LT Gila Sadar - Dividing Our Efforts

[LT Gila Sadar]

(( Near the Western Wing, Klingon Prison Ruins, Wallace Forest ))

While the main focus of the mission to Kahines II was to sub in for the absent team from Starfleet Historical Society, Gila didn’t see any reason to not try and ensure as amicable a handoff once the team of archaeologists arrived in a couple of days. Part of ensuring that was to find out what the Klingon archaeologist was so worked up over, but another part was ensuring that their stay wasn’t causing unwarranted tension with the colonists. Some of the colonists already seemed on edge thanks to the Klingons’ presence, so as her team approached the prison ruins, Gila found herself wondering how she could turn the odds in the favor of amicability.

One way of doing that, was to assist in the colonists’ current predicament of how to gain more farming land.

Sadar: It’s not something to do right now, but it may service us if tempers start flaring to divide and conquer. ::looks around:: Also, we don’t want to, uhhh, ‘anger the trees’?

Ensign Imril turned to the trees with an amicable wave, and Gila almost smiled at the ridiculous notion that the trees were able to respond.

Imril: ::Waving at the forest:: Hello, trees! Nice to meet you! ::To Sadar and Bergmen:: From what I was able to read on this particular species last night, what we’re smelling right now is just a warning given off by the leaves. Any damage to them, anywhere, will result in the trees expressing something truly noxious. A chemical mixture contained in their sap. A natural defense against insects and grazers. It’s sticky, too. Get any on you and you’ll stink for a day at least.

Bergmen: Working theory yesterday with locals regarding trees was between superstition, curse and toxic pollution from ruins, so this can be an explanation as good as others.

Sadar: None of the Klingons’ initial research indicated sources of pollutants contained within the ruins, so I’m likely to rely on research. ::to Imril:: Did your research indicate how one might be able to move the trees?

Imril: The least smelly option for moving them would probably be digging them out and uprooting them whole. But then, I’m not a botanist or a colonist. Maybe there’s a neutralizing agent that I’m not aware of. And I don’t know how intertwined their roots are either, now that I think about it.

Gila considered that. Perhaps there would be merit in asking the Griffin’s echo survey to include some of the surrounding forest, so they could get a thorough look at the root nets of these trees?

As she thought so, Ensign Bergmen looked to her with a raised eyebrow.

Bergmen: Are we planning to engage in deforestation with the locals, ma’am? If so, we should closely study what entails their... nature, and ensure we are adequately geared up for hazardous environments while doing so, I would suggest.

Gila’s facial ridges shuddered with frustration.

Sadar: Ensign Bergmen, I’ve told you before, it’s Doctor. ::returns her attention forwards:: And we’re not doing deforestation. The locals have been supplanting the trees to make room for their fields, moving them from one end of the forest to another. Assisting them with this laborious task might be a way to soothe tensions that may arise as a result of the Klingons’ presence here.

Deforestation was widely acknowledged as a bad approach to settling a new planet. Historically, Earth had gone through no end of troubles thanks to early humans’ poor management of their own eco systems, and thus, Federation colonization policies carried clear instructions on how to treat the native flora on any colonized planet. This was likely why the local colonists had chosen to go with the approach of moving the trees instead of cutting them down.

The group fell into silence as they kept their steady approach, and as the light filtering through the leaves grew brighter, Gila knew that they were getting closer to the ruins. She felt a familiar excitement bubble within - the knowledge that soon, she’d see something that no living eye had taken in for hundreds, maybe thousands of years - and nothing could sour that for her.

Bergmen: What do you think they see from the air? Viewing the entire ruins must be captivating...

Ensign Bergmen pointed to the treetops and the alien birds that swooped through the air high above them, and Gila looked up in response.

Sadar: The Griffin should be making runs above the ruins. We can ask Ensign Lyara once we reconvene.

Imril: Response

Bergmen: Lieutenant? I assume you’ll connect with the Klingons and the archaeological team if they are already there, right? We could, with Imril here, evaluate the Klingon machinery and their methods of exploring and uncovering ruins in the meantime. What are your thoughts on this?

Gila blinked. Well, at least he’d stopped with the ‘ma’am’, though she couldn’t honestly say that she preferred Lieutenant much over that.

Sadar: ::whispers:: ‘DOCTOR’. ::normal volume:: No Ensign. Ensign Imril and I already ‘connected’ with the Klingons yesterday, and then this morning when the Griffin landed to board Archaeologist B’Equ. We have received all the necessary data on the Klingon’s equipment, and their digging methods are tried-and-tested methods. As I said yesterday evening, we will be dividing our efforts in the ruins.

Bergmen/Imril: Response

Sadar: There’s little obstruction for us to clear in our area. Our part in this is research and logging, and if we find an uncovered route down into the basement layers, all the better.

This was when their small team cleared the treeline, finally, and arrived at the ruins themselves. It was like stepping into another world, with trees, bushes and foliage clearing to make way for large broken walls of tan stone. The ruins didn’t look so Klingon to immediately evoke that impression, but she could certainly see commonalities between the surviving structures of this ruin and the images she’d seen of First Empire buildings on Qo’Nos.

Sadar: We’re here... The scale of this place... 

Bergmen/Imril: Response

Sadar: We’ll comb through our wing in a methodical fashion. Don’t separate. Scorpionmoles may be burrowing animals, but we have no assurances they don’t venture above ground. And if you locate a room with sub-par structural integrity, mark it on the map, but do not enter. The Griffin isn’t in a position to beam you out while it’s doing the echo survey.

Bergmen/Imril: Response

Tag/TBC

LT Gila Sadar

Medical Officer

USS Artemis-A

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