Lieutenant JG Ollie Bergmen - Who gave that JG the small chemists kit?
CPT Arianus
(( Lab 11, Deck 12 - USS Artemis ))
When Ollie Kimmi Bergman arrived at Lab 11, Commander Jovenan and her team were already waiting for him. Everything was waiting at him. As he watched the tank, the crates, and the scientists working on the cables that needed to be coated with the gel he was supposed to create, he realized it was a mistake to volunteer for this. But it was too late to run, to duck, to hide and cover.
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.
The lieutenant shrugged. From his point of view, it was as good a solution as any other.
Bergmen: Yeah, that can work.
oO I guess… Oo
The commander stood with a steady gaze, watching the crates being maneuvered into the lab. They could start, and she looked like she knew it, when she placed her hands on her hips and turned to Ollie Bergmen, her new goldshirt "Bop It".
Jovenan: So, what’s the procedure from here?
Ollie somehow sensed that the answer "we'll mix it together, and then we will hope it doesn't explode in our faces" was not the response he should have given, no matter how honest and truthful it could have been.
He sighed and pointed to three cylinders that had been delivered with the crates instead.
Bergmen: So, we will need to connect these three after we fill the tank with the base solution. The red one contains an actin accelerant; the remaining two, the blue ones, should be inert gas, which we will need to fill the bottom and top of the tank as a separator before we can introduce condensed g-actin into the mixture … as without initial separation, the reaction could be a little… volatile.
Jovenan nodded and gestured towards the crates and various gear they had present.
Jovenan: Would you like to do the honours?
Of course, he had to be the one responsible. Not that it mattered in the end. If it didn't work out, everyone in the room would end up as shadow prints on the walls at best, or, at worst, flying through the vacuum of space, although the lieutenant doubted they would have cared at that point.
He nodded cautiously, his eyes flicking around the room as he mentally organized what he had read in the manual.
Bergmen: Okay, people, listen up! ::points to the connector on the right side of the tank:: We can start pumping the solution. We need to fill in as much as possible up to the halfway mark, okay?
The valve on the right side of the tank opened, releasing a clear liquid under pressure. Ollie slowly counted to fifty, estimating the time it would take for the liquid to flow. They still had about another twenty seconds before they could proceed to the next step.
Bergmen: Seal the lid vents, now. (beat) Connect the cylinders, blue, red, blue, and wait; do not open the valves yet.
Jovenan: Response?
Lieutenant watched the scientist follow his instructions and connect the cylinders, then waited for the next orders. Ollie silently counted, and as he reached zero in his mind, the right valve closed automatically as the liquid filled nearly half of the tank. They might have been short on microliters, but they needed to be. Having a little less was better than having too much. He nodded to the scientist to start filling the tank with inert gas and an actin accelerator. Slowly, on the bottom, the gas pocket began to push the liquid upward, while the same gas at the top pushed it downward. The pressure mixed the base and the accelerator, transforming the previously clear liquid into a cloudy mixture with lime green particles. Soon enough, the scientist responsible for the red cylinder disconnected it and gestured to Ollie that the cylinder was empty. Ollie nodded to them, silently counting again and watching the gas pockets stabilize on both sides, with the liquid in the middle.
Bergmen: Okay, connect the containers. Push it in.
Jovenan: Response?
Scientists took the hoses and connected them to the button-right valves, and, in synchronization with their actions, another weakened the status field in the containers as they turned the pumps on. Ollie nor Commander did not need to wait for long, and the bottom gas pocket started being pushed out back into the cylinder as dense, mazut-like plasticine started to replace the space. Lieutenant waited another couple of seconds, and shortly before the plasticine reached the left valve, he nodded to the scientist to close the gas valve. Plasticine pushed the remaining gas quickly up into the narrow gas layer that still separated the plasticine from the basin liquid. What Ollie didn’t expect was that the flow took a big chunk of plasticine with it and threw it up, through the lawyer, into liquid. Too big a chunk for Ollie's taste. He watched him expectantly. The black chunk began to glow with golden veins, quickly breaking into smaller pieces that glowed the same golden as the veins that had once divided them. Those smaller pieces stopped floating upwards, floating in the liquid for a moment, they began to sink rapidly as they disintegrated into even smaller pieces. There were too many of them…
Bergmen quickly took a step back to create space between himself and the reaction heat he expected as soon as the golden chunks touched the gas layer and burned through in the blink of an eye.
Jovenan: Response?
Golden burning pieces lay on the top of plasticine, their heat keeping the whole in the gas open for the liquid to pour quickly through, creating more golden veins through the plasticine. The bottom gas layer disappeared almost immediately, creating small corridors through the reacting matter, corridors that expanded as small whorls at the top of the liquid grew, sucking more and more gas from the top down through the liquid. Ollie gazed at the top cylinder gauge, which was almost empty. A second later, the gas stopped flowing, replaced by a vacuum created on top as more and more of the remaining gas was sucked into the reaction. Almost all the plasticine, separated by the gas corridors into chunks, was glowing with an almost blinding light, which was softened by the tank's automatic tinting of the plastic glass.
Bergmen found himself nearly gasping for air as he watched the reaction. A gnawing fear twisted in his gut with each new surge of heat that enveloped him, radiating like an intense wave. Every time a massive chunk fractured into smaller, jagged pieces, the oppressive warmth intensified, leaving him acutely aware of how close they were to this failing. Even so, even though it was both mesmerizing and terrifying, drawing him in while urging him to flee, he stayed standing, not flinching.
And then it happened, what he had hoped for so much. At the bottom of the tank, a single bubble broke free, rushing quickly toward the liquid's surface. Moments later, it was joined by another, then another, until they erupted into a frenzied dance, racing eagerly upward. It was a mesmerizing sign that the reaction was finally taking hold, that the delicate balance he had sought was beginning to stabilize.
Lieutenant Bergmen’s face lit up with a smile as he observed the bubbles bursting against the surface, each pop releasing wisps of inert gas into the vacuum that had formed. As the bubbles vanished, they left behind a faint, shimmering film that glistened like gel in the dim light.
Bergmen: ::relax his shoulders and smile:: And now all we need is to monitor the reaction… and wait…
Jovenan: Response?
((OOC: I was hoping to be able to do more with this scene, but since we are nearing our next mission, I figured this was a good spot to end! Thank you, Jo, for the interesting science puzzle!))
TAG/END FOR OLLIE
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Lieutenant JG Ollie Bergmen
Operations Officer
U.S.S. Artemis-A
A240009JC1