Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman) in Yeoman - Always Up Early

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Roman Alden (Science Chief, First Officer) in Yeoman - Always Up Early

(snip)
Rand walked over her attention totally caught. Yes Rand like critters of all kinds, including lizards, snakes, bugs, and worms. “Oh,” she said quietly when its eyes popped back in. “I didn’t mean to startle it,” she said calmly, she hoped. She felt bad for the little thing. She knew what it was like for seemingly normal activities or events to be startling and adrenaline inducing. He was rather cute, but she refrained from telling the scientist that. Her reports for him forgotten for the moment (and how unlike Rand). “It looks a little like a cross of a snail and a chameleon from Earth.” She leaned closer, on the opposite side of the glass, just to be safe, to get a closer look. “So what does it eat?”
Yeoman Rand

Roman popped the lid off the top of the terrarium, letting the lizard see his finger before he gave it head scratches. “I’m calling it a Verbosa Lizard. This one is male,” he said, his voice unusually soft and affectionate. Just about no one had seen him be that nice to anything.

The lizard popped its eye sockets back out, and pointed one at Roman and the other at Rand. They were supported by thin, but muscular stalks which were soft but the same colour as the lizard’s greenish yellow skin.

Roman popped the top back on, allowing the lizard its environment. “His name is Mushu, like from the old earth children’s story. I’d let you pet him too, but I admittedly don’t know enough about him. He doesn’t seem very aggressive, but he does eat meat. He’s omnivorous,” he explained to Rand.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand grinned, “The dragon familiar from Mulan, originally voiced by an actor named Eddie Murphey.” The facts rolling out before she could stop herself. Rand loved the story of Mulan, it was one of the first parts she played, not Mulan of course, but one of the female extras. Rand nodded, “I wouldn’t want to startle him again. What can I help with?” She watched Mushu and his eye stalks as it watched her. She resisted the urge to ask Alden if the lizard could breath fire too, or perhaps he secreted something that burned? Hmmm probably not since Alden touched him without a protective glove.
Yeoman Rand

“In the cabinet over there, I’ve got various bags of bugs. Can you grab one?” He said as he watched the lizard. “Poor guy. He’s probably hungry. He was given to me by a biologist aboard my last assignment.” Roman had also enjoyed the story of Mulan as a child, because the woman, Mulan was brave, to take her father’s place, and to risk detection in her lie. The eye watching Rand blinked and and the lizard flicked its tongue, almost like a snake. Then, it crawled along the log and put a three toed lizard paw on the glass.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand went to the cabinet, opened it and was tempted to grab a variety but Alden said ‘one’ and so one it was. She returned and leaned down looking at Mushu and the tiny foot against the glass. “I think he knows what’s in the cabinet.” She looked at the label on the bag but was unfamiliar with the insect. She guessed it was from some alien planet. “Where did he come from?”
Yeoman Rand

Roman smiled at the lizard. “He’s definitely got the intelligence level of an animal but he’s really got his own personality. Not so different from a dog,” he said, and once again he almost sounded like he was talking about a child rather than an alien lizard. “He’s from Aldaria III, a jungle system a long way from here.” He took the insect, a largy fly looking thing, and dumped it into the cage. The fly flew around the top of the cage, smashing into the sides and the top. Both of Mushu’s eyestalks locked onto the fly, and then in seconds, his tongue shot out, and the fly was gone. Roman had to admit, Mushu was becoming more of a pet than a lab specimen. He couldn’t imagine putting down the little lizard for a dissection, or allowing him to become ill. But he did want to find out more about his species, and so he was determined to find non-harmful experiments only.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

“Like a dog, really? Could they be trained? Not like tricks, but trained like dogs used to be on Earth?” Rand was not a scientist but she was curious none-the-less. She watched fascinated as Mushu tracked and then caught the fly. “I wonder what his range is, for tracking movement I mean. What is too fast? Or too slow that he’s not interested. Are insects the only ‘meat’ he eats?” Absently Rand was flipping the PaDD to a clean ‘page’ and jotting down what Alden was telling her, out of habit and training. Still the reports went unremembered.
Yeoman Rand

“I have no idea,” Roman said. “His reaction to where the food comes from points to yes. As for his motion tracking… So far, I’ve not seen him ignore anything. I’m still not sure what he’s willing to eat, either. I haven’t got any small rodents on board to see what he doesn’t with them.” He said. “Perhaps next time we stop I’ll see if I can’t get my hands on one. You’re welcome to feed him when you have the time. Just don’t let him out.”

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand continued to take notes as Alden talked. “How much does he eat at once?” She took a fly out of the container and dropped it into the tank and watched as Mushu tracked and caught it. “Could the relative speeds of the insects be measured and then time Mushu from the time the insect is put in the tank to when he catches it?” About that time a beeping came from Rand’s person. She stood up from where she’d been watching Mushu and pulled her watch out from under her tunic and looked at it. “Oh!” she grabbed the PaDD flipped back to the reports and handed him the PaDD and the stylus. “I’m sorry Cmdr. I need to get your signature and send these back out.” While he read her attention returned back to Mushu. “No we won’t let you out will we? You are far too small and someone might step on you, and a star ship has far too many places for you to hide.”
Yeoman Rand

“Five to eight of those flies or equivalent amounts of food,” Roman said and then he considered what she said. “Yes… we most definitely could do that,” he said. Then he took the PaDD as she handed it to him, quickly reading over it, then adding his signature and handing it back. “He’s definitely young, not an adult Verbosa yet. I want him to live out his life, study his life cycle…” And get to keep him as a pet.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand took the PaDD back and looked around for a computer terminal. She walked over to the nearest one and pulled out a set of cylendrical keys. She inserted one into the computer terminal and logged into her admin access. She started inputting the reports from the PaDD. “So would it be safe to assume that like most species as he gets older his skills will improve. So it would be possible that he will get faster as he grows?” She paused to double check something against the PaDD. “How many flies can you put in the cage at a time?” Rand finished what she was doing, logged out, removed the keys back to her pocket and returned to where Alden was working, continuing to take notes as he worked.
Yeoman Rand

“Yes, I agree. He’ll probably eat more as well,” Roman said. “Five or so before he gets bored and ignores them. I think he’s figured out he gets fed whether he eats now or later. He wants the thrill of the catch,” he explained to her as he watched the lizard. He wanted to get Mushu a larger terrarium but he currently lacked the supplied to get or make one secure enough and for several reasons he’d never risk the lizard escaping. “He’s never bitten me. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a wild critter as docile as Mushu is.”

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO