Weathering the Storm Pt. 2

Posted on Tue Feb 10th, 2026 @ 10:11am by Lieutenant Commander Deanna Celes & Commander Jonathan Grayson & Commander Samantha Howard & Lieutenant Imik S'Niohun & Ensign Janelle Barett & Chief Petty Officer Aaron Geiger

1,872 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Not All Orders Are Easy
Location: Planet

Deanna rushed at Sam, tackling her and pushing her five feet backwards before they hit the ground. "Apologies, but it was the only way to get you out of the radiation field. Hope you aren't injured." She slowly stood and then offered a hand to help Sam up, and as she did main powered came online and all the various stations came to life.

"Oof" Sam grunted as they untangled limbs and regained their footing. "Accepted, remind me not to wrestle with you..." she smirked as the systems around them powered up. Sam found the PaDD she was holding previously was now within the radiation field. Her mind started doing the calculations of risk versus reward.

Janelle reacted a half second after Deanna moved, already stepping back as the alarms began to chirp in protest. Her tricorder was in her hand before the impact finished reverberating through the room, sensors flaring as the sudden spike in EM radiation collapsed back into background noise.

“Field dissipating,” she reported calmly, eyes flicking between Sam and the readouts. “Transient surge only. Likely triggered when auxiliary power came online and intersected with residual atmospheric charge.” She adjusted the scan parameters and took two measured steps closer, stopping well short of where the radiation had peaked. “Levels are dropping fast. No lingering exposure beyond baseline.”

She lowered the tricorder slightly and glanced toward the reactivated consoles as systems continued to stabilize. Lights brightened. Displays flickered, then steadied. Data began to flow where there had been silence moments before.

“Recommend we log the surge and cross reference it with the reactor startup sequence,” Janelle added, already tagging the event in her report buffer. “If there are more pockets like that, we’ll want advance warning before anyone else moves around the blind.”

With that, she shifted back into position, eyes tracking the newly awakened systems, posture composed but alert. Whatever had happened here, it had not been an accident.

Deanna made her way over to the nearest console and began activating all the systems. "I'll have everything online in a few minutes now that the Chief has the power back online."

Aaron walked into the room, swiping through documents on his PaDD. "As I was saying to Lieutenant S'Niohun, everything was shut down as per regulation protocol. Including proper departmental duo authorization. The question I hope those logs can answer Commander, is why?" He finished while watching the various displays flicker to life.

Walking in behind Aaron, Imik was still unsure about this place. Something had either taken or driven the occupants from here, and she wasn't sure if it had left the blind with them. A thought of an unknown entry point now began to take shape in her mind, could another way in and out be hidden somewhere within the hide? Imik now approached Jon with this in mind, "Commander, could there be more than one entry into this place? One which we and the missing personnel would know nothing about? One which allowed this situation to occur?"

"Chief, good. Got some things for you to look at" Deanna noted as the Chief entered. "I can't imagine why everything would be shut down. The team here would need to keep things active. They have been sending in regular reports. The emergency comm channel was active still when we arrived, but everything else was off." The sound of all the systems returning to life filled the room. "I'm reactivating the exterior holographic generators, properly camouflage things. Pulling up Dr. Darkwa's log entries as well."

Jon stood patiently waiting while Deanna pulled Dr. Darkwa's log entries. Perhaps the entries would provide an answer to where the doctor and his team had disappeared to.

Deanna stood in front of the console, eyes widening. One might even think steam was pouring out of her ears. She looked to Jon, "We have a serious problem, and the captain is not going to like it."

Jon was about to answer Deanna when he realized he still owed Imik an answer. "Good question. I am not aware of one but that is a possibility, take a look around Imik, see if you find anything." He now looked at Deanna, "You don't look happy, what is it? What's the bad news?"

Sam was rummaging nearby and overheard the comment about the emergency comm channel being active. "If the emergency comm channel was active, and Starfleet didn't get the message...who did get it? It should have been preprogramed to the nearest fleet emergency comm center."

"It seems that Darkwa and his team have broken protocol and are willingly living with the locals. The level of cultural contamination could be extreme. We need to locate them immediately" Deanna replied to Jon. She looked over at Sam, "We got it, but how long the emergency signal has been active is another question altogether. The radioactive asteroids that hit the planet did so recently, and we've assumed that they are the reason for the SOS, but with this new bit of information, that may not be the case."

Imik had wandered slightly away from the rest as she scanned the walls of the blind, a blip made her stop and look harder at the wall in front of her. Running her hand up and down then along she suddenly found a lip, tracing the lip she marked out a square large enough for a Human to fit through. "Commander, I have found something which may have some baring on our missing people. Look here a small entry and exit the purpose of which is questionable, where it leads is also something I am unable to determine." Imik turned to face the away team, "I would ask who has contaminated who? And what lead to the cross contamination in the first place."

Aaron had busied himself with tapping commands into his PaDD. Frowning at resulting beeps and tones, his brows furrowed in concentration. "Hrmm, this should do it." Tapping a final command, his commbadge responded in an accepting chirp. "I've made an adjustment to your commbadges team, I hope that you'll excuse me taking the liberty for doing so. If your commbadge detects a spike in the same radiation frequency that presented itself around Commander Howard it'll emit a rapid triple chirp. It should buy everyone a couple seconds to evade."

Jon nodded with approval at Imik's discovery. "Nice work Imik and good question." He looked at the others, "Thoughts? Ideas? Conjecture on Imik's question?"

Janelle shifted her stance slightly, tricorder still in hand as she processed the new information. The secondary entry, the protocol-compliant shutdown, the emergency signal that may not have been meant for Starfleet. Too many deliberate choices layered over too much chaos. “If the shutdown and evacuation were intentional,” she said evenly, “then the blind itself may not be the primary variable anymore. The entry Imik located could indicate planned movement rather than flight.”

She glanced briefly toward the concealed opening, then back to Jon. “Recommend we treat the blind as compromised but stable for now and avoid further assumptions until Darkwa’s logs are fully reviewed." With that, she stepped back, clearing space near the console and returning her focus to monitoring the newly restored systems.

"Information about the indigenous species gives us an opening in itself. They appear Human. The differences with the race compared to humans is internal, so we can move around them with some ease. We'll need costumes, but beyond that it should be a simple matter to check out the local village" Deanna noted. "I'd suggest we bring down a few more additional personnel from the ship to assist in our search. Those who can't easily pass for human, such as Lt Imik can remain here and continue to investigate things such as this new access point. The Chief can let us know if he needs anyone else to assist getting this facility back to proper working order. If you want to investigate with Imik, I can take Sam, Ens Barret, and have Phoenix beam down and we'll check out the nearby village."

"There's some material in the files about local culture and practices. I can get some outfits that would be practical but allow us to blend in easier beamed down." Sam offered, showing Deanna the local village images. Rustic earthy colors, simple designs and woven fabrics were the go.

Imik heard Dianna say she had to remain at the hide, she simply turned and headed back towards the hole that she had found and resumed scanning it. 'Pass as a Human', The words burned in Imik's brain, her features were not unlike a Human even though she was Ojnas. But she was a tripod not a biped and that set her apart, that made her not 'Pass as a Human'. She was proud that she was Ojnas proud of her people, but those words cut deep and made her feel unwelcome and an outsider. Had Dianna said 'Pass as local', then Imik would not taken it as a slight but she had not. "I will work on my own Commander, I have much to do and thus will be able to work quicker."

Sam rustled up enough rustic clothing for them all to pass based on the data within the files. The weave was rough but warm and would insulate well against the cold temperatures outside. The radiation was still a worry, and prolonged exposure without proper clothing to the cold also brought on a hypothermic risk. She handed out the garments and pulled on the remaining one for herself.

Janelle accepted the clothing without comment, fingers testing the fabric briefly before folding it over one arm. Her gaze lingered on the environmental readouts instead of the discussion, already adjusting internal parameters for cold exposure and radiation overlap.

“Once we’re planetside,” she said quietly, almost to Jon alone, “we should assume exposure time is shorter than projected. I’ll keep tracking baseline drift and flag it if margins tighten.” She nodded once, signaling readiness, and began prepping her tricorder for surface conditions.

As the others got ready to leave, Imik continued to scan the hole. Then a resonance signature appeared, it seemed familiar, but she was unable to remember exactly where she had seen it. She now turned to Jon, "Commander, do you recognize this resonance signature? I am sure we have come across it before, but I am unable to remember where."

Deanna took one more look around. This whole situation surrounding this anthropological location felt off. She wanted to find these people and get back to the ship. Being amongst a primitive culture was not something she wanted. The Prime Directive was clear on this matter, and she only hoped they didn't have to deal with a group of deranged scientists who were disillusioned to think they were somehow gods. She headed toward the exit, "Alright, we have to traverse a kilometer to get to the settlement. The storm seems to be breaking; we will count that as a blessing and push forward. Thankfully the terrain isn't too rough, so we should be able to reach the settlement in about 20 minutes. Keep your phasers handy but out of sight. I'll take point."


TBC

 

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