Posted by Civilian Seamus McKenzie (Future Citizen) in Spotted Glass ( TAGS-Fen, Fayth, Seamus McKenzie. Nia Harmon, others also possible)

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Tannenn Keen (Chief Fleet Science Officer) in Spotted Glass ( TAGS-Fen, Fayth, Seamus McKenzie. Nia Harmon, others also possible)

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Sharah Fayth (Chief Star Fleet Medical Officer) in Spotted Glass ( TAGS-Fen, Fayth, Seamus McKenzie. Nia Harmon, others also possible)
Posted by… suppressed (9) by the Post Ghost! 👻
OOC sorry for the length of the post about to appear, I wanted to make sure I had all the information available for everyone involved.

Previously
Fen moved the basket from her person to the desk and set it down. The basket looked normal, until a closer look revealed that it was unlike anything he had seen before. The metal vines seemed to actually be vines… but metal ones. The weaving pattern was also wholly unique as far as the eye could tell. It was beautiful… but also very durable. “I’m sure by now that you have been briefed on the upcoming meeting with the Vren. Part of this diplomatic and cultural exchange is the gift the Vren are giving the colony as an apology for the attacks all those years ago.” She waited a moment to let the introduction sink in.

Mark shook his head. “No, I haven’t been. But I hear things.”

“This is that gift.” She pulled out a micro PaDD and then pulled up a file. It was a full genome of… something. At first glance, it was impossible to say if it was a plant or a bacteria. “The Vren say this is a biome growth starter culture. They say spraying this on the surface of Oed will increase bacterialogical growth by almost exponential factors. All we have to do is add the most commonly found bacteria and base vegetation, and the culture will multiply it and help it spread. What we would like to request from you is a full work-up on the efficacy of what this is and whether it is safe to use. Do you feel up to that, Commander?”
Fen, Governor’s Aide

His brows lowered, knitting together, his eyes narrowed a hair in suspicion. He held out his right hand, waiting for the file. “Happy to take a look. The tech seems intriguing if nothing else. But I definitely wouldn’t use this without vetting it every which way we can think of. Something like this could be used as a weapon in other environments. Oed is probably safe to use it, but there’s no telling what consequences it could have if used without consideration.”
(snipped mentions Project Genesis and fallout of that)

“It was mentioned when the nature of the ‘gift’ was made known. And that is why the Governor and Lieutenant Governor have sent this to you. They would like a full analysis of the medium and any abnormalities you find. They also want a full report as to it’s efficacy for use on Oed within the confines of the terraforming and reclaiming of the natural order on the planet. And I am sure that I do not need to tell you that the nature of the source of this must be kept highly confidential. Per the Governor’s office, you may utilize any staff that you require to conduct a thorough analysis; but they cannot know this is from the Vren. My suggestion would be telling them it is something that a fictitious bio-lab concocted and it was seized by Star Fleet during a raid or something. But that is up to you, Commander. I trust you are more than up to the task.” She stood up and smiled and set the ‘basket’ on the nearby table. “Oh, one more thing.” she said as she turned and smiled at him again. “The Governor and Lieutenant Governor would like the report in the next five to six days at the latest. Thank you, Commander. Your help and discretion is very much appreciated.” and she held out her hand to him.
Dorma Fen, Governor’s Aide

Dark eyes were already scanning through the file, picking out the main points. Both brows shot up once or twice. As she mentioned one more thing, his gaze swept up to lock on hers. Getting to his feet, he took the proffered hand. His grip was firm, quick shake. “It’s going to the top of the stack. It would be nice to have a longer tail to vet this, but we’re in a rush, it seems.”

“Indeed. Thank you. Please let me know when your report is ready. I will come personally to pick it up and you can present your findings to the Executive Leadership. I’m looking forward to your findings, Commander. Good day.” and she left.

It was an interesting puzzle, and one that left a gnawing in his gut. There was no telling what this stuff could really do, and what it would do. The only way to know was to start looking, start digging. “Computer. Open a new project file. Scrape everything you can get about this into it.”

=^=Accessing. Storage preference?=^=

“Better keep it on my personal partition, full encryption. I don’t want this wandering off.”
One of the displays came to life and began scrolling readouts, and files began populating on a new project folder as requested. “Computer. Personnel analysis for our best geosciences options on the colony, Starfleet and civilian. Also, our best geneticist, eco sciences, and biologists, botanists. Cross reference by security risk for each. I want to assemble a solid team, but also need ones that aren’t going to blab about this. If there’s a leak, it damn well better not come from this department.”

The computer gave a quick acknowledging beep as it churned away at his requests. A new set of folders appeared, personnel, with sub folders for each specialist type requested, and coded/graded by quality and clearance. Were there any wildcards he could think of? He had physics covered. Chaos theorist, maybe?
For the moment he was left with the conundrum of how best to tackle the matter.
Lt Cmdr Woods, CSFSO

One of the names that came up under the biology department was one Lieutenant Nia Harmon. Her last official assignment was on the USS Athena before she was reassigned to a classified project. She was assigned to Oed V three years ago and had a solid record during her tenure as a helpful and collaborative member. Her pet osmotic eel, Carl, is well known helper at Sacred Heart Hospital (osmotic eels excel at cauterizing wounds, especially those at at more complicated).

~Helpful Computer
Studying the displays as the computer sorted out candidates, he noted the entry for Lieutenant Harmon as she was sorted into the pool of possible candidates. After a minute, she’d climbed the ladder out of various scientists and officers on hand. Finally, opening up her profile and looking through it directly over coffee, he sighed. With a swipe he added her to ‘the short list.’

Eventually he would circle back. A Master’s in Exobiology would be useful. In addition to a fairly decent foundation from the Academy in the first place. A number of good postings. And whatever that thing was. Not that he was going to try to pry into it. While his clearance was good, and probably should have been higher, it wasn’t that good. Starfleet didn’t trust him that much yet. Level 7 was nothing to sneeze at though. It was probably unlockable. Probably had no bearing on this anyway.

Mark let out a dejected sigh as his mind wandered halfway across the colony. There was another scientific mind he wished he could bring in on this. But … that was a sore spot. And while an excellent botanist, he wasn’t entirely sure she had the time. Much less was exactly what this situation called for.
=^=Commander Woods to Lieutenant Harmon.=^=

=^=I hate to interrupt. Can you see me in my office as soon as humanly possible.=^=
Woods, CSFSO

Mark looked up from his holo screen at the knock, his eyes narrowing for a moment. “It’s open, Lieutenant,” As she entered he held one hand over a mug sitting on the desk with a spoon in it. He made slow clockwise motion with one finger, like he was stirring it. Below, the spoon stood, moving in slow matching circles for a moment before clinking lightly as it dropped back to rest, forgotten.

Stepping in, the petite woman blinked as she took in the sight before focusing on her department head. “You asked to see me, Commander?”

“Thank you for coming so quickly. I apologize about the short notice. This is a pretty emergent matter.” He gestured to the chairs and around the office. “Grab a seat. Coffee? Tea?”
Woods, CSFSO

Nia waved him off. “Nah, I’m fine, though I might change my mind later. I’m more curious what’s so urgent, so by all means, fill me in,” she said, settling into a chair and leaning forward.
~Nia Harmon, Scientist

Mark sat once more and then scooted as far as the space would allow forward. Tapping a couple of buttons on one of the holo displays started a set of music playing, along with a babble of voices overlapping, much like that of a coffee shop or bar. Scattered and emitting from farther away around the room. Other countermeasures snapped into place as well. “Alright, so… this particular matter is above top secret for now. The origins for this are still classified.” He let that hang, before continuing on. “But … It’s pretty promising bio-tech. Our job is to make sure that it’s safe, and doesn’t have any hidden, nasty side applications that we don’t know about.”

“Okay,” she said with a slow nod.

“It’s not designed to be a weapon, so far as I understand it. But as we know, most anything can be weaponized if you try hard enough/ We’re looking for sneaky, under-handed stuff.” He gave a slightly exaggerated nod, as if acknowledging the point. “Now, what we have here…” He produced a small display of the sample in a realistic hologram, “… is a substance that can do a few things. It encourages rapid growth and spontaneous replication of organic materials. You put in a seed and you’ll get more seeds. You put it with a seedling, and that seedling grows very very fast. Like the craziest fertilizer you’ve ever heard of.”

“Huh,” Harmon said, though it was clear she was taking every detail in and deeply fascinated.
“The idea is to use this ‘stuff’ here on Oed to speed up the terraforming project. We could have a viable biosphere and ecosystem in a fraction of the time. And designed how we wanted. Now I’m no bio-scientist. I know a lot, but I need a team of experts. You’ve got the clearance, you’ve got the credentials. And you rate high enough to be on the short list with being able to keep stuff to yourself.”

“We may just be being paranoid, but so far as I know, this stuff is still experimental. I’m going to have to report to the Governor on this in a few days, and we’ve got a lot of people to make sure this stuff is safe for the planet and for the colony. Can I count on you?”
Lt Cmdr Woods, CSFSO

“You bet, I’m in,” Nia said, an excited gleam in her eyes. “I would suggest we set up a wide range of samples to test it on, with both a control and maybe something we use already. You said we can think of it like a super fertilizer, so maybe we use one our better fertilizers as another data point. 3 samples per type, including Oed’v current native soil.” Nia looked around and then back at him. “We’re going to need a big ass lab with a lot of surface area to hold everything.”
~Nia Harmon, Scientist

Mark nodded. “Oh, probably. Thing is, this stuff works on just about anything organic. That includes micro-organisms. So we’ll need a level four bio lab. Full clean room protocols. Even contaminated air could cause a problem. If something like a rhinovirus got into it? Would be pretty bad. As much as I would like to work with it outdoors, for now we probably should do our best to keep this stuff contained. While it acts like a super-fertilizer it’s also like a super bacteria culture too. Which is part of possibly weaponizing this stuff.”
Woods

Harmon sat back and nodded, thinking over his words before she replied. “It wouldn’t take much to wipe out a colony with something we don’t know how to fight. So, let’s start with simulations and physical tests on more inert substances. The non-remediated native soil for example. How many people are going to be involved?” She understood that he’d want to keep this as small as possible, but speed mattered too if the Governor was expecting quick results.
~Nia Harmon, Scientist

“You, me, Director Hazen-Cooper. Doctor Fayth. She’s a maybe. Her medical skills are great, and we’ve worked together pretty closely. And she’s a first-rate botanist too. She’s above reproach for secrecy too. Maybe one or two others. Are there any folks you could think of on your short list for skill and secrecy in this area?” Even if they didn’t make the cut, it would be good to have a second opinion.
Woods, CSFSO

Now

Tannenn sat at the desk going over reports, data and proposed simulations and possible areas of testing. There was so much information she had read it over thrice so far and she was still impressed with how much was done in such a short amount of time but there were still numerous unanswered questions, tests that still needed to be run and other simulations before the actual practical testing began. She made a list of those she needed to speak with and made a note to make certain of requesting a meeting with the Governor’s aid Dorma Fen, to give a report on what had been discovered thus far. It was a certainly a surprise to end up taking over from Woods but with his transfer she was trying to finish what had in effect been side-lined due to the nature of the ‘beast’ of a project.

Tannenn nodded her head after a moment as she finished her notes and started making comm calls.

TAGS Fen, Fayth (others Previous on Message In a Bottle pt II please and Thank you so much.)

Her call was answered by a fire-red haired Asian human woman. =/\= Dorma Fen, aid to Governor Hyrushi. How may I be of assistance? =/\= She said as the comms connected her to the new CSO.

Dorma Fen

=/\= Hello, Tannenn Keen here, I am replacing Woods, I hope I am not interrupting anything?=/\=

Tannenn paused to let the other woman reply.

=/\= I wanted to let you know I have gotten caught up on reading the progress so far, but until I meet with some of the other officers on the project I won’t have a detailed progress to give you for at least four more days. I hope that is not going to be an issue?=/\= she would try to speed things up if was absolutely needed but she would much rather be cautious and careful before starting to rush anything.

TAGS

Keen, CSO

There was a slight pause and then Fen gave her a brilliant smile. =/\= We completely understand that the unexpected departure of Commander Woods would throw the timeline off. That being said, the necessity of being able to determine the efficacy and genuineness of the gift is of paramount importance; so we can only give you two and half, maybe three days. I’m afraid the timeline is immutable at this point, and you will be delivering your full report to Governor and Lieutenant Governor at that time. My recommendation is to contact Commander Fayth and perhaps the Colonial Terraforming office for assistance. Good luck. Oh, and welcome to Oed V. =/\= and the comms went dark.

Dorma Fen

Tannenn blinked at the comms shutting down before she had been given the time to let Fen know that she was in the process of contacting Cmdr. Fayth and others. Tannenn shook her head and laughed softly, “Well this should be interesting.” she tapped out the next communications request and waited hoping that the Cmdr. Fayth whom she only knew by name not reputation or anything, would at least let her finish speaking before hanging up.

Rude and quick tempered Iria, would have told her off. Keen thought at her and she shook her head softly. Be quiet old worm, or I will start playing smooth jazz again. Tannenn thought back to Keen with a cheeky smile. Keen wiggled and did not reply. So she won that round at least.

Keen, CFSO

TAG Fayth, anyone else from Message in a Bottle pt II

Sharah was sitting at her desk going through some lab reports before going down to see her patients. When the comms chirped, she didn’t catch the whole thing. Only that it was the CSO. That brought her up short. What now? Hadn’t they said enough to each other? There was nothing left to say. Not anything good anyway. She contemplated not answering, but that was unprofessional and she’d given McBride her word that she could work with Woods despite what had happened. She tapped the button, “Dr Fayth…” she blinked, that was not the face she was expecting. It wasn’t Woods. “What can I do for you?” she asked with curiosity.

Fayth, SFCMO

“Hello I’m Tannenn Keen I am replacing LtCmdr. Markus Woods as the Fleet Chief Science Officer he left notes that you would be a good addition to a project that is very sensitive in nature. Can you possibly come by to discuss in person?” Tannenn added lightly and quietly hoped that this call would go better than the previous with Dorma Fen.

Keen, CFSO

She was on a list, created by Markus, for a special project, but Markus had never spoken to her about it. She wasn’t sure if she was angry, disappointed, hurt, or just fed up with it all. She knew he had left the colony again, this time his replacement arrived quickly. “Ummm…” she glanced at the files. “I can be there in 45 minutes. I have a couple of patient files that need my immediate attention. Will that work?”

As she waited for an answer she was already sending a message to Hannah and Ano that she would need them to cover her patients for the rest of the day.

Fayth, SFCMO

Tannenn nodded her head, “That would be wonderful, I’ll see you later. Since we may be discussing things into the evening would you prefer to take a break or do you want me to plan for a meal to ready?” Tannenn usually lost track of time and she didn’t want to have folks upset if the missed dinner to planning ahead helped to avoid such errs. Besides she hadn’t yet introduced herself to the other fleet officers. So trying to start off on a decent introduction would help.

Keen, CFSO

=/\=I don’t mind a working dinner. I will be there as quickly as I can Cmdr Keen.=/\= Fayth closed the connection. She finished the reports, went over a few things with Hannah and Ano. Then she had to stop and let Yavia know she would probably be very late. Yavia wasn’t thrilled. She worried over everything, but promised to make sure Charles knew as well.

Tannenn spent the time while waiting for Doctor Sharah Fayth to arrive trying to reach some of the others on the list left behind, by Markus Woods, She started with Nia Harmon hoping to get another positive response.

TAGS Nia Harmon,

Once she was done speaking with Nia Harmon, she tried Seamus McKenzie, after that she would see whom else was qualified to join in and if she didn’t find anyone she would ask the three of the ones she did find for additional suggestions.

TAGS Seamus McKenzie,

The comms didn’t connect right away, but when they did a human man’s red bearded face filled the screen. “Aye? McKenzie ‘ere. What cann’a do fer Star Fleet, eh?” he almost barked in a thick Scottish brogue.

Twenty-seven minutes later, Sharah stepped through the transport arch at the science complex. She checked in with security and then made her way toward the CSO’s office. Funny how strange it seemed now, rather than familiar. She let that go and pressed the chime on the door.

Fayth, SFCMO

Tannenn opened the doorway with a smile, “Come on in, thank you very much for coming over Doctor Fayth, as soon as the others arrive we can discuss everything at once in the meantime while we wait, I took the liberty of ordering dinner I figured a pot-luck type of layout was safest, though if nothing is to your liking let me know and we’ll sort it out.”

Keen, CFSO

McKenzie, Conservation Director

Sharah waved the offer away. “Whatever you have will be fine.” She looked around the office, relieved to see it looking different than the last time she was here. Memories flooded her as she made her way over and grabbed a few things onto a plate and then sat. Keen wouldn’t know, but she made a point to sit away from what had been her usual spot. “I have to say that I am quite intrigued. Cmdr Woods never mentioned any special project to me.”

Fayth, SFCMO