Questions

Posted on Wed Apr 9th, 2025 @ 10:28pm by Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Lieutenant Sarah Wilson & Commander Jenna Ramthorne & Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Commander Dean House & Lieutenant Commander Sandra "Phantom" Risa & Lieutenant Commander Aurora Vali
Edited on on Wed Apr 9th, 2025 @ 10:34pm

1,243 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Masimal
Location: Sunfire

Captain Kaylen Rhenora eyed Dean as he mentioned the warning bouy, having not seen one as the ship slid into orbit.

"Do you have a copy of this warning message?" She asked without hesitation, not questioning his integrity but wanting to see the message for herself.

"Actually I do, I thought I sent it to you. It was just some anomaly that I noticed on the way here, about 3 light-years back." Dean leaned to pull it up and send it to Rhenora, "Was Gamma shift I was covering and bored so I looked into it."

Sandra stepped off the lift and stood near the helm console . She listened to the voices recognizing all of them. Keeping her eyes on the helm watching.

Aurora strolled onto the bridge, having settled her children at the onboard nursery she was puzzling over something she’d found hiding underneath the bed whilst cleaning up. It was a boy’s toy that she didn’t remember ever owning, it seemed somehow familiar but she couldn’t place it. Shaking it off she took her seat and concentrated on what was going on.

Savar observed Aurora as she came onto the bridge. It was clear (to him) that something was bothering her as her brow was furrowed in concentration. He made a mental note to speak to her about it later.

The message appeared on the viewscreen, in both visual and subtexts, the language cleared up by the universal translator. The being spoke hurriedly, speaking of a disease or a virus that was sweeping through the planet and incapacitating the population. The next portion was garbled, the ship's computer not finding any reference points to translate from. The message ended with a scream and the being running from something before turning black.

"Well that seems intense" Rhenora mused as she glanced around the bridge crew for their reactions.

"Thoughts?"

“It’s plain to see how terrified that being was, whatever this disease or virus it must either mutate people or do something else to make others so terrified that they run screaming.” Aurora shrugged her shoulders. “It could also be that it effects the mind making people run from what isn't there.”

"I concur with Aurora's initial analysis. I also believe a closer examination is called for. It may be this disease, or illness causes or impairs one's mental outlook and in doing so produces hallucinations as well as Aurora has already stated." Savar replied.

"If we're going down there I'd suggest full EV suits. At this point it's all speculation, so we have no idea what we're dealing with." Jenna piped in. Viruses and pandemic levels of fear were not something she wanted to tread lightly around.

"Before we go sending people down there we need more information. Run a full sensor sweep, check for all sources of viral and biological pathogens. Air quality, weather patterns, any planet wide socio-economic issues. I want the lot." Rhenora ordered, before sending a call through to the ships CMO to advise her of the situation.

"I would also run a sensor sweep of the water quality as well as animal life. Though unlikely one of the native animal species could be a factor in the spread of the disease." Savar spoke to Rhenora.

"Good idea, I'd like you to oversea the sensor data personally Commander" Rhenora replied seeing the bridge crew get to work. There was nothing like a new mystery for everyone to sink their teeth into.

"Certainly Captain. I shall be glad to." Savar answered. "The detailed sweeps will begin shortly, and I shall keep you informed of anything we find." He paused for a moment, then spoke again. "Perhaps as we begin our sweeps Aurora can gather more about what we are dealing with."

“I can certainly try.” Aurora nodded as she looked towards Savar and Rhenora. “I can try going through the message again, see if I can gleam anything else from it.”

"A most logical place to begin." Savar agreed. " Perhaps a reference in regard to this illness or maybe a starting point for it."

"Work with Sarah and see if you can dig up anything. There may be a clue in the atmosphere or something in the background of the message. Anything may give us a lead" Rhenora nodded.

Aurora nodded. “I’ll head down to sickbay right now.”

"Captain a word? If you are going to send a shuttle, why can it not scan the water and the atmosphere from a low fly over. I volunteer for the shuttle pilot", Sandy said calmly.

Listening from her station, Jenna had little to do while the ship maintained orbit on autopilot. She too would have liked the opportunity to do a low flyby, though until they had anything concrete to give reason, the transporters would have been sufficient.

Sitting in her chair, deep inside the Computer Core chamber, off of Main Engineering, Bonnie was not feeling like herself. After the shift, or whatever people were calling their 47 hour outage, she was having moments where things felt 'off'. The screen in front of her was currently idle, as she found herself staring at it once more.

"Earth to Bonnie." Snapped Jon, a maintenance engineer. "Hey, you feeling okay?"

She returned to the present, her head still in a fog. "I don't know, just having an off day." She omitted the fact that she woke up and her chest felt heavy, her hips slightly bulkier and how her mind was elsewhere. "Maybe I'll go see the Doc later."

Back on the bridge the crew were trying to seek everything they could from the sensors. This planet was warp capable so the Prime Directive didn't apply, yet something screamed caution in the Captain's mind. " Jenna, can you take us lower, just skim the atmosphere. Until we verify the air is safe no-one leaves the ship, even in a shuttle."

"Certainly." Jenna responded as she turned back and unlocked the auto-pilot. Her fingers entered a series of coordinates, vectors and a velocity she was comfortable skimming the atmosphere at before hovering over the engage button. "Ready." She knew Rhenora trusted her, but protocol demanded she wait for the order to be given.

"Go ahead Commander" the Captain ordered.

"Aye," Jenna replied, while pressing the engage button. "Entering the upper atmospheric layer in 10 seconds." The ship pressed forward and down towards the planets surface, leaving a particle trail as they began to skim the different thermal layers.

Sensors on full she began reading aloud the returned results. "Surface scans are being scattered below the cloud ceiling. There appears to be a patchy fog ranging in thickness across the majority of the surface. Visibility will be limited to less than a meter in spots. Initial scans suggest an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere with various trace elements, and..." She hesitated as she tried to understand the reading.

Savar turned as Jenna hesitated. What had the surface scans revealed?

"There appears to be some dust like particulate matter consistent with silicate but made of organic materials. The computer is having issues identifying what exactly it's made of." Jenna reported.

From his chair, Savar posed a question. "Commander Ramthorne, has the computer been able to determine what sort of organic matter? I should say separate the organic matter from the particle matter. if so, that could provide a clue."

"Please do" Rhenora instructed, sending the data they had collected straight to the science and medical labs.

TBC

 

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