Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Garth (Chief Science Officer) in Main Sim - Bridge Report (Tag CO)

Posted by Cadet Grayson Paul (Engineer) in Main Sim - Bridge Report (Tag CO)

Posted by Cadet Grayson Paul (Engineer) in Main Sim - Bridge Report (Tag CO)
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻
SNIP
=/\= “Garth to Captain Rhodes. We’ve found a solution to the infestation aboard the Potterfield, but I will need to speak with you before proceeding.”=/\=

Felix held up a hand to the Cadet to wait a moment as he replied.

=/\= Garth, acknowledged. Come to my ready room, I am currently meeting with one of Engineering team who has an idea about the same issue. =/\=

A mere thirty seconds later, a restrained single chime rang from the door to the ready room. On the other side, the tellarite chief science officer named Garth and NCadet Ongsteadlea, a dark-skinned human woman, waited anxiously.

(Lt. J.g. Garth, CSO)

OOC: Try snipping the thread a couple of posts back from where we are at now, Abijah, it keeps it nice and easy to read for people on mobile devices. If you need me to give you an example, just let me know.

IC: Looking at the door, he looked at the Cadet and raised an eyebrow. The CSO had either come from Lab 1, or had caught the right turbo-lifts from deck 4. Either that or he had a good, hearty breakfast this morning. “Enter,” he said, allowing the doors to slide open instantly to admit the Lieutenant.

“Lieutenant Garth, this is Cadet Paul. He was about to tell me an idea of his for the Biological issue we have on the Potterfield. Both of you take a seat and join us, please.” He motioned to the second free chair in front of his desk for Garth, and to the small couch to the side of them for the NC (Nameless Cadet, note we usually use NE in the main fleet, Nameless Ensign).

Captain Rhodes, CO

OOC: NC = Nameless Cadet, note we usually use NE in the main fleet, Nameless Ensign.

OOC: I’ve been practicing snipping. Just not sure when an appropriate time to do so is.
IC:
Grayson stood as the Lieutenant and his fellow cadet walked in. He nodded at Ongsteadlee, “Cadet,” then at Garth, “Lieutenant, good to meet you, sir.”

Grayson returned to his seat, and his attention to the Captain, “Now, sir, as I was saying. Back home, we tended to trees, trying to replenish the natural supply of trees in wild areas. One of the things my brothers and sisters and I were required to do was inspect the trees for weeds and other noxious plants that would endanger the population.”

Grayson tapped a few commands on his padd, and held up some pictures of a viny plant climbing up pine trees. “This one is particularly nasty. The Dentavian Needle Vine, an aggressive extraterrestrial plant whose roots steal nutrients from the soil, and whose leaves will almost completely block the host tree from receiving light. They kill trees. Fortunately, they can also be killed, even if doing so is tedious: remove the plant from the root. They say cut the head off and the body will die? Well plants are the opposite. Cut the root off, and the body will die.”
Cadet Paul, Engineer

Garth looked Paul over out of the corner of his eye. “An astute observation, cadet. Unfortunately, our experimentation has determined that this species of flora we’re dealing with is at least part bryophyte – moss. So we have no way of knowing if it has a centralized root system at all. And even if it does, scans of the Potterfield have determined that the infestation started in a lower-deck cargo bay. We’d still need to traverse the ship in order to get to the roots while clearing out the vines and defending ourselves against whatever being attacked and infected the previous away team.”

(Lt. J.g. Garth, CSO)

Grayson shrugged, “Then I’d suggest we decompress the deck, expose the growth to hard vacuum. Someone obviously adjusted environmental controls to produce jungle-like conditions, so deprive the intruder of those conditions.”

The cadet turned from the Captain to the Science officers, and back to the Captain, “Those individuals who have barricaded themselves in Sickbay…well the doors should be airtight so they should survive long enough to kill the growth and find a safe route into Sickbay to retrieve them.”
Cadet Paul, Engineer

Garth’s small, beady eyes narrowed at Cadet Paul’s flippantness. He kept his gaze forward, toward the captain. “Life support is already inactive on all other decks,” he began in a restrained tone, “so we cannot rule out the possibility that this form of xenoflora is unaffected by vacuum. Additionally, we don’t have access to the ship’s systems in the first place, making wide-scale decompression impossible. If we wanted to execute such a strategy, we’d need to commandeer the bridge or engineering.”

Grayson bit his tongue, not wanting to interrupt a senior officer, and given that this was admittedly outside of his job duties he didn’t want to overstep his bounds; at least, not too far.

“We may have a solution to the problem of traversing the ship, Captain,” Garth said as he held out a hand expectantly towards Ongsteadlea, who quickly placed her PaDD in his hand. “Thanks to the experimentations of Cadet Ongsteadlea, we have determined that the xenoflora is susceptible to synthetic auxins.” The cadet stood up straighter in surprise as she was credited with the discovery. Garth continued, “I believe that we can combine highly purified ester forms of the acids 2,4-D, 2,4,5-T, methoxone, and a cocktail of other synthetic auxins to create a projectile spray that would kill the plant on contact by stimulating rapid unsustainable growth that will result in instant wilting, withering, and apoptosis.”

NCadet Ongsteadlea’s eyes widened in realization and a hand rose to her mouth. “He’s suggesting creating an immensely more potent version of Agent Orange from the Vietnam War.”

(Lt. J.g. Garth, CSO)

“I’d hate to see what’d happen if that spray hit one of the crew,” Grayson shivered, images of human bodies expanding until they popped like bloody balloons invaded his mind. He shook his head, turning back to the Captain, “Whatever the decision, there’s no engineering reason as to why the ship couldn’t be restarted, but like the good Lieutenant said, we’d need to commandeer engineering to make it happen.”

And while we’re commandeering engineering, Grayson thought, We can expose these killer shrubs to space.
Cadet Paul, Engineer

Garth snorted at Cadet Paul’s comment. “Of course the goal would be to negate exposure of the away team to the substance by using biohazard suits.” He shot a look at Cadet Ongsteadlea. “But Agent Orange was primarily so toxic to humans because of shoddy manufacturing of the chemicals, which resulted in a byproduct of dioxin. We can synthesize acids that are purified, which should limit the toxicity of the chemicals to anything other than plant-based lifeforms. I wouldn’t recommend directly touching the compound, of course, but it shouldn’t be outright carcinogenic.”

“We can utilize this proposed compound,” Garth continued with a small tilt of his head toward Grayson, “to clear the way for an away team to reach main engineering, where they could restore main power to the Potterfield as Cadet Paul suggests.”

(Lt. J.g. Garth, CSO)

Bump