Lt. Colin: The Shuttle Crash
Lieutenant Colin sat in front of his terminal, trying to concentrate on his task. It would be the first time that he was in charge of the security of the away-team. Chief of Security Tomson had chosen him for this round, and now he wanted to show her that she hadn't made a poor choice.
He rubbed his eyes and re-checked the lists of the persons who would accompany him and their equipment. He then passed the list with the equipment down to the weaponry-lock and the other to the security compartment. He now had two hours left to get some rest, so he lay down and tried to calm down.
He was the first one in the transporter room – except for Lieutenant Kyle, of course. Colin looked at the man behind the controls who nodded in greeting. A few minutes later the rest of the security team arrived. Lieutenant Sutok was his second in charge and would take lead if Colin got knocked out or if they had to split up. The Ensigns Giggs and Harrison stood beside the Vulcan.
"Any new information about what will await us down there?" asked Giggs.
Colin shook his had. "Not when I last checked. Still no life signs of the passengers of the crashed shuttle. And what the sensors got from the native life are just some smaller animals. We don't even know if some of them might be dangerous."
Giggs shrugged. "Ok, then we have to find out," she said.
Colin nodded and stood still when the door opened again to reveal the Captain, followed by the Doctor and the First Officer.
"At ease," the Captain said. "To make it short: we still can't get enough readings of the surface. That means you will have to secure the landing zone and beam down with phasers ready to shoot."
"Of course, Sir." Colin nodded and drew his weapon. "We will contact you the moment we have finished setting up a perimeter to cover your transport."
"Instead of Ensign Giggs, Spock will go down with you," Kirk said.
Colin frowned. "Sir?" he asked.
The captain smiled apologetically. "Spock wants to get right to the shuttle to get some tricorder readings. We think there's not just a small probability that whoever crashed the shuttle will also have set up something to let it explode before we can secure any traces of sabotage. When Spock is with the first beam-down, we can at least get a record as evidence."
"Wouldn't it be safer to give the tricorder to Sutok and let him make the records?" Colin asked.
"Lieutenant Sutok is not sufficiently trained to make any fast adjustment that may become necessary," Spock replied. "And because I studied the already acquired data of the shuttle crash, I am likely to perceive any possible danger a lot faster than any other."
Colin nodded again. "I understand, Sir."
Kirk clapped his hands and directed the group to take their place on the platform. Spock stood in front, facing Lieutenant Kyle, while Colin and Sutok looked to the side. Ensign Harrison covered the rear which meant that he was seeing a wall right now.
"Energize," Spock ordered, and Lieutenant Kyle put his right hand to the slide control.
They materialized on a vast slope at the bottom of a giant mountain. It was clearly volcanic, and the volcano still seemed to be active. That was also the reason they couldn't get clear readings of the area from orbit.
Colin held his phaser beside his hip and looked up from his little scanner to peer at the landscape. Behind a lot of gravel and some few larger stones began a greenish sky. There was nothing else worth mentioning.
"Everything appears to be clear," he heard Sutok report from behind him.
"Here the same," Colin said.
Spock nodded but was already busy calibrating his tricorder, while getting nearer to the shuttle – or what was left of it. Part of the cockpit was missing, also one of the propulsion nacelles. The rest showed severe hull damage, which also had been totally blackened.
"I still get a high energy reading," Spock said. "Be prepared to get fast on the ground if I tell you."
Colin and Harrison nodded in agreement, despite the fact that Spock was looking in the other direction and therefore couldn't see it. Colin peeked to the First Officer, when his eye caught a movement almost outside of his vision field. He turned back but couldn't see anything which hadn't been there before.
He was about to tell Spock, when the Science Officer shouted a warning. Colin went on the ground immediately, and just afterwards an explosion shook the ground. Dust whirled around, penetrating his lungs and causing him to cough.
Carefully, he got up again and looked around. Spock and Sutok were already on their feet again, but Harrison still lay on the ground.
"Just before the explosion of the shuttle I thought I had seen something," Colin told Spock and pointed over to the direction. He then went to Harrison to check on the Ensign.
"He is injured at the back of his head," he reported and tried to sound casually. "But he is alive and doesn't seem to have any severe injury."
"Can you be more specific about what you think you have seen?" Spock asked.
Colin shook his head. "I'm sorry, no, sir."
Harrison regained his consciousness and moaned.
"Keep down," Colin advised. "You're injured at your at head and I also don't think that we are out of danger."
"I'm a security guard," Harrison rebuked. "I should be the last one to keep lying low."
"Whatever," conceded, as Harrison got up. "But I am responsible, so keep between me and Sutok and your head low."
Harrison nodded. "Yes, sir."
Colin concentrated his attention to Spock, who was walking slowly away from them and toward the direction Colin had pointed at. The lieutenant followed him, his phaser ready to fire. He motioned to Sutok to wait with Harrison while he gained on Spock.
The Science Officer made some further adjustments to his tricorder and stopped suddenly. He turned the tricorder to the right, than back forward again. His right eyebrow raised while he studied the readouts. "Interesting."
Colin wondered, what he had found out, but didn't ask. He was only in charge of the security down here, after all. He also didn't want to disrupt Spock attention, also that it was quiet unlikely he could achieve that with a simple question.
Spock popped open his communicator and said: "Spock to Enterprise, the shuttle exploded, but I advise against Captain Kirk and Doctor McCoy coming down. Lieutenant Colin may have sighted another thread which I can't verify with my tricorder. There seems to be a form of a distortion field I have not seen before, approximately two hundred meters from our current position."
"Kirk here," came the answer from the communicator. "What do you propose, Spock? We have to find out what happened to the shuttle and, most of all, find a trace of the crew."
"I am clearly aware of our mission, captain," Spock responded. "But if you beam down and the Rihannsu really are involved in the shuttle crash, than it is possible that they are still on the planet in hiding. It would be to high a risk for you and the doctor."
Colin heard someone snorting on the other end of the line. "Don't tell me you worry about us, Spock," McCoy said.
"I certainly am concerned of your safety. You represent two of the most important ranks, after all. You are the doctor of the Enterprise, doctor, and that is a fact we all have to arrange with and make sure as far as possible, that you keep in a healthy enough state to execute your duties."
"That's stupid, Spock," McCoy grunted. "It is my duty to keep everyone healthy enough, as you put it, but if we find the survivors or one of you gets injured, I cannot 'execute' that duty."
"I concur, doctor," Spock replied, "but as long as no one needs your aid down here, you only would be in unnecessary danger."
There was some muted cursing, but McCoy didn't say any more.
"Then I will at least send Ensign Giggs down to you," Kirk said. "Try to find out more on the shuttle. We will send another security team down on another location. They will investigate on the distortion field you think you found. Kirk out."
Spock closed the communicator and put it back at his belt. Colin followed him back to the shuttle wreck, turned his head every dozen steps. But whatever he had seen, he didn't see it again.
Ensign Giggs materialized when they had reached the landing zone. The first thing she saw was the back of Harrison's head. "Whoa," she said. "You're injured."
Harrison turned and smiled. "Not badly, it's just a scratch. Sutok examined it already. I'm able to do my duty."
Colin went to Sutok. "You did examine him?" he asked quietly.
Sutok nodded. "I could not find severe head damage or shrapnel on him," he answered. "And as long he keeps awake, there is no significant risk of a possible concussion."
Colin shrugged. "Yeah, I didn't examine him, but that's what I figured, too." He looked at Spock who now was at the remains of the shuttle. "We'd better set out a perimeter now. All by the book." He motioned to Harrison. "You get to Spock and see if he needs any help."
Harrison nodded and stalked over.
"Giggs will watch this side, going around a bit, but never any further than fifty meters from the landing zone."
"Got it," the Ensign acknowledged.
"I will do the same on the other side and see if I can get a glimpse again of whatever I saw." Colin turned to Sutok. "You have the better eyes, so you should keep an eye on the valley downwards which means much more to watch for."
Sutok inclined his head. "What do you want me to do with my other eye?"
Colin furrowed his brow. "The same would be reasonable."
"Indeed," Sutok said and got himself into position.
Colin shrugged and walked over to the other side.
Spock's investigation took over an hour, which was long considering what was left of the shuttle: mostly blackened metal. Lieutenant Colin did not any further sightings. It also seemed the other landing group also found nothing but suddenly Colin heard disruptors, followed by phaser fire. Almost at the same time his communicator chirped.
He activated it and said: "Lieutenant Colin here."
The voice which answered belonged to Lieutenant-Commander Vultoure. "Colin, get you and your men down here, we need assistance! Just get to the coordinates Spock scanned earlier. We got some Romulans here!" he said, using the human term for the Rihannsu.
Colin closed his communicator and shouted over to the others. When they looked at him, he waved at them, ordering them to his side. "We have a job to do," he told them. "Keep your heads down, I don't want them to notice us too soon."
They scurried a little downward along the mountainside, and after some hundred meters Lieutenant Colin felt a small twinge on his whole body. They had passed some weak energy field, which mostly shielded the inner side from sensor scans and prying eyes from the outside.
Colin now could clearly see about twenty Rihannsu in cover behind a Romulan shuttle, shooting at Lieutenant-Commander Vultoure and his men who tried to keep out of the disruptor fire behind some too small rocks.
"Ok, phaser on heavy stun," Colin ordered, adjusting his own weapon. "We're vulnerable up here, so we need to knock them out with one shot."
The others nodded and spread out a little. Colin waited until they had a safe footing and opened fire. His first shot hit one Romulan in the back and he fell forward.
By the time he picked his second target, each of them had eliminated one, Sutok got two. The remaining conscious Rihannsu began to comprehend that they now were attacked on two sides. Most of them turned to face the new thread.
Vultoure reacted immediately and ran straight to the shuttle at full pace, using the advantage. His men followed close behind. While Vultoure entered the shuttle, most of his men went around it and overwhelmed the remaining eight Rihannsu who still could fight. All others had been rendered unconscious already, most of them by the unerring aiming of Sutok.
Lieutenant-Commander Vultoure got out of the shuttle, showing Lieutenant Colin a thumb-up.
Colin turned and waved at Spock, who was already inside of the distortion field, approaching him. "Place is secure," Colin reported.
"Good work, Lieutenant," Spock said. He walked down the slope to the shuttle and didn't skid once. Colin had already some difficulty just standing there.
"This was to easy," Giggs murmured.
Colin looked at her puzzled. "What do you mean?" he asked.
Giggs just looked at him. "This," she said and pointed down.
Sutok nodded. "I understand. The Rihannsu knew we were up here near the destroyed shuttle," he explained. "But they still let us take them by surprise. That would not happen to any half experienced soldier."
Colin nodded in understanding. "I see. So wanted us to find them and take them prisoner?"
"That is possible," Sutok conceded.
Colin sighed. "Let's get down there."
They were almost at the shuttle, when a grey haired tall man appeared in the frame of the hatch. Colin first thought he was a Romulan, but recognized that he was Vulcan.
Spock raised his hand to greet him. "You are unharmed, father?" he asked.
"I am," Sarek answered. "As well as the others from my staff. But I regret I have to tell you that the pilot didn't survive the crash."
Spock nodded. "That I suspected. I need to disengage the distortion field, then we can beam you and your staff up to the Enterprise and escort you to the meeting."
"That would be appreciated," Sarek replied.
Spock turned to Colin. "While Lieutenant-Commander Vultoure supervises the arrests of the Rihannsu, you and your group will protect the ambassador and his staff. There might be another group of Rihannsu on this planet, though I doubt it."
Colin nodded. "Aye, sir. Do you think they wanted us to rescue ambassador Sarek?" the lieutenant asked. "We overwhelmed them fairly easy."
"That is very likely. Captain Kirk and I actually assume that the Rihannsu here are renegades who want to force the Romulan Empire and the Federation into a full scale war. But we don't have any evidence of that."
Sarek's eyebrow rose up. "But you definitely have something that indicates in that direction, Spock?" he asked.
"We do. But first I need to shut down the distortion field. We can discuss everything else with Captain Kirk on the Enterprise."
Colin suppressed a grimace. Discussing it on the Enterprise meant that neither he nor the others from his team would learn anything further on the crisis. He let out a short sigh. They would need to wait until they would hopefully hear at least some of it.
Ambassador Sarek and four of his men where the first to be beamed to the Enterprise, after Spock disabled the distortion field. After that followed some of the Rihannsu with their guards. When Colin and his group rematerialized in the transporter room, only Lieutenant-Commander Vultoure and two others of security where on the planet.
Captain Kirk held a short debriefing. Afterwards, Lieutenant Colins shift at the engine room began. He stopped at his quarters to refresh some and headed to the turbolift. He hadn't done a bad job, despite McCoy complaining about Harrison's injury. Colin had some good chance to be scheduled for another leading role in an away-team. He just had to wait and not let himself be killed in a space battle.