Crisis on Cressida, Part 3

Both the Administrator and Archaeologist left the confrontation with the crew unhappy. Damaad and her retinue of gray jumpsuit-clad workers headed to her personal shuttle and began loading it with crates of unknown “valuables” while Urotoxa disappeared into the waiting crowds of evacuees. The crew resumed working towards the evacuation: Captain Ral and Lieutenant Cohnson fetched and distributed supplies from a nearby storage facility to keep those awaiting their escape comfortable and calm. These efforts were interrupted by an urgent dispatch from the Hanesawa; one of the evacuation shuttles was hijacked by a civilian during its flight to the ship and redirected down to the planet.

Thanks to Lieutenant Hagen’s engineering skills and Lt. Commander Cohnson’s knowledge of the security systems, they were able to establish communications with the ensign who was piloting the hijacked shuttle. Ensign Deadman explained that the shuttle was packed to maximum capacity with himself and eight civilians, four of whom were the Klingons the crew encountered earlier. Midway through the flight from the city to the Hanesawa, they drew Mek’leths and commandeered control of the shuttle, piloting it instead down to the native city on Kizomic VI. The Klingons restrained the Ensign and passengers but did not harm them, leaving them behind on the now disabled shuttle as they donned EVA suits from the shuttle’s emergency supply locker and exited into the fluidic atmosphere. The Ensign was able to overhear via the EVA suit comm channels discussions of honorable combat and glorious deaths as a fight ensued.

Captain Ral suspected Urotoxa was involved, and was able to locate her already on the ship in the crowd of evacuees thanks to the fact that she was the sole Nausicaan aboard. Lieutenants Hagen and Ma’a’yan tuned the transporter systems’ annular confinement beam to the resonance of the planet’s gaseous layer to amplify the strength of the transporter signals, squeezing extra power from the system, which the Captain used to beam Urotoxa back to the city, demanding answers. She claimed that while she may have been complaining to the Klingons about Starfleet’s unwillingness to join what would surely be a glorious battle on the surface, she bears no responsibility for what they may have done after that.

The crew, seeing no other choice, decided to follow the stolen shuttle to the planet to recover it and the hostages still aboard. In order to avoid interrupting the civilian evacuation, they decided to commandeer Administrator Demand’s personal craft, distracting her as the Ship’s Doctor administered a hypospray to render her temporarily unconscious, and directing the workers loading the ship to a different part of the city.

The away team makes ready to descend to the planet as less than an hour remains before the total collapse of Cressida.