Post 13 - Planet-Bound

Posted on Wed Nov 4th, 2020 @ 11:32pm by Lieutenant Emni t'Nai & Lieutenant Commander Kora Lenek & Lieutenant Commander Karim MD & Lieutenant Nico Oliveria & Cadet Senior Grade Ezra Gonzalez

Mission: Episode 2 - The Next Phage
Location: Transporter Room 1, Deck 6
Timeline: Following Post 4

[Transporter Room 1, Deck 6]

Lieutenant Commander Lenek walked into the Transporter Room, garbed in the typical dress of the inhabitants of the world the Adelphi was orbiting, complete with the same facial construction of said natives, and a rather unhappy scowl gracing her lips. Having never needed to perform such missions of covert infiltration, the Cardassian had never had to suffer the indignity of being turned into something that she was most certainly not. It was any wonder that she allowed herself to undergo the transformation, given just how little it seemed to agree with her. But personal feelings aside, she had complied with the directive to attempt as seamless an infiltration as possible.

"And you're sure the transport site is secure?" Lenek asked for what seemed like the tenth time already, her agitation obviously influencing her temperament considerably.

"Yes, Commander," the transporter operator said, trying his best not to sound irritated.

Nico entered the room in similar, but slightly different garb compared to the first officer. He wore a satchel in the native look, practically bursting with advanced engineering devices. He poked at his altered face with a grin, "Timmoz is gonna be pissed if they can't return me to my original state." He chuckled and winked at the transporter operator, "I hope our Executive Officer hasn't been too difficult." He glanced at the altered Cardassian and shook his head, "I heard some, uh, grumbling in sickbay."

"Grumbling?" Emni asked as she followed the engineer into the room. "I suppose that's one word for it." She she grinned disarmingly at the XO before turning back to Lt. Oliveria. "And don't worry. We are well equipped with equipment to un..." She grasped for a name for the race whose name they weren't quite sure of yet. "...to return you back to your original state. For the most part at least."

Her grin broadened as she said it. Emni, herself was clad in a dress-like tunic that fell past her knees over a pair of loose fitting trousers. A satchel, not dissimilar to the engineer's rested comfortably on her hip carrying some basic medicine, hyposprays, and two medical tricorders. A set of unopened sterile containers, gloves, and a set of large sterilized tweezers rounded out the set.

Ezra shuffled into the room a moment later than the others, dressed in similar clothes with a satchel of his own equipment slung over his shoulder. He pursed his lips, trying, unsuccessfully, to keep his distress from showing on his face. Although he fought it, he couldn't help running his hands over the fabric and exposed skin of his hands, face, and forearms.

"How long do we have to stay like this?" he asked to no one in particular, trying to find a reflective surface to get a look at himself, even though he had already done so several times after the surgery. "My entire body feels like it's crawling with caterpillars."

In an effort to still his hands, he tried to shove his hands into his pockets, but his face twisted into even deeper distress when he remembered that this outfit didn't have any.

"Hopefully we will be done with this business before long and back to our natural selves," Lenek responded to the young Cadet's question before letting out a deep huff of a sigh, "Once we get on the ground, everyone fan out and search the wreckage for any survivors, or any signs of where they may have gone. There is a settlement of some sort not far away, but this planet may not have ever seen life outside of their own species and may have killed the survivors rather than helped them. Keep that in mind when we get down there."

Lenek looked around the room before noticing the last member hadn't arrived yet, "Did Mister Karim not get the message about our departure time?"

"Doctor Karim," came the terse response from the fashionably late part-Vulcan, who stepped through the doors to the transported room as if on cue, his visage suitably adapted, like the others', to appear as the natives of the world they were to interlope upon.

Unlike many of the others, however, Karim, looking quite different without the points of his distinctive ears piercing the tangled muss of hair he kept unkempt, was not sporting a satchel or any other equipment, concealed or otherwise, and was wearing suitably drab clothing in the native style.

The disguised first contact 'specialist' glanced at the awkward Gonzalez just briefly, arching a very Vulcan eyebrow in response to the cadet's mannerisms, and then offered a very curt nod to Doctor t'Nai. "This is the appointed time, Commander Lenek," he stated flatly, not even addressing any sort of chronometer, and he began making his way to stand on the transporter pad. The expression he gave to the others, despite still being very typically 'Vulcan' (irrespective of the cosmetic changes), almost seemed impatient.

Nico climbed onto the pad rolling his eyes at the ship's counselor, "I think the XO can call you whatever she wants, Lieutenant, Commander, Doctor, Karim." Nico, normally the most jovial of the crew, with he exception of a certain Bolian, was stone-faced as he held his gaze forward towards the transporter chief.

Emni experienced the exchange between Oliveria with some interest noting the engineers particular discomfort and deep dislike of the Vulcan. Clearly the two had some history and the engineer was well past not being a fan of the ascerbic counselor.

She returned Karim's nod with the incline of her own head before turning to Ezra. "Shall we?" she said gesturing to two of the circular locations toward the front of the transporter pad.

Over her shoulder in a quiet voice that she knew only the Vulcan counselors ears would pick up. "Care to fill me in on that exchange at some point? It would be helpful to know if I will be patching up bruised knuckles in addition to whatever else we find down there."

Lenek nodded to the transporter chief, who looked happy enough to return the gesture before she mounted the pad and took her place. Another nod from the Cardassian prompted the man to activate the transporter, sending the crew down to the surface of the planet. When the world went back to its solid form, the away team found themselves near a crashed vessel smack in the middle of a dense forest.

"Fan out and see if there are any survivors still lurking about," the First Officer said as she pulled the tricorder she carried out from its hiding spot.

Galvanized into action by the first officer's words, Emni pulled out her medical tricorder, making a beeline for the downed vessel. Her tricorder told her what her emotional insticts already had -- there was no one alive left in the vessel. Still, she did a thorough check to see if ther ewas anything worthy of note.

"No one in the vessel, and no bodies." she called out to Lenek after she was confident in her results.

She stepped back out of the downed craft, surveying the area going so far as to close her eyes and pinpoint the emotional signatures of each of the way team members. Nothing surprised her there. As far as she could tell, they were very much alone.

Nico stepped towards what his tricorder identified as a computer interface on the exterior of the hull, "I'll attempt to access the ship's data core, but it's most likely heavily damaged." He squatted down and shucked his satchel, having forgotten all about the acerbic counselor, and set to work with a spanner he pulled from the pouch.

Ezra pulled out his own tricorder and stood still with it for a moment, taking initial scans. Then he walked completely around the vessel until he came back to the exact spot he had stood in, then repeated the action a second and third time, switching between scanning modes on his tricorder as he did so. Finishing a fourth lap and returning to a standstill, he shook his head.

"Nothing for me, either. I'm not sure what else we should be looking out for aside from survivors, but whatever it is, I'm not seeing it."

"This locale appears untraversed by the native population," Karim inserted fairly sternly. He was not regarding the crash site, and was instead standing a little distance away from the others, looking out into the middle-distance. A light breeze pulled at his still-mussed locks of hair, once again revealing his rounded alien ears. His piercing gaze seemed fixated on something, even though there was only an expansive abyss stretching through the forest engulfing them.

"Perhaps it would be more prudent for us to seek entry into the nearby settlement, once Mister Oliveria has accessed the core. Should we successfully make contact with the Ocampans, we can discuss the minutiae of repairing the vessel at that juncture." Karim now looked back to the others, expression passive. As he had not brought any equipment, he was not attempting to examine anything, aside from what he could observe.

Nico grimaced as he folded the tricorder closed and stepped over to the ship's executive officer, "Unfortunately, the data in the computer core was destabilized when the emergency batteries became depleted, Commander. For a reason I can't fathom, their memory systems are volatile. Without a power source, the memory is erased within minutes. They do have non-volatile storage, but its only purpose is emergency systems control." He paused, looking around, "I took some close scans of the ship's hull, and there is evidence of hyper-thermic charges. It's been a long time since the USS Voyager was here, but the signature appears Vidiian."

At the mention of the Vidiians Emni's head shot up. She felt a shot of anxiety zip through her like a tweaked nerve. She had read about the species and their deadly phage in preparation for her deployment on the Adelphi hoping she would never need the knowledge. She felt a ripple of the same anxiety roll through the group as everyone processed the mention of this boogeyman. "Is there any chance the charges are old damage?" She asked.

Nico pressed his lips flat, shaking his head as he turned to the Romulan hybrid, "Unfortunately not, or at least they are just as old as the damaged sustained when the ship entered the atmosphere of the planet." He looked back to the ship's XO, "We may need to warn the ship. That plasma flare from the port nacelle will make the Adelphi easy to spot on sensors."

A heightening of emotion rolled through the group as each team member processed the realization that the Vidiians were likely somewhere in the nearby sector.

"I recommend we make sure no one splits off alone. There's no guarantee that the Vidiians followed the Ocampa to the surface, but I would certainly recommend caution." She said, addressing Lenek.

Karim had arched an eyebrow in response to the Vidiian revelation. Like all of the others, he had received extensive briefings on the major and minor political powers and races they would likely encounter during their earliest adventures. The Vidiians, quite naturally, had been allocated an extensive section of those briefings.

"I would have to concur with Chief Engineer Oliveria," he said, turning to face the others more fully. "We did not uncover any data pertaining to the Sodality in this region of space, but the Vidiians are known to range far in their pursuit of organic materials. It is quite conceivable that they could return - or may be here through some form of subterfuge." He gestured to their altered appearances to support the point. "Although I am certain that may be more troublesome for their addled visages."

Lenek nodded at all of the information the rest of the team had so generously provided and made a decision, "I'll contact the ship. If nothing else, it will give them enough advanced warning about the possible Vidiian threat. While I'm doing that, try to figure out which direction the occupants of this ship might have went off to. If they haven't already been found by the Vidiians, they'll be able to tell us something of what is going on, and if the local population is already aware of other cultures... we won't need these disguises."

Turning from the conversation Emni pulled her medical tricorder back out and circled the downed vessel searching for any bio signatures she could use as a marker for which way they might have went. After doing a full sweep a faint signature popped, distinct from those left by the away team and moving off into the trees to the east of them. Calling over her shoulder to the rest of the group she pointed. "I have faint bio signatures leading this way. Likely Ocampan, but they're fairly decayed. Still, that's my best bet for the direction of anyone from that ship."

Emni took a deep breath, checking her results again as Lenek strode over having finished her conversation with the Adelphi.

"You're certain that's the direction to head?" she asked, all business.

Emni nodded. "Yes."

Waving the rest of the team over the Cardiassian XO strode toward the trees. "Lets get moving then."

=/\= A Mission Post By =/\=

Lieutenant Commander Kora Lenek
Executive Officer
USS-Adelphi

Lieutenant Commander Karim MD
First Contact Specialist
USS-Adelphi

Lieutenant Nico Oliveria
Cheif Engineering Officer
USS-Adelphi

Lieutenant Emni i-Rizz t'Nai
Chief Medical Officer
USS-Adelphi

Cadet Senior Grade Ezra Gonzalez
Archaeologist/Anthropologist
USS-Adelphi