Analyzing The Golden Gel

Posted on 16 Aug 2020 @ 9:16am by Commodore Harvey Geisler & Lieutenant Zayna Ryler & Ensign Denyse Alessandro

1,783 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Ghosts
Location: Science Lab
Timeline: MD 4 || 1200 hours

Damn that First Officer.

The Zaldan biologist scowled while sitting next to the examination table. Both the Chief Science Officer and the Assistant Chief Science Officer had been pulled away to assignments off the ship, leaving him and the other science officers holding... well, a golden and gooey bio-neural gelpack. All that he'd been told was that it had been exposed to Metaphasic radiation, which should have been next to impossible aboard the Black Hawk.

Then again, he'd been warned by several since coming aboard that the Black Hawk was anything but usual.

Ensign Alessandro emerged from Lab Four with something long in her hands which appeared to be dripping a little as she walked and she stopped when she saw the Zaidan. "I'm sorry. I didn't know this lab was occupied," she said.

Crewman Lynn Aylin nearly ran into Alessandro as she was wandering to the labs. She also saw the Zaidan, and gave a small smile to them both. "Did I interrupt a party or something?"

Denyse looked over at the other woman and shrugged. "No. Did I?" She shuffled the stuff in her hands which now looked like some form of silk and not actually dripping at all.

Tandron scoffed at the commentary behind him. "Party? Why does everything have to be festive with you humans?" He looked at the owners of the voices for a moment, recognizing both Aylin and Alessandro before allowing his eyes to dart down at the Jacob's ladder the spider-woman was making with her hands. "Either of you free?'

"No plans other than to sit in a lab for a bit," Aylin stated, "Why do you ask?"

"Give me a moment and I will be," the Xenoarachanologist said as she headed for a container which she opened and poured the silk into before she sealed it and set it on a scanner. "Computer, full detail analysis," she ordered before waiting for confirmation and turned back to the others. "Now I am."

"How much do you know about gel packs?" Tandron asked.

Aylin bit her lip. "I know some things. Do I want to know why you ask?"

"Nothing beyond core classes that covered them at the Academy," Denyse responded.

"Ever seen one turn yellow before?" With that, Tandron lifted the pack from the table to show them that its normal blue-gray color was nowhere to be found. "All I've been able to determine so far is that it's not sick or diseased."

"Uh..that would be a no," Denyse said. "I'm a specialist in Xenoarachnologist, but I can lend a hand as long as you give it back."

"What about metaphasic radiation?" asked the Zaldan.

"Yellow gel pack, and metaphasic radiation? Something I don't think I've ever seen." Lynn tilted her head to the side. "They should not look like that at all."

"I know it reverses the aging process of most humanoid species," Denyse said. "Although I don't have an idea why it would turn a gel pack yellow. Do we have the facilities onboard to reproduce what caused it?"

"That's just it," the Zaldan replied. "We don't even know how it was produced in the first place." He tapped a few buttons to call up a holographic screen. "The efficiency of the fiber synapses have been increased threefold. The number of synapses have almost doubled. Even the composition of the gel has changed."

"So how do you know it involved metaphasic radiation?" Denyse asked.

Tandron sighed. "I'm not guessing, if that's what you mean. Lieutenant Ryler saw it herself, and I've got sensor logs to prove it. All I can tell you is that it's a different type of metaphasic radiation than I've heard of. I'm supposed to figure out not just how it's possible, but also why it happened. I could really use an assist."

"A differ...nevermind," the Ensign said. "Let's get to it and I'll lend a hand where I can." She held up her cybernetic hand and waved the fingers at him.

"Draw out a sample of the gel," Tandron instructed the Ensign. "Perform a full chemical analysis. As for you," he looked to the Crewman, "We'll need a sample of the fibers. Let's put what the computer thinks about the increased processing to work."

"Aye," Denyse said as she grabbed a hypospray to extract a sample. The yellow goop filled the ampule and she removed it, then performed the operation a second time. "Can you provide the sensor logs for the metaphasic radiation that affected it?" she asked.

The Zaldan waved his finger, tossing a holographic screen in the Ensign's direction. "That should have everything you need. All we have is what the Lieutenant took on her tricorder. The computer's readouts don't even confirm it."

Having listened and been trying to search her brain for an answer, Lynn nodded when she was told to get a sample of the fibers. "This should be an adventure." She tried to think on how to work with the gel pack working in overdrive. "Funny enough, not something I've actually ever done."

"That's why we have the computer, Crewman," Denyse said as she put the ampule in the scanner for a full diagnostic. "I've never done it, either but here I am."

"Assuming you can trust the computer," the Zaldan quipped. "There's nothing in the computer about this type of metaphasic radiation, at least from what I could find. Either it's not there, or it's being hidden from us."

"Wait..if there was nothing in the computer, then how can you be certain it was metaphasic radiation to begin with, unless there's a glitch. That storm we encountered when we dropped out of warp really messed with the ship," Denyse said. "I heard the new holographic representation of the computer was acting a little odd."

"Do we really trust the computer right now?" Lynn couldn't help but ask as she fiddled with a few settings on a console. "It has given me some fits lately as it is." She looked to Denyse, "That thing gives me the creeps."

"Computers can lie," Tandron said. He rose to his feet and carried a tricorder over to the women. "Lieutenant Ryler left this with me. It's operating in local mode, not synced with the computer. That's how we know there's a discrepancy."

Nodding, Aylin checked the readings from the tricorder, "Forgot there were some of these laying around. Now I just have to actually trust the computer for the bit of work I need to do, then suppose I'll use this to run the scans after." With a small shrug, she started to let the computer begin on her work. "This is all so strange."

"Such is the service in Starfleet," mumbled the Zaldan. "You know, for all of the changes in this gelpack, it's not actually sick. If I didn't know better, I'd say it was almost genetically engineered."

"But how would that have happened? We have all of the safeties in place, don't we? How could it happen without us knowing?" Lynn sat back and tried to think on that, after asking it outloud.

Tandron didn't have an answer, at least not an immediate one. "I think there's only two possibilities. First, there's a diabolical genius aboard looking to create an organically thinking mind, or there's something else behind this malfunction."

Sighing, he turned back to the gelpack on the observation table. "It's not sick. It's not infected. It's engineer...ed..." Tandron paused, as if he remembered something. "Gelpacks have been in service for nearly two decades. There's been a lot of research performed on the technology, and the Black Hawk would have access to that repository. Could we try to look into that?"

"Or the status of this particular gel pack prior to getting exposed, then follow the trail from there?" Denyse asked and suggested.

"Any and all avenues would work for research," the Zaldan confirmed.

"And I'm getting nothing out of what I'm looking at," Lynn said with a heavy sigh, "other than I agree with the engineered statement. But, wasn't this one of our normal gelpacks? No one had access to it?"

"It came from the science lab next door." The Zaldan sighed, leaned back in his chair, and stared at the gelpack. "Maintenance hasn't been in the lab since a week before we left spacedock, and since then it's just been the science staff."

As Denyse studied it, she decided to check the sensor readings on the gelpacks prior to the one they were studying. Nothing seemed out of place, but there had to be a pattern somewhere other than supposed metaphysic radiation that they couldn't study. She began to isolate each one on the readouts and ran comparison tests, then backtracked again until she got to the golden gelpack and began to track back to just before it's change. "This is odd," she said. "If I didn't know better, I'd swear it was upgrading itself. The computer, that is."

"Upgrading itself?" Lynn came over as her own scans finished and compared them. "This...matches that thought. But how in the hell would the computer be upgrading itself?"

"I have absolutely no idea," Tandron said with a sigh. "But all of the evidence seems to suggest it. With both our superiors off the ship, who do we tell? And who gets to tell them?"

Crewman Lynn Aylin bit her lip. "That is a good question. Who is actually on board of the senior staff? I never know what is going on with the away missions. Crewmen don't go on them often."

"Computer," Tandron gruffed. Based on their current conversation, he didn't trust the computer, but only it would know who was around. "Please list all members of the senior staff currently on board the Black Hawk."

The usual beeps and whistles followed as the computer processed the request. Tandron imagined they seemed faster than before. "Current members of the senior staff aboard are Captain Harvey Geisler, Lieutenant Commander Tivan, and Lieutenant Damian Akorem."

Denyse was still checking and double checking everything until she looked up. "The ion storm and metaphasic radiation allowed the HASA avatar to do the work itself, and we take it directly to the Captain."

"I agree," Lynn stated. "This needs to go to the captain. Before the computer realizes what we've found."

Tandron scowled. He wanted to pawn off this responsibility to another, but it had been left in his charge by the Assistant Chief. He, therefore, had the unfortunate task to bear alone. "Fine," he gruffed in his typical manner. He rose from his seat, picked up the gelpack, and made his way to the exit. "I'll take it to the Captain myself."

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