Lt. Robin Hopper & Lohani Vananth-Polgonz: Lt. Robin Hopper: Clear Communication (Part 1)
Robin Hopper
((OOC Note – This was getting rather long (sorry, been a bit busy!) so I’ve split my content into two posts. There were a couple of extra tags left for Tani Lekasa in Ukinix’s last sim. Since they are waay back up there, I am not including them below, but I wanted to note their existence so Rivi doesn’t miss them!))
((Idrustix – Mid-Islands Region, Island Four))
As the group trekked along up the gentle hillside towards the island’s distant central volcano, Robin examined her initial tricorder results. Despite holding a doctorate in physics, and not biology, she could still feel the surge of excitement that came along with discovering new forms of life, never documented before.
She’d had a lifelong interest in simple biology through her inherited love of plants. Her parents, hydroponic farmers, had instilled her with a love of growing things and botany. Of course, she had studied alongside many keen biologists at Starfleet Academy during her time there, expanding her understanding of the various disciplines that made a well-rounded Science Officer and aboard the Wall Street, she’d often poked her head into other labs to see what they were up to.
Taking a look at the little creatures her tricorder was detecting, she felt ecstatic. oO And they’re so darn cute, too! Oo
Hopper: I’m detecting minimal fauna in this area – not unlike what Son Dro’s team and your team found during your earlier expeditions, Commander. ::Explaining:: There are significant populations of burrowing insects – a similar morphology to the ones Lieutenant Wong discovered – and the scanners are detecting a variety of other small reptiloid creatures amongst the brush, though they seem to be keeping their distance.
Iko: Can you check for uh… toxins? In the lil reptilian guys? I really don’t want Wong to have to make an Anti-Venom on the spot…
Commander Ukinix addressed that particular concern, taking a look at his own scans.
Ukinix(H): From all reports it’s not a strong venom anyway. ::looking at tricorder, reassuring tone:: The reptiles are keeping away. They’re more scared of us than we are of them, just like home Bec.
Robin nodded. The species they had found were no bigger than small lizards. They appeared to be equipped with the necessary organs for delivering a venomous bite – but, at a glance, they appeared almost vestigial. Perhaps a lingering adaptation from a bygone ancestral species. Either way, they were nothing to worry about.
Hopper: Then of course there’s a ton of microbial life – including our friendly bacterium, Lucia. ::Looking around:: Anybody ‘feeling’ anything?
Lohani: I am quite well. ::Smirking:: Though the urge to throw off my clothes and run through the trees is strong – I don’t believe the bacteria is having any effect on me. ::A look to Lekasa and Ukinix(H):: How are you both faring?
oO Well, that’s certainly a visual I wasn’t expecting… Oo Robin had heard of the more ‘intense’ effects that the bacteria had on telepathic species. In fact, she’d been sure to request the full inoculation suite from Ikaia out of an abundance of caution – some Centaurans had been known to develop empathic and telepathic abilities, though these were rare. As a half-Centauran / half-Human, who normally experienced no such abilities, it was unlikely that she would be affected… but the thought of throwing off her uniform and vomiting in the grass was plenty of reason not to take the chance.
Ukinix(H): I’m feeling pretty good. ::Shrug, Looks at Tani::
Tani shook her head, then looked over at Lohani.
Lekasa: I'm feeling quite content with keeping my clothes on, if that's what you're asking.
Hopper: ::To Bec and S’Raga:: You two doing okay?
Bec nodded, indicating that she was fine. Robin looked to the Caitian Ensign.
S'Raga: Yes, I'm not feeling any effects of the bacteria either, which, if you've ever seen a Caitian sneeze, you'd know is a very good thing.
Robin chuckled at that, wondering if it was anything like a Klingon sneeze.
Iko: But have you ever seen a Klingon sneeze?
Bec verbalized her exact thoughts and Robin couldn’t help but snort in an effort to avoid bursting out laughing. She held a hand to her face and tried to play it off like she was just coughing – and was grateful when a ping from Ensign S’Raga’s tricorder drew everyone’s attention.
S'Raga: Commander, I'm reading signs of ionization of the atmospheric constituents around us. It's most likely another effect of the barrage of coronal mass ejections.
Ukinix(H): Bad? Do we need to beam back to the Kitty Hawk?
Hopper managed to control herself enough to walk closer to the H/C/O, peering at his tricorder results with interest. She adjusted the settings on her own device, looking at the incoming data from the planet’s upper ionosphere. The atmospheric scanners set up by the previous team had been recording data consistently for some time – allowing for comparative analyses.
S'Raga: No, it's not enough activity to cause us any harm, but it looks like the ionization is increasing as we get closer to the peak of the volcano. It may cause a disruption in communications if we keep going in that direction.
Lekasa: I'd prefer to stay in communication at all times with the Kitty Hawk, if it's all the same...
Hopper, still examining the results, nodded absent-mindedly as the others discussed.
Lohani: ::Walking back from the front of the group:: Is there anything we should be worried about?
Ukinix(H): What are the potential impacts?
S'Raga: If the ionization levels get too high, it could damage all of our electronics, even our phasers. So far, we've only every observed that kind of level of activity at the planet's poles, but I still think it's strange to see these kinds of readings at this latitude.
Iko: ::whispering to herself:: Well $#@&...
That broke Robin’s concentration. She looked up from her tricorder at the others, wondering why exactly everyone was so stressed about a bit of excess ionization on a world situated at the edge of its sun’s habitable zone… It clicked, after a moment, that there had been a situation on one of the other potential Betazoid colony worlds resulting in several deaths – nearly Ms. Lekasa’s – and everyone was still feeling on edge.
Ukinix(H): ::Whispered Command tone:: Lieutenant Iko.
There was a moment’s hush as Ukinix turned his attention back to S’Raga.
Ukinix(H): Alrighty, keep monitoring it. If there’s any risk at all, no matter how small, call it out. Then we can decide on a course of action.
S'Raga: Aye, Commander, I'll keep an eye on it. In the meantime, I might suggest we deploy one of our comms signal boosters right away, just as a precaution.
Ukinix(H): Good stuff, Ensign, I’ll give you a hand. ::To everyone else, smiling:: Grab a water, let’s have a two minute break.
S’Raga took off his pack and began setting up the comms booster, with Ukinix assisting. Hopper stood by for a moment, looking back to the readings on her tricorder, before chiming in.
Hopper: Good call, Mr. S’Raga. Better safe than sorry. ::To Ukinix:: I think when it comes to the planet’s atmospherics, we should probably continue to expect the unexpected. While you two boost comms, I’ll identify some additional metrics we can start tracking, hopefully give us a little more warning of anything else to come…
((Meanwhile, Aside))
While the Starfleet crew set up their equipment, Lohani stepped aside from the group, looking down the hillside at the tropical canopy below. They hadn’t gotten that high up the gentle slope yet, the tops of the trees only just revealing themselves, but already she was beginning to feel a little more ‘at home’ – the view reminding her of looking out over the verdant jungles that surrounded her estate on Betazed.
Lekasa: So what do you think?
Perhaps Lekasa had sensed her warm feelings as she thought of home. The truth was that she couldn’t be much further from home. The Sixth House’s interest in colonization was, as were many things since the Dominion War, motivated by a desire to re-kindle the spark of Betazed’s better days – to help their people look to the future with hope once again.
What had been a disaster for many of the other Noble Houses had been a boon for the relatively-young upstart Twentieth. With no significant assets on the homeworld, their resources had not faced the same sort of pillaging and destruction that the others had felt – their assets merely growing as folk fled from occupied space to greener pastures.
Lohani: I think it has potential.
Lekasa: I would imagine once the infrastructure for the colony site is constructed, communications won't be an issue, but I'm wondering how much that will affect the initial survey and construction.
Lohani turned to face Lekasa, appraising her. She could sense the woman’s nerves. The frontier wasn’t for everyone – yet she had a certain conviction in her character that Lohani admired. The fact that she was old friends with Daughter Niarivi was also in her mind.
Lohani: ::Smiling:: All ventures such as this will experience growing pains. But if the history of Betazed can tell us anything, it is that we will weather whatever storm is brought upon us… We will learn what we can and prepare as best as possible.
Lekasa: Response
Lohani: I know you are not fond of the noble Houses – perhaps you’re not very fond of me. I live my life in service to Betazed, her people, and their needs. ::Reaching out and placing a hand on Tani’s shoulder:: I will look out for you.
((OOC – We can continue backsimming here if you like))
((Back to the group))
Iko: While you guys get Comms shenanigans happening, I’m gonna try to find something so that we’re all good if the Ioniziness kicks out the phaser.
Robin smiled at the term ‘ioniziness’, but said nothing. She had removed her backpack and taken out her PADD, establishing a few scanning protocols to monitor the live atmospheric data. While they were already monitoring for risk factors such as coronal mass ejections, radiation and charged particle bombardment, and upper atmospheric destabilization, Robin wanted to more closely monitor the local bacterial colony’s behaviour.
While they lived in the atmosphere rather like plankton in body of water, moving to-and-fro with the air currents, their numbers were still significant enough to create visible clouds during ‘blooms’ – periods of high solar activity that caused the massive reproduction of the microbial life. Keeping a closer eye on these blooms might help the team develop a more robust predictive model of atmospheric activity… and (hopefully) avoid some future problems.
Ukinix(H): Well hopefully we won’t need any weapons. ::To S’Raga:: What do you need me to do now?
S’Raga: If you work on synchronizing the subspace frequencies, I’ll start calibrating the amplificator module to account for atmospheric distortion.
Hopper: Once you have the booster operational, I’d like to send this packet to the Science Team on the Kitty Hawk as well. We may as well have two sets of scanners looking at this data – especially given the added clarity of scans performed beyond the planet’s Kármán line.
Bec, finished rifling through her bag, returned, asking for a status report. Their two Betazoid guests also returned, evidently drawn in by the sense that the comms booster was nearly deployed.
Iko: How you guys going?
Ukinix(H): I think we’re almost there. Ensign?
S’Raga: ::Still typing away at the control panel:: Just about! I’m just encrypting our comms channel, and we’ll be good to go.
Robin turned to Vananth-Polgonz and Lekasa, trying to offer a reassuring smile. While Daughter Lohani seemed condescendingly unsure of them – Tani was evidently still feeling nervous.
Hopper: I doubt we’ll have anyone trying to listen in… All the same – ::A look to Bec:: – I guess it’s prudent to be cautious.
Iko: We’ll be fine…
Ukinix(H): Of course, Bec will be able to respond if something were to happen. And all Starfleet officers are trained to respond and support Bec. But the only thing we’ll need to point our phasers at for the moment is if we accidently stand in a nest of those purple and green ants.
Lohani: And the Kitty Hawk?
Robin’s PADD pinged a happy chirp. She looked down and saw that the interference in the comm-line back to the Galaxy Class ship had cleared up.
Hopper: Looks like Ensign S’Raga has kept us connected. ::To Lohani, Lekasa, and Bec:: Pardon me a moment…
With that, she stepped aside, walking over to the rounded ‘edge’ of the embankment they were walking up. As she looked out over the tropical island-scape below, she tapped her commbadge.
((Aside, out of earshot))
Hopper: =/\= Kitty Hawk, this is Hopper… Lieutenant Kivik – we’ve just set up a comms booster down here. =/\=
A brief pause.
Kivik: =/\= Uh, sorry – I was nodding… Yes, I see that. The signal’s coming through strong. Ionizing radiation? =/\=
Hopper: =/\= Exactly. I’ve sent through a packet with some additional metrics I’d like to keep an eye on, especially from your end. You’ll have a clearer ‘picture’ from your coordinates. =/\=
Kivik: =/\= Understood. We’ll keep our eyes on you. Let us know if you need anything. =/\=
Hopper: =/\= Much appreciated. =/\=
((Meanwhile, in the main group))
S’Raga: ::Standing up:: Alright, that’ll do it!
Ukinix(H): ::To S’Raga:: Is it good to go? I can do the honours and test it out.
Ukinix(H): =/\= Ukinix to Kitty Hawk, this is a test of a deployed comms signal booster. =/\=
Phan’ta’go: =/\= Hello this is C’lem Phan’ta’go, can you hear me? =/\=
Ukinix(H): =/\= Ok great, the signal booster’s working then, thanks Crewman Phan’ta’go. =/\=
Phan’ta’go: =/\= Can you hear me? =/\=
Ukinix(H): =/\= ::slightly annoyed tone:: Yes, we can hear you C’lem Phan’ta’go. Can you hear us? =/\=
Phan’ta’go: =/\= Yes Commander, I could hear you before, it’s just that you didn’t answer my previous question. =/\=
Ukinix(H): =/\= ::Pursed lips:: Mmm. ::Long pause:: Ukinix out =/\=
At this point, Robin returned, clipping her mini-PADD to her hip and returning the tricorder to her hands. oO Looks like we’re all sorted, then. Oo
Ukinix: Righto, let’s keep moving. ::To Lohani:: Daughter Vananth-Polgonz, ::looking at tricorder:: there’s a ridge up ahead that leads to a valley with a clearing, that might be a good place to check out. And a slight drop in altitude might help avoid the ionization issues – but we won’t know that until we get there.
Lohani: ::Frowning, slightly:: I’d prefer the colony to have a view. It might sound superfluous now, but I can assure you that it will do wonders for morale when the colonists are here, lightyears from their homes on Betazed… ::Sighing:: However, I’m in no rush. Let us investigate this valley and see if it is as you say.
Ukinix(H): As you wish, Daughter. ::To Hopper:: What’s your read on the Ionization?
Robin looked up at the sky. It was blue now, but from the reports she had read, as the sun rose and set, the light refraction in the upper atmosphere turned the entire sky a brilliant shade of purple. The sun, larger and closer than that of Earth (or Theta VII for that matter), but cooler, shone down brightly on them.
Hopper: It should come and go. Though it may get worse before it gets better. Either way, it shouldn’t get bad enough to pose any health risks to us, given our radiation treatments – at least not until those wear off in a few days. I’ve confirmed with the Kitty Hawk that they’ll keep an eye on things for us well. At the moment, we’re still collecting data.
Ukinix(H): Bec, are our weapons affected?
Iko: Nup. or well, I’d prefer not to use ‘em, although I’d prefer not to use ‘em Ionization or not,::furrowing eyebrows:: you understand what I’m trying to say?
Ukinix(H): Yeah ::squinting eyes and running it back over in his head::
Iko: Good, ‘cause I don’t.
Ukinix(H): What you’re saying is you’d prefer not to use them, but if you had to for any reason, you don’t want the ionization to stop you from using them.
Hopper: I think we’re all in agreement here.
Iko: Anyway…
S'Raga: I'll keep monitoring our signal strength. I've got two more comms boosters in my pack if we need them. ::To Robin:: Lieutenant, there might be one in yours, too, I think?
Hopper: ::Considering:: Three actually, same as you. ::Patting her bag:: Good for triangulation.
S'Raga: ::Looking at the sky, squinting:: If I'm not mistaken, with ionization levels like this, there's probably an aurora above us right now, just hidden in the sunlight. It'll make for a good light show after sundown.
Ukinix(H): ::Looking up:: Pity we can’t see it yet.
Iko: I remember being very annoyed when I wasn’t able to see the southern lights on my trip to tassie.
Lohani: Yes, well, shall we press on then? There’s plenty of daylight left, but we still have distance to cover. There will be plenty of time to observe ‘phenomena’ once the colony site is established.
Robin did her best to avoid scowling. oO It might go a little faster if you carried a bag… Oo she thought, hoisting her own backpack onto her back and connecting the chest and abdominal straps around her front.
A sharp look from Daughter Vananth-Polgonz reminded Hopper that the Betazoid could read her thoughts. Unfortunate, but Robin wasn’t about to censor her own mind. If Daughter Lohani wanted to change her opinion, she could carry a bag.
Hopper: With all due respect, Daughter Vananth-Polgonz, observing phenomena is a crucial component to selecting a safe and practical site for your colony. ::A look to S’Raga:: Actually, observing the atmospherics overnight could be useful.
Lekasa: Commander, are we setting up camp here on the island or returning to the ship?
Ukinix(H): The Starfleet officers will set up camp, to keep running environmental and other scans. But you and Daughter Vananth-Polgonz don’t have to, the Kitty Hawk and your quarters are just a beam out away, at any time.
Tani seemed uncertain, looking over the landscape with pursed lips. Robin was beginning to regret putting her bag on so quickly.
Ukinix(H): Also, the Kitty Hawk’s bridge is monitoring our movements, we’re being looked after. ::Smile, gesturing with head:: Come on, let’s go check out this valley.
TBC…
