Jugtuk - Mittens and Mushrooms
Doz Finch
((The Gallery, Gibaria Outpost))
Certain fungi, such as the morels, liked to emerge during a specific window, when they were at their most comfortable, and when the conditions were just right. He admired their timeliness, and their awareness of the world around them. He cherished their attention to detail and organisation skills. But most of all, he appreciated how they were always together in a group. That’s how he felt about the three human officers at that moment, as they stood there blooming through the doorway like morels.
Jugtuk: I’m…uh…I’m…I’m Jugtuk and th-this is San. I'm ha-happy you're here.
Finch: Hello Jugtuk, and hello San. ::She stepped in, cheeks rosy.:: I’m Lieutenant Commander Finch and this is my team: Lieutenant Commander Neathler and Mister Espinoza.
Neathler: And we’re happy we got here in one piece.
Espinoza: Nice to meet you both. Sorry for the - ::he wiggles the phaser, then holsters it::
Jugtuk’s glinting eyes drifted to the phaser, and then back to the sun-kissed face of the person holding it. Espinoza, as the lady with the white hair had called him, seemed to nod with a bit of weariness, and so the research assistant gently smiled towards him, one punctuated by the click of his bouldery mouth.
Neathler: We’ve got several teams in the Outpost. Maybe you already have eyes on them?
Finch: It looks as though their primary focus has been what’s happening out there at the gate, and understandably so. Though while we’re here…
Neathler: Can we have a look in the gallery? We were hoping to find more logs in there that could us help stopping whatever is happening here.
The towering Brikarian turned to San, thick fingers still kneading together below him. San’s eyes zig-zagged over the messy room around them, and that’s when he realised just how disorganised everything looked. He’d left devices in one spot, papers and pens either strewn or balled in another. In a way, he realised how he and San had become just like cordyceps, parasitizing the room, culturing it for their needs.
Espinoza: We’re here to help our crew help you. Please.
Jugtuk: Y-yes. Please, come in, but uh, I’m…I’m so sorry about the mess.
With heavy and slow footfalls, the research assistant moved around the newcomers and then closed and sealed the door behind them. He turned to San for confirmation, and through a trembling nod, she gave it. He hoped she would feel relaxed soon.
Espinoza: Commanders. Take a look at this. ::Then, with an eye to the researchers:: Is this the other side?
Neathler: There’s a gateway at the other side too? Maybe that’s why we can’t close this one.
Finch: Good grief, would you look at that?
The screen displayed the frame of a corridor between places, one coated in a crimson moss that pulsed as if it was breathing. The oscillating movements were perhaps quite spooky to first timers, but he didn’t mind them because certain sponge or cushion mosses exhibited behaviours just like it. If anything, he found their rhythmic nature soothing, even magical.
But what he found the most enlightening was its acrocarpous nature, the way it carpeted up and along the structure. His notes were currently sprawled all over the room about just that, listing his observations and theories, snuggling in corners with clumps of hair torn out by San.
Finch: To rigidly connect and fix two dimensions together like that, to maintain a stable corridor with what has to be such off the scale energy particles, well now. ::She blew air into her cheeks.:: I can't decide whether I’m completely fascinated or utterly bewildered.
Jugtuk: Y-yes, it’s…quite an accomplishment. B-but, as you can see Commander, we no longer ha-have any control over it.
Espinoza: Will this console allow us to view the rest of the facility, or will it need some tinkering? It’d be good to get some eyes on our people, like Commander Neathler mentioned.
Neathler: If it’s connected to the Outpost’s network it should give us all the information available. ::She looked at Rablin and Jugtuk.:: Can you grant us full access?
He slowly turned his stony neck and gave San a hopeful look, and his bushy-haired colleague jittered her way to the nearest console to grant it. Jugtuk shifted his position in the room to a pile of his papers on the floor and started gathering them together, delighted to be able to share some of his research with the trio. Perhaps, just perhaps, they could use them.
Rablin: The rest of the facility? ::She squirmed.:: Okay! Okay. But I need a minute to figure it out.
It became a quiet song of paper swooshing and keypad tapping, as both he and San gathered together what was needed. The other man, the one clad in a uniform dirtied by the xeno bog moss, was staring at the window now. Jugtuk paused, expected a question about the climbers and why they hadn't got inside yet.
Espinoza: You noticed they ain’t even tried to get in here? That’s a little strange, no? The only place that looks like it’s been barely touched by the vines.
Neathler: Maybe the vines don’t like heights?
Jugtuk: Oh, they’re thigmotropic. S-some of them, at least. M-most of them, I think. Whatever they touch first, that’s the direction they tend to follow.
Rablin: And with those terrible creatures roaming around out there, the climbers have had plenty of reason to ignore us.
San shakily exhaled as the console in front of her confirmed that the others had been granted the access they asked for. The dark haired human woman opened up her little device — a tricorder, it looked like — and connected it to the outpost's systems. A Morel at work.
Neathler: The gallery has an independent air condition system. ::She looked up from her tricorder, pointing with the device towards the walls and then to the two scientists.:: Is this the first stage of the vines creeping in?
Jugtuk looked up into the air condition system, big eyes glittering.
Jugtuk: It’s possible. Th-though they are remarkably big, aren’t they? Which m-might make their purpose more unique than traditional microscopic spores. I'm...still trying to figure that one out.
The woman inhaled, but the colour disappeared from her face quickly as though she had realised something. Jugtuk straightened his back, his piles of papers pinched between his rocky hands, worry battling with hope beneath his brows.
Neathler: And we just brought spores of the other vines and moss inside.
Finch: ::She nodded, brows held together like magnets.:: Alright, here’s what I’d like us to do. Mister Espinoza, I want you to work with San here on establishing a stable connection to the other areas of the facility. Whether that's functioning cameras or whatever we can use to better safeguard our teams as they move through here, get creative. There’s certainly more to securing a path than just removing obstacles.
Espinoza / Neathler: Response
Finch: Commander Neathler, can you try to see if there are any other backup paths we might consider, in the event that something changes along the one we initially traipsed. Maybe there’s a blueprint lying around in here somewhere?
Espinoza / Neathler: Response
Finch: Jugtuk, love, if you wouldn’t mind sharing all of your findings, then we’ll get them uploaded onto our devices. We’re going to need all the information we can get.
The big Brikar smiled, a flutter dancing in his chest. He had pages upon pages of research that they could use, and so much more to come.
A family of Morels, and now he was a part of it.
Espinoza / Neathler: Response