"Dr Crusher, report."

The CMO had a brief struggle to get sure footing, then pressed her combadge. "No sign of Ensign Brown so far", she answered. "I thought disabling the internal sensors was restricted to command personnel only? How could he -"

"That's not valid for areas mainly designed for use by private persons", the Klingon corrected. "The Arboretum is a designated leisure area."

Crusher pushed aside a liana from her tricorder. Thick, yellow slime remained on its display. "Does that apply to the holodeck as well?"

"No, Doctor, since we regularly hold mandatory training sessions there."

"Can't imagine what we'd face on the holodeck if we had once decided to disable safety protocols there, too", she mused. Since her uniform was already half soaked with sweat in the much like rain forest condition, she deemed it appropriate to use her sleeve to clean her instrument.

"I will withdraw permission for any officer to change the Arboretum's settings to all natural as soon as we solved our current problem", Worf decided. "We should focus on finding Ensign Brown."

"Agreed", she confirmed, "How far have you come?"
"Section C", he replied, "Our progress is hampered by the surroundings much more than anticipated", Worf added grudgingly.

"Mine too. Please notify me if you encounter any harmful organism."

"A Klingon is not bothered by staggerweed, Doctor!"

"We're operating without a safety net, Lieutenant", she reminded him of their readouts at the entrance, before they had engaged into safely harbored wilderness, "And if I recall correctly, one of your Ensign got a pretty bad rash from consuming a Manjuron Nut." She deliberately neglected to mention that the officer had a known allergy to any nut in the universe, so his itches had probably appeared after eating any such fruit. "So we shouldn't take stings lightly in here."

"Aye, Commander." Worf made it clear that addressed her in the superior position, but did not agree to her concern. "We should send a medical team to Ensigns Soto and Ja'Fen", he suggested, "Since we probably can't check on them during next sixty minutes."

"Seems reasonable to me", Crusher accepted, silently kicking herself for not ordering an officer to pay them a visit after they left Ten Forward in the first place. "Couldn't know we would be in here that long."

She quickly dispatched two teams to their last known location. "- and Alyssa", she added, "Tell them to come in for a checkup at three thirty, even if they claim to be perfectly fine. I have a hunch that we're missing something here."

"Yes, Doctor."

"Crusher out."

Working her way through the thick plant growth did not become easier in the progress: By the time she had planned to be back in sickbay, the artificial lights above them went into night mode. Light spread on a slim trail before her from the tricorder, she twice stumbled across roots. After she had caught herself staring at a formicary inches from her nose, her patience subsided considerably. "Worf, any sign of Brown so far?"

"I am picking up a signal from ten meters afar", he answered. "Readings are inconclusive. Stand by, Commander."

Crusher allowed herself to stop, checked the ground quickly and then allowed herself to sink to her knees. The sleeve let the slime of the liana pass through, causing her arm to swell to twice its size, but since it did not hurt her, she refused to beam out on emergency requirements. If I had taken my work coat, I'd never caught this rash in the first place, she distantly realized,

One could get lost in this forest, she admitted to herself. Now that environmental controls had lowered the temperature to a warm, but comfortable level, the high humidity felt smooth in one's lungs, not as heavy as before. The flora around her, despite its wilderness, had a soothing effect on her, she noticed. She might come back for a short detour, getting her mind off the ship's routine duty requirements.

Then, Worf shattered her relaxation brutally.

"Worf to Crusher. We have encountered Ensign Brown. He is dead."