PLOT - Joint Duty Log - LtCmdr Waterhouse, Cmdr PontBrillant, Ensign Maxwell & PO2 Rayya - "By Murk Sunset and By Foul Sunrise"

Posted on Mon Sep 22nd, 2014 @ 11:55pm by Commander Amelia Waterhouse & Vlimar PontBrillant & Ensign Robyn Maxwell & Petty Officer 2nd Class Rael Rayya

2,911 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Are You Touched?

-=/\=- BEGIN AWAY MISSION LOG -=/\=-

"Waterhouse to PontBrillant, Maxwell, and Rayya." Across the ship three combadges chirped for attention. Amelia continued without waiting for a response. "Please meet me in transporter room two, prepared for an away mission. Distress call response, search and rescue." She tapped her badge to close the channel. If any of them had questions, they could get back to her, but she trusted they all knew the drill.

Rael was in his new shared quarters when he got the call. He still had his bag set-up like a Marine — minus a few things that he no longer had access to. Making sure his Ka-Bar was strapped to his left thigh, he looked over to his personal Marine Phaser Assault Rifle. Swinging his bag over his shoulder, he quickly made his way to transporter room two.

"Commander," Rael said with a slight nod of his head as he arrived.

Amelia eyed the Marine turned scientist as he entered the transporter room, evaluating the state he arrived. He looked prepared, but she expected as much given his Marine training. She wasn't expecting anything too difficult with this away mission, so she hoped it would give her a good chance to see how he was going to function on the navel side of things. She returned his nod.

As Rael waited, he checked his bag to make sure the two 'Little Big Sound Probes' were safe and secure, he figured with this being a search and rescue operation they might as well try using them again. After making sure they were intact, he started checking the PaDD to make sure it was connected and all in working order.

Robyn had just arrived on Deck 3 and was four steps away from the turbolift, the doors closing behind her when her combadge 'chirruped' The resulting message sent her running into the main sickbay where a surprised nurse saw the young doctor grab a MedCase from the 'Emergency' Locker before racing off again.
"Away Mission Distress Call Responce." Robyn said as she had hoisted the case onto her shoulder and grabbed a tricorder knowingthat the nurse would relay the situation to the CMO even though he would know of it himself.

For his part, Vlimar was sitting in the Chief of Security Office, reading over details of the approaching planet, expecting to be called in for an away team. As the Strategic Operations Commander, he took over the supervision of the Security Department — it was pretty much half of the job description. As he heard Amelia's voice he stood, shut off his PADD, and left his office, heading towards the door of the department.

As he approached the door, a young Ensign approached him with a duffel bag on each shoulder shoulder. "Ready sir?" she asked the Commander.

"Yes, Ensign. Follow me please," he directed, as he lead the way into the turbo lift.

Amelia looked up as the doors into the transporter room opened.

Vlimar stepped out of the lift, immediately followed by the young female Ensign. He was now carrying his own duffel bag, nodding to Amelia. "Commander," he stated, as a greeting.

"Commander," she returned, biting back the urge to smile at him. They were on duty, about to head on an away mission. Focus. "We're just waiting for Ensign Maxwell, from medical."

The words were hardly spoken before Robyn too joined the waiting group and almost parrot like, repeated the greeting to the XO.

Vlimar nodded to Robyn as she entered the room. The Security Ensign, named Ensign Sørensen, remained motionless by the side of her boss, carrying her duffel bag, visibly impressed by the brass present. It was her first time in the presence of the XO.

Amelia looked at the group assembled, all prepped and ready to go. She couldn't help a proud smile. "Thank you everyone for your prompt response," she said as she moved to the transporter pad. "The downed ship is of Civilian Federation registry, so I want everyone on their toes." When everyone joined her on the pad, she nodded to the crewman at the transporter controls.

The transporter room faded from view with a shimmer and a whine, replaced by a lush jungle. The team was in the middle of a trough of raw exposed dirt, sunlight pouring down from above between broken limbs of the surrounding trees. Lush ferns, bushes, and flowers spilled over the edges of the disturbed ground. The debris pointed to the left of the team, leading to a small space craft that had vines, moss, and a large branch laying on top of it.

Vlimar looked around and immediately began advancing, slowly, towards the craft. Signaling Ensign Sørensen to take the left side of the craft, Vlimar slowly moved into a contact position to the right of the vessel, where a door was visible. Vlimar signaled the rest of the crew to provide support, if needed, as he reached for the door.

Amelia made eye contact with Rayya, signaling for him to keep an eye on the surrounding area. As she checked her phaser to make sure it was on stun — as she recalled it to be from earlier checks on the ship — she made eye contact with Maxwell, as if to confirm the woman would stay close. She moved closer to Vlimar and Sørensen, eyes open for any movement.

It would take a while to become accustomed to the heat but for now, Robyn's thought was solely on the matter in hand. She felt acutely aware of her own inexperience for this was her first time on an away team.

Her tricorder was on standby and she held it firmly as she followed the XO, also keeping an eye on the surroundings. There was a scent in the air that she didn't know,it was sickly sweet and rather unpleasant.

Rael pulled out one of the 'Little Big Sound' probes, activating it along with the wrist tricorder, he sent the probe out. It would alert him if anything that moved within the preset area it would travel. Giving the commander a slight nod, he brought up his custom Marine Phaser Assault Rifle and took up a defensive stance.

As Vlimar approached the door, moving around the tall, unkempt weeds, he noticed multiple bottles, scattered on the ground, empty. A quick inspection of the bottle revealed they seem, at some point, to have contained rum. A quick kick on one of them show that the bottle was actually opened by a sliding object and its content were drained. The half ajar door showed the inside of the shuttle, where various items could been seen from the outside. Carefully, the Commander peeked inside the remains of the vessel, noticing an open med kit, laying on top of an half-ripped seat. The seat harnesses were hanging from the seats, clearly had been used and unbuckled in a hurry.

"Empty, going in," he shouted, signaling a "come" movement with his hand. The Commander opened the door fully, displacing tree branches in the process, as a small rodent-like animal ran out of the shuttle in between Vlimar's feet. As he entered the resting agglomeration of material, he stepped onto something soft, textile. He removed his foot and noticed a pirate hat, laying there soaked in rum. Inside the vessel, a significant amount of ropes were seen hanging from the harnesses, as if people tried to secure themselves onto the harnesses. To Vlimar, it meant that there were more people than safety harnesses inside the shuttle. As his hand rubbed along the hanging ropes, he looked at a knot that was tied to a harness. It was a well-done, perfectly formed bowline knot. A knot that is relatively easy to accomplish in a controlled environment, but not so easy in a imminent crash situation, with the stress and the movement of a vessel. As he continued to inspect the ropes, he noticed that ropes were often tied together to create longer ropes and loops, using either the Tiller's Hitch knot or the Carrick Bend knot, both known naval knots, all well formed and shaped.

Amelia moved in close, turning around outside the door, to give the tree line another look before following Vlimar inside. She picked up the hat from the floor, and raised it under her nose. She recognized the spice mix in this rum... it couldn't be his, could it? She shook her head, looking to the inside of the hat. It didn't bear the mark she expected, and Amelia was filled with a mix of relief and disappointment.

"Are the computers operational?" she asked, glancing at them to try to answer the question herself, even as she hoped that Vlimar had an answer for her. The screens flickered.

Upon hearing the question, Vliamr put his hands on a monitor, on the side of the shuttle. Noticing the monitor come to light, he nodded. "It seems it is still functional, yes," he replied, tapping on the monitor, trying to find any information on what happened.

Amelia moved up behind Vlimar, laying a hand gently on his shoulder as she leaned in to look. The system log was easily found, but between a combination of the vagueness of a civilian system and some data loss from damage due to the crash, the picture it painted was spotty at best. There had been a navigation error, the ship had found itself within the gravitational pull of this planet. The angle of entry had been all wrong, and the thrusters had been overloaded attempting to escape to space again.

"I wonder where the crew went?" she mused, looking up from the screen to look around at the harnesses, rope, and the empty crates that tumbled from a stack in the corner, looking to have been cut from the straps that'd held them in place. She finally removed her hand from Vlimar's shoulder as she moved to look at the crates. "Is there a crew manifest?"

Vlimar looked through the monitor, accessing library files, most of them either corrupted or simply missing. After a few minutes of typing, swiping, and French swears, a file, likely insignificant and of a very small size opened. A text-based file, basically. As he opened the file, he began to read. "I think I got something," he stated. While scrolling, he began to shake his head. "There are a lot of people," he stated, obviously having found the manifest. Without waiting, Vlimar began to read names out loud: "Victor Lanus, Maria Tanake, Shino Ismail Younes, MacKenzie King, Noah Waterhouse..." he stated, stopping at the last name, looking back at Amelia.

Amelia had poked at the crates as Vlimar fought with the computer. For her troubles, she only found one empty box that looked like it had previously had noodles in it, and a plush fish. As the names escaped his lips, Amelia only half paid attention until the name she'd been both hoping for and dreading came up. She'd half hoped Vlimar would have just kept going, ignoring her brother's name, but she knew he was too smart for that. A string of curses slid from her lips, dancing from Klingon to Andorian to Orion, detouring through one of the French words that had come from his lips while fighting with the computer. The universal translator had been kind enough to give her enough of an idea what it meant, that she could string it with the others well enough to maintain her prose, and she managed to parrot it fairly accurately.

Her eyes met Vlimar's, and her string of curses died on her lips. She sighed softly. "This must have been one of my brother's missionary boats. I guess this means I'll be calling my parents when we get back to Vindi, I hope with good news."

Outside, Rayya's wrist tricorder chirped at him, showing a match for multiple humanoid heartbeats.

"Ensign, set your tricorder's frequency to .004 and tell me what you're seeing?" Rael said looking at his, slightly confused about what he was looking at. Lowering his weapon, he pulled out the second 'Little Big Sound' probe and launched it, hoping the second one would increase the amount of data they would get.

Robyn set the frequency he had stated, a moment later she said "Oh" in a tone of surprise, looking up as she did so in a direction ahead and to the left of them.
Nothing could be seen except a tangle of lush vegetation with vines falling from the trees.
"Multiple lifesigns...in excess of twenty." she said checking the tricorder and looking up again.

As the second Little Big Sound Probe joined the first in the canopy of the surrounding jungle, the locations started to become more clear. The heart beat patterns the probes picked up were matching characteristics of humanoids, but much smaller than would be expected of the average federation citizen. The tricorder on Rayya's wrist, using the software designed for the probes estimated life forms in the size range of four foot tall, slight build. They were spread out around the area of the ship and it's crash path, mostly focused in the direction Robyn looked.

"We're surrounded." Rael said, lifting his weapon again, "Ensign, move towards the ship and let the commander know what's going on. No sudden or fast movements, okay?"

When the team had landed, there had been a symphony of soft noise surrounding them: insects, small animals, and wind through the trees and bushes. Now everything fell silent except for the wind.

"Okay," Robyn lowered her tricorder and trying not to look hurried began to cross the short distance to the open doorway and darkness beyond.

She reached her target without incident and again, wishing to appear unconcerned, resisted the temptation to look back. Instead she stepped inside and immediately said. "Commander?"

Amelia broke eye contact with Vlimar, and turned to Ensign Maxwell. "Yes?"

"Tricorders and probes show multiple lifesigns surrounding the ship." she said."Twenty at least, accurate number unknown."

"Probes? Did Rayya bring those Little Big Sound Probes?" Amelia made a face as she considered the situation. She moved towards the door, looking over her shoulder at Vlimar as she moved past Ensign Maxwell. "Any visual on the life signs? Not human I'm guessing from the reaction?" She waited at the door, listening to what was happening.

Outside screeching and clicking started to filter through the trees to the team.

"Ensign, what's going on your end?" Rael said using his com, deciding that yelling wasn't the best route of communication at this time.

Vlimar put his hand on Amelia's shoulder, in a firm way. It was obviously his was to order Amelia to wait, as it was his job to initiate contact as head of Security. He motioned to Sørensen to take position on the left, drawing their phaser rifles from their duffel bags. He began signaling to the other officers to regroup behind them, as he reached in his duffel bag, pulling out portable shield generators, signaling to the other security officer to do the same. Within seconds, the temporary shield appeared, humming, as Vlimar lowered his weapon. He looked back at Amelia. "You want to do the call?" he asked.

Stealing a quick glance at the tricorder Maxwell held open, to see where most of the life signs were grouped, Amelia moved towards the edge of the shield in that direction. "Greetings. I am Amelia Waterhouse, executive officer of the Starfleet vessel Vindicator. We come in peace."

In response, the screeching and clicking fell silent. In front of Amelia, a fern rustled, and soon after was pushed aside. From behind it a slender humanoid stepped out. Its skin a dark mottled green, eyes large silver orbs with cat-like slit pupils, and its mouth large. It stayed half behind the fern, as if this could provide it some measure of protection, and stared silently at the group. All around them, other plants moved, but no one else appeared.

Vlimar signaled the other security officer to lower her weapon completely, as the humanoid in front of them appeared unarmed and not aggressive. He approached Amelia, to offer close proximity support, in case things turned sour.

Keeping his rifle raised, Rael slowly and carefully walked backwards. Even with the shield up, he still felt overwhelmed, but being surrounded always gave him that feeling, mind you it didn't happen all that often.

Robyn looked at the creature with a degree of uncertainty simply because of the situation and her ignorance of it's kind. She felt herself under scrutiny and breaking her attention from the figure, scanned the vegetation but saw nothing but the tangled undergrowth.

Finally, it opened its mouth, revealing twin rows of sharp teeth. The screeching and clicking that had been heard before started again, at first only coming from him, but soon coming from all around. Amelia flicked at her combadge, as if this would help the universal translator, and looked at the rest of the party as more of these beings started looking out from the plant matter that surrounded the crash site. She stepped back from the edge of the shield towards the rest of the team.

=/\= TO BE CONTINUED =/\=

Lt Commander Amelia Waterhouse
Executive Officer
USS Vindicator

Commander Vlimar PontBrillant
Strategic Operations Commander
USS Vindicator

Ensign Robyn Maxwell
Medical Officer
USS Vindicator

Petty Officer 2nd Class Rael Rayya
Science Mate Second Class
USS Vindicator

 

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