So Excited, He Wet His Plants

Posted on Tue Dec 1st, 2020 @ 1:57pm by Ensign Bryden Guidry

Mission: 28 Days
Location: Gym -> Quarters -> Life Sciences Lab -> Sickbay
Timeline: Mission Day 3 at 1000

Bryden slipped from shi zi shou smoothly into shou shih and paused a moment for a deep intake of breath and a slow exhale. His eyes were closed, and his hair was only loosely bound behind him. His Tai Chi practice had worked him to a mild sweat. He took a step back and bowed towards where he had been practicing before turning and striding over to his towel. His limbs had the nice, loose feeling he always got after a good practice. He toweled himself off a bit before returning to the mat and beginning his cooldown stretches with the towel still around his neck.

His breath still coming in smooth, deep, and slow inhales and exhales, he stood and made his way to the gyms exit. In the corridor he turned and walked to the turbolift, slipping into it with a group of people heading various places.

“Deck three.” He said once the lift was quiet enough from the others saying destinations. Some others were going to deck three as well, but instead of following those to the left outside of the turbolift, Bryden walked across the intersection down the corridor opposite the turbolift, and then made a right into his quarters.

“Light to three quarter illumination.” He stated once the door was closed. The lights had come up to full, and then dimmed slightly at his request. He moved into the room, removing his body warm clothing and dropping them into a refreshed beside the door to the bathroom that connected with three other medical officers and an unlucky engineer who had quarters on deck three.
After a quick and thorough shower, Bryden toweled off and returned to his quarters. He checked the time as he got dressed into uniform, aboard ship there really was little reason not to be in uniform. Then walked out of his room. He had enough time before his next shift to check in on some of the experiments he’d been monitoring in the life sciences lab.

“Guidry, you’re late!” Bryden heard as soon as he stepped into the life sciences lab. He couldn’t help the grin and he shook his head as he made his way around the room to the section where his aquatic flora was blooming.

“I don’t work here, Nel.” He replied as he brought up the scans of a trio of plants suspended in water. He heard footsteps behind him and looked up long enough to offer a nod to Nel as he came over and looked over the plants as well.

“They’re doing pretty good, all of them. We are seeing a heightened level of chlorophyll in the one where the water dispersed nitrogen is higher. The one where we’ve added additional biomatter to the water, though, is doing the best.” Nel talked in a professional tone that was hard to connect to the joking tone he’d had only a moment before.

“I see that. It’s flowering faster and for longer, despite the lower nitrogen levels. We could harvest those petals now and get a good yield of anticoagulants.” Bryden spoke almost distractedly. “Can we try grabbing a splice off of the control and submerging it in a nitrogen rich suspension with additional biomatter added?” He turned, letting Nel get to the console. “I think that could be the best ticket. We’re seeing the heightened chlorophyll that matches what we’ve seen with the best density anticoagulant, if we can get it to grow faster as well, we could have a renewable source for it and not need to use the stuff in storage.”

“Yeah, I thought you’d want to try something like that. I spliced off some of the control yesterday. It’s at LS-3 right now, maturing.” Nel replied and looked at the chrono. “You’re really going to be late if you don’t get going. I’ll match the parameters from these two tanks into LS-3. We should see results tomorrow or the next day.”

“Yeah, thanks…” Bryden replied, then snorted. “Late, yeah. It’s such a long distance to sickbay…”

Bryden grinned and waved, checking the chrono himself. He made it to sickbay with a single minute to spare before the shift started. He grabbed a padd and began noting down his observations from the plants next door. He’d need permission from the Captain to begin using the plant sourced anticoagulants with the crew, and he wanted to make sure everything was documented.