Take This to a Laboratory

Posted on Mon Jun 24th, 2024 @ 10:30pm by Lieutenant JG Tyler Rehman & Lieutenant JG Gulati

1,365 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Mission 1 - Project Concord
Location: Tyler Rehman's Quarters

The time had come for Gulati to meet with Tyler Rehman in his quarters, not something either of them had planned when starting out on the Concord, but they had only recently rediscovered one another aboard the starship during its disasterous trek into the Delta Quadrant. This would have nor was it a social call. It was, however, advantageous for Gulati to 'play it up' and so she did. All it took was a black blouse with a heart shaped cut out in the center that emphasized her cleavage like a restless hypersexualized Klingon, and tight-fitting jeans. Her shoes were rather average flats.

When she was in the corridor heading to his quarters, she made an extra bit of effort to draw attention to herself by standing near his quarters until at least four different people walked by. When the fourth person came her way she pressed the chime and stepped closer to his door. "Ty honey, it's me Gigi" she said loudly. She nearly vomited on her own words, referring to herself as 'Gigi' was vile. It made her cringe. Still, the best way not to alert anyone to what they were doing was to feed into the dirty fantasies of others. Humans were predictable. Most were anyways. Tyler Rehman wasn't so bad.

Gigi? Tyler Rehman thought as he picked up a pair of underwear off the deck and tossed it into his laundry basket. Typically, he was an organized individual, everything had its place, but his quarters were a bad habit of it. He was typically too absent minded to care where dishes, clothing, or even food ended up. Plus, he had small quarters as a junior officer, his room was an all in one with just the small bathroom off behind one door. He was sure to clean up, make his bed, and recycle used dinnerware, collected and stacked any PaDDs, and of course cleaned up all the clothing, and finally made his bed. When he was mostly satisfied with the look of his quarters, he went to the door, touched the controls on the side and the doors parted to reveal Gulati, who was dressed to impressed. Tyler smirked, "ahhh Gigi... come in, come in," he said, using his hand to usher the Benzite into his quarters.

Gulati had stepped in and gave the quarters a once over. "Charming place," she commented with a glance at Tyler Rehman. She waited for the doors to close behind her before breaking free from the character or persona she had used while in the corridor. "Thank you for meeting with me."

She then retrieved a scientific vial, sealed. She had been keeping it in what was best described as a purse. "If you haven't heard about the dead Bolian in the cargo bay, the cause of death is asphyxiation, but it was anything but accidental. I don't care what the autopsy report ends up being."

She handed over the vial to Tyler. "This was in his mouth and undoubtedly in his lungs" she added. The vial had a liquid substance inside. "I have my suspicions, but I need a science officer to confirm those."

Tyler took the offered vial and looked at the contents as he allowed what was said to sink it. The question on his lips was, why do you even have this? But he let that go, there was no reason to go down that path. He then finally spoke. "So, you suspect this is what did the blue guy in?" He twisted the vial around at eye level to look at the liquid inside. It looked thick like mucus, but it didn't behave as such. He was intrigued for sure, but he wasn't a medical scientist, he dealt with numbers, star charts, biological substances were not in his bag of tricks.

"Yeah, I can take a look," Tyler said. He finally tore his gaze from the vial and shifted his attention back to Gulati. "Do you think medical is going to falsify the autopsy report?"

"Ty," Gulati smiled wrly. "At this point, I don't trust anyone on this ship except you. Even the Captain is on my list of suspects until he isn't, but I have let him in on my theories because if I didn't, it would be too suspicious."

She looked at Tyler Rehman carefully. "I'm not too sure how long that substance will be in the Bolian, or if I just got what was left behind. I have a nasty suspicion as to what that is, and I think given how you are looking at it, you may be on the same wavelength."

"It's antizinborline, a byproduct of the I'su'ke plant which the Vulcan's have adapted to San Francisco's soil ph. I know most people think that it is just blood incompatibility that is detrimental to Bolians, but most anything Vulcan has the same effect. Humans use the leaves of the I'su'ke in teas, I recognize the color of the foam particles." Tyler said. He now looked at Gulati, and continued to speak. "The acidity of the Bolian stomach would have broken down the I'su'ke leaving no trace of the plant. It is a good thing you were able to get this sample."

Lieutenant Gulati looked curiously at Tyler. That was not what I was anticipating thought the Benzite. "I was not expecting that. Is that all you have for me? Just some plant stuff from toxic tea?" She took a deep breath.

Tyler shook his head. "No," he said matter of fact. "There is changeling goo in there." He pointed to the areas in the vial where there was copper color residue. He looked at Gulati. "Why the changeling goo had the antizinborline is beyond me." He shrugged and he twisted the vial around. "However, with that said, we will need to confirm it in the bio lab, because if I am right, we have a much larger problem on our hands than a dead Bolian and a faulty drive."

"Do you believe in coincidences, Ty? Because I certainly do not" Gulati stated. "There are too many things going wrong at once, Ty. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, I promise."

A right eyebrow rose in an arch at the last comment. "I never implied that you were," Tyler said, he handed the vial back to Gulati. "As for coincidences," he shrugged, "I am not sure if I do or not. I deal in mathematics and science, those don't lie." He pointed at the vial. "What I do know is that vial contains Changeling goo and antizborline, why both, I couldn't say. We have a hypothesis out there, and we need to prove it."

"Hop to it, lieutenant," said Gulati. She was eager to have answers and science was his wheelhouse. "Keep me updated on the results."

Tyler nodded and then took back the vial. "Aye aye Lieutenant Gigi," Tyler stated, a smirk forming on his lips. He then escorted Gulati out of his quarters and headed to the biology lab - a bit giddy (and maybe a bit worried) - that they had a mystery on their hands. "I always do love proving a good hypothesis," he mumbled to himself. He vanished around the bend in the corridor and found the nearest lift.

Lieutenant Gulati stood there thinking about her next move. They had something, something that Tyler would need a little bit of time to actually confirm, but this was not the sort of matter of concern that Gulati could be a stereotype of her species and wait for concrete answers. Humans enjoyed speculation far too much for her liking, and more so they wanted to know about the worst possible things before proof was provided. On Benzar, she would not dare fathom broaching the topic of an intruder let alone the potential of one being a changeling, one of the Federation's greatest threats.

This can't wait she told herself, relying on Starfleet training for the decision. She had to sound the alarm even if it was more muted and selective.

OFF

Lieutenant JG Gulati
Mission Specialist

Lieutenant JG Tyler Rehman
Science Officer/Stellar Cartographer

 

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