“Dont. Touch. It.” Log hissed through his teeth as he continued to pull cables from the wall console. The small transparent fleshy globe hovered above its antigravity plate on the far side of the lab, spinning slowly as the liquid within rolled with mesmerising currents of silver and gold. Aynesh stood rapt, her nose inches from the mysterious transparent sphere. 

“I wasn’t going to.” She whispered defensively, her already extended index finger retreating to the pockets of her overalls, her eyes fixed on the dancing colours within the orb. 

“You shouldn’t even be in here.”

“You said you needed help didn’t you?” Aynesh turned from the oceanic motion of the tiny metallic nebula within the object as it twisted and bounced against the container, pushed and pulled by an unknown effector. Leaning on a counter as she looked at the young tellerite, a fair chunk of his upper body now lost amongst the cables vomited by the access panel. “You said Aynesh please help me, I can’t possibly do it without you!” She mocked, her voice raising several pitches in jest. 

“I believe what I said was I could use an extra pair of hands.” Log’s head appeared from the snaking cables. 

“And?”

“I’m only seeing one pair of hands over here.” Two small hands appeared from beneath the nest of black station innards and waved in demonstration of their loneliness. “This was exactly what I was hoping to avoid.” His head and hands disappeared back beneath the mountain of woven cables which began shuddering and shaking as he attempted to extricate himself. 

Waving her hand dismissively Aynesh returned her attention to the glowing orb, her nose creeping ever closer once again. “Why should we care about lighting panels when we’ve got this!” Her finger had emerged from the deep pockets once again and slowly crept towards the transparent container and the mysterious dancing liquid it held. “The blue shirts get to play with all the cool stuff.”

“Put that finger away!” Log cried as he fought a piece of black tubing that refused to release his leg.

“I don’t think I appreciate your lack of trust in me.” Aynesh griped, her voluminous bottom lip edging closer to the sphere as it pouted. 

“It’s not a lack of trust, it’s a growing wealth of experience.” Log teased as he pushed the electrical snake from his leg and after a moment of consideration decided to allow himself a moment’s break from a fight he was currently losing. “If you find it all so fascinating then why haven’t you volunteered for the new duty roster?” 

“Because I’m not a scientist. I wouldn’t even know where to start with something like this.” Her face turned downward despondently, her confident demeanour slipping for a moment as she slumped bodily to her knees infront of the sphere; its metallic coloured veins now being drawn deeper into the rolling clouds as dark azure lines began snaking around the micro-nebula. 

“That’s not true.” Log appeared next to her, propping up his chin with branch-like arms as he knelt alongside her. 

“Yes, it is. I’m just a grease monkey.”

“Then start at the beginning.” Log smiled, recollecting a similar education he had received as a new officer with Theta Squad. The young tellerite had called himself a similar thing, Zaya had refused to allow him to belittle himself and had launched into a lesson. “Every investigation starts at the beginning.” He motioned to the orb, now dancing with yellow and blue ribbons of unknown elements. “What do you see?”

Aynesh rolled her eyes audibly as she sighed, self-pity filling her lungs. “You’re not going to turn me into a blue shirt with a few questions.”

“I’m not trying to. It wouldn’t compliment your skin tone.” He poked her shoulder playfully. “What do you see?”

“An orb.”

“And?”

“It’s transparent.”

“And?”

“It’s filled with lots of coloured…” she clenched her jaw in frustration, attempting to reach for a more accurate word, something more scientific. “Stuff” she concluded, unsatisfied with her answer. 

“Gasses?” Log leant back on the nearby tab table, his attention focused on the young engineer rather than the scientific curio hovering above the table. 

“No, they seem too heavy and dense. They look more liquid.” Aynesh was rubbing her chin now, “And different densities, maybe even different molecular structures.”

“What makes you say that?” Log probed, his hands alighting on a nearby padd that contained the research team’s initial findings. He cast a quick glance at the summary data at the top of the page, she was definitely on the right track.

“Well it’s like oil and water, they don’t mix because of their differing densities.” Aynesh furrowed her brow, her eyes drilling deep into the transparent orb. 

Log smiled. “So multiple-“

“-liquids? Probably, and they’re all moving. Normally differing liquids would find a natural balance.” The orb’s contents seemed to smile in recognition of her accuracy, a flash of golden blood arcing across the bottom of the mixture. “Which means something is causing it to keep moving, stirring it up.” Aynesh’s hand hovered over the globe, “I wonder if the stimulus is kinetic or radiant?”

“So did the research team.” Log waved the padd in his hand in Aynesh’s direction, drawing her attention away from the orb. “The computer is currently running an electromagnetic analysis.”

“Is it finished?” Her eyes were wide, the taste of discovery on her lips. 

The tellerite looked to the padd. “In about 10 minutes.” He smiled, “Long enough to fix the lighting panel and be around for when it goes ping?” Aynesh returned his smile, a grin creeping across her face like a child who had just been offered a Jumja stick. “That’s assuming you have time professor?”

She smiled, casting her mind back to the nervous young officer who had been buddied with her only a few months ago, he was swiftly blossoming into a confident young man again. “Message received, maybe there’s a bit of blue in me yet.” 

“You’re literally all blue.” Log gestured up and down to the Bolian woman’s azure skin. 

She smacked his shoulder playfully as they began moving over to the waiting bird’s nest of cabling for round two, Aynesh’s busy mind now churning out possibilities, “Do you think it’s a storage container? What if it’s like suspended anti-matter? Oh! What if it’s super dangerous and explosive? That’d be so cool…”

As the two young officers continued their work, the sound of their hypothesising falling into a pleasant chatter the orb glowed unnoticed as waves of blue and gold rolled through the liquid mixture, twisting and turning as they danced around each other before disappearing into the rainbow maelstrom suspended in the small glass orb.