Digging Up the Past (Part V of VI)

Posted on 07 Nov 2017 @ 5:55pm by Ensign Miraj Derani & Commander Marisa Wyatt
Edited on on 03 Dec 2017 @ 7:10pm

1,847 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: Mirzcek III
Timeline: MD 79 1730

Previously on Digging Up The Past

Marisa kept going until she was in what looked to be a wall, but she kept moving forward. Finally, she came out into a corridor that seemed to appear out of nowhere. "Well, at least this is something."

There was light ahead, but it had a dark yellow tinge to it, rather than the more whiter light she had hoped to see. Still, the only way forward was, well, forward, and they started to move towards it.

The light was coming from an archway at the end of the corridor, and through the archway could be heard metallic grating sounds, regular, repetitive, industrial. Miraj looked to Marisa, uncertain. The question was unspoken. What on Earth is that?

And now the continuation

[ON]

Marisa had a phaser in one hand and a tricorder in the other as she carefully made her way up to the arch. As she got closer it sounded like someone--or something--was digging. The tricorder registered one life form. it had to be the robot. She went to one side of the arch and looked in, but could see nothing but light. The other side showed much the same. Unfortunately, ahead was the way out. So, Marisa took a deep breath and walked through the arch...

And into a garden.

The noises came to an abrupt stop, the silence was jarring and eerie. Miraj looked around, "What the-" she looked up and around at the strange plants, growing by the light of clusters of slender crystals that gave off a gentle blue phosphorescence. Vines draped themselves along ceiling beams, and goblet shaped flowers hung down from them. "How did this get here? How does anything grow? This doesn't make any sense. Where did the noises go?"

"I don't know." Marisa walked around the garden. "That light is insufficient for anything to grow." She continued to look around. "And these plants..." She pulled out her tricorder and scanned them. They appeared to be biological plants, but it made no sense. There was absolutely no sign of damage from the explosion like there had been before. How could the robot, or the bugs, create living plants? She pulled off a leaf from a nearby plant. The plant emitted a loud, piercing cry that caused Marisa to step back, the leaf in her hand turning into what felt like sawdust. She slipped the small pile of sawdust into a pocket for later examination. "We need to get out of here before the robot returns."

"Which just means we have to find out." Miraj looked up, hoping, irrationally, to see a night sky, but she was disappointed. Instead she saw a domed ceiling thirty meters up, carved with swirls and loops and filigree, an inlaid with some sort of crystal that caught the light. She was tired and in pain and slightly terrified. "Toss a coin?"

Marisa looked up, fascinated by the ceiling. "I wonder what that crystal is for?" she asked. Then she turned to Miraj. "For what? Going up or going through the garden?" She looked up again, wondering if a phaser would take out the crystal, and if it did, what would happen to the plants, and to them. She could throw a rock more than half way to the ceiling, but she really hadn't thrown anything that far up before and wasn't sure if she wanted to try. A phaser would have to do it.

"I meant for left or right, Even if we opened up the ceiling, how would we get up there? Two of us aren't strong enough to climb." Miraj looked at the traceries in the ceiling. Was the crystal moving, or was the light pulsing. She couldn't tell from down here.

"It is too far up, but..." Marisa shook her head. "Never mind. Let's try right." She turned and headed to what she hoped was the end of the garden and a way around.

She continued to scan the plants as they passed. Some looked like large-leafed jungle plants, but some had odd little hair-like appendages or tiny claws. She took a 3D image to recreate as much of it as she could in a holo lab later. She wished she could pluck some of the plants and take them back with her, but that substance they were made of was odd and the noise might attract the robot.

After Marisa had enough data for the lab, she went back to looking for the way out. Was it her imagination, or did the exit seem to get farther and farther away as they walked? Or was the garden growing? She turned to the other two. "How are you holding up?"

Miraj gave her a smile, though it was tired. "Well, I haven't had to throw myself down a waterfall yet, so this is better than the last away trip I took someone on." She looked around. "I think I must have concussion. Everytime I think the end of this place is near, it seems to be another hundred feet away."

"I hope it doesn't come to that," Marisa replied. She, too, was beginning to tire and wanted to sit by a fire and relax. But that was not possible right now. "I can do a hundred feet. Hopefully we'll find our way out then." She cautiously moved forward, keeping an eye on the tricorder readings. They ended up going 200 feet before they came to a wall that looked to be the exit. If the tricorder could be trusted. In here, she wasn't sure what could be trusted.

She felt the wall. Solid. Then she closed her eyes and moved her hand forward. It went through the wall as if it was thick Jell-O. "Okay. Let's see what's on the other side," Marisa said. Since Miraj was the pilot and Marisa was the one who brought her here, Marisa walked through the wall first.

They were in the bottom of a large hole. Debris covered the ground: rocks, pieces of tent, a human arm. The sun had set and moonlight bathed the area in black and white.

Miraj and the Bolian came through a moment later, looking around in trepidation. Miraj saw the human arm and recoiled in shock. "What the-" The moon was visible, a bright light filling the openeing of the hole they were now standing at the bottom of, hundreds of meters below ground level. "This isn't right either. This place is circular. Perfectly." Which meant the hole wasn't a natural cavern. An ancient air shaft? A drain? A chimney?

Before Marisa could answer, metallic scraping could be heard behind them. They spun to see the Robot-Thing stalking through the apparently solid walls, no emotion on its skull like visage.

Marisa swore in Vulcan. "Run!"

And then there was another set of slow steady scraping sounds coming from their left, and even as they turned towards the new sounds, more came from the right, with more of the skeletal constructs pushing through. They were surrounded.

"Up," Marisa ordered. "There should be some footholds. Our best chance is to climb." She grabbed the Bolian by the arm and urged him to start.

He didn't make it very far before he began to stumble.

Marisa pulled out her phaser and quickly cut holes in the wall to help him climb. "Miraj, you next. I'll take up the rear."

Miraj looked up the sheer walls. "We're two kilometers below the surface. We can't climb that!" But even as she said it she was putting her good foot into a hole and hauled herself up the first meter.

"Can you reach the shuttle from here?" Marisa asked. "It might be time for a quick rescue."

The robot was getting closer and Marisa wasn't sure if she could fend it off.

"I gave my comm badge to your friend!” Miraj was frantically looking for another hand hold. "We're on our own!"

Marisa nodded. "Okay then." She turned and shot at the ceiling above the robot, causing a large section of it to fall down. Then she did so on the other side. "Go as quickly as you can. I'll be right behind you."

The Bolian said nothing as he focused on climbing.

Miraj reached over and hauled herself up to the next hand hold. She looked up the smooth well walls. It must have been twice as tall as El Capitan, and she was injured and no climber. This was going to be an impossible climb. They'd be sitting ducks. Assuming they didn't slip and fall within the first few minutes.

Marisa heard a noise from behind her. An entire wall collapsed into hundreds of little beetles. She found a hand and foot hold to get herself off the ground, but it wouldn't do much if the bugs climbed the walls. She paused with one foot and one hand hold and shot her phaser up into the sky, hoping to attract help. Right now, she would welcome a rescue shuttle.

And then the Bolian slipped. Miraj twisted, trying to grab him. Her fingers slipped on the warm rock, and she scrabbled at thin air for a moment, and then she fell back the three meters she'd managed to climb. When she hit the floor below, there was a sharp and very final crack.

For a moment she was silent, and then the pain stabbed its way from the break in her lower leg and into her brain and she gave out a single howl, and grabbed at her leg. The skin wasn't broken, but her foot should not bend that way. "Marisa!" she called out, not sure if she wanted to tell the woman to save herself, or beg for help.

Marisa heard the crack as Miraj hit the ground and winced. There had to be something she could do. She grabbed a piece of wood and lit one end on fire, then tossed it into the middle of the beetles. Then she grabbed another one and lit it on fire. The wood was too green and began to smoke. She tossed that one into the garden, hoping the smoke would bring attention from Pete and the others on the surface. While the smoke began to rise up the hole, Marisa turned her phaser onto the ceiling above the walls of the cavern to see what damage she could do. As long as the three of them stayed in the open, they might just survive this.

The lone robot walked to them, cutting through the smoke of the makeshift torches, before reaching for the Bolian, and lifting him up by the expedient grip of its alloyed hand around his neck.

"Let him go!" Miraj screamed at it, unable to do much more from where she was collapsed on the floor, trying to get up with her broken leg. "Damn you down to Davy Jones, what do you want!?

"Your souls," it hissed.

To Be Continued

[OFF]

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Ensign Miraj Derani

Lieutenant JG Marisa Sandoval

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