Pt 5 - It's not that easy

Posted on Thu Apr 9th, 2026 @ 1:21am by Commander David Wallace

Mission: STELLAR NURSERY
Location: USS Cascade - Deveron Sector
Timeline: -- --

==
Ships log supplemental:
Lieutenant Clark and I are about to beam down too the planet to do some hopefully quick maintenance on one of the monitoring stations on the outside of the Caldera.
==

David opened up one of the equipment lockers in the storage room across from the transporter room, "So what's so important with this particular monitoring station?"

"It's about two hundred-ish meters above the caldera, which does and doesn't sound like much but the elevation will give us a great view of the initial eruption." Sara said

David slammed the power cell into the grip of his phaser, "The proverbial front row seats to the big bang."

"Just about, this should be an easy job." Sara said as she picked up a back pack.

"What are the risks of stuff like those gas emissions?" David asked

"Trace amounts around the area are within safe limits, but keep a tricorder handy in case." Sara said as she lifted the pack, "I was hoping to get some mud samples but the risk isn't worth it."

"So what do we do if things go...uh..." David paused "Bad"

"Beam up, especially if we get a warning of harmonic tremors."

"Okay, Let's do this." David said as he stepped into the transporter room. "Keep a lock on us chief."

He looked over to Sara, "Here we go...Energize!"

As the duo materialized planet side David looked around, there was an almost eerie silence. "Sulphur Dioxide levels are still in the safe zone, let's get to work."'

As the pair walked the short distance too the sensor unit David looked around, "I read something about wildlife in the region but I don't see anything..."

Sara looked around pausing, "I'm gonna start the programming changes, we might be short on time." She said as she opened the panel on the unit, "Wildlife running away is typically an early indicator of an impending eruption, we might have hours."

"Cascade this is the away team..." David Started "Lieutenant Clark thinks we might have hours before the eruption due to the lack of indigenous wildlife."

"This is Ajax, are there clear indicators of abrupt migration?" the voice called out

David started too look at the ground around he paused seeing a crack branch, "Confirmed, I assume that's bad?"

Sara looked over her shoulder not waiting for a reply over the comms' "Best case two to three hours, Upload in progress."

David looked around, he was unsure what to do beyond keep any eye on things going on around him he looked toward the valley below and the impending situation, "Sara how much time do you need?"

"We need three minutes, for the program too finish the upload and confirmation." Sara called out.

The ground started to vibrate beneath their feet as David's tricorder started to shriek with an alarm, "Seismic event in progress, we need to go!"

"Upload completed!" Sara called out over the noise

"Transporter room two to beam up emergency transport now!" David screamed out.

Sara stood up as the transporter engaged. Seconds later in the transporter room David looked at Sara, he decided to avoid a public reaction to events, "Bridge report!"

"We have harmonic tremors, eruption is possible at any moment." Doctor Conner said

David waved at Sara to follow him too the bridge as they stepped into the turbolift David looked at Sara, "That was close..." she said then looked at David "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I've been shot at enough times this was just a bump, you?" David said knowing they had a few seconds.

"That was insane, I'm glad we got out when we did." Sara said

As the turbolift doors opened the ship had gone to yellow alert, David followed closely by Sara entered the bridge, "Status?"

Doctor Connor started "Eruption in progress, the caldera opened up seconds after you beamed out, initial indicators are we have a VEI three event, but the event is about one minute old now." The doctor reported referring too the Volcanic Explosivity Index which also included the risk of gasses and ash to be injected into the atmosphere.

"The shuttle?" David said as he turned too his crew

"They're about too land in the shuttle bay in three minutes, they got out at the same time you two did, I'd say we got a break on that one, the Volga landed a few seconds ago." the Engineer reported.

"Put us into a high orbit for now, let's start monitoring the eruption as planned, I'm going to get cleaned up." David said noticing the dust on himself and Sara.

"You have the bridge again chief, I'll be back in forty." David said as he turned back too the lift, Sara followed him close behind.

Ensign Powell spoke after the door closed again, "Those two are doing a bad job of hiding it."

"Let him have this one ensign, it's not like he's been on a hot streak with the ladies." The engineer said.

End