Weird Science, Part 2
Posted on Thu Mar 6th, 2025 @ 11:34pm by Crewman Mateo Gardel & Lieutenant JG Lovisa Montague & Crewman Raine Ni-ya
774 words; about a 4 minute read
Mission:
To Boldly Go
Location: Science Lab 2, Deck 6, USS Fenrir
Timeline: Day 8
[ON - Continued]
"We can order you more to play with," Lovisa assured Raine with a teasing smile before catching hold of a random box from the top of the pile. Setting it down, she knelt close, opening it up to make a start on their needle in a haystack search. "Medical Sciences, hm, Mateo?" she glanced up to him with genuine interest. "What made you want to specialise in medicine?"
Mateo’s brows lifted at Raine’s remark about keeping the biofilters. His lips pressed together, the humor in his expression cooling to something more measured—less amusement, more scrutiny.
"Yeah, hard pass on that," he said flatly. "If I wanted to spend my morning explaining a missing inventory report our boss and Doctor Nyx, I’d find a better hill to die on. Preferably one that doesn’t make it look like I’m stocking a black-market clinic in the cargo bay."
He shifted his weight slightly, dark eyes flicking over Raine in quiet assessment.
"And anyway—if you want biofilters so badly, try ordering your own next time," he added, tone edging toward deadpan. "Wild concept, I know, but I hear it works wonders for avoiding interdepartmental feuds."
Satisfied that he’d made his stance clear, he exhaled through his nose and turned his attention back to Lovisa, shifting his weight slightly as he considered her question. His fingers curled inside his pockets, grounding himself before offering an answer.
“Oh, you know. Who doesn’t dream of spending their days staring at blood smears and tissue samples?” His voice was laced with sarcasm, but it lacked real bite. If anything, it was a placeholder, a habitual deflection while he decided how much he actually wanted to share.
A beat. He glanced toward the crates, focusing on a label that was smudged and barely legible.
“…I like knowing how things work. The things most people don’t think about. What makes a cell divide the way it does, why some organisms adapt while others don’t, the patterns hidden in what seems like chaos.” He shrugged, keeping his tone casual despite the weight behind the words. "Microbiology, hematology, histology—it’s all about looking deeper. Finding answers in places most people overlook."
Then, a half-smirk, a flicker of something more familiar. “And, you know. It’s a good excuse to avoid dealing with people most of the time. Nothing kills small talk faster than bringing up necrotic tissue samples over lunch.”
The humor was back, but the wariness in his posture hadn’t quite faded. New people meant new dynamics to navigate, and Mateo wasn’t the type to decide right away if he wanted to bother.
His gaze flicked between Lovisa and Raine before he inclined his head slightly. “What about you two? What’s your deal?”
Raine looked at him, standing still. And then she tilted her head to the side, her pupils contracting a little. "Oh, I'm sorry...did you ask a question?" she asked, then did her best impression of confusion. "There was so much jumping around I was almost tempted to get the counselor over..." she made a gesture of her hand, as if conjuring something from the air. Perhaps it was her will to actually care. Then she relented, lowering her gloved hand to keep it by her side. "I'm...a general scientist here. I do not...deal with cytology or anything of the sort," she added, since he had after all asked. And she may have to work with the human in the future, so she'd at least try and be somewhat...talkative. He should have heard some of the things my people discussed over food. He'd never sleep again.
Mateo blinked at Raine, his expression carefully neutral, but there was the unmistakable glint of oh, so that’s how we’re doing this in his dark eyes.
"Damn. That was a lot of effort just to say ‘general scientist.’ You could’ve led with that and saved us all the dramatic monologue."
His lips quirked into something that wasn’t quite a smirk but was definitely not a friendly smile.
"And as for calling in a counselor?" He gave a one-shouldered shrug. "Go for it. Maybe they’ll take a look at whatever existential crisis your hand was having."
[To be continued in Part 3]
Crewman Raine Ne-ya
Science Officer
USS Fenrir
[PNPC - Hanlon]
&
Crewman Mateo Gardel
Medical Science Specialist
USS Fenrir
&
Lieutenant JG Lovisa Montague
Science Officer
USS Fenrir
[PNPC - Blake]
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