To Explore Strange New Worlds III

Posted on Thu Mar 12th, 2020 @ 2:55pm by Captain Enalia Telvan & Commander Rita Paris & Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox & Lieutenant Commander Sonak
Edited on on Fri Mar 20th, 2020 @ 4:01pm

Mission: Dedjoy System Mystery
Location: Dedjoy System, Planet Primordius
Timeline: 2397

"Shhh... rest. Just... just rest, Flures." Captain Marnia DeVonis of the U.S.S. Turing said quietly. Though they were both in EVA suits, the middle-aged human captain ran her gloved head over the top of her Caitian Lieutenant's helmet. There was scorching across the Lieutenant's teal armor and he was weak. The sensors on their systems were utterly useless, but it was clear that something had broken inside the brown-furred feline when their shuttlecraft went down. "There was... something. I saw another ship. It went down over the lake, but that means Starfleet IS here, Lieutenant. They're here for US, so you hold on. You got our signal lit, so you hold on."

The weary Captain did her best to put strength behind her words as she looked up at the massive crystal outcropping of the planetoid, pulsing with a purple glow that her clever exobiologist figured out how to charge using the local bioluminescent plant life and some first aid supplies to create a chemically charged beacon that would function even in the energy-draining nature of this planetoid. But now, that light was beginning to dim. The biochemical power source was almost fully depleted and while DeVonis was not a religious woman, she found herself wondering if now would be a good time to start believing in something. In anything that would save her people.

At least, those that survived the crash, and the dangers of this strange and hostile world.

What she did not expect was the sudden appearance of a golden-armored woman crashing through the underbrush, with a blue-armored figure in a piggyback carry on her back, arms strap secured across her shoulders. Stopping short, the woman took in the situation at a glance. Then she eased down to one knee, to gently remove the EVA suited individual from her back and gingerly and reverently ease them down to the ground. Then she stood, stretching out her back as she did so.

“He ain’t heavy, he’s my husband. Hello, Captain DeVonis I presume? I’m Rita Paris, USS Hera. We’re here to help,” she explained, offering her hand to the beleaguered captain of the USS Turing with a smile that said everything was under control.

Standing up slowly, the caramel-skinned human woman in the crimson EVA armor blinked for a moment as she processed everything she had just seen and heard as she took the offered hand. "Yes. I'm Marnia DeVonis. This is Lieutenant Flures. The remainder of my party is at the base of the hill in the shelter we put together after the crash. The Hera? We lost contact with our own ship- is the Turing still out there?"

“Last I checked, aye, ma'am. She’s adrift in a decaying orbit, as she’s lost power. But there’s an away team who are probably over there right now, adjusting her shielding and getting her back online. I'm sure the crew have been resourceful enough to keep themselves alive while they waited for rescue. So while your shuttlecraft may be a loss, you haven’t lost your command, Captain.” Kneeling down by the ragged breathing Caitian, Paris frowned as she checked him over. “Mmmm… not good. How many survivors, and how many injured, ma’am?”

"Five alive. One injured. Myself, our pilot, Ensign Shing. Our doctor, Garcia. Lieutenant Ka'Tang and Flures here." the weary Captain said, lowering her head as she said the names. "The bulkhead in front of Flures here exploded when the shuttle went down, but we... we came up here and got that signal powered. We... had three security officers. When those... crystals... began eating the shuttle, they opened fire. Their phasers were... like a beacon. I'd never seen anything like it. The crystals grew through mid-air in an instant. Absorbed the beams and the officers. Enveloped them in moments."

"And... and our science officer. S'aked. Vulcan. He... doubled over in pain before we went down. He was next to Flures when the bulkhead went, he was blown out, and died on impact. Four dead." DeVonis said, taking a breath and collecting herself to resume the posture of a commanding officer. "What about your man? What happened? I saw your craft go down over the lake?"

Placing her hand on the captain's shoulder, Paris looked into the woman's eyes. The officer had been through a lot, and reliving the memories of those officers whose losses were still so fresh in her mind was there, in her red-rimmed and somewhat sunken sleep-deprived eyes. "I'm sorry about your losses, Captain. It's hard to press on in bad conditions, but you did an admirable job. We're gonna get you out of here, you and your people- our people have developed shielding against the energy-draining properties of the crystals, and they're working on getting us out of here. Thanks to your beacon there, I found you. Now they'll find me here, too. For what it's worth... good work, ma'am."

"Thank you..." DeVonis glanced at the rank markers on Rita's gold armor, "... Commander."

Then, having shaken off the momentary bout of emotion, the Turing's Captain was back in business-mode as she turned to look down at Sonak. "My suit's sensors are dead, but your officer's armor looks intact. Did he get injured in the...wait... he's Vulcan as well? What's wrong with him, Commander?"

"There is a powerful psychic energy output here that is assaulting his perceptions and thoughts. Given my observations thus far, I suspect it's the dark crystals. We were performing a survey run when we got hit by an energy wave of some sort. Even with the shielding, it drained our power, so I augered in for a landing while I still had power. It wasn't my best landing, but to be fair, I hit a mountain that wasn't supposed to be there." Hoisting Sonak up onto her shoulder again in a fireman's carry, Paris nodded to the injured officer. "Can you carry him, ma'am? If not, I can run Sonak down to the others and come back?"

"Psychic energy... that explains my own officer." DeVonis had a quizzical expression on her face, still a scientist even under the worst circumstances. "And I'm fine. I can get Flures just fine."

"The hell you can, Ca.. Gyyah..." The brown-furred Caitlin groaned as he tried sitting back up as he moaned in pain. Kneeling over, the Captain shushed her officer

"Stifle that, Lieutenant. Any more lip out of you and I'll put you on report for insubordination." DeVonis said with a grin as she gently lifted the surprisingly light feline officer. "Follow us, Commander. The shelter is small but serviceable and our doctor can look over your officer."

"Sonak is in a healing trance- it was the only way he could preserve himself and not let the psychic energy overwhelm me too," Paris explained. "For now, we have to let him sleep, so to speak. Waking him would expose him to the psychic energy here, and as remarkable as the Kolinahr's telepathy is, Promirdius seems to be a bit too much for psychic sensitives."

"Primordious? So Object: X33... whatever... has a name. Easier to remember, at least." DeVonis chuckled slightly as she logged the new information, carrying her Caitian Lieutenant carefully down the hillside. The surface was pitted with vines, roots and other twisting and winding plantlife like the rest of the unusual planetoid. "And it seems our best way, then, to cure what ails him is to get him away from this place. I'm... concerned. If these psionic... signals extend beyond the surface, I have a number of crewmembers from races that a sensitive to such things. Several more Vulcans, Deltans. Even a few of my human crewmembers have a high PSI rating from Starfleet. I hope they're not similarly affected."

“Sonak is… very experienced with such phenomenon,” Paris explained. “In order for it to overwhelm his defenses, it must be a signal of considerable power. He and I are bonded, so we share a psychic link, which he has all but shut down so I can keep moving and he can protect himself from what’s driven him into his own mind to protect himself. For now, all we can do is hope for the best and get him- and us- out of here.”

As the spoke, the officers came upon a clearing at the base of the hill where two Starfleet issue shelter tents had been constructed. Neither by itself was large enough to stand in, but combined, they would provide at least a stable base to function. From one of the tents, a young man in gold EVA armor came out, who appeared to be at least half-Klingon but with a soft, youthful face and nervous eyes. "Captain! You're back! Is... Is this... are we rescued?"

"Calm down Lieutenant Ka'Tang. Yes, Starfleet has sent a rescue ship, but we're not ready to evac just yet. It's your shift to man the beacon. Take Ensign Shing with you and you'll be relieved 4 hours. Maybe less, if we can get out of here sooner." The human Captain said as she set the injured Caitian down with a grunt inside the tent opening. As she did, the two young officers headed up the hill with a bag on their shoulders.

As they passed the extradimensional explorer noted the lack of weaponry between the officers- not that she had encountered and fauna or inset life, but that didn’t mean they were not out there, along with the threat of the dark crystals. Setting Sonak down gently, Paris called out to the two young officers. “Hey! Do either of you have any proficiency with bladed weapons?”
The half-Klingon hesitantly held up his hand. “Uh, I am proficient with blades, ma’am…?”

With a flick of her wrist, Paris produced a green metal scimitar out of nowhere into her hand. Notched near the point, the hilt appeared to be wrapped in a purple animal hide of some sort. Flipping it over to catch it by the flat of the blade, she offered the hilt to the junior officer who seemed as though he could use a bit of security right now. Arming those who felt helpless tended to do that, in Paris experience.

“It’s dangerous to go unarmed. Take this,” she offered with a smile. While his eyes were a bit wide, the young officer accepted the offered weapon, hefted it experimentally, then with a grin he nodded and moved to climb the hill with more purpose in his stride.

“You want to explain how you did that?” Captain DeVonis asked.

“It’s a long story,” Paris deflected, adding, “But, it looks like we do have time…”


-------------------------------


Twenty minutes ago, on the bridge of the Hera, the mood was tense as all the crew remaining on the mighty Starship could do was wait as it was too dangerous at the time to move any closer. Even with the enhanced shielding, they were taking no chances. Captain Telvan sat forward in her seat, watching the data readouts from both away teams. At the helm, Lieutenant Commander Dox was tapping her foot anxiously as she too was monitoring all the feeds, as was her habit. The red-headed Romulan seemed slightly more anxious than normal.

From the Opps position to Dox's left, the young Bajoran woman in crimson had a mildly concerned expression as a warning light came up on her screen. "C... Captain, we're getting a distress signal front he Curiosity."

"Open a channel," Enalia ordered, almost hitting the command herself on her chair before issuing the order.

Over the comm, came the collected but focused voice of Commander Rita Paris through a wall of pops and hisses. "Curiosity to H... *KKKKT* mayday, may... *KKKKT* ...re losing pow... *KKKKT* ...d our orb... *KKKKT* ...decay... *KKKKT* ...oing dow... *KKKKKKKKKKKT*" "

As the signal went dead, the Opps officer, Ensign Cance, turned back while Dox seemed to be absorbed with checking the data herself. "That's it, Captain. All telemetry from the Curiosity is blank. We're not even getting a transponder signal anymore. Too much interference from that surface effect."

"We are, however, picking up an emergency distress beacon that is making its way toward us at a very slow speed," came the voice of the science officer on duty on the bridge. "It is nearly in tractor beam range now, Captain."

"Lock on tractor as soon as you can. Even if you can't get a direct lock, if you can just get their momentum moving towards us, that's enough." The spotted Captain tapped at her own sensor feeds a moment before frowning. "Our comm relays would die after less than a minute with this power drain. We need alternative options."

From the helm, Dox was running her fingers across her console quickly, mouthing quietly to herself for a moment before turning around. The Romulan pilot's expression was a tense one as she pushed past her usual reluctance to speak up. "Captain. I've been looking over the telemetry and data feeds from the Thor, and we've been routing communication with Commander sh'Zoarhi's team through the runabout's shielded systems. That data feed has occasional dips and minor interruptions, but it's still connected."

"There's an... an old smuggler's trick to getting messages through nebulae and other areas of space with heavy interference. We use to use smaller ships at staggered distances to boost a stronger signal over shorter gaps. In this case, I believe that the Silver Banshee has her shields fitted for this situation." Dox winced slightly as she spoke, squinting one eye for just a moment before she continued. It was barely noticeable, but there nonetheless. "If we positioned the Banshee between the Hera and a point along Commander Paris' last flight path where her signal was clear... say, here..."

As she spoke, Dox forwarded the data she had been working up to the Captain's station, "...we might be able to get a signal through to the landing team. Open communication, at least."

"A trick I'm familiar with, but in the Artans we usually used unmanned escape pods," Enalia replied, taking note of the issues Dox was having. "If the Banshee is ready, have O'Dell go out and try to re-establish communications. As for the Turing and the Thor, I assume one of our remaining Cyclones have the necessary shield modifications and comm systems to act as a relay?"

"Both are already prepped, re-shielded and ready, Captain." Dox said, a little more confidently, as the Flight Deck was under her purview and she had made sure to prep for as many eventualities as she could foresee, making sure all the cyclones and support craft were properly shielded and prepared. "I would recommend piloted vehicles as the gravimetric fluctuations out there are unpredictable and need a pilot's touch to compensate for them, in my opinion."

The seasoned pilot understood the risks, but also felt it was the best chance of success for the overall mission. Tapping the comm panel on her console, Dox sent out the message to the highly skilled test pilot. "Dox to O'Dell. Suit up for extra-vehicular Silver Banshee maneuvers. Mission parameters are coming your way now."

On the R&D flight deck on Deck 3, O’Dell and Gavarus looked up from the hydraulic system they were currently looking to refine for a presentation to their chief, and nodded to one another. Tapping her comm badge, the minuscule Mariposian was already bounding toward the locker room. “Aye mum, I’ll be ready to deploy in four minutes.”

Four minutes covered the three minutes she would need to wrestle into her EVA armor, with the fourth getting locked into the Banshee, which Ensign Gavarus was already moving to prep for launch.


-----------------

Sitting by a small and sputtering campfire she’d built, Paris was working on projecting calm.

Yes, Sonak was in danger, and unconscious beside her. Not exactly the fun planetary exploration adventure that she had envisioned. But he was alive and hopefully he would be fine, so she had to trust in that. Just as she had to trust in the crew of the Hera to figure out how to rescue them… because they would.

Yes, her campfire sucked, but there wasn’t much oxygen in the atmosphere to foster a fire along, so she would take what she could get.

Yes, there was danger here, and she was certainly aware of it. But being an experienced adventurer, she had passed the time in an honored tradition. As she had told the story to Captain Devonis of how she had come to bear the Bracers of Hera, one story had led to the next, and soon all of the officers at the crash site encampment were trading stories of their careers in Starfleet.

“Which was when the delegate explained, ‘That’s no Gorn, that’s my wife!” Captain DeVonis finished, to peals of laughter of all around. The injured Caitian Lieutenant was drifting in an out of sleep while his Captain did her best to keep her mentally engaged with stories and jokes.

"So, Commander." The Turing's mistress asked across the fire, still smiling, but her mind clearly working. "You mentioned what you and your Science Officer hypothesized might have been an attempt at communication from... something here? Or here itself? Some sort of... mathematical regression sequence that you weren't able to follow up on before you crashed? I'm quite curious as to..."

But the human Captain's words were cut off by what might have been the most welcome sound in all the galaxy at the moment, at least to a group of stranded Starfleet officers: the gentle, if slightly skipping, chirrup of Rita's commbadge on the chest of her EVA armor.

“This is Commander Paris, go ahead?” the ancient astronaut replied with a smile.

“This is the Silver Banshee communications network with a long-distance call from the USS Hera. I have Captain Telvan on the line. Do ye accept the charges, mum?” came the rolling cheery brogue of one of the Hera’s more distinctive pilots, whose irreverent sense of humor brought a chuckle to the lips of the time-tossed traveler. While the signal was still crackling and somewhat broken, it was still strong enough to be received, and that was an improvement.

“By all means, Ensign O’Dell, don’t keep the Captain waiting- put her through,” Paris replied, then began speaking as if she had simply assumed that her order was being complied. “Captain, this is Paris. I’m on the surface. Mister Sonak is in a healing trance, as there is a powerful psychic energy output from the planetoid, which I believe may involve the dark crystals that are rather aggressively growing here. Captain DeVonis of the USS Turing and her four surviving shuttlecraft crew are here with us, and we are safe for the moment. What’s our status topside?”

"Telvan here. We've mounted a repair and rescue operation to the Turing and we're using the Banshee and cyclones as comm relays for now. We're going to do our best to evac you all, but in the meantime stay safe try to get as many scans as possible." There was a slight pause as the Trill captain thought of what more she could say. "Don't worry, we'll get you out of there. We might be able to cut through the drain enough to beam out most of you... But we'd only get one shot."

“Counterpoint, captain,” Paris replied, speaking frankly as the pirate queen turned Starfleet captain preferred. “It seems there is significant psychic activity going on down here. Has Yeoman Dedjoy made any progress on figuring out how to communicate with the crystals yet? Because it seems they are quite reactive, and I would hazard a guess to say that we may be encountering a crystalline life form here, possibly a colony or hivemind, maybe just a few million voices shouting, I’m not sure. But if we can communicate with them, maybe we could find out what they are about and convince them to turn it down long enough for us to leave?”

"That's her theory as well, but she hasn't found any patterns to start an analysis off of," Enalia replied. "We don't have enough data yet. If you have some close range scans that you can send us, I'm sure they'd go a long way."

“Such as they are, transmitting now,” Paris replied as she compacted her sensor logs from her EVA armor for the duration of the mission into a packet that could be more readily transmitted. “Plus you should have received my emergency beacon, which had all of the scan data we collected from the Curiosity- which I regret to inform you has been lost, ma’am. See if any of this helps her research along.”

"Curiosity can be replaced. You can't be. Receiving data now." There was a brief pause as the Trill captain watched the daisy-chained comm link relay the scan data, one eyebrow-raising as it unpacked itself at her end. "That's... going to shed a lot of light on things, I think. As for your beacon, we're still looking for it. It went silent right after you did."

"Rita... Stay safe down there, okay? I swear, we'll bring you all home even if I have to go get you myself. Okay?"

“Oh, you know me, Captain, I’ll be fine,” the adventurous astronaut declared. “But we do have some wounded officers down here who would really be excited to get off this ice cream cone, and Captain DeVonis is certainly worried about her ship. I know we’ll be seeing you soon.” The tone was casual, and while she pointed out the wounded, it was clear that Rita Paris had unshakable faith in the crew of the Hera, and in her captain. "How is the Turing mission going?"

You could literally hear the grin on the other end of the comm line as Enalia replied. "You're not supposed to be able to cold start an Oberth's warp reactor but Thex knows a few tricks. In about fifteen minutes, she'll have the Turing up and running with the shield mods and warp capable."

"Well that sounds just about perfect, Captain Telvan," Paris grinned in reply as she expressed her lack of panic. "We'll wait for your next signal, and we'll be ready to move. You'll find us by the bioluminescent beacon the Turing crew set up down here, quite ingenious. Sensor blind I might never have found them otherwise, and it should help you find us, too."

"Starfleet survival skills never cease to amaze," Enalia replied, not wanting to just end the transmission. "Miss O'Dell, if you would be so kind, please continue acting as a relay and monitoring the situation. We'll be up here working things from our side."

"By yuir command, Cap'n, Standin' by!" came the response over the comm, and Paris was bemused to hear the lilting brogue of the diminutive daredevil out there in the experimental craft, testing it under dangerous conditions.

"Not much to contribute from here, Captain, but we'll prep for evac on the surface," Paris reported, then opened the comm channel to Captain DeVonis. "All right Captain, what do you say we get your people up the hill to the beacon so we can get off this crazy planetoid and back to properly studying it. From a distance, with a starship..."

The weary Starship Captain stood up and dusted her Crimson EVA armor off with the kind of smile created by the seeds of hope as she turned towards her own officers. "You heard her, people. Pack up your trash. Let's get ready to go home."