Duty to Ask

Posted on 19 May 2013 @ 8:22am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Andreus Kohl

2,178 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 1, Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: MD 05 - 1500 hours

[ON]

Andreus Kohl was standing at the door to Captain Saalm's Ready Room, but, in truth, he had forgotten why he was there. The Captain summoning him, his turoblift ride to deck one, and his ringing the door chime had faded from the forefront of his thoughts. Kohl couldn't even remember if he had heard the Captain say, "enter", or not. Rather, Kohl was looking back over his shoulder, blatantly staring at the Bridge and the way people worked in Galileo's command centre. It was his first glimpse of the Bridge, and Kohl wasn't ashamed to be a little bit awed.

Lirha was sitting at her desk when the door chime to her office sounded. Quickly unfolding her legs and tugging on her uniform top, she cleared her throat and looked towards the door to see who her guest might be. "Enter." she called out.

After some delay, the doors parted and Andreus Kohl padded into the ready room. He cast one last look over his shoulder as the doors closed behind him. Kohl approached the desk and his clasped his hands behind his back. "Lieutenant Kohl reporting as ordered, sir," he said. Although he used formal language, there was something casual in his manner of speech.

"Ah yes, please have a seat Mister Kohl." Lirha said with a small smile when she watched the blond-haired medical chief enter the room. "I have been reviewing the data and logs from the Rojar I orbital survey mission in which you participated, and I would like to ask you a few questions." she explained.

There was a twitch, a noticeable knitting of his brows and a flash of consternation, across his expression. He didn't voice it, though, as he lowered himself into the chair. Sitting across from Lirha, Kohl kept his arms at his sides and flattened his palms on his thighs. Somewhere between flippant and naive, Kohl asked, "How about we start at the hardest question and work our way backwards, sir?"

"An interesting approach," Lirha mused, then shook her head, "but first I would like for you to give me your account of what transpired during the shuttlecraft mission. The order of events, any problems encountered, decisions which were made, etc..."

At the Captain's request, Kohl offered a curt nod to show understanding. Blinking occasionally, Kohl's eyes favoured the ceiling as he called to mind the duty he report he had dictated yesterday. Once his thoughts were collected, he responded. "At oh-nine-thirty hours, the Virginia launched from Galileo. As we approached Rojar I, Lieutenant Panne ordered a high orbit of the planet. Panne and I began orbital survey protocols with the sensor package aboard the shuttle. Panne cautioned Warrant Officer Darius about debris in orbit of the planet. Lieutenant Rhodes confirmed our defensive systems would protect the shuttle and Darius confirmed the debris in orbit was minimal," Kohl said. Darius had gone so far as to correct Kohl for calling it a debris field, in passing, but Kohl felt no need to share that with anyone.

"Darius discovered an impact crater on the planet and decided to take the shuttle in closer," Kohl said impassively. "As the shuttle descended, it abruptly lost a thruster an the shuttle was caked in volcanic ash. Something hit the shuttle and it lost another thruster. The EPS conduit behind the flight control console overloaded. Darius presented with burns to his hands, but avoided the respiratory damage that can come from such close explosions. A large shard of polyduranide pierced Rhode's rectus femoris, but I didn't detect it because he wasn't bleeding out. The EPS conduit behind Panne's console blew next. Her uniform took the brunt of the concussive and heat discharge. Still, she presented with multiple lacerations. A personal health condition created additional risk factors for even one laceration. Despite this, Darius managed to land the shuttle.

"I applied burn gel to Lamar's hands and I regenerated the skin overtop the shrapnel that lacerated Panne's skin. When Rhodes' advised me of his injury, I removed the shrapnel and repaired the blood vessels in his leg," Kohl continued. "Lamar led the team in EV suits to repair the thrusters, while I remained behind to monitor their vital signs. As Darius' began exhibiting warning signs of heat stress, I asked him to return to the shuttle. Rhodes assisted Darius in returning to the shuttle and they were able to launch us off that ball of volcanoes."

The captain intently listened to Kohl's version of events while subtly watching his blue eyes and body language. His story pretty much matched what she had gathered from other reports and personal testimony, and she was pleased that there did not appear to be any discrepancies. "Thank you, lieutenant." she said, then leaned forward and rested her forearms on the edge of the desk as she prepared to ask some more questions.

"When the shuttle was preparing to descend closer to the surface, were there any concerns from any of the crew about the debris which eventually caused the thrusters to malfunction?" she asked.

Narrowing his eyes, Kohl stared over Lirha's shoulder as he struggled to remember. At first, his mind drew a blank, and then all he could remember was the horrendous noise the shuttle made as it was plummeting out of the sky. "Before we descended from the upper orbit, sir?" Kohl asked. He began blinking and then he looked towards the Captain. "No," he said with a vague shake of his head, "No one expressed concerns. I was nervous about the flight and they were reassuring me."

"I see." Lirha replied matter-of-factly, then frowned and stroked her green chin in thought. "Well, from what I have gathered from the shuttle's sensor logs, there was substantial volcanic activity on the planet's surface which contributed to the craft's thruster malfunctions by creating a debris field in low orbit. Is this correct?" she asked.

Kohl rubbed the back of his neck and cleared his throat as his eyes went wandering again. "The sensor logs would remember something like that with more clarity than me, sir," Kohl replied, "but, yes, I understand there was volcanic activity on the planet and it lead to debris in low orbit."

"And...this debris was not identified by the members of your team when you began your descent?" Lirha followed up in a somewhat-casual yet professional manner.

Pondering over the precise definition of the word identify, Kohl squinted at Lirha momentarily as he considered his answer. He held his body still, except for tilting his head to the right slightly. "I don't recall what was said, exactly," Kohl said, sounding reluctant to rely anything but truth. "My sensor output showed volcanic debris in lower orbit. I can't speak for the other team members, sir."

Lirha let out an internal sigh which could have been the result of mild frustration. Kohl was apparently having trouble remembering some of the details of what transpired during the mission. She didn't necessarily think that he was being untruthful with her, but it was a tad worrisome that he could not recall exactly what was said by certain people while on duty. Nevertheless, she continued on with her questioning and decided to take a more direct approach in the hopes of jogging his memory. She also wanted to get back to a previous statement of his which had seem a little strange to her.

"Who's decision was it to take the shuttle into low orbit?" she asked.

This time, Kohl only had to think on it a moment, before he replied, "Darius decided to take the shuttle into lower orbit. He suggested it would give Panne better sensor readings of the impact crater."

"Interesting..." Lirha mumbled, then picked up a PADD on her desk and began to enter some notes into it. She was not pleased to hear that the decision to take the shuttle into low orbit was made by a warrant officer, the lowest ranking member of the team. "Lieutenant Panne was the team leader, no? What input did she have in the decision?" she followed up.

Kohl pursed his lips to the left and simply watched Lirha as she took her notes and asked her follow up questions. He studied the intention in her eyes, and he didn't answer right away. "Lieutenant Panne?" Kohl asked, letting the words out gradually. "She approved the decision."

Lirha sat in silence for a few more moments and continued to tap away on her PADD, after which she finally looked up and pushed some of her dark hair back behind her ear. "Tell me a bit more about what happened on the surface of the planet. I understand that Warrant Officer Darius and Lieutenant Rhodes went out to make repairs, and Mister Darius suffered some sort of heat exhaustion?"

"The sensors in Mister Darius' EV suit," Kohl replied, "reported back on increased body temperature, rising pulse and increased respiratory rate. I asked him to return to the shuttle, but his symptoms arose so quickly, he lost consciousness. Rhodes was able to assist him back into the shuttle, where we were about to lower Darius' body temperature."

"That must have been a scary moment." the captain commented. "Did anyone else experience similar symptoms while conducting repairs?" she proceeded to ask.

"No, sir," Kohl said and he shook his head twice. "The cooling systems in the other EV suits protected the rest of the team from the planet's environment. I... don't know if Operations has competed their diagnostics on Darius' extra vehicular suit."

"So far there have been no malfunctions detected." Lirha answered. Operations had not reported a single thing to her regarding a mechanical failure of an EVA suit and therefore she was inclined to believe that there were other factors in play. "It is quite possible that the warrant officer simply over-exerted himself and in combination with the planet's extreme temperatures, overheated. I would also like to ask, for the record, who exactly was doing what while the repair process was taking place?"

"I was monitoring communications, and the vital signs of the away team, aboard the shuttle, sir," replied Kohl. He gave his answer slowly, all the while wondering why the Captain was asking this line of questioning if she had access to all of their duty logs. He went on: "Darius, Panne and Rhodes said they were repairing the engines from the exterior of the shuttle."

Lirha entered some of Kohl's verbal testimony into her PADD and finally set the device down on the table then folded her green hands in her lap. "Yes, they did a good job of repairing the shuttlecraft in time to get everyone safely back to Galileo. I am very grateful that none of you were seriously injured." she said.

"Thank you, sir," Kohl replied. He met her eyes and he sounded gratified, if slightly surprised by the Lirha's sentiment. It wasn't necessarily clear if he was thanking her for her concern or if he was taking credit for the team making it back without serious injury.

"No need to thank me, lieutenant." Lirha replied with a small smirk. "If anything, you should be thanking the diligent members of your team for preventing a bad scenario from getting worse." she added, then paused to let out a soft sigh. "I hope you understand why I called you in here today. I am not attempting to place blame on anyone's shoulders, rather, as captain I am responsible for the lives and well being of every single one of my crew...so when an emergency situation develops in which several people are injured, it is my duty to ask questions and investigate in the hopes of finding ways to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future."

Nodding at Lirha's words, Kohl said, "I do understand, sir." His response was clear-eyed and non-defensive. "In Medical we conduct similar investigations of all crew injuries to understand the contributing factors and recommend means to prevent recurrence of the same situational injury."

"Yes, a bit of investigation often turns up a surprising amount of information." Lirha said, then gave the blue-eyed man an understanding smile while picking up her PADD and placing it in one of her desk's drawers. "Very well, then. I have no further questions for you at the moment, so you are dismissed. Unless there is anything you wish to add for the record?" she offered.

Kohl met Lirha's eyes and he shook his head slowly. "No, thank you, sir," Kohl said. "My duty log probably had my best remembrance of what happened. I hope I was able to help your analysis."

"You were." the captain reassured him with a curt nod. "I will have another look through your log and compare the information with the other data that I have gathered. Thank you for your time, Mister Kohl." she politely added.


[OFF]

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CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

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

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