Posted by Crewman Guy Fleegman (Security Officer) in Colony: Engineering Team
[snip]

=/\= So your telling me we are on our own for a while then? For how much longer? =/\= Ashley asked.

=/\= The field is originating on the planet where the Captain is. We can’t do anything about it here. It needs to be turned off. =/\= Cara replied.

=/\= Understood. We’ll try and keep tabs if need be. =/\=

Stella literally hissed out loud. ” What the heck are those people talking about? Field this and field that? Do they have a clue? Or do they not know what they are talking about and have just substituted the word field for ’ I don’t know?’ Stella then kicked viciously at some rocks in front of her and regretted the action as soon as she did. The rocks didn’t give way as easily as she had thought they would.

=/\= ” Merrimack this is Lieutenant jg Stella Gagnon. I have a bit of a question if you don’t mind. What field? What is the field made of? Can we see it? Can we smell it? Is there any way at all we can measure it or tell where it is? Obviously, you have found a way to detect this so-called field. So, at this time the chances of us turning anything off are about the same as a Badger mating with an Alligator. So, as you can tell a little sharing would be wonderful.

“Er… I’m a scientist not a farmer! …sorry, I don’t know how it works, I just know that when we were inside its bubble the Warp impact drive died, and nothing would work. The probes that have been sent out all went dead. …but when we moved away from it …now everything is hunky-dory again. Does that help? =/\= Cara replied.

Stella listened to Cara’s reply very carefully to Cara’s reply and then went over it again in her mind trying to make sense of it. =/\= So, to sum up you were in a bubble full of something that you couldn’t see or measure and that had no impact on its environment and is immeasurable. Or for matter may not even be a a bubble but could be a huge gelatinous wobbly cube! =/\= Stella rubbed her forehead. According to all the smart people they were being accosted by nothing. Thus far no one knew the size or shape of the nothing. No one knew what it was composed of. She hung her head as once again the idea that had come to her early in her away team adventure had begun. What seemed to be so long ago. When she had asked for a map showing large amounts of metals concentrated in one place. These along with readings on the planets magnetic field had given her an idea but no. That had been a not bright idea. She had been trying to impress the others on the away team. Then though she asked the question anyway. =/\= Cara? I assume that when the ship approached the planet, they did the normal sorts of scans, atmosphere, planetary magnetic fields and such? =/\=

Cara listened then replied =/\= Yes. …They ran all kinds of different scans. What are you getting at? =/\=

Stella let the question slowly roll around in her brain for a moment as she looked toward all the greenery of the forest no more than a mile or so away at the edge of the tree line. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad living here she thought. It wasn’t much different than her home with the exception of course of something coming up and taking you off into the night. That could be helped she was sure by building homes in the treetops. Yes, life here might not be so bad once they had adjusted to it and right now it was looking as if it may be a reality to consider. After all, one could not fight an enemy you couldn’t see. The problem seemed to be one that had absolutely nothing to do with science. At least any known sciences. Every atom moved. Danced. She smiled. It was this part of science. So eloquent and constant that she loved. And it was that dance that made heat. Left behind signatures of one type or another. From various forms of radio activity to big dumb rocks. Everything could be measured.

Stella picked up a rock and threw it. This place had taken all that beautiful eloquence away from her! She used a dirty sleeve to dab a small tear away from the corner of her eye before answering Cara. =/\= I am looking for large deposits of nickel and iron. Large, concentrated deposits whether together or separately. If you find those you may find a portion of the planets magnetic field misbehaving. =/\= Stella then leaned back against the metal building with her eyes closed thinking that she could always change her name to Jane

There was a pause while Cara could be heard speaking to someone, then she replied =/\= Stella? We’ve noted your idea and we will look into it, but we don’t currently have a Ship’s geologist, and all the engineers who could answer your suggestion are down there in the room with you. I also suggest that you try to contact the Captain again since he is sitting on the source by all accounts. Cara out! =/\=

Stella listened and then shook her communicator to make sure there wasn’t a malfunction of some sort. Stella then said in a cheery voice. =/\= Thank very much for all your help =//\= Stella was astounded. A n entire ship of people with labs and operating machinery Computers that would answer questions and everything! Full sized equipment that would do any jobs. All this and she was being told they’d have to keep guessing with no resources. Maybe they thought that that cute little resonator would do things it wasn’t meant to do? Two hours and in a small area maybe sure. But there was one thing she could accomplish. If she couldn’t even get the data from the ships approach, she could at least warn the captain. She took a deep breath and then put her mouth close to the speaker. =/\= Captain Fergusson Glen this is Lieutenant Gagnon. I’m being authorized to tell you that have a big group of possibly red dots coming toward your present position. =/\=

Stella having done the only thing she could got up and went to look for something that would make a good stout long staff. Who knew that learning Bo-Jitsu might someday come in handy?

Unfortunately though it seemed as though Stella’s call went out over the comms, there was no response. It was obviously not reaching the Captain.

After not getting any reply from the captain Stella tried again. Still nothing. She simply looked at the communicator and shook her head. She had just been talking to the ship. They had wanted her to contact the captain. This being said her only conclusion was that the ships comms couldn’t reach the captain’s party. So then the comms must all be out once more. Stella fully expected to see the Mad Hatter and a white rabbit to go by at any moment.

Stella sat down once again and leaned back against the building full of people trying to get some sort of ore out of the ground. She was hungry, covered with dirt and sweat.” I can’t even turn in my resignation to the captain in person now. ” She complained to herself. Then after a bit of thought she began to make up a list in her head of what she would need for survival for being stranded on a planet. The miners were only thinking of one thing, and they didn’t seem to do that very well. So, she would have to worry about herself and whoever else went with her. For right now the ship wouldn’t come any closer and the captain was either somewhere underground or not. Up was down and down was up.

Guy asked Ashley, “Are you still seeing those red dots moving towards the green dots?”

“Yes I’m seeing them.” She replied to Guy.

“Listen up folks!” Guy told the group, “We can sit here flattening your buttocks even longer, playing with your broken equipment, trying to make it work again, and maybe, just maybe, that would be the safe choice. Or else we could follow the Captain into the mines and help them to escape from that big group of things coming toward them …but I’m not leaving anyone behind here, because I still don’t know what kind of voodoo we are up against. So, it has to be a unanimous decision. We all go, or else none go! What do you think? So, waddyasay? Can we get a show of hands here?”

Guy immediately put his own hand in the air and waited for the rest to follow him.

The red and green dots on the tricorder now showed they had converged with the red dots encircling the green in a wide horseshoe format.

Stella listened very carefully to the security officer who only earlier and told her to stop trying to do the job that the captain had ordered her to do and instead told her that they should all sit around in the first place. So, he could keep everyone safe mind you.

” Just so I understand what you’re proposing,” she began.” You want us to take machinery which may or may not be working. For instance, your little dots there could be anything from a vein of radioactive material, mating dragons or pretty much anything in between. Or if you like to gamble, I’d say it’s about two hundred to one odds that it might be the captain.
Then of course your defective machine isn’t telling us where the little dots are. It’s not telling us anything about depth. They could be anywhere from ten feet to three miles in depth. And the gizmo also shows no structure of the caves. We could walk in take two steps and fall a mile. Then of course we would be relying on lighting which may go out on us along with phasers for defense which are less frightening than a dachshund. But then of course unless I missed something didn’t, they only bring down enough caving gear for the people chosen to go into the cave?”

“I’m just a redshirt. I’m a lowly grunt! My voice doesn’t count for very much here…” Guy replied. “…but my duty is to protect you all, including the Captain of our ship and those other Starfleet officers down there. I don’t know how deep they are or how far away, but if they’ve been walking the whole time since they left then, yes it could be 10 miles or more. I’m not an engineer, but these others are…” Guy indicated around the room. “…this equipment is used by Starfleet daily. It may be on the fritz today, okay, I accept that, but there is no question that this is the other away team, and that it is not that far away or that deep down. That isn’t an argument for us not to try to help. You can make your other arguments, like the risks of the hazards we might face: the poor lighting, lack of equipment, roughly hewn tunnels and sheer drops …and no, we’ve no idea what the little dots are. You are right, it could be a fire-breathing dragon, a giant horseshoe crab, or a black pudding slime monster …and that’s why I can’t take you into danger if you aren’t onboard with the idea, but sacrifice is something that redshirts make every day. We don’t complain, we just waltz right on in there! We get deployed and we don’t ever come back! And rather than have us sit on our butts here waiting for that thing to come up attack the surface, I’m for killing that goddamn thing right now!”

But Guy could see that no one else seemed to be enthusiastic. In fact, on a scale of one to ten, he’d be lucky to register a whole number on the dial.

Well, he had stood and made his little speech now. He’d been accused of cowardness in the past. Dr. Cross had even attempted to have him court-marshalled. He had made an effort recently to conquer his fears of death, he’d do his job to the best of his ability, and he’d not be accused of cowardness again. So, it was more than a little ironic that he was the one calling for action now, but being told that such a mission was “C’est de la folie.” They’d been in worse situations before, and they’d surely be in worse situations again.

While some of the crew had visited the future, and they knew that the USS Merrimack itself survives for over a hundred years, no one could say how long Captain Glen, or any other officers or crew survived. Maybe this was the day that history would record that Captain Glen had died.

Stella sat and listened to Guy. Tried to do it with a straight face even which was truly difficult. She listened until his speech was over and at that point, she covered her mouth and began to giggle. ” But Guy! You silly thing you’re the one who stopped me from doing my job earlier and made us sit in the dirt. And now you want us to walk into a dark hole after which time we might fall off a cliff that falls into eternity. If you’re wanting to prove yourself, think of it from a tactical point of view. The captain knew what he was doing when he went in. They were fully prepared with all the equipment they would need. Since then, the ship won’t come near the planet. If the captain needs help, he will ask for it. We’re his backup. If he doesn’t however ask for help, he and the team are lost or something else has happened. If the captain is gone, we are right back where we started. To help and protect the miners who I might add don’t count much as engineers. I mean I can’t see in the dark and I’ve been in caves. It’s not fun. I don’t think there are any that don’t have branches going off of them in all directions. If you can convince me to go in Guy then I’ll abandon my post here and go in. But you’re going to have to make it sound like something that makes sense and that we can and should do.”

Stella Gagnon Lt.jg. Comms

Guy shook his head. “But the communicators are not working to the Captain, you just tried that already!” He could have replied that Communications was Stella’s job, and Security was his, but he didn’t wish to inflame the situation any further. Instead he merely said, “When you ran off outside to speak to miners, I could no longer protect you. If we were to follow the others, then we’d need to get equipped with some lights, and more climbing gear and weapons.” Guy admittedly hadn’t thought about those requirements, he just felt they should ‘do something’. In that, both he and Stella were agreed, he thought. The Captain and his Chief knew what they were doing when they went into the mines, Stella was correct in that. Guy and this party had even been told to stay right where they were. However, what were they actually achieving here? These engineers and scientists had been working away here doing diddly-squat and Guy was just as bored as Stella.

“Do you have a better idea?” Guy asked Stella. “Do any of you have an idea?” he asked the rest of the landing party, who had just sat silently while these discussions had progressed.

• Guy, Sec

Stella simply pursed her lips, took a heavy sigh and then laughed. ” Sure, I have an idea if we can get one little easy thing in nature to work. All we have to do is to start a fire with wet firewood and place it far enough into the cave mouth that it’s going to be where the cave circulation of air will be exchanging the hot air inside the cave for the relatively cool air out here. Then poof! Everyone gets smoked out no matter who they are. We will not have left our station and anyone down in that cave will come up fast. All we have to do is keep feeding that smoky fire. And you Guy might get a medal!”

Stella GagnonLt .jg. Comms

OOC: more like his head chopped off :)
marthese

“So, your suggestion is that we suffocate the landing party with wood smoke, rather that allow them to be killed by the fire of the mating dragons you think might be down there?” Guy asked.

• Guy, Sec

“I might not be a scientist nor communications officer. But if you want my opinion. I would rather find them rather having them dead. In my best opinion we should try and locate them and hopefully find a way transporters can work and get us all out of here. But again it’s in my opinion.” She stated.

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