Germination: Spore Investigation
| Germination: Spore Investigation | |
|---|---|
| Date of Cutscene: | 11 May 2018 |
| Location: | Unknown |
| Synopsis: | Summary needed |
| Cast of Characters: | Nuala Duvall |
"Sorry to wake you," the A.I. announced abruptly, shocking Nuala from her sleep. The lingering nightmare was dismissed, and she sat up from her bed. "The signatures which you wanted me to track have multiplied in number."
Nuala rubbed her face, and stood up. "Okay, Timmy, what's the story?" she asked, moving to the lavatory to splash water on her face. She glanced up at the mirror, her face being replaced by the display of the globe. Red dots started to speckle across it. "Oh, shit. How many?"
"Five hundred seventeen and rising. Local population has identified the spores as a threat." A broadcast started opposite the picture of Earth while Nuala brushed her teeth.
She spit as it finished. "Time to go to work. Set a course for the first identified location while I shower."
A few minutes later, the ship arrived at the mountainous terrain as Nuala stepped back out, taking the small disc from the shelf and placing it on her collarbone. The slim suit materialized around her, the purple light pulsing through the material. "Any life forms nearby?" She asks. "There are, some are weak."
Nuala walked to the shell suit, stepping into the feet. The larger outfit closed around her, and she strode to the testing station, pulling a sample container out. "All right," she sighed. "Let's do this.
She hit the ramp, descending down it and hopping out of the ship, which promptly closed behind her. One foot in front of the other, she made her way up the hill, and sure enough, was able to find the strange cloud. "Go ahead and start analysis of first contact," she instruced the A.I. A small corpse of a squirrel lay nearby, and she bent down to pick it up. "This wasn't attacked. The terran reports claimed people have been suffocating from contact, I want to do a study on this. She continued on, passing a deer, laying on the ground, panting desperately. As she entered the cloud, she looked down at the hands of her suit, and the sensors indicating damage sparkled their report.
"Nothing corrosive, at least not at this stage," she told Timmy. She crouched down, scooping some of the soil up, then closed the section of the container before scooping at the gas and closing some of the vapor inside. "Not directly hostile."
"Nuala," Timmy chimes in. "Initial analysis indicates that the cloud consists of plantlife spores, possible relation to known invasive plant species. I am sending you the known occasions now."
Nuala watches the list scroll across her visor. "These locations are nowhere near here. How did it get here, meteorite?"
"Unknown."
"Okay, we have the sample. I'm coming back."
Back on the ship, Nuala passed through the forcefield to prevent any of the spores from following her in, and took the specimen container, placing it in its cradle. She stepped out of her suit, and started a pot of coffee. Once poured, she walked back to the research station, and sat down in the seat.
"Okay, what do we have?" Timmy's report illuminated the screen. "It's planting itself, looking for soil to grow in. There is a significant risk to local plantlife. It will choke out the rest of the plantlife in the area once it starts growing, if it follows the patterns of related species. However, there are dissimiliarities as well, it is possible that this is either an engineered or mutant variation of known plantlife."
"Well, that is always fun. Can we scorch it out?"
The simulation ran on the screen, "It appears that heat will accelerate its growth," Timmy responds, commenting on the results. "It would be inadvisable."
Nuala tok a sip of her coffee. "Cold, then?" The simulation ran once again.
"It does not seem to kill the spores, perhaps it would slow the process." Nuala sighed. "Okay, send it to Command. We have a first contact. give the digital DNA signature so they can start running the experiments. Looks like we may need a chemical response. Sounds like we have our work cut out for us. Commandeer and redirect human satellite systems to keep a watch on these locations, be on alert for the speed at which they are appearing and spreading. We may need to get the terrans involved for this one. See if we can get authorization to engage Alpha Flight or Justice League."