[center][b][u]7:20 AM, Office of James Lancaster[/u][/b][/center]

The business of animal translocation was, in the past, not a widely accepted one in the biological fields. In fact, Jamie remembered reading papers and studies and thesis' written back many years when the process was first being trialed. Of course back then the scientists and doctors were only moving a species from one continent, or country, to another. Today, Jamie was being cast in the roll of a scientist moving a species native of Earth, to another planet. Even with the terraforming, this would still prove to be a difficult feat. Insect species and a small number of reptiles had already been successfully introduced to Hestia Prime but it was time for something new, something bigger. This is why Jamie had been brought through space. With the insects and reptiles here, it was time for birds and smaller animals. The avian world was not one Jamie preferred to work in, nor was he the most well-versed. But there were enough scientists and doctors with enough variation in their backgrounds for this to not make much of a difference. What area did interest Jamie was the small prey animals he would be introducing soon enough. Squirrels, rabbits, and he was even lucky enough to get some raccoons. The latter took some smooth-talking but it worked out. Jamie was beyond excited to get working on this project, in a general sense. Today he was just today. 

Before Jamie had a chance to open the manila folder on his desk, an intruding knock erupted at his door. Without beckoning the person in, the door opened and they entered. Standing in the doorway was one of the scientists that Jamie knew well, a good friend and colleague. The man was wearing his typical outfit on a workday. This consisted of clean, always clean, blue denim jeans, a white company shirt, and his lab coat. Jamie also could not help but notice that the man was wearing an interestingly sharp pair of dress shoes. The footwear they were supposed to wear daily was not supposed to be [i]that[/i] formal. 

Jamie brought his index and middle fingers to his forehead and did a very informal salute. The other scientist raised both of his index fingers from his hands which were sitting near his waist. It was Doctor Vang, Derrick Vang. The man was Asian-American, brought in a few months after Jamie. The two both loved American sports and enjoyed a drink, they got along well from the get-go. 

"What's up Derrick." the normal greeting between the friends, "you look to be in a lot better shape than me this morning. Hope you are because I've got a fuck ton of data from the field for you to go through while I go collect more". Normally this was not how Jamie would speak to another in his department, but the two were close friends and often spoke this way. "Yeah, yeah. Maybe you'd feel better if you hadn't taken those two extra shots last night. Man you were already slapped. I guess we aren't as good of drinkers as we were in our college days, if yours were anything like mine", he paused and they both chuckled for a minute. "That women who does corporate advertising was all over you too, what was her name? Alice or something right? I bet you didn't go home alo..." Jamie raised his hand and stopped him there. "Unfortunately I did, today is not a Saturday and yesterday was not Friday. Anyway, what do you need?"

"Obviously you didn't check your messaging this morning. Weyland-Yutani sent us a huge report on the status of our animals. Basically, to skip all the boring analytical stuff, it won't be long before you've got your critters running about" Derrick raised an eyebrow to gauge Jamie's reaction. "Are they serious? I told them I would need at least another two weeks personally for my data. It's like they expect me to cut corners. Well they're the bosses. Thanks for the heads up D", the other scientist nodded and left the room. Jamie would now grab the manila folder. All of the data he collected was stored in two formats. The first was in the department's data servers, which was the normal way. It gave everyone else access to read and see what he had learned and collected in the field. The second was handwritten and stored in notebooks or folders, this was where Jamie kept his personal notes and scribbles. 

Each week Jamie had a large list of tasks that needed to be completed. Not all of them were time sensitive, so typically he would be able to space them out to his discretion. Today was a typical day. The task that he would be completing would be monitoring the development among the populations of the snakes that he had helped to introduce not too long ago. Originally Jamie was not a huge fan of this type of animal being introduced, but he did some research and was also convinced by others that it was best for the developing of an ecosystem. Jamie just thought they would slow down the population growth once the prey species' were located to the planet. At any rate, he had come to develop an attachment and love for the snakes. They were fun to find and very entertaining to watch. At the moment they did not have much variety in their own prey, which was not the best. But again, Weyland-Yutani had shipped them to the planet a bit early and that had not given a lot of time to the ecological department. Field mice were the top prey animal for the snakes at the moment, he had personally had a large number shipped to the planet. The snake to mice ration took some time to fine tune, but once it was, mother nature handled herself pretty well. The population of mice was not overwhelming and they were far enough from the colony that they were not often seen unless one or two stowed away in a rover, the same went for the snakes except the field staff were more cautious of bringing them back. 

Another interruption stopped Jamie whilst he was reading his own notes on the snakes. This time it was a page, it was coming from Rover 8. Undoubtedly this would be Doctor Randall. The two of them had worked together a few times in the field and being colleagues in the office allowed Jamie and Doc Randall to have some familiarity. There were two options available. A video call with Rover 8, or voice call. Today Jamie did not feel like having his hungover face plastered on the camera for Randall, they would probably see each other later in the day so it would be easy to hide his state for now. Jamie pressed the voice call accept button.

"What can I do for you Doctor Randall?"