Dealing with the New Chief (Part 1)

Posted on Mon Jun 21st, 2021 @ 9:59pm by Lieutenant Vanessa Jackson & Warrant Officer Eitan Tuscadero

Mission: The Mentarin Effect

ON

When the Captain left, Vanessa turned to Tully. "I guess we should invite the new Chief Science Officer to join us."

"I hope it is not a Vulcan. Please do not let it be a Vulcan," replied Tully shaking his head. "Last posting I had before here? Vulcan Chief Science Officer, stern, cold, stonefaced, not a lick of humor...gave me flashbacks to Sister Bernadette."

As if on cue, a brown blur entered the room. The blur started darting about, to and fro, searching each area to make sure it had seen everything possible. It then slowed down and before the Warrant Officer and Lieutenant Jackson stood a five foot, five inched tall creature. She had brown leathery skin and shiny rock-like objects on her head that stretched from the top of her scalp, where they were longer and more numerous to the end of her nose where they were smaller and more delicate. They picked up again below her lower lip and widened towards her chin. There could be little doubt that this creature was a Tygarian but neither individual in the room could ever recall seeing a female Tygarian.

The Tygarian smiled at the two individuals and speaking extremely rapidly and with a cheery voice said, "Hello! My name is Lieutenant Amelix Milumad. I'm the new Chief Science Officer. I'm looking for my assistant, who I believe is called Vanessa Jackson. Maybe I got it wrong and her name was Valencia Johnson. I'm not really sure. Names are not my forte. In fact, nothing here is my forte. As you might have noticed, I'm the only Tygarian EVER admitted into Starfleet. Do you know much about Tygarians? Not many people do. If you must know, I'm the first female to ever leave our homeworld. That's really a long story, but where was I? I have a tendency to get distracted. But I really want to get to work and put my assistant to work. I have probably a good dozen experiments that I want to get started now. So, where was I? Oh, yes! I was looking for the Assistant Chief, Vansha Jackman, I think it was."

She blinked once or twice before continuing, "Oh, my! I don't think I let you both get a word in edgewise, did I? I have a tendency to go on, don't you know? Just a small habit of mine. So, who are both of you and can you help me find my assistant? I would really appreciate it!"

Tully chuckled. "Definitely not Vulcan," he said studying the Tygarian with his eyes. He was not sure he had very seen one before, definitely not in person, maybe on a file somewhere. "Yeah," he said and pointed to Nessa. "That's Lieutenant Jackson. I'm...eh just call me Tully."

"Hi," Vanessa said. "I've never met one of your species before. We were just talking about you. We're working on a three-fold attack to improve transportation down to the planet and we thought you might have some suggestions." She pulled up the specs on the probe, the chemicalrain and the special jewelry to enhance signal.

"OH!" Amelix exclaimed happily. "Well today is my lucky day! I've met my assistant straight off! Oh, we're going to have so much fun with science together. Do you have a specialty? I've always been keenest with the physical sciences but I think you will find that I make all kinds of connections on some of the strangest things. See, science can't really be limited in my opinion. All of the specialties limit our views of the universe and narrow it unhealthily. I don't think that the universe limits itself, so why should we limit our studies of it, right?"

She paused from her rapid lecture on the topic and asked, "Oh, wait. What were you saying? Something about improving transportation? That sounds like some fun experiments. What's the nature of the problem? Or is this totally theoretical, because I can totally get into theoretical discussions. After all, the whole scientific theory is part of my entire reason for existence, I think. Maybe that's too much. What do you think?"

Amelix then realized that there was specs in front of her. "Tell me more about the issues and this jewelry. I want to know EVERYTHING! And I'm quite sure that the probe, while very satisfactory does not contain all of the information."

She then turned to Tully and apologized. "I'm very sorry. I think that I forgot to say that it was nice to meet you. It really is. I just get so excited when it comes to science." She started bobbing up and down happily on her tip toes rapidly.

"I get the same way with transporters," he replied with a smile. "Go on ahead and science your brains out. I'm here to provide a bit of technical muscle."

"And ingenuity," Vanessa added with a smile. "To answer your questions, I'm an archaeologist, anthropologist, and historian. I taught in a university before joining Starfleet. The planet has a dangerous level of pollution in the atmosphere, including heavy metals. It's interfering with transporters and communication. Tully came up with the idea to create a pattern buffer inside a probe. I've come up with a cocktail of chemicals that can be disbursed in the atmosphere for temporary help with the pollution. The jewelry has a signal booster to help with transportation. The three increase chances of a successful transportation by 62%."

For a good five seconds, Amelix looked at Vanessa with her mouth open as she mentioned that she was an archaeologist, anthropologist, and historian. She constantly bobbed up and down on her tip toes until Vanessa switched to the issues with the transporters. "Where'd this jewelry come from? Why was a signal booster placed in it? Was that for someone to wear to beam down or could it be amplified for multiple people. Oh, gosh I would like to study that piece of jewelry, break it open, and see what makes it tick."

Her head swung to Tully and then back to Vanessa. "I don't suppose either of you are in favor of that, are you? I mean, we can't really know how much it does until we test it, right?" she asked hopefully.

(To be continued...)