The Romulan Interrogation

Posted on Fri Jan 21st, 2011 @ 7:00pm by S'anra & Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Mantell

Mission: Hippocratic Hijacking
Location: Science Lab
Timeline: Nearly an hour after "Getting down to business..."

Normally, there was not much that would inspire the boy to venture into a Science Lab. A broken plasma conduit or a burned-out ODN relay might require replacement, or a console might be malfunctioning, but the Science Lab was unlike most other areas on the ship. It wasn't Engineering, where senior officers often collaborated or a superior officer popped in to check on progress. It wasn't like Security, where one might venture to practice their targeting skills or participate in drills. The Labs were even unlike Sickbay, where all members of the ship turned in times of sickness or injury. Unlike nearly all other locales on a starship, the Science Lab was a place for Scientists.

Jack was not a scientist. He understood physics just fine, along with the minimal amount of chemistry that his practical knowledge required. But Biology? Geology? Paleontology? Jack would rather leave that for the science nerds. That was another reason Jack barely ventured into a Science Lab, the blue-shirted nerds who ran it were perfectly content to discuss their work, regardless of -or perhaps in spite of- whether it flew over the heads of their audience. The boy shuddered involuntarily at the thought, he could think of plenty of more entertaining activities than listening to a scientist babble on about their latest attempt to break the Theory of Abnormal Subspace Wave Differentials or something like that.

So to say that the Miran was walking into unexplored territory would be an understatement. He had worked with scientists in the past, when necessary, but he had yet to find a reason to visit the Science Labs of the Arizona thus far. Still, with his recent brush with the resident doctor in Sickbay, and the grump of a doctor sitting in the Ready Room, the boy's choice would be to the science nerds. He'd had enough of doctors for one week. And if anyone else could supply the answers he was looking for, it would be the Science Department..

The boy nearly stopped when he spotted a yellow-shirted guard posted in front of the lab doors. There was only one person on the ship that Security was guarding, which could only mean that the science nerd of the day was the ad hoc member of the Arizona crew, S'anra. Disconnected from the rest of the ship's systems, at least without the proper clearances, the Science Labs on modern vessels were nearly completely isolated. Which was probably a boon to the guard, the boy considered, as he was just as unlikely to care to witness a scientist's work as a scientist would care for constant observation.

As the doors hissed open, Jack peered inside the chamber, his blue eyes dancing from corner to corner as they scanned the interior. He paused to consider asking the guard for a sidearm, but decided against it. The Romulan's weapon had been confiscated upon transport, and she didn't seem dangerous. Stepping into the lab, the boy was greeted with the blinking lights of a dozen consoles, each running a task on its own, oblivious to the lack of humanoid operators. Not immediately spotting the Romulan woman he had met on the Ferengi's transport ship, the blond-haired Miran called out, as if testing the room's acoustics, "Hello? S'anra, you in here?"

S'anra was sitting at a desk around the corner, turning a Starfleet medical tricorder around, examining it from all angles. She was carrying her own sensor device of course, but it was far inferior to the technology afforded by the ship. "Yes," S'anra replied, at the voice she recognized as the ship's unusually small first officer. She removed the tricorder's scanner attachment and fiddled with it as well.

"Well, I didn't really want to go to Sickbay again, the last time I was there the doctor trapped me with a physical," the boy began, seemingly in the middle of a thought. "And the Captain was a doctor but he's pretty grumpy." Jack scrunched his nose up until it nearly met his forehead, "Plus, I don't really like doctors. So I came to you."

He sounded like a child too, S'anra thought. "What can I do for you... Commander?" she asked, momentarily recalling her earlier fumble with the Starfleet rank system.

"I wanted to know more about those drugs the North Star was carrying." The small boy took up a spot next to a console that reared to about the height of his chest. Placing his hands backwards on the console, Jack leaned against it. "I'm not a doctor, so I don't have the faintest clue what they're supposed to do. I figured you would." He left the last part as a suggestion for the woman to jump in.

S'anra looked up for a moment, trying to recall the exact nature of each again, and then try and figure out the simplest way to explain it to him. "Pescaline is a broad spectrum antiviral. It isn't meant for a specific virus, but tries to combat all of them," she stated, pausing to see if he understood it.

The explanation was simple enough, and the boy responded with just a nod. He was usually a easy student, and S'anra didn't over-complicate her response with terms that only she and fellow scientists would know. Jack liked that and gave her a small grin.

"Isoratonyl is actually for treating skin conditions," S'anra continued, "It doesn't treat any disease, but could lessen some of the symptoms that the colony has reported." Noting he seemed to understand this as well, she continued, "The others do a variety of things, but none of them are in large enough quantities to draw any attention. I assume they were sent to experiment and see if they had any effect."

Distributing his weight to his hands, the boy sprang off the floor and landed on the top of the console. Now at the eye-level of the Romulan, he felt more comfortable in the conversation. It felt strangely appropriate, though, to be seated while in a learning situation. Jack almost giggled in amusement, if not for the serious subject they were discussing. "Are those drugs valuable? The Pescaline and Isora-" the boy paused, struggling for the rest of the word. When he couldn't find it, he finished with a child's diminutive, "-tinny?"

"Highly," S'anra stated, "Both pescaline and isoratonyl are newer drugs developed by the Federation. They're not available in the general market, nor other governments such as the Klingons and Romulans. The only legal way to acquire them is through a Federation doctor." The only reason S'anra herself knew of them, was via medical journals she had read.

Jack had been studying the woman as she spoke, and a thought had been growing in his juvenile mind. The thought bubbled to the top of his mind and he couldn't shake it out or shut it off. The boy kicked his feet idly, concentrating on that in an effort to distract the thought, but to no avail. Finally, he could hold it in no longer and blurted out, "Are you a spy?"

S'anra looked at him for a moment, trying to figure out whether or not he was serious. He looked very serious to her, but he also looked like a child, and... she couldn't help it, she just laughed, "No, I'm not a spy."

The boy blinked at the woman's laughter. He thought his question had been quite sincere. "I thought all Romulans were spies," he explained, "Or spy-like. You know," the Miran's eagerness was reflected in his voice, and as he spoke it rose in pitch, "infiltrating places and assassinating people." His eyes lowered to the floor for a moment, his legs falling still as he added, in a demurred voice, "Am I your hostage now?"

"No," she chuckled again, "And not all Romulans are spies. Are you a child? You look like you should be in school instead of in uniform. The computer told me you were a 'Miran'. I don't know of that species." She had tried to find out more about the species, but given her experience with the computer consoles on the ship, she was lucky the computer told her that much. She did not have access to much of anything.

"Kind of," Jack offered. He hated this part of meeting new people. "I'm, like, four hundred years old, give or take a few decades." He shrugged. "It's kind of complicated. Some virus did it, made all the kids, like, immortal and killed everyone else. I don't remember much about it, really."

Intriguing that someone who looks so young could be so old. "But... biologically, chemically, you're adolescent? And your entire species is?" S'anra asked. Scientifically, the concept was fascinating.

"Yeeeeaaah?" The response was drawn out, to serve as both a statement and a question. He kicked his legs again, as a gesture of discomfort this time. This was exactly why he didn't like doctors, too inquisitive about his nature. Some of them, especially soon after the Mirans were discovered, wanted nothing more than to make the planet's children their private little lab rats. Enough of them acted that way to put Jack off doctors. This scientist was venturing dangerously close to unstable territory.

S'anra could understand how an adolescent mind, with the advanced experience of a few centuries could take on the responsibilities of an adult. And there were certainly many races which lived that long. However, as a scientist, there was one question that didn't add up to her. "If you're biologically immature... How does your species reproduce? ... Have sex?"

At the mention of the word 'sex', Jack's eyes widened to an almost-cartoonish extent. "Have what?" he blurted out, to be quickly followed by, "Eww! Gross." The boy knew what sex was, but he didn't have the tiniest inkling of desire to ever have sex in his very longevous life. He shifted uncomfortably in his perch on top of the console, and eyed the door with interest. It was too bad the lab didn't have an old-fashioned fire alarm to pull.

S'anra chuckled again, if all of his 'species' were as 'young' as him, it was unlikely anyone had ever actually considered the topic. "I have to get to the transporter room, they're expecting me. Did you need anything else, Commander?" she asked. She recollected the tricorder she had been eying, and the rest of the kit that she had assembled prior to his arrival.

Hopping down from the console, Jack shook his head, grateful for the respite from the faux interrogation. "No, but I'll go with you. I'm supposed to beam down with the Away Team, too."