Surprise Houseguests

Posted on Mon Mar 18th, 2013 @ 12:46pm by Captain Benjamin Byrne & Lieutenant JG Talm Aleint-Um MD [Byrne] & Commander Gaius Ra-Xialii & Lieutenant Tettly Biggs & Lieutenant JG Ethan Kessel & Lieutenant JG Elisabette Souda

Mission: Klingons on the Starboard Bow
Location: USS Endeavour - Bridge

It wasn't until the ship reached orbit of the second planet in their search that the crew began to detect signs of the missing starship crew. A number of the bridge crew had rotated duties, but Byrne had asked that Lieutenant Biggs remain for Beta shift until they had moved on to the third planet.

"Do we have anything on sensors?" the captain asked, as the planet came into view on the main screen.

"Aye captain," Stott (PNPC) responded from the operations position. "I'm picking up several life signs, including humans, vulcans and other Federation races. I'm also reading scattered alloy signatures consistent with Federation escape pods and shuttle craft."

Benjamin glanced at Gaius briefly before he responded. "It looks like we've found our missing officers. Any way of contacting them, Lieutenant?"

The bolian shook his head. "I'm sorry, sir. I'm not reading any active comm. signals."

"Commander, assemble an away team," Ben ordered, coming to the decision quickly. He had a feeling that his first officer had already been mentally planning who he would take on one already anyway. "Beam down to the surface and try to make contact with the survivors. Assess the situation and report back."

"Ra-Xialli to all crew, the following officers report to transporter room 1, in field uniform level 1. Lieutenants Souda, Biggs, Kessel and Alient-Um. 5 Minutes, XO out." Gaius said, looking as the officers on the bridge waited for their names to be called. He nodded to the Captain before leaving.

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PLANET SURFACE
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As Talm re-materialised, he opened his tricorder and absently set it to scan for life forms as he scanned his own eyes over the terrain around them. A fairly rocky place, with plenty of large outcroppings, but there was also plenty of foliage around. It wasn't the most idyllic setting as favored in many of the human-designed holoprograms he had seen over the years, but it appeared to be an environment where many Federation species could quite easily survive and fend for themselves for an extended period, providing that the local animal population was able to sustain both them and the plant life.

"Commander, I detect several humanoid life-form readings in that direction," the avian said indicating east of their current position.

Gaius nodded toward the direction stipulated and gave the gesture to move into a line formation, "Phasers on stun, eyes and ears, gestures, move out." Kessel nodded and drew his phaser as ordered, stepping into formation.

Tettly motioned for Elisabette to fall in behind him as they fell into motion. He closed the distance between himself and XO and tapped the man on the shoulder. Once he had the XO's attention, he poked his own chest, then pointed forward, visually asking if he should take point. No slighting the XO, but he was the Chief Sec, and it wouldn't do to have his XO get shot on his first away mission.

Souda did as she was motioned to and broke out a tricorder, taking care to keep a fraction of her attention to the periphery while they were moving. While the others were undoubtedly searching for the life signs of the destroyed vessel's crew, Elle was monitoring the intricate details of their surroundings. Though on the surface it appeared to be nothing but rock and sand, she wanted to be sure that it was just that. That there were no pockets of caverns or high level magma vents just under layers of thin crust. Or a telltale tremble of seismic activity that could make everyone's day suddenly very bad..

Gaius nodded, and the team moved out.

Kessel looked around as he did so. For an engineer he was quite at home in the away mission - nothing like spending four weeks with your head in a plasma vent to remind you how much more pleasant the real was compared to the holoprogram. Whilst many humans claimed they were indiscernible, Kessel had always been able to tell them apart.

After the short walk on the barren surface, they came across a rise. Gaius knew from his tricorder that the life signs were over the hill.

"This is Commander Ra-Xialli of the USS Endeavour to Unknown Starfleet Personnel, we are moving to your location from the East, do not engage, friendlies moving in," Gaius said, not knowing if they received his message. He gave the signal to move up.

Kessel moved forward with the rest. He expected the Starfleet personal to reply almost instantly, so the static silence was disconcerting. Still - they had presumably survived the almost total destruction of their ship. Images of the Endeavour blowing into a billion pieces of molten metal and plasma made him shudder as they passed through his head. It was little wonder they were suspicious.

As the team moved up and over the rise, they were greeted with the sight of numerous humanoids, all clad in some manner of Starfleet uniform, though none of them in pristine condition. The awareness of the approaching team's presence spread slowly, but once it had, more and more heads and bodies turned to face them, their expressions a range between the dull look of shock to the elation of seeing rescuers walk into their camp. They all stood in some kind of odd silence, their tasks interrupted by the new presence, until one of them in a command red tunic but missing the over-jacket pressed through to stand in front of them.

"Commander," the man said, his own rank pips hidden under the fold of his collar, as the neck of his shirt was open enough to allow the fabric to fall from against his neck. "I wasn't aware that Starfleet would be sending and search-and-recovery teams after us." He spoke in a very casual manner, as if being stranded amongst bits of salvaged wreckage of his ship and escape pods was little more than an inconvenience to him.

Talm noted just how easily the man had identified the most senior member of the group, and been able to define the man's rank, and so judged that he wasn't suffering the effects of genuine psychological shock that some of the other officers in front of the small group were clearly showing signs of. This man appeared to still be in complete control of his faculties, if not the situation any longer.

"Starfleet don't make a good habit of leaving men out in the middle of no where with no hope of rescue," Tettly replied, flatly. "Did you not think someone was coming?" He asked. Something about this situation was making the hair on his neck stand up, but he couldn't figure out what.

Something in Souda's gut had her hanging back a bit. The starkness of the scene- the ripple effect of people noting their presence- reminded her of half a dozen horror flicks that she'd seen throughout her life. The slow building tension perhaps? She wasn't quite sure. Regardless, she was wary once she goaded herself into movement. "Are you all right?" she asked the next closest person, making no illusions about the fact that she was scanning them as they spoke. There were definitely those that needed medical attention among them. Though she wasn't the most studied in the medical field, she'd had the same basic training as everyone else had. She could assist the lieutenant in triage in the least.

Allowing Souda to continue her questioning examination of the people nearest them and noticing the other science-division officer on the team casting a studying eye over them all, the same officer as before answered Tettly's question. "Starfleet also doesn't make much of a habit of drawing attention to operations which as far as our allies are concerned don't exist by sending a search and rescue team, either," he responded matter-of-factly. He could tell from looking at their faces that none of those in front of him were entirely comfortable, and though he knew he couldn't tell any of them the details of what this rabble had been doing before they landed here, he did feel the desire to try to put them at ease a bit better. "Truthfully, no I didn't expect Starfleet to leave us here indefinitely. But I had expected us to be left here for a while; at least until enough time had passed for the Klingons to lose interest in what an unknown ship had been doing in the area and just move on, assuming that their earlier attack had taken care of whoever it was."

That was too much for Kessel.
"Or as we say back in the Federation - Thank you for saving our asses. If it bothers you so much, we can just beam up again, be on our way, leave you here for a passing Klingon Ship? We tracked you here from your wreckage - so could they. Easily. We could just leave you here until they turn up. I am sure you had a perfectly good reason for being here..." He said. Though the thought made him pause.

"Speaking of which - what are you doing out here?" He asked, since protocol had been thrown to the wind by this point.

The man looked at Ethan with a glare, clearly not happy with being spoken to in such a way by someone who was assumedly a subordinate. "That is classified above your pay-grade, lieutenant," he responded, his tone taking on the universal steel of command. "Suffice it to say, we were on an information gathering exercise. Beyond that, I am not permitted to share." He turned his attention back towards the commander and the most senior officer who had thus far spoken to him.

"I am grateful that you are here," he assured them both, addressing Ethan's comments indirectly. "Even though it is a surprise. We have no communications and only emergency medical supplies. I'd appreciate any help your people can give."

"Commander," Talm said, moving closer to the XO. "I recommend we ask the ship to send down more medical personnel. With the number of survivors here, we're going to need more manpower to cater to all their needs. We'll also need to consider where to house them when we bring them onboard."

Gaius nodded. "Doctor Alient-Um and Lieutenant Souda will begin making a medical assessment of your people," he told the self-proclaimed spokesman for the survivors; still without a name or rank. He turned to the other officers with him. "Try and assess their other needs and see what will need to be done to accommodate them on the ship. I'll report in to the captain."