Back To Exploring - Part II
Posted on Sun Jan 25th, 2026 @ 12:22am by Commodore Samantha York & Commander Alora Knight & Commander Joren Tal & Lieutenant Aenar Torek & Lieutenant Bela Swain & Lieutenant Dr. J.R. McEntyre, M.D. F.F.C.S, F.C.E.P & Lieutenant JG Vincent Shaw & Commander Alexander 'Alex' Knight
2,144 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission: Lost Horizons
[PREVIOUSLY]
Alora nodded. "Nice. Even though I've been with the Calypso for a bit, I feel like I need to introduce myself now that we're officially assigned here. I'm Alora, and I'll be working in intel."
[CONTINUED]
"I'm so glad to meet you more officially. As you know, I'm Bela and I'm the Chief Counselor and hugger here."
Alora smiled. "A pleasure to officially meet you, Bela." So far, she had high hopes that this ship would be a better fit for her and Alex than the last one had been.
"Hey, honey." Alex said, giving her a quick embrace, before leaning back. "You should have given me a heads up. I would have gotten something for you." He said with a smile before holding up his Vulcan Mocha Coffee to her. "Want mine? It's still warm."
"No, it's fine. I think I'm going to get some cookies first," she replied, smiling at her husband.
Alex smiled as he raised the mug to his lips. Before he took a sip, he asked quickly. "Mind grabbing a couple? We can split it."
"Not at all." Alora selected half a dozen cookies and took the plate back to Alex. "Plenty to share."
"Thank you." Alex said as he took a cookie plate and took it a bite. He chewed it, crunching the pieces in his mouth, before swallowing and replying. "Come on. Let's grab a seat."
As there was no assigned seating, Alora found two seats next to each other for her and Alex and sat down.
Entering the Conference Room and quietly taking his seat, the Caitian Surgeon, J.R McEntyre took the marked seat for the ship’s Chief Medical Officer. It had been a wild few weeks, crossing universes and back again. Things had settled down in Sickbay to where his paperwork was caught up, medical logs updated and crew physicals completed.
From what he heard from the ship’s rumor mill, exploration was ahead of them. J.R liked that. He was an old country doctor at heart, taking after those Ship’s Surgeons before him, like Leonard McCoy, Alexander Coleman, or even his own ancestor, Jeremiah McEntyre. Proud names in the Starfleet Medical pantheon that he looked up too and was inspired by.
J.R took out his PADD, setting it down on the table in front of him and pulling out a stylus for which to take notes as he listened attentively to the meeting at hand.
Vincent arrived, giving a smile to those there. "Morning, good to see everyone." taking the next available seat, it put him in a good spot to look out the viewport as well as paying attention to the Commodore. He had taken the time to grab a snack from the table set aside, taking a bite of the apple he had acquired. A saying popped up in his mind as it often did, 'an apple a day keeps the doctor away." He can blame his mother. She loved to quote old sayings which lasts over centuries.
When everyone had arrived and had mostly selected some snacks and drinks, Sam raised her voice. "If the rest of you could take a seat, we'll begin."
Sam pushed a button on her PADD and a holographic image of a world appeared in the air above the table. "A merchant ship discovered a world with signs of ancient habitation. Fortunately for us, they reported their find to Starfleet and we have been tasked with finding out more about the planet and its ruins." She changed the image to a scrolling list of data. "All we know is it's an M-class planet and there are two obvious signs of people having lived there. The ship did not get any details, nor did it stop to take better images, so what we have is pretty basic, but it's enough to send a starship to investigate."
"Sounds like something right up your alley, Commodore." Joren noted, before continuing. "No life signs, although I don't expect a merchant ship to look too closely, so we'll have to do some proper scanning ourselves. Did they report any hazards around the area?"
Sam smiled. "Yes, it is definitely right up my alley, and it'll be nice to have a chance to do some exploring again." She hadn't had an opportunity to examine an ancient site in a long while. "No, they didn't notice anything that stood out besides the ruins. That is something else we'll have to check."
'Anything more detailed than it being an M-class planet?' Aenar asked, leaning forward in his seat as he greedily looked at the images. 'It'd be a shame to be down there on the surface before we encounter something that prevents us from looking over those ruins properly ...'
Alex raised his hand slightly. "Umm... Sorry. New guy. Commander Alexander Knight. Some of you I have met. Some of you I haven't. Hello, just in case." He said with a warm smile and nod before looking over to Sam. "You said this was M Class with signs of humanoid life, right? Is there any information about them or anything about their location. We wouldn't want to put ourselves at risk of seeing them or them seeing us. Do we know if they are warp capable?" He gave a slight shrug before adding. "I figure, since I am the new Security guy, these kind of things are something I, and you guys, should be preparing for or concerned about?"
"If there are no beings down there, I suppose that I am not going to be needed," Bela observed with a small pout. She cheered up at the thought that plenty on the ship would need her.
"No need to jump to that conclusion, Counselor. You may not need to assist with any species down there, but should the away team have some kind of issue, I am sure one of your hugs will come in handy." Alex gave her a smile and raised his coffee cup before taking a sip.
"Of course," Bela answered. "All that is mine is the crew's."
"From what little I have, the planet may no longer be inhabited," Sam said, replying to Alex' question. "The ship didn't scan the entire planet, but what they did scan shows no signs of current habitation. That will also be something we'll need to determine when we get there."
"But ruins exist there. Which means, and I am no archeologist, but people did live there once?" Alex replied softly. "Whether they are still there or died out, it doesn't rule out the possibility a danger could be there. After all, ruins mean someone once live there. Unless we know for sure what removed them from the planet, we should be cautious. Everything from another species to something in the environment should be suspect."
"We always use caution on away missions," Sam replied. "We don't know what we'll run into. But we will do scans from the ship first."
Alex nodded his head as he raised his glass. "This is my first time working with you all, so it doesn't hurt to throw a few stuff around just so I know for the future. Whatever you decide, I'll have everyone's back on the planet. You have my word."
"We shouldn't become complacent," Joren said, "but this sounds like a nice easy archeological expedition." In his head, Joren already was thinking about small training exercises to keep the non-archeologically-inclined part of the crew on their toes.
'Plenty of hazard on an archeological dig,' Aenar chuckled, 'boulder traps, pressure tiles and more if you believe some.' He smiled, 'but the Commander is right, we should be wary, I'm sure we've all read mission profiles about digs going ... awry.'
Bela nodded. The last thing that she wanted was anyone to get hurt.
Sam smiled. She and Damon had plenty of experience with things going awry. "Odds are that we'll simply do some exploring, take some samples, and report back to Starfleet." She looked around at the others. "Are there any other questions?"
"With respect to the Commodore, Security would prefer to plan for the worst and hope for the best." Alex said softly with a smile, raising his mug slightly. "Best to have it and not need it, then to need it and no have it. I would prefer not to fail epically on my first day on the job, Thank you."
"And that is why you'll be coming along," Sam replied.
A dig, that certainly caught Vincent's attention. "Will others be able to come see the ruins as well?" placing his apple down for a moment his attention all on Sam.
"If the initial scans show nothing out of the ordinary, yes," Sam replied. "We'll need a variety of people to do a proper evaluation for Starfleet Sciences." And, if all went well, she wanted to be part of that team.
'That sounds immensely exciting,' Aenar piped up, fully enthused. 'I'm sure our band of archaeologists, anthropologists and historians will be looking forward to this, something right up their street.'
"Indeed." She turned to her first officer. "I'd like to leave you in charge of the ship during the survey and go down to the planet myself--especially if there really are ancient ruins."
Alex cleared his throat slightly before speaking up. "Then... if the Captain is going down to the planet, maybe we can forgo the usual travel by transport and take down a shuttle. The Prowler can carry whatever equipment you need and in the event we run into trouble, which I am sure we won't, she can take us all off and cloak. Again, just being cautious. Not saying something will happen. I prefer to be prepared... that's all." He gave a smile and raised his mug before taking a sip.
"I have no issues with being cautious, or using the Prowler," Sam replied. "We can decide for sure once we get there and see what is actually on the planet."
Knowing he had time to bring it up, Aenar stayed quiet on his skeptical attitude towards using the one shuttle, knowing the amount of scientists they would need on the surface. He added a note to write a memo outlining the people and equipment they would need down there once he'd pored over the limited data they had on the planet.
The Caitian doctor would say nothing. He saw the opportunities for Medical and Life Sciences but if he wasn’t going to be called on, he wasn’t going to beg. Taking a sip of his coffee, he continues to take notes and making lists of continued experiments he was conducting from data he had gotten from colleagues.
Sam looked around the table, knowing that not all questions had been voiced. She expected her senior staff to bring things up, whether in this first briefing, or later as the they completed the initial scans.
"Any questions? I know I don't have much now, but there will be time for discussions and plans once we know what we're getting into." That would also help her decide how to best organize her teams.
'Only about the logistics,' Aenar replied with a smile, 'but I'll put them through later, no sense in boring everyone with queries about how many boxes of equipment we can get to the surface.' He leaned forward, 'my other question is: how fast can we get there?'
"One week," Sam replied. "And yes, we can have a logistics meeting during that time to go over details. All members of the senior staff who want to join are welcome."
"I agree." Alex added. "I can come up with a rough idea of how many security we'll need and an idea of how to utilize the Prowler, but until we get more information, it won't be a final draft."
Sam nodded. "Good. I requested all the sensor data from before, during and after the ship went through the system. We'll see if that gives us any more information. But for now, we have time for preliminary planning."
She looked around the table. "As we don’t have a lot of details right now, unless there are further questions, this meeting is done.” Sam smiled. “But you’re welcome to more pastries.”
A post by
Commodore Samantha York
Commanding Officer
USS Calypso
Lieutenant Bela Swain
Chief Counselor
USS Calypso
Commander Joren Tal
Executive Officer
USS Calypso
Lieutenant Aenar Torek
Chief Science Officer
USS Calypso
Commander Alexander Knight
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Calypso
Commander Alora Knight
Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Calypso
Lieutenant JG Vincent Shaw
Chief Operations Officer
USS Calypso
Lieutenant J.R. McEntyre, M.D. F.F.C.S, F.C.E.P
Chief Medical Officer
USS Calypso
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