Compound Plonk

Posted on Tue Feb 22nd, 2022 @ 11:05am by Captain Benjamin Ingram Dr & Lieutenant Commander Meilin Jiang & Lu'kat

Mission: S0E0: What Came Before
Location: Hazardous Materials Lab, Canopus Station
Timeline: MD7: Just after the party

Behind layers of forcefields, inertial dampeners, and one pane of inch thick replicated demi-sapphire, it all seemed a little overkill for the glass. And for the glass it surely was, being something with a molecular tag that showed it had been replicated from Station stores that day for the function. The tag was even coded with the replicator location data, time-stamped, and even encoded with the authorisation code used to create it. And out of a batch of one hundred glasses made that day, this one was carrying something rather special.

"Tea?" Ingram asked, stepping up alongside Meilin as he sipped from a cup. He was still in his dress uniform, but between the diplomatic suite and the science lab he'd summoned a runner to bring a tea service. "From my families reserves on Risa, helps stimulate the mind and settle the thought processes."

Meilin smiled and nodded. "Thank you. I have never had occasion to sample Risan tea."

"Huum, perhaps calling this 'Risan' tea is something of a misleading botanical label. It's actually a varietal from Taiwan, exceedingly rare given that country was effectively erased from the surface of the Earth during the 3rd World War. My family held a stake in a seed vault on Luna at the time, in which a sample of this delicacy was stored for future preservation," Ingram said and poured her a cup. "We tend to grow it at our family compounds and larger facilities. Much better than the replicated farce."

Lu'kat thought of Mara. He had been observing her for a time. She had stood there, staring at the exit very intently, right after the failed assassination attempt. Had she considered fleeing the scene and changed her mind? Was she involved somehow? Or was she, like him, seeing if anyone would leave in a hurry?

The Cardassian would have found it very out of character if the Lt. Commander would have had anything to do with the whole affair. As a rule, he kept himself informed on anyone who mattered on this station. As such, he was aware of the recent crisis in her personal relations with the reporter.

Spires, now there was a shady character if ever there was one. As expected, the interview Lu'kat had given to him had been craftily 'edited' when it was published, distorting truths in such ways that it made Cardassia look stereotypically suspicious and deceitful, while written in such ways as to make it impossible for the Cardassian to point a blaming finger at the cunning human. Still, Lu'kat's encoded message to his superiors had not suffered under it.

He had to assume all his communications with his people was carefully picked apart by Starfleet's finest. If not by Canopus' Intelligence officers, then surely by someone back in the Alpha Quadrant. Lu'kat had therefore taken to ...alternative... ways of communication to relay news some would consider to be sensitive.

But no, while Lu'kat fully expected Spires to be involved in some plot or other, the Cardassian did not think one of them involved removing Commodore Grissom from the playing field. As things were, Lu'kat was at a loss, something he didn't like to admit to himself. Hopefully, Lu'kat considered as he entered the laboratory, the next few minutes would remedy that.

'I'm sorry, I didn't know you were coming," Ingram said levelly as he sipped his tea.

"And yet, here I am," Lu'kat answered, acknowledging Lt. Commander Jiang's presence as he did so. He made a show of inspecting the laboratory's various apparatuses, while he let the two Starfleet officers decide how to react to his unannounced, yet not necessarily unwelcome, appearance.

"And yet..." Ingram said. The tea was growing bitter in taste, but that could just be the company he associated with. "Well as you can see we're just beginning preliminary testing on the fluid."

Levelling his gaze on the Captain, Lu'kat said: "might I suggest adding a dash of Javanse sugar or a drop of Bajoran honey, you might find the fluid to become more...palatable?"

"Tea notwithstanding, perhaps we should come to the heart of the matter," Meilin suggested. She had too much couth to tell Ingram that his family's tea had a muddled flavor. Professionalism also dictated that she not respond to the Cardassian's critiques.

"Indeed," Ingram said. He gestured a large grid projected onto a screen. "The computers has already begun to expose the material in the glass to a variety o stimuli to see if we can pinpoint its method of activation. Chemical composition is odd, with no traditional explosive signature. More akin to nutrient agar, lots of sugars and neutral agents."

One of the squares on the board began to blink. It blew up to fill the screen, showing a single frame of highly magnified space suffused in an orange glow. Within were crystalline structures, protein molecules and what at first blush looked like an ugly grey potato. The image accelerated slightly, showing the potato-like object under investigation suddenly swelling and then...nothing. The screen whited out.

"Well at least we got it to explode, in a microscopic fashion," Ingram mumbled. "Testing parameters were a rapid state change in temperatures, going from an ambient 6.C to a more reasonable body heat of 37.C. Say from a cooled glass container to someone's skin. It almost looked like a molecule of yeast."

Moving on from one of Lu'kat less favourite liquids to another, he watched the projected screen as the experiment was done, and the molecule exploded in spectacular fashion. Imagining the full scale of destruction had the attack been succesful, the Cardassian commented, as if in thought: "So, this was not an attempted murder on one, but on everyone present, i.e. our entire leadership. Tell me, Starfleet, what would happen if all senior staff of Canopus Station and the officials it had been entertaining, were to be removed from the playing field in one fell swoop?"

"I see no reason why the motive should be limited to leadership," Meilin said. "There are any number of causes to remove the majority if not the entirety of the population of Canopus Station from this system. Our deductive faculties would be better served to identify the origin of this chemical compound, as well as ensuring there is no more of it present on the station."

"That is indeed an important aspect, though what is keeping our culprit from creating or bringing in more of the compound, or resort to other means entirely? Identifying those responsible and their motives are vital elements which should not be ignored. However, determining the origins of this compound is as good a starting point towards those aims as any." Going over the data, Lu'kat offered: "I would venture that this compound is an artificial creation and not a product of natural processes?"

Meilin nodded in agreement. "Indeed. The gain of function could not have been done by accident either. If we can isolate the route by which it was achieved, then it may shed light on the creator."

Lu'kat attempted to tap some buttons, which resulted in a sudden outburst of loud claxons and the screen turning a deep red. Spelled out in large white letters stood: UNAUTHORISED ACCESS. Lu'kat stepped back. "Hmm, at least the warning is spelled in proper Standard. Never cared for words being spelled with a 'Z'...''. As usual, it was impossible to tell if the Cardassian was joking.

''Captain", Lu'kat said, turning to the doctor-turned-commnder, "while I respect the boundaries and restrictions set upon my person since I am not of Starfleet. Might I, for this instance and under your and your esteemed colleague's supervision, of course, be granted access so I might help with the investigation?"

"Perhaps," Meilin said with a hum in her voice, "that is a bridge best crossed when we come to it."

"Meilin," Ingram said, slowly turning to look at her. "Under your supervision, you may selectively authorise access to systems and files you find pertinent to this investigation. Consider her a guide to help you cross the bridge without getting lost along the way."

To that end, Ingram walked over to Lu'kat, and waved his hand over the console to authorise access to the information stored within.

"It does appear our liquid is not the weapon itself, but part of the delivery system given it's not risen above 7.C. And given how the material suspended in it reacted to changes in the ambient temperature range I can see why. A liquid anti-conductor? Instead of allowing the transfer of energy it actively deters it perhaps?" Ingram mused.

As Meilin was working on the console to grant Lu'kat limited access, the Cardassian showed his appreciation to Ingram with a polite nod. In all his years of exile serving on Starfleet's outposts, this was the first time he had gotten clearance and access to sensitive data such as this, even if it was but a limited selection. Undoubtedly extremely limited, given Commander Meilin's reservations about the whole idea, Lu'kat thought. Yet, for all intents and purposes this was sort of a milestone, although surely neither Ingram nor Lu'kat would ever admit to it.

"Given that the explosion of the experiment occurred around 37C, would it be possible that the compound was engineered specifically to interact with humans?" the Cardassian ventured.

"Given the lack of direct contact with humans along with the diverse population represented, biochemical engineering designed to catalyze in the presence of a human seems unfounded." Meilin stepped away from the console. "It is ready, Mister Lu'kat." While she allowed the Cardassian to access the authorized information, she responded to Ingram's hypothesis. "As for an anti-conductor, we would have to isolate applicable forms of insulation and determine which insulators could be utilized within the delivery system. Liquid helium or an electromagnetically sustained vacuum, for example."

Giving Meilin his accustomed 'nod' signifying thanks, Lu'kat accessed the computer terminal. "Interesting..." Lu'kat mused. The compound's molecular cohesion appears quite volatile." He cross-referenced his data with the various recordings of the incident in de Diplomatic Suite.

"With all due respect, Commander Meilin, I believe it highly likely the compound was designed to catalyse upon contact with a human. First, we know the temperature at which it explodes, which is near to that of a conventional human bodily temperature. Second, we know that the intended target was Commander Grissom, a human. His would-be assassin you handcuffed yourself. Third, if it hadn't been for the creature Bar'soons...shenanigans, who caused the 'drink' to spill unto him, we'd likely have been much worse off. The compound never reached the 37 degrees Celcius mark to fully explode, but it did exceed the 7 degree Celcius point, the moment it splashed from the glass on Bar'soon's clothing and skin, at which it started to react."

"This leads me to believe that the delivery system, or at least the deterring element therein, was contained within the glass. This leads me to ask you, where is the glass that contained the liquid?"

Meilin smiled at the Cardassian who had shown himself to be a small, petty man, far too swift with a rebuttal in order to truly heed the world about him. The Dunning-Kruger Effect would state that attempting to explain to him the difference between an exothermic reaction and a biochemical catalyst would be an exercise in futility. "Your grasp of the obvious is inspiring," Meilin mused aloud. "The glass flute is likely in secure evidence lockup with station security. However, being in the hurry that the assailant was, I do not believe the glass was more than a temporary container. He likely removed it from a larger and more secure containment apparatus, perhaps a portable refrigeration unit. I suggest station security ought to be tasked with searching for any suitable object within the premises of the attack if they are not already."

"Yes because on a space station there cannot be many places within which things are kept cold," Ingram said from the other side of the containment vessel. "The life support scrubbers use a close cycle condenser unit to pull humidity from the air, the EPS grid uses an active cooling jacket of liquid nitrogen along with the main trunk assembly. Not to mention the expansion joists that use dry ice and resin to keep the station's frame from warping when we go in and out of Carpathia shadow."

He stepped around to their side.

"Those are three off of the top of my head that are within easy walking distance of the party. Give me a minute and I'll have the rest summoned from memory, along with a list of the items nearby I could use as a cooling system," Ingram said gravely. "What worries me more is the compound itself is unique. There are many chemical agents used across the Alpha Quadrant and beyond that act like this, but they do so in concert with other additives: binary compounds, or atmospheric reagents like sodium. This on the other hand, exponentially generated heat from a small energy source given to it by temperature differential. It's beyond chemical science that we have access to. But it not beyond the realms of possibilities that is not within the catalogue of tools available to those who claim title to Messier 4."

"If you believe there to be a greater stockpile on board the station, it would be prudent indeed to exhaustively search all such locations," Meilin agreed. "However, it is unlikely for the compound to have been brought aboard and installed into the station via any of those specified items, which points back to my original directive: locate the immediate container used to fill the glass. Perhaps it will point to a potential collaborator."

The Lieutenant Commander's increasingly open animosity towards the character of Lu'kat did not go by unnoticed. Ever since their disagreement about creating a buffer zone of settlements and outposts to aid Canopus Station's defence, things had gone downhill between him and Meilin. Admittedly, they were never good to begin with. At least the conversation was now steering back to finding clues for identifying their culprit, which had been Lu'kat's main objective.

"If it indeed originates from one of the species calling Messier 4 their home or their domain, one must wonder how they knew when and where to find Commander Grissom, including the details of the social gathering. We have one such collaborator, or spy, in the brig already, but their might be more. Additionally, this attack was meant to be seen, meant to shock. There are other, far less complicated ways to remove someone from the playing board for that to have been their only objective."

Meilin gave a conciliatory nod. "Perhaps, but we may have exhausted the productivity of speculation. Let us acquire more evidence and see where it leads."

"Agreed. Until then, let's make sure this material remains suitably contained and not brought out for another diplomatic function. I assume it's been placed on the internal sensors banned substance list? Yes? Excellent." Ingram looked at his wrist, the holographic display of his personal comm alighting with notifications. "Fantastic. If you'll pardon me, I have a meeting about a prayer meeting someone wants to hold in the AgriDome."