Libations (Part 1 of 3)

Posted on 10 Oct 2014 @ 12:34pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Olsam Mott & Ensign Jaana Voutilainen & Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen M.D. & Commander Luke Wyatt & Lieutenant Oren Idris Ph.D. & Commander Norvi Stace & Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Scarlet Blake & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Amon Mormont & Petty Officer 3rd Class Melinda Clare

2,262 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: Lyshan III - Subterranean Cave Network
Timeline: MD 10 - 1930 hrs

[ON]

Lirha and a small away team of Galileo's crew materialized down in the alien cave network with the familiar shimmer of blue Federation transporter particles. Much work and effort had transpired back aboard the ship over the past twenty-four hours once the decision had been made to beam the tribbles to the native entities as a form of appeasement, and now to test the libation hypothesis, the commodore and her team had personally arrived with several small crates full of the small mammals in order to see if the non-corporeal beings would accept the offering.

It was the Orion's first time actually being down on the planet during the entire mission, and in the massive cave structure which seemed to span miles, she looked around in awe at the many obelisks present and the exacting row-and-column arrangement of each of the structures. She hadn't quite seen anything like it in her life and it was definitely a sign of high intelligence that such a cave facility had been not only created, but preserved for millions of years. No doubt this race of aliens was highly-evolved and ancient, many times more so than any current Alpha or Beta quadrant race she had ever studied or encountered.

Tuula hated the hoverchair she had replicated for this mission. The thing was just too big and bulky, and the sensation of floating on air made her nauseous as well. But, she had never been on an away mission before, and the last time she had been spelunking was years ago, before the shuttle accident that took the use of her legs. So, eager to prove herself after the earlier incident in sickbay, she took some anti-nausea drugs and got herself ready to go.

She was less than enthused when she found out who would be leading the away team.

Her strategy was simple: stay close to Dr. Mott, and keep her interactions with the commodore to a bare minimum. Hopefully, if she stuck close to her direct superior and stuck to one word answers, she might be able to get through this without some psychotic green-skinned flag officer threatening her with a phaser.

Olsam eyed Tuula's hoverchair with no small amount of envy. He wanted a hoverchair. Were you allowed to use them if you didn't have a physical limitation? He didn't remember that being covered in the away mission briefing. The one thing he hated about being on an away team was all the walking. Walk here, do this, walk there, do that. Sickbay was so small, he didn't have to do much walking. In fact, his quarters were even on the same deck, which reduced the walking even more. He hardly moved at all during the day - just the way he liked it. Now they were in some enormous cavern that seemed to stretch on without limit in front of him, and he wasn't about to walk to the other side. Nope. Over his dead body...

"Do you think they're trying to kill us?" Olsam whispered to Tuula, miraculously managing to keep his voice lowered to something discreet.

"I'd put the odds at about 60%." Tuula's eyes darted around the cave, falling on every nook and cranny, and every dark crevasse. Their disappearance could easily be passed off as an accident in the line of duty, and there were plenty of places that a body could be hidden. Deep in the cave with no witnesses, it would be the perfect crime.

John had still refused to leave a phaser behind on the ship. Even if it had already been proven that Federation weapons were useless against this species, the Captain felt a little better knowing there was at least a Type II on his hip if nothing else.

"Let's hope we beat the odds then." John mentioned in passing as he headed towards the front of the group.

Luke detached himself apart from the away team he had only brought a simple hand phaser leaving all his other arms back in the armoury knowing that nothing they could do would matter. He had been down in the mines before and the scene hadn't changed much, if any at all Luke had hated the idea of going back, but since two high ranking officers -- one being the captain and the other Commodore Saalm -- he had to come along being the chief of security.

After the ionised particles deteriorated from her sight line, Stace looked to the box of tribbles to check that they had been transported successfully. Content, she looked to the commodore for direction.

In the back, Oren looked down at himself - a nervous habit of making sure everything had transported correctly. Satisfied that everything was in its place, he turned his attention back to the cave and the other in the away team.

Checking to make sure her team was ready to proceed, Lirha motioned towards the largest obelisk she could see and indicated the path for them to follow. As she and the rest of the group began to move towards the towering shaft, several large groups of the non-corporeal beings started to emerge from other smaller nearby obelisks. They seemed content to watch the away team at first, and kept their distance while slowly circling the group in an attempt to discern the Starfleeters intentions and determine what was in the crates they had with them.

Holliday had to resist the urge to draw his phaser at the sight of the creatures emerging from the rock face. He knew that such a sign would have been taken as one of aggression, but he didn't like feeing this defenceless. Following protocol he closed ranks with the Commodore, hoping if nothing else he would at least be able to cover his Flag Officer in the event this all went horribly wrong.

"Nice and easy everyone - let's not do anything to make the situation hostile...."

Olsam eyed the beings warily. He didn't trust anything he couldn't sedate, and these things didn't seem to have any discernible central nervous system. But as far as he was concerned, that only made the ambizine in his medkit half as relevant; one of the away team members might still go crazy and need a good shot to the neck to settle them down.

Tuula followed Olsam closely, her eyes darting around the cave, her eyes darting back and forth, wary of any possible threats. Truth be told, she didn't know what exactly she was doing down here, but she had her medkit ready, just in case. Of course, her first plan if things went south was to hope that she could move faster in her hoverchair than Mott could run. She didn't even bring a phaser, partly because she heard that whatever was down here was immune to phasers, and partly because she wasn't even qualified to use one. Instead, she had brought a medkit, as many scanning devices as she could carry, and a small container holding a very important personal item.

Seeing the flash of red appear and move towards her sent a psychological pang of pain through Stace's leg. She took in a swift breath and shook off her anxiety. The tribbles coo could be heard through her exterior comms and it saddened her. Offering them up for sacrifice was something that the trill never thought she would be doing. But, if she could host a Symbiont, she pacified her alarm by allying herself with that thought.

Oren walked a little apart from the other, fascinated with the cave. It was wondrous how incredibly the cave looked to him now that he wasn't half-dying in it. Watching the being exit their obelisks and twirl around them, Oren found them quite beautiful, if a little sad. Giving up your body for something as shallow as immortality was unfathomable to him. The joys of life were in what could be experienced, not simple existence. Then again, he understood that his own views on life were slightly different from that of others, considering his long lifespan.

Lirha slowed her pace and unholstered her phaser from her EVA suit's equipment belt before slowly placing it on the ground as a show of peace. She held her empty hands out to the side in the most unthreatening gesture she could think of, then attempted to speak to the beings through her suit's external comm speaker. "I am Commodore Saalm of the starship Galileo, and this is my crew," she began as her voice echoed throughout the large cave. She wasn't quite sure if her words would be understood but nevertheless hopeful.

"We come in peace. We apologize for our intrusion and for disturbing your people. We bring an offering of kindness," she added, then motioned for someone in the away team to move the crates forward and open them. "These creatures are called 'tribbles'. 'Tribb-ils'. They are for you and they are a 'libation'. 'Lie-bay-shen'," she continued as if she were talking to a small child.

Stace shifted one of the crates towards the entities, her leg slightly weak to do so. Bending down she opened the top of the crate, the cooing now settling down as the tribbles instinctively sensed the change of atmosphere. Standing back, with an open palm, the trill indicated to the mass of fluff.

With some obvious hesitation, Oren pushed the other crate forward, favoring his right arm. Satisfied they were close enough to the non-corporeals, he lifted up the top and peered down at the defenseless creatures inside. His expression was sombre; this wasn't what he'd hope for when they'd tried to find a solution to the tribble infestation.

The three crates of tribbles the away team had brought with them now lay uncovered in front of the massive obelisk. Lirha wasn't quite sure what would happen next, but the distinctive cooing and purring tones of the tiny creatures sounded across the cave walls which soon prompted the emergence of several hundred of the red-energy beings. They seemed to materialize out of the rock structures themselves, and several of them swarmed around the crates while Lirha and her team slowly backed away.

It was one of the most interesting scenes Lirha had ever witnessed; one of the non-corporeal swirls quickly chose a tribble then merged its own life force with that of the mammal's, and the process repeated itself in rapid succession until every single one of the tribbles was now inhabited with a soft red energy halo surrounding it. The tribbles all individually began to levitate from the crate as they continued to coo and purr in a variety of tones and pitches, then they began to float away in various directions to different parts of the cave.

More of the entities began to swarm around the now-empty crates which Lirha took as a sign that at least some progress was being made. "So... I assume our offering was acceptable? And now they want more tribbles?" she asked the rest of the away team through internal helmet comms. It was painfully difficult to communicate with the beings since they lacked both vocalizations and physical body language, but she tried her best to observe their movements and determine their desires.

"I...would guess so?" John replied through his own comm line. The fact that they weren't dead was the most likely confirmation that their gift had been accepted, otherwise they would know quite quickly that their present didn't come up to requirement.

"Time to bring down more Commodore?"

Lirha nodded inside her helmet but it was barely visible to the rest of the team. "Yes, it is time," she answered in complete agreement. The sooner this was all over, the better.

"Saalm to Galileo, the entities appear to have accepted the tribbles and have already 'taken' those in the crates we brought with us. You have permission to commence transport of the remaining tribbles on my coordinates. Once all of our storage devices have been filled, use the transporters' bioscanners to locate all tribbles on the ship and send them to our location. Saalm out," she said through her helmet's comm link to Galileo. The process of transporting all the millions of tribbles from the ship down into the mines would no doubt take several hours, and Lirha was happy to get the process underway and oversee the libations.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CDRE Lirha Saalm
Mission Advisor
USS Galileo

CAPT Jonathan Holliday
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

LT Olsam Mott
Asst. Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

ENS Janna Voutilainen
Stellar Cartographer
USS Galileo

LTJG Tuula Voutilainen
Medical Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Luke Wyatt
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

Oren Idris Ph.D.
Archaeologist/Anthropologist
USS Galileo

LT Norvi Stace
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

LT Andreus Kohl
Asst. Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

LCDR Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

LCDR Allyndra Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

CMDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo

ENS Aria Rice
Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

LT Jacob Pendleton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

MWO Amon Mormont
Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC - Markos]

PO3 Melinda Clare
Operations Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC - Williams IV]

CDT(SO) Wintrow Paragon
Support Craft Pilot
USS Galileo
[PNPC - Murray]

RSS Feed