Sinister Mine (Part 3 of 4)

Posted on 27 Jun 2014 @ 4:43pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Norvi Stace & Lieutenant Asahi Kita & Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle & Lieutenant Elijah Williams IV, M.Sc. & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Alexion Wylde & Senior Chief Petty Officer Keval zh'Erinov & Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Stark & M'Ressa

2,207 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: Lyshan III - Uridium Mine, Section A60-A75
Timeline: MD 05 - 1205 hrs

Previously, on Sinister Mine (Part 2)...

Delainey did as directed, but found her equipment useless as well. She shook her head in silent frustration. At least as a doctor treating patients, she never had had to contend with the dark.

"I don't believe in 'metaphysical manifestations' or what humans call the 'supernatural'," Stace began, the whole investigation team now joined together in the confines of one of the shafts and all equipment checked. "So, with that in mind, our best weapon is science and what we have left of testing it. Standard away procedures will still apply as we're heading into the unknown. That means that the muscle and guns will head up the front and bring up the rear as we move deeper into the mines." Stace sighed as she moved to the front of the group. "We don't know what we're heading in to, so keep your phasers to hand and on the outside. Let's move out."

Quinn shook his head slightly, "I have a bad feeling about this. Real bad." he quickly fell into formation and followed.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Stark nodded, pulling the spare handheld phaser on his hip to throw across to Rhodes with his chief's team having been victim to equipment overloads. His rifle still held firmly and ready in his own hands, he moved to the front of the group, assuming Rhodes would want to cover the main group, many now defenceless in it, from the rear.

Asahi followed behind the Trill in front of him, though he seemed less interested in his overall surroundings and more interested in his tricorder. He wasn't opposed to dropping in on the conversation, however. He spoke in a deadpan, so it came off potentially more abrupt than he meant it. "Let's just hope the supernatural doesn't believe in us, then."

"Or at least that it doesn't want to make us ghosts or zombies or anything like that," Keval replied.

Stace saddled up to Stark at the front of the group flashing her own torch out in front of her. The atmosphere was oppressive and air thick with a lingering, dark fog. She almost sneered at the thought of the what her suit was protecting her from. She turned to Stark and activated her comm.

"Eerie, isn't it?" she questioned, fully aware of the response. "I can almost feel the dank air seeping through my suit."

"Eerie? I'm fully expecting us to find a pack of zombies down here at this rate...." Stark shook his head, trying to lighten the mood, but knowing he'd failed.

Suddenly, and without warning, her wrist light began to flicker. She shot a look to Stark. As she did so a puff a white-grey smoke hissed from her phaser and the green lights on it began to flicker and then fade. She halted, along with Stark and then turned to face the wall. Pointing it to the floor, she tried to fire. It did nothing. She then pulled out her tricorder as it sparked in her hand, fading to nothing too.

"Anyone else's?" she asked, turning around to look at the group.

The only sign that Asahi's tricorder had fizzled out was the small, annoyed snort that emitted from his oversized suit. "Should have done checks on these things before we left." He muttered, turning it around in his hand before finally looking up. "... Wonder what's down here that's got it going."

"Rifle's dead," Stark said grimly. Holding onto a rifle usually made him feel calmer, even in difficult situations. He reluctantly used the strap to carry it on his back instead, leaving his hands free should it come to needing to fight. Although, everything so far was pointing to something that didn't want a full on confrontation.

Keval had gotten his breathing under control and had managed to calm himself down when his EVA suit started shutting down. In a mixture of frustration and disgust, with just a hint of fear, he tore off the helmet. Being Andorian he could at least breathe and the temperature was well within his comfort range.

As the group collected their thoughts and reformed a defensive perimeter, Stace called for everyone to move out. As they walked forth Stace addressed the team. "Kohl: Keep to the back. And everyone, if our communications fail whilst we're down here, I want everyone to turn and face. I've kept track of our movements down here so we'll retreat and you'll follow me. If anyone needs..."

Suddenly, Stace broke off as something caught her eye. She looked over out of its corner and narrowed her gaze on the darkness just beyond her vision. Lying on the floor was something out of place. She leant over to inspect it and without any functioning tricorder had to reply solely on her eyesight. She bent down beside it. Clumsily picking it up between her gloved fingers, she brought it up to inspect it. "It's organic," she said turning it around in her hand. And then she quickly dropped it with a squeak. The image of what she held emblazoned in her mind. "It's an eye!" Stace exclaimed as she stumbled backwards. Losing her footing she fell to the ground, outstretching her hand out to protect her. She impacted with what was beneath her, but in the darkness it felt unusual. Incorrect. Unnatural. She turned to heave herself up and placed her other hand into something dense and soft. As her eyes focused in the dark and with Kohl's flashlight now shining down upon her, the stark realisation dawned upon her as the dark, brown blood came into focus on her white hand.

"Easy! You're alright..." Stark moved quickly to her, getting a firm grip on her to help her back to her feet and out of the sprawlling mess in front of them.

Moving forward, Dr. Alexion Wylde stood in the middle of the grisly mass, turning in a slow circle to take the scene in.

Sprawlled across the ground were the twisted shapes that seemed so familiar, but now sickeningly incongrous in how they were scattered, out of place and out of shape to how they were usually seen. Body parts...chunks of flesh...torn muscle and connective tissue stretched and contorted....threads of entrails....and streaks of cold, thick blood laced the stone, with no care or attention to the obscene and horrific picture it painted.

The lump of flesh that Stace had fallen into had once been part of a torso. Crouching down close to it, Alexion reached out to touch it with a gloved hand, his finger moving over the softened, once grey skin.

The flesh gave more than it should with the tell tale softness of decomposition, like dark rotting fruit, parts of the flesh breaching with the probe of his finger. It covered it in a thick, dark treacle that had once been liquid.

Alexion reached up, taking his helmet off so he could see better in the dim light. The sickly sweet smell that hung thick and cloyingly in the air immediately assaulted him, and as a doctor, he knew it was the smell of stagnant death that was unmistakable.

Leaning in closer to the distorted torso, Alexion continued to study the skin, shaking his head as he frowned, feeling it with his fingers. "It's the torso of a Cardassian," he announced grimly.

Quinn looked over there shoulders and shook his head. "Looks like your wish about Zombies may have been granted. That flesh has been gnawed on. Someone, or...something didn't eat all of his supper. Could be worse, I suppose."

"Gross." Asahi cringed, giving the area a look. "... No really, gross." He leaned forward, eying another oddly-shaped, semi-deformed lump of grey flesh. From the look of the remaining two digits, it appeared to be some sort of hand. "Either that or the miners had an animal down here to help them out, and it went berserk. Did anyone happen to see one when we were poking around earlier?"

"What if its not that?" Keval asked, "what if it is something supernatural?"

Asahi's brow quirked over at the Andorian, vaguely recognizing him from their gatherings a month or so ago. The name would come to him at some point, but there were times and places for events like that. "There's really kinda only one way to find out, huh?"

Keval looked over at the Operations officer and nodded, "you're right Asahi. We have to check it out.

"... Actually, is it all one Cardassian? I wonder if there are other bodies." The engineer didn't seem too phased by the smell, though his face was turning an odd shade of green.

Andreus Kohl took a step backwards, but something had found its way under his boot. It was something soft and plump, and something he hadn't remembered being there when he had stepped closer to the rest of the team. It was as if the something had bumped into him. Kohl lit one of the secondary lamps on his EV suit and directed the light to where the heel of his boot was hovering above the something. It was taking no small effort to stop his boot from crushing down into it. To his trained eye, it looked like a digestive organ.

"I'm standing in liver," said Kohl.

Wincing at the pronouncement and what it might lead to rather than the reality itself, Delainey tried not to think about what she might be standing in. She prayed no one vomited. Carlisle could handle standing in body parts she could barely see as it was much easier to professionally detach that way, but vomit challenged her as a doctor like nothing else.

Stace, now standing and emphatically wiping down her suit, activated the comm. for all to hear, a haunting quiver in her voice. She steeled her nerve and spoke calmly. "Turn and face, Team. We're weaponless and I'm not risking losing comms. down here too. We're heading back to the ship. Kohl, take two men and keep eyes on the back. I'll lead the front. Anything unusual then we run for it. Got it?"

"Yup," Kohl replied, the vowel prolonged with no small amount of grim determination. He took a couple of careful steps backwards and then raised his arm. Kohl pointed out Rhodes and M'Ressa, and then jerked a thumb over his shoulder. Instinctively, Kohl glanced down at his burned out tricorder, but it was long dead. He cleared his throat, and moved into position.

Stark nodded firmly to Stace, clapping her arm with his hand in a laddish, comradely fashion. "Got it," he stayed close to her though, ready to keep her back. Without weapons, and with not many security team members, he had to agree that they should think about the safety of the team.

"If I could have some more time I might get more answers..." Dr Wylde frowned, looking around with frustration. Without his tricorder, it was a slower process.

"I'm afraid not this time, Mr. Wylde," Stace replied rather quickly, looking over to him. "We're defenseless down here. It would be reckless to stay; especially with what we've discovered. Now let's move." She understood the need to investigate. She herself was a scientist. But she was also responsible for whom she was leading. She did a quick head-count. "Who's missing? Where's Ruktah?" she asked quietly.

Stark looked around quickly, holding his breath with a frown as he looked around for him in the dim, macabre chamber. He swore, shaking his head when he couldn't see his fellow security colleague. "Bloody hell, I'll take a look around, the rest of the group should stay together here while I find him," he nodded to Stace with a concerned frown, not wanting the whole, unarmed group to be put at risk. He took his rifle off his shoulder to grip in both hands as he started to move away; the power might have failed in it, but it still made a pretty good blunt weapon when needs must.

Something lurched in the pit of Kohl's stomach. It made him feel unsteady, and uneasy; far more so than the gore and gristle at his feet. He hadn't noticed-- "How long?" Kohl asked. "How long has Ruktah been gone?"

Stace inhaled and cast her mind back only a few moments. "He was here when I head counted once you'd joined us, Lieutenant. He can't have gotten far. But why walk off?"

Quinn looked around and shrugged his shoulders. "Hopefully he didn't turn into dinner."

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

WO Alexion Wylde
Doctor
USS Galileo
[PNPC - Blake]

PO1 Gabriel Stark
Security/Tactical
USS Galileo
[PNPC - Blake]

LT Asahi Kita
[Acting] Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

Command Master Chief Markum Quinn
Chief of the Boat
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Norvi Stace
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Andreus Kohl
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

M'Ressa
Biotechnologist
USS Galileo
[PNPC - Zhao]

CPO Keval Graysan
Operations Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC - Nicholas]

LTJG Elijah Williams IV
Geologist
USS Galileo

LT Delainey Carlisle
Counselor
USS Galileo

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