Weathering the Storm

Posted on Thu Jan 29th, 2026 @ 9:45am by Lieutenant Commander Deanna Celes & Commander Jonathan Grayson & Commander Samantha Howard & Lieutenant Imik S'Niohun & Ensign Janelle Barett & Chief Petty Officer Aaron Geiger

1,302 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Not All Orders Are Easy
Location: Planet

Deanna walked out of the exit and into the world this blind was meant to keep them from. The storm was still raging, but the exit was inside an adjacent cave, protecting her from the harsh conditions, though she could still hear and see it. She opened her tricorder and began to scan again. Power was still offline, but she hoped the Chief would change that soon enough. She'd go assist him if needed. Looking at her tricorder she saw what she was concerned about, elevated radiation outside. This was something they would have to deal with. Hopefully Sam could give them enough protection with the hyronaline for them to do a proper sweep of the area. She went back inside the anthropology blind; she needed to update Jon and see what Sam could do for them.

Janelle checked the tricorder readings once more, committing the elevated radiation levels to memory before closing the device. It was another variable added to an already fragile equation, one that would require careful mitigation rather than haste. She sent a brief update to Jon outlining the environmental risk, then routed a secondary message to Sam to confirm what level of protection hyronaline could realistically provide for extended exposure. Until power was restored, assumptions were a liability.

She took a moment to scan the blind itself, confirming seals and instrumentation were holding despite the storm outside. Everything that could be done for the moment had been done. With the situation documented and the right people informed, she settled back into a watchful posture, attention split between the data she had gathered and the space beyond the cave wall, waiting for conditions or orders to change.

Jon read both updates from Deanna and from Janelle. he was concerned about the disappearance of the scientific team that had been stationed here and had sent a message requesting help. he was also concerned about radiation exposure and knew they had a limited time here before they would feel the effects of the radiation bombarding the planet.

Imik headed down a corridor scanning as she went, her Ojnas tricorder picked up nothing, and she couldn't feel anything at this time. Her companion trailed behind her, what he was doing was not her concern only that she got both of them to their destination. "Chief Geiger, are you picking anything up or are you aware of anything I should know about?"

"No Lieutenant, I'm actually picking up the absence of anything at all. I should be detecting at least some residual spark of power." Aaron answered with furrowing brows, nose buried in his PaDD. Quickly reviewing the initialization routine as they entered the generator room. Aaron immediately began to enter the Engineering codes to the command console. "Lieutenant, we'll need your Security authorization to confirm my start-up command. These blinds use cross departmental verification due to... well you're Security I apologize, I don't have to explain what you already know."

Sam hung back, trying to reconfigure her tricorder for a longer distance scan in the local community that could detect the missing team.

"What if we left a totem, something only the scientists would recognize in the local village, to let them know help is here. Something of theirs maybe that won't interfere with the timeline?"

"An interesting proposition doctor, but how do we do that without it looking suspicious?" Deanna queried.

"Beam it into the center of the village." Jon spoke up, "The locals will think it wizardry. They will think the scientists are being looked over by a spiritual being."

Janelle listened without interrupting, her attention fixed on the shifting shape of the problem rather than any single suggestion. A totem placed in the village was clever, she had to admit, but it introduced variables that were harder to quantify. Cultural interpretation. Unintended reverence. Patterns that might persist long after they were gone. She adjusted her tricorder’s sensor filter, more to give her hands something to do than out of necessity, then lifted her gaze to Jon.

“Procedurally, it would be a calculated breach,” she said evenly, not challenging the idea so much as framing it. “Low impact if done correctly, but only if the object is unmistakably tied to the science team and carries no functional technology. No power cells, no materials the locals could repurpose. If we proceed, we should also log it as a contingency marker rather than a communication attempt.” It was her way of keeping the suggestion inside Starfleet language, where it could be measured and defended later if needed.

"We need to get into the anthropological database, get a better look at these people, learn about their rituals. We don't know enough about them at this point to know how such an item appearing would be interpreted by the indigenous people. We can't even say what materials would be best to construct it, if they have specific deities, practical matters that need to be addressed. And then you have the Prime Directive. Doing what is suggested would be at the least, bending it. The captain is going to need to be informed before we attempt such an action" Deanna noted.

Sam nodded and continued to search for something they could use, finding a dusty PaDD with a database of the conducted research. It flickered on briefly before going blank again. "This appears to have notes on their research, but the power supply is depleted."

"Strange" Deanna said as she took the PaDD from Sam. She scanned it with her tricorder. "Very strange. The power cell in this should last for a decade without issue."

Aaron slowly initialized each segment of the power up process. Gradually the reactor began to thrum, and the air smelled of hot ozone, a familiar scent for an Engineer. Finally, keying commands into his tricorder he looked over to the Lieutenant. "Ma'am everything else will be automated from here."

=^= Geiger to Celes. Commander, reactor is online and power should be available in a few minutes. =^=

Glancing round, Imik smiled. "So Chief, are you any more informed as to why this was shut down and by whom? I can not see any damage but I am not an engineer, could a radiation leak from both outside and internally forced evacuation?" She knew from her research the Geiger was more than capable of doing his job, but his insight on why this may have happened could be helpful.

"Well Lieutenant, shutdown was initiated by a recognized Security and Engineering code as per standard protocol. As far as I can tell that shutdown was, well normal." Aaron said as he closed the access panel with a grunt. "You know, back during the Dominion War the Trial was in a tough scrape. We took a hit during patrol and had a brief cascading power failure resulting in a not insignificant flood of radiation to wash over Main Engineering." He slowly began to let his gaze go beyond what was right in front of him before shortly shaking his head, returning to the present. "Anyway, I could very well understand the fear of exposure if there was damage or degradation to the radiation shielding."

=^=Understood Chief. I have a new mystery for you to look at if you can spare a minute. I'll be here booting up the computers. =^=

=^=Aye Commander=^=

Something twigged inside Sam, a twisting of the gut that can align with the impending arrival or realization of bad things.
"Commander, is time progressing in here at the same relative pace? It would be imperceptible to us, but you may be able to feel the difference."

"I don't feel anything out of sorts" Deanna responded as she began scanning the room with her tricorder. "Sam, get the hell out of there! You have an EM radiation field forming around you."


TBC

 

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