Translation Laboratory

Posted on Thu Sep 6th, 2018 @ 4:36am by Lieutenant Kylian Linwood & Lieutenant Aeryn Vinia

Mission: S01E04 The Outpost Has Eyes

ON:

Aeryn practically bounced down the hall as she led Dr. Linwood towards the science lab she'd been using for research purposes. Klingon dictionaries and comparative anatomy charts scattered the tables and a molecular modeler was sitting on one table. Once they arrived they would talk about what they'd stolen from the Klingon shipyard and what they could safely do with it.

"Are your belongings being stowed in your quarters Doctor? If you're as enthusiastic as you say about Klingon language, you're not going to want to go back to them and I'd prefer if you didn't sleep in my lab."

Kylian laughed. "Yes, ma'am. It's totally being taken care of as we speak. Not that I have much to lug around. Anything I might have forgotten I can replicate for the most part." He was staring at the table. "You've got quite the collection going here..." He reached out to pull one of the anatomy comparison charts closer to himself, studying it. "I'm going to try not to sleep in here, but it's going to be hard." He looked up from the chart and grinned at her. "So... tell me where you're at with all of this?" By "all of this" he meant the information that was spread out before them.

"This is the Klingon Medical database- well a partial one that we stole from the station during the boarding party's excursion," the azure haired woman answered with a chuckle at his enthusiasm. "I've copied the things that are self explanatory into the computers. Molecular formulas for medicines, for example, are already there because nothing translates easier than the periodic table. The problem is my translation is incomplete for the rest of it. I tried to focus on child care, pregnancy and infant care... because when the Captain goes into labor she's going to need every bit of expertise we can glean from this database. I'm scared stiff that something might go wrong here, especially when the Klingons call labor a kind of battle."

"To Klingons everything is battle..." He was making his way around the table slowly, looking at things in more detail. "Did you know that there are no Klingon words for please or thank you?" He pulled another chart closer to himself. "Well..." he chuckled. "I'm going to say that she's not probably going to want to breastfeed. I have some contacts back on Earth that might be able to help with anything we can't figure out, but of course that will take time... or are you already on the relay communications?" He looked up at her curiously.

"She probably won't want to, but she probably should. At least until we find a formula equivalent that would be acceptable for his needs." Aeryn shrugged her helplessness at the situation and shoved a lock of blue hair behind her ear. "I don't actually know anyone that's specialty is Klingon - so I was muddling through with the Hoshi database in my infinite spare time."

Kylian chucked. "No no... I meant they are born with teeth. Sharp ones. A Klingon baby is going to need more iron in its diet at an earlier age too. She should breastfeed, but not directly. There are pumps and bottles. We'll have to find a tougher material for the nipples of the bottle. A Klingon baby is going to shred the ones Humans use. As far as sleeping habits and stuff like that... I have no idea. Is it okay if I sit and go over some of this? Is there anything specific that you need translated right away?" he asked, looking up from the table at Aeryn again and grinning.

"How do you know that?" she asked intrigued by the sudden wealth of information that he was giving her. "And yes, I am looking for anything related to labor pain relief that is safe for the baby. "

Kylian maintained his grin, but his gaze turned a little sad. "You'll have to forgive me. Klingons might not take prisoners, but Starfleet does and I have two things they currently want very badly. Medical knowledge and the ability to speak Klingonese. It actually has afforded me several very bizarre interactions with our enemies." He nodded. "I'm also pretty sure that's why they sent me out here to you."

"That sounds like a story you might need to tell me," she answered after the shock cleared from her expression. He's right, they have to know why we requested the translations...

Kylian nodded. "I'd be more than happy to share any of that. For awhile it was classified, but they lifted it. So now, I can tell you." He chuckled. "So let's see this database."

Placing her hand-print on the terminal that was lit to read it, the computer screens obediently lit up displaying the work she'd gotten done as well as the rest of the database that they'd managed to steal. It was a fascinating guide into Klingon design, especially the small amount of information on their genome she'd managed to retrieve.

"Holy crap!" was the first words out of his mouth on viewing the database. "Sorry... I just... this is amazing! May I?" Kylian asked, wanting to sit down and look closer. "This is already more information then Starfleet has on the Klingons. I mean they've only gotten what we've been able to glean from live and dead subjects and some of the dead subjects is guesswork. You've got a gem here. This could change a lot of things."

"Isn't it wonderful? I, of course, understand none of it... languages are hard for me, so..." she gestured to the dictionary and the linkup to the Hoshi directory.

"I can help you learn if you like. I'm sure that it's kinda gonna be hard not to, going through all of this with me. Their alphabet isn't all that complicated and there are a lot of words and expressions they simply do not have. So that simplifies it even further. I mean..." he was looking at the screen while he spoke. "Like this word here... this "ghoD" that you see all over this page. It literally means "stuff"..." He chuckled.

"I'm not sure you can help me learn, but I'm up to trying if you're up for frustration." Beaming over at him she toggled the screen over to the anatomical directory she'd downloaded right before they'd had to bug out. She personally was still sore that the captain had her beamed out arbitrarily like that.

"Oh wow..." Kylian exclaimed in surprise. "That's the most complete one of those I've ever seen." He was staring at the anatomical map. "Amazing and see..." He pointed to the map in several places. "Redundant organs. So bizarre. You know we haven't been able to figure that out. I mean why the redundancy? Did that develop because of their warlike nature? Or did it happen because of the likeliness of disease... it must have some sort of root somewhere having to do with survival. Like extreme survival."

"It's interesting for sure. Makes me wonder what interesting things our wee hybrid is going to have in store for us."

"I won't ask why the Captain is having a hybrid Klingon child. I have a feeling that it's not really my place to question, but I can't imagine. I mean, we're just now really discovering what they even look like on the inside. I can't even begin to speculate which of their genes might be more dominant, but I will say this. We now know that we're compatible as a species. The Captain doesn't have much time left, from the look of her. If the baby survives, it could possibly be the first human and Klingon hybrid ever. You never know. Sometimes children can bring peace." While he talked he was staring at the anatomical map intently and trying carefully to navigate the program.

"I know," she said softly, not wanting to think about the why the captain was pregnant. Her trauma from that event only continued through the pregnancy, even if she denied it. "We need to find analgesics that are safe. That's our priority."

"Well, Klingon's are pretty hardy. Like a lot more hardy than even we are. I would think that most things that would be okay for a human would be okay for a Klingon. I think we could safely try either terakine or triptacederine? Maybe start with a small dose? 5 ccs? Is she in pain? I want to make sure those are okay to use on her though... I'll see what I can find in this database... if you don't mind." Kylian looked up at Aeryn and smiled.

"I want to be sure, or rather as sure as we can be from a research standpoint. I will not be using her as some sort of experimental test subject because we want to know how the hybrid reacts to medication."

"Oh Lord, of course not." Kylian's eyes widened. "Yeah, I'm not into that whole Frankenstein's monster. I'd rather not pump the patient full of medication at all. Although, we don't know if that information is going to be readily available in this data... we'll just have to go through it and see." He leaned back in his chair and ran his fingers through his hair. "I guess we've got our work cut out for us. Should we divide it up? Or go through it together?"

"That's where you come in. You can read this with ease. I can't." Her bright smile answered his question. "Once it's translated, I can help you slog though it, but I can't help you that much."

Kylian nodded. "Alright... I will start with things that will be most relevant for the captain. Is is alright to start now?" He looked at her hopefully, with his own bright smile.

Her fingers rested briefly upon his shoulders in support of that idea. "Have fun!"

Kylian grinned up at her from his seat and started translating. He set up a computer terminal for him to type on with the open Klingon manual on the screen next to him. After he'd worked for about twenty minutes he ran up against words he had never seen before. He got up and went to his bag that he had brought with him and pulled several PADDs from it. He used the information on these PADDs to translate the words he didn't know, taking his time to spell them out carefully. It was one thing to miss a few words in a communication, but when dealing with a text, and a medical text at that, he couldn't take any chances of getting something wrong.

Kylian lost track of time over the next several hours. Translation was something that he truly loved. He hadn't gone into linguistics though, because his first love was medicine. He did skip around in the text a little, trying to find information for what they needed immedately, even starting several sections to get a few pages in and find that they weren't what what he thought they were. He tried to find a balance of speed where he could still maintain accuracy and not lose meaning in translation, but it was difficult and sometimes simply slow going.

When he started to get tired it was sudden. It was almost as if his eyes just finally gave out looking at computer screens. He took a break and got up and walked the stiffness out of his legs before he stubbornly went back to translating. An hour later he was asleep on the console, using the PADDs he had brought from his bag as a makeshift pillow, one arm around them protectively and the other poised on the keyboard as if he was just going to sit up again at any moment and go right back to work.

:END