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Kevin Anderson

"Taxonomy"

"Taxonomy"

A Log By Lieutenant Junior Grade Kevin Anderson

 

Kevin entered science again after some work out. After he had been called to sickbay only to explain to Swan what security was, which hadn't even required him to speak Tamarian, he had felt the need to punch something, or someone. So he had gone to the holodeck and ran a hand to hand combat training program. So no, after a quick shower he was ready for more work. First he called for two lab assistants and handed them a couple of PADDs, he had so much work that it might as well be them who entered the Tamarian data into the computer, he would merely supervise them.

 

Now he finally had time for his bugs, something he had been looking forward to for days. Thanks to

 

Gerran's help they were all still alive when he retrieved the specimen containers. Not that they'd be for very much longer, but science demanded sacrifices. Many people had never understood this, but Kevin had always known that in order to understand something it had to be examined.

 

Upon first inspection those bugs seemed to fit the usual orders. Earth's fauna made it a bit easier on taxonimists, in the case of bugs they just counted legs and then went from there, but insects out here didn't necessarily have to have 6 legs. What was interesting, however, was the fact that, despite the leg problem, the orders were pretty much the same.

 

But before Kevin could determine their orders he had to kill them and prepare them properly. All the wings, legs and antennae had to be in the right position, and this had to happen before rigor mortis set in or the bugs would be useless. This could easily be done with needles, lots of them. It looked bizarre to see a bug no bigger than his fingernail framed by 20 needles.

 

Kevin took the first bug out of the container, separated it from the rest and killed it with a chemical. Then he got a little piece of styrofoam and pried the wings apart a little before sticking a needle through its thorax. "Coleoptera," Kevin thought, "very hard exoskeleton and elytra." This was pretty much all he could say at first glance. Now on to the legs, five pairs, very interesting. He spent the next ten minutes crossing two needles underneath each leg and having them rest upon the needles in the desired position. He did the same with the antennae. When he was done he put the beetle in front of him and examined his work. It looked alright, tomorrow he'd be able to remove the needles and examine it under a microscope for further determination.

 

Looking over at the two lab assistants huddled over a console he smiled to himself. Finally he was getting some work done.

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