Boots on the ground part 4

Posted on Tue Dec 24, 2019 @ 5:41pm by Ensign Calaban Bel-Asher & Lieutenant Alanna Wells & Lieutenant JG Brianthe Oaxaca

941 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Doors of Perception
Location: Equitorial jungle, Pangaea
Timeline: MD 26 0130

[OLD]

Calaban finished his cocoa. "Are you sure you want to sleep out here. I mean, the station's only 30 minutes, 15 if we hurry."

She considered that for a moment. "I admit I'm curious to see what the night brings."


Calban sucked his lip, thinking about it. Whilst normally I'd agree with you. I keep thinking about what humans keep saying about cats..."

[NEW]

The two Romulans were sharing a tent, and Calaban had a small bivouac of his own, leaving Alanna and Brianthe to share the last tent. It was now pitch dark almost everywhere. The moon was only half full, and the thick jungle just layered the clearing with more shadows. It was also disturbingly quiet. Maybe moths flew, but if so, all wings were silent. There was the occasional chirrup of crickets, but nothing like the noise that should be there.

After about fifteen minutes that changed.

Calaban Bel-Asher was snoring.

And then he was dreaming. They were all dreaming. They looked up and saw the sky, blue but laced with streaks of white fluffy clouds, and filling it was a circle, hundreds of kilometers across. The ring was thin, and flashed with angry red and violet, and it gave off a corona that flickered with white light.
And inside the ring were stars, black stars on a white sky.

Alanna was fascinated. She wondered if the crystals were responsible for the dream and what the dark stars in a white sky meant.

Calban put his head out of his bivouac. "Man, I have got to cut back on the cheese before bed time. I'm having psychadelic dreams."

Brianthe stuck her head out of their tent. "Are you having dreams, too?"

"Dreams?" Tannis stuck her head out of the third tent. "I am as well."

"Then are they dreams?" Alanna added.

Calaban flipped his tricorder open and poked at it. "Ooh" He said. "We've got a build up of tachyons. And of what's reading like a psionic field"

"Really?" Alanna went back into her tent and retrieved her tricorder to get readings. "Fascinating. I wonder what's happening."

"Perhaps we should retire to the shuttle?" R'gelis said. "We have more protection there."

"You're welcome to go back," Alanna said, looking over to Calaban. "For now, I want to record this."

Brianthe nodded. "I'll stay here with you."

The two Romulans picked up their belongings and headed back to the shuttle. Shortly after they were out of site, the remaining three noticed a pale blue-violet light moving through the jungle to the south. It wasn't very bright, but it was clear enough to cause Alanna to catch her breath. "I wonder what it is?" she whispered.

"Don't go look," Brianthe said. "I think it's coming this way."

She was right, the light was approaching smoothly, at reasonable speed, and after a minute and a half the source revealed itself.

The procession cut through the treeline. Literally through it, the great trees passing through the pale illuminated figures. The figures themselves were standing in what looked like boats, their keels far below the ground, packed in row on row. Each figure was armed with what looked like a slender lance and wore plate armour with helmets.

Boat followed boat, each filled with a hundred figures, crossed the small clearing, trees, fire pit, undergrowth, passing through them as if they weren't even there. At the stern of each boat pennants snapped in the wind from their speed.

Calaban's jaw fell open.

Alanna was enthralled by the view. She tried to take in every detail of the inhabitants, their weapons and armor. Were they ghosts, or was this a point where universes coexisted?

Brianthe gasped, then covered her mouth. It was incredible. Absolutely incredible.

Calaban nodded, and then grabbed Alanna's arm, "Look!" He pointed at the forest, towards the ruins they had found. One of the strange boats, moving smoothly under what ever propulsion was hidden by the earth, sailed towards them out of forest so close they could see the androgynous features of the figures standing in them.

The lead boat fell in beside the column of boats flowing through the clearing, and more followed, a dozen in total, before the whole procession petered out, the light fading, and the last visible boat merging to darkness half way along its length.

Darkness settled on the jungle again.

Alanna barely breathed as the boat sailed past. When it was dark again, she sighed. "That was magnificent."

Brianthe giggled. "Pageantry at its finest. I wonder where they're going?"

"I can't believe that i didn't think to film it!" Calaban sighed. "If I remember the map. That's the coast that way. About thirty miles."

"Should we go see if that's where they were going?" Alanna asked.

Calaban shrugged. "Can't see a thing now, How would we know?" He sighed. "I hate fieldwork. You see the best things and only end up with more questions."

He was right. They were gone now. Alanna chuckled. "That's the reason I love field work. I love solving puzzles and learning new ones."

He gave an exhausted yawn. "And that's why you're the boss."

Alanna chuckled. Brianthe had already gone back to sleep. "See you in the morning. Or later," she said, slipping back into the tent to try to get more sleep. She wished she'd thought of her tricorder, but she had a feeling that they wouldn't show up, even if she did.

[OFF]

Lieutenant JG Alanna Wells
Chief Science Officer
Deep Space Five

Lieutenant JG Calaban Bel-Asher
Assistant Chief Science Officer
DS5

Ensign Brianthe Oaxaca
Botanist
Deep Space Five

R'gelis Stadi
Romulan Scientist

Tannis Tarkelion
Romulan Scientist

 

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