| abstract
| - Tucked beneath and around the ship's spinal corridor, the wardroom serves both as workroom and general quarters for the ship's crew. Port and starboard rise the sleeping facilities, a set of double bunks running the length of the space. Each bunk has a set of built in cabinets and lockers for storing personal effects. The middle of the room is ample, sized to fit and brief the entire crew if necesssary. A central conference table dominates the space, its long dimension running from fore to aft. Spartan steel chairs ring the table, designed for utility instead of comfort. The forward wall has a large display screen, above which are ranked a battery of supplementary monitors. Aft is a compact galley, along with a cluster of smaller tables for eating and general conversation. A series of shielded sconces provide flexible lighting, allowing sections of the room to be darkened, letting some crew sleep while others continue their work. A gangway leads up to the ship's main corridor, while forward a paneled door leads to the Captain's private stateroom. Heidi is lounging on her bunk reading a book. Not much really to say. Dement enters the wardroom, and with him he brings the pleasant aroma of pie, delicious apple pie. It's hot... but why is he /entering/ the kitchen area with it? Ruin makes his way in from the corridor, carrying his PDA and an armload of files. "Thank GOD we've got no timmiegirls in here," he says. Then sniffs the air. Turning to find Dement, he blinks a bit. "Oh - high. Eyota needs to talk to you. Says he needs a chemist." Heidi glances over at the two as they entered. "What kind of pie and what is wrong with Timonae women?" She asks lazily before turning a page in her book. "Yeah, what kind of Timonese pie?" Dement asks a little too quickly after Heidi, frowning for a moment before shaking his head, "What?" he manages. "Never deal well with timmiegirls," says Ruin with a sigh. "Dement, Eyota's at the pool hall. Says he needs a chemist's help for the research he's doing with the New Luna samples. Will you help him?" "They seem harmless enough to me." Heidi says before she looks back at her book. "Yeah, why not?" Dement says with a small smile, "Oh.. and the pie is apple pie. With pears... and possibly oil." the engineer frowns. Ruin looks down at the pie. "It...smells okay?" he guesses. "Not really a response to the question." Heidi points out. "Well, I just wondered if I could cook it with the fusion engine." Dement explains with a knowing nod, "I can." he looks across to Heidi, eyebrow raised. Ruin blinks, and gives the pie a more serious lookover. "Huh. Really? That's kind of neat." "You can ignore the question I suppose, but then I'll just think you're a racist." Heidi shrugs her shoulders a she sits up. "Is it edible?" Eyota walks into the wardroom about this time, with a bit of a wry smile. "Evening, Heidi, Ruin, Dement." "Not entirely sure if I should irradiate it before trying it out, though." Dement says with a chuckle. "I'm sure it's fine. I mean, really, we used to cook our food with /microwaves/ for hundreds of years. No funny mutations came about, even if they slowly killed people..." he laughs, in pointed knowingness, "Oh, hey Eyota, hear you need a chemist." Ruin slants a look at Heidi. "You already think what you want to anyway. Why should I try changing it?" "Silly me.. Thinking there was more to that manic depressive, woo is me feel sorry for me because I hate everyone and everything outlook you have." Heidi yawns lightly as she turns the page. "Irradiate it..? Wouldn't be chock full of radioactive goodness already? "No, he's just antisocial," Eyota says drly to Heidi, before he steps to Dement with a nod. "Could use one, yeah. Need someone to look at a sample we had brought up from New Luna. Try to analyze the chemicals that were sprayed down there." "...Yeah. Pretty much. Also much with the not wanting another round of Your Life On Trial. Think I'll go feed the birds." Ruin heads back out, "Fun." "Hey Ruin, do you want some pie first? It'll either kill you, do nothing or turn you into a superhero. It's good odds!" Dement says with a smile, nodding back to Eyota, "I'll help in a minute, if you want. "Doesn't help when you play dark prince around coworkers." Heidi says with a yawn. The woman stands then heads over towards the pie. "Well.. might as well have a crack at it." "My bets are on do nothing," Eyota says as he walks to the table. "And sure, once we're done here, I suppose." "Eh," Dement manages, slicing the pie and dishing our three portions before quickly snatching his own and attacking it with a spoon. He stuffs it in his mouth and begins to chew for a moment, before his face goes red and he coughs, turning and spitting it out into the sink. "OOooohh." he manages. Perhaps radiation won't kill him, but the pie is pretty hot. Heidi takes up her plate and samples the pie warily. Her blue eyes flickering in the direction that Ruin has just left. Eyota picks up his own pie, frowning a little bit before he blows on his pie. "He's not doing well... But then, he doesn't seem to rather often." "Yeeahhh, ooin an bee a ittle hard to manashhh." Dement says, breathing as heavily as he can to cool down his mouth. He gets a glass of water while he does. Heidi shrugs her shoulders and keeps on eating. Eyota swallows his own food before speaking. "Anyways, what have the two of you been up to? Other than getting giant bears and dressing up as marines?" "Ooking." Dement replies testily. "Catching up on my reading." Heidi lifts a brow. "What about bears and marines?" Eyota waves a hand. "Don't worry about it," he says. "And... cooking is good. You're good at this, Dement." "Appawently, no so mush de eetin." Dement says, a tight smile pulling across his features before he drinks. Eyota smirks, going through his meal at a more polite place. "I am having trouble understanding you," he says. "Common problem." Dement says, falling quiet and eating his pie. "So, tell about chemistry?" Eyota hmms. "It isn't much," he says. "I just need a chemical analysis done on some substances I've isolated. I think it may have been what the phyrrians dropped down on New Luna." "A-ight." Dement nods, putting down his empty bowl, "Lead the way." Eyota nods and stands, beckoning Dement over. "Just this way, then." The medical facility is a sharp contrast from the rest of the rugged starship. Here the lighting is bright, spilling softly from recessed coves coffering the ceiling. The wall panels are white and grey composite ceramics, hermetically sealing this bay from the remainder of the ship. The port wall is taken up by a long workstation, providing both computer access to the medical backbone and basic laboratory services. Cabinets above and below house the larger pieces of medical equipment as well as expanded first aid and trauma supplies. Against the starboard wall are five fully equipped medical treatment beds, each fitted with full diagnostic sensors and life support devices. Curtains on a ceiling track provide a modicum of privacy. One bed station has been heavily supplemented, serving as an emergency surgery suite. In the corner of the medical lab, there is a sample of... plants. And dirt. And a few vials of stuff. "Here we are," Eyota says, walking over to the stuff, which also has complex scientific equipment around it. "Ooh, complex scientific equipment." Dement quips as he moves towards it, "I feel at home." Eyota grins a llittle bit. "It's not quite as good as a real lab, but think you can handle it?" "Sure I can. Shall I look at everything, or do you want something specific done?" Eyota shakes his head. "I don't even know where to start looking," he says. "Just... whatever might be useful." "Right then." Dement says, moving to the equipment and beginning to take stuff and put it places. He puts dirt in test tubes, along with different kinds of chemicals and such and so forth. The usual fun sciency roleplay where the writer attempts to make it sound feasible, and not like an episode of Flash Gordon. Eyota stands back and crosses his arms, watching with a slight smile. "How does it look?" "Well, a number of chemicals I won't know about until tomorrow. A couple I'll find out next week but for now?" Dement leans in to a microscope, "Let's look for anything obvious." Eyota nods with a light grin. "As you say." "Well..." Dement says after a moment, "This is definitely dirt." Eyota gives Dement a grin. "NOthing obvious to the naked eye then, huh?" "No traces of anything particular, no." Dement says with a sigh, "Shame, that makes the job harder. Still, I can do an analysis, try and see if any of these get any reactions to conventional chemicals." Eyota nods, crossing his arms as he watches Dement at work. "LEt me know if you need anything." "Sure." Dement nods, continuing to arrange test tubes and allocate material to each of them before rummaging around in an assortment of bottles, "Right. Testing for Myotoxin's might be a little pointless... Do you have any idea what the ground was like? Without some sort of hint I don't really know where to look... Any pictures of the effects?" Eyota hmms, then goes to a terminal. "Almost certain I can find images of New Luna after the disaster somewhere," he says. "Give me a minute." "Wow." Dement mutters, after some time he has moved onto observing the plant, and the whole time he wears a very deep frown, "This is heavy stuff, Eyota." Eyota steps forward, to take a seat next to Dement. "Heavy how?" he asks. "What can you tell me, Dement?" "There aren't many dangerous Toxins on a basic level..." Dement murmurs, "But the genetic alterations these can and... well, are having an effect on the plant life here. They're trying to change the atmosphere... It's weird, they've got a certain set of chemicals that might... well, in theory it's flawless, exposure long enough could make the respiratory system of some grasses change, so they output some minor allotropes and a weird compound of Oxygen and Nitrogen." Eyota raises an eyebrow. "In other words," he says. "They've changed the genetic makeup of the plants themselves, to make the atmosphere unfit for life?" "Well... not unfit for life, just more fit for /their/ life." Dement says, nodding, "I lived with two Phyrrians, I think this is actually one of the products they use in construction.. Solidify it with a simple secondary process and you have a pretty useful tetravalent." Eyota nods to Dement. "Have any exact readouts I could look at?" he asks. "Well, take a look at this chemical list here." Dement throws a PDA across to Eyota, "This being the reactions monitor-able at a base level in this plant... Oh... Sheisse, ich hab mich verlaufen... I need a comprehensive list of the New Luna fauna... This could be happening with everything... I'm looking at one of the biggest chemical cocktails I've seen since we theorized about this kind of thing back in University..." Eyota frowns, looking over the readouts. "Well, shit," he grumbles. "This is going to be a fun few nights of research. I'll need a bit of help with that." "Yeah, me too." Dement mutters, rolling his eyes, "How is there not a team already assembled for this kind of thing? Seriously, we need to hire. We really need to hire an ecology expert, a meteorologist. I'm going to exhaust my contacts from New Berlin just trying to come up with a good way of getting rid of sulfur out of the water... And they have the same problem. This needs to be done now, too... We've delayed this too much." Eyota nods to Dement, straightening himself out. "Mm. For now, I'll see what I can work out then. I can help out a bit with anything biological, but we'll talk to Ruin to try and put out ads for a team?" "Hmm.. Yes." Dement nods, "Experts on terraforming would be helpful, really, because this'd be close to the kind of stuff they deal with all the time... Not that... Man. This is going to be a freakin' nightmare." he seems pretty resigned to moaning. Eyota nods with a frown, then steps over to place a hand on Dement's shoulder. "We've got a start though," he says. "Good work." "No... no problem." Dement manages, leaning forward and grabbing a pair of gloves, "Mind out for a bit, I've got to move some acid." he mutters. Eyota nods, stepping away. "Noted," he says. Dement grabs a bottle, very dangerous looking packaging and all, and tips some out carefully into a test tube. It sizzles and a waft of steam trails upwards. Acid is totally cool. Watching Dement advocate the wrong things for today's youth carefully, Eyota lingers a moment before turning to a terminal, to start a search for New Luna fauna. And they both fade off doing generic science chores, because posing them all would take a long and boring amount of time... Return to New Luna: In Phyrrian Wake
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