Science is Elemental

Posted on 06 Nov 2014 @ 3:11am by Lieutenant JG Cyrin Xanth & Lieutenant Elijah Williams IV, M.Sc.

2,697 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 07 - Sojourn
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4, Geology Lab
Timeline: MD07 - 1900 Hrs

[ ON ]

Cyrin had studied the layout of Nova Class ships and the Galileo in particular on his way to Starbase 84, but that had been a month ago and he was quickly discovering he hadn't studied quite as well as he had thought. The ensign had been wandering the deck for ten minutes now, trying to find where he'd be working, and had no luck. So far he'd discovered the Shuttlebay, the secured doors to the computer core, and even aft phaser control.

The ship was mostly deserted, as it was to be expected he supposed with shore leave under way, and he'd not seen anyone to ask so far. Some sort of upgrade with the computer system had the directional services the computer could usually provide on the fritz too. He'd overheard a couple of station engineerings complaining about it earlier, and one of them hand made a lot of noise over Tribbles getting into the circuitry.

One of the doors up ahead was marked 'Science Lab', and Cyrin breathed a sigh of relief before he hurried through. If he'd taken his time, he would have seen what kind of lab it was before he stepped inside perhaps. The young man took a few steps inside, far enough for the doors to close behind him, and looked around in confusion. Where were the sensor readouts of astrometric phenomena? Where were the simulation terminals to alter the mathematics that defined a star or a nebula? What were all those rocks under transparent aluminium doing there as if waiting to be scanned and catalogued?

"This isn't the right lab," he said aloud as it dawned on him, unaware that he wasn't alone.

The Galileo had been mostly empty and Elijah was happy to get a chance to be alone, especially without all the Tribbles. It was nice to have his lab back. He walked around, PaDD in hand as he looked upon the workstations that he passed. As he continued his work, he heard the soft hiss of the doors parting and he looked up to see a man enter his lab. Elijah shook his head. "No, I'm sorry. It's the geology lab."

"Geology? But I thought..." The ensign shuffled through the stack of PADDs he carried tucked under an arm. "Wait, no..." Cyrin shuffled them rapidly, eyes darting as he read their contents. After he must have gone through them all twice, he glanced up at the man working there, "Sorry to barge in like this, but I'm lost. And I have a talent for stating the obvious." Cyrin gave a nervous sort of chuckle.

Elijah stepped up to the master display workstation and laid his PaDD down onto the flat surface. He offered the man a smile. "No worries at all, I was just making sure everything was in order before I disembarked," he replied. "Are you a new transfer or one of the station's personnel to help fix us up?"

"Transfer, sir," he replied. "Astrophysics. I've been looking for the Astrometrics Lab for a while now and got turned around. It looks a lot different than I expected. The Galileo I mean, what with the work crews and the containers full of tribbles. I suppose it seems sorta funny to you, getting lost on a ship this small. My last ship was even smaller, if you can believe it." You're babbling, he thought to himself in the voice that he'd always attributed towards his symbiont even though it didn't quite work like that, but it was either babble or stutter his way through the conversation. Was everyone on this ship pleasing to the eye?!

"I got lost my first day and there were no work crews or containers of Tribbles," Elijah said. "The Galileo might be a small ship but still lots of twists and turns." He let a couple of moments slip by as he studied the man for a moment. "By the way, I'm Elijah Williams," he rounded the work station and held out his hand. "If you probably haven't guessed, I'm the Galileo's geologist."

Cyrin stood uncomfortably as the geologist studied him and averted his eyes to the bulkhead directly behind the man like some cadet might. Had he done something wrong? Maybe it had been the babbling. Then the other introduced himself and offered his hand. Cyrin relaxed a little bit and shook it in return, "Pleased to meet you. I'm Cyrin Xanth. I'm sorry, I'm not usually this disorganized. Geologist though? What are you working on?" It was far from astrophysics, but Cyrin loved all science and was intrigued by many things that it could reveal.

Elijah looked over his shoulder at some of the lightened workstations, most of the lab was completely dark. He turned his attention back to the other man. "Just compiling some information from our last mission. The Tribble infestation really did a number on a lot of systems. I just wanted to rerun the data." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Also, no need to apologize about organization or lack there of. You are new, it takes time to get to know your surroundings."

"Oh," Cyrin replied, then shifted his feet slightly. "Th-thanks." The ensign stood looking a little confused for a moment, darting glances around the room and at the geologist. After a silence he couldn't bear anymore, Cyrin had to speak up,"I'm sorry for bothering you sir, but where can I find Astrometrics?" He'd gone from babbling to apologizing, which was no better.

"Deck seven ensign," Elijah said. "Though, it might not be functional at this time. Since we are docked, some of those systems are offline." Truth was, he wasn't even sure what was functional and what wasn't. "Technically I probably shouldn't even be here," he added and then smiled.

Cyrin cringed from the man, even with the smile, as if he'd received a reprimand. It might be a bit odd, the Trill stood nearly half a foot taller and definitely out massed the Terran. He wasn't so usually out of sorts, but the loss of the highly scheduled lifestyle Cyrin had the last two years for the kind of chaos on board the Galileo at the moment had shaken him. Personal issues, which he didn't usually allow to interfere with his job, kept popping up in his mind too. All in all, it wasn't the most auspicious start.

"I'm s-sorry sir," he found himself apologizing yet again, looking far more distraught than being on the wrong deck would warrant. "I'll check with the w-w-work crew on the status of deck s-seven before disturbing anyone." He'd spent a lot more time around people these last few days getting to know them than he had since the Academy, and it was an overwhelming sensation but a good one. At least most of it had been good. Some of it was still making him feel very strange, like the offer from Keval or his new friendship with Ellsworth. Right then, Cyrin wanted nothing more than to find a dark lab he could sit in with some astrometric sensors where he could hide.

Elijah raised his hands, mostly to get the Trill to calm down. The stammering was familiar, he did that, in fact he saw a lot of himself in the ensign. "Honest, it's okay. There is no need to apologize, these things happen."

Cyrin tried to take a few deep breaths and calm himself, but it wasn't working as well for him as it had in the past. Almost hyperventilating, the ensign blindly reached out for a seat at a station he'd passed and sat down. What is wrong with me? he wondered, and focused on calming himself. High-strung to begin with, the stress of the last few days had evidently caught up with him.

The major change in schedule and lifestyle was probably the worst part, but Cyrin had been worrying himself sick about the impressions he was making. First, before the Galileo had even arrived in port, he'd knocked over the ship's new Security Investigator and broken her wrist. That had been followed quickly once the ship arrived by getting drunk with a bunch of Security officers, that whole situation with Keval that had sent him for a loop, and the odd feelings it brought to mind later when he had bet Ellsworth. He'd somehow managed to squeak through meeting with the XO and the CSO without a problem at least, that was good. There had been other incidents too, at least in his mind, where he showed himself to be less than the ideal officer. This latest slip up, as small as it was, had just set off a powder keg of all the rest.

"I'm okay," he said in case the other was worried by his sudden descent into a chair. The Trill's face was still red and ashamed, but he spoke up for himself. "Just n-need a m-m-moment."

"Alright," Elijah replied as he eyes the Trill with some confusion and worry. The man was beat red and breathing heavy. "As long as you are." He took a step toward the other man but kept his distance still. "You know, I understand," he said. "I stammer when I get nervous or when things spiral out of control for me."

That brought the Trill's eyes up, and he even met the man's gaze, "Really?" He seemed relieved some just from that. Cyrin's problem was he so often felt alone in his feelings, especially after having tried to suppress them so much serving with a primarily Vulcan crew. "'Spiral out of control'. A Terran saying? I l-like that. This hasn't b-been an easy switch." His voice was coming back under control, and even the blush was starting to fade.

Elijah nodded and took a seat at one of the stools that sat across from Cyrin. "Switch? Where did you serve before the Galileo?," he asked. He just assumed the ensign served on a different vessel, just because someone was an ensign didn't mean they were straight out of the Academy.

"The Se'lok," Cyrin said with a nod. "Oberth Class research v-vessel. Lots of Vulcans." He tossed that last in there with frustration in his voice obviously, but it might explain a lot. Cyrin took another deep breath, the anxiety passed, and he looked a whole lot better. "They were a lot more uh...strict about things over there. Like, no one called each other by name, it was always rank. And if I walked into Commander Tarik's geology lab ever without him having told me to fetch something first, I'd hear about it for days."

Yikes! A Vulcan vessel. That seemed almost nightmarish, at least to Elijah anyway. "Yeesh, well don't worry about that with me, though I can't guarantee that won't happen with any of the other scientists or crew." He could see that Cyrin had calmed down quite a bit, which was good. He certainly didn't want anyone uptight around him.

Cyrin looked a little uncomfortable at the idea that some of the other scientists would be like that, but he was uncomfortable at the lack of formality from the others already. He was confused, still trying to figure out who he wanted to be, and too eager to try to fit in maybe that he thought about his behaviour far too much instead of letting himself relax fully. "Thanks. I think I didn't make a friend with the botanist after I poked my nose into his lab the other day. He was very...intense."

"I've never met the botanist," Elijah said. In fact, he didn't even know the name of the botanist, somehow that was probably something he should know. It didn't really matter at this point. "Well, I suppose some people are possessive about their labs. Feel free to stop by anytime, just don't take my rocks or soil samples." He smiled and winked as a way to be playful.

The Trill flushed a little at the smile and wink, but he made himself not look away as he wanted to. If he was going to try to get over his problems, he was going to have to face them, even if he was uncomfortable. "Thanks. I l-like all science really, even if I only got degrees in my field. It's all interesting, all part of the same thing. I'd l-love to hear about what work you get up to here, and I'm always happy to trade notes!" Cyrin did indeed seem intrigued by the idea, "That was something the Vulcans were big on, studying each other's work even if it was outside their expertise."

"Well, that is a good way of looking at things. Humans, even to this day let their egos get in the way of sharing or thinking their specialty is better than the others." Elijah loved being a geologist but being apart of planetary sciences, there was the urge to learn beyond what he knew. "My specialties are in geomorphology and seismology so a lot of my research revolves around the geological history of a planet and plate tectonics, really they sort of go hand in hand." He had wished that he had more use of the lab, he would bring up some of his research, sometimes a visual was much easier to comprehend. "Currently, I am studying a planet called Retim Two that has a overly large concentration of plates but very little to no seismic activity which is practically unheard of. It's my hopes that if I can keep digging further I can figure why that is the case and then hopefully that research will help seismically active planets stabilize."

"That is interesting," Cyrin said, his face lighting up at the mystery. "I would have thought there'd be all sorts of earthquakes if there were lots of continental plates." Whatever remaining vestiges of shyness the young man had seemed to vanish as the talk turned towards science. He leaned forward in his seat and gestured as he spoke, "Are they all moving in the same direction and at the same speed on top of a magma-based mantel or something?"

"That's just it, the mantel is magma based but the plates are not moving in the same direction at the same time," Elijah stated. He became animated as he talked about his research, it was something he was so passionate about he could almost barely contain it. "It's constant shift and yet no seismic activity. It's baffling, truly baffling." He continued to talk about Retim Two as if it was the love of his life and to his astonishment, Cyrin hung on his every word. He couldn't help but smile at that. "... once we are back up to full power have access to the database, I'll gladly show you the holographic models I've created and all the research that I've done thus far."

Cyrin had listened silently throughout Elijah's excitement, nodding along as the other scientist went on. He could completely understand the enthusiasm. While planetary geology and astrophysics weren't the same field, they were certainly related, and his mind was whirling with ideas. With Elijah's offer, the Trill nodded his own eagerness, "I'd love to see your data when you can! Have you given any thought that it might be an external force causing this instead of a planetary one, somewhere in that solar system?"

Elijah brought a finger to his chin and tapped against the stubbled flesh, lost in thought for a moment. "I've only done preliminary research on the solar systems," he smiled at the Trill. "There could be hundreds of influences on the planet really."

"Maybe we could use the station's computers to take a look," Cyrin continued, still animated and interested in the puzzle. "I checked out their astrometric database, it's pretty impressive, and I bet we could narrow the possibilities down..." The two scientists left the lab together, talking excitedly of what they might find.

OFF:

Lieutenant Elijah Williams, IV
Geologist
USS Galileo

&

Ensign Cyrin Xanth
Astrophysicist
USS Galileo

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