[snip]

“Aye Sir!” said Kahuna, as the Captain left the Bridge leaving him in charge. All the senior staff were leaving the ship for the planet Unity, half in a Shuttle and half by Transporter. His orders were to maintain a standard orbit of Unity System, just out of the sensor range of the planet’s more primitive devices.

“Hold this position, monitor their comms and continue to scan for anomalies,” Kahuna told the rest of the Bridge crew.

The turbo lift door swooshed open and Cara walked onto the Bridge. “The Captain said that I’d be more use here and to take over at Science?” she made into a question.

Kahuna just shrugged his shoulders and looked towards the empty console.

Cara took her position at Science and monitored the progress of the landing party.

Meanwhile, Comms patched in the feed from the pins which the landing party had, so that it was audible on the Bridge.

A light soft buzzing was followed by =/\= Merrimack to away team, comms check =/\= came an NE’s voice.

=/\= Comms working! We’ve arrived in the correct location. =/\= Glen confirmed.

Astrid monitored the progress of the shuttlecraft. It had already reached the meteorite location and was diving deeper. There had been no word from them yet.

Kahuna sat back in the Captain’s chair. The time he had put in here during his Starfleet Bridge officer tests meant that he was growing quite comfortable in this chair.

After five minutes, or so, Kahuna asked, “Status reports!”

“The landing party has set off walking in the direction of the nearest town,” replied Cara. “The nearest life sign is 3 km from them.”

“Still no word from the shuttlecraft,” replied Astrid. “The shuttle has dived deeper than in Lt. Mullins flightplan, Sir!”

“We are maintaining standard orbit,” replied Dariusz. “All systems are operating within normal parameters!”

• Kahuna, weapons officer