Enigma (Part 1 of 5)

Posted on 29 Jun 2014 @ 3:52pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton & Lieutenant Jared Nicholas & Cadet Sophomore Grade Alenis Taban & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Riley Cameron & Commander Luke Wyatt & Corynn'tha M.D., Ph.D. & Verity Thorne

2,009 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: Lyshan III - Uridium Mine, Section C13-D50
Timeline: MD 05 - 0935 hrs

[ON]

The weather on Lyshan III was surprisingly calm for the morning, perhaps a strange and serene foreshadowing of what was about to come. Assembled at the top entrance to the colony's primary subterranean mine, a team of more than ten Starfleet personnel gathered in their EVA suits in preparation of descending into the depths of the uridium trade.

Cameron felt deeply uncomfortable within the confines of an EVA suit. He had never enjoyed this particular element of his training, and had always tried to avoid ending up in any situation where he required a shell around his body just to keep him alive. With an engineering kit in one hand, a tricorder on his belt, and a type II holstered just in case, the Scot nervously awaited the start of their mission.

The opportunity to be involved in away missions was rare for the Chaplain, but Verity Thorne was more curious to find what was out in the mines than anything else. As a former Catholic Priest, he had a lot of feelings and thoughts on life after death and other phenomena, and so, perhaps, was more open to the idea of alternative explanations to what was being experienced down there. He took a breath, getting used to both the suit and their surroundings as the group readied themselves.

Corynn'tha was standing, plain faced, in her environmental suit. The Vulcan was theorizing over chances they had of finding any survivors. According to her rough calculations, it was slim.

Allyndra would sweat if she could, instead the faceplate kept fogging up. This was not only uncomfortable in this suit, but to be underground. She was not panicked, but a creature of open skies, underground was a thing that tugged at some primal fear. That was one thing, the other was that as before the helmet was designed to filter ultraviolet and her eyes were more attuned that spectrum. Thus, she felt as if somebody had dimmed the lighting which did nothing to relieve the confined feeling.

Jacob stood there between Allyndra and Jared not saying a word as he did some peripheral scans and made some entry notes to his PADD. He looked over at Allyndra and gave her a smile. He saw what he thought my be concern on her face and said, "I cannot imagine what your feelings must be having to wear that suit and be underground, but we will make it through Allyndra. We will solve the mystery here I assure you..." He watched for her reaction then added, "Besides, if anything happens, you still have me protectin' ya." Jacob playfully nudged her and then chuckled a bit.

"Thank you, it is confining but I must say that and being almost half-blind," She tapped the helmet. "Someone never figured that some of us see in slightly different spectrums of light. I shall have to file a protest!" She said the later with a slight nervousness to the laugh.

Jacob chuckled in return, "Well now, which form would you use for that? Would that be under Starfleet Protocol 79.69 'Species Specific Reasonable Accommodations' or the 'General Grievance Procedural Protocol section F, subsection 18'... or maybe we could make a new form called 'General Nuisance and Other Errata Protocol, subsection Allyndra A-1'." His voice was playful and teasing in tone.

Allyndra made a face and then replied with as dead a serious tone she could muster though her poker face betrayed the lie, "I was thinking StarFleet Section A, subparagraph B one: 'Diplomatic incident'." She smiled, and thought a moment, "guess your first one is probably most appropriate."

Jared was looking forward to practicing his Cardasian and meeting some of the miners. He wanted to get to the bottom of whatever phenomena that had been manifesting. He knew of course that it could be and probably was a natural explanation. Something that people just weren't catching. But he couldn't be 100% sure of that. And he, unlike a number of his colleagues was open to the possibility that there was a supernatural or at least paranormal explanation. Being confined in the EVA suit was a small price to pay to satisfy his curiosity.

Bree remained quiet. Yet, she found that she kept checking her security gear, over and over. In times past, she had come to understand, that is what she did when nervous. She tried to consciously breath slowly and hold her belt wit each hand. This way she would at least give the impression that she had her act together.

Abbey stepped up next to her dad and bumped her butt into his with a smile "Looking forward into going in the deep dark scary mine" She teased with a sarcastic scared look. She was trying to do anything to take her mind of Jacob.

"Abbey are you trying to chase trouble?" He asked knowing that is exactly what she wanted, he would rather have her locked up in the brig than anywhere near these mines especially with what had been rumoured.

"You know me by now dad!" She teased walking of with a wink.

Luke stepped up to Blake "I think that's everyone here now, say we get this circus moving?" He suggested.

"Amen to that," Jared added.

On the edge of the group, doing his best to remain inconspicuous was Cadet Alenis, his visor screen down, preventing his easy identification, despite being taller than anyone else in the group. Hearing the discussion about getting moving, he moved around the group so he was nearer the entrance. "Commander?" he asked, slightly nervously "I'd like to volunteer to take point."

Jared looked over at the young cadet, "I know this may not be my place, but I support the young man on this. He might be seen as a friendly face. I can go behind him if you want."

"Let's get down there first and see what we've got on our hands," Scarlet nodded to Jared. "Okay people, we're going to take the lift down. Once we're down there, we might get some interference on our instruments and comms, so I don't want anyone wondering off from their team, not even in the name of science...." she shoved the gate open to lead the way into the large but worn and rusty feeling metallic cab that would take them down.

Once they were all inside, she pushed the awkward lever to send them moving. The whole thing juddered before starting to move on the long 5k trip down underground, the metal groaning and vibrating and the cab most definitely rocking just a little from side to side, but enough for it not to feel particularly safe.

Luke looked about the cab "I think I'd rather walk" He hated height and he hated rickety old metallic cages underground more.

Jared hesitated only momentarily, he wasn't the most trusting of alien technology, but he really wasn't fearful and besides he was very curious abut what they would find.

Cameron gulped deeply as he looked at the state of the engineering around him. It amazed him that in the 24th century this kind of technology would be acceptable for use anywhere or for any purpose.

"Tell me someone has a transporter lock on us...."

Corryn'tha simply walked the route, not feeling anything, only logic.

Jacob looked around at the structure taking them underground and wondered if even his own impressive strength would be enough to climb the massive cables of the elevator if they somehow got stuck or trapped down in the mine.

Scarlet had to admit to herself, even if she didn't let it show on her face, that she was all too happy when the cab finally screeched to a halt and she could step back out on to solid ground. She took her tricorder out to scan as she walked forward enough to let the group gather, but took the time to take in the surroundings.

It was cooler down there, much cooler. The dark was deep and heavy around them. The dim lights only seemed to take the edge off of it rather than alleviate it. Every little movement echoed down the long, man made passages, creating a strange sensation of movement elsewhere. The feeling of claustaphobia was easy to understand with the curved passages that had been carved out enough for equipment and people to travel and work, but weren't exactly open and welcoming.

Looking back to her team, Scarlet nodded to them, enough for them to see in the suit. "Let's push forward a little and see what readings we can get to start us off. We can split up once we're deeper inside." She started to walk forward, the eerie quiet and unnatural surroundings, encased in only the dimmest glow of light that fought the dark, stretched out in front of them.

One might have described the large Bajoran/Cardassian Cadet's gait as lumbering at the best of times, but with the environmental suit on this effect was only worsened. His tricorder was barely even reading that there was a tunnel ahead of them, let alone anything else. Narrowing the radius and focusing on structural elements he was at least able to clean the results up some, but it was still far less than ideal. He tried to remain within a few metres, staggered behind and to the left, of the Commander. Turning back, expecting to see the Lieutenant who had supported his request to take point, he said "I've calibrated my tricorder for optimal structural survey, but I can't get any readings on other bandwidths."

"Keep trying," Scarlet nodded to him, motioning to his tricorder. "It might be worth having one tricorder set on a constant cycle of different bandwidths and settings and set up to sound an alarm if anything of interest comes up. We could stumble on something that way."

Scarlet... The quietest of private whispers sounded inside of Blake's helmet but the timbre and pitch of the sound was all too clear. I'm here, said Annabelle's voice, followed by a breath of warm maternal air against her earlobe.

Scarlet stopped dead in her tracks, turning sharply at the voice. The voice was so familiar, and yet she hadn't heard it in a long time. So long. Not since she was a teenager. And she said her name like no else did. No matter what had happened, all that had passed between them, she would never forget her mother's voice. Her mother who had been dead for some years, at the hands of the Cardassians.

Scarlet breathed harder with the realisation of how impossible it was to have heard and....and felt, she'd actually felt it....what she'd just heard. Her chest heaved with the racing of her heart as she looked around with wide eyes, her usually calm demeanour challenged with just how wrong it was. Without thinking, her sense of confusion and fear made her grab at her helmet, pulling it off quickly to look properly around the stone and metal that encased them. "Did you hear that?"

Riley looked confused at the Commander's outburst. He had heard nothing, just the echoing of the caverns and the movement of rubble and water deep within the caves.

"Ma'am? Heard what?"

"The voice of a woman, right there..." Scarlet motioned next to her head, breathing harder than usual, partly from her shock and confusion, and partly from the thinner air with her helmet off.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CMDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo

Corynn'tha M.D., Ph.D.
Xenobiologist
USS Galileo

Lt Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

PO1 Verity Thorne
Chaplain
USS Galileo
[PNPC Blake]

SCPO Luke Wyatt
Security Officer
USS Galileo

CA Abbey Wyatt
Scientist Mate
USS Galileo
[PNPC Wyatt]

LT Jacob Pendleton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

LT Jared Nicholas
Linguist
USS Galileo

CDT(SO) Alenis Taban
Operations Officer
USS Galileo

WO Riley Cameron
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC Holliday]

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