Inside the Asteroid (part 3)
Posted on Thu Aug 24th, 2017 @ 11:13pm by Lieutenant Commander Mira Jayde & Master Chief Petty Officer Liang Shao & Lieutenant JG Élan Val & Lieutenant JG Miko Sato & Sevena t'Dhvael
1,137 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission: The Genesis Legacy
[CONTINUED]
[OLD]
=^= Commander, I get the feeling they are not answering our calls but the phone might just be off the hook while the systems show power feeding them but nothing going out.=^= He explained. =^= I get the feeling we are like a suitor trying to call after a bad date.=^=
[NEW]
"I hope that's all it is," Jayde said. "Let me know if there are any changes when you next report in."
=^= Confirmed, if anything changes I will let you know right after I do. =^= Galant III responded.
Jayde and her team continued to walk around the perimeter, noting that several of the plants were oddly deformed. "Doctor, are any of these plants edible?"
"How long do you think to keep us here, I did not bring camping gear?" Velah responded with a grin then looked to her Tricorder. "I have found at least sixty varieties of plants in general and depending upon the physiology the level of toxic nature varies." She scrolled through the information. "Thus far; and it is only a small area mind you, there are twelve types of fruit hanging on the trees that would fall well within the editable paremeters. Also a subterainian type of vegitable not unlike an Earth Potato." She looked up. "And a small grove of bushes with a berry that I got a sample of but have not tasted quite yet. All of these read as human consumable. It is like they were making a garden here in a way."
Jayde nodded. "Quite likely. The Federation tried something like this a hundred years ago. It was called the Genesis Project. It raged out of control and destroyed a planet. One of the scientists decided to accellerate the project by adding protomatter. Since then, protomatter has been deemed highly unstable and dangerous. It has been banned on hundreds of worlds. No scientist today would even try using it. I am curious if some scientist tried to recreate genesis, or used some other method. Clearly it failed, but I would like to know why it failed."
"I recall reading a paper on the DOctors that worked the project; Marcus was their names, a Mother and Son duo known for advanced work on the cutting edge but not my area of study." Velah mentioned. "I know the station Science had a Botanist that was said to be using older research data to fporm a hypothisis but he was not my type, too obsessed with his plants. He mentioned creating new..." Velah shook her head. "This eco system seems very stable on this small a scale, did anyone know what happened to their initial field study ; the Original Bell Jar you might say, if that is stable, be good for comparison should the Science types get a chance to study it?"
"I do not know. Many scientists worked on the original idea. I'm sure the ideas that were proven effective went into other terraforming procedures. How the Genesis Device was constructed may have been classified, but much of the science leading up to it and its failure were not. Otherwise, why the ban on protomatter?"
Sevena had been content to quietly wander around and follow the science officer, however something caught her eye as the group she was in walked along the path. Breaking away from the group, she squatted down and pushed a cluster of leaves out of the way to reveal a mostly intact Romulan skeleton. Catching her breath, the Romulan stumbled backwards, grabbing for a weapon and silently cursing the fact that she was unarmed while she let out a loud yelp of surprised terror. Unable to keep her feet, she fell backwards and landed on her back.
Liang heard the cry and turned to Jayde. "I will hurry ahead." With her tricorder and weapon still in her heands, she ran ahead to join the other team.
"Come," Jayde said to the others, hurrying after Liang.
Élan was about as happy as any science officer in Starfleet could get. There were simply so many possibilities on this asteroid and too many things to do, that fully exploring it would take weeks if not months. As she often did when she found something new that caught her attention, she, and Val as well, was quickly becoming focused on her job and as such wasn’t keeping a very close eye on her team. While Lieutenant Sato was sometimes a little vocal on how she felt every single time Élan stopped to take a closer look at something, which was almost every other step she took, Liang was quiet as was t'Dhvael.
She was crawling around under a large leafy fern, scanning and mapping the water flow of the numerous waterways that seemed to go everywhere when she heard a sound that could only be someone in distress. Val seemed to twist in distress and Élan rolled out from under the plant and come up to her knees with her hand phaser out and ready. Glancing around, she noticed that their Romulan guest wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Muttering a silent curse, Élan stood and hurried off in the direction of the cry.
She had to be careful, mostly because of the wet, slippery moss that she had to run over, but Élan finally arrived and raised an eyebrow as she saw the Romulan liaison officer on her back. Glancing around, she quickly spied the skeleton and her faint amusement quickly turned into alarm. Kneeling down quickly, the Trill dropped her tricorder and grabbed the Romulan officer by the arm and pulled her away as Élan stood.
Jayde and Liang arrived just then. "What happened?" Jayde asked.
“I believe our Romulan guide saw a ghost,” Élan said with a grim almost humorless smile as she indicated the skeleton under the leafy plant with a hand. Helping the liaison officer to her feet, the Trill science officer instinctively looked around and wondered if what had killed the long dead Romulan was still around.
Miko instantly set upon the bones with her medical tricorder, scanning and trying to fulfill her job as the team’s medical officer. “Well, whoever it was, they’ve been dead for decades. For some reason, the bones haven’t started decaying. In fact, there’s no decomposition in the calcium makeup at all. It’s as if they were just picked clean not too long ago, however the outer micro-organisms on the bones indicate that the skeleton has been here for quite some time,” she reported, taking a cautious step back.
(To be continued...)
Ensign Leslie Gallant III
Pilot
Lieutenant Commander Mira Jayde
Commanding Officer
Lieutenant Velah
Chief Medical Officer
Master Chief Petty Officer Liang Shao
Master-at-Arms
Sevena t'Dhvael
Romulan Liaison
Lieutenant Élan Val
Chief Science Officer
Ensign Miko Sato
Medical Officer
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