Star Trek: Starbase 777

Fatum I - an M-class planet of a relatively small size, it's marbled coloration similar to that of the Earth's atmosphere. It's star bathed it in warm yellow light, marking the beginnings of a lovely morning for the colony below the Eventide.

Shane stood at a console behind and to the right of the Eventide's captain's chair. Most of the planning for this supply run had happened while a lot of people were away on shore leave. Shane took that as an opportunity to step up and handle most of the logistics for the run, what they brought for the colony, what the Eventide needed in terms of staffing and supplies and who to speak to in the sector quartermasters office to make sure they got everything on time. It turned out that he had a head for it and managed to get everything organised in good time before they left the Starbase. It had been a fairly uneventful trip so far and Shane had got to command the Eventide during some of the shifts they were in transit, he was always glad to get some time in the big chair, it felt like it was partially his chair now especially after the Borg incident.

Groznin had spent his weeks aboard the station leading up to this mission settling in and learning the culture of the starbase he had found himself on. Every ship had its own culture and way of doing things when it came to away missions, and Starbase 777 was no exception. This starbase had no issue sending junior officers on dangerous missions and following the events on the Oracle, Groznin had no power to change that. With the help from the senior staff, an away team had been chosen for this supply run, and much to his surprise, Groznin had been assigned to be planet side. Groz could barely remember the last time he worked his job on the planet side team, but he was again in no position to change the way things were. He would simply have to do his job as best he could from there. He stood on the bridge in the back, reading the mission parameters again on a PADD.

Hey look, Groznin! Your worst nightmare! A short girl in a Cadet uniform entered the bridge, with a shy little smile and wave to the people already gathered there. You could practically feel the excitement radiating off of her, because she had been told that she was going to be the one flying them to Fatum I. She made her way over to the helmsman’s console over by where Shane was, sitting down with a respectful little nod to him.

Groznin took note of the girl in the cadet uniform who walked over to the helm with a look of slight distain. She couldn’t be any older than 20, she might even still be a teenager. Sure this was a small starship, but still. Absolute insanity. He shook his head and returned to looking at his PADD to try to ignore her.

Shane looked up from the console he was standing at when Khirena approached him. He gave her an encouraging nod of greeting she approached. "Ah, Cadet t'Rehu good morning. You ready to take the controls for real?" Shane being a pilot wasn't by trade a helmsman but he made sure to qualify as one when he had been posted on an exploratory ship years ago now. He could wear both hats even if he wore one more. Coupled with his time as a flight instructor he was preferably qualified to help train up the odd cadet. He was there to step in if anything went too wrong not that he expected it to. "We're on a standard approach into a geostationary orbit over the colony proper. Keep her dead centre on the waypoints and the automatic systems will handle the orbital insertion calculations. I'm here if you need a hand, but you've got this." Shane gestured to the helm telling her to take up her station.

“Good morning to you too, Commander Lawson!” She replied as she sat down, taking up the station. Taking a look at everything, she saw the course they were on. It wouldn’t be hard to stick to it, so Khirena was confident. “Of course, Sir!” She said, practically beaming.

Denobulans were renowned for their patience, but there were always outliers. Groznin rolled his eyes, did the cadet really need instructions for how to fly a ship? He turned away from them slightly to better ignore them.

Over the Cadet's shoulder in case something needed her attention was Xai, sporting her usual red-pink hair and watching the screen intently. "Easy does it, cadet,"it mused, nodding, "you're doing great."

It was always intriguing to set eyes on a planet new to her, Evoras could not fathom a day she would look up from her console to see one and not have a hard time tearing her eyes away from it again. As far as planets went this one reminded her more than most of earth. It was an unfair comparison to make. She wondered for a moment if her mother still held onto the prints of the low quality images she had taken with her private PADD when she had seen earth from orbit for the first time, they had been stuck to the wall over her father’s desk before his death. After another moment she looked back down at the console in front of her, there was nothing out of the ordinary so far.

Mild weather, slightly cloudy with no promise of rain. Adequate weather for the type of work the crew was sent out to do. There was also some information on the colony itself, albeit... limited. Patient and grateful for help from Starfleet, but highly independent otherwise. What will the people there be like?..

Many things bugged Groznin today, but one think bugged him above all the others, the non Starfleet specialist that Starfleet had recruited for the mission. Information on them was lacking, and all that Groznin knew was that they had in fact boarded the Eventide. Beyond the fact that they were physically here, Groz knew nothing. “Does anyone know where that specialist ended up?” He asked the rest of the bridge, curious but rather deadpan.

"Probably in the shuttle bay or in their quarters? I don't think civilians can wander too much unaccompanied." Shane replied from his console behind the captains chair.

“Has anyone met the specialist yet?” Groznin asked, trying to be patient and not succeeding. “I would like to know who they are before the away mission begins.”

"I haven't had the pleasure yet, no. I only know their name from the manifest when I approved it." Shane replied with a slight shake of his head. Besides Shane was staying and taking over command from Evoras once the away team left so he hadn't done a deep dive on all of the teams members compared to the bit of research he did into the officers and crew who were staying aboard the ship, he liked to know everyone's name and a fact or two about them before an away mission it helped create a better atmosphere.

Speak of the devil. In walked in a Romulan, lacking a uniform yet clearly unbothered by that in his stride, honey-colored eyes quickly taking in the people gathered on the bridge (and lingering on Shane), before his gaze focused on the screen. Whatever he was dressed in was hidden under a dark robe, weathered down by time and use. "No rain there, how lucky," he sighed, before offering them all a small nod: "Name's Maiek. Starfleet reached out to me inquiring if I can provide service with my... expertise, and I agreed." *No, no one on this ship has ever seen him before somewhere else. Absolutely, definitely not...*

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8

9

Evoras looked up from the console she was standing at and returned the nod in kind. “Comander Lhai’Ivek. Welcome on the bridge. It won’t be long now.” Briefly she glanced over her shoulder to make sure the Cadet was still doing fine. Then she inclined her head slightly as she continued speaking. “The assistance is appreciated, especially considering we had no officer with your qualifications available for this time.” She wasn’t looking at anyone when she added the second part, but it took some effort not to.

Groznin nodded, and was going to ask the computer where the civilian was, when the civilian walked right in. He seemed odd, but eh, who in the galaxy who Starfleet specifically reached out to wasn’t. He moved to introduce himself, but before he could get a word out the Commander spoke and well, Groznin knew he wasn’t that important.

Shane wondered silently why Maiek's gaze lingered on him for a moment, as far as he knew the two hadn't met. But that thought quickly went away as people began speaking. "Welcome aboard, we're glad that someone with your skillet was available. You should be getting underway soon and we'll keep an eye on you from upstairs."

6

"Yeah I'm aware," he nodded along to those words, and proceeding not to elaborate. Instead he leaned back a little bit, his arms crossed, "Colonies like these usually don't expect much from the outsiders. 'Specially a mix and match of different species. I'm here to make your jobs easier and maybe explain some things along the way. If all's fine and dandy, we can maybe proceed with the away team?.."

Ah, the away team. That was Groznin’s cue to step in. He took a step forward. “I am Lieutenant Commander Groznin, I will be the away team coordinator on this mission working planetside.” He looked back and around the bridge at Evoras and Shane. “If the commanders are in agreement, I believe the mission can commence.”

Evoras raised and eyebrow, but didn't respond to what Maiek had said. The less was said now the less would need repeating in front of the entire away team. She turned to look at Shane. "Commander Lawson, if you do not have any objections? You have command of the ship. I will comm the crew, unless Commander Groznin would like to do the honours."

"Have a good trip planetside Commander." Shane didn't comment on Groznin he knew Evoras would put him back in his place if he overstepped more. "We're a comm away if you need anything."

Groznin held his hand up and shook his head. “I’m an away team coordinator, not an away team leader.” Not to mention it was his fist away mission in who knows how long. No, Groznin leading would be a bad idea. “You go ahead and lead the mission.” Now with the approval of everyone, Groznin moved towards the turbolift. “Shall I comm the team to gather?”

With the input of a few final commands into the console, Evoras stepped towards the others. "Like I said, if you would like to be the one to comm the team, now is the time, Commander Groznin." She gave Shane a last nod, before starting to head for the exit of the bridge.

Well, Groznin had completely misheard the commander. He had no doubt that it had made a poor first impression on not just her, but everyone else on the bridge. Well, no use in apologizing when he could just do what was asked of him. Groznin hit his combadge.

Shane returned Evoras' nod bidding his friend farewell for what he hoped was an uneventful supply run. As the gaggle of officers began to filter off the bridge Shane gently sat in the captains chair. Every time he sat in the chair its weight always dawned on him, a reminder of the weight of command.

"Good luck," Xai chimed cheerfully, offering a finger wave to the crew. It took a seat of its own, spinning around.

Mae'ra headed onto the bridge after a bit, once she stepped off the turbolift her storm grey hued eyes took in everything around her. Once she located a free seat near one of the consoles, Mae'ra headed to it and proceeded to settle down into it!

Welp, he's out. Offering another polite little nod to the bridge, Maiek made his way to the shuttlebay.

Silence hung heavy over the bridge. Once more, Xai spun around in their chair, double checking readings and all that. "This one spies with our little eye...... Something..... Red," they chirped, resting their chin on the palm of their hand.

Shane decided to humour Xai and come up with some kind of answer. Red, there were a few things it could be, his uniform stripe, a blinking light on one of the panels, Khirena's bright red cadet uniform part of the carpet or a few other mundane things. "My uniform stripe?" He eventually replied with picking a safe option. As he spoke he cast an eye over to the helm to make sure all was going well so far. There hadn't been any alarms so far so everything was under control as far as he was concerned.

"Well, it's no fun if you get it immediately," Xai sulked, whirling back around in their chair. "Your turn."

Maera watched all of this with quiet interest with grey hued eyes and in silence. So. This happened to be Vara'ls ACTO? He certainly seemed quite different to how Vara'l was, though she'd only encountered Vara'l off duty. * *Certainly intrigued her, that. Especially as she watched the man play eye spy.

"I guess I'm just lucky." Shane said with a bit of a chuckle after getting it on his first try. He looked around the room for something he could pick up to continue the game, might as well while they waited for the away mission to get underway. After a brief look around he settled on his choice. "Eye spy, something...... Blue."

Ping! The shuttle has successfully landed.

After the departure and subsequent landing of the away team, Sterling was left on his own in the science bay, which meant it was time for him to move up to the bridge. “Good day.” He stated, stepping through the door, bluely.

Meret could not really blame herself for being curious, it was a scientists greatest asset! It seemed that with the mission having started and no abnormal events, so far, developing, the science labs became very devoid of life. Normally she wouldn’t mind but this was devoid of life and also devoid of work since her projects were left far behind on 777. So it was full of boredom. She decided it would do her good to explore a bit how a Federation Starship operated, on a logistics and spacial organization point of view. Her first stop was obvious: the bridge. Straight to the point and if anyone asked her to leave she would still have plenty of other places to look over. Unlike Sterling though she entered in complete silence, and would keep as such unless someone addressed her.

"Shuttle is safe and sound," Xai reported dutifully, examining the room. It clicked its tongue, offering the pair entering a lazy two fingered salute as it surveyed the area for blues. (edited)

Shane swivelled around a little bit to get a look at the new arrivals on the bridge. He recognised Sterling though he only knew the lieutenant from his file. The Cardassian, Meret, he had met. The pair had a rather intriguing conversation at the recent beach party. Shane had privately hoped he'd get another chance to see her, hopefully she felt the same. "Lieutenant Sterling isn't it?" Shane said addressing the Android first. "You can take whichever science console is open, though truthfully I don't think we'll be up to a whole lot other than keeping an eye on the away team for the next while. Still good to keep our eyes peeled." Shane spoke with a warmth in his voice and gave Sterling a nod before turning his attention to Meret. "Dalin Idal, welcome to the Eventide I believe I'm correct that this is your first away mission with us? Means you're fully part of the family now." Shane knew it was her first away mission with the 777 crew, he'd read her file after all, perhaps a bit more thoroughly then he'd read many of the other officers files. "You can set up wherever suits you best." Shane was again equally warm in tone, despite his warm and friendly demeanour the fact that he was sitting on the Captains chair in the centre of the bridge gave everything he said a certain weight and authority. He was sat in the centre of the bridge with a good view of every primary station. The helm and operations consoles were immediately in front of him. A station he was keeping an extra eye on while Khirena was at the helm. Tactical, Engineering and Damage were to his right along the wall. Science and Communications were to his left, with science getting a slightly larger station due to the Eventide being after all primarily a science ship. divider

15:50

Behind him along the back wall there were several universal and multi-purpose stations that could be configured on an as needed basis. Of course every station could be reconfigured to do something else but for the sake of operational flow all of the main stations stayed in the same place under normal conditions. There were also two smaller stations just behind the captains chair for the executive officer to Shane's right, he had been standing at that station a few moments ago. There was an identical station behind and to Shane's left for either the ship's second officer or a mission specialist. Shane turned to Xai as they confirmed the arrival of the shuttles. "Great thank you chief, let's keep a channel open in case they need us for anything while they're down there."

He nodded, moving to take the console with a stiff turn and two metal hands placed on the sides of the screen. He could not say he was not, at least, a little relieved. Edgar and the other members of the away team were good people. Kind people. As well as the others, they had showed him nothing but respect, and he hoped for the best for them all. Also, if Edgar managed to get himself injured or otherwise incapacitated, Zaira may have his head. (edited)

Mae'ra, not included in the directions, remained where she was at and watched the console she was nearest too. As she continued to do so, she hummed and wondered. "Blue uniform stripes?" As part of her mind chewed over the possibilities related to that game of eye spy.

Ah, Shane Lawson, aka the barbecue guy. Meret did offer a polite salute back to the other officer in red before his words registered. He had read her file, researched her since she had not provided neither rank nor name when they had met. Seriously, what was with Starfleet officials and reading everyone’s files? Granted… she had read his, probably a much more detailed version than whatever he had access to as ACTO even. But it was not her fault her roommate was a literal spy that decided to gift her the damn info! “Yes, Commander. Thank you.” She answered in regard to being her first mission. It did not escape her that he was currently on command of the ship. Interesting. The layout was a bit different than that of a Cardassian ship, more ample, but all still seemed pretty straightforward. She chose to move closer to Sterling to better analyze the science station. One day she might be required to operate it and despite having the training to do so she still preferred to make sure she could avoid dumb mistakes on her part.

Gimura had, for most of the time on their way to this planet, had been sitting in one of the seats in front of the TAC console occasionally sipping an energy drink. She was otherwise propping her head up with her hand as she leaned her elbow against the console, calibrating things. She had been benched from the away team for a bit following that weird mission with the…angel, or whatever the hell. She wasn’t bored, per se, but she’d never enjoyed bridge duty as much as being boots on the ground. Her antennae twitched as Shane began addressing officers, and when her name wasn’t called, she returned to staring at the readout of the phaser array. “…ugh…” She muttered, taking another sip of her drink.

Storm grey eyes slipped from the console she was focused on as she managed to catch someone speaking. Or well, managed more specifically to catch what sounded like a soft grunt. Having noted it, Mae'ra turned to focus on the Lieutenant Junior grade as she fixed them briefly with storm grey hued eyes. Did so as she well, multi-tasked and idly checked to ensure she continued to get the 'someone spoke' notifications from the half visor she'd slipped on. She happened to have half of her hearing but it always paid to be certain she'd not missed something said on the side of her that happened to have the ear that didn't work. "You okay, lieutenant?" The Romulan then asked.

"Aye aye, cap'n," Xai mumbled to herself, peeking over at whoever was manning the communications. A brief smile lit up her expression. "Ahh— science console—?" she started, before noticing he seemed occupied. Damn. Game over, then. Very well..

Meanwhile, Khirena was still at the helm, keeping an eye on everything to make sure their orbit was still stable. She didn’t really know anyone here, so she kept to herself a bit, absentmindedly spinning around her fidget ring so she wouldn’t fidget in a more annoying way.

Having heard the very end of the game, Sterling paused, before saying, “I… spy a white object in our immediate vicinity.*

Shane in fact had only read Meret's full file when she was added to the manifest for the away mission. He made a point of knowing the names of everyone who'd be staying on the ship while he was in charge. Though when he made the connection between Meret and the beach party he dove a little bit deeper. But now he was in work mode so not the time to get lost in thought about someone who he couldn't quite nail down. Shane decided not to mention Meret addressing him as commander, when technically he should be called captain while he was in the big chair. Shane looked over to Guimera who seemed to have just made an ugh noise, he understood that this was boring but the bridge wasn't the place to whine about it. "Strong coffee works better than energy drinks, if you tweak with the replicator settings you can ramp up the caffeine in it. Just don't tell Medical I said that." "And no, it isn't uniform stripes or the science console. The blue thing might be more cosmic in scale." Shane said hinting at what the blue object he'd chosen right before sterling spoke up with a new pick. Shane couldn't think of a white thing that he could see.

4

"Wh— did you pick the sky???" Xai crossed its arms. "That's a jerk move, sir. Respectfully."

4

The Andorion side-eyed Mae’ra for a moment before giving a curt little nod, “Fine,” She muttered in response, pushing off the console and leaning back in her chair. She wondered about what the away team had gotten up to. Maybe there was some kind of…evil tree dragon or…something, and they had to fight it…she flicked at the tab of her can. Her antennae drifted toward Shane only a few seconds before Gimura fully turned to face the commanding officer. She furrowed her brows, raising one slightly, “Really?”

Silver grey eyes remained fixed on the Lieutenant Junior grade for a time as the other muttered that they were 'Okay. "Happy to hear it, Lieutenant." She responded then with a smile that then promptly disappeared into professional impassivity as the ACTO started to speak and she looked their way! Mae'ra then nodded at the ACTO's statement that her guess, which it seemed he'd overheard, was wrong. That was certainly something that had peaked her curiosity somewhat! "The ACTO's correct there." Mae'ra confirmed after a moment. "Related to the replicator setting tweaking."

"Oh yeah you can do all kinds of fun stuff with the replicators if you're willing to mess with it's settings and slightly disassemble things. Truthfully though it's never as good as real food." Shane commented as he twirled a little in the captain's chair. "What you should be doing is making friends with the botanists over in science, then you get first dibs on the good fruits, veggies, coffee, tea and other fun stuff. It's all about who ya know." Shane was also clearly amused with Xai's reaction to eye spy. He had to at least make it difficult to keep things interesting. "Don't hate the player hate the game chief. Gotta keep you lot on your toes with out there eye spy picks!"

“I should do that.. my rats love fruits and veggies.” She said after her long while of silence, having heard about the whole making friends with botanists to get real produce.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Sterling looked up from his console, glancing towards where the beeping came from. “There… is an alert.”

Warning. Weather alert. Detected accumulation of fog around the colony. Cause of phenomena: unknown...

“Fog is accumulating around the perimeter of the colony. There is no clear reason as to why.” He stated, “Is there a general hypothesis at the moment?”

Gimura’s consideration of potentially messing around with a replicator is thrown aside when Sterling reports something strange happening on the planet’s surface. “…dry ice?” She was not a science-minded individual.

"'s just fog, no?" Xai mused, leaning over to peek at Sterling's screen. "No need for alarm, it gets foggy sometimes."

“Perhaps. I wish to check the chemical composition, in the rare case that it is not just fog.” He did so, “Specifically, with how sudden it appeared.” (edited)

”Could have been fabricated by the colonists themselves?” Meret was aware of some agricultural practices that could result in the production of intended fog. Mostly to deal with plagues. Though she did not know how advanced their tech was or if they had this capability. And that was only the hypothesis of it being used for… pacific purposes.

"Fog?" Shane asked the room, wanting confirmation that he hadn't just hallucinated hearing that. How could fog have suddenly appeared out of nowhere. "How is there even fog down there? It's the middle of the day doesn't fog from near a planet's daily dew point?" He punched in a communications line down to the away team to let them know they had weather coming their way. At the moment Shane was more confused that fog could suddenly appear then if the fog signaled something dangerous. He hoped it was just weather and not something made by the colonists like Meret had suggested.

"Fog." The Romulan confirmed as she looked over at the other consoles then frowned * "It could be some form of natural phenomenon or a unnatural thing that has the look of fog." *The Romulan observed then. "As has been posited, fabricated by the colonists themselves or by another person or persons." Mae'ra continued then as she affected a light shrug. "Wouldn't have expected anything related to normal fog to have affected communications, though."

"Yeah, check the chemical thingy," Xai affirmed, glancing over at Sterling. "It'll probably give us more info 'n stuff." Very useful, thanks Xai.

2

“Thank you.” He stated, beginning the process to do so.

The comms hissed, any connection with the away team lost. As for the analysis... ping. A match.

“A match.” He echoed, “There is a known match for the chemical composition. Surprising, but welcome knowledge.”

Curious, the helmsman popped up, peering over Sterling's shoulder. "Sample analyzed on 777, huh?.. What kind of weird shit did you guys get up to before this one got on board, huh?" it joked, patting his shoulder before returning to its spot. "What's the plan, bridge man?"

"Analysed by us?" Shane said to himself as he took in the information from the scans? "Let's start by pulling up the research notes by Lieutenant tr'Lareth and see if there's anything in there that's useful. If we could get low enough maybe we could use repulsor beams to push the fog away from the settlement? It would probably involve a sub orbital flight though." Shane knew the Eventide's specs and technically sub orbital flight was possible but it wasn't necessarily part of the standard operating procedure. "Now that we know what the fog is we should try and find out if that's what's blocking comms or if the communications blackout is being caused by something else. I also want a message sent to 777 informing them of the current situation." Shane spoke still remaining in the captain's chair. It seemed every time he sat in it something went horribly wrong with an away team.

“That is possible. I will retrieve the research notes.” He pulled up tr’Lareth’s thoughts on the subject, scanning through them for any pertinent information.

There was, thankfully - everything they could conclude on the incident and the pathogen. It was not much, but it was something. (Science division best division, #nobiases.)

5

"Running diagnostics on communications," Xai mused in a sing song voice, typing the command to do so and sending it out. "If it's out, this one doubts we'll be able to reach base at all.." (edited)

It was, indeed, the fog's structure blocking the communications. Thick like molasses, the signals would just... drown.

"Signal failure iiiss....not our fault, it's the weather," she reported dutifully, squinting in displeasure at the screen. "I don't know whether to be relieved or twice as concerned. Given the nature of the fog, we are leaning towards the latter."

“I believe Lieutenant Commander Lawson’s suggestion is a proper solution. If we can safely maneuver ourselves close enough to the planet’s surface to fire repulsion beams, it could push away the fog and allow radio contact.” He turned towards Xai.

Xai grimaced, though placed its hands on the controls. "Are you sure that's good idea?.."

“No. I am not certain.” He deadpanned, staring directly at it.

"I'll need to crunch some numbers to see if it's even physically possible for the Eventide to enter the atmosphere." Atmospheric entry and flight in a ship this large weren't always straightforward. It heavily dependent on the atmosphere density, gravity, winds and several other factors that governed flight and weather the ships systems were up to it. Shane stood up from the captain's chair and made his way to the science station finding a space near Meret where he began pulling up specs and inputting figures into several equations to see if physics said yes or no.

Meret knew how to take advantages of opportunities that could present themselves day to day. She made ample space for the Lt. Cdr. while making sure she was in the exact line of sight to catch every detail on his calculations. She found it curious, that the officer in command of the ship would diverge their focus and abandon the chair to make calculations themselves while there were science officers available. A bit unadvisable in her opinion. It did make sense though, with how scientifically inclined the man seemed to be, that he would have such instinct. Scientists tended to like to take matters into their own hands. A pilot who played scientist on occasion? Don’t ask them to delegate the work, definitely. And his work was good, if not for… “If I may offer some insight Commander…” She had seen where he was trying to get. “You seem to be forgetting to account for the modified vectorial counter-attraction that a ship of this design would cause. Your calculations would be correct for a bigger ship, maybe a Sovereign class or a Jupiter, but this Somerville class has a more compact design and its mass is more concentrated and evenly distributed. If we applied the same deceleration and shield modifications, deceleration would become too abrupt and give our pilot some difficulties in achieving the correct altitude, it could also overload our shields momentarily.” Honestly, it was not that much of an egregious mistake, their ship would certainly survive and a more skilled pilot would probably be able to deal with the turbulence. Still, she saw no point in not applying the correct math that could save them the trouble. “You may run our current mass and volume distribution through the Keter algorithm for the modified factor. Should be quick.”

Shane quite simply knew orbital mechanics better than most people and he could calculate about 95% of the necessary mathematics off the top of his head. It made sense for him to take five minutes to work the numbers himself then getting someone who wasn't an expert in orbital mechanics and sub orbital flight to run the numbers when they had no idea how long the away team would be safe for. Running the numbers himself was the most efficient path in his judgement. Shane noticed Meret watching his calculations as he ran through several datasets and formulas in quick succession. Plug in the ships net weight as one constant variable to figure out the required thrust from impulse and thrusters. Using the weight measurement and thrust profiles to calculate the specific impulse and available delta-v for manoeuvring. Ordinarily he would be a little bit annoyed that someone was looking over his shoulder at his own work, it felt like someone trying to cheat off your test. But for some reason Shane couldn't quite consciously understand, he didn't mind Meret looking over his shoulder... In the end it was in fact a good thing that she was watching him work considering she caught a discrepancy he had missed. There was an initial brief urge that everyone felt when they were corrected to defend their work but Shane dismissed that impulse and checked the numbers again. This time he used the Keter Algorithm like Meret suggested to get accurate numbers. divider

(edited)

15:26

Despite being a little bit peeved that Meret called him Commander and not Captain, which was technically the correct form of address for someone in command regardless of rank as per Starfleet and Earth traditions. He elected not to say anything, Commander was also correct since he was a Lieutenant Commander. He knew that correcting someone over something like that made him look like an authoritative dick out to prance around while he sat in the big chair. Shane wasn't that kind of person. "Nice catch Dalin, I haven't run sub orbital calculations for a ship as small as the Eventide except for exams in the Academy." Shane was glad for the catch it would make their lives easier if it turned out the Eventide could even handle sub orbital flying. (edited)

"If I might pose the question, why does the Eventide itself need to at the present go down that close to the surface itself?" The half-Deaf Romulan inquired then before she gestured to the view screen. "We lack quite a bit of information on the situation and why the fog has appeared here.." She then observed. "Might it be more of an idea to deploy a probe first to potentially in essence act as a com relay or something before we risk in-atmosphere entry with the ship?" "In essence send a line down, gather intelligence and-" She frowned thoughtfully. "-Well, try and re-establish communication before we enter sub-orbital proximity with a phenoma we don't know much about?" The Romulan lapsed into silence for a moment before she continued on to say. "In essence, I'm asking why not send a probe in first to see if a relay part way into the soup'll help with communication and to gather further information on the fog, before we initiate activities against it?"

"If we send a probe, we'll just lose connection with that too, no?.." Xai mused, hands lingering on the controls. "It's best to try to disperse the fog best we can.."

It wouldn't be optimal, but Eventide could handle the sub-orbit stuff fine. Not for long, but she could pull it off.

"That's not something that can be totally guaranteed without further information, surely." The Romulan responded to the SCPO then as she watched them, noted the lack of sir but ignored that for the irrelevance it happened to be. "What I'm saying is, it seems the present proposal is to take the Eventide as a whole sub-orbital to in essence then attempt to repulse the fog." "And well, we don't know how the fog will react to the Eventides transitioning to a suborbital position for one-" The Romulan continued on to say. "-How the fog'll react to repulsion for two, though I think that's a more reasonable guess and-" Mae'ra frowned then. "We lack a lot of information when it comes to the fog, we can't be sure what we're taking the ship into." She trailed off for a moment then before she stated. "What I'm in essence asking is." Mae'ra paused then as she proceeded to lean forward. "If getting information or at least re-establishing contact might be possible to do with probes, should we not consider our options slightly further?" The Romulan sighed slightly then. "I'm not a engineer or a scientist, just wondering about the use of probes to effectively work a com line down through it." She shrugged then before she promptly added. "Even if we're going with the attempted fog dispersal plan as is, it might be a idea to have other options in 'back pocket' dependant on how things go, at the very least."

”Its my job, Commander.” She replied nonchalantly. “And it seems, as far as mathematics go, the ship can make it. I’m unsure if we will have enough time to pull that maneuver off to establish and maintain contact with the away team… perhaps only enough to confirm they are alive, if so.” Whether Meret was aware of the unspoken captain rule/tradition or not was unclear. Shane could only phantom if she did on purpose deny him the title. Truth was, in this instance the Cardassian was innocent. Ranks and titles were not easily given or taken away, you didn’t become a Gul by temporarily assuming control if the current Gul was unavailable. It was natural for her to think the same would apply to ranks within Starfleet, not being told of this strange tradition. Shane was not a captain, even if today he was technically sitting on the chair.

"Your call, big guy," Xai mused, waiting for Shane's input. They drummed their fingers against the controls in front of them.

Shane listened to everyone as they worked through opinions. Sub orbital flight wasn't the greatest idea as he had thought initially but at least it was possible. A probe to see if they could get comms back was also a good idea. "Alright, for the moment let's start with a probe to see if we can use it as a comms link. But let's also start rigging for sub orbital flight as a last resort. Id also like to see if we can autopilot a shuttle down maybe they could send people back up in one if we can get it down there."

"Okidoki, probe issss...." Click. "Launching now...."

The probe was launched, bobbing like a buoy against the dark waters of the fog as it lowered down to the surface. Almost as soon as it slipped below, connection was lost.

"No beans," she reported, already beginning the motions to prepare for the descent. "This one doubts we'll be able to pilot anything through that damn fog, but we'll head down into sub-orbit on your word."

"Unless anyone's got a better suggestion to deal with this I say we kick the tyres and light the fires." An old pilot saying, meaning let's get our asses in gear. Shane returned to the captain's chair, despite a slight gravitational pull from Meret, or was that just his imagination? Regardless he soldiered on back to the chair and hit the comm panel for the whole ship.

1

“Sir, I know those are all words, but if that phrase had an actual meaning, it’s lost on me.” Khirena did not know Standard, and that saying had been translated into basically gibberish. But, she got the meaning that she should probably get into sub-orbit, and that she did know how to do. So, locking back in and turning to her console, she took the Eventide lower into sub-orbit.

2

Well, that was her cue to buckle up. She placed herself adequately waiting for the action to start. Her eyes strangely seemed to be momentarily torn between keeping her focus on the main screen or turn to observe the Lt. Cdr. on the central chair. The screen won, but the Cardassian was left asking herself why there even had been any competition to begin with.

1

The Eventide erred ever so gently lower, and seemed to handle the closer proximity mostly fine. It required a bit of maneuvering to get in just the right position.. As the repulsor beams began to charge, something began to flicker on the sensors.

Shane pulled up the sensor system and projected them to the main view screen. What were they reporting?

A shape— something morphing and changing even as they looked at it, lurking just below the surface of the fog. Could get a better look at it with the view screen, potentially.

“What the fuck is that?” Now that, she could say in Standard. Somehow this situation called for that.

“I second that statement.” Sterling nodded, “I will attempt to get proper scans of it.”

"Well that's strange as hell?" Shane said as he tried to magnify the thing on the viewer. He also pressed some buttons on the captain's chair panels bringing the ship to Yellow Alert, just to be safe.

As the Yellow Alert blared through the Eventide, something slithered beneath the surface of the fog— formless, yet taking enough of a shape to stir the air around it. A massive tail flicked above the mist, and two yellow eyes focused on the little ship above it. Two wings sprouted from the mist, and it began to move.

3

“There is… movement.” He stated, as if the others hadn’t seen it.

"Oh-h-h, fuuuck this," Xai hissed under its breath, grabbing the back of Khirena's chair. "Kid, we gotta move it—"

"Back us off. Increase our altitude by a hundred kilometres." Shane had an urge to start shooting but that wouldn't end well. Photon torpedos and planets didn't mix well. "Cadet the chief is there if you want them to tag in." He offered her an off ramp of this was too much for her.

“Nope, nope, nope!” She yelled upon catching a glimpse of whatever the fuck that thing was (Had Khirena ever seen a dragon? Probably not). Upon receiving the order, she wasted no time in backing well the fuck off, increasing altitude by that hundred kilometers as fast as she could. But, honestly, she didn’t really feel as if she needed to get off just yet. Maybe it was being too confident, too prideful, but Khirena still thought she had it for now. “I think I’ve still got this! If you’ll let me stay, at least!”

"We believe in you, just keep those hands steady," Xai affirmed, expression steady in spite of the quickness of her heart.

”Did we get any readings on that being?” Meret addressed Sterling, the other science officer at the station, while the other divisions took action to distance the Eventide from it. She wanted to know what it was, no animal or species she knew came close.

.. barely? It was still made of the fog, for now, so it came back with most of the same compounds the mist was made of. But as it was approaching, it was moving quicker, becoming less wispy. (edited)

“Here.” He moved to allow Meret to see over his shoulder, “There is little there, but there is something.”

The beast was still fast approaching, dipping in and out of the fog before beelining it straight for them— though as they lifted out of the grip of sub-orbit, of course, there was no way it could reach them.

"So much for that," Xai said quietly, patting Khirena's back. "Good one, kid."

She breathed a sigh of relief once she realized it couldn’t get them, leaning back against her chair. “Thank you.. whoa. That was kinda cool. Is it bad to think that was cool?” She said sheepishly.. she thought it was kinda awesome to outrun a beast in the nick of time like that.

"No, no, it was objectively awesome. It was just, also kind of horrifying, that's all.." They puffed their cheeks out. "Is that what we're missing? Damn. We kinda wanna be down there."

“I believe you are grouping us in with your own desires.” He stated, “I do not believe being on the planet’s surface is something to miss out on.•

"Oh, sorry, it—" Xai detached their head to swivel around to face Sterling, then gestured vaguely to their body. "We," they said, putting more emphasis on it.

”We may ask the away team their opinions on the matter if we get them back.” Meret commented as she looked at the data. It made no sense, a creature like that, made of fog? Or the same components in the fog? It was fascinating. It was unnerving. If there were a known safe way to go down and study it, she probably would have taken it.

“Ah. My apologies. I did not realize the context.” He turned back to his station, away from Xai, “I appreciate your bravery, then, with wanting to be down on the planet’s surface.”

"Maybe the 'Dragon' is the source of the fog?" Shane suggested now that they were safely back in orbit. "It was interested in us maybe we can lure it away from the village so the fog can clear and we get our people back?"

"You think that's possible?" she asked the science people. She didn't know, she wasn't here..

”I’m unsure. The data available showed a similar composition… but delimitations between “fog” and… “dragon”?” She side-eyed Shane. That was a creature she had not heard of before. Maybe she ought to dig into that particular species when she came back to 777. “Delimitations are imprecise.” She looked at the data displayed, adjusting some settings of her own, anything that could help the computer to better understand it. Was the fog coming from the beast? Or was the beast the fog? She supposed to produce something, you need to be something else first, and so her first hypothesis could be proven if the compositions weren’t exactly the same in areas of fog and in the creature. Whereas, if the creature was made up by the fog, she supposed it would have to have the property to concentrate itself and become more solid. It couldn’t be infinite, so her second hypothesis could be proven if, while analyzing the data, the levels of the fog in the surrounding area diminished, the concentration became less dense, while the creature would be denser and have higher levels of chemical concentration. (edited)

Based on Meret's analysis, the result spat out; the fog birthed the dragon, rather than vice versa. And as such, the fog was concentrated into the being as it made manifest — the area around it diminishing ever so slightly. (edited)

”It seems that the fog was the source for the creature, not the other way around.” She explained her findings out loud. “It seems capable of concentrating itself to create the form. The process causes a light shift into density, and it seems that the areas surrounding it become less dense in components. I doubt that attracting the being will have much effect on the total concentration of the fog however.”

"Damn. This one wanted to play fetch with the fog dragon," Xai sighed dramatically, spinning in its chair. Dude.

At least Xai wasn’t alone, as Khirena also looked mildly disappointed with the fact that she also could not play fetch with the dragon. She took out a pack of gum from her pocket, chocolate mint-flavored, grabbing a couple pieces for herself before holding it out to Xai in case it wanted a piece or two.

”I’m unfamiliar with this species you are referencing… I’ll have to update my knowledge in xenozoology when we are back.” The Cardassian kept looking at the data. It was all very interesting indeed. “From which planet do dragons originate?”

Suddenly... the fog beneath them began to clear out.

“We have an opening. I recommend we take our chance now.” He stated, “We may not get another.”

"What— what? Chance at what?" Xai peeked. "What are we doin', huh?"

“The fog is clearing. We should attempt to reach the away team.” He clarified, “Apologies. I believe I spoke only half of what I meant.”

"Oh, yeah. Do that," they waved, turning back to their console. "Hopefully they're all still.." ...

“No bad luck here! They’re all fine!” Khirena said quickly, as if believing the away team was okay would actually -mean- they’re okay. Superstitions died hard, and Khirena did not want to believe the worst, lest it actually happen.

“I believe I have a signal.” He pulled up a screen, looking to Khirena and the others, “I will attempt to reach them. We will… knock on wood.” (edited)

She looked around before reaching a curious conclusion. “Lieutenant, there’s no wood available in this bridge. Is a piece supposed to be brought up here for us to… knock?”

“It is a proverbial saying. Human culture in the past used the act of knocking on wooden objects as a way to request good luck.” He stated, moving to knock on the top of his head, “I am not made of wood, but I do wish for good tidings.”