Planetary Awakening

Posted on 16 Feb 2022 @ 2:05pm by Lieutenant Alexandra Lee & Lieutenant Commander Alexanderia Cahill & Lieutenant Lamia ‘Mia’ Kildare & Lieutenant Leland Hawksley & Lieutenant JG Tosrol Ze & Lieutenant JG Ted Silver & Captain Mazal Falk & Sergeant Major Christopher "Chris" Kildare
Edited on on 28 Feb 2022 @ 9:45pm

5,322 words; about a 27 minute read

Mission: S03 Ep 04 Captive State Part 1 (Main)
Location: Various
Timeline: Current

[ON]

The last briefing was concluded and updates were provided. The Away Team would be beamed to the site of the original observation post. This should afford them stealth upon arrival. They have reviewed all the new data from the drones and have made alterations to their attire and personal gear. Cahill would likely have her hidden arsenal of blades but each member would be required to have a small phaser that resembled an old Earth-type pistol.

The full away team consisted of Commander Cahill, Captain Jackson, 2nd LT Falk, LT JG Winchester, LT Arderne, LT Lee, LT JG Taggert, LT JG Hawksley, LT JG Silver, and SGM Kildare. The concept was to have a ten-member team that could break down to smaller teams necessary. Cahill, Jackson and Falk could lead the smaller teams. If it warranted the need to divide up the team, the best breakdown would be Cahill, Taggert and Silver would be one team. A second team would be Jackson, Lee, Kildare and Winchester. A third team could then be Falk, Hawksley and Arderne. One would focus on tracing all the technology that likely originated from the influences of the Federation observation team and either making it inert or beaming it back to the Tomcat. The Second and Third Teams would focus on finding survivors. They would look for and rescue any survivors from the observation team.

While Dodd so wanted to be on the surface and experience the fun of the culture, he would be stuck on the ship but he was still going to be a part of the mission. The data from the away team would be collected via remote links to their comm-badges and tricorders and then reviewed and analyzed as it came in. Dodd would also take this time to gather more data about this section of space and the components of this solar system.

The away team was beamed down to the site of the observation shelter. It was a shambles. The place was covered in dust and cobwebs. No one had been there in a long time. What was clear to the team was that all traces of technology had been ransacked. Almost all visible traces of technology had been stripped from the observation post.

Lt. Lee was already attempting to find any hard copy files that may exist. She knew that some observation teams used paper maps and charts for the constant data. Likely she would find a list of cities and villages, maps of locations and even locations of sacred grounds such as burial sites and cemeteries.

After a little rummaging, she found two mobile bulletin boards that were stashed in the far back of the main room laying under some other debris.

"Commander, I found something that could help us," Lee stated as she stood the first board up. "I know a little about how observation posts work as my parents worked on a few before they got married and they would share stories with me when I decided to follow in anthropology."

Cahill replied "Great have everyone work together to determine what happened." In the back of her mind, she was thinking the Observation Team may have been there too long and began to interact with the inhabitants. And may have just walked away. It had happened in the past.

"Remember if caught or injured you will be beamed back to the ship for treatment. Also, any equipment lost will be beamed back to the ship to prevent it from being found by the inhabitants."

=/\= Commander Dodd, it looks like no one has been here for a long time at the Observation site. We will continue looking around and see what we can find. =/\=

=/\= Thank you for the update, Commander. I have activated the data stream and all sensors are fully functional. Good Luck. =/\= Dodd replied.

=/\= Understood, we will =/\= replied Cahill

“Ohh Wow!” Lamia sat on the edge of a dusty table giving herself a few moments to adjust to the impact of all the chaotic minds, and emotions she was sensing. “This place is....chaotic.”

Cahill went to Lamia, "Are you ok?” as she began her scan to check her out. Her vitals were a little high but not too high to be dangerous to her

Lamia nodded and offered a smile. “I’m fine, the levels of emotion here just took me by surprise that’s all. It’s going off a little now I’ve had a chance to adjust.”

Cahill replied, "OK but if you need anything let me know. I can help out some if you need it.

Lamia nodded. “I will, thank you.”

Chaotic. That was a good word to use. Ted could say that about the clothes he was wearing. It reminded him of old family pictures he had once seen. He wondered why a sleeveless jacket was called a body warmer. He did not feel very warm in it and the boots. Why did they have so many laces?

“Looks like someone paid this place a visit,” Ted said pointing to some old footprints on the dusty floor.

"But the footprints themselves have been covered in dust and debris. I would say from an archaeological point of view, I would say that it has been at least ten years or so since anyone was actually in here where we are now." Lee stated as she was observing the conditions around her.

"Notice how the lower half of all the windows were covered but the upper portion is left cleared almost to allow light in while yet condemning the remainder of the building. This post was abandoned and yet had been discovered by the natives so we can only guess what awaits us out in the wild." Lee further advised. "Also one can see that the skylights are grown over with plant life so we know that this location is not in the heart of activity."

Chris walked around the Observation shelter, he was in nondescript attire, civilian style, but it could double as a military outfit in a pinch, he pulled out his tricorder and scanned for any explosive devices, there were none, satisfied he put his Tricorder away and continued to look around, for some reason his heckles were up.

LT. Lee was reviewing the charts on the bulletin boards. There were lists of names and a map of the local area. She also saw a chart of deities that the locals worshipped. She was beginning to enjoy this mission and it was just getting started.

"Commander, I see that this society has developed like the ancient cultures on Earth. They worship deities like the ancient Greeks or Egyptians did. Their language will be the toughest to deal with as we have not heard it spoken. However, I know the names seem like derivatives of old Earth Names. But I am not seeing any names on the list with J or H in them. So likely no Johns or Henrys or such here. There is also a list that says they have a central government and each outlying settlement has an office that reports to the main. There are vehicles similar to trains and buses but no individual transports other than their version of bicycles or such. I can see they found electricity and with it spawned the first major progression for this planet in the means of Technology." Lee Stated.

Leland was listening to the others as they spoke. Everyone was bringing up fascinating information. “Funny. There is a system trip mode on many federation-designed duck blinds. The automatic sensor pods employed in this unit would automatically fry itself to a metal wall of ashes.”

Hawk touched the computer screen. “What should have been a compromised duck blind mission did not result in the critical infrastructure being destroyed.”

Just then, there was a sound through one of the duck blinds in the observation room of the post. Leland twisted grasped for his phaser. Only to find an alien stick weapon or bow. A strange furry type of red and bluebird had come through and sat perched at the open blind.

“Oh wow, look at that” Lamia smiled as she looked towards the bird. “It’s so lovely.” She turned her attention back to the others. “So we need to find out what happened here, perhaps there are some old personal logs stored away here somewhere.”

The scientist in Silver kicked in. He took a closer look at the bird. Considering how easy it had flown in here. Given how furry its feathers seemed to be intrigued him. Its red and blue plumage meant it had few predators. If that had been the case its feathers would have been a greener colouring. The bird tilted its head at him almost as if it was sizing him up. Was this huge creature before it a friend or would it hurt the bird? The small creature made up its mind to peck Ted on the hand before flying away.

“ Hey!” Ted said rubbing his hand.

Kildare looked to Cahill "Commander I cannot detect any explosive devices, the place is clean of them, but I do not think there is much left here anyway, whoever came here took any tech there was" he said.

"Good now, let's see what we can find out about what happened here. And we want to be careful as well. Someone may come by here checking things out." Replied Cahill

Lamia turned to look at Chris. She offered a warm smile to her fiancé knowing they’d have to keep a professional distance whilst on an away team together.

Mazal gave a nod towards Kildare's report. She checked out the window of the duck blind, not able to see what the outer area looked like. She was wearing a pair of sturdy boots, blue jeans high waisted, a long-sleeved green denim shirt and a dark brown puffy Jacket/coat which had the option to go sleeveless. It had inner pockets that Mazal could put items inside, plus she carried a duffle bag with other gear. Clipped on her belt was a large knife much like a bowie knife. For some, it could be like a short sword.

"Commander, permission to scout outside." Mazal stated, "and a mindful thing to remember, when we do go out amongst the populace we may need to not use our ranks?"

"Take someone with you, no one is to be alone. We don't know what or who we are up against." Replied Cahill

Kildare spoke up "I will go with her Commander," he said and looked at Falk "I need to get to know my MXO as it is," he said.

Mazal gave a slight smile, then she nodded, "Alright, and I was thinking about asking you to accompany me. Okay, let's get going Kildare." Opting to get in the practice of not using his rank for this mission. She went to the door, opened it a crack and with things seeming to be quiet, she slipped out the door, stepping to one side for Kildare to do the same.

"El-tee on this mission feel free to call me Chris, but this should be interesting," he said and then looked back as he heard his rank called out.

"Chris it is, and call me Mazal." giving a brilliant smile.

Lamia looked towards Kildare as he headed out. “Sergeant Major...be safe.” She offered a smile wishing she could kiss him as well.

As he looked back he gave Lamia one of his smiles, the kind he reserved for her alone "I will do, as long as you do the same, deal?" Chris asked.

Lamia nodded as she looked towards Kildare. His smile always made her heart skip a beat. “Deal.”

With a nod of affirmative and a smile, he left with Falk for their scouting mission...

Taggert took a second to get her bearings. She could smell the outside streaming in from the broken windows. It was a bit acrid to her senses. Something had burned, but there was a hint of nature to it.

She wore some tight low cut blue jeans with ankle boots, a gold soft t-shirt with a scoop neck, and a subtle black and grey Oros jacket. She'd taken the time to alter it to include sensors in the buttons and fashion trim, and in several rings, she had on (despite never wearing jewellery on the ship), but to the casual observer, it was an ordinary jacket cut for a woman. She had contact lenses on so she could get a HUD without bringing her tricorder out but carried one in her pocket for more detailed readings.

Looking around, her long ponytail swished as she took everything in. There was a little purple crystal-like amethyst on the ground that she noticed by the crunch under her boot.

"Agreed," she said as she used her tricorder to verify her more subtle sensor system. "Very odd that most of the tech in here survived, but not impossible. I'm seeing there're some faint power readings, so some of the systems might have some use left. A few capacitors still have charge left, but we'd need some power packs past a few minutes."

She waved her tricorder around, the images of the screen dancing across her blue eyes. "Isolinear memory should be recoverable."

She looked out the window as some of the breezes blew by, creating a little whistle and leaves rustling. "We should get out there and try to get some answers without raising suspicions. People to find, tech to recover."

It'd been a while since she'd done what amounted to undercover work, but Nicci was determined to see it through. Before being released for duty, she did partake in a few missions she was sworn to secrecy on, so those skills would get to be used again.

"Great find, Nicci," Lee responded when Taggert found some working technology in the outpost. "This is the backup system that only the head of the project would have known was here. This will come in handy to help us attempt to figure out what went wrong."

Lee would leave the tech to the engineers to comb through and then she would review the data that would help them solve the mystery ahead of them.

Cahill looked at Taggart, "Great download all information you can and then send a copy back to the Tomcat for them to go over. Also, everyone is extra vigilant and don't let your guards down.

Ahe had taken the time to hide locators and also an extra Communications device in the lining of her jacket plus inside the hem of her blouse. She also did like she always did on an away mission. And hid an extra phaser inside the lining of her jacket too.

"Got it," Nicci said with a firm nod. With a glance over the duck blind area, she found the workable station, luckily with direct computer access.

"Frack, come on," she said, frustrated. It was taking its time to access the logs. "I have a reputation to uphold you stupid machine..."

The display itself was half-burned-out, and the console was popped up a bit like a car hood on an old 20th-century motor vehicle, but it still functioned. So Nicci took a look at the isolinear boot chips located under the console that told it what to get from the core and how to interpret it. One burned; two good. But one of the connections was fried, so it didn't know how to look at the backup or the backup to the backup.

"That'll do it," she mumbled to herself, leaning forward a bit to get to the chips, and examining the first boot chip. She pulled it out, seeing it and the dual ODN connection was frayed but not severed, as she stood back up and turned it around in the light. "You can see the fracturing of the holographic information even without an imaging tool. You might be able to salvage the last thirty minutes or so of data on the chip if we send it back to the ship. Teela can take care of that."

She set it down and moved the primary backup chip into the boot slot and reset the system after replacing the ODN connection, a hardwire rather than a flex wire and closed it up. Within nanoseconds, the console restarted.

"Ah, the magic touch," she smiled, hands on her hips in satisfaction. "Now...where'd I put that transceiver..."

She took off her backpack and pulled out a small circular device, about 6" across and about 2" thick, set it on the console, and tapped the activation sequence. It paired instantly with the console. Before being assigned to the Tomcat, she'd done something very similar to steal some information from a thief near the Romulan Neutral Zone, deleting it from his core in the process, so this process, which would otherwise have taken at least 10-15 minutes to set up and get started took far less time, appearing quicker than otherwise.

"Okay....and here....we....go...." she said, emphasizing each word with a forceful tap of a button in the transmission sequence. She turned around and clapped her hands together quietly, "That's done. Give it about four minutes or so with all the data it needs to upload. It has two good leads to the remaining active systems here, including the black box core, so once that's done we can remove that tech and this console to try to limit further cultural contamination." She leaned against the console and crossed her arms, facing the group.

Lee was just amazed at how handy Taggert was with restoring what she would have deemed a very dead console. "It's great to have a talented engineer on the team. I would never have been able to restart a console like that." Lee then noticed a humming sound. "Do you hear that? It is coming from underneath this room."

Lee then started to look for a hatch or something to go to what may be a room under where they were.

Then she realized there was a panel under the very spot she was standing. She stepped aside and was able to open the panel to find storage space with a second console that was somehow activated from what Taggert did the main console.

Upon pulling out of the storage space and opening the device, a screen activated and started a video.

"Greetings, if you are seeing this then something terrible may have happened. I am Doctor Sherman Arlo, the lead of Observation Team Alpha. We were to be the first of three planned observation teams sent to this planet. When human life was discovered here so far away from any known human colonies and also to have no technology, the Federation wanted to observe it. I was one of eight members of the team. My team was doing wonderful work and we learned a lot from the natives. However, Doctor Davenport somehow slipped out of the observation post and got herself involved in the culture. Doctors Fowler and Jackson were young and so they felt they could make life work in this culture and having the easiest time learning the language, they slipped out to join the natives, yet they still did observation work and reported back to us. Over time, Doctor Davenport would attempt to send the locals to drive us out of our post but the defences we had were enough to hold them back for a few years."

"Then one day, the authorities arrived in what looked like riot gear and had tear gas and bully sticks. They knew our access code and were able to gain access to the inside. They killed Doctor Hopkins and took my wife and the rest. I hid in the storage space where you found this device. I am leaving this message in the hopes someone from the Federation finds it and can help us if it is not too late. Doctor Davenport is using our technology to advance her way into a seat of power in the culture on this planet. This planet has a unified government and all the smaller hamlets all still get orders and protection from the largest city. The largest city in Central Plexis and is about ten miles to the north along the river. I would say that at this point it is like 1970's Earth but the way Davenport is going technology will likely jump by a decade in a year or two. We have been here peacefully for ten years now and this happens. I need to go find my wife and the other and figure out what to do." Doctor Arlo's message ends and the console goes to a basic screen.

"Wow, that was interesting," Lee stated as she turned to look at Taggert and Cahill.

“Interesting is one way of putting it!” Lamia looked around. “No wonder this place is in such a shambles. This is cultural contamination at its worst!”

After watching the video Cahill made some notes and then spoke, "Change the security code on the blind. We can use it as a haven while here on the planet. Also, Taggert, check the defensive capabilities of the blind as well. And send a copy of this video back to Tomcat.

It appears we have a situation where the Observers violated the Prime Directive and we need to find them and stop them if we can. And help the ones that may want to leave if we can find them.

We have to be careful too, Dr. Davenport is dangerous to all of us and will be on the lookout for Starfleet personnel. She knows without contact, the Federation will send a ship to investigate. She may have sensors to alert her and the government of our arrival so be extra careful.

We will continue as planned to break into 3 teams. Everyone be careful and watch your backs. Let's leave out just before daylight to avoid detection.

Ted looked at the others in his team and nodded. He checked his hand again. The bird's peck had not broken the skin. Ted wondered why the thing did that. Maybe it had been teased by the inhabitants of this planet? Would this animosity towards humanoids. Be the same in the other animals here?

Hawksley reviewed Chief Taggart's dead console. A red lollipop in his mouth as Leland scanned the engineer signal maintenance data. “Good job, Chief!!” He was able to determine a fixed location on the nearby black box for the duck blind.

Hawk wore his cargo pants, steel-toed boots, carpenter’s belt holding an engineering tricorder and concealed phaser. A taser nestled into his bootleg, neatly in a wool sock. Leland’s engineering gear is in his backpack.

“Commander Cahill, Lt. Taggart. I located the in-ground black box. A 3.5 x 3.5 Ft cube. The box is located 4 miles away. It is encased in granite. It will be essential for the report as it has backups of everything, as you are aware Ma'am's."

Nicci took her access unit, a box about 5" by 3", and tapped a few commands before getting a confirmation tone. "Video being sent via subspace radio." She paused for a beat, adding, "Let's hope they don't have subspace yet," she quipped.

Hawksley zipped up his white fleece-lined Sherpa hoodie checked his phaser. "Let me go. I can use a microbore. 44 bit-phase drill for iodized bedrock. The camouflage is the bedrock. 14 minutes tops. All on record 4 miles away.” Hawksley stood ready for any orders.

Cahill responded, "let's get the backup to the Tomcat so they can review it. And get back here before it gets dark. I don't want anyone about after dark and getting caught or lost. Once we have it we will bed down here for the night and post guards to keep an eye out for problems.

They have K-9 type animals here too similar to the ones on earth. Use discretion if you encounter them."

This alarmed Ted. “It may be prudent to avoid these creatures altogether. If their sense of smell is as good as other canine species. They will pick us out in seconds as not natives of this world.” Ted warned.

"Oh. Joy," Taggert replied, deadpan. She pulled her backpack on and zipped up her jacket, covering it up. She'd gotten a threatening video message from an admiral about her appearance, so she was a bit sensitive about covering at the moment. "Once I check what's left of the defensive functions, we can go get the black box."

She walked around some debris on the floor and looked at one of the aft consoles. She pulled out an external wireless battery pack, so she could bypass the power conduit overloads that shorted out most consoles on the back. Taggert put it onto the wall near the opening, and pulled out one of the bypass cables, hooking it into the exposed power line. With a few taps and a few mumbles, she got the aft defensive systems subprocessor access station running. Nicci could feel a few eyes on her as she ran a few system checks.

She set her bag down, knelt and pulled off two separate panels under the wide console, and worked for several minutes, switching out conduits and ODN lines, removing the fried ones with others that were still intact. She got up and pulled off a few more wall panels.

"Hawksley, pull that processor bank," she said, glancing over her shoulder at him, and pointing at the grey rectangular box, about 12"x6"x4" in size, "and stick it under the defensive systems console. The unit there's fried. Same stuff, just a new box. If we can just remove the fried ODN lines and power conduits from this console system, we can get it back up and running. Luckily there are plenty of donors around the room."

The Engineer scanned the readouts on his tricorder. There were lots of distortions in the room, due to the fragmented drives and critical debris particles in the air. “Yes, Ma’am.” Hawk knelt, his large hands unlatching the two magnetic servo hatches, and lifted the manifold upward.

Flashing a bright handheld search in he located the processor bank and pulled it gently out of its carriage hold. He toggled the sensors, as the lighting showed the power lines on, as he scanned and slipped the power bank back in now for Taggart.

“Chief, Banks two and four are optimal.”

Ze looked around this was his first away mission and he was glad to be in the company of some of his good friends, he was walking behind Hawksley, his phaser out as he watched his teammates get to work, he knew most systems "If I can be of any assistance please let me know" He said taking point as people got to work.

"Give me just a few more seconds..." she said, as she tapped through a few systems, the display moving and altering its options under her expert touch. "And there. Okay, I had to skip past a few shorted systems, reallocate a few sub-processors, but I think we can keep the cloak, the shields, two very low stun phasers of the eight little emitters that have maybe four or five hits total between them, and if we're really good, the air conditioning. I can't do too much more than that with what's left and what we had to jury rig." She shrugged her shoulders at that last sentence. "I'm an engineer, not a miracle worker."

"Taggert, you are going above and beyond with your abilities. I for one am glad to have you on this team. You are always on top of your game." Lee replied. "I will miss the way this crew feels like a family when I have to go back to Starbase 51 after this mission."

Ted looked surprised.

“ I didn’t know you were leaving us?” He said “ I’ll miss you”

"Yes, I was only on loan to the Tomcat, but I will look to put in for a transfer as I have been enjoying my time on the ship," Lee replied to Silver's statement.

“Oh. I’ll miss you.” Silver said

Hawksley did not know Lieutenant Lee all that well. He started to recently since Lilli’s pregnancy. However, they had yet to begin appointments since it was early. “I hope you stay and remain on board. Lieutenant.” Hawksley nodded with a smile.

He turned to continue scanning the equipment for leftover traps of any kind anything out of place in the engineering components that was left.

Soon he would be leaving with the Tomcat’s sensor sweeps of the area, to the black box. The device held much storage and backup information. Nothing explaining the whole story, but at least evidence of what happened here.

Cahill moves quickly as Jackson collapses. After a brief scan, she smiles. "You will be ok Jackson you have Rigellian Flu. But you will be going back to the Tomcat and Sickbay. Tomcat, one to beam directly to Sickbay and be isolated for the time to recover." After a few minutes, Jackson is beamed back.

=/\= Sickbay to Doctor Cahill, Captain Jackson was received and will be isolated for treatment. =/\=

"Good thing, Dodd sent Ze down here to help us out. I think we will do good for this mission. This is my first real chance to see a past humanoid culture in the flesh as I typically deal with the data after the fact for most of my work." Lee stated after the message came in from the ship about Captain Jackson.

Cahill replied, "also remember pepper will mess with their sense of smell and so will rubbing alcohol. So we do have ways to protect ourselves from detection."

The away team prepared for a short night as they had to finalize the details to depart the outpost. The morning light would come all to quickly and the scouting party would need to return with the black box. They would all need to sleep in shifts to keep watch.

So as the night goes along all seems well. Then the sun arises and the scouting team returns and they present the black box to Taggert and Cahill to see about getting any data out of it. When they realized they can not get access to the box, Taggert then requests that it be beamed to the Tomcat. Dodd and the staff on the have better resources to get the data within the box. The teams then start to break into three smaller units.

Lee will lead Winchester, Kildare and Ze to find the leader who is developing the technology from Federation technology. Cahill will lead Taggert and Silver to search for technology that is Federation based and either neutralize it/destroy it/or remove it to the ship. Falk will lead Arderne and Hawksley with a similar mission as well as to look for possible survivors of the original observation team.

Lee noticed a small flock of dragonflies in the small marsh to just a few yards from the outpost. She noted that they looked like Terran Dragonflies only more iridescent/metallic in appearance but that could be how insects on this planet evolved as the light is slightly a different spectrum than Earth's.

The three smaller teams then departed the outpost and separated as they all headed at different departing angles toward Central Plexis.

[OFF]

Lieutenant Alexandra Lee [P: Dodd]
Anthropology/Archeology

Sergeant Major Chris 'Maverick' Kildare [P: Somers]
95th Demolitions

Lieutenant Lamia Arderne
Chief Counsellor

Lieutenant Commander Alexanderia Cahill
2XO/Chief Medical Officer

2nd Lieutenant Mazal Falk
Marine XO

Lieutenant (JG) Leland Hawksley
Deputy Chief of Engineering
USS Tomcat

Lieutenant (JG) Ted Silver
Deputy Chief Science Officer
USS Tomcat

Lieutenant Tosrol Ze
Chief Operations Officer
USS Tomcat

Captain Patrick Jackson
Marine Commanding Officer
USS Tomcat

 

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