Digging Up the Past (Part VI of VI)

Posted on 08 Nov 2017 @ 3:23pm by Ensign Miraj Derani & Commander Marisa Wyatt
Edited on on 03 Dec 2017 @ 7:14pm

2,833 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: Mirzcek III
Timeline: MD 79 1800

Previously on Digging Up The Past

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.

And now the conclusion

[ON]

"Hell no!" Marissa fired her phaser at the robot, but it seemed to deflect the beam. So she broke off a branch and ran at it, spearing it through the side.

The robot dropped the Bolian and turned on Marisa, backhanding her. She was knocked back twenty feet. She stopped against a bush and lay there for a moment.

The robot turned back to the Bolian, who was scrambling away.

Marisa dropped her phaser when she hit the ground. It took her several moments to find where it lay in the detritus. She made sure the phaser was on its highest setting at shot at the ground just in front of the robot. The hole it created was large enough for the robot to fall in. To be sure it didn't come back out, she switched the setting again and shot at the roof, causing a large amount of rock and debris to fall into the hole on top of the robot.

Miraj cowered back from the huge fall of earth that buried the metal creature. And when it finished falling she leaned forward with trepidation, alert for any sign that it was alive. Nothing moved.

And then the shadows at the bottom of the hole were illuminated by the bright, bright lights of space lamps. The Mazakeen was slowly descending down the pit, heading for their position.

"And right on time, here comes the cavalry," Marisa said. She moved over to the Bolian and helped him get out of the way.

Then she went over to Miraj. "Let me help you. I'd hate to go through all this and end up squashed by our own shuttle."

Mazakeen settled down on the pit floor, and the entry door opened. Mazakeen had come down on auto pilot. Its landing was slow, cautious and basic, and there was no one else on board. Miraj, with Marisa's help, limped to the helm seat, and turned off the auto pilot. "I can't wait to get out of here, she sighed in relief, as the science officer turned back to help the Bolian in.

"Out of this pit, yes. I'm still concerned about the robot, and the archaeological team," Marisa said as they walked onto the shuttle. "I have a sinking feeling we haven't seen the last of that robot. I wish there was a way to study it, but it's far too hostile."

"I'm beginning to sympathise with your protesters. I think they were right." Miraj shut the door and began the ascent.

"Lack of communication," Marisa said as she dropped into a seat. "If they'd only said why it was wrong, Pete would have listened. But we face so many protests over so many trivial tings that without any reason why it's hard to tell if someone has a valid reason or not. And if this was so dangerous, why did the local government allow it? More lack of communication."

"Oh." Miraj said suddenly. "Shit." She pointed through the main window.

Up above them the top of the chimney was beginning to close, the sides growing out like the structures of army ants, organically shaped but intent on closing off the chimney.

Marisa swore in Vulcan. "Looks like it's going to be a race to the finish."

A wave of pain made MIraj wince, a sheen of sweat blooming over her face as she moved in her seat. "Racing I can do. Hold on." She tipped the runabout to point straight up and fired maximum thrusters, as much as she could go in atmosphere and gravity. There was a slight lurch and they shot up towards the opening slowly irising closed.

And then there was another lurch and their upward motion stopped dead. the thrusters growled, then roared as they strained upwards. "Something has hold of us!” Miraj flipped the view screen. The cockpit window showed an aft facing image. More organically growing tendrils were grabbed on to every fin and stanchion it could find, wrapped around the back of the craft, holding it down.

Then the screen zoomed. At the bottom of the pit, arms outstretched impossibly long, impossibly wide, the robot had meter long fingers plunged into the wall, glaring up at them, the rest of its body shaking with what looked a lot like mirth.

"Oh for the love of.... Does nothing kill that thing?" Marisa asked.

"We could drop the warp core on him. Blow him to quantum particles. He wouldn't be able to heal that!." Miraj winced, this time from the strain on the engines. If they didn't cut thrusters soon they'd burn out.

"Yes, but we'd destroy everything in the area: the archaeological team, the natives, us." Marisa shook her head. "No. That is only an option if we and everyone on the planet is about to die and we have no other choice." She grinned at Miraj. "I do not believe we have reached that point. But we can bury him in a mountain of dirt and rock. Fire the torpedoes at the robot. If we need to break away to do so, use the thrusters to burn the vines holding us back."

"This is a runabout!" Miraj had to struggle to reach the conn, gravity working against her. She cut thrusters on one side, lurched side ways, twisted, and some of the tendrils broke free. The runabout shot up ten meters and then the tendrils stalled their progress again. "We don't have torpedoes! Only thing that'll explode is the warp core!"

Then there was a groan from all about and they dropped thirty meters. There was less than a hundred meters between them and the ground.

"What about the phasers?" Marisa asked. Miraj knew the runabout better than Marissa, who generally just travelled in them. "Something that won't cause a big explosion." She tried to remember her chemistry classes. What could they make that would cause a big enough bang to get them out, but not enough to harm the surrounding area? "Or anti-gravs? Something to create a strong-enough vibration to simulate a minor earthquake and give us a chance to get out?"

"A minor earth quake would bury us as well as him." Miraj shouted over the whine of the thrust engines. She considered going to impulse, but wasn't sure the inertial dampeners would take it within atmosphere and gravity. Besides, no point shaking him. He just comes back together.

"The only other option I can think of is I go back down and face him," Marisa said. She had no idea what to do, but if the shuttle crashed they'd all be dead anyway. Maybe she could get back to the sarcophagus and find something there?

"You can't go back. He's faster, stronger, tougher. He'll kill you." The runabout dropped again and Miraj spat out a long run of foul words in four different languages, only a third of which she knew what they meant, as she fought to gain height. "I could land on him, but I don't think it will slow him down."

"I don't, either," Marisa agreed. "But if we can't find another solution, then the only one is that I distract him so you two can get away." She didn't want to do it. She would much rather they punch their way out and leave the robot behind, but so far nothing they'd tried was working. "It is the logical choice, and I have a better chance of survival than you two do." Only because she was Vulcan. And because Marisa couldn't fly as well as Miraj. "There has to be a way to burn through the vines."

"It just makes more!” Miraj slammed her hand down on the console, so hard it left a bruise, "Sorry!" she told the ship wincing. "We need to cut the head off the vines! And make sure he doesn't grown the damn thing back!"

"Yes, but that would require disabling the robot, which we have been unable to do." There had to be a way to send the robot back to its sarcophagus. But without more time to figure out how the thing worked, that would be difficult.

"I'm out of ideas!" Miraj snapped back as they lost more height. "I'm just a pilot. I fly things. Not kill things!"

The back of Mazakeen was barely five meters from the robot now. The red light of the aft thruster cast bloody glints over its inorganic skull and shadowed the living eyes until they merely had a glint like the heart of the Abyss.

"I'm a scientist. I don't kill things, I just dissect... Wait, that gives me an idea." Marisa paused for a moment. "What if we transport it into space, widest dispersion? It may not be able to regroup if it's in a million fragments."

Scatter its atoms across two million cubic meters? Nasty. And irreversible in anything else she knew of. "Remind me not to ever piss you off." She swivelled in her seat. "Transporter controls are next to the pad". She pointed to the alcove between the cockpit area and the living area. "I'll give you power, but we may end up with a sudden drop. Hang on!"

Marisa wished she could disable the robot and study it, but she could think of no way to accomplish that goal. So she nodded to Miraj and got into position.

Miraj's deft fingers cut the extra power to the thrusters, restoring the transporter. There was a lurch as they dropped into the robot's grasp, and then the tiny bug like bots were surrounding them, crawling over the window, forming like black frost across the transparent aluminium of the screen.

As soon as Marisa had power, she activated the transporter and located the robot. He was in the middle of the swarm of beetles, his arms raised above his head as if commanding his subjects. He probably was telling them to take down the alien ship. "All you had to do was walk away, buddy," she said as she locked on to the robot. "Transporting." She paused for just a moment while the robot was in the transporter buffer, but then she sent it out into space, dispersing it into atoms. And because she thought the beetles would go inert and could be studied later, she grabbed a couple of them and held them in the transporter buffer while she still had power. Then she turned to see how the beetles reacted to the death of their leader.

The web of beetles entangling them stopped dead. But they didn't retreat either.

Miraj took back the transporter power and gave it everything she dared. Mazakeen growled, "Come on girl," Miraj tweaked the inertial dampeners down another couple of percent. They needed power.

There was a crack like a whip, and a jagged break appeared in the bug layer that encased the windscreen. And then the runabout leapt free, hurtling upwards, sending out a spray of obsidian black shells as the tendrils holding it shattered like ice.

The runabout went straight up like a rocket, going from nothing to eight, ten, fifteen kilometres a second in a matter of movements.With the gravity plates switched off to conserve power, the G-forces smashed down on them.

Miraj was strapped in, and used to experiencing G-forces, gritting her teeth through the pressure of the blood and weight of her own chest pressing her down until the inertial dampeners and artificial gravity compensated for the sudden acceleration.

Marisa grabbed on to whatever she could, but it was not enough to combat the G-force. She hit the back wall of the shuttle and slumped to the ground, blacking out for several moments. When she came to, she called to Miraj. "We need to check on the team and see how they're doing."

"Yes, Ma'am." Miraj levelled off, banking to give them a view of the dig site as she manoeuvred. The swimming hole was apparently one of three large circular holes that disappeared several kilometres into the earth. Scattered between them was the remains of the protesters camp, and the collapsed ruin of the dig, and Miraj brought Mazakeen down to a gentle landing in the middle of them.

Pete came running out of a makeshift tent to see who had landed. He gave all three of them a hug when they emerged from the shuttle. "What happened?" he asked.

Marisa looked at Miraj and then back at Pete. "It's a long story. Mind if we tell it over dinner?"

The Bolian shook his head. "I'm for the med tent. I'll leave the explaining to you."

Marisa turned to Miraj. "You should join him. Can I help?"

Miraj accepted Marisa's help to limp out of the pilots chair, leaning heavily on her good ankle. "Remind me to never ferry you anywhere ever again," She grinned at the older officer with a good natured smile. "I got less damaged crashing a Valkyrie into a starship than I have being your chauffeur"

"I'll be sure to ask if there are any killer robots before offering to help out next time," she teased back.

Two men came to help Miraj to the med tent while another assisted the Bolian.

Marisa watched them go, then turned to Pete. "Food first, then I'll tell you what you missed."

---

Four days later, Marisa again sat at the ops station on the Mazakeen. Talks were finally underway between the archaeologists and the locals. This time, the government officials were not participating. They'd been more interested in what the Federation could offer them than in the warnings of their own people. But with the damage done by the explosion, the robot, and the beetles, both sides were now working together to safely uncover the past.

As Marisa watched the planet recede, she felt a pang of regret that she couldn't stay and see this through, but it wasn't her dig, and she still had unresolved business back on earth. And she had three beetles safely packed away for examination later, when she had the time. She turned to Miraj and smiled. "You know, all in all, I'm glad we came here. Thank you."

Miraj set Mazakeen to autopilot and sat back from the control panel. Her own little souvenir, a sample tube with her own collection of bugs, pulled from her hair, and in one unpleasant case, from where it had lodged between two teeth, was sat on top of it. She picked it up and shook it, listening to the creatures rattle. Maz's scientific sensor pack hadn't been able to identify much about them. Except they were dead. Or inert. They didn't seem to have been alive in the first place.

She shook it at the scientist. "With all due respect Ma'am. Next time you want a lift to a dig up a psycho robot graveyard, I'm going to find you someone else." She put the sample jar down. "What was that thing anyway?"

"I'm not sure," Marisa said pensively. She didn't blame Miraj for not wanting to join her on any future digs. Most were not exciting at all. This one was unusual in more ways than one. "I hope to find out, eventually. Pete is going to dig out the sarcophagus and see what it is and what sort of power it uses. I personally think that's where the robot got its power. And the bugs got their power from the robot. More than that, I don't know." She wanted to know how the bugs could become walls and plants. That was something she'd only read about in science fiction books. It would be of immense interest to the scientific community if they could figure it out--without the killer robot. "Pete is impressed with how you handled yourself. He's going to write a letter of commendation for your files."

"That's very kind of him," Miraj said, pleased at the praise. the her expression hardened. "But I'm still not flying you back here."

"I won't ask. I promise." Marisa wasn't opposed to returning at some future date, if she had the time. But if she did, she would definitely take the supply shuttle. Miraj had been through enough. "Here's to a nice, boring trip home," she said, knocking on the nearest bit of wood.

[OFF]

--

Ensign Miraj Derani

Lieutenant JG Marisa Sandoval

 

RSS Feed

Comments (1)