Any Time is Good for Science

Posted on Wed Oct 23rd, 2019 @ 2:50pm by Ensign Michael Sloan & Lieutenant Aurelius Davis
Edited on on Wed Oct 23rd, 2019 @ 6:39pm

Mission: Mission 1 - One Step forward
Location: Science Labs, Deck B
Timeline: Before Arriving in the Delphic Expanse
1040 words - 2.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Even though the mission itself was not exactly scientific in nature, Earth still needed the Atlantis to contribute to the broadening of Human knowledge. Leah thought about Earth as her boots clanged on the titanium flooring of the Deck. As the doors to the Science Labs opened, Captain Morgan was brought out of her thoughts. The crew had proven to be very hardworking, but that still did not stop her from feeling the need to take periodical tours of each department.

Looking around the main room for a moment, Leah caught the tall woman with the teal accents to her uniform talking to another scientist. So not to disturb them, the Captain began reading from a console at a respectful distance from the pair. From the looks of things, the staff had been working on a way to calibrate the sensors to get a better sample reading of the subspace eddies and radiation spikes that the Atlantis would soon encounter.

Darcy abruptly stopped talking, turned her head and sneezed into the the crook of her arm. It was the weirdest thing, she always sneezed when she got nervous, only there was no reason for her to be nervous about what they were doing, they were on top of things. It wasn't until she raised her head that she saw the captain standing there and understood now. Somehow she had known someone was in the room. "Uh, excuse me for a moment Levi."

She stepped over to where the Captain was standing. "What can I do for you Ma'am?"

As the ship's senior science officer walked toward her, Leah turned toward Darcy with a smile on her face. "Just checking in, making sure you have everything you needed and were keeping busy," she started. Indicating the console readout, Leah added, "It looks like you're on to something." From her background in warp theory and the warp program, she recognized a bit of what she saw.

"Oh yes, fine. We're always busy. Even space dust is interesting to the right person." Darcy didn't really want to say exactly what they might have discovered. She always kept her research to herself until she could produce a theory and then go on to prove it. "Possibly. Time will tell."

"I won't stand in the way of progress," Leah replied, hands up a little to jokingly indicate that she was not touching anything. "Everything is interesting when you think about it. We're some of the first Humans to go out this far, especially in peace. We'll be able to see things that previous journeys out here may have overlooked."

"Fascinating and scary at the same time. I just hope I don't discover the first alien species that eats humans, I don't want to go down in the history books that way." Darcy shrugged. Actually if it were up to her she'd like not to be mentioned at all.

"What about Klingons?" Leah half joked. While they were still relatively unknown, Leah did not want the Atlantis to meet up with any Klingons anytime soon.

"No thank you, I'm partial to more furry or fuzzy creatures. Unless that's what turns out to eat humans," she nodded her head as she spoke, conceding the point. "But I did agree to this, so I can't let myself be too afraid."

"I can't say that there is nothing to be afraid of," Leah replied. Her own home had been very close to the path of the Xindi superweapon, and her thoughts momentarily shifted to her home. "But we are out here to help save Earth through knowledge and sometimes scary situations," she added. As a way to try to comfort her Chief of Science, she confided, "I've been afraid more than a few times out here."

Surprised to hear a Captain say that, it gave Darcy a moment to pause. "May I ask you a personal question Captain?" Darcy's voice lowered as to not be overhead by any of her staff.

"Of course," Leah replied. She held and believed in an open door policy. With the Atlantis being at the frontier of what was known and the crew sure to face things no Human had ever seen, she felt that a degree of openness was the best policy.

"What scares you the most?" Darcy asked curiously, wondering if her own fears had any basis in fact or if they were fanciful ideas she'd cooked up somewhere along the way. She was used to being alone, but lately it had felt like she was the only one on board with this feelings of fear.

"That we aren't the biggest fish in the pond," Leah replied. "Until the Xindi, Earth sort of seemed invincible," she began, thinking about her family being just miles from the path of the attack and her own ship closing in on the weapon, "It isn't, we need to make friendships and advance in order to survive." Turning her attention back to Darcy, she asked, "What are yours?"

Privately Darcy thought that it kept Humans humble, knowing that they weren't the biggest. Maybe it also kept them on their toes. She pondered her own question. "Fear. I think my fear is that I'll always be afraid. That I won't be brave."

"Being brave has nothing to do with not having fear," Leah pointed out. Leah was scared most of the time things got a little upside down. Looking toward the scientist, she added, "Being brave is still being able to act when fear tries to overcome you. If you are never afraid, you can never be brave."

"Hmm," Darcy replied, their conversation had become quite philosophical. "I suppose so." It dawned on her that the Captain probably had better things to do than stand here and talk about such things. "Thank you Captain, sorry to keep you so long."

"It's not a problem," Leah shook her head in reassurance. "I had better let you get back to your project," she offered as she made her way to the door. "It's a small ship, and my door is always open," she added as she went back to her survey of the ship.

Lieutenant (jg) Darcy Blair
Chief Science Officer
NX Atlantis

Captain Leah Morgan
Commanding Officer
NX Atlantis