Augmentation

An Unprecedented Meeting 4

A much transformed, calm, and collected Commander stood before her desk, which had been transformed into a circular conference table with 4 chairs around it. Napolitano gestured for the 3 awakened crew members to sit down and buckle into them as they studied the hologram of an Affected crew member.

"Like Clint stated Commander, the Affected are all 'healthy'. The anomalies are the fused legs, interlocking vertebrae along the spine, and, decreased bone density." Dr. Florry Olden briefed them. "The research on the spine puts it in the character of the Hero Shrew on Terra. It's incredibly strong for the body mass and very inflexible. Clint tried several different methods to counteract the bone density problem. Increased calcium supplementation in their IVs and increased weight-bearing exercises, to no avail. Their, for lack of a better phrase, "adjusted" DNA keeps them at that same level."

"I'll assume that walking is out of the question," Takano stated, then looked around at the shocked faces of the women before him. "I wasn't trying to be funny, just stating facts."

Napolitano smiled wryly at him. "Everything we are dealing with here has never been dealt with before, so the facts may seem shocking at times. I know, and fear that this will all be 'normal' soon enough."

Starlight squirmed uncomfortably in her chair, trying to evade looking at the hologram before her. Lucas placed all four of his hands on her shoulders to settle her and tuck her long braid back into the restraints of her flight suit. She smiled up at the only being in the room whom she had known the longest.

"Starlight I asked you to sit in on this meeting for two reasons. One, you are now a passenger on this ship and everything we decide will affect you as well. And two, we three," the commander gestured to Dr. Olden and Takano, "have military, medical, and commander training, yet we don't know if any of that will help in this situation. Anything you can add, please do. There are no dumb questions or suggestions. Again, a fucking unprecedented situation here."

Takano smiled at the normalcy of hearing his commander swear. Florry laughed as well, "There she is!" and patted Napolitano strongly on the back. The three laughed while Starlight looked confused.

"If you have more than one conversation with me where fuck, whore, shit, or cunt doesn't come into the conversation, Starlight, call Dr. Cassidy, our flight psychiatrist, and have me checked out. I don't drink, eat meat, smoke, or do drugs. But I swear like a motherfucking, cunt of a gutter-shitting snipe."

A blush rushed up the young woman's face as she lowered her head, "Yeah, my father told me about that."

"Back to the matter of transport for the Affected. We could generate gravity chairs like Ensign Flax utilizes." Takano led the discussion. "We will have to dig into and replicate the spare parts we have on board for his chair maintenance."

Napolitano reached out and pulled up the pictures of all 6 of the Affected. "A great idea in theory, but we don't have the time to build 6 of them before the target is reached. Our crew duties will be seriously at risk if we have 6 members out of commission."

Dr. Olden nodded and was about to say something when Starlight burst out with "What about belts?" She realized the rudeness of her outburst and started to backtrack with "Sorry...just came to me...I ...uh..."

"Good, ideas are welcome, remember Starlight? What do you mean by belts? Strap them down? That would only work when they needed to be stationary. This crew needs to be able to be anywhere on the ship at a moment's notice." Napolitano queried.

Starlight nodded, her face brightening "No ma'am, not to strap in. Belts that they wear. We could dip into the gravity boot replacements and strip their AntiGrav batteries to put on a belt that the...uh...Affected could wear."

"And then what?", Dr. Olden asked, looking confused, "They just bounce around the ship?"

"No ma'am." Starlight smiled up at Lucas. "When I was twelve, Lucas was teaching me the electronics of the boots, so that I would know how to repair them if need be. I modified a pair so that I could "fly" around the ship. They kept me upright, and I propelled myself about. It gave me a chance to "play" in Zero G. We could do the same with the belts. They would be weighted and configured to keep them upright, and then they just gently push off on a wall or something to propel themselves around."

"It's true, Commander. Ms. Starlight has in-depth knowledge of this modification. So much so that her parents had to ground her for "flying" too often." Lucas replied.

The entire table erupted in laughter with Starlight embarrassedly joining in. "Yeah, literally grounded. I'd forgotten about that part. Thanks, Lucas." She looked out at the rest of them sheepishly.

"That's fucking genius." Napolitano smiled at her.

"That's because she's got great genes!" Takano stated proudly as he looked over at his granddaughter.

"Ok, Starlight you and Lucas get cracking on those goddamn genius belts..." Napolitano started to order.

"Hold on a moment." Dr. Olden held up her hand, her face screwed into a frown, "What about in the caff? The whole room has a terra-gravity field. Using the batteries from the Anti-Grav boots means they will automatically turn themselves off when anyone wearing them enters the room. This would mean The Affected, wearing the belts, would...well crash to the floor. And we can't isolate crew members from one of the most communal of spaces on the ship."

"Right," Takano mumbled as the others nodded and frowned as well.

"If I may commander?" Lucas held up two of his hands. The commander nodded for him to continue. "We could utilize the 3D printer to make wheels and set up 6, I believe they were called "wheelchairs" on Terra. They could await anyone needing them in the caff?"

"Right. Lucas, leave Starlight to the belts, you get the chairs configured. But check in on her progress." She turned to Starlight's grandfather, "Takano I'll need you to dig into your sewing skills to modify the flight suits for the Affected. And Doc, you and I will start working on vids to greet the Affected when they come out of stasis. Probably should start with Doc Cassidy. If any situation called for a Psychiatrist, it's this one." Napolitano gave them all their assignments, unbuckled, and floated to a standing position, signaling an end to the presentation.

As they started to file out of the room, Starlight leaned into Takano and whispered questioningly "You sew?"

Takano laughed, "Your old gramps has a lot of skills you don't know about."