STAR TREK: AURORA
LANDING
Written by SteinUlf
Beta Readers: Madre, IronRaven
-ST:A-
A gentle breeze tugged the man's pant leg, bringing the damp scent of plant life with it. The harsh glare from the bulk cargo hauler illuminated the clearing as far as the tree line where strange shadows danced.
The man, Marshall Eric "Rusty" McClintock, breathed deeply of the new world. He liked planets. Too long on a starship and he felt bottled up, cut off from the world. But planets, they were alive, vibrant and real. Starships served only to go from one planet to another and McClintock had seen many worlds in his time.
People forgot about planets. Sure, they were born on one, traveled to some, but they got too wrapped up in space. Lost themselves in the pretty, confusing, fascinating depths of space. And they forgot that man does not survive in space. Man needed planets, biospheres, life. Planets were where Marshall McClintock belonged. He looked up into the night sky.
Constellations different from his home world shown in the night sky above. A whole quadrant of the sky blazed in a cacophony of light, yellow, red, and brown. The Badlands. They were even visible during the day.
"Look at sky later unload now," Lt. j.g Katya Kurylenko growled. McClintock hoofed as the tall Ukrainian woman shoved a crate at him. Glancing at the label, he brought it over to where the rest of the foodstuffs were being piled. McClintock smiled to himself. He was back on solid ground, a planet, and that's where the fun happened. He would carve a new home out of this wilderness.
-ST:A-
"See! I told you we should have unloaded the pre-fabs first! Now everything is just piled around!" Administrator Hans Bauer pointed emphatically at the growing piles of stuff being unloaded from the cargo ship.
The ship's cargo master watched the Administrator lazily. He thought the blond beanpole might actually blow a gasket he was so worked up. "Yeah, well, whoever back in port loaded those first, so they's the last to come out. Nothing for it but t'wait till it's done," He drawled.
"But…but…this is completely unorganized!"
"Son, things is going smooth, ya haven't lost or broke nothin', so relax. It's goin' well'nuff."
"Aargh!" Bauer spat and stormed off to find his aide. Maybe then he'd find somebody intelligent to deal with.
-ST:A-
Doctor Lilly Thompson eyed the man helping her with the crate curiously. "So really, why are you here, Tor? It's awfully far from your home world isn't it?" the petite brunette asked. She tried to read his expression but it was utterly flat.
"In point of fact Vulcan is closer to Aurora than Earth is. One might then wonder why you are here?"
"I'm here as the colony's doctor. That's obvious. But you're the only Vulcan on a mostly human colony. That doesn't make sense." They lifted another crate and began moving to the growing piles as the cargo ship emptied. A heavy lifter passed them by with an enormous crate filled with some of the power generation equipment.
"It makes perfect sense. I am here as the colony's Vulcan."
-ST:A-
"Be careful! You'll spook them!" Pol Tarn shouted as the lifter rumbled by. He'd barely gotten the sheep corralled after getting them off the ship. He didn't want to go chasing them hither and yon across and unknown world. His wife, Kes, stroked the dog they'd gotten. It was something they were going to try to learn, controlling livestock with dogs. Apparently human's had done it for centuries and he'd made sure to buy one that was well trained. He was told that it was called Border Collie. It didn't quite seem a proper name for an animal, but then humans always named their pets oddly. Mostly, he was just glad that he and his wife had survived the occupation of Bajor.
He would have preferred to raise native Bajoran koresh as he had done his whole life, but inexplicably most humans could not stand the taste of the delicious animal, so he had decided on a species he could stomach and that was quite popular with humans.
-ST:A-
"You're mad!"
"I not mad!" Katya shouted back, brandishing a finger in Administrator Bauer's face. "You stupid sookin syn." she trailed off into a torrent of Russian.
"Whoa whoa, what's the problem?" McClintock asked, gently pushing the other two away from each other.
"I tried to tell her we need to get the administrative offices set up, but she's insisting on getting her shop up and running first! It's ludicrous!" Bauer stomped his foot for emphasis.
Kaya glared and spat more Russian at them.
"Katya, calm down. Speak English."
"Tovyo mat!"
"I don't need to speak Russian to know that was rude. Look, we've been out all night getting that ship unloaded. People are exhausted. How about we get the habs set up first. We can hash out everything else once we've all had some sleep. Sound good?"
"Fine Marshal, fine," Bauer sighed, clearly very put upon.
"Lieutenant?" McClintock eyed Katya.
"Da, da, is good."
"Alright then. Administrator, how about you go administrate something. Katya, come with me." McClintock sighed. He'd come out here to avoid conflict. He was tired of war. He just wanted a nice quiet life as the Marshal of a small colony where his biggest worries were lost cats and local predators. Maybe he should have Katya set up the jail first.
-ST:A-
"Hmm, that hill should be perfect I expect." Lieutenant Commander Kim remarked, lowering her binoculars. She was observing one of several proposed sites for the Federation research outpost to be built to study the Badlands. This particular site had the advantage of being on top of a hill and only around five kilometers from where the new colony was setting up.
"Konrad?" she asked, turning to the team's planetologist. Planetology wasn't a real discipline in Starfleet Science, but it was the best description of multiple specialties of the junior lieutenant. With degrees in geology, biology, and meteorology with some minors in physics, chemistry, and a few others, if there was something to be learned about a planetary body, Konrad Dolebowski was the one to learn it. Lieutenant Commander Kim wasn't sure why Dolebowski was still a junior lieutenant when he was old enough, experienced enough, and smart enough to be a Lieutenant Commander, but there were plenty of rumors, none of which he confirmed or denied.
Konrad turned away from the hill in question to eye the Lieutenant. "Bedrock. Should be good." Kim waited for him to say more, but he was obviously finished. Getting words out of Dolebowski was worse than prying latinum from a dead Ferengi, to say nothing of a live one.
"Okay Chief, take us back." The Chief Petty Officer whipped the Argo Rover around and headed back to the colony. They'd get the testing equipment to do final evaluation of the site, but of the three identified from orbit, this one seemed best suited for the research outpost.
-ST:A-
Katya surveyed the construction contentedly. They already had four habs up and were setting up two more, with spaces marked for all the rest with pegs in the grass. She'd nearly kicked the fool who suggested laser survey. These were pre-fabricated field habitation modules. They got set up where they got set up and that was that. Katya had been nice enough to the Administrator to actually arrange them somewhat. The twenty five modules would form three sides of a rectangle, with ten on each side and five on one end. The open end would face north and she was planning on setting the Admin offices and other such buildings there. The arrangement would create a very nice town square. Of course someone had corrected her that it would be a rectangle and she had cuffed him just like babushka had done to her as a child.
She eyed the colonists scrambling around erecting the frame of the two habs. They were good for trained monkeys. Show them how to seal a joint on the extruded polymer frame members and they could ape it pretty well. Then she noticed a sandy haired fellow leaning over to get at a joint instead of moving the scaffold. She realized what was about to happen a moment before the man slipped and fell to the ground with a cry of surprise.
Lilly Thompson surveyed the piles of material for the colony looking for anything marked with a blue caduceus. She'd already managed to collect most of her medical gear in its own area and would move it into the sickbay once that was set up.
The reality of the frontier was starting to sink in. She'd just finished her residency before signing up for this expedition, thinking it would be exciting and full of adventure. But then, she'd never practiced medicine outside a real hospital. Finally she spotted one of her crates, and then grinned as she saw Rusty coming her way. Between the two of them they'd definitely be able to lift it.
"Pocket, grab your kit," he said without preamble once he was close enough to speak.
"Is someone hurt?" she asked, then mentally kicked herself. Rusty McClintock had a very low tolerance for foolishness. He wouldn't have told her to get her kit if someone wasn't hurt or about to be. "Never mind. I'll be just a sec."
She dashed to her pile, grabbed a field kit, and joined McClintock. "What happened? Who's hurt?"
"Guess," McClintock growled.
Lilly sighed. "Phil."
"Bingo." Phil had already developed something of a reputation. Just on the flight to the colony alone he'd logged more time in the sickbay than then next three colonists combined. Accident prone seemed almost inadequate a description. Accident magnet maybe. If there was a way to hurt oneself, Phil would figure it out.
McClintock led Lilly to the construction area to see Phil lying on the ground moaning with Katya glaring down at him. She was reasonably sure that Katya was not responsible for Phil's current condition.
"Jesus Phil, how did you do that?" Lilly asked as saw the arm he was clutching. There was a bone sticking out. She fought to control the lurch she felt in her stomach. It would do the patient no good if the doctor got upset.
"Stupid fool tried to reach to seal frame member instead of getting proper scaffold in place," Katya spat.
"Well, let me get you something for the pain and we'll get you all patched up." Phil just moaned. "Don't worry Phil, you'll be fine."
"Don't." Lilly looked at McClintock in confusion. "Don't what?"
"Painkillers. Don't. He's not going to die and a little pain might teach him to be more careful next time. Won't it Phil?" Phil nodded weakly. He was barely conscious, sweat plastered his hair and his skin was white.
"Rusty, this isn't a war zone, we can spare the meds. Look at him! He's barely conscious." Lilly patted Phil's head as she pulled out a hypospray. McClintock grabbed her hand.
"Pocket, we're out in the boondocks here. This isn't Earth. People don't just drop dead on golf courses here. An accident can kill you, and pain teaches you to be careful. Just patch him up. Or leave the kit and I'll do it."
"If it was just a sprain or even a simple break, you'd be right. But Rusty, this is a compound fracture. I can set it and keep it from getting infected, but if we're not careful he could go into shock."
"Pocket…"
"No!" Lilly pulled her hand out of his grasp. "This is a medical situation, I'm the doctor here, so be quite and do as I say!" McClintock raised an eyebrow, surprised and a little impressed. He was used to being obeyed, regardless of the rank or position he held. But little Pocket was dead set. And she did have a point. "Okay."
"Phil, you're going to be all right. Now be brave for me, okay?" She smiled calmly as Phil started at her with basic animal fear. He wasn't used to hurting this bad, or seeing his own bones, and it shook him all the way back to the lizard part of this hindbrain that something was very, very wrong. But the pretty girl said he'd be okay. He nodded. He felt a slight prick and then the pain went away, though he still felt weird.
"Okay. Good boy. Katya, brace his body please. Rusty, you'll have to lift and twist to set the bone. Like this," she mimed with her hands. McClintock nodded. Katya braced Phil's arm while McClintock took hold near the wrist. "Ready? On three. One…"
McClintock wrenched the limb back into place with a sickening crunch. The scream died on Phil's lips as the stress and drugs caused him to pass out. Lilly turned as white as the flower for which she was named, but managed a quick scan to confirm the bones were in fact in place, and then ran a regenerator over the wound. In moments the bone knit and the skin closed. That done, Lilly scanned the rest of him. He had no other injures besides some minor bruising.
"We need to move him somewhere quiet until he wakes up. The arm is healed, but it's still been through a trauma and will be a bit tender. He'll be fine though."
"Damn lucky if you ask me," McClintock said. "Place I grew up, he'd have that thing in a cast for months, assuming he didn't lose it to infection." McClintock stood and brushed his hands on his pants.
"That's because you grew up on a barbaric little rock with no doctors."
"If we're done here," McClintock growled.
"Don't care done!" Katya cut in. "Get him gone! Useless" she switched to Russian again, but her expression and gesturing was enough to indicate that whatever she was saying, it was less than polite. She waived dismissively at Phil.
Lilly looked expectantly at McClintock. He shook his head, not understanding. "I can't lift him myself," she finally said. McClintock groaned and hauled Phil over his shoulder like a sack of grain.
"Katya, we'll probably have more injuries so please try to get the sickbay set up a soon as possible, okay? Thanks." She trotted after McClintock as he lumbered towards one of the habs to find a bunk.
"Da, everyone want everything set up now. We get to it when we get to it." Katya growled as she stormed off.
-ST:A-
"Easy…easy…and…release. Beautiful." Ensign Sanja Kato eased back in the pilot seat as the satellite drifted free of the runabout. She checked the telemetry as it came online. Electronics Technician 2nd Class Kriss Tang entered the cockpit and set his helmet down before sitting in the sensor operators station. He always felt cold after an EVA though he knew it was entirely psychosomatic. The environmental regulation in a Fleet issue space suit was perfect. Still, he did feel cold…
"Looks good from here Sir."
"Kriss, why do you keep sirring me? I told you, call me Sanja." She turned and grinned at the young Trill. He didn't even look up.
"Yes Sir, absolutely Sir."
Sanja stood and watched the screen over Kriss' shoulder. The orbital imagery looked good along with the weather feed. These satellites would form the base of the planetary navigation system with a secondary monitoring function for weather and orbital imagery. "Relax Kriss, I don't bite."
"Too bad, Sir."
-ST:A-
"Well, what you think?" Katya asked, folding her arms. Administrator Bauer tried to stay calm. The hab modules had finally all been set up, but they weren't quite aligned. Oh, they were mostly straight, but Bauer had tested the lines with a laser earlier. He wanted to tell Katya to redo it. He wanted to tell her to survey properly and square everything away. But most of all he wanted to keep his organs inside his body. "It should do well enough until we can get more permanent housing. Thank you Katya."
"See? When you shut up and stay out of way, job get done," Katya beamed. Three days and Phil the only major accident and they'd set up all twenty five of the buildings, enough to house the nearly fifteen hundred members of the colony. They'd even got each block of five habs a field latrine and small power generator as well. Next she would set up the mess hall and administrative building at the open end of the formation. "Now, you get decide who sleeps where. Have fun," she grinned, trotting towards building one where she'd set up her stuff. She did her job and now it was time to leave Administrator Neat-Freak to his.
-ST:A-
"This just feels so…weird," Lilly remarked as she ran soap through her hair. She hadn't had a proper shower in a few days, and now, to her dismay, she learned that the field latrines were not equipped with sonic showers but ones that used water.
"And you call me barbarian. How is it that you come from Earth but have never had a shower?" McClintock chuckled from the next stall over. "I thought you Federation types were all supposed to be squeaky clean and such."
"I…what? No, I've had…it's the water that's weird. And the soap. It still seems dirty. I'm sure you've got some charming story about water showers from back home you're about to tell me though."
"In fact I do. And just for kicks, one of these days I'm going to wash you down with a hose. Momma used to do that ta us before she'd let us back in the house if we got dirty enough." McClintock tried in vain to sound threatening, but there was no hiding the chuckle in his voice. So many of the colonists were shocked and awed by things that were routine to McClintock. They were almost all core world urban intellectuals. Most of them only knew about calluses in theory and thought shovels and manual labor had gone out with broadswords and slavery.
"Lilly, it occurs to me to warn you…" he was cut off by a surprised yelp of pain. "…to avoid getting soap in your eyes. Just rinse them with water, you'll be fine."
"This is stupid. Why don't we just use proper showers," Lilly whined.
"Sonic shower pain in ass to fix," Katya barked, stepping into a stall herself. "Sonic shower need frequency calibration, power output alignment, resonance dampening, blah blah. Water shower need water, pump, pipes. Can fix with weld, solder, tape, clay and such. Easy to keep running. You don't like go build sonic shower yourself."
Lilly eyed the controls for the shower dubiously. She'd figured out the controls for hot and cold easily enough, but she only saw the two. "I know this is probably a dumb question to a bumpkin like you, but how do I turn on the dryer?"
"Say again?" McClintock asked, not quite believing what he'd just heard. Katya burst out laughing.
"The dryer? I'm don't want to get dressed dripping wet."
"Pocket, did you not get a towel at the door?" Lilly winced realizing her mistake. She'd seen them, but she was so used to sonics it just hadn't occurred to her.
Katya laughed. "Marshal, I say we steal cloths run off and leave her."
Lilly heard McClintock sigh. A moment later she heard his shower turn off, then he padded off. She was starting to think she might just have to get dressed wet when a towel sailed over the top of her stall and landed on her head. "Thanks Rusty."
-ST:A-
Something rustled. Sera peered at the bush, trying to spot what was moving inside it. She poked the bush and was answered by indignant chittering. Something furry stuck its head out. The creature had a wide face and large eyes. When it chittered again it revealed an enormous mouth as wide as its head full of blocky teeth.
Sera eyed it curiously, then pulled a bit of a ration bar out of her pocket and offered it to the little thing. It cocked its head, eyed the food, sniffed, and darted forward to snatch. As it lunged Sera could see it had six little legs, four of which held onto the bush and the forward two snatched.
The critter sniffed the food again, then shoved the whole morsel into its head. It cheeped happily and took another offered bite. Suddenly the little critter scampered up her arm and invaded her shirt pocket, looking for more food.
"Mom! Can I keep it? Please?"
"Sera, what is that thing?" Betty Sylvester exclaimed upon seeing the little rodent in her daughter's hands. "It could be dangerous!"
"Aww Momm!" Immediately the little girl's eyes swelled to the size of saucer's and teared up.
"Honey, we'll take it to Doctor Thompson. If she says it's not dangerous you can keep it." Tears gone, Sera beamed.
-ST:A-
Administrator Bauer finished his inspection of the ship's hold and turned to the Captain. The inspection had been a formality; he already knew everything had been unloaded and accounted for. But one must keep up appearances. "Well Captain, everything appears in order." He signed the receipt saying the merchant cargo ship had done its job and handed it over. "And a day early as well. Clear skies, Captain."
"Yeah, good luck to you all as well."
Most of the colony had turned out to watch the ship leave. It lifted slowly into the morning sky, a lumbering brick that had no right to fly. It would be months before another one came by. This was it. They were on their own.
In proper fashion Administrator Bauer planned to make a speech to mark the occasion. He'd even convinced Katya to bang together a podium for him. True, it was made of shipping crates, but a podium nonetheless. She grabbed his elbow as he started to step up to it.
"Do not touch microphone. Is not grounded well."
Bauer nodded dubiously and stepped up. "People of Aurora. This is an auspicious day! Today we step forward into a bright new future. Today…"
McClintock zoned out as Administrator Bauer droned on. The man loved speeches. McClintock knelt down and picked up a handful of dirt and rubbed it in his hands before inhaling the rich scent of loam. It didn't matter what Bauer prattled on about. For McClintock things were simple. Whatever came, this place was home now.