Weird Science

Posted on Fri Feb 14th, 2020 @ 7:24am by

Mission: In the Family
Location: Science labs
1967 words - 3.9 OF Standard Post Measure

"Dad, are you really taking me home the labs? For real?" Seleya all but bounced with excitement as she walked along her father. The fifteen year old smiled brightly at him, clapping her hands. "Really?"

Peter nodded as the doors slid open. "Lieutenant Mortigar, are you in?" He called out, "I have someone I would like you to meet."

The Evoran looked up from his work upon hearing the doors slide open. He recognized Commander Horn immediately. As for the girl who stood beside him, Morty had no idea who she was. He put down his PADD and rounded his workstation to greet the arrivals.

"Commander! So nice to see you here again," he said, before turning to the girl. "And who might this be?" Mortigar wondered.

Seleya frowned, surely there was some hint of resemblance? "I'm Seleya Horn," she answered, "that's my dad."

"Seleya has an interest in science," Peter explained, "though she has no idea on what area. I was hoping you could help her."

"I can certainly try," Mortigar warmly said. "Perhaps if she stays here for about an hour, we might solve that puzzle." There was no guarantee that they would, especially with someone so young, but they had to start somewhere.

The teenage girl smiled with enthusiasm. "Oh yes please!" She exclaimed, being the total opposite of her father's calm. "What sort of science do you usually do sir," she asked, "Do you do experiments? Are they dangerous?"

Peter cast the man a patient smile. "I will come back in an hour," he promised, giving his daughter a quick hug before walking out.

Mortigar waited until the doors to his lab had shut before giving Seleya his full attention. "Now then, to answer all three of your questions... I majored in astronomy at the Academy but I specialize in stellar cartography; essentially I map and create star charts. Now, you might not think that's very exciting at all but I can promise you that the discovery of a new interstellar object always generates much excitement. The knowledge that we acquire from such discoveries improves our understanding of the universe, and our place in it."

"Did you ever discover any new stars or systems?" The girl stared at him with wide-eyed curiosity.

"Not stars," the Evoran first answered. "However, during my posting at Starbase 211, I did discover a number of exoplanets orbiting a K-type star deep in the Alpha Quadrant. My name is even in a couple scientific papers!"

"How did you feel when you discovered them?" the teenager ventured, "excited? Thrilled?" She followed him like a puppy, hanging on his every word.

The Lieutenant led the girl further into the lab to a series of workstations. "This is going to be the area where we run our experiments," he told her. "At the moment, we do not have any ongoing experiments but that will change soon. My staff are currently planning out three separate projects. As you can see, we have a wide array of tools, and technology at our disposal," he mentioned whilst motioning to the equipment with his hands. "Anything from test tubes and pipettes to high resolution microscopes."

"What is your favourite part? Doing experiments, or finding new stars?" She stepped closer to one of the workstations. "I've tried helping Mom out in sickbay but I don't think being a nurse is for me."

"My passion is in making star charts, although I do enjoy most of the work I do," he told her with honesty. "What about school? Do you have a favourite subject? Biology, chemistry, or even physics? Perhaps something else?" Morty questioned, hoping that he could set the young lady on the right path.

The girl bit her lower lip. "I like trying new things," she admitted, "back in chem class I was always mixing this or that together... until I set fire to my work station. Then I was banished from class for a while. I like experimenting, discovering new things. I didn't mean to set fire to the classroom, obviously. Biology doesn't really hold my interest."

“You certainly sound like a scientist,” Mortigar pointed out from her activities. “Although banishment may have been a little cruel, you must be careful when mixing substances together. Especially on a starship. I don’t believe you’d want to melt a bulkhead and expose yourself or others to space. That’s an extreme example, of course.”

"Have you ever done something silly like that?" Seleya pulled her long hair back over her shoulder, twirling it a few times to make-shift tie it together and keep it out of her face. It exposed her faintly pointed ears, making her look more alien than she already did with mildly slanted eyebrows. "What's the silliest thing you've ever done?"

“Silliest? Hmmm...” Mortigar wasn’t exactly a silly type of person; not on purpose at least. He’d certainly made mistakes whilst learning his craft, but nothing he would classify as silly. Unless... “Well, there was this one time I dressed up as an alien to frighten a colleague of mine back on Evora. His... short-sightedness became a little annoying over time.” He smiled and snickered softly to himself on remembering what he’d done.

Eyes widening, and brows shooting up in excitement, the girl was hanging on his words. "What did you do?" she breathed.

“Oh, nothing extravagant,” he told her. “First, you must understand that for most of Evoran existence, my people believed themselves to be the only intelligent beings in the galaxy. First contact with the Federation was a shock to our society. It challenged many of our beliefs. Not everyone was very receptive to change. In this particular instance, as I mentioned, I disguised myself to look ‘alien’. Then, when my colleague was asleep I appeared and attempted to take him away to be probed. Well, I’m sure you can imagine how well that went,” Morty insisted with an innocent enough smile.

Seleya burst into laughter. "Oh oh...he must've been so scared," she giggled, "you didn't get into trouble though did you? Or is that what made you leave home? I've never lived on a planet before, I've always lived on a ship or station."

"He never knew it was me!" Mortigar replied with a proud look on his face. "I wouldn't necessarily say that particular incident is what drove me away from my homeworld. I just knew that had I remained on Evora, that my scientific endeavors would have been stifled in the process. I can do the most good for my people by being away from them."

"Do you miss your family?" The girl resisted reaching out to him. "I'd miss my family terribly, if I were to move away."

"Of course I do," Morty answered without hesitation. "I don't know of any Starfleet Officer who hasn't had to make some kind of sacrifice in order to serve." He then shrugged. "I still speak to them from time to time over subspace though." Given the girl's age, a thought popped into the Lieutenant's head. "There will probably come a time soon, where you have to decide whether you wish to stay in close proximity to your family, or forge a path of your own."

"In a year or two," Seleya confirmed, "but for now I'm happy to learn new things here on the ship. I don't think I'm ready yet to leave home and spend four years on Earth, or longer. I do have my grandparents on Earth though, I suppose I could live with them as the time comes. At least for a while." Her attention was caught by something blinking on one of the screens. "What is that?"

The Evoran turned towards the screen in question. "Ah, that is what I was working on before you arrived. It's a simulation on how a Class II-P supernova might affect its binary companion in the Thiax System. Did you know that the majority of stars that you can see out of a viewport window are binaries, and even trinaries? It's actually quite uncommon for a star system to only have one sun."

"Is it?" The girl stared at the screen in open awe. "What does your simulation show?" She traced her finger across the screen, following the path of what seemed to be stellar dust going from one star to another. "Will it absorb its partner?"

"Under normal circumstances it would," Mortigar said with a nod. "However, this particular simulation depicts what would occur before the exchange of matter is allowed to transpire." He input a few commands into the console which sped up the simulation. Thiax A grew in size considerably as it expelled its outer layers, and in the process, began to destabilize its companion star Thiax B. When A finally went nova, it created a kind of chain reaction, which not only destroyed B, but also cause it to ignite into an even larger explosion. "Fascinating..." Morty muttered to himself. "Well, as you can see, that was the result of this particular experiment," he told Seleya.

"But this only predicts what might happen, right? So it's entirely possible B doesn't get destroyed?" The girl hung on his every word, clearly interested in stellar science. She seemed to absorb whatever he told her and she was only left with more questions instead.

"That is correct," Mortigar answered. "If any of the variables are changed ever so slightly, the outcome will likely be different. Although in this specific scenario, I can't imagine the companion star avoiding its grim fate. Binary stars often rely upon one another to survive. It's like a dance between two people. Have you ever danced with someone before?" It was a strange question for him to be asking a younger girl, but it was going to help him get his point across.

"Ah...no sir, I can't say I've ever danced we with anyone." What an odd question to ask. "But if they rely on each other the small one will take from the big one too, to survive right?"

"Normally yes, but with Thiax A going supernova, B wouldn't be able to avoid the cataclysmic gravitational waves from the implosion." Mortigar paused a moment as he recognized Seleya's budding interest in the subject. "I sense that from our brief discussion here that supernovae, and perhaps astronomy as a whole has peaked your interest?" he observed.

Excitedly, the teenager nodded. "It's all very interesting," she confessed as she continued to stare at the screen. "Can I keep watching this?"

"Of course! You can even program and run different simulations if you like," he told her.

"I'll have a look at it, and play with it for a while," Seleya smiled. "Thank you sir, for letting me do this."

"It's no trouble at all. And please, call me Morty," the Evoran said to her. "As far as I'm concerned, if I've made you a little more eager to learn about science, then it's a victory for the universe! There can never be enough of us brainy types to unlock the mysteries around us." As the girl wanted some time to experiment with the program on her own, Mortigar knew it was time to step away. "If you have any questions, please let me know. I'll be just over here," he said whilst motioning to an adjacent work station.

For someone so young, Morty was astounded by how knowledgeable Seleya was. Perhaps in time, by directing her into studying the appropriate subjects, he would be able to make her into his very own assistant. She certainly had alot of potential, most of which remained untapped.


Lieutenant Mortigar
Chief Science Officer

Seleya Horn
Peter's daughter
pnpc Peter