Be Very, Very Quiet [pt. 1]

Posted on Sat Feb 1st, 2020 @ 7:38am by Lieutenant Gunnar Arnason & Captain Luka Mahone
Edited on on Sat Feb 1st, 2020 @ 10:14am

2,056 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Snow Birds
Location: Outside Haumea Colony
Timeline: Post Snow Birds

Gunnar settled into the blind, putting the phaser rifle aside, but within easy reach. Most people who had served with him would have been surprised that he was so comfortable handling it - he had something of a reputation for resisting carrying standard phasers, and in fact, weapons in general. However, this rifle, set to low stun, was the sort of thing he'd learned to handle as a boy - the modern equivalent of a tranquilizer gun. While there was little enough wildlife in his homeland, it was useful with domestic animals that became wildly aggressive or panicked in reaction to injury, and so a danger to themselves and those trying to help them.

He looked over at his companion for this hunt, the colony CO, Captain Mahone. It was perhaps a job that might have been better assigned to others, but when the Captain had looked particularly frustrated while waiting for a broken leg to mend. Gunnar had thought to take his mind off the ski accident by bringing up a topic he knew would engage Mahone: the Daucin predators that theoretically must exist, and that both couldn't help but hope would prove to be something, maybe even something dog-like, that could potentially be domesticated. A wildly optimistic hope, perhaps, but discussing it had gotten Mahone's mind off his broken leg. However, it had sparked also an enthusiasm for the idea that wouldn't allow for delegating the task.

Not that Gunnar was complaining. He would have made a case for his own suitability for the project no matter who was assigned to lead it. He stretched and smiled the CO. "Comfortable, sir?"

"Comfortable enough." Luka could have sat on a rock if it meant they could still go on this expedition. When Gunnar brought it up with him, the idea sounded lucrative. And incredibly scientific. But however Gunnar arranged it, the initial trip ended up being just them. Of course, Luka would have said something if he felt like he was taking a task from the experts...

Most occasions.

"I hope I arranged enough snacks." he continued, patting the large sack he had brought along.

"Probably enough for if we'd brought twice as many people along," Gunnar chuckled. "I did ask Abrams in bio if she wanted to come, but she seemed content to review our data from a warm lab. Of course, I can't really blame her. She grew up in the Negev and if the environment here was more like what she's used to, I might have opted for staying in an air conditioned hospital."

Luka quirked his brow at the thought. "You'd think once you said 'potential scientific discovery,' you'd have a pile of scientists insisting on joining us in shorts." The number of times he had to treat wounds from reckless scientists outnumbered the times he could avoid it through common sense. "But that's quite alright. More snacks for us. And less noise as we scout this out... though, I'm not sure I expect to find anything out here. You'd think a predator would have appeared by now."

"To be fair, I only asked a couple of them," Gunnar admitted. "Not every scientist is ...cut out for field work." Or likely to be more help than trouble, though he didn't voice that. "I'm not sure that we'll see them, but I think it's worth try. They must have some natural predators, and some aspects of their migration suggest they didn't so much move to this area as flee in our direction. If that's the case, the daucin den that used to be in the rocks over there is as good a spot as any to stake out."

"You know..." Luka began, leaning back to pull out the typical PaDD he toted around with him. "We might be able to set up a surveillance system if we find out there's potential for a sighting. I'll make note of it and see what we have for resources. I definitely want to make sure we have a handle on any other fauna in the area, especially if they're predators. I'm pretty sure I heard one of the scientists asking if the colony was cleared to keep a Daucin as a pet. I feel like that sort of talk is how we get things like tribble infestation training..."

"I'll grant you, they're cute, but Daucin as pets? Yeah, that has even more potential for disaster than tribbles," Gunnar laughed, shaking his head at the thought. "As to surveillance, I've been told the colonists did have some cameras set up out around the perimeter, but they all gradually failed. That had been attributed to temperatures well below their operating specs, but there's a good chance most them actually became Daucin snacks."

Luka made note of the issues with the cameras, frowning. "Hopefully we'll be able to overcome that. I'll get in contact with Starfleet. There's bound to be a piece of Andorian technology that can help with that. The temperature, at least. At least we have the solution to the other thing." He looked up and toward the outside. "If we do find a natural predator, what do you suppose it would look like?" The idea of something dog or wolf-like might have been the most desirable, but they had to be ready for any possibility. "Do you think there's a possibility of sentience?"

"I admit, personally I'd love for it to be wolf-like," Gunnar replied, somewhat unnecessarily since by now Luka certainly knew he was sucker for anything canine. "But it's just as likely to be a raptor or burrowing hunter like a badger, or even something like a mountain lion," he found himself smiling at that, since he had a certain affection for the later given that Dosadi bore a resemblance to earth cougars. "And any one of those might be sentient, though perhaps not in a sense that any First Contact pros would care about. I mean, I know how the Federation defines the term, but I still find it difficult not to think of dogs as sentient."

"Well, by Starfleet's definition. We can fudge the rules if it means we can interact with a creature that skirts the line." Luka gave a shrug, agreeing to Gunnar's point. Even if Noodle was a feline, the number of times he had seen the cat communicate via blatant looks and body language was enough to convince him of this fact. "It would be something else... And it would explain why the colony hasn't seen them before. Though I suppose instinct could have kept them from prying eyes, but I almost would rather something sentient. If it had four legs, fur, and a tail, I'm certainly not going to say no."

"As long as it isn't sentient enough to make keeping a colony here a Prime Directive issue," Gunnar agreed. "Primitives who crossed the line to 'intelligent life', even if four-legged and furry... well, I'm not sure how the Federation would handle a colony making an unexpected First Contact with pre-warp species. Has that ever even happened before? There's usually enough survey work prior to colonization to avoid it."

"None documented," Luka confirmed, but gave pause. "I should say - None documented that I can find. When Captain Matthews did his initial investigation on Xaeprea, he didn't find a whole hell of a lot aside from survey work a couple of years ago and a bit done over a century ago, but the latter was severely outdated and mentioned... absolutely nothing of note. It'll be something I look into when we get back. Just in case." His lips pursed outward as he thought. "We'd set a recorded precedent if we did. I didn't see any other cases of it throughout my research - and there are quite a few to research - but that doesn't mean mistakes didn't fall through the cracks."

"It would make some JAG's career, but hopefully it won't come to that. Normal predator level intelligence is all we'd need for it to be potentially adaptable to domestication." Gunnar paused, thinking a moment since he wasn't sure how that would hold up for reptiles. Of course, it wasn't likely anything cold blooded hunted in this environment. Not that it ruled out a similarly problematic predator. "In most cases, anyway. Given the lack of mentions from the original colony records, it might be extremely reclusive."

"I'm sure JAG will have a field day with us one way or another." Luka pointed out, laughing off his nervousness. He had heard horror stories about Starfleet's interactions with previous colonies. As much as he'd like to think this one was different, he had to be more realistic about it. "Well if I were just living my life and some strangers decided to squat on my home, I'd be reclusive too I'd think. Either reclusive or extremely elusive to advanced scanner pick ups. Hopefully one of those, and not just... invisible and has a taste for human flesh."

Luka's cheeks paled. "... That's a horror vid thing," he concluded, more to reassure himself than anything else.

Gunnar laughed, maybe a little nervously. "Yeah. Makes me think of the history of M-113 where the last surviving native was a shape-shifter who sucked salt from human blood..." he glanced uncomfortably at Luka, then refocused back outside the blind. "Of course, the odds of anything like that evolving on a completely different world have to be really small."

"... Yeah. I heard about that." Luka eyed the area they were scouting, as if half-expecting a fuzzy monster with giant fangs pop up from the snow, demanding in some form of language to give him their blood.

"We should ... Maybe get out more often ..." Luka admitted.

"Yeah," Gunnar chuckled at his own edge of anxiety there and shook his head. "T'Ango would laugh if she could see me - letting myself get creeped out about imagined spooks in perfectly nice bit of woods."

"We could always embellish and say they... aren't... imagined." Luka pointed out. "... Though if T'Ango's just about as observant as Asahi is, she'll see through that pretty quick. You also can't count on me to lie very well... Or not be afraid of imagined spooks... I hope we don't start some colony urban legend with this..."

"Yeah, I don't think the colony needs any help coming up with urban legends." Gunnar's eyes rolled briefly upward, thinking of some of things he'd overheard. In fact he partly hoped that finding a natural predator it would end the rumor that the daucin escaped from some top secret bioengineering project. "But it wouldn't do me any good to make anything up. According to T'Ango, I'm almost comically bad at lying - not I've ever done more than fib with her. Mostly it's been cases where I told her I was okay, and it turned out she could literally smell that I wasn't." He shook his head, quietly laughing at his foolishness there. "Though by now she knows me well enough that she could probably tell even over a subspace comm. I can't even imagine what it would be like if she had intel training like Asahi."

"Wow... At least T'Ango's honest. Asahi won't even tell me how bad I am at lying. I've just learned to tell his facial expressions to let me know he's totally not believing me." He frowned at the thought, but gave a shrug with a jovial smile. "I think T'Ango has an advantage with sense of smell, though. Can't imagine Asahi with that."

"Yes, she is very honest. Most Dosadi are - they have an almost Vulcan-level aversion to lying." He sighed. "Which isn't to say that they won't withhold the truth, or talk around it enough to misdirect you. But by this point I've gotten pretty good at picking up on that with her too."

"Well lying takes on a different definition in other cultures, I've found." Luka pointed out. "Seems to be my general experience, but I've had an interesting number of people come up to me pretending to not know what a lie even is, so there's that." He sat upright at the sight of movement outside, narrowing his eyes at the cavern hole. "... Did you see that? Was that the wind?... Hm..."

Cont. in Part 2

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