I shimmered into existence and looked around, smelling the air. No unexpected trace chemicals, oxygen levels one percent above human standard. No detectable dangerous spores or other substances.
Not unexpected with this much plant life around. Not dangerous for my avatar either. It's military grade technology and at this close range, my com signal was solid.
Not that I really expected a toxic atmosphere around considering away teams from both me and the Fornax had been working on the base for two days already.
Stepping off the transporter pad, I gave the operator a smile and a nod, "Mr T'Let," before leaving the small transporter room.
The base looked like pretty much any Starfleet base I have been on before, in space or otherwise. Not that surprising really, it was modular after all and Starfleet did have a certain construction style.
Actually, from the inside, the situation of the base was not that bad. The seals had mostly held and kept the plant and animal life outside.
It really did look different from the ground than from... damn it, there are really no words for it? What do you call the inside of a dyson sphere? I guess I'm in semi orbit around the star and out of atmosphere?
Fuck it. I'm in orbit.
It looked really different from orbit. Stopping, I turned to look out the window. It looked like a rainforest on Earth, just with different plants but just as thick. Without digging into the reports from the base before it was shut down, I couldn't identify any of them.
It wasn't just plants either. The place was buzzing with life. Insectoids, larger beings. Some kind of... bird bats. They looked like four winged bats with beaks and no legs. Colorful elongated scales though that worked as feathers.
The larger species have escaped the area though. The closest hundred or so meters from the base was currently being cleared to try to keep the quickly encroaching jungle at bay.
But even with phasers, it was slow work as everything was being cataloged and scanned first in search for new species. So far, they have found around two hundred new species just beating the jungle back ten meters from the stations and clearing the hangar deck and the hangar doors.
The plan is to set a force field fence up at a range of about hundred meters out to keep larger and possibly dangerous creatures away from the station once the ground out there is properly cleared.
The original station didn't have that as they didn't know quite how fast the jungle here grew. Now we knew better.
A six legged spider like creature with a sparkly blue shell skittered up to me, climbing up onto the window to end up at eye level, one of its three compound eyes aimed in my direction as it flashed in a complex array of colors, the translator on her stomach translating the colors into speech, if somewhat flat, "Starship female Star. How soon can the rest of the research equipment be beamed down. There are things we require."
I did a quick check in the records and then shook my head. "I'm sorry, Professor K'K'K'RRk. I'm afraid the schedule is still delayed until the xenobiology lab is fully resealed. According to Lieutenant Liset, it should be sealed and... cleaned out... in a couple of days."
A stupid tree had managed to squeeze its way in through one of the window seals and then grown, cracking the hull. Wood was a amazing material like that.
The spider-like being shifted in annoyance, "Very well. Have to make due with portable equipment until then. Thank you, Starship." She climbed down and skittered off, carrying a small sample container.
I looked after her for a moment before I glanced out the window again and continued on my way.
Normally, species of similar body structure was divided up in different ships, bases and expeditions unless they asked for something else.
Humanoid oxygen breathers at somewhat Earth temperature and pressure on their ships, and methane breathing, three legged beings on their ships.
It wasn't a matter of segregation, but of safety and practicality. It simply wasn't possible to make a ship containing more than one separate environment unless you expected your crew to wear environment suits at all times when out of their quarters.
It was not just environments either, it was a matter of instruments, controls, weapons...basically everything. Most humanoids could use the same controls, but when it came to species with say... two tentacles, the standard consoles and instruments simply didn't really work.
So similar species with similar species was simply practical. Which is why I was surprised to find Professor K'K'K'RRk was onboard the Fornax. Thyd was a 'KR'krt.
It was a really fascinating species actually.
Four genders. Male, Female, Ke and Thyd.
Only one of the genders, the Thyd was actually sophont. The rest was basically about as smart as a exceptionally stupid dog on their own.
The Thyd however was connected to the rest of the bodies with a telepathic network with a range of a couple of kilometers. Each Thyd hatching from a egg created and carried by the Ke from materials from the Male and Female. Each egg contained a Thyd, a Male, a Female and a Ke, but the Thyd in question could also pick to just have it contain a male, female or ke.
Honestly, what little I knew about their culture was fascinating. The Thyd was naturally immobile and blind, looking somewhat like man sized barnacles hanging from cave ceilings.
The Ke was about half that size and had the best manipulator limbs. The males had the best senses and could fly while the females was the only ones that could communicate via color changes. Both of them about the size of a human head. For genetic variations, Thyd usually swapped males and female 'drones' with other nearby thyd.
It was actually pretty amusing to draw parallels between K'K'K'RRk's use of avatars with my own.
K'K'K'RRk was a brilliant xenobiologist though even if thyd wasn't a member of Starfleet but a civilian researcher. Due to the Thyd range limitations and immobile nature, thyd attached to basically a solid metal plate instead of the ceiling of a cave like back in their primitive days. That meant they could be moved around. Thyd was currently mounted to the ceiling of thyd quarters.
I entered a quick sequence of numbers into the door lock which let me out into the airlock and then further into the nature outside the station. I smiled, looking around before heading down the ramp towards the work teams where they used a tree cutting device that used a combination of particle beams and tractor beams to safely cut down trees and clear vegetation while runabouts moved back and forth to lift the felled trees away and out of the way to a location a couple of kilometers from the base.
"Hey, Shran, how is it going?" I asked with a smile as I walked up to him.
He glanced at me and then went back to scanning the forest, a monocle for one eye to show him heat signatures. He was also wearing what passed for body armor. Honestly, armor was not of much use against energy weapons. What he was wearing was more of a advanced full body stab vest with some energy dissipating properties that might protect against a close hit and might let him keep going after being hit by a weak stun shot.
Honestly, it was not much thicker than his normal uniform and only actually stood out because the red shoulders of the normal one was limited to a single line instead of a thick area.
"Good. Had to scare something big and scaly away a couple of hours ago, but other than that, just those weird bird things," he said with a smile, resting the compression phaser rifle comfortably in his arms. "I don't mind this, actually. Sure, in a couple of more days I'm sure it will start to get old, but I'm enjoying being out of the ship for once. Clear skies, warm sun... If a bit too warm for my liking. Still, it's a nice change. So what are you doing out here?"
I shrugged, "Wanted to see the place from the ground. Even with my scanners, you miss a lot of details just floating in orbit."
Shran nodded, his antenna bobbing. "Just be careful and don't go too far out. Tricorders do not like this sun and there are life readings everywhere. So far we have not located any large predators, but I rather you didn't have to smack the local fauna around to save your avatar. I would have to put it in my report and it would look bad. For me, that is."
I grinned at that. "Don't worry, I'm just touring the base and having a look outside. I'll keep my avatar in the cleared area."
This avatar at least.
Turning to look up, I could just barely make out a silver flash of light as the constant zenith sun reflected off a silver surface about a kilometer away and five up into the air.
The drone was preforming wonderfully...and was awesome fun to fly.
AN// Many thanks to Rastamon for betaing this section.
