Diversity in Combination

[Saylek 0]

The following takes place aboard the starship Columbia, where most of the Challenger team is temporarily serving, a few minutes after the events of last week's sim...

Captain Saylek sat in the privacy of the Columbia ready room, a personal office that was one of the many improvements of the Excelsior-class. Although considered a new innovation, the early NX series – including one of Columbia's predecessors – had carried a similar, cramped room for such a purpose. Proximity to the bridge made it an efficient place to conduct administrative business, while remaining close enough to respond to summons. It was unclear why it had fallen into disuse in earlier 23rd century ship design.

 

He reviewed the data slate containing background information on the world below them, gathered from probes and charting missions. It was not extensive. A more-detailed survey by the Miranda-class Ardent in 2287 had been cut short to respond to a Klingon incursion in the Ajilon system. Defensive distractions had diverted Starfleet from its exploration directives for far too many decades, he mused. It was a situation the new detente might rectify, even though it was a military mission that had brought them here.

 

The Felfeyra system itself lay in a region of burned-out, abandoned, resource-poor systems, slightly above the galactic plane near the Borderlands separating Orion and Klingon space. While this made it less suitable for colonization, it was close enough to trade routes to serve as a base for privateers. Saylek had noted reports of subspace interference detected by the Epsilon comm station network, a possible sign of activity in the uninhabited system.

 

The central star was a cool, light-blue subgiant (A8V-IV class), orbited by two rocky inner planets and a single gas supergiant. The supergiant was faint orange in color, radiated internal heat, and sported seven moons with a complex series of rings.

 

But it was one of its moons that had drawn their attention.

 

A class-M world, Felfeyra IIIB teemed with enough organics to overwhelm attempts at orbital cataloging. Limited ground surveys from the Ardent described riotous, larger-than-life flora including massive ferns, translucent gelatin pods, wild fungus growth, ever-present spores, and phosphorescent lichens in colors ranging from wild pink to fluorescent yellow to iridescent green. Animal life included plentiful insect and invertebrate forms, with some indications of megafauna. There were indications of a previous civilization, but little detail beyond the mention of large-scale abandoned structures.

 

Although they'd been operating on the hypothesis that the reported comm interference was naturally occurring, Columbia had detected a short subspace burst from the moon's surface. Lieutenants Poldara and Reed, two of the officers on loan from the drydocked Challenger, had isolated the source in a subterranean chamber.

 

He had ordered the newly-arrived Commander Farouk Ja'Lale to conduct a landing party to the surface. Ja'Lale was a Rigellian Chelon, a species Saylek had never worked with before. Semi-aquatic reptilians with a rigid beak, described as turtle-like in appearance, they remained a rarity in Starfleet. The commander had been assigned to fill-in as acting XO for this mission to demonstrate command experience. Saylek approved of the fleet's increasing diversity in combination.

 

He steepled his fingers, considering whether the diversity of life on Felfeyra IIIB warranted a medical advisory. The Ardent report had mentioned abundant allergens and potential plant toxins. He thumbed a control by his desk monitor. "Bridge, this is the captain," he announced. "Advise sickbay that our survey team faces potential biohazards and forward the Ardent logs for details." He would leave to them the decision as to whether to prepare shipboard remedies or send a doctor down with the landing party.

 

Saylek glanced at the chronometer on the wall. The party would be headed down to the surface shortly, and he wanted to be on the bridge when they did. He got to his feet, rounding the desk and entering the short corridor that would take him there.

Edited September 25, 2010 by Saylek