Star Trek: Starbase 777

It was growing dark by the time the away team's shuttles landed. Boots sunk into the mud, something moss-like clinging to the soles— the ground beneath them was still wet with the flood's aftermath. There was a bit of walking to do before you properly reached the colony.

Ev'kor was one of the first off the shuttle, boots squelching under him as his weight dispersed unevenly. He hoped there wasn't too much devastation to be fixed, but if there was, he hoped it would be simple to solve. He wasn't formally trained for disaster medicine, but had performed medicine in disasters often enough; a flood would be new but not unmanageable. He took in the surroundings, though with the dimming light, they were growing increasingly muddled. He hoped they'd be able to get a good pace going, so they wouldn't have to be in the dark for too long.

Karavix followed suit — she wasn't a medical officer, by any means, but she was more than willing to lend a hand, aiding in carrying supplies. She glanced around at fallen trees past the clearing they landed in, what she could see of the mess the flood had made. "I imagine it will get cold soon... Though, with the distance measured, I am certain we will make it before dark if we hurry."

Rozamal placed his cane on the ground in front of him with a hum, his cane having a small custom add-on, to allow him to move easier in the terrain, as well as a light attachment to the top. “Yes, and knowing our grand trope we will make it in no time!” He reassured Karavix.

Iviaan had just finished double- and triple- checking what supplies they had on hand. They brought up their keyboard with a flick of their wrist... "We should get going," they said, gesturing them all forward.

It had been, quite solidly, about a week since the whole ghost incident, and Allan was... pretty confident, after much discussion with his whole support circle and all that stuff, that he was ready to go on duty again. What better way to kickstart that than with an away mission, taking care of things after the bad thing had already happened? And hey, there were a lot of people he knew here already, so that was good, too! Seeing Iviaan double and triple-checking supplies caused him to do the same thing, though, as he moved forward with the group, taking care not to trip in any of the more wet patches of mud.

Stepping off the shuttle carrying a hefty backpack filled with even more immediate supplies and tools, Autumn felt a wave of nostalgia as soon as their boots touched the muddy floor of the planet's surface. Not many people know this - but in a world where Autumn never joined Starfleet, they would have been a farmer instead. First away mission in months and they managed to luck out! Winners stay winning. Autumn took a deep inhale of the distinct damp smell and brought out their PADD, pressing a few times on the screen. "At least it looks to be a clear night, this could be a great area for stargazing."

Jayrehi stepped out behind all the others, adjusting her utility belt as she did. Mentally, she recounted all the things she brought. Nothing should be missing, but knowing her own luck, that was never a guaranteed thing. At the very least, she had quite a bit of gear. Most in her toolbox, of course. Although it had been while since she stepped foot on a planet. The mud felt stranger than it should have been, but she was glad to be back on it, even if the circumstances weren’t great.

After hopping off the shuttle, Hal Gertie shook some of the mud that attached itself to his boots off absentmindedly. As terrible of a travesty as this was, he was looking forward to working with people again. Patrols, security sweeps, phaser checks-- none of these were the reason that he had joined security, as ironic as that sounded. He liked to use his experience to help people, and sometimes when all he did was shoot at things it was easy to feel like he wasn't.

Victoria wandered out of the shuttlecraft with tricorder in hand, tossing it spinning into the air and catching it idly as she surveyed those around her against the backdrop of their surroundings. Flood relief wasn't exactly what she had the most experience with, as unthinkable a circumstance as it was back home. The cooler air would provide a bit of a change of pace, if nothing else, and it wasn't something she could complain about. She had opted to take a backpack of supplies from the pile, too, which hung from one shoulder while off the other slung her regular pack of medical supplies. Grimacing briefly at the nearest other officer when her boots found the mud, she trudged on in trail of those before her.

Having conducted the triple check that her sense of preparedness had mandated of her twice, the checks approached with Borg efficiency, Twelve stepped out behind the others. Silent as she moved and by the goddess she felt like a she today, Twelve of Twenty looked about herself as she idly noted the feel of the mud under foot. Noted it and shifted her position and adjusted how she walked as her mind proceeded to make a mental note of the fact she would definately need to clean her boots after this. Such a small thing that Twelve twitched and only just suppressed a biological response best identified as a snort. A inefficient display of emotion that Twelve honestly reckoned wouldn't be appropriate given the situation. "I concur, we should get going."

Actually, scratch that bit about knowing everyone here. Among others that were now arriving, he happened to notice an engineer he'd seen every now and then between shifts, but, you know - with so many officers, it was hard to know them all. Didn't stop him from trying, though. So, he walked up to her, making sure he didn't scare her too suddenly before he spoke. "Hey, I... don't believe we've met before," he said with a smile, "I'm Allan."

One emerged from the shuttle too, bag with their tricorder and a few PADDs over their shoulder. They wanted to be ready to both monitor the environment, in case the earth was destabilised due to the floods or the weather was going to take a nasty turn again, and also the people, something they were actually specialised in.

She blinked for a moment, the cogs visibly turning in her head as her mind broke free from it’s train of thought. “Oh- heya!” She smiled, waving her hand a little. “I believe we haven’t. You’re… the ACEO, right? I’m Jayrehi. It’s a pleasure to meet you!”

A rare T’Loran appearance! Cautiously, she stepped out of the shuttle, her boots sinking into the mud. The mud and the moss actually made it quite hard for her to walk. But, even with the mud and her short legs, she managed to keep pace with the others, tricorder in hand to keep an eye out for any instability in the soggy ground. The last thing anyone needed was a mudslide.

Allan was very used to that whole cogs turning in head moment himself, so he completely understood and waited quite patiently for her brain to catch up. "Yep! That's me. Jayrehi, it's nice to meet you too - how long you been on the station? I wanna say that I've like, seen you around maybe here or there for a while, but I'm not, like, sure sure, ya know?"

As the team came closer to where the settlement was meant to be, a river came into view alongside them— not too far, but not immediately nearby.

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Silver, by contrast, did not mind the mud one bit. He barely noticed it as he slogged forward, just as much pep in his step as he would have on solid ground. He was fully charged, and he would not get tired for the whole day, maybe more, even in these conditions. Being towards the front, his sharp eyes caught what lay ahead- a river. He supposed that this was the river that caused the flooding.

Having hung around the back of the group as they all headed off the shuttle, Vara'l had elected to carry an additional medical kit for Twelve. He had done that and ensured that, when he'd prepped for this mission, he'd ensured he'd brought along things that seemed the most useful. Not that he suspected he'd gotten that completely down right.

Autumn looked over towards the river as they walked - oh yeah, that was absolutely the culprit of the flood. "If we have time, do you think they'd let us go fishing?" While Autumn did recognise the clear and present call for aid, there was a tiny part of them that was treating this mission a bit like a hike or a field trip (for lack of a better word).

“Come along everyone, we must make some good time if we want to help tonight.” He said, leading the group near the front, surprisingly fast for a man with a cane. (edited)

"Depends what the current's like, I think," Allan said to Autumn as he also looked over towards the river, "I'm not sure, though, I... actually don't know too much about rivers and like, what the condition of the fish is like after a flood. If only there was like, a really handsome scientist who did..." he looked behind him, as if that would make one appear.

"There will likely not be many bigger fish for catching currently. They will have washed further downstream with the strong currents, and will need to make their way back upstream first," replied One, who was definitely not the handsome scientist Allan was talking about.

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Allan grinned when One answered him, because hey, you know what, they still counted! At least, in his opinion. "Gooootcha, alright, thanks, so - what I'm hearing," he turned back to Autumn with a smirk, "is that after this, the fish might have had enough time to do all that. Maybe."

"We can scan for animal life after completing our mission," One concurred.

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"You can pull interesting junk out sometimes. I used to do that any time it flooded on my home planet. Comb the river for scrap." He nodded. He tactically decided to leave out the part about selling that scrap after he pulled it out.

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Okay, upon that added bit about scraps, Allan looked even more thrilled. "Okay, well now you've got me wanting to look in the river even more after this," he said, looking over at this guy and assuming that he wasn't an engineer, because he felt like he knew of all the higher ranking officers in the department, but maybe he didn't... "it flood on your home planet a lot?"

Trudging along in the mud, Victoria found herself siding up next to a science officer she hadn't met, making more use of her tricorder at the moment than Victoria was. She made a soft "hm" noise with a long exhale, mostly just to get the officer's attention, as she glanced off towards the river. She spoke, although her interest in the scenery was prolonged, gaze affixed even as she made conversation. "Doesn't get very wet where you're from, either, huh?" she asked, on account of their efforts getting through the mud.

"I don't know if I would say a lot, but it certainly wasn't never. I also lived near the coast, so it wasn't uncommon to get storm surges." Hal Gertie shrugged, replying to Allan. "How common are floods where you come from?" He was suddenly doubting he knew how many floods counted as a lot. Of course if you grew up on a starbase, even one was probably 'a lot'.

"Please don't go looking for scraps. We'll have enough to do without having to patch up officers that fished out old explosives..." Mirrim didn't know particularly much about this colony, but she didn't actually think it was particularly likely they would find something dangerous, she really did not care to find out though. (edited)

He nodded. “The doctor speaks true, do no go looking for scraps.”

"We have a whole season for floods on Caprica, way back when it was first being settled the early Capricans built channels to try and direct the floodwater into more useful areas." 'Way back' in this case meant about 140 years, not long at all compared to some other colonies in the Federation.

After ensuring that the Starfleet shuttle got to the surface of the planet safely, Syrax also exited the vessel to join the away team - not for any of his command skills, at least unlikely so, but moreso as an additional muscle. There were supplies in need of carrying, after all. Another set of hands helped him stabilize the boxes in his arms, to which the Romulan grunted a thanks as he shifted his weight around.

The smell of petrichor was outpaced by the smell of a freshwater river and slick mud. Saren patted his cousin on the arm after helping him out, urging him to follow, only to then fiddle with the settings of his flashlight. The two ended up situated to the back of the group, so the light he could provide could benefit everyone. Hopefully the fellow officers were also smart enough to not turn around and stare directly at the light. They had medics on the team, yes, but such fixes seemed to be trivial in comparison to the issue at hand. Speaking of the medics... he could swear that the tall kin of theirs was vaguely familiar.

"I mean, just like the fish, we're gonna scan for them, not just gonna go right in there. Promise." He said to the doctor with a solid nod, truly meaning that! He was like, an actual trained professional, he knew better. "Ahh, well, floods weren't like - I mean, I lived on an island where it used to be pretty common-ish, but you know, Earth and its whole weather modification net and all, so when I grew up, not really any I can recall, actually. Guess I'm pretty lucky for that," he explained to Hal, then looked at Autumn again, "a whole season... I don't know how I'd handle that, personally." (edited)

.. ah. Well. Interrupting the trail was a massive.. puddle? Pond? And just beyond it lay the colony, but it was blocked off by uprooted trees laid criss-cross, creating a sort of barrier.

Huh. Hal Gertie was thrown off of the conversation about flooding by the pond. "A precaution on behalf of the locals, maybe?" He suggested, eyeing the barrier. That was what he hoped, at least; not something specifically put up to keep people out or trap people inside. Either way, they'd find out as they got closer, so in the meantime he pulled out his tricorder to scan for anything harmful in the water.

"Do we feel like climbing today, or should some of us work on moving those trees?" Couldn't be too difficult with that Vulcanoid strength, right? Ev'kor was a lot more concerned with the barrier to the colony than the puddle, personally.

"If they were logs, perhaps. Uprooted entirely. Seems unlikely, " Iviaan's TTS answered as he looked up from maneuvering around the oddly shaped shallow pond. "What is holding them together?" (edited)

Diahjir was there, and definitely had been there the whole time. He wanted to help, after all, he was a medical professional. He was concerned about the barrier -- why was it there?

Puddles and uprooted trees were an expected thing post-flood, but Saren couldn't help but grow curious of this arrangement. After he delegated his flashlight to Syrax, he picked up any long stick he could find near the fallen trees, and cautiously approached the edge of it. He began to submerge it, planning to both see the depth of the puddle, as well as feel the structure of the invisible bottom, and catch any debris swimming in it. While a tricorder could probably tell him the numbers, physical evidence was easier to interpret.

"Gravity, as far as I can see," Ev'kor replied, the trees interlocking mostly by virtue of how they were laid, from what he could tell.

Lieutenant Shay had been quiet the whole time, carrying some supplies as she followed the group. Finally, she stopped next to Iviaan, glancing down at the shallow pond. She knelt down next to it, taking out a tricorder and beginning to scan the water. Just to make sure nothing was in it.

Ezran had been here the whole time. The large Aenar standing off to the side watching over the group as a good security officer should, he assessed the situation up ahead as best he could with his vision. "I'm happy enough to lend a hand if any large trees need lifted. Should be able to clear enough of a path to get the group through."

It was shallow, maybe only half a meter deep. The mud was still soft and spongy at the bottom. Whatever organisms had settled were mostly insects laying eggs, but it was most certainly river water. The puddle seemed to be freshly formed..?

She stayed there for a moment, analyzing the readings. The puddle was freshly formed, which she assumed had simply formed after the storm. She stood back up, putting her tricorder away. “Seems like river water,” she announced, “is there a river nearby?” She had to be sure.

Yep!

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Allan turned to Autumn, or whoever was closest to him, and whispered. "So, like - have you ever heard about like, the whole Bigfoot story? Do you think that, like.." he tilted his head as he looked at the puddle.

"Yeah I have, but I swear he wasn't that big?" Autumn replied, turning to Allan. "I mean, would it be easier to just... go around?"

"The faster we clear the way, the faster the medical officers can get through." Looking closer, there was an attempt at keeping the trees glued together by packing mud.. maybe the colonists were behind it after all?

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"Anyone else feel like getting their hands dirty?" Ev'kor offered, moving to stand beside Ezran who had already offered to help.

*He pulled the stick out of the water, his brows furrowed. Using his fist, the scientist tried to push into the non-dented ground near him. Would it be too dense for him to push through, and end up shallow and uneven - unlike this giant, oddly perfect shape? *

"Getting my hands dirty is what I came to do," Karavix answered, popping up beside Ev'kor and Ezran.

She stood over the puddle, furrowing her brows. Even though this seemed like a perfectly normal puddle of river water, something just seemed… off. Not to mention that rectangular shape. She made her way over to Saren, folding her arms. “Is it just me, or does this puddle seem off to you?” She whispered, kneeling by him.

"Well, that's Earth's Bigfoot, so maybe it's like... a really big version... or-" he squinted as he looked at the puddle, noticing that those were some... really straight edges for any sort of natural occurence. "Really uh, really big... robot..." he looked around, trying to see if there were any other puddles in sight, "really big flamingo robot Bigfoot?"

The impression was shallow and uneven, yes. How interesting. (edited)

Ev'kor handed his medical supplies to Iviaan, who he was going to assume politely wasn't going to be helping with moving trees, and made for the dam, starting to pick trees off the top to methodically dismantle the dam without trees going everywhere.

Correct assumption, he would be fine holding things from the sidelines. Go team go!

Hal Gertie joined on the other side of Ev'kor, untangling roots and pulling apart mud, trying to make a sufficiently wide path

Eicran was another person who had definitely been here all this time, walking alongside the other medical officers. Despite the circumstances of them being here, given the flood and the fact they had been called in to provide aid, this walk was almost pleasant. The fresh air and forest environment made for a far nicer atmosphere than that of the last away mission - i.e. the Borg cube - although they could have been doing without the squelching mud.

Victoria, with her two bags full on either shoulder, watched the uprooted trees and slouched forwards, promptly deciding that she would be of absolutely no help here unless someone found themselves unlucky enough to score a splinter.

Leaving his cargo on the driest patch of surface he could find (read: damp as hell but would suffice), and angling the light at the tree, Syrax went over to join the dismantling!

Diahjir also went to help move some of the trees -- even if he wasn't the strongest of people. He could help, no matter how little help he was, it was still something.

Lieutenant Shay looked up to see them moving the logs from the dam, and she realized she should probably help. She wasn’t as strong as, say, a Vulcan, but she was stronger than a human. Surely that had to count for something. So, she stood up and made her way over to the dam, putting her tricorder away as she lifted a log with a heave, putting it over her shoulder as she carried it over to where the pile of logs was growing nearby.

He briefly glanced at the approaching person - moreso out of reflex for movement that didn't approach him head-on: "Sometimes puddles form in the middle of the road because its already a low point, or the earth there is loosely packed. But for one to be so geometrically uniform... it just feels like something artificial. An imprint, perhaps. Maybe a shuttle? Or something underground? I'm unsure. And even if I wanted to find out, any evidence would already be washed away." The sense of something being off didn't dissipate even as they left, even as he stood up and moved on to help people along with their reverse beaver-like activities.

He moved with the others from the group, finding a good spot to start and began to help with moving the trees, anything to make the job easier for the rest of the team.

With a small path successfully cleared, they were free to carry on to the #colony-outskirts. (edited)

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