Cave exploring

Posted on Tue Feb 8th, 2022 @ 6:56am by Lieutenant Samantha Leyton & Ensign Nuna Lepine

Mission: Mission 5 - Babel
Location: Unknown Planet
Timeline: Day 274 1130 Hours
2810 words - 5.6 OF Standard Post Measure

Leyton looked at the steep cliff that descended to what appeared on sensors to be an enormous underground cavern. Past the decline was darkness, however, she could swear she could hear the sounds of moving water. She could only hope that there wasn't any wildlife down there as well. Several jagged rocks barred the path as she studied the layout. 'Not a bad climb,' she thought before turning to the others. "Alright, get your ropes ready to repel down."

Nuna did just that, as well as check the other gear she brought along that was necessary to descend down into the cavern. The junior science officer had grown up with Earth's third largest cavern system in her proverbial backyard. But there was a huge difference between a cavern that had been fully mapped out over the last five hundred years and the gaping darkness that awaited the away team below. Nuna gave her gloves one last tug, checked the chin strap of her helmet, then checked the light on top of her helmet. She then gave a perfunctory thumbs up to Leyton.

"It has been a while since I've been able to abseil down a large jagged rockface into what could be the darkness of death." Sam said with faked theatrics. He began fitting his harness and prepared his ropes so that he could repel down the rockface with safety and security. "This planet has been quite good for an adventure holiday, minus the large pointed monolith."

"Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of that building," Leyton replied as she got busy donning her climbing gear. She looked over to her department assistant. "How are you coming along over there, McArthur?" she questioned.

"All good" Came the reply from the Ensign as she finished strapping in and checking her lines.

After everyone appeared ready to go, Leyton secured her line before tossing the rest over the steep descent. Attaching herself to the rope, she moved to the edge. "Alright, take your time," she stated before leaning back off of the cliff and began to lower herself over the side.

Taking a stabilizing breath, Nuna followed suit, watching her footing with every drop.

Elf followed the others over the edge with a small smile. She was pretty fearless normally so this would be easy enough for her.

As the group descended, there was a rush of cool air from below, followed by an ascending cloud of silent, brown bat-like creatures. Nuna was momentarily stunned by their appearance, but immediately locked her rope and got her tricorder out. She grabbed one of the bats as the rest spread out.

"It's a fruit," she explained to the rest of the spelunkers. Holding up the "bat", it became clear that the central "body" looked more like a brown, hairy avocado and not the torso of a flying rodent. Holding the "bat fruit" by its wings, Nuna added "These aren't wings, per se. I don't know if they're part of the fruit's outer skin, or perhaps a sort of pappus. It is an interesting wind-aided dispersion method, though it does beg the question of what type of plant it originated from, as well as the meteorology of the cave we are descending into." Nuna place the "bat fruit" into her sample bag, then quietly awaited the go ahead to continue their descent.

"I'd bet Chef Cranston would be interested in those fruits," Leyton commented as she continued to move down the rope. As the light above gave way to the darkness of the cave, she activated her helmet light, allowing it's beam to pierce into the darkness. What she saw was a large cavern with large and small Stalactites forming down from the ceiling and small and large stalagmites formed in various places on the floor of the cavern. The cavern height was huge, possibly nearly nine meters tall.

Nestled among (and weaving itself around one stalagmite in particular) was a tall, grey tree whose outstretched limbs looked particularly gnarled. Several "bat fruits" were still hanging from the limbs, with additional fruit laying on the cavern floor. It looked as if all the fruit on the ground suffered from "broken wings."

The leaves were a dark gray, and though the leaves looked to be uniform in shape, they were also an odd asymmetrical in shape, looking to be diamond shaped on the right side, and circular on the left.

As Nuna reached the bottom of the cavern, she looked toward Leyton and gestured toward the tree with her tricorder, silently asking Leyton to get a closer examination of the tree.

"Go ahead. Be careful," Leyton replied as she unhooked from the rope. Pausing, she heard the sound of gently flowing water. "Sounds like a stream is here as well. Spread out but stay within sight of each other," Leyton ordered. "Report anything you discover."

Elf beamed a grin and nodded before unhooking and heading off in the other direction, looking for the stream.

As Nuna approached the tree, she saw movement on one of the lower limbs. She froze, keeping her distance, as she brought her tricorder out. From behind one of the leaves appeared what looked like a gray squirrel the size of a lynx. The "squirrel" had six legs and a tail that resembled a Terran Fox rather than a squirrel. The squirrel was nibbling one of the "bat fruits" while staring at Nuna. The squirrel was acting as if it was curious but unafraid.

"There appears to be a colony of these creatures in the tree," Nuna observed. "No other type of animals in the immediate vicinity," she added.

"Observe only. Last thing I need is for someone to get bitten and get an infection or a disease," Leyton replied as she traced her flashlight along the cavern's walls. She reached into her pack and pulled a beacon out and activated it. The beacon lit up, illuminating a large portion of the area they were in. "That's better," she commented as she moved off to explore some more.

When the cavern lit up, more giant "squirrel" faces appeared among the leaves of the "bat fruit" tree, peering out at the landing party. The one that had taken an initial interest in Nuna leapt from the limb it had been perching on to a nook on the wall nearby, acting as if it intended to trail the spelunkers.

"Fascinating," Nuna muttered, as she kept her tricorder trained on the single giant "squirrel."

"What do you have, Ensign Lepine?" Samantha asked as she approached the young woman. "Find out anything about these guys?"

"How familiar are you with the field of theoretical chemistry, Lieutenant?" Nuna responded, keeping her tricorder focused on her solitary squirrel stalker. The giant squirrel in question had stopped moving, his gaze focused on Nuna. The other giant squirrels seemed to have grown disinterested in the Atlantis' away party, going back about their business in the "bat fruit" tree.

"I'm afraid you lost me. Science isn't my strong suit," she admitted. However, flight control and moderate engineering, she had no problems with. "Curious how you have this one's attention. I think it might like you," she grinned.

"Indeed," Nuna said, not looking up from her tricorder. "There was a lecturer a few years ago at Oxford," Nuna continued, "Who proposed a theoretical neurotransmitter she termed psilosynine. This theoretical neurotransmitter would allow for long distance telepathic communication. There were certain hypothetical biochemical properties that would be present in an individual or animal producing psilosynine. I am picking up those readings from the creature before us."

The giant squirrel had been grooming himself but looked back up at Nuna almost as if he heard the last pronouncement.

"Tricorder readings suggest this animal has the intelligence equivalent of the subfamily Ponginae family Hominidae," remarked Nuna. She looked over at Samantha and added, "Orangutans. The possibility of a telepathic link to the rest of its group..." Nuna let the observation drift off as she considered various scenarios. "Lieutenant, would you be adverse to the idea of trying to coax the animal in front of us closer? I would very much like to examine its forward set of paws."

"Sure, just be careful," she replied. "I'm going to see how Elspeth is doing," she turned to headin in the direction she had seen the young woman head off to.

Nuna nodded, trying to decide how to entice the six limbed creature closer.

Elf was taking water samples, and tests were looking good so far.

"How is it going, Elf?" she asked as she approached the woman. "Water safe to drink or will we die a horrible grotesque death if we drink it?" she joked.

"So far they are looking good. I think we should be able to load up some fresh water. I think we might be able to use it to clear the air filters as well if Engineering wants to" She handed the results to her chief.

Taking the results on the datapad, Samantha nodded in agreement. "Looks good," she grinned. She returned the datapad. "I'm going to follow the stream a bit to see if I can teel where it leads,"

At that moment, a golden white fish leapt out out of the brook, spat out a stream of water in the general direction of the Atlantis' crewmembers, then re-entered the water.

Elf grinned. "Did you bring your fishing rod Lieutenant?" She asked. "Because fish for dinner sounds good."

"Sorry, no fishing rod. But I bet our new chef could make something good from fish," she commented. "I think he's here on the surface looking for new sources of food."

Elf considered it. "Do you think our beaming tech would work this deep underground?" She asked.

"I don't see why not. There's a good-sized opening to the cave with line of sight to the sky," Smantha replied.

"Well I can swim pretty good but catching fish barehanded is not my preferred method. They could beam down some gear or they could maybe use the beaming tech to beam the fish out directly." Ely explained.

"I don't know if the transporter sensors are that accurate to beam small fish but let's give the gear a try," she answered as she pulled out her communicator and activated it. "Lieutenant Leyton to Atlantis. If we have fishing gear aboard, could you see if you can transport them to my location?"

"Will see what can be done, ma'am," came the reply. A few minutes passed before the sound of a transporter beam sounded in the cavern as a pole materialized along with a small tackle box. "The items belong to Petty Officer Yamachita who agreed to loan the items, ma'am."

Leyton smiled at the equipment. "Tell Petty Officer Yamachita that he has our thanks. Lieutenant Leyton, out." She turned to Elf. "Looks like you can fish," she smiled at the woman.

"Cool" Elf began rummaging through the kit. "Hmm different lures than I am used to, fly fishing in Scotland requires different tackle but I can work with this." 10 minutes she was set up on the bank and casting her first cast. "Hope there is more than one fish in here."

Further back, Nuna was slowly but surely enticing the giant six-legged squirrel to come closer. Meanwhile, as if in answer to her query, several golden white fish leaped from the brook, each shooting a stream of water in a seemingly random direction before falling back in the water.

Leyton moved further into the cavern at the edge of the lighting from the beacon. She looked about with her flashlight until a small movement caught her eye of a spider-like creature about the size of a Terran tarantula. Breaking out her scanner, the arachnid creature appeared very similar to a tarantula save for the exoskeletal body. "Calling you a rock spider," Leyton commented as she tapped in a few commands into her scanner. Suddenly a green liquid hit her uniform as she looked up at the spider raising on it's hind legs towards her. The spot on her uniform felt warm after a moment as her scanner identified it as a form on acid. "Shit!" she jumped back, heading towards the stream to begin splash water from the stream onto the spot where the acid hit her uniform. After a few splashes, the warmness subsided as she noticed a small hole had been eaten through in her uniform.

The giant squirrel broke off its silent negotiation with Ensign Lepine when it spotted the spider attack the Lieutenant. Moving faster than one would think, the squirrel was next to Leyton before any of the party could react. Keeping its distance from Leyton, the squirrel picked up several flat rocks and began skipping them over several parts of the stream. A "barrage" of spitting fish appeared, one of them hitting the offending rock spider. Several other rock spiders were flushed out by the spitting fish.

Nuna came running over just as the squirrel finished throwing its rocks and turned around to face the two Starfleet officers. "Perhaps your original surmisal was correct, Lieutenant," Nuna observed. "He may indeed like us."

"Yeah, looks like it," she agreed, turning to look at the squirrel. "Suggest we keep our distance from those rock spiders, however."

Nuna was about to reply when the giant squirrel walked into the stream and dug into the gravel. It produced two mollusks, both with dull purplish shells. It cracked one open, revealing the inner shell to be white and pearly. The contents of the shell appeared dull white, plump and springy. The giant squirrel quickly scooped up the contents and consumed them. The giant squirrel then cracked open the second mollusk and lifting it over its head, walked up to Lieutenant Leyton, clearly offering it to her.

Nuna pointed her tricorder at the proffered "oyster." "Readings indicate it is non-toxic, Lieutenant," Nuna offered. "Beyond that, I can make no recommendations."

"Well, it certainly is a smart little thing," Leyton replied, kneeling down in front of the squirrel. She took the offered oyster and studied it for a moment. "If I get sick, I'm blaming both of you," she said as she ate the contents of the oyster. "Not bad," she commented after a moment as she placed the empty shell on the ground by the squirrel.

The squirrel stared at the Lieutenant for a few seconds, then acted as if it were going to enter the cavern proper. It jerked itself backwards at one point, then acted as if it were trying to force itself deeper into the cavern. After a minute of pantomime, the giant squirrel returned to Leyton and Lepine.

"A warning not to go deeper into the cavern, Lieutenant?" Nuna asked. "We could devise a drone to initially enter the cavern, to see if there is any imminent danger."

Elf meanwhile had caught 6 fish and had kept them alive by storing them in a net in the water. She was focusing on the task at hand.

The squirrel meandered over to where Ensign McArthur was fishing. It kept its distance as it got comfortable to continue its observation. The squirrel seemed particularly fascinated when Ensign McArthur put a fish in a retaining net.

"That is definitely not your ordinary squirrel," Leyton remarked at the animal's apparent amazing IQ level. Perhaps deeper in the cave there were more of those damned acid-spitting rock spiders that was causing the squirrel to try to warn them. "It would be difficult to get a drone down here, so I think for now, we'll just stick to the immediate area.

Nuna nodded, while her mind considered ways to utilized native materials to construct a balloon like probe to delve deeper into the cavern. For example, there was a nearby gas deposit, just under the surface, that promised to be at least five percent helium. Obviously, that wasn't something Nuna could just "tap" right into, but it was something the Atlantis could harvest while they were at this planet, and something Nuna could use at some indeterminate later date.

Leyton approached Elf and grinned. "You have quite the catch there, Elf. Didn't know you were so good at fishing," Leyton complimented as she approached the woman.

"I used to fly fish near my mother's place of work in Scotland" Elf Replied as she hooked another fish. "I will try to catch enough that Chef can fillet enough for the whole crew. And then, maybe tomorrow we can get more."

"That sounds like a plan. We should be getting back up to the surface soon before people start getting worried about us," she chuckled.

Elf did the math. "I need at least 15 more fish" she said. "Give me another hour or so?"

Ok, will do," came Smantha's reply as moved to explore more of the cave.