Posted March 22, 2023, 5:11 p.m. by Lieutenant Commander Markus Woods (Chief Star Fleet Science Officer) (Sam Haynes)
Posted by Lieutenant Nia Harmon (Scientist) in Star Fleet Science Labs - Message In A Bottle Part II (TAG Woods)
Posted by Lieutenant Commander Markus Woods (Chief Star Fleet Science Officer) in Star Fleet Science Labs - Message In A Bottle Part II (TAG Woods)
Posted by Lieutenant Nia Harmon (Scientist) in Star Fleet Science Labs - Message In A Bottle Part II (TAG Woods)
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻(snip)
Mark looked up from his holo screen at the knock, his eyes narrowing for a moment. “It’s open, Lieutenant,” As she entered he held one hand over a mug sitting on the desk with a spoon in it. He made slow clockwise motion with one finger, like he was stirring it. Below, the spoon stood, moving in slow matching circles for a moment before clinking lightly as it dropped back to rest, forgotten.
Stepping in, the petite woman blinked as she took in the sight before focusing on her department head. “You asked to see me, Commander?”
“Thank you for coming so quickly. I apologize about the short notice. This is a pretty emergent matter.” He gestured to the chairs and around the office. “Grab a seat. Coffee? Tea?”
Woods, CSFSO
Nia waved him off. “Nah, I’m fine, though I might change my mind later. I’m more curious what’s so urgent, so by all means, fill me in,” she said, settling into a chair and leaning forward.
~Nia Harmon, Scientist
Mark sat once more and then scooted as far as the space would allow forward. Tapping a couple of buttons on one of the holo displays started a set of music playing, along with a babble of voices overlapping, much like that of a coffee shop or bar. Scattered and emitting from farther away around the room. Other countermeasures snapped into place as well. “Alright, so… this particular matter is above top secret for now. The origins for this are still classified.” He let that hang, before continuing on. “But … It’s pretty promising bio-tech. Our job is to make sure that it’s safe, and doesn’t have any hidden, nasty side applications that we don’t know about.”
“Okay,” she said with a slow nod.
“It’s not designed to be a weapon, so far as I understand it. But as we know, most anything can be weaponized if you try hard enough/ We’re looking for sneaky, under-handed stuff.” He gave a slightly exaggerated nod, as if acknowledging the point. “Now, what we have here…” He produced a small display of the sample in a realistic hologram, “… is a substance that can do a few things. It encourages rapid growth and spontaneous replication of organic materials. You put in a seed and you’ll get more seeds. You put it with a seedling, and that seedling grows very very fast. Like the craziest fertilizer you’ve ever heard of.”
“Huh,” Harmon said, though it was clear she was taking every detail in and deeply fascinated.
“The idea is to use this ‘stuff’ here on Oed to speed up the terraforming project. We could have a viable biosphere and ecosystem in a fraction of the time. And designed how we wanted. Now I’m no bio-scientist. I know a lot, but I need a team of experts. You’ve got the clearance, you’ve got the credentials. And you rate high enough to be on the short list with being able to keep stuff to yourself.”
“We may just be being paranoid, but so far as I know, this stuff is still experimental. I’m going to have to report to the Governor on this in a few days, and we’ve got a lot of people to make sure this stuff is safe for the planet and for the colony. Can I count on you?”
Lt Cmdr Woods, CSFSO
“You bet, I’m in,” Nia said, an excited gleam in her eyes.
“I would suggest we set up a wide range of samples to test it on, with both a control and maybe something we use already. You said we can think of it like a super fertilizer, so maybe we use one our better fertilizers as another data point. 3 samples per type, including Oed’v current native soil.” Nia looked around and then back at him. “We’re going to need a big ass lab with a lot of surface area to hold everything.”
~Nia Harmon, Scientist
Mark nodded. “Oh, probably. Thing is, this stuff works on just about anything organic. That includes micro-organisms. So we’ll need a level four bio lab. Full clean room protocols. Even contaminated air could cause a problem. If something like a rhinovirus got into it? Would be pretty bad. As much as I would like to work with it outdoors, for now we probably should do our best to keep this stuff contained. While it acts like a super-fertilizer it’s also like a super bacteria culture too. Which is part of possibly weaponizing this stuff.”
Woods
Harmon sat back and nodded, thinking over his words before she replied. “It wouldn’t take much to wipe out a colony with something we don’t know how to fight. So, let’s start with simulations and physical tests on more inert substances. The non-remediated native soil for example. How many people are going to be involved?” She understood that he’d want to keep this as small as possible, but speed mattered too if the Governor was expecting quick results.
~Nia Harmon, Scientist
“You, me, Director Hazen-Cooper. Doctor Fayth. She’s a maybe. Her medical skills are great, and we’ve worked together pretty closely. And she’s a first-rate botanist too. She’s above reproach for secrecy too. Maybe one or two others. Are there any folks you could think of on your short list for skill and secrecy in this area?” Even if they didn’t make the cut, it would be good to have a second opinion.
Woods, CSFSO
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