Ground Zero

Posted on Mon Jan 14th, 2019 @ 8:31am by Lieutenant Commander Aurelia Taylor & Commander Arrianna Salannis an Vantar & Lieutenant Danica Kovitz

Mission: Season 2: Episode 3: Determination is not always a good thing
Location: Cortic VI, Enterprise City
Timeline: Current
1948 words - 3.9 OF Standard Post Measure

The away team materilized on the planet. In the middle of what was, for all intents and purposes, a collapsed city. Arri looked around. "Alright, we need to conduct a geological analysis." She noted as she flipped open her tricorder. "Hmm... odd. I'm picking up what appears to be aftershocks, but they do not correspond to any known seismic event."

Lia quickly opened up her tricorder, "These look almost mechanical in their way, but what the hell could cause them and not be detected?"

Alexander shuffled over to Commander Holmes and took a peek at her tricorder readings. "Very odd. I realigned the Astrometric sensors to assist in scanning the planet prior to our arrival. We would've picked up this kind of activity light years away, but I'm sure there was nothing quite like this on sensors!"

"I don't think this is an earthquake. Look at how the buildings and other structures are being caved into the ground. This shouldn't take place if it was just a Earthquake, nor any form of major geological activity." Arri mentioned. "I think this is a sinkhole." Arri tapped her combadge."But that dose not explain the subspace interfearence we've been recieving."

Glancing round, Lia seemed to be looking for something. She then turned back to Arri, "This may sound stupid, but could Terraform generators programmed to pulse randomly cause what we're seeing here? And if they were set up in a certain way, could they produce the interference?"

"Unlikely, the Atmosphere Processors would have been dismantled and removed once the biosphere became stable. If I had to guess, we're seeing some kind of massive scale mining accident below the city. But this is impossible. It would be inadvisable to mine below a city, as it would certainly be noticed, which begs a question Lia; why did the inhabitants of this planet purposefully excavate passages below their own city?" Arri mentioned.

Danica Kovitz studied her tricorder readings closely. This certainly made no sense from a stellar phenomenon approach. None of the usual natural forces were at play here. Whatever it was appeared to be man-made, and mining was a good explanation from it. "It wouldn't exactly be the first time that someone employed unsafe mining methods. But this is on such a scale that we likely can rule out incompetence. You'd almost need a willful ignorance of the risks. And that also doesn't explain the interference unless they're running some substantial equipment. Do we know what resources they could even have been looking for?"

"There is only one way we can answer those questions Lieutenant." Arri used her tricorder to scan for the closest stable tunnel system. She pulled a phaser and set it to a power setting to blast open the tunnel and fired several times. As the rocks and debris was blasted away, a tunnel began to emerge.

Danica sighed. “Yeah, I was afraid you were going to say that.” She pulled out a flashlight and prepared to follow.

Orin pulled his light from the satchel he was carrying. "It's not all uncommon to have mines under a city." Orin started as he joined the group heading in. "They could have been from another time and forgotten about, or repurposed for other uses. Later, the city expands over top of it. You see it many places on Earth, like Paris or Rome, Turkana IV, Mordan IV..." He trailed off as they got closer to the tunnel.

Arri checked the tunnel and entered it, shining her light around. She then entered the tunnel. "We should not go too deep into these tunnels. This area is geologically unstable." She lead the group through the first tunnel towards a intersection of the tunnels. She set her phaser on low and fired on the floor, forming an arrow in the direction of the entrance they came in from.

“I hope no one is claustrophobic,” Danica said with a forced laugh. She stayed close behind Arri, sweeping her tricorder around. There was rock in every conceivable direction, with intermittent gaps which must be other passages. “Orin, I think you might be on to something. These tunnels look like they must be quite old. We should be careful where we step. The integrity of the stone could be compromised.”

Pulling out a twin light, Lia strapped it to her left wrist. This antique came from USS Voyager, and had been in the Delta quadrant. "Lieutenant Kovitz, cover the left side. Lieutenant Sempton, cover the right. You and I, Lieutenant Foulkes will take the rest. Lieutenant Vantar, unless you have serious reasons for placing this away team in danger. Explain your reasoning to me," Lia knew things needed to be answered, but putting the away team down this mine didn't seem to be the way. And it failed to explain the interference.

"Commander, with all due respect, we are no more safe on the surface than we are underground. I believe that the cause of the geological instabilities lies below the surface. If this planet becomes any more unstable, or the subspace anomalies spike, we could be looking at an explosion similar to the mining accident on Praxis." Arri noted. "I indeed hypothesize this planet may have been subjected to a plasmic infusion core tap similar to mining techniques used on Praxis."

Lia nodded, "Ok Lieutenant, that much I will allow. But you have failed to explain the interference, or its possible cause. Do you expect to find that answer underground?" The question needed an answer, and Lia wanted it answered. "I'm not trying to put problems in your way, but I have yet to see any resolution to that part of our present problem".

“Commander, if I may?” Danica said, though she didn’t quite wait for a reply before speaking up. “I’d have to concur with Lt. Vantar’s reasoning. The kind of damage we’re seeing definitely fits with an underground disturbance of some kind. I’m not confident enough to say that’s the true cause, but appearances would support that. Maybe we could try to prove her hypothesis that the interference begins there? If we could send some sort of probe down the mineshaft, we could see if the interference intensifies the farther down it goes. If it does, that’d be a strong indicator that the source of all this is down there. If not, we’d avoid the risks of such a trip into the mine.”

Looking further down the mine shaft, Lia thought about it. "Just what kind of probe do you have in mind? And where do we acquire it from?" She moved closer to Danica, "I don't think we carry such a probe on the Elysium, so ideas Lieutenant?"

“Unfortunately, I’m not as familiar with Elysium’s loadout. I’m not aware of such a device on board, though,” Danica said.

"We do not have such a probe." Arri responded calming herself. "It will take us hours to build one, more time to configure it, and the subspace interference will make linking to one problematic. Besides, even if we were to improvise a probe, the best connection we'd have to it is from a cable which will limit its effective range."

"Even my ground penetrating sensors are only good for a few meters..." Orin began. "But, um, even so, Occam's Razor states the simplest solution is usually the best. We currently have no equipment that will probe the length or depth we need, as such, the simplest solution is that the task falls to us to investigate." Orin took a side-long glace at the cave and swallowed nervously. "O-our tricorders should be able to track any geologic instability in the mine system..."

“Agreed, Orin. I’m unfortunately not seeing any alternatives,” Dani said.

Lia looked at the assembled away team, "We have transport enhancers with us right? How about we adapt them to act as transceivers, and space them out to relay our position. Would that work?" She waited for the response to her suggestion.

Danica nodded. "It should. As long as we boost the signal enough, I think it'll be able to reach Elysium. It won't be perfect, but they should at least be able to track our progress. Any beam outs would still be risky."

"Ok Lieutenant, I'm not going to be much use down there. So how about you and I get started on the modifications, and let the others get on with the digging around?" Lia moved to allow people to pass her, *let those who know what their doing get on with it* she thought.

"I wonder if we can get the Communicators to work with the Transport Enhancers. Our search area is going to be broad. If we link our communicators to the enhancer's primary buffer, we'll be able to form a triangulation network between combadges. This is still dangerous, but we're running out of options." Arri mentioned. "If this planet releases a subspace shockwave, it will damage every ship and world in its path."

Looking at Arri, Lia shook her head. "We can give it a go, but it may overload the buffer". She pointed at Danica, "Perhaps our Lieutenant is smarter than me, and she can figure out a better solution. My knowledge of these enhancers is limited, here's hoping".

"I think it's a risk we have to take," Dani replied to the two women, pulling out a padd to begin the process of configuring the combadges. "I can set it to overclock the enhancer's primary buffer when the time comes. It will eventually burnout the device, but it should let us maintain a stable transporter pattern in the event of a beam out. But we'd be a package deal. We'd need to beam out all at once. No splitting the team." She shrugged. "I don't think that'll pose too much of an issue anyway. If some of us need to go, we probably all will."

Picking up an enhancer, Lia began to strip one down. "Lieutenant Vantar, both my assistant here and myself will get on with the alterations. You take the rest of the away team, and do whatever you think is required to get the answers we need". She looked over to Danica, "How long do you think this is gonna take?"

“A few minutes at least for the patch to take hold. A few after that before it’ll be able to hold a transporter pattern. But I think we can start heading down as soon as the first upload is complete,” Danica said.

Nodding in agreement, Lia continued to strip down the enhancers. "I'll get them ready Lieutenant, you do the adaptations. That way we'll get it done quicker, Lieutenant Vantar we'll let you know when it's all set up".

A fuzzy voice caught Lia's attention, it was a security from the ship. Somehow they had received a "Visitor" from the planet, but had no idea who they were or what they were supposed to do with said person. Looking at Kovitz Lia now spoke to her, "Lieutenant, ah Danica. I just got a message from the Elysium, I have to return to the ship". She looked at the enhancers she'd stripped down, "Most of these are done, but I'm gonna have to leave you to finish them on your own. Sorry". She got up and headed for the surface, "Let Vantar know I've gone will you, she's in charge now. See you back onboard". Looking at the surface, Lia made her way to a clear area, "Holmes to Elysium, ready to transport". Seconds later she was gone.

Commander Lia Holmes
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Elysium


Lieutenant JG Orin Sempton
Xenoarchaeologist