Belladonna swiftly made her way back to her office. It was in what she called "the Sciences Building," but it wasn't really a building, just an old planetside habit of hers. Most of Sciences wasn't in here, mostly her office some other botany offices and labs, and the offices and labs of some of the more esoteric science disciplines.
She entered from the main corridor into the hallway where one of the staff greeted her as they worked with intradepartmental files on their computer. "Ensign Belladonna, back so soon?"
"Good evening, Ensign Sara. There's a situation and I need to examine botanical matter. Why are you still here?"
"Forgot to save my work and I have to finish the data processing tonight."
"This is why I don't like computers much."
A digital voice comes from the speaker. "Perhaps this is mutual."
"Tsk, stop taunting Bella. Sorry, I forgot to turn off the mic."
The digital voice continues, "She knows I bear her no ill will."
"Of course. You only dislike disorganized notetakers. One of these days you will have to convince engineering to trust me around technology."
Sara laughed. "Me or the computer?"
"Either." Bella laughed gently.
___
She headed up the lift to her office. Someone had put a sign on her door saying,
Danger:
Now Entering the Jungle. Beware of Ensign.
She chuckled, it was probably the zoology staff, they were always calling her office a jungle.
She walked up to the door and pressed a button. There was a beep and a different digital voice said, "Caution, toxic substances within. Please put on protective equipment in the anteroom before entering." The outer door opened and Bella picked up gloves and goggles and a simple dust mask, as most of the plant toxins wouldn't harm her, but this plant was unidentified.
Opening an inner door and then passing through an electronic allergen barrier and some strips of clear vinyl to prevent any escapes of the few resident animals, and entered a room filled floor to ceiling with plants, organized by type and needs with special fields around them to control their humidity, watering, light, temperature and soil very precisely. On the far side around a corner was another vinyl strip barrier, energy field, and door, that one leading out to a balcony full of plants that were benign and happy to live in a space station environment, basically what others might have as houseplants in their office.
____
For now, she went to a desk, shooing away the branches of an overly curious tree-like plant and warning it with a hiss. She turned on her lab equipment and began to examine the flower.
First, she adjusted the lighting, even beyond the visual spectrum of humans, and took photographs and electronic scans of the flower, both whole and with one blossom carefully dissected under a fume hood to see its structure. The hood, as always, was set to collect and save for analysis any airborne partculates or fumes.
Pictures taken, she told the computer to run them against known plants and then started taking careful samples for examination under a microscope and for chemical analysis.
She wished she could test it without all the fuss of the lab equipment, but tasting an unknown flower was unwise even for her. While the computer was running samples, she sealed the flower in a container, took samples of the water from the containment tube for analysis, and scanned the whole thing for any signs of non-plant life. Usually this only found expected things like fungi and mites, but it was always worth a scan. Completely sealed now, she examined and tested any material left on her equipment and then cleaned it all thoroughly.
Now that the stuff she was expected to do to analyze it was processing, she went around her plants, examining any for similarities and taking notes on differences to compare to the data she had on both the flower and these other plants.
Then she went to a bookshelf, also carefully humidity, light, and temperature controlled and got out a few thick books on obscure plants to look through for anything with similarities. The computer was usually far faster, but on rare occasions these books (of copies cobbled together from books and papers she and others she had met had found in antique stores and private collections) had a bit of information not yet digitized. Considering a fair percentage was handwritten, likely someone would have to type it all up to digitize it.
Really she just liked the feel of real paper books, and it kept her busy while the computer worked. Her machine was slow but sturdy, a model engineering found in storage she imagined, so it would not be so complicated that she would break it. She preferred her handheld device from home, but it wasn't yet approved to search Starfleet databases and it could only do a fraction of what this computer could.
____
((sorry for rambling, I had scenes in mind to set for ages and wanted to add a bit of color to her world))
She entered from the main corridor into the hallway where one of the staff greeted her as they worked with intradepartmental files on their computer. "Ensign Belladonna, back so soon?"
"Good evening, Ensign Sara. There's a situation and I need to examine botanical matter. Why are you still here?"
"Forgot to save my work and I have to finish the data processing tonight."
"This is why I don't like computers much."
A digital voice comes from the speaker. "Perhaps this is mutual."
"Tsk, stop taunting Bella. Sorry, I forgot to turn off the mic."
The digital voice continues, "She knows I bear her no ill will."
"Of course. You only dislike disorganized notetakers. One of these days you will have to convince engineering to trust me around technology."
Sara laughed. "Me or the computer?"
"Either." Bella laughed gently.
___
She headed up the lift to her office. Someone had put a sign on her door saying,
Danger:
Now Entering the Jungle. Beware of Ensign.
She chuckled, it was probably the zoology staff, they were always calling her office a jungle.
She walked up to the door and pressed a button. There was a beep and a different digital voice said, "Caution, toxic substances within. Please put on protective equipment in the anteroom before entering." The outer door opened and Bella picked up gloves and goggles and a simple dust mask, as most of the plant toxins wouldn't harm her, but this plant was unidentified.
Opening an inner door and then passing through an electronic allergen barrier and some strips of clear vinyl to prevent any escapes of the few resident animals, and entered a room filled floor to ceiling with plants, organized by type and needs with special fields around them to control their humidity, watering, light, temperature and soil very precisely. On the far side around a corner was another vinyl strip barrier, energy field, and door, that one leading out to a balcony full of plants that were benign and happy to live in a space station environment, basically what others might have as houseplants in their office.
____
For now, she went to a desk, shooing away the branches of an overly curious tree-like plant and warning it with a hiss. She turned on her lab equipment and began to examine the flower.
First, she adjusted the lighting, even beyond the visual spectrum of humans, and took photographs and electronic scans of the flower, both whole and with one blossom carefully dissected under a fume hood to see its structure. The hood, as always, was set to collect and save for analysis any airborne partculates or fumes.
Pictures taken, she told the computer to run them against known plants and then started taking careful samples for examination under a microscope and for chemical analysis.
She wished she could test it without all the fuss of the lab equipment, but tasting an unknown flower was unwise even for her. While the computer was running samples, she sealed the flower in a container, took samples of the water from the containment tube for analysis, and scanned the whole thing for any signs of non-plant life. Usually this only found expected things like fungi and mites, but it was always worth a scan. Completely sealed now, she examined and tested any material left on her equipment and then cleaned it all thoroughly.
Now that the stuff she was expected to do to analyze it was processing, she went around her plants, examining any for similarities and taking notes on differences to compare to the data she had on both the flower and these other plants.
Then she went to a bookshelf, also carefully humidity, light, and temperature controlled and got out a few thick books on obscure plants to look through for anything with similarities. The computer was usually far faster, but on rare occasions these books (of copies cobbled together from books and papers she and others she had met had found in antique stores and private collections) had a bit of information not yet digitized. Considering a fair percentage was handwritten, likely someone would have to type it all up to digitize it.
Really she just liked the feel of real paper books, and it kept her busy while the computer worked. Her machine was slow but sturdy, a model engineering found in storage she imagined, so it would not be so complicated that she would break it. She preferred her handheld device from home, but it wasn't yet approved to search Starfleet databases and it could only do a fraction of what this computer could.
____
((sorry for rambling, I had scenes in mind to set for ages and wanted to add a bit of color to her world))
The lab results would be a mix of the dull and the (possibly) intriguing. The flower is one native to Romulus, though specimens had found their way into Federation space. It had been cut fresh, not replicated, and kept cryogenically preserved for some time, given a few characteristic traces of minute cellular damage. It is mostly non-toxic to humans, at least in small amounts.
The scan for signs of non-plant life would turn up a few traces from skin cells, some Romulan and some Klingon. Possibly those who had handled it. But it would also bring up an "undetermined" DNA sequence aberration.
The scan for signs of non-plant life would turn up a few traces from skin cells, some Romulan and some Klingon. Possibly those who had handled it. But it would also bring up an "undetermined" DNA sequence aberration.
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