AT - R02 Detailed Survey (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 03 May 2013 @ 2:46am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Amril & Crewman Athlen & Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle & Ensign Im'er Mor'an & Lieutenant Jared Nicholas & Petty Officer 3rd Class & Senior Chief Petty Officer Anthony Davis & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton & Commander Scarlet Blake & Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Coleman & Petty Officer 2nd Class Lorenzo Donati

2,913 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: Rojar II R02 - Metropolis Ruins (Outskirts)
Timeline: MD 05 - 1600 hrs

[ON]

Athlen wrapped his hand around the edge of the doors as they opened and peeked in. He noted the transporter room was empty, and hoped that he hadn't misunderstood the orders or shown up in the wrong room. That would be embarrassing. He stretched his fingers out in front of him and inched toward the transporter pad. He was part of away team seven, right? They were supposed to meet here? He looked down at his tricorder, but it didn't help him out. Fortunately, the door opened a few seconds later to reveal the rest of the team. "Oh," the Rigelian smiled warmly. "Hello." Good. Right place. He walked over to the transporter pad and took a step up.

Jared walked into the Transporter room, a few seconds after Athlen. He was dressed in a freshly replicated uniform and looked like he had just come from the shower. Everything was neat, orderly, and in its proper place. He was doing his best, even in the little things to try to make up for his past sin and error in judgement.

John was the next to arrive in the room, already armed to the teeth, with both a type one and two tied to his belt and a type three ready to go slung over his shoulder. Whilst the XO had no intention of taking his team into combat, anywhere the Borg had been presented itself as a threat to him.

"Well...at least I'm not the last one here this time."

The imposing figure of the ship's resident "giant" as he was now being referred to by some of the crew entered the room. Jacob, seeing the Commander immediately stood at attention. "Reporting for duty Sir."

Lurking in the alcove behind the transporter console, Andreus Kohl was leaning against a bulkhead with a mug of tea between his hands. The blond man peeked down in his mug, and did the maths to figure out if he would have time to drink the rest of the scalding beverage before the rest of the team arrived. Kohl took another long sip before he set the mug on a shelf beside him. He patted the medical kit strapped to his side for the seventeenth time, just to make certain it hadn't fallen off him when he wasn't looking. The Nurse Practitioner completed this ritual by brushing his hand against the type-2 phaser holstered on his hip. It was still there too.

Seeing the others check their weapons, Jared felt under dressed. He only had a type II phaser and a rather unorthodox, ancient, rare, and probably unauthorized Sig Sauer P-226 pistol. He'd picked it up a long time ago and felt it would be his best weapon if they ran into Borg. It was hard for them to assimilate lead.

Bedecked in her gear with her fingers itching for action, Mor'an stepped in to the transporter room with purpose. Her eyes sweeping the room, she greeted each person.

Scarlet Blake remained quiet as she moved in, taking up a place to rest back against a bulkhead. Her features were almost cool, but there was a slight frown creasing her brow. It had been a difficult night and morning. She would usually be rounding her shift off at this time, and her daughter was used to usually seeing her in the evening and night time. She was having to have a friend sleep over to look after her little girl while she joined the away team through the evening and night. It wouldn't usually worry her much, but Lily wasn't feeling well. Nothing serious, but enough for her to be in bed rather than her usual playful self. She was just glad that Verity Thorne had still agreed to stay the night to look after Lily even though she wasn't well. It was one of those days where being both a single mother and an officer was tricky.

Taking notice of Scarlet's expression, Kohl moved towards her. He stepped around the transporter console, and he made his way to the bulkhead opposite the doorway. Although Kohl didn't say anything to Scarlet, looking lost in thought as she was, he took up position beside her. Kohl leaned back, as if to help hold up the bulkhead as well.

Scarlet felt someone move close, glancing across. She gave a small smile to him when she realised it was Kohl. He had a way with people she'd rarely seen before. She tapped the bulkhead lightly with her hand, close to his, to let him know that things would be okay, and that she appreciated his presence.

"Hello, hello everyone," Athlen bowed his head to each person and smiled as they came in, pressing his hands together cheerfully. He eyed Jared, Commander Holliday, the rest of them and then unconsciously pat his side. He had to wonder why they equipped him with a phaser at all. Had they ever seen him shoot a phaser? He was probably in more danger with one.

"Alright listen up. Commander Coleman and her team have already completed their initial survey of the planet and for now at least it looks safe. We are going to beam down to support their operations. I don't need to remind any of you of the dangers of beaming into unknown territory - recent events on R1 should attest to that. We stay together and we stay safe. Take your positions."

The XO knew that whilst Coleman might be leading the mission team already on the planet, these reinforcements fell entirely under his command. With a nod he moved towards the transporter and took his position on the centre-front pad, waiting for his team to follow.

Jared, already on the Transporter pad waited for the others to join the group.

Jacob moved closer to Mor'an and gave her a slight, playful nudge and smiled at her.

Mor'an glanced up at Jacob and returned his smile. She was glad to find that he was on this surface team as well.

Delainey entered the transporter room feeling more like a pack mule than a scientist at heart. With one medkit and one fieldkit over one shoulder and a phaser at the opposite hip, she felt bulky and a bit out of her element. Doctors, and especially counselors, didn't get to go on away teams routinely, and that was especially true if the mission was scientific in nature. The naturally inquisitive Delainey was excited at the opportunity for new discoveries deep down, but intellectually, she reminded herself she needed to temper her excitement to avoid seeming like an eager, oblivious child.

She offered smiles to those in the room, her eyes naturally resting on Andreus and Blake. At least they'd be on this adventure together. Seeing the others begin to assemble on the transport pad, Carlisle joined them.

From where he was leaning against the bulkhead, Kohl watched Carlisle step up on the transporter pad. Kohl returned her smile, and he said, "I don't know about you, but I plan to flex my science muscles on the planet. No one is allowed to get hurt."

Jared looked over at the Counselor, "Need any help there?" he asked addressing her. " I am travelling light compared to you."

Delainey chuckled at Kohl's comment. "We're on the same page there." Turning to Jared, she offered, "Thanks. I think I have everything for now, but I may take you up on that down there." In truth, she was afraid to upset the delicate balance she'd established by handing one thing off.

"Of course," the linguist replied, "If you need met to help. Just let me know."

He looked back at Kohl and gave he fellow teal uniformed man a smirk. "You actually look more like security to science, if you ask me. Which you didn' t so you can just tell me to shut up if you want. I do have a tendency to be a smart ass or so people tell me."

"Security officers have a distinctive allure..." Kohl said, and his gaze closed in on Jared. "Why wouldn't I want that?"

"Allure? well I guess that's one way to put it. But you look pretty alluring yourself why would you want to take on someone else's?"

Kohl shrugged at that, holding his position against the bulkhead. "I never tried," he said simply.

Lirha was running slightly late for the away team's departure but finally came jogging through the door with a loud swish as it opened to make way for her. She came to a halt and pushed several stray strands of sweaty hair from her eyes, then took a quick glance around the room at all of the assembled personnel, half of whom were already on the transporter pad and ready to beam down. With a mental nod, she quickly accounted for everyone then walked up to her XO. "I guess this is a busy day for you." she said with a friendly smirk, realizing that he was going to be off-world for pretty much the entire day after already completing one expedition.

"Tell me about it. Once more unto the breach." John replied with a smile. It had been a while since he had been given this much time off world, and whilst he might have been looking forward to stretching his legs, the XO hoped that he would be able to spend some time on the Bridge without too much delay.

"Security, when we hit the surface I want the perimeter sweeping - we might already have a team down there but I want absolute certaintly we're the only advanced species around. Science teams meet up with Dr Panne and follow orders accordingly."

With one final smile he looked back to the captain, ready to depart on her order.

"Permission to proceed Ma'am?"

"Permission granted. Thirty-minute check ins as usual, please." the Orion captain answered. "And be careful...some of the ruins which you might encounter are probably not the most stable of structures." she added, then stepped back towards the transporter console to operate the controls.

Scarlet let out a soft breath where she was stood ready on the pad, her hand touching the phaser at her side. Not for the first time, she felt naked going on an away team without a rifle. And she had a yearning for a sniper scope to go with her non-existant rifle. Instead she had a small field medic kit and a hand held type-2 phaser. She grimaced.

Carefully climbing the steps, Andreus Kohl made his way onto the transporter platform. He took his place on one of the pads and turned to face the Captain. For the eighteenth time, Kohl checked to be sure his medikit had not fallen off. There, it was still there.

Jared glanced around the pad at the assembled team. Quite the little gathering he thought to himself. He still wasn't exactly sure why he had been invited along as his field of specialization probably would not come into play.

Still he wasn't complaining. He knew that whatever else would happen, the trip would an interesting one and that was after all why he had joined Star Fleet. To explore.

He quickly checked his weapons over. He figured in this trip exploration and guarding asses kind of went hand in hand.

Nexia entered the transporter room in a near run, while fumbling her gear round. "Sorry, sirs. I have an excuse, but it's just that. An excuse. Won't happen again." The Selkie stepped up onto the pad while checking her tricorder.

On light feet, Mor'an stepped up onto the transporter pad. She looked around and saw how serious everyone else was being, but she couldn't help being a little bit excited -- she loved transporting.

Behind the controls, Lirha began the transporter sequence for the first six members of the team. With a bright display of lights and simmering particles, the crew members were instantly transported down to the surface. Back in the transporter room, the next six personnel stepped up and onto the pad. Repeating the sequence, the second group quickly disappeared and Lirha let out a deep sigh. She hoped that everything would go smoothly...the last thing she needed was to lose another crew member and have to notify yet another family of their child's demise.

On the surface of the war-torn planet, two sets of transporter signatures materialized and deposited the two away team groups several meters from each other. The gravity was high (about 1.3Gs) and the air was musky. Overhead, yellow and gray clouds darkened the sky casting an eerie and silent hue across the landscape. Massive metropolitan ruins overrun by vegetation were visible nearby, and the only signs of life were from various plants and animals, some of which scurried away from the team when they beamed down.

Scarlet pulled her tricorder free to start running scans of the area, but her eyes weren't on it. She was looking around in awe. The sight of the ruins were both beautiful clad in the natural veil but also frightening too. It just proved how quickly nature could take over and thrive when the presence of people passed away. It put people in their place really. Nature didn't need them, and even when something so bad to drive away or destroy a civilisation hit, nature could survive it all, not as weak and fragile in its complexities.

Jacob smiled to himself as he looked around. Much to explore. Much to find. The excitement in him was at full tilt. He cracked his knuckles loudly and was more than ready to get started.

As soon as the annular confinement beam of the transporter released Andreus Kohl he closed his eyes. He didn't screw his eyes shut like some child on christmas morning, he just took away vision as the overriding sensory input. Kohl breathed in through his nose and mouth, breathing in deep in his lungs, and the air tasted earthy and fungal. As he breathed out, Kohl heard himself breathing and he heard tricorders singing, and he also heard an orchestra of insect-life. Then, Kohl opened his eyes.

Athlen breathed in deeply, extending his hands and stretching his fingers as he materialized, eyes popping open. His ears were drawn back invisibly under his hair, and he had an alert look on his face. "Raistasuri," he murmured to himself. It was alien and utterly devoid, frames decaying and molded from specks of dust, twisted and enormous. But it was beautiful, in its own way. The sociologist in him longed to run down the path and comb through every nook and cranny, but he restrained himself to quietly vibrating in the corner.

Released from the transporter beam, Mor'an immediately took stock of her surroundings. The place was dismal in her way of thinking, so unlike her own planet. Slowly turning in place, Mor'an made a quick sweep with IR to ensure the only things with a heartbeat in the immediate area were the crew.

Jared knew just how safe the transporters were. Redundancy on top of redundancy. That did not mean he fully trusted it and certainly did not mean that the he enjoyed have his molecules rearranged.

It always left him with a slightly queasy feeling. As he looked around him the queasiness quickly dissipated and his natural curiosity took over. "Spirits," he said to no one in particular, "This is fantastic."

Materialising on this new planet was yet another experience John could add to his collection. At least this time they had arrived without being attacked by large animals that picked off his security teams, but there was still the unknown threat of those who came before.

Delainey found that she had unknowingly closed her eyes against the transporter effect, and she admonished herself inwardly for not remaining on guard. Not wasting any more time, she took her tricorder out and began a cursory scan.

In a tree to his left, Kohl thought he saw something move through the branches nearest to the away team. To Kohl's eyes, it looked like a furry green snake, shaded olive and lime. It had a couple of pronounced nodules where its head might be and a couple of translucent antennae. The snake was climbing across a branch, and then it appeared to blur and fade away, as if it had a personal cloaking device. Rather it's fur was chameleonically shifted the same shades of brown as the branch. Kohl yanked the tricorder from his holster and aimed it at the tree branch.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

CMDR Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

LCDR Evelyn Coleman
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

Lt JG Scarlet Blake
Chief Counsellor
USS Galileo

Lt. (JG) Delainey Carlisle, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Chief Counselor/Doctor
USS Galileo

Crewman Athlen
Sociologist, SSC
USS Galileo

Lt (JG) Jacob Pendleton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Jared Nicholas
Linquist
USS Galileo

Cadet Senior Grade Im'er Mor'an
Red Squad Intern
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Amril
Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo
played by Psylus Anon

Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Andreus Kohl
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Petty Officer 3rd Class Nexia Alona
Oceanologist
USS Galileo
PNPC by Markum Quinn

RSS Feed