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)

The rest of the team was mostly awake now. Harvey was watching the smoke travel through the cave and taking readings of the CO2 levels. She got up and moved quietly toward the back of the cave. The CO2 levels were higher near the chimney where the smoke became slightly more concentrated before dissipating up the chimney; however, the levels were not dangerous. She returned quietly and passed a thumbs up to everyone else. They were safe to stay in the cave. Valos wasn’t too interested in the cat. He was curious but since it was a carnivore, the cat’s place in the food web was at least two, if not more, steps removed in the food chain. If they could sedate it he would love to get a sample of the seeds and pollen caught in it’s coat. However, based on the size of the shadow, he wasn’t going to volunteer to go get it.

Rand took a lantern and placed the shutter towards the entrance, so the light wouldn’t attract attention, and brought the brightness up enough to help Roman see to take his notes, but not enough to blind him as he looked from notes to camera to outside. Rand wanted to see the cat too. She leaned over trying to look over Roman’s shoulder at the camera or at least his notes. She watched as it paced slowly back and forth. It seemed to be sniffing the ground and air much like a dog would. However it’s attention seemed to be more focused on the wood, smoke, and fire than any scent they had left. It tried to sniff the smoke, only for the flames to dance and it backed up. It was curious, but cautious. The tail was down, dragging in the dirt. Rand knew most cats used their tails for balance. Did this one not use it or was it hurt? She had a hundred questions, but everyone else was quiet and so she figured she better be too.

Roman turned the camera receiver so both he and Rand could see it as he wrote notes in his notepad. He was getting as much data as he could while they had the chance. The quiet was to avoid drawing the cat’s attention. Roman could tell by Rand’s look that she had a bunch of questions. He’d answer them later.

Then it stepped fully into the fire light and Rand’s eyes went wide and her mouth opened in an ‘O’. It was iridescent! Like the northern lights on Earth. It was GORGEOUS! It was huge and the muscles rippled and it’s mouth was open showing off a full set of very dangerous teeth. Rand did not want to go near it, but she wondered if she could get Roman to give her a copy of photos. The face turned toward the camera and they could clearly see metallic purple eyes.

Valos mistaking Rand’s expression for fear sat down next to her and patted her on the shoulder and pointed to where everyone had a phaser. She looked at him startled. She didn’t want to shoot it! Well not if left them alone. She couldn’t move away without actually sitting on Roman. She figured Valos was trying to reassure her, but she didn’t need it. Instead she quietly scooted forward near the stove and without a sound started boiling water for tea and coffee.

Yeoman Rand

When the cat came into view, Roman took as many pictures as he could of it, especially the face, teeth, and eyes. There were also several pictures of the cat’s full body. The cat was fantastic. Apparently, the bright colours of the animals was not limited to the diurnal animals.

Roman could not help the dirty look he gave Valos as Valos sat next to Rand. He pulled his attention back to his notes. Getting data on the cat was more important. He could glare at Valos later.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand put Valos to work. If he was going to be in her space, he could be useful. She grabbed the empty thermoses and handed them to him and pointed at the boiling water and the thermoses. She made a motion for him to be quiet and then carefully dug the tea and coffee out of her pack. She took each thermos he handed her and added either coffee or tea to it. He almost spilled hot water on himself and she had to stop from making rude noises. Harvey reached over and took the kettle and helped Rand finish the drinks and then pass them out.

Rand turned back to Roman, finished with her self appointed task, set down his tea, and picked up the pencil he had put down momentarily. ‘tìgear rionnag - star tiger’ Oh she knew she’d never get to name the animal, but that’s what came to mind when she saw it.

Roman smiled, looking up at her. Even if it didn’t become the cat’s official name, he could refer to it that way in his notes. Like the whistling hawk. He picked up his tea and started sipping it, still trying to be quiet so the cat didn’t notice them. He’d hate to have to shoot it.

It was extremely curious about the fire, and finally building up bravery or overwhelming curiosity, the cat moved forward to sniff at the fire and got too close. It jumped back, back arching, hair standing up, muzzle twisted in a snarl, but rapid low pitched cries issued forth and then it took off into the woods.

Yeoman Rand

Finally the cat burned its nose, trying to examine the fire and fled, and Roman wrote more notes on his notepad. The way it reacted to the fire was as if it had never seen fire, as if it lacked the instinctual fear of fire most everything on Earth had. He found that interesting. With the cat gone, they no longer had to stay so quiet. “It’s gone, at least for now,” he said aloud.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

After about 10 minutes with no sign of the cat returning, Franks and Morgan moved cautiously out of the cave entrance. They did a quick sweep of the surrounding area just to make sure, staying within eye sight of the cave entrance. They returned quickly and then went back out after Franks grabbed a sample case. Several minutes later they returned again and sat back down. “It took off at a run, the stride was elongated compared to around the fire. We didn’t follow it further than about 8 feet into the trees. Got a mold of the tracks though.” Then he passed the sample case over to Alden. “It’s singed where it got to close to the fire, but when it jerked back, looks like the tuft was shed so got a fur sample and what is probably a whisker too.”

Rand quickly labelled and sorted the samples and started adding the tricorder and camera recordings to the data disks. Then everything seemed to settle down. The scientists were busy discussing the cat and its reactions. Harvey was looking at her readings from the drones she sent out and said it looked like another storm was building, very low intensity and a day (Sentinel time) or so off or more. She speculated that perhaps the planet experienced a lot of storms during its spring cycle. Morgan was discussing how safe it would be to go out and continue to study with the cat out there. It was curious about the fire but now that it had been hurt by it, it might turn aggressive. She argued that distracted scientist made easy targets, vigilant scientist made for less detailed work. Given the situation and only one security officer she wasn’t sure it was safe to venture out in the dark.

Roman was happy they’d gotten some of the cat’s fur at least. He debated with Morgan about whether or not to go out, there was only so much more time to study the planet. The sentinel would return before daybreak. In the end, she was right, it would be too dangerous, and Roman conceded the argument. Besides, with his leg he wasn’t going far anyway. They’d have to work from inside the cave. With this being the last day, Roman suggested they make sure everything was together and ready for return to the sentinel.

Rand listened to it all, but didn’t know an answer. Also, after all the excitement her nerves had finally settled and she found herself drifting off.

Yeoman Rand

After everything calmed again, Roman wanted to try and get more sleep. It was still the wee hours of the morning by Sentinel time, 0300. And he hadn’t gotten much sleep yet. He was tired. But sleep still proved elusive for him. The return of the Sentinel grew nearer and all he could think about was Sickbay. The swelling in his leg was slowly going down but it was not back to normal yet and the pain was still constant and higher than it had been before the mission. At least the cat had given him time to relax after the earlier nightmare. And a reason to be awake. Eventually he fell into a light and troubled sleep.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand was used to waking early so by the time the chronometer said 0500, Rand felt like she was behind in her day. The fire was still going, though not as brightly and the lanterns had mostly been turned down. She sat up quietly, years of moving around to avoid waking Randy up made her very quiet. Everyone else was asleep. A glance at Roman however had her worried. His face was dawn and pinched. She wasn’t sure if it was pain in his leg or maybe a nightmare. She wished she could just hug him. She reached for the medkit and set it down between them, then shifted onto her left hip, putting her back to everyone else. Under the guise of searching the medkit she carefully reached over and squeezed his hand. Hoping it would ease whatever was wrong. She knew he wouldn’t want anyone to see him having a nightmare.

The temperature had dropped again in the last couple of hours and it was only going to get colder, or that was Rand’s guess. She turned the camp heater up and started trying to piece together a hot meal from the rations. Her foot was aching and she figured it was the cold. The cold compress had helped a lot but now the cold temperature was making it ache. She tried putting a sock on, but it wouldn’t fit. She grinned at the idea of pilfering one from Roman, but instead she wrapped it and then tucked her foot back into the sleeping bag.

Once awake, Franks and Morgan went out to add more wood to the fire and make sure there were no signs of the cat returning. Over breakfast there was a lot of grumbling about nothing to do. “Why don’t you go spelunking?” Franks looked at Rand and grinned and then at Alden. “It’s not a bad idea as long as we don’t try to go up or down any levels. We don’t usually get to study cave systems on a first planetary visit.”

Yeoman Rand