Posted by Lieutenant M’Mera (Chief Of Security) in Main Sim - Ardan V - Landing spot

Posted by Captain John Tiberius Glen (Captain) in Main Sim - Ardan V - Landing spot
[snip]

’’ Captain maybe you should ask what other species have or are still here?’’ . For Hunter to believe in ghosts ,entities or whatever was contrary to reason, truth or logic in a few words it was totally absurd.

“We hadn’t been made aware that people were going missing,” Glen told Platus, “nor about any dreams. We’ll want details of those, and also whether any dead bodies have been recovered. We’ll also need a breakdown of when and where your equipment broke down and your people went missing. We’ll need a complete subsurface chart of all the drifts, galleries and tunnels, and my Doctor suggests a complete list of your employees and their species would be helpful too.”

“Only detailed maps we have so far are in the mines that are under the settlement. You can have those. We’ve had a devil of a time trying to map anything farther out. Only reason we got what we got is that we physically went down to map. It’s like there’s a dampening field in the rock.”

With all the commotion around him, Sharp simple stood where he could visibly see the Captain and the people trying to fix what ever was going on.

Stella looked at the captain pretending to be a totally different captain and then listened to the man running the mine. A smile slowly came to her face and she shook her head. She looked off toward the jungle and murmured more to herself than anyone else. ” Hoodoos”

“We’ll need somewhere we can work,” Glen told Platus. “Could we use this room?”

“Ah well if you’d like a place to set up there is a building there.” He said pointing to just the west to another smaller round building. “That’s the admin building, you might find it easier to set up an HQ there though your techs are more then welcome to work with mine here in this building.”

M’Mera chewed on her lip as she listened to the recitation, “Any ssignss of a sstrruggle orr asssault?” She muttered to the colony leader?” She didn’t like the sounds of disappearing people as well as tools or equipment. Definitely sounded like it sabotage or terrorism like behaviour. When she’d studied up on the planet it had explicitly stated there were no native inhabitants here. No one knew what happened to them if there had been any.

Lieutenant Walker stood there listening to everything that was going on. Not sure what to do or what to do with her equipment. She stood there confused a little bit not knowing what to do.

*I guess this will have to do,” thought Captain Glen. “Perfect. This will do us fine!” was what he said to Platus.

“You can stow our equipment in here,” Glen told the Landing Party. Not any of it is likely to work! he thought.

Upon looking into the indicated building to the west it was found to have the same layout of the larger. It was obvious these were utilitarian round buildings, cloned for colony infrastructure. It was basically round and open on the inside though there were some half movable walls used to partition working sections. It was filled with administrative furniture. Desks, chairs, non working computers. Maps of the colony and mines below were on bulletin style boards on the walls.

At least we do have some proper maps, Glen thought when he saw the bulletin boards, though they didn’t look recently prepared if they were left at the same time that the room was last used.

They were actually maps from both Platus’ surveys and past surveys of the regions. On some of the older maps it did appear there were subterranean tunnels that were not on Platus’ maps. Perhaps this showed that the interference for scans came later.

“And any other questions for Adviser Platus before he leaves us?” Glen asked the Landing Party. “He is a busy man and obviously has plenty to do here!”

Stella looked around. It was a crazy idea that was rolling around in her mind, but it might be a valid one. She found Lt. Walker and asked her politely. Lieutenant, are you aware of any in depth studies of all the metals on this planet? Most particularly it would be the large deposits of heavy metals. Things like, Iron, Cobalt , Titanium .Copper , Lead or Mercury? ” Stella paused for a bit. She had to take a breath in before diving in so to speak. ” Or if anyone had graphs or charts showing electromagnetic fields?”

“I sadly don’t. I don’t even know this mission. I was just thrown in. I’m just the newbie here. So I don’t know what to do honestly to say.” Ashley said to Lt. Stella.

Hunter looked at what was to be their H Q ‘’On thing’s for sure I wont fall asleep around here any time soon ‘’.

Sharp was becoming more distress on hearing what was going on and on hearing Hunter he became even more paranoid .Maybe they will soon get back safely on the ship and all this would be just a horrible nightmare , he wondered what use his phaser would be in this situation , not one to take any chances he got closer to M’Mera .

M’Mera’s gaze flickered to Sharp as the younger security officer sidled closer to her.”Prroblem, Crrewman?” She asked as her nose twitched and she picked up the smell of his distress. She looked around quickly and studied their surroundings, her ears flicking and rotating as she catalogued the sounds in their immediate environment as well. She could see nothing that would be putting the younger officer in distress.

Sharp nearly jumped out of his skin ‘’No ma’am..no problem just got closer to hear what Platus is saying ,you understand its important that I mus be aware of what is going on ‘’ he lied and did so with a steady voice hoping he’ll convince her.

Darn Catians nothing escapes them * he thought Guess being on the bridge or sickbay wasn’t that bad after all*

Lance stood listening carefully to what Platus was saying, “Do you have a full inventory of what was stolen?” he asked. He wondered if someone had been stealing to order. Taking small bits and then escalating it. Or possibly if what was being stolen was in fact small parts that would build something else. “I wonder Captain, if these stolen goods are not part of something bigger, maybe something big enough to mess with our comms?” he suggested to Captain Glen, it was exactly how Lance would rob things to build something bigger, steal the small bits, then the bigger bits until he had built something. He was smart enough not to mention that he didn’t need his CO not trusting him.

Plates shrugged, “Small tools for the most part. Drills, wrenches, stuff like that. Though I did get a report about components missing from equipment. Even replacing the components didn’t get the equipment working again. It’s like someone wants to aggravate us and drive us off. Cause havoc and loss of production to not make mining worth it here. When we scanned the planet there was no sign of anyone else being here. Mind you we couldn’t get full scans of the underground except under the colony.”

“When, or if, we receive all this information and data that we’ve asked for, then we are going to have to analyse it the old fashioned way, by hand,” Glen told the Landing Party. “Does anyone have any experience of that kind of statistical work?” Glen wished he had brought down his Yeoman, Faith Hopkins, now. She had been brought up on a low tech planet where they hadn’t relied on machines to do everything. Somehow, they were going to look at the detail of exactly what had been stolen, and see if those parts could be constructed into something larger. They were going to try to look at the geology and geography of this planet, and see if the mineral deposits or fault structure, or the landscape itself, had any bearing on these things, but only using hand-drawn maps. They were going to have to look at where people and things had gone missing, using those same outdated paper maps, and then draw some conclusions from all of this. Glen thought that these tasks would be almost impossible. It was probably easier to believe in a supernatural reason for it all.

“Aye captain.” As Ashley heard the captain’s order, she went ahead and set the engineering equipment down in a spot and starts to set things up.

Lieutenant J.G. Ashley Walker
Engineering Physicist
U.S.S. Merrimack

OOC: What type of equipment are you setting up?

OOC: The engineering equipment.

OOC: I need an idea of what engineering equipment you have. You could probably Memory Alpha for some ideas or google.:)

Since Pilatus mentioned nothing about the need of a doctor ,Hunter turned to the CO ‘’Captain could I search in more detail the area of the territory outside and along the Jungle ,see if I stumble on anything ‘’ he asked ‘’ The persons that have disappeared are nowhere to be found here and neither are the stolen tools ,my hunch is that they may have been kidnapped for their knowledge ,as Lance said the tools where stolen because they are needed ‘’.

The doctor waited for Glen to give him the go ahead ‘’ It would help if Stella and a security accompany me ‘’.

GM Nosferatu
Your Darkest Nightmare

“No, Doctor,” Glen replied, “At least, not yet, anyhow!” Glen wondered if Troy Hunter had some kind of death wish or a destructive impulse. He’d been told that people on this planet were disappearing, one at a time, without any adequate explanation, and yet the doctor was suggesting that they should now split up, like the white girls in some old 2D Horror movie he’d once watched, and somehow they would all stand a better chance of survival in twos, or when alone in this way. Anyway, after speaking with Stella Gagnon earlier, Glen was also quite sure that she despised the man from the very bottom of her heart, and she would need a little more time to get to know him before ever being teamed up with him. And thirdly, going off on their own to get murdered was the job of the redshirts like Richard Sharp and Guy Fleegman, whose death would then serve as a warning to the rest of the landing party; their sacrifice letting more valuable crew members and the captain avoid the ever present danger. He expected that M’Mera had already developed some elaborate plan of that type already.

Hunter simply nodded and said no more after all he had to follow orders though the doctor still thought that it was worth checking , to Hunter it was more plausible and within the bounds of possibility that the power was being directed somewhere else .

Hunter is aware that the scanners aren’t working what he suggested was to check around, Platus even said he had an old map

‘’Mind you we couldn’t get full scans of the underground except under the colony,” Hunter mused.

Hunter kept thinking about what Platus had said, not to mention the two individuals that had disappeared.......... was it not worth trying to locate them?.

“I did see a map of the wall over there when we first came in here,” Glen said. “It looked well made, but probably a little out of date as it was pinned up among old notices. It will do us as a starting point. Scanning obviously works sometimes… we know the problem is intermittent, so keep trying. At least we have scans directly beneath the colony… I’m just not happy about people wandering off on their own, but if M’Mera can organise a team then volunteers are welcome to join it. There are too many of us for this little office anyhow.”

“Aye ssirr. I would like to take Sssharrp and the doctorr can come too if he likes. I want to do a perimeterr of the colony and look into wherre the equipment was sstolen and the people dissappearred.” M’Mera murmured.

Hunter demeanor remained the same , at least now the Captain was thinking about what the doctor had suggested earlier .

Before Platus left them, Glen asked, “A few final questions for you: We have a Doctor here. Do any of your miners require medical treatment? Secondly, if you have better maps or more detailed scans, we’d certainly appreciate seeing them please? And also when you scanned the planet and found that there was no sign of anyone else being here, did you scan for non-humanoid life? You must be aware of the Vulcan Sandworms, the Salt Vampire of M-113, and the Horta found on Janus V? There may be an unusual creature on this planet that has never been identified? That would certainly explain some of the supernatural stories, but it doesn’t really explain the stolen objects? Don’t worry though, we will find an answer to all of this.”

Platus looked at the Captain like he was crazy. “Umm, alien life forms? We scanned for anything alive…can’t say if we could find whatever it was you just said. Not really a whole of injuries or anything. Just what you would normally have from working with equipment. Mind you, we haven’t been able to get any work done lately so doubt there are any.”

On hearing the Captain mentioning the non -humanoid life ,Sharp could not help but say ‘’ Guess Guy had a valid reason to be frightened and where is he anyway?’’ the security looked around hoping to catch sight of Guy.

From across the room, Guy put up his hand and gave Richard a small wave. He had deliberately been attempting to remain unseen and now had everyone looking at him.

The doctor did not mind where he was most needed ,he knew M’Mera would gather a search party. Hunter was more worried about those persons that disappeared then the missing tools.

Hunter looked around and his eyes fell on a female Lt ,from her uniform he could tell that she was from the engineering dept ,getting closer to her he whispered ‘’Am I correct in thinking your medical evaluation has not been done yet ? If so I’m not going to mention anything or the Captain would loose it…just don’t die on me here ‘’ his tone of voice was friendly.

She looked at the doctor. “Yes that is correct. I was just thrown into the landing party with no medical eval. Nothing.” She said kind of blushing as he whispered in her ear.

‘’I thought as much ‘’ Hunter whispered ‘’Once a COS did the same ,he did have a problem with one of his eyes and the CMO had to stay with him during the mission and I can tell you the Captain was furious ‘’ he went on ‘’I do hope you’re in good health and if we make it back to the ship get your medical I’ll arrange the dates ‘’.

“Of course Hunter. It would be but it’ll not be my fault.” She said.

OOC: The fault would obviously be that of the medical department as it had been on the previous occasion too.

Hunter was now looking ahead diverting his look from her ‘’ I understand ‘’ were his last words on the subject.

She looked at wondering what he’s thinking. “Doctor what are you thinking? Is there anything on your mind? Was it something I said?” She asked the doctor with questions.

‘’Oh no my dear on the contrary I believe you understood me, don’t fret about it ‘’ Hunter replied.

Eros had been listening to the conversations and discussions while trying to draw up any theories of his.

“Yes, Mr. Platus, I do have a question. Have there been any new veins of ore opened recently that would coincide with the time that your equipment started not working correctly? Or possibly a new ore that was undiscovered, or a large enough deposit of something that could be interfering with the electronics of . . . . everything?”

Platus shrugged again, “No idea on either of those things. You can see on that newest map there…”He pointed to one of the maps on the wall. “That shows our latest area of digging. We are about 100 feet down…that’s where we had to stop when the equipment stopped working. everything worked until then, well everything but scans away from the colony. You can go down there if you like…but its a long climb down as the lifts ain’t working.”

After Platus reply, another thought came to the helmsman. “Captain, if I remember correctly from the briefing, you said that various governments take turns with the mining on this planet. Everyone from the prior operation clears out and the next entity comes in and begins mining again. If this is the case, could it be possible that whoever was here last, Klingons, Romulans, or whoever, could have left some people behind? Causing problems for the newcomers?”

“It’s possible,” Glen replied, “but my Romulan contact said no one remained, and the Klingons aren’t likely to tell us anything more than they have already.”

“Platus said the maps are out of date,” Eros continued. “It’s possible the bad guys have an outpost down in the labyrinth of tunnels somewhere. That would explain a lot of the problems that are happening. They have something that is jamming all communications and electronics. They need to ‘borrow’ your equipment to keep the jammer working. And the missing people?? They may discovered what is really going on and had to be eliminated to keep the secret.”

OOC: Actually no not all the maps are out of date. Platus has some, mostly the colony and immediately below it that were capable of being scanned. There are older maps, obviously from previous attempts to mine there that do show some subterranean tunnels underground farther out from the colony but those are old. Before the scanning interference started.

“Platus didn’t say all the maps were out of date,” Glen replied. “It was just my own observation of those pinned up in this room, and that this room looks like it hasn’t been used for a long time.”

“Of course, these are just hypotheses. What do I know, I’m just a fly boy.”

Lt. (jg) Dionysovich
Helm

“Those were perfectly good questions,” Glen replied. “And you are correct, in that these tunnels are so extensive and are only partially mapped, so really, anything could be down in them. I doubt there is a a subterranean city down there, but someone could hide out with enough supplies.”

GM Nosferatu
Your Darkest Nightmare

Finally, Stella spoke up as she asked the captain.” Sir?” she began,” If things are disappearing in the night, then it occurs to me that we perhaps have a very good weapon that no one would really know about. ” She then nodded toward Lieutenant M’Mera and spoke as she forged on. ” Lieutenant M’Mera , please pardon me for any of my ignorance but isn’t your species blessed with a very good night vision as well as hearing and smell? It strikes me that it could be something that could be of great use to us if it’s true.

Lt.jg. Stella Gagnon Comms

“What do you think, M’Mera?” Glen asked her, “Is a ‘night’ Op in the darkness something you could lead?”

M’Mera’s furry brows rose, “Yesss, what did you have in mind?”
She asked curiously.

Lt. M’Mera COS

“Arre you meaning down in the tunnelss, Captain? Of courrsse I could. I am ssurre we could assk the Adminisstrratorr for ssome equipment if we don’t have it. He did not say the ssmallerr hand held equipment did not worrk. Ssuch as lightss, hard hatss, ropess, etc.”

M’Mera COS

“Yes, I think that is what Stella means,” Glen replied, “And only if you think it would be safe obviously, but we’ll need to investigate some tunnels at some point.”

M’Mera nodded,” I would like to ssee wherre the people dissappearred from with Crrewman Ssharp and the Doctorr. Then Captain, yess I think ourr next move might be to checking the tunnelsss while our engineerss look at the equipment up herre.”

Hunter approached Glen ‘’Captain could what is going on be someone from within? Is Platus 100% sure of his workers ? Or could it be that by all the mining something have been disturbed and unleashed from the depths of the abyss and is out for revenge? ‘’.

“I doubt anyone can be 100% sure of their crew,” Glen replied. “Look at the Merrimack and that spy who impersonated Dr. Kim. No one suspected him. The life of a miner is harsh and rough. You cannot choose very carefully who you hire. You need people who get the job done, so you don’t ask too many questions about anything other than their ability and previous experience.”

Lance had been deeply distracted by what was going on around him, this wasn’t unusual, where there was a lot going on Lance Frequently got distracted by things. He heard the captain ask about someone willing to go through data. And looked round, “Oh I like data and statistics, even on paper, it’s like a Zen activity.” he said offering to do the work.

-Lt Malone CSO

“That was what I was thinking,” Glen replied. “Is that something you are capable of? I need you to crunch this data and see what you can find!”

The Lieutenant stood there listening and didn’t know what to do. She just stands there and just listens.

Lieutenant J.G. Ashley Walker
Engineering Physicist
U.S.S. Merrimack

OOC: If you tell us what the engineering equipment is meant to be for/doing, then Nosferatu would be better able to tell you whether it works or not. Then rather than only standing and listening you could say how you hoped to overcome the problems and you would have something to do. Role-paying must be a two-way thing.

Glen, CO

OOC: Indeed, I need to know what equipment you are trying to run. If it is equipment that uses signals, such as scanners, mappers, etc. Then no they will not work. You could use Memory Alpha, Google, etc to find lists of Star Trek equipment. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Engineering_tools. If it is a tool that would say only use a battery of some type without needing to use signals then it would work. Eg. a Hyperspanner, flux coupler…tools.

Nosferatu

OOC: some of the equipment she brought is signal used so that’s why I have her just standing there.

Lieutenant J.G. Ashley Walker
Engineering Physicist
U.S.S. Merrimack

OOC: Ashley, give me a list of what equipment you brought with you. Then I can make a post letting you know what is working or not.

Nosferatu

OOC: Bet. I’ll most likely do it tomorrow or sometime tonight.

Lieutenant J.G. Ashley Walker
Engineering Physicist
U.S.S. Merrimack