Discussing Options (part 2)

Posted on Fri Jan 31st, 2020 @ 8:57am by Lieutenant Commander Amber Quinn & Lieutenant Remy Boudreau & Lieutenant JG Paris Deville & Lieutenant JG Tessa Nicoles
Edited on on Fri Jan 31st, 2020 @ 9:07am

1,317 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Caverns of the mind

[CONTINUED]

[OLD]

Boudreau ignored the jibe from the red-collared lieutenant and adopted a conciliatory tone. 'The Lieutenant does make some correct assumptions. The first being we will eventually have to return to the planet in order to retrieve our personnel.'

[NEW]

'Secondly, we'll need to review any data generated by both the science mission to the planet, and the away team's scans before proceeding - they may turn something up, even though we've found nothing yet.' He shrugged, 'we should also probably have the away team subjected to thorough scans and compare their results with baseline medical data held from their most recent medical check-ups and physicals, in order to check that you aren't suffering any ill-effects from the trip.'

He drained his drink quickly, ploughing on before anyone could interrupt, 'it may very well be that we have to return to the planet's surface to find the source that plagues our colleagues. As has been indicated, this poses a significant risk to the away team, the source of which is currently unknown.' He shrugged, 'given that the planet's inhabitants are found within the cave systems, and seem to have a stable society, I'm tempted by an atmospheric radiation hypothesis.'

Boudreau looked at Deville directly, 'the incorrect assumption the Lieutenant made was in assuming I wouldn't take the utmost care of any crew on an Away Mission I lead. There are clear regs for this sort of situation, and I don't intend to ignore them. They are tried, they are tested and are proven to minimise risk.' He looked around the table, 'I have no idea how the previous Chief Science Officer behaved on the ship, but I would like you not to prejudice your opinions of me by his actions.'

Paris looked to Bourdreau quickly, maintaining his calm tone and smile, as he leaned slightly forward. "Then can you tell us, with the utmost certainty, what caused the scientists down there to get infected. The same scientist, I remind you, follow the same reg as you would because you were both training by the same people. Hmm?" He leaned back and grabbed his mug, holding it up slightly. "You misunderstand, Lieutenant. My intention wasn't to accuse you of not being good at your job. You can tell that because I never insinuated you didn't know how to do it nor that any of this was your fault. My intention is to just to remind everyone we are still dealing with the unknown and, while uncovering the unknown is our modus operandi, we should remember the aftermath and avoid it happening to anyone here. We have yet to discover a cure to what happened, nor if it can even be cured, so limiting those infected would help. And, correct me if I am wrong, but it also does serve as protocol when dealing with infections or viruses of this nature. Does it not?"

Boudreau's brow furrowed and he rubbed at his beard for a moment before answering, 'I said minimised, not eliminated unfortunately Lieutenant. There's an inherent element of risk in our job, which none of us need to be reminded of. I would also avoid making sweeping statements asserting the science team followed all our regulations.'

'As you yourself suggested, they may have not been aware of what was happening to them. We, however, are aware and have the benefit of being able to create datasets to compare from a baseline in order to assess an origin to the devolution of our colleagues.'

'An infection usually leads to death, and given the science team's lack of tolerance to native fauna and flora I would reckon them to be dead by now if they were infected in the way I think you mean. A virus is more likely, though I don't know off-hand why a virus would simply devolve a person in this way. Radiation, as I said, and perhaps a parasitic or chemical origin are possibly more promising avenues of investigation. Without ruling anything out, he drawled. 'And, Lieutenant, whatever your intention, your speechifying there strongly suggests little faith in the abilities and awareness of the crew around you. I hope you'll take that on board.'

"I'm an El-Aurian whose been around the block longer then you, or anyone where, has been alive and I would like to continue that life and leave it on my own terms. I've seen bold people claim to be able to stop something they couldn't and those convinced something that will never be stopped be put down by something completely unexpected. So, I'm not saying this can't be done, I only approach it as someone who isn't a scientist." Paris replied, picking up his mug, with a smile. "I apologize that you are offended and I can only hope you understand, in time, that I mean no offense its just my self preservation which has kept me alive and alert for this long. Also, I have a criminal record and my only job here is to fly you all back and forth from point a to point b so your faith in me and yours in mind will always be iffy because remind me how long we've been here?" He raised his mug and smirked. "You can't built trust in a day, but you can judge those by how they deal with certain situations that's put in front of you and how they judge you in those same situations. Despite what you, and I feel about each other, we rely on each other to perform our own tasks so let's agree to disagree and maybe build a bridge later on. Shall we?"

Nodding, Boudreau simply said 'agreed. I'll do my job, and you'll do yours. This argument is useless - he's into this for disingenuous wordplay, he thought. Smiling thinly he finished, 'bridges can come later.'

Paris returned the smile, recognizing it for what it really was, and took another sip from his mug. He was convinced now, more then ever, he had to send his message out to the right buyers. With a smile on his face, and his head leaning against the cushion of the seat, he closed his eyes again and placing his mug on his lap. There was only one person, so far, whose opinion he cared about and it certainly wasn't this guy.

"Might Ah inter-ject something?" The Doctor spoke up. "One thang Ah got in the scans is a lot of activity in the 'Hindbrain and Medulla' parts of the brain. "Ah managed to get a scan of the group closest to us..." Trying to control her nervous drawl. "The Scientist in that group had the same levels of activity in the long scan as the natives." She explained. "What is referred to as the Primal; or reptilian' brain is most active and the rational brain is not dominant." She noted. "The more basic survival instincts are overriding the normally rational side we all use normally. "Ah do not know why; Ah would need blood samples or an extended scan with more than just a tricorder to evaluate."

Amber addressed Paris’ comment first. "We do not know what precautions were taken by the science team. They were on the planet for long enough to feel they didn't need them. So, whatever they encountered is either from a specific location, or specific food, or it was introduced after they arrived and deemed the planet safe. A survey team before them felt it was safe enough to build the facility, so we may need to dig a little deeper for answers."


(To be continued...)

Lieutenant Remy Boudreau
Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant JG Paris Deville
Chief Flight Control Officer

Lieutenant Tessa NIcoles
Medical Officer

Lieutenant Commander Amber Quinn
Executive Officer

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