Where are your Parents?

Posted on Tue 31st Aug, 2021 @ 7:22am by Lieutenant Commander Kiara Lena & Commander Zed
Edited on on Fri 10th Sep, 2021 @ 4:51am

1,434 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Waging Peace
Location: Federation Research Colony on the planet Tusayan
Timeline: MD 29 1125 hours

The shuttle made the landing site without any problems as expected. The pilot tapped a few commands on her console and the systems shut down. "All systems secured, ma'am," she replied and spun around in her chair to face the back of the compartment.

"Thank you." Gemma looked down at the atmospheric readings. "They look fine, but we can't trust them. Keep your suits on and be careful." She stood. "Let's see what's out there, shall we?"

"You heard the lady, let's move out," Fox said as she stood up and looked at everyone to make sure they still had their helmets on. "Opening the hatch." She added once verified that everyone did look ready.

Moore and Waters stood up at the same time and followed the two ladies outside the shuttle. Once outside, Fox tapped the outside panel that closed and secured the door.

The beginning of the colony was not far off, maybe two hundred yards or so. Fox observed the area and didn't see anything that seemed out of the ordinary. She lifted her tricorder to where she could see it and began scanning.

"Keep your guard up and don't let anyone get too close," Gemma said over the comm. "We don't know what happened to the adults. If you have to shoot, stun only." She slowly headed for the colony.

The others began to follow her lead, setting their phasers to stun. "We have your back, ma'am." Fox said as she followed her closely.

"Good." She hoped that didn't mean that if she got in trouble, they'd be right behind her. Still, it was good to know they were there. She checked her tricorder. "All the life signs appear to come from the same building."

"I concur." Fox said as she looked at her tricorder, "I think we should start there.

Gemma nodded. It was so...quiet here. It made her uncomfortable. There should be people, animals. Children playing. "Notify everyone if you see or hear anything unusual."

"Ma'am, this whole situation is unusual, but I get your point." Waters replied with a slight smirk on his face.

"It is," she admitted with a shake of her head. "But we will endeavor to find some reason. Our first task is to locate the children and ask them."

Waters glanced over at Fox who had been glaring at him for his comment.

The small group approached the building cautiously. Fox did another scan with her tricorder, "I'm picking up 22 life signs, all pre-adolescent."

Gemma nodded. "All in one group or spread out?"

"They all seem to be in one large room in the northernmost building. They don't seem to be moving or anything." Fox replied.

That was concerning. It could mean that they were all ill. They went quickly and carefully to the northernmost building, keeping an eye out for anything unusual. Gemma checked the door before opening it. She keyed her external speakers. "We're Starfleet and we're here to help."

Fox and the others followed Gemma in the room. The large room consisted of lots of tables and chairs like one would find in a dining facility. In the chairs sat children busy eating, Many of them stopped eating and turned to see who had spoken. One child, a boy no more than 12 got up from his table and walked over to Gemma, "I am Lauren Purcell and we are all that remains of the colony."

Gemma smiled. "Hello, Lauren Purcell. My name is Gemma Craven. What happened to your parents?"

"Are you here to help us? To take us away from here?" Lauren asked avoiding the question.

Gemma looked at the doctor and nodded to the children, indicating the doctor should check them out.

Then she turned back to Lauren. "Do you want to leave here?" she asked.

Lauren watched the Doctor silently move off to a group of the children, "What is he doing?"

"Making sure they're not sick," Gemma said.

"Yes," Lauren said plainly.

"Can you tell me what happened? Why you're all here? Gemma asked gently.

"All of the grown-ups went to sleep and never woke up. They died in their sleep." Lauren looked at the other children sitting at the tables, "Because we are eating." He gave a weak smile, tired of the situation and very unhappy about losing his parents on this planet.

She looked at the doctor. They would need to scan the bodies, too. "We'll need to make sure you're all healthy, then we'll need to look at the bodies to see if we can learn what made your parents go to sleep and not wake up." Gemma sighed. This was going to be difficult for them, but not nearly as difficult as it would be for the children. The disease had to be something that affected adults. "Where do you go when you're not eating?"

"The holodeck was programmed with an educational curriculum to keep up with our educational needs. We have a gym and swimming pool for our physical activity and in the evenings the holodeck provides entertainment like movies or locations where we can have fun. We mainly stay together as a group." Lauren thought for a moment before adding, "I have a list of activities that we do each day on my computer if you would like to see it." The young man was remarkably intelligent and self-reliant.

Gemma turned to one of the team. "Get me a list of everyone on the colony and their family affiliation. There was something going on here that she didn't yet understand, but she was going to.

"Doctor, let me know when you complete your scans." Gemma hoped the information would help them find the answers to this conundrum.

Fox nodded and followed the Doctor. She discreetly used her tricorder for facial recognition of all the children. Once that was done she downloaded the manifest of the colony and began to compare the numbers.

The Doctor went from child to child and scanned them with his Medical tricorder as they continued to eat. Their interest in him didn't really disturb their meal since the scan was quick and discreet. When he was done with all the children he came back over. "They all seem to be in generally good health. I can't find any trace of a virus in any of them, but more detailed scans are needed to be sure. If we take the children, they should be quarantined until we are sure."

Gemma nodded. "What concerns me is how...placid they are. They're taking this far too well. And what child voluntarily takes education courses? Oh, there will be a couple, but all of them? It feels...wrong, but I don't know why. Maybe one of them will talk to you when you do more scans. Could we use their sickbay for that? I would rather not take them to the ship just yet."

"If all the equipment is in good working order and has not been tampered with. It will take some time to do detailed scans and if we want to be that thorough then we should conduct blood tests on all the children as well. It will take me most of the day to complete the scans and draw the blood samples. It will take all night to do the lab work. Will we have enough air in our suits for that?" He didn't mind the work and in fact, he enjoyed a challenge. The big thing for him was doing all the lab work in the EV suit. Everything took longer and the suit was clumsy. "We have about 22 hours of air left in our suits and without any hiccups, I should be able to finish about that time."

"We can recharge them on the shuttle if we need to," Gemma said. "Keep an eye on the oxygen levels."

"I guess I should get cracking then. I'm going to need some help, I'm sure." One thing that he was sure about was that he could use some help.

"If no one else volunteers, I can help a bit," Gemma said. "I'm not a doctor, but I can follow instructions." If nothing else, it would give her a chance to look at the computer.

He took his PADD and tapped in a few commands. "I have sent a list of the children and would like to see them in that order, which is oldest to youngest. Let me go take a look at the Sick Bay and make sure the equipment is in working order. I will call you when I'm ready for the first one."

 

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