Search Party
Posted on Sun Nov 17th, 2024 @ 9:16pm by Fleet Captain Maxwell Culver & Commander Lorut Vila & Lieutenant Commander Frasier Greene & Lieutenant S'Tera & Lieutenant JG Aurora House of Kor & Lieutenant Rowena "Rena" Campbell
2,521 words; about a 13 minute read
Mission:
Silver Rain
Location: UsS Intrepid - Various
Timeline: MD5: 0800 hours
Vila sat with the Senior staff in the Ready Room. Well. THEY sat, she paced. "CetOps has managed to get a full schematic of the planetary makeup and any areas of instability. Science and Engineering are working on a way to burrow in. How is that going?"
"I think we have something. If we set up the shields to resonate with the warp core on a specific frequency, we can slip past the barriers. That is until the change the frequency of the barrier but, it will work. I'm certain of it!" S'tera said.
Vila nodded at the CSO. "Excellent. Thank you, Lieutenant S'tera," she said. "Anyone else?"
Willard looked to S’tera curiously. “With millions of computational frequencies, and the fact that they are easily matched by our own, well quite frankly, it could take hours if we’re lucky, years if we are not.
“I don’t mean to tread on Lieutenant S’tera’s plan, Captain, but it sounds optimistic, at best. Engineering will be available to assist and perhaps Mister Xavier might be of assistance as well?” Lieutenant Willard suggested.
Vila nodded. "He's right," she said. "However, both ideas hold merit. Set up the shields, too," she said. "I want a search party prepped and ready in an hour. Lyo, pick four people-including yourself, so three others. Everyone else, prep your stations for red alerts. We won't be well received. Lyo, I can go, and you can take the bridge, if you'd rather."
’Like hell you will,’ Rylen thought cooly towards the Acting CO. Max was on that planet and though he hadn’t confirmed it telepathically, he somehow knew Max was alive. Rylen’s mouth was much more diplomatic than his mind however. “As you are Acting Captain, your place is on the bridge, Captain. I will lead the away team.
“Might I also recommend we utilize the runabout as a means of approach? It will present a smaller target for whatever weapons these X androids are using. We can adapt a module to insert the cetacean team without alerting the androids on the surface or putting the ship in danger.”
Vila nodded. "That makes sense," she said. "Ok, Lyo. Do that," she said. "Let's see what the CetOps team finds out, but...be ready to go within, say...twelve hours. I can't imagine it takes longer than that." Hopefully sooner.
“I can have a team prepped in two hours, the runabout module should take the same time. Lieutenant Tête, I’ll need two security officers who are rated to work with the Cetaceans.”
Rylen raised his hand to pause her quick response, he could feel how anxious she felt about joining the team. “However, you’ll need to stay here. You’re our most senior tactical officer and we still have no idea how these X models attacked a Lowell class starship so effectively.”
Greene found Vila's pacing to be distracting and didn't give her the air of authority she wanted to create. Commander Lyo too, appeared to have his own agenda the Doctor noted as the meeting started. Considering his rumored personal relationship with the Captain, Frasier understood how on edge his nerves may be and sympathised wondering how well he'd perform in a similar situation.
Sitting back, Wara felt the wind pushed out of her sails, to use a human idiom. “I’ll have Lieutenant Harel and Ensign Ordé assigned to your team then, Commander. Both have the efficiency with the Cetaceans and the environment.”
Lyo nodded. “I’ll also need Captain Jones to fly the runabout. He is our best pilot and has the best chances to get our team inserted.”
Scott looked up from where he’d been taking notes and hardened his jaw. Enough people had already not returned from this planet and he knew what he was about to say. “It’s a suicide mission, Commander. I’ll be ready in two hours or as ordered.”
Lyo looked at him sympathetically. “We keep the mission as quiet as we can. Silent insert, that includes talking. Make sure all staff and cetaceans remain silent before and after insert, understood. We need to give ourselves the best chance to get in and out safely.
“Now, let’s talk about our insert point. Where are we going in? Hopefully close to where we can breach this force field?” Rylen suggested.
"That's the idea," Vila said, settling back down. She was a bit calmer now, with a plan they were all onboard with. "Get the shuttle in as close as possible. Lieutenant Jones, I trust you can do it," she said.
Scott nodded at the Captain, his was the easy part.
"Get in and get the hell out as fast as you can." Jones was right, it probably WAS a suicide mission and she was miserable that she couldn't be a part of it, but she KNEW her place was at the CONN. It didn't help the regular feeling of failure that haunted her whole life, though. She felt responsible for her family's capture as a child, and for the failures in her marriage, and now...this.
Scott's steely tone sent a shiver down the Doctor's spine. It was oddly terrifying to hear the handsome and normally carefree man to show the cold military side of himself so willingly and accept the possibility of death openly.
Of course, it was something Frasier knew was on the cards, yet, he'd tried to ignore the brutality of the situation while the others continued to plan the extraction.
“I was under the impression the planet's ocean wasn't exceptionally large," Vila said. "The map that Science sent up is incorrect then?" She asked.
“Actually their ocean is as big as the combined Pacific Ocean and Arctic Oceans of Ancient Earth, with only jellyfish, and fish similar to Sailfish but with tentacles living in it,” Aurora spoke up.
Vila blinked. "Damn," she said. “Okay, thank you, Lieutenant,” she said.
“We know where our people are though, so we should look for the nearest ocean insert. Maybe something close to a river?” Lyo suggested.
Vila nodded. "That makes the most sense," she said. They could rendezvous with the CetOps team there. "Do it. Coordinate with whoever you need to. Take whatever resources necessary. I want a departmental list before you go," she said. If for no other reason than to alert next-of-kin when it all went south.
"If no one has anything further, we're all free to go," she said. She wanted to touch base with Fraiser to see if he was going or if he would send Gocx but she also didn't want to appear overeager.
“I want the runabout off this ship in two hours,” Rylen added. It would take nearly half of that just to prepare the runabout and its rear cetacean transport module.
The meeting broke up and the personnel left to begin their assigned tasks, Doctor Greene rose from his seat still mulling over the raised points. The knot of worry in his gut hadn't loosened even with Vila questioning gaze falling upon him.
Rylen stood in the shuttle bay as final attachments were made on the Runabout Ceres. He had major concerns about its ability to maneuver with the weight of the cetacean animals and water, but he’d been reassured that all the extra intertial dampers would smooth out their ride.
“Ready to fly this brick, boss,” Lieutenant Jones informed the Acting XO.
“We’re sure this thing will stand up to the stresses of planet fall?” Rylen asked, unsure still.
“Oh, she’ll hold up until insert. After that, getting out of the way will be easy.” Scott crossed his arms, he was fairly confident that what he was spinning to the XO was true.
“Alright, then we shouldn’t delay. Transport the animals in first, along with the water, obviously. I’ll be changing into my wetsuit and breather to join the aft compartment.
“And remember, no comms unless something has gone seriously wrong.”
=/\=How are things down there? Are you guys at the marked location yet?=/\=
“Acknowledged and affirmative,” Rylen answered. The water was cold on his face and through his hair. A singular dolphin pushed him through the water, but it was slow going against the current.
“It's a little colder than I like, but other than that, I'm...yyyeee!” Aurora gurgled as a SWARM of jellyfish literally appeared from nowhere, tangling Aurora in their tentacles!
“Ok...NOW we might have a problem! Kerna acral attabna ec!” (get them off of me!) Aurora frantically tried to disentangle the little creeps!
The whales tried to help, but small vs big was a very real thing in this instance!
=/\=Lieutenant, what's going on?=/\= Vila asked via Comms.
“The jellyfish are attacking me!” was what Aurora was TRYING to say, but a bunch of tentacles got into her mouth, causing the sentence to sound more like: "e ellie ish r acking e!"
=/\=Lieutenant?=/\= Frustrated, Vila turned to the science console. "Get a lock on her signal," she said. "Send it to my view screen, please," she said. "Commander. Get your team ready. We're going down now," she said. "Prepare to beam out in two minutes," she said. "GO."
The phasers were useless under water, their energy dispersed too quickly for them to hit their targets. “Negative,” Rylen said. Three of us are near the river’s delta. We have to keep going.”
Aurora struggled, only succeeding in tangling herself further!
The whales were swimming around Aurora trying to keep more of the monsters from getting to her.
“Th-they've got control chips!” Aurora started to gasp as some of the jellyfish's tentacles got sucked into her gills!
"Nnak ec tow ba reytal! (Hhelp me to the surface!)" Aurora's movements were becoming sluggish.
The whales swam faster, then with a "SWOOSH!" The threesome shot to the surface.
=/\=The rescue team will be there in twenty seconds!=/\= Vila said, then clicked off a moment. She tapped her Comms again.
“Medical, prep for incoming. Lieutenant Aurora. Jellyfish stings.”
=/\= Understood =/\= Greene's voice replied.
"Ops, beam back the damned whales, now!" She said. She tapped some buttons to open the CetOps pool before opening a channel.
"Science, report to the CetOps pool immediately," she said.
Gocx was the first to step out as they landed near the river's head. He reached in to grab the small Aquadian. "I've got you," the big, hulking Klingon said, pulling her up. "I'll beam back with her to Dr. Greene," he said, stepping back to the coordinates, and pressing a button on his Comms badge. The Medical transporter opened, and he was gone.
Aurora could hear Gocx talking, but she couldn't respond as her gills and throat were swollen almost shut.
The whales could be heard through the bulkheads, frantically attempting to contact Aurora.
--Sickbay--
"Easy, Aurora," the soft tone of Doctor Greene reassured the woman as she thrashed around on the bio bed in sickbay. "We've got you, you're safe now."
Aurora slowly stopped thrashing as Doctor Greene's voice broke the last 'barricade' that had formed when the jellyfish attacked.
The display over her bed quickly alerted the medical team to Aurora's condition and squealing with concern as she was approaching acute anaphylaxis
Greene quickly began to issue orders: "Blake, 10cc of epinephrine, Hughes, prepare dosages of antihistamines and
corticosteroids both in hypo and applicant."
"Easy, Aurora," he returned to his patient his tone again soothing and controlled despite the distractions. "Try to breathe evenly, I know it's hard right now but it will improve."
Aurora tried to slow her breathing, but it wasn't easy. Aurora could still hear the whale's plaintive cries, which in turn was hurting her.
"That's it, nice and slow," the Doctor encouraged as he pressed a filled hypo into the woman's neck. "This will help," he continued before administering a second to numb the pain from the stings. "Nice and steady."
Aurora's breathing slowly started to even out as the hypos worked their magic.
"Thth whales. Aare they ok?" Aurora asked, slowly opening her left eye.
"They've been returned to the ship," Frasier replied to her question. "I believe Lieutenant S'Tera is tending to them." He watched the vital on her biobed begin to stabilise as the medication took effect. "Once I've discharged you by all means go and see them for yourself, right now however please try to relax."
"Ththat's good. Ss'Tera's a good doctor," Aurora took a deep, relieved breath, finally able to relax.
--Cet Ops--
Hearing her page, she hurried to cet ops. S'tera was really worried about Aurora. She rushed in and said, "What happened?"
Rena was also in CetOps-she'd heard the whales' pleading cries and pain and had rushed down. "They were attacked. By jellyfish...I think," she said. She closed her eyes. *Ok, guys, calm down. I will get you help.* "They're in pain. Both have been stung. They saved Aurora." She said.
The whales moaned sadly, finally accepting that they couldn't be there there for Aurora as they swam over to the side of the tank so that they could be tended to.
Rena smiled lightly at the science crew that had gathered. "Do you need more?" she asked S'tera.
"I think this is fine. Having you here will help honey! The whales are worried about Aurora as well!"
Rena nodded. "Ok," she said, but moved out of the way so the animal team could work.
Vila clicked off and then sighed. She radioed down to Medical.
=/\=Keep me posted, Dr. Greene, Gocx. =/\= She clicked off and switched channels.
=/\= Understood =/\= Greene replied crisply before closing the channel
=/\=Lieutenant S'tera, status report.=/\=
"I'm in CetOps. I have a team here and we will tend to the whales."
Both whales opened their mouths, showing pieces of jellyfish as well as swollen tongues, gums, and cheeks.
Since jellyfish are on a whale's menu under normal circumstances, they'd not been hurt as badly as Aurora, but if one looked closer at these jellyfish, one would see they'd been modified as well as control chipped.
=/\=Aurora said something about control chips, Gocx said. I need you to get one of those up here ASAP. I don't care how. =/\= The Commander's voice said to S'Tera. What the HELL? Radio controlled jellyfish?! This, after the spider? She was going to lose what was left of her fragile sanity.
And then Vila opened one more channel.
=/\=Search team. Lieutenant Aurora is in medical. What's your status? Begin a security sweep. Remember. GET IN AND GET OUT.=/\=
She clicked off to wait for the staff to report back. As she did, some drum music played in the deepest recesses of her mind. She was in warrior mode now. Calm, assured, and prepared. Weird how the brain worked.
Commander Lyo heard the static that was now communications with Intrepid. Like the remaining crew of the USS Lovelace, he and the two security officers were now on their own. For the moment anyway.
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