Cavern Jaunt (Part III of III)

Posted on Fri Jan 11, 2019 @ 10:58pm by Captain Maritza Soran & Lieutenant Alanna Wells & First Lieutenant Gordon Blue & Civilian T'gan

1,111 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Doors of Perception
Location: Pangaea: The Portal Caverns
Timeline: Back Post: Victory Conditions MD 30

Previously on Cavern Jaunt

The group moved through to the next threshold, a crack in the wrong barely wide enough for a man to squeeze, at roughly ninety degrees to the one they'd entered by. When they came out the other end they were in another cavern, but this one was smooth, its side coated in rippled stalactite and mite that had flowed together.

But just like the previous cavern, there were two pillars that marked the portal space, and a stone statue turned towards, its spear lowered, exactly the same pose as before.

And now the conclusion



"Hi. We're delivering pizza. Can we pass?" Alanna asked. She figured the more cases of the language she could get, the easier it would be for the Universal Translator to pick it up.

"Pizza?" T'gan asked.

"Who doesn't like pizza?" Her tone was clearly facetious.

As before a protective stone arm swung round to block her approach to the portal. "Stay back!" came the stony, slightly disembodied voice, "Beware se Wihta!"

"What is se Wihta?" she asked. "And what, exactly, must I beware of?"

"Se Wihta wiesceawerest. The Wihta ba beaducwealmas. They who come before."

"So we must beware of they who come before?" Alanna asked. It made more sense, but she still had no idea what it was talking about.

"Yes," The statue replied "The Wights."

Suddenly Alanna understood. Not just the words, but the meaning. "You're right. We must beware their return. So, how do we do that? Keep them from returning, that is?"

The statue remained silent. Zhao looked over. "This one is in exactly the same position as the last one. Exactly. And every cavern we have a sensor in registered a ping. How many of these things came through?"

"Every one we've found so far," Alanna said. "But we don't know how many more there are. Not yet, anyway."

She turned back to the statue. "How can we go through the portals? Which ones are safe for us?" It was worth a shot.

"Geascian the Wight. Geascian et. Cwellan et. Et must not return!"

"Is there a chance of the wraith returning if we go through the portals? Or only some portals?"

T'gan was carefully observing the statue and the surrounding area, hoping to find something that could give her a clue as to what the guardian meant.

"Yes." said the statue

"Pandora's Portals." Blue added his little bit. "Just like exploration in general; there is always a chance something will follow you back to point of your origin."

Zhao Shifted his rifle into a more comfortable grip. "Except in here there's every chance that we won't get back to our point of origin, let alone anything that follows us through."

"I know it's not always feasible in here, but I'm hoping detailed mapping and more information can help us prevent that," Alanna added.

"Which will happen in time, but right now, we've only got a bout a fifth of this place mapped at all, and still aren't confident of half the transitions." Zhao. "Right now if something comes through, we might not be able to get them out, even if we wanted to.

Alanna sighed. "I know. There's so much we still need to learn. Mapping this place is only the start. I can get more scientists, but we also need the technology to keep it safe. Events on the station have shown me that I can't trust that, either."

Zhao snorted. "No arguments here, ma'am." He looked around, there was no other exit to this cave. "I guess its back the way came. And hope we come out where we came in."

Alanna hoped so, too. "Yes, indeed. After you."

The transition didn't take them back to the same cave. This one was not at all like the others, which seemed natural, or barely worked. This one was clad in white veined black marble marble, and perfectly round. The two pillars were obsidian obelisks some three meters high. And the statue that should have guarded it was smashed into a thousand pieces.

"This does not look good," Alanna said. She went over to the statue and looked through the pieces, searching for any clues. "Whatever smashed this came from behind."

Zhao toed the rubble. "From through a portal. Why didn't we pick up life signs. And how did they go out?"

"That's the question," Alanna said. She walked slowly around the room, looking at the marble. "I think a better questions is, where are we?"

T'gan circled the two pillars. "Fascinating."

Alanna grinned. "Indeed."

McKearn's voice came over the intercom. "Er guys. I've got you. You're right under the entrance cave, but over two kilometers down! We didn't think there was anything that far down. Is all okay?"

"We're fine," Alanna replied. "There's debris here from the statue, but we are unharmed."

"So far," T'gan thought.

Zhou took a sensor pack out of his bag and looked around forspot to attach it. He decided on a spot halfway between the rounded arch that marked the cave entrance, and the back of the cave, angled to see any activity between the pillars. "And the Guardian has been smashed."

A long whistle came over the com. "That's new. Any sign of who did it?"

"Not yet," Alanna said. "We're looking around for anything to give us a clue."

As Alanna turned over another fist-sized chunk of granite, she noticed a tiny disc-like object stuck to one edge. The central core was about five millimeters across with five spokes going from it to an outer wheel. The whole thing was about a millimeter thick. She had no idea what it was, but at this point she was not going to discount anything. It could possibly be something to do with the statue, or what destroyed it. She pulled a sample bag out of her pack and slipped the disc inside for later examination.

Zhao looked around. "The statues moving triggered the sensor, because we didn't pick up any life signs. And something came through, and broke this one? And then left this chamber? Or is it still here?"

"Maybe. That's the problem," Alanna said. "We don't have enough information for a proper theory. All we know is that something caught the statue off-guard and destroyed it. I hope it didn't get out because that would mean it's somewhere in the caverns or on the planet." She didn't like the idea of having to deal with whatever did this to the statue.


[OFF]


Lieutenant JG Alanna Wells
Chief Science Officer

First Lieutenant Gordon Blue
Marine Commanding Officer
DS5

Marine NPCs
by Soran

 

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