[snip]

”.,.Interesting!” NE Cullings said, “..always good to find more useful stuff Earth can make use of. My grandpapy used to say if Sol wasnt capable of supporting itself without those Vulcans hand holding us we may as well just forget out going out of system. Healing plants and even low grade lithium and dilthium will be useful for a lot of trade to others, and even more for Earth getting out here and putting down some claims..”

While El had been less than impressed with the grade of dilithium and hopeful for better quality elsewhere she realized that that was still cause for some celebration. Someone could use it. As much as there as a ‘tug’ back home, El had been looking ahead. What was more she felt a sadness wash through her. She glanced about her to the others and wondered what kind of ‘roots’ they had. She knew that Fawkes’ family was traced through generations. El only knew her adoptive parents. Grandparents were unknown to her and her parents gone. She had only her sister who was now light years away. “You are very forward thinking,” El said, chastising herself for not seeing that herself. “Your grandfather was wise. Is he still living?” ‘Grandpapy’. That was an odd expression. El wondered where it was that it came from.

”..He is! Going on about 70 years now. He never did or does like that we are so beholden to the Vulcans. Way he figures is Earth needs to learn and grow at its own pace as it desires, if we screw up and make mistakes then we do it on our own terms and learn from it, not have the Vulcans chastise us about it then at every turn of a chance they get. He is a good man, but sometimes I guess his views may be a bit errr out of date with working with non-humans.” Cullings said.

“Has there been any contact from the Captain’s team?” Heather asked as she walked over towards Cullings. Loosening the straps on her pack she pulled out her water bottle and drank the last of the water that was in it. She was definitely going to visit the gym on the ship more often. Not that she was out of shape persay, but that was a lot more hiking in a single day then she was used to. She could work standing at a lab bench for hours on end no problem, but with probably only more away missions in their future, it was time to get her stamina back up.

Cmdr. Grace - XO/CSO

As soon as they reached the camp, Kenzo re-holstered his pistol, sitting down on the ground. “A lot of low-quality minerals down there. Interesting how they interfered with our scanners.”

LtJg Kenzo Kurata, Chief Armory Officer

Right. That. El had forgotten about that or rather had dismissed it in her mind in favor of simply being on another world; that did not have an engineering application. Still it was a curiosity and her mind snapped back to it. The science person might have a better idea. Her own theory was valid but in all honesty she was an engineer and worked with the dilithium crystals in the engines and not in their natural habitat.

With a glance at Kenzo then over to the science NE El asked, “What do you think? We were in a cave that showed impressive veins of minerals including lithium and dilithium, if modest quality. We were mapping the formations but our scans didn’t get very far. They only penetrated the rock walls a dozen or so meters. We were speculating on why that would be. Closer to the surface we had much greater distance. I’d thought that the crystal structures might create a kind of natural energy lattice between one another which got in the way of our scans.” El had burped that out then frowned at herself thinking that she should have instead let the person speculate rather than perhaps sullying their opinion with hers. But she was eager to hear what science had to say on the matter. Maybe it was something new altogether that they found! That would be dreamy.

El, Eng

Cullings overhearing about the interference spoke up, “..Really? that is odd, I mean sure natural deposits would give some interference but not that much? Especially not deposits which are so low grade quality like what your scans showed here..” he said indicating the hand scanner report. “..Hmm..” he said seeming to space off to ponder more thoughts on what might cause this.

GM CockRoach

“You’re not suggesting ancient alien stuff. Bermuda Triangle. Unexplained magnetic interference in places on Earth, are you? Artificial rather than natural?” she asked. Really, El had had little enough exposure to anything like that, though she had visited Stonehenge once in an Academy tour. Her knowledge base was essentially from a romance novel she had read, and one of the other Academy students, one named David Roch, who was all excited to get out into space and find those ‘aliens’ who had seeded Earth with so many ancient mysteries and UFO speculations. El couldn’t discount something artificial. It just seemed so unlikely coming from a cave that had partially been presumably hewn out of the rock by prehistoric tribesmen and principally inhabited by large cats.

• El, Eng

Cullings turned back to El, “..Well no nothing quite like that. The crystal structure is too natural to by something done artificially, for that matter no known technology or science we know of or that the Vulcans or any trading partners we ran into with our merchant ships mention anyone having that either. Only possibility I could think of without seeing it first hand and with more specific tools from the ship brought down to analyze would be maybe something is actively drawing residual energies from the deposits? But if you didn’t see anything obvious like a reactor or generator in the area then I don’t see how that is possible. I mean if its not technology the only other idea which is impossible is something non-technological is feeding on it? But that’s just silly as your whole ‘alien stuff’ like with the Triangle, some kind of living organism that ‘eats’ dilthium/lithium crystals? Its stupid!” he said with a chuckle.

GM CockRoach