The First Look

Posted on Thu Jul 23, 2015 @ 7:24am by Ensign Kaliko Mahelona & Commander Caden Aldrex

847 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Eye of the Beholder
Location: Station Ops
Timeline: MD 03 - 1720

[ON]

Aldrex was in Ops checking on things when he happened to notice Ensign Mahelona step out of the turbolift. He got her attention and waved her over. "Ensign, got a minute?"

Kaliko looked up from the PADD she had been reading. "Yes sir." She replied and walked towards the commander.

Aldrex nodded to the main viewer, which at present displayed a multi-spectral view of the new planet's surface. The topography scrolled slowly across the screen. "You're just the person I wanted to show this to. We've got a probe doing an initial survey of the planet from the stratosphere." Then to the seated sensor technician he said, "Crewman sh'Rada, back the sensor feed up to time index 00:34, please."

"Aye, sir."

The live feed stopped, then switched to a previously recorded view that showed a wilderness covered with green moss and a scattering of freshwater lakes. Lovely but unremarkable.

"Show her the subsurface geological analysis," Aldrex said to Crewman sh'Rada.

The Crewman nodded as her fingers typed in commands. "On screen."

The wilderness view stayed on the screen but was now augmented with an x-ray style view of what was underneath. Plenty of soil and rock but also what appeared to be structures, broken and ruined. They stretched well into the horizon.

"What do you think?" Aldrex asked Kaliko.

Kali's eyes went wide and moved to closer to the screen, she smiled and got excited for the first time since...

'Well...that there could of been a temple." She said pointing at a point on the screen. If she couldn't be home on the island she wanted to be here learning,excavating, 'playing in the dirt' as Kai would call it.

'It looks fascinating. What is the atmosphere like? Are there still life signs down there?' She asked looking at both the commander and the crewman.

"Atmosphere is class-M," Aldrex said. "A bit chilly but it's warming up fast. As for lifeforms, we're reading an abundance of plant and animal life that was previously in some state of hibernation. Everything is waking up."

"No sign of intelligent life," Crewman sh'Rada said.

The XO grunted. "Not yet, anyway." He turned his attention back to the screen. "Sooner or later the Captain will want to send an away team down there. I want you with them, and I want you to draw up a sub-mission profile to explore what the inhabitants left behind. It may take a long time. Think you're up for that?"

"Yes sir." She looked at him as she replied and looked at the screen again. 'I wonder what they used for a light source...it looks like the civilisation was subterranean though probably because it was warmer.' She was thinking out loud, a bad habit and she was doing in front of the XO. She swore under her breath and tore her gaze from the screen.

'I'll get on the plan right away. Can I have this data sent to my lab?...please?'

"Yes, of course," Aldrex replied. "The probe will continue its survey for a few more hours. We'll send all the telemetry down to you. If you discover something else that's noteworthy then let us know."

Kaliko was excited about the newly discovered site and couldn't wait to get down there and process the site. She was practically bouncing where she was standing wanting to sift through the data. 'Great, I'll have a priliminary report in the next two hours.'

That provoked a smile from Aldrex. "Great. I'm sure that captain will appreciate having something to read."

Crewman sh'Rada interrupted. "Commander, on screen." She nodded to what had her attention.

The surveillance feed from the probe had gone back to real-time. This time it was passing over an ocean, but the subsurface scan was still active. The new image showed another ruined city buried deep beneath the water. Also visible was a huge statue of some humanoid figure, partially covered in coral.

"Maybe we should give you extra time," Aldrex remarked as he gazed at the main viewer.

"Maybe that would be a good idea...looks like we will be doing some scuba archaeology too." Kali nodded making mental notes about the gear she and her team would need. She hadn't done any under water archaeology in a long time...they would be limited by the amount of time they could spend under water depending on the depth.

"I'll get right on it sir. Is there anything else I need to know?" She asked.

Aldrex nodded. "Yeah. We're not sure how safe it is down there. So be ready for anything. That'll be all for now, Ensign."

~As long as there aren't any giant cave spiders I can handle anything. ~ Kaliko thought to herself. "I'll have a contingency plan in place sir." She said to him and with one last look at the screen she turned to leave.

Aldrex watched her go, then took his own final glance at the view screen before turning to other duties.

[OFF]

Lt. Cmdr. Caden Aldrex
XO

Ensign Kaliko Mahelona
Alien Archaeologist & Anthropologist

 

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