Well That Did Not Go To Plan

Posted on Sun Jan 3rd, 2021 @ 10:00am by Petty Officer 2nd Class Halla Dezom (*) & Lieutenant Junior Grade Karis

Mission: Cosmos
Location: New Rixx
Timeline: 2396
1695 words - 3.4 OF Standard Post Measure

As they approached the building Karis sucked in a grain of sand and began coughing into her arm and trying to draw breath at the same time. Once she'd finally gotten the tickle out of her throat then it appeared she had the hiccups and finally patted herself on the back until both issues were resolved. "Foreboding place," she commented. "I guess we introduce ourselves now and get on with it?"

"Err Sir are you okay?" Halla asked looking around a little confused as to where the Executive Officer and Security Chief were as she looked up at the clouds that looked angry that were coming in their direction. Surely the pair would not have just gone to the building without waiting for them. She looked up at the marble building and nodded, it was really foreboding but any building that looked that stately on a colony barely a few decades years old was going to be like that. It was like they had brought Betazed with them. Vriaral had stepped forward and to pat the Science Officer on her back a few times concerned he would have to do something more extreme when she seemed to calm down. He shook his head looking at the building himself.

"Should really find the commanders." He pushed rubbing his neck awkwardly.

"I don't think we're going to find them wandering around in this storm. Maybe they could help," she pointed toward the building. "Those were my thoughts," Karis responded.

Vriaral frowned as they moved through the mud to the building that could only be the control tower and frowned at how empty the colony seemed to be. "Anyone else a bit unsure on all the quietness?" The Engineer wondered as he opened the door to the brightly little building. "I am not sure where the Commanders could be but we need to contact the ship."

"It is very quiet. " Karis frowned at this then tapped her comm badge. It made a squelching metallic sound and then nothing. "Uh, anyone want to try their's?"

Halla touched hers and nothing happened other than adding to the squelching noise. "Nothing. It is likely the ionised air being created by the weather control being broke." Halla surmised as they carried on moving through the colony.

"Tricorder is not working either," Vriaral commented on as the rain started pelting down on them. "Come on everyone get inside." He ordered waiting for everyone to get inside the building before he followed. The building was brightly lit but as empty as outside. He would have presumed it would be filled with colony engineers desperately trying to fix the faulty machine. It was not even an old weather controller but one fault component and it would be useless or cause weather like what was happening. "Lieutenant Karis try and establish communication with the ship."

Karis nodded and glanced around, surely there would be some kind of communication device in here that might still be functioning that she could use. She wandered a little ways away from the rest of their group in the search. "Does anyone else find this creepy? There doesn't appear to be anyone around." Not only did she not see anyone but she didn't hear anything either.

Halla sighed and shook her head glancing back at Vriaral as the man nodded. She just kept repeating her mantra please not zombies. Please not zombies in her head feeling hopeful that luck was on her side and it would not be that again. "I just do not want Zombies again." She finally mused.

Vriaral grinned. "I am hoping for not cannibals." He said trying to add some levity as the light suddenly turned on around them making the man point his phaser around as a man came in the door looking as concerned as he did wet.

"Oh brilliant you are here." He announced sniffling as everyone looked at him as he looked them all over. "The lights are biometric to Betazoid. Wait where is your Betazoid member?" He had been assured that one of them would be a Betazoid for that reason but it was easy to see that none of them were that.

"Uh, we've been separated from some of our group," Karis answered. "And our communication devices don't seem to be working nor can we contact our ship. Any chance you could help with that?"

“That will not too. I have no one who can go looking at the storm is only going to get worse until the controller is fixed.” The man looked concerned at the group that was there but nodded. “Follow me.” He said bringing them further and further into the control building.

“So where are your controls for the weather controller maybe we can get started on it? What was your name again?” Vriaral asked softly. It was was easy to see the man was stressed and tired by the way he kept rubbing his eyes.

“Cian. I am the colony’s leader. I used to be Admiral Ryixan in Starfleet Medical.” He explained. Starfleet Medical had been busy but it was nothing compared to the colony’s issues the last two weeks. “It is through those doors to the left.” Vriaral nodded instructing Halla to follow him whilst the Security Crewman stayed with Cian and Karis to contact the ship. “It might not work but this is out communication terminal.” He said carrying on through another door that swept open revealing a very basic set up that looked decades old.

"Thank you," Karis said. She felt so totally awkward in this situation and she wasn't sure why. Perhaps it was because she wasn't used to not knowing what to do. She was the type of person who liked to plan things and have backup plans for situations and this was all new to her.

"We should contact the ship, Sir." The Crewman said politely pointing to the console.

"Yes, that's just what I was going to do," Karis said distracted and she pressed a few buttons until something happened.

The screen buffered a few times before a statically filled screen appeared with the cosmos bridge appeared with Ehestri sat there looking concerned. "Lieutenant Karis?" She wondered confused by the look of the woman.

"Our comm badges aren't working," Karis explained. "And we've lost part of the landing party including the XO and can't seem to locate them nor make any sort of contact. I thought you should know ma'am."

"Repeat that did you say you have crew missing?" The Commodore asked as the screen went black.

"Do you think she got that just Agrax and the Executive Officer is missing?" He wondered.

Karis still had her mouth open to respond but obviously, the Commodore was gone. "I hope so," she whispered. "We know she got that someone is missing, that should be enough for her to do what she can from orbit. She probably doesn't want to risk sending more people down because she doesn't know why they disappeared yet."

“And the storm is raging outside.” The crewman wished he had a rifle. He really did not like the atmosphere on the planet. The admiral was giving him a bad feeling as he stood there looking pale.

"And that's not good," Karis said thumping on the monitor. "Commodore?" She took a deep breath. "Go on an away mission they said, enjoy your time off the ship they said. Okay. So we're on our own for the moment I guess. But we do need to find the XO. Any suggestions. I don't suppose there is any equipment here that could track them?"

The crewman shook his head before he realised that the woman would not be able to see. “No Sir. Not for this type of weather at all. This is worse than any type of survival training I have ever done for enlisted training.”

Footsteps sounded coming towards us but it was just Vriaral with Halla in tow. “How good of a medic are you two?” He demanded pale.

"Don't look at me. There's a reason I study stars for a living. I'm terrible with people. Why? What happened?" Karis asked, suddenly catching on that something must be wrong.

Vriaral and the Petty Officer shared a look. "We have discovered why Admiral Ryixan formally Starfleet Medical was so shifty. The colony is suffering from Betazoid fever and a particularly viral strain of it." Halla spoke up holding out her tricorder for the woman to see.

"The whole colony?" The Security crewman wondered.

"The whole colony," Vriaral confirmed rubbing his forehead wishing they had a medic with them that could at least give them some idea of how to help or what to do.

"Uh, what is that?" Karis had never heard of it but that wasn't saying much. She'd had a sheltered upbringing and had studied science, she'd not paid attention to much else until recently when her life began to change unexpectedly.

“I think it is similar to Zanthi Fever which is the Betazoid version of Menopausal Hot Flashes; similar to how elder Vulcans suffer the degenerative Bendii Syndrome but this effects everyone. It seems to be quite viral as the whole colony is down. Why they wanted a Betazoid as they assumed they would be inoculated against it but....” Vriaral shrugged. He had worked medical ships at the beginning of his career, he knew about random things like mutations. He was angry about the lies but he could not hate them, they were sick.

"They didn't get one." Karis glanced around. "I wonder which of us it will effect," she said, thinking out loud. "We can't contact the ship, we don't know where our missing crew members are and we're in the middle of an outbreak. Suggestions?"

“I will fix the weather controller. You guys deal with the sickness?” Vriaral offered thinking that they had very few options right then and there. They needed controller fixed to contact the ship to get support for both colonists and for Mitchell and Agrax.

"Sure," Karis answered, it wasn't her speciality but she felt the need to say yes to anything they could do. "We'll get started."