Science, I just want to do science

Posted on Fri May 9th, 2025 @ 3:57am by Lieutenant N'vok Holv & Lieutenant JG Daisheliss "Lissa" Kerr & Staff Warrant Officer Reo'thanra Sandtail

Mission: Season 6: Echoes of the Zynari
Location: Science Office
Timeline: MD2 after the staff meeting
903 words - 1.8 OF Standard Post Measure

N'vok watched the Tyrisk Wasp buzz angrilly in the glass it was trapped in. He sipped at a strong cup of Andorian The and waited for the other science officers to arrive.

Lissa busted into the science lab walking a little faster than necessary as usual, though she did appear a bit more frazzled than typical. "Good morning, N'vok. What do you have for us today?"

"based on the buzzing, an insect of some kind," Reo'Thanra said Cheerfully as she walked, her long tail swaying as she moved in behind Lissa."Good morning as well, I'm eager to apply my talents and skills in Engineering to what ever project you've got for me!" the diminutive Alien said with a bright Cheery Grin.

"Good morning," N'vok replied, not for any feeling this morning was more "good" than usual but as it was polite. He touched the glass. "This subject escaped from its lab last night, there was a containment breach. Thankfully minor. But be alert."

"That is part of a pattern that has been happening across the entire ship, minor glitches, flickers, and other small problems," he continued. "Operations and engineering can find no system faults. So, it is up to us to see if we can discover what is behind them with the added complication that such problems are effecting our systems as well."

"Well that explains my shower this morning," Lissa said dryly as touched grabbed the ends of her hair and made a sour face. "So, is there a pattern to this pattern or is that where we need to start?" She asked.

Reo frowned thoughtfully. "Come to think of it, the Diplomatic quarters got unpleasantly cold last night," she muttered. "Perhaps its something with the Computer? some kind of pattern Error that propagated outwards when we got thrown out here that's finally starting to Cause cascading errors we can detect?" She rubbed her chin. "I was on an Arten Confederacy scout ship in my early days that had that happen, basically required a hard reset of the system and a reinstall of the..." she trailed off and shifted uncomfortably. "Of the operating system," she said, the words clearly not what she had been about to say.

"We have access to all of the reported problems, we will just need to check and recheck any analysis we come up with to make sure they have not been compromised," said N'vok. "I am open to suggestions on how best to organize this."

"Okay, so we can't trust the ship's computers. What about tricorders, scanners, equipment that isn't directly linked to the ship's systems, any issues with those?" Lissa asked.

"From the reports, not as much, but one way to find out, yes?" said N'vok producing a tricorder. "In any case, it will give us redundancy in our progress."

"Maybe we should replicate some pen and paper, just in case," Lissa suggested. "Don't forget to use our eyes, ears, touch. If we can't trust anything else, we have to able to trust that. We can dispatch ourselves to the known problems, and try to determine what went wrong, and what the fix is. See if there is any commonality," she offered.

"I am not sure if that would be the most efficient use of our time and skills," said N'vok. "As the problems are shipwide, it might be best to just choose an area and observe what is happening there. Acting in pairs perhaps so as to be able to crosscheck against each other?"

Lissa studied her commanding officer for a brief second, if that. "It sounds like you already had a plan. Just tell me where we you want me, then."

"It seems we do now," said N'vok. "I did not when I called you in. I feel I need to keep close to the labs in case we have more escapees." He glanced to the wasp. "But deploy yourselves to where you think best. I trust your judgements."

"Okay..." Lissa thought for a moment. "I can take the Bridge unless someone else wants it. Things are pretty crucial there."

"Excellent point," said N'vok. "There is quite a bit of exotic shielding on the bridge as well. See if any of it seems to have any ability to block or limit these fluctuations. Sandtail, please accompany Kerr to the bridge. I will hold the fort here and do my best to coordinate the data gathered."

"Sounds good to me!" the Small alien engineer said with a cheerful wave of her paw and tail.

Lissa smiled at Reo's energy. She was going to need some of that today after her cold shower. "Okay, great. Let's see what we can think of in terms of manual type of equipment that we might be able to use. It's difficult, especially on the Bridge, where just about everything is automated and part of the computer systems, but we need independent measuring and monitoring systems," she said to Sandtail.

"Also, I really think we should have a couple of auxiliary teams working with us. People we can dispatch to locations to look and see what might be happening on the other end of a command function originating from the Bridge," Lissa suggested.

"Take who you need and report back to me as you have anything," said N'vok. "We will find the cause of these problems and solve them. It is what we do. Now go."