USF Progenitor & Crew: Adventures in Cosmos 01

[#77] Synergy Thanks God

Mr. Morris, a lead researcher at the outpost, was keeping himself busy with group research projects, inviting Peter, Mana, and Stavros to be a part of the projects. His hair was black and naturally white and grey, cropped, yet still disheveled. Mr. Morris was dressed in a white lab coat, grey slacks, and black rubber boots, and looked and acted like he hadn't been outside for a month or more. He introduced his thoughts with great care and enthusiasm, coming across as eccentric without trying.
"I am thinking what we can do... is... we can take a look at some of our specimens that we've saved from pools of larger predators. I'm going to have Rakesh, Talia, Celine, Salim, Chandra, Malin, and Sukesh to come up here to do some research and work on some experiments with you guys," Mr. Morris informed with a warm smile, cycling glances between the USF operatives.
"Uhhh, do they have to be here?" Mana asked plainly. "Like, no offense, but..."
Peter snickered and repeated in jest, "Do they have to be here?"
"Um," Mr. Morris paused, not knowing how to respond. "We are expected to be working at the bare minimum of 40 hours per week, and we can actually do some experiments without them, but for the first two weeks I would like for you guys to get comfortable... working with my team. They are all paid, around the clock, to deliver results, therefore, we have them work and invite you and your crew to sit in with us. We love having new students and visitors! Especially working with our staff, even if it isn't for a full year, helping us to discover and innovate. Now, living in a project habitat is very limiting for us, but we have the benefit of having government assistance from India's First Republic Empire. Now, I'm no guru, but I've worked with them for many, many years. Mkay? Now, do you guys have any other questions before we begin?"
"I have no questions for you. I understand the assignment," Mana answered, sounding bored but more interested than before. "I just was hoping for more of a closed group experience, I guess."
"I have a question," Stavros implored. "Are we going to be actually handling the specimens and writing what we hypothesize they'll do and things like that?"
"We aren't going to be handling the specimen directly, as in... you guys aren't, but we will have you making your observations, developing hypotheses of your own, and offering some of your knowledge. Something like that, for the betterment of our research outpost, and of course to work with your government," Mr. Morris answered.
"Cool, because... I've read that there are a lot of creatures we've never seen in our lifetime," Stavros said. "I want to be able to at least see these things in person if they aren't... dangerous."
Mana and Peter chuckled.
Mr. Morris said, "Yes, uh, what is it... uh, Stavro, yes, there is a plethora of creatures that no one else in this galaxy has ever seen before! This is a very special planetary habitat for the reason that these creatures don't require breathing oxygen to survive. They are less air-prone and more simply drone-like if that gives you a clue."
"Well, my crew and I saw something," Stavros suggested, giving a deadpan look. "We saw something we didn't think would exist, but it did."
Mana burped.
Peter picked up, "Yeah, back when we were on that asteroid."
"MacKalla asteroid," Mana overlapped, sighing. He described the event saying, "That place... sucked. There was a creature there that was going f$cking crazy, and I already hated it there."
Mr. Morris was nodding his head quickly in comprehension of their story, smiling, and understanding the gist. He said, "Okay, so... so basically, you've been to a very low point in your life and you don't want to go back to that! You don't want to return to that station!"
"That is correct," Mana answered, sounding fatal.
Peter and Stavros chuckled.
Stavros said, "Yeah, Mana was wanting to weld the doors shut with one of our crew mates, Ka'eo, and the creature was literally destroying the walls of the station. And we didn't know if it was already on the outside of it, trying to breach its way back in."
"And who is Ka'eo, again?" Mr. Morris asked.
"He's... one of our..." Mana began.
Peter intercepted, "Ka'eo is one of our crew members who went with us to the asteroid. I guess, for now, he's with Don and Matt."
"Yeah," Mana said. "Ka'eo was there with us at MacKalla asteroid, trying to help me weld everything shut until that plan didn't work out."
"He and Mana wanted to get something from the station and we couldn't finish the job," Peter explained.
Mr. Morris remarked unnecessarily, "Oh, there was a station there! Okay! Nifty!"
Stavros chuckled and said, "Yeah, the asteroid itself didn't have walls, it was a space station that was abandoned by all the researchers."
"You're kidding me!" Mr. Morris exclaimed.
"No, that asteroid was abandoned, and then when we went in there... we found out why," Mana claimed.
Mr. Morris grinned and darted his eyes downward, thinking about what he was listening to. He said, "There was an alien in there. I can't blame you. Now, can you please excuse me for a moment? I think you guys can get started on something, for now, and there's no monster creature involved. Go ahead and work on the computers over there. The ones along the wall there. You're going to log in as a guest, and then you're going to open up what is called the Maelstrom application. It's called Maelstrom. And then you type in your basic information, name, affiliation, work week, and you can type in 7561 there. Start with that, then—."
"7,561 weeks?" Mana asked in surprise, getting a chuckle from Peter and Stavros. He commented, "That's a long a$$ time!"
"Any of those computers there is fine?" Peter asked.
"Any of those?" Stavros asked redundantly.
Mr. Morris continued, "Yes, you start that up, get on Maelstrom, then you create a new observation form, and you're going to see it has a special format that you follow from start to finish for each observation based around orgasm or things, excuse me, organism."
The USF crew chuckled.
Stavros, still snickering, said, "Based around orgasms. That sounds fun."
"No, yes, uhhh, organisms, organisms," Mr. Morris corrected.
"Cool, so, what if..." Mana started. "What if we want to print it out or something? Like, our findings."
Stavros teased, "Mana. You want to print out your observation form? Why?"
There was a pause, then Peter broke out into laughter, getting Mana to hiss a chortle.
Mr. Morris said, "Well, actually, Mana, there's a way to do that, but we usually submit the forms online and then create an online account in another application that I am going to show you when I return to the lab. You guys go on Maelstrom, first."
"What? So, we do the form and then submit it to somewhere else?" Peter asked, giving a scoffing chortle. He thought about how much easier it was to create reports in SitRep.
"Yes, exactly, now, please excuse me! I will be back after I get my team up here!" Mr. Morris declared loudly. "I am going to grab our fellow researchers and bring them to the lab! I am very happy that you are willing to start today!"
"Okay?" Peter said in response, snickering, reading into what Mr. Morris said and thinking him to be oddly energetic.
"Okay, thank you," Mr. Morris replied, leaving the room to find his team.
"He can't just use a PCD?" Stavros asked.
Mana sighed and got onto one of the computers, taking his baseball cap off then brushing his hair downward. He tossed the hat onto the desk and sighed again. Suddenly, he turned to his crew mates and asked, "How the hell are these places able to get oxygen?"
"Mana, it's a government facility," Peter answered, implying that there were always enough supplies for the government.