They Blinded Me... With Science!
Posted on Mon Feb 23rd, 2026 @ 12:22pm by Graham & Lieutenant Commander Sofia Nikedoros & Lieutenant JG Elyssa Kala'myr
1,178 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Terrorpin
Location: Science Labs
If Graham were more sentient, he might have been grateful that someone found a way to keep him up and running without needing more than a battery supply. There were likely scientists more grateful than he, as he was now one of the few tools capable of assisting in the analysis of scans and the like. Most of what science had available to them was stuck to two consoles that had been rigged up by some of the more technologically oriented blue shirts, and placed in a small room far from refugees of the building created for such emergencies.
As the others around him gathered, Graham toyed with the idea of maybe not considering himself a tool, and blinked. One of the console monitors lit up with complete analysis results and all the scanned data he could gather. He attempted a small jest. "I do suppose this is better than something of this size devouring minerals like the Daucin. That would prove... Difficult for us."
"Yes, though we know that eating our refined metals was slowly killing the Daucin, so that problem would be self-limiting," Abrams observed, as she scanned the data. "But this one might be as well. If I'm reading this right, its rate of growth and energy intake are..." she grabbed a sheet of paper, scribbling numbers - they'd been reduced to real old school in order to minimize energy use, "...unsustainable. I very much doubt this native, or at least natural. Not only can't it supply its own energy needs except by drawing on our energy sources, but any kind of viable population of these creatures would have burnt through every energy source on the planet long before the first colonists arrived."
Elyssa nodded at the Lieutenant. "Its very curious really. The simple evolutionary unfeasibilty of the creature is astounding, and yet, its here.
While our most pressing concern is dealing with the now, I would be fascinated to know how it came to be. Bioengineering?" She said the word as a question just hanging in the air, not really requesting an answer. It would make sense, some species engineers a monster then leaves it here. For what reason? Did it fail and it was dumped, did it succeed and it was being stored for the future. It could even be a nursery to allow it to grow and be tested, the possibilities were endless. "I can think of several species that would have the technological capabilites."
"If it were a matter of bioengineering, the culprit would have a lot to answer for from Captain Seong and the Daystrom Institute's Ethics Committee," Graham pointed out plainly. "Hypotheses from yourselves and other scientists have been culminated into one of three categories. Bioengineering as you suggested, Evolution due to the existence of a new 'biome', so to speak, and Mutation. While I am positive the second of these two are not likely since this growth appears to be more sudden than evolution would suggest, I would not be surprised if our existence had something to do with this.
That said, I do believe we have not fully explored the angle of bio-engineered interference. Should I request scans to look into that?"
"Yes. More data on an unknown is always good," Abrams replied. "But if we're taking bets, my money is on mutation. Not that some change we induced in the biome couldn't have driven that. There are several documented cases where energy fields or forms of radiation not found in the normal natural environment triggered large scale mutations."
Elyssa raised an eyebrow. "Daystrom? I might add i seriously doubt this is federation work if it is bioengineering." She grinned and nodded. Perhaps, the federation had the skills and knowhow, but the will, it seemed too far from federation ethics to be an promising field or research, them again. "I would suggest looking for some of these biogentic markers for evidence of engineering." She sent over a small data burst of various propriety lines of dna code and typical sequences used to stabilise non-native dna.
Either way they were talking round in circles and their problem was not going away. "Its almost tempting to suit up and climb inside for a poke around."
Graham's form flickered, but he spoke in the same level tone. "Shall I see if we can mimic the energy signature the creature seems to like around some suits so you can become the next meal?"
Letting the joke hang, he shook his head in holographic disapproval. "I was referring to Daystrom and the Federation wanting to get their hands on new discoveries, bioengineered or not. It may be a concern we deal with if the Captain and Lieutenant Colonel cannot convince them to not open any post-capture investigations to the rest of the-"
Graham's interruption came with a series of flickers. "Ah, one moment, I believe I have to focus on this." And his form disappeared.
Dana's brows rose. The biologist looked to Elyssa. "I guess we're on our own for now. I'm not interested in feeding myself to that thing, but if we can get a tissue sample, that could answer a lot of questions."
>In Between Tags so we can move this on!
"An analysis of the energy source the creature is consuming has been done on the surrounding area of the colony." Graham's unceremonious return was accompanied with an equally sudden pop of a holographic map of the area, including a large lake that had recently been discovered. "It appears there is a similar source coming from somewhere in the lake."
"Now that I would like to examine up close," Dana said, standing to get a better look at the map. "Can you overlay all locations of similar energy signatures, with intensities?"
Graham did not respond verbally, but the map shifted. Another layer, this in a lime green color, began to draw itself on the map. The intensity of color shifted between levels of brightness as it settled, until there was a clear view of the various sources in front of them. True to Graham's hypothesis, the signature in the lake did appear more vibrant compared to many of the others closer to and in town. "Hm." Graham pulled up another hologram of the Bray building, placing a similar overlay scan on top of the first. It had a much more intense green. "This would be before the Bray facility's power was shut down as well, for comparison."
Dana studied the display. "Interesting... the power signature in Bray was nearly identical to this presumably natural source." She paused, looking upward, head tipped to the side as she thought that through. "It's possible our power sources attracted it, maybe even accelerated what would normally be an extremely long growth cycle that vanishing few of these animals age into..." A shudder like a small quake running through the building, snapped her back to the more immediate problem. "Which we'll need to explore later. For now, this gives us what we need to set the bait for it."
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