Starfleet Academy - Starfleet Field Survival TrainingLocation: Detla Vega
Active Participants Cadet IV Class - Oliver Alexander Savage (Human, Male)
Cadet IV Class – J’nall (Female, Andorian)
Cadet III Class – Thomas Berring (Human, Male)
Cadet III Class – Jonas Lightfoot (Human, Male)
Day 1 – Cold AwakeningDate: September 24, 2356
Stardate: 33731.10
Location: Unknown
The stars were always at their brightest when you were in the clear, away from all the light pollution. It still did didn’t compare to gliding through the cosmos. Oliver shivered as he stared up through the glass of the escape pod he’d been jettisoned in. Last thing he could recall he was in his rack on the USS Hermes on his way back to Starbase 001 for debriefing from his brief training cruise he had been sent on. Now he was staring up at the Stars through a frost covered window.
“Warning, life support failure, initiating emergency procedures.” The computers voice echoed in the confines of the small pod. There was a metallic sound, then the hatch on the pod blew off in a whirlwind of compressed gasses pressing him deeper into the cold, it chilled him to the bone. He laid there in shock for a long moment clutching his body as the cold sapped him.
“Damn its cold!” he stammered, he pulled himself upright glancing at around, he could see three other pods nearby also having soft landed on whatever planet this might be. He quickly popped the storage compartment door, and hastily pulled on both the warm weather gear, and cold gear, he wasn’t about to leave anything behind.
Another pod’s hatch blew free startling him, causing him to look up sharply at the other pods, and then to the sky to watch the hatch come crashing down into the snow. Then the other two blew off. He nodded to himself and continued gathering his survival gear.
“What the hell!” he heard a familiar voice which brought a bit of a smile to his lips.
Glancing back up as he slipped a phaser into a pocket he spotted J’nall one of his classmates sitting up in her escape pod. Her hair looked like she had a run in with a blown out sonic shower, she quickly scrambled for her survival gear. “You alright?” he asked as he slowly got to his feet.
“No!” she barked. “Stupid Starfleet Tests, why can’t they just have us do these things when were awake. This secrecy, stalk into your quarters and shoot you out in an escape pod is absolutely…” she paused a moment looking over at him. “What’s the term you pink skins use ‘BS’, yes I believe that is right!” she said nodding both as an affirmative to him and herself.
He slowly walked over towards the other pods, the other two were likewise just waking and glancing around realizing where they were and what was likely going on. He smiled. “Welcome to survival training.” He said continuing past to her pod.
She was just pulling on the last of her gear, and held up a hand to him. Her pod had sunk into the snow a short distance, so he offered her a hand and hauled her up. “I couldn’t agree more.” He shrugged staring down at the pod. “But then it wouldn’t be a true test of your survival skills, you’d know it was coming and it would forgo the possibility of panic.” He said.
“They will have panic in their eyes when I throttle them when we get back and I find out who drugged us, and dragged us out of bed in our sleep.” Her cheeks were changing colors. “I wasn’t exactly dressed for the occasion.”
Oliver let out a deep chuckle, which brought the attention of the other two. “That’s great.” He said pulling out a Tricorder only to find it would not work. “Damn!”
“This is not funny!” he heard one of the others say approaching him.
Oliver looked up at J’nall and grinned. “No, this isn’t funny. It’s too cold to be funny!” he said and flipped the tricorder over pulling the back plate off the device. “Great, no power cell!” he said, then looked over as he too pulled his out and found the same issue. “I’m going to guess that all of them are in the same boat.” He said glancing at J’nall who was fishing her’s out of a pocket.
“Nope, mine works, but the power cell is almost dead.” She said.
“Dead!” the other cadet said that had yet to join into the conversation.
“First order of business.” Oliver said pointing to J’nall’s Tricorder.
“Shelter!” the others said in unison.
She peered at the tricorder and began a scan pointing in different directions, and then slowly she pointed. “There is a cave system that way. It’s about a mile’s walk.” She said turning it off and closing it, no doubt to reserve power. “We should get going.
Oliver nodded, and walked over to where one of the doors ways laying and picked it up, it was lightweight, he took a moment and walked back to the escape pod and bent down examining it, there was not much that would be of use that he could think of that would be safe to get at. They had no way of storing fuel so getting into the fuel cells even for the residual deuterium was not a good idea. He shook his head and turned back to the others. “Grab the doors, they might be useful.”
It took them a moment to locate the other three and retrieve them, they met back up and started the quiet trek through the snow and ice, until now it had been clear but the wind was starting to pick up and the cold intensified quickly, then snow began to fall. It took them by Oliver’s account about thirty minutes to make it to the caves, on the surface it appeared as a group of hills, but underneath was a small cave system.
“You sure there isn’t anything down there?” one of the cadets asked as they peered dubiously into one of the entrances.
Oliver nodded to J’nall who flipped open the tricorder turning it on; she began a scan, sweeping the tricorder around in front of her. “Nothing that I can detect.” She said, and then snapped it closed. “I’ve got probably one more scan before this thing dies.” She said slipping the tricorder into her pocket.
“Let’s try and save it for an emergency.” He said and gestured into the hole. “Shall we?”
The others exchanged glances, and then nodded. Oliver went in first nearly sliding down the slight decline into the cave; he was surprised to find it somewhat well lit inside, by his account he could only see one other entrance to the cave as there was only one other shaft of light coming into the space, and it was very small. They fanned out and began looking around the cave, it was more than enough space for them, but they would have to figure out how to close off the main opening to contain heat. He glanced down at the four doors and an idea came to him. “Anyone’s Phaser functional?” he asked.
He watched as each of them pulled their respective weapons, and one of the other cadets nodded while everyone else has seemed to be dead. He pulled his out and found that it had power, but very little. Only enough for a few shots. He pointed. “Think you can use your phaser to weld these doors together?” he asked pointing down at them.
“Yeah, I think so.” He said and they went about gathering them up, with Oliver’s help. “Gather some of those rocks, he said with a nod of his head. “We can probably use those to heat the cave and give us some warmth.”
They laid out the doors, and the young officer went to work with the phaser essentially tack welding them, then after some internal deliberation he put a few more longer welds in place and tested it’s flexibility, though it did have a little it was fairly well welded in place. Moving back to the entrance they slid the door with them pulling it over the entrance behind them closing off the opening, the chill factor began to drop as the cave was now mostly contained. The other hole appeared to small, and was in a position that it didn’t seem to pull air down, only allow ventilation.
As the others gathered rocks of various sizes and pulled them into the center of the room, he stood below the vent for a moment staring up, then began grabbing the pile of fallen snow and began packing it around the top trying to create stovepipe of sorts. After narrowing the hole some, he turned his attention back to the others. They had arranged a decent size pile of rocks at the center of the room, one of them had used the phaser to heat them, they were all standing around them rubbing hands together as close to the rocks as they could huddle.
“So, water shouldn’t be an issue. Each of our pods had what, seven days of food and water?” he asked. Each nodded, as he stepped up to the circle huddled around the rocks. “Were going to have to possibly stretch that out so ration what you have and try and at least double that while we figure out what to do about food.”
One of the other cadets nodded. “You two know each other?” he asked gesturing with his chin to him and J’nall.
J’nall nodded. “Yup, can’t seem to get rid of him. He’s like a growth that won’t go away!” she said.
Oliver smiled. “Yes, were classmates and friends? I take it the same with you?”
“Yeah, I’m Jonas, and that’s Thomas.”
“Third year?” Oliver asked.
“Yeah.” Thomas said nodding. “We shouldn’t even be here!”
“They like popping these things at random times on people, like I was saying earlier. They feel it will bring out the best reaction in you if it’s random.” Oliver said.
“Most of this area is rock.” Jonas said pointing around their feet. “But that over there.” He said pointing to a far corner. “That area is just ice, goes all the way down into a lake or something.”
Oliver looked over and noted the different coloration of the ice. “I see, how thick do you think the ice is?” he asked.
“Not terribly so, I was thinking after we’ve had a chance to warm up we could go back to the escape pods and try and scavenge materials maybe we can make a rudimentary fishing line or something and get fish!”
“With what bait?” J’nall asked.
“Starfleet Rations wouldn’t take much.” Thomas said. “Or maybe something metallic, like a Lure.”
“Wouldn’t last terribly long in the water I think. Probably fall off the line.” J’nall said. “But it might work!”
“Do much fishing?” Oliver asked.
“He’s from Alaska!” Jonas said.
“Ah, that makes sense then.” Oliver said, and nodded. “Sounds like as good a plan as any. We can all go; maybe we can pry those acceleration couches out of those pods, and use them as beds. Not the best but it will give us at least some buffer between our bodies and the ice.”
After spending some time warming up, they went and slowly slid the makeshift door aside and climbed out of the cave, taking care to slide the door back over behind them in an effort to maintain the warmth in the cave as much as possible. It took time to return to the landing site and while it had snowed they were able to find the location, but each of them knew it would probably be the last time they might be able if the snow kept falling.
“How much power do you have in that phaser?” he asked looking over at Jonas.
“Cell was nearly full so enough to last a good while.” He said pulling it out.
“Cut off those hand holds, and as much of the hull as you safely can, stay away from the Engine Housings, only take from the front half of the pods.” He said. “We can use it for materials; the handles might be good as tools.”
He knelt by his pod, and started yanking at the padded back, and though it took time, it eventually came free. He glanced around and the others had about the same luck, he began pulling out the ODN cables doing his best to retain their size, even some of the simpler electronics. He was not exactly sure how long they had been at the crash site but the light was getting dim and it would be time for them to head back very soon. He glanced around and noted that the others had done the same scavenging as much as they could.
“Time to get going back, is there anything else we need to pull from these. Were probably not coming back.” He said.
“No, I was able to get the communications package and antenna out of this pod.” Thomas said nodding to the pad and the collected gear. “Might come in handy!”
Oliver nodded. “Good job, let’s get going then.” He said and slowly rolled up padding with the scavenged goods in them, and lifted it into his arms.” The trek back to the cave was a long one, and for a time the snow seemed to intensify and it made seeing their trail difficult but they managed to find their way back. Each of them filed into the cave. Oliver handed down his scavenged materials and turned and began pulling the door over the opening, the wind guested and threatened blow the door off lifting it a few inches startling Oliver, he felt his footing go and the impact as he fell. He put his hands out to try and catch himself but it did nothing when his hands slipped out from under him just as easily as his feet did. Stars exploded before his eyes when his chin bounced off the icy slope. He laid at the bottom of the small hill his head spinning.
J’nall and Thomas raced for the door, and finished the task of pulling it over the hole, while Jonas dragged him away by his jacket away so the two could get up there to take care of the door. Oliver lay there for a long moment waiting for his vision to clear. His head was pounding, and to top it off there was a sharp throbbing pain in his right arm to accompany it.
“Oliver?” J’nall said kneeling beside him and Jonas. “You alright?”
He shook his head. “Nope!”
Jonas reached up and checked his eyes, “Hit your head pretty good.”
“He’s hard headed.” J’nall said sharply. “Always has been.”
“Indeed, let me look at your arm, going to have to take that jacket off for a moment.” He said.
Oliver cringed at the idea but nodded.
Slowly J’nal, and Jonas helped him remove the cold weather jacket, and the warm weather as well. Jonas stared at his arm and the bruising pattern already forming around his forearm. “Yeah I’m pretty sure that’s broken.” He said.
“Need the med kit?” Thomas asked coming over with the small one that came with the escape pod. “It’s not much.”
“It will do!” Jonas said, opening it and pulling out the hypo spray, taking a moment to insert the vial of pain reliever and administering it. “That should help; it’s a low dose to conserve what we have. I don’t have a medical tricorder though to see how bad the break is.” He said.
J’nall pulled out her Tricorder. “Here!” she said.
“No, we need to save that for something more important.” Oliver said waving away the tricorder.
“If your arm’s broken bad enough you might have complications if we don’t.” Jonas said.
“I take it you’re a Medical Major?” J’nall asked.
Jonas nodded. “Yup.” He took the tricorder. “Let’s take a look.” He said, and flipped it open beginning the scan. “Okay, yeah were going to have to set this.” He said closing the tricorder.
“Shit.” Oliver said, starting to shiver a bit.
“This is going to hurt.” Jonas said taking a hold of his hand. “You ready?”
Oliver shook his head. “No.”
“On three?” Jonas asked.
Oliver nodded. “Do it!”
Jonas Yanked and turned on his arm quickly and sharply. Oliver’s arm made a bone jarring sound. “Three.” He said after it was done.
Oliver’s mouth hung open, air was escaping, and then he screamed, long and loudly. He rocked back and forth cradling his arm to his chest. He slowly fell backwards falling into unconsciousness.
“He’s going to punch you when he wakes up.” J’nall said with a grin. “That was satisfying to watch. Did you set it?” she asked.
He nodded staring down at the tricorder. “Yeah, it’s set.” He frowned as the Tricorder went dead just after confirming the scan. “And it’s dead.” He said handing her back the now drained scanning device.
Day 4 – PainDate: September 28, 2356
Stardate: 33742.22
Oliver’s eyes fluttered open; he could still feel the dull throbbing of his arm, it hurt like hell. It was not nearly as cold as it had been, the cave was still dark and he could hear the rhythmic breathing of his companions, they were clearly asleep. He glanced around to find they surrounded him, they were all huddled together sleeping in the cave. They had removed the outer coverings from the acceleration cushions and had woven them into a crude blanket, which was draped over them all. It was not much but every little bit helped. Glancing around they had clearly made some tools out of the materials they had scavenged, and a makeshift fishing set up, there were actually a few strange looking fish piled in a corner, and he could hear the light lapping of water, which told him they had found a way to put a hole in the ice to fish. He smiled and lay his head back down closing his eyes. They were working well together; he slowly drifted back off to sleep.
“No, no, no!” Oliver’s eyes popped open, and it was light in the cave again, he could see two of his three companions kneeling down by the fishing hole reaching down into the splashing water which caused him to sit upright.
“Help! Get me out of here!” he heard Thomas’s voice cry out.
“Grab him!” Jonas said.
Oliver slowly climbed out of the bed, and scrambled over which caught a surprised look from both Jonas and J’nall, he could see Thomas down in the fishing hole flailing about in a panic in the icy water below. He glanced around and could see nothing long enough to get him out. “Jonas lay flat, grab J’nall by the ankles and lower her down. It’s the only way!” he said quickly.
The others quickly did as instructed, he too hold of Jonas leg with his one good hand and planted his feet the best he could on the rock and ice. “Hurry!” he said.
Slowly J’nall lowered herself into the hold and took hold of Thomas. “Got him!” she shouted.
Oliver strained, and began pulling as hard as he could on Jonas, he could feel him slowly making progress. He strained but was able to get him back out of the hole. Oliver let go slowly making sure he wasn’t going to slide in and moved up to grab J’nall, and he strained to hold her while Jonas positioned himself to grab and haul her up with Thomas in tow. He was white as a ghost and shivering uncontrollably.
They pulled him over to the glowing rocks setting him right beside them and wrapped him in the makeshift blanket they had made. There were no other clothing so he was going to have to dry by staying close to the heated rocks. They looked at each other knowing that this might be a critical issue.
“What happened?” Oliver asked.
“I was pulling up a fish and had just taken it off the hook and something grabbed it and pulled the fish and I into the hole!” Thomas said through chattering teeth.
Oliver sat down staring back at the hole in the ice. “Make sure you’ve got a buddy when fishing in the future.” He took a deep breath, his arm hurt badly. It was sending waves of pain up through his shoulder.
“You alright Oliver?” J’nall asked.
He nodded. “Hurts a bit. How long was I out?”
Jonas crossed with a small pack of water and a chunk of cooked fish holding it out to him. “Three days.”
“Three days?” Oliver asked, echoing Jonas.
Jonas nodded. “You need to eat.” He said.
Oliver nodded and took the water and fish. “How are our supplies?” he asked.
“Well the good thing about the fishing hole and being essentially in ice, we can catch what we need and keep it cold. So were going good on food and water. We started with about twenty eight days of food and water, and while we’ve used about two days’ worth, we’ve got enough fish that we’ve extended that to several more days, and the water is essentially being resupplied daily with our little distillery.” Jonas said pointing to the metal contraption situated on top of the hot rocks. “With what he caught today we should be good for several more days. However I feel that after about four or five more days of just fish were all going to mutiny.” He said offering a hint of a smile.
“Indeed.” Oliver said.
“How are you doing Thomas?” J’nall asked looking at their shivering comrade.
He nodded. “Good.” The shivering seemed to have subsided for the moment, which made them all happy to see.
“How are we coming with that communications gear?” he asked.
“Have not had the time to really put something together with it, I have gone through and checked and it all seems to be in working order. The problem is more power, we don’t really have any.” Thomas said.
“What if we used a cell from one of the Phaser’s?” he asked.
Thomas nodded. “I might be able to rig something up to send out a distress call for a short time.” He said through chattering teeth. “Soon as I can actually grip something I’ll start working on it.” He said.
“Good, maybe we’ll get extra points for creativity.” He said and glanced over at J’nall who was staring down into the fishing hole in the ice.
Day 7 – DistressDate: October 1, 2356
Stardate: 33751.36
Oliver could not sleep tonight, it was bitterly cold even for their circumstances, the temperature outside had dropped drastically in the last day and even in the confines of their ice cave they were chilled to the bone. Might as well have been outside. Even huddled together as they were and as uncomfortable it was even sharing body heat did not seem to help. It was an oppressive chill, and it had the group on edge from lack of sleep and the discomfort level that came from such things.
“You asleep Ollie?” J’nall’s voice came as a whisper.
“Nope.” He said back.
“You know I’m from a cold climate and this is even a bit much for me.” She said.
He nodded, though he wasn’t’ sure, she would see. “It’s cold.”
“You don’t say.” Jonus chimed in.
There was a chuckle from all four of them. “I cannot wait to be done with this!” Thomas said. “I’m never eating fish again!” he said.
“What are you going to eat when we get back to civilization?” J’nall asked. It was clearly open ended for anyone to respond, and he waited but none came.
“A turkey dinner!” Oliver said.
“A what?” J’nall asked quizzically.
“Turkey Dinner, the whole damn thing!” he said with a chuckle, which brought another round of laughter.
“Yorkshire pudding” Thomas said, “I visited Europe and found I loved the stuff.”
“That stuff is gross!” Jonas said.
“Hey, it’s better than that Tapioca pudding you eat. Besides you eat Sushi.”
To everyone surprise J’nall chimed in. “Hey, do not say Sushi is gross, it’s one of the best things I’ve found from your pink skin cuisine that I find most enjoyable.”
“Was that a Vulcan impression you just did?” Oliver asked with a smile.
“Do you want to live through this night?” she asked in return.
They all laughed again, and it grew silent. “We should get some rest or what of it we can, mornings only a few hours away.”
Despite the cold Oliver was sure he at least got another hour, close to two of sleep but it seemed the more days they were here on this ball of ice, the more difficult It got to sleep. Based on the chill and the strange sway in the weather he was almost certain they were on a holodeck, but there were planets known for having this kind of weather patterns.
“Morning.” J’nall’s voice called to him pulling him from his thought process. “You going to climb out of that mess?” she asked staring down at him.
“Nope.” He said with a smile.
She bent down and tugged the makeshift blanket away. “Nope!” she said with a smile.
He slowly got to his feet, the chill was still in the air and despite the warmth coming from the rocks at the center of the room, it was cold. He noted that despite the door covering the opening there were now icicles formed from the door nearly to the bottom of the cave, it was not too surprising, as they had been growing every day since they took up semi-permanent residence in the cave. “What’s on the agenda today?” he asked.
“You and I are fishing; the boys are working on the communications gear.” J’nall said as she walked over to the hole in the ice.
“Fun.” He said and joined her by the hole. He looked down, they would have a little work as the opening had iced over again as it had done each time.
“I think we almost have it, hard to say without a tricorder but it’s about there.” Thomas called from across the cave. “With all this moisture though who knows how long it will work.”
“Keep at it.” Oliver said and picked up one of the handles from the escape pod, with his good arm, laid down so he could get at the ice and began whacking at the bottom of the hole. He had to strain a little to do it, and it caused his other arm to ache. It took only a few minutes between the two of them to make the hole.
“So no falling in or getting eaten by sea monsters right?” he said looking up at J’nall with a halfhearted smile.
“Very funny!” she said picking up the pipe with the attached fishing implement on it, and baited their skillfully crafted hook. “I cannot believe the fish eat this junk.” She said staring at the small hunk of Starfleet Ration’s attached to the hook.
“Better them than us.” Oliver said.
“No, I’m starting to actually think that the rations look good!” J’nall said wearily. “Too much fish.”
“Jonas might need you to take a look at J’nall, I think she’s got Hypothermia of the brain, she said she’s tempted by the Starfleet Rations.” Oliver said with a grin.
“I’m a doctor not a miracle worker!” Jonas said with a Chuckle.
Thomas let out a cry of success, and looking over Oliver could see why, there were power indicator lights on the Communications unit they had put together. “That’s step one right? Confirming it’s taking power and not shorting out?”
“Indeed.” He said, and then hit a button and a Litany of lights flashed into being and a small four inch screen lit up displaying communications options, most of which were blacked out. Oliver watched him press one of the buttons which he was certain was a distress call beacon. Almost immediately, each of their communicators beeped repeating the automated distress call. “It works!”
They all cheered and congratulated him. “Now the waiting game.” Oliver said looking up at the smiling J’nall. “Wonder how long it will take for them to decide to retrieve us.” He said.
“How long are these things supposed to last?” she asked.
“I’ve heard as many as a few days to a month. I heard a rumor that one group went nearly three months.” Oliver said staring down into the hole in the ice.
“No way in hell I’m doing three months on this rock!” Jonas said.
“Let’s hope that distress beacon was the trigger to get us off this rock.” Oliver said nodding, still staring into the hole in the ice.
Day 16 – FadingDate: October 9, 2356
Stardate: 33771.16
“Oliver!” Thomas’s voice called him out of his sleepy haze.
“Yeah Thomas?” Oliver said quietly.
“I can’t feel my fingers and toes anymore.” He said.
“I know, I’m starting to lose the feeling in mine too.” Oliver said.
Though it was light out, they had taken to huddling in bed together as the cold had continued to get worse each day. Jonas had already diagnosed the entire group with various stages of hypothermia and frostbite. It was not looking pretty, and Thomas was the worst of them. Jonas attributed his worsening condition with his fall into the fishing hole days ago. He had never been able to fully warm up and it was all they could do but stay huddled together for warmth.
“Where are they?” Jonas voice called through chattering teeth.
“How much longer will the distress signal last?” Oliver asked.
“Not much longer.” Thomas said. “I was able to boost the signal by lowering the distance it pushed the signal.”
“Wouldn’t that make it harder to find us?” J’Nall asked.
“Yes and no.” Thomas said, his teeth chattering away. “It still has a signal out that can be detected which is better than none.”
“I just hope it comes soon!” Jonas said.
“Were going to die here aren’t we? Didn’t even make it through survival training.” Thomas said.
Oliver doubted his own words when they came out but only a handful of times in Starfleet Academy History had cadets actually perished while on survival tests. “Just hang in there; we will get out of here.”
Day 18 – Saved!Date: October 9, 2356
Stardate: 33771.16
Oliver’s eyes fluttered open, he had to hold up a hand to protect his eyes as the light was blinding. Slowly they began to adjust; he recognized that he was not in the cave anymore, but on a Starship. He glanced around suddenly in a panic but found he could not sit up for all his attempts.
“Relax Cadet Savage.” A familiar voice called back to him, and the Hermes chief Medical Officer strolled into view. “Do you know where you are?”
“It’s bright!” he said covering his eyes.
“Computer lower the ambient light fifty percent.” The doctor said, and the lights slowly dimmed. “Better?”
Oliver slowly removed his hand, and to his relief it was. “Yes.”
“Do you know where you are?” she asked again.
“Yes, this is the Hermes sickbay.” He said.
“Excellent. I’ve got your restrained while we work on your toes; you ended up with a touch of frostbite so we want to make sure you heal right.” She said, pulling out a medical tricorder and began scanning.
“The others?” he asked.
“Cadet’s J’nall and Jonas are resting in their quarters. Thomas was bad, and we are still treating him as well. He is in one of the other biobeds. We are keeping him sedated for the time being until we get him well taken care of. Seems like you all had quiet the ordeal.”
He nodded. “In a matter of speaking.”
“Jonas did a great job setting your arm, I’m certain it was painful but you’re lucky most third year cadets cannot set an arm like that. Most are too scared to try.” The doctor said finishing her scan. “Looking good, couple more hours and you should be able to send you to your quarters to rest.”
“Thanks doc.” He said relaxing, it was warm and that was the most enjoyable sensation. He shook his head. “Survival Training sucks!”
“Yup, its tough but you guys passed with flying colors.” The doctor said with an approving nod.
“But we would have died?” he asked.
“Yes, the reality of the situation is had we not have been around and this was a training exercise yes the four of you would have likely died. Nevertheless, you lasted longer than most. The cold front that came in that last week was unexpected.”
“You were in orbit the entire time?” he asked.
She nodded putting the tricorder away. “Yup, you couldn’t see them but you were all wearing medical sensors and there was a planetary survey probe buried nearby that monitored other things. In the event of a dire emergency we would have pulled you out.” She started heading for her office. “We almost did when Thomas fell into the water.”
“So we passed?” he asked looking for reassurance. “What planet was that?”
“I believe so, but that’s not up to me. The Academy will review the information we send them. You were on Delta Vega” She disappeared around the corner into her office.
“Join Starfleet, Go on adventures, get hypothermia and frostbite, it will be great! Should have put that in the brochure.” He muttered.