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kat_lair***
Title: Quagmire
Author:kat_lair
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Characters: William Riker, Geordi LaForge, Data, OFC
Tags: Spooktober, Missions Gone Wrong, Team Feels, Monsters
Rating: G
Word count: 1,150
Summary: “That went well,” Will remarked after they’d finally stopped running.
Author notes: Spooktober 2024, Day 11/31. Prompt/theme: Swamp.
Quagmire on AO3
“That went well,” Will remarked after they’d finally stopped running. Well, laboriously wading was a more accurate way of describing it, each step sinking into the thick, sickly green mud of the swamp by an inch if you were lucky, by several feet if you were not. It was like trying to sprint through congealed oatmeal that occasionally sucked in you and your teammates. They’d had to pause the whole ‘fleeing for their lives’ exercise several times to pull each other free.
Geordi barked a tired laugh, leaning heavily on his knees. The security officer, Henley, who’d accompanied them on this particular mission went as far as roll her eyes at him. Riker let it pass, she had just cause right now.
“Commander,” Data said. He was the only one who didn’t sound winded which made Riker and his squishy organic body irrationally envious. “I must disagree with your assessment. I have swamp water, and what I assess to be some kind of algae, covering approximately sixty-six-point-forty-five percent of my body right now.”
“He’s being sarcastic,” Henley said. “Sir,” she added belatedly, looking briefly worried that Data would take her reply as sass. She would learn soon enough that Data valued information above the tone it was delivered in. Even when he correctly interpreted the tone in question, which, to be fair, was more often than not nowadays.
“Ah,” Data commented, nodding in understanding. “Thank you.” He turned to Will then. “If it helps, the probability of the algae containing harmful toxins is less than ten percent.”
And, well, it did help, on balance. Riker surveyed their surroundings, not that they looked any different from the surroundings they’d been running – slowly – through for the last hour. That they hadn’t lost anyone from their four-person team was entirely down to pure luck. And the fact that the… Well, it probably hadn’t even been given a scientific name yet and no one had found any sentient habitants to ask. ‘Wild animal’ was accurate if not terribly descriptive. ‘Monster’ is what Will wanted to call it despite his mind pointing out how othering the word was. And yet, it was hard to shake the label when faced with a slobbering something that towered good fifteen feet high, and looked like a cross between an angry anteater and an over-grown leech.
It was clearly native to the swamp, navigating the damp obstacle course with the kind of grace Riker’s team couldn’t even dream of. And the only reason they weren’t in its belly right now was that unlike them, the beast had no teammates to pull it out of the treacherous sludge that had tripped it up despite its skill and experience of the environment. In the end, Riker had trudged back and killed it from a safe distance away. He couldn’t free it and risk all of them suffering the consequences, but he didn’t want to leave it to die a slow, agonising death either.
“There’s still no signal,” Geordi said, interrupting Will’s less than cheery thoughts with less than cheery news.
“Noted,” he acknowledged, biting down on the instinctual order to look into it as a matter of urgency. Geordi was already bent over the communicator and their field kit with Data.
The planet had only been scanned from orbit before, last time over a decade ago, and since no signs of civilisation or particularly coveted resources were found, Starfleet had left it mostly alone. But the fact that it was a Class M planet meant that inevitably the orders to scope out its suitability for a colony inched their way up the priority list until they’d landed on Picard’s metaphorical in-tray a few days ago.
Based on the first impressions so far, it was safe to say Will was not a fan. He was most certainly not going to be recommending it for humanoid habitation no matter how breathable the air was. And that was before they’d discovered what surface scans had not: something in the planet’s atmosphere was blocking the communication signals extremely effectively. Which meant that they’d be blocking the transporter too. Which meant…
“Enterprise is going to send a shuttle,” Henley said.
Will couldn’t help quirking an impressed eyebrow at her. Data too lifted his head to look over.
“I concur,” he said. “That is the most logical conclusion.”
Riker stared at him meaningfully until Data remembered what they’d spoken at their last one-to-one.
“Ah, well done Ensign Henley,” he added. “That was very good reasoning under stressful circumstances.”
Will could see the ‘for a human’ that Data held back, but Henley couldn’t, which was the main thing here. Instead, she stood up straighter, buoyed by praise from a senior officer, managing to look like a Starfleet recruitment poster despite her sopping, muddied uniform and the long scratch on her forehead.
“Right.” Riker clapped his hands together and ignored the discomfort of his wet clothing. The swamp algae may not be toxic but it sure as hell was making him itch in the most awkward places. Judging by the way Geordi and Henley were tugging at their uniform trousers this was a shared predicament that none of them were going to discuss.
“Let’s head toward higher ground, make the retrieval group’s job a bit easier.” He scanned the horizon, which was mostly covered by tall fern-like vegetation. It looked taller in one direction than the others though, so Riker pointed that way.
“Geordi, Data, keep working on the communicator but not to the degree that you’ll get so distracted we’ll have to haul you out of anymore algae-laden holes.” Data looked like he was about to protest such besmirching of his attention, but Geordi at least appreciated Will’s attempt at levity, sending him a tired grin.
“Henley,” Will continued, turning to her. “You guard the rear. I take the front.” Nothing but a slight frown and a nod from her. She clearly though that as security she should’ve been at the front to be the first to face potential danger, but was too young in post to argue against a clear command from her superior. And the truth was, danger was likely to come at them from any direction.
Will sent off a brief prayer to any benevolent god-like beings who might be gazing in their direction that they wouldn’t come across another one of the beasts that had almost caught them the first time around and started walking. Behind him, the others fell into a line, Geordi and Data still tossing ideas back and forth but with eyes on their surroundings, and Henley with her phaser out, regularly scanning behind them as well as ahead.
Riker could feel his mood improving at every step. The planet may be terrible, but his team… They would be the reason Will would get home today, safe and sound if a little damp around the edges. He was sure of it.
***
Title: Quagmire
Author:
kat_lair Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Characters: William Riker, Geordi LaForge, Data, OFC
Tags: Spooktober, Missions Gone Wrong, Team Feels, Monsters
Rating: G
Word count: 1,150
Summary: “That went well,” Will remarked after they’d finally stopped running.
Author notes: Spooktober 2024, Day 11/31. Prompt/theme: Swamp.
Quagmire on AO3
“That went well,” Will remarked after they’d finally stopped running. Well, laboriously wading was a more accurate way of describing it, each step sinking into the thick, sickly green mud of the swamp by an inch if you were lucky, by several feet if you were not. It was like trying to sprint through congealed oatmeal that occasionally sucked in you and your teammates. They’d had to pause the whole ‘fleeing for their lives’ exercise several times to pull each other free.
Geordi barked a tired laugh, leaning heavily on his knees. The security officer, Henley, who’d accompanied them on this particular mission went as far as roll her eyes at him. Riker let it pass, she had just cause right now.
“Commander,” Data said. He was the only one who didn’t sound winded which made Riker and his squishy organic body irrationally envious. “I must disagree with your assessment. I have swamp water, and what I assess to be some kind of algae, covering approximately sixty-six-point-forty-five percent of my body right now.”
“He’s being sarcastic,” Henley said. “Sir,” she added belatedly, looking briefly worried that Data would take her reply as sass. She would learn soon enough that Data valued information above the tone it was delivered in. Even when he correctly interpreted the tone in question, which, to be fair, was more often than not nowadays.
“Ah,” Data commented, nodding in understanding. “Thank you.” He turned to Will then. “If it helps, the probability of the algae containing harmful toxins is less than ten percent.”
And, well, it did help, on balance. Riker surveyed their surroundings, not that they looked any different from the surroundings they’d been running – slowly – through for the last hour. That they hadn’t lost anyone from their four-person team was entirely down to pure luck. And the fact that the… Well, it probably hadn’t even been given a scientific name yet and no one had found any sentient habitants to ask. ‘Wild animal’ was accurate if not terribly descriptive. ‘Monster’ is what Will wanted to call it despite his mind pointing out how othering the word was. And yet, it was hard to shake the label when faced with a slobbering something that towered good fifteen feet high, and looked like a cross between an angry anteater and an over-grown leech.
It was clearly native to the swamp, navigating the damp obstacle course with the kind of grace Riker’s team couldn’t even dream of. And the only reason they weren’t in its belly right now was that unlike them, the beast had no teammates to pull it out of the treacherous sludge that had tripped it up despite its skill and experience of the environment. In the end, Riker had trudged back and killed it from a safe distance away. He couldn’t free it and risk all of them suffering the consequences, but he didn’t want to leave it to die a slow, agonising death either.
“There’s still no signal,” Geordi said, interrupting Will’s less than cheery thoughts with less than cheery news.
“Noted,” he acknowledged, biting down on the instinctual order to look into it as a matter of urgency. Geordi was already bent over the communicator and their field kit with Data.
The planet had only been scanned from orbit before, last time over a decade ago, and since no signs of civilisation or particularly coveted resources were found, Starfleet had left it mostly alone. But the fact that it was a Class M planet meant that inevitably the orders to scope out its suitability for a colony inched their way up the priority list until they’d landed on Picard’s metaphorical in-tray a few days ago.
Based on the first impressions so far, it was safe to say Will was not a fan. He was most certainly not going to be recommending it for humanoid habitation no matter how breathable the air was. And that was before they’d discovered what surface scans had not: something in the planet’s atmosphere was blocking the communication signals extremely effectively. Which meant that they’d be blocking the transporter too. Which meant…
“Enterprise is going to send a shuttle,” Henley said.
Will couldn’t help quirking an impressed eyebrow at her. Data too lifted his head to look over.
“I concur,” he said. “That is the most logical conclusion.”
Riker stared at him meaningfully until Data remembered what they’d spoken at their last one-to-one.
“Ah, well done Ensign Henley,” he added. “That was very good reasoning under stressful circumstances.”
Will could see the ‘for a human’ that Data held back, but Henley couldn’t, which was the main thing here. Instead, she stood up straighter, buoyed by praise from a senior officer, managing to look like a Starfleet recruitment poster despite her sopping, muddied uniform and the long scratch on her forehead.
“Right.” Riker clapped his hands together and ignored the discomfort of his wet clothing. The swamp algae may not be toxic but it sure as hell was making him itch in the most awkward places. Judging by the way Geordi and Henley were tugging at their uniform trousers this was a shared predicament that none of them were going to discuss.
“Let’s head toward higher ground, make the retrieval group’s job a bit easier.” He scanned the horizon, which was mostly covered by tall fern-like vegetation. It looked taller in one direction than the others though, so Riker pointed that way.
“Geordi, Data, keep working on the communicator but not to the degree that you’ll get so distracted we’ll have to haul you out of anymore algae-laden holes.” Data looked like he was about to protest such besmirching of his attention, but Geordi at least appreciated Will’s attempt at levity, sending him a tired grin.
“Henley,” Will continued, turning to her. “You guard the rear. I take the front.” Nothing but a slight frown and a nod from her. She clearly though that as security she should’ve been at the front to be the first to face potential danger, but was too young in post to argue against a clear command from her superior. And the truth was, danger was likely to come at them from any direction.
Will sent off a brief prayer to any benevolent god-like beings who might be gazing in their direction that they wouldn’t come across another one of the beasts that had almost caught them the first time around and started walking. Behind him, the others fell into a line, Geordi and Data still tossing ideas back and forth but with eyes on their surroundings, and Henley with her phaser out, regularly scanning behind them as well as ahead.
Riker could feel his mood improving at every step. The planet may be terrible, but his team… They would be the reason Will would get home today, safe and sound if a little damp around the edges. He was sure of it.
***
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on 2024-10-12 01:53 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2024-10-12 09:26 pm (UTC)