Safe Planet Findings

Posted on 12 Feb 2021 @ 5:00pm by Lieutenant Colonel Alexandria Somers & Lieutenant Commander Alexanderia Cahill & Lieutenant Leland Hawksley & Captain Patrick Jackson & Lieutenant JG Ted Silver

4,337 words; about a 22 minute read

Mission: S03 Ep 03 Trouble in the Sticks UXSys 659842 (Incidentals) Phase 2
Location: Various
Timeline: During Events of What must be done

[ON]

- Transporter Room 1 -

C'Tirr was the first to arrive in the transporter room with his gear. He had his type 2 hand phaser and trickster on his hips and He waited for Ted and Nicci to arrive.

Silver arrived next with a backpack of equipment. He would need for the away team. Making sure his Phaser was fully charged. He nodded at C’Tirr then he sat on the floor waiting for Taggert to arrive.

After a quick stop by the arsenal and the mission centre, Nicci picked up a field pack (with pemmican rations, water and filter, small med-kit, and a few other items), phaser, tricorder, and a bone-conducting earpiece (allowing her to hear the environment as well as ship comms in some privacy over regular comm badges) that wrapped around under her golden blonde ponytail, which had a multi-directional holo-recorder on both sides, and could allow for lower volume and private communications. While the earpiece wasn't a common item, given the common use of tricorders, Nicci wanted a live feed for review later.

"Good to see you both," Nicci said with a smile and a finger tucked under one of her backpack straps. She had her phaser in her belt holster set for her left-handed draw. "What's the mission? It's hard to prep without specifics, but I think I've got what we need in my pack."

"Well met. We are to go down to the surface and retrieve the colony's data recorder while Ensign Silver gets scans of the area. I will be watching your rear. Hand phasers only but the cap says it should be safe and not a problem." C'Tirr said as he looked between Taggart and Silver. "I won't open comms at all times please and..." He turned to look at the transporter chief. "A transporter lock on the away team. Any sign of danger and I want us out of there." He turned back to his companions. "Any questions?" He asked as he picked up his gear.

"Grab the data recorder? Sure thing," Nicci said with a nod. She was still a bit nervous considering that they'd just seen what amounted to a real-life zombie horror movie on the planet, but she tried to hide it. "I packed an experimental transport lock drone that can drop transport tags that act as lock boosters, and I packed my wearable tricorder..." she showed off her arm, which had a sensor-head mounted flat on top of her wrist, the controls and display on her arm. "...sorry, I just wanted to be ready, and not have my standard tricorder knocked out of my hand somewhere. I tend to overpack."

“Wow, that looks cool. I have my trusty backpack. All scientists need when on an away mission. Including a flask of coffee and a cheese sandwich or two.” He said.

- Lower Levels -

After dealing with stuff on the lower decks the Colonel headed to Transporter Room one and looked at the Away Team, she hated to do this but personal issues had to be dealt with, she looked at C'Tirr "Sorry to do this to you Ensign C'Tirr I am taking you off the Away Team, you have a Personal call from your family and you really need to take it," she said. The Caitian nodded and left the Transporter room, then she turned to look at the remaining pair "Lieutenant Taggert you will lead the Away Team, I will assign a third to you" the Colonel said and tapped her Commbadge.

She was a bit stunned at the suddenness of it, but she finally replied, "Aye, Colonel. We'll take care of everything."

=/\= Somers to Jackson =/\=

=/\= Jackson here. =/\=

=/\= Get your rear to Transporter Room One and all you need is a hand Phaser and Tricorder, you have five minutes =/\=

=/\= Aye ma'am. I'll be there on the double.=/\=

=/\= Acknowledged, Somers out =/\= she closed the line and looked at Taggert "Your Away Team now Lieutenant, the moment the Lieutenant arrives beam down, now this planet is the safe one, so no EVA suits needed. You are to retrieve the colony's data recorder and any information at the site *looks to Silver* you need to take readings and samples so that when it is safe to do so a Starfleet Science Team can replant and return to the second planet what will be lost" she said.

Silver nodded gravely. After what was about to happen on the second planet. New plants would be the first steps to healing.

"Acknowledged," Silver simply replied

"Aye, Colonel. We'll find it and get it done quickly," Nicci said. She steadied herself with a deep breath and walked closer to the transporter.

"Good, Lieutenant when Jackson arrives, he is to secure the area and look for any tactical data and such and when you decide you have done all you can, you are to return to the ship, understood?" Colonel Somers asked.

"Understood," Nicci nodded as she pursed her lips with a serious expression. oO Secure the area, find any tactical info, get the data recorder. Not too complicated. Oo

"Excellent, I will leave you to prepare as I have to get back to the bridge," she said and with a nod and smile the Colonel left Transporter Room 1 and headed back to the bridge.

Patrick walked in a moment after the Colonel's departure and strode in with purpose, tricorder and phaser both on his hip. "Lieutenant, Ensign's." He said with a nod to each of them.

"Pleased to meet you, Lt. Jackson," Nicci said with a smile and a handshake. "Let's make this quick. We have what's tantamount to zombies on the planet, and I don't want my brains, or the rest of me," she looked down at herself, "to be eaten. Just keep us safe, and I'll do what I can to get the data ASAP so we don't have to be in too much danger."

He nodded. "I'll make sure you get back up here in one piece.

Nicci stepped up to the transport pad, as the others came up with her. She took a deep breath and exhaled. She hated transporters, and the feeling of dematerialization, rematerialization, and all the existential dilemmas it raised in her overactive mind. Try as she might, she couldn't stop thinking things through, and only two activities helped her get some peace, and drinking was out of the question on duty. oO Holodeck time should help when I get back to the ship. A nice beach party, a bar, some sun and salty air... but time for my game face. Oo

"Ok, chief, energize," she said as she held her breath as the feeling of pinpricks and tingling took over.

Patrick followed up her up onto the pad. As he heard her order to energize, his hands casually moved to his hips. Intel said it was a safe planet, but he knew enough to always take intel with a grain of salt. He planted his feet and waited for the new planet to appear in his eyes.

- Colony Hub - Safe Planet -

Silver was not very keen on transporters. But they were apart of the daily routine. He watched as the transporter fizzled away. To be replaced as the planet below.

“ Boy do I hate those things," he said aloud.

As soon as the ship dematerialized, she was greeted with the most incongruous scene. She'd been expecting a zombie apocalypse, given the briefing they'd had. But it looked like an empty park with buildings for people.

"Not what I was expecting," Nicci said, looking around. It was daytime on this part of the planet. "Okay, Jackson, Silver, let's get a move on. It doesn't look like there's anyone here...or any zombies...but you never know. Keep your eyes peeled, and your tricorders handy."

Silver looked at the small river. He gave it a scan with his tricorder.

“ I don’t want to be a killjoy. But in this river apart from the plants. I can’t find any else alive.” He said

Patrick scanned the area walking in a circle. Enough people were looking at their tricorders, he always liked using his eyes first. Habit generally. "You said it." He replied with his eyes squinting. "It is almost dead silent."

Lt. JG Taggert led the group through the park, and into the core are of the colony setting. It was familiar to her.

"It's like they took a small town anywhere in the US and plopped it down on an alien planet," Nicci mused aloud.

“ Standard colony design. Practical and homely.” Ted remarked

Patrick nodded. "I've run through a number of them in training exercises. Useful prefab structure." He paused. "I'm going to sweep the building. Just take a moment." He said and entered with his phaser and tricorder out.

"It's quiet," Nicci said. She paused, adding, "A little too quiet. Of course, now that I say that, something's going to happen."

She used her arm-band tricorder and swept the hand-scanner around, and took a look. It wasn't reading anything but empty buildings so far. Not too good.

"Okay, gentlemen, let's keep going. It was a colony of around 8,500 and it's empty. Question is, where'd they go?" she asked,

“ The tricorders should be picking up something. This does not feel right ma’am” Silver commented. “ Rodents or birds....nothing.” He said

Patrick walked back out of the building, putting his phaser back on his waist. "All clear. Not even a body. The building looks used and is powered, but nobody was home."

"Come on, and keep your scanners peeled," Nicci said, leading them towards the golden dome of the colony's HQ.

It was a walk up a few blocks in what was to this point a meticulously maintained little colony town before they came up to the colony HQ, essentially the mayor's office in city hall.

Ted moved over to some plants and scanned them.

“ Vegetation reads normal. But there’s no trace of any insects.” He reported

Patrick shook his head. This was not good. Something was obviously wrong but nothing to indicate what is the cause. "Yeah, something is definitely wrong. Bad feeling about this. Let's stay on our toes. With no evacuation records or means, there are 8,500 somewhere and they are going to great lengths not to be detected."

Nicci pushed the door open and she put on her vision enhancement glasses that she had passed out to Jackson and Silver. Rather than use flashlights, these were a bit more subtle and gave off much less light, essentially acting as light amplification devices for them that would do less to give away their position. They went up the few steps to the city hall, which occupied maybe half the city block, and noticed the interior was empty, but signs of struggle the whole lobby.

"Silver, Jackson, spread out, scan everything," Taggert said. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing up. She felt under the wire here and was eager to leave the planet with the data recorder.

Her own tricorder alerted her to transport traces in the lobby, and she looked down at the floor, kneeling, and used her VE glasses to zoom in on what she saw. It was a tiny blue point sticking out of the ground as if it were melded into the marble. oO What the hell? Oo she thought to herself.

She swept her arm tricorder over the floor and saw a weird mixed biological trace, but within the marble. oO That's impossible, Oo she thought.

Silver also scanned it.” It’s not reading as living”

"It's *in* the floor," Nicci said, pointing to it, and a few human hairs that she pulled on but were stuck to the floor as if they were growing out of it. "It can't hurt us. Come on, we've got a data recorder to get to."

“ For now, “ Silver remarked

Patrick looked around with his scanner and emerged from a side room. "All clear so far, but something is definitely off."

Nicci went up the stairs as the power supply seemed to shut off and she didn't want to split up to try to get it hooked back up. "Come on, the data recorder's in the computer room right next to the colony's administrator office. Basically, the guy or gal acting like the mayor. Keep your eyes and tricorders scanning."

It was quiet, like an abandoned building. The windows cast the sunlight through, with rays of light showing floating dust like nothing was the matter. She was hurrying, she knew it. With two guards, essentially, she could afford to hurry. But she had to know.

It took another minute or two and they found it on the second floor, next to the mayor's office. "Locked. Jackson, hand me the door opener," she said, holding her hand out, as she pulled off the panel next to the computer control, and plugged the module in. It basically overrode the door locks, and any power loss to restart the door mechanism.

It beeped at her in that well known "access denied" beep she hated so much. "Well screw that," Nicci said, getting frustrated. She didn't spend years at the academy and all this time studying engineering to let a rinky-dink colony's door-lock stop her. She tried the most common override. Access denied. She tried a second override sometimes used where colonies had trouble with Klingons or Romulans. The Ermiana had some trouble twenty years ago with the Klingons, she remembered. Access denied.

“ No joy?” Ted said.

"Frack this," Nicci said, as she pulled out a decidedly non-standard-looking isolinear chip that got a reaction out of Silver. She looked at him. "It's my skeleton key," she said with a wry smile. "Just don't tell the captain. I try not to use it too often."

“ My lips are sealed. Like this door.” Silver remarked

She inserted the isolinear chip into the slot, and the panel finally chimed the right way. Finally, the door swished open, and they looked inside at the computer core, barely on at all, probably on reserves only. The room was maybe 40' x 40' and the core for such a small colony took up a quarter of the room. It wasn't a Starfleet core, after all, and didn't have much in the way of high-grade security on it.

"Okay now, the data recorder should be....here!" she said, pointing a quarter of the way around the cylindrical core. "This is the colony black box. In the event of catastrophic power loss, environmental damage, alien attack, or medical issue, all data from every computer in a colony on the network is shunted here in a high-density static recording so that it remains even if the power shuts off, and it should theoretically emit an emergency beacon to alert the nearest Starfleet vessel for investigation and rescue...but for some reason, this one didn't. That's odd."

The Marine began walking the room, confirming it was secure. "I don't know a whole lot about those things, but is it possible to be turned off?"

"Yeah, some must've shut it off. The only person with that kind of access terminal is the colonial administrator in the next office," Nicci said, curious. She shook her head, and pulled the data recorder, a dual handle cylinder about a foot across and about two feet long, but surprisingly light. It was silver with no indicators on the outside, and once she got it out, the rest of the core shut down, as it no longer needed to try to power it or the beacon which wasn't working for some reason.

"Okay, let's try this..." Nicci said as she walked it over to the window and opened it. She put on a transport beacon that Silver handed her, and called the ship.

=/\=Tomcat, this is Taggert, beam the data recorder back up, =/\= she called on her open subspace channel.

= /\= Acknowledged =/\= the Colonel said and signalled Tactical to transport the device up =/\= SITREP Lieutenant? =/\= She asked.

=/\= We're investigating who shut off the beacon. We'll be done shortly.=/\=

=/\= Affirmative, do not take too much longer, there should not be much in the way of extensive infrastructure down there as the Colony was established six months ago so be quick we have the Infected planet to assess, yet =/\= the Colonel responded.

=/\= Give us five minutes and we're out, Colonel, =/\= Taggert said as she got the okay to proceed.

=/\= Understood, Somers out =/\= she closed the link and sighed nothing is this easy and she realised that she was waiting for the other shoe to drop as it usually does.

"Let's check one more section here," Nicci said, waving the two men over to the console along the side of the room near the window. "Looks like the power cell here on this station's still got a little juice left...gotta be quick though."

Nicci moved as fast as she could, and pulled the data logs within the console. "Looks like they were messing with a subspace transporter," she said with surprise. For all she knew, that was still an unsafe and unreliable technology for mass use.

She looked through the logs, trying to piece things together, her blonde ponytail swishing around as she moved around as fast as she could. "Okay, I think I figured it out..." she said, running her finger along with a few data sets in a crooked line, like running a finger along a crack in a piece of glass. "The colony was trying to run an experiment with subspace transporting from here to the other planet in the system. Over 350 kids were over there on the other planet for a field trip to see Shahallah Falls, as they called it. There *were* 8500 people here, but when they found out what was happening on the other planet, most of them transported over there to try to stop the bluegills from using this technology to escape to other planets or passing starships. Two of the colony members manned the transport station over there and..."

Taggert gasped in shock, putting her hand to her mouth as if it were a TV show, her stomach instantly turning, as she began dry heaving a little. oO Dear God, that's horrible, Oo she thought as she turned away from the data streams. She was so used to looking at data all day she could create the images in her mind. oO There's a reason Admiral McCoy hated transporters. Oo

Nicci motioned for them to exit and found the same thing at the administrator's office. It took another minute but the door finally slid open, but now the doorway was jammed full of office furniture as if to stop someone from coming in.

"Looks like someone barricaded himself in here," she said. She called out, taking a position to the side of the door, while Silver and Jackson took the other side, in case of phaser fire. "Hello? Anyone in there? We're from the USS Tomcat and we're here to rescue you!"

She heard nothing, but the window she opened was letting in a wind and she couldn't concentrate enough. "We don't have time for this. We need to get in there," she said. With a scan she saw a single biosign inside, hidden in one of the cabinets.

She motioned for Silver and Jackson to try to push through, while they removed a few bits, they couldn't get the larger heavy cabinet out of the way. Nicci scooted them off, and she dug in and pushed the cabinet away, allowing them to squeeze in. Silver and Jackson glanced at her.

"What? I'm strong for a girl," she quipped. "Besides, I didn't want to make you two feel bad." She smiled, the two taking the joke in stride.

She swept the room and walked quietly, pointing to the cabinet. Silver and Jackson took up positions out of the direct line of sight, and Nicci pressed the button. They didn't expect to find a young girl, maybe 19 to 21 or so, dirty, torn clothes, pretty if she weren't so haggard, scared, and trying to hide.

"Hey," Nicci said in a calming voice. "Hey, I'm Nicci. I'm Starfleet, see?" She pointed to her commbadge. "We're here to help. Can you come out?"

"Are they all gone?" she finally asked in a small voice, as if she were a little child.

"Who? Is who all gone?" Nicci asked.

"The zombies!" she harshly whispered. "I heard them on the other planet through the comms! They didn't make it here did they?"

"There's no one here but you and us," Nicci said.

Ted looked at his tricorder. Even the undead would show up on the scanner. “ The area is clear. Just us live ones”

"But there were 8500 people...now it's just me," she said as if convincing herself.

Slowly, Nicci eased her out, and set her on a chair, as she sat across from her, leaning forward. "What's your name?"

"Jessie," she finally said.

"Okay, Jessie, where's the rest of the colony?" Nicci asked.

"In the first-floor lobby," she replied. "And on the other planet."

“ The scanner would have picked them up. But I am reading nothing” Silver said

Jessie shot a look at him telling her the obvious. "Don't you think I know that?" She began crying and her voice cracked. "They were there....but not any more! They called to me. They begged me for help, hundreds. I couldn't! I couldn't!" she broke into tears.

"What happened?" Nicci pressed again.

"They broke in, and I rigged the transporters, and I sent them downstairs, all of them," she cried. "I couldn't save them! Our phasers were drained! The colony's power was going to fail at some point, and my parents...oh God, my parents...they locked me in here, turned off the beacon to try to divert the power to try to save me!"

As she broke into sobs, Nicci took her into her arms and let her cry as she finally let out everything she had held in. Nicci's heart ached for her, a young woman who lost her parents and her entire world because of the bluegills. oO What if something like this happened to my parents? Oo Nicci thought to herself, her eyes watering up at the thought of losing them.

Lt. JG Taggert composed herself, and let go of Jessie, letting her sit on the couch. She walked over to Silver and Jackson and talked in low tones to them. oO I'm barely keeping myself from crying. I've been tortured and altered against my will but this is the worst thing I've experienced yet in Starfleet. Oo

"Her parents were on the other planet," Nicci said in a hushed tone. "The bluegills were infecting the colonists, torturing some, and threatened her parents. The colonists begged her to transport them back, but her parents told her to 'send them downstairs.'"

oO Could I do that? Would I have the strength to do what she did? Oo Nicci thought to herself as she continued explaining what happened.

"There were a dozen or so infected zombies with one or two bluegills and her parents, ready to come to this planet, secure the subspace transporter, and then unleash themselves on the entire sector of space. But Jessie here changed the targeting scanners about z minus 1.79 meters."

Silver and Jackson stood mute at it, not connecting the dots.

"Jessie beamed everyone into the floor we walked across in the lobby," Nicci said, as her eyes watered again at the thought. "They're *in* the building."

Patrick shrugged. "Efficient." He said looking down. "Pretty smart thinking actually."

oO How can he be so callous? So cold about it? These were people too, once. What if there had been his parents? Could he have beamed them into the floor with all the neighbours he knew and went to school with, even if it were to stop them from becoming infected? Oo she thought to herself, but she gave him a look that couldn't help but betray what she was feeling. The look of horror, sadness, regret, and commiseration at the girl losing her parents in such a gruesome way reminded her of why she hated transporters. But they were an operational hazard. She felt all that in a microsecond, all so close to the surface, yet her training kept it under the lid, if only barely.

“ I have my readings. Please let's get out of here.” Silver asked.

With a tap of her commbadge, Nicci called the ship. =/\=Taggert to Tomcat, four to beam up. There's no one left here.=/\= Her voice was controlled, her eyes red and puffy, but no doubt the ship could hear her emotions, the total draining of her emotional energy by what she knew. oO Knowledge is power. But ignorance can be bliss. Oo

With that, the Away Team was beamed up along with their located survivor.

- Bridge -

The Colonel looks at Cahill "okay Commander get down there and tend to that fourth person they brought with them, I want a Medical check done on the survivor" she instructed.

Cahill moved out, "Aye Captain." She hit her communication badge l. "Beam the patient straight to sick Bay Transporter Room."


With that, she watched the CMO leave the bridge for Transporter Room one, then looked at her Helm Officer "Mr Hawksley set a heading for the second Class M planet, full Impulse if you will" the Colonel instructed.

"Aye, Colonel. Plotting in course." Hawksley had studiously begun to enter the course for the Class M Planet within the system. Leland then set the Tomcat Impulse engines to full, executing the course as he kept forward watching the viewscreen.

[OFF]

Lieutenant Colonel Alexandria Somers [P: Somers]
Acting CO

Lieutenant Commander Alexanderia Cahill MD
Chief Medical Officer/2XO

Lt. Jg Nicole Taggert
Assistant Chief Engineer

1st Lt Patrick Jackson
Marine Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Jg Leland Hawksley
Chief Helm Officer

Ensign C'Tirr K'Ruuras
Assistant Chief of Security

Ensign Ted Silver
Assistant CSO

 

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