A science’s field day out

Posted on 03 Jul 2021 @ 8:28am by Lieutenant Commander Arjin Djinx & Ensign Denyse Alessandro & Master Warrant Officer Karyna Fordyce & Story Teller

2,211 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Extinction
Location: Alien Planet
Timeline: Mission Day 21 at 1530

Arjin followed the Captain’s suggestion and started to gather an away team of science officers to go check out the extinct civilization on the planet’s surface.

=^=Ensign Alessandro, Master Fordyce, Lieutenant Ryler. Would you care for an investigative visit to the planet’s surface? Join me in shuttlebay in fifteen minutes. =^=, he said tapping his combadge.
With a large grin he went on his way to the bay, tricorder, archeologists tools and phaser all packed and ready.

Denyse showed up a few minutes later with a tricorder in her hand and her monocular device over her right eye. "You wanted to see me, Chief?"

“Yes Ensign. We are encouraged to visit the surface and try to make sense of what happened and catalogue the wildlife.” He motioned towards their shuttle. “I took the liberty of reserving us a shuttle.”

Denyse gave a smile. "I'd be happy to join the team, Sir," she said brightly, pleased to be on her first away team mission.

Slowly entering the shuttlebay, the pink-haired astrometrics officer took a deep breath before approaching the others. Karyna remained silent, more than a little hopeful that no one would notice her.

Roosje was happy she could take a part of transporting an away team to the surface. A little bit of fresh air never hunted anyone.
She was told it would be a Science crew, but not who it would be. So she was impressed to see the Chief Sience Officer was part of them.
She nodded towards the Master Warrant Officer with the pink hair. “Welcome aboard our shuttle.”

"Commander," Fordyce started, "is this mandatory? I have things I'd rather tend to here."

Looking towards the Chief, Arjin replied:”No it is not mandatory. I can not order you to go and we all have things to tend here, but come on who can resist a day’s out on a new planet. See in the real the things you are always mapping.”

Maybe he doesn't know what astrometrics actually does, Fordyce thought to herself. She didn't like leaving the ship. Too much uncertainty. Too dangerous. A team of scientists was going to be easy picking for the inevitable horrible alien creatures that they'd find. That was how these sort of things always went, in her experience.

She then nodded towards the rest of the assembled crew. “Is everyone here,Sir?”, she asked with a broad smile.

Arjin watched as the Redheaded pilot approached. “Not yet Chief. We are awaiting a few more people.”

Roosje nodded. “I will start the pre flight sequence.”, she added and entered the shuttle.

Petty Officer Viggo van der Meer, a planetary sciences assistant, arrived in the shuttlebay and joined the team on the shuttle. He was equipped with a tricorder, sample collection kit, and a phaser. He nodded to his fellow science team members and took a seat in the back.

"I'm good," Denyse said as she took a seat.

After everyone was present, Arjin also entered the shuttle and strapped himself. “Let’s go.”, he nodded towards the pilot.

After everyone was aboard, Roosje shut the door and with a clear voice, she said. “Departure for the planet is ready. Please strap in because the entrance of the planet’s stratosphere is going to be a bit rough.”

Denyse settled down and strapped herself in and waited for the fun to being.

With a few more taps on the display, the shuttle began its assent before slowly sliding out of the belly of the Hawk and going into a decent towards the half obscured planet below.

Once they reached the Stratosphere the shuttle began to shake and rattle. It took all of Roosje’s skills to keep the shuttle straight and make it as comfortable as possible for its occupants.

Denyse grabbed her armrest for a minute when the shuttle went through the turbulence and then forced herself to breathe.

Holding on to his seat, the Commander bobbed from left to right when they entered the turbulence zone surrounding the planet.

Petty Officer van der Meer held on tight as the shuttle rocked. The turbulence didn't worry him. In fact, he was more worried about falling and breaking the items in his sample

Communicating with the crew already on the ground, Roosje put the Shuttle down in a town square that was specially prepared for this by the Hawk’s crew. “Thank you for flying with Starfleet, Ladies and gentlemen,.”, she said with a grin. “Have a nice field trip.” With a swipe of her hand she opened the shuttle doors giving everyone a first glimpse and smell of the newly discovered planet.

Denyse got out and the first thing she noticed was all the overgrown flora. Everything had a layer of plants over it, coming up through cracks, creating new cracks in structures, and generally reclaiming the planet for its own. "It looks like....Genesis."

Arjin stepped out after thanking their pilot. He inhaled deeply to get a sent of how the air smelled on this new planet. The Ensign was right the lush vegetation that covered most buildings looked like Genesis. Except that there would not have been buildings then. He got to one knee and took sole of the earth in his hand. Letting it slip through his fingers brought him back to Trill and the time spent with his aunt and uncle.

“Where would you like to start?”, he asked to Ensign Alessandro.

"Let's just pick a city center and head in to see what comes screaming out at us," Denyse suggested.

Remaining silent, Karyna's eyes were constantly scanning the horizon so she could spot the predators she knew would be bearing down on them at any moment.

“Well I guess whenever in doubt, the south is as good as any direction.”, he answered pointing towards a more broader street that lead towards some large structures which were only half overgrown. Without waiting any further, he sent on his way; using the tricorder to detect any lifesigns.

Denyse activated her own tricorder and headed out behind him. "Is there anything in particular you hope to find, Commander?"

“Not really. I hope we can get an insight on who these people were and what happened to them. But Personally I am also interested in any art we can encounter. In any form it can be. Life is so much more pleasant with them around in your life.”

"You're right," Denyse said as she scanned in a circle around them. "I'm picking up a large concentration of buildings due east, Sir."

Arjin turned towards the indicated direction. “Let’s head over them. But be prudent,” Taking point, he started his way over.

She checked her readings again, then headed beside the Chief. "I'm not picking up anything out here other than us, Sir."

“Good,.”

It took them a while navigating though a large street that was overgrown, before they reached an oval square surrounded by very intricately decorated, six stories high buildings. The ground floor was covered by plant life. But the other floors seemed pretty clear.

"Do we split up or do we go in together and check one by one?" Denyse asked.

“Let us stay together for now. The building closest?”, he asked. Pointing towards an intricately sculpted building.

"Sure," the Xenoarachanologist said as she double checked her tricorder and then took a reading on the surroundings. "Everything looks non lethal, so let's go." With that, she headed towards the building the Chief had pointed out.

The closer they came, the denser the undergrowth became. The once probably carefully gardened parks had long since claimed more space. Carefully threading on some of the greenery and burning back some others eventually led them to reach the front steps of the building. It struck Arjin that although there were many sculptured ornament, none were actual representations of persons or animals. He pointed as much out to the others.

Denyse had been studying her tricorder while they walked and she looked up when they reached the building. "This looks like some sort of art museum," she said.

“Maybe. Any movement inside?”

Viggo had his tricorder active and its range set for as far as the atmospheric interference would allow. "The only lifesigns I'm detecting are us. But, if that is a museum, then it would have a few different clean and climate controlled rooms inside. It's possible some of the locals may have used those for shelter."

“Let’s proceed then. We’ll try the main doors. If we find locals in shelter, I suspect they will not be alive any more. But keep caution.” Arjin took point and slowly climbed the steps till they reached the big sculpted wooden doors.”

Denyse came behind Djinx and studied her tricorder. "I'm not picking up anything, either."

Viggo followed the science chief up the stairs and into the building. "The atmospheric interference has diminished, at least inside the structure," he remarked, looking up from the tricorder. As he did, his eyes spotted what appeared to be a map. He approached it and tried to rub some of the grime and dust off of the laminated image. "See anything interesting?" he asked the group.

Denyse went to a complex looking device that seemed to be a square set of planets with six faces and six worlds, with a red square in the center. "I didn't get the mission brief, but how many planets are in this system, Sir?"

"Eleven or twelve I believe," Viggo offered, even though he was not the one whom she was talking to.

"Then this must be something else they used as a representation of...something? Did they have warp tech?" Denyse asked.

Viggo couldn't answer the question as he didn't really know. "Look at this," he muttered, examining the different faces. "If you look closely, there's two different sets. Not quite male and female, possibly a third gender? Plus, it seems like one set appears to be an evolved form of the other. Almost like humanity and the neanderthals."

Denyse came over to look at what Viggo was talking about. "Could be be looking at the evolution of their planet? There is certain similarities in their faces. I couldn't guess at the other without a specimen and that's more the Chief Medical Officer's field than mine. What else do we have here?"

“Eleven planets and two asteroid belts to be precise.”, Arjin responded before approaching. “And There has not been any indication the inhabitants were warp capable.” He pointed towards the plaque he had discovered. “If the universal translator is correct, it read like: Ceremonial Hall of Ancestors.”

"We should catalog everything we can find and upload it to the ship," Denyse said. She also hoped to find some arachnid-type life while there, but the local insects didn't seem to be interested in revealing themselves.

Viggo nodded. He started to make some modifications to his tricorder, enabling it to record more than its standard parameters. The Petty Officer then followed the Commander into the supposed Hall of Ancestors. All around the walls they were surrounded by various statues. One could assume they once were clean, but a century of grime and moss covered just about everything. A slight humming noise could be heard throughout the room, accompanied by glimmers of light here and there.

"Interesting," Viggo commented, approaching the statues. He reached up and tried to brush away some of the moss. "These statues... they're made of crystal." The closer Viggo got to them, the sounder the hum became.

Denyse turned and scanned one of the statues with her tricorder. "It seems...to be more fragile than before... "

Arjin walked over to where the Ensign stood. “What do you mean by more fragile?”

Viggo tuned his focus to his hearing, surprised by the sound he could now fully detect. "Anyone else hear that?" he asked. Without waiting for an answer, he adjusted his tricorder. Instantly, the sound changed, lowering in tone.

"Is that..." Viggo paused as a thought struck him. Immediately, he deactivated his tricorder and the intensity of the tone dropped. "Fascinating," he remarked. "These crystals seem to amplify different frequencies. I was detecting quite a few of these as we approached the museum, and we've seen quite a bit of them thus far. I wonder if the civilization was aware of this property and tried to take advantage of it."

"Yet, when they were amplifying, they showed signs of radiation fracturing which weakened their crystalline structure even more," Denyse said while studying her tricorder.

“Since the crystals are widespread an audible, it is safe to presume they knew about this effect.”, Arjin offered. “Maybe this weakening could have something to do with the current state of the planet. Do they all amplify in the same manner? And do they amplify each other?

"Those are questions that we need to get answered," Denyse said. "And we're going to need more than the three of us to do it."

"What do you think, Commander?" Viggo said, looking to the senior officer. "Time to summon reinforcements for the Black Hawk? I'm sure the entire department would love digging through this metropolis.

“I agree. Let’s make a rapport and come back with reinforcements.”

RSS Feed