Chapter 3

2364

"Beam down, plant the program, beam up. Easy enough." Ro Laren reflected dryly on Admiral Kennelly's words as she piloted the shuttlecraft thought Garon II's atmosphere. There was a heavy concentration of ions in it that did not allow safe transportation, so they were taking a shuttle down to the planet's surface instead. First thing not to go according to plan.

Although the ionic interference had actually helped her. Captain Purser had been in a very bad mood since getting his new orders from Admiral Kennelly and had looked quizzically at her when she had volunteered. He had been about to turn her down, until they had encountered the problem with transportation. She may hardly qualify as a botanist, but she was an excellent pilot, and therefore, she had earned her place in the away team.

Ro could notice the glares directed towards her, coming from Lieutenant J.G. Fougeroux and Ensigns Thran and Johnson, seated behind her. Three enraged pair of eyes and two antennae, the ones of the Andorian, pointing at her. The three of them were best friends and the three of them had expected Fougeroux to lead the away team, until she came around, with her command training, and the captain reluctantly put her in charge instead. Johnson had even been bold enough as to direct an angry look at her when they met at the shuttle bay. She had met her stare with one of cold disdain and she had quickly looked away. The three science officers did not understand why she was there, doing what should rightfully be their job, and did not appreciate her volunteering, much less if it meant Fougeroux lost a chance to be in command and prove himself. He was the oldest of them, several years her senior, and he had yet to get his promotion to full lieutenant. None of the three was a particularly brilliant scientist, but they worked hard. They were fine officers, anyway. Fine officers that now despised her.

The youngest of the scientific team was Ensign Salok. The Wellington was his first assigment and he had been on the ship less than a year. Still, he seemed wiser than the other more experienced officers. And he didn't glare at her, if only because he was Vulcan. Probably he hated her too, but he was not going to allow his feelings to be shown, or to dictate his decisions. She wondered if she could serve on a ship full of Vulcans, maybe it would be easier.

The last science officer in the away team was not a commissioned one but a chief petty officer. Muller, now in her fifties, had enlisted when she was just seventeen and had volunteered for a deep space exploratory mission after finishing her training as lab assistant. She had taken a liking for science then. She had now a major in Exobiology and plenty of experience. She could be leading the away team if not for her rank, and if their mission were real, Ro would rely heavily on her advise. But it was not. They were all in a snipe hunt while she looked for a Romulan outpost.

The last three members of the team were security: Lieutenant J.G. Sakamoto, Petty Officer Ngata and Crewman van Dijk. Sakamoto was famous in the Wellington. Just fresh out of the academy he had dated and married a seasoned Betazoid Lieutentant Commander. She had been assigned to the Wellington as Chief Engineer soon after their weeding and he had transferred with her. They have just had their first child. Ro may not talk with anyone in the ship, but she still heard all the gossip, and there were a lot of interesting rumors circulating about their sexual life. She took a side glance at the lieutenant seated by her side. Sakamoto sat ramrod straight, his uniform crisply pressed, his hair cut short, his face grim and as unreadable as that of Salok. He looked the perfect security officer and Ro just could not imagine him any other way than on duty.

His two subordinates sat at the back of the shuttle. Ngata was tall, sturdy and quite intimidating, actually. Van Dick was just the opposite. She was only eighteen and looked even younger. She was also the only one happy. She had come aboard after having just completed her training and this was her first field assignment. She could not hide her excitement, and the smile plastered on her face was a stark contrast to the somber expressions of the rest of them.

Ro tweaked the controls and ordered the shuttle to scan the surface in search of advanced lifeforms. The shuttle's capabilities were limited, but its short range scan would at least give her reliable results from the nearest area, the one where they would be landing. She had presented herself in the bridge before leaving for the mission, requesting the same scan to be done, and everyone had looked at her as if she were crazy. Captain Purser had allowed it anyway and Lieutenant T'Ler at the science station in that moment had reported her what every officer in the bridge thought was obvious. Garon II was an uninhabited planet and there were no superior lifeforms, actually, there were only plants down there. Really, what was she expecting to find? All of them silently questioned her with their borderline hostile looks. Romulans, that was what she expected, but she could not tell, so she defiantly left the bridge without giving further explanations.

Captain Purser had not understood her command to all the away team to be armed and had counter ordered her when he had appeared at the shuttle bay to give his final instructions. He actually thought he was being too cautious by having three security officers in the team, but they were close enough to Romulan space as to consider it. Better safe than sorry.

The moment he had said the rest of the members of the away team didn't need to be armed, the three friends had dropped their weapons immediately, happy to displease her. Salok had also left his own phaser behind. Ro had kept her, crossing her arms, daring her captain to actually gave her the direct order to disarm herself. But he had not. And then the veteran Muller had decided to keep her phaser with her too. She could not tell how grateful she was to the chief for that. No one expected trouble, no one but her.

Then Captain Purser had given them the last command Ro wanted to hear, and had said it looking pointedly at her.

"Just to be cautious again, since you seem so interested in it, lieutenant, none of you will wander alone during this survey mission. You will always work in pairs."

Again, her fame of maverick preceding her. She kept her arms folded, a scowl in her face. She thought to reply to him they could not work in pairs because they were an odd number. She thought to reply to him that she did not wander, that she always walked with a purpose, even if it was unknown to him. But after staring at him for a few seconds, she just complied.

"Yes, sir."

They landed on Garon II without incident, after the scan gave her a clear of the surrounding area; and once they set foot on the planet, she disobeyed her captain's command, of course.

She ordered the rest of the team to form pairs and divided the zone they would be searching. Everyone of them was wearing a tricorder and each pair a containment case where they would place samples of the plant to be studied aboard. They would return to their meeting point at the shuttlecraft once all their assigned area had been searched or if they had been successful in finding the plant. They would notify her in any of both events. If the plant was found, all the pairs would be called back and they would return to the ship. If it was not, they would continue searching in new locations.

She wanted to assign the pairs so one of them will be armed in all the teams, that way, if problems arose, they would have a chance to defend themselves. Her paranoia still insisted the Romulans could appear at any moment, that they could be hiding and waiting for them right then, in their supposedly unmanned post. So she sorted them as best as she thought.

Fougeroux with Ngata. Johnson with Sakamoto. Thran with Muller.

The three friends did not appreciate being separated. They didn't protest, but they looked at her as if she were punishing them. They wanted to be together, she understood. She wanted them to be safe, they could not get that. Actually, if she could, she would have all of them remaining together, as they wanted. But they were supposed to be searching for a plant, and that was the most efficient way. Doing anything else would be suspicious, and she had to make a very suspicious decision anyway.

Salok with van Dijk. She would go alone.

Van Dijk seemed a bit disappointed to be paired with Salok. Her smile dropped for a moment before recovering and moving next to him with her smile back in place. She had probably hoped to chat idly with the other crew members as they did the search. Salok, however, would be all business. Well, a field assignment was not a fun trip; the sooner she got it, the better. Besides, Ro had doubts about van Dijk, who had only had basic training and no real experience in security. Salok, apart from his superior Vulcan strength, had studied Advanced Hand-to-Hand Combat while in the Academy and had earned the top mark of his class. If things got ugly, he could actually save both their lives.

Obviously, the naive van Dijk was the only one worried about who she was paired with when she issued her last order. The rest of the away team looked sharply at her when she mentioned she would be going on her own, even Salok appeared alarmed for an instant. And the two lieutenants snapped at once.

"That's against the captain's orders!"

As if Ro could forget.

"I have proper authorization," she replied. " Now get to work."

She turned and marched toward the area she had assigned for herself. They moved reluctantly. She had no doubt they all disliked her now. She had no doubt they would report on her to the captain once the mission was over. But she just wanted the mission to be over, successfully, and to do so, she had to be on her own. She hoped her control officer would get her out of the trouble she was in; she was not counting on Vice Admiral Kennelly to come to her rescue. For all she knew, they had never met.

"Proper authorization," she heard Thran comment once he thought she was far away enough, " yes, her own authorization is the only one she has."

They could never guess what was really going on, and it was better that way.