To the Root of the Issue
Posted on Thu Dec 17th, 2020 @ 2:43pm by Lieutenant Commander Payton Bray & Lieutenant Alan Harrison & Ensign Eris Ch'Thinor
1,626 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Frizzle
Location: Kocoa Caverns, 13 Clicks from Haumea Proper
Timeline: MD -10 : 0829 Hrs
The un-secret of the damages caused by Galactic Dynamic spread far once it was discovered that there was a series of caves not far from the colony's main areas. How it was missed was another matter, and between the efforts of Haumea's scientists and the Titania's security forces (who were trying to make sure the explosions were not, in fact, from terrorists or enemy forces), it was deemed that the caverns were safe enough to send a small team in to investigate.
Naturally, with Lieutenant Commander Brott busy, the duty fell upon Payton Bray, daughter of Jason Bray, who may or may not have wanted to find out for himself how dangerous these caverns truly were. The archaeologist thought it best to bring along their newest transfer. The Andorian scientist may have been a biologist by nature, but Payton had little doubt they would have much rather been out adventuring instead of sitting on their hands.
And, to round out their little team, Payton brought along the new chief of engineering on request of the Captain. It was a fair request, seeing as his worries for safety were not unfounded. Who better to get a feel for all that safety and structural integrity than someone who did those sorts of things for a living?
"I hope you don't mind me pulling either of you from your schedules," Payton began as she led the duo into the makeshift cave entrance, holding a light up high for them to all see into. "But I was way too excited to let this thing sit here too long. And to think, who knows what we can find?"
"I'm actually glad the Captain suggested bringing me along. Turning a department around can be quite the chore," Alan responded. As he did so, he examined the stalactites hanging from the cave ceiling further in. "Did we have a chance to get any preliminary scans of the cave before our expedition?"
Eris looked up from their examination of the cavern wall, having just taken a sample of something growing from a crack. They sealed the sample container and slipped it into their field bag as they replied “Preliminary reports indicate a deep system of caverns twisting all throughout these cliffs. Commander Koplo and his companion uncovered the topmost layer of them. However, there are veins of kelbonite running throughout these caves which has made remote mapping of the area infeasible.” They punctuated their assessment of the situation with a knock on the cavern wall, “and this wall is hollow. I believe there’s plant life on the other side, which is strange.”
Alan chuckled at the mention of Koplo's "companion" from Galactic Dynamics. If the Commander pulled that kind of stunt on most Starfleet facilities, he'd likely already be on a transport back to Earth for a demotion and a formal reprimand by some Admiral. However, with everything already going on around here, Alan wasn't surprised that the Captain had tried to avoid any further scandals. "How so?" he responded to Eris' statement about plant life.
"Well, in a cave system like this I'd expect to see nothing more than lichen or, or fungus. But this appears to be actual, photosynthesizing plant life." They retrieved a tricorder from their pack and snapped it open excitedly. The instrument bleated a warning signal and Eris' antennae dipped in momentary disappointment. "Ugh, I can't get a clear reading. We'd have to punch through this wall if we want to see what's there." They turned to address Payton, "what do you think, Commander?"
"I think, considering our luck, we may want to explore here first. At least until we can get some sense of the structural integrity of the cavern itself. But we should certainly keep it in mind, there aren't any signs of sunlight getting in. Or there weren't when we first scanned the top of this cliff." Payton offered a smile. "If there's any sort of plant life here, that means we could likely be seeing something that could sustain itself on an energy source that is not sunlight... or there could be a light source somewhere in there that-... oh, enough speculation. Ah, Lieutenant, what do you think of the structural integrity of the caverns? I know we're alright here, but if we go too much further in... would it collapse?"
Alan quickly glanced over the information on his tricorder. "It looks to be sound enough for our expedition. Though if we're planning to make regular trips, I might talk to Chief Nilsson about putting up some structural supports. For now, just don't kick any of the walls too hard and we should be good." he said with a wink.
"And there we go," Payton concluded with a smile. "Maybe we can find ourselves an entrance around here so we won't have to worry Chief Nilsson or anyone else about a potential cave-in." Which was the whole point of their little jaunt, after all.
Taking the lead, Payton held her light up further down the open area, to the left of the wall they were observing. "And if we discovered more than a pocket of self-sustaining flora, then I bet we'd have more warrant to think about digging further. Maybe we'll find more than scraps of a shuttle and a little, metal-eating creature if we had more room to explore..."
Alan made a mental note to make sure he didn't leave anything metal out for too long on Haumea. Ducking to avoid a low-hanging stalactite, he responded, "Maybe we should have brought the protective suits after all? Given everything that's happened in only a few months, who knows what else is on or even inside this planet?" Alan didn't like to admit it, but the mystery of the previous colony's demise sometimes kept him up at night. However, before he could consider things further, he tripped over something.
"Ow!" Alan uttered as he fell face first onto the floor. After getting up and brushing himself off, he scanned the area he'd just been walking in with his flashlight. He found nothing except a few roots. "Watch your steps, everyone! Seems these roots aren't messing around."
"Roots, huh?" Payton looked back from her innocuous examining of the wall. Scanner in hand, she made her approach over to Alan in a hurry, only to trip over another of the various roots herself. After a light-shining inspection of the offending limb, she scooched herself closer. Aside from the potential harm to the unobservant, the roots looked nothing more than from what one would have expected of an overgrown tree. "... Now what are these doing all the way down here?"
Alan scanned the root with his tricorder, subconsciously prodding lightly at his now-bruised thigh. "I'm not a scientist, but my tricorder says there's no match for this in the database. Commander?" he asked, looking to Payton for input.
Payton was already flopped on her stomach, tricorder set to one side, as she prodded at the root. Her light shone upon it one way, then another, and then a third way, before she gestured for the pair to come closer. "I have no idea what it was originally," she stated, "Not from the biological standpoint. I would need to see what this was attached to to reach a better conclusion, but look." She pointed, and as she shone the light upon the root, small round stones that were embedded in the surface of the root gave off a faded glisten. "What do you think this could be? Part of the root? Or perhaps this may be something less beneficial? A poison, or a toxin, perhaps? Or maybe whatever this was..."
And she dribbled off, sitting herself upright and rooting through her bag. "We should take a sample of this back to the labs for testing. One of these little objects and part of this root. Whatever it is leads back to our plant phenomena. Maybe we can have a better idea of what's on the other side of this wall?"
"I'll definitely have the Chief reinforce these walls then. Seems like we'll be coming down here at least a few more times," Alan responded. He also made a mental note to have the team search for the roots and put some lights to hopefully avoid future tripping incidents. "I presume we don't want to actually open up that wall? I imagine enough damage has already been done to these caverns recently..." Alan trailed off, not wanting to explicitly mention Koplo's responsibility for that incident.
Payton gave Alan a blank expression, as if expecting some sort of commentary on the unmentioned Klingon to occur. She shook her head. "For the moment, no. As a matter of fact, I think with another survey or two, we could probably think about doing that further down the line." She hopped up from her spot, satisfied with her scans, "But for now, we should take what we do have and let our teams hash out what we've discovered."
"Ok, probably best to do a structural survey before we take down any walls anyway. Wouldn't want the whole place to come crashing down around us," Alan remarked. Remembering an old Human superstition, he tapped the wall lightly with his knuckles a few times.
Payton already had a hand to her commbadge to communicate exactly that to her science team. Having them all flock to the scene when all they would do was get in the way was not ideal. "Well then, Lieutenant, perhaps we should leave you to it. I think Ensign Ch'Thinor and I have plenty to start working on. I can't wait to see what the scientists have to think of our findings."
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