It's Alive...?

Posted on Fri Dec 16th, 2022 @ 1:45pm by Captain Ivan Petrov & Lieutenant Commander Andrei Petrov & Lieutenant Dr. Daniel Brasken & Ensign Ilan Ocara

Mission: In-Between (S1:E3-S1:E4)
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Mission Day 2 at 1745
2708 words - 5.4 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

The number of samples that had been delivered to Medical and Science was surprising to say the least. Usually with nebulae it was Science and occasionally Engineering that were the ones that got to review and catalog. There were some surprising finds in this one though and it seemed like Daniel might have some material to find medical uses for this stuff.

He moved through the lab area of sick bay, making notes of different scans and his own observations while others managed the general day to day at this point. Pausing at a somewhat viscous liquid like material that had caught his attention earlier, Daniel dug into the results of the latest micro-cellular scan and then all but froze. The data didn't come back as he had expected. There was more to this sample than standard elements combined into a unique galactic body.

Daniel tapped the badge on his chest quickly to call someone to review. "Doctor Brasken to Officer Ocara."

Ilan looked up from what she was doing and blinked on hearing Daniel’s voice. That was not at all what she had been expecting. She tapped her commbadge. “Ocara here.”

"If I could impose upon you, I have something that I could use a second opinion on regarding the current mission." Daniel picked up the sample, staring at it a moment before

"Of course. I'll be there in just a moment." She cut the commline and proceeded to get the project she was working on to a decent pausing point. Shutting down everything, she slid her uniform jacket and boots back on and fluffed out her hair. She locked the lab down and then left to take the short walk to sickbay.

While awaiting Ilan's arrival, Daniel took the sample to a centrifuge to start the process of fully separating the materials. The device started to whir softly as the vial drifted out from the center as he then found a chair to sit on and lean back and rub at his eyes. There has been a lot of samples to go through and he had not slept in the last twenty eight hours as he was determined to get through them all as a challenge to himself.

As she had said, it was only a few minute delay before Ilan walked through the doors of sickbay. One of the nurses pointed her back toward the labs, so she wandered back through the hallways and finally arrived outside the open door. She leaned on it and crossed her arms, smiling a bit as she watched Daniel rub at his eyes. "You called, Doctor?"

Daniel sat forward and used the momentum to stand back up, his hand slowly coming off his face as he looked over to the voice with a nod and gestured to the sample. "I did at that. I'm seeing some interesting results to my tests and I want to get your opinion to either back up or counter what I think I'm seeing." The vial still spun merrily in the centrifuge as he brought up the file he was working on and all the test results he had run.

"I'm separating the last sample to see if I can get more clear results, but..." Daniel gestured to the computer for Ilan to take over.

Ilan's head tilted with curiosity and she made her way over to Daniel's side and shifted down into his chair as he gestured to the computer for her. Though many might have been distracted by Daniel's presence, Ilan's entire focus was on the data in front of her. It didn't take her long to see what he was talking about and she sat back, picking at her lower lip.

"Huh... that's decidedly not... nebula-y."

"Indeed." Daniel paused and pulled the vial from the centrifuge as it finished. He used a pipette to pull material from a specific layer to create a slide and then added it to the next device. He leaned over and peered into the microscope as he spoke again. "Computer, label current sample in sequence and start molecular analysis."

He straightened and rolled his neck to stretch it out. "If it weren't in the middle of space I would say we were looking at some sort of cellular structure, albeit through less than expected materials."

"Well, why not in the middle of space?" Ilan asked and leaned back, looking up at him. "They are rare, but there are life forms in space." She reminded him then looked back to the display in front of her. "Wonder if there's life here in the nebula. Something small maybe?"

"I suppose small is possible, though space faring life tends to be either microscopic or the size of a starship. The odd swarm of migrant shuttle sized creature too." Daniel rubbed at his chin while reading the display. "This feels more like the building blocks of a part of a creature...like muscle tissue. Maybe something died in this nebula?"

"I don't think it's dead. It doesn't have any of the markers of decay unless it just died, but even then it should be showing signs. This isn't really." Reaching out, she touched the console to zoom in on the information and get a more in depth molecular read. "Some very interesting things in here though. We should see if more samples can be collected."

"Agreed, I would have expected crystallization and compromised membranes. There should be significantly more samples in Engineering and on the processing ship." Daniel took a seat and started a query of data from the analysis by other departments. "Lets see if the other departments have any more information on other pieces of this puzzle." He entered some more commands to filter the results through the medical systems to analyze it further. "Hmm.."

Ilan reached out to pause the display and looked at it. "Look here, doesn't that almost look akin to lymphatic fluid?"

"If lymphatic fluid was a plasma, I can see....son of a-" Daniel cut off and started working on the controls frantically. Different files opening and closing before others opened and were moved around the screen before he spoke again. "Musculature, Respiratory, Circulatory..." He pointed to different files as he identified them aloud, pausing before identifying the next. "Ah, Digestive!" A smirk lifted one side of his mouth as he looked to Ilan. "Admittedly each is quite different from a humanoid with the same systems, but it is all there. This is a living nebula."

“Amazing!” Ilan exclaimed and fully meant it. She was fascinated by the prospect. After a moment of the two of them just marveling at what they had found, she seemed to remember something. “You should probably call the Captain and XO.”

"Agreed." Daniel went ahead and hit his comm badge. "Doctor Brasken to Captain Petrov and Commander Petrov. We have some information on our current project that you should be aware of. Please come to sickbay."

“Acknowledged, Sickbay. We’ll be down shortly.” Came the response of the Captain before the comms cut off.

Daniel nodded at their acknowledgements and then turned back to Ilan. "Shall we then?"

As they waited, both Daniel and Ilan worked to compile the information for easy review and cross referencing, and Ilan excitedly put in requests for more samples to be gathered. There was likely no practical use for anything they would find as far as genetics would go, but it was an absolutely fascinating and singular find. Science might not have been a focus in the Empire, but it was to her and she knew what a once in a lifetime find this was. In fact off the top of her head she could remember no incidence of anything similar.

Several minutes later, the door to sickbay parted and the two Petrov men entered, both of them with confidence strides and curious expressions. They knew it was serious if they were both called.

“What have we got, Doctor?” Andrei asked first.

"Something rather unexpected." Daniel paused to load up the first couple pages of the information on the screens that were in the wall. "I brought in Officer Ilan to confirm my initial findings and we were able to confirm that the nebula we are currently processing...is a living creature."

He gestured to the monitor that had identification tags pointing to various spots in the snapshot of space cloud. "These sections work together to act similarly to a nervous system, these over here...a circulatory system. We were even able to identify areas where it is repairing itself, albeit slowly considering what our ships are currently doing."

Ilan had moved herself out of the way so the three men to address their newest findings. She of course let Daniel take the lead with no protest in the slightest, remaining quiet unless asked for her input. This did however give her time to let her eyes wander over Ivan first and then over Andrei whom she lingered on. He really was quite handsome, but much, much too high maintenance for her tastes.

"Incredible." Ivan said, his eyebrows raising as he watched the monitor with interest and suspicion all mixed together. His son stood next to him, relatively unreadable. "Is there any record of a creature like this existing in our computer banks?"

“A creature who takes a form like this nebula? There have been a few similar records but nothing like this and certainly nothing with decalithium.” Ilan supplied, looking to Ivan briefly but her attention was still mostly focused on Andrei as she tried to get a read on him. “This one is unique from all the others.”

"Exactly so. The real question is whether the creation of the decalithium is in some biological process or if it was somehow introduced to this, for lack of a better word, organism. It might be worth studying to see if what we have gathered replenishes itself." Daniel moved between images of possible ways and locations the material may have been introduced or created as he spoke before turning to face the room again. "It may be that we could learn how to synthesize the material ourselves and supplement our energy reserves from time to time...since we cannot just tow this behind us."

“That sounds extremely complicated.” Andrei responded, his visible eye moving to the doctor for a moment before resting on Ilan. He had noticed she was staring at him and, though he indicated nothing, his eye rested on her steadily without much movement. “We’re here for the weapon, and that’s dangerous enough. We aren’t a science ship.”

“But the opportunity might prove unique and some might say we would be fools to just let it pass through our fingers untested.” Ivan said, standing tall. He wasn’t expressing his view, but thinking it through with them out loud.

Andrei looked to Ilan still, but this time, his gaze was engaging and as intense as it typically was.

“What do you think, Ilan?” He asked with a sound of mildest interest. “Do you see in this the technology that might help us replicate lithium technologies?”

Ilan's focus had drifted away from Andrei in the moment and instead was drifting to nowhere except her own mind. When Andrei called her name, she startled just slightly and quickly looked back in time to catch his question. "Perhaps, though it would be complicated and difficult. Researching never hurts though." She pointed out and gave an easy smile before looking to Daniel.

"Though what you just said did make me think of something. How would this creature reproduce? That might be worth looking into... because if it were say like a starfish or plant..." She looked toward Ivan and Andrei. "It is possible that we could take it with us, in a way."

“Well, that would me we wouldn’t need to sit here for the next three months studying a gaseous anomaly like a bunch of egg heads.” Andrei said, looking to his father without making his own determinations.

Ivan nodded at that.

“A bit crudely put, but true. Doctor, work closely with Officer Ocara to discover as much as you can here and to safely replicate this cloud in some smaller form for ongoing research.”

Andrei, for his part, didn’t seem to give a damn about how crudely put it was. He held himself with even more confidence than before his ascension to Executive Officer, far past arrogance to a sort of general assumption that he was the right man for every job, a Superman. It offended some, sure, but many found it intoxicating and almost everyone found themselves tempted in some way and intimidated. He made no apologies. His eyes drifted back to Ilan again, studying the curves of her body, though not as overtly as he might have before Lyra. A man could still look, and he never did anything in half measures.

The muscles in Daniel's jaw twitched slightly each time Andrei spoke. The ignorance and lack of interest was hardly a surprise considering the source, but still the complete disregard for the possibilities of what this information could lead to for the Empire was just downright disappointing. Of course the only outward expression of these thoughts was the slight twitch in his jaw as he nodded in response to Ivan. "Understood Captain. I do not have high hopes of being able to secure a smaller version, but we will do everything we can in the time we have."

Ilan noticed the way Andrei was looking at her and simply responded with a very small smirk. When Daniel and Ivan were distracted, she even gave him a quick, flirtatious wink. She had been present on the bridge when he had very publicly declared Lyra as his woman, however it was impossible to place if it was a simple teasing flirtation or something more. She quickly looked back to Ivan and smiled.

"We'll do our best, Captain. At the very least the research should be interesting and who knows what we will find that might be helpful."

At least Andrei knew he still had it. He smiled at her wink, a smile which was charming and knowing. But he turned his mind back to the subject at hand.

"Send regular progress reports at each duty shift change for the next 24 hours. I estimate anything not discovered by then might go undiscovered. We have bigger fish to fry." Andrei said, looking directly at the Doctor. His words were crystal clear and his voice was strong. His face was unreadable other than a distinctly dominant persistence in eye contact with his visible one. "But, of course, that will be determined by the Captain."

He turned to his father, his arms behind his back and his strong chest pointing out.

"With your permission, sir.."

Ivan nodded neutrally, unperturbed by any of the dynamics in the room. He was an experienced former admiral, and he hardly concerned himself with such details unless they were true signs of something significant. Andrei nodded to the doctor and then allowed his eye to linger on Ilan again, this time meeting her eyes and giving a mischievous grin which he didn't try to hide. Then he turned and departed the room, and when he was gone, Ivan turned to the two of them again.

"Good work, you two. The weapon comes first, but this is a close second. I'll make sure you have everything you need within that framework."

Daniel's annoyance noticeably diminished when Andrei left the room, "Understood, sir."

“Yes, sir. Thank you.” Ilan smiled excitedly to Ivan, though she also did not miss the way Daniel had suddenly relaxed when Andrei had gone. The man had that effect on people.

Ivan nodded, and without another word, he turned and departed the room.

Ilan watched Ivan go and then turned to look at Daniel. She grinned an almost devious grin. “Well then, shall we?”

Daniel quirked a brow at Ilan's energy considering the exchange that just happened. "Of course. I'm guessing that we should gather data from engineering to begin..." He trailed off as he turned to start issuing commands and adding notes to the computer.

END