Back to work
Posted on Sun Feb 23, 2020 @ 1:27pm by Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit & Major General Christopher Mitchell & Commander Cullen Walker & Lieutenant Commander Miguel Torres & Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Lieutenant Arashi Tanaka Mr. & Lieutenant Nicole Anderson & Lieutenant AJ Taggart & Lieutenant JG Aergad Halvor & Lieutenant JG Camille Lévesque PhD & Lieutenant JG Ardal King & Senior Chief Petty Officer Samantha Summers
2,783 words; about a 14 minute read
Mission:
Nibiru
Location: Niburu - Planet surface
The sun was high overhead as the away team worked to set up a base of operations. Temporary structures were being erected, while skilled security personnel set up field emitters to create a barrier to keep large, hungry things with big teeth from entering the base site. Additional sensors were being deployed as well, to give a warning should something approach the base perimeter.
The Captain was seated on a fallen pillar, studying scans taken from the shuttles as they came down to land. Movement caught her eye, and she looked down by her boot and frowned slightly. Leaning over, she reached down and picked up the source of the moment. A 16 inch long, gleaming black snake with a white ring located at the base of its skull. Narrow head with a blunt nose, the snake was not venomous and, unconcerned by being handled. It coiled it’s narrow, slender body around her hand, tail trailing along her wrist and turned to look at her, tongue flicking out curiously. “Yeah?” Kennit said softly, “well..thfffpt back at you.” She said, mimicking the snakes flicking tongue with her own. “You probably shouldn’t be here little beastie. Some of my crew might spot you and piss themselves..”
"Speaking for myself... I wouldn't piss myself. But I wouldn't be handling it the way you are." Torres told her as he walked up to her.
“Says you..” she answered in a drawl as she glanced over to the engineer. “Beastie here thinks he could send you scurrying..” she added.
"Beastie would be very wrong on that assumption. The fact is that if Beastie came within threat range, he or she would find themselves doing the best imitation of a Falcon 9 rocket trying to break atmosphere."
Camille spotted the Captain and the Chief Engineer and their new friend and squealed with delight. She slowly moved toward them, careful not to spook the gentle creature coiled around the Captain's arm. "He's beautiful," she said, adjusting her glasses on her face to see the snake's face in full focus. "Salut, mon petit."
Looking toward Camille, the Captain said, “How is the set up going? Do we need additional personnel from the ship to assist?”
"We're on schedule deploying our equipment," Camille explained, eyes still locked on the snake's. "We should be fully up and running inside an hour. The only thing I'm waiting on being brought down is the all-terrain vehicle, so we can begin scouting further beyond our camp."
King didn't make a sound until he came out of the brush, even though he had been bitten by some animal, and gored by something else. He came over to the case and put in DNA samples, for each one he said what they were. "Rabbit, male. Rabbit, female. Wolves, males. Wolves, female. Doe and Buck." He sat down and pulled a chunk of antler out of his side. "I'm going to sit here a bit. The buck got mean when it caught me with it's doe. Next time, I eat Bambi." Once he backed away from the wolves, more specifically their den and pops, they didn't give him any trouble. "In a few minutes, I'm going get me a sample of honey comb, since I don't have any issues with bee stings."
Maggie looked up from the specimen containers and turned. "I'm sorry, were you talking to--Jaysus!" she said, using her mother's favorite curse word as she saw the bleeding, science officer. "What in the name of Saint Eloy happened to you?"
King looked at her, "I was attempting to get a blood sample from a bird. I fell out of the tree. I rolled into a wolf den. While getting bitten, I got blood samples. These were bigger wolves than the ones on Earth. They quit attacking as I got further from their den. I washed myself in the river. I saw a Doe. I managed to get up to it without startling it and got a blood sample. I think the word is butted. Either way, a buck hit me with it's antlers. I deserve to go get honey." Because of the way his species had evolved, he healed quickly when there are no pollutants in the air.
Maggie quickly grabbed her medical kit and pulled out her tools. She sterilized the wounds as quickly as she could as the blood flow slowed, then moved to the gored hole. "You're going to need some work before that," she said. She pulled out a dermasealer and carefully moved it around the wound, electrodes snapping out to the flesh, stitching it together. "Sorry if this stings," she said.
King looked at her, "As soon as I could walk, carrying, push, and pull, I was in mines." As she probed deeper, he grinned at another crewmembers who shook their head as to tell him not to. He looked at Maggie and pretended to Howl in pain and flopped his leg.
Maggie squeaked in fright and jumped back, scared both of his claws and that she'd somehow caused him damage.
He laid down and fell off the rock. He laid there and played possum. He had seen a bigger human pretend a smaller human hurt him. He was attempting to do the same.
"I-I'm sorry...." she said, grabbing her tricorder and scanning him quickly. "Are-are you all right, Lieutenant?" she said, shakily.
He popped up quickly and laughed. "I'm sorry. I saw a human in security pretend a smaller human hurt him. Apparently, I failed at doing the same. No one else is laughing."
Maggie put her hand over her heart. "Well, Sir, I'm just glad you aren't hurt," she said, trying to save face and blushing hard.
King touched her free hand and was careful not to claw her. "I'm sorry." His eyes were amber gold, like an animal. He actually felt bad it wasn't as funny as he witnessed. He felt bad he scared her for real. "You are what they call 'Irish', like the Commander." He didn't know there was a difference between blood Irish and born Irish. "He doesn't speak like you." He genuinely wanted to know.
"Both sides of my family are from Ireland going back generations," Maggie said, gathering herself. "However I lost some of my accent since I left home. Kind of have to in order to pronounce compounds correctly. My boyfriend says it's 'only mildly magical' but he loves it when I swear in Gaelic; makes him laugh."
King looked at her. "He sounds a little like those films about the Ancient West. You sound a little like the films about Tiny Vulcans that do magic." He was using movies to differentiate between the types of Irish. "The series called Leprechaun was disturbing." He thought for a minute, "Better reference. There is an actor who was in Ancient West Movies. His name was John Wayne. You sound like the ones in The Quiet Man."
Maggie's eyebrows were up in confusion. "Thank you? Sir." She cleared her throat and scanned him quickly. "You'll need to be careful not to aggravate the wound for a day but you should be all right to move around."
King was still confused, "I still don't understand why two Irish can sound so different." He looked at her, "Not dealt with many of my species. We heal really well in clean environments." He motioned around. He started to get up on all fours. Humans confused him greatly.
(Tag)
AJ was sitting in the pilot's seat of the second of two shuttles with the callsign 'Sierra Alpha Two', covering the team on the ground. The first was on station elsewhere, indicated by a pulsing green light on his Heads Up Display. The back of the shuttle had been slightly converted to house two manned phaser cannons to provide quick suppressing fire if anything decided to twitch in their direction with the slightest hint of malice. There were also medical supplies and cots to set up a quick medical evac through the rear of the shuttle.
=A= Attention all ground units, Sierra Alphas are now on station at assigned coordinates and we are standing by. Sierra Alpha Two, Out. =A=
Nicole whistled shrilly at two crewmen who were pushing an antigrav cart with her medical equipment and beckoned them over. Engineers had just finished construction of a field medic station, and she wanted it up and running before anyone got attacked by any more fauna. She left Maggie to do an inventory check and began helping to set up the portable bioscanners behind the tables. The away teams were still beaming down, and Nicole had lost track of how many crewmen were planetside now. Half her medical staff was assisting the Science department in cataloging samples, and the other half were on standby with Nicole to handle any emergencies with only a skeleton crew back on board. Add to that the engineers and security officers scattered about, and she was supremely glad she'd opted for a full mobile surgical location.
She took a moment and glanced behind a divider into the surgical bay and grinned. Her oldest and newest member of her medical team was finishing setting up the surgical equipment and checking the mechanics. Nicole walked up and gave her a gentle punch in the shoulder. "Have I told you how good it is to see you in a blue uniform again?"
"Nine times so far," Penny said, smiling a bit as she finished her diagnostic.
"Well just to round it out, it's good to see you in blue again," Nicole said, leaning on the side of the table. "In fact, I was thinking--"
"Doctor Anderson?" a slightly high-pitched voice said from around the divider.
Nicole sighed and rubbed her nose. "In here," she said.
The blue-grey, smooth skin of a Benzite appeared as he poked his head around the barrier. "Ah! There you are, Doctor! I've been inspecting the medical equipment you're having the exploration teams carry, and I have some--"
"Suggestions," Nicole said in unison with him.
"Yes!" he said, happily. "It occurred to me--"
"Doctor," Nicole said, holding up a hand. "I believe we discussed this already. What are you to do when you have these flashes of inspiration during this mission?"
He thought for a moment, then shoved all of his ever-so-important pressing matters aside to recall their conversation. "Ah, yes," he said. "Double check if my idea has merit, right down every detail, and then go over them with the Captain during our excursions for authorization."
"That's right," Nicole said, smiling. "Now, have you also inspected the new field kits as I asked?"
"Yes, Doctor," he said.
"Do they meet your critical eye?" she said.
"They may be a bit heavier than we're used to carrying, but they should have more than enough to handle most medical emergencies in several terrains," he said.
"Excellent," Nicole said. "Report to the Captain once she's ready to deploy."
"Yes, Doctor," he said. He retrieved a padd from their supplies and began making his notes as he left the structure.
Penny tilted her head in thought. "Is your goal just to piss off the Captain, or do you consider that to be a bonus?"
Nicole shrugged. "I have to collect dinosaur spit. Why should I be the only one to suffer?"
"There is a 78-percent chance the Captain will attempt to retaliate in kind," Penny warned. "Most likely she'll--"
They paused as their sensitive ears picked up a commotion outside, they put their things down and went out to investigate.
T'Mira had been helping with equipment all day. She had been hoping to get some rest when she'd come across the Captain holding...what T'Mira thought of as her mortal enemy. She pulled out a phaser. "Captain! Stand still I think I can disintegrate it."
Arashi looked at the snake and it reminded him of the garter snakes that he would find occasionally in the garden at home. Arashi had been helping set up the temporary facility when he saw T'Mira pull a phaser on the snake that the captain was holding. The snake was harmless and he had to tell T'Mira that. "T'Mira, stand down! That snake isn't harming the captain!" He said grabbing the phaser and pointing the barrel down toward the ground.
“What is wrong with you...” the Captain asked, her voice quiet and yet, quite resonant with ire. “This creature is harmless.”
Walker watched the situation. It wasn't often that a Vulcan reacted to fear. He grabbed a bio container and offered it to the Captain to put the snake in. This Vulcan was his kin, he wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt.
King pushed himself from a sitting position to a standing position. He ran scan on the Captain and the snake. He ran a scan on T'Mira. He was a scientist and covering his bases.
T'Mira reluctantly put away her phaser. "It is a vile creature on any planet." Vulcan had them too but they were bigger and their poison didn't kill you but it made you wish it had. She'd been bitten and this creature was one where she showed no mercy. "Until we know how 'harmless' it is I suggest keeping it locked up. If you wish to dispose of it I shall oblige."
"Talking about me behind my back?" Nicole said dryly as she and Penny approached. She eyed T'Mira critically, brow furrowing. "Lieutenant, perhaps we should discuss this back at my station."
Penny had her head tilted in interest, trying to analyze the situation. Vulcans didn't react that way normally to something as mild as a snake. Then again, Vulcans were not immune to phobias, but without direct evaluation she couldn't be sure. That or she was finally being influenced by humans around her.
Camille looked over to T'Mira and raised an eyebrow. She was also surprised to hear her Vulcan friend's reaction. "Capitaine, may I hold it, please?" Her eyes were wide as she gently held her arm, palm up, towards Kennit.
The Captain shook her head, not relinquishing the small reptile. She intended to release it in a safer locale than here in the midst of the camp.
T'Mira stepped back. "I shall scout around to ensure that there are no threats." She stepped back again knowing that Camille stood too close to her and if she picked up the creature it too would be close. She picked up a tricorder and headed towards the forest.
Nicole sighed wearily. "Ka-zahal-tor" she said, looking at Penny. "Try to keep her from shooting any over-sized worms."
Penny nodded and took off after T'Mira.
Camille pouted at the Captain but then smiled. “I guess I’ll find my own friends on the planet then.” She looked around. “Sérieusement, where is that vehicle? I need to get into the field.”
“Most likely still on the cargo shuttle waiting for someone to move it.” The Captain commented, her attention still on the snake which continued to appear quite content to be held as it rested in her light grasp.
Kennit rose from her seat, looked up toward Torres and said “Enough dilly-dally. Let’s get back to that temple complex and see what it’s hiding..”. She set out walking toward the temple visible in the distance, snapping her fingers and waving for Torres and the other officers tasked with working at the temple to follow.
Nicole sighed. "And that's my cue to round up the fauna brigade." She gave Camille a peck and turned back to the hospital. "All right! Teams Gamma! Delta! Epsilon! Let's suit up!" she shouted as she walked back to the medical staff.
King stood up when called. He looked at Anderson, "Doc, you want me on perimeter or with the group?" His voice was almost a grumble, but he did his best with human language.
"Aye, aye." Torres said as he grabbed his backpack and put it on as he followed the Captain.
Camille prepared her equipment and followed Nicole out. In this moment the CMO was her superior officer and she'd be ready to follow instructions. But inwardly she squealed with joy. She was going to collect biosamples from a T. rex!
TBC in separate posts.
OOC Camille: I made reference to the all-terrain vehicle. I'm personally imagining the Argo from Nemesis in terms of scale but....better designed lol. A windshield, for example, would be useful. Anyone want to bring it to the camp? :P
Torres: How's this
Mini-gun is optional.
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