Surface Tension, part 4

Posted on Mon Oct 4th, 2010 @ 3:16am by Lieutenant JG Elizabeth Jackson & Lieutenant JG Jerreck O'Connor & Major Leroy Mangalia & Chief Petty Officer Shalie Montgomery & Lieutenant JG Jason Hart & Chief Warrant Officer Wendell Gavin

1,158 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Peace, or Something Like It
Location: Turkana IV

ON

[OLD]

A few moments later, he shook his head and took the thing from Jason, a little annoyed as he ran his tricorder over it. "If I'm right, and... I don't think I am, this was put in recently, based on corrosion patterns and the like. I'll need to send it up to the ship to have a Comms specialist take a look at it." Looking around for whoever was in charge, he spoke, quickly. "Sir, permission to beam this sucker up onto the ship, so that Science, Engineering, and Ops can each take a turn tinkering at it?"

[NEW]

The doctor wanted to laugh back at the marines as he felt like he was on Jerry's side, but he kept his posture and watched the science officer examine the container, silently.

**Outside**

Leo looked over the buildings again before he turned and started walking downstairs. -^-Magalia to the rest of the Unit, stand down. No known risk is out here, there's not even a humanoid walking around the streets. The fleeters can go back outside if they feel the need.-^- Shaking his head, he took off the soft cap that he had been wearing and swiped the sweat off his brow. As he neared the ground he began looking over the crew he had on the ground. No one person stood out, and no one had any particular training that could be used for what he was thinking of. Nearing the safe building that everyone was in, he looked around. "Chief Gavin, front and center!"

**Inside**

Doctor Hart moved towards the door to take a peek outside. "Where did all the people go? Maybe they were afraid of us and ran off?" Without an answer, he closed the door and walked back to where Jerry was. He kept himself with a further distance from the female marine who threw the container at him. "Ready to go back to the ship?" He said as he watched the science officer getting his stuff put together. "The people that were in the courtyard in front of the building are gone."

Jerry looked up with a raised eyebrow from the booster. "People? I didn't feel anyone nearby, other than, you know.... us. Where were they?" He shrugged and turned back to tinkering, mulling over the idea of returning to the ship. The longer they stayed here, the more danger they were in. The quicker they returned to the ship, the quicker he could get this thing analyzed by the Engineering staff. Still, though, he couldn't put his finger on why he had a hesitation with regard to a return to the ship.

"When we first beamed down, there were some people of this planet going about their business out near the courtyard. Now, they are gone," he said as he looked down at his tricorder. He sighed as he realized that the science officer seemed busy playing with the booster. I have nothing else better to do but play with this tricorder, Jason thought.

"Weird. Didn't feel 'em. Usually I get like a feeling. Maybe it's something in the walls here, or distance. That kinda creeps me out." He shrugged. Usually he could feel people, but these people seemed blank, flat - like a holodeck character.

The female Marine moved over and cocked her head to the side. "Left, After we ran into the building." The rest of the Marines were in shock, she hadn't said more than two words to anyone else, and here she was making a full sentence, or damn near. "Like little rabbits, or perhaps a bird running from its nest to protect it."

The doctor looked at the female Marine, "At least she knows what I'm talking about." He looked back at Jerry. "These people on this planet are not like humans and my tricorder is giving off funny signals. If you are not feeling them, then that sounds odd...maybe they aren't what we see. And I don't believe in ghosts either."

Lizzie had been in the middle of a project when the away team left, so she hadn't been able to talk to the Chief before he left. She tapped her combadge. "Jackson to O'Connor. Lieutenant, can you send some plant and soil samples so I can analyze them?" she asked.

Jerry hadn't even thought of that, and shrugged (despite the uselessness of such a notion when communicating over a commbadge). "O'Connor. Soil will be easy, Jackson. I'll see what I can do for your plants though. We aren't exactly talking lush utopia conditions. Over."

"I don't need lush. A few blades of grass, a couple of leaves, enough to run some tests," Jackson replied.

He looked at the Marine and the Doctor, shrugging lightly: "Who knows? Might just be me thinking about everything else. Cover my butt, I'm walking out into that ecological hellhole."

The female bomb tech looked at him and rolled her eyes. Checking her weapon, she looked at the building that the Lieutenant had been on top of and shook her head again. The man was never were she thought he should be. Setting up at the window, she waved the talkative, and somewhat insane to her reckoning, O'Conner out the door.

Doctor Hart wasn't sure anything else to say to Jerry. He walked to the door and watched the science officer leave the building, making sure that everything is okay. While he stood there, his stomach growled for a few seconds and he pulled out a packet of chicken ration from his side pocket of his pants, a special type of pants that medics use to go on away missions to be able to carry emergency supplies. Jason opened the package and started eating some of it while he watched Jerry.

It wasn't exactly hard for Jerry to go outside - he opened a door. He was lucky to find a few blades of grass and some dirt, closing them into a set of test vials, which he had beamed up into the lab. "Okay, Samples should be there now. Have fun. Don't do anything too crazy."

"I'll do my best, sir," Lizzie said, chucking. "Thank you. Jackson out."

Grass and leaves? Who cares about this planet, Doctor Hart thought as he discarded the empty wrapper into his pocket. He stayed near the door to continue to watch Jerry. After a minute, his tricorder beeped and he opened it to read it. He noted that everybody's heart rate increased. Probably fear..., he thought as he shrugged.

Suddenly, all their combadges chirped. "Calypso to away team, please return to the ship immediately."

"About time," Jason said softly.


OFF

Lieutenant JG Jerrick O'Connor
Chief Science Officer

1st Lieutenant Leroy Mangalia
Marine XO

Ensign Jaxon Hart (NPC)
Doctor

Chief Warrant Officer Wendel Gavin
Marine

Chief Petty Officer Shalie Montgomery
Chief Engineer

Ensign Elizabeth Jackson ()NPC)
Botanist

Marine Bomb Expert (NPC)

 

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