Catching Bees
Posted on April 13th, 2016 by Ilaihr, Alexis Wright and T'Lira

With Ilaihr, T’Lira and Wright

Ilaihr plodded around designing a prototype power module; he’d never caught space bees before, so he was excited at the prospect. The devices needed to be small and easily transportable, they needed to be tough and rugged against insect assaults, and they most definitely needed to be quickly producible. As he hurried along a basic design, he turned to Wright and T’Lira seeing what the station’s research could add to the design and see how the rest of the plan was coming along.

T’Lira looked over a scan of where the bees currently were as she mentally laid out what the plan might possibly entail.

At the Science console, Wright was finishing up a conversation with the scientists aboard the station and busily marking up a schematic of the structure on her PADD. She regarded her work with a critical eye for a few moments before standing up and walking closer to Ilaihr and T’Lira. “Okay,” she began, turning her PADD for the others to see, “Here’s what I’ve come up with. The areas marked in red on this schematic are sensitive – they either house station personnel or delicate experiments and equipment. My thought is that we only need to lure the creatures out of these areas, and then segregate them with bulkheads and forcefields while we depressurize the rest of the station.” With a swipe of her hand, she activated an overlay. “Unfortunately, the fact that our scans show biomass concentrations near these areas… complicates things. Thoughts?”

“Well…” He pondered. “These sections of biomass are probably nesting sites, we’ll definitely need to get them away from those. I have a running design for a portable power micro-core; that we can use as bread crumbs to lead them to more desirable areas. But the design requires more information; if they are attracted to energy, is there an optimal type and frequency? And if those areas are nests, we need to know more about the colonial hierarchy of these insects and how they respond to external stimulus, before we know how to deal with them.”

“Do they have a queen? A warrior caste? What are their larval forms like? These factors could all influence how the insects defend the biomasses. Like Earth termites, they could have intricate defensive structures for such a likelihood or like a tardigrade with a resistance to negative atmospheric environments.”

T’Lira pondered what Ilaihr said and replied, “An optimal frequency could be determined by identifying where the creatures seem most attracted to and determining what the frequency is in those areas. However, their behavior may be difficult to explain, unless the station science personnel have been able to study that aspect of the situation. I have found that insects are often difficult to predict, due to their seemingly aimless behavior. However, perhaps we can determine their behavior with additional study.”

She left that open-ended, looking between the other two, hoping that perhaps one of them had a more definite answer.

Wright listened to them both carefully and considered their input before reaching a decision. “Since we’re not confident about the behavior of these creatures, I think we should assume that they will become agitated and take the necessary precautions to ensure the safety of the crew. Once that’s done, however, I think the best way for us to learn how to manipulate them is via trial and error.” She paused briefly, pursing her lips in thought as she considered the available options. “I suggest that we begin by shutting down the power to the areas in which they are concentrated and look for any discernible reaction on the scans. If that goes well, then we can beam in remote-controlled power generators and attempt to manipulate their movements. If that is successful, then we can proceed from there. Their ability to survive outside the station is a good point, though,” she added, nodding toward Ilaihr, “I would prefer to destroy them humanely, if possible.”

“With the right plan, based on our observations and experiments, may preclude the need to, commander.” He looked between the two young women. “I am, uncomfortable simply exterminating them, if it is unnecessary. But I do agree with the precautions and measures needed.”

He pulled up the basic design of the power cells on the monitor. “I shall have a number of different types built, so we can better test the insects’ preference; they may like photonic energy, maybe plasma, or even partial to some polaron. It may also be advantageous to do a detailed molecular scan of the biomasses; insects often communicate via pheromones, and it may be a more efficient method of controlling them if our original plan fails.”

A crease had developed in Wright’s forehead at Ilaihr’s initial response. “I think the idea of controlling with pheromones is a good one, but that effort would be irrelevant if manipulation by power control is successful. Let’s keep it in our back pocket in case our first idea doesn’t work out. And to clarify my position – I don’t care to needlessly kill any living beings either, but the fact is that this colony is abnormally large because it has developed in an artificial environment with little threat from hazards or predators. Relocating the entire colony into any existing ecosystem could be quite disruptive, even one to which this insect species is native, and it’s extremely likely that a large percentage of the colony would die anyway once removed from the artificial habitat. That’s assuming, of course, that we are even capable of relocating them… I fear that the colony is far too large to be managed. My belief as a scientist is that since the unnatural excess in population resulted from mistakes made by sentient beings, it’s our moral responsibility as sentient beings to humanely euthanize that excess population when there are no alternatives that would do less damage. Perhaps you see an option I have not considered?”

T’Lira listened to the ideas presented and treated them as pieces to a jigsaw puzzle. Each idea was a piece, and thus, was only a part of the complete plan. With the right application, perhaps all of the ideas could fit together… although the pheremone idea did seem quite interesting, perhaps a later study.

“If I may recommend an idea, perhaps if we were to determine which types of power sources the insects are currently most attracted to by identifying the areas with the most insects and the type of power source located in that area, perhaps we could then begin preliminary herding while testing the other power sources. However, there is indeed a significant number of the insects, which may make herding them difficult. Even one left behind could be a nuisance if it finds another that has also been left behind.”

“Only that we very much require more information on them; lest we over-generalise. I would be interested to know why the facility had them in the first place, if they were so incapable of safely housing them.” He replied in his usual sagely manner to Wright. “What information were they hoping to glean from their study, and what may the researchers have done to them, if anything, to result in this outcome?”

Ilaihr’s hand began to shake, making his walking stick scrape across the floor, before trying to control the tremor with his other hand; hoping the pair didn’t notice. “One must never be afraid to ask questions, my dears.”

Wright looked at each of the junior officers in turn, her command training winning a narrow victory over her desire to argue her point.

“I concur with your assessment,” she began, addressing T’Lira, “And propose that we initially proceed as you have suggested, and that we also work on developing a contingency plan for any stragglers that don’t respond to the herding, but only if our initial testing shows that such a scenario is likely.”

Wright then calmly turned to address Ilaihr. “The facility was capable of safely housing them; accidents happen. Regardless, further information on the experiment is irrelevant if Commander Harper’s orders are to exterminate them. I don’t think we are going to agree on this point, so we can present her with both options and let her make a decision, then proceed from there.” His momentary infirmity did not escape her notice, but occurred with sufficient frequency that it had become unremarkable. Instead, she regarded him coolly and added, “Allow me to be perfectly clear, Lieutenant – I am a scientist. I fear no questions. I simply focus on asking the right ones.”

Ilaihr smiled at Lexy, amused by her fire. “I did not mean to cause offence commander; the plan can still go ahead as we have laid down, regardless. I would simply feel more comfortable knowing how this happened, so that it doesnt happen again.”