Enigma (Part 3 of 5)

Posted on 29 Jun 2014 @ 3:53pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton & Lieutenant Jared Nicholas & Commander Luke Wyatt & Cadet Sophomore Grade Alenis Taban & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Riley Cameron & Corynn'tha M.D., Ph.D. & Verity Thorne

2,370 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: Lyshan III - Uridium Mine, Section C13-D50
Timeline: MD 05 - 1110 hrs

Previously, on Enigma (Part 2)...

Allyndra was convinced though that she had noticed a very subtle change in the colour of the veins of mineral that ran through the place just as the vision had vanished. For now though she kept the thoughts to herself but asked, "May I take my helmet off periodically?" Allyndra did not want to state her thoughts and covered it with, "the ultraviolet filtration built into the helmet visor makes me feel half blind."

Scarlet gave a nod to her, understanding that she could see some things that the rest of them couldn't. "Yes. Not for too long at any one time though, the air down here is thin."

Scarlet glanced around to double check she had all of her team before nodding, taking a breath to steel herself. "Let's go."

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Alpha Team

After all the alarm and shock they had faced as a whole group, things had settled down to dim lights and eerie but perfectly normal echoes. Strangely, the renewed calm and quiet only made Scarlet feel less reassured. "Still nothing," she shook her head to her team. Nothing was showing on her tricorder, and she glanced around to see if anyone else had scanned or noticed anything of interest.

Abbey was walking along the wall scanning the rock face "If only we could just cause the same reaction toe Doctor had it might be easier to scan and study if it was active, its like it goes into a dormant stage and I use it broadly." She folded her tricorder shut and turned to Blake.

Allyndra remembered to use the helmet as instructed and when it was on she did scans of the place. So far, nothing appeared. Periodically she would take it off and look at the surroundings. The veins were there but while still interesting she still could not help but think they had been more brilliant back as the manifestation was active.

"I am curious," Allyndra finally spoke up. "Some of the miners complained about some of this rock being either extremely hard or dense. Perhaps a comparison between here and there?"

"We have patches of it logged in the tricorder," Scarlet nodded to Allyndra. "It's a bit deeper yet, but it's worth a look. It could be completely unrelated, but I know they're struggling to scan beyond it or understand the differences," she was half thinking out loud more than anything as she led them deeper. It seemed, despite experiencing some of the phenomena directly, they were still frustratingly lacking in answers.

Allyndra was thrilled actually to hear that. Though she was a medical doctor that did not mean that the curiosity of science did not burn deep in her breast as well. It was that but also the idea of getting away from this place, even if temporary.

She started with the others and again took her readings vowing to not take her helmet off. Allyndra had more or less decided that perhaps some gas or lack of oxygen had lead to her 'hallucination'. It had seemed that way when her tricorder started giving off odd signals. Allyndra actually banged it a few times not believing what it was saying.

"Anyone else getting any unusual readings?" Allyndra asked.

"Yes," Scarlet assured her quickly, nodding as she looked at her own tricorder. Bio-eletrical signatures had appeared, seemingly, from nowhere with their suddeness. "This is impossible," she shook her head with a frown, her breath catching in her throat. She was no scientist, but even she knew this wasn't right. "Bio-eletrical signatures....the tricorder's having a hard time locking onto them, but they're...they're from inside the rock..."

Taban, whose tricorder was still primarily callibrated for non-biological signals, tried to turn around quickly despite the bulk of his gear. "How's that even possible, Commander?" He brought his own tricorder to bear, and even with its different bandwidth settings there was certainly some interference or other obscuring his readings. "This doesn't make sense!" He exclaimed to himself.

"I have to agree..." Scarlet looked to him with darker than usual eyes, letting out a long, steadying breath, her muscles winding tighter ready to fight if she had to.

It only took a few more moments for Scarlet to realise that 'they' were moving....and they were moving towards them. Scarlet pulled her phaser, lifting it ready, not one to take chances. "They're coming this way."

Instinctively lifting his phaser too and taking a step away from the rock face and towards the Commander's left side Alenis felt a sudden rush of butterflies in his stomach and the firm grip of anxiety, almost as though it was pulling at his arm. Slowing his breathing he glanced from his tricorder to the corridor and back again. He desperately tried to reconfigure his tricorder, even placing it on the ground so he had one hand free, which still keeping his phaser raised. Whatever bandwidth he tried, though, he simply couldn't isolate the correct frequency to properly pick up the signals. Muttering to himself 'Must be out of phase, but how can I correct it...?'.

Jared felt as if someone was trying sneak into his mind. To twist it, change it, invade it. The feeling came over him from everywhere and no where at the same time. He shook his head and tried to shove the feeling away.

Allyndra was scared enough but the innate curiosity overcame that and she continued to take readings and try to observe. The signals or whatever they were suddenly were here but as she looked around she saw nothing. Since she could not see or quite define anything instead she turned to the rest to monitor their physiology and see what might change as whatever contact this might be did anything that she could define. Everything had an explanation, everything.

Scarlet was breathing harder, glancing between their dim lit surroundings and her tricorder. Every glance back down to the map on the small screen seemed to show the blinking dots closer to their location, making her throat tighten when she couldn't see anything. She frowned, turning in a circle, phaser lifted and ready to use. One final look down to the screen showed the dots had all merged together, into one mass...right on them.

Nothing.

Scarlet looked around with confusion and alarm, shaking her head at the impossibility of it. "They're right on top of us," she whispered, shaking her head at the lack of seeing anything close to them. The hackles went up on the back of her neck, and she had to suppress a shiver.

The Cadet frantically poked at his tricorder to try and clear the readings up, but the more he did the less accurate his work became, until finally he caught the outside edge of the tricorder and flipped it over against the rock-face. Cursing under his breath he tried to reach forward to get it, but found his arm seemingly not wanting to. 'Stupid environmental suits.' he thought, taking a step closer and reaching down to pick it up. Having retrieved it he set it down again and tried to resume his work, but to his surprise, despite no damage to the outside casing, it gave no response at all. =/\="How does a tricorder just stop working?"=/\= He asked, almost not realising he was speaking aloud.

Allyndra had quit doing any scanning of the rock or surrounding area. The readings were to say the least not exactly reliable. What she was focused on was on any physiological readings. She picked up nothing but elevated epinephrine readings, adrenaline in the vernacular. Serotonin levels and dopamine levels that had come to be associated with telepathic contact seemed to be normal that she could detect.

"Anyone hearing voices again?" Allyndra asked.

Scarlet shook her head, letting out a long, shaking breath. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing," she breathed, pulling her helmet off for a moment just in case she could hear the surrounding echoes better. Strangely, the fact that the tricorder told them they had company, but there was no sign of anything, made a shiver run up her spine far more intensely than if they had something to confront.

"Then whatever we are picking up is either not communicating or making itself known. Might I suggest we continue and see if there is a response or if whatever this phenomena is follows?" Allyndra suggested

Scarlet nodded in agreement. Without solid data, it was all they could do, short of being like those mediums in one of those ghost story holonovels and calling out to thin air. She started walking forward with the team again, hoping that whatever was going on would become clearer, or at least, show evidence of being random phenomena or intelligence.

Edging forwards, slowly, Taban holstered his tricorder - seeing as how it was now entirely useless and focused only on keeping his weapon up. It was strange, but now he wasn't seeing the world through the small screen of a tricorder he was feeling something strange. It was like someone was standing behind him, watching over him, but whenever he turned to look they weren't there. It was immensely disconcerting. He couldn't help thinking what the crazy miner had said the day before about the rocks. He'd just written it off as the deranged ramblings of a miner who had spent too much time underground and what little time he had spent above ground had involved drinking from illicit stills. Nevertheless... maybe there was something in it. Now he was down there himself he definitely felt something strange. Something cold. Stooping down, he grabbed a rock and slid it into a sample container from his backpack. "Let's see if these rocks will talk to me then." He muttered to himself.

Abbey paced slowly behind the group bringing up the rear, turning around every so often making sure they weren't being followed. She found herself becoming more and more paranoid and hoped her dad was ok, as the thought ran through her mind she could feel a freezing cold stabbing pain edge slowly up her spin like a hand and then her mothers voice begging for help. Closing her eyes she muttered to herself "Its not real it not real its not rea.." Abbey hadn't realised she picked up the pace and went straight into the back of ships Doctor.

Allyndra had taken a deep breath and took off her helmet. It was amazing like night and day and she wished she could keep it off. The tunnel here was newer, one could tell by the more recent torch marks and as such, it got narrower. Again, that feeling of claustrophobia crept over her. A creature of wide open skies and spaces it was natural she told herself. She paused a moment to get her fears under control when someone ran into her. Allyndra stumbled for a few steps and put a hand out to the wall to steady herself before turning as the thought that something had happened.

Abbey was glad the doctor didn't notice her bumping into her, she was after all small and light but she would never consider herself as clumsy. The bump knocking some motivation into her she could see that she wasn't the only one being influenced by whatever these tunnels hid.

The tunnel ahead seemed to grow even colder as they continued ahead, even to the suited team. A low rolling thick mist seemed to seep around a foot off the ground. The mist curved, swirling around an object in the path that Scarlet assumed was a rock.

As they drew closer, the outline of the shape became unmistakable even in the dim light. Limbs sprawled awkwardly across the rock, the body had been carelessly dropped in the middle of their path. Blood was seeping out in a large pool around the man, oozing from a large tear through both his starfleet issue environmental suit and his torso.

Allyndra knelt with her tricorder. The mist seemed to be exactly that water vapor that had reached the dew point. She needed to be close to the man since she still did not trust the tricorder readings completely.

Removing one glove, she put a couple of fingers on his neck and then shook her head. "He is dead. I do not recognize this crewman as one of our Team. I do not think anyone got in front of us." Allyndra said and examined the wound.

While the others gathered around the body, Taban had moved further forwards, staying within sight, but also scouting around the next bend, his phaser raised and poised. He had seen the man as he moved past and had no wish to see more. He had seen more than enough death and suffering in his young life. He didn't know the man and, even if a shipmate and comrade, there wasn't much point allowing himself to dwell on it. He almost felt a carnal rage within him though, not directed at anything, just a building anxious rage. It seemed to heighten and make hypersensitive all of his senses. The flicker of every shadow seemed to have some hidden meaning, every scratch of environmental suit against the rock sounded like a thunderclap. The Cadet just tried to keep his eyes narrowed and his focus true. Instead of the barren foreboding rock he tried to imagine the passage as one of the small crawlspaces of the Jian'Karra - just as claustrophobic, but far more familiar and 'safe'.

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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