Leave of Absense, Peace of Mind
Posted on 30 May 2025 @ 6:40pm by Lieutenant Commander Remington Dodd
1,742 words; about a 9 minute read
[ON]
-Starbase 51-
-Dodd's secret lab-
Dodd was officially on a leave of absence from his duties as the Executive Officer of the Tomcat. He had permission to resume his personal project of creating a new type of environmental suit using nanite technology.
He was on Starbase 51 and so took the start of his leave by going to see Rocky in the Arboretum as he missed the overgrown planet with a conscience. Rocky sensed him almost immediately when Remy entered the room. A vine reached out and pick him up.
~~ Hey there, ol' buddy. I have missed you so very much. ~~ Dodd thought to Rocky.
~~ been too long, u missed 2 ~~ Rocky thought back.
Remy had recalled the exact day that he saved the seedling of Rocky from a burned out horticultural center.
~~ I am here for a few days and had to come see you. I know you have thrived here and I heard you are doing well. I even know you have grown more to now you get larger food units. ~~ Remy stated as more vines came to permit Remy to almost stand at Rocky's main level.
Rocky is a large carnivorous plant and yet he does not ever attempt to consume humanoids and only goes for Rodentia sources of protien. There have been time he ate a fowl or two but he mostly ate rodents or the like.
~~ Dr. Arborus said you are likely the last of your kind and they are hoping to get some cuttings to see if they can't make a copy or two of you. They think you would be a good addition to a few agricultural colonies where the rodent populations are out of control. Would you let her get the cuttings and help her help others? ~~ Remy thought to Rocky.
~~ hurt me, hurt me, no hurt ~~ Rocky thought to Remy.
~~ I will be here to help and we can make it as painless as possible. You would be fine. I can even let you have a Rigelian rat as they get a few cuttings. ~~ Remy thought to Rocky.
~~ I will not let them do any more than necessary. I wanted to ask you as other out there want you to help them and I know you can do this. ~~
~~ U stay me, u stay her can ~~ Rocky thought to Remy.
=/\= Dr. Arborus, you can go ahead an get your cuttings and bring me the rat. =/\=
=/\= Acknowledged, Dodd, will be right there. =/\=
A few moments later, Dodd was presented the rat and the doctor was there to begin.
~~ Rocky, I have your treat. get ready for a few small nips as she gets her cuttings and I will give you this rat. It is the largest Rigelian Rat I have ever seen. ~~
Rocky moved a vine up to Dr. Arborus and opened his mouth. Dodd gave a signal to the doctor and as he laid the rat in Rocky's mouth, the doctor used her tool to get four cuttings at the same time. Rocky then closed his mouth and pulled back his vines as he set Remy back on the floor.
~~ That was very brave of you, Rocky. Thank you so very much. ~~
~~ c u soon papa ~~ Rocky thought to Remy. He had never called Remy pap before so he was learning from all the visitors to the arboretum.
~~ Rocky, you are important to me that is why I put you here. Dr. Arborus is the foremost in her field and she wants to protect you just as much as I do. We appreciate your cooperation with this project. ~~ Remy thought to Rocky.
Dr. Arborus then took her cuttings to start her work and the Remy left the Arboretum to head to his lab.
He sort of found this lab back when he first came to Starbase 51 and it was not in use and it was likely form when the station was built and used for setting up the engineering systems of the station. Since it was no longer in use, he worked out a deal with the then station head to have it reserved for him.
He had not been there for a while but it was his to hold up in while reworking his project. Captain Somers said that Benson had a similar concept and that they should work together. So while he was up for it, he would pull in Hawksley as well. So Dodd headed to his lab.
Upon entering his lab he decided to make an entry to document the occasion. The last time he was in his lab was just before the first mission to Arth, so this would be a good place to start a new chapter.
"Computer, begin personal log." Dodd directed the computer.
The computer chimed and the recording began.
"Today I got leave approved by Captain Somers. She was willing to let me take a step back to allow me to cope with the set-backs in my personal life as well as to come to terms about the failure of my mission to Arth.
I am really upset with myself more or less for not getting the mission more under control the first time we were there. However, having to go back and retrieve our crew members that we left to observe was the worst part. We lost two of them and we were only able to rescue Lieutenant Lee. The fact that we had to do a rescue was not planned. It was to finish up our initial visit to get our observation team and attempt to bring home the very first observation team that was more or less stranded here after a member went rogue.
Once the rescue of Lieutenant Lee happened we booked it out of that sector as the Orion Syndicate were claiming the planet and would likely take the inhabitants and enslave or sell them. I just hope that the citizens of Arth are able to put up a fight in the mean time.
Lieutenant Lee gave me a summary of her time on the planet and from what she gathered, the society on Arth was peaceful until the rogue member of the Federation observation team got greedy. That one person was able to influence the powers that were in control and corrupt them into a regime that had her in power without the sovereign realizing who was really in control. The use of Federation technology from which the planetary technology was reversed engineered was an interesting study for Lee's team. The ensign she had working that side of her observations was really getting into how Central City was limiting the technology beyond its borders. Then the discovery of an Artificial Intelligence that had its code buried deep in one of the devices the original team had with them was even more disturbing. It was almost as if the old AI once named Control had buried itself and laid in waiting until one day it would be awoken to seek havoc upon biological life once again. Lieutenant Lee said that when our team found her she was in an old outlaying courthouse about ten clicks outside Central City and it was all technology that seemed to run itself and the old town was abandoned. The computer seemed to have taken over and was on the verge of moving into the full planetary systems when the Orion Syndicate arrived.
We will likely not know what happened for a long time to come. We got out just in the nick of time. So the work on the SANS project will be a good therapy for me.
I have reached out to Benson and Hawksley. Benson and I have meshed the concepts we have and I feel we have a good understanding about moving forward with the project. Going to work with what we shared and come up with two or three prototypes to take with me when I do report back to duty. I figured Benson and I could test them on the next mission at some point. Hawksley being the chief engineer just needs to be a part of the process to be sure we don't interfere with standard ship operations when the computer is introduced to the project as we will need the nanites to be programed and updated with data from the ship's systems. Being an engineer myself, I could handle all of that but since Hawksley was part of the refit and upgrade, I owe it to him for that involvement.
I will sign out for now and get to work updating my data to be ready to present to a representative that the Kavisian Synapse will be sending to meet with me about the use of nanites."
"Computer, End recording and save in personal log file." Dodd asked of the computer.
The computer chimed and stopped and saved the log.
Dodd then sat down at his workstation in the lab and got to work completing the details that needed to be revised from his original project to reflect the input from Benson and her work. This would allow her to get recognition that could look good for a future promotion.
Dodd knew the Kavisian Synapse was sort of isolated on Kavis Alpha IV but they have been in communications with someone who has become vastly knowledgeable of their culture and would respect their beliefs and desires for allowing the use of non-sentient nanites in practical applications. Since the nanites in the project are all strictly limited to a standard basic programing that will be altered only by the adaptability input once set up for the wearer, this will limit the use of the SANS if not on the designated wearer. So this will prevent any negative effects if the wrong hands get ahold of the wrist bands.
The wrist bands would be only to house the nanites, the commbadges would be to interface with the SANS, and the subdermal implant would be the CPU of sorts. The subdermal implant would be DNA coded and could not be detected by basic scans. This means even if the subdermal implant were removed it could not work in a different humanoid or such. The subdermal implant would be able to detect the DNA around it to make it work or not. So this would be almost as advanced as the nanite technology. There was work to be done and the representative would be on Starbase 51 in two day time.
[OFF]
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