Get together- Random Grouping

Posted on Thu Jul 6th, 2023 @ 5:38am by Lieutenant Nicholas Reece [Reece] & Lieutenant J'airesh Mora-Heath & Lieutenant Kurt "Berlin" Vogel & Lieutenant Cassia Cavendish & Lieutenant Vise [Sthilg] Kesahl & Lieutenant JG Zac Smithson

Mission: Season 6: Episode 2: Survival
4472 words - 8.9 OF Standard Post Measure

IC:

Four snowmobiles stood at the southern entrance to the caves where the crew were staying. The group were called to meet at 08h00 for scouting. Two of the snowmobiles had sleds attached for equipment.

Cassia was the first to arrive and she was dressed in the heavy outerwear that they were all expected to wear.

Zac arrived next, he like Cassia was dressed in the heavy winter clothing that helped to minimize the bite of the frigid air they were exposed to. Seeing Cassia already there, he greeted her. "Hi, seems like we're the first to arrive. I'm Zac Smithson." He said pleasantly.

Nicholas stepped up and dropped two large rucks down. One on his snowmobile, the other on Cassia's. "You forgot this in the tent, sweetheart," his deep baritone voice nearly booming in the quiet that surrounded them. The large man then looked over at the other person present and offered his hand. "Lieutenant Nicholas Reece, Intel."

Zac gave the offered hand a firm shake. "Lieutenant JG Zac Smithson. Tactical. At your service." Zac looked at Nicolas for a moment before asking, "Is by any chance Commander Reece your brother?"

Cassia smirked. "Aww that resemblance gives you away all the time." She mocked her partner.

Nicholas replied to Zac first. "Yeah, he's my twin big brother. Older by a couple of minutes." He then turned to Cassia and smirked playfully. "Though I am the better looking of the two of us."

Zac nodded, "Yes, I can definitely see you are the better looking. It is quite obvious." He answered evenly but in a joking way.

Next to arrive was Vise. The white spotted cybernetasist was grateful to get out of the medbay even for a little while. Attaching her personnel ruck and the emergency medical kit to one of the snowmobiles she added a medical kit to each of the other snowmobiles before heading to join the group.

As Nicholas finished chuckling at Cassia and Zac's jokes at his expense, he turned to the new arrival. "Hiya, Doc, welcome to the group!"

" Glad to be here. If I spend more time in the medical tent I'm going to start smelling of anti septic permanently." Vise replied giving him a smile.

J'airesh was next to arrive. Her snow-wear was sensibly thick and warm and she also had two heavy rucks containing amongst other essentials, her own personal med-kit. She knew there would be more medical kits and first aid supplies already on-hand because she had checked that Vise was covering those but she always liked to work with her own kit, as any craftsperson did. She also had a comprehensive collection of sample kits and a high spec vid-cam for recording any creature confident enough, and warm enough!, to make themselves 'star for a day' and be catalogued.

J'air put both rucks down but didn't attempt to assume which snow-mobile she would be assigned to. She wasn't sure if the other members of the group would have the kind of assignments that would need the trailers, or if she and Lt Smithson would need one of those? She knew Zac Smithson's name but had not met him before now.

After just seconds, J'air spoke and said cheerfully to all the other party team-mates. "You can never have too many 'medics', is what i say" she quipped but pulled a jokey grimace. "Although I do have to admit I made that up because I wanted so badly to go and find native creatures and record them all..... J'airesh More-Heath" she added her name and held out a gloved hand to greet them and then hurriedly removed the glove so she could shake properly. "oops, sorry".

Zac smiled warmly at J'air as she talked. "A pleasure to meet you J'air. I am Zac Smithson and I believe you and I are assigned to do the animal survey." As he finished, he removed his glove so he could shake her hand. "As to never having enough medics, I'm glad for all we have. I just hope we don't need your services."

Cassia began to check over the snowmobiles. "Once the rest get here, we should be fine to go" she said calmly.

Zac looked at the others and then to Cassia, "Just out of curiosity, who else are we waiting for?" He wondered aloud.

Cassia checked the list on her padd. "Lieutenant Vogel, and Lieutenant Shelton" She said with a smile.

As Cassia and Zac spoke, Nicholas moved over to say hello to Doctor More-Heath. "Nice to meet you, Doc. Lieutenant Nicholas Reece, Intel." He gave her a polite smile as he spoke, his deep voice carrying a power all its own.

"Hi, nice to meet you too" J'air said returning the polite smile, something in her spine sending out alarms. ~front of the queue when they were handing out testosterone~ her mind commented sub-consciously and obviously silently. "I ..um... I think we might have...... no....Intel..... I wouldn't have crossed your path.... " ~What's *wrong* with you More-Stupid?~ her mind asked her, horrified that she was still talking. She broke off and smiled at him instead, feeling very self-conscious. She took off her gloves again and offered him a hand-shake, unsure whether this was appropriate or even if she was likely to get crushed fingers.

Nicholas's eyes seemed to hold a silent chuckle as he saw the reaction he recieved from the attractive doctor. Had he not already been in a committed relationship with Cassia, he might've tried to see where things went. However, as his heart was already claimed, he simply grinned politely. "Breathe, Doc. I promise that you have nothing fear from me." He glanced back at Cassia, who was checking over their snowmobile. Then looked back at J'airesh and gave her a knowing grin. When she offered her ungloved hand in greeting, he returned the gesture, his hand easily swallowing hers, though his calloused hand was gentle as he shook hers.

J'air was happy to see that Nicholas' eyes seemed to show some humour and also that his large hand was gentle to shake. She smiled widely at him and in response to his assurance that she had nothing to fear, she pretended to wipe the back of her other hand across her forehead, imitating great relief but with an overdramatic comedic gesture. She chuckled and, having caught his glance towards Cassia, made a silent mental note. She hadn't met either of the couple before but this trip would hopefully allow her to rectify that as well as getting to know the others too. She was very happy to have been invited along.

Zac had finished checking the snowmobiles and found them ready for use. He looked and see J'air talking with Lt. Reece. He sighed silently. he was hoping to talk with J'air and to know her better perhaps it would happen when they got out and began their survey.

Kurt Vogel shivered and rubbed his hands together to gain some semblance of warmth through his mittens. Ironically for a German, he despised the cold; the numb feeling in his toes and fingers, the chapping of his lips, the way his body shook of its own accord to heat itself. The only thing that was pleasant about it to the German was the delightful sound of the crunch of compacted snowfall.

But it was hard to enjoy it when you couldnt feel your feet.

"All things considered, I'd prefer to scout from the air." he said to no one in particular.

J'air took herself over to Zac. "Can I do anything to help, 'pard-ner'?" she asked with a terrible immitation of an iconic Terran old-style 'cowboy-accent' on the last word and a broad grin on her face. "I can't have you doing all the work..... shareses?"

Zac grinned at her and shook his head, "Well partner." He laughed at her her imitation of the word. " You can grab one of your rucks and toss it on this here snowmobile. I added two pair of snowshoes in case we need to get out and walk to get a closer look at any of the animals or just to survey our surroundings. As for sharing, you will. We haven't even gotten started yet. Save your strength and energy."

J'air raised an eyebrow in mock surprise. "was that a promise or a challenge, partner?" she joked, very much under her breath and well out of the earshot of the others who were making their own arrangements and conversations.
Laughing together was a great way to start the "partnership" and the ACMO was very happy the two of them had got off to such a good beginning. ~Now all they had to do was get some great results and all would be even better.~ she thought.

"looks like Shelton is not joining us" Cassia said calmly. "So pick your snowmobile. we have 4 two with supply sleds."

Zac looked at her, a smile still playing on his face. He had heard her mumble something but couldn't make it out. Though the smile on her face along with her laugh put any concerns he may have had to rest. "J'air. I have our snowmobile loaded, do you think we'll need a sled?"

"Great job!" she enthused. Then considering his question she added "I don't know about the sled. I guess you never know when it might come in handy but then again, it wouldn't be terrible if we didn't, so let's see who else is keen to have the last one, or if no-one... then yes, why not? Up to you."

Zac thought on what J'air said. He looked around at the others and then back to J'air and came to a conclusion. "Let's take the sled. You never know we may find something we need to transport back to camp and having the sled will help us with that." He said as he proceeded to attach the sled to the snowmobile. He then moved back to the front pf the snowmobile and added, "You ready to get this show on the road partner?" A grin on his face.

J'airesh grinned back. "Wagons, Roll!" she replied, her ridiculously bad old wild west accent getting worse rather than better as she practiced it.

Nicholas climbed aboard the snowmobile that he and Cassia would be using. After starting up the engine, he checked the various systems, ensuring all were in the green. Looking over to the group, he said, "Shall we get going?"

Cassia joined him. "I have uploaded the path we are to take into the snowmobiles." She said to the others.

Zac started the snowmobile. "Climb on J'air and we'll get started and see what we can find." With that, he flicked the viewscreen on to display the route Cassia had downloaded into the snowmobiles.

J'air climbed up as invited, settling herself as comfortably as possible and adjusting her visor, seat, securings and other protective items with one last check over. It took only moments as most were already prepped then she held up her thumb towards Zac before plunging her hand safely back into her snow-mitt where it belonged to keep it warm, protected and dry. She was excited to be going on this adventurous mission - out of Sickbay and onto the ice-world.

Nicolas looked over at Lieutenants Vise and Vogel. "Well then, that leaves you two with a choice of each taking the other two snowmobiles solo, or one together?"

" Two on one would be better we can have the other follow on auto pilot in case of emergency," Vise said as she climbed onboard one of the snowmobiles.

Kurt gulped as he climbed aboard the snowmobile behond the Trill leftenant. He always admired Trill women; the spots that were unique to each individual made each of them a work of art of femininity and grace from his point of view. However, the Reserves were a heavily militarized and non-nonsense part of the Fleet; fraternization led to heavy penalties if caught. And the last thing Kurt needed was an accusation of getting handsy if a bump in the snow caused an arm or a hand to go somewhere it should not. The sound of Cassia's vopice broke him out of his thoughts.

"That works" Cassia said with a smile. "Shall we people?"

Nicholas gunned the engine of their snowmobile, then punched in a few commands to put the fourth vehicle on automatic and locked onto the one he and Cassia were using.

Zac nodded and gave J'air a smile and an answering thumbs up as he waited for Nicholas and Cassia to take the lead before the groups split up to conduct their own missions.

Seeing that everyone was ready, Nicholas pushed his throttle forward, causing their snowmobile to shoot forward out of the cave, the spare machine with the other sled following right behind them.

"Hang on J'air!" Zac told his partner as he followed Nicholas and Cassia out of the cave. their own sled following obediently behind them.

The group traveled across the snowy tundra following the path laid out. 30 minutes into the trip, Cassia signalled for Nicholas to stop. They were coming up to a vast ice plain.

When the snowmobile stopped she climbed off and picked up her tricorder. She began scanning the ice flat.

After turning off the engine, Nichols climbed down after Cassia and added his own tricorder to the scanning.

Zac and J'air's snowmobile came to a stop behind Nicholas and Cassia's snowmobile. He turned the engine off and watched the pair with their tricorders. He leaned across the handlebars of the snowmobile and looked back a J'air. "I feel like Columbus discovering America. This is a brand new world for us to explore."

"It's so breathtakingly beautiful isn't it" she replied. "and so surreptitiously deadly at the same time." She checked for the air temperature and although she hadn't felt cold in her snowsuit before she looked, the digital reading she got made her shiver reflexively. "Can there truly be any creatures out here or are they all in hibernation....I can't imagine even insects surviving this harsh environment."

Zac nodded, "Stunningly beautiful J'air. As for anything living out here, I think we'll find that there are more creatures out here than we thought. After all life finds a way."

"Well, you're right about life so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on the creatures!" J'airesh replied, raising her visor and lifting highpowered binoculars to her eyes to see if she could see any proof of that, so far across the ice plain in front of them all.

Zac grinned at J'air's comment. "Why thank you J'air, I do appreciate that." He bantered back as he watched her scan the horizon. "See anything?" He questioned.

Vise was looking through her binoculars though all she could make out was ice and more ice. " Nothing here."

Nicholas was using the sensors to get a better picture of the vast ice field surrounding them. "I think I found evidence of meteor strikes. About twelve klicks east of our current position." He looked at the group. "Could be worth investigating?"

"Yes" replied Cassia. But she frowned at her scans. "Make sure we stick close together everyone, there are ice wyrms through this section."

Nicholas nodded. "We'll take point." He climbed back in, behind the drive controls. Once Cassia was back in her seat, and the others seemed ready, Nicholas gunned the engine, the snowmobile shooting off in their new direction.

The group traveled further along the path they had laid out. And soon enough they came to the first of the meteor strike locations.

J'air and Zac pulled up as well and she got off the snow mobile to stretch her legs and take a look around too. She didn't move away from the others though, she just stretched and stomped her boots on the spot to get the blood going again and when she felt warm and ready she took up her viewers and tried to get a super-magnified view of the miles and miles of endless ice. For one moment she almost felt bit worried about the endlessness of it and the bleak, frozen situation they were all in. She shivered involuntarily even though she wasn't actually cold in her environmental suit - it was more of an unpleasant overwhelming awe and with it, apprehension at the size, merciless harshness of it all.

Instinctively and without noticing what her subconscious brain had initiated in a form of self-preservation, she took the two or three steps needed to return herself to the snow-mobile. She hadn't been far enough away from it to need to get back close to it again, but she did it anyway and looked across to Cassie and Nicholas who were scanning and showing no such signs of being affected. She looked up at Zac and through their visors they could both see one another's faces and expressions. She hoped that she wasn't showing her sudden qualms but couldn't really imagine it was possible that she hadn't given any clue at all, despite her usual "doctors' face" which had been trained into her for years now.

~perhaps it was that this feeling, that she couldn't name but yet seriously did NOT like, had come over her suddenly and possibly caught her off guard?~ she wondered.

Whatever the reason for the dark aura and feeling that had come over her, J'air knew the best and quickest way to get away from it was to get her tasks and observations done, along with any research she could record and get the heck back with it all, without any unnecessary delay.

She got out her PADD and made some notes, recorded some interesting optical notes and set her long-range scans to pick up any unexplained or unexpected movement, distortion of light, temperature changes or sounds for her to record and/or look into further if such an anomaly should occur.

As a medical officer it was going to be important to see if there were any changes that might offer even the slightest reasons to sustain or preserve - eg in some form of hibernation - life in any tangible form.

Nicholas got out of the vehicle and stepped closer to the impact crater. He pulled his tricorder out and took a few scans. "Hey! I'm picking up not only material that could be used to repair the ship, but several new elements that aren't on our periodic table!"

Zac looked over J'air. He had seen some uneasiness on her face, but it quickly passed as she brought out her PaDD while he raised the binoculars to his face and scanned the desolate landscape. Still holding the binoculars to his face he spoke to J'air. "Ever get the feeling your being watched but don't see anyone or anything? That's how I feel right now."

He was going to say more when Nicholas called out about finding material that could be used to repair the Elysium but new elements as well. "Well, that's an unexpected surprise. Though finding actual parts would have been soooo much better." He quipped.

J'air had been just about to reply to Zac that yes, it did feel eerily like that, but as the conversation had already moved on, she just nodded deeply and seriously before then chuckling at his response to Nicholas.

As she raised her glasses back to the horizon, a strange blur seemed to flash just out of her focus. "Was that a movement?" she asked out loud, not addressing anyone in particular but peering more intensely at the mid-ground of her sightline, not so much at the further point she had been looking at a moment ago.

"I thought I saw something blurry and fast.... " she went on, but couldn't find anything that might have caused what she had felt she had seen.... or glimpsed... but then it was too fast to even identify if it were a movement of something, or some air puffing like a breeze perhaps. The more she thought about it and peered around, the less her conviction stood up.

"Sorry, perhaps I was just...." she began to apologise, coming to the conclusion it was an illusion or a trick of her tired eyes. Then she suddenly glimpsed it again, a flicker, perhaps a very small distortion or .... she still couldn't ascertain what.

Turning to her colleagues to see if anyone else had seen anything or identified the phenomenon, J'air let go of her binocular glasses and swung her head around to see everyone to hear what they would say. Perhaps she was imagining this and would feel very foolish. "Did anyone see that?" she asked, breathlessly with mixed emotions.

Zac was at her side, "What did you see and where J'air?" He asked even as he had his binoculars up and was scanning the horizon to see if he could pick up whatever it was J'air saw or thought she saw. As he scanned the horizon. He thought he saw something. "J'air." He called to her, "Bring your binoculars up and look ten degrees to my right. It looks like a snowbank is moving."

"Yes..." J'air adjusted her binoculars to the place Zac had described and excitedly agreed with him. "It IS" she said, breathing heavily with wonder. "Is it being blown or is the movement from underneath the snow?" she asked, peering again, straining her eyes for more information.

"I think the snowbank is moving J'air." Zac said slowly. His binoculars still on the area and sure enough the snowbank was moving!

Whole J'airesh and Zak were discussing the possibility of nearby animal presence, Nicholas has made his way down into the impact crater and was carefully scanning the meteorite. "I'm definitely picking up a good deal of material here that, once mined, could go towards repairs of the ship." He looked up at Cassia, who was still up on the surface. Would you bring over the mining gear, please?"

"Sure" Came the reply and a few minutes later she brought over the stuff he needed.

Zac kept his binoculars trained on the spot while he spoke to J'air. "Want to see if we can get closer? Perhaps get some images and who knows what else?"

"I would love that. The "we saw some snow moving" chapter in our data won't be all that impressive, but if we could photograph it, identify it... that would really be proper research!" J'air answered, the excitement clear in her voice.

"Great." Zac replied to J'air. "How do you want to handle this? I think it would be best to take the snowmobile at least part of the way and go on foot the rest of the way."

"Do we know how thick the ice sheet is? I don't suppose we have a way of scanning to see if it will take the weight of both of us, the snowmobile and the trailer?" J'airesh asked, her eyes still alight with the excitement but yet being pulled by a tiny bit of caution at the idea of a deadly bath in the water beneath, if that was what might be awaiting them if they were too brave".

Zac shook his head, "Unfortunately we can't scan the ice accurately. We can eyeball the ice and see if we see any dark shadows under it that would indicate water and thin ice. So, we can attempt to sneak up on what we saw, which might be better as the snowmobile engine won't alert it. Or we wait to see if it shows itself again."

"let's try the sneaky approach" J'air said grinning. "It might just go on about its business if we leave it and then what would we have discovered?" she reasoned. "And anyway, we don't have a huge amount of time out here, exposed like this ourselves.... Let's go find us a new friend."

Looking across the group, J'air spoke to Cassia and Nicholas. "Are you guys going to stay here to extract your minerals? Do you need help with that? Its obviously more important as it will go towards repairing the ship?" she asked them.

"Or are you okay with that while we go on a bit and look for our potential yeti?"

It felt important to offer to help with the more important work towards repairing the ship so J'air needed to check if they were going to be more needed here but it was a kind of rhetorical question really as she was really hoping to go out and get some data to bring back too.

"Sure" Cassia replied. "Just keep in touch ok?"

Zac nodded excitedly. "We will! You have what you need to collect samples and take images of our bashful visitor." He asked J'air.

"I do" she replied, alight with excitement too. "I have a med kit of course, and samples are what we do, but I also have the super-powered long range lens for the imager which already takes close ups, medium range and has endless vid-capacity. We'll be able to take back everything we need to completely intrude on the creature's whole existence, if we have time, and take back enough data to bewilder starfleet classes for years to come!" she said, hoping that slight exaggeration wasn't going to prove to be a boast that could come back on them if, once they'd searched everywhere in vain, and the creature might have outsmarted them.

Masking back up and quickly checking the equipment was safely packed into the trailer, J'air got back onto the snow-mobile ready to get underway as soon as Zac did the same.

After the other team left to hunt for the supposed native Lifeforms, Nicholas got busy working over the large meteoroid. He took several samples as he continued to scan the object. "There are twelve different elements present that the tricorder can't identify!" He lifted on sample up to show Cassia. It was a crystal that seemed to glow from within itself. "As the discoverer of this element, I'm going to name it Cassianite, after you my love. It shines with a beauty that is unmatched, like you." He gave her a soft smile as he spoke.

She laughed. "Save it Romeo," She teased him. "Let's get some more samples and get it back to the camp."

Nicholas smiled at Cassia, then they both got to work. Collecting as many samples of the meteoroid and surrounding crater. As they did so, J'airesh and Zac set out to investigate the possible native life that they had detected on the surface.

Several hours later, once both teams had finished their investigations, they rode back to the camp, their sample containers filled with enough items to keep the science teams busy for a while.

~OFF~