LtCmdr Jovenan – No need to panic, you two just keep talking to the nice mushroom
Jovenan
((Science lab 2, Deck 9, USS Artemis))
Bancroft: ::gritting his teeth at the container:: You’ve just met these people. Isn’t it a little early to be forming those kinds of opinions?
Jovenan looked at Richards and raised an eyebrow. From her perspective, Doctor Bancroft had just had a one-sided dialogue with a fungus sample. She wasn’t yet dismissing his notion that the fungus was actually communicating with him, but so far, she hadn’t had any direct observations to support his claims. Richards shrugged; the Doctor was so far alone with his conversation.
Jovenan: I see… May I ask where you found… Jeff?
Richards: Is Jeff the only one? Or are there others?
Something flashed in Doctor Bancroft’s expression. Jovenan wasn’t sure what it was, but when he responded, there was a sense of caution in the way he spoke. There might have been something to the story he didn’t share, although Jovenan didn’t yet jump to the conclusion that his intentions were sinister.
Bancroft: ::cautiously:: Jeff was… acquired… on DS224. I bought him from a Lurian vendor on the promenade. I was… foraging. To make a risotto.
Oh.
Bancroft: For my mental health.
… Oh?
Doctor Bancroft cleared his throat – for no particular reason Jovenan could see – and gestured the container.
Bancroft: To my knowledge, he’s the only one. Which I’m… grateful for.
Jovenan thought for a moment. If she was to assume that Doctor Bancroft was neither lying nor imagining things, then Jeff must have been a representative of a telepathic species of fungi. They’d need to verify that and check all the known databases, of course, but she would have imagined that a known sentient, sapient and telepathic fungus would have come up in her studies. This could have been a new discovery. After all, there were some individual species they had first met through someone who didn’t know who they themselves were – the Changelings, for example. On the other hand, the prospect of finding a new intelligent species from a produce stall at a shopping mall in the Federation territory seemed… unlikely. This was not at all how Starfleet normally handled first contact situations. They needed more.
Jovenan: And how do you communicate with it?
Bancroft: He, uh… ::rubbing the back of his neck:: speaks. To me. Telepathically. It’s mostly critiques. Occasionally recipes. He seems to have an immediate grasp of whatever I’m thinking.
Richards: ::With some snark:: Interesting….
Interesting indeed. It was still unknown how Jeff perceived its – his? – surroundings, but by what Doctor Bancroft described, Jeff would be aware of what Bancroft thought. That made him a sort of anchor to the humanoid reality, allowing Jeff to see and hear them, even if it wasn’t able to do so normally. Who knows, maybe it had eyes and ears or something similar in there somewhere? It would be possible to communicate with it, then, at least through Bancroft. Jovenan didn’t hear anything, for whatever reason, but that didn’t mean Jeff didn’t hear her. She bent over and, after an unsure glimpse at Doctor Bancroft, looked at Jeff and smiled.
Jovenan: Hello Jeff. I’m Jovenan, nice to meet you! Would you mind if we asked a few questions?
Not exactly the diplomatic speech normally reserved for a potential first contact situation, but Jovenan supposed it was better to improvise a little considering the circumstances. Jeff’s colour had shifted as she had spoken, now appearing teal. Another method of communication, perhaps, or based on the random fluctuations in the environmental conditions? She expected a response, but looked up to Bancroft when Jeff still didn’t speak to her directly.
Bancroft: He… appreciates the introduction, but doesn’t appear to be able to speak to you. Yet.
A shame. The Edo were normally easy to read, meaning that Jeff likely used some other method than the standard form of telepathy used by Betazoids and the other such species. Jovenan turned her eyes back to Jeff – now pulsating in blue – and gave him a polite smile and straightened her back again, now looking at her two colleagues.
Richards: Tell me everything that’s happened with this… Fungus. Start from the beginning.
Bancroft: After I purchased him, I brought him back to my quarters. Tried to prep him for dinner–
The Doctor’s speech was cut off, seemingly by nothing.
Bancroft: I didn’t know you were you. Anyway. The moment I sliced him in half, there was a… puff of spores. Then a voice. Then a lot of unsolicited advice about garlic.
Spores? If the telepathic communication had only begun after the exposure to the spores, it could very well be linked to them. Doctor Bancroft’s earlier alternative hypothesis came back to Jovenan’s mind. What if Jeff was actually just hallucinogenic? The Doctor didn’t seem otherwise delirious, but then again, not all hallucinogens did that.
Jovenan: Garlic, you say?
Richards: ::Looking back to Jovenan:: Is uh- Jeff talking to you?
Bancroft: He’s trying. Doesn’t seem to be succeeding. And for that, you should count yourself among the blessed.
Jovenan shook her head. On one hand, she would have liked to be able to communicate with the potentially newly-discovered species directly, but at the same time, she preferred to investigate first what caused the telepathic link forming between the Doctor and the sample, and if it was in any way harmful, before she would volunteer to be exposed to it.
Jovenan: I’m afraid I haven’t yet heard anything from him. Do you get anything?
Richards lifted the container and examined more closely. For a silent moment, the other scientist studied the fungus, now flashing in blue, until her expression changed unexpectedly.
Richards: Did you just call me fat? I’m pregnant. ::Setting the container back down:: That is the rudest fungus I have ever met.
Her wide eyes darting between the two humans and the fungus, Jovenan raised both her eyebrows high. Had… Had Jeff just spoken to Richards? It was a far too complex an interpretation of mere colour-shift – the fungus had now turned to a shade of greenish-yellow – so it must be that Jeff had gained an ability to talk with the other scientist and used the occasion to comment on her body shape.
Bancroft: I’m not touching that. Nope. I may be hallucinating, but I’m not stupid enough to wade into this miasma of–
The three were apparently engaged in their own conversation, while Jovenan could do little but observe them bewildered.
Jovenan: Uh, what just happened? Do you hear him now?
Richards: Response
Bancroft: It’s possible the spores released when I sliced into him caused a persistent, undetectable hallucination. Or they created some kind of telepathic bridge. They’d have to be neuroactive… and of a class we haven’t catalogued yet… ::beat:: But it would explain the voice. And the fact that he once corrected my French during salad prep.
Jovenan: Spores are my theory as well, although I can’t yet say about telepathy or hallucinogens.
Although… Where would the fungus learn culinary arts, or French for that matter? Had the telepathic fungus linked with other people before, learnt through observation, or were the fungus/hallucinations “gaslighting” the Doctor into accepting the new information as true?
Richards: Response
Worry began to creep to Jovenan’s mind as she observed the two humans and the fungus. She tried to appear calm and in control, but the more her colleagues spoke to the fungus without any apparent input from it, the more her eyes began to shift from side to side and her calm expression became harder to maintain.
Bancroft: If this is all just a hallucination, then I’m the problem. And if I’m the problem… at least that kind of makes sense.
Jovenan: May I ask, did you check if the container is entirely air-proof? And that you don’t carry any of the spores with you?
Richards/Bancroft: Response
Jovenan: Right. Hope you don’t mind if I just walk right here ::walks backwards further away:: and… Computer, Contamination Procedure Bravo.
Layers of forcefields flashed in place around Jeff’s container, between Jovenan and the two potentially exposed humans, and to the extremes of the laboratory. The environmental system became slightly louder as it worked to replace the air in each of the separated areas and filter any possible spores or other contaminants. Jovenan wondered who she should alarm first. The Captain, the security, the medical teams?
Richards/Bancroft: Response
Jovenan: Just a precaution. Now, we’ll need to figure out what the spores are. Doctor, did you happen to take a scan when you were first exposed to them? Richards, do you have anything?
Richards/Bancroft: Response
((OOC: Didn’t include Jeff’s tags because Jovenan doesn’t still hear him. Is she comically overreacting? Is she already exposed and Jeff’s spores induce different types of insecurity? Or something else? Feel free to interpret as you wish!))
TAG/TBC----
Lieutenant Commander Jovenan
Chief Science Officer
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11