Posted by Gamemaster Nosferatu (Gamemaster) in Colony: Tunnels

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Troy Hunter (General Medical Doctor) in Colony: Tunnels

Posted by Captain John Tiberius Glen (Captain) in Colony: Tunnels
[snip]
The Aenar leader Thalor had reached the top of the stalactite that they had been spiralling up and entered a doorway. The stalactites started out narrow at the bottom or starting point and thickened considerably when you reached the top so the space that the away team entered was quite large. Probably at least 20ft in diameter. Thalor barked some orders to those inside and braziers were lit that gave enough light for the Away Team to see. It looked like they were probably used for warmth by the Aenar as they would have no need for light but obviously having interacted, presumably, with their human ‘prisoners’ they understood that the Away Team would need light to see. There was comfortable seating near the braziers which Thalor swept a hand toward. “Please, sit and make yourselves comfortable. I am having the two miners brought here. They were given a dwelling to live here while they learned about us. You will see they have not been harmed. I am also having the evidence I spoke brought here as well.”

While the Away Team made themselves comfortable several female Aenar entered with food and drink and offered it around to them. It consisted of an interesting fruit type drink like nectar, strange flatbread that had a mushroomy type flavor and several strange looking fruit that were both sweet and tart.

Glen said, “I have no objection to anyone eating the fruit, unless M’mera does? I’m not hungry after our long rest stop, but it would probably be seen as impolite if none of us ate it.”

Sharp sat down and took some of the fruit offered , he even took the drink not knowing what it was made of . Hunter watched him from a distance his face neutral , one thing was for sure the doctor was not going to consume anything even if it had been offered by the Aenar in good faith. The security had no such reservations and Hunter hoped Sharp would not double over in pain once the fruit reached his stomach.

It was about ten minutes later when two human miners entered, both male. They looked clean and well fed despite still wearing their mining clothes.

Behind them came another couple of Aenar who set a computer(definitely not an up to date one) on a side table with a carton. After connecting the machine one of them slid a disc into a slot. Thalor went over to the machine and checked the data before turning and saying to the Captain, “Here are the fragmented records I spoke of and in this case,” He opened the case and gestured to Dr. Hunter, “is the DNA evidence of the gene manipulation.”

M’Mera moved over to the miner’s, keeping an eye on their hosts who made no move to stop her. Arre you well? Have they harrmed you? We have a doctorr with uss.”

The miners shook their heads, saying they were well and had been treated well. They looked surprised to see Starfleet, obviously having no idea they had been brought in.

Hunter looked around and when the two miners entered he was relieved to find them in a stable condition .About to check with the medical tricorder he saw Thalor opening the case and gesturing him to come forward .

Just by looking at the DNA the doctor was not going to instantly recognize the genes that had been manipulated for that fell to the scientists who studied the DNA structure and find the gene’s that had been changed ,he knew that for that they would need to take the DNA and hand it over to the Federation .

Hunter thought for a while then asked ‘’ What has changed afterwards ? For example where you able to see before ?Any information would help and one last thing do you have your people buried before the manipulation took place for we might extract data of how the previous DNA was and help our scientists in making comparison ‘’.

In answer Thalor took out several of the bubble like packs that had the DNA sealed in them to preserve them. Beside each sample was a digitized picture of the DNA strand in multi colors. He pointed out one.

“Here you can see the Aenar/Andorian DNA in blue, the other colors represent the DNA splicing that the Romulans did on the genes. We are not sure what or whose genes they were trying to splice in. We do not have access to any large medical databases to compare.” Indeed upon looking at the pictorial representation of the genes it was easy to see it had been meddled with.

“Our ship has equipment, data files and personnel trained look at that,” Glen replied. “if you would allow us to copy the DNA, we can identify markers and genealogies.”

Thalor nodded, “By all means, that’s why we brought it crated up. On the computer you will see the logs that our ancestors kept in secret while in Romulans captivity. They are a bit fragmented but you can see what they went through and how our ancestors drove them out. You can take a copy of those too, do you have way to copy them or does your equipment read these old files?”

“Until the Tech Guys get hold of them, I can’t answer that, but I’m sure that either reading the files or copying them; one of the two will work,” Glen replied.

“You’ve obviously kept hold of this information very carefully for a long time,” Glen began. “If it is so conclusive, then I don’t understand why you didn’t show it earlier, not to the Romulans or Klingons, but the Federation has been here for some time, and Andoria is a founder member of the Federation. Have you had some bad experience with the miners? What was the point of taking these miners as prisoners? I need to understand the circumstances, only because it is going to be the most difficult thing for me to explain to anyone else.”

Thalor shook his head at the Captain’s question. “We wanted to be left alone. Most of the miners that came weren’t the Federation, this is the first group who was. Why should they listen to us? They want to mine, make money. Why should they listen to us? They might have to stop mining.” His face was bleak. “But we thought we could try if we showed some of their own. We showed these two this and our habitat here. They were going to go back and try to talk to the Advisor. Then you came.”

“I see,” Glen replied.

Eros took a piece of the fruit and replied “thank you” to the woman who brought it.

“Hunter, you seriously need to relax. If they wanted to hurt us, they’ve plenty of opportunities to do so. Why go through the subterfuge of poisoning us, when they vould have shot us, pushed us over some ledge, or off the staircase. They have done nothing but treat us like guests since we started talking to them. Holy Cheesuz, man, Sharp has even relaxed.”

’’ It’s not that we might be poisoned I have no doubt they are offering their food in good faith ‘’ Hunter replied ‘’ Maybe I cannot help thinking with a doctor’s mind , we are a different species have never consumed the Aenar’s food before .Look at it from another perceptive , most humans cannot tolerate certain foods that millions of others have no problem with ....I believe you are intelligent enough to understand where I’m going with this ‘’ he replied in a soft tone.

This was the doctor who was obsessed with his body inside and out…impeccable ,not a hair out of place though it was hard to know that now with his face smudged with dirt ,while his shoulder length hair resembled more of a bird’s nest .

The helmsman shook his head at Hunter, before turning toward Thallor.

“Thallor, I haven’t seen any children since we entered your community. Are there children here. I believe it could be another Romulan crime if they made it to that your people are unable to procreate.”

Thalor arched a brow with a wry smile, “Of course we have children, we are the descendants of the first Aenar who the Romulans experimented on.”

“Let’s meet the miners then,” said Glen. If these miners had been treated well, and were really sympathetic towards the Aenar and their goals, with positive feelings toward the Aenar, that would make their return to the other miners considerably easier for Glen. It didn’t matter that it would be a textbook case of Stockholm Syndrome. However, Thallor had made another valid point about the miners. It wasn’t just about right and wrong, the miners livelihoods were also at stake here.

Hunter listened but said nothing ,he waited for the Captain to go along with the conversation ,only if Glen would ask a direct question to him would he answer .The doctor wondered if they had preserved the manipulated DNA as proof or the Aenars wanted future generations to go back as they originally where .

The two miners were standing near the table where the food was laid out, waiting to be questioned or to be told what was next.

GM Nosferatu
Your Darkest Nightmare
- Glen, CO

Hunter gazed at the two miners ‘’ Thallor I’m going to scan those two ‘’ he said with the medical tricoder in hand ‘’ Its not that I have any doubt that they were treated badly, on the contrary but as humans our bodies are not adapt to live in this type of environment , an example wold be the lack of vitamin D which our bodies need and its a vitamin that our bodies cannot retain and by time gets depleted ‘’ he wanted to make sure that Thalllor understood the reason why he wanted to scan them not to mention he had no idea how long they had been abducted.

“By all means.” Thalor said agreeably.

The doctor approached the miners ‘’ This won’t take long trust me ‘’ attaching the diagnostic wand to the medical tricoder he scanned both miners .

OOC: does the scan pick up anything?.

Hunter Dr.

OOC: Patience my Padwa, I can’t post every day:)

IC: The scans showed the miners were in reasonably good health. They were actually not deficient in any vitamins or nutrients. It would appear that the food offered to them from the Aenar was nourishing enough.

GM Nosferatu
Your Darkest Nightmare

M’Mera meanwhile had been standing in the corner of the room, arms crossed, watching everything that had been going on. Finally she spoke, “Captain, perrhaps we should let the Advissorr and ship know these men are okay and we’ll be rreturrning back above?”
Her eyes were narrowed and her tone cold as she spoke. Her tail switched back and forth as she fought with her own feelings on this situation. It was wrong what the Aenar had done, but so was it wrong what the Romulans had done. She was glad she wasn’t the Captain and didn’t have to make these decisions. She just wanted out of here now that they had done what they had set out to do. Mind powers gave her the willies, and these Aenar had it in spades.

Lt. M’Mera COS