Maggots & Mold - Part IV

Posted on 07/28/2020 @ 7:12pm by

Mission: S2E1: The Skunil Incident
Location: Skunil - Settlement Square & Schoolhouse
Timeline: Day 38 at 1440

Lieutenant Jodon Joral had waited in settlement square as the USS Crazy Horse removed the bodies, taking some of the burial mound with it in the process, and then Doctor O’Hamlin was swept up in the Federation transporter effect. J.J. had given his ‘blessing’ for the Captain to send down some more personnel and relieve the away team that the First Officer had initially taken with him by shuttle down to Skunil. As he waited J.J. took a bit of stroll around settlement square and admired the craftsmanship and architecture. These people really poured their souls into their work he thought and scurrying around his feet was the bi-colored rodent that had previously been resting on his shoulder for the longest time but had come down from its nesting. “You really are not going to leave are you, little guy?” he inquired as he crouched down and scooped up the rodent in his hands. “Well, if that is going to be the case may as well take you back with me. If anything, you might provide a bit of evidence as to what has happened here” added J.J.

The sound of footfalls from behind J.J. a mid this ghost planet caused him to immediately turn around. He was put at ease by the sight of another man approaching wearing a Starfleet uniform, the departmental color had given it away. “You must be the science officer that I requested” stated J.J. He did not recognize the man, but that was not unusual. He was not likely to know or recognize everyone aboard the starship. “Welcome to Skunil, ensign….population zero, and a heck of a mystery on our hands.”

“Ensign Elijah Krause, Science Department,” the dark curly-haired ensign said. His posture was wiry as if he operated purely on espresso and fear. “Uh…is that the” he said gesturing to the mound of dirt where the bodies previously were situated in their final resting state.

J.J. knew what the man meant. “Burial mound,” he replied and nodded. “Yes, that was where the bodies were located. What is your area of expertise, Ensign Krause?” asked the First Officer. He himself had a science background, but not one that was going to be of much use here on Skunil. Not unless they found some sort of alien device that warped time and opened a wormhole or trans dimensional gateway.

Krause appeared to almost gulp as he nervously looked around the vacant settlement square. “It’s like the people just vanished…well aside from the ones you um unearthed” stated the ensign. He looked at J.J. the two did not look all that dissimilar in age, but the First Officer had a usefulness to his petite frame and a lifetime of experience from being a joined Trill. “Environmental Sciences,” added Ensign Krause as he watched J.J. pet the rodent in his palm. “Looks like you made a friend.”

Jodon smiled. “I am going to bring him back to the ship with me when I am done. He does not seem to want to leave my side, and I am curious to see if he has any clues as to what happened here” J.J. explained. “Great. Environmental Sciences is useful” he said gesturing to the man’s satchel that was worn across his chest and rested at his hip. “Standard science kit?”

“Yes, Sir” replied Krause. “I have a little bit of everything packed so that I could take some samples and bring them back to the ship for more detailed analysis” added Elijah, he met the First Officer’s smile with a bit of an awkward one. He was nervous for a variety of reasons. One of them was this planet had no sentient life signs. Another was the burial mound that was a mass gravesite of several bodies, and lastly, he was a science officer fresh from the academy on his first starship assignment. He had only been out in the field a few times for training.

J.J. started to walk towards what remained of the burial mound and herded the young ensign in that direction as well. “Better crack open that science kit, ensign. We have work to do” the First Officer said with a bit of enthusiasm. “I promise you that the bodies are gone” added J.J. almost reassuringly. “There are some things I do want you to collect samples of” stated Lieutenant Jodon Joral.

“Oh right,” replied Ensign Krause as he crouched down. The area still smelt afoul, especially with the transporters having unsettled the dirt a bit. It was there that some discolored soul showed signed of contact with bodily fluids. Probably from the decomposition process if not from blood alone. “I’ll collect a few different soil samples,” he said reaching into the kit and slapping on a pair of gloves and retrieving the tools needed to take some of the dirt. He proceeded to take from a few different areas.

Lieutenant Joral noticed movement within some of the disturbed soil. “Hey, grab some of those too,” he said gesturing to the off-white larval form of one of the insects native to the planet. They were likely the equivalent of maggots. “Entomology is going to be happy with me today,” J.J. said a bit playfully as he studied the larva wiggling around as the science officer carefully extracted a few with tweezers and dropped them into a tube and secured the lid.

Ensign Krause finished up with collecting soil samples from the burial mound and stood up. “Where to now, Sir?” he asked J.J. for some guidance. He had only been made aware of the very basics and that he was being sent down to the surface of a planet where a colony once was, but that it was void of life and some remains had been found.

“Follow me,” replied J.J. and the two were on their way to their next location which did not take very long to get to. It was near the common building where the Nachtgeist and Syndel had been rummaging around. Though this building was smaller and marked for a different purpose. Hand-painted stones and commonplace Bajoran flowers were planted outside. Primitive looking drawings in chalk caused J.J. to smile. If this place were not so creepy and vacant, I would have recommended bringing Mitzie here he thought to himself. “Welcome to school, Ensign Krause” announced J.J. as he opened the door and walked into the building which looked very much like an old one-room schoolhouse from Earth’s history.

Elijah Krause looked around the interior of the schoolhouse. There did not seem to be much of anything disturbed in the building. At least nothing that he could tell. He headed over to a large wooden desk, undoubtedly that of where the teacher would sit and found a few papers spread out with students’ names on them. “Looks like the teacher was grading papers,” he commented. He tried not to disturb anything as he read from the paper on the top. “This one is by a student named Nikki,” he announced Krause. “I love brown cows. They make chocolate milk” Elijah read almost cackling at the childlike innocence.

“F” replied Jodon shaking his head. “Let’s hope science is not in her future,” he added as he poked around the schoolhouse classroom. J.J. was not sure what he expected to find if anything, but it was one of the unsearched buildings thus far.

It was Ensign Krause who made the next discovery on the teacher’s desk. “Gnarly,” he said as he picked up a small bowl. “Sir, you might want to look at this,” he said calling out to J.J. who came to inspect the bowl. What he found was a smooth white substance that was reminiscent of yogurt but was not very appetizing with yellowish-green specs and patches of blue that were hairy.

“You know I am going to have you grab samples of that, right?” he replied to the science officer. “Sorry, ensign, but the general rule of an investigation. Everything at the scene is evidence until it is not” he explained. “That’s mold and what I think was yogurt of some sort. It may give us an indication of how long ago whoever was eating that stopped eating it and disappeared or ended up in that burial mound.”

Krause nodded as he shifted into a more scientific and professional manner. “I guess the guys and gals in Mycology are going to actually have something to do besides study the spores and fungi in hydroponics.” The First Officer was very scientifically minded. It was something Elijah was coming to really appreciate. He was making Elijah grab samples of various things that would put the entirety of the Science Department to work. “Got it, Lieutenant” replied Elijah. “Where to next?”

J.J. had just inspected a storage closet that seemed to be in a bit of disarray. He was now looking a window and was a bit lost in thought until the science officer’s question ripped him back to the here and now. He turned and looked at the man. “My suspicions,” he replied. “We are going to find the nearest water source and collect water samples.” J.J. watched as Ensign Krause nodded and readied his kit.