LtCmdr Jovenan – Down to the belly of the beast
Jovenan
((Reception room, Halls of Andorenne, Golden Spire, Boraxian Cityship))
Jovenan nodded her greetings to each of her new teammates. She didn’t know them half as well as she should have; her familiarity with the ship and the crew was the whole premise of Commander Munro asking her to step up as the Acting XO, and now she had spent very little time on the Artemis or among people she could consider more than passing acquaintances. Richards was there, her Jovenan knew already – it had been over a year since she had witnessed the civilian scientist lay her wrath on the Borg drones. But what came to K’Wara and Jaran, she’d need to figure out their strengths and weaknesses as they went; it was time to get to work.
Jovenan: Richards, Doctor, you studied the crystal and other material from the New Hope and what the Yurum provided to you, right? Could you explain to me and Lieutenant K’Wara your findings?
Jaran: Well, we still have a lot of unanswered questions, but the short version is that the Yurum somehow use the energy from their meditation crystals to cause a physiological response as part of a ritual. A process, however, seems to corrupted the effect of this crystal on the Yurum. I'll admit I'm still unclear on some of those specifics.
The explanation aligned well with what Jovenan knew. After all, they had discovered the crystals from the New Hope infirmary thanks to the similar readings she had registered from a Yurum crewmember there, and Luirétt had talked something about the rituals their kind performed to the Boraxians to soothe them. It seemed the rites had a role that went beyond the spiritual or cultural importance to the civilisation.
K’Wara: Hmm... Andoren - the would-be revolutionist - claimed that the Yurum were used to ‘steal’ feelings like anger and discontent from the Boraxians. If the crystals were corrupted, though, could they also be used to do the opposite?
Richards: ::Shrugging lightly:: I guess the possibility is there, but I would caution that what we are dealing with is essentially a crystal like dilithium. The composition is the same. Just used differently. If used wrong, could prove highly unstable and dangerous.
Jovenan: That would explain the reactions of the rioters my team witnessed. They were standing around a burning building like in ecstasy, but when Luirétt, the Yurum leader, showed up, they were desperately trying to get to them, fighting each other, even dropping a law enforcement vehicle from the air. ::pause:: And the antidote? What do we need for it?
Her eyes flickered between the two other crewmember in the sciences division. She was asking for a lot; for all she knew, there was no antidote. Andoren could have been working on his revolution for years, maybe decades, preparing to spread his corruption in secrecy for all that time. The team was expected to get results… today? in a couple of hours? before dinner time?
Jaran: ::excitedly and gradually increasing in speed:: So I have suspicions that a substance produced in a Yurum gland is the key to this. If we can get a sample of that and find out how to neutralise it, I believe we can inoculate the affected individuals. Unfortunately, synthesising that substance has apparently never been done? So that could be a challenge.
K’Wara: Getting a sample from a Yurum will probably be difficult to do quickly. Most of the ones not on New Hope have already been beamed aboard the Artemis.
Richards: If they are on the Artemis, we could have some of the medical staff there try to get us a sample? Though, we all know the clock is ticking and we don’t have a lot of time.
Jovenan pressed her lips together. They had access to all the Yurum they could ever want, and they might get a sample, but what of then? They would likely need more, could they ask for it? Doing so, they would just move the original problem elsewhere: the Yurum had escaped a society that limited their personal freedom for their biological functions, to one that would persuade them to become not much more than dairy cows to be milked at an industrial scale for the same. That was not a view of the future for Yurum, the Boraxian nor for the Federation Jovenan could believe anyone was willing to accept.
Jovenan: Maybe, but if it’s the secretion in combination with the crystals that controls the emotional state of the Boraxians, the antidote might need to be based on it. We can’t get enough of it from the Yurum, not in time and not humanely.
Jaran: Commander, I believe we need to start with trying to replicate this Yurum glandular product. I have a lot of data on the ship, and I'd be happy to dip into that.
Jovenan: I agree, but do we have time for that?
K’Wara: It’s difficult to say. By the time the Peacekeepers apprehended them, the cultists were already talking like they’d won. I doubt we have much time.
Again, what seemed an impasse. They were doing something that was not much more different from curing a pandemic. If it was a flu, even a somewhat serious one, they could afford to spend weeks on the issue without the guilt of those who died pressing on their souls. This pandemic was lethal and somehow involved cultists, revolutionaries and magic crystals. Who knew how much time they had before something new happened and ruined their efforts?
Jaran: We may not have to start from scratch. In talks with the Yurum, we found out that there's been a cultural prohibition against research into the biological processes involved here. That means someone out there almost certainly has done some research. There are always people who rebel for rebellion's sake. Do we have any connections who might be able to help us hunt down the reseach that definitely has never been done?
“Rebel for rebellion’s sake”. That sentiment was simultaneously very alien and very enticing to Jovenan. Breaking a rule because it was there should have been something she would have never considered, but she knew intimately that sometimes there were people who went against the cultural expectations, if not for other reason then for the feeling. Of course there were people who dissected bodies to better capture the motion of a man to a canvas. Of course there were people who left their safe and comfy and stagnated homeworlds to explore strange new worlds. Of course there were people who tried to make out of unliving matter what only biology could have done before. For the liberation of others, for the manipulation, for profit or for just because it was there.
Lt K’Wara snapped their fingers. Seemed like they had the same thoughts as her.
K'Wara: That we may be able to work with! ::looks to the others:: The way Advocate Chavrainne described it, Peace of Ellet was a town for sensitive Boraxians who needed isolation for their own safety, and it didn’t sound like they received many state visits - certainly no Yurum visits.
Richards was waving a PADD around.
Richards: We found the lab these ::gesturing vaguely:: totally not happening research took place in. I mean we aren’t one hundred percent sure that’s what we found but ::holding her hands out to her sides and shrugging:: that’s what we found. The only thing is, it’s all gone now. Equipment, notes… Everything was gone. I don’t know where they would have taken it.
K’Wara: I can’t think of any Boraxians desperate enough to conduct illegal research other than the ones stuck in an underground city. Besides, if Andoren and his cultists are the ones who corrupted these crystals to begin with, it’s likely they did it in the Peace of Ellet, where the government wouldn’t find out.
Jovenan knew that Lt K’Wara had been to the Peace of Ellet. The Lieutenant would know, at least vaguely, what was in there. She hadn’t got there herself, she only knew what Luirétt and the returning team had told her. It was a place that, in their terms, was located below the ground of the Cityship, a refuge for the social outcast and the others. Still, to her, it sounded like a metaphor for death.
Jovenan: Andoren and his followers were arrested there, isn’t that right? And they escaped elsewhere, so we could go there and find their discarded equipment.
Jaran: Response
Richards: ::Turning to K’Wara:: Do you recall anything that would lead to a possible research sight? If not, maybe someone else that was down there with you may have seen something?
K’Wara: Well, it won’t measure up to the equipment we’ve got on the Artemis, for sure, but there was a building down there with the Lifecarer symbol on it, so there’s definitely some medical equipment down there.
Raising her eyebrow, Jovenan wondered if that’s all there is. A medical clinic, maybe just a first-aid station, in the secretive hideout of the revolutionaries didn’t sound like much.
Jovenan: I’m not sure if that alone is enough to produce the antidote. But, if we can find their research somewhere, that’s where it is. If we find it, we wouldn’t be starting from nought.
Jaran: Response
Richards: That sounds like the place to start then? It seems like it would be our best shot.
K’Wara: Response
Jovenan ran two of her fingers over her eyebrow. If they went to the Peace of Ellet and found nothing, they would have wasted their time, and even if the Boraxian law enforcement had removed all the revolutionaries and cultists there, she had no way knowing that the mysterious hiding place of generations of outcasts and – probably – criminals was entirely safe. Then again, the New Hope had not been fully free of risks either, and they had found something rather valuable there. Now, their situation was even more dire.
Jovenan: Yes. We’ll go to the Peace of Ellet, locate the research done by Andoren’s followers or whoever else might be studying the Yurum hormonal secretions or the crystals, and see if there are medical equipment for the next steps in our task.
Jaran/K’Wara: Response
Richards: What kind of stuff should we take with us? Is it… Dark and damp down there? Potential hazardous conditions?
It was obvious that Richards had reservations about going to the underground city. Jovenan had been hesitant already taking her pregnant colleague to the New Hope, and she now was hesitant in having her in the Peace of Ellet. If Richards wasn’t the best person to be in their team, the one who knew the most about the substances they were studying – along Doctor Jaran – Jovenan wouldn’t have been too ready to ask her with them. Now, there was little choice.
Jovenan: We should get all the necessary equipment we can carry from the Artemis or the Boraxian government before heading down. The communications might not be fully operational there. ::turns to K’Wara and Jaran:: What do we need?
Lt K’Wara was the person who had actually been there and who by the virtue of their duty post knew most about the requirements of their operations. Doctor Jaran seemed to already be cooking a plan how they would synthesise the Yurum hormone and produce the antidote, so they would hopefully have a list of basic necessities. Jovenan already had her phaser on the holster and the tricorder attached to the other side, the standard away team equipment, but she’d rather hear the others tell what else they needed.
K’Wara/Jaran: Response
Richards: Alright. ::Taking a deep breath:: Let's go.
Once they had everything ready, Jovenan looked at each of them. Going through the same narrow passaged and cliffs and chasms as the Captain’s team wasn’t exactly possible for them – the heavily pregnant teammate was perhaps the most notable obstacle for them, but the time constraint and the fact that Jovenan just didn’t see a point in going through it while they still had the contact with the Artemis were also factors. She tapped her combadge.
Jovenan: =/\= Jovenan to Artemis. Beam my team to… =/\= ::to K’Wara:: What would be the best location to go to?
K’Wara: Response
Jaran/Richards: Response?
After a moment, the familiar blue shimmer surrounded them, and the golden halls of the Boraxian government vanished away.
((Peace of Ellet, Boraxian Cityship))
Stone. When they rematerialised, the team found themselves in a hall of stone. On a spaceship.
Jovenan weighted whether she should pull out first her phaser or her tricorder. When no attack came, she took the scientific instrument and scanned the area. Awareness of their surroundings was, of course, crucial for their success, but she wasn’t going to leave the opportunity for scientific discovery behind. If they failed in helping the Boraxians, at least they wouldn’t leave completely empty-handed.
Jovenan: Gneiss, granite, other rocks typical to old continental shields. Sounds like this could be a genuine piece of Ellet as they claimed. ::to K’Wara:: Is this the area you were last time?
K’Wara/Jaran/Richards: Response
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Lieutenant Commander Jovenan
Acting XO (Chief Science Officer)
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11