All in the name of Science

Posted on Tue 25th Apr, 2017 @ 2:57pm by Commander Jasmine Collins-Keller
Edited on on Sat 7th Oct, 2017 @ 4:32pm

1,852 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Wrongs Darker Than Death Or Night
Location: Deck 95: Chief Science Officer's Office

Hunt had spent the entirety of his morning running errands for Drake, he felt a bit like a personal assistant rather than an XO of a starbase. Still, he guessed it was his job to do, plus anything to try and get away from Drake at the moment. He had a sort of personal vendetta against Hunt, it was only a matter of time before it all kicked off! He had just finished speaking with Jekkar about the security department, and an added sense of realization that Hunt needed to spend more time with some of the crew. He seemed to always end up with the same faces such as Paul Graves, but it was time to expand the horizon and get to know more of the crew. His first stop was to see Jasmine Collins, the Chief Science Officer. For one, Hunt loved Science from his time being an Xenologist, and was to keen to just talk about something Sciency or just see the department as a whole. And secondly, he wanted to meet Jasmine Collins. She always seemed so reserved at the briefings that there was probably more about her to find out.

Hunt had arrived at her office, before pressing the chime outside. That's all he seemed to ever do, press chimes to see people. Still, this one was his own choice.
Jasmine jumped at the sound of the chime and the pup laying at her feet perked. She took a deep breath. "Easy girl. It's one person at the door. Maybe it's Adam..." She shook her head. "No Adam wouldn't knock." By now Oscar was circling the woman's feet coaxing her to move or do something. "Okay okay." Jasmine grinned at the animal. "I'm answering." Looking at the door, she slid her glassed up over her forehead. "Come." She called trying to sound confident. She could handle one stranger...little steps as Doctor Graves advised.

Hunt made his way in after hearing Jasmine's voice, noticing a slight anxiousness in it. He beamed as he walked in, his first Hunt-like smile for a while, "Afternoon Lieutenant! I hope I haven't startled you!"

Jasmine immediately looked down. "N-no." Oscar wrapped around her legs. He was there to make her feel better, to give her some confidence. It did help some but Oscar was just learning and her original service animal had been left behind because of his age. "It's okay boy." She smiled down at the pup. "I apologize Commander. I have some interaction issues. Please come in. Is there something I can help you with?"

"No need to apologize, we all interact in our own ways," He avoided the first question asking another over the top to make the Lieutenant more comfortable, "What's his name?" He asked, crouching down looking at the pup.

"That's Oscar." She smiled. "He was a gift from a very dear friend." She explained as she relaxed a little more. "He's still learning but he's meant to help me relax in crowded areas." She almost looked guilty. "I suffer from some debilitating phobias. Crowds and strangers are the worst."

He watched as Oscar played around Collins' feet, "And does he help you? I guess being on board such a busy starbase must be a struggle for you." He stated rather than asking. "Believe it or not, I still get anxious when there are groups of people, but I've learnt to deal with it myself."

"Oscar helps some. Adam also helps. He has been a rock for me and he gave me Oscar." She smiled at the pup. "When I first got here, I couldn't even cross the promenade to get to my quarters. Adam walked me to and from the lab each day until I could do it by myself....well with Oscar."

"I'm glad to hear that. He's a cute dog as well," Hunt observed as Oscar continued to play around. After a brief pause, he spoke again, "Did you know that my background is Science? I love all things to do with it and I do miss it."

"What can I show you then Sir?" She asked with a slight smile. "I'd be glad to give you a tour."

"A tour would actually be great! I particularly want to see some of the labs if I'm honest. Does Oscar come around with you when you go around the department? Or have you got used to that part?"

"He comes if there are people in the labs. Some of them are obviously too dangerous for him so he stays here. The labs I mean, not the people." She quickly corrected herself and then explained. "I'm usually okay one on one with people I know. It's when there are more than one or two...I try but..." She shook her head.

Hunt let out a small smile, "You will get there, small bits at a time. Does he want to come with us?"

"He actually is very intelligent and he'll stay in the corridor if its somewhere he shouldn't be." She smiled. "I guess you can do just about anything with Genetics these days." She gave a shrug. "If you'd like, I can show you the botany lab. I've been working on some high yield fruit trees and trying to perfect the cocoa process in space." She wrinkled her nose..."Not succeeding too well on that but the cherry trees are in second bloom already."

"The botany lab would be a great start. Maybe I can think of something that can help if I see it. Although don't rely on me for that," He let out a laugh. "It does sound fantastic. Shall we?" He asked, gesturing towards the door in a polite manner.

Smiling, Jasmine led the way out of her office into the lab 4 which was where she'd set up her botany studies. There were small hydroponics systems set up and a small aquaponics system. There was a table for genetic splicing and a counter with several soil samples. "You see the trees here are blooming for the second time in two months..We harvested from them two weeks ago." She couldn't help but be proud of her accomplishment.

Hunt took a thorough look at them with amazement, "Lt. Collins, this is...beautiful."

"Thank you. I get a lot done because I don't socialize much." She smiled. "But this is my baby." She walked over to the large pool used for the aquaponics system. "The fish in here are edible. So when they reach maturity, or become too big, they are replaced with smaller one, or just breed themselves out and we have real fish for chef to prepare." She shrugged. "There isn't enough for everyone but if a few systems were set up, they could feed a small village over time...the vegetables and the fish used to fertilize the growing compound. Completely sustainable." She seemed to beam when talking about her work. She even smiled as she spoke and was no longer wringing her hands.

"Sometimes socializing is a time waste and gets in the way of more important things. Like this. This is amazing. I have no words of how great this is," He glanced down at the pool, watching the fish swim so peacefully. "Things like this is why I love Science. It truly is amazing." What a wonderful scientist Lt. Collins is He thought.

"If you do these incredible things in the botany lab, I think I need to spend a whole week in here to see all your work!" He exclaimed.

"Thank you sir." Jasmine smiled. "I spend a lot of my time in here but I don't neglect the other labs." She lead him to the next lab. Oscar followed closely, his tail wagging. He was glad to move about. He'd been stuck in the office with Jasmine most of the morning and the tour was just what he needed to exercise his legs.

As they entered the Astro metrics lab, they were greeted by a large holographic image of the galaxy. The Archanis sector [The sector where Vanguard was located] was magnified as were several local [within 3000 kilometers] anomalies. "I've been studying some of the local anomalies in the space around us. Since the neutral zone is off limits I have to use this model. Ensign Montgomery helped me with the set up and Lieutenant Kellar got me the stellar charts from Intel so I could program the anomalies and make them show up." She explained as she waved her arm over the controls and set the galaxy in motion. "I used the information in the database for the measurements and distance calculations."

"This is amazing. Your work is amazing," Hunt said with excitement, then frowned. "What sort of anomalies?"

"Well nothing concerning." She knew she'd misspoke when she saw the frown on the man's face. She quickly pointed to a small nebula just outside the neutral zone. Spreading her fingers over it, she increased the size and pulled it from the hologram up out of the original projection. There are two small anomalies that weren't there two decades ago...One is a general distortion in the nebula gases. The other is over here, a density or cluster that hadn't been noticed before." She spun the small cluster. "It's a star nursery and it's very active." She then frowned. "The density, I'm not sure of yet. It hasn't done anything." She put the nebula back. "My thought is the nebula is collapsing..could be a large ship but there has been absolutely no movement in a month. It could be a number of innocuous things." She shrugged.

"As long as you keep monitoring it and just report anything important, if it happens that is. My thoughts are the same as you just taking a glance, that the nebula is collapsing," He replied.

"I'm afraid that's it for now. Most of the other labs are waiting on data or running routine diagnostics until I can get things set up. The Biology lab is on research right now but we've been shut down for two days while we reset the database servers. There's some odd files left over from years ago. I want to dig into them before we do anything else...just a curious cat I guess." She smiled.

"Well Lieutenant, I think you're doing a fantastic job at the moment and I can't wait to come and see the other labs when they're fully set up. Odd files?" He questioned. "Let me know if there is anything exciting on those files, and I best be getting off!"
He smiled and crouched down towards Oscar, gently stroking him, "Bye Oscar, nice to meet you." He glanced up at Lt. Collins, "He is adorable as well. Thanks again Lieutenant."

"Any time sir." She smiled and looked down at Oscar. "We look forward to another visit." Jasmine walked with the man toward the door and watched him leave, pleased that she'd made it through the entire visit without much anxiety.

Lt. Commander Zachary Hunt
Executive Officer
Vanguard Station


Lt. Jasmine Collins
Chief Science Officer
Vanguard Station

 

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