Science for Science's Sake

Posted on Mon Mar 23rd, 2020 @ 2:19pm by Captain Asahi Kita (Mirror) & Lieutenant Selina Fenruse (*)

Mission: Mirror Mirror
Location: ISS Revelation, Science Lab 5
1620 words - 3.2 OF Standard Post Measure

The prospect of managing to snag a ship that was not meant for war excited Asahi. Once he discovered that there were facilities that they could access that had functions that were for exploration, however, and he was beside himself.

Once he was alerted to the presence of the suite of laboratories, all utilized for sciences, Asahi made a point of going down himself and checking each and every one of them for signs of traps or unknown dangers. But, aside from a few decaying animals carcasses that he ordered be disposed of before he left the labs, there were none. Everything had safety procedures in place, and was in perfect working order.

And he wouldn't let a soul near them again until after that next hour, when he was touring them with Selina.

"See?" he wanted to make sure she saw, that the labs weren't a figment of his overactive imagination. "I don't know if I know what half of this stuff does, but there are files on the consoles that give tutorials on that - so we can train people. Or hell, you can get yourself trained if you'd like. But I told you. A science lab. No, seven of them. Perfect for whatever we want to examine or research."

"And there are no traps? I do not understand why Shinji would just give up this ship to you." Selina murmured softly still in her exhaustion haze. She was wearing something for once that covered her instead of one of the exquisite dressed Gregnol and every other Commanding Officer required her to wear. It was not fancy being a simple black dressed and tights but it was long-sleeved and had a higher neck line.

Asahi gave a shrug. "A ship with decent war capabilities but is clearly more suited for something he could care less about? I think once he was done scouring whatever data he wanted, he was more keen on getting rid of the thing than he was keeping it for himself." The ship was fairly large, but he couldn't see his grandfather having much use for the thing when he had his own ship to take care of. "He hasn't given me a 'mission' yet either, so I assume I'm kind of... on my own for the moment. Or maybe he's watching. Who knows. Doesn't matter, we have a non-trapped lab for sciences. Any sciences. They can be germ warfare or they can just be animals. Anything."

Selina was struggling as she stood there with the concept of freedom. She had known nothing but Engineering and then the struggles of being a Betazoid on an Imperial Vessel expected to do as the Captain wanted. "Anything is a big idea." She whispered running her hand along one of the consoles.

"It is." Hopping up onto one of the many tables, Asahi watched on patiently. "But that's the beauty of it. Sure, we can sit here and develop a virus that could cripple the Klingons, but we could also up our resources, find ways to sustain crops - hell, even make contact with other races without blowing them up. I'm sure we can't go on too long without the Admiral asking about progress, but that doesn't mean we can't dedicate this lab to a more peaceful endeavor."

Selina watched him jumping up onto the table and shrugged. "Peaceful." The woman scoffed how could anything be peaceful after eons of war and destruction. Would be like changing the DNA of the Terran race.

"Yeah, peaceful." Confident he would have his way about this, Asahi leaned over to the wall console he was propped up near, calling up various files and data that was already in the computer's system. "Like, there's a thing about the mating rituals of native hummingbirds to colony planets. Colonies that are used for something other than slave labor and mining of whatever new energy source we're after next. Think about that. They've got a whole colony and what they use it for is stuff like this. What do you think?" He turned to face her, big grin on his face. "There's hope, right?"

"Hope is always what is left in the box. Just depends on how much is left. Is this what you took from the other universe?" Selina wondered taking in his grin as she moved to look at all the non militaristic information rushing across her eyes. She never saw him look that giddy about anything.

Asahi nodded, with a tiny glint in his eye. "Yeah. Well, I didn't take it, the Admiral did. I'm surprised he didn't wipe the whole thing. Maybe he thought the information would be useful. Or he just wants to see what I'm going to do with it. Either way, we've got all this right here. Like see?" He pointed at a picture of a flower in one of the files. "Right here. This flower has medicinal properties. It's on some planet that we haven't even bothered to look at because normally, it's near-uninhabited, and it's not anywhere near anything that Admiralty considers conquerable. So how would we have found this? But we could fight off disease with this plant, in more than just humans. Apparently there's a few diseases that affect all sorts of carbon-based life forms."

"I almost envy the other universe," Selina admitted turning from the console to look at Asahi, "I envy those people who do not have to look over their shoulders, or worry that someone will suspect them." Selina walked the lab silently trying to order her thoughts. It would be so easy if he was a telepath.

"Tch." Asahi frowned at her, arms crossing over his chest. His endeavor was already noted as foolish by at least half the crew; he suspected at least one coup attempt would come of it. As right as she could have been, Asahi wasn't going to give up on his goal so easily. He could worry about the reality of the situation after he convinced her to ease up. "Come on, we can have this too. Maybe not so wide-scale, but if everyone else wants to war around us, fine."

Selina looked at him and frowned back feeling exactly what he was trying to convey to her. It was maddening that he was doing this. "You are Gregnol are two polar opposites. How did I end up with a Captain like you?" She wondered only half kidding.

"Hey, just because I'm not willing to blow up a whole planet over some intense hatred of everything doesn't mean I can't fight back. We're not that opposite. He just has an itchy trigger finger and I see more sense in trying to keep more people alive." He pointed a finger upward as if to make a point. "The more allies we have, the more likely we can overcome whatever obstacle anyone throws at us."

Selina wondered to argue but someone stepped into the Science lab and Selina stopped in her tracks at the familiar woman that was stood there almost ignoring her presence. "Jeassaho?" Selina clutched the desk in front of her hard. "His wife is alive... The Butcher dead wife is not dead." Selina cried stunned to her core. She knew Asahi had secrets but this one now made so much more sense as to why he wanted to get so far away from Gregnol.

"Not my idea." Asahi pointed out. "But she's the one who helped me organize all this. We just needed a ship fast enough to outrun most of the fleet. Which includes the Fenrir." He looked over to the woman, head tilted to one side. "That reminds me, how close are we go the Bolian homeworld? We need that experimental warp engine quick. I think we've gotten this far on misinformation, but someone's bound to tell him something soon."

"Whose idea then?" Selina asked trying to keep her balance. She was still weak and really should have known better than to show weakness.

"No one you need to know about just yet Selina." Jeassaho finally said moving to the woman taking her hand in hers. "You have been so brave just take a few breaths and relax. No one is going to hurt you here. How would you feel about coming to help in Engineering?"

Selina pulled her hand back and frowned. "I am not in Engineering anymore." She said simply offering a nod to Kita before she walked out of the lab. She needed time to explore herself.

Jeassaho watched the woman walk away. "She will come around and we arrive at the Bolian Homeworld in 18 hours."

Asahi frowned. He was so close to convincing her. "You know," he stated, giving a small pause before he continued. "You coulda just told her it was my idea. Because it was. She's just as important as everyone else. I just need her to trust the idea." His eyes narrowed. "Maybe if we end up convincing Bolarus that we aren't going to murder everything in sight that'll help."

"She knows enough for now to wet her interest. She is smart and likes good puzzle despite what your grandfather put her through." Jeassaho would have offered her husband up as the man who had done it but she knew Rueben would not have touched her like that. Betazoids were too precious to him now after what he had done to her homeworld. "You better get started on that speech if you want them to believe us."

---

Selina Fenruse
Chief Inquisitor
ISS Revelation
(PNPC Gregnol)

Jeassaho Kea-Gregnol
Civilian Advisor
ISS Revelation
(PNPC Gregnol)

Asahi Kita
Captain
ISS Revelation
(PNPC Uhin)