Polymorphic Passengers

Posted on 29 Dec 2021 @ 5:26pm by Commander Morgan Tarin & Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater & Yukime Frost

2,826 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 18 - Cold Station 31
Location: Regula I - Level 5, Cargo Bay 2
Timeline: MD 03, 1109 hrs

[ON]

Sofie had been caught off guard, hadn't even had time to grab her uniform. She hurried down the corridors in her civvies clutching a sciences kit close to her chest as she skirted around other people. She wasn't sure what was going on but her summons had expressed the urgency of the matter so she hadn't questioned it.

Upon reaching the doors to cargo bay 2 she saw two figures in security yellow standing outside it, phasers at their sides. Something really was going on here. She approached and put on a warm smile "I'm Ensign Ullswater," she said "Commander Tarin called for me?"

One of the two, a dark haired Denobulan tapped a panel by the door to open it and nodded in the direction "Go ahead ensign, she's in there." She said and smiled back.

Sofie swallowed and stepped into the cargo bay, it extended three levels up from where she had entered and was full of stuff. She looked around for a moment before seeing the commander on the level above, a slightly intimidating woman, especially from this angle. Sofie quickly hopped up the nearest ladder to the level above and upon pulling herself to the level of the deck spotted what the commander was standing next to: a cleared area in the middle of which was an open cargo container with rows of small crystal structures inside. It all started to click together in Sofie's head.

"Commander Tarin?" Sofie spoke up as she waked towards the scene "I'm Ensign Ullswater."

Regula I's tall crimson-collared strategic operations officer quickly turned to view the source of the new voice now addressing her. PADD in hand with a discerning frown creased on her forehead, Tarin took in the appearance of the shorter science officer who she'd recently summoned. The ensign's features looked almost exactly as her personnel file portrait aside from the lack of a Starfleet uniform. "Ensign. Did I catch you at a bad time?" she asked, referencing the woman's civilian garments with a flick of her hazel eyes.

Noting well the implication of the question Sofie gave an indignant squint back at the commander. She wanted to perhaps mention that being on shore leave she had no desire to be wandering around in uniform but the ensign bit back the impulse and followed up with an apologetic wave of her hand "No, not at all! I got here as quickly as possible. You mentioned this was urgent?"

"Yes." Tarin turned then pointed to the open cargo crate beside them. Inside were three rows of neatly-arranged geodes, each approximately the size of basketballs. They displayed a form of subtle luminescence which, to the observant eye, appeared to slowly pulse every few minutes. "I don't know what these are and neither do the scientists here. I've been told you published research on this phenomena. Crystal polygamy-" she paused to untwist her tongue, "-poly...gorphic...something?"

The ensign nodded "You're right to be cautious. Polymorphs of Bitrious and Carbonic Quasicrystals." She quoted the title of her first published article, a little pride welling up inside her that she had been recognised. She knelt down by the crate and opened the kit she had been carrying with her. While picking out one of the handful of specific scanners nestled in the casing she asked the commander "Do you have a history of these? Any information about where the came from would help in an identification."

"Sector one-seven-one. Five light years from our current position. Station logs show they were delivered approximately three weeks ago from another vessel operating in the area." Tarin was deliberately sparse on details. Operational security was her job and was paramount to maintaining the integrity of Regula I's classified scientific research. "Something within this container recently triggered the station's biological sensors." She clasped her hands behind her back while looking from the crystalline shapes back to Ullswater. "Have you encountered anything like this before?"

Choosing not to comment on the commander's intentionally vague response Sofie began to look over the the objects themselves. Some of the structural composition was clear just from sight "In crystallography degrees of symmetry are one of the first things we look at." She said, almost like she was back on Mars teaching cadets the basics of identification. "You see this ten fold rotational symmetry? Without even scanning that tells us this a quasicrystal and our scans can confirm..." She began waving the scanner gently above the three objects "Bitrium." Sofie closed the scanner and looked up at Tarin with a rather serious expression. "Bitrious crystal structures can become electromagnetic collectors. Have you heard of the disaster of the Omicron Theta Colony?"

The ensign was clearly knowledgeable; her deduction of crystal-like properties and structure demonstrated subject matter expertise which the commander struggled to understand. But mention of the historic Omicron Theta colony caused Tarin to return Ullswater's look with a severe one of her own. "Yes, I have..." she paused and inhaled. "Are you inferring..."

Ullswater gave a silent nod in response, glad the commander realised the potential danger of what was in front of them. "Bitrious electromagnetic collectors will eventually start to destroy all organic matter the come into contact with." She pointed again at the crystal structures in the case, her finger clearly hesitant and keeping a safe distance. "I point out the rotational symmetry first because..." The ensign pulled back and dropped her face into her hand as she took in all the implications running through her mind like wildfire. After a moment of silence to gather herself she shook her head and continued "Sir, there is a good chance that these are some incredibly dangerous objects you have here."

Tarin was silent while she processed the ensign's words and body language. "Just how dangerous are we talking?" she finally asked, not beating around the holographic bush. "Is there any way to contain them?" What had begun as a simple alert notification of biological cargo signatures now seemed to pose a much greater threat than the commander had anticipated.

"The danger is that if even the smallest filament of this gets out, falls into some contact with a power source it would grow." The ensign mimed the action of rapid expansion with her hands "Once it has collected enough energy it will start the process of consuming organic matter and I do not know what we would do then." She pulled out the scanner again, calibrated to a spectrometer and hovered it over the crate "They aren't reacting fast enough here to see anything stronger than background radiation but if these are anything like the Crystaline Entity we should be able to detect antiproton and gamma emissions when they start collecting in large quantities."

Finishing her explanation Ullswater closed the scanner and pulled back from the case. "If I may suggest sir, we should have internal sensors on the lookout for any unusual gamma radiation, no matter how small. We should take these samples to a cold-temperatures lab and quarantine it until I can determine the danger for certain. We should probably have anyone who has been in in contact with the case go through a decontamination sweep just in case." She gestured around the room "Probably everything in here too, if we want to be safe."

Looking up to the ceiling of the cargo bay, Tarin grit her teeth and shook her head with frustration. Yukime, the station's administrator, wouldn't like this. She was still in the process of tracking down the individuals directly responsible for bringing the crate on board and would certainly hold them accountable for their negligence. In the meantime, the safety of Regula I was her primary concern. "I'm putting you in charge of overseeing this...'cargo'," she gestured to the open crate. Ullswater's stern warning was clear enough and she couldn't think of anyone on the station more qualified to deal with the danger. "There's an empty isolation lab down on Level 16. It's yours. I'll make all station operations and medical resources available to you."

Commander Tarin summoned one of the security officers who'd previously interacted with the ensign. When the Denobulan arrived, she formally introduced them. "Ensign Rollna, this is Ensign Ullswater. We have a dangerous cargo aboard and I've given her access to our operations and medical personnel until it's resolved. You'll be her escort. Whatever she needs, make sure she gets it."

Rollna nodded smartly to the commander and offered a hand to the kneeling Ullswater "Just let me know what's necessary." She said but with a flick of her eyes Ullswater indicated that this wasn't a great time for the shaking of hands.

"Thank you," Ullswater nodded and the other two officer "both. That we were able to identify this before anything too drastic happened, I hope it means that we can contain the possible consequences." Her heard was beating quickly but as she looked at the case of samples she couldn't help but feel that as well as anxiousness there was a bit of excitement too. "I'll do my best."

"See to it," instructed Tarin before suddenly holding a quick hand up as if she'd forgotten something. "Before you go, I need to inform the station commander of this incident." It was not a fault of the ensign's, but rather due diligence to make sure Yukime was fully aware of the volatile crystals in her research station's cargo bays. It wasn't a conversation Tarin was looking forward to but nevertheless, it was required. Her fingers tapped the commbadge on her chest.

"Tarin to Frost. We have a situation in Cargo Bay Two."

Like every day, in and out, there were nothing but numerous reports to deal with. A station seemed to generate so many and Silk had the thought that given enough time that there would be so many PaDDs to deal with the station would just implode on itself becoming something of a minature black hole. That is when the call came in from Tarin.

"What is the problem commander?" Silk asked. It might be something that Tarin called in.

"It appears we picked up a dangerous cargo three weeks ago which has been sitting in one of our holds. I was only recently alerted to it," the commander replied. "I'm with Ensign Ullswater from Galileo on level five, cargo bay two." She paused then decided it would probably be better for Frost to see it for herself. "I think you should come down here."

"On my way Command Tarin" Silk was already heading out the door. She used her authorization to get priority on the transport lifts and so it did not take much time for her to arrive at the location. As she walked in she saw the commander and another person with an ensign rank whom she was not familiar with. "What is the situation commander?" she asked coming up to the two.

Tarin pointed to the open cargo crate adjacent to where they were standing. The basketball-sized geodes inside were securely arranged in three rows and pulsed ever-so-slowly with a subtle luminescence. "According to our records, they were obtained from sector one-seven-one. I called the ensign here," she nodded to Ullswater, "to evaluate them after the station's internal sensors detected unknown biological signatures. Apparently...they pose a significant threat to our facility."

Silk frowned at that. "Should I have this section put up with a force field or just purge the whole thing into space?"

"Don't get too hasty!" the ensign jumped over from where she had been discussing security measures with Rollna. "Just throwing this mess into space won't save us." She said as her eyes flicked between the stations administrator and the scanner readout in her hand "There is so much that we don't yet know about these." She extended out a hand in greeting "I'm Ensign Ullswater, from Galileo's crew."

"Frost, meet Ullswater. Ensign, Administrator Frost." Tarin introduced the two of them after the science officer's adamant request. "She's requested that the cargo be moved to one of our isolation labs. She also wants the station's sensors to be reconfigured to detect gamma radiation spikes. And..." she waved a presumptive hand, "that anyone who's been in close contact with these materials go through decontamination protocols. All of the other cargo here, and all of us."

"Hmmm.......seems a day ago I was dealing with a couple of your crew mates. Does bad luck just cling to your ship? I mean after what I was allowed to listen to about your last mission and I took the liberty to peruse the ship's background."

"I only joined the ship this voyage, but if it has been anything to go by..." the ensign paused, not wanting to think too hard about the journey here and she switched into as formal a tone as she could "Administrator, what we have here are three bitrious quasicrystal structures. Though not exactly the same as the structure involved in the Omicron Theta Colony disaster it is entierly possible that the underlying structures could function as an electromagnetic collector as in that previous case. Should this happen these structures would grow at a rate of..." Sofie was about to say something but stopped herself and shrugged "Well we don't really know, but it could be really bad."

Frost rolled her eyes. "Alright Ensign what is your recommendation beyound getting this behind a force field or better magnetic suspension and take them to one of the research labs. I have hundreds of beings here to think about and the last thing I need is something that is going to try to eat the station."

"Well that is the issue." Sofie looked a bit sheepish, the worry of the situation obvious in her expressions "It might already be out there getting ready to eat the station. If a filament of any of these had broken off at any point it could find its way into a EPS conduit or other high energy area that could trigger a rapid collection. That's why we have to keep active internal scans for any gamma activity going until we are sure that..." How long would it be? How would she ensure things would be safe? The ensign hadn't thought of this until now so hastily concluded "Until we know enough to say if is safe."

Silk sighed. This was an unexpected situation. "Well since you seem to have the right now on the ground knowledge, I am going to task you and Commander Tarin do what you think need to do. So you need something, just do it, I will give authorization. I need to ensure that the station is safe. I am also going to make inquiries amoung the research personnel as well to see what they might have for thoughts." She shook her platinum blonde head. "Commander, ensign anything right now before I go looking for extra help?"

Tarin spoke curtly in full agreement with Frost. "Isolation Lab Two is currently vacant. I'll assign it to the ensign so she can transfer the cargo there and contain it for now. I can reassign a couple Security and Ops personnel to help her. We'll need to keep these crystals under guard and start station-wide scans." She looked between the two of them with a stern face. "And get everyone in here decontaminated before we leave, including us."

"It would be for the best." Ullswater knew that decontamination was perhaps not the most fun thing in the world and the other three women here were likely busy not being on shore leave so she appreciated the concern they were showing. "Once these samples are in isolation... well we can hopefully start to make things safer."

"Frost to medical. We need decontamination teams to Level five, cargo bay two. Full protocol. Unknown biological entity. Alert isolation labs they may have incoming" Silk looked up. "Commander Tarin, I asked for a scan of the exterior of the station yesterday, good thing maybe some of the data there will see if we have any unwanted guests."

The strategic operations officer nodded with understanding. "I'll pull their sensor logs and give Ullswater access." For the first time in many months, Tarin expressed sympathy for what the administrator would now have to go through. Part of the blame fell on her shoulders for allowing the cargo on the station in the first place. It was only fair that she clean up the mess she'd inadvertently created. "Don't worry. We'll get this..whatever-it-is contained and make sure your station is secure."

"Very good, carry on." Silk was already thinking about the reports. Still she thought might be interested to see what this thing was about.

[OFF]

--

CMDR Morgan Tarin
Strategic Operations Officer
Regula I
[PNPC Saalm]

Ensign Sofie Ullswater
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

Yukime 'Silk' Frost
Station Administrator
Regula I
[PNPC Warraquim]

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