Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side - sim: Honoring the Ardent

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side - sim: Honoring the Ardent

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side - sim: Honoring the Ardent
Posted by… suppressed (11) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
“Mr Wyvern is not a devil snake,” Roman said. Rand was definitely the only one allowed to insult the snake judging by the look Roman was giving Randy just then. Roman seemed to nearly physically flinch at the name of his old ship. “They… They’re both environmental studies of the same kind.”

~ Roman

“Oh come on you can’t tell me his fangs don’t remind you of a pitch fork. And that red color.” Randy noted the flinch and least he didn’t walk away this time. “So they both are studies of Aldaria III? I thought Aldaria III was a more recent discovery. What planet was this other one?”

Randy

“They don’t.” Roman’s tone was less than friendly. He might’ve walked away except he felt very cornered. When Roman walked away, he came to his lab. Now Randy was here, in his lab. Roman felt like he had nowhere else to go. “What is the relevance of that question?”

~ Roman

“Curiosity. You said they were being evaluated for colonization. New colonies always need medical professionals. Might join one when my tour is up. Thought I would do some research. What is the relevance of you answering a question with a question?”

Randy

“Aldaria III will be a colony site. The other planet’s location made it a poor place to settle a colony. Instead it was to be an outpost.” Roman couldn’t imagine Randy settling on some colony world, especially not without Rand. “If you want research on colony worlds, Starfleet’s logs are open for your… ‘research’.” He didn’t bother with an answer to Randy’s last question.

~ Roman

Randy chose not to take offense and the condescending tone of the word ‘research.’ He was a medical professional after all and had advanced degrees, he knew what research was and how to go about it. Even on a topic of a personal nature. But Alden was lashing out because he was angry. Randy knew he felt trapped, but at least they were in his office rather than the lab. And really, if Alden would stop avoiding, Randy would not have had to resort to tracking him down. “Oh! An outpost! Now that’s a novel idea. I bet they need volunteers for stuff like that.” He bet Rand could make quite the name for herself in the Yeoman corp working an outpost. Not that he wouldn’t try to stop her…they were dangerous, but he didn’t say that. Of course it would not matter, Rand wasn’t going to leave Alden. It had been on Randy’s mind for awhile. He was loosing his sister to the man sitting before him. And by all things sacred and profane Alden was going to take care of himself so he could take of Rand when Randy was gone. “So where was this outpost supposed to be?”

Randy

“Not that outpost, don’t you dare.” The answer was immediate. Roman knew it was hypothetical, Randy couldn’t possibly really be thinking about that, because Rand would never leave him and Randy wouldn’t leave Rand. But the outpost Roman had been researching for… It was right on the border between Federation space and the Klingon Empire. It would be a high danger location with a good chance of getting blown to bits by angry Klingons who didn’t want humans making homes of any kind that close to them. And even Randy didn’t deserve that fate. Roman would never, ever, let Rand go there. “It was supposed to be nowhere you or Rand ever need to be.”

~ Roman

The answer was immediate and forceful and carried all the weight a commanding officer could put into it, and of a man terrified of loosing the only thing that mattered to him. Rand and he were Star Fleet officers just like the rest. They went where they were told, whether they wanted to or not. Of course a dangerous outpost like that probably needed medical personnel. And there Randy could make a real difference in the outcome for officers dealing with severe psychological problems. Randy put that aside. If he did something like that he wouldn’t tell Rand or Alden before hand, and this wasn’t the time to be thinking about his own career. Alden was worked up enough to be responding now, so Randy turned the subject back to relevance but also something safer than Rand going to a dangerous outpost. “So you were studying venom to create an antivenom on the Ardent as well? What was the name of the animal the venom came from? Or animals if it was multiple.”

Randy

There was that little flinch again. Couldn’t Randy just not do that? “I’d be listing animal names for an hour, there was a lot more work put in that project.” Because there were two primary officers working on it, along with input from other specialists in his department when he needed it, like botanists with plant samples and specimen, and microbiologists studying bacteria common to the planet. That was double the hours of research going in at least. Now it was just him… And the thought made him blink hard. He was not going to cry. He took a deep breath, trying to refocus and bring his emotions back in check. “Developing antivenoms is only one part of such an environmental research project.”

~ Roman

Randy nodded, “Of course. But that was something you were working on. What was the animal like?”

Randy

There were several Roman could talk about, but he didn’t want to. Most of them Jay had helped him name. Helped him work with, so neither of them died of some alien venom poisoning. So Roman stayed quiet instead, avoiding eye contact with Randy.

~ Roman

Randy waited and let the silence stretch. “You don’t remember? How are you planning to continue the work if you can’t remember the name of the planet? Are you sure you don’t remember, because you’re very short of answers. Maybe you have selective amnesia? That would definitely disqualify you from continuing the project.” Randy was NOT going to let him clam up. Rand would be furious with him later, but claming up and staying silent was not helping Alden. They were all going to die if they ever ran into a Klingon ship.

Randy

“I don’t have selective amnesia,” Roman insisted, shaking his head. “You can’t disqualify me from my own project.” He seemed confident in that answer like he didn’t think Randy had the ability to take it away from him. His hand inched closer to the disks like he’d slap Randy’s hand if he tried to touch them.

~ Roman

“Yes I can. I’ll file the diagnosis then you’ll never have to worry about it again. If you were working with dangerous venoms and can’t remember your work, better to let someone totally new work on it. That way they aren’t distracted and get hurt by struggling to remember memories that are out of reach.” If Roman actually had selective amnesia it would be grounds to remove him from the project, considering the dangerous nature of the samples. At least until he was considered well enough that a sudden return of memory wouldn’t put anyone at risk.

“That won’t happen! I don’t have memory problems!” He had Roman worked up now, the hand he’d been hovering near the disks formed into a fist and smacked against his desk, making everything rattle.

Randy leaned back, crossed one ankle over the opposite knee and seemed to contemplate. “Alright, prove it. Tell me about your project.”

Randy

Roman leaned forward, elbows on his desk, hands against his face, watching Randy. “What do you… want to know?” If he was lucky and it was something he could think of purely scientifically perhaps he could pass Randy’s stupid little test.

~ Roman

“All solid scientific research starts with observation and then a question. I am assuming the question was put before you: is this planet safely habitable for humans. So tell me about the planet, the animals, their unique qualities ensuring their survival on the planet. What were the risks and the solutions you came up with or were working toward. What were your specific research questions and hypothesis?” All scientific questions. Randy didn’t ask anything personal. It was there, he knew that because of Jay. But at the very least Alden was going to have to look at the science and be able to express it and discuss it coherently and completely if he had any hope of even looking at it. The personal would come later.

Randy

“First… We test the air makeup and water… quality, and then we look for any sort of harmful radiation. Those are threats to human life we can’t change. How viable is growing safe food, that’s an important one, and how available building resources and other necessary resources are. Then we can look at what natural plantlife us around, how edible or how poisonous those are, and what sorts of animals there are and how dangerous those are.”

“Once we’ve done that we get into the specifics like how long certain animals live, what their behaviours are, what exactly they eat, potential properties of their excretions like medical applications. It’s considered complete when Starfleet decides we know enough to safely place an outpost or colony and where on the planet to place it, as well as how many supplies we’d need to ship them.” Roman’s voice shook with each ‘we’ and the answer was more vague, an explanation of the type of project more than his results from that specific planet.

~ Roman