Rescue or Recovery: Away Team: Part 1

Posted on Mon Jun 23rd, 2025 @ 1:05pm by Lieutenant JG T'lenn & Sub-Lieutenant Osirin Acainus & Commander Maxun Spello & Lieutenant Commander Nash Winters & Lieutenant Xalanth & Lieutenant Alexandra Blackstone & Ensign Tyler Williams
Edited on on Fri Jun 27th, 2025 @ 12:39pm

1,749 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Gone, Without Ever Knowing the Way
Location: TE 3X031, Class L Moon in Typhon Expanse
Timeline: MD 06, After Orbiting Crash Site

The surface of the moon was strikingly more colorful in person than it had appeared from space. The land was mostly barren, with little to no vegetation. However, sporadic pockets of life were scattered along the surface, like desert oases clustered near a rare water source. Other areas showed deep rifts in the rocky surface, fault lines, some of them releasing toxic gasses into the atmosphere.

Spello and T’Lenn served as pilot and navigator, respectively, and Commander Winters monitored engines, shields, and structural integrity.

The shuttle found a suitable place to land approximately 500 meters from where the ship was most likely to be located based on scans searching for duranium and tritanium.

“According to our readings, the air is safe to breathe, although it might not be pleasant to smell,” Nash said. “Sulfur.”

He turned to his friend Xalanth. “To humans, it will smell like rotten eggs. If there’s an equivalent for your species….”

Alex chuckled. “I may be the only one here who doesn’t mind the smell of sulfur. Volcanic hot springs do the body wonders… not sure I would trust any we find here though.” She stepped secured her EV suit helmet and stepped over to the science console to verify that it was tracking her bio-sig and it was visible.

The red lizard chuckled as he looked through his suit's statistics, making sure everything was ready. " My species are native egg layers, Commander. I'm well aware of the smell of rotten eggs and sulfur. I recommend i take point out of the shuttle. My parts can grow back."

“Forgive the oversight on my part, my friend. Should have known better. And feel free to take the lead. We’ll follow you out,” Nash said as he adjusted himself in his helmet.

“Comms check, everyone. All green and systems nominal,” Nash ordered.

Osirin wasn't quite sure why he had been asked to tag along. It certainly didn't involve any of his specialties or areas he had knowledge of. He suspected that might be a reason in and of itself. He checked his EV suit for the fourth or fifth time, then made his way to his assigned place.

As everyone got ready to exit the shuttle, Maxn stood and spoke. "Everyone stay on your guard out there, keep comms open to the group and no one goes anywhere alone. The first sign of trouble and we regroup back here, understood?"

"Understood. " Xalanth replied. With its usual bump, the shuttle door opened. Unslinging his Tr116 from its sling and bringing it up, the lizard panned around the empty landscape. Evidence of a ship crash littered the ground, with broken metal and other ship parts scorched black scattered across the ground. " Clear." He said as he waved the team out as he took point. " You aren't kidding, the air reeks like a Yavarn barn after a mouth without a sand blast." he added as the smell snuck into his nostrils.

“Sounds like a fun time, Xal….,” Nash said as he surveyed the landscape. “The inoculations from Dr. Blackstone should help with any temporal anomalies, but I’m worried about the chroniton fields that we enabled in our suits. We have to be careful with exposure. Too much and we can phase out of our time-space continuum. I can tie the proximity detectors from the shuttle to suit displays. That should help us steer clear of any problems. Gives us more control over our environment.”

Tyler followed the hand instructions from Xalanth and peeled off from everyone else, making note to avoid looking in the direction of where Osirin had gone to, keeping an eye on the terrain. Once he was out of the shuttle, the stench in the air hit him like a like a tonne of bricks, making him almost gag. He muttered to himself, "I'm so glad I've got this suit on."

As the team exited the shuttle they noticed evidence of one of the oases far off in the distance to the south, and could see that the main crash site appeared further north.

Alex unfolded her tricorder and began scanning for life signs, being sure to designate the team’s to send her suit an automated alert should they change below their current state. “I have the teams bio-signs registered so I will be keeping an eye on everyone. Call out if you guys find any interest flora or survivors from the wreck.”

“Hey, Doc! Wait up….,” Nash said and caught up to Blackstone as she fell in line behind Xalanth and the others.

“I understand you have a daughter. I have a son and daughter myself. They’re about the same age, right? When all this is over, we should take some time to get them together socially. Alex and Brunel really enjoy making new friends. By the way, I went to the Academy with Dalton’s Chief Engineer. I hope we find that he survived. With all this temporal soup in the area, I’m not hopeful.”

Alex nodded at the question about her daughter and smiled slightly. “That would probably be good for the three of them. As for any survivors I have some extra inoculations in my med kit to help mitigate any temporal effects on any we do find. If they are still alive it’ll give me time to get them back to sickbay and hopefully get them back in phase with us. I also brought some medical stasis field generators that I can attach to any survivors and lock them into a consistent temporal phase so they can be transported safely. I haven’t been able to sleep much since we entered the Expanse so I have been busy in the medical lab instead.”

“A stasis field should definitely help. Let me know if you need a hand. Keep in mind, we’ll have to get the precise frequency or there could be complications,” replied Nash.

Alex nodded, peeking a brow. “It’s a good thing I got real good at calculating temporal frequencies the last time I was in the Expanse.”

The sound of breaking burned glass sounded as Xalanth's feet kept leading the way, scanning the horizon with his TR116 and its enhanced scope. " I can introduce your kids to my own daughters." He added to Alex and Nash conversation, though he kept his eyes on the horizon. " Yazar and Travla are around the same age."

“My kids love making friends and as the human adage goes, ‘the more the merrier’.”

As the team continued to move towards the crash site, Maxun opened his mind to see if his El Aurian senses could pick up anything threatening. So far, though, all the energy that was flowing around them seemed calm and mostly undisturbed. "Stay focused everyone," he reminded the team.

“Aye…” Alex began just as her tricorder chirped. “…hang on… I just caught a momentary bio-sign, Commander. But it vanished just as quick as it appeared.”

Maxun turned and moved next to Blackstone. "Any theories as to either the identity of the biosign, or why it was only here for such a short time?"

“The bulkheads could be interfering with the reading… I also have rather high temps environmentally registering in the same direction. As to who it could be… I can only assume that it is one of her crewmembers,” Alex shook her head attempting to interpret the readings.

Maxun nodded thoughtfully, then responded. "Keep at it. If there are survivors, we have to get them out of there and back to Astrea."

Alex nodded and set to work on trying to clear up her scans; though it was met with little success and after a few moments the reading vanished again.

As Lieutenant Xalanth approached a piece of wreckage it appeared to move slightly in his vision, he then felt the ground shift underneath his feet. Those closest to him began to feel it too.

Sub-Lieutenant Acaincus and Ensign Williams were further back watching the perimeter, and were unwittingly standing on solid bedrock. Neither felt the movement that the rest of the away Team felt, but noticed their fellow crew members suddenly appear unsteady on their feet.

"What the hell." Xalanth said as he took a few steps back, but the ground still seemed to shift. "Everyone, back up." He said calmly as he fired up his wrist scanner and began scanning the wreckage. It was clearly heavily scorched, but not by the crash itself.

“Was that an earthquake?” Nash asked. “I don’t recall seismic activity being mentioned in the briefing. Those marks look like weapons fire. I can’t tell if they’re recent or not. Normally I’d be able to detect energy readings of some kind. Not here. What do you think, Xalanth?”

"They've been heavily burnt by something, but...." Xalanth said as he finished his scan. "High amounts of..... Everyone, back up slowly, avoid putting pressure on the ground. We standing on a cooling lava flow. "

Alex stepped back carefully but froze after a few steps as her tricorder picked up the same lifesign. “Damnit; there is someone alive behind the bulkhead… no telling what condition they are in though. I am only getting intermittent readings on them through the metal.”

“Are the bio-signs stable enough for transport back to Astrea? Judging by the geological instability, it’s probably not a good idea to disturb the wreckage,” Nash said as he tapped activated his communicator in the EV suit.

“Nash to Astrea. We’ve discovered a survivor at the crash site. Condition unknown. Can you get a transporter lock? Please advise. Nash out.”

Maxun spoke clearly to the entire team. "Everyone, back off the lava tube, now. We will deal with figuring out how to get to any survivors infmside the wreak, after we are all in a safer position."

Alex grimaced and shook her head. “No go; I can barely keep the reading on the tricorder and I just boosted the scan as high as it goes. I doubt the Astrea will be able to get a lock even with signal boosters. We are gonna have to find a way to make a clearer path”

As if on cue, a response to Nash's inquiry came as Captain Johansen's voice came through somewhat crackled and distorted over his comms, [Are you sure, Commander? We aren't picking up anything, but there is a lot of interference in the area. Your own lifesigns are in and out.]

~tbc~

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