Smugglers' Paradise? Part I of V
Posted on 22 Jul 2016 @ 8:58pm by Ensign Miraj Derani & Commander Luke Wyatt
2,184 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Episode 11 - Divinum Mundi
Location: Celes IV
Timeline: MD21 1130 Galileo time
ON:
Luke grunted as he placed another supply box onto the top shelf of the shuttle. He and Ensign Derani had been tasked with the mundane task of scanning a nearby local sector due to some highly abnormal readings detected by the Galileo's sensors. Due to its current mission only one shuttle and two crew members could be spared. With his latest bereavement Luke saw the opportunity ample enough to clear his mind and get some rest. "I think we just have one box left and were set for launch, how are pre flights going?" He shouted through to the cockpit of the small USS Marina a Volga class runabout.
Miraj's pink bunches swung around her head as she turned to him. "All done, sir. We’re ready to go when you are. I've already got a course plotted, it’s only a couple of hours out to Celes IV. We should be there for lunch. Or if you want to wait a couple of minutes, we can head round the other side for dinner."
Luke stood up with his hands on his hips and thought. "It’s up to you if you'd like. and please just call me Luke. I was brought from the ranks and never liked being called sir. "So what shall it be?" He asked giving the young officer the option
Miraj made a gesture tipping her hand from one side to the other. "We'll see how we feel when we have got better readings. No point in setting down for tea if we need to be closer to breakfast."
"Sounds like an ideal plan for me" He said already making his way out of the hatch to pick up the last emergency supply box. Swiftly putting it into the right place and closing the hatch he settled down next to Miraj and activated his console. "We have already been given clearance to depart, take us out Ensign"
________________________________________
The trip across was smooth sailing, a barefooted Miraj taking it on manual helm all the way, but only really to get to know Marina, who handled with a stately gracefulness that almost effortless, like a swan or an orca. She didn't really pay that much attention to the helm itself, knowing the sensors would give off an alarm if something came up, and just flew by sensation of the ship
After three hours, Celes IV moved into physical view, and outside the layers of transparent aluminium that made up the main window. It looked much like any other M class planet, with oceans and land masses with cloud draped here and there.
Miraj straightened up at the helm, and began preparations to land. "Can you get a better origin for those readings sir? I'd rather not pick an LZ at random."
Scanning the display to his console his hands flew across the screens bringing up and removing information, sorting it into priority and usefulness. "I can't get an exact location but I've pin pointed the source 17 klicks from this location. Its surrounded by forestation and has a large water entity to its North and mountains to its east. The west is mostly run off between the Water and the mountain but the Southern approach seems the easiest navigable." Standing up he reached towards her console.
"May I?" he asked.
"Of course sir," she pushed back from the console, and let him put his hands on her helm.
Luke quickly typed in the co-ordinates within the 100m's of a clearance in the forest where the shuttle would be hidden and the approach on foot would be only a short hike "It's only a couple of hours slow walk and it looks all pretty flat we should be ok with just the basic equipment anything else we can always return to the shuttle." Luke explained returning to his seat.
"A couple of hours?" she repeated a little disheartened. The sensor readouts on the operations screen still had a vexing number of 'unknown's sitting next to the various headings. All they really had was a heat source. Its source, fuel, purpose, composition, natural or created, was coming back obscured for whatever reason. She knew the sensible thing would be to approach cautiously on foot but she had hoped that they'd be closer than that. Or even beam down, rather than take a two-hour stroll through tropical woodland. However, the lieutenant was in charge.
Her fingertips brushed across the helm, gentle strokes more than anything else, and Marina began to sink down through atmosphere, re-orientating along her length so when the shuttle touched down, with all the force of a baby's kiss, she was sitting on the top of a small bluff with nose pointing at the sea. The late afternoon sun was bouncing off the waves; the tree line was a scant twenty yards behind them, and when she opened the doors the air was full of tropical scents from the bright flowers that grew all around from long stems, or hanging from vines wrapped around the long fronded trees. She shut the engine down and put the ship into standby mode.
Springing into action Luke closed down his console and moved to where the phasers and field packs were situated "The weather looks warm so take some extra water, it’s up to you if you take a phaser but I’m going to take one just in case there is any indigenous life forms out there that want us for dinner." He filled his pack and slung it over his back "Oh and take some food, we'll take a break about halfway and eat lunch, I’d rather eat it in somewhere scenic than surrounded by bulkheads if that's ok?" He asked.
"Shh!" she reprimanded him, and then rubbed one of the said bulkheads soothingly. "You've got beautiful bulkheads," she told the ship, and then gave the former marine a reproachful look. "She's sensitive."
Luke stunned looked between her and the area she had caressed and smiled after his shock subsided "I didn't mean to offend you" he mimicked her motion and stroked the ships interior shaking his head.
Miraj laughed, and added extra water and some ration bars to her pack before pulling it on. She grabbed a type-1 phaser and set it to light stun. She didn't trust her barely adequate aim with anything stronger. She'd have to hope that if something did jump out and try and eat her the light setting would slow it down long enough for her to switch up a level to finish the job. "Ready to go, sir."
Lowering the ramp Luke nodded and gestured for to follow. The first thing he noticed was that under the canopy the forest itself was easily negotiable and the sun wasn't burning hot but instead warmed his skin gently. There was a soft sea breeze that came from the north and the sound of gulls flying over carried in the wind. Whipping out his tricorder with the pre-loaded data he held it out in front of him north facing. "We should make good time, the ground and weather conditions are better than I thought, are you read?" He asked turning to look at the young woman.
She nodded. Miraj had already began to catalogue landmarks and other orientation markers without even thinking about it. Navigating was such a close part of flying she did it as naturally as breathing.
They set off through the trees, making good time as they headed inland, up a gentle incline that required only the occasional clamber over the odd fallen tree. The air was filled with light bird song and fat insects of some description buzzed around them with no great hurry
"So why are we starting a colony on a rock that’s only habitable nine months out of twelve, when we could be here?" Miraj asked Luke as they broke into a small clearing, filled with lush ferns and long grass that gave them a good view down to the coast and the sparkling azure waters, and the crystal clear sky.
He shrugged "Honestly I've stopped asking questions like that for years. Why here not here? Why this not that? I think sometimes Starfleet likes to give itself obstacles so that they can turn around and say they did this and that but honestly? Maybe there’s something going on that we done know about, another thing I’ve gotten used to" Luke replied honestly. "What do you think we'll find here Ensign?" He asked climbing over a fallen tree and offering a hand to the young woman.
She got a grip on his arm and scrambled up, and then over, sliding down somewhat awkwardly. "Could be anything. Geothermal spring. Maybe an old crash site. Get enough greenery growing over a carcass you can pick up the power cells and not tell what they are. Dad's found plenty of emergency generators that way." She straightened her pack, "When I was 12 we once found a live, armed, unexploded photon torpedo. Dad ordered an emergency beam out so fast I had nightmares for a week that I hadn't been reassembled right."
Luke chuckled gently "I can Imagine, so your father, what does he do?" He asked as they continued the trek trying to keep the conversation light and enjoyable.
"He's in salvage. Rescues dead ships and brings them home. He specialises in things that are normally too dangerous for a regular Starfleet crew to tow home. Things in dangerous places or things that need breaking up in situ. Most Fleet ships aren't equipped or staffed for Salvage and recovery ops, so they get contracted out. He raised me and my brother on space hulks and derelicts. It was kind of cool."
They trekked on another couple of kilometres the forest calm and showing no sign of anything unto wards, until Luke pushed aside a large fern that was blocking their path. And revealed a road.
Luke stepped out onto the road and looked left and right, confused he turned to Miraj "There's no reported life on this planet" He stated before continuing "Why is there a road here"
She stared at it, just as confused as he was. It wasn't much of a road, a dirt track, rutted and pitted. But it was a good couple of meters wide and clear of flora and far too regular to be a trail of even the biggest animal she could imagine. "Roads normally go from A to B. Follow it?"
Luke looked up and down the road checking for any immediate signs of danger before looking at his tricorder. "It'll cut off a lot of time than hiking through the trees and it almost goes in the direction we're heading anyway" he said stepping out onto the road the sun hitting him and warming his body. "I am however a bit concerned as to why and how it got here" Luke added now starting off down the road heading North/west however up ahead you could see it bent so that it travelled North.
They'd gone about hundred and fifty meters when they came across a metal rail about half a meter wide, and maybe five millimetres thick, driven into the road bed and travelling along it. Miraj squatted next to it, a frown drawing the flares of her brow ridges together. "That’s a thermal diffuser. You use them to draw heat off a structure quickly. It’s just highly conductive metal, but it spreads the heat around so it dissipates quicker."
"And can hide something from thermal scan" Luke stated moving up next to her and inspecting the structure "But there's nothing here so we should carry on but let’s stay alert" Standing up Luke touched the bump where his phaser was making sure it was indeed still there. The situation was getting stranger and more complicated as they moved closer to the source.
They followed the rail for another hundred meters, and they came across another structure. It was heavily camouflaged by nettings and more heat diffusers radiated off it in all directions, obscuring the shape, but Miraj knew a landing pad when she saw it.
It was basically just a flattened space that had been covered with enough concrete to make a shape for a couple of runabouts or even a smaller capital ship, and topped with heat diffusing material as well. The camouflaging had been neatly organised so that it was both indistinguishable from the canopy around it, and easy to pop up and down.
"Well," Miraj said after staring at it for a moment. "That's definitely manufactured."
Luke was about to say something when there was sudden burst of movement from all around them. "What the...?" He managed to say before they were surrounded by a mismatch of people wearing a variety of clothes from Military to Civilian but all held some kind of weapon which they pointed towards the two officers.
To Be Continued...
Ensign Miraj Derani
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo
LT Luke Wyatt
Strategic Operations Officer
USS Galileo
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