Star Trek: Starbase 777

The doors slide open and the Orion officer entered. Signing into the system, she took a seat at an open station and began working on the reports before her.

Once the shift change arrived, Lihne logged out and wished everyone else in the lab a good evening as she stepped out into the hallway.

He walked in and my god, the amazement in his eyes was almost visible. Look at all the equipment in here! And look at those maps, those readings, and look at those rock samples!! Grinning like a child during Christmas night, he went ham on studying everything he could.

13:26

This man isn't sleeping tonight.

Hours later, Jack had finished his research on the rock and soil samples available and he was an absolute mess. His hair was disheveled and his hazel eyes were nearly closing up again from exhaustion. He was almost falling asleep on the messy workstation before he slumped over and hit his head with a bang. Yelping out loudly in surprise, he jolted up and groaned before taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. The Caitian doctor was right... He needed sleep. But most importantly, food! And so he groggily got up from the table, stumbling a bit before continuing to walk out into the hallways.

Jack, after working his absolute soul out on categorizing and organizing every single report on geoplanentary graphics from various planets, finally had finished and he needed a break before he was driven into insanity. Sighing heavily, he got up and cracked his back before clocking out and going into the hallways. He had heard of a nice place and he wanted to go there next.

Oh boi. He's here, hangry and yearning for some adventure while studying about the geology of Earth. Well... Since his first (and last) encounter with the other science ensign in the tubes, he wanted to go there again, so why the hell not. Whipping out his music player, he put on his headphones and went straight to the hallways.

[D] And here's our best boy Jack Bright, pulling another all nighter as he categorized the rock samples he might or might not have smuggled out of the last crashed planet's surface.

10:40

Since there were almost no geologists in the whole station, this certain lab was now considered as being his and off he went to make it his work station, taking over a whole desk to study the samples.

10:45

Hell, there was even a little 'crash cot' for him at the windows of the lab, where he could go and pass out if he did sleep.

Chaos. Pure and utter chaos that fell within the geology lab, lovingly dubbed the Crazy Rock Zone by its sole researcher, Ensign Jack Bright. He had categorized every and each rock sample by chemical components and name, and was now researching a HIGHLY reactive version of Chalcanthite mixed with a significant dose of Stibnite and even goddamn Duranium. How? He had no clue, but he was eager to know why.

She had opened the door, but for now remained standing just outside the room. As her eyes scanned the room her eyebrow rose progressively higher up her forehead. Unsure what to say she eventually stepped into the room and let the door closed behind her. This day had definitely too long, she would return straight to her quarters after this she decided. "Ensign, what exactly is it you are doing and why does this lab look like a minefield?"

"AH-AH-AH— Careful, can't take my attention off this thing now! Also, hi commander." Jack spoke up without even looking at her, attempting to carefully extract a piece of the mineral so he could research its chemical components and properties. If done wrong, we'd best say goodbye to his other hand.

Eyebrow raising higher still, she remained standing perfectly still in front of the door until he had moved on and wasn't in (as) acute danger anymore. "Hello Ensign... Where are all of these probes from and why are you working on them alone?" She made her way towards him, careful not to disturb anything that might blow them up.

After a moment of tension, he finally managed to safely extract a piece of it and put it under a microscope before he put the whole sample back in its floating stasis. He then took off his blast goggles and stared at Evoras with curious green eyes. "Hello, Commander! And these are some things I either discovered or were in the Starfleet database, also I'm the sole geologist aboard so... yeah. What's up?" Jack swiveled around in his floaty chair and propped one of his elbows onto the chair, smiling.

She blinked twice while she stopped herself from saying 'the ceiling', before she stepped even closer to make sure he was at least adhering to the most standard safety measurements. "I do not mind having to fill out paperwork on most sorts of accidents, however the one that awaits after a death that could have easily been prevented is especially tedious. So Ensign, you will at the very least inform someone before you conduct procedures that may blow you up, understood?" For a few moments she let what she had just said hang in the air. Then she let her eyebrows drop and eyes the minerals. "Did you find anything of note?"

Jack scoffed loudly and grinned, crossing his arms. "At least I'd have gone out with a bang! Sure, it'd be boring to clean up bits of me from the walls, but it'd be fun in the last second. But alright, alright, I will be careful the next time.... don't know about the next ones though." He whispered the last part to himself as he proudly scooted over to the side, "See it for yourself, commander! Have you ever seen multicolored Duranium that is also incredibly reactive and will explode when in contact with moisture? Well, here it is!"

"I have not." She took a careful look at the mineral, before stepping back again and looking straight at him, eyes ever so slightly narrowed. "Ensign. I don't care what precautions you take... if any. Caring would be highly illogical, so if you have a better idea for how to ensure your continuous non blown up status... feel free to consider my earlier order redundant. But if any parts you have to be cleaned off of these walls I will make you wish you never entered this lab, understood?" What can you say? She wasn't a great fan of paperwork, which is clearly the th reason for this.

Jack just stared at her and gave her a thumbs up, grinning as he replied, "How come I'll never wish i have entered the lab when bits of me will be everywhere? By then I think it's a bit too late, commander." Bright you little fu—

She blinked, once, twice, then she raised her eyebrow. "You missunderstand me, Ensign. It's irrelevant how, because I most definitely will make you regret it, so do not blow yourself up." With that she turned to leave. She would never admit it, but this day had been going on for way too long and her patience was running just a little short, in other words she was in desperate need of meditation.

"Will do, commander!" He proudly spoke out before he looked at the mysterious mineral under the microscope. After he was done, he took it out too fast and it exploded on his hand-- Well, not enough to actually explode it off, but now his hand was covered in a mysterious dust and bits of the mineral. Thank God it was his fake hand.

12:45

"....huh. I'm rainbow now."

"I wonder if I should snort it to see what happens-" Jack, in his infinite wisdom, joked to himself as he put the sample back and dusted his hand off, accidentally getting his goddamn uniform rainbow instead. Now he looks like someone just threw makeup at him, which wouldn't be that far from reality if he was still in the academy. Crazy parties, man!

A few hours later....

Jack, who at this point was severely sleep deprived and falling asleep on his chair every few seconds, was still trying to experiment on the samples he got. So... It wouldn't be long before he made a terrible mistake. With blast goggles and filter mask on, Bright aimed to put another larger sample in a test tube for later, but accidentally put it in his cup of water. When he tried to get it out, it was too late and it popped like a firecracker, sending multicolored dust, water and bits of glass absolutely everywhere... Including his face. Thank goodness he at least had protective gear on.

[D] Suddenly the doors swooshed open, and a figure stepped in. Green eyes scanned the room, and upon finding the disheveled human, they narrowed into an unmistakably Romulan glare. After meeting Dion and returning Amelie to her enclosure, Saren went straight to the middle habitat ring, only to discover that his quarters, specifically Bright's side, were empty. Again. It concerned him. So much, in fact, that Saren went all the way back to the research ring to start his search and rescue of a very reckless, dumbass human. His instincts turned out to be true - here the redhead was, abusing himself once again. Step, step, step. Soft yet confident footsteps were bringing him closer to the geologist. "Bright," he sounded both like a disappointed parent and someone who was trying really hard to not explode with righteous fury. "State your biological species and age, please." (edited)

Jack, who at the moment was still covered in multicolored dust and disheveled to hell and back, actually jumped off his seat when the Romulan burst in and began walking straight at him. That glare... He was indeed used to it, but not when it was his roommate glaring at him just like his older brother would glare at him whenever he fucked up. The redhead quickly got up and tried to defend his place, "Saren-!! I... Uh, eheheh... Nice to see ya here! What are you doing in here? Shouldn't you be in the quaters by now-?" He spoke out nervously, but then heard the last things and got confused. "...uh, I'm 29 years old and... human? Why's that?"

"Oh, so you are old enough to know that your species requires rest every day? Or did you skip that biology lesson in school?" he sneered, yet there was concern in his eyes. He wasn't looking down, but he could see Bright's replacement arm in his peripheral vision. At this point, this guy and recklessness were basically synonyms in Saren's mind. "I will strongly advise you to finish for today and get rest..." he crossed his arms and craned his neck, watching Jack closely. Would the man comply? Or would he decide to be difficult this time?

"HEY, i know that we need sleep! I had it yesterday, just- C'mon, I'm so close to solving the question as to what the everloving hell this is!" He pointed with both hands at the small sample of multicolored Duranium on his messy table. Bright got up and put both hands together as if he was pleading, "Come on, just a few more hours and I'll be done...! I'm this close, i promise!" He made the motion with his robotic hand, basically making the wide eyed kitty face.

Should he argue that when you were so exhausted you were barely standing, you were much more likely to make some type of a mistake that would kill all of your research efforts? Or that care for self was more important than care for this project? He looked Jack over, one eyebrow slowly going up. Yeah, no, leaving him here for a few hours would be highly irresponsible. The redhead won't listen to reason nor logic, though - engrossed with whatever he was doing, it seemed that Jack was dead set on blowing off his other arm. Well. If he couldn't deal with him in a human way... "All right," he nodded with a heavy sigh, taking a step back, one hand resting on his collar - to fix it, probably? "Two hours, max. What is it that you're doing, anyway?" ...Then he'll do it the Romulan way. Saren waited for Jack to turn around. (edited)

Jack, being the innocent fucker he was, grinned and immediately whipped around to show his progress. "I managed to isolate a small sample of this incredibly peculiar and MASSIVELY reactive Duranium sample that i got from the planet we crashed into! Its molecular and chemical components are fascinating, look at that!"

Zzzzip went his work jacket, the Romulan sliding out of it in one fluid, easy motion. With same nonchalance and grace he threw it around Jack's middle, tying the jacket's arms in a tight knot on the exhausted human's back - both to confuse and to prevent Jack's arms from flailing around. "Rule number one when interacting with my brethren: never turn your back on us," there were notes of smugness in his quiet voice. Saren squatted and then tugged, essentially dropping the redhead onto himself. "We will use that against you." He stood up, Bright sprawled in a fireman carry across his shoulders: "In all seriousness, you're being a danger to yourself, Bright. I can't allow that. And if I have to drag you all the way back to your room, then so be it, you grown ass child." He sounded slightly irritated now, sure, but Saren wasn't angry. He understood Bright, at least partially. Still, that didn't mean that the Romulan would allow such actions. Not on his watch. "Resistance is futile, by the way. Off we go!"

Jack didn't even register at first what the hell just happened. With a loud yelp, he attempted to break free from the jacket wrapped around his middle as he fell down with a thud. With that, he angrily flailed around like a fish out of water and his legs kicked around at nothing, but it didn't exactly help when he was just thrown onto the other's shoulders, making him hiss angrily. "SAREN!! Let me- Let me go!! I gotta finish this!!!" He angrily protested, about to mf bite this Romulan if it had to go to that point. "It's not futile! Let me gooo!!-"

14:59

....all of this while absolutely covered in multicolored dust, blast goggles on his forehead and mask around his neck.

"I-I'm serious!! I need to finish this work or else I'll forget everything I've done until now!! Please!!"

The Romulan let out an annoyed huff, trying to keep balance while his live cargo was flailing around like a hurt fish, caught in a prey bird's talons. His grip tightened, not enough to harm the fragile skin and bones, but enough to keep Bright from falling down on the floor. "Hhakh Terrhaha! Flaeon ssuy!" he snarled the words out with such vitriol the translator struggled to pick up on his quick Rihannsu, "And then what? Let you pass out? Let you fuck up your circulatory and the immune systems? Let you get heartburn or something worse? Your research won't go anywhere, it doesn't fucking have legs! You, on the other hand, have so much to lose if you continue being an ass to yourself." That was slightly hypocritical, Morvar. Not that you noticed that. "I am sorry, okay? But I can't let you do this shit," he shook his head, stubborn. "Nor as a Starfleet officer, nor from a basic fucking moral standpoint." Translation: "Stupid human! Stay still!"

Jack growled out and narrowed his green eyes at Saren, still trying to wriggle out of his tight grasp. "I swear I'm gonna bite you. I wasn't going to pass out, i took a 3 hour nap not long ago!! I won't be able to sleep anyway!" He tried again, but he knew he wasn't strong enough to escape, so he just gave up and instead hung limply like a piece of sashimi. "You're gonna see what i'm gonna do."

Green meets green. Saren was giving Bright a mean side-eye, his lips curled up, exposing teeth - an exasperated expression. "I could literally pulverize you," he deadpanned in response to Bright's threats. "But I ain't gonna give you a VIP ticket for a meeting with your maker, you're doing a pretty good job on that yourself, fool." He started walking towards the exit: "Won't be able to sleep? Oh we'll get you a glass of warm milk, don't you worry." (edited)

He grinned, showing off his sharp canines as he took that as a challenge. "BET. You go on and try me. And hey, my maker was probably Satan so might as well send me back where it's warm." Bright nonchalantly replied, waving his legs like a schoolgirl. But hearing the last part, he shook his head violently. "NUH UH- I know that trick, don't come at me with that!"

Bright was still acting like a capricious child, but at least he stopped fighting. The Romulan's pace quickened, course set for #corridor-05 . He either hummed or laughed at Bright's words, that particular Saren sound™️ was hard to discern: "What's your suggestion then? Asides from overworking yourself to death, like you just tried to do?"

[D] Guess who was in the geology lab again, that's right. It was Bright. Since the shore leave was nearing, his work intensified until there was literally nothing in his lab to do, considering it was already all done. He wanted so badly, so desperately to actually have someone to go back to back on Earth, but he had nobody... And that was destroying him on the inside every passing day. That was one of the several thoughts coursing through the redhead's mind as he slumped over on his table, looking at the only picture he had of all his brothers in one place and alive. He gently took it and looked down at it, his green eyes soon filling to the brim with tears as he held it close to his chest. The tears finally began streaming down his freckled face as he basically curled up on his chair, his chest tightening with absolute dread as he broke down all alone. It wasn't the first time, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. He just wished he wasn't so alone.

Breakdown in the Crazy Rock Zone.

A few days after the breakdown, Bright was back at his bullshit again. This time he was tinkering around with his rocks and actually making things instead of breaking them. He replicated himself a few yards of jewelry wire and was using a few pliers to properly bend it around the crystals.

12:08

He whipped out some bits of labradorite and bent the wire around them, making them all into a crown before he put it on. "....heehee, I'm the rock king. Nice."

This is it y'all, the comeback you all were expecting. It's the man, the legend, the absolute insomniac dumbass that iiiiiisss... Jack Nathaniel Bright!! And where is he? No place other than the Crazy Rock Zone!!

And as usual, he spent the entire day in the lab. Everything was a mess and there was a rock on top of his head. Why? No idea. How did it stay up there? Don't ask me.

And here he was, observing the chemical components of a new batch of turf samples he got from New Romulus. With eyes complete focused on the microscope, a mechanical hand stirring a glass filled with... something, right beside him, and his short ass attention span screaming in agony as he forced himself to see the chemical reactions and only the chemical reactions happening within the microscope he was using.

[D] And who was it but the station's most French Romulan walking in the door. Renakir was dressed in his full uniform with his sunglasses of course. In his arms he was carrying a box filled to the brim with rocks! He looked around the room, noticing no one else seemed to be around, well not anyone who seemed to be not super engaged with a task. It really didn't help that Renakir was only an hour away from lunch and staring at all these delicious rocks was really testing him. Unable to find anyone who wasn't busy, he approached the closest person to him; a red head with a mechanical hand, how neat! He recognised him, but was unsure when they had met. "Jolan tru, Umm, excuse me, I have a delivery of rocks," Renakir approached the man, speaking with his funky little French accent as always.

Meanwhile Jack, who was literally just wearing his normal clothes with a fancy labcoat on top of it all, got away from the microscope and gasped softly as he saw Renakir and his box of rocks. This guy seemed.... Oddly familiar, didn't he? With the sunglasses and droopy ears... He couldn't be the same one that helped him when he broke his leg in the tubes, right? Well, maybe just a coincidence! "Oh, hey there!! You've got new samples?!" Out goes the happy boy, getting up and grabbing the cup to keep stirring it as he looked up at Renakir. With curly red hair puffed up due to the cold of the laboratory and a dorky grin on his freckled face, he took the box and gently put it over his table as he replied, "Thanks for delivering these, they look great!!"

When the man got up and looked at him it dawned on him when they met! In the tubes! That was right, he... They touched. It was an emergency situation, Jack was literally going to break every single bone in his body if Renakir hadn't come to the rescue, but he remembered the little bit of telepathy they shared. Maybe it was just superstition, but this Romulan-Reman boy was sure he had some type of touch telepathy. Not like Vulcans, but there was definitely something. A few seconds passed until he realised he had zoned out thinking about the time in the tubes. "Oh, yeah, new samples, from Mol'Rihan," A small smile crossed his face as he handed the box over to Jack. "It's just my duty-- Ensign Bright? I think I remember you," He looked Jack over once more. "I'm Renakir Solait, the guy from the tubes," He said, deciding to try out this whole double name thing, see what sticks.

"Mol'rihan? Hm, interesting... Very interesting, I'll certainly take a better look at these! And—....!" His head blanked out a little as a deep blush of embarrassment appeared on his freckled face, now remembering everything. Goddamn, it was him! With a goofy smile, he lightly scratched the back of his head as his robotic hand twitched, "So it is you who helped me out! Oh man, i didn't think we would meet again!" Jack laughed softly, brushing some hair away from his green eyes. "Again, it's so good to see you again. I still couldn't thank you enough for holding me up even though you don't like touching." He smiled brightly, pun absolutely intended, as he nodded in respect.

"Yeah there are a lot in here. They look... Not to be weird or anything, but I'm starving, I should not have done this right before lunch," In a surprise turn of events Renakir decided to be open about his love for rocks. Bright was clearly a geologist and they had met before. They touched so clearly there was some bit of trust between them. Plus, Bright seemed pretty eccentric, definitely not going to judge the Reman boy for wanting to much on some good ol' rocks. "And no problem about the tubes. I mean, it was an emergency, I only acted as any other Starfleet officer would. It's true Romulans don't like touching, but in an emergency your safety is more important, you know?" He smiled at Bright, letting the other see all his pointy teeth as he did so.

He chuckled loudly and took one of the bigger rocks with a smaller amount of mineral veins, handing it over to him with a genuine smile. "Here, no judgement in the geology lab. If you won't judge me by spending my time in here watching over rocks, then i won't judge you wanting to eat them." He laughed and reached into a drawer, pulling out a little metal box with rock candy inside and taking a bit of it before just crunching down on the damn thing.

If Renakir's eyes were not obscured by his sunglasses then Bright would have seen how wide they got when he handed him the rock. W-What... Was he offering him a rock? Not only that he was.. Also eating rocks!! It looked like some sort of terran candy, definitely not real rocks but he really appreciated the sentiment. He took the rock and tears welled up in the corners of his eyes. This was honestly one of the nicest things anyone had ever done for him. Not only was the gesture very much appreciated but he had only met Bright once before this and it really touched his heart. After watching the geologist munch on his rock candy, Renakir popped the rock into his mouth and chewed. It was really good, but Mol'Rihan rocks were just well chef's kiss. "Mmm.. Yeah, top tier rocks right here," He said with the biggest grin on his face. No judgement in the geology lab, that was so sweet. After swallowing the rock he had to turn his head to wipe the tears from his eyes. Why was he so touched by Mr. Rock Man™️? "Do you.. Really just keep that candy in your desk?"

He didn't see the widening of the other's silver eyes, nor he tears brimming up and threatening to fall down behind his sunglasses, still happily munching on the rock candy he made himself with an old recipe of his grandfather. Looking at Renakir, he chuckled and swallowed before leaning back onto his chair. "Glad you're liking it, those rocks do look mighty fine to me... Well, not to eat but to study over!" He took one of them and cracked it in half with the use of a small geology hammer, revealing the veins of minerals and crystallized structures. With a loud hum of satisfaction, he put the rock down onto his table and replied with his dorky smile plastered on his face, "And yes, i do! Albeit sealed up most of the time to not attract anything and to keep the original flavor. Why do you ask?"

"Y-Yeah, it's... A Reman thing, not to be the stereotype, but we really like rocks," Not that there were many Remans on the station he could bond with over rocks. He had his father who was... Nice, but a little overbaring at times. He wanted someone his own age he could chat with about rocks. "That is actually really cool. If i had a desk I'd keep rocks in it. OH! You know there's a Vulcan restaurant called Surak Snacks that my dad works at. He gets all the best rocks, and they're edible for non-Remans too so you could try!" He said, still grinning from ear to ear about the whole idea.

"Understandable, I'm just a human who likes rocks." He replied, cracking another open and this time revealing a geode! Humming softly in wonder, he gently closed it up with the other half and put it on a separate place of his table for the special rocks he cracked open. Listening to him, Jack hummed and scratched at his stubble before raising an eyebrow, "You have my attention, what place is that?"

"A human that likes rocks, I like that," Renakir kept eyeing the box of rocks, especially the one that Bright had cracked open. No, he wasn't going to ask for another rock! He took a deep breath and pushed his sunglasses up on his nose. "It's in the utility ring. Ummm maybe we can go once we're both off duty. Tomorrow?" Renakir wasn't sure what Bright's duty shifts looked like but he was hoping he had some time soon. "And you could meet my father, a fellow rock enthusiast," Oh Tiravurik would absolutely adore Bright.

Jack smiled and nodded with happiness. "Of course I'm up, I'd love to go out and see fellow people who like rocks! Maybe i could even show my collection, heeeheheheeee-" He giggled and got up, cracking his knuckles before moving his fingers around. It wasn't easy to crack rocks open all day and then spend 20 minutes looking at it under the microscope. "I'll be free at about 1600, and then we can go off for three hours!" Wording, my dear Bright.

"Fellow people who like rocks, yep well you have a lot of company amongst the Remans. Bring your samples, but I can't guarantee it won't make us hungry," Renakir said with a laugh, it had been a while since he laughed this genuinely before. All his sharp little teeth, chatting about rocks, no judgment in the geology lab! "Yeah that sounds good, my father will love you," And if it goes well they may declare him Reman. Bright definitely had all the requirements to be Reman. He was fun, loved rocks, the only thing left was to confirm he would stand with the Remans for #RemanFreedom and he was in. "I'm gonna finish up my shift, I'll see you then! Yolan Zhu!" Renakir waved, telling Bright the Havrannsu version of the common Romulan greeting and goodbye.

Guess who's here again after so long... That's right, it's Jack. And this time he's doing some genuine research! Unlike the other few other times.. Now he was observing some samples they had gotten recently, and they came straight from Betazed! He was running some geomechanical tests on them, to test how different they were from Earth's samples and he was just elbows deep into his work. Definitely not expecting someone to just pop in.

It had only been a few days since Mallory had arrived on the starbase, but she already felt like she was running behind. Not on her actual work, thankfully, but her last assignment from the counsellor she'd been in touch with before arriving here: get to know some people! Apparently, that was good for your mental health or something. She had decided to start with poking around the research facilities, hoping to run into a fellow scientist. That would be a good jumping off point, right? Right. She looked around curiously as she walked further into the geology lab and spotted a figure hunched over a bunch of different kinds of rocks, which- yeah, that made sense. Mallory knocked lightly on the countertop to get his attention. "Um, hello? Sorry- I hope I'm not interrupting!" Except she absolutely was interrupting. Whoops.

Poor Jack screeched and whipped around, his glasses nearly falling off his face as he stared at Mallory. Now rather embarrassed because of his weird noise, he took a moment to recover before clearing his throat and waving at her, a (very) nervous grin on his face. "H-hey there! I... uh, sorry for the noise- I wasn't expecting anyone to come in!" He smiled shyly and ran his prosthetic hand over his arm, his gaze going absolutely everywhere but the new scientist in the room. Oh great, Jack! You go.

The sharp noise made Mallory jump as well, and she took a small step backwards. "Ah- no- I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!" She fidgeted with her hands for a moment, then remembered to be professional and straightened back up. "Um, Mallory LaCroix, nice to meet you! I'm, uh, new on the base and figured I'd make the rounds and introduce myself." She held out a hand in offering to shake his, still visibly nervous despite her best efforts. It seemed right from the start that these were two peas in a pod, as the saying went.

Jack was previously hunching over a little, but soon stood up straight as soon as she did and smiled shyly, shaking her hand with his prosthetic one. "Jack Bright, nice to meet you too! And wait, you're new? Well, er- Would you... Like me to introduce you to the geology lab? It's by far one of my favorite places aboard the Starbase, and if you'd like I could give you a tour across the whole place too! Though it'll take a while to round the entire Starbase on foot." He chuckled awkwardly, but there was something new to this whole introduction. He was flustered!

She hesitated, looking uncertain. Walking around the whole Starbase with anyone, let alone a stranger, sounded like... A Lot. A part of her wanted to retreat and call this whole thing a wash, but then where would she be? Right back at square one. "Ah- I'm not sure if I've got enough time for the entire Starbase, but I would like to see all of the research facilities! Um, if you don't mind, of course." He literally had just offered to do exactly that, but it still felt presumptuous to just assume he would be willing to show her around right this second.

"Oh! That's- That's great, that's fine! Sorry, I should've asked you if you wanted to do that, right... But I can show you around the research facilities, yes! If you'd... Well, like to do so, of course." Jack rapidly quipped, already sweating bullets while his body stiffened up to the point he was standing as straight as a board. The poor man was already so nervous he seemed weird, off, or even flat out creepy when he was just trying his best to help, so in his mind all hope was already lost.

She nodded in response, offering a small smile. Jack didn't seem especially weird or creepy to her, actually, just... Nervous and a bit awkward, just like her. In an odd way, the similarities helped put her at ease a bit and some of the tension left her shoulders. She adjusted her large, round glasses and shifted her gaze to the rocks Jack had been working on before she'd interrupted him. "So this is the geology lab, right? What are you working on in here?" She asked.

"This? I'm... I'm running some geomechanical tests on these samples, they came from Betazed and I'm wanting to discover if they have the same strength as the ones from Earth. Y'know, geology stuff." At the same time he adjusted his smaller rectangular glasses, turning back to the samples and making way so she could look into the microscope. "What I'm doing is right there under the microscope."

She moved closer and peered into the microscope to see what he was talking about. "Oh, this is so cool! I've always been better with more, uh, organic matter, but rocks and minerals are also fascinating. Have you made any headway so far?" Mallory drew back from the microscope and grinned at Jack, looking much more at ease than she initially did. She was still anxious to make a good first impression, of course, but conversations about research were always easy to keep up with once they got started – in her experience, anyway. Even if she didn't get all of the details, she was always content to let people explain however much they wanted to her.

"I've discovered that the samples from Betazed are actually weaker than the samples from Earth, even ran some tests on them and found that the larger samples with an approximate amount of minerals and basically found in the same place the rocks from Betazed would be found if they had been on earth!" He grinned back at her, also at ease as he let his shoulders sink a little more. "I have samples from New Romulus, Qo'noS, Vulcan, Andoria, Risa... We got a lot of them." Now proudly crossing his arms, his excited energy finally began shining through again.

"Oh, cool! You'll have to let me see your findings when you've got it all typed up! Or, actually-" She gave a small laugh and fidgeted with a strand of hair, which would only stand to make it frizzier than it already was, but it was too late now. "I guess you really do have to let me see it; I'm here as a journal editor, so I'll be the one looking over various research papers before sending them off to peer review." Not a very hands-on job by any means, but Mallory supposed that was the point of being assigned desk work. Maybe if she behaved well enough, her higher-ups would consider letting her back out in the field? One could only hope.

"Definitely! And oh whaaaaaaah-?! You're a journalist?? Or well- a journal editor?? I don't think I've ever had one of those in my lab, feel free to look upon my research and findings! Just don't mind the notes and my table, they're... uh, well- a little messy." He chuckled awkwardly, spinning around on his heel and running across his lab to get both his handwritten notes and his PADD.

The sudden shift in demeanor came as a surprise to Mallory. "Oh, no- You don't have to-" But he was already rushing to find his notes. Mallory followed after him, hands held up as if to slow him down. "Ah- really, I'm not anyone special! I'm not here to..." She trailed off for a second as she tried to pick the right words. She was going to finish the sentence with 'to do work', but then that would sound like she was trying to slack off, wouldn't it? "Er, I mean, I'm not- I was just curious about meeting you! I mean, not you specifically. No, wait, I mean not not you, you seem great-" Oh no, she was stumbling over her words left and right now, it was all falling to pieces. "I just wanted to come say hi to everyone," she concluded, voice now meek.

And so it continued. Ever since the incident, Jack stuck to the geology labs and always showed up to his shifts (even if a little late), but he's become.... distant. Drawn off, away from the world. He hasn't talked to anyone since, has inadvertently starved himself, hasn't even fixed his hand up. Everything's just work work work, and he subconsciously intended on continuing with it that way. He was so worried about Saren, so worried about his roommate—.... former, roommate, now, but he didn't know how to approach him. Hell, the way he acted when Saren had returned to his "normal", quote on quote, way.. after he had stabbed the Admiral and the Captain. Like Saren would want to see him again... Hm. The redhead still didn't know what had caused it considering he didn't get the news nor interacted with anyone lately, but it's not like that mattered now. With a heavy sigh, the disheveled man slumped against his table and hid his face with his arms, looking at his fucked up prosthetic for a moment before looking away and putting his glasses away so they wouldn't break. Again. Why did he always have to be so affected by this? It was getting so boring, so boring to have to deal with heartbreak and abandonment over and over again. It wasn't fun anymore. And now he had to deal with this, too! Oh, how he missed the time where he could mask his unhappy ways with sarcasm and a perpetual happy-go-lucky demeanor.

Today's shift felt longer than her shifts usually did. This wasn't an objective observation, but she couldn't help but make it non the less. As she entered the geology lab she brushed her hair behind her ears. That morning she'd braided her bangs back together with the rest of her hair. It had been a little odd not seeing the familiar shadow of her hair from the corner of her eyes. They had not stayed there, now a few hours later most of them were once again framing her face. She'd have to secure them better tomorrow. For a moment she halted at the door, taking in the entirety of the lab, before her eyes settled on the supply closet. If at all possible she needed to find something that resembled the analysis she'd been sent as closely as possible, so she could get some pointers as to how she might be able to replicate similar conditions. Pulling up their inventory on her PADD she started looking for samples that might be helpful. There were a few results that weren't all too far off, but nothing that quite fit. She wasn't surprised, by all accounts the readings she'd gotten made barely any sense. If someone had asked her, she'd have said what they were looking at was something highly unstable, that might last a few nanoseconds at best, but the message that had come with the analysis had insisted that they had gotten the same reading constantly over a duration of almost an hour. Raising an eyebrow, she let the PADD sink and carefully leaned against one of the desks.

[D]There he was once again, still half way within his shift, but never did he count the hours were left of it. Sometimes, time flew too fast for his work, but at times, time was so slow when he had little to none to do. The occasional cadets that were posted under his supervision usually kept him company for most of those borish times. However, this time, it was the opposite of none to do. He was notified earlier in his shift that the probe data he requested had come. He was a chemist, but geology was something he was well-versed in courtesy of his accumulated experience. One thing for sure though, the data he had to analyse was nothing close to something complex. All he had to do was identify the many natural occurrences and log them in to be listed. He also had to list the possibilities that might hinder or change the data he had caused by natural elements. Nothing short of the usual stuff, in fact, if he passed this task on to a cadet, they probably could do it even if some might miss a thing or maybe misidentify a thing. But all in all, it was well within the error margin he had for a cadet. As he was working on the data at one of the consoles in the lab with a PADD in one hand, he noticed the new figure that had just entered the premise. The figure that had just won the recent Science Fair that had a very interesting story attached to it. That figure was his boss, Lieutenant Commander Evoras. It did not seem that she noticed him so he did not give her a nod of a subtle greeting. His focus shifted back to his work for a minute or two, ignoring her presence for now as he had figured he would finish up first before greeting her for real and see if he could be of help.

11:09

Now, once he was wrapping up, he glanced back to his boss to see if she was still there. He noticed that she looked confused, or at least that was how he perceived it as. He closed his work, logged in the last few things and headed over to the Commander. "Do you need help, Commander?" Rudy asked casually.

Evoras' speciality was neither Geology nor Chemistry. That's not to say she was unfamiliar with these subjects, she just didn't have quite the same skill at coming up with an hypothesis on what might be going on that she had when it came to Physics. To be completely honest, she wasn’t sure why figuring this out had been left to her. There had to be someone with better or rather more appropriate qualifications than her that could have figured this out. Not that she had any complaints about being assigned this, still she couldn't help but wonder. Perhaps it was the fact that she worked on a station whereas many of her colleagues were confined to the labs on a ship. When she was addressed she turned her head to look at the Lieutenant and gave him a brief nod. Then her eyes returned to her PADD. Did she need help? Probably not. She was fairly confident that she would figure this out eventually. Was there a possibility that someone else's input might reduce the time she spent on this significantly? Most definitely. If there was a chance she could somehow avoid spending hours doing nothing but looking through different sources searching for something similar that might give her a hint as to what she was dealing with here, it would be rather illogical to willingly waste that time. So she brought up the data on her PADD, turned it around and held it out for him to look at. "Would you happen to know what sort of conditions could result in this being stable for almost an hour?" She'd been supplied with some things that had been recorded simultaneously to the materials, but none of them looked out of the ordinary to her… at least not to a degree that would have consequences quite this drastic. Either there was something at play here that wasn't apparent in the data she'd gotten or she was missing something that was right in front of her. "Some pointers would be appreciated nonetheless, but it is nothing particularly time sensitive as far as I have been told."

[D] At some point the dilemma was solved. In the end the had come up with 2.5 possible reasonable reasons for the data to be what it was, that Evoras planned to look into on her own. She gave her thanks to the Lieutenant and left.

Lilian was pouring over some uploads from the newest dataset, trying to make heads or tails of some of it. Some of the shapes we're making no sense. Hopefully the engineer she had asked for would know more. (edited)

It had taken her some time to arrive, as engineering was backed up pretty bad with requests, but she was finally able to make it here, PADD in hand. She also had her engineering toolkit with her, and would unpack her essentials as soon as she hand an idea of what the issue was and how she would be able to fix it. "Ah, hello, hello. I'm here to help with some data descrambling...? The request was sent by a Lilian So... am I correct in assuming that is you?" She tried to recall if she had ever seen this person on the station before, but nothing was coming to mind... so she would have to remember this name for later.

"Yes, thank you for coming so quickly. I need some help looking over these images." Lilian slid the photos over. On them are a few metallic spires sticking out of a mountain. "I got these photos from a planetary scan a bit ago but I can't make heads or tails of what they are. My first though was lightning rods but who would build lighting rods into a mountain, and why?"

She hummed as she scanned the pictures. She was no scholar in these things, but she would try her best with what she was given. Taking the pictures in her hand, she turned to the lieutenant commander. "Perhaps... or the pictures could be skewed by the compartments that took the picture... What planet was this? is it habitable?"

"This is Komorihen Beta. All scans indicate it's habitable but we've never seen anything moving around the surface." She paused for a moment before remembering Coda was an engineer. "Of course, that doesn't mean there's not a subterrarian situation or some other reason we can't see them."

She nodded, trying to think of any other reason that this might be happening. "Uhm, well let me check some of the systems just to roll a few things out. It might just be a malfunction, or not, but no harm in checking all our bases." Coda then pulled out her tricorder and began to scan the systems "While I'm at it, can you tell me a bit of your work?"

"All the tests I know how to do came up with nothing but I would be surprised if I know them all. What exactly do you want to know? There's a good bit so it would probably help to condense." Lilian slid the photos back into their folder and put them on a different table to make sure Coda had room.

When the tricorder was done scanning, Coda began to inspect the various tools more intently with more precise tools. After that she would run some tests and see if the results changed. It would take a while though, so back to the conversation she went. "Well, what's your specific title? I'm listed as an electric engineer mainly but I dabble in all sort of parts of a starship. It is very fun to know just how everything works.. it's like a massive puzzle and I know all the pieces... how to put em together and take em apart."

"Oh, officially I'm an anthropologist but I've also studied archelogy and the like. But really I've studied a lot and it's my job to identify potential life, past or present, on planets. Oh!" She shuffles around some papers behind Coda, looking for a particular set of photos. "I forgot to mention this, but that planet tends to have fairly intense lightning storms very frequently. I don't know if that helps you much but if feels relevant."

"Frequent lightening storms... that could help me if things become more difficult to figure out. So far the electrical systems look fine, but I haven't finished my diagnostics and test runs... sorry sometimes these things can take hours but I'll try my best to get this done fast so that you can get back to your work." She shift a little, and got up to stretch. for now a test was running and would tell her the results on her tricorder after a few minutes "Oooh that sounds cool. I took a few classes when I first joined the academy when I was figuring out what path I wanted to take. That stuff is really interesting though!"

"Always good to explore you're options!" Lilian returns having found the photos she was looking for. "I remembered some more photos we got from that same planet. These ones were taken on first scan, and they're why we decided to have a closer look. Here." She spread the photos on the table, which showed a similar mountain range with similar spires during a thunder storm, the lightning striking the spires.

Just as she was reviewing the photos, her tricorder pinged. Nothing wrong with any of the instruments here.. which only meant that the pictures were legit. "T-this is amazing... you might be right there might be something down there... I mean all the instruments are working fine... Could the information be somewhere underground then? With such intense storms nothing could survive on the surface... but under it, under it!" Coda was almost shaking with excitement here, this was possibly a real discovery they were working on here!

Lilian lit up. "You might be on to something! Maybe this is some form of power generation, taking advantage of the planetary storms!" She picked up her pad and began typing furiously. "We have a ship in orbit right now, hopefully they can send up some thermal scans. If it is power generation we should see everything light up."

"Oh this is exciting! I've never been apart of something like this before! How long before we get the pictures, do you know? I've already examined the instruments, so nothing is wrong there... can you tell me a bit more on the planet perhaps? Any away teams recently that I can pull reports from?"

"No away teams, the storms meant we haven't risked a landing." Lilians pad beeped. "They've confirmed the request, should just be a few minutes now. The planet is a class L, although that's largely because of the storms. There is some limited animal life we've picked up on the surface so there's been some debate as to it's proper classification but that's where we have it for now."

She huffed a big sigh... this planet was a mystery, and figuring it out will be tricky... maybe someone else is needed? She already done all she could do right? Waiting made her think too much, but this was still exciting in a way "Sorry, I'm not well versed in this type of things..

*Lilian gently puts her hand on Coda's shoulder and offers a reassuring smile." "Hey don't talk like that, you saw something I didn't. Just because this isn't your area of expertise doesn't mean your input isn't valuable, this planet makes very valuable."

She took a deep breath and relaxed her nerves. This was exciting, and she needed to focus on just that. Not on what she was capable of, she needed to focus on what she was doing now. "Right, right. Sorry, I don't know what came over me. I'll focus better, Lieutenant. Have the pictures come in? I could analyze and see if there is any damage on the machine side of things."

Lilian doesn't answer directly but sent the photos from her padd to the main screen in the room, filling it with a variety of images. "Alright, let's see what we can do with this." She began to sort the photos by location and type.

Examing the pictures to the best of her ability, she tried to see if anything would be out of the ordinary. The pictures were kind of blurry and distorted, but that was due to the thunderstorms and their interference with equipment ... nothing that she could fix, even if she tried... the storms were too hazardous on the planet as it was. "Do the storms die down at all? I can't tell anything in these pictures... and if we can't get an away team, this might be a bust... hmm.. any ideas on a clearer image?"

The storms do die down occasionally, but it's unpredicatable and often short. We've tried unmanned probes but we usually lose contact before they make landfall. I guess if we could find some way to get a shuttle through the storms that would work?" Lilian paused for a moment to think. “From what we've seen, our gear should keep the team safe on the groud during the storm if we can just get them to the surface without crashing." (edited)

It seemed almost impossible to figure out how to do this as safe as possible.. she wasn't an experienced shuttle pilot, but maybe she could do a few things to improve the shields on the probes to make it so that they would stay connected, at least for a few minutes at landfall... hmm... "If you give me a minute to tinker with a probe, I can try to see if I can help with this, at least a little bit!"

“Sure, I can send you the specs right now but getting you a physical one might be a bit trickier.” Lilian sent the sent the specs of the probes, along with the data that had been retrieved from the lost probes. “It seems like the last data from the probes is pretty consistently normal, so it’s something with passing through the clouds. We’re not sure if it’s breaking the probes or just severing contact though…”

She examined the specs and got to work, reworking a few things from the previous probes... the most difficult thing would be to apply this to an existing probe. hmmm. "So far it looks like the clouds are doing a bit of both. The lightening storms sever contact as it goes down, but also causes some overheating in come components, causing them to fuse together.... This might be more difficult than I thought..."

"Hm, that is a complicated issue..." Lilian tapped their chin, deep in thought. "I think I have some holo-schematics of the probe if that would help?"

"Well, I don't know if I'll be able to do it, but nothing is stopping us from trying! Hand over those schematics and I'll see what I can do."

With a few presses of her padd, Lilian sent the schematics over. "There you go!"

She took a look at the schematics and began to make a virtual representation of her work... if she made any mistakes the computer would catch it, allowing for her to perfect the design as much as possible before working with actual components. "Thank you so much, this might take a bit, but shouldn't be too long, I can't guarantee it will work indefinitely though, just maybe a minute max after it passes the clouds... and that's being generous."