Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side-sim: The Study of Kelmao

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side-sim: The Study of Kelmao

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side-sim: The Study of Kelmao
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
Setting his pad of paper down, he grabbed the drone’s controls and pulled it off the course he had set watching the lake. Controlling it manually, he brought it to the far side of the river, looking for more of the bear like animals. “If it’s predatory it will more than likely also be solitary. If it’s an herbivore it’s more likely there’s a herd.”

But then he brought the drone back. “Even if they are predatory if there are juveniles around…wouldn’t that be something if that one, that size, was a baby?” She knew the initial reports didn’t suggest anything bigger than on Earth, but that didn’t mean they had seen everything. Otherwise why would they be here? She knew that the animals wouldn’t be just like on Earth, but could something that looked like an Earth bear actually be a herd animal? Then again bears were omnivores, eating mostly berries and nuts, and some fish. Only if desperate did they go for more. Rand watched the animal, curious, but didn’t know what to ask, and since Alden wasn’t talking she figured he didn’t want to.

The questions caused Roman to smile a little. “That I would love to see.” He said. He watched the screen receiver for the drone as he flew it towards the bearlike animal.

It looked up as the drone flew by. It was hard to tell exactly how far away it was from the creature from where they sat. She was sure the drone could tell them. The animal was shaking it’s head and ducking it, almost like it was using its horns. “I wonder how clearly it sees? I mean the drone isn’t that far away, and it probably makes a noise it has never heard before.” Then it let out a noise, well more of a squeak really. But it was loud and carried. The noise was kind of cute for such a big animal. It seemed to hop on both front feet as the drone flew away across the river.

As he worked, he considered what he could say. He couldn’t leave things how they were, but he didn’t want to risk making it worse. She obviously thought he should’ve told her. In hindsight, he agreed. Maybe he should start there. His distraction caused him to nearly crash the drone into a tree. He steered it aside at the last moment.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Was it the wind, or was he distracted? Had she upset him that much? Rand felt horrible. She was going to have to make a decision. She was caught, and that was not a position she ever thought to be in. In the end the problem was, she shouldn’t be here. Everything was fine on the ship because she answered to Rogers, not to Roman. Here she answered to him. In the end she was worried about him. She would be no matter what, but now that she…they were together she second guessed herself.

He set the drone to an automatic path, scanning the area around the river and the animal for other animals. An automatic path would keep it from crashing.

She sighed heavily, “I…” then she sighed again. That single word didn’t sound mad or frustrated, just confused. She stared at the PaDD and the last sample case, but didn’t do anything with it.

Yeoman Rand

Roman couldn’t think of anything better to say. He worried it would make it worse. “I…” he started, but he stopped as he heard her starting to say something. Then she trailed off and sighed. At least she did not sound angry. When she didn’t say anything else, he continued with his thought. “I should’ve told you. I was… I was scared. But it was wrong to hide it.”

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand’s hands were behind her back, someone else might think she was simply easing her back from the rock wall behind her, but she was simply really anxious. It had been a long time since she’d felt that anxious because of Roman. She felt that way plenty when he was around, but not because of him. Her shoulders dropped. She wasn’t argumentative or angry, just quiet. “You don’t have to tell me anything.” She stared at the bear-like creature for a moment, her hands suddenly appearing clasped in her lap before looking at him. “I know you are. I would have tried to help. I....I’m worried,” she couldn’t bring herself to call him Cmdr but she wasn’t sure she should be calling him Roman either. Thought right now she felt like this wasn’t an ‘on duty’ kind of thing. “I’m not really worried it’s been bothering you this long. It’s a chronic problem. I am worried that it’s hurting you so much, that you completely ignored it and put yourself and everyone else at risk. That’s not like you.” She wasn’t sure he would want her to, but she reached over and took his hand again anyway. “If we can get the swelling down, you won’t miss out and the rest of the time here.” The big problem was Franks would report this, and they BOTH would have to go to sickbay. But that was an issue for later…maybe. Maybe they should talk about it now?

While they talked they missed what the drone picked up from the other side of the river.

Yeoman Rand

Roman’s guilty look returned as he looked at her again. “You’re right, it isn’t. I failed to see the possibility something like this might happen. I was blinded, trying too hard to ignore a real problem.” He looked down, upset with himself over the whole thing. If he had just said something earlier…

Rand listened quietly and what it really came down to was the same issue she was having right now. Where was the line? And then something occurred to her, that Rand was pretty sure she knew, she just hadn’t really acknowledged it. Roman had no one, not since Jay. It wasn’t so much that he’d lost a friend, Jay was his family. Rand had wondered about Roman’s family at times. When he shared little bits of himself and his past. The stories involving his family were practically nill. “Roman?” She seemed to hesitate, consider her words. “You aren’t alone. You don’t have to figure out what to do or not do on your own. You can tell me, and we can figure it out.” Rand knew fear, debilitating anxiety, and one things she had learned was that when she felt like that, she was incapable of deciding on her own. Because those feelings made you see only one solution, the one that made things worse. You needed someone to show you a different way.

Roman looked up at her when she said his name. Then he nodded. He wanted to hug her, but he definitely didn’t want the team catching them hugging. Not during a landing party away from the ship. He seemed to relax a little. “I will, next time something happens. It’s.. not easy for me to share things like that.” He admitted. He’d had no one at all to talk to since Jay, he’d gotten used to handling things alone. Even when Jay was there, he tended to keep his problems to himself. It was part of his nature, he was taught by his parents to keep things to himself.

“I know. You don’t have to explain. Just so I know. Then we can figure it out if we need to.” She placed gentle emphasis on the plural each time. “That’s how it’s supposed to work.” She’d never said anything about his family, but then again she never had anything to know about them. “Anxiety skews our point of view and sometimes a neutral perspective is needed. Isn’t that why you told me scientists use blind and double blind studies?”

Roman nodded again. “To prevent biases both of participants and scientists.” She stressed the plural pronoun we when she said it and he smiled a little.

When she took his hand, he squeezed hers lightly. “It’s been hurting continuously for days now, I’m afraid even if it heals from what happened at the sinkhole, the pain will remain.” The idea of Franks reporting the events had not occured to him. There were too many other things on his mind.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

She nodded, “You have to give the muscles, the nerves, a break. You have to let them stop over reacting so they can calm down. Whether that’s sitting still and not using it or you choose to let medicine help. How you do it is up to you.” She squeezed his hand tighter, “But we need to decide how to handle things when we get back. Franks is going to report this. It won’t occur to him that you would not mention someone getting injured.” She looked up at him, “I won’t leave you alone in sickbay, okay?”

The medicine would probably speed up the rate that happened. Especially because it would help it heal. He sighed softly. “If I don’t use the medicine there’s no chance it heals before the ship returns.” Her next statement made him tense up again. The involuntary tensing of his muscles made his leg hurt. Now he was going to dread the ship’s return. He took a deep breath, squeezing her hand again. “Okay.”

There wasn’t anything else to say, except to squeeze his hand and nod. The hypo still lay on the ground between them, ignored by both, but not forgotten. They both were going to end up in sickbay, but they would be okay, together. She passed him the bowl of ice cold water. Time for new compresses. “It’s rain water, Franks tested it. It’s safe, but it seems to stay this temperature on its own.” If not meds then the compresses.

Roman had actually forgotten about the hypo, his mind focused elsewhere. When he took the bowl of ice water, he saw it. “It stays cold?” He asked. “I’d hope to bring some aboard with us. That’s interesting. I’d bet the lake and river water is also ice cold.” While he switched the old compress for a new one, he eyed it. They were going to end up in Sickbay either way, and it would raise the chances the swelling went down before the ship got back. Hesitantly, he picked up the hypo.

Rand noticed but didn’t say anything. Instead she unwound the compress around her ankle. Despite the rainbow of sick colors the swelling did seem some less. Rand stole a glance at his leg and the compress seemed to be loose. Since he hadn’t been moving around she hoped that meant the swelling was down for him as well. She smiled at his comment and she tapped the sample case that she had slid just inside the entrance. “Rain water sample in there. And I heard Harvey tell Franks over the comm she got a sample from the lake with one of the drones.”

Across the river there were a serious of squeaks, similar to what the bear had made, but many many more. Rand looked over and gasped....it was heard of elephant sized bears. All different shades of fur, the smaller ones were all earth tones, but the adults were pastel. They were stunning. “Oh wow....”

Yeoman Rand

Roman looked up when he heard Rand. “They’re pastel! They’re beautiful.” The bears were the size of elephants. “They clearly don’t use camouflage, so they must have other defenses.” He noted, sounding more like his usual self. He wrote down several more observations. “I have never seen such a large animal squeak like that.”

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

She had to smile, he sounded so excited. She’d never heard him use the term ‘beautiful’ to describe his work. “Maybe the babies do? They are brown, tan… it’s hard to tell from here, but the one on the far left looks like a dark green.” She watched as the one on their side squeaked and pawed the ground moving toward the water and then away. Rand laughed, “Just like a child. When alone brave and wreckless, when mom and Dad show up, totally helpless.” Then several of the adults waded into the water and across the river.

As they stepped into the bank there was some confusion and a lot of stomping and loud echoing squeaking…and the ground began to shake....the sink hole…the adults moved quickly back into the water. The baby however did not and started to sink.

Rand of course wanted to run to help, but couldn’t and shouldn’t. Before the thought really registered though, one of the adults stomped back up onto the bank right towards the little one and....the horns uncurled and wrapped around the little one and jerked it out of the mire before running back for the water. “Did..did the horns…am I hallucinating?”

Yeoman Rand

“The babies are weaker. The adults have their size at least, but I would guess they have another defense as well,” Roman said. He watched as well. Because of his job he was used to letting nature take its course. The adult used its curled horns like the trunk of an elephant to rescue the baby and Roman looked mildly surprised. “No, that happened,” he said, grabbing his notes to add the observation.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand watched, a smile tugging at her mouth, as the group made its way back across the river. The little one was placed amongst the group and it seemed that every adult took turned uncurling their horns and touching the baby. Squeaks rilled and vibrated across the air. Even the other babies seemed to engage in inspecting the rescued child. A few of the adults on the very edge turned their back in the group staying close but looking outward. The colors were stunning. “Hey, Roman,” Rand looked at him and grinned. She had that mischievous smile she got when she teased him, but her voice sounded hesitant.

“If you hadn’t hurt your leg you never would have seen this. You’d be too busy running around the woods.”

Yeoman Rand