Cave Terrors (Part 5 of 8)

Posted on 07 Aug 2014 @ 3:54pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Scarlet Blake & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Commander Norvi Stace & Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle & Lieutenant Commander Amynta Markos & Commander Luke Wyatt & Lieutenant Oren Idris Ph.D. & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Alexion Wylde & Chief Petty Officer Lyras Ueda

2,994 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: Lyshan III - Uridium Mine, Central Matrix Station, Section LV881-LV900
Timeline: MD 07 - 1025 hrs

Previously, on Cave Terrors (Part 4)...

"Rock face. Face of rock," said Hector, his tone growing lyrical and circular. "How did the rock change it's shape, change it's face? The side of the cave didn't call you an urchin; it didn't speak. The rock looked just like Melkin, but Melkin with a helmet, and it ate Maria. Why didn't you try to save Maria?"

Prym's recorded voice was laced with acid, when she said, "I should have saved Maria. I should have. You're right. Saved her from whatever hell of a thing was motivating that fluid rock, and speaking through Melkin. Maria would have been more helpful than--" And the recording ended.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Stace picked up the tricorder she had placed next to an adjacent console and narrowed her gaze on it slowly. The familiar flashing lights began to change as it began to detect new data. She looked at it silently and then placed it down again, tapping into this console with a knitted brow. She accessed the computer successfully but the clunky Cardassian controls slowed her down so she returned back to the tricorder quickly. As she tapped it, the trilling sound reverberated into life. "I'm picking up movement around our location, Commander," she said, her voice lilted with agitation. "No specifics. My tricorder range won't extend that far through the rock. But they're humanoid."

The sound of thick, hurried footsteps echoed quietly in the distance then became increasingly louder and louder as an unknown group of people approached the away team's position. The thump of heavy boots and the squishing of the muddied earth beneath them stopped for a short moment, then quickly resumed with an even faster pace.

Hearing the footsteps Luke took a moment to listen "I guess the second away team haven't found anything" with that thought he turned back to the group with his weapon casually down by his side as he listened to the scientists.

Delainey turned toward the sound. She was uneasy about all of this but wanted to face whatever it was directly.

Rounding the corner of the corridor which lead to the control room, three humanoid figures suddenly came into view though the darkness of the caverns initially revealed only their bulky, armored silhouettes. They began to sprint towards the away team with what appeared to be weapons drawn and pointed ahead of them.

"You!" called out the lead one as they approached and came into full view. It was Tratar, Aldara's chief security officer, along with two of his other men. They slowed down when they approached the entrance to the door but kept their disruptor rifles raised and pointed at both Ueda and duChampe. "What are you doing here?!" he demanded none-too-politely, his voice echoing loudly down the corridor and inside the computer matrix center.

Luke jogged outside quickly after hearing the aggressive demand being made by the unknown visitors he hoped that they were miners but as he came into view it was obvious they weren't. Putting his hands on his rifle he was cut mid sentence. "What's the..."

Scarlet moved with him, taking her own rifle down as she approached the doorway. She watched with mild surprise at seeing Tratar, but strangely, also relief. He was just a cardassian. Not a 'demon'. That was something at least. "First Glinn Tratar, come on in," she said lightly and casually, motioning with the rifle to indicate they could move fully into the room with them. "As you know, we are investigating the disturbances down here," she met his eyes with ease, seemingly calm as she held her rifle, but just holding it in her hands rather than aiming it directly at him or his colleagues.

Tratar recognized several of the Starfleet officers present but was less than pleased to see them down in the mines apparently tampering with Cardassian equipment in the control room. Gruffly, he lowered his weapon then pushed his way past Blake and Wyatt without a word of pleasantries. "You should not be here, Starfleet. We told you NOT to interfere with our operations." He then walked past Markos and brushed her out of the way with a cold shoulder bump, then began to swiftly tap away at one of the consoles to retrieve several blocks of sensitive data. "What have you been doing down here?" he demanded. "Do you even know what is going on?!" Tratar was clearly agitated, more so than usual.

Scarlet watched him steadily, but made no effort to move from where she'd pushed past her. "We were just looking for any immediate clues as to what happened to those unfortunate people," she said softly, motioning to the poor, dead couple in the corner. "I can assure you, we have not 'interfered' with anything."

Amynta's jaw tightened as she turned, watching the Cardassian. "It's called 'excuse me'," she said, her voice firm. "But of course they didn't teach that either in 'being a prat' school. Now depending what you're looking for, I suggest you take a step back and we can share some information." Even if Amynta would rather share the heel of her foot with his face. "So just what is your theory?"

Casting the slightest of unconcerned glances at the two corpses in the room, Tratar continued to tap away at the console in front of him. "They probably died hiding from the same creatures that killed my men," he retorted, then moved across the room to another secure console and began to enter a series of encrypted commands. "I'm activating the mine's self-destruct nodes...they are on a five-minute delay so I suggest you and your people get out of here before the detonations begin," he informed her.

Lukes eyes opened wide "Wait you've done what! And what's that about your men?" A natural nervousness grew in Lukes gut as the cardassian finished his scentence.

"He doesn't care about his men because either they already know to get out of here, or they're dead," Amynta said as she tilted her head to the side, arching an eyebrow. "Did you let your bosses know you were going to blow this up? Would hate to ruin your chances for a promotion."

"I do not answer to you. This is a Cardassian installation on Cardassian soil manned by Cardassians," Tratar responded to the helmeted intel chief while continuing to type commands into the computer mainframe terminal. "If you value your life, leave now. Only an ignorant fool would care about their own career at a time like this." He finished his work on the console then moved over to a third terminal where he began to input more encrypted sequences.

In truth, Tratar was probably most like the Cardassian Norvi once knew than anyone she had met on this mission. Proud, aggressive, arrogant. Like all Cardassians seemed to portray. But, as Norvi knew, they were litled with kindness. With compassion. And with emotion. She walked over to him and looked him squarely in the face. "You'd rather sink this entire facility into a crater than allow a weakness of the mind to spread through your men? And, on top of that, you'd rather them dead?" The Trill sighed and then placed a comforting arm on his armour. "I don't believe this daemon from the black has claimed your sanity. Nor your team. There will be an explanation for this but if you shut us out now then we'll all lose. We can't help you down this path. And the Cardassians need this facility just as much as we do. Don't activate the self-destruct, Tratar."

Tratar looked up from his console at Norvi when he was almost finished entering the final destruct sequence. "Weakness of the mind? Demons?" He looked at her with a perplexed gaze as if she were crazy, then shook his head. "There are no demons down here. Only creatures that live here and kill anyone in their path... I have already lost twenty men and this mine is not safe for anyone!" With that, he tapped the final command into the terminal and activated the timed auto-destruct. The lights in the room began to flicker and pulse with orange and red alert sirens, and a deep, audible warning claxon began to sound and repeat at regular intervals.

With his job now accomplished, the Cardassian security chief pushed past the surrounding Starfleet officers as he moved towards the exit of the control room. He pushed a small button on his wrist device and activated the communicator to his ship. "Verrok this is Tratar, we are ready for transport!" he said loudly into the contraption. Several long moments passed without a reply nor any sign of transporter activity.

"Verrok, respond! We are ready for transport!" Tratar repeated. Once again, there was no reply and no transport.

Luke concerned that the cardassian wasn't able to establish communication he tapped his comm badge =^=Wyatt to Galileo=^= after the first initial call he tapped it again =^=USS Galileo this is Wyatt, acknowledge transmission=^=

The Starfleet Away Team were greeted to the same stark silence as the Cardassian's team had received.

Lyras eyed the Cardassians, uncertain as to what exactly was going on through the panicked Tratar's mind. Usually, he was able to tell what was going on by now, but one thing was for certain, everything was about to get very messy if they couldn't get themselves out of there. He arched a brow, eying some of the other members for reactions. Hopefully there wouldn't be... too much of a panic.

Luke turned to their groups leader "Blake we need to get moving or well be discovered in a few years like these guys, whatever questions we have we should ask later in safety when were not under thousands tons if rock and dirt." His voice was full of concern as he shouted over the sirens.

"Tratar, now would be an excellent time to deactivate the self destruct sequence..." Scarlet said lightly, looking across to him with held breath.

It took every bit of control Delainey had to school her features as impassive as Blake's. All she knew was she could not afford to panic, and if at all possible, they had to talk the Cardassian down.

The Cardassian first glinn shook his head adamantly with even more agitation and tension. His scaled fingers tightly gripped the phased disruptor rifle in his hands. "There is no time. The detonation circuits do not have a fail safe, they would need to be severed individually," he gruffly explained.

Dea's attention shifted to Blake and Wyatt, "Sensor scans show a large group of unsual biosignatures headed this way. They're approaching the control room." Despite the terrifying situation her voice came through clearly, though it had an urgent tone to it. Mialin had her rifle was ready. "We've got to move while we still can." From experience she knew getting cornered in a combat situation was a bad idea.

"It is them... we must leave now!" Tratar yelled with urgency prevalent in his voice. "Grab your equipment and let's go!" he said to the away team with a motion of his hand towards their various science kits.

Luke now seriously concerned for the safety of his team directed the only other secuirty officer out of the door and followed behind quickly to scan the corridor "Blake we have one of two ways the way the humanoid life signs are or down the way we haven't been yet" he continued to scan down the corridor not seeing anything "Distance on the unknowns?"

Amynta looked around, frowning as she took a deeper breath. If they were going to hide...well, her guess would be that the Cardassians had covered all possibilities when building this. And Blake needed all the info she could get to make this call. While running was a good idea as there was a counter, she could spare herself 10 seconds to get this information. "You," she moved to Tratar, getting in front of him. "Where's the next safe spot? Mines like these are designed to have places where people, miners, can take shelter in case of cave ins or general bad shit. Where is the nearest one?"

Tratar considered his options, more so for what was left of his own men as opposed to the Starfleet away team. They were extra baggage, in his mind, and if they had actually listened to the gul and his instructions, they wouldn't have found themselves in this dilemma. Glancing around the control room then down the long dark corridor ahead, he then looked Markos squarely in the eyes through her EVA suit.

"There AREN'T any safe spots," he angrily answered while inadvertently sending a blob of spittle flying from his lips onto Markos' helmet visor. "The entire sub-level complex will be destroyed and buried. We must get to the surface!"

As the others figured out the best course of action, Oren focused on his breathing. This was no time to have panic attack, so he focused his attention on grabbing one of the larger science kits and slinging it over his right shoulder. Taking a few steps, he tested to see just how quickly he could move with it. It wasn't nearly as fast as he would like but there was nothing to be done about it. Going back to focus on deep breaths, Oren stepped over to Lyras. If (or, more likely, when) they began running, he figured it would be much easier to just focus on sticking close to one person rather than the group. Mines were tricky and, if it all suddenly started to fall apart and they needed to separate, he'd know where to go. Oren just hoped Lyras was luckier than he was.

It didn't take long for Lyras to catch on to what exactly was going on, and, in moments, had his eyes on both ends of the tunnels, phaser out and ready. He may not have been the best shot with it, but if something came barreling down the corridor, he figured he would be a better shot than no shot at all. He was ready to move with the group, regardless of what the choice was, so long as moving was involved.

Kohl had jumped up to his feet quickly, and was shifting his weight from side to side, shifting from foot to foot. It may have looked like he was stretching, or anxious to expel energy, but mostly he was testing himself to feel just how painful it was going to be to stand and walk. He slapped the EMRG button on his bulky sensor equipment, and all of its data was dumped onto Kohl's tricorder. Kohl abandoned the equipment on the computer console and moved to join the away team.

Scarlet swore under her breath as she shook her head. There was no choice, not really. If they moved away from the readings and into the mine, they'd be killed anyway. "We're heading for the lift, let's move."

"Copy that Commander," Dea acknowledged Blake's order. "You heard her let move out." She didn't like the way this was headed but they didn't have any other options. Moving as quickly as the situation would allow Dea was ready to react.

Stace pulled her phaser out and clutched on to the science kit that was now slung over her shoulder. She didn't need telling twice. Something about this had turned very ugly. She could sense the fear around her. She took to her feet and began to ran to the others.

Amynta frowned as she looked around, moving with the rest of them. Anger flooded her. Anger at the lack of construction, the lack of planning. Lack of information. She loathed lack of information.

Delainey turned back to make sure the others were following before moving as quickly as she dared. She reminded herself to watch her step as fear could cause her to be careless. "Step carefully, all."

With Tratar and his two security officers in the lead, the combined Federation-Cardassian away team hustled their way through the dim and musky corridors of the uridium mine on their way back to the lift. Without comms to their starships, their only salvation was to pile into the shoddy elevator contraption and hope it ascended before a multitude of denotations collapsed the entire underground mine and sealed their fates.

Rounding the final junction which now put the lift in sight at the end of the tunnel, the team continued to move swiftly until suddenly Tratar's scanner began to register a series of biological entities and beep furiously. The first glinn and his men stopped in their tracks and Tratar held his hand up indicating for the rest of the team to hold position. Unholstering the device from his belt, he held up the tricorder in front of them and swiveled it around in circular motions. "They are here!" he yelled over his shoulder after interpreting the reading, then began to backpedal while the other two Cardassian security officers followed suit and nervously pointed their rifles in front of them while looking around.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

First Glinn Tratar
Chief of Security
CDS Aldara
[PNPC Saalm]

LTCMDR Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer/Second Officer
USS Galileo

LT(JG) Luke Wyatt
Acting Chief of Security
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Andreus Kohl
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

CMDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo

SWO Alexion Wylde
Doctor
USS Galileo
[PNPC Blake]

Lieutenant Norvi Stace
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

PO 1rst Lyras Ueda
Diplomatic Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC Kita]

Oren Idris, Ph.D.
Archaeologist/Anthropologist
USS Galileo

LT Delainey Carlisle
Counselor
USS Galileo

LT Amynta Markos
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

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