STF

side sim - Plant Food

Posted Oct. 24, 2021, 1:30 a.m. by Lieutenant Junior Grade Sharah Fayth (Medical) (Jennifer Ward)

Posted by Lieutenant Markus Woods (Chief Science Officer) in side sim - Plant Food

Sharah hated that it took so long to adjust to the rhythms of a new ship. It was a horrible situation in which to make a good impression on her new department head and crew mates. So the only thing to do was to fall back on what had already worked. She spent time in the arboretum, she made sure she ate and stayed hydrated, and to hold the image of surfing strongly to the forefront, allowing the noise, the storm, to rage, but move around and through her and not concentrate on it…or at least try not too. At the end of the first half of her shift she got an official communication from the Academy, from Prof Barswenson. There was apparently a new plant for her research he thought she should look into. It just so happened that the small arboretum/hydroponics bay on board had one of the plants. She requested time in the chemistry lab and she was excited to see there was time after her shift.

She replicated a grilled cheese from the sickbay replicator before she left and spent only a few minutes in the arboretum collecting the sample she needed and then headed to the chemistry lab. She was concentrating on focus and her vision focused and what she needed to do when she got to the lab. Most importantly trying to keep the noise manageable for she’d have to cancel her time. She was not going to cause an accident because she got distracted.

Fayth, med

Mark stood in his office, not his quarters workstation but the actual science labs office for the department head. A few other researchers were moving about, and he’d just finished up the paperwork for his shift thanks to shift change. As senior staff, he was always on-call, of course. But that left him free to focus on his own work. He glanced out through the doors when he saw a familiar figure wend through the corridor and disappear into the chemistry lab next door. With a sandwich. And a bundle of something.

It was nice to see her again, which sent a wave of relaxation through him, despite the urge to go talk to her. But … he had something to do. Around him was a holographic display, pages of research and data, along with various mathematical proofs and models. For a couple minutes he continued working.

A sandwich in the chem lab?

Nope. He couldn’t let it go. =^=Computer, save my log. Heading S.F.C.R. and secure workstation.=^= The computer double-beeped it’s compliance as he headed out of the room. Making his way into the main lab area, he slipped out into the hallway and over to the chemlab door, then strolled over to Sharah. “Doctor Fayth… I wasn’t aware my chem lab was going to be on Good Eats though I can say you’re far easier on the eyes than Alton Brown. What’s goin’ on?” He broke out into a grin, just for a moment.

Lt Woods, CSO

At first she didn’t respond. She was going through cabinets and pulling out various solutions, beakers, test tubes, etc. Then suddenly she stopped turned to look at him, her cheeks flushing pink, “Good Eats?” There was a slight brush of contact and then she grinned, “Well how else am I supposed to figure out how to make the best grilled cheese?” She pointed sadly to the waste receptacle by the door, where her half eaten sandwich currently resided. Then she was distracted again and going through drawers in a cursory manner. Then back at him again, “Have to analyze the chemical composition of the different types of cheeses and bread. Figure out what gives it the best taste.”

She paused and looked at the station then, “Ah!” she crossed the room collecting pipettes and requesting distilled water from the lab’s replicator. Then she cleaned her hands and slipped on gloves. “So what I’m actually doing is getting ready to analyze the chemical composition of this plant. But finding the best grilled cheese really should be a priority,” she grinned up at him. Then she held up a cutting of a small magenta and yellow moss. “Xenuvian moss. Supposedly it is almost a cure all for any type of bacteria. A college from the Academy wrote to me about it. I’m going to find out.” She started tearing the moss into smaller pieces and dropping it into a very old fashioned mortar and then began grinding it gentle with the pestle. “When I was on my cadet cruise, my project involved writing a program to allow away teams to find medicinal plants for emergency medical situations. Eventually it evolved into a bigger program.”

Fayth, med

Noting the half-eaten sandwich he frowned. “So now you’re wasting food,” he said then broke into a small grin. He glanced at the nearby chronometer… the clock. “So this is a personal project,” he said, an odd tone in his voice. A mixture of curiosity, accusation, and neutrality. It was just after shift rotation, and he couldn’t imagine she would be invading the chem lab while on duty, especially since they were without casualties. Even on a ship with a crew around a thousand and two sickbays, it was unlikely that she’d be terribly busy, unless they were in a combat situation. Not with the amount of medical personnel aboard.

“It was replicated and replicators just don’t get it right, so…it was mostly inedible anyway.” It was uncertain if she was joking or serious. Though she was enjoying the banter she was also adamant that anything but real grilled cheese was disappointing. She glanced up at him though, “Well yes and no. It’s not part of my duties for sickbay. It does fall under one of my areas of medical expertise. It is however part of my responsibility with the training program I developed.” She took the crushed moss and dropped it into a test tube. He felt…odd…the schedule had said ‘open lab time’ didn’t it? Yes it had, so…she smiled softly, he wasn’t disturbing her ‘work.’ “I’m off duty now.”

“Sounds a lot like some of the old wilderness survival medicinal stuff they used to teach at The Pathfinder School. They talked a lot about medicinal plants as well as medicinal trees of the eastern woodlands of North America, including how to identify plants for medicinal purposes, even if you don’t know what they are. And some Traditional Chinese Medicine too. Identifying based on sour, bitter, drying like an astringent. A lot of people would laugh at various points but, back home, they really had some of it down well. That lead to a lot of pharmaceuticals which paved the way for true molecular medicine. But you don’t always have that in the field, so sometimes the old ways are still the best ways.”

Woods, CSO

“Here, heat that over the burner, just warm enough until the oils start to seep out.” She passed him the test tube. “It’s exactly like that. So the idea started with the fact that most away teams don’t take a medical officer with them, unless a doctor is specifically requested. And there are plenty of scenarios, dangerous or benign, were the away team can get cut off from their ship and medical aid. So I developed a program that allows a person to input into a tricorder what they need, anti-inflammatory, antibiotic, sedative, etc. and then the tricorder will search for known chemical compositions in the local flora. The program then tells them how to make the medicine. It’s not super complicated, mostly making salves, teas, or tinctures of a sort. Not as strong as what we could make here in the lab, but enough to help until medical aid arrives.” While she talked she was crushing another sample of the moss, adding it to a test tube with distilled water and the stoppering it.

Fayth, med

Chemistry wasn’t his specialty, but he had a solid grasp of it. General sciences, practices, procedures, and lab work were all part of the curriculum. If he couldn’t handle a basic lab, he had no business being there in the first place. So it was that he took a moment to sanitize and glove up, then went to heating the tube and it’s contents, carefully while he listened. “That’s very useful, and a good program. Obviously with ongoing iterations. Have you worked up one for copper-based blood chemistry rather than iron-based?” Vulcans were the primary concern there. He felt fairly sure that was taken into consideration, but it was better to ask.

woods, cso

“There is talk of taking the holodeck program I created and adding it to the first aid and emergency medicine optional ‘extra’ courses. A few ships have actually picked it up and are offering it for CE credits.” When the moss had heated enough she had Mark put the test tube in the rack next to the other one and she slowly added distilled water to it as well. She picked up the room temperature one and swirled it a few times. “The program isn’t that in depth. What I did was look at medications we can use for anyone, determined their chemical composition, and then cross referenced with medicinal flora. Medications that would require blood base and type would be too in depth for someone with only basic first aid knowledge. That would require being able to mix two or more plants, in the correct parts, and make sure they are exact. And in the type of emergency situations the program is designed for, if they could do that they would most likely have access to at least a med kit or a medic.” While they talked she took the pipettes and added a sample of each to tiny test tubes and capped them. Then she placed them into the sample holder on the mass spectrometer and set it to start. Then she cleaned up the work space, leaving it as neat as she found it. “And that’s it. It will be hours before the results are done.”

Fayth, med


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