Lt. JG Zalix - Over at the Frankenstein Place
James
(( Bridge, Deck 1, USS Tizona ))
The ship was at code blue and Zalix monitored the science stations as they descended to the landing site, ready to advise Nilsen of anything that might impact his flight.
Zalix: Crosswind shear developing off the port quarter. Fifteen seconds. The first turbulence cell will push us hard to port before the downdraft stabilizes.
Nilsen: Compensating. Bringing the nose five degrees to starboard.
Zalix bounced in her chair as the seats and bridge bounced and rattled. It was a bit of a rough ride, but the ship held its course.
Varik: Response
Zalix gasped and cringed suddenly as an unexpected roaring sound let rip nearby. Her console started screaming complaints at her and there was a bright electrical spark that she was sure was frizzing her hair as she rerouted power. It wasn’t until the roaring stopped, the spark was gone and the station had stopped signalling warnings at her that she noticed she’d been holding her breath and her pulse was still racing. Her face was a little hot and there was a hint of navy on her chocolate skin; she wondered if a proper operations officer would’ve seen the problem coming and stopped it before the roaring and sparking.
Nilsen: Twenty kilometres to the landing site; we should be able to see it now.
The viewscreen showed the nose of the ship and a lot of cloud. There was a lot of fog and visibility was not likely to improve much once they burst through the cloud layer. Nilsen was flying pretty much blind, but apart from some mild and expected turbulence you’d think this was a very straightforward and easy landing. Zalix didn’t think it was half as easy as it seemed and was glad she wasn’t piloting - she was only qualified on shuttles and runabouts.
Zalix: Try to put us down as far North as possible to comfortably avoid clipping the lake.
It was frozen solid now, but that didn’t mean it would hold the weight of a Starship. Even if they landed dead centre they would probably miss the lake. Probably. Zalix didn’t want to take a chance on it though. If they could stay North, they’d have easy clearance without impacting their take off later.
Varik: Response
Nilsen: Landing struts down and locked.The sound of the struts locking down was loud and clear, a signal of their arrival.
Varik: Response
Nilsen: Disengaging engines, circuiting thruster exhausts ::the ship gives one final clump:: and we’re down.
They’d done it. They’d landed the ship. Well, Nilsen had landed it. The ship settled and almost seemed to sigh with relief, as if it was going to take a rest for a while.
Nilsen: Heh, not bad for someone picking the easy option.
Zalix smiled. The banter and group dynamic was enjoyable even if she felt a little peripheral to it. That was to be expected, she hadn’t so much set eyes on either of these officers before today, they were strangers to one another. She was more interested in this away team. On Betazed, she was never on away teams.
oO Is this going to be a regular thing? Oo
When she’d received the transfer orders, she had not imagined there would be much away team involvement. She could see multiple use cases - she had a lot to offer in diplomatic situations if there were no dedicated diplomats, or perhaps in the event her expertise in xenoanthropology could be put to use, in addition to the obvious… medical missions. Zalix simply imagined that situations requiring her involvement would be few and far between. Perhaps that would prove to be the case, and all the more reason to enjoy this exercise.
Varik: Response
Zalix did a double-take as the colony - or what looked like it - could barely be seen through the snowy mist. A central structure rose up, with four towers at each corner - even with the hailstones and fog obscuring the view it was clear enough.
oO That’s… not possible. Oo
She pinched her chin ridges as she squinted at the colony and then squinted at her data. The colony was supposed to be 250km away from here! The sensor data had suffered some interference but not to the extent of making this kind of error, and especially not when the data on the landing site had been so accurate. She scanned the structure itself and tried to get updated health telemetry but there were no lifesigns.
Zalix: That’s not the colony.
Varik/Nilsen: Response
Zalix: Aside from the fact there’s no one home… It has a similar structure and layout, but it’s smaller - like someone built a model. It doesn’t descend into the ground like the real thing either. It’s more like someone put this in front of the cave system as a sort of frontage. Perhaps a living and work space.
Varik/Nilsen: Response
Zalix checked the data she had on the colony to see if she’d missed anything earlier on. Any sign that the colony had started expanding at this site. The use of the same layout of the frontage seemed to suggest the colony and this site were connected. There were no records that this place existed. Perhaps the colony was aware of and had endorsed this site but didn’t want its existence to be widely known? Why would that be? Conducting potentially illegal experiments would qualify. That said, there were other potential explanations too. Maybe the colony was not aware that site B had popped up like a little brother. It did still stand to reason that whoever had put this here may be a part of the main colony or had at least been there long enough to have some basic understanding of its layout. Why they might have chosen to create a mini-clone remained one of a number of mysteries. Whoever was behind this was not currently around. Well, not alive anyway.
Zalix: Unclear. All I can say for sure is - there are no official records marking or referring to this site.
Varik/Nilsen: Response
Lt. JG Zalix
USS Octavia E Butler NCC-82850
O240205VM3