A Matter of Science

Posted on 20 Aug 2025 @ 10:18pm by Lieutenant Zayna Ryler & Commodore Harvey Geisler

1,204 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Imposters Among Us
Location: Science Lab
Timeline: July 7, 2390 || 0800 hours

Having just met with Joey in the Ready Room, Harvey took a moment to review all of the reports from the senior officers. His eyes quickly skimmed over Frex's repair update, Marsh's overview of resource allocation, Monroe's medical status report, Wysocki's new maneuver plans, Mitchell's readiness report, Reynolds' crew fitness report... but there was nothing here from Lieutenant Ryler.

The Mutara-class nebula they'd just been in had limited sensor ability, but he also knew that they'd had ample opportunity to scan the unknown vessel that ambushed them on the way to New Risa, and even more ample opportunity to analyze those scans. It was a bit alarming to Harvey that Ryler hadn't yet submitted her report, and it made Harvey wonder if she was taking her time and carefully picking those scans apart. He certainly wouldn't blame her if she did. In fact, part of Harvey hoped that she would.

Still, it was time to figure out where she stood. He tapped his badge and called out, "Geisler to Lieutenant Ryler. Status report."

Digging through data was all that Zayna had been doing, trying to get as much into her report as she could. She knew it was late from the deadline that the Captain had given, but he likely wanted something detailed, right? But having barely realized that her voice had been called out over the comms, she stopped for a moment before tapping the panel next to her on her desk, "Ryler here. Sorry, Captain. I keep getting handed things to add to the report."

She stopped herself, "I'm assuming that is why you're calling?"

"It is," Harvey confirmed. His response was not curt or quick, but it was tainted with a hint of frustration. "As much as I appreciate thoroughness, I would be happy with something preliminary at the moment. Would it be best to come down to the lab and you can show me how the analysis has been progressing?"

"Yes, that might be best. I thought about sending you something preliminary, but I've been engrossed in this." Zay sat back, realizing the mess she'd made tossing PADDs about. "Lab 1 is where I've setup."

The Commodore nodded, before tidying up the padds on his desk. "I'll be down in just a minute. Geisler out." He tapped a couple of buttons to deactivate his desktop terminal, straightened his uniform, and exited the ready room.

A quick turbolift ride later, Harvey arrived outside the science complex. It did not take long for him to locate Science Lab One, though he almost took one wrong turn. He stopped outside the door, tapped the control panel to enter his authorization code, and stepped inside the lab when the doors opened. The room's lights were dimmed, likely to help the lieutenant focus on her work. It also did not serve well to obscure the bit of disorganization around her console. "You seem quite engrossed in your work," he remarked.

"Bit of an understatement unfortunately." Zayna slid a mostly complete report PADD over. "Technically, it is done without my signing off on it. There's just so much information, I wanted to be sure that everything was included."

Harvey picked up the padd and started to look through it. This was one of the most comprehensive reports that he had seen. Annotations, footnotes, even detailed looks at the elements detected in the alloys. "This certainly is... everything. Leave no stone unturned, eh?"

She gave a soft sigh, "Given everything going on and how much data was collected? I don't want one crucial bit of information to be missing and undermine everything we've been doing."

"It's understandable," he replied. "We know so little about G90B, and our only encounter with them is really all of the information we've been able to collect so far. Care to share anything you consider to be a highlight so far?"

"Beyond the survival of a warp core breach, birythium hulls," Zayna shook her head, "Just hoping that all of this information is useful. That survival of the core breach, that just baffles me."

"There are only two things that I've heard that can survive such a hit," Harvey remarked. "But G90B is clearly not a Jem'Hadar dreadnought, or a Borg cube. With what you have seen so far, do you have any ideas where critical locations would be, like a bridge, engineering, weapons placements? Anything that might give us something to actually target?"

Rubbing her forehead, all Ryler could do was shake her head, "I've been trying to find any points, but nothing stands out. I mean, yes, bridge, but I don't think we'll get any direct shots to anything engineering. Targeting the weapons would be tricky but, technically doable."

Harvey reviewed the information on the padd, and then looked up at the screens around the science chief. In many ways he was impressed, both of the Lieutenant and of the species he was cloned to protect. The warship was near-perfect (total perfection would have involved not receiving damage at the core breach). Then he considered what the Lieutenant had discovered after days of pouring over the limited data they had collected. Indeed, there were hints that she had found potential weaknesses. Perhaps if she had more time and more data, Lieutenant Ryler could crack the whole case open. Maybe there was a way that could be used against her?

"It's a start," Harvey said, looking back to the Lieutenant. "Sooner or later, we are going to face G90B again. And when that time comes, we're going to need to locate weak points. Is there anything you can do to the sensors in order to officially locate those?"

Tapping her fingers on the table a bit, Zay thought for a bit. "It wouldn't make this report, as I think now it is as done as you are going to get it. But if I work up until the last possible moment pouring over all of this? I might be able to."

Harvey nodded slowly, taking careful stock of all he'd read and heard so far. The real Harvey would have cautioned her to take a break, and work with fresh eyes. But he was not the real Harvey, and he saw an opportunity to weaken a critical member of the ship's staff. "You've done an excellent job here, Lieutenant," he complimented, bracing her for the impact. "If there's any way that you can find the slightest weakness or target, there are thousands of lives who would thank you."

Glancing at the scattered empty coffee cups around her, Zayna nodded. "Well, you can take that as my official report and I'll keep digging then."

"Excellent," Harvey confirmed, a smirk appearing on his face, proud of how easily he had convinced the Science Chief to drain herself. "Then I will leave you to it. Let me know if there's anything you'll need, short of fresh scans. We'll have to wait until our next encounter to get those." With a final nod, he turned to leave.

"Much as the fresh scans would be nice, I know that much." She let out a soft sigh and went back to work as he left, wondering how much more she could pull from the data.

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