Paradise (Part 4 of 7)

Posted on 03 Jul 2019 @ 2:56pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Marisa Wyatt & Lieutenant JG Tris Shizn & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Petty Officer 1st Class T'Lin & Petty Officer 3rd Class Peregrine Steele
Edited on on 06 Jul 2019 @ 12:52pm

3,451 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: Latari B III - Surface, Shuttlecraft Vincenzo
Timeline: MD 01, 0527 hrs

Previously, on Paradise (Part 3)...

Blake kept moving forward, each bucking piece of land spurring her forward to the next treacherous stepping stone. She hated the block of vision the suits gave them, having to twist her head further to see the other team members, trying to keep tabs on each of them in case they got into trouble. Or at least, more trouble than they were all already in. She grabbed Aria's arm as she was forced onto the same jagged, shifting piece of ground as her, breathing hard as she used every muscle in her core to try and keep them both upright. As they rocked forward, she used their shifting weight to help carry them forward to a more solid peninsular of rock, swinging Aria round to shove her back away from the edge, swearing at how close they'd come to the oozing, molten gold.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Waverider Crash Site

“Well, I think that just about does it,” Shizn exclaimed as he sat back from his knees to sitting on his heels, still on the top of the shuttle.

Steele still favoured the shoulder, but with the replicator back on line they could begin to replicate parts of the hull work. The replicator was small so it took time to get enough to patch the hole, but it was finally done. He still thought that putting a few extra force field emitters in case the seams were weak was still a good idea.

He was running his tricorder over the patched section double checking when it sounded like a freight train was coming, a deep rumbling and then followed by long series of rolling waves. He had to actually catch the edge of the shuttle to keep from falling down. He looked toward the lieutenant with a quizzical expression, "Earthquake and a strong one at that. Think we should contact the team, sir?”

Tris had just closed the exterior ventral hatch to the power juncture when the quake began. He went from a kneeling position to flat on his stomach against the hull. Raising himself up on his arms Shizn replied, “I’m sure they are feeling it too. Let’s get inside, test this thing, and then we can contact them.”

"Yes sir," Steele replied. The earthquake continued to rock the place and he said, "they might need more than contact. Starting to check systems now sir."

Shizn slid down a portion of the upper hull of the Waverider before jumping to the ground landing on his feet. He could still feel the after shocks as he headed toward the entrance, “You may be right.” Tris followed Steele inside and quickly sat down in the pilot’s seat. “If everything goes well here in the next minute, we may just want to move the Vincenzo a bit closer to the Commander.”

Lt. Shizn went through the start up sequence, but just prior to implementing stabilization thrust, the panel began to flash red in several areas and the system shut itself down. The Andorian looked closer and commented, “Well, we have power, but here is too much damage to the thrusters and the tangent transfer coils. We are definately going to need more help to get her going.”

Steele shook his head. "Well fudge sir. I was hoping not to be stuck on this rock. How's the communications? If we can maybe get a distress call out to the Galileo or some of the other ships?" The earthquakes seemed to have semi calmed down but with the eruption still going and all, they were not exactly in paradise here. Something could change all that in a heartbeat.

“Yes,” replied Lt. Shizn. “It’s time to inform the Commander.”


The Obelisk

Blake, Sandoval, Rice and T'Lin simultaneously fled across the tumultuous surface which was quickly disintegrating outward in radial form from the origin of the impact crater. A severe aftershock suddenly brought the entire team to their knees as rapid and intense vibrations now obscured both their vision and orientation. Chunks of volcanic debris rained down from above ranging in size from an inch to meters in diameter while pockets of steam and thermal jet blasts vented upwards.

The tremors increased exponentially until the tip of a large rock formation protruded from beneath the surface. Covered in molten lava, it continued to rise vertically from underground until it was ten, twenty...now thirty feet high in the air. Hardened igneous rock fell away from its form to reveal a bright orange crystalline carapace -- isis in shape with five sides and a pointed pentagon on top. Its massive form continued to rise until it was fifty feet high, then its geological shape slowly and inexplicably rotated until a pair of glowing white slits resembling eyes turned to face the Starfleeters.

Aria's eyes widened as she watched, her breath stuck in her chest. She held her hand up, slowly, but the other stayed close to her weapon. Not that it was going to do anything against this...what was it? It was...big....her lips moved and luckily it wouldn't reach outside her helmet. "I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. Go back to the Shadow! You cannot pass..."

T'Lin just kept her calm and analyzed the creature. "A very interesting composition. The carapace is silicon dioxide in nearly pure form resulting in a five sided prism shape. It is thick so I cannot get a good scan of the interior but it would appear to have combination of sulfuric acid at a high temperature." She looked up at the creature and seemed to come back into focus of their current situation. "Motivations unknown commander but I would suggest that given the current condition of the colony and resulting destruction that one must assume hostile intentions"

"Incredible," Marisa whispered. She, too, was fascinated with the creature. "If we can't get away, we could always try saying hello," she suggested. She wasn't sure if the creature was friendly, but it seemed the best option.

Blake was staring in disbelief, feeling numb with what was unfolding far too close to her. Part of her was convinced that she was hallucinating...because it was more likely than something so impossible being true. She managed to open a commlink to the shuttle. "Blake to Shizn, do you have transporters online? We may be in need of evac, asap..." so lost in staring at the sight before her, it almost seemed like someone else was speaking. Given the earlier state of their shuttle, it could well take some time to arrive, and if this thing did prove to be hostile, she wanted that shuttle on the way as soon as possible.

Blake watched the golem like behemoth with wide, dark blue eyes. Seeing it through the slight glare of her suit's helmet only served to give the whole experience a more nightmare like feel. "I am Commander Scarlet Blake of the USS Galileo. We represent Starfleet and have come to look for our people, nothing more," she spoke clearly and slowly, not for understandings sake, as the translator would have to try its magic...instead, it was to try and convey a sense of calm, even if she didn't necessarily feel it. She had no idea if it truly was a sentient being, or if it could even hear her, or speak back.

The massive crystalline creature towered above the formation of mere six-feet tall humanoids. The slitted optical orifices continued to regard the away team with unknown purpose, but when Commander Blake finished speaking through the EVA suit's external comm system, the tremors in the earth started to subside.

What could then be considered a first contact reply suddenly overwhelmed the away team's ear drums with its sheer intensity. The entity began to emanate a repeating series of high-frequency audio shrieks which overloaded the primitive technology within the tricorders and comm badges. Painful, piercing and undecipherable audio shrieks started to incapacitate all those nearby who lacked silicon-based communication.

Marisa dropped to her knees and quickly lowered the audio input. When the noise was bearable, she looked at her tricorder, but it wasn't working again. The repeating pattern was clearly some form of communication, but she wasn't sure how to decipher it, or duplicate it, without a computer.

T'Lin winced as the sound hit. Vulcan ears were highly sensitive and she almost cried out as the sound washed over from what the creature was emitting. As the comms and tricorders shut down some of the sound lessened and she could internally handle some of noise filtering through the suits fabric.

"Fascinating," she just said still observing the creature. "I wonder..." she trailed off for a moment. The others could not hear her most likely over the noise and the shutdown of the electronics but she still verbally speculated. "I wonder if the creature itself is vibrating, sort of like primitive crystal radio transmitter."

Blake was still breathing hard from the pain and adrenaline that had shot through her with the barrage of noise. If she hadn't already been on her knees, she would have fallen with it. As it was, her upper body had half fallen forward, enough to make her brace her gloved hands against the ground to keep herself from completely buckling under it. She pried a hand back enough to grab her tricorder, trying to see if it was possible to find any kind of discernible pattern at all in the sounds.

What T'Lin said made sense to Marisa. She tried to adjust her tricorder to interpret the vibrations, if she could get it to work. She glanced at the others and noticed they were doing the same. "Could we link our tricorders to interpret the sounds its making?"

"It is worth the try," T'Lin replied and linked her Tricorder to Marissa's. At least for now the creature was still just 'shouting' and not being aggressive any further but that could change and they were in a precarious spot if it decided differently.

"Do it quickly," Aria looked at them before she swallowed, trying to stay still. She didn't like this at all. Her head rang with the sounds and she felt very out of her depth here. "But I advice we try and retreat to a...safer location."

Marisa nodded and tried to use the linked tricorders to decrypt the sounds.

Over the Comm-badge, “Commander Blake? Shizn here. . . Not so good news.”

Blake shook her head with a sharp intake of breath. Of course it wasn't. Why would it be? "Keep working on it, we've encountered a lifeform and are trying to communicate, but the area is literally breaking up..."

“Yes. We have been feeling the instability here as well,” Shizn related over the Comm. “We will keep working on the propulsion units.”

The transmission from the shuttlecraft landing site quickly crackled away and fizzled out in the away team's helmets, now replaced with a steady stream of undecipherable static. The ground started to tremor again as the large crystalline life form became seemingly-agitated. A new low-frequency pulse burst from its center and expanded outward with the force of an explosive shockwave, sending concussive force slamming into the humanoid explorers.

The sound wave was more like an earth quake roll and the earth certainly did that and the force of the wave both under her feet and on her chest knocked even the Vulcan over. She did not get up immediately, but sought what shelter there was and made sure that the rest got some shelter as well.

She shook her head at the readings and told Marissa, "I have nothing. Perhaps record what we are seeing and beam to the shuttle. If something happens to us perhaps a recording might make sense to someone else." She peered over the outcropping of rock she had taken shelter behind.

"Commander I would like to try something," T'Lin asked.

Marisa sent what she'd copied so far to the shuttle in the hopes that it would be translated later and went back to visual analysis. Since she was again on the ground, she took another sample, marked it, and put it in her bag.

"What is it?" Blake replied on a strained breath, her ears still ringing from the thump her head had taken on the way down with the pulse. She sat back against the rock they'd managed to huddle behind, taking the chance to catch her breath. "We have to find a different way to communicate with it out here...and try and calm it down."

"Commander since we have been unsuccessful at determining the vocal communications if that is what they are, I am proposing to show visual images. Project images and see if can elicit a response. It might give us something to work with."

T'Lin reset the tricorder not to record, but to project. She then projected images out of other known silicone or somewhat known silicone based creatures as a sort of big holographic field just to see how the creature would react, if at all. Her hope was that perhaps something might catch its attention or at least elicit some reaction other than rage.

There was not a lot in the database, but a large holographic image projected out of a Horta, a Crystalline Entity and then a Tholian.

When the projections shimmered into existence, the massive crystal formation started to glow bright yellow near the base of its trunk. The earth shook again as it suddenly moved forward through the landscape by several meters to focus on one of the holographic projections.

Another high frequency shriek created an ear-splitting pulse, then without warning the life form raised a massive hidden arm from beneath the flowing magma bubbling up to the surface. It was double jointed like a Human arm yet shared the same crystalline carapace as the rest of the body. Three finger-like appendages protruded from the end of the arm then clawed menacingly at the small photonic Tholian.

Blake watched on with wide, dark blue eyes, a touch of relief washing through her. It wasn't much, but it was the first meaningful interaction they'd achieved. She sat back for a moment, licking her lips before glancing at Aria. She arched an eyebrow at her, knowing the security officer wouldn't like what she was about to do. "Stay down, don't shoot," she left what she hoped wouldn't be her final order to the team.

Blake took a deep breath to screw her courage up and forced a sense of calm over herself as she pushed down the primal fear that told her to stay curled up behind the rock. Pushing herself up, Blake stood slowly, raising her hands slightly so it could see the flats of her gloved palms. It could see that she held nothing, that her hands were where it could keep track of them, not a threat, and not likely to be one either. She walked slowly, her breath shaking ever so slightly as she planted one careful foot in front of another, to be closer to the holographic image.

"I'm sorry we can't understand you," Blake said clearly but calmly. Most likely, it couldn't understand them either, but it had been known for stranger things to happen in the universe...and she'd seen one or two of them herself. In a way, whether it could or not was irrelevant. The fact it recognised they were trying would be what mattered for the moment. "You've seen this before..." she slowly moved a hand to motion to the Tholian, and then up to the golem like creature. "You know it..."

T'Lin was not very certain that the Commanders course of action was a wise one, but she took a breath and held the image of the Tholian. That the entity had reacted to it meant that it understood the image and seen it before. The gesture it made seemed more like a threatening one, but perhaps T'Lin was stretching too far with the limited data. She nudged Marissa and said helmet to helmet, "See what else you can bring up on your tricorder with Tholian images."

Before the chief science officer could respond, another earthquake shook the landscape and a second crystalline appendage rose from the opposite side of the creature's other arm. Streams of molten lava dripped from the silicone forearm which now began to rear back. The lifeform's eye slits focused on the away team, then it slowly whipped its massive three-fingered hand down towards the Galileans to crush them and the threat they'd just projected to it.

"Turn off the image," Marisa said to T'Lin as she scrambled away from the creatures. "I wish we had time to show the commander getting rid of the Tholian." But she doubted the crystalline creatures would give them the time.

T'Lin wished they had the time but it seemed more prudent to run. Marissa had the data so T'Lin had a quick thought while running away from the appendage coming down changed it to the Commander's image which holographically pushed the Tholian away. Her thought was perhaps one of trying to show they were friendly since the creature did not seem to like the Tholian image. She left the tricorder on the ground and picked up her pace greatly easily outdistancing the arm and some of the others.

"Let's move!" Blake called through to the rest of the team, even if they didn't need to be told. The heightened danger was clear enough, and she barely sprinted out in time to avoid the hulking mass of rock that crashed far too close to her for comfort. The impact sent a shudder through the ground they were trying to cross, almost sending her falling forward, but she just about managed to stay on her feet, shifting her weight into a jump across a cracking, shifting fissure.

The crystalline creature's giant orange hand slammed forcefully into the earth and its elongated fingers narrowly missed the away team's humanoid forms. The impact was profound, sending volcanic debris into the air and causing a small earthquake which destabilized the surrounding terrain. More cracks in the fragile surface crust now appeared, threatening to cut off any escape route.

Marisa had been knocked to the ground by the quake. She got up and carefully maneuvered through the ever-changing terrain caused by the tremors and fissures, moving as quickly as she could, while keeping an eye on her direction so she didn't get too far off-course. Several times she stumbled and once she nearly fell off a newly-created ledge. She focused her energy and attention to getting to safety while keeping an eye on the others so as not to leave anyone behind.

The ground bucked but thankfully did not collapse. The image disappeared along with the tricorder. T'Lin shook her head and called to Commander Blake. "Sir, even without instrumentation, this ground is under serious stress. I suggest we return to the shuttle post haste with as much cover. Also Lieutenant Sandoval's tricorder has what data we gathered and is precious. Considering also that the creature reacted to the Tholain image if you are willing to sacrifice yours perhaps we can create a distraction to cover our retreat."

Marisa double-checked that her cross pack was still securely closed and nothing had fallen out. T'Lin was right, the data she had on her tricorder and the samples in her bag were invaluable. She looked at her tricorder, pleased that it was again recording data. She took a moment to grab another sample for comparison and continued on toward the shuttle.

Blake was grimly of the opinion the situation was too far gone for minor distractions to make any real difference now. And with the shuttle in such bad condition, she wasn't willing to sacrifice another valuable tool. "Blake to Shizn, do we have transporters yet!" the strain in her voice made it obvious that she was running and half jumping at some speed.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

CMDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo-A

PO2 T'Lin
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Warraquim]

LT Marisa Sandoval
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Tris Shizn
Conn Officer
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Aria Rice
Security Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Vansen]

PO3 Peregrine Steele
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Warraquim]

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