Answers...at Last (part 6)

Posted on Sat Nov 21st, 2020 @ 11:12am by Lieutenant Commander Amber Quinn & Lieutenant JG Pippa Patterson & Lieutenant Remy Boudreau & Lieutenant Zuub & Lieutenant JG Tiskatee Troilon
Edited on on Sat Nov 21st, 2020 @ 11:17am

1,161 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Caverns of the mind

[CONTINUED]

[OLD]

'Alright,' Boudreau scrambled up the rocks and to the side of where Quinn had spread the treats for the lizards. He dialled his phaser settings back to a tight beam, setting it to a heavy stun. Crouching he watched out for any emerging critters.

Amber found a tree she could climb that kept her out of site but gave her a slight chance of spotting a lizard.

[NEW]

It took an hour, but finally, a small creature ran up to the food and grabbed some.

Troilon had the setting of the phaser so low that she knew it would not harm the creature. She fired and the beam struck true, those hours in the range had paid off with a perfect shot.

"Ugly little critters; as the Doctor might say in some Southern Drawl." SHe moved and gently picked up the Lizard thing and placed it in the carrier. "You are a skilled hunter Commander." Troilon complemented. "Now are we ready to go back?"

'I'm good if you are,' replied Boudreau laconically. 'It smells as bad as a nutria, and is just as ugly, so yeah, ugly critter seems to fit it.' He flashed the Orion a smile, 'quite a shot there ma'am.'

"Thank you." Troilon tried to hide the grin so she looked away to the Critter. "We better turn the exhaust fans in the lab up a notch for this one."

Amber chuckled. "We'll let the doctor take some scans and a blood sample, then bring it back here to wake up so it won't know what happened." There were some instances when keeping an animal--dead or alive--for research was a good idea. She wasn't so sure about this creature. She would rather let it live and leave the choice up to the next scientific researchers.

'Seems like the ethical thing to do,' agreed Boudreau, picking up the carrier. 'Let's get back to base, shall we? No telling when more of the cave people will come gallivanting out of there.'

"Agreed." Amber checked the area, then decided not to walk back. "Quinn to Patterson. If you wouldn't mind, three to beam back to the research station. Well, three and a lizard."

"Patterson here. I don't blame you. Give me a minute..." It took two before the transporter activated.

"Thanks," Amber said, stepping off the small pad. "Troilon, if you could take our friend to the doctor, I'll see about finding something besides rations to eat."

'Did they bring any perishables with them when they set up the mission?' Boudreau asked Quinn as he stepped off the pad, 'if they have I can try and rustle something up besides replicator slop.'

"Of course Sir." Troilon automatically took the carrier and started towards the back. "Could you put on some strong tea please; I could use a cup."

'Strong tea, check. Anyone else who needs it, I'll be making some strong coffee to go with it if I can find the good stuff.'

"I'll show you what we have," Amber said to Remy. "There's not a lot, but there are some fruit trees nearby."

'Thanks - some fruit would do us good if it's not contaminated,' he'd worn an environment suit this long, he was not about to throw away his good work. 'Although cooking may make what ever's affecting people inert. Who knows?'

"That is up to the doctor. My job is to make sure nobody starves," Amber said.

Troilon walked into the lab with the Lizard in the case; still snoozing.

"Doctor Zuub." SHe brought the sample case to the table. "I think you and the Doctor Nicoles will need to play with his stinky little thing." She nodded to the Doctor. "Can you seal the door; with the smell I do not want to open my mouth to eat with it right there?"

Zuub looked at the lizard and wondered at it. Sealing the door, she still felt uncomfortable in her hazmat suit that she had not removed. "Where did you find this creature?" Zuub asked as she administered an anesthetic through a hypospray into the lizard.

Boudreau shrugged, 'in the rocks outside the cave system the humanoids are living in. Like we said, the lizards live in the caves, and seem to have accelerated the effects on the crewmembers when one of them was licked by said rock lizard.'

"Outside the cave?" the Andorian considered. "Yes, that would be a rather good test to see if it was the lizard or something inside the cave." Zuub started running scans over the lizard. After a great deal of searching over the results, Zuub announced, "There seems to be nothing unusual about this animal, as far as I can tell. It does not rule it out completely. Perhaps there is an interaction but in of itself, I can find nothing in this animal that would account for our crew members' reactions."

"Well Snit." Nicoles said as she looked up from her scan. "It really might just be a help if we knew what we are looking for?" Letting out a breath. "Could it be a smaller particle in higher density inside the cave and therefore account for the change?" She commented. "Something airborne and thus when out in the open air dispersed?"

'That's the most likely at this point,' replied Boudreau, rubbing his forehead in frustration. He really thought they'd cracked it with the lizards, 'and it backs up the analysis we did on the Aurora.' He looked at the Andorian, 'any chance that this animal has been affected as well?'

"There is a chance," the Andorian told Boudreau. "But, I see nothing special about this animal. If it ever has been affected, it is not showing now, which suggests that if something goes in the cave and then comes out, whatever is plaguing our crewmembers may go away with time. However, there is only one way to test that. We could expose this animal to the cavern and bring it back out for signs of change."

'I can't vouch for how long a time it spent out of the caves before we caught it, but it would seem awfully fast for any effects to filter out of its system if it was just hunting as normal.' Anther frustrated sigh, 'possibly whatever's in the cave only affects non-reptilian species.' He looked to the doctors again, 'did we get any data from Jansum and Nakano yet?'

Zuub's antennae drooped. "Yes, there is a decrease of activity in the prefrontal cortex and frontal lobes. This generally means that the higher order of brain functions will be reduced. They will operate more on instinct."

(To be continued...)

Lieutenant Remy Boudreau
Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant JG Tiskatee Troilon
Security Officer

Lieutenant JG Pippa Patterson
Assistant Chief Operations Officer

Lieutenant Zuub
Chief Medical Officer

Lieutenant Commander Amber Quinn
Executive Officer

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