Getting Up To Speed

Posted on Sun Dec 10, 2017 @ 9:49am by Lieutenant Alanna Wells & Ensign Calaban Bel-Asher

2,231 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Rumours
Location: Science
Timeline: MD 9 1030

ON

Alanna's first task when she got to science was to find Ensign Calaban Bel-Asher and find out as much as she could about the science department on DS5. Most science departments were pretty much the same, but each had its own personality and she didn't want to jump in and start making a bunch of changes. She wanted to learn how things were run now and then see if she needed to make any alterations.

"Dude, you look lost." A broad set blonde man came up behind her, a huge metal travel mug in one hand. He wore a white lab coat over a pair of loose shorts with palm trees printed on them, and a white V-neck shirt. He had flip flops on. "Can I help you?

She looked at his clothing and smiled. "I'm not lost, but you can help me," she said. "My name's Alanna. Alanna Wells. I'm the new Chief Science Officer."

"Oh." Calaban looked a bit abashed. "Oh, Sorry, sir." He looked down at his clothes. "Its my day off. I came in to catch up on paperwork, as we haven't had a proper chief in a while, and I got dragged into Science lab 4 to see some fractal mitosis in one of Specialist McNeil's Argolian crystal fungoids."

She couldn't help chuckling. "It's okay. I like to dress down when off duty, too. Fractal mitosis? Sounds interesting. What else is going on I should know about?" she asked. "If you have the time? Oh, and please call me Amber or ma'am. I'm still not used to being called sir."

"Sure thing. do you want the tour?" He pointed up a set of stairs that led to a suspended office with large glass windows that looked out over the rest of the huge floor. Thats your office. This is reception, and Break One, which is mostly just passing through space, though someone installed a real coffee machine here, if you don't mind replicating beans for it."

"Wow," she said, looking up at her office. "I'm used to an office just big enough for a desk, my books, and a couch I can sleep on if I work too late." She grinned at Calaban. "I would love a tour."

He pointed with his coffee cup. "Then follow me." He walked off down a long corridor that had a gentle curve to it. After a few dozen meters there was a junction. "This is priority lab space, held over for emergencies, and anything needing priority. " he gestured down the junction, and then opened a turbo lift on one side of the junction. "This way."

Alanna quickly looked around and nodded before entering the turbolift.

"Break Two," Calavan called out. There was a leftwards lurch as the car moved off for a few seconds and then opened the doors onto a large circular junction with several spokes leading off. Break Two was a quiet dining room with replicators. "This is Life sciences. Labs for bio-chem, botany, the mycology cellar, and a whole bunch of similar stuff. Occasionally we take overload from Sick Bay. Don't be fooled by the name. Its not a bay. its a major metropolitan hospital. When they get busy we help out where we can. Like right now they've got all their brains working on some mass poisoning downer, so we just picked up their routine stuff for this morning. Keeps the cadets busy."

"Very nice," Alanna said. Then she raised an eyebrow. "Mass poisoning?"

"Yeah, total bummer," Calaban started to amble down one of the corridors, heading deeper into the Science department. "Like, fifteen people, all Boslics, turned up dead, poisoned they think, in the space of a few hours. Medical's trying to figure out why, but they've only got a handful of pathology dudes, so they're prioritising that and we're growing toe-cheese samples to keep their back log down. Neat huh?"

"Interesting, yes. So, why are we growing toe cheese samples?" she asked. She was curious about what would kill fifteen Boslics, but she knew medical would be on top of that. Still, it was an interesting problem to solve.

"Well, probably not toe cheese. But we've got all their more basic path lab work, to help out. Keep them on track as much as possible." He turned another corner, then another, walking past multiple laboratories where various scientists were working on whatever project they had in progress.

"It's nice to see them working," she said. "Are they allowed to do personal projects when there's noting pressing?"

"I'd say most of our work is effectively personal projects." Calaban decided after a pause. "We tend to get people who want to be doing weird shit on the edge of space." He considered that again. "Uh, if Doctor Sattay asks you about his neurosplice research, the answer is still no. That shit is an ethics violation is waiting to happen."

"I'm all for personal projects," Alanna said. "That's how we advance our knowledge. And it never hurts to be able to publish your results in one of the journals." She cocked her head to one side. "Okay, so tell me about this unethical neurosplicing? Not that I'll allow it, but how far does he want to go with it?"

The risan rolled his eyes. "Wants to take neurons from one species into another. Says it doesn't count as genetic modification cause he's not splicing genes, just brain cells. Wants to do trials on animals, says the simulations aren't accurate enough to do in a holosuite, wants to do it for real." Calaban shuddered. "Barbarian."

Alanna shook her head. "The simulations on the holosuite are as accurate as your program. Sounds like an excuse to abuse animals. I'll look out for him."

"He's a weirdo," Calaban agreed. Looking around he paused for a moment. "Where are we? Oh, yes. Materials science. Metallurgy, geophysics, multiple chem labs," he pointed at various doors down the long corridor, "Uh, metal fatigue is our biggest concern. There's a regular testing sequence for various parts of the station, and we test locations at random twice weekly, so Metallurgy's always pretty busy. And since having to move the station last month, we're all working double time to make sure everything settling properly and hasn't done anything long-term."

Alanna nodded. "Do we work with station operations on the metal fatigue?" she asked.

"Yes, the engineering side of it. They bring us samples, or scan requests, or borrow the stress-tests lab. They're pretty chill, but they can talk like a foreign language."

Alanna chuckled. "So can we. Scientific terminology is a languate in and of itself." She grinned at her assistant. "So, whate else are we involved in?"

"Pangaea. Up to our necks. The world and his dog wants to hang out down there and get jiggy with the science."

Alanna nodded. "Yes. I've only been given a brief description of the planet. I admit I'm fascinated by it. What have you done so far to limit exposure?"

"Well," Calaban ran a hand through his dreaded hair. "Technically you need command permission to go down to the planet. Sites A and B have round the clock marine guard. There is some sort of unstable field around that planet, makes transporters unstable. Beaming down is possible, but a gamble. Otherwise you take a shuttle, and we haven't been forced to shoot anyone down yet, but..."

Alanna raised an eyebrow. "Technically? So, basically, you haven't caught anyone sneaking down yet." That could become problematic.

"A couple have been turned round by the fighter wing. That was some serious gnarly flying, those dudes can totally move." Calaban coughed, tried to get his admiration for the flying corp under control. "But the major powers are likely to get permission to go down soon. They can all go through channels, pull in favours. And I think the State Department wants to get a Federation Colony down there asap."

Alanna nodded. "All the more reason to secure the more dangerous parts as soon as possible." She cocked an eyebrow at Calaban. "What do you know about that?"

The blonde man snorted. "They've shipped all the marines down to keep it secure. But to be honest, that place does a pretty rad job of defending itself. Site A is laced with all manor of booby traps so no-one's in a rush to go in there. There's a least one unknown power source that plays merry hob with readings, so you never know what your walking into to whichever site you're at, and there's a good chance that the flora is just as carnivorous as the fauna. Though quite frankly they should encircle the whole place with a forcefield and use rabid Klingons to guard it. Just to be sure."

"Rabid Klingons, huh?" Alanna chuckled. "That could prove interesting. But I agree that if word gets out about the dangers, most people will stay away. So, what else is going on?"

"Well, beyond the Pangaea shenanigans, there's a couple of long term things no-one's made any progress on. Engineering is sitting on a piece of debris from when some Romulan's attacked this place. Some kind of computer core they and operations keep trying to crack without much luck. There was also a temporal anomaly about 18 months ago. It seems to have closed, but with all the weird shit coming off Pangaea, someone should probably take a look at it make sure its all okay. And then everyone's attention is on the planet. There's an asteroid field, and a brand new sun. A rutting sun, dude! No-one's had a look them yet." The chunky scientist paused. "I call dibs on the sun."

"Wow. Sounds like there's a lot waiting for us." She grinned. "At least we won't be bored."

"Unfortunately," the Risan said, but he was grinning.

Alanna laughed out loud. "I see you're the type to keep me from working too much. I do tend to get a little wrapped up in my work. Especially when it's interesting.

"You may as well just move into your office then. You probably won't see your quarters much. Not on this station. Not if you like interesting." He was heading towards another turbo lift.

"Not sure that would be a good solution, but I probably will spend more than a few nights in my office. I hope the couch is comfortable." She followed him to the turbolift. "I am definitely going to need a map to find my way around this place."

"Don't worry about it." Cal waved a hand. "You can call a site-to-site, and I've totally got the lifts properly trained." The doors opened and they stepped inside. "Listen," he paused so the Computer could pick up it was being addressed. "Squishy stuff!" The turbo lift lurched a few moments, and then the doors opened back in the life sciences area. "Front Door." the doors shut and when they opened, it was the main foyer where Alanna had first run into him. "Crow's nest."

This time the doors opened up inside the Chief Science Officer's new office. From this high position, the whole of science was laid out below her, some labs could be seen into, some not, but the maze itself was revealed.

"I'll need that list of keywords," she said, grinning. She walked into her new office and looked out over the maze. "Wow. SO, is there any privacy up here?"

"You can set privacy blinds however you like, full privacy, waist high. All the labs work the same way, you can go from black-out to crystal clear as you prefer." Calaban looked a bit like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and then clapped his hands. The windows became striped frosted over. He clapped them twice, and they went black. Then he snapped his fingers, and they cleared again. "It responds to voice like normal, I just thought this way was more fun."

"Okay, no presentations where the crew have to clap. Got it." SHe grinned. "Yes, that can be a fun feature. I just hope I can remember everything."

Calaban grinned, "You don't have to. Just tell the computer what you want, she'll work it out. Anything else I can tell you?"

"Just keep reminding me of stuff I need to be doing until I get used to this place," she admitted with a grin.

"Dude, I barely remember what I need to do." he lamented, only partially joking. "But don't worry. No-one round here lets you forget anything they need from you. Even when you wish they would."

"That's not what I'm worried about," she admitted. "I'll start making lists. That should help with most of it." She looked around the office again. "Well, it looks like I need to start my research here. I'll let you get back to...whatever you were doing. Thank you for the tour." She grinned. "I will probably have a hundred more questions before I get things figured out."

"No problemo," Calaban. "Ping me if you have any questions. I'll see you tomorrow." he paused. "Boss-lady."

"Or just Alanna. I'm not much on formality." She looked at his clothing and grinned. "Well, I'm not as casual as you are, but close enough. Thank you."

OFF:

Lieutenant JG Alanna Wells
Chief Science Officer
Deep Space Five

Ensign Calaban Bel-Asher
Assistant Chief Science Officer
Deep Space Five

 

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