STF

Main Sim - Wolf 359 Planet 2 - Pod 1 Survey Work

Posted Nov. 30, 2022, 11:51 p.m. by Commander Heather Grace (Executive Officer/Chief Science Officer) (Steve Johnson)

Posted by Vice Admiral CockRoach (GM) in Main Sim - Wolf 359 Planet 2 - Pod 1 Survey Work
[snip]

A quick general scan showed likely deposits of minerals could be in the area too but they would need to get out on food to fully be sure to look for samples. As the pod came to a soft landing in the open area all signs of anything dangerous was gone, they had the area to themselves. Atmosphere outside was breathable, with the current temperature around 58F with a light warm breeze coming from the north west, making it closer feeling to 50F when present. Overhead it as fairly cloudy skies with a 15% chance of possible rain on its way. The gravity as noted was just slightly heavier then on Earth but nothing to be concerned for unless they had to do a lot of heavy lifting or running.

GM CockRoach

They touched down. Not having a ‘window’ El spent the time once they passed through the atmosphere to peer forward to catch what she could from the front windows, which, admittedly, was very little. A bit of mountain. A bit of green. A bit of sky. What she did feel when they set down was that she felt a bit heavier. Stretching in her chair El didn’t think that would be a problem for her. She glanced over to Isaac. She’d seen how he moved, favoring a leg. The gravity might be a problem for him. More of a problem would be the weather. When she brought up the information the temperature was cool. Not as cool as England had been at times but she grew up in much warmer temperatures. As soon as they touched down El unbuckled herself and reached for her jacket.

The realization settled in that she was on another planet. The Bonaventure traveled about in space and she had had no offboarding time. It ‘felt’ like another planet with the gravity. Peering forward it ‘looked’ like a normal world, a familiar world, Earth, but the gravity spoke otherwise. What would the air smell like? Did they have flowers here? Still close to her seat, El waited for orders and the hatch to be opened to disembark.

  • El, Eng

Isaac opened the hatch and left the pod first with his weapon drawn. After a quick look around he spoke “ it’s clear you can all exit the pod” he said

Lt. Isaac Black (AC)

“Lieutenant, perhaps next time you should wait for the science officer, who also happens to be the senior officer here, to give the okay that the environment is good to open the hatch. Before just opening the hatch and potentially exposing the team to something potentially lethal.” Heather said while trying to keep a level voice. What was done was done though as she picked up her own kit.

El watched with a mix of concern and excitement of the hatch opening and Isaac getting out. She may have missed something. The bit of reading she had done on the way down on the mission - more really on the planetary data than anything - revealed the only thing dangerous was stubbing her toe. In the back of her head, from her years of apprenticing, wasn’t there protocol on disembarking to a new world or place? She glanced to the XO. Perhaps Isaac’s exit was in line and previously discussed. When she had been part of the military academy any disembarking in an operation had been carefully planned. Had she missed it? She paused near her seat waiting on the XO.

That being said she could feel the cool air wafting in from the open hatch. It felt fresh against her face and reminded her of some mornings while on exercise and exiting her tent in the early morning. It felt clean and new then and, for that moment, enjoyed it. With her and cold, however, the novelty wore off quickly. She zipped up her jacket a little higher and leaned over to peer out. A girl can be curious, after all.

  • El, Eng

As the pod made its decent, and with her own gear already checked and stowed, T’Mera spent most of her time and attention studying the chatter and body language of her fellow crew, whilst trying to ignore the somewhat strong smell that rapidly built up within the close confines of the pod as the humans’ excitement began to build.

As the pod settled, T’Mera remained seated, allowing the others to take the lead. This was not her first minshara class planet after all, and she wanted to monitor how her crewmates dealt with the experience.

Unsurprisingly, the human warrior was first out of the hatch, weapon drawn in an aggressive posture. Typical human behaviour but also somewhat disappointing, given the optimism she had initially formed from conversations she had had in her short period aboard, that these Star Fleet humans would not conform to the stereotypical view held of their species.

Sublieutenant T’Mera - Linguist/Communications Officer

El had known that others had come in after her in the shuttle but had been mainly looking forward or centering herself to curb both her excitement of going to a whole new world, and the anxiety of the same. While she waited for the ‘leadership’ to go first - after Isaac had - she looked around at who else was there, then as quickly looked forward, surprised. A Vulcan?! How did they get aboard? She had no idea when that had happened. In her cave some gossip was slow to get to her. What was going on? How did this happen? Why did they have to stick their noses into what was a human endeavor, if only to stall and hinder it?

Truly, that was something that was only on the margins of El’s senses. She knew that patience was more formidable than bluster and that in time they would get around and surpass any blocks that these aliens put before them. It was inevitable. She had never met a Vulcan. Two had toured the monastery where she was staying. In utter curiosity El had kept her eyes on them, her mentor more amused than anything, and allowed her that indulgence. Many emotions had risen up in her. Mostly jealousy which she tried to tamp down. Envy. Their composure had been what she had attained to which they seemed effortless in. Their disdain at viewing some of the things they did at the temple irked her. El had had much to say to her mentor in the days that followed. Much had been forgotten in the mists of the past since then but this .. surprise sighting .. brought some of that back. She was better than this. She was better than them. That in itself was not part of her teachings. She recalled what master Ko said to her, “Elemirre, you will not like to hear this but you and they are more alike than you would like to think, or, at the present, even know.” He was right. She didn’t like to hear that.

Slowly she turned back to look at this .. alien who was supposed to be like her. She didn’t ‘look’ like her. Well, not much. Okay, some. Slighter in build. Her clothes tighter than El would want to wear. Possessed with an almost indifferent calm she noticed that she was looking toward Isaac. Did she like him? No, the eyes. Intelligent. Scrutinizing. Judging. Was El’s gaze any different, if marked with some curiosity in the mix?

  • El, Eng

Isaac pulled a scanner and started a survey scan of the area. He felt someone was staring at him so he climbed the pod and took a set on top away from eyes looking at him.

T’Mera found that the fresh breeze was welcome after the stuffy interior of the shuttle pod and took a couple of deep cleansing breaths as she exited the hatch.

As the crew began to spread out, she extracted a small scanning unit from her belt clip and began surveying the environment, paying particular attention to atmospheric conditions, weather fronts, or geographical anomalies that might affect communications between the ship and the two survey teams. She also began surveying for suitable locations to deploy a communications ground station, as per her assigned duties.

Sublieutenant T’Mera - Linguist/Comms Officer

El watched with some curiosity the veritable contrast between Isaac and the Vulcan woman. In any assessment, El thought, there would be a question to the man’s sanity, or at least heightened paranoid nature thus exemplified by his actions here of retreating back into the shuttle and looking for all the world like someone hunted. She cast a quick look over to the scans made during their descent and didn’t see anything noteworthy that would trouble them. This was very much contrasted to the Vulcan who, smoothly and confidently exited the craft. This must be so much ‘same old, same old’ for her in terms of new worlds and space travel. Unless this confidence was more attributed to Vulcans in general, El was ready to say that T’Mera’s confidence lay in her having done this again and again before.

“Are you okay?” El asked Isaac.

Having caught something about setting up shelters, El went first to the aerial scans in the general area of their touchdown. My as well let the computer do the job rather than pointing at a hill and saying, ‘that looks good’. Perhaps something in the lee side of a hill that would provide cover, maybe in light woods or nearby to again give shelter from weather, but still not too far away from potential things that science may be wanting to do. There was perhaps some geological prospecting happening too. Should she wait on this to see if they detected anything so as to not settle too far away from it? A full on prospecting unit would come with its own ground vehicles and drilling apparatus. Hmmm.
- El, Eng

Isaac was looking around through a pair of binoculars when he heard EL saying something “ya sorry I can see some flat ground from here it will be best to set up camp with shade but not here this area will flood if it rains and I can see some storm clouds coming in from the south”

“Based on the geological scans of this area, I don’t think that is likely to happen Lieutenant.” Heather had been taking a moment to enjoy the breeze. There was something about the fresh air of a new planet that just warmed her soul. They were stepping foot somewhere where humans had not been before, it deserved a minute to just take it all in.

Turning back towards the shuttle pod, she zipped up her coat a bit higher as she pulled out her scanner. “This area was selected for surveying because of the wide network of caves in the area. I would expect that it would take a decent amount of time for the caves to fill before this area would then flood. More then enough time for us to get back into the shuttlepod and evacuate.

“But if it will put your mind at ease, you can start with a geological scan of the immediate area. Try to map out as much of the cave system you can from here.

“Speaking of which, we need to get started on our survey of this area. Dr Grey, start with surveying the local drinking water situation, and also the flora in the immediate area. I really would not like to walk into a patch of the local version of poison ivy. Sublieutenant, would you mind assisting the Doctor? Ensign Serinde, I could use your assistance surveying for mineral deposits.

“And everyone, stay in eyesight of the shuttlepod. Until we know what is in the local area, we don’t want to roam to far. Understood?”

With the survey work underway the group over the next two hours were awash in incoming preliminary data. Obviously they would need to fully download it into the Sojourner’s computer back on the ship to fully get into details on things but after two hours of work, and such they could get the basics of the following.

1) The soil around here down to a depth of 30-40 or so feet was fairly well off in richness for things like basic farming and other forms of growth for local plant life. Whether they could equally support Earth plants or needed some adjustments would have to be found out later or by the ship’s computer.
2) Regarding the soil it was also rich in simple animal life similar to worms, insects, etc. All of which seemed to mostly form the similar functions they would on Earth. At a glance the only insect which might be a bit of trouble was a tiny ant like insect which was predatory to others, from simple observations their only purpose was to eat and eat more. In this regard they were similar to Earth locusts in clearing an area. Likely such insects were in a long term way useful for rebirthing a soil’s life every few decades or such but a colony would need to find a way to mitigate their impact on plant growth efforts.
3) Water samples came back confirming the water was quite drinkable and pure of any contaminants. The supply points for this area up and down stream were also showing strong indications of remaining pure and drinkable with minimal fuss.
4) Further for water samples life was evident, small and medium sized fish like creatures showed they could caught and cooked. Plant life in turn in the water also showed that with minor preparations would also be viable as a local food source.
5) Regarding deeper soil and rock samples that had been their primary purpose to come here surface level probing down to about 100 or so feet showed promising evidence of copper, iron, and such base metals. While their purity was still in question compared to how refined and useful they would be for Earth it was a promising start. There was also clear evidence of precious metals and minerals as well.
6) Finally it would seem from a geographical and metrological point Issacs’s words of the area flooding if it rained was quite unlikely. It would require days or weeks of heavy rain and storms to build up anything considerable of flooding the whole valley. Yes there may be small levels of flooding from the nearby river but again due to the hive of small subterrain caves and such they were also picking up water would take some time to build up in any manner to flow over the river banks by more then a few feet, which they were well clear of.

As Isaac was mentioning a light storm of rain was coming in from the south. While it did not appear to be one that would produce say lightening or anything else that would impede the shuttle pod. It would likely produce a steady rain which would soak them a bit if they remained out in the open. But with the time spent doing this work the NE armory officer on patrol had also taken the time in the past two hours to erects a small covered 50x50 ft floor and roof work area that would protect their equipment and themselves. Though they could also use this time to head up hill a short ways and do similar survey work in the nearby caves which would no doubt produce more viable results on the quality and quantity of minerals and such present.

GM CockRoach

Heather stood up straight and stretched her back. After the landing party had split up to start their survey work, several of the accompanying NE’s had worked on putting together a temporary structure for them. While they had been putting that together, she had pulled the ground penetrating scanners out from the shuttle, and had set them up in a triangle pattern, with the point stretching towards a nearby cave entrance. Since then she had been reviewing the scan data as it had been coming in, hunched over one of the tables that had been set up.

Looking at the clock she noticed that it had been over 2 hours since they had started. Good enough excuse to take a small break and get an update from everyone. Reaching into her pocket she pulled out her communicator and flipped it open.

[O] Grace to Pod 1 Team. Would everyone make there way back to the basecamp. Let’s take a short break and get an update on what everyone has found so far. [O]

Cmdr. Grace - XO/CSO


Posts on SS Sojourner

In topic

Posted since


© 1991-2024 STF. Terms of Service

Version 1.15.9