Scientific Bonding with a Side of Caffeine

Posted on 12 Apr 2021 @ 5:46pm by Ensign Zyrra Vehlin & Ensign Lark Gunnarsen-Berg

Mission: M2 - Sanctuary
Location: Science Labs
Timeline: MD-03 11:00 Hrs
1486 words - 3 OF Standard Post Measure

Lark wandered into the main hub of the Science division, dark eyes taking in her surroundings with a particular sense of awe. Sure, she'd seen glimpses of the Science section on SB10, but never with the intent of actually working in such a vast environment. Her experiences had been more with ship-based labs and confined spaces. There were bodies in teal collars moving about between labs and work stations, adding bustle the over-all business of the station on the whole. It seemed like everywhere things were being brought up to snuff and she wanted nothing more than to dive headlong in herself.

"You're in my light." Zyrra glared. Her expression softened after a few seconds, however, and she rose from the workstation. It had been a crazy few days, with getting the station back up and running and the science department now expending most of its energies towards research on the data captured from this 'void' space. "I'm sorry. Are you new? Or looking for something in particular?"

She blinked at the sullen retort, but soon enough the officer in question relented and Lark offered a friendly smile in response. "The former. Ensign Gunnarsen-Berg ... or you can just call me Lark. I just came on the station yesterday. Thought I'd see about getting started on whatever needs doing."

"Lark? Not sure I understand that reference," Zyrra shrugged a little dismissively. "Well, since you're new..." She half-turned to show her some of the screens they had up and running. "We're down a department head as well as an XO at the moment, but the general directive from the top is to work through some of this data. The entire starbase fell into a spacial anomaly and was trapped in what someone is calling a 'void' space. Although we recovered the base, there are gigaquads of sensor logs to work though. I think they're mainly trying to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Lark was a little confused by the question. All she'd done was give her name ... but she shrugged it off and moved to get a better view at what the Ensign was showing her. "Just how long do they think we'll need on this?" She was astonished by the sheer volume of information. "A person could set up their whole career just studying this." It also didn't help that leadership was still lacking, but that could be remedied given time. After all, it made sense if the station was starting up fresh that they'd want to pick the best people for the top slots. "I thought there was an XO ... Commander Zahn?" At least, her name had been on the info that Lark had reviewed on the way over.

"Normally that would be true, but..." Zyrra glanced around conspiratorially and leaned in to speak more softly. "Someone said Commander Zahn lost her mind after the attack. I heard that it was PTSD, but Ensign Driver insists Petty Officer MacLean said he saw her shooting her own people for disobeying orders." She looked around, trying not to seem too guilty. "Anyways, they're bringing in this other guy. Commander Zayne. Not sure he's quite as soft and cuddly." Her sly grin widened a little. "So yeah, lots of stuff going on. And this void data is at least a little more interesting than the usual. What's your specialism?"

If this Commander Zayne made a woman accused of shooting her own people seem soft and cuddly ... "You're kidding, right? About the rumors. There's no way that could be true!" While the greater part of Lark wanted to believe it was a farce, that small little voice that every girl shared, thrilling in the experience of a whispered confidence, persisted. But it could be ...

"There's a lot of people talking. I'm not sure how much of it I believe, but one minute we had an XO, the next minute she's relieved," Zyrra murmured. "As a scientist, I'm reasonably good at math. Not that you'd need to be to figure that one out." She flicked through another gigaquad of data and downloaded it to the adjacent console so that Lark could start some work for herself.

Lark's mind was still wrapping around the last bit when she realized the woman had asked her a different question. "Oh ... um, sorry. I'm Biology," she explained. "My specialty, that is. Plant and animal, though mostly plant."

"Astrophysics," Zyrra said by way of reply. "I guess this one is a little out of your sphere then." She was a little disappointed, if only for the fact that it meant they might not be working as closely together. "I guess you could still look through and see if there's anything interesting in the data from a biological perspective?"

"Of course! I mean, what's the point in being a scientist if you don't want to learn new things? It's more a matter of, if I wanted to stay sane in Academy, I had to pick a specification to focus on." She grinned and moved over to get a better look at the other woman's work-station. "So, from an astrophysics position, what am I looking at here?"

"From an astrophysics position..." Zyrra took a deep breath, her eyes landing on the scrolling data on the screen in front of her. "Even I am struggling. Not many of the readings make sense. There's a mix of subspace, quantum, even chroniton particles flying all over the place in the initial moments. The gravitational force needed to pull a Starbase this big out of orbit, involuntarilty, would be immense. It's a miracle the entire core didn't tear in half." She put her hands on her hips firmly. "It was probably a natural phenomenon. But...the timing and location are weirdly specific. You could argue targeted. Like someone wanted it to happen then and there. Which I'm sure the plant scientist will tell me isn't really that normal in nature. Right?"

Lark considered that, a wry grin quirking her mouth. "Well you're right that it is oddly specific and an extremely delicate operation; however, when you're looking at things on a strictly molecular level, you'd be amazed how many intricately precise actions have to be taken for biology to exist as we know it - so why not in astronomics as well? Is there any precedent for this?"

"An interesting hypothesis." Zyrra tugged on a long strand of her silver hair thoughtfully. "Perhaps inferring some sort of intelligent design at work?" She was a student of the mysteries of the universe, but her thinking was rooted in science. Some of her contemporaries were proponents of the universe having a 'personality' - which she didn't entirely dismiss either. "I was considering a foreign power might have been responsible, but I assumed the humanoid kind."

"Well it's certainly not chaos of the natural sort; too planned, too ..." She studied the image. "It's precision on a grand scheme. So if this is a foreign power, it's someone with the time, capacity - and a seriously unhealthy dose of malice to put something like this together."

"If we weren't just attacked by fringe Romulan groups that's the first place I'd look," Zyrra retorted. She sighed. "We still have an enormous amount of data to process and half a science team to do it. Maybe we need coffee?"

Lark peered at the console a moment longer and then sighed. "Yeah, I'm thinking some caffeine and sugar would be very much appreciated right now." She smiled up at Zyrra. "Do you like your coffee hot or iced?" Having spent most of her life in the Western region of the Americas, Iced Coffees had been a staple of Lark's experiences growing up, but she didn't know much about how Andorians took their beverages.

"I'm the blue sheep," Zyrra answered, "In that I prefer a warm cup over a cold one. Most of my family think I'm crazy, but cold coffee is just the worst."

"I'd say that's cause you never had it done right, but I like it both ways. We want to replicate something here or take a break to rest our eyes as well? I saw a great little cafe on the promenade when I arrived."

"You did? You'll need to show me!" Zyrra hadn't managed to find a decent place since she'd arrived, having even snuck into the diplomatic apartments to check if they had any of the really good stuff left over. Unfortunately the repair crews hadn't reached those spaces yet.

"I have a nose for these things; can't sneak a coffee bar past me within a 1000 meters that I won't sniff it out." Pure exaggeration, for sure, but the thought wasn't that far off reality. "Come on, we'll go get something to jumpstart us back on track here."

"Lead the way, then," Zyrra agreed. The hunt for a good coffee was on - the science could wait.