Temporal Effects (Pt1)

Posted on Fri Jun 19th, 2020 @ 4:41pm by Lieutenant Heather Argeneau & Lieutenant Commander NightWing K'Trevala
Edited on on Fri Jun 19th, 2020 @ 4:41pm

1,564 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Going Home
Location: Sickbay and Hydroponics Bay

Joint Duty log: Temporal Effects (Pt1)
By: Lt. Cmdr. NightWing, M.D. and Lt. Heather Argeneau, M.D.

Heather frowned passing back and forth between the orchids that were her prized collection aboard the ship. The young officer couldn't understand the change in the planet life when there were so far no reports coming in from any side effects from this strange jump. It was clear from all her scans and records that they had been thrown out of their own time how far out she wasn't sure and didn't like it.

However, that didn't explain the change in the age of the planet life or the lack thereof, of certain cellular, degrade to the genes of her plants' genetic make-up. All of her findings were on the PADD in her hand as she passed tapping it against her open palm. Having researched the three missing genes to her plants she noticed that they had not yet come into existence which meant that three of the plants used in her graphing to make hybrids either did not exist yet or were in themselves part of another hybrid of orchids.

She could be found still passing back and forth frowning and thinking when NightWing would return to Sickbay.

NightWing came in and headed over to where her assistant was with the orchids. "What's going on Heather? They were looking fantastic earlier."

Heather looked up as NightWing joined her. "That's what I'm trying to figure out some of them have returned to seedlings three of them are missing genetic makeup so I put them into stasis containers. I did some research for this time. the missing genetic material for three of the hybrids didn't even exist in this time period that we seem to have found ourselves in." Heather frowned passing back and forth after handing her findings to her boss.

NightWing laid her hands on the leaves of one of the plants trying to read exactly which of genetic code moved and which five orchids that the missing code came from. At least most of the orchids were old stock and there were only a few of the multi-generational hybrids to deal with.

Heather had put the three that were dying from the missing genetic codes were in stasis the rest were all seedlings again for some reason. So Heather watched Nightwing with an arched brow.

NightWing looked back at Heather. " I was trying to see how far back their genetic code had been messed up was, and it's at least five generations." She tried to think of ways that they could use a bridging code for the missing genetics until they could get the plants and themselves back to their usual time.

Heather looked thoughtful the nodded in understanding. "You know this flux in time seems to have hit the plant life here hard, what about the hydroponics bay? we don't yet know if it is affecting the crew yet because no one has come in complaining of headaches. we're goddess only knows how far out of time some of the crew may not have even been born yet?" Heather frowned.

"I'm not certain about Hydroponics yet, we better go check thereafter we get your babies tucked safely into a stasis bed," NightWing told her. The thought about the rest of the crew being affected troubled her as well since it seemed that only the Vulcans on board might wind up being able to handle the ship to get it back to their proper time.

"I did that already, the second I realized they might be dying and the only possible answer was to get back to our time," Heather told the Chief honestly. "So we can go check hydroponics now." She said softly.

Night Wing nodded, very pleased with the way her assistant was thinking. "Okay let's go and I'm praying that the crops we have there aren't ruined."

Heather agreed as she followed Nightwing out of Sickbay. "Granted very few of our plants weren't around 100 years ago." She frowned.

"We SHOULD be okay if the genetics for the hydroponic plants haven't changed over that century-long span of time." She replied as they moved down the corridor.

Heather gave a nod as she walked with Nightwing. "We should take the lift here, Hydroponics is on deck 31 of the Stardrive section of the ship." Heather pointed out.

"Agreed, but we may need to worry further on down the line about conserving power to get back to our own time," NightWing told her as they headed for the Turbolift.

"Agreed as well," Heather said as she stepped onto the lift with NightWing for the ride down to the hydroponics bay.

Once they got into the hydroponics deck, they began immediately checking over the veggies and all in there. Fortunately three-fourths of the plants in there came from Heirloom seeds and so were untouched by the genetic code chopper but some of the strains that people had been trying to tinker with to get a better yield were appearing to have a hard time of dealing with the conditions.

"well, it's not as bad as it could be. do you want to put these plants into stasis containment?" She asked the chief.

"We probably should and see what else we can do to keep the Hydroponics lab going at 100%. There's gonna be a lot of hungry people on deck and we need to make sure we have enough for everyone." She picked up a tray of semi-withered seedlings and took them over to a cart where she could load more trays to take up to the stasis chambers.

Heather gave a nod moving to help Nightwing work to preserve as many seeds as possible and maximize the rest of the hydroponic that was untouched so far by the time difference.

NightWing sighed, "Too bad we can't go and grab a few dozen seed packets from the biotrust bank, but that's back on Earth and deep in the permafrost so the seeds, all heirloom ones, won't go bad."

"true, but we'd contaminated the timeline." Heather sighed. The young officer sighed and shook her head.

"I know, that's just one reason I'm not going to suggest it but at least discussing it brings out the pros and cons of the idea." NightWing agreed.

"That it does chief," Heather said softly.

NightWing grinned, "And suggesting a course of mischief can almost be as good as doing it, especially without dealing with the Disciplinary side effects."

Heather laughed, I wasn't very good with sticking to the suggested course when I was a kid so I got into quite a bit of mischief." She grinned.

Night Wing grinned conspiratorially, "Same here, especially when I decided to decorate the council table with sumac branches when I was six. How was I to know that they were poison Sumac and not the regular kind?"

Heather giggled at that, "I always got my uncle Lucian with salt shaker gag." She giggled. "He never learned who was doing it." She added.

She grinned."That must have been a good one and if he's the one I think he is, it probably left him as sour as an overripe persimmon."

Heather grinned, "At the table, he'd scowl and grumble but he's really not so bad Uncle Lucian is the head of our family he is very protective of us and if he didn't think my secret would be safe on this ship he would have dragged me home and wiped my memory from every person on this ship. it would have been as if I never existed. as if I'd never touched the lives of any person here." Heather said almost sounding sad at the thought of losing the little family she had formed here.

"But when he didn't think anyone was looking he'd laugh over the pranks that me and my siblings and my cousins and even my other uncles would pull on the older members of the family. I mean my uncle Thomas still uses 'Dude' and 'Dudette' whenever he talks to any of my other uncles or older generations. With us, in the younger crowd, he talks like the intellect he is." Heather smiled fondly at the thought.

"You know Uncle Thomas is the music composer in the family he's been doing so for centuries." She grinned since Nightwing knew what she really was she didn't have to be too careful what she said in front of her friend. Then she realized she was rambling on about her family she focused on the work at hand.

NightWing smiled, happy that Heather was feeling free enough to let down her guard with her. She knew how it was to have to keep a secret that your life and the lives of others depended on and she was damned if she was going to break the vow of confidentiality and friendship that she had with Heather, now or ever.

Heather smiled at NightWing, "I think that is all we can do here, for now, we should return to sickbay in case any of the crew come in with temporal sickness, headache's dizziness..." She trailed off even as their comm badges went off and Ens. Naomi Sato's voice came over the line, "Dr. Nightwing, Lt. Argeneau, we have two officers that need your assistance they are complaining about Nausea and dizziness."

---------- To be Continued --------

 

RSS Feed