Star Trek: Starbase 777

This place... it felt ancient. It didn't quite register from the height of the shuttle, but the trees here were huge, their leaves somewhat similar to those of ferns. It was a mixed forest, it's ground covered in low berry bushes and plants, with organisms visually similar to moss and lichen covering some of the tree trunks.

“Hellooooo bugs!” She said with her padd out for note-taking. “I hope you are feeling noteworthy today!”

"Lieutenant, if there were any small organisms in this area, you have just sent all of them into hiding." Rehszan said, tone light to indicate a gentle playfulness.

"It is unlikely bugs feel anything of the sort," One said in a deadpan voice.

"They do not, but they can experience stress, like most creatures." Resident Bug Expert chimed in, still carefully surveying the ground so as not to step on anybody hiding.

T’Loran’s first thought while she was in the forest was to look up. When she did, she couldn’t help but let out a little gasp. The trees were massive and ancient-looking, untouched and unspoiled. They were taller than any trees she had ever seen on Earth, with fern-like leaves and moss and lichen spiraling up their trunks in order to reach the sunlight. Sunlight came to the forest floor in speckled dots, lighting up her face as she looked up. “Fascinating..” She said, the awe obvious in her voice. She was your typical overexcited cadet having a blast on her first away mission, just under a thick layer of Vulcan emotional control. After taking a few seconds to marvel at the beauty of the trees, she scanned one with her tricorder, trying to get a sense of how old they were.

Five had their head on a swivel, looking from the trees to the bushes to the ground under her feet. "I wish I'd gone into science, so I had a chance at analyzing all of this," she said with an awestruck smile.

“You can look at my tricorder readings, perhaps?” T’Loran offered innocently. She’d be happy to explain as best she could (she was better with stars and astrophysics things, but she could explain a leaf or bug if she had to, with all the biology courses she had had to take). She liked sharing her science knowledge with other people, she was very much a nerd who liked it when people were excited about science things.

Several thousands of years, easily. The sounds of the forest apbruptly stopped upon the intrusion, but soon enough began again - alien bugs. If Rehszan stopped and just Looked, he could spot plenty of Weirdos sitting on the leaves and stems.

5

"Never too late to switch teams you know," he noted casually to Fives, following the squad as they ventured.

"Science would be lucky to have you," One told their friend, holding up their tricorder to Five. "I am not an expert on animals or plants, either. The tricorder readings are fairly plain to understand, though, it's only analysing them for deeper understanding that comes with training and knowledge."

"True. And technically, no one is stopping you from visiting a lab in a middle of an experiment or analysis," he added. Okay. We see what you are doing. Stop.

7

Maggie walked with the team. “Weirdos!” She said, pointing at the bugs with her mouth agape and looking towards One. Like the meme.

Twelve continued to hang around behind the group. One hand clasped on their medical kit as the other flitted to their tricorder, did so as they pulled it out and snapped it open. While they'd have never understanded the more sciency elements, Twelve had elected to do a scan for a moment. They just..had decided they wanted to.

"Oh, I'm too far in to switch up now," Five said sheepishly, waving it off. She was the assistant chief of operations, after all, what would Dagis think? "I'll take a look now, though, and come oversee something if I'm welcome to do so." She peered over One's shoulder to look at the readings. (edited)

"We do have gear that can be borrowed as long as it is treated with care." Evoras was only half listening the conversation, trying to figure out whether the wood of the trees might be of use in some way by scanning a few of the trees. This really was not her area of expertise, but if nothing else the reading might be useful to someone else.

T’Loran went back to scanning things, locating an alien bug on a branch and scanning it with her tricorder before it decided to fly off and land on her head. Carefully, she brought her hand up for the bug to crawl onto before letting it go back to its branch, stepping away to look at the scan results. She was still in awe at how ancient this forest was, the tricorder scans of the trees put them at easily thousands of years old, untouched all this time. She.. she didn’t want anyone to touch them. She wanted this planet to be left for further, more in-depth study.

Very sturdy wood. Old, too. Both are very sought after qualities.

"Weirdo is an impolite form of address for creatures that are just living their life." One held their tricorder to the plants around them, angled so that Five would be able to read as well. They were looking for soil composition, and what kind of native plants were feeding on that soil.

Rehszan zoooomed in with his PADD to get photos of the insects and trees alike, excitement buzzing through his circuitry as easily as the electricity that powered him. He did not say anything in fear of spilling into a ramble that would send the insects back into hiding, but let it be known he was having a fantastic time.

3

First and foremost, there was a decent layer of organic matter on top of the soil, aka humus - processed dead leaves, soil, and probably dead fauna, covered with a layer of mossy plants and creeper plants. Yummy! Deeper layers suggested topsoil with minerals and older organic matter, as well as clay and subsoil with metal salts. The plants here were analogous with what you would see in a mixed broadleaf forest - a very liberal equation, but not completely off.

1

“Hmmm.” She said, taking a knee to both scan and jot down notes. “This place is pretty cool! There’s topsoil with minerals!”

Great for farming!

4

"It is a good thing you scanned for that," Five said to One, "Do you want a hand collecting samples?"

"Do we want soil samples, or are the tricorder readings sufficient for the time being?" One decided to ask Saren, the actual biologist among the senior science staff.

"Well... actually, we could take the uppermost horizons for deeper analysis," he offered. "They're the ones that provide the majority of nutrients to the plants, usually."

One nodded, and sank to their knees to start collecting bits of topsoil. It had been a while since they did anything like this, but they'd come prepared, anticipating that they'd want to take things back to the station, too. So they got to work. "Then yes, I could use your help, Five," they said, looking up at their friend.

She beamed, getting down to lend a hand in collecting samples! "This is the most excitement I've gotten out of an away mission in a while. And the last one was fighting an overgrown torture program," Five laughed. (edited)

Neat little samples of soil horizons. Perfection.

"Should we proceed back to the shuttle?" Rehszan piped up, having taken his fair share of photos.

"Most of the wildlife probably fled as soon as it heard us, so I think we're done here," Saren agreed, after taking some of the bark samples.He felt a weird sense of deja vu, because he has done this before during the inspection of a ruined colony, but unlike that mission, this instance... this instance would become a happy memory. "Does your PADD still have memory left after all of that photographing, Lieutenant?"

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"Hardly," Rehszan admitted, complete with a low rumble of a chuckle. "It was not all spent on the forest, in fairness — I just happened to.. well, I got a bit excited."

1

"Cannot blame you," the Romulan gently nodded his head. "If I remember correctly, you've logged our trail. Can you determine the most optimal route back to the shuttle?"

"Oh, yes, of course! Just a moment." Rehszan blinked, and he was off through the forest, leading the way back to the shuttle!

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