Discoveries

Posted on Fri Feb 18th, 2011 @ 1:26am by Lieutenant JG Nessa Jenarian & Ensign Lhamepha Kitonuh [Byrne]

Mission: Bug-Eyed Bogies
Location: Secondary Science Lab
Timeline: After "Somewhere Safe"

She didn't know when it had started, but at some point, Nessa had begun to feel flushed, small droplets of perspiration beading on her forehead that she would wipe off with the sleeve of her uniform to avoid getting blinded by the sweat as she worked on the sample she had scraped off of her uniform. So far, the scans had shown nothing special as far as the life form in question was concerned, but she had hopes the doctor would be able to come up with more information via medical scans. Her eyes darted for a moment to where the medical officer stood and she let out a sigh, "I have nothing special, doctor. We'll certainly need that medical tricorder for a more in-depth scan."

Chi handed her the medical tricorder. "Look after it, I may need that later" she explained.

Nessa opened and switched the tricorder on, looking a bit confused at being handed it rather than the doctor doing the scans herself, but then again in a situation where everyone was on edge, one could never be certain how people would react. "I will do my best, doctor," she answered softly as the data came streaming through on the tricorder screen. "Not much of a surprise there. Carbon based life forms, there appear to be two different kinds of DNA intermingled within the sample, so I can only assume that they have either mutated or mixed with another species and the mutation is not completely set within them. Any toxin that is lethal to us would likely be lethal to them, but I think we shouldn't take chances and go with at least two different options." she announced, pretty much talking to herself like she would often do while researching something new. "We'd want something that can work as a gas, require minimal exposure and work relatively fast. I'm certainly open to suggestions," the science officer added as another loud bang came from the door she had sealed. The metal was starting to bend at this point, so one could only guess how much longer it'd last under the continued assault from the alien creatures.

Lhamepha jumped at the sudden loud bang, one hand reaching up subconsciously to fiddle with the edge of her breathing apparatus, the water sloshing around against the side of her head from the sudden movement. She took a few minutes to try and collect herself, eventually deciding to find something to talk about to distract her from their unwanted visitor. Silently, she cursed herself. She was in middle age for her species, had some experiences under her belt, and the moment the ship gets boarded, she becomes as frightened as a vishnar pup. "But, if they've got two different types of DNA..." she started, trying to think her way through the problem her mind had intuitively caught onto in the other Ensign's hypothesis, "and they've mutated or mixed to make themselves similar in part to other species, then wouldn't any gas that we come up with have the same effect on us as them?" She knew that she'd essentially repeated the science officer's own wording, and shook her head, mentally rebuking herself for it. She rephrased; "I mean, if we used a gas on them, whoever was in the same room as the bugs we get would be killed or knocked out too."

"That is entirely correct," the science officer answered with a loud sigh. She closed her eyes for a moment to try and consider the situation before giving a slight shrug of her shoulders. "Provided said person doesn't use a space suit or a gas mask at least. Still, the mixed DNA does make me wonder about these creatures' reproductive cycle," she added, lifting a hand to once again wipe her forehead. "The bugs don't seem to be using any kind of devices, so it's fair to assume that they won't be having either of those handy when we decide to release the gas." Nessa paused, considering for a bit before shaking her head slightly. "I'm still thinking that the best place for release would be sickbay, plus there would be gas masks readily available provided the bugs haven't trashed the place. If that is the case, I don't see much of an option beyond one of us posing as bait and releasing the gas. If we clear the ship of this infestation, it would be a small price to pay for the safety of the rest of the crew." Her gaze slowly traveled across everyone gathered there before her lips parted in an attempt at a smile, even if it wasn't a laughing matter. "Seeing how it's my idea in the first place, I volunteer myself for the task," Nessa added, patiently waiting for the others' response, knowing that there would certainly be plenty of objections.

"No!" Lhamepha startled herself at the forcefulness with which she had replied - she had never spoken to a member of the senior staff like that before. Regardless, after a pause, she carried on. "Sacrificing someone - anyone - must be completely out of the question. There has to be another way. Can't we starve them or something?"

Nessa wasn't one to care much about protocol, especially when it applied to someone addressing her the proper way, so she paid no attention to the Selkie's outburst. "Well, that depends. I can't tell how long they can last without food based on these scans. I did note a slightly faster metabolism than ours, but that doesn't mean they can't survive longer than we do. Still, the poison gas idea sounds pretty feasible and would require very little effort on our part. Now, if we had someone with more experience when it comes to weapons, we could possibly rig a delayed explosive device that would disperse the poisonous gas, but sadly, we don't have a person with that knowledge here." The science officer staggered for a moment, almost as if she had tripped on something, but managed to regain her balance almost immediately, one of her hands grasping a nearby desk. "Plus, I need to get to sickbay as it is, looks like the injury I sustained might be infected," she added, her leg trembling slightly while she bit her lower lip in an attempt to not cry out with the sudden pain that jolted her.

Lhamepha ran over to the Ensign, and grabbed the medical tricorder off of her, running the scanner for the device over the wound. "This thing must not be working right..." she said, as she studied the readout of it. She wondered whether she was using it properly, but then corrected herself; it operated in just the same manner as any standard tricorder; it was just more sensitive to biological readings. "I'm detecting more of these bug life signs... inside the wound!"

Almost as soon as she had finished her sentence, all the light in the room, bar that emanating from the tricorder, cut out, the room plunged into darkness without even the light from the consoles present. Lhamepha redirected the tricorder, before putting it down and reaching for a standard one to get some better readings. "All main power seems to be down," she said, terror creeping back into her voice, intermingled with confusion. "Emergency back-ups too. Life support seems to be the only thing that is running, except..." she pivoted in place, trying to get a more direct reading. "There is an enormous amount of power in main engineering... more than anything in there should possibly need..."

"Calm down, Lhamepha," the science officer's voice came from her position in the dark, "panic will not help us in this situation." She chose to completely disregard the mention of life signs inside her wound, they had bigger problems to deal with at present. Truth be told, she was terrified herself, but knew quite well that if she allowed fear to dictate their actions, they stood a much higher chance of ending up dead. "Now then, I'd say we'd want to check engineering and see exactly what is happening there, might be prudent to prepare some kind of blanket-type weapon to use if we end up in a situation that we'd be overrun, so quick-acting poisonous gas would be a pretty good idea." She sighed and shook her head slightly realizing that without power they'd be unable to replicate anything. "Gas masks would be useful if we can't get our hands on full suits. In the mean-time, we need to come up with somewhere to get that gas in the first place. I might be able to mix something up in here," she added, one hand moving to her right wrist to turn the standard issue light that she always took with her on any away mission, thus offering at least a little bit of luminescence in the otherwise dark room.

Lhamepha took several deep breaths to calm her mind before speaking again. "Where would we get any of that without replicators?" she asked, processing the thoughts through her head one-by-one. She was only half-focusing on the science officer's plan of action, with her full attention still on the odd energy readings coming from main engineering. Then a thought occurred to her; "Where's the Captain?" she asked, turning around to face the others. "You were on an away team with him, weren't you? Is he on the ship?"

Nessa shook her head slightly from side to side to clear her thoughts. The high fever she had been developing wasn't helping her focus even the slightest. "I believe the captain and the chief were headed for the bridge," she answered after a slight pause. A slight frown crossed her features as she reached up and tapped her com badge, pretty much expecting it to not work as she spoke out loud, "Jenarian to Captain Byrne." While she waited for an answer, her arm moved to focus the light on the different supplies in the science lab. Even though the place was effectively her domain considering the lack of other science officers on board, she didn't know everything that was readily available off the top of her head, much less so with her having trouble concentrating at the moment. "After this is all over, first thing I'm going to do is send a request to Starfleet for a biologist and an anthropologist," she murmured under her breath.

Lhamepha stood, tapping her foot idly as she thought. She was even less use than the other woman in a science lab - her speciality lay in the realm of computer systems and transporters. It was on that thought that a new idea came to mind. "How many tricorders do we have in here?" she asked, as she started moving around, searching, suddenly focused now she had a purpose for herself.

"I think three, if you count the medical tricorder. If memory serves, there should be at least a couple more in that storage unit over there," the science officer said, pointing the wrist-mounted flashlight towards the storage unit in question. She didn't bother to start questioning the usefulness of tricorders. After all, she knew how to operate one and possibly modify it for more focused scans, but that was as far as her knowledge went. "Comms are dead, it seems," she added after receiving no answer from the captain, trying her best to not think about the other reason that might lead to him not answering.

Lhamepha moved straight to the storage cupboard, taking out an armful of tricorders, before depositing them on top of the lab's primary computer console. Grabbing the medical tricorder, she added it to her own, and the tricorder she took from Commander Edroski. It was only then that she noticed how quiet the two other women with them were being. After a moment's pause, she decided it would just be emotional shock, and that she should carry on working. She aligned the tricorders on top of the computer console, in two rows, and opened all of them up. "I'm going to link these tricorders together and feed their power supply into this terminal," she said, explaining her actions to Nessa. "If I'm right, and if I can tap into the right systems, it should be enough power for us to accomplish a one-time transport." She paused as she turned to the Chief Science Officer. "I can get us from here to the Captain and Chief Ballard on the bridge without us having to go through those bug-infested corridors, and then we can all pool our heads together - the Captain might already have a plan."

The science officer nodded her head numbly, shifting the light so that the Selkie could see what she was doing. Nessa did move a bit closer so she could see exactly what was being done in the hopes of remembering the process should she need to reproduce it herself in the future, her natural curiosity making her forget about the situation they were in as the operations officer worked. "I think that's one of the best ideas I've heard so far," she said, allowing a grin to form on her features. She glanced toward the two higher-ranked officers present, her brows creasing in a slight frown at the thought of them being a bit too quiet, but with a quick shrug of her shoulders, she went back to watching Lhamepha work. While she had taken it upon herself to keep the other ensign from going into a state of panic, a task that she was not suited to at all with her lacking social skills, she couldn't even begin to think how she'd be able to talk any kind of sense into higher-ranked personnel.

Lhamepha finished her work connecting the devices, and then stood back. "I've set it on a 20-second delay," she said, before turning and walking over towards the two senior officers. "I had to set it to a single wide beam, so we'll have to stand close together." As the other Ensign moved over towards her position, they waited. It didn't take long before the transporter kicked in, and the last thing the officers saw were the sparks of overtaxed tricorders, and the explosion of the console they had been linked with.

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Ensign Nessa Jenarian
Chief Science Officer

&

Ensign Lhamepha Kitonuh [Byrne]
Operations Officer
USS Endeavour