Lt. Commander Tahna Meru - Drugs, Pubs, And Heavy Metal
Tahna Meru
((Outside the Seedy Pub, Lower vIq'mItlh City))
Meru took off, leading the group down the street away from the direction of the Clinic. They ducked through an alley, and then another, until she felt they were sufficiently far from the mess they’d left in the bar. They needed to regroup, plan their next move. She slowed in a back alley, quiet save for the falling rain.
A giddy relief settled over her as she looked at her group, and she couldn’t hold back a smile, though she was sure it probably made her look a bit demented. They’d made it out. No one had been snatched by the Klingons, no one had been drugged. They were all in once piece, relatively unharmed, and they’d gotten the sample they came for. They’d made a mess of things, sure, but…well. History had not repeated, not this time.
Tahna: Let’s not do that again!
Neathler: Fine, fine, no more pubs.
Auricsdóttir: I could also do without the angry Klingons.
Spelvan: I would be hard-pressed to repeat that excursion.
Tahna: A karaoke bar was not a bad suggestion, but I worry it will be busy and put more eyes on us. ::She frowned, looking up and down the alley.:: If we’re careful, we may be able to do some quick analysis of the substance here, and see if it’s something we can track.
Neathler: Why don’t you go a head, I’ll keep watch.
Auricsdóttir: :: Pointing to a small alcove. :: We will be mostly hidden over there.
Spelvan: ::to Neathler:: That is an excellent idea - thank you, sir.
Commander Neathler moved toward the entrance of the alley to keep watch, while Meru joined the doctor in examining the drug. They would only be working with their tricorders, so it wouldn’t be as thorough an analysis as the labs on the Gorkon could provide. But it should give them a start, something to work from for tracking down more of the substance, or perhaps even information they could pass along to the clinic for treating overdoses.
Auricsdóttir: One of you should scan it.
Meru let the doctor do the honors, as he both had the drug and had been the one to suffer for it.
Spelvan: ::removing the vial containing the drug from his pocket:: I will scan the drug as quickly and efficiently as possible.
As quickly and efficiently as possible…very Vulcan of him. Meru smiled slightly.
Neathler: Any luck?
Spelvan: Yes. The drug contains traces of boridium, which will be easy to program our tricorders to identify particles of.
Auricsdóttir: Boridium?
Meru frowned. That was odd.
Tahna: It’s part of the trans-uranic series of heavy elements…a metal. I don’t know of Klingons ever using it, I think it’s more common in Romulan technology. I wonder if it’s meant to be in the drug, or if it’s an accidental inclusion. Either way, it may lead us back to more information.
If it was meant to be in the drug, they now had a way to track the drug. If it wasn’t meant to be in the drug and was included accidentally, boridium might still lead them back to where the drug was manufactured, packaged, or stored.
Neathler: How about a walk in the park? We might have some shelter from the trees, and there are several exits we can take if necessary.
Auricsdóttir: I am always up for a walk in the park.
Spelvan: I have no objection to this plan.
Tahna: After you, Commander.
((Park - Lower vIq'mItlh City))
The park itself was an oddity—it looked out of place in the gritty city, and indeed was strange from a biological perspective. The city seemed to be perpetually rainy, and that much rain with so little sun ought to make it difficult for most species of large plants to survive, but there were several large trees dotted about the park. Meru wondered if they’d been engineered to survive in these conditions, or perhaps it was just evolution at work. The tree’s wide leaves offered the group some shelter from the rain.
Spelvan: I will scan for the boridium. Please, keep an eye out.
Auricsdóttir: What does it look like?
Tahna: It’s a metal, but it’s not very distinctive looking. You wouldn’t be able to identify it on sight alone.
Neathler: Response
Doctor Spelvan scanned the area for traces of boridium. Meru hoped the Klingons hadn’t taken to using it in large quantities on the colony, in power networks or anything else—she doubted it, but anything was possible.
Spelvan: ::putting his tricorder away:: I have found two locations that have a large amount of boridium. One area to the east seems to be in an industrial area, in a building that appears to be a warehouse. The second area to the north looks to be in a residential district. It could be in someone's home or possibly a business. ::pause:: We must now choose which place to investigate.
Neathler: Response
Auricsdóttir: A house cannot hold as many Klingons as a warehouse.
Tahna: Nor can it hold as many drugs.
A sample in a house or business could mean the drug on someone’s person, waiting to be ingested or sold. Meru wondered what specific parameters the doctor had set.
Tahna: How much is it picking up at the second location, Doctor?
Neathler / Spelvan: Response
Auricsdóttir: Should we have the Gorkon beam up the sample? Having it on us could make us a target if it is known.
Or, having a sample could lend credibility to their story if they needed to claim to be after the drug themselves. But the option that led to the best outcomes was definitely beaming it back up to the Gorkon for further analysis. Meru looked to Doctor Spelvan, who still had possession of the sample.
Tahna: Send the sample to the Gorkon’s labs. Have them run a full biochemical and medical analysis of it, and share anything they learn with the clinic in the city. Maybe we can get a head start on helping those overdose cases.
Auricsdóttir / Spelvan / Neathler: Response
With the fate of the sample sorted, and the fate of the Klingons who had taken the drug hopefully looking a little brighter, Meru turned her focus to the next problem. They had two locations they could check out. One might run them into an individual, either a user or a dealer or both. The other led to a warehouse.
There was a classic Vulcan saying about the needs of the many…it was not an exact fit, but she figured the path to save the most lives lay in the warehouse.
Tahna: Make a note of the second location, but let’s check out the warehouse. Maybe it’s the crux of this whole operation.
Auricsdóttir / Spelvan / Neathler: Response