First Planet Awaits

Posted on Tue Feb 4th, 2020 @ 8:51pm by Captain Gary Alexander & Lieutenant Commander Nicholas Kincaid & Lieutenant Ciara Perlit & Lieutenant JG Alexandra Campa & Lieutenant JG Serenity Hayes & Lieutenant JG Jennifer Bullock

3,195 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Mission 2 - Encounters of a First Kind
Location: L Class Planet
Timeline: 2168/07/27 1230

The planet was not much to look at. There was a light snow covering much of the better shuttle landing areas. Buildings stood in one area of the planet. They were all standing but many appeared to be on the verge of breaking.

Alex steered the shuttle towards a landing spot an easy walk from some of the buildings but not in their immediate vicinity. If she could, she put a small hill or a bit of plantlife between the shuttle and the nearest structure.

There was vegetation growing on the outskirts of what appeared to be some sort of settlement, based upon the buildings. Alex landed the shuttle just past a small rise that would make most of the walk towards the settlement downhill.

“Great work, Ms. Campa,” Nick told the pilot. “Alright everyone. Laser pistols set to stun. Just in case. Tricorders out.”

"Thank you, sir," Alex said, waiting for the rest of the party to disembark first.

When the crew got out, as noted from above, a light snow covered the ground. Most of the vegetation was trampled or wilted, probably due to the season rather than anything wrong with the plant life. Here and there, small tracks were visible, showing that there must be some sort of animal life out and about. Based on the number of tracks, though, it was probably very limited in this area, or at least avoided by the animals.

Ciara looked out at the ground and frowned. "I am not a fan of snow, never have been." She gave a small shrug and made sure her tricorder was ready to get all the scans that she could get.

As Serenity stepped down out of the shuttle, a snowflake landed on the tip of her nose and she smiled in delight. Having spent the majority of her childhood on board a ship, the natural world was a source of constant delight to her. She moved off to the side, allowing the others to disembark, while she looked about. She turned toward the buildings, blanketed in a light fall of snow, and waited impatiently to get there. Curiosity being an integral part of her basic DNA and all.

Nick finished getting his own kit ready and stepped out. It was cool out, but growing up on Mars gave him an appreciation for the cold.

Jenn stepped out of the shuttle. Typically she would only have had her laser pistol, but being on a new planet in a new galaxy or even a new universe, she had pulled one of the few laser rifles out of the armory. She set it to the heaviest stun possible not wanting to be short of punch if something needed a punch. She looked around and shrugged, "I really don't like cold."

Alex disembarked last after having thoroughly shut everything down and locked everything up. Despite the apparently abandoned settlement on an uninhabited planet, she was taking all the regulation security precautions. She set her laser pistol to stun and got out her tricorder as she came out. She had a feeling about this place. She wrinkled her nose a little as a booted foot settled into the snow. "The structures aren't far from here. It's mostly downhill after we crest the top of the rise."

“Let’s go,” Nick ordered. “Stay on your guard.”

From the distance, the crew could hear some musical notes of some sort of animal making a sound. Every once in awhile, the crew might see something scurry away out of the corner of their eyes but nothing approached the party. The moment that the crew reached the outskirts of the ruins, plant life stopped at what passed for some sort of pavement. No recent incursions of plant life were visible.

The settlement itself was not large. There seemed to be a central building that was surrounded by maybe a dozen others. Of those dozen other buildings, ten of them seemed to be smaller and dome-like.

Ciara sighed as she looked around. "Homes," she said softly. "That's what those ones look like. But zat bigger one maybe a town hall?" She was just making observations, the life of a scientist, and she could be completely wrong.

"Or a commercial center? The local noble's home?" Alex ventured. She wasn't a scientist but she was very curious about who these people had been and what they had been like.

"Until we know more, I am just throwing out guesses. It could be zat as well." Ciara was not enjoying the cold, but at least there were things here she was interested in otherwise.

"I can't wait to find out, ma'am," Alex replied enthusiastically. For the moment, just for the moment, she was almost forgetting about how lost and desperate they were as she got ready to explore a possibly extinct alien civilization in this far off galaxy.

“There might be more answers inside it regardless,” Nick remarked. “I don’t want to split up just yet. Let’s head towards it.”

The group headed onto the pavement. Looking at the structures close up, it was evident that a number of them seemed unstable; however, what was unusual is that the pavement leading up to the structures was smooth. In a number of locations by boundaries of them, the pavement seemed to buckle or be uprooted.

Serenity stopped by a section of sidewalk that was free of snow and knelt, running a tricorder over its surface. "Its heated," she said as she turned toward the XO. "Low level power lines running beneath the walkway are providing just enough heat to keep it clear." She angled the tricorder toward the structure and nodded as she read the scans. "Power is local, from the structure outward and ends at the intersections."

Jenn became more tactically alert by the information she heard, "Can you tell if the power source is manned or automated? It could give us a better indication as to any danger we may be in if we can tell if the power source is manned or not."

"Not a single life sign but our own," Ciara said as she double-checked the scans just to be sure.

Serenity nodded as she followed the power source. "Clearly automated," she said. "Probably reacts to ambient temperature." She approached one of the smaller buildings and focused for the moment on the sole entrance to the structure. "No visible locks," she mused as she brushed a thin layer of dirt off a flat panel to the right of the door. "Probably keyed to open to specific individuals."

"Probably not us," Nick observed wryly. "Override options? Can we pry the door? I'd rather not damage anything, but should take a look inside."

Serenity frowned in contemplation. "Well, security systems aren't intended to be breached easily from the outside, so it might take a degree of ... damage ... to get in but I can work on it. Course, we could also get lucky and one of the other buildings is already open." She set her kit on the ground and began a closer inspection of the mechanism, already caught up in the puzzle. "Just need a minute with this, Sir."

The locking mechanism was not overly sophisticated. It only took thirty seconds to override it. The door opened automatically. The interior was dark within. However, the party could see that near the entrance that the floor and foundation of the building were buckling.

Ci raised an eyebrow, watching the work. She was great at the science part but picking locks? That was far beyond her.

“Good work, Ser,” Nick said with a smile. “That floor looks unstable though. Nobody step on it until we can confirm it’s safe. Get scanning, team.” He wanted to go in and explore, but he couldn’t risk his life or that of the team.

Scans showed that the floor inside the room had been collapsed. There was evidence of a wide opening that ran underneath the structure from its center.

“Does anyone think they can safely climb down to the floor below?” Nick asked his team.

Below was not a floor, but a tunnel of sorts. Portions of what appeared to have once been the floor of the structure was scattered inside the tunnel.

"I can," Serenity said. She made sure that she had her gear with her than climbed over the side, and dropped until she was hanging by her fingertips. Taking a steadying breath, she dropped to the deck below, landing lightly on a large chunk of floor. It wobbled as she leapt to one side and brought out her tricorder to begin taking readings.

The tunnel was circular and its diameter stayed uniform throughout as it angled steeply at a 45 and then nearly 90 degree angle to what was the floor of the circular building. Some sort of organic residues remained on the walls of the tunnel in various locations.

Feeling very much like the canary that had once been brought down into a mineshaft, Serenity started moving slowly away from the opening. The sound of her boots striking the tunnel floor sounded loud in her ears; because she knew enough to stay away from the residue on the walls and not to step in anything, she kept to the center of the tunnel. The air down here felt heavier and more still, carrying with it an unfamiliar odor. But then, she thought, having grown up on ships, I'm not all that familiar with the natural world.

The floor quickly became nothing but dirt. Here and there, it seemed frozen, having given way to the natural elements of the planet, thaw becoming evident wherever the underground thermals must be near and still effective. There was no light down here and the further away that Serenity dared to go, the less that she could see ahead of her and the less that her crewmates could see her.

Watching Serenity carefully, Ciara wasn't sure if she liked where this was going. "You okay?" She couldn't help but ask. Were the rest of them going to follow?

Serenity walked back to the opening and looked up, hands on her hips. "Well, it's dark down here so .... either someone comes down or I'm coming back up. Feeling a bit like a canary in a mineshaft, you know?"

"I'm coming down," Nick called out. "I don't want us all down there though. One more volunteer, follow me down. The rest of you, keep exploring the surface. Check in every ten minutes, or whenever you find something interesting." He did the same thing Serenity did to drop down to the tunnel below. He withdrew a flashlight and began scanning the area, waiting for a third team member to join them.

"My tricorder is geared toward all things engineering but that looks like some kind of bio matter," she said as she gestured toward a section of wall that could be seen in the spill of light from above.

The organic matter seemed to be irregular in shapes and sizes. The coloring was purple. However, as Serenity and Nick moved further down the corridor, they could see the shape stayed uniform. Even further down, the corridor seemed to branch into several different directions.

Frowning, Ciara kept an eye on them for a moment longer before going with the others to look around the surface more. She wasn't a fan of leaving anyone behind, even if they were going to be right there.

With Nick and Serenity going down the tunnel, Ciara, Bullock, Campa, and Stanzel were left to their own devices, barring orders from Kincaid.

"Horizon to Away Team, please respond Commander." There was an underlying urgency in Talia's voice.

An old signal didn't necessarily mean that it was no longer needed. In fact, it might be needed more. If anyone understood the evolution of organisms to adapt to their present environments over long periods of time, it would be her.

Without waiting, she continued. "I've translated the signal, and am sending you the message now..." Her fingers trembled a little as she relayed it. And hoped to hell that someone on the surface was still alive to receive it. Or that she was simply overreacting. She wasn't easily rattled, but this? Yeah. This... was different.

Everyone's communicators rang out with the message, "Warning to all vessels. Beware of planet below. Danger to life. Stay away. Danger prisoners below. Do. Not. Land. Here."

Eyes going wide at the message playing, Ciara turned back towards the tunnel. "Commander! You'd better get back here!"

Having heard it from his own communicator, Nick shared a look with Serenity and agreed. "We're coming back now!" he called up to the others. He gestured up the rough path both had used to climb into the tunnel. "After you."

Nodding her agreement, Serenity began the climb, her footing sliding in the loose scree, as she sought the heaviest pieces of rubble.

Just as Serenity started to climb, both Serenity and Nick could hear a rumbling coming from further down the corridor. The rumbling noise, like dirt collapsing or being moved heavily was getting louder and closer at a rapid pace.

"Glad we secured the ship," Alex said almost to herself as she heard the message. She had had a funny feeling about this planet. She had started off to explore but had turned back to the building to check back in with Nick when she got the message. "Sir!" she exclaimed when she heard a distant sound. "Serenity!" she looked to Ciara and then back to the tunnel before taking a step forward to see if she'd be able to help.

Hearing the rumbling herself, Ciara knelt down and looked into the tunnel, trying to see how close everything was to the two that were in there. "I'd suggest running, fast!" Her accent was thicker than normal, but it was laced with panic as she saw how quickly the cave-in behind them was moving.

“Help us up!” Nick yelled as he and Serenity neared the top of the hole. The tunnel behind them was almost fully collapsed, but they were almost free.

Serenity started looking for something, anything, that could be stacked to help them bridge the last bit while the rumbling grew louder. Finding nothing, she tried jumping up but was too short to reach the ledge on her own.

Ciara knelt down and reached down, "Grab on!" She might not have a ton of strength but she hoped it would be enough to get them out of the tunnel.

Serenity grabbed Ciara's hand at the wrist and climbed up, using hand and foot holds as she went. Once topside, she reversed and laid down, extending her own hand together with Ciara to Nick. "Come on," she called out.

Nick grabbed Serenity’s arm and climbed up, allowing himself to be pulled up by Ser and Ci. Once his knees were secure on solid ground, he paused a moment to think. “Let’s get the hell out of here.

---

Jenn spoke up now still with the rest of the team, "Ok, that's enough for me. We need to get back to the ship and come back with a proper security detail. I do not like being on a prison planet in a new galaxy with so many important people. "

She took out her communicator and flipped it open, "Bullock to Kincaid. Sir, I have to insist we return to the ship and bring down a security detail."

Catching his breath, Nick answered his communicator. “Agreed, Lieutenant. Let’s rendezvous at the shuttle.”

Letting out a heavy sigh, Ciara nodded in agreement. "I am not a fan of anything down here."

"You herd the Xo. Every one to the shuttle. We will wait for the Xo's team there", Jenn commanded.

A few minutes later, the entire away team was reunited at the shuttlepod. “Alex, get us in the air as soon as you can.” He opened the hatch and gestured for his landing party to board before him.

Just as Alex opened the hatch, there was a great rumbling from underground and bursting out was a large purple tube with a great maw. It opened it and roared and unearthly screech. It bent its head and open mouth down at everyone. Rows of jagged, presumably, teeth showed on every bit of the circular maw. They all pointed in towards the opening of the the creature. It hesitated for a second, turning first towards the crew and then towards the shuttle.

“Shit!” exclaimed Nick. “No time to lose. If we’re not in the air in fifteen seconds we don’t leave! Jenn, get the lasers online and keep it off us once we’re airborne!”

Alex was running directly to the helm as fast as her legs could carry. Maybe a little faster. She might have torn something. Her hands were moving over them before she even strapped in.

Serenity ran flat out and scrambled up into the shuttle. She moved to the rear to make room for the others and waited, her lower lip caught between her teeth.

[Tag everyone who hasn't posted actually getting aboard yet]

Ciara eyed the creature, stunned that they didn't detect it earlier. She jumped into the shuttle and kicked on what systems she could as quickly as she could, gathering as much sensor data as possible.

The tubular creature rushed down and tried to grab Ciara. However, she escaped in the shuttle just as the large beast struck the opening of the floor. It reared up, screaming its fury at having missed its prey.

Alex lifted her hand from the door control. She'd slammed it shut just as Ciara jumped in a second ahead of the creature. "That's everyone!" she said, already lifting off.

Looking behind her, Ci sighed. "Too close," she mumbled, and kept working on the sensor readings.

Once again, the creature lunged. The door being closed, it latched onto one of the nacelles, effectively locking the shuttle in place.

Alex's first instinct was to increase thrust, careful, as always, of the pod's structural integrity. However, she was already working on plan B. "Commander, I could possibly reroute power to electrify the outer hull," she suggested.

“Brilliant! Do it!” Nick moved to her side and began helping to reroute the electricity.

"I'm going to time it to go along with a snap," she announced even as she worked her controls. "I'll decrease our pull and then suddenly put more power behind it at the same time we're shocking it. Might take it off guard." She finished preparing as soon as she finished talking. "No one touch the walls. Now!" and the shuttle lessened its pull only to power forward at the same time a jolt of electricity shot through the outer hull.

The electricity coursed through the shuttle hull, there was an unearthly wail of pain and the pressure on the nacelle released, but who knew for how long?

Even had Alex been inclined to wait around and find out, she had already committed herself to that burst of acceleration accompanying the shock. They were moving rapidly away and clear of the atmosphere.

 

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