More risks than is probably advisable

Posted on Thu Oct 15th, 2020 @ 2:51am by Lieutenant Darru & Crewman Finn Jones & Lieutenant Sovar & Ensign Elegy Nascimento

Mission: Mission 3 - 100
Location: Deck F - Science Lab
Timeline: Day 61, Month 3, Year 0 07:30
2206 words - 4.4 OF Standard Post Measure

At this time of morning, Ensign Elegy Nascimento was usually wrapping up his night shift to get something to eat and quickly crash out in his bunk. These days, he was quick to bed so there wasn't time to think about the century of warp travel keeping Elegy away from his husband. Now that the protein resequencers were working... well enough to allow the mess to serve something other than fricassée of algae, Elegy should have been eating eggs right now. Instead, Elegy was third mocha of the night. His eyes couldn't focus on the computer displays any longer, so Elegy was stretching his legs and petting the department's pet rock. Standing there, he let his mind shift into idle. For what was about to come next, Elegy would need to gather up all his strength.

Lieutenant Sovar stepped into the science lab and lifted an eyebrow immediately. It was rare that he crossed paths with Ensign Nascimento at this hour, enough so for him to note it as a curiosity. Then again, it seemed to be a time for curiosities.

"Ensign, it is agreeable to see you," the Vulcan said in simple greeting. "Has your duty shift been reassigned?"

With Lieutenant Leyton assuming more responsibilities aboard the ship, it wasn't beyond the realm of possibility that his staff might be rearranged without his knowledge. The two rarely saw eye to eye, and humans could be petty and capricious after disagreements.

Nodding his acknowledgement, Elegy set aside his mug on a workstation and he used his hands to sign I'm happy to see you too to Sovar. In response to the question posed, Elegy said, "No, my duty shift remains the same, Lieutenant. You're about to owe me overtime pay for this." The deadpan of Elegy's joke was nearly monotone, which would have to be frustrating for certain Vulcans. In nearly the same tone, Elegy said, "I've been staring at Vrav algae for so long it's all starting to look like weeds, and it's not every day we discover a wormhole. I reckon I could use some perspective from the team. Make certain we're all moving in the same direction."

Elegy took a sip from his mug, and then he added, "Besides, I don't want to pull the short straw and end up sorting equipment when there's a wormhole to study."

Sovar spared a glance at the department's ersatz pet companion - the rock on the wall - as he worked through "overtime pay" and "short straw." The former he had first encountered during training, when he came to understand there was still something of an undercurrent of wage labor in human culture. He had never heard of pulling straws but gathered that the shorter one must be undesirable.

"Indeed, it is a momentous occasion for the department. Commander Leroux will be relying on us to provide accurate analysis."

Nodding eagerly at Sovar's assessment, Elegy said, "I'd say we're up to the challenge, Lieutenant," and his energy levels rose with each word that came out. Not only was a wormhole a mysterious unicorn of a spatial phenomenon to behold, there was always the secret wish it could prove a rabbit hole back home. Of course, Elegy's hope for the wormhole to be pointing in the right direction was nascent and fragile; all the odds suggested it would be too unstable to travel regardless of the destination.

Darcy entered with a big yawn, her eyes temporarily closed. When they opened she frowned and tried in vain to capture the single hair that had come loose and was floating in her vision and tickling her face. "Good morning," she said sleepily.

Finn strode in before the door had even had time to consider closing and looked at everyone. “Sirs.” He muttered ducking his head. He quickly stepped around Darcy and headed to a corner to sit down.

Sipping at his mocha when Darcy and Finn strode in, Elegy waved a hand of hello in their directions. He stepped away from the pet rock, padding towards the only operable workstations -- opting to meet Darcy and Finn in the middle of the compartment.

"Ensign Blair, Crewman Jones," Sovar said, turning to them. He gave them the same greeting he'd delivered to Elegy, about the closest he ever came to a 'good morning.' "It is agreeable to see you. Are you prepared to begin the day? I have compiled a number of research assignments for the department in light of our changing circumstances."

"Sure, yes." Darcy had been trying to speak more professionally like a Vulcan but it was difficult to remember first thing in the morning. "I'd be . . . interested to Sir." She said waiting to see what he might hand her.

"Will I be getting out of Hydroponics Sir?" Jones asked knowing fall well he was not as one of the few people who could do anything there but Darru walking in disrupted his getting an answer for what he had asked. The other Vulcan said nothing other than offering a to everyone and set about waiting for the early morning meeting.

Taking no notice of Darru's taciturn entrance, Elegy offered encouraging words to Jones. "I could sure use your green-thumb on my Vrav algae calculations, Finn," said Elegy. Perhaps it was the end-of-shift delirium, but Elegy practically sounded like he was pleading. "I keep making changes to the chemical composition and I can hardly see the differences anymore."

Finn slowly sat up a little straighter as he was spoken to. "Um..." He looked around quickly to make sure it was him being spoken to before nodding. "Sure Sir. Whatever I can help with." He quickly assured.

Raising his index fingers in front of his face, Elegy used the sign language gesture for stars, when he said, “Thank you, Finn. You're a star!" As soon as he said that, Elegy blinked twice and then he said, "Speaking of which," as he leaned over a free-standing workstation. Having approached one of the few operational console from an awkward angle, he stretched his arms to the other side of the controls to reach the buttons he needed. "The computer's spectrographic analysis finished at around oh-three-hundred hours last night," Elegy said. "Has everyone seen the theoretical wormhole we picked up on long range sensors?"

With one more tap of the console, Elegy blacked out every display screen around the compartment. A moment later, the screens were replaced by images and data that had been collected about the wormhole since its discovery: gamma ray scans, dynoscanner results, graviton polarimeter and neutron desitometer measurements, and even a subspace harmonic readout.

Darcy's eyes went all the way to the ceiling. "Wormhole? No." Had she been asleep? Why didn't she know about this? She was certainly very interested to see it.

Sovar showed no emotion at the subject of the meeting being preempted by Elegy's enthusiasm. Instead, he simply turned to the nearest display and made a gesture.

"Sensors detected a gravitational anomaly at approximately 1000 hours yesterday morning. Further investigation revealed the disturbance to be associated with a wormhole. As you are no doubt aware," Sovar said, leveling a particularly severe look at the assembled staff as if he was daring any of them to actually profess ignorance, "these phenomena were considered theoretical up to this point. The discovery is momentous. Understandably, it has elicited an emotional response from the crew; some have even speculated that this is a traversable wormhole. Such speculation is entirely unfounded, and I have the expectation that you all will remain focused and as objective as possible during the course of our investigation and do nothing to further these rumors."

Ensign Nascimento literally literally bit his lower lip to prevent himself from objecting. "Understood, Lieutenant," Elegy forced himself to choke out the words. But he couldn't help himself. In point of fact, Elegy added, "But I have started to write a love song about the wormhole." --Noticing a puzzled expression or two in his peripheral vision, Elegy explained more than he should have-- "It started with the wormhole as a metaphorical bridge to mend the separation in my marriage, but then by the second verse, it had somehow taken on a phallic connotation with the wormhole in a receptive role..."

"The wormhole is located within a grouping of localized spatial distortions, including areas of subspace instability and several graviton anomalies. It is unclear if the distortions are a cause or effect of the wormhole or entirely coincidental, but that is only one matter for further study. Our immediate concern is supporting the plan to explore the wormhole itself. A shuttlepod will be positioned as a staging platform for the launch of a modified weapon casing that will function as a crude but effective probe. Supporting that mission will include analysis of sensor data on the spatial distortions, as well as the wormhole itself."

Darcy felt like she was still leaving her mouth open. "I get that speculation is unfounded but I'm also honestly a bit concerned. If they think this will somehow turn out to be a way home or at the very least to take years off our journey, they are bound to want to take more risks than is probably advisable." She realized she was starting to sound Vulcan and blushed.

At Darcy's theoretical accusation, Elegy raised his hand slowly and a guilty cringe crumpled his whole facial expression. Regretfully, Elegy admitted, "Lieutenant Leyton and I... may have offered to strand ourselves in the wormhole for the honour of exploration. Commander Leroux hasn't quite taken us up on the offer."

"I cannot see why not." Darru finally spoke up from his notes on his PADD. He had heard rumours of the offer but this was confirmation. "So what has she taken you up on?" He wondered thinking about what had been decided. It was not his speciality but the thought of a stable worm hole was interesting.

"By the time I left my duty station, Lieutenant," Elegy replied, after quick sip of his coffee, "she had only agreed to hear proposals from the department heads."

“So when do you get to propose your idea properly?” Darru wondered staring at Sovar. Was this attempt to bypass the Vulcan scientists as they had not heard about this properly so far?

"She probably doesn't want to lose two crew members and equipment when we're going to need everything to survive out here," Darcy mumbled to herself. Investigating from the ship was one thing but this sounded like a bad idea to her.

Standing close enough to Darcy to catch the gist of what she said, Elegy shrugged dramatically. "Not much point to survival in Starfleet," Elegy remarked, also in an undertone, "if we give up on exploration."

“It is logical for that approach to be taken. We do not need to charge into exploration without considering all the facts. Laroux’s is correct in making people step back and think properly.” Darru piped up intrigued if the plotting for this exploring was going to involve more people. “Do you require more assistance?”

Tilting his head and stealing another sip of his coffee, Elegy replied, "I'd say that's the question of the day. It's why we're all here at this godforsaken time of the morning. Together."

Finn could feel the tension in the air and coughed a little. “I am just the ships friendly gardener so maybe we need to lay it on the table. What do we have so far? And when do we have to discuss it with the Commander Sirs?” Finn asked hoping to dispel the tension he could feel from the Vulcans. He glanced at Darcy hoping she would pipe in and help him.

Having lost track of where he had left his mug, Elegy rubbed his hands together. "Our mission is simple," Elegy said, far too dramatically. Emphatically, he turned his gaze from Finn to each and every face around the laboratory compartment. "Invent a new method of collecting scanner data from the wormhole without getting close enough to the spatial anomalies around the wormhole," --Elegy waved a hand in Darcy and Darru's direction, crediting them with the final caveat-- "that we'll lose the ship or crew. When the wormhole was identified, the bridge crew discussed packing a shuttlepod with a heftier scanner array and lassoing it with the grappler, and then something about firing a torpedo at the wormhole."

Looking around again, Elegy encouragingly said, "I'm sure Commander Leroux would be open to any other ideas too."

"I will think on it some with my meditation," Darru said simply making Finn smile. The man was a stick in the mud and oh so serious but his mannerism made him smile despite the grief he was currently experiencing.

After looking down into his empty mug. Elegy logged himself out of the laboratory workstation, since his shift had ended. "I'm looking forward to hearing about it, after I get some rest, Lieutenant Darru," Elegy said, as he edged his way to the door. "Looking at the problem through your lens, I'm sure you'll come up with something otherwise unthinkable."