Bad Storm Rising

Posted on Fri Nov 13th, 2020 @ 1:06pm by Lieutenant Zachariah Hostetler & Commander Temperance Zachary

Mission: Episode 04: "Tempest"
Location: Bridge
Timeline: Day 1 at 0000

The operations center was not really a place that ever really buzzed with activity, it was more a slow and steady hum as the Operations crew went about their duty shifts, which is exactly what they were doing now. Officers and Enlisted alike flitting in and out, crossing off tasks that needed to be done for the ship to keep functioning efficiently.

Ensign Alicia Callaghan , on the other hand, remained seated at her console. Her task was simple. She was monitoring the away team. It had been three hours since they had transported to the surface and so far there had been nothing that seemed off kilter or out of sorts.

The console beeped twice, paused and then beeped twice again, an indicator that the ongoing sensor sweeps she had been running had detected something new. Fingers dancing across the console, she bit down on her bottom lip, scrolling through the readings that had come back from the most recent sweeps.

"Lieutenant Hostetler?" she asked, a hint of uncertainty in her voice. "The sensors are detecting some strange readings in the atmosphere, I'm not entirely sure what it is, but it seems to be interfering with our ability to scan the surface properly."

"Let me take a look." he answered, mirroring her terminal to his. "Is that a storm?" he asked, confused.

"That wasn't there a minute ago," Alicia chewed at the inside of her cheek as she tapped at the console. "That storm has just come up out of nowhere, there was some kind of atmospheric distortion in the lower atmosphere that was interfering with sensors, I almost thought it was low level neutrino emissions to start with, but I don't see how that would be possible." She tapped at the console again. "But I'm not liking the look of that storm, it must already be a solid ten miles wide!"

"And worst of all," he commented "..it seems to be centered directly over the away team." he went on to type in a string of commands, and was displeased with the results.

With a shake of her head, Alicia sighed softly. "I think we have more than a problem, look at this," she said, motioning to the console again. "The storm is interfering with our transports and communications, we can't contact the away team and we can't beam them back out. We can't do anything until this is over."

She paused, looking up at him. "Is there any way we can amplify our sensors and our communications? It might help us be able to get through to them. A storm this size, it could take a while to pass and the Captain made it clear we were meant to keep a constant transporter lock on them."

"I can certainly try." Zach said, his fingers flying across the controls in a desperate attempt to regain a connection. A moment later he said, "I think I've got something, check your sensors again."

Alicia chewed the inside of her lip and shook her head. "The intensity of the storm is increasing, we still can't get through to the away team." She tapped the console, studying it intently as she worked. "Look at this," she said, motioning to the console in front of her. "I'm sending data through to you." A few more key strokes at the console. "I started running the weather patterns we're seeing through the computer for forecasting, the temperature is dropping rapidly on the surface."

"Can we risk sending down a shuttle?"

"I don't know if it could land safely," Alicia replied quietly. "Do we have any weather history for the planet?" she asked, glancing across at Zach. "Even sensor scans from our arrival? If the temperatures keep dropping and the atmospheric changes keep occurring then the away team is likely to be facing horrific weather soon. Is this normal?"

"Standby." Zach answered, pulling up the aforementioned sensor logs. "No. This is definitely not normal. This storm literally formed spontaneously, right on top of them."

"I don't think the away team was prepared for this," Alicia said quietly with a shake of her head. "Looking at the way the temperature is dropping and the vortex that's developing over top of them, if we don't get them out soon, they could start having serious issues with exposure." She sighed and looked across at her boss. "I guess you need to take this to the Captain now."

Before Zach could respond, the red alert klaxons started sounding, the alert lighting simultaneously starting to strobe around them.

"All hands to duty stations."

Alicia looked at Zach and offered a shrug. "Well, looks like you're headed to the bridge anyway. I'll stay here and keep trying to get through this weather event."