Posted by Lieutenant Miriam Cross (Chief Medical Officer) in Colony: Engineering Team

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

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.”

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.

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!”

“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.

“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.” Ashley stated.

“No, I really wanted your opinion,” Guy replied. “I asked for it. I just thought we might get some other opinions too!” The COS and CSO had still not responded and seemed to be happy continuing in their research projects.

Stella couldn’t figure it out. Perhaps she wasn’t being clear. She knew that she did talk in a down-home drawl at times. But she never thought it to be that bad. Perhaps she just was not real bright? Her grandaddy however had shown her and her brothers how to take the honey out of beehives when they were all small. And just the memory of raw honey made her mouth water. She snapped back to the present then and thought how silly it would have been anyway trying to do something on this planet that worked anywhere else. The entire thing would have been harmless to all. The crew would have come running out and if there were hostiles just take a phaser to them.

” Yes, you two are probably right.” Stella replied. ” You two should probably go down into a pitch-black tunnel and wander around until everything on the ship comes back online. In the meantime, I noticed a bunch of first aid material in one of the sheds. I’ll stay here at my post and set up a first aid station.”

“No, we aren’t going to be splitting up,” Guy replied. “As I said earlier, to keep you safe, either we all go, or else no one goes! The worst thing to do would be to split ourselves up like the teenagers in an old 2D horror movie. So, it appears that we are staying here. A first aid post is a good idea… if anyone survives, that is! But Stella, tell us what has made you so bitter about everything and everyone? You rarely have a good word to say. What past hurts or unresolved grievances has made you so resentful of people and life?”

Stella wondered what the blazes was wrong with Guy. Never yet had behavior been consistent. When she met him, he to cringe at the tiniest of things. He wouldn’t allow her to do her job for fear he might get into trouble. Now here he was wanting to charge into a dark hole in the ground where no one had a clue what might await them. She had to take a deep breath before speaking. One of her first ideas that she’d had when they had come to this upside-down place was a large deposit of heavy metals reacting the planets magnetic field. She had learned about such places on Earth which had become places of worship to places which caused temporary insanity. She still thought that something was screwing with their minds. That or all the laws of the universe had been turned around backward just for this place.

Stella turned then on Guy.” Guy, you can help me here or go find yourself something else to do. I’m not going to stand here and tell you about my mama being mean or my pet turtle dying.”

“I have a job guarding the lives of this crew already,” Guy replied. “I’m not going to stop you going to those sheds to get first aid replies. That miner seemed to treat you better than they did when we arrived. And I don’t need to know what is eating you but could you at least be a little more civil?”

Guy turned back to Ashley. “How is it looking now on that read-out?” If the green dots were still there, the landing party was still alive.

“From what it looks like, yes. The green dots are still there.” She replied. “Stella. We must keep cool, we are Starfleet officers. Now I get it, this is your first, but we can’t just go into a shed, but at the same time, Guy is right, whatever is eating you up from the inside can’t affect you as a Starfleet officer, nor your job. As simple friends looking out for people, we need to be more civil. Not trying to be rude or anything.” She added.

Stella just smiled as she turned back to Guy and Ashley.” Sorry guys I’m just stressed out here. Anything you want or need me to do just let me know.”

“It’s alright Stella. I know being under these circumstances it can get tricky.” She said. “I think we should try and make contact with the other team if we can. Yes?” She asked.

“I’m sorry for my part too!” replied Guy. “I’m not a coward like everyone thinks I am, I’m simply a realist about the dangers we face and our life expectancies. I’m also frustrated and stressed like we all are. I want to do something, do anything! …but what we can do? We can keep trying to contact the other team, but that hasn’t worked so far and time is critical. At least you’ve been making some suggestions, Stella. They might have been brainstorming ideas, but I don’t see anyone else suggesting anything better, so I’m sorry about dismissing them!”

Guy’s transmitter bleeped =/\= Cross from bridge …do you copy? =/\= .

Guy was surprised at his own communicator chirping, since Stella and Ashley had already just spoken to the Bridge. =/\= Yes. Fleegman here. Is everything okay =/\=

• Guy, Sec

OOC: They did? Ops sorry either missed it or dementia setting in!

=/\= Glad to hear your voice and yes we’re okay , Lt M’Mera has also made contact with us =/\= Cross replied back. She was hoping that the away party would soon be transported back on the ship .

Cross CMO .

OOC: I am sorry I have been busy with work and life. I am going to hope in here so if it seems weird, I am sorry.

Max was listening to the message from Guy over the comms. He was in close proximity so he could hear it. After the message was stopped, Max said, “I believe the issue on the ship has been resolved? Do we have confirmation on that from the ship itself?” He wanted to make sure he had understood everything correctly and maybe their time on the planet was completed unless they wanted to more research to see if there was a potential way to prevent this from an engineering stand point in the future.

Lt. Mullins
Chief Engineer