Star Trek: Starbase 777

Sunshine lit up the place between vast space and blooming ground, creating an almost ethereal atmosphere as the light bounced off of the fluffy-looking clouds and hugged the shuttle's shadow as it merrily made it's way towards the chosen landing spot.

Teno looked out the windows in near awe. It had been months since shore leave, and he was enjoying the visage of this earth-like planet. He was very excited to land and explore more of it! "Prophets," he mumbled under his breath.

Maggie nodded as she looked out the windows. “I can see why you would want this as a colony world. Pretty.@

Vara'l settled back in his seat as he just allowed himself to relax for a moment as the pilot took the shuttle down. He glanced out the window nearest to him as they flew, did so and softly hummed. "Beautiful." His comment one uttered mainly for himself as he continued to watch out of the window.

Hanneth stayed in his sleep and relaxed until it was time to depart. His gear was ready.

The Annari man, who definitely entered the shuttle at the same times as everyone else did, had his eyes glued to the layers of clouds below - hoping to see the world he would possibly call home as soon as possible. "It is," he replied in kind, a ghost of a smile in his voice. "The planet is surely welcoming. A good first impression."

Five stayed very still, her eyes closed. The shuttle had many people on, which was making her squirm just a little— and peering down at the planet below would just make her queasier. She'd see how pretty it was soon! (edited)

Rii was sitting back minding their own business while quietly watching others in the background Their head detached effortlessly, floating toward the window as they peered outside. “Great colonies, it’s beautiful!”They exclaimed, taking in the breathtaking view. It was easy to see why this world had been chosen—lush landscapes, a promising atmosphere, and the kind of potential that made for a thriving colony.

“It’ll make for a nice place, I’d say,” Mavna said to the Annari with a soft smile. She’s the assigned doctor, yay! Hopefully she wouldn’t have to…do anything! The paradox of being a doctor is sometimes hoping you don’t have to do your job at all.

"Very lovely," Rehszan agreed, a smile evident in his voice even if his reptilian appearance didn't allow for very Much of such a thing.

She was hesitant to agree with them just yet, they did not know much about the potential dangers of the surface yet. The light hitting the clouds was visually pleasing enough however to prompt her to turn her head to look outside. At least this planet would have tolerable temperatures and no snow.

"It's a very smooth ride!" he piped up from where the helmsman was seated. "I think this will be a very pleasant mission you guys. Like, weather wise, for sure."

T’Loran was looking out the windows too- a tiny little surprised expression on her face. This was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen- fluffy, cotton-like clouds passing by, light bouncing through. It was breathtaking- and she knew it would only be more beautiful once they got to the ground. T’Loran was in awe.

“Well, at least we can count on the weather,” The doctor replied to Syrax with a small chuckle. Infinitely better than running around through unexplored terrain in the rain, that’s for certain.

"Oh, hey--" he briefly paused, angling his head to look at the console in front of him. "So, a quick question to the scientists here - how high up do birds usually fly? I think the sensor's picking up on a flock of local wildlife, and I don't want to spook them too bad!"

7

Teno looked to Saren, resident zoologist. “Not usually this high, right?” He sounded a bit confused but curious.

“Uhhhhh.” She looked out the window. “No not normally, well maybe some species on certain worlds but not normally.”

"That's good, at least," Five piped up in regards to the weather, remembering the bitter cold of the last away mission she'd attended and shivering. Oh, birds?

"Well, there have been reports on Earth of vultures flying as high as 11 kilometers, but that is highly unusual," Saren commented, now looking out into the window as well. "We do not know the conditions here, though... are they above or below us?"

"It depends on their size, and the planet," Rehszan popped in as a fellow Creature Scientist, nodding in solemn agreement. "How curious..."

Rii glanced at the team before speaking, their tone thoughtful. “Can we get individual scans on the wildlife? Specifically, the wildlife we picked up—if we gather enough data, we might be able to extrapolate useful insights through analysis before landing,” (edited)

Birds were very much so not his expertise, so T'Kastrir opted to let those more knowledgeable answer the question rather than three people give a similar answer.

Vara'l looked out of his window and idly looked to see if he could see any birds. As he did that he listened into the coversation as it continued. He was a tactical officer, not a bird..person..man...whatever the term was. If you wanted one of them stunned he could help! But like. This happened to be fairly far from his expertise.

"Below," the helmsman confirmed, just as he lifted the shuttle ever so slightly more above the clouds - just in case a flock decided to suddenly spring from under their metaphorical feet. "They almost caught up to us... "

Like dolphins, the local "birds" started to pop up from the clouds below the shuttle - breaching the clouds with their iridescent wings fluttering in the sunlight, before dipping right back under the clouds. There flock was sizeable, and the creatures were approximately cat-sized.

3

“Woahhhhh.” Maggie said as she looked outside. “So cute!”

T’Loran watched as the creatures flew past the windows, the light catching on their iridescent wings. It was stunning, though brief as they dipped back under the clouds. “Fascinating..” She said quietly, a touch of awe in her voice.

"Fascinating... They appear to roughly be the same size as the average Felis catus." T'Kastrir all but commented to himself as he looked out the window at the creatures beneath. He could not tell for certain if they were avian or flying mammals, so he decided it best to not refer to them as birds.

"Oh, incredible," Rehszan said softly, taking note of what he saw. Large flying creatures. Fingers crossed there were giant insects around, too.

Vanik gazed out the window after having shuffled in and settled with the reset of the away team. "Fascinating indeed."

Right. She would not add anything to the general consensus on the birds, but she too was watching them intrigued. She wondered what the reason was that they flew this high.

Just as suddenly as the display began, the flock dipped back under the clouds and disappeared from their collective sight.

Saren, who was watching the animals, turned towards Syrax when he heard a brief questioning noise escape past his cousin's lips: "What's wrong?"

"There's still a dot on the sensor, indicating that something's flying directly below us," the helmsman explained. "I guess the birds are still here? Maybe they're attracted to the shadows, or the shuttle's shiny surface. We're as alien to them as they are to us. Should we run a scan?.."

"That seems the safest bet. Hopefully we can avoid it long enough to safely land," Rehszan said, attempting to peer below. But unfortunately, no beans.

"Okay, let's just run the shuttle's scanner, even though I dunno how effective it will be with the interference but let's tr..." he paused. "Oh. Wait. The dot just moved in front of us--"

And just like that, the world became dark. From below, without a warning, a massive body emerged - if the previous flyers were fish, this one was a whale. The creature loomed over the intruders, it's massive wingspan blocking off the sunlight as the sleek reptilian body froze in front of the shuttle in a vertical position, the long, serpentine neck puffing out as the creature let out a low, low sound, one that resonated off of the shuttle's walls in rumbling vibrations. The gust of air hit the USS Drakkar's front with a hollow, muffled sound when the thing flapped it's wings and brought itself higher, disappearing into the clouds above them - the long tail with a bulbous tip snaking behind it.

5

6

The moment darkness fell, Rii’s head snapped back into place, reattaching seamlessly to avoid the risk of it drifting away. Their voice was sharp but measured as they issued commands. “Raise shields—yellow alert! Let’s not spook the creature. I want full scans on it now!”

The view of the lovely sunlight and clouds from the windows suddenly went dark. T’Loran, who was at a window seat, was a little shocked, letting out a quick little breath before getting herself back under control . The walls of the shuttle itself were vibrating in a way that T’Loran did not like at all, the low sound still very much audible to her, with hyper-sensitive hearing. She could see the massive creature looking over the shuttle, and she gripped the arms of her seat rather tightly as it went higher, disappearing into the clouds.

"Fascinating." She was not certain whether to be worried or in awe, but she did know that flying creatures this large were not particularly common. At least it had not instantly attacked them?

Maggie, who had not scanned the ground like an idiot that didn’t know how a very essential part of the setting worked, looked up towards the dragon. “Huh, dragon.”

Rehszan was stuck with his eyes wide open and gaze fixed on the place where the something had been. Massive, majestic creature, taking off into the clouds. Even the shuttle trembled with the power of it. "There is your dot, Lieutenant," he said quietly, voice full of awe.

“Prophets.” The doctor uttered softly, eyes widened at the sight of such a massive thing rocketing through the air as if gravity didn’t affect it. She clutched her med kit a bit closer to her chest. (edited)

"Holy fucking shit!" was the Romulan's reaction, which synced up almost perfectly with Saren's awestruck "Oh my fucking god?". "Y-yeah, yeah sure, let's - the shields are raised and the scans are running, sir. I feel so dumb for not realizing that something big was following us... I can dip us below the clouds - seeing the ground and not having any hiding spots for the Big Guy could be an advantage?"

..........Well then! Bahram got busy reconsidering his "good first impression" comment.

7

She looked to Bahram. “I feeeeel like you should find a new world. Well unless the dragon is cool actually, or talks and is chill!”

"This is an incredible scientific opportunity, even so.." Rehszan shook from his daze. "Ah— there is no need to belittle yourself, Lieutenant. You could not have possibly known. Finding somewhere safe beyond the eye of the beast is our best bet," he agreed, folding his hands in his lap.

Vara'l, having watched its approached and having moved to issue the commands that the Commander issued before he did, remained silent as he simply watched it out of the window for a time before it vanished out of view from the window. He then looked back into the interior of the shuttle. Looked back and considered the others with grey hued eyes. This seemed very much the scientific situation at present not a tactical one, it also seemed like the Commander had any decisions that might be needed on the tactical front presently in hand. He glanced to Rii after a moment of consideration and proceeded to say. "Commander, I can take tactical if needed sir."

"Respectfully, I do not think tactical is needed at this moment, sir. We are intruding on this creature's habitat, after all, what room do we have to attack it?" He interjected, slightly concerned about the suggestion.

“If anything they would have rights to attack us given this would be like, their airspace. Do dragons have airspace? Maybe!” She said with a hum.

"Airspace..." he murmured, thoughtful. "What if we accidentally wandered into it's territory?.."

Rii’s tone remained steady, their gaze flicking between the Lieutenant and Vara’l as they assessed the situation. “Bring us below the clouds—slowly. We don’t want to give the creature any reason to see this shuttle as its next meal.” *They turned to Vara’l with a firm nod. *“Vara’l, take tactical and coordinate with science. This one wants options based on the scans—let’s see what we’re dealing with. Someone from science, work with Vara’l to analyze the data. Let’s be ready for anything.”

Hanneth shrugged "Isn't part of exploring taking that chance and learning? If we did wander into its territory we learn from it and see if there's a way to avoid that. For all we know it marks it territory with pheromones and everything else on this planet has adapted to realize that means danger, potential mate, or symbiotic potential. It could be filter microbes from the air as it's meal and not be carnivorous. I might get down there and go into anaphylaxis because a flower is dangerous only to Bajoran physiology. It's part of the thrill and fun, and why we have a diverse team for these things." He grinned.

1

1

Having learnt about the many creatures, big and small, that reside within as well as outside the Federation, T'Kastrir didn't even bat an eyelid at the large creature's sudden appearance, despite how briefly ominous it could have been seen as by the others. The scientist could not help but agree with the Security officer's comments, considering them to be quite an accurate description of what might occur when visiting and exploring somewhere unknown.

“For my sake, I hope we don’t discover new allergies…” Mavna said toward Hanneth, giving him a small smirk. It’d be just her luck to not only have to break out the epipen, but also have her being an Orion/Bajoran not save her from the hypothetical ‘flower what puts Bajorans into anaphylactic shock.’ “Hopefully it’s just the Big Guy we have to worry about,” She paused, “In my medical opinion.”

Rehszan felt a bit of relief that tactical would be coordinating with science. "I am excited to see what we find." ..... "And equally nervous."

“Oooh oooh! What if it has Dragon Babies!” She said after Saren mentioned territory.

The entomologist visibly grimaced. "We will hope it does not, for our own sakes."

"Oh, babies... yeah that could be a problem. Hopefully we haven't stumbled upon a nest or something." Teno thought back to his earliest xenobiology classes. That could be a problem. Well, hopefully not.

“I agree.” Said T’Loran, as one dragon was quite enough for her. She had calmed down, though, enough to appreciate what a fascinating creature it was. She was a scientist above all- if she wasn’t curious about things like this, who was she?

Vara'l glanced to Lieutenant Rehszan, fixed them with a steel eyed gaze and moved to speak before Rii nodded to him. Any words crushed before they were uttered as he instead nodded once. "Sir, yes sir." He responded as he moved up to Tactical and slipped into the seat and checked the station. Once there he started to check the console and briefly considered speaking again. He thought better of that though and just focused on the data and the read outs. He might have something he wanted to say but well, it wasn't something he'd ever have elected to say. He'd offered something to Rii, hoped that by doing so he may help to allow the pilot to keep focused on well..flying. He'd offered that and had recieved orders. Orders he now followed as he started to look over the data and checked his readouts to ensure that no warnings had popped up that indicated any damage had been sustained or some such. Started to as he waited for a science officer to come along and assist, waited and idly tapped out the commands and popped up a copy of the data on the console as it flowed in to one side of him on the console so it could be easily perused by anyone else who looked at the console. (edited)

The shuttle was carefully dipped into the clouds - just in time for the massive creature to come back and fly over them, casting a shadow over the Drakkar's steely corpus. Thankfully, this darkness was self-inflicted and only lasted for a short while, and when the shuttle came out to the other side, there was light, and the green carpet of a forest stretching out in front of them. The reddish-brown and white creature dived to the shuttle's level some distance away from it, it's left striped wing tilted down as it went for a long, wide circle around the alien vehicle. The bulbous part of it's tail... was smoking?

3

2

Maggie looked out the window. “Woahhhhh! This guy is cool! I wanna be his friend.”

Vanik watched all of this unfold in front of him and simply blinked in surprise, very Vulcanly, and remained quiet. He would be prepared in the case that the shuttle needed emergency repairs...

She looked out the window, watching as the creature passed over them. Once it came into view again, she looked out again and saw it- its tail was smoking! She remembered a certain insect she had learned about in an entomology course in the Academy- a beetle which had chemical reactions going on in its body, which created extremely hot acid and smoke. “Fascinating.. it seems to be producing smoke. Almost like the bombardier beetles on Earth, with their superheated acid as a defense mechanism.” She mused.

Hanneth smiled. "My security team was once escorting university scientists to research a geological phenomenon on a mostly unexplored planet but we accidentally wandered into what was actually a huge herbivorous insect hive. They knew when we entered and quite literally nudged us out the nest gently but firmly and wandered off. A mammal that had wandered in also got gently kicked out. Our ships science team came up with a pheromone mix that let us go into to do the research without the bug equivalent of shooing a nosey chicken out the door with a broom. It was a fun one. Thankfully nobody fired any phasers or anything and we figured out a way to harmlessly do the mission. We're Starfleet and can make it work." Hanneth wasn't a scientist but he had faith in the team they could work through anything that came up. (edited)

3

Rehszan looked slightly horrified at such a comparison, pushing to get a look for himself. "Cadet, those beetles can heat acid to one hundred degrees, which is fatal to other insects. Something of that size—" Oh. Oh dear. Oh, this was very bad. "I strongly suggest we find somewhere to hide."

Mavna’s eyes lingered on the circling dragon. There weren’t many words for it, as she didn’t quite know what a dinosaur was and that’s what Maggie had called it before. Her grip on the medkit tightened once more with Rehszan’s comment, “Oh boy…” (edited)

“I concur with that suggestion.” She said, also realizing the implications of that comparison.

The plume of dark smoke followed the reptile like it was an incense burner, heavy enough to stay in place as it moved, billowing like that of a flare.

"Can we tell what the substance is?" He asked, looking out the viewport at it.

Grey hued eyes flicked to Rehszan, then to the cadet and then back to Rehszan for a moment before he looked to Rii. "I concur with the Cadet and the Lieutenant, sir." Vara'l declared then before he looked to the console again and checked the scans for any indications that might have suggested something like what they were saying, that what had been spotted was acid. He then also checked for other indicators that might be present as he also added. "Can a Science officer join me please?" He asked. "As the Commander has stated, I need assistance to analyse this data.." He requested as he looked at the console, continued to watch and observed whatever there was to be observed.

As a child, Mavna had been witness to one or two dogfights with her mother’s ship and…whoever she had made angry that day, really. Her face stirs from the quizzical look she had at the sight of the beast to one of worry upon putting two and two together…a flare. “If uh- If I may? Can we figure out what the substance is after we found a place to land or hide?” She offered, her gravely voice cracking slightly, “I think we might have some…company.”

1

Vara'l frowned a bit then. He could have really used someone to look at this data. It might have helped. But no matter, he mused as he looked at the dragon whenever it came into view, checked his console as well. "Commander, I concur." He commenced. "Recommend we attempt to break contact with this entity as the Lieutenant has suggested."

Rii nodded in agreement, their gaze fixed on the view outside on the giant thing. “This one agrees. Helmsman, break contact and find a place to hide below the clouds,”

"It's also hanging out on front of us. Maybe I should move back as well?" he offered, eyes still trained on the beast.

“Yes, but keep it controlled—if a gradual break isn’t possible, be ready to increase speed carefully,” Rii advised, their tone steady. They weren’t about to micromanage the helm, but they adjusted their position slightly, angling for a clearer view out the window.

The scientist that reached out to help with the analysis ended up being Saren: "This might take some time, with all the interference. But we got some scans. I'll be working on this as we... try to get away."

Speaking of getting away - Syrax nodded at the Commander's words, and started to slowly, slo-o-owly guide the shuttle backwards...

As the vessel moved further and further away from the circling beast, the creature's movements... eventually slowed down. Unfortunately, that meant that they couldn't reach the coordinates. Fortunately, an alternative #the-landing-spot was spotted on the scanner.

4