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

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman) in Yeoman - Always Up Early
Posted by… suppressed (7) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
“If I remember my highschool biology plants cells have a wall where animal cells only have a membrane. Could the wall be what stops the toxin from hurting the plants? Can I assume that handling the plants in her enclosure is dangerous too? If the goo rubs off on the plants and then touching the plant?” She pondered the filter question. “Maybe an engineer would be able to come up with a solution to filter her water. It’s just not stagnant but dangerous with the goo in it, correct?” She looked at it and thought ‘so few and you do well alone but I wonder if your lonely anyway?’ But to Alden, “What happens to them when you are done studying them? Do they go back to their planet? You said Mushu is a baby, and he seems comfortable with humans, he may not adapt to the wild?”
Yeoman Rand

Roman nodded. “Until I know more, anything in that terrarium gets handled with safe gloves. And you may be right about the membranes. I’d like to get it under a microscope.” That would be his next experiment, once he was done working with Mushu. “The water is dangerous, correct. I have noticed that the goo mixes with the water, so in high concentrations, it’s likely dangerous to drink or handle the water.” To her next question, Roman shook his head. “Some biologists release them, though that is ill-advised. These animals are captive, and many become tame. Some kill them, and some keep them. I like to keep them,” he said. “Slows the research due to lack of space but it’s the best thing for them.”

Lt. Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand kept taking notes but paused when he said sometimes the animals are killed. “Certainly we’ve moved past the need to kill animals for research or lack there of?” She glanced back at the little slug lizard and felt rather glad she was with Alden since he kept his animals. “Could her toxin possibly neutralized to make her safe as a pet? Like removing venom sacks in snakes or descending a skunk?” Rand turned to Alden, “Who’s next?”
Yeoman Rand

Roman gave a soft sigh. “Unfortunately, no. Especially if you’ve ever worked with a Vulcan, you’ll find that the need for space and research may overrule the animal’s right to life.” The Vulcan comment may have been uncalled for, but it was an argument he’d had before. “Keeping them may even be frowned upon, because they’re dangerous, because it’s a waste of space, of resources.” He explained. He followed here gaze to the slug lizard, an animal which Roman had yet to name, and considered her thought. “That can be nearly as cruel as killing some of them, but it is worth investigating. It may be possible, but I’m not sure I could identify how her goo is made poisonous without killing one of them.”

“Oh, I didn’t think about that. Nevermind.” Rand liked his animals she didn’t want to kill them and she’d thought maybe making them less lethal would allow for them to be ‘adopted’ and moved out of the lab, but she didn’t want to hurt them. She should just stick to taking notes. It wasn’t her place to offer suggestions on things she was uneducated about.

“Don’t be discouraged to share your ideas. For some animals, making them less lethal could be a valid option. We just need more information.” said Roman. As much as he didn’t want her to have the wrong idea about these creatures being pets, he didn’t want to discourage her from them, either. “In some Earth reptiles, selective breeding created nontoxic subspecies, though in the olden days, some people were against such things.”

Again unknowingly thinking along the same lines. “I know some will never be pets, but making them less lethal would allow them to be placed with someone trained in their care and continue to study their life span but clear space in the lab.” Rand had tried to make pets of far too many animals to not have learned that some could not be pets. She appreciated his encouragement, and a smile of thanks crossed her face. “I think after the eugenics wars people forgot that science can do great things not just scary things.”

Roman nodded, not wanting to get started on that topic. It was one that could get quite heated for him.

The animal next to the goo lizard was another rodent, a bit like a chinchilla, with a very fluffy tail and shorter fur covering its whole body. In with it were three babies, and like Earth mammals, they were born helpless, bald and blind and deaf. The mother chinchilla thing had black fur, and its ears were large and rounded, and floppy, almost like an elephant’s. It bared its teeth when Roman neared its cage, and one would see that it was definitely a little carnivore. It had many pointed teeth, meant for tearing flesh. Another one of Roman’s more recent acquisitions, he was still still learning about them, and hadn’t known she was pregnant when she was given to him. “This is a… well, honestly, no one is sure quite yet. Unlike several of the others, the main danger with her is her temperament and those teeth, which can tear a finger right off your hand,” Roman told her.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

“She’s a mother, and you are a big giant scary alien.” She looked in the cage and there was no good place for a den to hold all 4 of them. She looked around the lab and found a smallish, relatively, hollowed stump. “If she has somewhere to hide her babies she might be a little calmer. There is a reason there are so many cliches about mother animals.” She shrugged, “I had a rabbit once who had babies. They are very docile bit she had a small litter and she started hitting everyone. My dad added a small den for her, she moved all the babies into it and after that she calmed down. It might work here too.”
Yeoman Rand

“Alright, here.” He said, holding his hand out for the stump. When she handed it over, he opened the top of the alien chinchilla’s cage. The animal made a growling hissing sound and bared its sharp teeth, so he quickly dropped the stump into the corner of the cage. As he did, the chinchilla creature lunged at his hand, and he pulled away, slamming shut the top of the cage. The chinchilla thing growled for a moment longer, then sniffed her babies. Then, she began to investigate the new addition to the cage.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Alden was too quick for her to stop him. “I would have tried to distract her for you. Are you alright? That chinzilla didn’t get you did it?” Not thinking she reached for his hand to make sure the hadn’t been hurt while trying to figure out where the first aid kit was. Rand was just a caring person, and tended to take care of others in her own way. She glanced at the cage, “I don’t care how cute she loves okay, she’s scary.”
Yeoman Rand

It wasn’t the first time he’d gotten a battle wound from one of his animals, though he’d hardly consider it a ‘wound’. There was a small scratch along the side of his hand, tiny beads of blood appearing along it. “It’s a little scratch,” he said, completely unconcerned compared to Rand’s worry. A first aid kit was hung at the door of every lab, protocol Roman insisted on, but he didn’t feel use of it was necessary. He jolted his hand as she touched it, nearly pulling it back, but stopped himself and let her see the scratch, assuming that would ease her worry. “She’s just protective, and not tame. She’s not scary,” he said, looking at the chinchilla creature. She was still distrustful of the structure but seemed tempted by it.

~Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand pulled her hand back as he jerked. If he wasn’t concerned, then she would stop being ‘Rand’ and realistically he would know if he was at risk or not. She would defer to his expertise. “Of course she’s scary. She’s supposed to be. If she couldn’t scare away potential threats to her kits? Cubs? Anyway, it’s her job to be scary,” she grins in Alden’s direction, “and I am sufficiently scared and impressed. I will leave her babies alone. What do we feed her? Does she need extra calories like most mothers?”
Yeoman Rand.

The chinzilla was not poisonous and he’d tested it for diseases transmittable to humans, so Roman was reasonably sure it posed no real danger unless one allowed themselves to lose a finger to it. “She does,” he confirmed. “She’ll eat three or four of the rodents. Now, if you want to see something even worse than the snake, give her a live one.” The chinchilla thing was quite vicious with prey, and when she went after something small like a mouse, she’d literally start tearing it apart while it was still alive.

The babies now were quite harmless, however in just a week or so, they’d have claws and baby teeth of their own, and in a few weeks, their eyes would open, and then, even the little ones would be quite the little terrors.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand had the feeling that Alden was testing her, almost daring her to do it. Well it didn’t matter if she wanted to or not, he was the senior officer, the deparment head, the first officer of the ship. She walked over to the cabinet she’d seen him get the mouse from earlier and took a live mouse by the tail and brought it back. The chinzilla was watching Alden and so she quickly opened the cage furthest away from her with one hand and with the other dropped the mouse in. The mouse didn’t make it too far, it dropped onto the top of the ‘stump’ and managed to get inside it before it was caught. Rand looked over at Alden, “Well,” squeels and the audible snap of crunching bones. “At least she’s inside the den now.”
Yeoman Rand

“We’ll see if she stays there,” Roman said. The chinzilla was soon done and exited the den once more to check on the baby chinzillas. Chinzillitas, if one would. If Rand were to peer into the stump, she would see the mutilated remains of the mouse’s carcass, with little left save for bloodied, crushed bones, and a few of the innards the chinzilla apparently hadn’t been interested in eating. The chinzilla began to carry the babies, one by one, into the little stump den, settling them into it and curling into the back side of the den.

Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand noticed the mess, “At least the snake doesn’t leave left overs.” She watched as the mother carried the chinzillitas into the den and she smiled. “She seems to prefer it to being in the open.” Rand added notes to the PaDD, “So how exactly do you plan to clean that cage, or will she eat what’s left later?” She watched and the babies still seemed very young, blind and hairless. “How long did you have her before she had the babies? Do you think they can all live together after being weened or will they need their own habitats?”

“With cut, or in this case bite, resistant gloves, a spare container for her, and a very quick hand,” Roman replied. His first time trying to move the chinzilla for a cage cleaning, he’d received a nasty bite that required a short visit with Medical. “I’ve had her about four months before she had the babies, and I wasn’t aware she was pregnant until just before she went into labor. I will be watching them closely, but from their aggressive nature, compared to Earth animals, I feel fairly sure they’ll need to be separated or they’ll start fighting.” It wasn’t one of his favorite animals, though he had to admit she was cute from a distance.

“If she’s that aggressive, I am curious to know what she is prey to. I can’t imagine it is something I would want to see other than on a data tape.”

Her gaze turned back to the martin like rodent from earlier, it was sniffing around now, maybe it knew it was feeding time. “Is that one dangerous?” Rand couldn’t help it, it looked so much like a miniature version of a pet from home. She knew better than to get attached, these were lab animals, but she was still very curious about it.
Yeoman Rand

“Not at all, that’s probably one of the tamest animals here. Not too different from rodents on Earth, he eats seeds and small berries. He’s a little scared of me, but he’s a hider, not a biter.” Roman explained about the little rodent. “Interestingly, I’ve had him scanned, and on the scans of his body, there’s an organ we can’t identify, which I’m unsure of its purpose,” he said. When the rodent eventually died of old age, he’d want to autopsy it and get a better look. But he wasn’t willing to kill it just for that.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

She wondered if Alden rhymed on purpose. He was not nearly as stoic and taciturn as scuttlebutt said. His personnel report indicated as such of course, but Rand had not expected to be one of those people to see it. She went back to the closet and collected a bag of seeds and a bag of what looked like an assortment of small berries. “Maybe it is no longer necessary? Or outside of it’s native planet it doesn’t need it?” She handed the bags to Alden and then noted down several notes. “Does this one have a name?” She was meaning species but could have also meant a personal name.
Yeoman Rand

“Atariva Mouse,” he said. He assumed species name, because the only one he had actually named was Mushu. Both of Rand’s ideas, Roman had considered, but even after noninvasive testing, he had been unable to tell which it was. Or if it did something entirely unexpected. “He’s tame enough you can play with him if you like. As long as you don’t lose him.” He said. She seemed fond of him, and the rodent always seemed bored. It seemed like a good deal for both of them.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

“Maybe, eventually. But if he’s scared of you someone totally new would be terrifying.” She opened the lid carefully and then took some of the berries and placed them down like a trail so it moved closer to her hand but she maintained a several inch distance. She didn’t know if it identified by smell like Earth animals but she wanted him to get used to her scent before she tried to touch it. After several minutes she finally got it to come over and take a berry that was right next to her finger. It sniffed her, the whiskers tickling her hand and she flinched making the poor thing run and hide. She removed her hand and closed the lid. She leaned down to look at where it had hidden. “Tha e ceart gu leòr. cha robh mi airson tòiseachadh ort, fear beag.” She turned around smiling. “Anyone else to feed. Does Wyvern or Chinzilla need another mouse?”
Yeoman Rand

Roman watched her interact with it, intrigued. “I think if you work with him, he’d become more friendly.” The Atariva mouse could have potential as a pet if it could be tamed like one. “Both could use another. I only fed them each one to show you how it’s done,” he replied.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO