Cmdr Blake, "Knowledge gap."

[Deliera Jay]

((Ready Room))

Rahman: Lieutenant, you have your report ready?

Vanlith: Still waiting on some final closes of the more complicated events but everything else is ready to go.

Rahman: All right, what tasks do the colonial administrators want assistance with?

Vanlith: There were three tasks given to us. An engineering task looking at the irrigation systems needing an update, a medical/science task looking at a fungus that was impacting the farming in the Southern Islands and a security issue with Nausicaan pirates, they were hitting cargo ships as they left the planet.

The XO raised her eyebrows but otherwise said nothing as Vanlith's hands fiddled under the table. 

Rahman: All right, why don't we start with any security issues.

Vanlith: So I spoke to Commander Kelrod and Lieutenant Caide about this because I felt Caides expertise might come in handy. On my check in with Commander Kelrod he presented a few options about how to approach the issue especially considering we had the difficulty of actually finding them doing anything for us to act. One option was a probe to scan them and the other was to be ready with a shuttle for them.

Rahman: Okay... so of the options Commander Kelrod gave, which one do you think we should do?

Charlena took a deep breath.

Vanlith: I think the shuttle might be the best option here.

Rahman: And why do you say that?

Vanlith: Whilst it has more risk I think it is an important stance, it shows the administrators action on our part of what they have asked for help with clearly. There is also the fact that considering the weaponry on the ship I think this might be more intimidating and get a response, whether that is capture and the ability to deal with them or if it is intimidation and brings it to an end.

Blake: Agreed. I feel a little like a broken record when I say this, but though we've been asked to get involved, we haven't found evidence of any untoward activity.

Rahman: Okay, let's move on then to any medical or scientific needs. What can you tell us?

Vanlith: It was reported to me that there was a fungus in the Southern Islands causing issues for the farmers and so Ensign Wong and a team put together by him went down to investigate.

Blake: And?

Vanlith: Well their findings weren’t ideal, the fungus was not native to Donova and had psychoactive effects to Lieutenant Lafizatar. He was following up further leads on this last I checked on them about the origins of the fungus, but there was a known treatment to the effects and a fungicide to get rid of the fungus.

Rahman: Response?

Vanlith: From what he has said it may be linked to the exotic animal trade here but there was nothing confirming that when I spoke to him. I am planning on talking to him again about how he plans on dealing with it in detail. I know he wanted to talk to Gorgeous George about it all and find out as much as he could. The exotic animal trade seems to be causing quite a few issues.

oO Almost as if it's their biggest breadwinner... Oo

zh'Kuujn was looking more and more like a tempting target -- if only to interrogate if not arrest. To think she's literally hanging out with Ukinix... who didn't know she ran the Cobalt Clan.

Blake made a mental note to broach that topic with him at some point in the near future.  

Rahman: And finally infrastructure and engineering tasks?

Vanlith: I’ll be honest this was right up my street, their irrigation system needed an overhaul and update into the weather control system. I worked on this with Commander Ukinix and Commander Parker. We orchestrated a meeting with the necessary parties. I had spoken to Commander Ukinix about taking the lead on the design and the implementation process so that I could look at everything else going on as well.

Rahman: Response?

Vanlith: Well the approach was to find a way to update everything without updating everything otherwise we would have been here for months. Thankfully due to the brilliance that is Starfleet Engineering an approach was made to integrate the systems better and establish a way to make the weather more controllable for the farmers without impacting other parts of the planet.

Blake: Weather control system?

Vanlith/Rahman: Response?

Blake's ears tinted orange, cringing at the gap in her knowledge -- basic science, evidently. But it's being spoken of in such a casual manner suggested standardisation across the board. That in itself was a foreign concept for the Brekkian-born, 'green card' Federation resident.

Blake: I'd heard Risa having such a system, but I hadn't thought they were standard across Federation worlds...

It hadn't been a thing between the Delos twin planets (that she knew of, at least). And discussions about controlling the weather had never made it to the table while she was a Ranger, even on Kidman. If they were standard, why was it Vulcan was constantly burning hot and in a drought, or Andor always frozen? Who got to choose what kind of weather was on planets? Was there a planetary department for that kind of thing? Was it the agriculture sector? The residents? Planetary government? 

The more Blake contemplated the concept of a planetary weather control system, the more she grew to overcomplicate the scenario she'd constructed.

Rahman/Vanlith: Response?

Blake: Out of curiosity, has Lin contacted you for anything else?

Vanlith: Response?

Rahman: Response?

Tbc . . . 

Cmdr Sky Blake

Executive Officer

USS Veritas

C238803SB0