Science Squares!
Posted on Tue Nov 4th, 2025 @ 4:42pm by Captain Min Seong & Lieutenant JG Elyssa Kala'myr
1,290 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Terrorpin
Location: Science Labs
Timeline: Pre-Mission
While the dust had settled from their past miscommunication with the Lee-Zurians, Min made a point to visit the science offices. Originally, she had brought a potential solution with her, but the wily nature of Haumea's... well, nature, seemed to scare him away. She should have seen it coming; tachyon particles, weird hologram malfunctions, and disappearing Starfleet Captains tended to spook quite a few into immediate transfer requests.
This visit was, however, going to be a little more hopeful. Someone had recommended a rather green member of Starfleet to the position. Or she asked for it. Min decided not to look too far into the nature of the transfer, simply that it happened.
As she walked through the offices, her eyes skimmed for an 'obvious' sign of any borg-like attachment. Anyone who escaped the Borg tended to either be stuck with an attachment, or had evidence of one formerly existing. It might have been a hideous stereotype (one that she tended to ignore in most cases), but with everyone still looking so unknown to her, she had to use... some marker.
She frowned when all she saw in piles of scientists working around her were... far from what she expected. "Graham," she finally stated curtly.
Immediately, the hologram appeared in front of her, looking as if he were reading a rather out-dated, printed textbook. "Hm? Sorry, Ma'am," he closed the book shut with a hand. The cover did not read any words, instead had a small Daucin that bounced animatedly and waving. "Is there something I can do for you?"
"Yes. Where is your new Chief of Science? I wanted to see her before she came to find me."
Graham narrowed his eyes, before turning. "Follow me, Ma'am," he stated with a dull drone, tucking the book under his arm.
Elyssa was in a darkened room with a holographic projection of some complex structure slowly rotating in front of her when the captain arrived. Graham entered first to alert the CSO so if she was startled it would be by him and not by her commanding officer. The lights turned up and Elyssa blinked a few times as her eyes adjusted to the new setting before she turned to greet the Captain.
"Captain Seong," she said, a little surprised by the visit. "Lieutenant Junior Kala'myr at your service."
She reached to shake her new commander's hand. If the other woman was looking for visual evidence of her heritage she would find them in her eyes where both of her blue irises were etched almost like microchips, and in the extended hand that bore some of the subdermal cabling that was near ubiquitous in ex-drones. More than anything though, her petite frame and dyed blue hair marked her out as a very youthful character.
"I was planning to get to your office today or tomorrow but the department had a stack of work all ready for me to review before I even arrived. She gave a little laugh and glanced at one of the science assistants who had been the lucky one to hand her her thick day-one dossier.
Min waved a hand away at the thought. "You've nothing to worry about. I was eager to meet you." She looked to the assistants, gesturing them over while she kept the conversation going. "I'm always eager to meet new scientists," she clarified, shaking the offered hand after an unintentionally awkward moment. Despite the stoic expression on her features, her tone was warm and polite. "Especially considering how this colony has a proclivity for the scientific in one way or another. Knowing who's going to be in charge of quite a large department is important. And maybe I needed to stretch my legs. Hopefully I'm not interrupting something vital and time-sensitive?"
The junior lieutenant looked over her shoulder. "Oh no, not at all, sir. This is a little something that I dug out of the dossier, it appears to be a new mineral of unusual quality but the physical sample has been misplaced so I am trying to assess where we might find more based on its structure." Geology could be interesting and she already had another of her colleagues with a specialisation in it giving her ideas where to start looking. She needent go into the details of the material until she had something more concrete to show for the work, for now it was a bit of a side project.
She looked back. "Of course the colony priorities will be my first engagement. Do you anything specific requests of me or my department?" my department; it still didn't sound real but it sounded good when she said it.
"Oh we can get to our colony priorities in a moment." Despite the dismissing of the holographic display, Min looked over Elyssa's shoulder with curiosity. "Misplaced? Did you reach out to the civilian centers? Sometimes they take the samples - with good intentions - and that paperwork gets lost in the shuffle." She seemed much more interested in the specimen than getting down to business, at least for the moment. "What are you thoughts on it?"
The Bajoran looked thoughtful "Honestly I think is extra-terrestrial, the isotopes detected do not match anything on record for this world. That is not to say there isn't a large deposit somewhere from an old impact. I can tell you it's likely highly magnetic and probably blue to green." She smiled and shrugged innocently. It wasn't a lot of information but it was something to share to the Captain.
She wandered around and pressed a few switches that saved her notes and dimmed the projection so it was less intrusive. "Can I say, Thank you for this posting. I was quite surprised by it all to be honest but I will make sure you aren't disappointed." She was very excited to be here, the safety of being planet bound but still close enough to the frontier for real exploration.
"Oh don't thank me," Min started in, eyes still on the holographic projection. It was as if she too were attempting to figure it out. "My predecessor expressed having issues filling this position. So having someone eager to come work and help solve... the mysteries of this planet and wherever this colony has landed will be a welcome sight for him when he returns. If we can get a read on him. Which is something I believe we can discuss ... without ears prying."
Elyssa pricked upnher own ears and eyed up the senior officer curiously. "Without ears prying?... Fascinating captain." Her best assumption would be that there was a complexity to base politics that she had not been briefed on. It would not do her prospects well to get too deeply involved, picking the wrong side could be disastrous, but she would certainly pull on these strings and see what was at the end, if for nothing but scientific curiosity.
Looking onwards at the Captain's own fascination with the structure she could offer her an opportunity to further that line of thought. "I plan on going out into the field in four days time, I wanted to investigate an impact site in the Northern Hemisphere, mostly just familiarising myself with the vehicles here." She hadn't selected her co-pilot yet but if the Captain insisted then they might have some privacy.
"What a wonderful idea," Min perked up. "I had yet to have this reported to me as well. I wonder if it's an older impact. Or something much more natural. Has Graham given you what has been found in this region alone? I could not imagine what's beyond this."
It would be a conversation they would continue as they made their way to the shuttle pad.
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