Digging Up the Past (Part III of VI)
Posted on 05 Nov 2017 @ 1:54pm by Ensign Miraj Derani & Commander Marisa Wyatt
Edited on on 03 Dec 2017 @ 7:07pm
1,679 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: Mirzcek III
Timeline: MD 75 1700
Previously on Digging Up The Past
The robot turned and flung Miraj at the people pointing their weapons. She bowled into them, knocking them all to the ground, and they broke the worst of her fall.
The robot turned and stalked off deeper into the caverns.
"What now?" Miraj asked "Do we go after him. It. That?"
Maris turned. "So, looks like we're going on," she said, heading after the robot.
And now the continuation
[ON]
The thing had gone down a passageway that was over three meters high, the walls painted with heiroglyphs and hieroglyph like scenes; the Protestor Aliens supplicating a larger, even spindlier version of their image, with lines radiating from it. A group of the spindly versions standing on layers of the smaller versions, all lying on the ground. Smaller versions surrounding a spindly large version, with lines running from them to the large figure.
Miraj only got brief glimpses of them as she jogged along next to Marisa, nervous, yet curious about what this thing was, and what it wanted. Its strides, easy to spot in the accumulated dust of centuries, were getting longer, as if it was starting to move faster, the prints of its strangely bird like feet changing as if the toes were digging in more.
"What is it going to do?" she asked Marisa. "Where is it going?"
"I don't know," Marisa admitted. "But I doubt it's up to any good. I saw images of destruction and death in the Mind Meld. I can't let it cause that kind of harm."
Finally, the strange creation stopped. They were in what was clearly a burial chamber. Several sarcophagi lay on slabs of stone. Some had stone carvings on the lids while others had simple designs on the sides. The room had an odd glow to it that emanated from panels on the walls. They seemed to start glowing as the creature entered.
The robot was heading for the far wall where an ornate painting covered a large portion of it.
Marisa paused. "Anyone have a tricorder to take readings?"
An older scientist came up to Marisa. "I do," he said. He pulled it out and carefully scanned the room, making sure he got everything before looking at the readings. "There's something pinging the sensors. It's almost like there's something alive in the painting. But there can't be." He shook his head. "Maybe the computer'll make sense of it later."
Marisa nodded. "Thanks." She looked more carefully at the painting. It seemed to be some sort of tree. At least it seemed to have branches. And yes, now that the robot was approaching it, the leaves seemed to be moving. Or was that some sort of fruit? She couldn't tell. "I have a bad feeling about this."
Miraj looked at the walls, conscious of the robot at the other end of the chamber. "What's he doing down there?" She didn't want to get any closer. This place felt like a morgue, and she was deeply creeped out by what else could be in those caskets. More robots. Something worse? She brushed her finger tips along the wall with its strange ambient light. The surface felt strange, like crusted porridge, warm and not solid enough. And kind of organic. And revolting. "Should we go look?"
"Can you get a transporter lock here?" Marisa asked her. "If so, we need to transport that thing out of here. Either way, we definitely need to get a closer look." She continued to move forward and off to the side so she could get a good look at what the thing was doing.
As she got closer, she noticed that the robot seemed to be communicating with whatever was moving on the painting as the activity was increasing and there were now more of the tiny whatever-they-weres.
Miraj tried her comm badge again, but there continued to be no response. Whatever was in the rock this place was made from, it blocked scanners and computers alike from the outside. "We're on our own!" she hissed at the cautiously advancing Marisa.
The scientist was getting closer, and as she did so she could see that the painting was made of millions, even billions of tiny things, no bigger than rice grains, rippling and moving like living mandalas or kaleidoscopes.
And suddenly the robot spun about, jaws dropped open in an impossibly wide gape, as if literally unhinged at the joint, and let out a roar of absolute hatred that chilled the bone.
And the grain sized things that made up the wall boiled off it, engulfing the archaeology team in a storm of fluttering high pitched buzzing. The things crawled into hair, ears, open mouths, the high pitched whine like nails down a blackboard, chilling the blood and stunning the nerves.
Marisa reacted instinctively. She flipped the phaser to high and shot the robot, watching as it disintegrated. Then she dropped to the ground and began to roll in the dirt to remove the tiny creatures.
Miraj dropped to her knees, eyes squeezed shut, hands over her ears, trying to spit out the bugs that had flown in her mouth without letting in any more.
Around her other members of the expedition weren't so lucky, and even over the whining and the hands clapped to her head, she could hear people choking and thrashing as they suffocated on the bugs.
"Fire!" a male voice yelled from the entryway. Pete came running in with a torch he'd been using for light. He began to wave it at the bugs which scurried back to the painting.
Two other scientists followed, also carrying torches. They went to others and waved the flames over the little bugs.
One of them got too close and caught a pair of pants on fire. Unfortunately it was too late as the man was already dead.
As Marisa had been off to the side she was fortunate in that few bugs had attacked her. There were several that had crawled into her ears and nose, but a torch singed most of them out. It reminded her of ticks they used to have to watch for back on Earth. Unfortunately, several had made their way inside.
"Anyone have whisky?" she asked. A flask was handed to her and she took a long swallow, hoping to kill whatever those creatures were. Then, when she'd done what she could, she handed the flask back for it to go to the next person.
"Miraj, are you okay?" she called, looking around to see her friend.
The hybrid spat out a mouthful of bug crusted saliva. She'd swallowed a couple, but managed to have kept the worst out. Unlike some. She knelt up and looked around. The survivors were kneeling over those not so fortunate, medical gear out. "I think I swallowed a few. But I think I got off lightly." She nodded at the fallen, reeling with both relief and guilt that it wasn't her.
Ever the scientist, Marisa then turned to the little bugs to find out what they were and collect as many samples as she could before they disappeared. Several singed ones were easily wrapped in a bandanna and pocketed.
Pete turned to her, "We need to get these guys out. There's a chance we can revive them if we get back to camp. At least call for evac."
"Miraj was unable to contact the shuttle from here," Marisa said. "So we'll have to carry them out and hope to transport them from the bottom of the pit."
She picked up two of the most seriously-injured scientists, draped one over each shoulder, and carried them as quickly as she could to the bottom of the pit. She lay them down gently on the ground and turned to see Pete.
Pete came behind her, carrying another scientist. He set her down gently beside the other two.
"Miraj, can you contact the shuttle from here?" Marissa asked. They would need the shuttle to transport the wounded to the dig's infirmary for treatment. "Then help me get the last two scientists. We'll leave Pete to take care of these."
"Maz? You need to listen to this guy." Miraj tossed Pete her comm badge. "Just tell her what you need, she'll sort you out." Then she headed back into the catacomb to help Marisa with the last two.
Miraj joined Marisa, helping her to lift a more seriously injured bolian man. "I need to work out more," Miraj complained. She'd kept up the work she'd done with Luke, but she hadn't really gained any muscle, and whilst the Bolian wasn't heavy, he was currently a dead weight. They got the man between them and began to walk briskly towards the door.
They got within fifteen feet when all the dead bugs on the floor began to move. They didn't seem to be moving under their own power, but were flowing further into the chamber as if sucked by a huge wind, or washing down by an unseen current.
They turned, to see the robot rising to its feet. It was moving in a stilted fashion, the joints moving awkwardly as the tiny creatures it was absorbing into its body were synthesised into repairs.
Miraj's draw dropped in disbelief, "I thought you killed it!?"
"I did, but apparently we'll have to get rid of those...things...too." Marisa looked around for something she could use, or for something that might help them figure out how to get rid of this creature. "I wonder if we can put it back in the sarcophagus?" she asked. She'd dropped the rod she had earlier and now retrieved it to use as a weapon. "Fire. We need fire," she added, half to herself. But then, they'd need to be where they could get out before they could even consider fire.
The robot whipped around, and saw them.
"Run!" Miraj gasped. "Run, now!"
To Be Continued
[OFF]
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Ensign Miraj Derani
Lieutenant JG Marisa Sandoval