The Spirit of Science
Posted on 30 Nov 2023 @ 4:47pm by Lieutenant Commander Torvyn Rue & Chief Petty Officer Ibis Xeri & Brek - Timeless Treasures Art Gallery & Lieutenant Commander Cesar De La Fuente Ph.D. & Ensign Lark Gunnarsen-Berg
Mission:
M4 - Falling Out
Location: Obsidian Command, Science Section Delta, Aquatics Lab Four
Timeline: M4 D6 Afternoon
3321 words - 6.6 OF Standard Post Measure
Aquatics Lab Four had been bustling for days with maintenance engineers and science techs, guiding new equipment into place and plumbing up accessory tanks to support the project parameters.
Centerpiece in the newly outfitted lab was the computer core that the Pathfinder had collected from the Korinn deep space comms station. Propping up the core was a clear conduit with connecting cables and power relays contained inside the narrow pedestal. The core, like so much of Korinn industrial design, had a spiralate form to the casing. It was suspended in what looked like a free floating globe of water, the containment consisting of an invisible projected containment field. Behind it were projected multiple holographic representations of the data architecture— three dimensional graphic displays waiting to be interacted with.
A broad sweeping work table with stations on either side of it had panels already full of the essential information concerning the Korix oceans- the samples and scans taken by the Acamas, correlated with the environmental data the Korin had included on the twenty year old core. Although the data was limited by Korinn society's level of development, it allowed the computer to model the progression and extent of the damage, relying on the ocean floor and tidal maps provided to determine how the planet overall likely looked, if the scattering effect and time limitations had not been issues and conditions had allowed for a complete planetary survey.
It was a guess, but it was an educated one.
Beyond the working areas, a transparent sound screen divided off a primary meeting space, featuring an elongated horseshoe table fitted with holographic imaging displays. The table was presently being congregated around, as the project was about to officially launch.
Commander Torvyn Rue had taken up the space to the right of Chief Xeri, and he remained standing, waiting to address everyone once they had settled. He already seemed to be prepared to accommodate her trouble with her nerves that seemed to especially crop up when she came to the lab, and in a silent prayer Ibis thanked Altha for him again. For her part, Ibis took her seat because sitting somehow made her feel less short, and made her feel less like walking back out of the lab with the irrational panic she felt about not belonging there. Being at the front of the table felt too much to her like a giant arrow was singling her out, even if the arms of the table on either side were bowed out.
“Thank you all for attending. Chief Xeri has issued an overview of the information and resources we have to begin with, and I expect we will be going through it in detail over the course of this afternoon. As you know, leadership of this project is entirely volunteer supported. Which means everyone present has elected to contribute to the recovery of Korix. There are additional support staff allotted to us, but those you see here will be supervising and collaborating to guide the project. I would like for each of us to introduce him or herself and to state your body of experience in a nutshell, and to share, if you would, your motivations for joining the project.”
Peering about, Lark tried to contain the anxiety that she was the youngest officer in the room. She knew it shouldn’t bother her and it didn’t - not really - she just didn’t want to disappoint her Chief in any way.
Seeing that no one else was jumping up, and that he was the ranking person at the table at the moment, Cesar raised his hand to start. "I'll go first," he spoke up. "I'm Cesar De La Fuente, I'm the Chief Science Officer for the Alexander," he said by way of introduction, sliding a hand nervously over his smooth pate. "My ship's on patrol, and I was asked to remain here. Since I was on this mission, and had direct observation of their world, I thought it was a good idea to stick around on the project," he smiled, gesturing for the next person to go, the red-haired Chief on his left.
"Uhm, ok. I'm Sam Edgerton. I'm a Science Officer on the Pathfinder, and was based on the station when we went into the void. My background's in planetary science, specifically working on Pacifica on two tours on the Nebuchadnezzar so I have some experience with water worlds. Since I'm part of the team here, made sense to be part of this specific one," he said, smiling awkwardly. The tall, red-haired man wasn't one for social situations or really even professional ones such as this, he much preferred a lab and a data report than having to actually converse with others. It never really seemed to work out well.
Ibis nodded, quietly dashing down a note on her own padd that simply read: 'void?' It seemed like a reference everyone else didn't look confused about, so she supposed she should ask Edgerton about it afterward.
Ensign Saskia Atan was proud of herself. She had managed to go to the Aquatic Lab without receiving any undue attention. If it wasn’t for her blue (well, more like a striking blend of cobalt blue and indigo, to be honest) skin - she was a proud citizen of Bolarus IX- she might have passed for an austere creature, shy even. In actual fact she had had to apply great restrictions onto herself to appear quiet and composed. She would ask no silly questions today, and would only utter a word after other officers had spoken. There would be no childish behaviour from her. Nope. Not this time. However, as soon as Edgerton introduced himself, Saskia spoke up:
“I’m Ensign Atan, newly assigned to the Pathfinder and its science department.” She announced, making a point not to smile. “I specialised in xenobiology and I have a fascination for languages and ancient scripts. I volunteered as soon as I heard about this project. I believe I would make a worthy addition to this team.”
What else could she say? At this point in her life, she had far more enthusiasm than she had experience...
Ibis wanted to tell the young woman that she certainly had a head start, at least as compared to her own beginnings, since she'd opted for the officer route. The sciences at the Academy were some of the most premier training in the UFP, and experience would come in time... But Ibis instead looked down on her padd and swiped to assign Ensign Atan direct read only access to the Korinn computer core.
"Most excellent, Ensign." Rue said on behalf of Chief Xeri as he traced the permissions she was granting and detected her sense of reassurance going out towards Atan. "To begin with, your cross studies will prove very useful in identifying and isolating meaningful native biological records from the Korinn computer core, as well as concerning the microbes in the samples, all of which we may use as a basis to build an accurate ecological model."
Saskia tilted her head to acknowledge the permission she had received. The fact she had been accepted meant the world to her. It was the first step in the right direction: working on an important project, and making a difference.
Then Rue turned to the other young lady at the table who had seemed to shrink back. "Miss Gunnersen-Berg?" he called her out. "Are you a generalist or a specialist?"
Saskia turned her attention to the young Human woman, who looked rather reserved, a common occurrence in the science labs, she had noticed. The work was often intense, which left little to no room for any form of exuberance. Well, it had been like that during her Academy years....
Seeing Saskia there helped some, though Lark still felt overwhelmed by a bit. Still, she did her best to put on a confident air as the Lieutenant Commander addressed her. "My main field of research is Biology, though I am specializing on micro-anatomy."
Ibis nodded, assigning Lark with Saskia on the display. The ensigns would complement one another and being assigned together might help bolster their confidence. "Lab partners," was all Ibis said, pointing to them both, something of a smile playing on her face. There was a kindly laugh around the table, as the experienced officers recognized and approved of the decision.
“Lab partners,” Saskia whispered with satisfaction. She was looking forward to working with ensign Gunnersen-Berg, and couldn’t wait to have a look at those biological records. Most people dismiss small life forms, and yet they were so central to the study of life...
Ibis cleared her throat, heavily, and sounded very hoarse as she started to make more general comments. Everyone around her quieted and she could see them leaning in and focusing to listen. "It seems half of our Team is also assigned to the Pathfinder. We will link the Lab computer with Pathfinder's Science lab and make support personnel here available to run models, tests, and analysis in the event our fellows are deployed on Garrison duties, so that we may continue uninterrupted and we can communicate our progress and results efficiently. Can we... remotely, uh... is this a holographic table?"
"Yes," Commander Rue confirmed. "This meeting room will permit holographic attendance."
"Great. Then if the Pathfinder is dispatched... we can still meet remotely... Uh." Ibis fumbled through all the wrong menus in the display board before finding her presentation. And then she couldn't find the right load settings for the file formats. She blushed. "Sorry. LCars... is a few versions newer than I'm used to."
Saskia could understand the confusion. Not only because of the Chief’s situation, but also because LCars weren’t, in her opinion, always intuitive.
Sensing the woman's frustration, Lark screwed up her nerve and spoke up. “Excuse me.” She nearly balked as attention shifted to her again. “Sorry, I just know how it can be distracting to manage an LCARS file while you’re trying to present. If you like, ma’am, I can help with that.”
Relieved, Ibis motioned gratefully for the Ensign to please, go right ahead.
Moving over to a seat where she could operate the file, Lark quickly identified the sequence and switched to the next display.
A logo flashed up, representing a blue orb, with a rising sun peaking optimistically around the left horizon and the wide sea bearing an impression of the Free Irix school's mark. The Abbreviation 'KORA' was curved along one side of the globe, the 'A' doubling as a starfleet insignia. The header read: Korix Oceanic Recovery Assistance - Phase I.
"So this is the primary brief for the project." Ibis' throat dried out before she came to the end of the sentence and there was another round of throat clearing. "Everyone here has full access to all the data and scans and archives referenced in this briefing. I'm going to page through the contents briefly, and then take any questions you might have."
Ibis carried on for a few minutes, beginning with the known history of the planet, pre- Pyrryx. There were oceanic surveys of the ocean floor and the ocean weather or currents logged in the Korinn computer core. They were limited to the level of an industrial societies capacity and instrumentation, and there was precious little about the atmosphere above, but what they lacked in fidelity of detail, they made up for in breadth of coverage. There were also political and population maps, plate tectonic records and some seabed crust drilling samples. "This," Ibis said through her rasp, "Is not a terrible baseline image, really. Korinn science was flourishing. For our life scientists, they also seem to have extensive botanical and zoological records, as well as bacteriological and microbial analysis. Some of the entries appear to include DNA and microscope imaging. we will rely on all of that to create a healthy snap shot of life on Korix." Ibis had to take a longer break for a drink of water so she squeaked out— "Any questions so far?" to buy herself a break.
There was indeed a wealth of information. So much so that Saskia felt a little dizzy as she browsed the pages. At first glance, she recognized species that might just be varieties of bacteria, archaea, viruses and protozoa, along with fungi and algae. She even saw a tiny crustacean which in such a minuscule world was bound to be a mighty predator.
Although quiet, everyone looked to be actively absorbing the additional briefing materials, giving Ibis some time to recover before she continued. "Okay, so that's the baseline. The next part is also limited to us, but in different ways." Ibis continued to explain how with further data translation the Korinn computer core might be found to contain additional data about the changes in the seabed caused by the Pyrryx initial attack, which was said to have been fired through the ocean thus breaking up particular plates, but their resources and society being scattered in the attack, and reeling from the shocking death of millions, the reliability and quality of the information was not as strong.
"I think" Ibis said, "we can assume reasonably that the damage to the planet was calculated to break open the Kelbonite deposits, which we know was their primary motivation. We should build a model on that assumption. So I need models based on the crust samples where Kelbonite was most indicated, around the former archipelagos, likely those islands were the peaked ring of an ancient asteroid impact that brought the Kelbonite to Korix. Then there is the final data we can supply the model." Ibis' voice was growing too hoarse to carry on, she looked around the table to find someone most familiar with he end of her outline and motioned to Commander DeLaFuente. "Sir, please. Tell them," she said, "About what the Pathfinder and the Acamas were able to collect."
Lark blinked at mention of the Acamas. That had been the mission Ethan had been on. He hadn’t said much about the experience, other than mentioning something about the storm; strange to think she’d know more than him now.
Saskia consulted the information about the Kelbonite, a refractory metal capable of interfering with scans. It helped her not to focus too much on the sorry fate of the Korrin. So the Pyrryx knew about those deposits and had gone to harvest them, literally, as if the planet belonged to them... She stared aghast at the devastated sea floor.
Commander De La Fuente stood up, adjusting the collar of his uniform as he did. "Well, let's start with the weather data," Cesar began, tapping the controls on the table to bring up the display. "What you're seeing here is the data collected on our approach and during our escape from the planet," he explained, quickly dissecting the details of the information into bite sized chunks for everyone to digest. There was a lot of data and while Xenoanthropology was his preferred discipline he was more than qualified to handle this stuff. But, he suspected that those that came from similar non-core-science disciplines would need the simple chunks. It helped move the conversation on regardless. "It's clear that the mining operation has major global impacts to the weather patterns," he surmised, moving the displays on.
"Now let's discuss the oceans themselves," he said, bringing up various graphs of information, comparing the data they'd collected from the actual oceans to the information they'd gotten in the orbital platform. Particularly the chemical balances of all three bodies of water: the existing ocean, historical ocean (via the records) and the water in the station. The occupant might have been dead a while, but the water was still a good indicator of what the Korin needed to survive - or at least what they preferred. "You can see from the depth chart here that the chemical makeup of the water is most toxic close to the shore of the mining facility," he explained. "Gaining some measure of clarity as you gain depth, but from our limited scans even that seems to only just hold back the toxicity. Plant life as you can see here..." he went on, going into more finite detail of the relative bareness that they'd discovered in what had obviously been a lush landscape, albeit an underwater one. "We did take an abundance of water samples, which should help us begin modeling what we'll need to do to combat the toxicity of the water," he explained.
"Are we certain that the underlying cause of the toxicity has been eliminated?" Chief Edgerton chimed in softly.
De La Fuente shook his head, "I'm not sure, Sam. We can postulate the science all day long, but Fleet's still got to make sure the planet's safe and that we're safe to work. That includes making sure that the facility on that island is fully shut down. Not being brought back online," Cesar answered. "Not the answer you're looking for," he shrugged, looking to Chief Ibis. "Chief," he said, conceding the baton to her again.
At first, Ibis appeared frozen, as if a chroniton distortion was at play. Her eyes were a little out of focus, as she watched the bloom of the collapsing tower in her memory. She was hugging a half drowned girl and they were late. They were too late... "The mining rigging was destroyed." Ibis finally said, to clarify. "And the action reports said that the Z'ala administrators and guards also left the island when the enslaved workers revolted. There are probably still full process chemical sheds. I... I don't know the containment conditions of any of them. I don't know what was damaged during the revolt. But I don't think any new extraction process chemicals are likely to be manufactured any time soon. I'll work up my best guess at what was still on site, to the best of my memory."
Ibis looked around the table, blinking to clear spots in her vision left by explosions in her imagination. "Right." More throat clearing. "So let's spend a few days fleshing out these models and connecting the various partial pictures. As you work on that, generate your own observations and whatever correlations you can make in the data. Once the big picture is forming, we'll reconvene to discuss reversal proposals. I'll put that on the schedule. Any final questions?"
“I have no questions,” Saskia said. The science presentation had been extensive and there was a wealth of documents to consult and dissect. Besides, this meeting had been difficult enough for Chief Xeri. What with seeing those horrible images and graphics from Korinn... What was needed now was a good dose of positivism. Could they bring in specific enzymes, or perhaps exotic species, to clear the toxic chemicals? ... Although those were also known to release their own toxins, which in turn also damaged the environment. She glanced at ensign Gunnersen-Berg. The two of them needed to form a plan of action...
Lark glanced at the Bolian ensign and nodded, smiling in return.
"Okay. If anything does occur to you to ask as you proceed, don't hesitate to contact myself or Commander Rue who will be helping to coordinate the project. I guess, Meeting adjourned."
As Ibis watched her colleagues disperse, she tried to remind herself to relax. The project was officially underway now. Korix would have help insofar as whatever they as Starfleet scientists could possibly offer. Whether it would be too little or too late was not something she could change.
Lifting her eyes to watch the rotation of one of the display graphics, still overlaid with figures and seabed geography, she forced herself to relax on an exhale. "We'll do our best," she promised.
