Strength in Numbers, part 1

Posted on Mon Apr 18th, 2011 @ 9:18am by Lieutenant JG Ronnie Wolfe & Lieutenant JG Marek Lovok [Lynx] & Ensign Stran & Lieutenant JG Jason Hart & Petty Officer 2nd Class Yvette Jaynes
Edited on on Mon Apr 18th, 2011 @ 9:34am

880 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: The Forests of Mythraeli
Location: Mythraeli
Timeline: Current

ON

Lizzie and Allen found Marek with little difficulty. There weren't the usual forest noise Lizzie expected. It was far too quiet for her peace of mind.

But it made hearing people thrashing through the underbrush fairly easy.

The group headed in what they thought was the direction back to the shuttle.

Marek had one large piece of wood that was dry and was on his way back when Lizzie and Allen found him. He smiled at them. "Hi, I was on my way back," he said.

"Excellent. Hold on to that. We can use it tonight," Lizzie said.

"Did you pack up camp?" Marek asked, "I left my backpack."

Allen pulled it off of his own pack and handed it to Marek. "I took care of it for you. Hope you don't mind."

Marek smiled. "Thank you Sergeant, I don't mind at all." He accepted the backpack and put the straps over his shoulders and nodded. "So what now?"

"I heard something over this way," Lizzie said. "It's a start." She continued in the direction she'd been headed, hoping to run into another group from the Calypso.

"I wish I left my tools at the shuttle considering we can't use our equipment here for some reason. They make this pack heavy, not that I can't handle it. The only conclusion I can think of is something is jamming their power supply." Marek said as the trio continued walking.

"Jamming?" Lizzie asked. "Could the reason communications were down be due to something or someone jamming them?"

Marek eyed Lizzie sarcastically. "Isn't that what I just said Lieutenant?" He said trying not to sound critical of the Botanist.

She gave him a haughty glare. "I thought it was a natural phenomenon. I didn't consider deliberate jamming. There's nobody here but us."

"Yeah we would have accidentally 'run' into them by now." Marek said, "It could be what's under the surface. A mineral or something that is the source?"

"It's possible," Lizzie said. "It could be something in the soil or flora. Or both." If it was in the soil, it would also be in the plants, but that was a minor issue.

Marek sighed heavily. "And we can't determine the source, why because our equipment doesn't work. Just fantastic." He had learned sarcasm very well from his human friends while at the Academy.

"That just means we have to be creative, Ensign," Lizzie said optimistically. "We're bound to stumble across something eventually."

"Like what?" Marek asked turning the tables on the lieutenant.

Just then the distinctive sound of something large moving through the underbrush could be heard nearby. "Like that," Lizzie said cheerfully. She adjusted their direction and headed for the noise of what she hoped would be one of the other teams.

"I'm not scared but I recommend double extreme caution!" Marek said as he followed her.

"I recommend double-chocolate chip cookies, but that's beside the point," Lizzie said, walking towards the noise. She rounded a large tree and saw three members of the away team.

Marek laughed and followed her around the tree then smiled as he saw the rest of the away team. "About time," he commented to no one in particular.

Doctor Hart was very surprised as they have found the rest of the away team. He had his hand under Yvette's arm, making sure that she doesn't fall. He noted the funny looks from the other team. "She's sick...contaminated water." He has some of his equipment with him in a bag.

"Didn't she filter the water?" Lizzie asked the doctor. She was surprised that the contaminant didn't show up on the earlier sensor sweep and that the nurse would drink water without taking proper precautions.

Marek frowned. "How? With no working equipment we couldn't do anything."

"There are a lot of things you can do to filter water. Boil it, for starters. Some moss works as a natural filtration system as well."

"She used the filter system that we carry in every away mission...we didn't have the working technology to scan the water that was filtered," Jason said. "This was her first away mission, so..."

"I made a mistake," Yvette said, softly. "I should have boiled the water."

"We can deal with blame and all that later, we have to treat her." Marek said, "not being a doctor I'm not sure what we should do. Ideas?"

"That's why I became a doctor," Jason smiled. "I've treated her with an antibiotic, so she should get better soon, I hope. Without the use of a medical tricorder, I have to rely on the ancient ways of medical care." He helped Nurse Jaynes to the ground after a tarp was laid out. "Just lay down on this till we have to move again," he said, taking her pulse again with his fingers on her wrist.

Stran, on the other hand, lay unconscious, about 30 meters away. His tree had moved on, as had, apparently, his doctor. Both he, and his tree, were completely oblivious to the away team, in current state.

(To be continued...)

Lieutenant JG Ronnie Lancaster (PNPC)
Chief Science Officer

Ensign Marek Lovok
Assistant Chief Engineer

Ensign Stran (PNPC)
Security Officer

Ensign Jason Hart (PNPC)
Medical Officer

Chief Petty Officer 3rd Class Yvette Jaymes (PNPC)
Nurse

 

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