Ad Astra :: Star Trek Fanfiction Archive ^{Beam me up, Scotty.}

Chapter Text

The Star Beagle Adventures                                                
Episode 13: Close to the Edge Part II - Total Mass Retain
Scene 7: The Lift

Down at the end, close by a river…

13.7
The Lift

There was something hypnotic about the Pattiseema Lift, linking the Godavari and Krishna rivers, just a few kilometers west of where each emptied into the Bay of Bengal. Flight specialist Maya Davi had rowed up and down this canal many times with her mother when she was a girl, checking for erosion along the banks, charting the flow of the muddy brown waters. 

The boat was one that the Davi family had built and rebuilt using the same tools and techniques that their ancestors had used for thousands of years. It was a point of pride that this knowledge had been passed down for so many generations. The art of boat making, the materials used, everything had changed over and over. Not just updates of old techniques… technological revolutions.

But old ways or new, old boat or new didn’t make much difference to the work that the Davi family had been doing for generations: The Davi family minded the Lift. The water needed to be sampled, the banks needed constant attention, the wildlife needed to be catalogued, the irrigation canals that sprang off the Lift required regular measurement. 

Slowly rowing up and down the Lift was the best way to catalogue all of these items and more. For Maya it had been a long, wonderful dream, at least in retrospect. As the youngest child, her job was to transcribe her mother’s notes. Her older brother and two older sisters rowed. Her father steered the boat. Her mother used a variety of sensors to measure the banks. 

Those long, straight banks made it clear that this was no naturally occurring river. Most of the Lift was so straight that it was like a road, stretching from horizon to horizon without a single bend. 

A road of brown, muddy water. Carrying natural nutrients, making vast stretches of what was once barren lands into fertile farmland.

“Labeo fimriatus… Maya! Write it down!” Maya’s mother often had to rouse Maya from her daydreams. The Lift was so hypnotic to look upon.

Maya scribbled the Linnaean taxonomy into the wildlife notebook, followed by: “Fringed-lipped carp.” And prepared for the inevitable lecture:

“It’s a big one, 122 centimeters! So good to see such a big specimen. You know that these fish, along with a few endangered varieties of turtles moved into the Lift shortly after it was dredged. The Lift was only meant to be a temporary solution before other canals were made. But the endangered species made it their home and did so well here, with some management, that they were taken off the endangered list. And so was the Lift. They quite literally saved each other.” Maya’s mother loved telling this story.

“Honey, I know you don’t want to be a river biologist. Or canal engineer. Just try to focus on the here and now.”

Maya looked up in surprise. This was something her mother had never said. Eventually her two eldest brothers had both married scientists and the legacy of the Davi family was secured. But not before she had enlisted in Star Fleet, at age 17, just to get as far away from the Lift as possible. And now she was back here.

“This is the lesson the Lift has to teach you, Maya,” her mother shrimp said. Maya had no idea how such a huge creature could possibly fit into the Davi family boat. It would have looked far more harmonious simply enjoying the water of the Lift. She also had no idea how this creature could possibly be her mother. 

“This canal, linking two vital rivers, has new tributaries added all the time. New irrigation lines. It takes constant upkeep. And the people taking care of the Lift are not the same people who built it.” 

Maya’s mother shrimp reached out with a whisker and gently stroked Maya’s hair. Maya had always loved it when her mother stroked her hair. “You ran away and joined Star Fleet to leave the Lift behind. And here, billions of light years from your home, you have come back to the Lift. You have to learn to appreciate your life and appreciate your destiny. The Lift must be cared for. And if cared for properly, it will provide new homes and new opportunities for endangered species…”

“Including yours.”

13.7