A Fishing Expedition (part 3)

Posted on Tue Feb 7th, 2012 @ 5:40pm by Lieutenant JG Ronnie Wolfe & Major Leroy Mangalia & 1st Lieutenant Noelle Ghassan & Ensign Suzette de Fresa & Ensign Mak Free [Lynx] & Commodore Samantha York & Ensign Leee-ee/Maddison Tyler & Lieutenant JG Elizabeth Jackson

1,450 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Race for the Lost Treasure
Location: Planetside

[CONTINUED]

Desiana pulled her hair back in a single pony tail and finished by pulling the zipper up her back. She bit down on her rebreather and dove into the water. It had been a while since she had gone diving outside of a holodeck and she was looking forward to this. She followed the rest of the crew in the water.

Once the rest of the team was in the water, Noelle followed bringing up the rear. She slipped into the water without hesitation and took in her surroundings.

"No, this tastes like a natural alkaline spring." Maddison's commbadge translated. "There's just the right ingredients, with very little foreign contaminants, save that of the landing party. Ensign Free, kindly do not contaminate the water I breathe with that deodorant again." She grabbed something from her bag, and liberally sprayed something into the water. "That ought to take care of it, but really, you don't see me getting my fishy-smelling scaled feet all over the air you breathe. Kindly be considerate."

Mak simply stared at Maddison and wondered if they had assigned a name for what was wrong with her. "Yes you do, but it's not like we can do anything about it."

"When my environmental field generator is on-line, I could urinate myself, and you wouldn't know it. It's rude to contradict a lady, you know." Maddison said, eyes narrowed at Mak.

Noelle tried not to laugh and treaded water keeping an eye on the surroundings for anything out of the ordinary, keeping herself in view of the team and the entrance to their swimming hole.

Ronnie chuckled at the conversation between Maddison and Mak. She looked at Dezzy. "Should we split into two teams? Me, Noelle, Maddison and you, Mak, Lizzie and Captain Mangalia?"

That would put at least one scientist and one Marine on each team.

"Under the condition," Maddison said, "That all team-members keep an open comm-link, at all times."

"I have no objection," Leo said in his helmet, which was broadcast to the others. It allowed him free reign to look around and a rebreathing unit. "Noelle, keep Channel 2 open, it screams when we need each other."

Noelle nodded "Yes sir." She said as she opened the channel and the secondary channel for the rest of the team.

"Make sure you all have a stop in at sickbay, once you get back. I understand human bodies can react oddly to prolonged water exposure. Something called drowning, especially, is apparently a big issue. Keep a watch out for that." Maddison's com-badge translated.

"As long as we have the rebreathers, we should be okay for a couple hours at least." She said "If anyone starts having problems sound off so that we can get you back to the surface. Same rules apply down here, if we run into anything and tell you to run run." She said looking at Leo for confirmation of this.

"Ready here." Mak said.

Ronnie nodded and followed Maddison and Noelle towards one of two openings into the underground caverns. "Just keep close and keep mapping. It's far too easy to get lost or stuck in these underground caverns," she said to the others.

Lizzie kept close to her group, her modified tricorder for underwater scanning was firmly attached to her waist. That was the only sure way she knew to get back safely.

Ronnie's took careful readings of the few sea creatures she came across for later study. She wished she had time to take samples, but for now she was content to take readings.

Maddison snatched one of the smaller sea creatures, and licked it. "Ick. Eel family. Never could get eel cooked right." She let the creature swim off, clearly scared for it's life. "Bit slimey. Sadly, not electrocuted."

Noelle watched as Maddison licked the creature and shook her head "How do you know that isn't going to make you sick?" She asked keeping an eye on the surroundings.

"I'll have you know, my people have used this methodology for many centuries." Maddison said, with a dismissive hand wave. "One doesn't get to become a high priestess of the great ocean, if she can't lick an eel without getting sick. We take our cooking seriously."

She grabbed another eel. "This one's female. She could be ground into a half decent horse-radish sauce analog." She added.

Noelle watched Maddison for a moment "Sounds like meals at your house were quite interesting." She said "I can't say much....we eat odd things at my house too...and cooking is an art form." She said "Perhaps we'll have to share dinner one night when we get back." Noelle said as she scanned the area around them for any potential hazards.

"Okay, let's go in," Ronnie said after a careful scan of the underwater caves. "I think I found an entrance that'll get us into a large cavern." She slipped her tricorder into a secure pocket and attached a wrist unit that displayed a small map. All set, she headed into the cave, careful to not go too fast or too far from the others.

Noelle took one last look around and then followed the others into the entrance. She had a scanner out and was looking for potential problems and making sure that she kept an eye behind them. She wasn't really comfortable with going into the cavern but that was where the fun stuff might be.

It didn't take them far into the water, before Maddison stopped. "That's it. Water's got some kind of scanning inhibition field, here. We're at the point of no transporter return." She said, looking at her tricorder, and tilting her head to one side.

"No return, huh?" Ronnie said. "Well, looks like we'll have to do this the old fashioned way." She took out a phosphorescent market and made a mark on a rock, pointing the way out. As they weren't further in, she marked every passage and every crossroad so they would be able to get back.

After a while, they swam into a large cavern. "Ah, I think we found our destination."

The bottom of the cavern was dotted by tall seaweed, waving gently with the movement of the water. Lizzie swam down to the plants nad pulled one out by its roots and examined it. It was similar to the ones on the surface. She pulled out her tricorder and scanned. But the tricorder didn't work. "Yeah, I think these are the same plants," she told the others. "They're blocking scans."

After marking the entrance with the phosphorescent marker, began to swim the perimeter of the cavern. At the far end she found a shallow cave. Marking the entrance, she headed inside.

Maddison scowled. "Water tastes funny. PH balance is off a touch here."

"Off how?" Ronnie asked.

"How the hell should I know? You've got the damn tricorder. I said the water tastes funny, and the PH balance is off." Maddison said, with a scowl. "Just because I'm aquatic doesn't mean I'm as sensitive as your tricorder you know."

"The tricorder isn't working," Ronnie said, beginning to get irritated and trying hard not to.

"Well, I'm not a bloody tricorder. Don't look at me like that." Maddison said, with a flick of her webbed feet.

Ronnie sighed and continued searching the small cave. "Mermaids," she muttered, half to herself. "No wonder they have such a bad reputation."

Her light passed back and forth along the sea bottom, looking for anything of interest. She found a sea anemone, an unusual sea slug and an interesting-looking worm that she put in specimen bags for later study. And more of the ubiquitous plant life that seemed to dampen sensors and communicators. She took a sample of that, too, to compare with the plant on the surface.

As she was about to turn back, her light caught a glimpse of something shiny on a ledge. She swam over to it and found a piece of a metal plate. On closer inspection, she found the rest of the plate and a small metal jar. Those, too, went into bags for later study.

One more sweep of the cave assured her that there was nothing else of value. Her chronometer caught her eye. She'd been there longer than she thought. "Hey, guys, I think we need to head back to the surface," she said as she made her way back to the rest of the team.

OFF

Lieutenant JG Ronnie Lancaster
Assistant Chief Science Officer

Captain Leroy Mangalia
Marine CO

2nd Lieutenant Noelle Ghassan
Marine XO

Lieutenant Desiana "Dezzy" Torel
Chief Science Officer

Ensign Mak Free [Marek]
Engineer

Ensign Leee-ee/Maddison Tyler
Security Officer

Lieutenant JG Elizabeth Jackson
Botanist

 

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