LtCmdr Jovenan –
Jovenan
((Cargo bay 2, Deck 11, USS Artemis))
The investigation of whatever had happened to her five tonnes of multiphasic microfilament gel was advancing rapidly now that they’ve got someone there who knew how to read forms. Already Lieutenant Bergmen had discovered something additional in the something-something documents that hadn’t been in Jovenan’s original order – in other words, it was not her fault nor that of anyone in her department, but something must have happened between the order and the delivery. She just needed him to explain what the additional letters and numbers in the string represented.
Bergmen: They haven’t five tons of this MPMF gel of yours, so someone in line decided in his greatest wisdom to substitute. Those letters after the hyphen? HCS? Highly condensed, stasis field. And those two numbers that differed? That indicates the material is meant to be used in scale, like... like the shipyards. You got your five tons hypercondensed into five hundred kilograms. ::glance to Jovenan:: I’m not a scientist, so this is a question for you as an expert, but do you have the means to…
He struggled to find the words. It’s not uncommon for a scientist to take a moment to find the right word, but it’s worrying when it happens to a doctor, and a disaster when it’s the logistics guy.
Bergmen: …ehm… decondensate your gel? ::smiles apologetically:: Because this is not refundable.
Jovenan brought her palm to cover her lower face. They had done what to the gel!? The search for someone to blame was however soon replaced by the inquiry into what they still could do with… whatever it was that had been delivered to them. She wished she had been more familiar with the properties of the material itself. Such detailed insight had not been the requirement: when in its normal state, the gel did what it needed to do and didn’t pose any danger or notable risk beyond degradation, which at worst meant the project ended sooner than expected. The research proposal process didn’t look into how to unpack the thing!
Jovenan: MPMF gel is very rare. I’ve never dealt with it before. But I know that condensing it would be highly unusual, since the microfilaments are fragile and can’t be decontracted rapidly without them suffering damage… You said something about shipyards. What did you mean by that?
The Lieutenant spread his arms briefly.
Bergmen: Technically, commander… It’s not a microfilament-based gel… yet. ::points to the screen:: You see the chemical composition? You have your gel base, but it is not yet composed of microfilaments; it is full of free g-actin particles. That’s why it’s condensed. It’s similar to… Yeast? Do you know yeast? ::hopefully glance at Jovenan:: Yeah, so you don’t need to transport five tons of your gel. You need condensed g-actin yeast and an actin nucleus, aka your 500 kilograms, then you put them together scientifically, and it will make frruuuuu ::gestures grow of substance::, and the magic will transform your 500 kilograms of condensed yeast into 5 tons or so of your required gel with microfilaments. ::points to holoscreen:: It's written right there in the accompanying manual.
While the Lieutenant nodded enthusiastically, Jovenan looked over to PADD, frowning. It came with a manual? There was a recipe to how to bake five tonnes of highly advanced scientific material in there?
Bergmen: Shipyards need tons of this gel, so to ease logistics, smarter people than me conceived the idea of transporting condensable intermediates instead of the final product. This approach reduces the weight transported and requires less space on transport ships, allowing shipyards to easily produce gel on-site easily at an industrial scale. That is what I mean by shipyards.
That… that made sense as an industrial method. What the Lieutenant had said meant that they had indeed received what they needed for their experiment, it was just in a state that was not immediately usable to them. And… what now? Jovenan rushed through the list of science department staff members in her mind, thinking of how much expertise in multiphasic material sciences they each had. She had reserved the cargo bay for such a large amount of material for the next journey so that they could just run the experiment, but if they first needed to find someone who could study the manual, they’d need to postpone it for a later date, and then she’d need to explain to the Captain why an enormous portion of her ship was still full of some gel.
Then, she looked up at the Lieutenant, and her eyes turned brighter.
Jovenan: Have you ever worked in such circumstances? Would you know what they’d do in a case like that?
He nodded.
Bergmen: Practically speaking, we will just need the reservoir capable of holding a volume of five tons of MPMF gel, possibly thermally conductive because most of these types of reactions generate quite a lot of heat. And possibly some additional chemicals, but they will be listed in the working instructions, and if they didn't come with it, I'm pretty sure they will be easy to replicate.
Jovenan turned to glance at the containers. What they had was a complication to the study, but not a complete roadblock. It would be a waste of resources and time to plan anything else but doing as the Lieutenant told her. They’d need a safe method of releasing the excess heat of the exothermic reaction, but otherwise, the experiment was just a matter of doing. She turned back to him. Good thing they had someone who knew something of ship operations.
Jovenan: That… That could work, actually. I think. But I’m going to be needing your help. ::pause, turns to him:: I don’t think I said this yet, but thank you for figuring it out. I guess the PADDwork lingo spooked me.
He shrugged.
Bergmen: I will do my best to deliver those five tons to you, Commander.
It was easy to smile for such an answer. Jovenan had worked alongside Lieutenant Bergmen during the missions only a handful of times, and although he had proven an invaluable member of the team – such as shooting down the hostile drones on Galaris IV – she had never figured out how wide a skill set he actually had. She’d need to commend Lieutenant K’Wara for the work of their department.
Bergmen: So, Commander, any idea where we get that reservoir? I don’t think we can evict our belugas from Cetacean Ops and use their swimming pool, right?
OO We’ve got those? Oo
She rubbed her forehead. There weren’t all that many rooms on the Artemis that could be sacrificed to house five tonnes of gel and the other equipment related to its production in a moment’s notice. She couldn’t expect the Captain to approve her installing conductive channels to the cargo bay nor placing such a large clump of matter in the middle of the shuttle bay… not to mention the arboretum, the Elysium or the mess hall. How large the holodecks were again? What else?
Luckily, she had some power as to what happened in some of the other large spaces around the ship.
Jovenan: The large labs on deck 12 are just large enough for that amount of gel. Just. Barely. ::pause, sighs, crosses arms:: Lab 11 is free for another week, and I suppose the next team can just wait for a bit. They’re also equipped with the additional emergency environmental systems that can cool them down in case of a mishap. I don’t suppose there are downsides in running those a bit longer…
Telling other scientists that their work needed to be postponed or cancelled was one of her least favourite aspects of the work, but since the delay was due to another scientific experiment and not, say, the space-time erupting into a group of fighting ships from another, parallel universe, like during her early career in department leadership, she’d imagine they’d be much more understanding.
Bergmen: Ok, Commander. Your idea would work too. So, I will organize the movement of those crates and see you there?
Jovenan: Sure. I’ll see that everything else we need for the experiment gets there ::already walking:: and that there’s nothing in the way! See you!
((A moment later))
((Lab 11, Deck 12, USS Artemis))
Jovenan swiped the skirt of her uniform once more as she watched two of her fellow scientists climbing up moveable ladders. The lab had, thankfully, been empty and properly cleaned after the previous users, but now they had to move everything they needed in there. As the scientists were clumsily affixing strings to the ceiling, she heard something from the door and turned around.
Jovenan: Lieutenant, good, you’re here. ::gestures around:: Everything’s clear! This data cable needs to snake around the gel, so we’re hanging it from the ceiling. The original plan was to slide it through the gel, but since it would take most of the space here, that’s no longer an option.
Bergmen: Response
She watched as the crates were moved in. Then, she placed her hands on her hips and turned to her new goldshirt research assistant.
Jovenan: So, what’s the procedure from here?
Bergmen: Response
She nodded and gestured to the crates and the other equipment they had there. It was better to leave such things to the expert.
Jovenan: Would you like to do the honours?
Bergmen: Response
((OOC: Sorry about the delay. I’m finally coming out of the sickness I’ve had the entire week.))
TAG/TBC----
Lieutenant Commander Jovenan
Chief Science Officer
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11