Facility Inspection (Part 1 of 4)

Posted on 31 May 2014 @ 4:28pm by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Petty Officer 1st Class Oliver Morris & Commander Luke Wyatt & Lieutenant Asahi Kita & Commander Norvi Stace & Lieutenant JG Victoria Crawley & Lieutenant Teth Miir & Lieutenant JG Wakeham Paul Alasia Ph.D. & Taurus & Seeker Wisdom & Lonar & Crewman Draia Thero & Cadet Sophomore Grade Alenis Taban

2,117 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4, Main Shuttlebay
Timeline: MD 03 - 1355 hrs

[ON]

USS Galileo - Main Shuttlebay

Dressed in his new security attire still missing the days he was in green Luke stepped into the main shuttle bay holding a small backpack filled with some rations and water, he never went anywhere without at least a few hours worth of supplies. "Yo?" He shouted the deck seemed pretty quiet everything apart from the hum of the shuttle could be heard. Walking further into the room he placed the bag against the ramp before taking out his phaser from its holster ensuring it was fully functional and set to minimal stun.

Away teams had always managed to fluster the tiniest of engineers. Asahi had always been of the opinion that the chief should have spent most of their time coordinating actions between their teams, even if that meant finding themselves sitting behind a desk. It apparently seemed, however, that most of the engineering team had their reservations about the mining colony itself. There were various issues that came up, and though he wasn't able to ask some of his more active engineers, Asahi decided it was best to go see for himself what was going on. Luckily, he was able to take K'os along as well.

As the tiny engineer walked into the shuttlebay, he nodded towards Luke, quietly waiting for the others.

Victoria shouldered her bag and stepped into the shuttlebay, looking around to see who else was on the team. Seeing Luke and Asahi, she waved to them and walked over.

Dea entered the shuttle bay a short time later with her gear in hand. Her orders were to lead an away team to the mining facility. Taking a quick survey of others already present while running through a list of the full team roster in her head. Nodding a greeting as she waited.

Paul was reading a chapter on Cardassian cultural norms as he entered the Shuttlebay. If he were going to make a list of cultures in the Galaxy he knew much about, Cardassia would probably nearer the bottom than the middle but he was intent on making a substantive contribution. He glanced up from his book and closed it. "Hi everyone, I'm Paul Alasia. This is, uhh, you all - this is where I'm supposed to be, right?"

Luke met gave a friendly nod "You're in the right place, I think we're all here?" He asked looking around trying to account for everyone. Though he wasn't leading the mission he felt it was necessary he kept tabs on them, not just for their sake but the Cardassians to.

The counselor slinked alongside the others and listened quietly to their respective conversations. He was uncertain if it was because of his superior feline hearing or the very special components he had stored in his head. It was exceptionally easy for him to identify and listen to up to five conversations simultaneously.

At the back of the group, trying to hide in plain sight, was Cadet Alenis. The hulking Cardassian had drawn plenty of attention as he made his way into the shuttlebay and so he immediately tried to look as though he fitted in - despite his size, Cadet's uniform, and unwanted Cardassian genes clearly demonstrating that he didn't. He was immensely on-edge at the prospect of meeting 'real' Cardassians for the first time, and had butterflies in his stomach which felt like they might be Pulakoo in disguise. So he loitered at the back of the group and tried to look busy checking his equipment so that no one would talk to him. He was praying silently to the prophets that once on the surface he'd be given technical things to look at. He wasn't sure he could take having to talk to people.

Taking a seat next to Alenis, Morris looked around the space. It was tight. Too tight. His claustrophobia started to kick in. He took a deep breath to slow down his heartbeat. Morris focused on the seat in front of him. All the techniques he could think of that the doctors gave him helped to calm him slowly.

Nearby in the Volga Class runabout USS Marina, Lamar finished his post-landing checklist then grabbed his PADD and stepped out of the craft through the deployed side hatch. Stepping down onto the flight deck off of one of the large glowing nacelles, he waved to the assembled crew members to indicate he was ready to load them into the runabout. He did a quick head count of everyone to make all his passengers were present and accounted for, entered some notes into his PADD, then walked over to Mialin and gave her a status update. "Ready to load up and depart when you are, sir. The first team is already on the surface near the colony's housing facilities and the trip was uneventful."

"Copy that," Dea replied acknowledging the update from MWO Darius. She boarded the runabout and headed for the copilot's chair. It was odd to be not the one in the pilot's chair but her duties as Second Officer had her occupied with more critical tasks.

Asahi waited as patiently as he could, eying the others. "..... Last one in the shuttle's tribble bait." As immature as it may have sounded, the engineer refused to see this away mission as a dismal thing. He hopped up, grabbing his gear and heading for the runabout.

Victoria smiled despite herself and followed suit, stowing her gear and climbing aboard the runabout. I definitely should have had that last cup of coffee. She stifled a yawn behind her hand as she thought this and waited for the rest of the team.

Following the Lieutenant who had mentioned tribble-bait closely, Taban waited for him to take his seat before moving to the next one and asking quietly "Mind if I take this one, Lieutenant?" From the man's rank and appearance he was guessing it was the ship's Chief Engineer. By trying to attach himself to him for the mission he was hoping that he might get put on more 'technical' duty instead of dealing with people. Not receiving a 'no' he sat down quickly, having stowed his gear in the appropriate space, and watched the others take up their positions.

Picking up his things Luke follows behind the group, it didn't take long for him to stow away his bad and check his phaser holstered securely to his side. Finding an empty seat closest to the ramp he sat down and got himself ready for takeoff.

Stace, running a little late that she'd like, run up the ramp to the runabout and unloaded her duffel bag on one of the passenger seats. She smiled looking a little frustrated with herself and set next to her bag.

Upon hearing "tribble bait" Paul smirked and meandered around the landing bay as long as he could. His intention was to set expectations as low as possible. After a time he walked onto the craft, put his small bag of rations and a single PADD on his lap and made himself as small as possible so as not to spill over with his large frame into the next seat.

Lamar waited until all personnel had entered the runabout then followed them inside, retracted the ramp, and closed the hatch. He gave them all a mock salute as he moved forward through the passenger cabin and to the cockpit, then took a seat at the helm and began the pre-flight sequence. It took much less time than it had during the previous trip, and with the runabout already powered up and idling from its previous flight, he was ready to depart within a matter of minutes.

Tapping the thruster controls gently, Lamar's inputs caused Marina to slowly and delicately lift off of the flight deck until it hovered several meters above the tarmac. He swung the nose of the craft around until it faced the open shuttlebay doors, then applied some forward thrust to propel the craft through the bay's protective forcefield and out into space.

Just as the first trip was, the second ferry down to the planet's surface was uneventful, and this time Lamar was able to remember the location of some rather dense atmospheric pockets and avoid much of the turbulence he had encountered the previous time. The runabout briefly turned into a small streaking fireball as it entered Lyshan III's thin atmosphere but the bumpy ride quickly dissipated as soon as they broke through into the lower atmosphere. The mining colony came into view below then, and Lamar plotted an appropriate landing vector which briefly circled the colony before gently touching down just outside of the mining extraction facilities. A soft thud sounded and jolted the craft as they landed on the planet's crimson and rocky surface, and Lamar tapped the runabout's internal comm switch to address his passengers. "We've just arrived at Lyshan III. Local time is 1423 and the weather appears to be chilly with a slight chance of dust storms. Please put your tray tables and seat backs in their upright and locked positions, and thank you for flying Air Galileo." He really did love his job.

Turning in the copilots seat to face Lamar Dea smiled. "Not exactly perfect beach weather but we'll survive. Nice job. See you on the flip side." Dea stood and headed for the exit. "Everyone double check your environmental suits once they are on, then grab your other gear." She picked up an environmental suit and went through the process of putting it on properly then checking all its systems. Through the mic in her helmet Dea commented, "When you're ready let's get moving."

"Bulky, tedious things." The suits they had to wiggle into may have been helpful to the mission, but damn were they bulky. Asahi had many more complaints about them, but he kept them to himself. Better to stay safe and snug in a suit than end up blown away by a dust storm. It would have been nice, however, if they had one closer to his size. "... Bulky and way too big."

With a frustrated grunt, Victoria pulled on her own suit. "You're telling me," she said in reply to Asahi's observation. He wasn't kidding; the suits were huge, especially on Victoria's tiny frame. With one final tug on the sagging legs of the suit, she clambered off the runabout, bag in hand and silently cursing whoever the person who created the more than slightly uncomfortable suits as she headed over to the extraction facility.

The Cadet, however, was having the opposite problems to his colleagues on accoutn of his large size. His fingers felt like they were losing circulation, the gloves, wrist-guards, and fore-arms of the suit were so tight on him. Lifting the helmet he noticed he could hardly lift his arms high enough to put it on and his mobility was entirely dreadful. As he watched the others start to move out he tapped the Engineer on the shoulder and said "Lieutenant, sorry to bother you... I'm having some different trouble here... could you help me get this on?"

Asahi nearly fell over as he whirled about to address whoever it was trying to talk to him. Everything was so loose and bulky that he was having a difficult time keeping his balance. It was almost as if the suit were meant for someone many times over his size. Maybe they had the teams and suits mixed up in the process of everything, and he ended up with Pendleton's suit.

"Of course I can, just uhm..." The small engineer gave the much much taller cadet a curious look the moment he got his footing again. "Oh hell, you're tall." Asahi could have cared less that he was a Cardassian with a nose-squish. "What do they feed people at the Academy these days, and why didn't I get any?"

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

MWO Lamar Darius
Chief Support Craft Pilot
USS Galileo
[PNPC - Saalm]

LCDR Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

PO1 Oliver Morris
Senior Yeoman
USS Galileo

SCPO Luke Wyatt
Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

LT Asahi Kita
Acting Chief Engineer
USS Galileo

LT Norvi Stace
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Victoria Crawley
Psychologist
USS Galileo

LT Teth Miir
Counselor
USS Galileo

LTJG Wakeham Paul Alasia
Diplomatic Officer
USS Galileo

CDT(SO) Alenis Taban
Operations Officer
USS Galileo

Taurus
Miner
Lyshan III
[PNPC - Blake]

Seeker Wisdom
Miner
Lyshan III
[PNPC - Pendleton]

Lonar
Miner
Lyshan III
[PNPC - Warraquim]

Draia Thero
Miner
Lyshan III
[PNPC - Kohl]

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