Answers...at Last (part 2)

Posted on Fri Sep 11th, 2020 @ 2:06pm by Lieutenant Commander Amber Quinn & Captain Ka'Tock & Lieutenant Zuub & Lieutenant JG Tiskatee Troilon

1,157 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Caverns of the mind
Location: Various

[CONTINUED]

[OLD]

The Rock crawler had a taste after being stepped on as the wounded creature scurried away.

[NEW]

[USS Aurora]

Ka'Tock was heading into the Transporter Room; holding a spare Medical Field Kit. He was sure that the Doctor will be bringing the few pieces of equipment that she will be needing. He was not a Medical person and thus he would just be present when they beam Zuub down.

"You do have the Coordinates and are the enhancers in operation?" He asked the Transporter Technician.

"Everything is in operation Sir." The reply came.

"Good, then after the Doctor is down keep at the ready."

"Yes Sir."

Ka'Tock waited for the Doctor to arrive.

The tall, lanky doctor came into the transporter room in a full EV suit. If her antennae were any indication, she did not look happy, as her antennae were squashed to either side of her head, just trying to fit in. Silently, she wondered why all forms of creatures were not considered when creating these suits. Nonetheless, on one side, there was a medkit and a medical tricorder. Seeing the Captain and him holding the field kit, she asked, in her soft, wispy voice that was amplified greatly by the suit, "Certainly, you are not planning on coming down with me, are you?"

A member of the Command chain has to remain aboard; I just brought it in case you were ... short one?" Ka'Tock replied. "Test of the systems show all is well; are you going in level One Hazard?" He asked. "I am not beaming or allowing anyone aboard without quarantine, so if you do not mind being stuck there the Transporter is ready?" You will also meet your deputy Chief, she is on site."

"I will accept the second," Zuub told the Captain. "I am treating this as level one. IT is better to be over prepared than under prepared. Quarantine is the wise precaution, as is this suit. My duty is to heal. If I fail to find the cause or cure, that is my risk to be stuck there. I come from a species of warriors. I will survive or die but I will do my duty. Do we know who has been effected and to what extent?"

"Commander Quinn my XO will know more, the initial reports is that Jansum has been affected and he took the Engineer with him to the caves, no suit so their level of exposure is... indeterminate at present." Ka'Tock told her. "I can give you little more than wishing you good hunting for the cure."

"Hopefully I will have better luck at that than at finding the cure to Hlasha's Curse," she responded as she walked to the transporter pad. "Beam me down, Captain. I shall look forward to meeting everyone on the surface."


"Good luck." He nod to the Technician who beamed her down.


[Station Transporter]

Zuub materialized on the pad with her gear. Zuub looked around, feeling cut off from the world as her antennae were squished in the EV Suit helmet. She looked around and asked, "Which one of you is Commander Quinn?" she asked in her soft, wispy voice that was unusually amplified out of the EV suit, startling the Andorian somewhat. "I'm Chief Medical Officer, Lieutenant Zuub and I have been instructed to meet with the Commander."

"I am," a woman said, stepping up to her. "Welcome, Doctor. If you will come this way, I'll fill you in." She led the Andorian to where she'd been looking through the computer files, filling her in as they walked.

"Please stop, Commander. I need to run a scan of you first. I want to compare it to your beam down vitals." Zuub pulled out her medical tricorder and started running it over the Commander.

Amber stopped. "I've only been in the caves once, and that was the last trip. Paris and I stayed here while the others went into the cave."

"Perhaps you should tell me about these caves and why you believe that they may be problematic," Zuub responded as she continued the scans, wondering what they would show her in comparison to the transport records.

"We haven't isolated the cause--although we have a very good chance with the man we have now and Lieutenant Jansum when he returns," Amber said. "We've done several scans of the planet and found nothing. We believe whatever is causing this devolution is in the caves because the logs show that the scientists became increasingly interested in the caves, and as time went on, they became less intelligent. Then the logs stopped. The missing scientists are in the caves with a group of Neanderthal-like humanoids."

"Have you been inside the caves at all?" Zuub asked, paying attention to her scans on the Commander. "Or any scans on the caves?"

"I went in with the first team," Amber said. "We found clothing from the scientists, then we found the cave dwellers. The scientists had joined them. We went back to the ship, regrouped, and came back again with Boudreau. The only person that seems to be affected is Jansum."

Zuub shook her head. "Appearances are deceiving, Commander, but you seem to not be suffering any adverse effects." Zuub allowed herself to be led by the Commander. "Take me to Jansum, then. Is everyone in one place?"

"We have a central location, but we've set up a sickbay and an office."

"Take me there, then," Zuub told the Commander. "What can you tell me about what you have found, other than you believe the caves to be the cause?"

"It's more what we've found in the logs. Everything was normal until they found the cave dwellers and followed them back to their home. Then, with each successive trip to the caves, the logs were less coherent, and finally, they were only a few words. Then, nothing."

"I see," Zuub responded coolly, though still not used to her amplified voice. "And what about our crewmembers? What have you seen with them?"

"Nothing from the ones who returned. Apparently on the way back from the cave Jansum grabbed Nakano and took her back to the caves. I believe he was bitten by an animal."

"Do we have that animal or another of its species? And how long ago was Nakano taken? Did anyone go after Nakano or Jansum?"

"No. It bit him and ran off."

"But what about Nakano and Jansum? Did anyone go after them?" Zuub asked again. "I think you said you had Jansum, right?"

"Yes. Security went with Boudreau to retrieve them."

"Tell me that they were in hazmat suits," Zuub asked, her antennae trying to flail and failing in the suit.

"The three that went after Jansum and Nakano, yes," Amber said. "But before that...no."

(To be continued...)

Lieutenant JG Tiskatee Troilon
Security Officer

Lieutenant Commander Ka'Tock
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Zuub
Chief Medical Officer

Lieutenant Commander Amber Quinn
Executive Officer

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