Nitala had changed into the appropriate gear, grabbed her kit, and headed out of the bunk room. Heading down the corridor she began to make her way to where the turbolift was located. Thoughts ran through her mind with the away mission she was being sent on. She didn’t quite like the idea of searching through the wreckage of a Borg ship. However, she learned that the vessel that was destroyed was scattered over different areas and only some of it landed on the ice-cold moon. She didn’t like it any less, what if they found Borg drones? She thought what if they woke up? She began to wonder again as she reached the lift and entered. “Shuttlebay one,” she ordered as the lift began to move towards its destination.

After a few moments, the lift came to a stop, she exited as the doors opened and made her way to the shuttlebay where she found the shuttle they were taking. A young Lieutenant JG was waiting, he must be there to fly the shuttle to the moon. Smiling she entered seeing she was the first one of the team to show up, so she took a seat and waited for their arrival.

Tav slung his tool kit over his shoulder. Looking around the equipment lockers for any of the names of the people he had just met 5 minutes ago, he grabbed what he found and loaded that too. Teetering precariously across the engine room deck, he made his way back to the turbolift, weighed down by more tools than anyone needed. As the lift made its way to the shuttlebay, he let his mind wander back to thoughts of the Borg. “What do I know about them?” thought Tav. Well, he remembered they ignore things they don’t consider a threat and/or useful. This holds doubly true if they are busy with some task of their own. So if their ship crashed in a frozen wasteland, Tav reasoned, maybe any surviving drones would be too busy to hunt them down and give them the dubious gift of a nanite infection.

Tav lurched out of the turbolift and into the shuttlebay. Ensign Nitala was already here, making small talk with their pilot. Tav placed the kits into a storage bin on the shuttlecraft, pulled on a jacket, and took a seat of his own. “Do you think we’ll get the opportunity to work with anything we find and bring back? It’d be a real bummer if we collect all this cool tech, only for the chief engineer to get all the fun of tinkering with it later.”

She looked at Tav, “I am not sure but it would be an interesting opportunity.” She said even though she would rather be far away from it. She wasn’t sure what to think of his bubbly personality, the always chatty type. However, she was coming around to being more open instead of being an introvert. “I am just not sure I like the idea of going on an icy moon. I not fond of the cold.” She admitted with a soft chuckle.

“Not a fan of the cold Nitala? As long as there isn’t a storm raging on the ground, the cold never really bothered me too much,” Jeden said as she stepped through the door into the shuttle bay. Dropped the large duffle she had slung over her shoulder she adjusted the heavy pair of external snow leggings she wore that came up to her mid-torso. “It’s a pity we can’t get some skiing in.” She stopped for a minute and turned to the ensign standing with Nitala and held out her hand in the customary human greeting, “I didn’t catch your name earlier, I’m Sonia Jeden.”

“Hi Sonia Jeden, it’s a pleasure to meet you! I’m Tav Maddox. Some of my friends call me Mads, but I’m fine with basically whatever!” Tav shook her hand enthusiastically. “Also who says we can’t get any skiing in? Maybe we’ll find some tech at the bottom of a slope. In the name of efficiency, I think we should probably ski down it, no? Maybe I should run over to the cargo bay replicator and grab some skis myself…” Tav suggested half-jokingly with a smile.

“But, on a more important note, should we discuss a general plan? I was looking at the long-range scans of the moon while waiting on the turbolift. We’ll get a better look when the shuttle is closer, but from what I can tell right now, there’s a large debris field here,” Tav points to a map on his PADD, “but there is also a significant amount of debris scattered across the surrounding area. The big pile might be more dangerous if any drones survived… but the equipment we find there might be more salvageable. What do y’all think?” 

“Well, if it was up to me I’d say start with the biggest pile first, if we find what we are looking for all the better. Get us off that ice-covered, freezing and did I mention cold rock. “  Talibah said as she approached the group with a rucksack over one shoulder, a PADD in one hand while attaching her tricorder and phaser to her harness with the other. “I think we can all agree the sooner we are off that moon the better for all involved.”

“Agreed,” Nitala replied with a gulp. “Well we better get going,” she added as they all seemed to take their seats, and a short time later they were cleared for departure. The shuttle lifted and began its journey out of the Columbia and began to head towards the ice-cold moon. Things seemed to have gone quiet as they made their journey towards their destination, her nerves were getting the better of her.

Staring out the window silently, Tav reflected on the cold vacuum of space as they cleared the shuttlebay. He was used to space. He didn’t grow up on a planet with an atmosphere, he grew up on a space station, with what, a few inches of duranium between him and emptiness? Tav was comfortable with it; and used to it. The thing is, space doesn’t get “comfortable” around you. It’ll still turn you into a popsicle if you go out there without a suit. Tav shuddered as he pushed away thoughts of the Borg warping in on top of their shuttle. Was that a warp flash he saw in the distance? A fleck of green? Tav zipped his fleece a little higher and checked the settings on his phaser. Again. Comfort started to return as the blackness of space gave way to a light, red glow as they entered the moon’s atmosphere.

As the pilot brought the shuttle closer to the surface, Tav thought he could start to make out signs of the crash. “Yes, that’s definitely broken hull down there,” he thought as he checked his phaser one last time. Time to earn a paycheck, as his mother used to say.

“Indeed,” Nitala replied as she could see chunks of debris in a couple of different places. 

Talibah walked forward to stand behind the helmsman, one arm on the seat and one arm on the console. “This looks like the outskirts of the debris field, what we want will be a bit further ahead. “ She tapped the pilot on the shoulder “Look for a a big piece and set us down as close as you can get us.”  She went back to her seat and started to pull her cold-weather gear from her ruck. 

Looking out the viewport on the side of the shuttlecraft Jacoby could see the fall out of Borg debris below.  It was like a giant ice cube frozen and chipped away.   As for the cold, he was used to the cold.  In Texas, one Earth the area he grew up in was not for flat land and bitter winters.  The wind would cut through every layer of clothes, and his family didn’t own any advanced warming clothing that Starfleet used. 

Nitala looked at everyone else and gave a weak smile as the shuttle began to landing procedures. A short time later they landed and the shuttle began to power down. “Well bundle up everyone,” she said with a sigh.