A gift from a bog witch

Posted on Sat Feb 9th, 2019 @ 1:55pm by Commander Rita Paris & Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi & Lieutenant Asa Dael
Edited on on Sat Feb 9th, 2019 @ 3:23pm

Mission: Earthly Visitation
Location: Engineering hazardous material lab.
Timeline: Just after A Quiet Drink With The Bestie

"Hum..." Thex said as she carefully moved the fish scale slab that was ruffly the size of a chopping board around to take a look at its underside. Placing it and the grabbers down on the table she turned to look over at Rita. " This is out of my area of expertise. It looks organic to me. Do you think we should get the doctor down here?" She said turning to look at Rita who was manning the scanner.

"Aw jeez, you know I don't know what I'm looking at half the time here... it looks like the big scales are indeed from some member of the aquatic sealife variety, but the computer's playing hob trying to figure out what species it's from- it seems to incorporate multiples, including arthropods? So a squid with scales? How would that even work? Cross-referencing it with the mythological database, hold on..."

" Some combination animal they create perhaps?" Thex said as she walked around to look at the console. The list was long as the celtic people seemed to have a very long list of scaled sea monsters. " That could be it perhaps. " She said pointing to one's description. "Cirein-cròin, a sea serpent from Orkney that was so large that it fed on seven whales at once. I think we have one of those in andorian mythology." The andorian said as she looked back up at the scales.

"If we could prove a cross-relationship oif species through this sample that would probably make the xenomarine biologists excited as well as the historians. Okay, let's see if we've found a missing link, eh?" Rita fumbled with the interfaces trying to cross-reference the scanned data to existing data, but to her surprise, the tricorder helped her along, and she found a match. Hey! Look at that! Cross planetary migration of species is incredibly rare, go us for science nerd win for the month!"

" So this thing may have been the missing link for some are planets ancient sea life?" Thex said as she looked at the results on the screen.

“That’s for the Science department to decide, we just make the discovery. Thing is, these things have a bizarre quantum signature, like they are larger than their actual size. You think these might be more artifacts?” Paris mused. Science was by no means her strong suit- that was the purview of her better half. But she could read a tricorder and she was starting to learn what to expect from pieces such as these.

" Maybe, but they don't seem to be similar to the other ones. For one we can scan them which we can't with the others. We could try the nanite trick again see if that can spread some more info on them?" The andorian suggested.

“You’re the brains of this partnership, lady, I’m just the good-looking one,” Paris quipped as the worked. After all, she and Thex worked well together, even if three quarters of the time she had no idea what the engineers was doing, she just appreciated the results. “If you think that’s the play to make then let’s make it happen!”

The andorian nodded and it wasn't long before she had produced a bottle of nanties the same as Sonak had produced only with a few alterations to work on organic material. " Okay Can you man the controls commander?" She said as she placed the bottle and one of the scales onto a table.

“Uhhhh sure… what am I manning here?” Again, 25th century technical expertise was not the spirit of the 23rd century’s strongest suit, and while she was game to try things, she was often adrift when it came to operating modern technology. “So I’m doing what now…?”

" Sorry, I forget you're a little behind, Commander. Hit the yellow then the blue button and that will get it started. " Thex said as she took her place behind the computer console to monitor the nanites.

"Yellow button, blue button, and there we go! Okay, so what's the nanite trick?" Rita was reasonably enthusiastic even if she didn't know what was going on.

"The nanites will give us the deepest possible scan of what this thing made off. We're were able to get some info of from the armor....." Thex said as her eyes light up as the data began to come through. " Now this isn't normal. According to this these scales are still alive. "

"Ohhh, that's... exciting," Rita added sarcastically. "So alive, active cell structure, but no actrual system in place for them to actually live- no way to process nutrients, no waste elimination, no hydration requirements- hey, is that the answer? Dunk these in water to get them to turn into giant fish of legend?" Paris postulated, trying to make sense of the readings while spitballing ideas.

" Maybe it looks like they have some sought of psychic residue that keeps them connected and alive to it's original creature. " Thex said sending the energy reading over to Rita.

“I hope my old hair trimmings don’t do that,” Rita muttered. “So why would an old bog witch who we parted with on good terms send us living fish scales seems to be the mystery at hand. Fish scales of a legendary beast of myth, which we seem to learn every day just means ancient alien visitations from species who clearly did not have a Prime directive,” Rita clarified, chuckling over the weirdness of her workaday life.

" She must have had some reason to send them. I guess we'll find out after some more testing. " Thex said as she switched off the nanites. A beep from the computer made the andorian look around. "Hello.... the jewel results are in." She said, her bright blue eyes looking over the data. "Well, not so exotic here. Two blue Jeremejevite gems that by the data look like they came from the seas around the Scottish Orkney islands."

"Yay Earth stones! Y'know, you should take them. Make some nice earrings for your gal out of them- they certainly have an interesting pedigree, if nothing else. Plus they'll set off the color of her eyes. So I guess we should call Doc and see what they think of our fish scales after all?" Rita shrugged. She was more of an idea gal than a lab gal, but Dael was quite the whiz kid.

" Yeah, we'd better get the doc down here." Thex said as she tapped her combadge. =^= Thex to Asa Dael could you please join us in the hazadous material lab we have some biolgical samples we need a hand with. =^=

It took Lieutenant Junior Grade Asa Dael seven minutes to reach the hazardous materials lab, carrying a medical tricorder and PaDD along with a satchel containing medical sample kits and their usual assorted gee-gaws of hypo’s, sterilization beam, tissue knitters, cell regenerators, and growth inhibitors. The doctor had learned to embrace the weird that came with life on the Hera and had started traveling to any call for their assistance with a kit in tow.

Greeting the pair, Asa said brightly, “Hello Commander, Lieutenant Commander, how can I help?”

" Glad you can make it doc. " Thex said as she stood up from her chair and hurried over to the table she had laid the two scales. " Well around an hour ago a large horse appeared in ten forward dropping off a bag containing these two scales as a gift from a Celtic bog-witch. We've done some test on them, but this is rather out of are level of expertise. We're trying to work out why she would have gifted us with these.

“A horse…from a bog witch….right,” Asa replied, taking a moment to collect their thoughts and wrap their head around the most recent bout of weirdness. After a deep, cleansing breath, Asa sprang into action, smile on their face and tricorder at the ready.

After a few preliminary scans, Asa said, “OK, hit me with it. Has anyone done advanced genetic sequencing? I’m getting reading of non-replicating cells that are being suspended in a psionic energy field. We saw similar things in some of the living statues on Meroset, but the structure was significantly different.”

While waiting on a response, Asa moved to pull up the cellular structure images that had been obtained from clean-up efforts on Meroset and put them side by side with images of the cells in the mystery bones. They looked back and forth between the two images, typing into a PaDD at a furious pace and setting a computer analysis program running. That done, Asa turned back to the commanding officers and said, “Oh, um, sorry, got wrapped up in the mystery. I meant to put a ma’am in there,” and proceeded to blush furiously, head to toe.

"Just some lab work, Doc, not much need for formality. Your military etiquiette is noted and appreciated but no violation of respect of command has occurred," Commander Paris explained. "We called you for your expertise and your furiously curious intellect."

Smile brightening, Asa replied, “That I can give freely! Now, from what I am seeing, these are half-engineered, half-evolved cells. If I had to posit a theory, I would say these were once part of a larger creature, but have been removed and are now discrete from the being they came from. I will need to conduct some advanced analysis to conclude the species of origin, but based on the selective permeability of the cell wall, they would appear to be from an aquatic creature. I would like to take a sample and place it in a hypertonic solution, and also another in a hypotonic solution. Cohesion is also being held together through a series of varying extracellular matrixes that have a higher than usual ion count and electron potential. What else have you found thus far?”

The doctor was walking back and forth across the room, looking at the scales in open curiosity, and talked about twice their normal speed. Asa Dael was always one for a mystery, and looked forward to seeing what they could learn from their current quandary.

" Well according to the scan results they seem to have some connection to the original creature which is keeping it alive. None of the cells seem to be deteriorating. " Thex added hoping the doc hadn't already said that.

“No indeed, they are not,” Dael affirmed, “They almost appear to be in statsis, what with the neither growing nor deteriorating thing, but there is still neural energy within the cells and a current moving along the extracellular matrix. There is a higher than average amount of quantum entanglement and…..celestial energy? Considering the recent visits we have had from various ‘gods’ is there any chance our pony express was from someone we know?”

" If the note that came with it is true then it's a gift from Nassania. Though it could be a lie. We did only encounter the celtic gods because Loki stole some of there stuff and swapped out Hera's stuff for it. " the andorian added.

Asa scrunched up their nose in thought. After a brief pause they said, "Nope, not a clue. Remind me which one that Nassania is?"

" That's where we have a problem. We have very little information about her mainly due to the celts not writing anything down. We think she was worshiped in Belgium and may have been a river or bog goddess, but apart from that, we have very little. Well other than the fact that Loki had tricked her so he could steal her stuff. " Thex said as she ran her hands through her white hair.

At that, Paris cleared her throat and began to read from a PaDD, as she'd had nothing to do but look up the answer.

I call to Nassania of the flowing waters,
lady of the freshwater sea, ever restless,
never still, goddess who renews herself
each moment, who stirs the silt with every swirl.
Nassania, goddess supple and persistent,
mistress of a land of many voices, many tongues,
you know the beauty in asymmetry; you know
the sweetest harmony comes from diversity;
you know the time for battle, you know the time
to yield. Nassania, lady of the fountain,
lady of uncertainty, you who grant the gift
of change, goddess, I praise you and honor your might.

"So there's that..." Paris offered with a grin. "I may not know how to work a spectrometer but I can use a search engine with the best of them."

" Or there's that." Thex said feeling rather embarrassed.

“Thank you,” Asa said, including both Paris and Thex, “So, giver of change? Bog goddess….asymmetry….diversity…..lady of freshwater sea……Computer, analyze RNA and DNA of sample. Please identify for any known type of freshwater animal given a 3% variance in structure excluding variances in the cell wall permeability. Extrapolate backwards and provide common ancestor possibilities please.”

The computer chimed back, “Most probable common ancestor is Miooplosus, a freshwater lake fish common in Earth’s early to middle Eocene period. Probability is 94%”

"Soooooo big ol' fish?" Asa asked the group, gauging if they found this supposition to be absurd.

"Okay... big fish, sure. I have no idea why she sent us a pair of still living fish scales. Do we toss them in the sea and they turn into a fish or something? I dunno folks, too little data and we might be chasing our own tails here. Maybe to her fish scales were her holy symbol or currency of the time, who knows." This sort of investigation wasn't exactly Rita's specialty.

" For all, we know if we touch it one of us could turn into a mermaid. Maybe after Asa done some more tests will get some information. " Thex said as she looked at the scales.

"Well, that's definitely not making me want to touch it. I need two legs," Rita chortled.

A look akin to the proverbial light-bulb going off in Asa's mind lit their face. "Ladies, we have an aquatic individual aboard the crew now. We could ask Triton to see if he senses any resonance with the scales? I would also like to run advanced diagnostics in Sickbay to check cell membrane aqueous permeability and also submerge small samples in a few different solutions. Now to just take a sample..."

As the doctor attempted to shave a small portion of the scales off for research a blue light glowed slightly, and the sample tool simply rebounded off the light, falling out of Asa's hands onto the floor.

"Huh. Well, that's different," Dael responded, "It's almost like the tool was...repelled somehow?"

" Sounds like the armor of Achilles. I still can't get any samples off it." The andorian said. " Do you want me to bag them up and help you take them to sickbay?" The engineer asked.

“Well, moving from one lab to another is definitely the cue for the gal with no technological nor scientific background to check out. Keep me posted as to the results and let me know what you find,” Paris offered with a casual wave as she departed Engineering to make the rounds in the torpedo bays for an inspection. While she would puzzle over a problem if need be, this was far more in depth than just concocting a plan, and the extradimensional explorer was basically useless in this setting. Torpedoe bay inspections were much more her speed.

" See you later Rita. I still owe you a few drinks." The andorian called as the time-displaced human left the room.

“You mean the armor that took years off your life?” Asa responded, trepidation in their voice. The Andorian engineer did not know what it cost Dael to reverse the loss of 20 years from Thex’s lifespan caused by using unknown armor, but the doctor feared similar results, and knew they could not keep bargaining off years of their life through Death in perpetuity; caution was the obvious course of action here.

" Yeah though it didn't have any blue glowing light. Tools just simply break when i try and chip anything off it. Not that touched it since i found out what happened when i use it." The andorian said.

"Well, that is certainly for the best," Asa replied. "Did the suit react to anything at all? Something we could replicate here?"

" Only the nineties we used for scanning and it was able to disable them within thirty seconds," Thex explained.

“Well, nothing for it, let’s get it to Sickbay Lab 3. There’s no one working in there right now, so we don’t have to worry about endangering anyone in the process. Containment protocol 4 should do it, I think.”

That said, Asa began transferring the scales to a carrying container that would shield passersby from any leaking energies or contaminants that had not been found already. In a moment of supreme clumsiness, Asa dropped the scales to the ground, whereupon they bounced and….reformed? But into what?

Rushing to lock the doors and put the room in quarantine, Asa called to Thex, “Scans please, what are you getting off that thing? Any artron energies or chronaton? Computer, containment forcefield around the unknown items now, non-porous please and report any particulates that have come out already.”

" Getting a whole mess of energies and other readings," Thex said from the console as the light shone even brighter. Then as quickly as it had begun the light began to fade forming something new. As the light declined what was now lying on the floor was a strange scaley cylinder. With a slight hiss, it opened as what appeared to be two starfish rose from the cylinder.

Before Thex could say anything another light shone from the new scaley structure as what appeared to be a hologram of a godess filled the room.

" To the andorian that know that you have the thanks of the goddess Nassania. I am happy you have figured out my gift. I present to you the wielder of the armor of Achilles what you may call a workaround to a problem. This machine made from my greatest follower will give you a way to use the armor without expending your own lifeforce. Each creature will allow your thirty munites of its use. use them sparingly they will take a turn of the moon to recharge. If the enemy you fear is returning then we will need all the help we can get." The message said before fading to nothing.

" Well, that was something," Thex said looking towards the doctor. " You'd think she'd mention to drop it on the floor on the note she sent us." The andorian said with a slight grin on her face.