| Fallen
Exploration.... Gunner paused at the open wall locker to retrieve his pack, and was shouldering it as Mike approached him from behind. "Whatcha got in there?" the ensign asked. "Hmm?" Gunner turned. "Oh. Map, compass, water, MREs, travelers' cheques..." "Very funny." The two watched the Security detail fan out, then the others deploy for search. "Evaluation go Ok?" Gunner asked. He turned and started up the street. "Oh, yeah." Mike fell into step beside him. "Which way are we going?" "Looking for government administration buildings. Libraries are always located close by for research purposes." Mike smiled a bit at the logic, then observed. "But we can't read the script on the buildings. How will we know if we come across a government building?" Gunner glanced at her and said without humor. "Easy. All the rats." Mike smirked and nodded. He cast a glance over his shoulder, then reached over to take her hand. "Didn't /you/ bring anything along?" She had a PADD, but for the most part, had let Jason do the "bringing". She laced her fingers through Gunner's and pointed out "I brought you and the others; works for me." She had to admit, she thought this new closeness with him worked for her as well, but let her gesture speak for her at the moment. "Besides," she added, "We're only supposed to be here a few hours. If we need any supplies, they're in the shuttle. Anyway, Jason is going to have a load of data for all of us to go through by the time he's done, and he's fresh off of a series of mysteries to get him going." Not that she wasn't interested in this culture, because she was. But too many spoons in the pot, as the saying went... She had a datapadd at her hip that she planned on using for the things she had found of interest. She let her blue gaze take in their immediate surroundings, picturing what it must have been like with people walking along the sidewalks and streets. She still had her sunglasses on her head, helping to keep her long hair out of her eyes with the mild breeze that was blowing. "I wonder what happened to them..." she said thoughtfully, referring to the people that had lived there before as well as the city and the natural landscape beyond it. "It's a beautiful place." And it was, in its own way. "Let's go that way," Richard said, lifting their hands to point with a finger. There was a grassy knoll a short distance away, in what appeared to be a wooded park. "Looks nice. But, why there?" "I promised to take some readings and samples for the Medical department. Something drove the Indigs (Indigenous People) out of here, and drove them out in a big hurry. You see any signs of combat?" "Now that you mention it, no. This looks like a ghost town." "And that leaves..." "Well, maybe it was Dollar Day on the other side of the planet." Gunner smirked. "Better ask the ship to scan the other continent for a Shoe Carnival." The two strolled through the park. At the top of the hill, Richard set down and removed some equipment from his pack. Michelle set up the air analyzer on a tripod. Richard pulled his survival knife from his leg sheath, and cut a sample of sod put in a container. He sealed the container as his companion tapped in the cycle code on the analyzer's control panel. "Where to now?" Mike asked. "I hear water running. Let's see if there's a..." "Creek? Yeah. There's water running out of a spring or something on the other side of the hill." Gunner got up joined Mike on the low summit. As he approached, she spied something in the grass and stooped down. She was looking it over as he drew close. "Find something?" "Hm. Flower." "Looks like a variety of chrysanthemum." "Easy for you to say. You're familiar with flowers?" Gunner looked off in the distance, squinting. "Where I come from, you know what grows." Mike looked at him and smiled. "So you are a man of the earth." "Well, I did grow up on Sherman's Planet." She examined the flower. He had told her about his family's farm and she knew he had worked it, but she got more of an idea now that he had liked the work, although it obviously wasn't his calling "I didn't know they grew these there." He shrugged. "Not intentionally. They're a wildflower there; if they grow in the wrong place, they're a weed." Mike pulled out her GPS and took their bearings. "Where to next, Imperious Leader?" "Let's try the other side of this park. That walkway just beyond the trees looks wide. Must've been built for high volume foot traffic. Let's see where all those people were going." She stepped over another couple of flowers to reach his side and they started off that way, with Mike tipping her face up toward the sky to catch what warmth she could of the sun and then look back the way they were going, easily slipping her hand back into his as they went. She spotted a few other varieties of wildflowers, was able to name two - one of which was something she admitted to being her favorite type; a white daisy and Richard naming the third which she looked thoughtfully at and decided wasn't a bad looking one itself. As they went, Mike couldn't help but quietly wonder again at what had really happened to the people there; the land itself was beautiful, the city and nature that seemed to her a nice balance being something she could easily visualize both children and adults living their day to day lives in and not really willingly giving up. So focused on it, she had verbalized her question, and didn't even realize she had until Gunner answered. "Don't know," he said, having noticed the change in her expression as she looked around and wanting to lighten the mood as best he could "maybe they didn't have steak in their diet." It worked and Mike's lips twitched, before she commented "Now that would be a shame. I wouldn't be able to consider them civilized if they didn't have //steak// in their regular diet. It's unnatural." That, in turn, made Gunner laugh and she couldn't help but grin in response. She was quickly learning she loved how his eyes lit up when he thought something was funny. "I'll use my special recipe." he promised as they reached the clearing. "Mmm, don't tempt me anymore or I'll have to pack everyone up now and leave." He squeezed her hand, humor still in his gaze, before they both turned to the matter at hand. They did at that point as they did at the previous spot, and took readings, working easily together and getting it done in a matter of minutes. "There." he said a moment later and squinting in that direction. Nestled at a nearby distance, looked to be a building that fit the bill of what he had seen other government buildings look like, and he nodded his chin at it for her to take note of it. "Explore we go." was Mike's answer as they turned in that direction.
These characters were becoming boring, Jason thought to himself as he started to split from the main security group. He wanted to go find some place where he could really dig his teeth into, away from the ones that had more fun polishing their weapons than finding out information. "Mike would call me stuck up." he mused as he walked out into the street, remembering that both Jolly Rogers had gone in this direction. He worked on calibrating his datapadd to scan the area around him, grunting when the energy field that would kept the two shuttles from communicating for the time they were searching, tried to make it hard on him as well. "We'll see." he muttered as he worked to adjust settings.
Touchdown... After his warning to the passengers, Graxx couldn't help but grin aside to Commander Chadzia Scott-Coke who was seated beside him for evaluation purposes. "You think the kids up there," he pointed ahead out the forward viewport toward the shuttle piloted by Mike Morgan, "will be able to handle a little turbulence?" He pursed his lips quickly as he got only a quiet stare in response from the half-Klingon woman. 'Nice going, Graxx.' He thought silently to himself, 'Just shut up and drive for a change.' He turned back to the flight controls, silently thinking about the fact that Gunner was back in the aft compartment with the others. He glanced back quickly, trying to determine where the squadron commander had taken his seat andhad to doubletake s he culdn't find Commander Morgan anywhere in the aft compartment. Turning again to Chadzia, Graxx cocked his head behind them to indicate the aft compartment. "I think we may have a problem, Boss. I was told that Commander Morgan would be riding with us for the trip planetside but I don't see him back there..." he trailed off, his tone in a slight questioning tone. "Oh, he's on the other shuttle, last minute switch. Ready? Let's fly this mousetrap." Nodding to that, Graxx returned his attention to the flight controls. He didn't bother wondering why Gunner had boarded the shuttle rather than this runabout. In his own mind, Graxx was convinced that Commander Morgan obviously couldn't trust his pilotting abilities. He had a hunch that part of the reason might have been because of the incident with Ernie's fighter and, therefore, couldn't really blame Gunner. Graxx shook his head then, forcing his thoughts back to the present and navigating through Abura's atmosphere. He had to grin then as he realized how similar it seemed to when he and Teilani had flown the old Cessna, that they had restored, through the air currents of the south pacific region on Earth. At the reminder of his sister, though, Graxx's mood became sullen once again and he couldn't help once again regretting that they had never found her remains after the battle at Wolf 359. Mere moments later, Graxx was setting the little runabout down at the coordinates he had previously agreed to with Mike via comm. "...and the crowd goes wild," he murmured barley audibly in reference to his touchdown. He slapped the hatch controls on his console, hearing the barely-audible combination hiss/grind of the ramp lowering. He looked again to Chadzia then as he grinned confidently, "So, do I pass once again?" The cockiness he felt easily reached his eyes, knowing that he had never failed an evaluation flight before this and was confident that he had not done so this time. He stood and offered one hand to his boss to help her to a standing position, "Careful now. I was noticing that the gravity on this planet is still two points less than Earth normal." He continued holding his hand out, wondering if Chadzia would accept the help he offered. He continued holding his hand out, so she grabbed it and pulled him back so hard he fell back into his seat. "Watch that gravity, Lt.," she grinned. They both stood up together this time. Chadzia turned and spoke evenly to the runabout crew, "We won't have communications, so be prepared for anything. All right, let's hit it." She grabbed her phaser rifle and as soon as the hatch opened, jumped into an eerie quiet. "I've got a bad feeling about this." |
