Comparing Notes

Posted on 25 Jul 2021 @ 10:50am by Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale & Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler & Lieutenant Commander Arjin Djinx & Lieutenant Zayna Ryler & Petty Officer 3rd Class Klim Sokamin

2,793 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Extinction
Location: Sadoria surface
Timeline: Mission Day 22 at 1500

Klim stood next to one of the drone pilots, watching the survey he was making of the city. A handful of probes would have fully catalogued the city in an hour, but the atmospheric interference made it extremely difficult to record from a distance. Every angle, every millimeter had been a challenge to get. Normally the Zakdorn didn't care to watch something so menial, but ever since he'd seen that map the day before, he couldn't get it out of his mind.

Joey stood off to the side of the meeting spot and waited for things to get underway. It would be interested to see what everyone had come across so far, and hopefully, bring the bigger picture closer to completion. That was if there weren't still missing pieces. That would be answered soon enough, though.

Camila came over the hill in the shuttle she had taken from base came and hovered to a stop over a likely landing spot, then brought it down and powered it down. She exited and came forward with several specimen bags in her hand and a tricorder in the other. "Have you found anything else?" she asked Joey.

"No," Joey answered. "I haven't had the chance to look around further."

Zayna wandered over and shut her tricorder. "I'm one for surveys, but...this is ridiculous." She'd heard Camila's question to Joey as she'd gotten closer. "Nothing to find beyond what we can see...so far."

Arjin arrived on foot towards the meeting point. His Padd full with the images taken inside the Big building they had entered, which they presumed being some sort of museum. “Greetings everyone.”, he said with a childish grin still on his face.

Klim heard the voices nearby, but he remained fixated on the drone pilot's screen. "Wait a second," he said, spotting a glimmer of light in what they all thought was an open field. The Zakdorn tapped on the screen where the light was flashing. "Take the drone closer to that."

Ryler walked over, curious what Klim was looking at. "What've you got over here?"

"See this?" Klim said, pointing to a field outside the town. "This whole area slopes downward, almost as if a sinkhole is slowly developing. There are some small structures peeking out from the ground, overgrown vehicles... it doesn't look usual. Plus..." Klim lifted a padd that he held which had an image of the map he had photographed at the airfield. "It's one of the locations marked here."

Camila joined the others with her tricorder out and a PADD and specimen bag with the photo in it she had found. "I found some maps and a picture of something unidentified in the air," she said. "The area I found them at was heavily fortified, but no sign of a fight. Just more skeletal remains."

Joey moved closer to Klim. "We're going to need to get a team out there to take a look at that area. We've got quite a few pieces to this puzzle, but that's all they are at this point. Whatever areas are marked in the maps you found need to be looked at."

Ryler rubbed her forehead, looking between the images. "We've got to be careful wherever we go that has this type of thing. The airfield was dangerous enough even though it was skeletons and such. We don't know what actually is down there. But...I do agree, we do need to check out the area."

"A close examination is a good idea," Klim agreed. "I strongly recommend caution, especially knowing some of this ground can give away."

Ensign proctor noted the spot where they had been, "We had that happen as well with ground giving way, seems not uncommon here." Ensign Proctor agreed. "In an beachlike area not to far from the skeletons at the picnic. There were multiple paths off the main cave that were revealed after the transporter meant to get us out exploded the crystals instead." She reported, recalling the unpleasant sensation of the shards hitting her skin.

Joey looked to Sarah, then back to the others. "Interesting. We should go back to that location as well. We're going to need a few teams to check these locations out. It's going to be dangerous, so aside from appointed leaders of said groups, I think teams should be purely on a volunteer basis. Any objections to that?"

"Did you have it sealed off, and what do you mean it exploded when you tried to transport out?" Camila asked Proctor.

Proctor turned to her Chief and replied, "Yes Ma'am, instructions were passed as soon as possible after we evacuated the area. The drone pilot attempted to use the transporter on the shuttle only instead of transporting us out of the cave something about it resonated with the crystals, causing them to shatter. The force of it sufficient to open up a large hole that seemed to be covering several paths."

Zayna realized she'd missed some of the reports of what happened to the additional teams. "This is news to me. I think we need to be overly cautious then. The points on the map must mean something, even if we don't know what it is yet. All of them need to be checked, even if it is just with the drone."

"Shattering crystals?" Klim asked. His job aboard the Black Hawk required him to read and analyze all of the reports, but even he hadn't a chance to read about Proctor's experience. The term crystal rang a bell. Using his padd, he tapped away at the screen until he found what he was looking for. "Is this what you're talking about?" He handed the padd to Proctor, though it was clear that anyone could see the image displayed.

Proctor looked over, "Yes exactly. Like those." She confirmed.

Arjin had observed and listened before speaking. After the latest image, he decided to speak up. “It seems we also investigated one of the sites on the map. It was some sort of museum. And there we found some crystal statues who amplified certain frequencies. They look to be made of the same type of crystals but bigger and sculpted. Luckily we did not encounter any explosions nor sinkholes.”

"Crystals seemingly at the locations on the map," Zayna said quietly, trying to do some thinking. "This is seeming more and more like it was calculated, done on purpose, maybe in some way at least."

"Calculated?" Joey asked. Was she missing something? Nothing of what she'd heard just yet seemed to point to something or someone being responsible for any of this. At least, not yet. "I say we get some teams together and conduct as thorough a search as we possibly can of these marked areas. Perhaps, it will give us more to go off of the next time we meet up."

"Maybe those who lived here found use of them, figured out they were special in some way and built around where the crystals were." Proctor said consideringly after listening carefully briefly, "Regardless, I would be up for doing some further investigations, if that is felt to be useful." She continued respectfully. She'd been wanting to get her spelunking gear ever since getting out of the cave, she was curious and eager to see what was there.

Looking among those who were there, her eyes turned to the two higher ranked: Camila and Djinx. "What do you think? We'd need more people from the ship, some who are willing to help with this. I'm not huge one all the walking and climbing but, I could use the exercise."

"Learn to," Camila told Ryler dryly.

During the conversation, Klim had walked over to a nearby, standalone station. "I've run an analysis on all of our data collected so far. These crystals are everywhere. Jewelry. Statues. Broken down in the windows, and all over underneath. Based on how they are used, I wouldn't call them common. But they are certainly more concentrated under the city than they are above it."

Zayna looked to Klim. "If that's the case, it might not be a good idea to transport around the planet at all anymore, no matter where we're going."

Klim nodded. "The atmosphere is still too volatile for anything other than a short site to site, but I do agree." The Petty Officer then looked over to Commander Di Pasquale for orders, as she was still technically the designated command officer.

"Transporting is too risky," the Security Chief decided. "I'm placing every area under Security caution with zero transporter activity. I don't even care if it's a drone transponder tag."

Sarah nodded her understanding and agreement, the memory of the crystal shrapnel fresh in mind. It was not an experience she'd care to repeat. "Has anyone had any experience with them going off for any other reason?" She wanted to clarify. Kelly had been able to just knock one loose without setting off but if there were other sonics or energies that caused them to blow that'd be more to concern them.

Joey remained quiet for the moment as she mulled over their options. There really was only one that was remotely safe, and even that wouldn't be one hundred percent safe for any of them. She'd see if anyone else suggested it before chiming in since previous suggestions seemed to be overlooked.

Camila backtracked mentally and looked at Joey. "We have enough for that. Can you select a few teams, Commander?"

Joey simply nodded her head. "Yes."

Arjin recalled a fact about the crystalline statues he encountered. “Remember I told the crystalline statues I spoke about. That they seemed to amplify some frequencies. When they were amplifying, their crystalline structure weakened due to signs of radiation fracturing. Since we know the crystals are rare but not scarce and there are more of them underground than above ground, maybe the inhabitants only recently started to use them. And maybe radiation fracturing has something to do with their demise as a race. I would advise caution when using tricorders in the vicinity of the crystals.”

Joey turned her attention to Djinx. "Petty Officer Sokamin told all of us a matter of minutes ago that the crystals are everywhere, which makes them the exact opposite of rare, Commander. Investigating the other areas will give us more insight into what happened," she stated, then looked to everyone else. "As it's been stated before, the use of transport or any other type of travel that might set these crystals off, is a really bad idea." And now it was time to circle back to Camila's request for teams. "I would also suggest each member of every team get a crash course in rappelling and a few other Search and Rescue fields. I've got a feeling it's going to come in handy for this."

Proctor made mental notes on the Intel Chief's exchange with Science, appreciating the extra details on what might set them off. She said nothing though, but nodded her agreement.

"I have a small handful of personnel that are qualified for rappelling," Camila said as she made a note on a PADD. "I'd also like you to have your analysis team do an analysis on this image," she handed Joey the specimen bag with the photo of what looked like an unidentified flying object.

"We might want to have emergency only transporters on standby. Much as we don't like it, with all the foot travel, something could happen." Zayna finally chimed in. "But only for those instances where someone would die if not brought back to the ship. Obviously the teams would be warned before the transporters were activated. Preparing for the worst and not having to use the plan is what I'm hoping for though." She rubbed the back of her neck. "We might have a few on the science team too that can help, but I'm not 100% sure on everyone's when it comes to these type of things."

Klim started to tune out the conversation. As one of the few enlisted people on the planet, he never understood officers' penchant for standing around and talking about the problem. His attention was redirected to some new drone scans of the area they'd just discovered. Klim was correct about it being unusual. Several of the structures and vehicles were consistent with most construction practices, leading him to believe this was some sort of construction site.

Or at least, it was a construction site. Buried under the sand was a long shaft, something that appeared to be too well designed to belong there, especially since it went well below the surface. The sensor feeds lost their resolution past one-hundred feet thanks to the natural interference in the soil. "Commander," he called out. "We may want to take a look at this."

"No. Transporters," Camila told Ryler flatly before she looked at Klim. "What do you have?" she asked as she headed to where the intelligence analyst was. She looked at the scans, then arched an eyebrow. "What...is this?"

"If I had to guess?" Klim answered. "I'd say it looks like an archeological dig under a construction site. Looks like it might have been well funded too."

With the image in hand that Camila had given her, Joey moved over to Kilm's other side to look at the scans. More pieces to an already huge puzzle they needed to put together. "Flag that location for further investigation."

Shaking her head at what Camila said, even though she was thinking medical emergency only, Zayna glanced over at what was being flagged. Why would there be a dig under a construction site? She was curious what was down there.

"Flagged," Klim replied, taping a control stud on his padd.

"Proctor, get with Ensign Mitchell and start marking off all the sites with crystals for transporter inhibitors," Camila said. "Follow up with making certain that all sites have at least two personnel. If you need anything, I'll be here on the planet."

"Aye Ma'am." Taking that as a dismissal, Proctor stepped away from the group as she made notes on a mini PADD then opened a com to Ensign Mitchell.

Joey looked to Camila. "I would suggest two teams. Given our backgrounds, you should head one of them up, and I'll head up the other. You take Sokamin, Ryler and anyone else you wish. I'll take Proctor," she began, because even if she was once Security, Camila wouldn't let her get away without someone being on her team. "Djinx, and flesh out everyone else shortly. Good?"

But before that, she handed the picture she held over to Klim. "See if you can figure out where that was taken. That's one of the locations one of the teams will look over."

"Got it," Camila said.

Klim looked at the photograph that was given to him. For whatever reason, he couldn't help himself from sighing. He'd been down on the planet since the airfield, using the command post to review whatever data was being collected. Normally, he enjoyed this kind of work, but he wasn't sure what to do with this picture. Nor was he keeping an interest in what the others were talking about. But protocol needed to be observed. The Zakdorn nodded his head and set it off to the side.

He glanced up at the drone pilot's monitor and suddenly it hit him. "Wait a second." He picked up the picture and compared it with what he saw on the monitor. "Look here," he remarked, pointing to a structure on the far side of town which hadn't yet been explored. There was a large complex, something that seemed to be very prestigious or valued. On top of it was the alien craft.

Camila followed the Zakdorn's pointing and frowned. "Okay. Looks like that's another spot to check," she said and made a notation in her PADD. "I'll assign a team to that location as well."

Zayna had listened, and knew she was going with Camila. Sounded like this was going to be an interesting investigation with what they were finding just with the drone and previous scans, let alone when they got there.

Arjin had remained silent and merely observed the different dealings. He was however intrigued with the archeological dig sit. So he spoke up. “Commander Geisler. Can our team be the one investigating the possible archeological dig site beneath the construction site?”

"We're going to the cave," Joey said. "Not sure where that's going to lead us, but we'll have to be ready for just about any possibility. If no one else has anything left, then we should probably start getting prepared for our newest expeditions."

"Then let's go," Camila said and headed back with her team.

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