Braken's Scientific Quandaries

Posted on Fri Feb 11th, 2011 @ 9:52am by Lieutenant JG Thomas Beliard & Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Mantell & S'anra

Mission: Hippocratic Hijacking
Location: Away Team Camp, Braken Colony
Timeline: Immediately Following "Braken's Operational Hazards"

Thomas was making the walk back to the science alcove when he felt yet another cough coming on. He wasn't sure what to think. He knew that he should be protected from the virus, but he could not be sure. He wasn't even sure what had caused it. He approached the lab they had set up and began pulling out his specimen containers.

He sorted the containers first by native or imported, then by retrieval location. He had tried to get a variety of samples from each area, in case a particular plant might be the cause. He placed the first set of containers in the spectral analysis terminal and began logging the container numbers. Once he was done, he looked around the makeshift lab and noticed that no one else had arrived. Perhaps he was the first one back from sample collecting.

With the operational logistics out of the way, the Miran XO made his way back to the Science hut, a makeshift lab that had been quickly set up for the ground crew. Jack strode upright through the flap that most of the crew had to duck to pass through, and grinned smugly to himself at the thought. There were advantages to being short.

At once, the boy noticed that the lab was occupied. A taller man in a blue uniform of Sciences was placing containers on a terminal, apparently too focused to take notice of the new arrival. Jack studied the dark-skinned scientist for a moment, watching him activate the terminal and step back, out of the boy's view. Leaning around the side of the pole that obscured him, his curiosity getting the best of him, the boy asked, "What'cha doing?"

Kaci stepped through the entrance of the hut with her bags in hand. She stopped when she saw the taller man with a much smaller person, one of which who wasn't much smaller than she was. "Lieutenant Beliard, I have those samples you asked for." As she spoke, though, her eyes were on the XO. For the briefest of moments, she wondered why a parent would leave their child to roam around without supervision.

Thomas had just turned and noticed that a child was in his lab when Baxter walked in. He looked at the child, wearing a Starfleet uniform and wondered what parents would waste replicator rations on that. Maybe this boy was the son of the Colony Administrator.

"We're trying to find a cause, and hopefully a cure for whats making your colonists sick. I'm very sorry son, but you can't be in here. Baxter, Would you be so kind as to escort this child to the colony administrators office and have his parents notified of his whereabouts?" Thomas said with a barely contained chuckle. " You can set your specimens down first of course. What's your name, kid?"

S'anra chuckled as she entered behind Kaci, with some of the preliminary histories from the colonists, "Your crew should read up more on their command staff, Commander Mantell."

The centuries old youth blinked in confusion at the Science Officer's statement. His confusion turned to relief as he noticed the familiar face of S'anra. He shrugged in moderate ambivalence, "Eh," he groaned, "I guess I'm used to it by now. Happens with almost every new assignment." Every assignment excepting Jupiter Station, where the staff had done exactly what they were used to and researched the boy as if he was some new technology. "They usually figure it out pretty quickly," Jack said conclusively, turning to peer at the dark-skinned scientist to see if he'd gotten the 'joke' yet.

Thomas knew if he could turn red, he would have. Instead he stammered a bit with his reply. "My most sincere apologies sir, I've had little time to review the entire roster. Myself and Baxter have collected samples of the vegetation, soil, water, and replicator material. we are beginning analysis on it now." Thomas stumbled over the words as he realized that this little tyke of a boy was second in command of his vessel. 'First Romulans, now children?' He knew he was going to have an 'interesting' tour on this ship.

"Find anything interesting yet?" the boy inquired, passing over the man's apology like water. If he didn't dwell on it too much, he figured, the Lieutenant would figure it out for himself and the whole thing would blow over quickly. Besides, they had actual work to do, even as the very realization came as a shock to Jack. XO growing pains, perhaps? he mused to himself.

"Medical histories are quite varied," S'anra stated, "I'm going to have the computer see if there's any trends are anyone with greater tendencies towards being infected, but from the samples I've reviewed, no particular similarities in the infected population are present."

Kaci stood quietly, observing the conversation as it took place. After all, this was the best way to learn about the people you were surrounded by, and thus far, she learned something she didn't know prior to coming to the surface. The small boy was the XO. Based on the times they lived in, stranger things had happened, and she was sure she would see even stranger things along the way.

Still paying attention to what was going on around her, she crossed the tent toward Lieutenant Beliard and handed over all of the samples she collected. What good would they do if she kept hold of them?

"What about those samples?" Jack asked, his voice pitching in a show of impatience. "Haven't you analyzed them yet and come up with some nerdy science explanation for the illness? Where it's coming from and why we haven't caught it yet?" On the Seleya and even further back, the Science department always had an answer for the questions, a reason for the problems. Why couldn't these scientists? Perhaps the boy's earlier suspicions, whispered in confidence to Captain Cowell, were right on track. Perhaps S'anra was working against the Arizona's crew and not with them.

"Lieutenant Beliard and... Miss Baxter will be performing an analysis on the environmental samples. They will have an analysis for you in short order," S'anra replied. It was both an instruction towards them as well as an answer for Jack. "I will be analyzing the blood samples, now that they've been collected and the histories have been looked at. Once we have analyzed any sources of the virus, as well as the virus itself, we will have a basis to begin theorizing treatments."

"Oh," the child said simply. As if a shadow cast over his face, the disappointment set fast in his expression. For all their dazzle and knowledge in his previous assignments, the boy wasn't too far impressed with the Science department in this one. Perhaps it was just the lack of Vulcan efficiency, or their relative unacquaintenance. Or perhaps, a small voice in his head intoned, the boy was expecting too much in such short order. "Well, tell me when you're done, I guess." With that, the Miran boy quit the tent, leaving the ragtag herd of scientists to their tests and analyses.

S'anra gave a slight eyebrow quirk at the Commander's departure, before looking back at Beliard and Baxter, "You have work to do. Inform me when you have any results." She then turned her attention to the equipment she would be using to analyze the blood samples, indicating her interest in the conversation had concluded, and consequently, that theirs had as well.

Kaci glanced toward the retreating form of the Commander, then casually over her shoulder toward S'anra. She didn't look at the other woman long before she turned her attention back down to the equipment before her. Right now, there was work to do, and she couldn't bother herself with anything else that was going on. People wanted answers, and it was up to her and the other two people currently in their makeshift lab to find out what those results were.