Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Shaun Grecken (Doctor) in Saving the colony

Posted by Lieutenant Kate O’Neill (Chief of Security) in Saving the colony

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Shaun Grecken (Doctor) in Saving the colony
Posted by… suppressed (7) by the Post Ghost! 👻
SNIP
https://www.star-fleet.com/core/stf5/odin/notes/15757/ Link to orignial post -Lets keep this off the record
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SABER ON ROUTE TO COLONY

Kate looked at Shaun as he fixed the approach vector to the colony. She was capable of piloting the ship but the girlfriend in her liked him flying. Partially it was the way she was raised but also it let her do the random stuff like play games and text on her personal communicator instead of making sure they did not crash. Many of her girlfriends complained that she should be more of a feminist and fly the ship while making Shaun take the co-pilot seat. Kate saw it that it was the epitome of feminism where the man did the work and she could sit back and just relax: sort of like a reverse 1950’s married couple. This trip however she was looking at him with an intense stare.

“Shaun, do all deliveries end up like that. You know without drugs and you jumping three ranks and becoming an ordained minister all in less than an hour?” Kate’s tone was playful but also had a hint of seriousness to it. “I mean how typical was that labor and delivery?” Kate had never doubted Shaun’s skill in the medical profession until the moment he uttered to Jessica Vaughn that they missed the window for drugs and that she could do it without them.

“It can, getting access to a ship like this is a perk though.” he said not knowing how to begin here.

“I’m serious,” Kate said looking at him. “Is that normal? The whole window for meds and is there a drug to actually make you go into labor for no reason?” Her tongue poked out of her mouth and moistened her bottom lip before she bit down on it. Shaun would be able to see Kate was intent on him providing an answer.

“This? As I said, it can be normal. Medical emergencies always end up a little weird. Now do I often deliver babies to Kingpins? Not really something I have done myself. There is always a first though, and this was certainly a first.”

“Kingpins,” Kate laughed. Really?”

Ending the lively debate she focused all her attention to the console running scans of the main town they were approaching. “There are life signs but they are condensed into tight groups. I have a group of about ten in the church, forty-six in the hospital, nine in the main administration annex, and about fifty scattered throughout the town and the surrounding three miles of the city center. Power is at a minimum. There is a distress call from the main relay beacon but its range is limited. This place is getting my spidey senses tingling Peter,” Kate said relaying far more concern in that one sentence than the actual words conveyed. Bypassing several junctions, Kate had boosted the signal enough that a strange crackling was coming through breaking up every few words.

=/\= Colony....quarrantine....Avoid.... infection…go…the hospital. I repeat, =/\= the voice said over and over in a loop. Kate listened to it several times and then gave Shaun a look.

“So we go to the hospital,” she said as he began to prep to land the shuttle. “That is my best guess but you were the one who lived here.”

Lt. Kate O’Neill COS

“Yes, but… this feels wrong.” Shaun said, this was all different. No one had come to see them, the message had seemed to be targeted to him. The beacon others could hear but there was little traffic that came past this sector. Only once a year unless they got tourists, and it wasn’t much of a tourist destination. “They were self-sufficient in most things, there should be a fleet of ships here yet we come back and this is all?”

“Well they said that the colony was in quarantine so I wouldn’t expect a ten-piece band greeting us,” Kate said. Still, Shaun was right. This place reminded her of the haunted hallows event in October at homes. there were lights on in some of the buildings but the streets were deserted.

The main street was typical of any colony town. It was wide and lined on both sides by common buildings. From there the colony began to spread out more with housing for the townsfolk and then farther out the farms and industrial buildings. The landing pad for shuttle traffic was between the industrial zone and town. Not a far walk but Kate was getting the heebie geebies as they made their approach. “Shaun can we beam down and park the shuttle at the landing pad” Kate asked.

“The message said to come to the hospital but I don’t like this. This place feels off. If you just beam us down in that center area near the fountain, I think we can make it there without any resistance. If this is a quarantine zone we might need some muscle if people are scared or supplies are low. When people panic you can’t predict their behavior,” Kate stated. “These are your peeps but maybe we should have a few of his security team go with us? If we do have resistance the weapons on this ship could stop a small army or spark a small revolution.” Kate looked over her shoulder as if expecting someone to be there even though there was no one. “The quartermaster on the ship said the weapons are from a time when Aedan worked in conjuncture to help the Federation. They all checked out as legitimate and registered its just a lot…lot of weapons. Like Uncle Jeb’s shed lot of weapons. I also scanned the place for airborne contagions and everything seems normal. So that means we are okay to go dirtside without hazmat suits right? We just need to use universal precautions? ”

Lt. Kate O’Neill security

The others around the ship worked, Aedan had loaned his personal ship to this rescue, it gave them far more resources but a fleet was much better.

Grecken, Doctor

“Approaching shuttle are you here to help and bring supplies,” a voice cracked over the communications terminal. “We are in desperate need of food an medical supplies. Please come directly to the hospital.” The voice had a calm quailty to it as if there were approaching a vacation site and not a quarratined planet.

Later…

“We are five minutes from landing, but… I don’t see anyone do you? What can you pick up on sensors there dove?” Shaun said as he handled the decent. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, they had a haul of supplies with a ship ready to beam down more if needed. The issue was why didn’t anyone seem to be here for them? Why wouldn’t they show up?

“The Sensors suite on this thing is…close to military,” Kate said slowly. It was not that there was anything illegal about this ship but the ship was not like anything she was used to. “They are showing life signs but some are,” she let the words hang as she searched for the correct ones finish the sentence. “Was the colony only humanoid,” she asked Shaun.

“Well there was livestock, they farm here.” Shaun said as he looked over at here, a discerning look on his face. “What are you seeing doll?”

“Bizare life form readings. They are registering as barely living but they are clearly moving around,” she said bringing up the outskirts a few miles from where they were landing. On the control screen, the sensors showed people moving about in some sort of group. The darkness of the night kept Shaun or Kate from seeing things clearly. The scanners showed humans mulling around as if they were at a bonfire or large campground but not faces or actual actions. “I mean this makes no sense Shaun. It is as if the entire group activity they are doing out there has caused them to have hypothermia but the temperature is not that cold.” They would soon have the answer to the question so her statement was more rhetorical thought than anything else.

“Well… let’s see what that is. I am going to land and we can find out more love.” Shaun said hitting the control panel more as the struts of the ship touched down.

Grecken, Doctor

Kate got out of the co-pilots seat and began to move to the back of the ship. Rummaging around in the bag on a seat in the back she pulled out a phaser and the leg holster. This was supposed to be a vacation but Kate never went anywhere without her gun. “I hope there won’t be any angry mobs but you never know. Always better to be safe than sorry,” she said pulling her hair into a ponytail which was a clear indicator she was on guard and thinking like a security officer or that they were going to go do something physical.

Moving to the base of the landing ramp Kate waited as the door opened. The crisp night air rushed in and she breathed deeply. This was what she missed being on a ship. What did strike her was the silence. The place sounded like a tomb. It was eerily quiet to the point of being unsettling.

Lt. Kate O’Neill COS

Taking out his tricorder Shaun began to scan, looking around from the area. Last time he was here there were people bustling around. Now, nothing. The colony wasn’t big, no more than hundred thousand scattered out in farms all over the continent. The city itself was small by most standards, about a third of the population lived here often trading supplies for the farmers, and small luxuries every colony wants like bars and entertainment.

Still, to find not a soul struck him as unusual. “You feel all the sudden like this was a very bad idea buttercup?”

Grecken, Doctor

Kate looked at Shaun and pressed her lips to his. This was not the spot for a romantic gesture but it had been so long since she was able to do it without thinking or just because she wanted to. For a period of time, they were not together. Currently, they were Lt. O’Neill and Lt. Grecken on a Starfleet vessel which meant they could not act like they were kids back in Green County. Now however they were just Shaun and Kate and she would take advantage of this. The kiss was that only longtime lovers share: Fast, soft but full of the things she didn’t need to say. “I feel like all of a sudden we need to get to that hospital,” Kate said pulling her gaze off him and descending the ramp.

Lt. Kate O’Neill COS