Triangulation

Posted on Sat Feb 28th, 2015 @ 12:29pm by Lieutenant Commander Horatio Hawke & Captain Tim Williams & Lieutenant Commander Ciaran McIntyre & Lieutenant Ethan Kessel & Chief Petty Officer Alyssa Carylon

Episode: Orphans
Location: Dreyas Four
Timeline: MD30 1130hrs

"You've been on the surface for some time already, Lieutenant," Reynak said as she held her scanner in her gaze, her glance switching between that, McIntyre and her feet, making sure she wasn't going to trip on anything or walk off in the wrong direction. "Do you have any suggestions on where we could start our search?"

"Do you mean have I spotted any rogue Cardassian scientists lurking in the undergrowth?" Sarcasm seemed the only logical response. "There's a basin with a flowing river about two clicks to the West. If I was going to hide out on a planet with a bunch of flesh-rending monsters then I'd probably want to be near water."

"If you had seen anyone lurking in the undergrowth, it would certainly be helpful," Reynak replied, her sense of humour apparently far superior to that of her boss, the ever-terse Gul Brenor. "Of course, maybe he's managed to genetically engineer himself a tail and he could be swinging through the trees above us."

"There's a thought." McIntyre scoffed.

----

Kessel was on edge. He was feeling distinctly out of place compared to his Security personal, and the Cardassian. While three seemed perfectly suited to hunting monsters, he - a 40% mechanical mechanic, was by comparison, short, slight and not overly equipped in the violence department... Which not for the first time, might turn out to be a disadvantage. Oh well.

They moved out, not talking much, their attention dedicated to their equipment and senors. Or rather, he was. The security personally attention was dedicated to their weapons and itchy trigger fingers. It made him nervous. He checked his own phaser, and was alarmed to see he had subconsciously adjusted its intensity to a level that would burn through steel. He didn't change it back. He had no intention of running into Godzilla with a peashooter.

"Anyone got anything yet?" He asked, breaking the silence.

"Nothing on my scanner," Lepak answered, from his position behind and to the left of the engineer. He couldn't help but glance at the lieutenant's mechanical legs and wonder just what the man's reaction would be to seeing the result of experiments of Entek in trying to improve a soldier genetically. He had known of the reputation of Starfleet engineers to be able to improvise upon and improve upon anything, but he had not considered that one might start doing so to themselves mechanically.

----

Hawke's team worked its way through the trees in single file. They were in a particularly dense part of the search grid and single file made more sense. One of Mac's security guys was on point, with Hawke in second position, the Cardassian - Nelor - behind him and the second security officer guarding the rear.

I'd much rather be in a shuttle the first officer thought to himself, peering off into the darkness. The greatest frustration was the utter futility of their regular scanners; having to rely on the Cardassian's gizmo introduced an uncontrolled element to the situation and that wasn't something Horatio was comfortable with.

He'd already asked the Cardassian several times if there was anything on the scanner and each time the reply was a firm no. This time, he thought he'd try a different approach: "You know," he said, over his shoulder, "your scanner might not be working. I'm sure our engineers could help you fix it."

"I'm sure the scanner is working fine, Commander," Nelor replied, easily catching on to Hawke's thinly-disguised attempt at getting his eyes on the frequencies the scanner was using. "When we're close enough to the lab, I will get a reading."

Hawke couldn't help but smile, despite the situation. Antagonising the Cardassian, however benignly, was proving a welcomed mood-lightener for him. "You'll be sure to let the rest of us know, won't you?" he shot back.

----

"Chief Carylon!" Jiron called out, as the scanner in his hand began to bleep, in a tone that sounded somehow distinctly Cardassian. "I have a reading. The lab is nearby." Jiron then touched the comm system built into the wrist device that was standard on Cardassian uniforms, opening a channel. "Jiron to Reynak. My sensor has a reading. We appear to be a short distance north of your position."

Carylon shot a look over towards the Cardassian officer, knowing that he was fully aware that Starfleet was the one running the search parties. She tapped her own combadge. "Chief Carylon to search parties; Jiron has a possible reading on the laboratory. Relaying our coordinates." She tapped her tricorder to relay their coordinates to the leaders of the other three search parties. "Jiron, can you give a bearing on the reading?"

The Cardassian shook his head. "I will need the sensors from the other teams to help triangulate the signal."

"Commander, did you get that?" Carylon asked, knowing she had left the channel open.

"I got it, Chief," Hawke replied, noticing that Nelor had already started moving in that direction. "All teams, converge on Chief Carylon's position to render assistance."

"Affirmative." McIntyre's voice crackled faintly over the communicator, they were significantly further out in their search pattern. "We'll be there as soon as possible."

"On our way, we'll be a minute" Kessel's voice came as well, sounding relieved to have finally found something, whatever it was.

"I'm starting to get a reading, too," Nelor announced as they moved closer to Carylon and Jiron's position. "Linking up with Jiron's scanner for triangulation."

"Reading being received here too," Lepak said over the comm. channel. "Linking up now."

"Attempting to triangulate the signals," Jiron said, more to keep everyone on the comm channels informed than anything else. "I have a location. Transmitting to all teams now." He tapped a command on his scanner and a set of coordinates was transmitted to everyone's tricorders.

Kessel watched as his tricorder bleeped. He smiled.
"Into the beast's pit then, gentlemen." He said, his sarcasm hiding his apprehension. They still had no idea what had killed their crewmen, and the prospect at becoming a morsel for a guard dog was not overly appealing.

After a few moment, he and his team had made their way towards the signal. He paused slightly, feeling twitchy as movement ahead caught his eye, but was relieved to see it was one of the support teams.

Hawke checked the coordinates on his tricorder then looked up in the direction of the location. A sudden dark feeling of trepidation crept into his consciousness, but he forced it back down deep. There was no room for self-doubt; the last thing he needed on his first real mission as First Officer was to lose it in front of his crew.

He looked around, took a deep breath and straightened his back. “All teams,” he said, his voice commanding. “Move on that location.”