The Science Lab Symphony Orchestra

[Tachyon 0]

Duty Log Stardate 0409.26

Ensign Dave Grey

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Grey frowned at the slides and then checked the electron scanning results.

 

He was sitting in the science lab, going about the tedious process of separating the proteins into their constituent groups. It was not a particularly daunting task, just a laborious and time-consuming one.

 

A light Tchaikovsky played in the background as the stars crawled by the window. Dave spliced the proteins, which had unfortunately begun to form groups of complicated atoms. No wonder they were kept separate.

 

He wasn’t a biologist—his fields were more toward the astrophysical side of science. However, atoms were atoms were atoms, and he viewed his work critically. An untouched mug of tea was on the opposite console, kept safely away from any equipment and the proteins themselves—zero contamination.

 

Grey checked the results from the latest separation and nodded. The machine that normally analyzed stellar particles was very useful when you reconfigured it to sort proteins. He took out the latest separation and placed it in the holding tray, and then put another group of proteins through the jury-rigged device. It hummed obediently and went about the task of scanning the proteins and then restructuring them.

 

He smiled a little as he watched the analyzer run through its program, but was distracted as the electron microscope urged him to take a look at the proteins on the newest slide. Sliding his chair over, Grey peered through it and nodded thoughtfully.

 

The electron microscope beeped, the analyzer hummed, and Tchaikovsky-style cymbals broke the intermittent silence. Dave wondered if a science lab had intentionally been designed to double as a symphony orchestra.