Soldiering Behaviour

Posted on Thu Jul 2nd, 2015 @ 2:16pm by Captain Tim Williams & Lieutenant Commander Horatio Hawke & Lieutenant Commander Ciaran McIntyre

Episode: Orphans
Location: USS Highlander
Timeline: MD30 1530hrs

The turbolift doors hissed apart and Lieutenant Commander Horatio Hawke barely allowed them to fully open before he was through them and onto the bridge.

Lieutenant McIntyre stomped in behind him, his knees still caked in mud where he had dropped into a firing position.

"What's going on down there?" Tim asked, standing from his command chair as his two officers entered. The bridge had been relatively silent whilst the beam-up of the security personnel had taken place, as the transporter rooms had coordinated the beamups directly. The status report from Ops as the transport was completed and the brief request for information from the Cardassians - which Tim had responded to with a 'please wait' - had been the only events. As the situation on the planet got stranger and stranger, Tim had felt more and more frustrated at his lack of ability to do something other than watch events unfold. It was something he had been forced to get used to more and more over the years since he had become a captain. Even though he often found excuses to break the rule that often restricted captains to their ships, even if he did now, he doubted that he would be able to do much to help on the surface.

"We were attacked." Mac stated matter of factly. "One of those things came right for us. Science have got the carcass."

Hawke nodded and added, "I made the call to pull back to the ship, sir. We can't secure the colony site against these things with what resources we have. I deemed it safer for our people to be up here, ready to deploy as needed, rather than guarding empty buildings."

"There's no doubt about that, sir. I can't risk my teams for a few alloy husks, especially on the off chance the Cardassians turn on us." The thought hadn't really occurred to McIntyre before that moment but the worry suddenly washed over him like a crashing wave. What if the Cardassians turned on them? Would they be in any position to defend themselves with all eyes pointing down at the planet?

"You did the right thing," Tim agreed. It was strange though... the creatures had already attacked the colony site once, and been chased off. The fact that one of the creatures attacked again and was there long enough to be killed suggested a level of persistence to the creatures above that of a regular animal instinct. "What was the creature's behaviour like?" he asked. "Did it seem to... want to get at anything it might be protecting under the colony site?" The only situation he could think of any other animal being so persistent against danger would be if it were protecting some sort of nest, but they hadn't found anything that would suggest that there was anything buried beneath the colony site.

Hawke shook his head and glanced to McIntyre before answering. "It only had eyes for us," he replied. "It didn't want anything inside the colony, sir. It came for our people."

"I've never known any animal to behave like that. Determined assault against all the odds? Sounds more like something a soldier would do..."

Hawke felt a chill go through him as he realised the implication of that analogy. The captain was right, it was behaviour more befitting a soldier than a wild beast. And soldiers operated under orders.

"Williams to away team," Tim said, slapping the combadge on his chest as he realised what Entek must have done. "Kessel, Carylon, respond!" He only needed to wait for a moment to know that they wouldn't be able to answer him. "Get back down to the laboratory site, and check on Ethan. If Entek ordered his creatures to attack the colony site, it has to be as a distraction."

"Aye, sir," Hawke said, feeling the adrenaline pump through his veins as he patted McIntyre on the upper arm and headed back to the turbolift. "Let's go, Mac. Have four of your best meet us in Transporter Room Two."

Mac followed wordlessly, tapping his combadge as the turbolift doors sighed closed behind him.

"Once they've beamed down, raise the shields," Tim told the tactical officer at the station next to the turbolift as the two senior officers left the bridge again. "I don't know what Entek is planning, but I don't want to be caught with our pants down if he tries something against the ship."