Blending In

Posted on Fri May 17th, 2019 @ 7:53am by Lieutenant JG Ronnie Wolfe & Commander Hans Munich & Lieutenant T'Pral & Lieutenant Lei Shan & Ensign Kela Sirel

967 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Food for the Gods
Location: Planetside

ON

The away team materialized not far from the main town in a wooded area that masked their arrival.

As she materialized, Shan adjusted the bag slung over her shoulder, giving it a reassuring pat. She looked around and took a deep breath. Nature. Yep. It smelled like nature. "Alright, ready or not, here we come," she said in the general direction of the town.

Ronnie had paused to look at a six-legged stick bug crawling along a branch. It was much like the ones she was familiar with, but slightly different. She pulled on her earring to activate her tricorder to record it for later study. Then she caught up with the others.

"Special orders, commander?" she asked Munich. "Or are we just to keep our eyes open, blend in, and find the machine?"

"Shan and I have Communications training." Munich noted as he look around. "What we need is a Scientist with a Communications expert and one of the Security to be a team of three." He explained. "Two teams that will go in opposing directions then turn through a pattern bringing the grid to overlap each other and then go to new grid to see if we can find the source of the distress." He nod. "Also keep our eyes peeled to see why there are two technologies upon first scan, We see the Steam Industrial Technology but it cannot support the higher technology that sent the signal. SO we need ot find the signal as a priority."

"We know the approximate location of the signal," Ronnie said. "We just have to find a way to get to it. From the ship's scans it appears to be located near a building on the far edge of town."

Shan glanced at the Commander. "Better than a grid search, would be a triangulation. We get out of the trees and where we can see the town, some landmarks, something to focus on. Then take a reading and try for a straight line towards the signal and mark the line against the landmarks. Go a little ways to the side, take another straight reading, and see if we can locate where the two lines intersect. It would get us a lot closer than approximate," she nodded at Lancaster, "and be less conspicuous than walking a grid pattern around the town," she suggested.

"Perhaps," T'Pral interjected, "we can say we are looking for available land to build a homestead and/or workshop. A believable fiction, if we are questioned. At the edge of town there is presumably a larger proportion of empty lots."

Ronnie nodded. "That should do the trick."

"So what was the point in all that talk about getting our stories straight if we are just spreading out?" Kela replied before adding. "The idea of a small away team, like this, is to stay together and watch each others backs. I don't know about the rest of you but, my orders, are to watch out for everyone here and splitting up defeats that purpose. So, can we please, stay together?"

"We know where the signal is coming from," Ronnie said. "We just need to find out how to get in the building. We can either all go around, or we can split up and go around it, meeting in the back. That will be less time-consuming and may draw less attention."

"It is a small team here and I do not want to have us getting lost along the way." Munich suggested. "We can fan out a bit so not to be a crowd but stay within eyesight of the teams. Remember also that we are technically under partial Prime Directive until we get to the source of the signal as this technology level does not seem to be expecting aliens."

Ronnie nodded. As the group set out, she found herself at the back of the group because she was not in a hurry and because she was fascinated with everything around her.

"You're not from here," a male voice said.

Ronnie turned and smiled. "No. We're from the other side of the mountain."

"Here for Festival?" he asked.

That was something Ronnie could use. She turned to see a man dressed in black with a snowy white shirt. "Yes. Here for Festival."

His smile changed. "Excellent. My name is Hovarth and this is Patrick. And you are?"

Ronnie hadn't noticed the man who stood behind Hovarth. "I'm Ronnie."

"And your friend?" He nodded to Lei.

"Her name is Lei."

Hovarth came closer to Ronnie. "Lovely names for lovely ladies. Can we give you escort to your destination?"

Patrick took Lei by the arm, his gesture courteous. "A lady should not be alone here."

"We're not alone," Ronnie said, glancing around for the rest of the team. She didn't realize until that moment that they'd been separated. "The others are up ahead."

"Then we shall help you find them," Hovarth said, taking Ronnie's arm. His grip was tighter than she expected, but she didn't want to say anything in case it brought them even more attention. There was something decidedly wrong with the way Hovarth was looking at her. She tried to read his thoughts, but could not.

A group of men and women crossed in front of them. Hovarth and Patrick pulled the women back. Ronnie felt a sharp prick in her arm. "What did you..." Before she could finish the sentence, she'd collapsed into his waiting arms.

Patrick, in turn, picked up and unconscious Lei and the two men turned into a side alley and were lost in the crowd.

____
OFF

Lieutenant LG Lei Shan
Assistant Chief Operations Officer

Lieutenant JG Ronnie Lancaster
Assistant Chief Science Officer

Commander Hans Munich
Executive Officer

Lieutenant T'Pral
Chief Engineer

Ensign Kela Sirel
Assistant Chief Security/Tactical Officer

 

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