Inside the Asteroid (part 5)

Posted on Fri Sep 22nd, 2017 @ 9:31pm by Sevena t'Dhvael & Lieutenant Commander Mira Jayde & Lieutenant Commander Velah & Lieutenant JG Élan Val & Lieutenant Tristan Balor & Lieutenant JG Miko Sato & Ensign Leslie Gallant III & Master Chief Petty Officer Liang Shao
Edited on on Fri Sep 22nd, 2017 @ 9:33pm

1,759 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: The Genesis Legacy

[CONTINUED]

[OLD]

Miko watched as Commander Velah was beamed away with the slightly hysterical Romulan, a sight she had to admit that she didn’t ever expect to see. With the chief medical officer gone, the Japanese woman realized that she was the team’s resident medical officer, which could be a bad thing if one of the asteroid’s residents decided to figure out if one of the Starfleet officers could be a tasty snack.

[NEW]

=======

[Runabout]

Gallant was at the Copilot's station as the two ladies materialized.

"Just give me a second to run you through the filters and make sure you are clear." He ran a quick scan and then smiled. "Welcome back ladies, the tour over so soon?"

"Spiders," Sevena managed to stammer as she made her way to her gear. Opening her pack, she pulled out a flask and opened it, draining half of the Romulan ale inside in a single gulp. Taking a deep breath, she sat down in a seat and sighed. "Ok, I'm done. Whatever is down there, it can bloody well stay there."

Velah walk over and sat next to the Romulan." There enough for two?" Velah said. "Romulan spiders and a dead body; that is easy math?"

Sevena wordlessly handed over her flask and once she felt that her hands were no longer shaking she shuddered. "I fell into a nest of Rhrenark spiders when I was very young," she said quietly. "Three men were eaten alive trying to rescue me. I've never been able to conquer this weakness."

Velah took the flask and downed a good snoot full, only enough to get a good taste of the quality before she passed it back. "It is okay to be scared of something after a trauma." Velah said as she leaned against the Romulan. "We are all scared of something for a good reason from our point of view. Near death and having others ..." She remembered some of her own past on other ships. "others die instead of us really weighs in heavy on the freak out department." She tried to look the woman in the eyes. "No one says you have to get over the fear so long as you can work past it." Velah nod to the woman. "I am not a counselor just a doctor, but I have two good ears and shoulders that are good support if you ant to use them? And I keep confidences, everyone can use a friendly ear they know will not blab to others. I try to give that when I can."

"Thank you," Sevena said with a nod. She could feel the ale starting to work, taking the edge off and allowing her to relax, if for just a bit. "If it didn't seem to be important, I'd say launch a volley of torpedoes and blow the asteroid to bits. But, I have the feeling that that's not going to happen."

[Asteroid]

Jayde was quite aware of Tristan's displeasure. However, she had a job to do and as much as she respected the creatures that called the asteroid their home, she still needed to gather information.

Once Sevena and Velah had dematerialized, Jayde turned to the others and nodded. There were now five of them, and she hoped that they would be able to find enough information to not need another pass through the center of the jungle area.

Liang touched Jayde on the sleeve and pointed. When Jayde turned to see what it was, she caught sight of a large spider that was at least a meter in diameter. It was carefully testing a web for victims. She pointed her tricorder and recorded it as it walked down the web and began to add another section. She couldn't stay as long as she would have liked, but she did watch for several minutes. Then she turned and continued on.

“Commander, something has occurred to me,” Élan said quietly as she looked up suddenly, her brain suddenly clicking together a hypothesis. “Have we detected any power signatures anywhere?”

"No." That hadn't occurred to Jayde. The mossy growth on the ceiling and walls gave the minimal light necessary for plant growth. She wondered if the light grew brighter or dimmer to signify day and night, or if the plants had been altered to need less light. They hadn't been there long enough to find out.

“Ma’am, if this was a research facility and the Romulans abandoned it, it’s possible that they sealed parts of the facility off. I’ve detected nothing that would indicate either a power source or even a sign of advanced technology. It’s possible that there’s a dampening field somewhere, but I’d have to be right on top of it before I could detect it,” Élan said, clearly unhappy at her admission as she panned her tricorder in several directions, scanning for something that hadn’t been able to find yet.

Tristan rolled his eyes slightly and placed his hand on his head, shaking his head slightly as he did so. He let out a deep sigh and placed his hands behind his back. This group choose not to consider his experience, and expertise, in hunting and tracking and now they are jumping back to relying on their technology which hasn't worked for them thus far. He was tempted, very tempted, to leave them all behind and continue without them.

"This is clearly a terraforming experiment that failed in some way," Jayde countered. "The Romulans may have used generators until they got the luminous algae or moss grown." She should get a sample of that to take back to the Hyperion. It could prove invaluable to colonists--unless it was what caused the failure. Because the simple fact that no one returned to claim the body showed that it had been abandoned. That thought brought up another: if he was left behind, why did no one come back to find out what happened? Another mystery.

Then she glanced at Tristan, who was acting like she and Élan were going to rape and pillage the asteroid. Jayde had been taught to appreciate nature and its creatures. That did not, however, mean she did not believe in studying nature and learning from it. And that was what she was doing now, as carefully as she could.

Another thought came to her and she turned back to Val. "If the Romulans did leave any power supplies here, might they not be detectable from the runabout?"

“The sensor pod on the Helios might be able to calibrate for a fully detailed deep scan of the asteroid, but it’ll take time to set up for and conduct the scan,” Élan said with a thoughtful frown. After a brief moment of thought, she shrugged. “Depending on the density of the mineral make-up of the asteroid and depending on if there are shielding systems in place, such a scan could take up to a day or two and even then I’m not sure how much good it will do for us. It’s a high possibility that if there is something here and it’s hidden, we’ll need the Hyperion’s sensors to detect it. You know how good the Romulans are at hiding things they don’t want anyone else to find.”

Liang noticed that one of the broad-leaf trees had some sort of powdery substance coating the underside of each leaf. It had an odd odor that she couldn't quite place, so she used a knife and gloves to carefully extract a sample and seal it in a bag for analysis.

Then she caught up with the rest of the group that was now making a careful circuitous route around the spider's domain. As a Shaolin master, she had no trouble following the others. She was pleased to note that true to her training, Jayde was leaving no trace. Except to Liang, who was using more than her eyes to traverse the jungle.

Tristan stepped away from the group and toward the spider web from earlier. He removed his sword from his back and placed it softly on the ground, focusing on the web itself. He searched for motion, whether the thin lines moved according to some kind of wind or breeze hitting it, and the placement of the web itself. He eased a finger gently to one of the lines and tapped it slightly, allowing it to send a mild vibration upwards toward the spider itself. Tristan looked up and observed how the spider peeked its head out, examining the web for a catch, before crawling back into the shadows again. Something was off about this web. Something unfamiliar to him.

He than removed his sword from the ground and sheathed it before walking over towards the tree. He took a few moments to look at it, walking around it slowly, until he noticed something curious. Tristan carefully examined its outside bark and gently ran a hand over it, he noted the unfamiliar moss growth he discovered, before focusing on its thickness. He tapped on the outside bark and get a feel for its strength. He soon turned toward the group and spoke up aloud. "I don't mean to interrupt, but is it possible to get you all to come here please?"

The rest of the team had continued on when Tristan called them back. Jayde was sorely temped to ignore him as he had done nothing but argue with her and defy her every order. But he was part of the team, so she turned back.

When everyone had gathered he looked around again before looking up toward Jayde. "When we arrived, I took a moment to look around and noted the circumference of one the the tree's we passed. Just now, I did the same, with this one." He tapped the bark of the tree and continued. "This one was a lot bigger than the one from earlier, meaning this tree sprouted before the one I observed when we arrived. If this is a Genesis type facility, or a device similar to it was set off here, the tree's closest to where the terraforming began will be much older than the ones where we started. Could we use that to determine where this all began? It might lead us to a device or facility?"

"It would show where the terraforming began," Jayde agreed. "But there may or may not have been a device that started it. Or remnants of such."

(To be continued...)

 

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