Even smaller..

[Heather Jamieson 0]

The dimensions are wrong. Nanometers instead of light years? But this was all part of what Starfleet Science wanted as part of training for their ensigns. A holistic approach to science. Roots in one discipline and tendrils in all others. Gathering samples from shi... don't say it Heather... and being grabbed by feral creatures as a first away mission. All part of the ongoing training.

 

Heather didn't mind. Really she didn't. She played in the mud with worms and such on Caldos, how was this any different.

 

Sure preparing slides and performing scans for Dr. Weber was not cataloging stellar anomalies in newly explored regions of space. Not a problem. When asked how her virology was and answering with a 'how's your astrophysics?' Heather thought the response funny, but probably to her and not the doctor. She was on her fifth scan. What was on the scanner now was not a visual image, but one generated by the computer. Electrons were not small enough now. Heather peered into the hood of the display. Why not just a monitor everyone could see she did not know. Felt like wearing goggles. Strange.

 

All the while Dr. Weber viewed the results in her office. Presumably she could get more work done while away from distractions of her staff. That Heather could understand. She knew the difference between being in the astrometrics lab alone versus with a group of chatterboxes. Much of the doctor's time was spent nursing a mug full of some hot beverage. Tea? Coffee? Coco? Over the course of hours Heather noticed the doctor getting many cups. Four or five? She'd have to ask just what it was.

 

"Beep... beep... chirp," went yet another scanner. This was the DNA sequence thingy. The doctor would scream if she know Heather had forgotten the name. Probably the hardest machine to interpret results on. That was the doctors territory. There is one bio-scanning device the science officer wanted to know more about powered by nanites. Tiny tiny machines, probes, programmed to analyse specific molecular structures in tandem with other machine. A collective of machines working together. Sound familiar? Heather thought so until some science classes a few years back comparing Federation nanites to that of the Borg.

 

Heather thought once again to remind herself to ask to study the nanites more closely. Was the programming similar for interstellar probes? Was their an effort underway to make them work like their nano-scale counterparts? This question would have to wait. Something else was bothering Dr. Weber and it was at the bottom of her mug. At least it used to be.

 

Ensign Heather Jamieson

Assistant Science Officer, Astrophysics

U.S.S. Republic

Edited April 19, 2010 by Heather Jamieson