Preparing for Priapus

Posted on Wed Jun 5th, 2024 @ 10:17am by Lieutenant JG LuAnn Lovegood & Lieutenant Commander Anahera Chernova & Lieutenant Commander Aaron Marcus & Lieutenant Amanda Rose & Lieutenant Percival Bálor Ph.D

1,270 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Standing By

ON

In the auxiliary conference room on the tenth deck of the Ambassador class starship Ontario, Lieutenant Percival Bálor assembled his Priapus away team: Lieutenant Commander Chernova, Counselor Lovegood, and Doctor Marcus. It was Percy's intention to touch on last minute details in preparation for their mission. Percy had invited Counselor Rose to join them in the conference room to provide any additional insight that she may have found in her digging through personnel files. Percy had taken time to prepare himself for reliving the past in the event Gregory Westfield, leader of the archeological expedition was brought up. Naturally, he would be at some point.

Percy nursed a mug of toffee flavored coffee as he glanced over a PaDD of information and looked up at the individuals in the room. "The archeologists were working at an excavation site west of their camp, uncovering ruins" stated Percy. "Given the Captain's directions on security and medical on this away mission, I'll be having you both with me, Commanders" he said to Marcus and Anahera.

"Of course." Anahera said. "But, I'd like to bring Petty Officer H'Zelar along too, to help me watch your backs."

Percy nodded. "That sounds like a prudent decision. If the Captain has no objection, I'm sure the added security will be beneficial."

"Additionally, I've asked Counselor Lovegood to join us" stated Percy. "Amanda, have you found anything on the archeological team? Anything that would indicate a threat from within?"

Amanda looked sharply at Percy for two reasons: First, he was sending Lovegood down to the planet while leaving her up here. In her mind, that was clearly retaliatory. The second was that Percy was addressing her by her given name. They had never been friends. They were more like enemies. How dare he address her familiarly?!

She screwed up her face as she only did at Percy and stated, "My title is Counselor Rose or Lieutenant. I do not believe that I have ever given you permission to address me by my first name."

"Sir," Percy said firmly. "My title is Counselor Rose or Lieutenant, Sir," the Chief Science Officer commented. At least for this mission. "My apologies, Counselor. Let's refocus our conversation and energy at the task at hand."

LuAnn knew some of the history between Amanda and Percy. Sometimes it was better to observe and right now, she didn't want to become a part of that particular conversation.

Percy took a deep breath. He did not want to get into it with Amanda, not here and not now. "We're all ears, Counselor Rose."

Aaron rolled his eyes worse than any teenager has ever done to their parents. All this posturing and there are people dying. I should have brought popcorn. he thought. "With all due respect to everyone here. Can we dispense with the posturing and get to the point? I do believe something was said about people dying. Now Counselor, I for one am on the edge of my seat. Pray continue."

Amanda glared at Percy. He always had to play the one-up game. God forbid that he actually accept responsibility for his actions, rather than deflecting them onto others. However, hearing Aaron try to defuse the situation, she smiled approvingly at him and gave Aaron her full attention, avoiding Percy's gaze. "I siphoned through all the medical records and psychological records of the researchers. While there was some interesting reading in there, there was nothing in their records that would explain sudden silence from them. I can only conclude that something external was most likely the cause."

"Thank you, Counselor Rose," replied Percy. "I appreciate you looking through all of that. Given that this does appear to more likely be something external to be the cause, then the added security presence will more than likely be appreciated if not encouraged. Doctor Marcus, how are we coming with medical preparations for Priapus?" Between serpents, arachnids, insects, and plants that presented their own venom and toxins, precautions were certainly an asset.

"I will have the calamine lotion and the antivenoms ready, willing, and able to serve. Sick Bay will be standing by for any injured. But at the moment that is all we can be ready for." Aaron was a diagnostician; however, he was a trained Starfleet Doctor. As such he would have to do something he hated, go on an away mission.

"I've verified the list of known plants that are considered harmful," LuAnn said, addressing Percy. "It will help us know what to avoid when we get down there. It's always possible the scientists ran into some unknown plant or they uncovered an ancient tomb and released poison gas. I know the chance is slim, but we need to be prepared for anything."

"That is a possibility if every single scientist was offsite whenever whatever occurred," Amanda countered. "There always should be someone at the home base. If there was a contagion that came back, there likely would have been a report sent out rather than immediate silence."

"They could have been under attack. Alien artifacts fetch a good price on the black market." Anahera said. "The Federation may have done away with material wealth, but there are a lot of cultures that haven't."

"It's also possible they experienced a natural disaster," LuAnn added. "We won't know for sure until we get down there and see for ourselves. Or we scan the area from the ship."

Aaron's patience had flown the coop. "Yes, I would agree with all of you who are agreeing that we won't know until we get there. Then can we stop with the speculation and simply get on with it. This is literally driving me bonkers..." His voice trailed off as he turned to face Amanda with a squint in his eye. "Not so bonkers that I need to chat with you, Thorny."

"A natural disaster also is unlikely," Amanda pointed out. "We should have seen some evidence of that." She then beamed at the Doctor who had turned and addressed her. "However, I do agree with the Doctor in this case. Continued hypotheticals on what happened, other than it was some outside force are pointless. As to chatting with me, we'll save that for another time."

"I think we have what we came for," LuAnn said to Percy, hoping to forestall any more bickering. "Is there anything more you want to bring up?"

Percy shook his head. "Nothing further, just continue to be prepared, and let's leave the hypotheticals in the back of our mind" he snorted. "Dismissed" he added.

"Then I will see you all later," LuAnn said, smiling brightly at everyone. She wanted to have another look at the insects and harmful plants before they left. She carefully avoided both the doctor and Amanda as she did so.

Aaron stood and walked out of the room without so much as a word, as fast as his cane and bum leg would let him. He felt like he was on the voyage of the damned with the way everyone seemed to bicker with each other. How anything got done on this god forsaken ship was beyond Aaron. For the moment his plan was to return to his research and then perhaps a nap before this ridiculous mission.

Amanda chased after the Doctor. She was not done with him yet. After all, he was her pet project, now.

OFF

Lieutenant Percival Bálor
Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant Amanda Rose
Chief Counselor

Lieutenant JG LuAnn Lovegood
Counselor

Lieutenant Commander Aaron Marcus
Chief Medical Officer

Lieutenant Commander Anahera Chernova
Chief Security/Tactical Officer

 

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