LtCmdr Lazarus Davis - safety first

[Lazuli Davis]

(( Xindi Colony, Daaka ))
 
Jalana and Balanomi were going to have some Serious Leader Conversations, or maybe just relax by the pool as the kids played.

Spears: Fun we shall have. Let's go Laz, Lystra. Maybe we'll find a ship under construction.

The Tac/Sec officer acquiesced quite quickly and smiled.

Lystra: Ok! Just don’t do anything that’ll give me more PADDwork. ::She said to Jalana then grinned at Ed:: Oooh, yes! Maybe we can see inside one!

Davis: I want to see how the inertial dampers work. They have to be pretty different, given that they need to control the mass of water more than anything. The pressure on the hull when they accelerate must be immense!

Amph’ail: If you get lost, ask for Oozm’ail.  He is my Uncle and he is friendly.  He will be at the wedding!

Rajel: ::quietly:: Oozm'ail... that rings vaguely familiar.

Rajel: Alright, you go have fun, don't cause trouble! ::smiling::

Spears: Don't worry, we won't get into too much trouble. Wouldn't do to get squished by a construction drone or something.

Lystra: Unless we can ride the drone. ::She blinked:: I wonder how they handle in a current? ::She mused::

Davis: Uneaten and unsquished.

Amph'ail: Please.  Stay clear of the drones.  They carry a large amount of electrical current that is carefully contained.  You do not want to interrupt them and take that current into your suits!

Rajel:  Alright folks, no drone riding, hugging, poking, booping or touching. You heard Balanomi, stay clear of them. I prefer you guys come back as you are, not fried.   

Spears: We'll be back in half an hour or so, tops!

Lystra: Maybe an hour. ::She giggled::

Davis: We won't be late. :: He reassured ::  

And away the trio jetted.

Spears: Look at how organic the whole facility is. It's like they grow their ships!

Lystra: Do they? I didn’t think Xindi had bio-organic ships. Have they been flying through space this whole time in coral?

Davis: I think they use advanced alloys but the coral looks like scaffolding. So in a sense, yeah, they grow their ships.

Lystra: This is amazing. Based on the lights and structures here, it looks like they could build maybe a half dozen or more ships at once.

Davis: Oh, yes. Huh, and I'd guess this is a circumstance where building a ship in a gravity well is easier than not.

Lystra: Ooooooh, Ed, Laz…there! ::She gestured emphatically ahead and to their left:: That one looks half complete! And that last one looks full..maybe it’s got a complete starship!!

Lystra was flitting about like a sandpiper running to and from the incoming waves on the shore.

Davis: Lystra, look! Construction shrimp. Bet they'd be fun in the currents.

Lystra: Wait…if they build their starships underwater…doesn’t that make them submarines, not ships?

Davis: Star-marines!

Lazarus followed behind Lystra, intending to get a closer look at the construction shrimp. He was starting to understand her: give it a whimsical name and there was immediate buy-in from Lystra.

Lystra: Wow, they’ve really got this whole harmony thing sorted. Even their drones fit into the world.

Davis: I know we came for the ships, but look at these guys! ::He pointed to a white constructions shrimp with a stripe made of a mosaic of red triangles:: How come we never do biomimicry?

Lystra: Well, because we don’t?

Davis: There are some good designs in nature. Life is amazing.

Lystra: Perhaps, but who’s nature would we mimic things from? There’s over a hundred Federation member species, right? That’s a lot of ecosystems to mimic.

He really meant to pay attention.

Davis: Ohmygod look at its little claws!

Up close, the claws holding the tools were surprisingly dainty and delicate. And beyond cute.

Lystra: Keep this up Laz and the next thing you’ll do is ask our new Hexa to make you a model version of it. ::She laughed::

Lazarus heard her but took a moment to process the words, as he was still enraptured by the construction shrimp. Tiny. Little. Claws! They looked more like precision tweezers than anything scary.

Wait, make a model of it?

Davis: Do not tempt me. 

Lazarus heard a burst of jets behind him as Lystra went off in search of the next thing-to-be-named, no doubt.

Lystra: Uh, Laz. Ed. I think I found Grabby’s cousin.

Lazarus turned away from the shrimp and as he did heard a deep thunk pulse through the water. When he turned to face Lystra, he was greeted by... a very large squid.

Davis: Uhhhh.....

Lystra: Is that a drone, or do they really have squids that big here?

Davis: I don't see why not. But I guess it's a drone? The Xindi-Aquatics don't seem like the type to press a squid into hard labor. But this is something else entirely. The, uh, skin ::they knew what he meant even if that wasn't an epidermis:: is throwing me, though. The construction shrimp was clearly metallic. This squid is a whole other level. Federation soft robotics could never make anything even close to this.

Thinking aloud was the specialty of science officers across the fleet.

Lystra/Spears: ?

Grabby 2: Cousin of Grabby was dutifully holding the hull in place as some construction shrimp got to welding. He doubted his eyes at first, but it became apparent that the squid was beginning to glow, from its interior and through its tentacles. It was a sort of eerie sight. 

Davis: You're seeing this, right?

Lystra/Spears: ?

The "skin" of the squid began to glow, too, in a gridded pattern. The sand and silt beneath it began to churn and fly upwards.

Davis: Heat dissipation causing an updraft? Remarkable.

He watched, agog. It's not every day you see a glowing giant squid build a starship with construction shrimp.

Lystra/Spears: ?

As the construction shrimp welded away, Lazarus watched on with great interest. Somewhere behind him, he heard a thunk push its way through the dense water. An alert sounded in his suit and the HUD popped up: Ed had punctured his suit due to impact, and he required assistance. The alert was one of urgency, not emergency. 

Lazarus spun around to see a drone had bumped into Ed from behind, and damaged the seal on his left shoulder. There was a small, but appreciable stream of bubbles. Lazarus began to swim over.

Davis: Ed, you ok??

Ed waved back and gave the signal for "no comms." Must have gone in the impact. Maybe the conductive water had something to do with all this.

Davis: Lystra! We need to get Ed back to the ship. Minor suit breach, and his comms are busted. Can you call for transport? We're pretty close to the surface. I'm going to get the patch kit.

Lazarus swam behind Ed, and pulled out his patch kit. 

Lystra: ?

Lazarus got to work applying the patch. It didn't stop the leak, but slowed it and helped ensure it wouldn't get worse. He leaned in to touch visors with Ed, to transmit his words through coupled helmets.

Davis: Leak's not bad. Lystra's going to get you beamed up.

Lazarus swam back from him, to make it easier for a lock.

Lystra: ?

Davis: Ready.

In seconds, Ed dematerialized. He turned back to Lystra and gave her a thumbs up.

Davis: Well... we know our safety protocols are effective?

Lystra: ?

((OOC: written based on an idea by Ed))

——

Lt Commander Lazarus Davis

Second Officer
Chief Science Officer
USS Constitution-B
IDIC team member
ASDB team member
C239510LD0
(he/him, character)
(she/they, writer)

 
 
“I wanted to prove the sustaining power of music.” – David Bowie