The Colony (Part 3 of 4)

Posted on 20 Nov 2019 @ 7:48am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Marisa Wyatt & Lieutenant JG Tris Shizn & Petty Officer 1st Class T'Lin & Petty Officer 3rd Class Peregrine Steele
Edited on on 20 Nov 2019 @ 7:50am

2,520 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: Latari B III - NW Island Colony Site
Timeline: MD 01, 1358 Hrs

Previously...

Blake shook her head firmly, her features calm with it as she waved a hand slightly. "We're all on edge," she agreed, but the way she said it included her own team. "It was...quite a journey getting this far. Let's just focus on getting back to HQ and working out our next steps." She stood with that, stretching out to get ready for the rest of the arduous trip. She motioned towards her team to get ready to move. At least if everyone was moving, they'd have to keep their energy on walking rather than talking.

Marisa got up and stretched, then picked up her gear and fell in with the others.

T'Lin did not say a word, but offered a hand to Steele and Shizn as the party seemed to start getting ready to move on. As soon as they were up she shouldered her bags and waited for instructions to start moving.

Shizn appreciated the extra hand up from the Petty Officer, giving her an approving nod. He readjusted the straps on his shoulders and then picked up the small containers, one for each hand.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

1358 Hrs Local

The second portion of the hike back to the colony was more grueling than the first. The terrain had steepened and the jungle thickness intensified to where visibility was a matter of mere feet as opposed to yards. The daytime suns were now fully overhead and soaking the tropical atmosphere with intense UV radiation which was reflected back onto the humanoids thanks to the overlapping tree canopy.

The collective expedition team of over thirty people finally reached a ridge where the treeline ended. In front of them was now a large water-filled crater formation surrounded by mountain ridges on all sides. The shores of the bright blue lake at the center of the canyon were populated by large, distinctive Federation colony housing structures, and were accompanied by multiple makeshift urban housing units which spread into the nearby forest.

Duke stepped up atop the highest peak and looked down at his residence. Then he waved to the Starfleet away team to join him to see for themselves. "Well, this is it. Home. What's left of our colony."

Shizn, drenched in sweat, looked around a bush to see what this ‘home’ looked like. Standard and adequate, he thought. Tris then looked up to see that the protective canopy above them had ended and they would soon be walking in direct sunlight. He turned and looked back down the hill they had just climbed. He couldn’t see very far, of course, but was actually grateful to be out of the dense humid area that they had just traversed. He felt he could deal with the heat better than the heat plus the dense humidity.

T'Lin noted the increased gradient and the thinning vegetation. She had a theory as to why based upon various scientific insights. Those insights were rewarded when they came out of the thinning jungle to confront the cluster of shelters around a deep blue lake. It was the remains of a volcanic caldera that had probably formed this island and now had filled in with rain water. It reminded her a bit of Crater Lake that she had visited on Earth just a bit smaller. She would be interested in measuring the temperature of the lake if possible to see if the magma chamber had become activated or not from the disturbance of the probe/creature they had fled. She had to remind herself then that it did not matter much, this world would most likely from whatever had happened soon experience a winter like nothing it had seen in a very long time as the dust from the eruption finally shrouded the world. All of this, the vegetation, the animals would most likely perish as photosynthesis shut down and then the plant eaters died and the predators and then the scavengers finally died off.

Marisa stopped beside the others. "This is incredible. How many people made it here?" she asked the closest of the colonists. She wanted to get a good look at what they'd established and take a swim, but she was keenly aware that she still had the specimen bag strapped to her leg. "Do you travel to the ocean often?" It was a good hike, and she wanted to know what make them go to the beach that day.

"...Less than twenty-five hundred of us now," one of the colonists answered as he walked by, anxious to get back to camp.

One of the more familiar colonists stepped in line next to Sandoval - the man who'd first approached them on the beach. "Yeah, we get around. Not as much fish in the lake and you gotta go to the shore to find angel crabs."

Marisa turned to the colonist and nodded. "Makes sense. Thanks."

The next twenty minutes were spent descending down the side of the steep and rocky ledges which lead from the crater's crest into the basin below. Now moving at a slower pace, the group reached the outskirts of the colony and began to form up single-file to march through the makeshift road towards the center of the town.

Agricultural farmers dressed in traditional loose pearl garments were the first to notice the groups arrival, and they momentarily stopped their work to stare at the Starfleet uniforms walking through. As the team approached the settlement's main intersection, children and adults alike started to peer out of their doorways and observe the newcomers. Unlike the distrusting looks the away team had received from the security team, the rest of the colonists appeared more curious in nature.

Tris lumbered on with a handle in each hand, his antenna angling left and right at times. He glanced side to side observing the curious and sometimes smiling faces. He thought, Now, this is more like it. Real people and not the scary security types. it had been a very long haul and the Andorian was definitely ready for a long rest.

Steele just barely looked up from the ground. The last bit had been nothing more than willing one foot in front of the other. He had barely noticed the ascent, the descent and the people until the rest of the group began to slow and he almost walked into the back of the Andorian pilot. He finally looked up and around at the gathered group.

"I sure hope they got some cold beer," is all he managed to get out through parched lips.

Marisa wasn't quite sure what to make of this new gathering. She'd accustomed herself to the attitude of their rescuers, so this was unexpected. She didn't like being gawked at, and she wondered why these people we4re less hostile. She glanced at Blake and Duke, to see how they reacted.

“Something cold and wet will definitely be appreciated”, the Andorian commented as his antennae seemed a bit twitchy. Looking at the villagers, but speaking softly to his crew, “These people seem more curious than concerned. I wonder what they know that we do not.”

Steele nodded and looked over the group before leaning in to the Andorian and quipping sotto voce, "Guess saying 'Hi we are from the Federation, we are here to help' is not going to go over so well. Hope the commander there gets some information. This is feeling like a Mexican stand off if you know what that is."

Tris looked perplexed for a moment thinking back, trying to recall any reference to ‘Mexican’ or ‘standoff’. “Ahh, no,” the Andorian replied to Steele.

Marisa gently stretched her muscles after the long hike so they wouldn't get sore. She carefully watched how the others were reacting to the new arrivals to get a feel for what to expect next. She didn't know if it would help. Nothing had gone as expected so far.

Blake glanced to the reactions of the colonists they passed, taking in what she could without staring back at them. She wasn't overly concerned about their reactions as they made their way through...their team were outsiders in the community that had banded together in survival. Some might even feel resentful in how long it took for a Starfleet presence to arrive when they'd been through so much. She leant to Duke, keeping her voice soft. "Are your people able to produce enough food and safe water for everyone?" she asked with a note of concern in her voice.

While the away team and colonists moved deeper into town, Duke briefly answered the XO's question. "We manage. Luckily we didn't lose many of our engineers. And that big lake right there helps," he pointed to the center of the crater basin a few miles away.

Duke whistled loudly to one of the complexes ahead and several of his team dismissed themselves from escort duty. "This is it. H-Q."

Before them was a larger-than-normal compound composed of starship hull material from the original colony ship. Clearly it'd been designed for durability, and the fact it was still in use and intact following the recent disaster was a testament to the duranium-tritanium composite strength.

"The boss lady's inside," Duke said to Blake as they halted outside the entrance. He held his hands out to the away team. "I'm going to need all your weapons. Standard procedure...you know how it is."

Lt. Shizn set down his two cases together and sat upon them, thinking to himself, Standard procedure my ice cold foot! Now I’m feeling like a slink fish in the broiler.

Marisa understood, on a certain level, the concern about weapons, but this felt odd. She was uncomfortable about giving up her knife, even though she could handle herself in a pinch. At the same time, she was curious to learn who their leader was, and what she had to say about the colony.

T'Lin observed in that cool Vulcan way. They were not well armed anyway but it did seem more something a pirate would request rather than Federation colonists would to Star Fleet personnel. There was something that did not seem to logically connect. She leaned over to the commander and said quietly, "Perhaps the rest should rest, I am not tired and I am Temple trained."

Blake glanced to T'Lin, nodding gently at the meaning behind the words, knowing what it meant for her to have been 'temple' trained. "We've come here to help," she assured softly as she looked back to Duke, meeting his eyes with a gentle smile, motioning lightly with an open palmed hand. "We mean your leader no harm."

Duke took notice of the Starfleet's team's reluctance to give up their technology and weapons. Part of him could understand their caution, but he and the rest of the colony weren't particularly trusting of off-worlders. Less now, all things considered.

"I believe you but rules are rules," Duke retorted. "Look, I'll put my own in first." He pulled a hidden Klingon disruptor from the back of his shirt and dropped it into the weapons bin at the security checkpoint in front of them. "Family heirloom. Don't ask."

With a sigh, Marisa walked over to the bin and set her knife inside. She wasn't well-armed to begin with and her knife was more a tool than a weapon, but she relinquished it to get more information.

Lt. Shizn followed his other crewmen and Officers, laying down his phaser onto the bin. He still didn’t believe this was the best course of action to take. He returned to his seat on the cases he had carried.

T'Lin suffered being touched. She had no weapons but her hands and reflexes but presumably the guards did not know that. Vulcans being touch telepaths did not like to be touched very much and she shielded her mind. The fleeting impression she got though before shutting everything down was just one of caution.

Scarlet went last, laying the weapon carefully inside. She could understand it, but it didn't make her feel any less naked without it. She met Duke's eyes as she straightened up, a faint smile at the corner of her lips. "That kind of makes me want to ask," she said in a hushed tone to him before moving back.

One by one, the colony's security staff patted down the Starfleet crew then admitted them into the large reinforced building at the center of the current colony site. It was a small command center - pressed out 100x100 on a good day, and occupied with a plethora of grey-shirted colonists. Multiple LCARS consoles lined the walls and were manned by various personnel, including a master situation display stand in the center of the room. The small vertical stool projected real-time holographic imagery of the planet and the colony site, providing an advanced source of command and control to the otherwise-'primitive' colonists.

The chief science officer took careful note of the displays and the people manning them. It was both out of curiosity about the colony in general and a need to know why such a simple establishment would warrant this kind of over-watch.

Tris looked about their command center. This all looked more like a ‘war-room’ than just oversight for a colony. For an Andorian, he really shouldn’t have chills running up his neck right now.

T'Lin just briefly looked over the displays. She was impressed at the level and this did not look like a simple 'we salvaged some stuff'. This was much more sophisticated and was obviously more than a simple observe and signal base. Her attention then turned to watching the people and especially what appeared to be guards. In case things did not go well, which would be the most strategically logical targets to hit first.

Soft verbal chattering echoed through the colony's command room when the Starfleet team entered, but now the room became silent as the colonists stopped to observe the newcomers. Duke herded the away team to the center of the room and slowed as he approached his boss.

"Maria. They're here." Duke stepped aside to reveal a short and muscular woman with dark cropped hair. Unlike the rest of the colonists, she was dressed in dark grey garbs and had both a makeshift communicator device clipped to her shoulder and an old, curved Type II hand phaser strapped to her appendix. She turned away from her console and now looked at the Starfleet crew - each of them one by one.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CMDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo-A

LT Marisa Sandoval
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Tris Shizn
Conn Officer
USS Galileo-A

PO2 T'Lin
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Warraquim]

PO3 Peregrine Steele
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A
[NPC Warraquim]

Duke
Colony Security Chief
Latari B III
[PNPC Saalm]

Other Colonists
Latari B III
[NPC Saalm]

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