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

(snip)

Franks nodded. He would help Valos with it and get Harvey to run an air quality test on the smoke. He was glad to see that Alden’s leg was not as swollen. “Harvey let me use a drone to scan that sink hole, it went down about 200 feet.” He shook his head, he was totally in agreement that he didn’t want anything else to go wrong.

Roman shook his head. “We’d never have reached her if she’d fallen in. It was a close call.” With the privacy of the woods, there was one other order of business for Roman, which would take only a minute. Then he wanted to go back.

Meanwhile Valos was making a mess of Rand’s system in his effort to help. She wanted to scream. She had to keep reordering the sample jars a double check them because he had mixed up which were finished and which were not. Finally, trying to be nice, “En. Valos, if you want to help, how about you start on your samples? You know those better, and the work would go faster.” Anyone else would notice that the Yeoman sounded exasperated and frustrated, but Valos was too busy trying to flirt with her to notice. He took her statement of the work going faster to mean she wanted to get done and talk to him. He gladly started working on his own samples. “Of course…Rand…anything I can do to help. Call me Ethan.” Rand looked like she would be sick, this was preposterous and obviously studiously focusing on her work wasn’t getting through to him. Seeing Roman and Franks reappear she glanced at Roman, and it was clear to him her anxiety was bothering her.

Roman came out of the trees with Franks, still using the other officer for support. Valos was still with Rand, and Rand looked anxious. The sight made Roman forget about walking slowly and Franks had to stop him before he hurt his leg.

Then suddenly she shot up to standing as Morgan and Harvey appeared. “Morgan would you mind?” and she waved toward the trees. She wasn’t in a hurry, but she did want away from Valos. He wasn’t being a jerk, but Rand didn’t handle the attention well. “Rand, I can help you up, here.” And Valos was in her space, and nerves and awkwardness and anxiety made her voice higher than she liked, “That would be highly inappropriate, Ensign.” Realizing what he had just offered, Valos at least had the good sense to look embarrassed. Morgan hurried over and they disappeared into the trees. Rand thought she would die from embarrassment.

Yeoman Rand

Roman hid his amusement that Valos had made a fool of himself. Unable to stop himself from saying something after the humiliating display, Roman headed slowly to Valos and stopped a few paces away, using the walking stick to minimise the weight and strain put on his leg. “Ensign Valos, a landing party is entirely the wrong time to harass your female colleagues. Keep your attempts to find a girlfriend to your own time.” He chose his words carefully, framing it as distracting to both of them and inappropriate for where they were rather than the personal issue it was. And it was something he’d say even if he didn’t have a personal motive. He kept the emotion out of his voice, and didn’t speak too loudly. His goal wasn’t to humiliate Valos further, Valos had done enough of that himself.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Franks helped Alden get back to the cave entrance and then using the need to collect fire wood to hide his amusement. Honestly, Franks was impressed by Alden’s restraint. If he was in Alden’s shoes he wasn’t sure he would have been so calm and matter-of-fact about it.

Valos looked mortified, but was grateful that no one else heard the Cmdr. “Yes, Sir. Sorry sir.” He looked like he wanted to explain and then figured that wouldn’t be a good idea. Valos had worked hard all day, and Franks had no complaints, except when they were between working he’d done nothing but talk about how to get Rand’s attention, even though Franks had tried to talk him out of it. “Hey Valos we need to check this wood to see if it’s safe to burn. Especially if the smoke wafts back into the cave. Harvey I need you to test the smoke.” Harvey walked over to help as did Valos. They both were confused as to why they needed a fire.

Rand coming back with Morgan. She spoke up, more to distract herself from the pain in her foot…she’d stepped down on it to stop from falling and it was throbbing horribly now. “It won’t fill up the cave.” She got some odd looks as if to say ‘how do you know?’ She blinked, well she said it, might as well explain. “Didn’t any of you notice the breeze moving through the cave? There’s a chimney somewhere farther back. The wind from the cross breeze will keep the smoke moving.” Again the strange looks, and her already agitated anxiety increased. She muttered to Morgan, “It’s like they’ve never been camping.” Morgan grinned and shook her head where Rand couldn’t see. She helped her back inside the cave.

Yeoman Rand

Roman leaned against the cave entrance, reluctant to sit back down. He’d been there all day, and the same view had grown stale. Stretching his left leg with the short walk had felt surprisingly good despite the jump in pain in his right caused by using the injured muscles. He was satisfied with Valos’ response and felt no need to further the issue… unless he saw it happening again.

Roman had not noticed the breeze in the cave, however he had enough experience with being outdoors to know she was right. “Even so, I want the smoke tested. Knowing how dangerous it is will let us know how careful we need to be.”

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand looked at Roman wide eyed. That wasn’t what she meant, of course they had to test it. Then seeing the way Franks was watching Valos and the weird stress running around the guys of the group Rand figured it was more Roman leading than berating her. She got Morgan to help her back inside. The light was too dark to work on the samples, so she needed the lanterns. Morgan helped her sit and then carried all the samples in and helped Rand sort them into stacks.

Then with the extra water Harvey brought back, Rand dug through the ration packs till she found what she wanted. Rand filled one of the pots with water and then started dismantling ration packs. Morgan was summoned outside. While the water heated, Rand worked on the samples. A few minutes later Valos came in and Rand felt her stomach drop. Usually focusing strictly on work made people leave her alone. They found her stuffy and boring. That was fine with her. But for some reason it wasn’t working with him. But he only asked if she knew where the chemical analysis kit was, and then left.

Once the water was boiling she added beef jerky and dehydrated vegetables and the ‘flavor packet’ and soon the smell of beef stew wafted out of the cave. But she missed out on the fire show. She had plenty of samples to label, organize, and catalogue though. Which was good, it took her mind off of the awkwardness with Valos, but more importantly the pain in her ankle. Looking down at it she sighed. She was never getting her boot back on.

Yeoman Rand

Roman was outside for another hour. As night set in, the temperature began to drop, from the 60’s F down to the mid-50’s so far, and they weren’t sure when it would stop dropping. It was spring, so Roman assumed it wouldn’t drop under the 40’s, but he maintained anything could be possible.

It took that hour for the food to really simmer and cook. When rehydrating food to make a solid hot meal you needed time. But that hour created a stew with tender meat and veggies. The bread was still hard-tack, but could be soaked in the stew broth. Rand could feel the breeze, light but there, drop and was actually a bit colder than outside. Probably because the air passed over the river and was cooled.

The logs tested as safe to burn, and so with Roman leaning against a nearby tree, his stick in hand, Valos began trying to light a fire using a phaser to heat the wood to its flash point. For the test, they had moved away from the entrance to the cave. The log lit, burning with a larger flame than one would expect of a log that size. Roman noted that they’d have to be careful not to start a forest fire. With this flammable of wood, he wouldn’t want to be there for that.

Tests of the smoke showed it to contain similar chemicals to earth wood burning: similar gases, soot, and wood tars. There was a higher carbon monoxide reading than smoke from earth wood would read, making it slightly more dangerous to inhale in high concentrations. Overall, Roman deemed it safe so long as it didn’t build up in one place. Since the cave as Rand had explained had somewhere the smoke would escape, it should be okay to burn in front of the cave. To him, the risk of a little smoke was worth it in the hope that the fire would keep away the giant feline that Franks had noted tracks of.

The breeze for the moment was moving outward from the back of the cave so any smoke would go out, but Morgan had moved toward the back of the cave and actually found the chimney. It was wide, enough for good air flow but too narrow to climb. It was a good observation on Rand’s part and she was glad someone had noticed. It would keep the air cleaner for them.

Franks and Velos gathered sticks from the forest and made a kindling pile, then lit the pile several feet from the entrance of the cave. Franks warned Roman (twice) not to go stressing his leg trying to help. Once the fire seemed to be burning steadily, he helped Roman back into the cave and Velos made sure all the equipment made it back inside.

It seemed Morgan was of the same mind as Franks. Rand wasn’t trying to move around. She was mostly sitting and simply trying to reach for things, but bumped her foot several times. Not too bad, but enough to irritate the joint. “Really Rand, I’m going to tell your brother. You are a horrible patient.” Rand actually grinned, “I’ve lived with that boy my whole life. He knows how difficult I am, and tries to out do me. Go ahead and tell him. He’s gonna yell at me anyway.” She set the sample she was working on in the case and then, with Harvey’s help, started putting stew into tin mugs and making hot drinks for everyone.

Finally Roman was settled back in on his sleeping bag. He’d earned himself more aching pain with the activity, but he wasn’t going to say anything about it. After all, he had chosen not to sit down and let Franks handle the fire testing. Over the course of the day, the swelling in his leg had gone down somewhat. Now instead of twice the normal size, it looked maybe 1.5 times the normal size. He silently hoped that if it looked normal by the time the ship returned they’d let him skip the Sickbay. Of course, they’d probably never let him skip it if he was honest about the pain.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand was settled on the sleeping bag next to Roman. Morgan had moved to be closer to the entrance and Franks on the other side of the entrance. Rand was passing around bowls when Morgan squatted down next to her with the hypo. “You aren’t gonna give me problems today are you?” Rand almost spit out her tea. She wasn’t the problem child. She side eyed Roman, doing her best not to laugh. “No, I think I was just confused last time.” Morgan nodded and pressed the hypo to her leg and passed it to Franks for Alden. “Just anti-inflammatory today. Just incase we have to move.”

Franks took the hypo, a grin on his face. He knew what Rand had been up to and found the whole situation funny. What he didn’t find amusing, well maybe he did - a little, was Valos looking like he might try and convince Rand to take her meds.

Yeoman Rand