Min reveled at his laboratory, which was filled with species he had collected from Draloos V. He had also collected the biohazard-suits that had been left on the planet, with the remains of Lieutenant Ray and a few others. For hours throughout the day he had been studying and documenting everything he could find on the species. He was eager to put all of the pieces together once he had collected enough data. First and foremost, Dr. Min was a physician, and most of the time he followed standard medical protocol. It was not often that he was confronted with a true puzzle and had the opportunity to be a scientist.
There were dozens of specimens in his laboratory. Everything that he sampled was found near the empty biohazard-suits and the crash site. This included insects, spiders, weeds, grass, tree samplings, lizards, and things that Dr. Min couldn’t even describe, because there was no term in existence to describe it. Each of them stood in isolation from the rest of the room, in a clear plastic-like cube that was appropriate for their size. Though he had worked with the most unusual and deadly species before during his studies in exobiology, Min was still a little apprehensive about what he would find here. It was likely that every species here was deadly in some way. Though he loved to study exobiology, he didn’t love it so much as to lose his life over it.
Hours had passed as he examined each and every one of the species. These were organisms that he had never seen before, and he documented their abilities carefully. Although some bore a striking resemblance to creatures on Earth, many had a genetic twist that made them hideously lethal, or, have a remarkable defense mechanism to protect itself. The possible medical therapeutics, or even bioengineering ideas that could be derived from this planet would be too numerous to count.
About halfway through his studies, he came across one specimen that caught his eye. It was a large, spider-like organism. It had eight legs, eight long legs, but it only had a single body. It was really rather quite chubby. The entire body was a pale yellow color, and actually a little transparent so that you could see many of the different cells inside it. The texture of the skin looked soft, and a thin mucous layer covered its body. It didn’t look like it had fangs, or even a mouth for that matter. From visual inspection alone, it was hard to tell if it had any sensory organs whatsoever. But it was hard to imagine how an organism without a sophisticated sensory nervous system could survive an ecosystem like Draloos V.
Dr. Min looked at his watch. It was 0006. He had already worked on this for fourteen hours straight, and his mind was beginning to tire. He still had other things to do, most especially organize his findings at his desk, so he decided to call it quits for the night and wait until tomorrow to finish. It looked rather harmless anyway, walking around rather clumsily, so it was highly doubtful that it was this organism that was responsible for the crew’s deaths. That was his primary assignment. Besides, he had his suspicions on another species. Min yawned and made his way to his office to finish his paperwork.
***
The next morning, Dr. Min walked into sickbay with an extra large cup of coffee in his hand. He had always tried to start the day before 0700 hours each morning, but the exhausting work that he did the previous night caused him to walk in several minutes late that morning. His plan was to investigate the last specimen that he had left last night, but not before he finished his coffee, and not before finishing his usual morning reading of Starfleet Medical News.
When he walked into the lab, he immediately noticed something unusual. The organism had multiplied. There were now eight. It must have reproduced. He looked at his watch. It had been about eight hours since he looked at them last the previous night. If the growth was exponential, that roughly translates to a doubling nearly every three or so hours. They weren’t walking around though like the one had previously done, instead they flattened on the surface of the container and their legs appeared to be interconnected. The surface of their bodies appeared darker, hardened, and protected. All eight were flashing in unison.
Dr. Min began to notice the manner in which the organisms were flashing. It didn’t have any discernable pattern, and yet it seemed oddly familiar. Min could not put his finger on it. Where had he seen that pattern of flashing before? Maybe it was just too early in the morning, and he was seeing things. He turned around to see if there was anything else that was flashing. He noticed that Dr. Zable, his medical assistant, was using a medical tricorder in the distance on another patient. A tiny blue light on the tricorder was flashing in the same (and seemingly random) manner as the organism was flashing. The organism was mimicking the flashing of the medical tricorder.
This meant two things to Dr. Min. One, the organism did have a way sensing visual stimuli, even though it was only responding to something very simple. Two, by mimicking it, it suggested that the organism was somehow ‘aware’ of its environment. Min didn’t see this at all when he looked at the lone organism the day before. He decided not to make too much of it for the time being. He needed more information. He decided that he would come back with tests that measured basic intelligence, like scientists on Earth had done with dolphins, monkeys, and the like. He needed to do some basic research before really concluding anything. In the meantime, it looked a little crowded in the container with all eight of them in there, and maybe it was time to give them a little more room.
“Computer, expand the containment field of Species DV-72 by twenty-five percent.” The plastic-like cube stretched out a little further. The specimens didn’t like the disturbance very much and had to readjust their connections to accommodate the added space. It looked almost like a cluster of neurons, he thought. So intelligence may not at all be out of the question. He began to run the multiplicity effects in his head if and when the specimen number reached a certain level. There may very well be a ‘critical mass’ in which the number of these organisms reach a certain level that would allow him to see some sort of emergent properties, like problem-solving abilities, behavior, and even consciousness.
The idea of an intelligence brewing in his lab was unnerving to Dr. Min, because it would enormously complicate the situation that his captain was facing. But the more he thought about it, the more it made sense that an intelligent life was at work. Unfortunately, to Min, there was really only one way to find out if what he thought was true: let them multiply and watch what happens.
