could even be replanted here in the arboretum." She gave him a playful nudge on the shoulder. "I'm always here for your plant based needs, Jace! Your one stop shop for all things mint tea."

The nudge was warm, quick but oddly reassuring. It felt familiar. Jace looked at her before he gave a small nod, both acknowledgment and thanks, eyes going back to the plant. No. Plants. Plural. "Do you think you could smuggle one into your quarters? Or is that not feasible?" he asked, eyes flickering to her for a moment. There was a small, brief, tug at the corner of his lips. The shadow of a smile.

She giggled and gave him a devilish grin. "Oh I have my ways of getting more greenery into my quarters. Don't you worry."

He nodded, considering the words and the meaning as he started putting soil into the pots, like she had instructed him to. "The table's unstable," he finally said, his voice quiet. An observation. "Do you...like it like that?" The question was careful. He knew some people liked imperfect things. He didn't know if fixing it without asking was breaking some sort of invisible social rule he did not understand.

She shook her head. "It's more something we've learned to tolerate. Someone from engineerings comes to tightening the fasteners every now and then but it loosens when something vibrates the ship. No one has done anything to fix it properly." She shrugged. "The plants don't seem to mind it, but every few weeks something will slide or roll off."

Jace gave a curt nod as he took the information in. Considering it. Equipment wasn't up to standard then. He took a step back and crouched, eyes on the table itself, the joints. His hand touched the deck. Right now, calm, nothing to shake the ship, except from the light vibrations from the warp core travelling through structures designed to hold the strain, the inertial dampeners softening it. His eyes went to how the table was made, the weak points, the connections. Satisfied he knew it, he stood and went back to the plants. "I can try." He was sure he could fix it, permanently, but he knew to be economical with pre-emptive mission successes. "Casualty plants are...not acceptable."

Alina examined the two mint plants, now in their pots. To have the table collapse while any such specimen was on them would be a tragedy. Not only that, but an entirely avoidable one. “I agree,” she said. “Please do what you can, Jace. I’ll put the finishing touches on the re-potting down here.” It didn’t need much, maybe a bit more soil, some water, to be gently adjusted, but she could do that off the bench. She picked up one of the pots and brought it slowly to the deck, far enough away to not be underfoot when Jace was working. “Can you bring the other one over here please?” she asked as she came back for the tools, clearing the work surface of everything else.

He picked it up, looking at it for a moment before he walked over to her. His eyes scanned the area, out of habit, and he moved carefully through the terrain to avoid stepping on anything alive. He placed it down and brushed soil from his hands. "Is there an engineering kit here?" The question was quiet, a bit flat. In his mind he was already making plans. If there wasn't one here, he'd go to the barracks and take the kit he had there. He'd have to take the table apart somewhat. Strengthen the fastenings, one of the legs looked a little shorter too. That would not help with the vibrations.

“There’s a kit in the supply closet, just there,” Alina answered, pointing toward a metal armoire installed against a support column. She sat on the deck and started fussing over each of the mint plants, making them perfect for him to take back to his barracks while also double checking their health, verifying if there was anything they weren’t getting. “If you hear me talking but can’t make it out because it’s quiet, it’s just me trading stories with the mint. I’ll raise my voice if I need anything from you, is that alright?”

"Understood," Jace said. The sort of answer he gave when a reply was expected but nothing more was needed. She had gone back to the plants, her voice low. He knew she was speaking to them, not to him. That made it easier. He turned and crossed to the supply closet she had pointed out. The armoire opened without resistance. A toolkit sat on the second shelf, basic but intact. He lifted it with one hand and brought it back to the table.

He crouched beside it, set the kit on the floor, and opened it. The tools were arranged loosely inside, so he took a moment to sort them by task: spanners, brushes, levelling tool, sealant, fixings, laser tool that had seen better days. The was not an Engineer's well-maintained kit. It wasn't even Elen's kit which to Jace looked like colour and mess that only she could read. This belonged to no one. Neglected, brought out when necessity dictated it.

His fingers moved quickly, with quiet precision, each piece placed where he’d need it. Then he slipped out of his uniform jacket, folded it, and set it aside on a stool nearby. No point letting the soil or dust grind into the fabric. He straightened and lifted the table, turning it carefully onto its side. It was lighter than it looked, but the frame was uneven. He crouched again and started to work. One bolt at a time, every movement deliberate. He didn’t rush, but there was no waste. Each joint was dismantled, cleaned with the wire brush, inspected. Loose fastenings reinforced. Friction pads re-cut where needed. One leg was short. Not enough to compromise the structure, but enough to throw balance on an uneven deck. The plants might not complain, but he would notice.

He had already measured Alina in his mind. The shorter height suited her reach better, so he adjusted the other three legs to match it. Not a perfect fix in Starfleet terms, but what it would be was secure. No casualty plants, not even with shakes of the ship during battle, or micro vibrations during warp. It would be functional for its task, even if the repair wasn't what was standard issue.

He didn’t speak as he worked. Didn’t need to. Time slipped past him, unnoticed. Just the scrape of metal, the shift of weight, the clean rhythm of focus. When he reassembled the table and lifted it upright again, his hands rested flat on the surface. He shifted his weight. Tested it. No sway. No give. He stepped back and crouched down, packing the toolkit up again, neater than when he had found it.

These plants have truly been well cared for, Alina thought as she examined them. She made some deep scans of the roots, stems, and leaves, even of the soil that had come out of the old pot. All healthy. The right amount of water, the right amount of light — not easy to achieve in a space like the FGF Barracks! — but he clearly managed it. “You two’ve found a good friend in Mister Morven, haven’t you? You must’ve seen so much over there. And soon you’re going home.”

The new soil wasn’t quite as good as what they had come from, so she stirred in a bit of the old into the new. “A bit of your old home to take with you,” she told the leaves. “But you need some vitamins too. I can’t give you to Jace without those, or I’d be sending you off on the wrong foot! Here, a bit of compost, some phosphorus, ooh let’s add some sand too, that’s good for drainage don’t you know. Oh, you’ll be the happiest little mints on board. And even when Jace is working, you’ll have each other.”

She finished just in time to see Jace putting the tools away. “Oh that looks perfect!” She held an arm out. “Help me up please?”

When she called out to him, he rose without hesitation. His body crossed the ground to her before his brain had caught up and he reached out for her. His grip was firm, sure, steady...not gentle, but not harsh either. The words of approval had been registered, he just didn't know what to say to it. Appearances could be deceiving. He gave a small nod as he let go of her once she was on her feet and steady, his hand falling down to his side, a loose fist. He glanced to the two mint plants, just to check how they looked. They...seemed steadier in the two pots.

On her feet, she took a second to pick up one of the mint plants and set it on the table. Then the other. Hey this feels solid! Unconsciously she took a more comfortable position at the workbench and showed off their success. “Here they are, Jace! What was once one is now two, and they’re healthy and happy. Ready to be brought back home.”

He gave a small nod, watching the plants before his eyes flickered to her, briefly. "Alina..." the name trailed off, not awkward just unsure. As if this was part of a mission statement he didn't know what to do with. "Thanks." He reached out and picked up one of the plants, then the other, holding them in his hands. "For the lesson." And the things in-between that he didn't have the words for, didn't even understand the feelings, but the sentiment was there.

“Any time!” Alina cheered. “You have plant-related needs, I’m here for you! But I do have one simple request. Maybe next time you harvest some leaves for tea, could you please make me a cup? These are so well tended, I bet they make the best tea, and I’d love to try it!”

His eyes flickered to her at the words before he nodded. They did make good mint tea. "Okay," he said, swallowing. He could seek her out next time he harvested the leaves, make her a cup of mint tea the way he did it, the way Dannic had done it. Somehow, it settled awkwardly, like a jacket that didn't fit right across the shoulders. But for her? He'd try.

“Thank you! Now you take these lovely plants home, okay? Get them settled. And don’t hesitate to come back if you need anything.” Alina flashed him her warm smile. “And thanks again for the table fix!”


END

Petty Officer 1st Class Alina Tevaris
Guardians of the Green

&

Sergeant Jace Morven
Platoon Sergeant and Mint Plant Caretaker
Federation Ground Forces

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