SET 026 - C/2389 A1 Comet Survey (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 24 Jul 2013 @ 7:43pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Lieutenant Theron Rhodes & Nesh Saalm

4,700 words; about a 24 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: C/2389 A1 - Shuttlecraft Livia
Timeline: MD 11 - 1245 hrs

[ON]

Lirha had arrived in Galileo's main shuttlebay a bit earlier than expected. To date, this was her first official away mission that she had had the time and privilege of participating in, and Nesh's expected presence made it even all-the-more exciting. Comets were rare finds within solar systems, and the honor of exploring and naming them traditionally fell to the discovering ship's captain - meaning Lirha would be hard pressed to pass up such a fun opportunity...the first in her career as a Starfleet captain.

With her expedition kit slung over her shoulder and her utility belt fastened tightly around her waist, she calmly yet impatiently paced around Livia's small silver hull while waiting for her sister and the rest of the survey team to arrive.

Lt. Rhodes arrived at the shuttle Livia. To him it was just another survey. He could not remember how many he had been on since arriving in the Rojar system. However, Theron was quite startled when he looked up and saw the Captain. "Captain? Will you be leading this mission?" Theron felt quite the fool. He should have reviewed the scheduled survey team members. Things had just become to routine.

The Orion captain spotted her security chief and smiled up at the tall young man. "Yes, I am." she answered with a somewhat satisfied tone. "I have been stuck on Galileo long enough over the past week and a half, and I am anxious to finally do some exploring of my own. My sister will also be joining us...I trust you will keep us all out of harm's way?" she teased.

"Not to worry, Ma'am." Rhodes said politely with a nod.

Maenad walked into the shuttlebay looking angry and exhausted, probably because she was. The past twenty-four hours had been a day she would have liked to have never happened. She saw Rhodes and the captain talking next to the shuttle she supposed was theirs, and joined them. "Hello," she said.

Theron turned, "Good morning Doctor."

Dea wasn't far behind Maenad. Nodding to the others she made her way to the normal preflight walk around. Since the Captain happened to be on this mission Mialin would leave the decision to her superior on whether Saalm wanted to pilot or not. "Morning everyone."

Taking notice of the newest arrival, Lirha glanced up at Maenad who didn't look very pleased to be in the shuttlebay. At first glance she appeared fatigued and upset, but Lirha had no idea why and was not about to ask. The science chief was a terribly difficult person for her to understand and Lirha didn't particularly want any negative mindsets to take the joy out of her one and only survey mission in the past ten days. "Hello, lieutenant." she replied with a small smile. "Nesh should be joining us any moment now and I hope you can assist her during her first away mission. She has completed basic EVA training, but she is still sometimes a bit...ambitious." she informed both Rhodes and Panne with a grin.

"Yes," Maenad agreed, "she certainly is." She wasn't smiling, but she wasn't frowning, either. If anything, Maenad was distracted by her own thoughts. She fidgeted with her fingers by her sides, then, trying to brighten her morning, she asked, "How are you guys?"

Almost as if on cue, Nesh Saalm plodded through the door of the shuttlebay. She was, although no one could really be surprised, already dressed up in her EVA suit and ready to go. She gave them all a wave and a grin from under her helmet. "Morning!"

Theron did everything he could do to not laugh. The over zealousness of Nesh was hilarious. Somehow he kept a straight face.

Lirha heard the familiar thumping of heavy boots and turned to watch as Nesh arrived in a rather splendid manner. She couldn't help but let out a soft laugh and shake her head at her sister's lovable naivety. "Good morning." she replied with a big smile, then un-slung her kit from her shoulder and knelt down to open it on the ground. She quickly procured a holocamera then stood up, not wanting to pass up the opportunity for some candid pictures. "You are too adorable...I need to take pictures. We can send them to mom once we are finished with the survey." she said, then proceeded to snap a few stills of Nesh in all her glory. "Smile!"

Nesh gave a padded two thumbs up, striking a pose as if she were some sort of glamour model, although this was hard to do inside an EVA suit, she somehow managed to pull it off.

Maenad watched with an expression as dry as uncooked rice. Really? she asked herself. She rolled her eyes when no one was looking, then crossed her arms over her chest. "Shall we get on the shuttle?" she asked them once the family photos had finished.

After Lirha had finished taking a dozen or so pictures, she looked over at Maenad and nodded, then placed the camera back in her kit and picked it up. "Yes, I am ready to depart now." she answered, still with a small smile spread across her gold lips.

Nesh popped up beside them both and used her hands and feet to crawl into the shuttle once the door opened. "This is going to be awesome," the teenager grinned to herself.

The captain moved around to the back of the shuttle where she opened the rear hatch. Helping her sister climb up and in then climbing in herself, she moved towards the cockpit where she stowed her items and took a seat in the pilot's chair.

Rhodes usually insisted on taking the co-pilot seat with the tactical controls, but with so little difficulty on previous surveys and the Captain being present, he selected one of the other seats with a console. He was able to reconfigure the panel to display the things he would need to monitor.

Maenad sat at the console across from Rhodes and crossed her legs looking nonplussed and bored. The computers seemed to be working fine, she saw, but that was to be expected. Why wouldn't they be working fine? She ran her tongue over her teeth behind her lips, wondering how long this was going to take.

Dea was ready in the co-pilot's seat. Turning her attention to Lirha, "Livia is ready for departure Captain." Given the extra busy flight schedule lately she welcomed the chance to co-pilot for a change.

Theron turned in his chair to observe Maenad. He found her appearance quite attractive today. There were too many issues with saying something to her about something like that in public. And he believed she had other relationships. So, a complement may not be in order. He faced out the front viewport.

At the corner of her eye, Maenad saw Rhodes looking at her. She thought he might have wanted something, so she turned to face him. He said nothing, though, and she gave him a soft smile, then went back to staring at her console. She straightened her bangs on one side with her fingers, suddenly feeling a little more uplifted. All it took sometimes was a minor politeness from somebody from whom she wouldn't normally expect it. In this case, it was Mister Rhodes.

With everyone properly situated in their seats and with the pre-flight sequence complete, Lirha engaged the shuttle's maneuvering thrusters which delicately lifted the craft off of the landing pad where it hovered for a brief moment. It had been a while since the captain had been behind behind the helm of a shuttle but her advanced command training meant it was a skill she would probably never forget.

Livia slowly moved forward and passed through the shuttlebay's outer force field and into space. Tapping her green fingers against the helm controls, Lirha initiated a slow curl around Galileo's nacelles until they were finally clear of the mother ship. "Course set at one-eight-one mark zero-five." she informed the group while looking at her navigational display. "We should intersect the comet in roughly ten minutes." It was fortunate that the long-period comet was currently within the solar system's cold zone and not beyond the perimeter, or else the trip would take substantially longer in order to safely navigate the in-system satellites and celestial debris currently present.

"Course looks good Ma'am," Dea commented to let Lirha know they had a clear flight vector ahead of them.

About ten minutes later (almost on cue), the blue/white-tailed comet had come into visual range in all of its glory. Surrounded by a large hazy cloud of reflective ice and rock composite, the satellite sparkled brilliantly against the dark backdrop of space.

The sight of the comet was one that awed Dea. As usual there was something mysterious and powerfully graceful about an object like that. She kept a close eye on the data coming across her console. Ready to react if needed.

Theron had never been this close to a comet before. It reminded him of the stories told of the Mighty Fist of Faxtor. It was a comet in the Tandaran system that came around their sun every 300 standard years or so. At the very impressionable age of 8, his grandfather had taken him out that night when it would be at its closes point to watch from Tandar Prime. His grandfather told him of stories of old that were written hundreds of cycles before about the Mighty Fist of Faxtor. Nursery rhymes were written about being good or Faxtor would visit them in the night.

Theron looked up from his memory out the view port again. "Quite fascinating." was all he could get out.

Maenad glanced at Rhodes with a subtly agreeing grin. "It's quite slow for a comet," she announced. "It's only moving at about nine kilometres a second." By comparison, planets orbited in the tens of thousands of kilometres per second. "And it's quite large, measuring five hundred forty-three kilometres in diameter." She raised her eyes to look out the window at its brilliant blue and white tail. "Its primary composition is frozen water, ammonia, and methane." She watched the comment for another few seconds. "It's wonderful," she said.

Rhodes thought, What a powerful weapon if it could be control. How ghastly that would be.

Like her companions, Lirha also gazed at the comet for a brief moment, then turned towards her co-pilot in preparation to move closer. "Is there a suitable landing site for the shuttle?" she asked Dea.

"I advise against it, captain," Maenad protested from her station. "Comets are highly unstable and surface materials are constantly breaking off." Hence, the glowing tail of debris that followed them. A comet with a diameter of only five hundred kilometres lacked a gravitational field strong enough to hold a shuttlecraft and its occupants on the surface. "I think it's too dangerous."

"Searching now," Dea replied. Pulling up a map she sent the data to Lirha's station. "There's a plateau a few meters up ahead to our starboard side. Its the best location I can find that meets our criteria."

"I think that will have to suffice." Lirha answered, happy that they would actually be able to touch down on the surface and take a quick space walk to stretch their legs. "I am setting course for the plateau. Mister Rhodes, please bring our deflectors to full power and arm forward phasers. If you spot any tail debris large enough to pose a threat to the shuttle, you may fire at will."

"Aye Sir." Rhodes replied as he transferred defensive and offensive weapons to the console he was sitting. There really was no need to be able to look out the view port. After just a few seconds, the tactical officer reported, "Shields are up and phasers are on narrow band."

Lirha slowed the shuttle to one-quarter impulse then headed straight into the comet's cloudy tail. Working in tandem with Dea, the two pilots slowly made their way through various pockets of light and dense debris while maneuvering accordingly to avoid some of the larger, more problematic chunks.

When the sensors indicated an piece of the comet would damage the shield more than the set parameters, targeting brought up piece for the phasers. Rhodes confirmed the situation quickly for each and fired phasers; once, twice, three times. Each time the larger mass was vaporized into smaller particles the shields could deal with easily.

Keeping a close eye on her navigation console while continuing to perform evasive maneuvers when necessary, the captain brought the small Type-9 shuttle through the last of the debris pockets until the designated landing zone was finally visible. "I am switching to thrusters and taking us down. Brace yourselves." Lirha called out over her shoulder.

Theron checked power levels on the shields. 92% is satisfactory, he thought.

Dea bracked herself against the console while still keeping a close eye on their descent. "Roger that."

[OFF]

--

The captain cut power to Livia's impulse engines and began the landing sequence with only RCS thrusters, a much more preferable choice which would allow more fine and detailed control of the shuttle. Ever so slowly, the shuttle moved closer and closer to the comet until it finally touched down with a soft thud on the icy satellite's surface.

Theron took in a deep breath. He felt very overwhelmed at that moment. Just the idea that he was actually sitting on a comet, was extremely hard for him to believe. What a story he could tell in future cycles.

Nesh's eyes widened and she pressed her hands to the porthole, as if she could touch it. She bit her lip, worrying the stud on her lower lip before laughing. "That was an amazing landing! Next time, can I try? Please?" she turned her head quickly, looking around, her eyes shining now with energy and hope.

The Tandaran glanced over his shoulder at Nesh; a naive young lady, yet inspiring. Looking back and confirming their status, "Captain, shields are maintaining at 90%. With our current forward location on the comet," he turned to face the Captain's direction, "We should not have any debrey coming our way, unless the situation changes."

Lirha looked back at her little sister with a grin, then over towards the chief security officer. "Very good. I am hoping this plateau will be sturdy enough for us to explore for an hour or so." she replied. "Are you both ready to go for an EVA walk?" she asked. Nesh certain was, especially considering she had already been suited up since she boarded the shuttle.

"Sir." Rhodes began, "I would feel much better being able to monitor the situation from inside." He looked to Nesh, who seemed oblivious of his concern, and back. "Just in case."

"If you like." the captain replied with a slight shrug. Walking on comets was a rare opportunity not usually afforded to most in Starfleet outside of the holodeck; but if her CSTO felt more comfortable and able to perform his duties from inside the craft, then wasn't about to argue.

Theron felt he saw a little disappointment in the Captain's eyes. There must have been much more that he was thinking, beyond his three words. He took a slow breath. He thought, Yes. This would be a once in a lifetime opportunity, but I truly would not be at my best keeping them safe while at this location.

Turning towards Lieutenant Mialin, Lirha extended an invitation to her. "With Lieutenant Rhodes staying on board the shuttle, would you like to join us outside?" she asked the red-collared Trill.

Unable to hide the smile that appeared, "Absolutely Captain, I"d love to join you. I may be a pilot but I still enjoy a chance to do a physical EVA. Besides seeing a comet first hand is exciting."

"Excellent." Lirha happily answered, then swiftly rose from her seat and headed towards the back of the shuttle to procure an EVA suit. It took a few moments for her to put it on, after which she placed her helmet over her head and delicately fitted it into the air-tight seals of her collar with a soft hissing sound.

Theron looked at Mialin and smiled and gave her a nod of approval. He was pleased that Dea would get this opportunity. He moved up to the co-pilot console to monitor the EVA.

Dea headed to the back of the shuttle with Lirha. Pulling out an EVA suit she put it on. Going through the process carefully as she'd been trained. The helmet was the last piece to go on, after that Dea sealed it then checked all her suits systems.

"Comm check." the captain said, wanting to test the communications channels between all of the suits as well as the shuttle.

Nesh smiled as she moved closer to her sister, her eyes shining as she tapped her helmet, knowing it was sealed. "Test one, two three!" she said loudly and winked, looking around almost impatiently. This got to be one of the most exciting things she had done in like: her whole life. Or at least forever. Or at least a few weeks...anyway, it didn't matter, she was just so psyched to be here.

"Comm signal from all EVA personnel clear and strong." Rhodes confirmed. He smiled to himself at the joyful noises Nesh made from time to time; very young, very curious, very naive. He did not think of it as negative. The security officer knew for several reasons that her safety was of the highest order on this mission.

"Comm signal coming through clear Captain," Dea responded joining the rest of the away team members.

With all communication systems functioning properly and all EVA members suited up, Lirha quickly remembered three final items of importance and wandered over to the nearby cabinet to retrieve them. Opening the compartment, she retrieved a Federation flag, a tether, and her camera, then moved back to the aft airlock with Dea and her sister.

The captain stuffed the camera and flag in her utility pouches, then attached one end of the tether to her belt clip and the other end to Nesh's belt clip. "Just a safety precaution...in case you get too excited and jump too high." she teasingly said to her sister. The last thing she wanted to have to explain to their mother was how she somehow let Nesh float away into space on her first away mission.

"Hey..." Nesh almost pouted, reaching to tug it before smiling. "Oh! But that means I can actually float and you can pull me? Wouldn't that just be awesome?" she met her sister's eyes through the helmet, reaching for her own camera, so she could take some 3D snaps.

"Don't even think about." Lirha replied with a narrowed gaze in her best sisterly-scolding voice. "Remember your training - every action has an equal and opposite reaction...even in reduced gravity." she reminded her, then turned around and tapped the unlock sequence into the aft hatch's keypad. A loud hiss sounded as the pressure changed in the aft cabin, and then the door slowly opened outwards and down until they were all presented with a beautiful view of the comet's icy and dusty turquoise surface.

The captain's heart fluttered for a brief moment when she realized she was about to make history by being the first woman and Starfleet officer to step foot on the comet, and she took a long first step as she slowly bounded down the ramp and finally landed her boots firmly on the surface of the rock with a small puff of dust. "One small step for an Orion...one giant leap for the Federation." she said with a huge grin, imitating Earth's first lunar explorers.

Dea followed after the Captain keeping a close eye on her two shipmates. It wasn't often she found herself at a lack of words to describe how she felt but this happened to be one of those times. Never in her wildest dreams had Dea figured she'd be standing on the surface of a comet. For purposes of journaling the experiences Dea had been carrying a small video camera with her on all her sorties off Galileo she had that in her hand now to get footage of the group standing on the comet's surface.

Will all three personnel on EVA, now on the surface of the comet, Theron stayed very focused on the instrument display with their medical readings on the left and all scanning telemetry on the right. The video feed from Dea, he had on a small area in the center. He nodded and smiled at their courageousness, yet did not feel any regrets for not going himself. He peered out the side viewport, but could not seem them yet. They were still behind the vessel.

With Nesh and Dea in tow, Lirha began to slowly walk (bounce) her way across the comet's surface until she came across a suitable piece of flat ground several meters ahead. She stopped and dropped to a knee as she tested the composition of the rocky surface, then satisfied, retrieved a plasma torch from her belt's toolkit and cut a shallow hole into the ground. Her other gloved hand reached into her utility pouch and she pulled out the Federation flag which she had brought along, then tapped a small button on the top of the compressed support beam and watched it unfold into a very large flag pole while spreading out the Starfleet emblem for all to see.

"Would you like to do the honors?" the captain asked Dea while offering her the flag, wondering if she wanted to ceremoniously plant it into the hole she had just drilled into the ground.

Dea nodded as she accepted the flag from Lirha. Carefully planting the flag in the hole, "Let this flag stand as a permanent reminder of the first living beings to set foot on this comet. We honor Starfleet, the United Federation of Planets, and all space explorers who have come before us."

Nesh smiled warmly as she looked around, her eyes shining. "We're like the coolest group of geeks ever right now," she said playfully. "Let the crew of Galileo tremble at the awesomeness that is us, riding this thing like no one's business!" she stopped and then grimaced slightly. "Okay. Came out really wrong there..." she looked at Dea holding the flag, taking a shaky breath. And this somehow made it really real and serious.

A serene moment washed over Lirha while she stared at the newly-planted Federation icon. With the stars completely exposed and twinkling overhead in the near distance, she was once again reminded of the reasons why she had joined Starfleet - for incredible experiences such as this very one. Letting out a soft and content sigh, the captain retrieved her camera from its pouch and motioned for Nesh and Lirha to stand next to the flag. "I would like to take a few holopics."

Nesh smiled as she moved to the flag, waving her hand slowly. "Yes! Loads of them...look how cool we are?" she looked over at Dea, giving her a wave as well.

Dea turned to face in Lirha's direction as she nodded to Nesh, "Yes we need to document this moment."

With Nesh and Dea now posing in front of the symbolic Federation flag, Lirha began to snap multiple holopics, moving from side to side and getting pictures of the two from various angles. She couldn't wait to send the snapshots home to their mother, Aila, to finally be able to show her how much Nesh had grown up in a matter of weeks...and also to show her that she (Lirha) was indeed a responsible older sister despite the arguments to the contrary which the two seemed to occasionally engage in.

After a few long moments, Lirha pulled a portable stand from her belt pouch and attached it to the holocamera, then set the timer on automatic cycle. She hurried - with several long, bouncy strides - over to the flag and stood in between her two crew members, then smiled through her helmet while the camera began to automatically take more pictures of the three of them. "I hereby declare this comet: Saalm/2389!" she said with a mischievous grin. It was every captain's secret dream to name an undiscovered comet after themselves, and Lirha wasn't about to pass up such a historic opportunity.

From the shuttle, Rhodes listened to the Captain's declaration and found it appropriate. Theron made a note in the log; time and place for the record, which included the galactic coordinates and trajectory of the comet. It may never be looked at again, but data of an event is not good, unless it is accurate.

Dea continued to smile, "I fully agree with you Captain and will back you up on that if the Federation Astronomical Union or anyone else need more proof."

Lirha smiled through her helmet at Dea and wiggled the camera in her hand for everyone to see. "With four eye-witnesses and video evidence, I hope no one will dispute our claim." she teasingly replied.

"I hope so too," Dea replied with a giddy tone in her voice that could be heard even through the comm system.

Nesh smiled as she nodded, her eyes shining. "Come on, let's take loads more vids and then do something wild!"

"Umm..." Lirha mumbled into the comm, not exactly thrilled with the prospect of Nesh getting 'wild' on the comet's surface. She absentmindedly checked the tether attached to her belt just in case her sister decided to get rambunctious. "How about we take vids and go exploring for a few hours?" she proposed instead. That was sort of wild. Wasn't isn't?

Nesh was sort of glad no one was watching her face because she almost rolled her eyes. But she understood on some level that her sister was in charge and had to be all adult. "Can I do weird poses?" she suddenly cut in. "Because that would be fun!"

Lirha chewed on the side of her lip. "I suppose...as long as you do not hurt yourself or tear your suit. We are in the vacuum of space, after all..." she reminded the younger Orion in a protective and sisterly manner.

"I promise, I won't get my suit torn and die horribly with my blood boiling and..." Nesh stopped herself before she got too graphic. "I'll be careful," she amended with a cheeky smile.

Dea didn't say a word while the two exchanged words. Spacewalks could be very risky so she wanted to keep her attention focused on the task at hand.

Lt. Rhodes continued monitor the EVA. He found that antics of the young Nesh to be quite normal of a youngling of her age, but he was worried. He thought to himself, This is not the place for such antics. I hope the Captain keeps a close eye. At the same time, he knew that he would be held responsible if anything came their way to hurt them. Even with the tether, he felt much better after putting a transporter lock on each of them.

"Very well. Shall we, then?" Lirha proposed to the team with a come-hither wave of her hand to both Dea and Nesh. "Lieutenant Rhodes, we are proceeding our on the comet to explore for an hour or so. We will keep you informed of any findings." she explained over the comm, then began to bounce across the icy surface on her way to discover any mysteries or space treasures which lay ahead.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Nesh Saalm
Scientist's Mate
USS Galileo

Lt Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Theron Rhodes
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

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