And last night's.....
This one I blame Sagwah for. I don't know why except that it was going to a very inhospitable place to do research, the people who have been there a while don't do all the suiting up necessary because they're used to it, and the food sucks most of the time. :-p
Apparently I was sent to the moon to do research. It started with me being in the airlock with the giant moon suit, and walking in on the one other researcher sitting in short sleeves, pants, tennis shoes, and no helmet. I sat down to the computer (which had a name that I now forget) and started looking at slides I'd collected on my way in. I asked where others had collected samples, and the guy pointed out places that people had never been, but I had to be careful because over there the sun was rising and it would kill me. (apparently the dark side of the moon is safer). So I bounced off.
I collected a lot of weird tiny leaf looking things, some fuzzy caterpillar things that were pink, some other fuzzy more upright things that were yellow I think, and these weird things that looked like a toad crossed with an octopus pretending it was Chthulu. That's about the best I can describe them. When I got back, there was a third researcher. I think this one was actually Sagwah, so that's also why I blame her.
We both looked at the slides and the things I've brought back. Apparently none of them screamed "LIFE!" despite the fact that they were MOVING and obviously aware of everything. So Sagwah decided to do a gathering trip of her own during a solar eclipse, and just move in the dark of the eclipse to go to the bright side of the moon. People thought she was insane, but she did it, and brought back the same stuff I had but apparently these were more interesting because they were obviously life. Go Sagwah!
So when we transmitted the pictures, suddenly people started POURING in to the station because now it was a huge thing. Life on the moon! And we were taken off the project. I remember screaming and yelling at my supervisor for this because WE had discovered the life and someone else was going to get the credit?! He just nodded and went "Yup. But you'll get a mention in the paper or something." And I was shipped home.
I later was able to come back, but the whole place had drastically changed. But I made friends with the people who weren't money grubbing assholes. One of my friends was Morgan Freeman. He's really nice, at least in dreams. I did a LOT of good research, and all money grubbing assholes did very little except eat cookies (apparently the Keebler Elves deliver to the moon) sit on the internet, and watch TV. This is where the "People who have been there before don't take all the precautions" came in to effect. We treated the moon like it was just a cold place. Not a cold and airless place. Constantly just holding our breath and opening a door to the outside to see what we could see, etc.
I did wonder in my dream why all the air wasn't immediately sucked out when we did that. But it was a dream.
Eventually, it was time for my rotation to end, and I had to go home. Morgan Freeman really really wanted me to stay and kept trying to figure out ways I could stay, but none of them worked. I had an inkling about what all the "life" was and told him something that made total sense in my dream. Basically I was hinting that it was contamination. As I was walking in the airlock to the ship, a new gaggle of researchers were coming in and I was mentally measuring them up. One of the lab managers from a different lab coming in got all snooty and thought I was with the new people. I politely informed her that I was going home because my rotation was finished, and my PI had kicked me out of my lab, so I needed to return to find a new lab. She asked if my PI did that for everyone and I said no, it was just me.
She decided I would join her lab. The Johnson lab, and told me about Dr. Johnson. Who was a Chemist. And liked me because of my Biochemistry background. I then realized it was Monday, and I was missing student seminar and was frantically trying to email the head of my department to say that I was sorry I was missing my third one but, you see, I was on THE MOON and couldn't exactly make it.
I met back up with Sagwah who was happy I was still there, and then went to see our samples. Which most had died. Only the fuzzy caterpillars and the other fuzzy things had survived. The toad/octopus/chthulu things were dead and decomposing, and for some reason there were two penguins in there that also hadn't made it. We were wondering about the penguins because they didn't match the evolutionary history of what we were seeing, but we also concluded that the toad/octopus/chthulu things died because they "had too many legs."
It made sense in the dream.
Eventually there was drama between everyone, but then we discovered that.... one of the original astronauts had thrown out some apple seeds and the bacteria on them was what we were seeing. I think the DNA was a 99.999% match with E.coli or something. And it was a huge letdown because it wasn't anything new. It was just something from us that took root and ended up going its own way. *le sigh*
But at least I did research on the moon! And met Morgan Freeman!
Apparently I was sent to the moon to do research. It started with me being in the airlock with the giant moon suit, and walking in on the one other researcher sitting in short sleeves, pants, tennis shoes, and no helmet. I sat down to the computer (which had a name that I now forget) and started looking at slides I'd collected on my way in. I asked where others had collected samples, and the guy pointed out places that people had never been, but I had to be careful because over there the sun was rising and it would kill me. (apparently the dark side of the moon is safer). So I bounced off.
I collected a lot of weird tiny leaf looking things, some fuzzy caterpillar things that were pink, some other fuzzy more upright things that were yellow I think, and these weird things that looked like a toad crossed with an octopus pretending it was Chthulu. That's about the best I can describe them. When I got back, there was a third researcher. I think this one was actually Sagwah, so that's also why I blame her.
We both looked at the slides and the things I've brought back. Apparently none of them screamed "LIFE!" despite the fact that they were MOVING and obviously aware of everything. So Sagwah decided to do a gathering trip of her own during a solar eclipse, and just move in the dark of the eclipse to go to the bright side of the moon. People thought she was insane, but she did it, and brought back the same stuff I had but apparently these were more interesting because they were obviously life. Go Sagwah!
So when we transmitted the pictures, suddenly people started POURING in to the station because now it was a huge thing. Life on the moon! And we were taken off the project. I remember screaming and yelling at my supervisor for this because WE had discovered the life and someone else was going to get the credit?! He just nodded and went "Yup. But you'll get a mention in the paper or something." And I was shipped home.
I later was able to come back, but the whole place had drastically changed. But I made friends with the people who weren't money grubbing assholes. One of my friends was Morgan Freeman. He's really nice, at least in dreams. I did a LOT of good research, and all money grubbing assholes did very little except eat cookies (apparently the Keebler Elves deliver to the moon) sit on the internet, and watch TV. This is where the "People who have been there before don't take all the precautions" came in to effect. We treated the moon like it was just a cold place. Not a cold and airless place. Constantly just holding our breath and opening a door to the outside to see what we could see, etc.
I did wonder in my dream why all the air wasn't immediately sucked out when we did that. But it was a dream.
Eventually, it was time for my rotation to end, and I had to go home. Morgan Freeman really really wanted me to stay and kept trying to figure out ways I could stay, but none of them worked. I had an inkling about what all the "life" was and told him something that made total sense in my dream. Basically I was hinting that it was contamination. As I was walking in the airlock to the ship, a new gaggle of researchers were coming in and I was mentally measuring them up. One of the lab managers from a different lab coming in got all snooty and thought I was with the new people. I politely informed her that I was going home because my rotation was finished, and my PI had kicked me out of my lab, so I needed to return to find a new lab. She asked if my PI did that for everyone and I said no, it was just me.
She decided I would join her lab. The Johnson lab, and told me about Dr. Johnson. Who was a Chemist. And liked me because of my Biochemistry background. I then realized it was Monday, and I was missing student seminar and was frantically trying to email the head of my department to say that I was sorry I was missing my third one but, you see, I was on THE MOON and couldn't exactly make it.
I met back up with Sagwah who was happy I was still there, and then went to see our samples. Which most had died. Only the fuzzy caterpillars and the other fuzzy things had survived. The toad/octopus/chthulu things were dead and decomposing, and for some reason there were two penguins in there that also hadn't made it. We were wondering about the penguins because they didn't match the evolutionary history of what we were seeing, but we also concluded that the toad/octopus/chthulu things died because they "had too many legs."
It made sense in the dream.
Eventually there was drama between everyone, but then we discovered that.... one of the original astronauts had thrown out some apple seeds and the bacteria on them was what we were seeing. I think the DNA was a 99.999% match with E.coli or something. And it was a huge letdown because it wasn't anything new. It was just something from us that took root and ended up going its own way. *le sigh*
But at least I did research on the moon! And met Morgan Freeman!