Posted by Captain John Tiberius Glen (Captain) in Main Sim - Habitat - Away Team Arrival
[snip]

[Joe?} stood off to the side of the entrance to the shuttle awaiting everyone else and of course waiting for Stern to finish his talk. In the meantime his eyes roamed around to see if he could find the NE’s who had thrown the party. He had read the report this morning and forwarded it and his recommendations to the Captain. He had said that while he thought they had been punished enough for now it was glaringly obvious that neither one was showing even a bit of maturity. The sort of maturity which would be necessary for a person of a higher rank. He had therefore recommended that they be overlooked the next time they came up for promotion.

Cross approached Joe ‘’Say Cmdr what if the person with the broken nose had been to this party and you punished the wrong guy instead’’ she whispered in a teasing sort of way.

Joe looked at Cross , confused for an instant. Then the look of understanding look came across his face. “Then I would have to feel sympathy for the wrongly accused individual because I have been in the same situation once or twice. ” Joe answered with a barely suppressed smile. “But as an XO I was acting on the report of the duty officer and any punishments received by any individuals will be decided by the captain not me. I only make recommendations. ” Pausing then he turned to Cross and said , “Along with that if there are any saucy little medical officers who have information which might help a wrongly accused individual they should go see the captain .

Tia arrived with a backpack and a carry case. On her hip, peaking out from her jacket now and then, was a small phaser. She nodded to everyone as the conversation paused. “Permission to store my gear?”

Cross nodded back while noticing the small phaser, if Tia had brought one then surely the rest of the away team had not come unarmed she reasoned to herself, which made the doctor more at ease.

Joe looked over at Tia . So this was the Chief Engineer. Well it was nice to finally meet her. He looked around the shuttle bay at all the people including himself who were standing about uncomfortably and then replied to the Chief saying ,”I think it might be a good idea to stow everything at this point including ourselves . I dare say the seats in the shuttle might be more comfortable than standing around on the deck . And good to meet you Chief. ” Joe then stepped aside for Cross and Tia to begin boarding .

Finally! Cross thought to herself as she boarded the shuttle The quicker we set off on this journey the sooner we’ll get back .
The female doctor now had time to check the small bag Hunter had given her, looking inside she found a stethoscope, needles for shots,sedatives, doses of painkillers, antibiotics and antihistamines which made her scratch her head at the latter. Some of which had been taken from sickbay........ which had been on display of days gone by.

Glen noticed Tia’s phaser too. “Just to say, that as we already decided in the meeting earlier, we will stow away phasers and communicators in the shuttle, except for Security, so that we don’t display any technology that the Dol may not have. Chief of Security, Lance Del Wolf, will be coming with us and will be making sure we are kept safe. The Transporter Chief will hold a transporter lock on us in case we need a quick extraction. Please do make small talk but don’t mention our technology or equipment in conversation. We may decide to exchange technology with the Dol, but if we do so, I will have to make that decision without compromising the spirit or essence of the Prime Directive.”

Once everyone had boarded the shuttle the rear doors hissed shut with a soft securing ‘thunk’. After a moment the bay doors opened and the bay’s forcefield by the door dropped letting the shuttle depart. The trip was short and smooth, the nearby class-m world below them that they orbited was a bright crisp blue-green-brown tone. Landmasses showed likely predominantly high hills/forests/mountains almost all over the single massive continent which covered a good 80% of the planet, the rest was made up of several small oceans, seas, and lakes/rivers. As they knew the planet had no intelligent life or settlements, though lesser animals of all types were present. Basic scan reports had also shown the planet though rich in simple resources like wood, and the like, was quite poor in more higher end industrial minerals like iron, copper, gold, etc. So it probably wasn’t too much of a surprise that the people on the habitat did not even use it for any purpose despite their also cultural worry over being enslaved or becoming slaver’s themselves if they settled on a planet home.

Said massive habitat which greatly dwarfed the Merrimack in size, also loomed before them. Again the big stand out despite the size was also the many towering ‘antenna’ coming off the very tops and bottoms of the habitat, which going off the scans were some kind of energy/radiation gathering device collecting energy from solar winds/radiation and solar energy from light emissions. Essentially they were like a more advanced form of a solar collector or wind farm collection array on planets. The beacon by the habitat led the shuttle to a small docking hatch along the upper port side of the massive structure. They would not be then landing in a bay area, but instead as they observed Stern their pilot backed up the shuttle to dock with the hatch, both being secured by an airtight secured tunnel system. “..Hatch and the short tunnel connection is secured, breathable atmosphere, no other problems detected..” he reported.

“Lower the rear door into the small connecting tunnel,” commanded Captain Glen.

Once the command got given to lower the rear door it did so into the small connecting tunnel. There they were greeted a moment later by the habitat master known as Dol. The man was much like he had seemed before, complete with his strange aluminum tinfoil like pointed hat. He wore a silvery nice looking t-shirt with a similar silver toned jeans like pants and silver simple sneakers on his feet. The only notable insignia that might set him apart in ‘rank’ then anyone else was a small pin on his left chest side which was a tiny duplicate of the tinfoil hat but it had a even tiner golden like circle dot on it. Maybe this was some kind of badge of office for those who took up the position/name of ‘Dol’? Next to him on his left was a female of about 6‘2 in height slightly taller than Dol by a few inches, she wore a long sleeve silver shirt similar in texture to Dol’s. Her silvered pants were also jean like, but instead of the silver sneakers she had a sort of rugged silver boots, plus the usual tinfoil like hats. The only thing she carried on her hip was a small angled baton like device that was similar in scope to old Earth police batons but more curved and of course silver in color like everything else worn. Next to Dol on his right was a shorter man then even Dol standing only at 5‘3 in height. He had a t-shirt like Dol and simple silver jean pants like Dol plus silver sneakers. Plus his tinfoil hat, the only other thing he had was a small brown-silver toned box in both hands which he carried carefully.

As the trio got within 10ft they stopped as the rest of the shuttle party debarked. “..Greetings Captain Glend of the USS Merrimack. I am Habitat Master Dol, we spoke briefly not too long ago. It is a pleasing time to meet new people like yourselves..” he said in greetings.

“Greetings Master Dol,” replied Captain Glen. “But it’s just Glen without the ‘d’. It is always pleasant for us to meet new people too. Even though it is our mission to seek out new worlds and civilisations, we rarely actually get the chance to do so.”

After Glen’s reply he continued, “..Let me introduce two of my most trusted advisors..” he said gesturing to the woman first, “..this is Habitat Cultural Advisor and my wife, Sala..” he said.

Glen nodded his understanding. She looked like the same woman they had already spoken with briefly via the com, introduced then merely as Sal.

The woman smiled for the first time nodding politely, “..A pleasing time to meet you all, though my husband neglects to point out that due to our advisory elections currently in progress that I may not hold such a position depending on the results tomorrow. Regardless of the outcome whether this is my last day as Cultural Advisor to you and him or not I greet you all..” she said.

Glen was uncomfortable to get involved in their internal politics but was sure that Cara Meow, the Ship’s anthropologist, would find this all very interesting. He simply smiled back at her. As Sala moved, he got a better view of the other man they hadn’t met before.

Smiling politely Dol replied, “..Nonsense my wife, you undersell your skill to the people, the habitat and my own self. But yes you are right we shall see if you retain this position after the election count come tomorrow..” he said. Turning then to the other man who stepped forward with the box Dol continued without any issue, “..this man is Habitat Merchant Advisor Qula. As is our tradition upon meeting others who come to our system the Merchant’s Guild wishes to gift you with this token of our trade..” he said.

Glen hadn’t expected a trade of presents at this point. He was even more thankful now that NE Stern had put together his own box of gifts. He also knew that both Tia and Miriam had cleared out Sickbay and Engineering of old unused items, tacky ornaments and kitsch - what his mother would have called ‘old tat’. He left it to one of them to accept the present, whatever it might be.

With that the man known as Qula spoke, opening the small brown-silver toned box, inside were several small data chip like wafers, they were connected to a static free stand for pick up and use. “..These chips are used by our common computer systems, and through the years we have found are the most universally reliable for those who visit with us to analyze on their own systems to learn more about us. We offer them freely to you with no constraints as a gift for you coming to meet us..” he said, offering the box of 12 small chip wafers for someone to take. For Tia at a glance, she could see the chips were probably akin to advanced data chips that would have been used on Earth in the mid-late 21st century, with a little work adjustments they could easily make an on the fly adaptor for their tricorders or chip readers on the shuttle/Merrimack.

Glen was surprised by the present. Unexpectedly, it might actually be something useful to them, information and data that the Federation didn’t currently possess. Obviously, there were security concerns - embedded malicious trackers and hidden malware - Glen would leave his new COS to ponder upon that.

“Why thank you,” Glen replied. “This is such a generous gift. Information is the oxygen of the modern age and the most successful man is he who has the best information!”

• Glen, CO

Lance was there he had a leg holster that he carried a Glock 17 in and he had a phaser in a concealed holster. Got a good idea to show too much tech but enough to show we can defend ourselves. Held out in the back of the group to always keep a bigger picture of any situation.

Lance Del Wolf (COS)