Planning a Rescue

Posted on Sun Jan 17th, 2021 @ 7:16am by Captain Cynthia Jackson & Petty Officer, 3rd Class Clara Henry & Commander Elias Walker & Lieutenant Xenia Windsor & Lieutenant Luke Osswell & Lieutenant Kevin Chambers & Lieutenant Arev & Lieutenant Joshua Arras

1,494 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Mission 4 - A Rose By Any Other Name
Location: Meeting Room

Cindy had to admit that Clara, her new yeoman was efficient. All of her Chiefs were already back on board and informed of the meeting. For this meeting, she had arranged all the chairs, including one in the corner for herself to record the meeting. From the data that she had obtained from Wheeler, she did not think much of the mission, but she had orders to follow and there was no reason not to follow them. However, she had to think that there had to be a ship better suited to a search and rescue operation, like a medical ship. Nonetheless, she stood at the head of the table and waited for her crew to file in.

Doctor Arras walked in and looked around. "Captain. Do you have any preference as to where people sit?"

Cindy shook her head. "We're a team here. Sit where you're comfortable, Doctor."

Commander Walker was next to arrive with a coffee in hand. He'd hoped to be the first to arrive but was beaten to the punch by the Doctor. "Evening." Elias said in a jovial mood. He was keen to get back out into space.

Arras grabbed a seat near the middle. He had his medical tricorder with him, as usual. Arras looked around for the captain's yeoman.

A spring in his step, free as a bird, Lieutenant (now minus the Junior Grade) Luke Osswell, the brand new Chief of Security ( PROMOTION! MOVING UP IN DA RANKS, BITCHES!) walked into the meeting room. Never mind what went on his is head (YEEHAH!), outwardly he was a personification of calm professionalism. He greeted the Captain and those who had already arrived. Taking a seat, he waited for Captain Cindy to begin.

Arev walked into the room and said, "Greetings everyone."

He took a seat in the middle of the table. That would allow the XO to take a seat next to the Captain, which would be befitting his station. It would also allow Arev to be equidistant from the rest of his crewmates, which he felt would help him develop more camaraderie with them."

The doors opened again, and Xenia walked through. Not wanting to attract too much attention, she sat simply sat at the end of the table opposite the Captain.

Before the doors slid shut, Kevin managed to slip through. Nodding to everyone he took a seat closest to the door.

Once everyone was seated, Cindy started the meeting very informally. "So, we have received our new orders," she informed everyone. "There does not seem to be much information here. I will fill in the blanks where I can. We are to go to the Exo system. Apparently a team of scientists went out there. No contact has been made with them in approximately a year. We're to check their welfare and report to Starfleet."

"A year?!" Walker asked in a surprised tone. "Did someone at Starfleet forget about them?"

"If it's been a year since they were last checked, they may need immediate medical attention, captain." The doctor reported.

Cindy reminded Walker, "The fleet has been decimated. I'm fairly certain that it was low priority given everything else that has happened. But now, the fleet is rebuilding and so things like this can be looked into."

Then turning to the doctor Cindy nodded gravely. "That's assuming they're still alive. Like you, I have hope but with no signals coming from anyone in a year, one has to wonder. I would think that they would have to make do with whatever natural vegetation or beasts they could find there. Would anyone know how long a food processor could last?"

“A food processor and I’m assuming a water purifier as well that would have been provided with their gear...” Kevin did a quick calculation. “I’d say with some creative power sourcing and local flora and fauna? They might still be in operation. But the equipment has a 6 month limitation under constant usage.”

Luke listened and put in: "Even if that's true, they should have been equipped with emergency food processors adn the like, a long with some spare parts to make them last longer in cases of emergency, right?"

"Maybe," said Cindy thoughtfully. "Of course, if the worst happened and they crash landed and were injured, they could have been rendered useless."

"Possibly, indeed.", Luke said, "we'll need as much data on them as possible though. When were they sent out? What was their mission? Do we have a log of their messages and reports? We might find some clues in there."

"Are we treating this mission as a search and rescue or a find and recover? I feel a year after contact is telling us they no longer need help." The Commander said.

"If you're suggesting that they're dead, that's certainly a possibility, but one that I would really not like to think about. I'd rather hope that they just do not have the equipment to contact us. Either way, we do need to investigate," Cindy responded with a swish and flick of her hair over her shoulder.

She looked at Luke and said, "The last log said something about finding a planet and going down to investigate some unusual readings on Exo-III. Then there was nothing after some static. The lead scientist of the group was named Roger Korby. He is an exobiologist." Cindy then turned on a view screen that showed the Exo system. "There's not much to the system and from all of our readings, Exo-III is covered in ice."

"Roger Korby is a renowned scientist, described by Commander Spock as the "Pasteur of archaeological medicine", as well as a former professor. I was lucky enough to sit in on one of his courses. His translations of medical records found in ruins on Orion revolutionized Federation immunological techniques. These became required reading at Starfleet Academy." Dr Arras reported.

"And that is probably why Starfleet is sending us out there," Cindy agreed. "So, does anyone else have any questions?"

"When do we leave?" Walker asked as he sat forward slightly.

"As soon as you can get everyone on board and re-supplied," Cindy replied smiling. "How long will that take?"

Elias glanced at the gathered officers, "Anyone in need of anything we don't already have?" He asked the room.

"I could do with thick beanie and a pair of sturdy winter gloves. Not a fan of the cold, I am." Luke said. Then he thought of something else: "what about their ship? Is it still in orbit?"

"Any particular colour, Mr Osswell?" Elias replied with a smirk.

"Something that compliments the colour of my eyes, please", Luke said in all seriousness. "How did they travel to the planet? Did they land with their ship, were they beamed over by another vessel?"

"Gotcha." Walker replied with a wink.

"I would have thought that they took their ship, Luke," Cindy responded, not having a true answer.

Arev asked, "Do we know what they were sent to study or was it just a general research survey of the planet?"

Cindy answered Arev after laughing at Luke. "The logs that I have regarding the mission seem to indicate that Dr. Korby was evidence of some ancient civilization. He wished to explore it and see if he could discover the secrets there."

Arras kept watching Clara as the discussion continued.

"Anything more specific about the ruins?" Walker asked.

"Nothing more than he believed them to be older than Earth," Cindy responded with an apologetic shrug.

Xenia took a few notes. She'd already checked the route between the starbase and Exo III, and it would be pretty straight forward, possibly a short detour or two around some nebulas. So she didn't have much to ask, or contribute to the conversation. Still, she listened to the conversation, absorbing the information.

"Even if we don't find the scientists, it sounds like there is potential for significant scientific and historical information gains", Arev said more to himself than the group, but he hadn't meant to say it aloud.

Cindy agreed. "However, we had better come up with some logical reason of what happened to the scientists. I dare not go back without that information."

Dr Arras spoke up. "To determine what happened to the scientists, we first have to find remains to determine cause of death. Now, if they aren't dead, then we have to determine what condition they are in. We don't know how much supplies they took with them to begin with. So if they are indeed alive, they might be in very grave condition, Captain."

"That's why Starfleet is sending us, Josh," Cindy replied with a weak smile.

Josh nodded. "Of course, captain. Either way, sickbay will be ready."

"May I have access to the pertinent sections of the logs and Doctor Korby's work", Arev asked.

"You will have all the access that you need Arev. If you find any clues, let me know," Cindy responded.

RSS Feed