Chapter Text
You are Captain John Egbert of the U.S.S. Skaia, a newly commissioned Galaxy-class Federation starship. It’s the first day of your command and you’re about to embark on the Skaia’s maiden voyage. Your ship has a crew of 800, cruising speed of warp 6, top speed of warp 8.8, 9 phaser arrays, and 3 torpedo launchers. You can’t wait to get started. You were the first person onboard the ship this morning, and now you’re pacing in your ready room, waiting for someone to come and inform you that the ship is, at last, ready for departure.
“Captain.” Your chest communicator squawks. “Ready on the bridge!” You snap to attention, and scurry towards the door, pausing to compose yourself before you walk out onto your shiny new bridge. All the screens are bright and clear. Even the carpet is new – not a touch of wear. Everyone is here; your full bridge crew stands before you. Your operations officers watch their screens with rapt attention, hands hovering over their stations, awaiting orders. Only one ensign looks up at you when you exit your ready room, a grumpy looking kid with eye-catching hair. Your pilot stands at attention by the helm, tall and lanky. Beside him is an exhausted looking ensign with a simple black visor covering his eyes. You figure it’s the kid’s first mission and you smile when you see your pilot glance at him disapprovingly. The kid doesn’t notice.
Your number one, Commander Rose Lalonde, a stern looking woman in command red, stands beside your chair. Her hair is blonde, and cut in a short bob. You note that the hair just makes her look more severe, but only until she turns and smiles at you, and you can tell that she’s just as excited as you are. “Captain.” She nods at you, smile lingering.
You bounce towards your chair, but you don’t sit. You’re too excited. For a moment you think that a shared sentiment is keeping your number one from the seat, but only until she speaks again. “The bridge is yours, Captain.” She says, and gestures towards the chair. It seems she’s a bit of a stickler for “regulation”… too bad.
“What’s keeping us?” You ask her.
“Your chief officers are on their way to the bridge.” She responds. “We’re just waiting for them to finish prepping for departure, which should be any minute now. When they arrive, we can leave dock.” You nod. Starfleet likes its formality.
“While we wait, I could use an introduction to my bridge crew.” You say, and your number one smiles and nods, turning towards the helm.
“Your pilot, Lieutenant Commander Captor, is a natural navigator – and fresh off a tour in the neutral zone.” She says. “Your second helmsman, Ensign Strider, made it out of the academy with an… interesting relationship to the ship’s computer.”
The slouchy ensign rolls his head and throws his shoulders in an entirely unnecessary show of exasperation. “It’s simple.” He says. He flips off his visor and you see his bloodshot eyes, just slightly out of focus. “Blind.” He flashes you a smile and rolls his eyes. “The computer eyes talk to the ship’s computer.”
Lalonde turns towards your ops crewmembers. “Your chief of communications is Lieutenant Commander Maryam, a trained negotiator and translator.” Maryam is running a diagnostics check, and flashes you a toothy smile before turning back to her station. “There’s Ensign Ampora, he graduated from the academy three years ago,” She points to the ensign with the hair. “Your Security Chief is Commander Pyrope.” Pyrope is a betazoid woman, standing at her position at the security station behind your chair. “She’s valuable at tactical, top of her class at the academy and a golden record ever since.” Lalonde tells you.
“It’s a promising crew.” You say. Your crew has resumed their work, and your pilots are seated at the helm. It feels just like every other mission before. The bridge is ready, waiting to embark. You look down at the captain’s chair – your chair – but you don’t sit down. Instead, you turn towards the viewscreen, looking out absently over space as you wait.
The bridge faces out, away from the station, but the viewscreen shows the connection between the Skaia and her dock. You can see the thick black letters on the hull, spelling out your ship’s name and announcing your place as a member of the federation fleet. You can see smaller crafts as they pass over you – a Starfleet shuttlecraft, a research vessel, a civilian trading ship.
“Captain.” Lalonde says, right as you hear the hiss of the turbolift doors opening. You turn to welcome your chief officers. Three women walk out onto the bridge, two in blue and one in yellow.
“Commander Aradia Megido, chief science officer.” Says the first, holding out her hand. She has a blank face, entirely void of expression, and a surprisingly firm grip. “Pleased to meet you captain.”
“The pleasure is mine Commander.” You say. You’ve been looking forward to meeting Commander Megido for weeks – ever since you heard that she would be under your command. You studied the work of Dr. Noonian Soong at the academy, but had never dreamed that you would serve alongside a Soong-style android. But here she is! You smile at her. Megido nods and takes a step back, diverting her attention to the viewscreen.
Your chief engineer walks forward, and smiles. “Lieutenant Commander Harley.” She says. You look at her, a bit confused. She appears mostly human, but pointed white ears poked out from her long, black hair. She stands several inches taller than you, even not accounting for her ears. You wonder if she has human ears underneath her hair, in addition to the set you can see.
“Lieutenant…” You start, trying to find a diplomatic way to ask her about her heritage.
“I’m half human, Captain.” Your lieutenant says with a note of ice in her voice.
“My apologies. I look forward to serving with you Lieutenant.” You say. You go to shake her hand, but she pulls you into a loose, one-armed hug. She certainly is friendly. When she lets you go, moving to the engineering console, you see that she also a long fluffy tail, matching her ears. Huh.
The doctor walks forward and holds out her hand. “Doctor Crocker.” She says as you shake hands. “It’s nice to meet you.” She says, and she smiles at you. Her eyes crinkle at the corners. You nod at her.
“And you, doctor.” You say.
“Impulse thrusters are online and the warp core is nice and hot.” Harley says from her terminal. “We’re ready when you are, captain.” You take a deep breath. You can feel the bridge buzzing with excitement.
Ensign Strider and Lieutenant Captor swing their chairs and face the helm. Lalonde and Crocker take their seats as first and second officer, and Megido steps aside, standing behind one of the empty science terminals. Everyone is in their place.
You cross the bridge and take your place in the captain’s chair, looking out to the viewscreen with your senior officers beside you. The chair is sturdy, and you lean against its straight back. You have had the bridge before, but this is different. The chair feels different.
“Helm report.” You call out over the bridge.
“All systems online, course set heading 412 mark 1.” Ensign Strider replies, setting your course into the helm. “On your direction Captain.” His hand hovers over the controls, waiting to engage.
“Excuse me,” The doctor interrupts. Her expression is one of concern, and she seems almost embarrassed to interrupt you. “Captain,” She says. “Your ship’s counsellor is still in sickbay. He won’t be happy if we depart without him here.”
You frown. “I was unaware that a ship’s counselor would need to be on the bridge for departure.” You know that counsellors are senior officers, but your counsellor is hardly more than an ensign, and certainly not a necessary member of your bridge crew. Even Commander Megido, a high ranking, experienced officer could have easily stayed at her station.
Crocker shrugs, apparently sharing your thoughts on the matter. “It should only be a few minutes before my assistant sends him up.” She says, almost apologetically.
“No matter, Doctor.” You say. The bridge is quiet for a moment. All you can hear is the soft beeps of the computers. You notice that the young ensign with the purple streak is watching you again. You’re fairly young for a captain, you’ll admit it, but you don’t wholly suspect age is all there is to it. He’s giving you this weird smile, and you turn to the doctor, trying not to think about it.
“On second thought, doctor,” You say. “I think I’ll get him myself.” You stand, and the doctor nods.
“I’ll join you.” She says.
“Lalonde, you have the bridge.”
Sickbay smells like… nothing. You had expected the usual clean, sharp, antiseptic smell of medicine, but you are pleasantly surprised to find it absent. Everything is brand new and neatly put in its place. Every exposed bit of metal shines. All of the sensors and wallscreens are blinking steadily and silently. You’re surprised by the calm.
Crocker walks you over to where her assistant is attending to your ship’s counselor. He’s quite young, and dressed in a grey uniform. You didn’t know that Starfleet issued full grey uniforms to proper officers. Underclothes and coats you’ve seen before, sure, but not full uniforms. Those are usually limited to acting, or temporary officers.
“I am a superior officer!” he shouts at the medical officer beside him. “Let me go! I order you!”
The officer gives him a stern look, clearly trying to stay composed. You can see the pips on her collar identifying her as a Lieutenant Commander, clearly outranking the Counselor, a mere Junior Grade Lieutenant. The officer holds up a hypospray, apparently attempting to administer a sedative. Your counselor grabs her wrist and tries to shove her away.
“The counselor’s file was missing a DNA sample, but we’re having some issues getting him to cooperate.” Crocker tells you by way of explanation for your officers’ behavior.
You nod, and approach the young officer. “Counselor?” You call to him. You’re not entirely sure how he’ll respond, but almost instantaneously he shuts up, turning to glare at you with the kind of speed usually accompanied with a crick in your neck. His dark hair is long, unusually so for any respectable Starfleet officer, and his glare is imposing. You wonder how good of a counselor he is.
“Yes?” He growls at you, and you wonder again how such a hostile demeanor can possibly be comforting. Isn’t that the job of a ship’s counselor?
“I’m Captain Egbert. I came to see what was holding up our departure.” You say, smiling at both him, and the nurse beside him. The nurse smiles.
“It’s the fucking medical officers on this ship!” He barks at you. It seems that this is just… his normal volume.
“Counselor …?” You trail off, waiting for someone to supply you a name. He just raises an eyebrow at you, still glaring. The nurse takes advantage of her opening and secures the DNA sample. The counselor sighs, mumbling something at the nurse as he hops down from the table. He stalks past you without a word, but waits at the door for you.
Commander Crocker looks down at the three broken medical tricorders on the floor near her assistant with dismay. She informs you that she’ll be remaining in sickbay during departure. You nod at her, and exit sickbay. The counselor follows you to the turbolift in the corridor, and you notice in his silence that the ship is unusually quiet. While leaving docks, it is regulation to confine all off duty personnel to quarters, but you’ve never seen that particular rule enforced before. Then again, you’ve never been on a ship’s maiden voyage before.
“Bridge.” You say to the turbolift as its doors close behind the Counselor. You turn to face him as the lift whirs into action. “You’ve managed to hold us up quite a bit.” You tell him.
“It was-” He starts, but you smile and cut him off.
“That medical officer, yes, I know.” You finish for him. He’s clearly fuming, but you won’t let him ruin your good mood. It’s your first day on the job and you haven’t even left Earth’s orbit, it’s too early to let a Junior Grade Lieutenant get under your skin. You turn to face the turbolift doors and wait in silence. When they slide open, you stride out onto your bridge.
Ensign Strider jumps, dropping his visor and whispering “oh shit”. Lalonde is sitting in the captain’s chair, but she stands when she hears the lift doors open, yielding you the bridge. She takes the seat to your right. The Counselor takes the third officer’s chair on your left after a moment, sitting stiffly, clearly aware that his rank did not grant him that privilege.
“All systems online, course set heading 412 mark 1.” Strider says. You lean forward in your chair, looking out the viewscreen.
“Engage impulse thrusters.”
Lieutenant Captor straightens at the helm, and you can feel the inertial dampeners turn on as the ship’s main engines propel you out of dock. At last, you’re off.
“Captain’s Log, Stardate 68214.9. The Skaia and her crew are on our way to a relatively unexplored sector of space for a routine scientific expedition. Our mission is to help map the LOWAS system, and complete several surveys of the planets surrounding the star. We will arrive in several hours, and everyone onboard seems quite excited to get this first mission on the Skaia underway.” You sit back in your chair, not sure what else you ought to say. Your ready room is large, and you feel odd being in here alone – before you were a captain, you never came into the captain’s ready room without a reason. You’ve been avoiding spending too much time in here over the past few days, although that probably doesn’t help much.
Your com badge beeps. “Lalonde to Captain Egbert.”
“John.” You correct her.
“Captain, we’re two hours from the LOWAS system at current warp. The zoological away team is gathering in the briefing room. I would like you to approve my selection for the team,” She tells you.
“On my way.” You say. You stand, walking across your ready room and stepping back onto the bridge. Your third officer, the Chief of Operations, holds the bridge when you enter it – it would seem Lalonde is already on her way to the briefing room. Lieutenant Commander Maryam stands as you walk across the bridge, but you gesture for her to sit.
“Just walking through.” You tell her, and she nods at you. She relaxes again, sitting comfortably in the captain’s chair as you enter the turbolift. You may not feel comfortable yet as the Skaia’s captain, but your crew seems to have settled in nicely. “Deck four.” You tell the turbolift.
When you walk into the briefing room, you find a small team gathered. Your number one sits near the head of the conference table. Beside her sits Lieutenant Pyrope, and across from them are Megido and one of her officers. You take your place at the head of the table. Megido leans forward.
“The LOWAS system is a red dwarf system that is home to four planets, only one of which is class M. Two of my other officers will be sending probes down to observe the conditions on the second, third, and fourth planets but there only appears to be life on the first, so we will be beaming down to conduct a zoological survey. ” She says.
“Is there any chance of a civilized species?” Commander Lalonde asks.
“There is no evidence as of yet to say so, no.” Megido says.
“Though, uh, again, we uh, we really don’t know much at all.” Megido's officer pipes up. He is small, and he speaks very quietly. “So, uh, we can’t be sure, I mean.”
“However, when we enter the systems, we can launch the first of our probes. Those, along with our initial long-range sensor scans, should be able to detect any signs of civilization on LOWAS I. Until then, we can plan for our survey.” Megido finishes.
“What else do we know about the system?” You ask.
“Well, all four planets are small, rocky, and relatively distant from their star.” She says. “The reports we’ve been sent have shown that all but the first planet have high levels of hyperonic radiation within their upper atmospheres. All of the planets have dense atmospheres, but the scans from earlier survey teams in the sector failed to analyze the atmospheric composition of any planets. They simply didn’t get that far. Unfortunately, we are unable to ascertain if our transporters will have any issues beaming through the atmosphere.”
“Thank you commander.” You say. “If our transporters have issues, our surveys can be completed after taking a shuttlecraft to the surface.”
“If we have any major issues we can reevaluate.” Lalonde says. “We don’t know if the atmosphere will cause complications for any shuttlecraft that get through.”
Megido nods. Her officer doesn’t seem quite as sure of himself, but he manages a weak smile towards you. Pyrope seems less pleased.
“Captain, I would like permission to select and debrief two security officers for the away team’s mission.” She says to you.
“That isn’t up to me.” You say. “You’ll have to ask Lieutenant Commander Lalonde. It is her away team.” Pyrope doesn’t look too pleased to hear this, a fact which Lalonde seems to pick up on. She smiles slightly.
Lalonde pauses for a moment before speaking. “I see no immediate reason to commit three security officers to an away team, but I will reserve judgement until we enter orbit above LOWAS I.” She tells Pyrope. Your security officer smiles toothily in response.
Pyrope walks out of the room without another word or backward glance. The room is quiet in her wake, and it takes a moment before anyone moves. Megido stands and give you a slight bow before walking out. Her officer follows with a fumbling nod of his own, and walks out of the room several moments behind her.
Lalonde taps her com badge. “Lalonde to engineering. Status report.”
“We’ll be entering the LOWAS system in a little more than an hour at current warp.” The badge squawks.
You turn to your first officer and shrug. “We can wait on the bridge.”
“Certainly Captain.” She says.
The two of you start down the corridor towards the turbolift. “It’s kind of odd not being in charge of the away missions anymore.” You confide in Lalonde. She smiles at you.
“Well Captain, I’m sure I can endanger myself enough for the two of us when I leave this ship.” She says. You laugh out loud, and several crewmen look around as they pass you. You’re glad to have a good First Officer, with a fine service record, but there’s something more to be said for having a First Officer that you can trust, and whose company you enjoy. Lalonde is proving to be that.
“Deck one.” You tell the turbolift, smiling as it carries you and Lalonde back to the bridge.
Maryam yields you the bridge as you and Lalonde walk out onto it, having spent the last hour familiarizing yourselves with this sector. You take the captain’s chair and look around the bridge. You notice that Megido and several of her officers have taken places at the science consoles up here, rather than down in their labs. The ensign at operations doesn’t look too pleased at having to share her space with Megido's second.
“Report.” You say.
“Our probes have confirmed the preliminary reports.” Megido says from the science station. “Hyperonic radiation is interfering with the reports we’re getting from LOWAS II, III, and IV. We’ll have to scan those planets when we enter orbit.” You nod. Short range sensors will tell you plenty about those planets, considering they’re not habitable.
“Entering the thythdem now.” Captor says from the helm.
“Bring us into orbit around LOWAS I.” You tell him. He hesitates for a moment, entering your directions into the helm before nodding his head.
“We’ve entered high orbit.”
“Onscreen.” You say. The planet that comes up onto the viewscreen is an ominous one, with heavy cloud cover, interspersed with patches of dark land and darker looking bodies of water. It has two moons, though they are both very small and very far away. You can hardly see them in the dark space surrounding LOWAS I.
“The atmosphere is thicker than sensors originally suspected,” Megido tells you. “However, there does not seem to be a great deal of turbulence, or any kind of radiation. Transporting to the surface should be a simple task.”
“And there are no signs of civilization?” Lalonde asks.
“Um, there are ruins all over the planet,” Megido’s second says. “But it, uh, it seems that they are just that. There is nothing that would indicate a, a current civilization.” He stumbles over his words, but smiles when he gets them all out. Megido turns to face his console, looking over his shoulder with a spark of interest in her eye at the mention of ancient ruins.
“All the more reason to get down to the surface.” Megido says.
“Can you tell how long the ruins have been uninhabited?” You ask Megido’s officer.
“Uh, nothing is, er, too clear.” He says sheepishly. “The short range sensors are having difficulties picking up many details through the atmosphere.” Megido turns away from her officer’s console and towards a different console. She begins tapping away, going over the same sensor readings as her second in command.
“From what I can tell,” Megido says after a moment. “Lieutenant Nitram is correct. We can’t tell the age of the ruins through the planet’s atmosphere.” She frowns slightly and turns to you. “It seems that we have much to investigate.”
You nod to her. “Go ahead and bring your equipment to transporter room 3.” You tell her.
“Aye captain.” She says, and walks out off of the bridge. Lieutenant Nitram hurries after her to catch up.
You turn to Lalonde. She seems pensive, as usual. She leans forward and examines the console that Nitram has just vacated, so you walk over and take your place in the captain’s chair. Already this mission seems to be more complicated than expected. From behind you, you can hear Lalonde call for Pyrope to join Megido in Transporter Room 3.
It's only a minute later that Lalonde appears right behind you. “Captain, I request permission to begin the away mission.”
You do your best to avoid jumping, and nod. “Permission granted Rose.”
“Commander Lalonde.” She corrects you, and exits the bridge.
John: Be the First Officer
Your name is Rose Lalonde, and it is time for you to lead your away mission.
The door to Transporter Room 3 slides open in front of you, and you find that much of your team has already gathered. Pyrope is chatting with one of her lieutenants, a short Caitian with a number of decidedly non-regulation bangles. You suspect she's probably a year or two out of the academy - just enough to feel confident loosening up and interpreting some wiggle room in Starfleet protocols. Pyrope doesn't seem to mind. You make a mental note to talk to her about keeping her officers within the bounds set by regulation.
Megido and her second are already here. They must have hurried in order to get their specimen cases here so quickly. Megido kneels by the equipment, watching as her officer checks it. They don't seem to be holding any kind of conversation.
"Commander." She says in greeting, standing as you walk over to her.
"Are you all set?" You ask, and she nods her head.
"Lieutenant Nitram is checking the specimen containment, and everything seems to be in order." She says. "We will have to move the containers onto the transporter pad. Once that is done, we are prepared for transport.”
Pyrope and her lieutenant help Megido and Nitram carry their equipment onto the transporter, as you address the transporter technician, a lieutenant commander with short blonde hair and a friendly grin.
“Have you confirmed our transport location?” You ask her.
“I found you a nice secluded little valley in the middle of a continent, it’s an ideal location.” She nods as she tells you, waving her hands about. “I’m ready whenever you are, I have everything already plugged into the computer and everything.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant Commander…?” You trail off, waiting for her to give a name.
“Lalonde.” She supplies, and you give her a look. Could you be related? “Yeah Commander, isn’t it a funny coincidence?” She says, apparently in response to your expression.
“Certainly.” You agree. You take a deep breath and walk onto the transporter pad, where your team is waiting. Megido stands in front of Nitram, who is still somehow fussing over the sample containment. Pyrope and her Lieutenant are straight backed, side by side. You stand at the front of the away team, Pyrope to your left, Megido to your right.
“We’re all set.” You tell Lieutenant Lalonde.
“And…” She says, focused on the console in front of her. “Energized.”
You find yourself in a canyon, standing on a bed of grey dirt. Around you rise cliffs of rough blue rock. The same sort of rock litter the rest of the landscape around you, forming outcroppings upon which grow bioluminescent flora. Your eye is drawn to the glowing mushrooms, as the clouds overhead are dark, and block out what light you could have hoped to gain on the surface of a planet in a red dwarf system.
You can see Megido draw her tricorder and kneel near one outcropping of the strange blue rock. Nitram grabs an armful of sample containers and gets to work, scooping some dirt into one container, some blue pebbles into another.
“Commander.” Pyrope says, right behind you. “There are minds on this planet. I can sense intelligent creatures nearby.”
“I was under the impression that we didn’t find evidence of civilization on this planet.” You say, frowning at her.
“They must not be civilized.” Pyrope says, shrugging.
You walk over to Megido. She is trying to pull one of the mushrooms out of a rock formation as you approach. She ignores you at first, so you speak up.
“I’m told that there is intelligent life on this planet.” You tell her.
“By whom?” She says, looking up at you.
“Pyrope.” You say.
“But there is no civilization.” She says. “This planet has only ruins.”
You shrug. “I’ve been told.” You sit there in silence with Megido for a minute. You watch Lieutenant Nitram pry the bioluminescent fungi from the rocky outcropping. Megido unscrews a specimen canister and Nitram plops it in.
“Are we going to do something about this?” You ask aloud to the whole of the party, none of whom appear to be listening. Pyrope is slouching, facing away from the rest of the group, and her lieutenant is sniffing around what appears to be a half dead tree. You’ve never worked with a Caitian before, but you never realized how catlike they really are.
“We finish the mission.” Megido says. “This complicates it, but not much. We appear to be alone. We should continue as planned.”
You sigh, and pick up a specimen container from the small pile. You figure that you might as well help. The Caitian brings over several tree seedlings, and you watch her put them in one of the larger stasis chambers, while you attempt to catch at least one of the firefly like insects flying around.
Pyrope sits off to the side, presumably listening for the intelligent inhabitants of this planet, in case one of them gets too near the away team.
Your away team works for several hours, dutifully capturing and then cataloging soil, mineral, and biological samples. You work your way down the valley, eventually enlisting Pyrope to shuttle the full specimen containers back to your original transport site, and bring back new cases to fill. It isn’t hard work, especially knowing that you will not be the person to enter the details of these finds into the ship’s computers.
You check in with the Skaia every half hour, informing the ship of your progress. Around the sixth check-in, Pyrope’s officer notes that most of the containers are full, and suggests that the away team send the occupied containment cylinders and sample boxes back up to the ship.
“How about we all take a break.” You suggest. “We’ve been working for several hours, it might be a good idea to take a short rest while we get some new containers sent down to the surface.” Nitram shakes his head in agreement, and the others murmur their approval.
“Commander Lalonde to the Skaia, do you read me?” You say after tapping your comm badge.
“We hear you Rose. What is it?” The Captain says through your communicator.
“Captain, the away team has set aside our samples for transport back to the ship. If you could have some more specimen containers sent down to the same coordinates we’d all greatly appreciate it.”
“Can do. Is there anything else you need?”
“No thank you Captain.”
“Whatever you say Rose.” Your badge squawks, and you wonder if he will ever follow proper protocol when addressing you. His leadership style seems to be denying leadership, but somehow it must have worked for him. He wouldn’t be the captain of a brand new Starfleet vessel if he was a poor leader.
Megido approaches you and speaks. “Commander.” She says in way of greeting. “As an android, I have no need for rest. May I use this time to look into the further reaches of this canyon?”
“What an enthralling means of recreation.” You say dryly. Megido stares at you with a blank expression, awaiting her answer. “I trust you have a reason for this request?”
“I believe there to be ruins approximately halfway up the slope at the end of the canyon.” She says. “I have a particular affinity for archaeology, and would like your permission to pursue that interest during this break.” She explains.
You nod. Megido walks off, tricorder in hand, but she leaves the empty specimen containers where they are. As you wait for the first container transport, you think about Megido’s interest in archaeology. You studied the history and psychology of artificial intelligences with some interest at the academy, and came away with the knowledge that artificial intelligence is still a very young science. Sung was able to create incredibly complex androids, and those androids can be replicated, but imperfectly. Megido is one of those imperfect androids, and her positronic brain is still mostly a mystery to robotics specialists. They don’t know how she gained an affinity for archaeology any more than someone could look at you and tell how you gained an interest in psychology.
The containers are transported around, and after a short break, Megido returns with some interesting notes about the history of civilization on this planet. The away team resumes your survey after this. You head north-west through the canyon this time, gathering samples as you go.
It isn’t long this time before the canyon walls grow shorter, and the landscape smooths out some, allowing the team to see for miles and miles. More rocks, covered in more glowing mushrooms. It’s beautiful, in an eerie sort of way. It is oddly barren for such a humid area, and you wonder where the fungal fauna get their nutrients, as most fungi that you’re familiar with are decomposers. You suppose Megido will figure it all out soon enough, thanks to the soil and rock samples, and you make a mental note to ask her these same questions.
Another four hours pass this way, your away team fanning out across this desert-like land, gathering samples of all sorts of animal, vegetable, and mineral. At the end of that time, the day on this planet is apparently ending, as the already dim area begins to grow black.
You walk over to where Megido and her lieutenant are standing, working together to catch some kind of small creature in a specimen containment field. “I think it’s time to return to the Skaia.” You say to Megido.
“We will return to the transport site as soon as we finish containing this sample.” She says. Nitram looks to you and nods. You stand and wait, figuring that Pyrope will walk up soon enough. She’s still been relegated to the task of container ferry after all.
When Nitram and Megido are finished with their task, the three of you walk back to the transporter site. It is certainly growing dark here, and you hurry your pace, careful not to trip as you enter the further darkness of the canyon. When you approach the transporter site, Pyrope and her officer stand by the samples, apparently waiting for you.
“I heard you thinking about beaming back to the ship.” She says to you. You frown. You know that Betazoid telepaths can choose to read or not read minds, at least to some extent. Pyrope should know her bounds. You give her a pointed look while you think this. She responds with a toothy smile and you sigh. It would seem that she doesn’t particularly care about appropriateness or manners.
Not a bit! Pyrope says to you telepathically.
You tap your communication badge. “Away team to Skaia. Do you read me.”
“Skaia here.” John replies. “What is it Rose?”
“The survey is going well, but it is beginning to get dark on the planet’s surface. I think that it is time for the away team to return. We can return in the morning to continue the survey.”
“That works for me.” He says.
“Five to transport.” You say. Seconds later, your ears begin to ring, and the planet’s surface swirls around you. You see the blue tint of the transporter beam around you, and rematerialize in Transporter Room 3.
Megido and Nitram begin to offload the samples from the transporter pad. You help them get the containers off of the pad, but when Megido calls for some science officers to help carry the specimens to her lab, you decide that it is time to head to the bridge.
By now, it is approaching 1900 hours, and you’re ready for a nice long sleep. Before you can do that, however, you have to give the captain at least a brief report on the mission. You brush the greyish dirt off of your uniform, and walk towards the bridge.
Rose: Be the Captain
You hear the whoosh of the turbolift doors, and turn to see Lalonde walking back out onto the bridge. It has been nearly eight hours since she left for the planet’s surface, and you’re impressed by her late return. Not many Starfleet officers will go on such long duty shifts.
“How is the survey coming?” You ask her.
“Well enough.” She says. “It looks like it won’t take too long to complete the zoological collections, but Megido seems ready to spend time on the ruins down on the planet’s surface.”
“I’m sure that can be arranged.” You say. Lalonde frowns at you, apparently unhappy with the casual way that you would change the mission. “Tell Megido to submit a report to me that includes her finding, interest in the ruins, and her reasoning as to why we should stay longer than was allotted for this mission.”
Lalonde’s disapproval seems to soften when you instruct her to carry out Starfleet protocol – the requesting of a formal report. “Will do Captain.” She says.
“Now,” you add, almost as an afterthought. “How are you?”
“Captain?” Lalonde frowns.
“You were away for quite some time.” You say to her. “I don’t want you departing from this ship again until you’re properly rested and well fed.”
She nods, “Aye captain.” She says to you.
“Dismissed.”
Lalonde walks out off of the bridge, hopefully towards a good night’s sleep, you think to yourself. Once she is gone, you stand. You haven’t left the bridge since the away team left. You’ve hardly even left the captain’s chair. After eight hours, you’re certainly ready for a nice big dinner.
“Maryam, you have the bridge.” You say. She moves from her place at ops towards the captain’s chair. You smile at her and walk out to your ready room.
When the door closes behind you, you stretch. The captain’s chair is comfortable, but not moving all day is going to make you stiff, no matter where you sit. You’re not sure if you will sit voluntarily for several hours.
“Glub.”
You look around in surprise. In the middle of your ready room stands a four foot tall salamander that you’ve never seen before.
"Computer, what is going on." You say after a moment of stunned silence. The giant salamander stares at you.
"Please restate your query." The computer responds.
"Computer," you start again, "why the fuck is there a giant alien salamander in the middle of my ready room?" There is another pause, during which the salamander glubs again. Then the computer answers you.
"The alien life form was transported aboard the Skaia approximately fifty three minutes ago, in a large specimen cylinder, container type D-8900. It has since moved through the ship, and arrived in your ready room two minutes ago."
You sigh, not quite sure who to call first. You're not sure how the life form could have gotten into your ready room without someone noticing. It shuffles towards you and glubs at you several more times.
You tap your chest communicator. "Captain to senior staff. Report to my ready room immediately."
Maryam and Captor step through your doorway moments later, having just vacated their posts on the bridge. Maryam frowns at the alien quizzically, while Captor whispers “what the fuck?” under his breath. The alien looks to Captor, then Maryam, and back to you. It glubs once, and then waits a moment. It glubs again.
Pyrope is the next to arrive. She is out of breath, and it looks like she’s just run through half the ship. As soon as she sees the giant salamander, she draws the phaser from her belt.
“Terezi, no!” You shout before she can fire. For a moment, she looks like she’s about to shoot anyway, but then she lowers her weapon.
“Security team to the captain’s ready room.” She says instead to her chest communicator.
You tap your badge, “Security, belay that order.” You say. Pyrope glares at you. “I called you for your analysis,” You tell her, rubbing your temples. “Not for my safety.”
“The alien doesn’t appear hostile,” Maryam says to her. “Can you determine its intentions?”
Pyrope looks to the alien, and then she frowns. “I can’t tell what it’s thinking.” She says after a moment.
“Do you sense any kind of aggression?” You ask.
“…No.” She says.
The alien continues to glub, while Pyrope glares at it. You don’t need to have empathic abilities to know that she’s pissed, but you are the captain of this vessel, and you’re going to avoid assaulting a new, possibly intelligent species during first contact if you can help it. Beside you, Maryam slowly moves closer to the creature, smiling at it. She starts to offer a hand, but seems to think better of it.
“What is it, Captain?” Lalonde says as she enters. She raises her eyebrows when she sees it, but doesn’t say anything right away.
Captor seems to have the same train of thought as you. “Computer, how did the alien get onto the ship?” He asks the room.
“The alien life form was transported aboard the Skaia approximately one hour and five minutes ago, in a large specimen cylinder, container type D-8900. It has since moved through the ship, and arrived in the captain’s ready room seven minutes ago." The computer says.
Pyrope looks taken aback. “I never sensed that it was with us when we beamed up.” She tells you.
“It might have been masked by all the other specimens we collected.” Lalonde suggests. You nod. She makes a fair point – Pyrope would likely only have noticed one lifeform out of a whole group of specimens if she had been looking for it, especially if the lifeform had a consciousness that she couldn’t read the same way she read other sentient species.
Pyrope frowns, but doesn’t say anything.
Your door beeps. “Enter.” You say. Crocker and Vantas walk in. Crocker looks mildly surprised when she sees the enormous amphibian in your ready room, but Vantas stops short.
“What the fuck is this?” He says.
“It appears to be an alien salamander of some kind.” Commander Lalonde says. You hear the touch of sarcasm in her voice, and Vantas shoots her a death glare.
“The question isn’t just what this creature is, or even where it came from,” You say slowly. “The question is what to do with it now.” Your senior staff all mumble in agreement and you all sit in silence for a moment, contemplating that question. It takes several minutes before any of you have a solid suggestion.
“We should start by taking a full biological scan of the creature.” Doctor Crocker says. “It should help to get a baseline for understanding.”
“I think that checking the route that it took to get in here would help as well.” Maryam suggests, glancing over at Pyrope.
“I’ll take a team to look through the Jeffries tubes.” Pyrope says without even waiting for your order. You nod, and she taps her com badge. “Security Team to the bridge.”
You sigh. “I suppose we should figure out how to get the alien to sickbay.” You say, looking at the salamander. It glubs at you enthusiastically, and scampers over to you. Pyrope twitches towards you, but when the salamander starts to dance around you, she relaxes.
“I think it can understand what we’re saying,” Maryam says. “You might just be able to…ask?”
Everyone looks down at the alien, still dancing in a circle around you, and you clear your throat. “Well, uh,” You say. “Would you follow me?” The alien jumps up and down several times, glubbing at you enthusiastically all the while. “I’m going to take that as a yes.” You say, and lead your senior officers – and the four foot tall alien salamander – out of your ready room.
“Nurse, get me a medical tricorder.” Doctor Crocker says as she walks into sickbay. You trail her, followed by Vantas of all people. You dismissed Pyrope to her search of the Jeffries tubes, left Maryam the bridge, and dismissed Lalonde to her bed before following Crocker to sickbay, Counsellor Vantas in tow.
The nurse hands Crocker a tricorder and glances down at the alien. She beams at it, causing the creature to hurt over to her and begin jumping up and down once again. Crocker sighs.
"Come on, stand still will you?” She says to the alien. It bounces back to her, making the nurse giggle. “Hush, you.” Crocker says to her lieutenant, who stifles her giggles. Crocker scans the alien, and you turn to Vantas.
“This is certainly a more exciting day than I was expecting.” You say to him.
“How the hell did it even get on board?” He says, glaring at the creature.
“That’s Pyrope’s job to find out.” You tell him. “It seems like we beamed it aboard by mistake, but she’s looking into the details of it.”
Vantas nods, accepting your words without protest. Somehow, despite being his senior officer, this surprises you. “Where’s Megido?” He says after a moment, looking around sickbay as if he expects her to be standing in sickbay.
“I suppose that she’s likely moving her samples from the transporter room.” You say. Vantas raises one eyebrow, clearly unimpressed.
“Why don’t you just ask her, Captain?” When he calls you captain, the word is loaded with contempt. You don’t think he cares much for you as a leader, a fact that you’ve picked up on over the past few weeks, after the occasional derisive comment and a general apathy in his response to your orders. You wonder why he holds his distaste for you, but in the end you doubt it matters much. Personally, you find it entertaining to see this Junior Grade Lieutenant glaring up at you, five feet two inches of fury.
Even so, you’re not about to let him tell you how to run your ship, so you smile at him and then walk over to Doctor Crocker. “What can you tell about her physiology?”
The doctor raises an eyebrow. “Well, first of all, it doesn’t appear to have a sex as we would think of. It has an extraordinarily large brain, and its brain stem extends down through much of its back. It appears to have an intelligence about equal as that of a small human child. It has a very fast metabolism, and a complex digestive system. It has a high metabolism, and is much more agile than it would appear at first. It is a biped with opposable thumbs and strong forearms.” She pats it on the head.
“So it’s intelligent, why couldn’t Pyrope read it?” You ask her.
The salamander looks up at you. “Glubglubglubglubglub.” It says.
“I’m not sure.” The doctor says.
“Maybe she’s just not that good of a telepath.” Vantas says. You wonder how he got to be a counselor with that attitude towards his crewmates.
“Counselor, you know very well that she is a rather gifted telepath.” You tell him.
“Well, maybe this species just isn’t telepathic.” He says. You frown at him. What on earth would that have to do with anything?
“It is possible.” Doctor Crocker says though. She turns to you. “Some species have brains that are nearly impossible for any telepath to read because they don’t interact with the Psionic Field at all.” Huh. You suppose you should look into current research on telepathy, because you had only heard vague mutterings about the Psionic Field when you were in the Academy, and you haven’t kept up with the latest in neurophysics for quite some time.
You tap your comm badge, “Egbert to Megido.”
“Megido here.” Your badge spouts.
“Megido, report to sickbay.” You say, careful to avoid the counsellor’s eye.
“On my way Captain.” She says, and your badge clicks off.
“Hopefully she will be able to help us find some answers.” You say to Vantas and Crocker. They both nod in agreement, though Vantas raises an eyebrow at you as well.
Megido enters sickbay after about 10 minutes, during which Vantas huffs and stomps about, and Crocker takes as many readings from the alien as she can. When Megido walks in, Vantas looks up. Megido looks vaguely surprised when she sees the alien, as much as you suppose she can be surprised as an android.
“You’re here!” Crocker says to her, waving her over. Megido walks towards her but remains focused on the alien.
“I am here.” Megido repeats. Doctor Crocker hands her the reports of the tricorder scans and launches into an analysis of the alien’s physiology. Megido tears her focus away from the salamander and listens to Crocker, who is going into a bit more detail than you can follow. You watch the alien as Crocker details its physiology. It looks back at you, and skitters over to you, but doesn’t glub. It looks at Crocker for a moment, and then back to you.
When Crocker finishes her spiel, you look to Megido . “Do you know of any way that we could communicate with the alien? She certainly seems to be able to understand us, so it shouldn’t be impossible.”
“Well, it may not have any telepathic capacity,” Megido says, speaking slowly, almost hesitantly. “But it certainly seems to have enough intelligence to speak, so we should be able to remodulate a universal translator to accept its input.”
“I’ll ask Commander Harley,” You say. “In the meantime, Doctor, would you let Megido take your patient back to the xenobiology and morphology lab?” Crocker nods, and the salamander bounces over to Megido , glubbing up a storm. Megido looks down at it, pauses, and then picks it up.
“Careful!” The nurse says, and then gasps, covering her mouth with her hands.
“I am capable of knowing exactly how much pressure I am exerting, and of analyzing the specimen’s reactions to it.” Megido says. “I am always careful.” The nurse blushes. Megido turns around and exits, giant salamander alien in hand.
“Let me know if you figure anything out.” You say to Crocker. You turn to leave, and Vantas follows you. You look at him and raise your eyebrow. He crosses his arms, but says nothing. Crocker has already resumed her analysis of the alien vitals, and seems unaware of you and Vantas. You sign, and walk out of sickbay, Vantas hot on your heels.
You walk through the corridor to the turbolift, which you take to main engineering. When the turbolift doors open, Vantas stomps out in front of you. You have to keep yourself from laughing at him, the tiny officer serving as ships counselor is a doctor of psychology, you know that, but he is also absurd!
“Counselor,” You say after a moment of measured breathing. “Is something wrong?” He turns and frowns at you.
“Captain, there is an alien on this ship who has unknown intentions, unknown physiology, is from an unknown ecosystem, and we are treating it like a guest.”
“Counselor, Pyrope checked her intentions, Megido and Crocker are studying her physiology, and Megido’s xenobiology lab is studying the ecosystem she is from.” You say. “We are taking precautions, going over the ship to make sure that she has done nothing and there are no dangers to the crew of this ship. Until we find evidence to the contrary, yes, we will be treating this as the closest thing we can get to a first contact scenario.”
The counselor frowns harder (somehow). “I just can’t believe that a creature that was able to outsmart Megido and Pyrope once-”
“This is a competent crew,” You say, rubbing your temples. “They are competent officers, they can do their jobs, and if they made a mistake once, I trust them to work twice as hard to fix it!”
“Pyrope failed twice in a row!” He raises his voice. “You can’t actually trust her still, can you?!”
“I can!” You shout.
“Then you’re a shitty Captain!” You stare at him. “You have to be able to tell when your crew isn’t capable, and you sure as shit should be able to tell them when they could have broken the prime directive!” He shouts.
“Counselor, I understand how to delegate, and I believe that Pyrope is an able officer, and if your recommendation is that I relieve her of her duties then I am going to need some evidence from you.”
He stares at you for several moments. Then, Vantas turns on his heel, and marches back into the turbolift. You wonder: did he really just want to fight with you? Was that why he followed you halfway across the ship?
You walk into main engineering and look around, scanning the area for Harley. The glow of the warp core illuminates the whole room, basking it in a cold light. Many lit terminals line the walls, beeping softly. Several of your engineers appear to be running a series of standard, routine diagnostics on the warp core, and don’t notice it when you walk into the room.
Harley is halfway up a ladder, a utility belt with a handful of diagnostic tools slung over her shoulder – not clipped around her waist for some reason – talking to an officer halfway inside an access hatch. You stand by the warp core, right in the center of the room, and wait for her to finish.
When she does, you call up to her, “Commander!” She looks around and smiles when she sees you. She takes a few steps down the ladder, and then jumps off of it, falling almost ten feet. You take a step forward to see if she is okay, but she smiles and straightens up without your help.
“I’m fine Captain,” She says. “I’m more resilient than your average human.” She reminds you. You nod. You can certainly tell.
“I came down here to ask if you could remodulate the universal translators.” You say to her. “There’s an alien onboard and she’s clearly speaking, but the translators aren’t able to translate what she is saying.”
Harley frowns, her brow furrowed. “Hmmm…” She sits and thinks for several moments. Suddenly, she turns around and walks briskly to one of the standing terminals on the edge of the room. You follow her over, and see that she’s pulling up information at one of the terminals that is linked to the main computer.
“The translators in the ship’s computer are as much reliant on their linguistic interface as they are their calibration.” She tells you as she works, fingers flying over the terminal screen. “I can always reboot them, but it seems like what would be most helpful for you would be to reboot the translators with an emphasis on a language that is more closely linked to that which the alien is speaking.” She looks up at you. “I can reorient the translators, yes, but I’ll need additional input for the computer to process. A sample of the alien’s speech might just do it.”
You nod. “Let Megido know, she’s working with the alien right now.” Harley nods. You smile at her, and then turn and walk out of main engineering. You consider telling Vantas that Harley knows how to get the translators working with the alien, just to gloat, but then you remember that you’re the captain of a starship that houses 800 people, and you can’t gloat over your senior staff.
You walk through the corridors, headed towards the bridge, but thinking about the progress of this mission. You had been assured that the Skaia’s maiden voyage would be a simple survey mission, but this mission has turned into quite the adventure! You think about what Vantas said about Megido and Pyrope. What can you do to make sure that your counselor isn’t so disdainful of his crewmates? What could you possibly do to change the mind of this particular officer?
When you’ve entered the turbolift, you pause before telling the computer where you want to go. “Xenobiology.” You say after a moment. The computer chirps its acknowledgement, and you feel the hum of the turbolift moving. Your thoughts turn to the alien that stirred up all this in the first place, and you tap your comm badge.
“Egbert to Pyrope.”
“Pyrope here.”
“How is your progress coming along?” “We’ve found a dislodged vent that’s running off a Jeffries tube. We think that that’s how the alien was able to get into your ready room.” She says.
“Well, that’s certainly impressive. How did she know how to make her way through the ship though?” You wonder aloud.
“I couldn’t tell you sir.” Pyrope says.
“Keep up the good work.” You tell her. “I’m off to ask Megido that very question, and then I’ll be back up on the bridge. You can show me the vents then.”
“Aye Sir.” She says, and your comm badge clicks off.
The turbolift doors slide open, and you walk out into the corridor. It’s clear that this is one of the science decks, what with the slightly taller ceilings and wider corridors. Lab sections are always built with special care to accommodate most any experiment. As you walk towards the main xenobiology lab, you pass several nervous science ensigns and a security lieutenant who you presume is probably doing rounds.
You walk into the xenobiology lab, and wait a moment for your eyes to adjust. Megido has turned the lights down, and you see glowing samples in glass specimen containers scattered all over the lab.
“This way, Captain.” Megido says, somewhere in a corner. “The surface of this planet is very dark, so the alien is more comfortable in lower light.” She explains as you start to pick your way across the lab, your eyes starting to adjust.
“Harley is going to try to remodulate the universal translators,” you tell Megido. “But she’ll need a sample of the alien’s speech-” the alien starts to glub up a storm and you smile, “-So if you could get that to her, I’d appreciate it.”
Megido nods, and waves at one of her officers. “Tavros, get Harley her language sample.” He nods, and gets to work.
Megido’s comm badge beeps. “Harley to Megido.”
“Megido here. We’re working on your language sample right now.”
“Ah. Thanks, tell the Captain hi for me.” Jade says, and clocks off the comm. Megido looks towards you.
“Captain, Commander Harley says hello.” You smile. You love that all the research into Sung style androids has still failed to produce a positronic network that can truly understand figurative expressions.
“Thank you Commander.” You say. You’re about to excuse yourself to go check up on Pyrope, when Tavros pops up between you and Megido, looking back and forth between you. “Yes, Ensign?”
“Uh, I uh, I think I might’ve solved uh, part of the, the communication problem.” He says.
“Please explain.” Megido says.
“I uh, I’ve always had some… interesting abilities?” He starts. “I have an exceptionally high esper rating, and I uh, I can communicate telepathically with simpler life forms.” He pauses, taking a deep breath before continuing. “I didn’t know if I would be able to sense this being’s thoughts, but it turns out that I can.”
“You can communicate with the alien?” You ask.
“I-it seems so.” He stutters.
“But…how?” You wonder aloud.
“Captain,” Megido interjects. “There are some documented cases of humans with telepathic abilities. Your species is considered non-telepathic as a general rule, but there are several well documented exceptions. However, it is exceptionally rare.”
“How rare?” You ask.
“The last case that I am aware of was almost a hundred years ago.” She responds.
You look at the ensign before you and smile. “It looks like you won’t need to get Harley her speech sample after all.” You tell him.
“Ask it about its intentions!” Pyrope barks.
You have gathered your senior staff in the observation lounge, along with the alien and Megido’s ensign. Everyone has an idea of what to do, what to ask the alien, but when Pyrope shouts, you stand up, and everyone quiets down around you.
“This alien is a guest on the Skaia. She beamed onboard without our knowledge, but from the moment that we learned of her intelligence forward we must treat this as a first contact scenario. We can ask her about herself, and then use what we learn to figure out how to deal with this situation.” You say. You pause, before adding, “I believe that we will have to look to the prime directive to guide our decision here.”
“Tavros,” Rose says. “How much detail can you understand when communicating telepathically with this creature?”
“Uh, I think any direct thoughts or feelings I can pick up.” He says.
“Does it have any hostile feelings?” Pyrope says, banging her fist on the table. Tavros quakes visibly.
“N-n-no.” He squeaks.
“How did you know where to come?” Maryam asks the creature. She glubs wildly, looking all over the room as it speaks, and then looks to Ensign Nitram, waiting for him to translate her speech.
“Uh, it says, uh, it has a natural understanding of tunnels and pipes, and uh, just kind of wandered the tubes until it fell out.” Tavros says.
“It made a beeline for this room!” Pyrope says. “It can’t have had time to run around the ship willy nilly!”
“Calm down Commander.” You tell her, and she glares at you, but settles back into her chair.
“Captain, I must admit, I agree with Pyrope. There doesn’t seem to have been enough time for the creature to have ended up here.” Rose interjects. You sigh.
“Jade, from an engineering perspective, looking at the ship’s layout, is what the creature said possible?” You ask, hoping for a simple answer.
Harley leans in, placing her arms on the conference table and frowns. “It should be possible, if the creature has a love for verticals. There are some primary access junctions that lead up to deck one, if the alien likes to climb, it’s almost a straight shot from the transporter room to your ready room.” She says.
“Well,” Maryam says. “I suppose that solves that.”
“Great,” Vantas growls, slouched in his chair. “Now all we have to do is figure out if we’ve just accidentally violated the prime directive. Glad we’ve finished the hard part of this!”
“Come on Counselor,” Rose says. “Everyone here knows that the prime directive is the most important aspect of this meeting. Just because we solve our problems in the easiest order that we can doesn’t mean that the Captain has all of a sudden decided to ignore the prime directive.” Vantas glares at her, slouching even lower in his chair, but he doesn’t respond. You take a breath, glad that your FO decided to handle that for you. You’d rather not have your Counselor shouting at you again, however entertaining it is to see his scowl.
“So far,” You say, choosing your words carefully. “I don’t think that anything we’ve done has broken the prime directive. We haven’t interfered with the alien society, and any damage that has been done was unintentional.”
“We even took precautions.” Pyrope says. “I tried to keep watch.”
“So what can we do going forward?” Maryam says, looking to you and Rose.
“Well,” You say, looking at your FO. “I don’t think that we can just leave her on the planet. If we were to show this creature the whole of this ship, and then put her back into the very basic world she has just come from…” You trail off.
“That would indeed violate the prime directive.” Rose finishes for you.
The room is silent. You stand and walk over to the full windowed wall of the conference room. The planet spins beneath the ship, an enormous navy ball hanging in the vast emptiness of space. It’s beautiful, and you wonder if the alien really does have an idea of what’s going on.
“So we’re just going to take a sentient alien from an almost entirely unexplored planet and…what? Just keep it here? We’re just going to keep some random ass alien on this ship?” Vantas scoffs. Harley glares at him.
“Lieutenant, do you have another solution? Would you violate the one Starfleet policy that holds above all others, or are you just being a grump?” She says, clearly irritated.
“I figured that someone in a whole senior officer’s staff of a Starfleet vessel would have an idea of how to deal with this!” He groans, throwing his hands into the air.
“I can continue to study the creature’s unique psychic abilities.” Megido says.
“Because of her unique neurological interaction with the psychic field!” Crocker says, beaming over at the chief science officer.
“Precisely.” She says. "I can keep it on the ship for its scientific purposes."
You smile at your crew and look back out of the window. The cloud cover on the planet is thick, and the few spots that you can see through show a surface with an eerie glow. You’re reminded of the glowing fungi in the xenobiology lab, and you wonder how the planet’s ecosystem functions with such a strong apparent reliance on chemosynthesis.
“Does that address your concerns, Counselor?” Rose asks Vantas.
He sighs, and mumbles something that sounds like agreement. Harley chuckles at him, and he glares at her. Even your senior staff is fairly young, you realize. You don’t think you have an officer onboard that’s over 40! No wonder they’re all childish.
“Uh,” Ensign Nitram says from the corner of the room, where he’s been standing with the overly excitable alien. “I think, I think it wants to stay on the ship.”
“The lizard?!” Pyrope says, rather confused.
“Uh, it’s actually much uh, much closer to a salamander, but uh, yes.” He says. The salamander jumps up and down, apparently assuring the senior staff that what Nitram had said was true, nodding its head as best it can with its stubby little neck.
“Ask her if she has a name.” You say.
“…I, I don’t think that it does.” Tavros says after a moment. “At least, not one that I, that I can pronounce.”
“Come here,” You say to the salamander, which runs over to you, its little feet pitter pattering across the floor. You point down at the planet visible through the window, and the alien looks down at it. “That’s where you came from. We call it LOWAS I. We won’t be leaving for a few days, but I doubt that you will be able to go back there.” The alien looks at you. “We’ll be here for you.”
You hear Vantas murmur something about, “Giving emotional support to a giant amphibian,” in a rather disapproving tone, but you ignore him.
“Mind if I call you Casey?” You ask the creature, and Nitram pipes up, still on the other side of the room.
“It doesn’t mind!”
You laugh.
Captain’s Log, Stardate 68221.2. Casey has been a great help with the zoological survey on LOWAS I. Ensign Nitram has learned how to sense her species, and make sure that the survey team stays out of their sight. She has also given a good deal of information about the samples that Megido and her team have collected over the past several days. In her off time, she has taken up residence in my quarters. She seems to have taken to sleeping on a bed, and it seems like she and Commander Lalonde get along fairly well. We expect to finish up the survey within the week, and soon we will be receiving new orders. I only hope that the Skaia gets a break before our next surprise adventure.