Posted by Civilian Seamus McKenzie (Future Citizen) in Spotted Glass ( TAGS-Fen, Fayth, Seamus McKenzie. Harmon, Erin, Mercer!)

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Tannenn Keen (Chief Fleet Science Officer) in Spotted Glass ( TAGS-Fen, Fayth, Seamus McKenzie. Harmon, Erin, Mercer!)

Posted by Civilian Kenzo B’tren-Hyrushi (Governor) in Spotted Glass ( TAGS-Fen, Fayth, Seamus McKenzie. Harmon, Erin, Mercer!)
Posted by… suppressed (11) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

“These are perfect, thank you Sharah!” Tannenn said as she glanced at the others. She had no idea how this was going to play out for certain but the team was working well together thus far and the feed back and suggestions from everyone was proving very encouraging they might even pull off the impossible but she didn’t want to get too far head of herself, not at least until they saw what happened with the first samples.

Keen FCSciO

“Can I see the substance they gave us?” Nia said. “How much they gave us will give us a good indication of its potency, unless they don’t expect the whole amount to be enough for the entire planet and we need to ask them for more- which is a good question to ask the powers that be actually. But we can assign a ration based on the total weight of it and measure out a tiny fraction for the first test. Depending on what our base mass is we can go up in very small increments, and I would want to be monitoring constantly. Once we get an idea of the growth rate, we can run simulations and extrapolate a more accurate test.”

Tannenn brought out the sample she had secured and gave a wry grin as she placed the container on the desk before Sharah, Nia, Erin, and McKenzie, “The governor’s aid was most insistent that this not leave the compound not until we’re certain it is not hostile.”

~Nia Harmon, Sciences

Seamus was reading a PaDD and said “In the notes from the previous guy, it says the substance is self-replicating. What we have will always be what we have.”

McKenzie, Conservation Director

“I wonder what stops it from replicating out of the container?” Sharah had her tricorder out and was scanning the bacteria. “Alright I have base readings on the bacteria. We can start when ready.”

Fayth, SFCMO

OOC: I was told I should join this thread, and given that the story is already progressed quite a bit, I’m just going to play it as if Erin has been in the room all along, including the previous meeting. I hope that is okay. – Joana

OOC: Welcome and glad you could join us. I would have invited you sooner but I am still not sure who is who etc, so my fault. Thanks for jumping in! Cassa

OOC: No worries! I haven’t been around too much either in past month or so, so I didn’t help either! :) – Joana

IC:
Erin had been baffled with what she had just been presented. Months prior she had told Governor Hyrushi that the speed in which he would like the terraforming efforts to go was simply physically impossible to achieve. Now she had been presented with something that might just be able to do exactly that.

“Maybe it needs a host to kick start the self replicating process?” It was both a tentative reply to Sharah’s question, and thinking out loud. “In other words, maybe what we have been given is the inert substance, so to speak, and we will start seeing it replicate once it is mixed in with the soil samples.” Hazen said, as she curiously tried to eye Fayth’s tricorder readings over her shoulder.

Erin Hazen-Cooper, Director of Terraforming

Tannenn brought up the notes from Woods again along with the then, projected theories, and added in their current theories and possible outcomes. “It might be that or it might be something else.” Tannenn mused aloud as she read and looked at the others in the room again, she walked back to her desk and started making copies of the notes on more PaDD’s for the others. “Please keep these for working here. I was told this has to remain in these rooms until we’re certain it won’t be a threat to the colony. So keeping the PaDD’s to this location is a must for now but I think you can have your own copies while working here.” She was likely being too trusting but with the PaDD’s locked to the location where they were working seemed at least fair, she didn’t want anyone to feel she didn’t trust them and have each with their own copy was easier than having to keep everything on the screens on the walls when they needed to update or change details.

Keen, CFSO

Taking one of the PaDDs, Erin looked through its contents. Given the circumstances and the substance they seemed to be dealing with, making sure the PaDDs didn’t leave the room seemed the sensible thing to do at the moment.

Nia tapped her fingers on the tabletop. “Well, we can speculate all we want, but I think there’s nothing for it but to try a measured amount and see what happens. I suggest one gram of substance to fifty grams of soil.” At some point they were just going to have to jump in and take the risk. But she was undeniably excited and it had been a long time since she had done any real experiments like this.

~Nia Harmon, Sciences

“That seems a lot.” Seamus said. He thought for a moment and then said “Maybe a microgram and see if that does anything at all? Start really low with ratios? Maybe one to a thousand and gradually increase?”

McKenzie, Conservation Director

Sharah nodded, “I have to agree with Mr McKenzie. Smaller is better. We have no idea how fast this will truly grow or what will stop it from overriding the space provided. We don’t want it out of control before we can stop it.” It was time to do the testing, but caution was warranted. “We can also monitor the original sample of the compound to see what happens when we remove some of it. Monitor the self-replication process.”

Fayth, SFCMO

“I second that.” Erin chipped in, even though her gaze was back on the PaDD in her hands. “Better safe than sorry, until we know the growth rate we’re working with. I do have a concern though…” She scanned through the notes, and wanted to make sure that she hadn’t missed anything. “Do we know when it stops? Or how it stops, for that matter? From my understanding, once we add this compound to any kind of organic matter, it should accelerate its growth. A tree would grow in a matter days rather than years… but, shouldn’t that mean that anything generated by this process would also wither and die much faster?” From a terraforming standpoint, it was not ideal, but Erin figured they would find that out with their tests. Her concern, however, was more along the lines of what they could do if there was an accident. After all, they were dealing with an unknown substance, and even though Hazen would like to believe a microgram would not cause anything extraordinary to happen, the more of the substance they added, the more of a fine line it would be between a successful experiment and an out of control one. “What I am trying to say is, do we know anything about its stopping mechanism? As Mr. McKenzie and Dr. Fayth mentioned, we don’t know how fast the self replication process is, which means that, no matter how careful we might be, there is a large chance this could grow out of control. Were we given any information on how to stop the replication process?”

Erin Hazen-Cooper, Director of Terraforming

Fayth looked over the PaDD she had been given as she spoke. “Mr. McKenzie pointed out that the substance is self-replicating. So we will never run out of it. And since it has not broken the container, we can hypothesize that either the substance will grow until it hits the limits of the area it is contained in, or there is a property in the container that keeps it restrained. As for accelerating up to death, we won’t know until we try it. We won’t know anything more until we do. However, this lab can erradiate anything in it. Organic and non-organic. So anything we don’t want destroyed if it goes wrong should be kept out of this area. There is a secured office attached to it.”

Fayth, SFCMO

McKenzie spoke up. “Let’s start witha single harmless substance. Say… a single bacteria. Put that with the growth medium and see what happens. Maybe that will give us the answers. We can watch it in real time, and go from there.”

McKenzie, Conservation Director

Sharah went into a storage cabinet and pulled out an incubation machine and two small spherical petri dishes. The quickly set up the parameters and hooked the readouts to the main screen in the lab. “Alright, Mr. McKenzie if you would put a standard measure of bacteria in both these dishes,” she motioned to the two dishes sitting on the machine, “and Lt Harmon if you would add a single drop of the growth medium to just one, we will see what happens.”

Lt. Cmdr. Fayth, Chief Star Fleet Medical Officer

Nia nodded and extracted the required amount of the medium. “I should point out that if this is from the Vren and is from their world, there would naturally have to be a stopping point to the growth process, otherwise their planet would not be the jungles it is supposed to be, barring their environmental crisis, of course.”

When McKenzie was ready and gave her the signal, Nia added the medium.

Lt. Nia Harmon, Scientist

The results were… startling… to say the least. As soon as the medium touched the bacteria, it began to change. In a matter of heartbeats, the medium had duplicated a sizable number of the bacteria. And not just duplicated… but duplicated perfectly. Soon, the petri dish was almost half filled with viable bacteria efore ot slowed and stopped. It was as if the medium could sense the limits of it’s environment and grew to fit, but not over fill, it’s current environment.

McKenzie whistled softly. “Holy crap on a cracker…” he said to no one in particular.

McKenzie, Conservation

“Yeah, that about sums it up. Let’s try a slightly larger container and see if we get the same results.” She looked at Harmon, “It said it was self replicating, did it replace itself?” Fayth asked moving for a larger petri sphere.

Elijah, deciding to spend the majority of his past and first week to acquainting himself with OED and its residents, both civilian and Starfleet members, couldn’t believe his good luck upon finally looking into the details of ongoing scientific endeavours. As the Scientific Advisor and a university professor, he enjoyed certain privileges and access to files, thanks to his connections from his academy days. He immersed himself in a night of extensive reading, he finished, despite his growing enthusiasm and vigour with a deep dive into the terraforming initiative and the mysterious Vren. Despite the temptation to initiate a ‘Mercer Brainstorming Session’ with his family, Elijah chose to to settle for the night and an early morning start. Unfortunately, a forgotten alarm resulted in him rushing to catch up with his with own schedule, risking his timely attendance at what appeared to be one of Starfleet’s most significant discoveries.

However, as he entered the lab, Elijah maintained a composed demeanour and said, “Well, from a scientific standpoint, that’s either really promising or cause for concern,” addressing the observers gathered around an unseen focal point. “Sorry for the abrupt entrance; I’ve just arrived and caught up as swiftly as I could. I’m Doctor Oliver Loughty, Science Advisor,” he greeted with a friendly smile. “Now, should I join the festivities, or is it time to consider running in the opposite direction?”

OOC: Hope you don’t mind, figured I’d join the party

Elijah Mercer
Professor / Scientific Advisor
Oed V

OOC: I can’t resist.
IC:
Sharah moved to interfere as well. Short and petite she was fierce. “Oliver Loughty? I think not. I know Oliver Laughty, he’s my uncle and you are not him. Care to try again?”

Elijah couldn’t help but feel somewhat confused in himself, having just combined his holo-characters names Oliver and a friend from the academy Commander Loughty together and then somehow the Lt Commander’s uncle shared the same name. The trip from Earth had clearly confused him somewhat and the sleep from the night before not doing much in the way of clearing his head. “Apologies, I have seemingly become a little cross-wired and had no intentions of mimicking your uncle who I am sure is a delightful person, who I was meant to introduce myself as Doctor Elijah Mercer”

Nia immediately tore her gaze away from the astonishing sight and moved to block the newcomer from moving farther, her eyes fierce. “Who the hell do you think you are just barging in here?” He clearly had to have clearance, but his casual disregard for lab protocol irked her and of course what they were doing was highly classified. Just because he could be here, didn’t mean he should.

Lt. Nia Harmon, Scientist

Elijah cleared his throat, suppressing any hint of surprise at the Lieutenant’s challenge. Adjusting to the newfound attention without his Starfleet uniform would evidently be part of his OED transition. Opting for diplomacy over escalation, he apologetically inclined his head. “My apologies, Lieutenant… Harmon, correct?” Elijah, made sure to study his potential colleagues before arriving and acknowledged his late arrival with a sense of regret. “I recently assumed the role of Scientific Advisor, thanks to my experience from Starfleet, the Academy, and as a Professor. I believe effective advice requires a physical presence, and for that, I regret my tardiness. If you prefer, I can step back and find an alternative way to catch up,” he offered, leaving the decision in her hands. Elijah injected a touch of humour, “Though, I’d hate to have gone through the trouble of replicating this fine lab attire for nothing.”

Elijah Mercer
Professor / Scientific Advisor
OED V

“Your effort in attire is absolutely not a factor in deciding if you get to stay or not. I don’t know what strings you pulled, but you aren’t on the list.” She called over her shoulder to the truly massive and muscular Scientist in a kilt behind her, “Mr. McKenzie, do you know who this man is, or should I call security?”

Lt. Cmdr. Fayth, Chief Star Fleet Medical Officer

Eli put his hands up in a defensive state, “There is certainly no need for security I can leave if requested and have my credentials sent over to you. I didn’t mean to imply attire alone would mean I deserve a place here an attempt to lighten the mood a little from a clear confusion and lack of effective communication on my part, alternatively, you could quickly use a console there to confirm my accreditation and that up until me walking through this door and confronting you all I had been following procedure.” He pointed over to the console. At this point, Eli considered just giving up but his thirst for scientific pursuit and duty prevented him from doing just that.

Elijah Mercer
Professor / Scientific Advisor
Oed V

A truly intimidating form of a hand male with shocking red hair and more muscles than seemed appropriate for a single individual stepped up behind the pair of Star Fleet officers. “Aye… I know ya.” he said flatly in a thick Scottish brogue. “You’re the new Prof over at Uni, yeah? Seamus McKenzie. Colonial government Director of Conservation. And while I can assume you might the authority to come in here, sir, I’d suggest you take yourself out an’ wait fer an invite. ‘Cause right now you are breaking about all the Diplomatic regulations surrounding this.” and he pointed to the door.

McKenzie, Director of Conservation

Elijah didn’t want to cause any more delay to their research, though he perhaps wanted to mention that he was rather versed in regards to their current scientific endeavours, their allies, and especially in the field of terraforming but opted for a far more passive approach though he wondered which diplomatic regulations surrounded it that he was breaching in particular and that he wasn’t just a professor but the Science Advisor to the Government, “No need to say more” He nodded politely. “I do hope the next time we meet it will be through the proper approaches.” He smiled and made his exit, he wondered if he had somehow been in cryo sleep and the federation he knew had somehow changed, there used to be a time when scientists worked together and appreciated additional input. He shrugged, perhaps something to bring up at the next science council meeting.

Elijah Mercer
Professor / Scientific Advisor
Oed V

Fayth turned to the others. “Please continue, I will return. It would be prudent to do as Dr. Mercer suggests and verify who he is.” This was far too sensitive to leave to chance. “Dr. Mercer, follow me please.”
OOC:moving this to a separate thread if that works, if not just ignore this. :)

Lt. Cmdr. Fayth, Chief Star Fleet Medical Officer

Elijah gave the others is a room a sorting apologetic smile “Lead the way Lt Commander”.

Civilian Elijah Mercer
Professor / Scientific Advisor
Oed V

Nia watched him leave and then moved back to the large worktable where a miracle was occuring before their eyes. “Okay, where were we?” she said, entirely focused once again.

Lt. Nia Harmon, Scientist

McKenzie glared at the doors for a moment longer before turning slowly and walking back to the experiment. Looking on the display he exhaled slowly and said “Alright…” and looked at the dish under magnification and then at the scan data. “So… and I may be readin’ this all kinds’a wrong… but it looks ta me like that whateveritis is some kinda cloning and growth accelerator. Dunnae ask me how in the nine hells that manages to exist, though.”

McKenzie, Conservation Director

Harmon briefly glanced at the others, but her mind was well into dissecting the details before them. “I’m not a genetic expert but I do have more than a basic understanding. If you think about most sentient beings, their physiologies often operate under need to maintain homeostasis. Whatever affects it, it tries to make sure everything comes back into balance. In some diseases, this is where the immune system can attack itself or affected cells grow uncontrollably. At first glance this looks like a cancer or a virus. Except, it’s intuitive and stops before it becomes dangerous and overrides the homeostasis of our sample dishes. It’s like it can detect the maximum output before it breaks homeostasis and then just… stops.”

“Let’s try a larger sample. Maybe double, so two drops of medium and you do double the bacteria. Let’s see if my hypothesis holds true,” Nia said, unable to contain her excitement at this fascinating experiment. It was by far the most interesting thing she had ever done in her career.

Lt. Nia Harmon, Scientist

Seamus nodded and said “Yeah, lass… good call. Let’s do it.” The next few minutes were a flurry of activity as they prepped another sample for the experiment. The substance had already ‘grown’ back, so it seemed as if it could- theoretically- last forever. Once the sample was prepped, the team added the Vren substance to the dish and waited.

It took even less time than before. And just like before, the growth was exponential and rapid with perfect and optimized duplicates of the bacteria. And just like before, the growth slowed and stopped before it could overgrow the petri dish.

McKenzie, Conservation Director

Nia shook her head and bounced on her toes. “I mean, seriously! she said with a laugh. “It’s amazing. Let’s set up a full series of incremental increases. I think we know I’ll be okay, but what I want to see is if we change the input, what happens. So I am going to propose that after say several more tests just as we’re doing, we change that variable and try something like a seed. A seed in the soil with one drop of the medium.”

Lt. Nia Harmon, Scientist

Seamus looked at the data and then said “Aye, but we cannae do somthin’ too big. The bacteria it replicated were stationary… meaning they went through lag and log stages in a matter of seconds. We put a tree seed in there and you’ll have a new skylight in here in a matter of heartbeats.”

McKenzie, Conservation Director

Nia nodded. “I was thinking one of the old native grasses that grew in the drier areas. It’s short and dense. And if our hypothesis is correct, then it would only take up the space of our dish. Which brings up a point I’ve bene mulling over. If this accelerates the growth of whatever it contacts, how do we then create a viable ecology? One bacteria wan’t be enough to inoculate the biosphere. We need diversity and a clear understanding of what we want it to do in each region it might be used in. For example, we want to build healthy soil that will growth things, and the plant material en masse will allow us to generate weather. But we might have to consider weather control, because there won’t be mechanisms in place naturally to control how volatile it gets. Geography, yes, the foundations in the land itself won’t be there.”

It was a long term problem, but it was worth considering as they tested this out in minuscule samples.

Lt. Nia Harmon, Scientist

Sharah returned a little over 20 minutes after she had left. She knew they were curious. “Our unexpected guest is being escorted under guard to the Governor’s office. He, Lt Goc Dasca, and Cpt McBride have been informed. I am sure we will be informed of their decision. Until then let’s keep working.” She walked over to the samples with fascination. “What are you thinking next?”

Lt. Cmdr. Fayth, SFCMO

Seamus thought about what Harmon said. “Well, we can set up greenhouses all over to provide starter growth. But getting the proper microbial life to support topsoil development on a large scale will be impossible in a short time. It would take decades at this rate.” and then his red eyebrows rose and he looked at the team. “Wait wait wait… if this duplicates like it does with everything…” and he grabbed two petri dishes. He set them down. He took a bit of rhe growth accelerator and put some in each dish. He watched and waited for several minutes, and it did nothing. “Well, damn. I was hoping it would grow on its own.” He then tipped the contents of one into the other and the medium reacted, almost instantly filling the petri dish before it halted.

Seamus looked up and smiled. “Now that makes a difference. What if we can generate a massive amount of this stuff and spray it on inert dirt? We add the microbial life after, and then bam! We got new topsoil almost instantly. Thoughts?”

McKenzie, Conservation Director

Sharah watched and then grinned, “Let’s try it on a small scale, with the terrariums we have set up.” She nodded toward them. “Let’s create more. Add a bit of the medium to the other dish and then pour a bit of the other in. It should fill both containers. We can spray it over the dirt in the terrarium and then add the microbial life and see what happens.”

Lt. Cmdr. Fayth, SFCMO

Tannenn was still shocked silent after the rather sudden appearance of Mercer. She had not met them in person before but memories from Keen were both fond amused. Mercer was the type that held wonderful conversation and often had points of view that helped when there was a block of thoughts. Shaking her head she had not known that Mercer was assigned here otherwise she would have added him to her invitations. She quietly excused herself from the others and went to check the security of the lab. After that she was going to go and offer an apology to Mercer and ask if he would care to join them on their research.

LtCmdr Keen
Chief Star Fleet Science Officer
OED V

McKenzie watched the CSO leave and just shook his head. Looking back at the group he said “Let’s keep going. We’ve got a time limit on this before the Governor’ll want some answers.” He looked at Fayth and said “That’s a solid idea. Let’s get it going.” and he began making some of the necessary preparations.

McKenzie, Conservation Director

Fayth walked over to the terrariums and made some adjustments. “Okay so I’ve set up three. One for a control. The other two are both native dirt, so they are barren. This one,” she pointed left, “is just like we’d find out anywhere on Oed. Hard packed, practically rock. The other one is loosened, like it’s been plowed and prepped for planting. We’ll see if that makes a difference in how it works.”

Lt. Cmdr. Fayth, SFCMO