Away Team 1 - Off on an adventure!

Posted on Sat Aug 12th, 2023 @ 8:09pm by Avalon [ADMIN NPC] & Lieutenant Commander Aurelia Taylor & Lieutenant Thor Magnus & Consul Andrinn Orin & Captain Samuel Woolheater & Senior Chief Petty Officer Fernando De La Rosa [Taylor]

Mission: Season 6: Episode 3: Far From Home
Location: Asphodel - Arrow Class Shuttle
Timeline: MD3 - 13h00
2145 words - 4.3 OF Standard Post Measure

IC

The Asphodel, one of the ship's three Arrow Class shuttles stood gleaming in the Shuttle bay, waiting for it's crew.

Fernando had received his orders to report to the shuttle bay as part of the away team to scout one of the ships in the graveyard. As he was security, he took the necessary precaution of getting a phaser and a phaser rifle out of the armory as well as a tricorder. Now, he stood beside the Asphodel and waited for the others to arrive.

Lia wandered into the shuttle bay with her phaser rifle hanging over her shoulder, a hand phaser in a holster at her hip. She had her eye's on a PaDD with what little information they had on their intended destination, which wasn't much. "Oh hi Chief, all set for our magical mystery tour? Hope you brought your shopping list, and a big basket for all the little parts."

Fernando nodded, "Hello Commander. I am ready though I am not sure how magical it will be." He held up a PaDD, "I do indeed have a shopping list but alas no basket. I will have to improvise." He grinned.

From inside the Arrow-class shuttle, footsteps belonging to Captain Woolheater were heard and then he appeared exiting the craft. He was in a standard uniform. After ten months of wearing combat armor almost everyday it felt good to just be in a standard uniform. He greeted the two, "Commander Taylor, Chief. I was just stowing my gear on the shuttle. Not too much this time. Trying to save as much room as I can for any useable scrap we can find. How long will it take us to get to our rendezvous?" he asked.

Looking at Woolheater, Lia responded. "From what I can work out, it should take about 10 minuets or so. Finding what we need is another thing altogether, that could take ages. I'm hoping we find an atmosphere in there, or its gonna be environmental suits for all of us." She now turned back to Fernando, "Chief, you're gonna improvise? Well there's hope for us all, guess I'll just leave it all to you." Lia smiled as she spoke, she had good feelings for the chief for standing by her when times got tough.

Fernando listened as Commander Taylor and Captain Woolheater spoke. Fernando nodded when she addressed him. "Very well Commander. I shall not disappoint you or at least try my best not to."

"The OPSPEC I got over the comm mentioned power cores. Before we boogy on over how about I get us a couple DSA's (Deployable Sensor Arrays) from the stores. We can send them into parts of the derelict we can't or don't want to access? And they can help us locate dilithium or other power sources at a greater range" Sam offered looking first at Commander Taylor and then the Chief.

Andrinn had walked into the shuttlebay behind several crewmen and pilots who had been called down to help guide some of the shuttles to various places within the local area, hoping to find something of use to make the ship work a bit better. He saw Sam talking to the several people that Andrinn was supposed to be working with and they were talking about deploying some sensors or something, along with several other things.

As he stepped into line next to Sam, all Andrinn could think was that his head was spinning. Andrinn could talk to diplomats and find common ground between war chiefs. However, sometimes, the more it came to science, the more it made his head hurt. However, Andrinn said, "So, sounds like we're going to be having some fun. I brought myself a phaser and tricorder, just in case." He patted his belt and made sure the tricorder and phaser were properly charged.

Thor started running scans. “Thank you Adrinn. Please be careful.” He continued to run the scans.

Sam looked over at Andrinn and was glad to see him. Keeping his military dec orum though, as was his custom, he winked playfully at Andrinn and nodded, "Consul. A pleasure to see you again sir." Andrinn did outrank him.

"Ok kiddy winkies, all aboard for the magical mystery tour. Next stop one very large derelict star ship." Lia pointed towards the direction where their intended target would be floating, waiting in darkness with all the perils for the unlucky.

Thor chucked a bit because of the twentieth century reference to one of his favorite bands.

Andrinn just laughed and shook his head as he entered the shuttle to head over for the Away Mission.

“And away we go,” Thor said with a kind nod.

The shuttle departed the shuttlebay easily, piloted by one of the flight control ensigns.

It took them 5 minutes to arrive at their destination and soon they had docked their dorsal port to a side entryway.

The hatches cycled through the attachment process. Then the hatch decompressed and opened. Giving the away team their first look at the strange alien interior.

The corridors were smooth. No visible joins or hatches. And the colour was a slivery green.

Andrinn walked out onto the alien starship and pulled his tricorder out to start some scans of the interior of the ship for anything that might be of use for the ship he called home.

As he looked around, Andrinn said to nobody in particular, "Reminds me of Romulan green, if I'm being honest. Don't know about you guys, but it gives me a bit of the creeps."

Thor was running scans as a precaution to make sure all was safe. “The atmosphere here is not sterile, so be careful exist you touch.”

The illumination was not great. Warm, but not great. Absolutely smooth was the interior. No joins or seems And the surface of the corridor looked almost liquid in its reflection. As if a green silvery, liquid metal, had become frozen.

The air was dank. In addition to Thor's scans of not sterile, it smelled old and musty. Like an old trunk. The other characteristic Samuel noticed was that it was absolutely dead sounding. Their voices fell with no echo, as if they travelled just beyond their lips and then the sound died away. The corridor itself curved around to the right. There were no chairs, no alcoves. No panels, doors, handles or displays to speak of. And the light itself seemd to emmanate from all around them.

Sam, grateful to be out of combat armor after ten monhs, wore a standard marine uniform. On his back was slung his sniper's rifle he had retrieved from the gear he brought. On his thigh was his k-bar knife. His left forearm was wrapped in a control sleeve. In his right hand, he carried the DSA's. "No one to greet us?" he inquired.

"I confess, I am a tad disappointed." Fernando said stepping beside Woolheater. "I thought surely we would have a welcoming committee. But alas no." A grin on his face.

Grinning back, he looked at Fernando and cocked his head, "Ah well...bottom rung of the ladder I guess?" He looked to the Commander, "How are we supposed to recognize a useable power source anyway?"

"Indeed so, it would seem." Fernando replied to Woolheather and before Lia could reply he spoke up. "That is easy. There will be a sign that says take me or us."

Glancing around, Lia just nodded. "Magnus, you stay with the shuttle and keep tabs on all the rest of us. Consol Orin and Captain Woolheater your team 2, Fernando your with me and we're team 1. Any questions?" She waited for their response.

“Will do,” Thor replied.

"As you wish Commander." Fernando replied dutifully, stepping up to stand next to Lia.

"No, no questions" Sam answered and nodded to Andrinn. "Consul Orin? Ready when you are sir." Sam waited for an acknowledgement from Andrinn. The handsome diplomat was busy scanning with his tricorder. That gave Sam an opportunity to speak to Lieutenant Magnus, "We'll get you your power cores lieutenant.

Andrinn came out of his little world of scanning away and said, "Aye, aye Commander. What should happen if we meet anyone onboard? The ones that aren't shooting at us? Is it okay if we make first contact?"

Thor nodded affirmatively at Sam. “Thank you.”

"Any little green men encountered, will be tagged, noted, and filed for later contact details." Lia laughed as she spoke, "Ok peeps, lets go explore!"

The passageway curved to the right as the two teams made their way forward. Ahead of them was a featurless passaage. It go wider and taller. Other than that, it was absent of any markings or uniquely identifying marks. It was disconcerting. Behind them, the passagerway curved to the left and behind them and before them, the illumination would fade or grow as they made they way.

Sam got a glance of a....well....a fork for sure. That is to say, a fork in the road. Only it was two forks.

To the right and to the left there were passages. Each as non-descript as the other. The corridors now stretched befoe them until it looked like infinity. Disappearing into and endless seeming passage. Above their heads, going in the same direction were two more, equally non-descript passages. There were no ladders, no handrails, nothing to climb on to get to these other access ways. Sam was puzzeled to say the least. He took small candy bar from his field pack. It was a deep purple wrapper with big bold yellow letters, "Sir Richard Misgiven's ~ Violent Crumble ~ Finally...a practical use for honey!".

Sam tossed it up in the air. The candy bar flew up and up, then it seemed to slow. It spun there just a moment, as if caught by some unseen hand, before it then 'fell' to the floor, the ceiling above their heads. Sam was delighted, "Ah, very clever. We has gwavity!"

"I can think of a better use of a candy bar, than using it to see we have gravity. Ok Captain which way is your team heading? Cause my team will go directly opposite, that way we simply have to do a 180 to re-join the other team."
Lia looked around her, "Can't say I really like the look of anything myself."

Woolheater launched himself from the floor by his legs. He got, perhaps a meter and then landed right back on his feet. Standing up again, he got an idea. The "walls" were curved. "Let's see what we got here" he said as he ran towards a "wall" and following the curve of the passage made the "flip" much easier. Retrieving the Violent Crumble candy bar from the floor back to his pocket.

From his new perch above their heads he said, "Consul? It's your call sir. Which way do we go?"

"Well, I'm right handed. So, the answer is easy...we go left. Don't ask me why that logic works, but it does. TO THE LEFT!" Andrinn said cheerfully, trying to make it look like they were on a lost sea voyage back on Earth. He had been reading a bit of the old Earth book entitled "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" and gotten too many ideas.

When Andrinn joined him on the upside down, they made their way to the left and down the passage. Sam nodded to Chief De La Rosa and he and Consul Orin disappeared from view.

Lia turned to Fernando, "Ok Chief, looks like we're going that way." She pointed down the corridor, "I don't like the look of it, nor do I hold out much chance of finding anything useful."

"As you wish Commander." Fernando replied. "As you do not like the look of it, all the more reason to stay alert correct?" He started down the corridor, "Be positive Commander, we may just find something of use."

Looking at her companion, Lia just smiled. "A way home is the only thing of use I want to find, but I don't feel this derelict is going to provide that answer."

Fernando nodded, "You may be right Commandeer however we may discover something to help us on our journey home." As the pair continued their walk.

Glancing around, Lia couldn't see anything of use. The corridor seem to be endless and what doors there were opened into shallow rooms empty of everything, "Fernando, you picking up anything on your scans? Because I'm getting zero."

Fernando shook his head slowly from side to side. "Sorry Commander. I am getting nothing. Do you wish to continue in this direction or try another way?"

"Let's call it quits shall we, I don't really think there's much worth salvaging around here." She turned back and began to make her way to the junction, "Fernando, move yer butt, we got more damn ship to check."

TBC...