Out of Nowhere...

Posted on Tue Apr 17th, 2018 @ 5:57pm by Master Chief Petty Officer Petru Kagan & Commander Rostra Tang & Lieutenant Commander Shaille Levine

Mission: https://wellington.pegasusfleet.site/index.php/sim/missions/id/4
Location: Unknown Planet

Garcia walked out of the turbolift with the others. "We may want to have the transporter chief hold off for just a few seconds. The planet may not fully be in phase yet. Once it is, then it should be safe. I've sent its status to Transporter Room 1 so they can observe."

"Probably a good idea," Shaille replied with a laugh. "Transporting into an out of phase planet doesn't exactly sound like a barrel of fun." She rested her hand on her phaser at her side, making sure it was secured properly. "Do we know anything at all about these people or are we going in completely blind?"

The twin forms of Rostra Tang joined the group momentarily, "Oh, we're going in proper blind. No records of anything in this orbital on any Dalacari survey. These go back about two, maybe three hundred years." one said, while the other held up a PaDD.

"So we take this nice and safe, watch our step every way, and .... oh wait, you all probably already figured that part out." the pair gave a giggle each.

"Right... well, let's hope they're the 'welcome everyone with a party' type people, otherwise this might get a bit hair raising!" Shaille replied easily.

"So.... Does this make US the strange people landing on a planet saying 'Take me to your leader?'" Garcia asked.

That got a pair of giggles from Rostra, "You know..." she gave it a moment's thought, then gave a nod, "Yeah, I think it sorta does."

"Then I guess we'd best put on our best green martian costumes." Garcia replied as they headed into the transporter room. She then turned to the operator. "Are we ready?"

"Planet is 99% in phase now, ma'am." the crewman replied. "Though it's hard to say what things will be like down there. There may still be some negative effects but at least you aren't being beamed directly into space."

"Thank god." Garcia replied. "I don't think we can take many more senseless losses on this ship." she added. "Ready when you are, ma'am." she waited for Rostra to step on the transporter pad.

Rostra took a confident stride up to the transporter pad, and took her positions on the pad. Federation transports had spots that were just big enough for single passengers, but were uncomfortably small for Dalacari, so she took up two spots next to each other.

"Note to self, talk to Michelle about possibly installing a Dalacari transporter system." she muttered under her breath, but gave a smile. "Sorry, Federation transporters still..."

"... make me a little nervous. I feel a little weird after the transport, like when you're running and mid-stride you notice a puddle so you have to adjust while panicking." she explained, as best she could. To the transporter engineer on station, though, she gave a pair of nods. The standard 'all clear'.

"Energizing now" the transporter chief said as the team shimmered away and arrived on the surface. When they arrived, they saw everything completely frozen. Not like the weather. It looked as though the entire planet was put on pause. Garcia looked around, quietly observing what she saw. Buildings looked in almost mint condition. Like an entire moment in time had been captured and put still. The clothes were old, some of the technology looked even older. But here it was. "30 years ago, the USS Defiant encountered a planet in the Gamma Quadrant that shifted in and out of dimensions every 60 years. Do you suppose it's something like that?" she added as she took out her tricorder and started scanning.

Resting her hand instinctively on her phaser, Shaille looked around them. "Do we need to find the play button? Who remembered the remote?" She quipped easily, waving her hand in front of the face of one of the 'frozen' citizens. "This is like some eerie sleeping beauty type stuff..."

Rostra gave an impressed whistle as she viewed the scene around her. "You know... the Ts'usugi Ministry of Science has a sensor feed from a probe they launched into a gravity trap. Even though that probe only lasted about..."

"... four hours, the feed is three years in length." she remarked. "Kinda getting that feeling now. It's like, a moment frozen in time." she went to touch something, but then came to her senses and stopped.

"Sleeping Beauty? Oh, you mean the story?" she asked for clarity, "Well, unless someone on the team is a Prince and didn't note it in their records, refrain from..."

"... distributing kisses." she said with a smile to all. "Remember, the planet was ninety percent in phase when we all beamed here. Who knows what'll happen when it reaches..."

"... one hundred percent sync. Don't stand in anyone's way, and watch for moving vehicles or other hazards." she warned.

"Agreed." Garcia said, looking around at the frozen faces. As best she could tell, everything looked a lot older than some of the other worlds she had seen. The technology of the ships that hadn't yet noticed them almost seemed to match the rest of the world. It looked as one might have expected Earth to look 20 years before the Federation's founding. And it was all completely frozen.

Stepping back in closer to the away team, in particularly to the Rostra's, Shaille kept her hand resting on her phaser as she surveyed their immediate surroundings for any thing that may post an imminent danger when the phase shift was complete.

Moments later it was almost like someone had finally found the play button and pressed it. The silence and stillness of the phasing planet was replaced with noise, chatter, laughter, the sounds of vehicles moving, people shouting, all the sounds one would have expected from an active civilisation.

Casting a glance at the others, Shaille winced slightly at the noise. "I guess it's safe to say they've noticed us?" she said simply.

"They soon will no doubt." Garcia replied as she moved out of the way for some children chasing after a ball. She looked surprised as they just all resumed what they were doing like it was nothing. They were completely unaware of having ever been frozen.

"It looks like the planet is phased in entirely now." she said.

"No hostile moves, nothing threatening." Rostra reminded the team in as hushed a voice as she could muster. "I can't believe I'm actually going to say this..."

Rostra turned to one of the recently unfrozen beings, and gave a pair of smiles. No teeth, though. Not everyone enjoyed the sight of teeth... and Dalacari had teeth!

"Greetings. We're travelers and explorers. We'd like to speak to a leader or authority figure, please." Rostra almost couldn't contain herself. She actually just used the Earth trope, 'Take me to your leader'...

Garcia snickered a bit at Rostra, her face turning to concern as the individual looked rather confused, almost scared. It was probably the first time they'd seen a Dalacari. Or a human. Garcia looked to the rest of the away team for some kind of guidance as the person looked at Rostra

"Please, I... We mean you no harm. Don't hurt us. How.. How did you get here and get past the fleet?" the citizen asked.

Shaille cast an uneasy glance at the Rostra's. "I think that is probably something best discussed with whoever is in power here," she said quietly, her hand still resting on her phaser, but her grip loosening slightly. "The last thing we want is to cause an incident by speaking out of turn."

Rostra had the unique biology to actually agree with Shaille while never taking her eyes off the alarmed citizen. "That's a long story, but I assure you we mean you and your people no harm. We're explorers and scientists." the ole 'Explorers and Scientists' angle usually worked. Rostra was purposefully keeping her replies and conversations short. It put a little strain on her mind to only converse through one form for such a long time.

"You picked a heck of a planet to explore." the woman replied. "Our leader is in that giant building over there." she said, pointing to a rather palatial structure close to a hill. "If you want to do him some harm, feel free."

Shaille quirked one eyebrow slightly and bit back her mirth. Sure, it was a sentiment that had been shared throughout all of existance, across all the ages, yet it was the first time she had ever heard it shared quite so openly and bluntly with strangers. "Thank you for the information, but I can assure you we aren't here to hurt anyone."

The woman's reply almost physically knocked Rostra over. "Oh, so... maybe we should ask you a question or two first. If you don't mind that is?" always polite, Rostra was. Though, enough was enough, and Rostra's other body made its way to this conversation, and offered a hand. "My name is Rostra Tang. Do you mind if we ask you why you'd want us to hurt your leader?" a pause, "I promise you, we won't tell anyone."

"You're not from around here, are you?" she said with a chuckle. "Didn't see the giant battle fleet headed towards the Dakhani that he's been pointlessly trying to invade or destroy for the last 10 years?"

Garcia looked at Rostra. Dakhani? Who on earth.....

Pausing, Shaille looked between the twin Rostra's and the alien citizen. There was an awful lot of training, prep and on the fly work that had gotten her to this point, yet now, here, on an alien planet, with an alien species, in an unknown situation, during a first contact mission, she found herself summarizing it simply as.. "We come in peace..." "Shoot to kill... shoot to kill... shoot to kill..." "We come in peace..." "Shoot to kill, shoot to kill, Men... or, I mean, Rostra's..." Biting hard on her bottom lip, she looked away, clasping her hands behind her back and just waiting to see how this was going to play out.

"He sits there and will kill us without a second thought and get our children killed just so he can expand outside our own cluster. Until a minute ago though... I didn't think there was anything outside our own cluster."

Garcia turned to Rostra. "Commander, I recommend that Ensign Hamuul and I explore while you and Lieutenant Levine go and find the leaders here to explain or ask what's going on. We can check out soil composition, do some basic environmental scans that the Wellington can use as a starting point for fuller scans in the future."

One twin turned towards Garcia, "Sounds like a plan. Solid suggestion." as the other twin turned towards the talkative citizen, "Thank you for your time. I hate to be the one to shatter expectations, but the universe is full of life, and as varied as you can imagine." she said with a smile, before the pair of them turned to Levine.

"Let's go meet the man in charge."

With a nod Shaille agreed. "I'm not so sure he will be as welcoming and as open as his citizens seem to be, but let's go."

"That may be the case, but we'll never know until we go up and meet him. A smile and a greeting can go a long way." Rostra mused, "Just, don't show teeth." she reminded mostly herself.

With that, Rostra lead the way up to the giant palace.

=/\=END TRANSMISSION=/\=

Commander Rostra Tang
Executive Officer
USS Wellington

Lieutenant Shaille Levine
Tactical Officer
USS Wellington

Lieutenant JG Sandra Garcia
Operations Officer
USS Wellington

Ensign Leyara Hamuul
Science Officer
USS Wellington