Xenos

ii. Growth: July 6, 2126

The meeting was moved up to eighteen-hundred. After expressing some of Cin's concerns to him, Galen agreed to move it. Soft murmuring filled the bridge as people finished their dinners and waited for the meeting to begin. Gray was being watched by Lixue, her eyes like a hawk's as she watched him eat. A stack of papers was next to him and his eyes kept glancing over to the top one, distracted by whatever was on them. They'd know soon enough, Cin supposed. She hoped that his information would give a bit of clarity to what was going on in the medbay. Lixue clicked her tongue significantly when she saw where his eyes were, then leaned over to push the stack closer to the center of the table and away from him. Gray sighed and returned to his meal, looking almost resentful as he spooned it into his mouth.

Conversations around the table blended together as people reconnected after spending most of their days apart. It was rare for them all to be around the table at the same time, as dinners usually went in shifts. Gigi's voice rose over the others as she tried to convince Miles that her way of collecting samples on Xenos would prove to be more beneficial than his. It was a banter that didn't occur too often, and Cin found herself smiling as she toyed with the edges of one of her notebooks and let the sound wash over her.

When meals were finally finished and utensils and flatware dealt with, Galen rose from the head of the table. It was the only formality that showed the start of a meeting. Cin opened up to a blank page and wrote the date on top, Drake chuckling under his breath at her. He considered her note taking eccentric, but since they harmed no one, he couldn't dissuade her from doing it. When Galen had everyone's attention he returned to his seat, his head turned to Gray expectantly.

Gray pulled the stack of papers toward him and took the first one from the top. He looked at it briefly before beginning. "As some of you may already know, a little over a week ago Drake and Cin completed a spacewalk. While on that spacewalk they discovered a substance that I have since been studying and I now feel there is enough information to share with the crew."

Although Gray was wording it carefully, the fact was that he was required to share what he had been studying. He hadn't come to that conclusion on his own; Galen had reminded Lixue of the rules they were under and it had fallen to her to inform Gray. She was the only one who knew how to deal with Gray when he went off on these obsessive streaks. It was part of what made them perfect partners in the medbay.

"I've discovered that the substance is alive, although it does not fall under the spectrum of intelligence created for Beings that we find on our missions, as noted here." Gray indicated a different paper in his stack where the spectrum was scrawled in shorthand. He'd made a mark where he estimated the substance to fall. Continuing on, Gray noted that the substance had continued to grow, but slowed to a stop once it reached roughly the size of a petri dish. Now it had some small bulbs growing from it, similar to the bulbs that moss used to spore on Earth.

"Wait, wait, wait," Gigi interrupted, her brown eyes wide. "Is this thing going to spore on the ship? As in, reproduce?"

Lixue raised her hands in a calming motion. "The substance is in the closed lab of the medbay now, so even if it does—"

"Now?" Gigi asked, her voice rising. At 25, Gigi was the youngest on the Ekhi and prone to a sometimes overactive imagination. "Does that mean it was loose on the ship?"

Cin could see the faintest twitch near the bottom corner of Lixue's eye as she fought to keep her words calm. "No, Gigi. It's not classified as something that can be loose on the ship."

"Is it dangerous?" Della asked in her deep voice that was reminiscent of an old jazz singer's. She and Lex were leaning against the wall, their backs pressed up against cabinets and their arms crossed over their broad chests. Although they were in no way related and in no way looked alike, they were twins in their stance and bearing.