High Fidelity

Posted on Sat Apr 22nd, 2023 @ 9:36am by The Narrator & Commander Ayanja Tusalo & Lieutenant Commander Aarix Teral & Ensign Sara Richards IX & Master Warrant Officer Gamze

1,729 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: World Wide Web
Location: Scrimshaw Star, Shuttle Columbia
Timeline: Day 4

The shuttles interior, whilst spacious, was not exactly so when an Engineering party in EVA suits walked up the boarding ramp. Throw in collection equipment, portable sensor gear, and the inevitable boxes of 'just in case' tools and supplies, and the Columbia was beginning to look like a hastily loaded ground truck.

"Just so you are aware, this shuttle will not be leaving the bay if I have to use cargo webbing to hold the rear hatch closed," the voice of the shuttles pilot spoke up. The short Kaspian looked like an alligator that had been put into a compactor, triangular snout and stocky frame giving up a puggish look not aided by the fact he came up to most peoples elbows. The height difference alone probably accounted for Warrant Officer Hask's less than sunny demeanour. "This is a finely tuned shuttle craft, not a piñata full of stem bolts."

"I was not aware that Kaspians possessed silk glands," Gamze said as she observed the shuttle being loaded from every which side. "Typically such a feature is found in arachnoid species rather than reptiloid ones. It appears my research may have gaps."

"Oh...I've heard of you Officer Gamze, got you a seat up front with a sun lamp and everything," Hask said dryly. "I'd appreciate it if you could stow your gear and grab a seat, or else we're going to be doing a whole lot of not much."

Gamze dipped her anterior protuberances in acknowledgement. "Very well. The scanning equipment is already stowed and I have my medkit right here." She lifted a first aid container that hung from her neck on a strap. "Is there a designated seating arrangement? Perhaps I should wait for the commanders to board first."

"Good point. You sit down waiting for the command staff to show up, you might put down roots," Hask said, raising a short-limbed hand and turning to the back of the shuttle.. "One moment. HEY! You two back there! Do you want to be the reason for the safety briefing or do you want to become the safety briefing?! Put that back where it belongs!"

Sara couldn't keep the nerves away as she walked with Aarix to the shuttlebay. There was still some lingering guilt that maybe she hadn't done enough to keep the crystal from exploding, like she was supposed to see it coming. What good was she if she couldn't do the one job Aarix requested her for? And now she was joining the team tasked with harvesting a new crystal... what if she didn't pick the right ones?

A little shake of her head dismissed her thoughts. No, they couldn't have predicted how things turned out. They did everything they could with the knowledge they had. And she knew warp cores inside and out, surely she'd be able to pick a decent crystal. She fidgeted with the PaDD in her hand, which contained the information necessary to harvest the best crystals for their needs.

Aarix spared a quick sideways glance at the Ensign, noticing her nervous fidgeting. The rapid succession of things going haywire, from an idiot intelligence officer to the crystal exploding, put some stress on Aarix as well. But what he suspected that the woman next to him needed was simply some encouragement. "Don't worry about what happened," he assured. "We'll get back up and running in no time."

Looking up at her chief, Sara gave him a small smile, though it showed some of her anxiety. "Yes, sir. I won't let you down." She turned her attention back to where they were walking, spotting the doors to the shuttlebay.

When they entered the bay and approached the shuttle Columbia, Aarix noticed two officers goofing off, which made the man take a small breath in. He then cleared his throat to get their attention and giving them a look that asked for some professionalism.

"Oh so the boss turns up and suddenly you can hear my voice now?" Hask said, watching as the two very junior officers loads the equipment they had been roughhousing and went off to find something else to do. Preferable on another deck and/or starship. The little reptoid shook his head, an affectation that took rocking his shoulders from side to side to achieve. "Op's monkey drop outs. Commander Teral, we've got everything stowed as good as we could hope for. EVA suits for the survey team, collection gear, mineral sampling tech, everything the well prepared Engineer could need to find A-grade pretty rocks."

HASK then walked over to the crate the two crewman had been playing with.

"And we have Fido in here to help lug everything around," he said giving the box a slap on the side. "Not as chatty as one of those creepy cat robots, but pack mule and travelling companion. Not to mention the thing is running on a fusion power cell so it's good for powering everything from a plasma drill to life support. Just waiting on the XO to show up, and the we can cast off. You got a place in mind for us to go hunting?"

"Well, if I were a cute, little dilithium deposit hiding from a big, hungry starship, I would probably set root in Sector G of the search grid," Gamze suggested helpfully. "The big asteroid would be a natural ore profile whose piezoelectric resonance is more prone to attract like elements and repel different elements. If minerals could feel, I imagine it would be like a warm bath."

"Wouldn't the other more permanent residents of this graveyard have thought something similar Gamze?" Aya asked as she passed through the hatch, tugging on her synth-leather excursion jacket. "We may not want to repeat the mistakes of the past."

Gamze let out a zither-like noise that no creature of flesh and bone could have made. "Oh, was there a Phylosian on that expedition as well? I had no idea! Even so, it is less likely a dilithium deposit is responsible for the derelicts in local space. Without evidence of hazardous anomalies, probabilities dictate the other vessels were already critically damaged when they arrived and succumbed to their environs."

"Speaking of which," Hask said from the pilot's console up front. The hatch at the back of the shuttle rose up, and the craft rocked slightly as its gravity plating and the Daedalus played a quick game of tug of war. "We're on our way. Sector G according to the main sensor array is a P-type asteroid with a number of smaller derelicts scattered on the surface. Shuttlecraft to pod-sized. Could just fragment, or could be something else."

Aarix had a hand on the nearby console to brace himself through the mild turbulence. "Let's get closer for a scan, see if we can improve our resolution of the surface."

It wasn't until after Sara entered the shuttle and the doors were long sealed that she noticed the nurse who helped sort out Archer's nervous space sickness. Hopefully before the nurse noticed the furious blush that crept into her face, Sara redirected her attention to studying the suddenly interesting carpet on the floor of the shuttle.

Hask piloted the shuttle away from the Daedalus. With the infinite grandeur of space washed out by the lacklustre glare of the brown dwarf, it almost looked like the craft was going nowhere. This gave the away team time to prepare EVA suits, scanning equipment and the other tools they would need.

When the asteroid they were targeting did come into view, its skull-shaped appearance was not the harbinger of glad tidings many had hoped for. Roughly spherical in shape, a trio of deep craters in one face did give it a jack-o-lantern-style look. What then sold it further as a supernatural omen were the dozens of metallic glints dotting its surface. Some large, some small,. Hask brought the shuttle in close, activating the floodlights under the nose to illuminate the surface.

Dull radiation-scared hull plates, any hint of paint or livery scoured by the solar wind, were buried in the gravel-like texture of the asteroid's surface.

"Sensors are picking up dilithium traces inside the big crater," Hask commented. "You want to investigate the surface or go in for the prize?"

"Start with a survey flyby, let's make sure it's safe to head in and start mining before getting too much closer." Aya wasn't about to start taking chances in a literal grace yard. Best to play it safe... For now.

"Safe..." Hask said, grumbling a little as his fingers flew over the controls. The shuttle began to drift slowly in a graceful arc around the asteroid, its floods illuminating the gravel-like surface. "Huum. Sensor readings are picking up a lot of metallic contacts, not only on the surface but buried inside the rock. Resolution on those isn't as good as the surface contacts, but that could be due to the stellar wind from the brown dwarf or the composition of materials. Still no active power signals."

"Spectral resonances are in safe parameters as well," Gamze offered. There was nothing to say an energy spike couldn't create a killing pulse that would blow them to pieces, but it was reassuring that there wasn't one in the works.

"In other words, it's as good as it'll ever be," Hask said. "Want me to set you down, or beam you guys down to the surface? Gravity will be on the light side, but the suit micro thrusters should counter that."

"Put her down, but keep a lock on the team as we mine the asteroid. It's going to take awhile and I'd rather not be caught out there if the brown dwarf gets temperamental..." Aya offered as she slipped into the co-pilot's chair, quickly bringing up the more detailed sensor scans of the area.

Aarix was looking over Aya's shoulder and turned his attention to the scans. "That clearing looks like a good spot to land," he offered, pointing at a patch of relatively flat surface. "It's close to some of the larger traces of dilithium."

"Alright then," Hask said, manipulating the shuttle controls to bring them down into the clearing. "Huum...the surface is mostly gravel down there, so pitons and tractor anchors won't work for the shuttle. I'll keep us on station whilst you guys get to work."

 

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