We're Not In Kansas Anymore - Part 2
Posted on Wed Jun 26, 2019 @ 1:25am by Lieutenant Commander River Morgan & Civilian 'Arrival' Avis Larant Ms & Lieutenant Annora Tessaro & Lieutenant Alanna Wells & Civilian Jason Haines & Civilian 'Key Holder' Yolanthe Ibalin & Ensign Jessica Mayhew & Ensign Tizo Criteser & Lieutenant JG Brianthe Oaxaca
Edited on on Mon Jul 1, 2019 @ 11:04pm
2,236 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Doors of Perception
Location: Not Kansas
Timeline: MD 8 2130 hours
[ON]
Previously...
Upstairs, Jessica watched and saw the woman hold her hands out to the side. "Please, I mean you no harm, especially after you helped me with those four. If it hadn't been for you, I don't think things would have gone so smoothly. Please, let me come down so we can talk easier."
"You may come down, but no sudden moves."
Annora called up to the woman, making a command decision for the group. She locked eyes with Jessica, hoping she caught the unspoken request to stick close to yet identified woman.
...Now the continuation
The woman turned and saw Jessica and held up her hands and slowly crawled back through the window. She walked at an easy pace as not to make Jessica get nervous. When she came downstairs and saw Jason she shook her head slightly, touched her fingers to her forehead and then to her chin, then continued outside.
The woman looked almost Vulcan except for the fact that her skin was almost greyish and her hands had three fingers and a thumb. Her hand looked like that was a normal hand and not the product of damage. The other item that stood out is that she wore a necklace that had a pendant that almost looked like a Starfleet communicator.
"I am Freila," she said. "Thank you for coming to my aid. I am sorry for your comrade, but he is better off to have died now opposed to how most die from their horrible weapon."
No one went back to see about the unconscious Acting Chief Medical Officer, slumped at the foot of the bar, and the fact that the woman only mentioned one downed comrade seemed to mean that River was safe in a corner where being away from the others might offer her better cover and remain undetected for a while at least. It was opportune that she didn't regain consciousness at a moment that might have made her a target.
Alanna looked at Freila carefully. "What do you mean, opposed to how most die?"
"The weapon does something that makes the skin turn black, and over the course of ten to twenty suns the person is in agony and then they die. Even our mystics can't heal it. Many end their own lives once the pain begins. Some sooner."
"Do you have any defense for it?" the science officer asked. "You use mystics?" she continued, intrigued in spite of the situation.
"The only defense is not to get hit," Freila replied. "And yes, we have mystics. I am not the best lorekeeper to tell this story. I am only a scout. We should go from here if you wish to hear stories. We are not safe here. There are worse things out here than those four."
Yolanthe spun her curved dagger around on its pommel loop until it rested back in her yellow palm with a smack. "Yes, there are." She gave the woman an appraising glance, sizing her up. "Why did this lot want you?" She poked the man she'd dropped with the toe of her boot. He groaned.
Freila sighed and then said, "I know this will sound odd, but they weren't hunting me specifically. They try to capture any of our tribe. I can not tell the story as to why well. I will take you to my village where one of our lorekeepers can tell you the story. Plus we need to make a pyre for your friend."
Yolanthe frowned. "Do we?" she asked the others.
"Forgive me," Freila replied. "If it is not your custom, I apologize. We used to intern our dead until the prophet came. Whenever possible, when his minions found a grave, they removed the body from the ground and brought it to the prophet. There are rumors that he does unnatural things to them or uses the parts. I don't know. I try to stay as far away from the lands of the prophet as possible. I strayed a little too close this time in my scouting."
Alanna suddenly realized that they understood each other without a Universal Translator. Like others they'd met through temporal shifts, the people here spoke Galactic Standard. "Who is this prophet?" She wanted to learn more, but she wanted to stay here in case they lost their chance of getting back to their own spacetime. And then there was Jason.
"He goes back to the time of the falling," Freila said. "I can never keep the facts straight. The lorekeepers can tell you the story with much greater meaning than I can."
"How far are they from here?" Alanna asked. She wanted to know about the falling, and what that weapon was.
"We should be able to get there before the sun sets," Freila answered. Looking up the reddish yellow sun was in the noon position.
Alanna turned to the others. "What do you think? Should some of us go with her to learn more? There's no telling how long we'll be here." She glanced down at Jason. Whatever they decided, they couldn't leave him here.
Annora picked up the strange weapons, handing one each to Tizo and Jessica. If there were more barbarians, for lack of better term, it would do well to be armed.
"If we could find a couple of long poles, or make some, shouldn't be too hard to create a makeshift litter. Will slow us down a bit, but better than leaving a team member behind."
"Yes, we are not leaving him behind," Avis heard that much and heartily agreed as she wiped her eyes.
The science officer turned to Freila. "I believe that is a yes." She nodded to Jason, careful not to look at him because she new she would start crying again if she did. "We can't leave him here, and I'm not ready to have him burned. What do you suggest?"
It was difficult for Annora to remove the weapon from the thugs hand. When she got it off, there were red and black marks on his wrist. The fingernails on his three fingers and thumbs were a sickly black and green.
Freila saw Annora pick up the weapons and said, "No! Do not use that! It is made by the prophet and is evil. You will not be allowed in the village with it."
Yolanthe raised an eyebrow, now more gold than yellow. "Evil? It's an inanimate object. And weapons aren't made for tickling kittens."
"Do you see his fingers?" Freila asks. "That is only the beginning. Every gift from the prophet has a price. He is evil, his gifts are evil, no matter what you say. If you chose to use them, well, you will pay the prophet's price. I thank you for your help, but now I am leaving. You may follow or not. And I am truly sorry for the death of your comrade."
"We can use a tablecloth as a makeshift litter. Or a table," Alanna said. "We're coming with you. Please, give us a minute."
"My job is to protect others. If there are more people out to get you, I want to be prepared. We'll leave the weapons outside the village."
Annora didn't like the idea of encountering more thugs and not have any weapons at her disposal.
Alanna turned to Avis. "Can you help me set up a litter for Jason?"
"Not sure, but I can try. Just tell me what to do as I've never made a litter before." Avis was willing.
Yolanthe came over. "I'm more than happy to lend muscle power, but I can't help with construction beyond finding things."
"I can put one together," Alanna said. "But I can't pull it alone." She had the table cloths, but the poles were more problematic.
"Try these," Brianthe said. She'd been exploring and found a broken bed she could dismember.
Alanna asked Avis and Brianthe to help her and showed them how to tie the tablecloths to the poles for a makeshift litter and then put Jason's body on the litter.
River began to stir. She was far enough back for this to go unnoticed for a little while until she tried to stand up, holding her thumping head and groaning softly with the splitting pain over her eyes. She raised a hand to her head and sat up in a wobbly manner.
Freila agreed to wait for the litter and when she saw River, obviously in pain, she went to her, pulled out what looked to be bark, handed it to her and said, "Chew. It will help with the pain until you can be looked at."
River was woozie but she took the natural medicine and recognised it for what it was. She chewed as she was bidden to and in fact it did what it had been promised to. She quickly felt less muzzy from the pain in her head and was able to look up at the alien woman and say thank you.
Freila looked at everyone and asked, "What are your names?"
"I'm Alanna," the blonde replied.
"Brianthe," the botanist said, smiling. "We call that bark willow."
"I'm Annora, this is Tizo. He works with me. Thanks for waiting for us. We appreciate it."
The Bajoran waved as his name was mentioned.
"I'm Avis."
"River", the wobbly CMO replied and sat heavily on a stone corner getting her bearings slowly.
Yolanthe stepped between the poles of the litter and waited for someone else to take the other end. "Yolanthe."
"I'll help," Alanna said, taking the other end.
Jessica had been looking at the weapons. “I’m Jessica,” she said. “And those look like radiation burns. What she’s describing sounds like radiation poisoning. If we don’t have proper medical inoculations, using these things will kill us. Hell, maybe just carrying them will. We should bury them.”
"Well, that's just great then," sighed Avis. She wasn't going to use those things then.
Jessica went over to a table and kicked it over. Then she started kicking off table legs. “These will be a good club. Maybe the village will have weapons we can use.”
"So we either risk getting shot, or radiation poisoning. Neither choice is appealing. It could be that these are early attempts at energy weapons and thus aren't shielded properly from whatever powers them."
The security chief sighed as she considered her options. Tossing the weapons behind the bar, she picked up a table leg.
"Some days I swear the Universe is out to kill me. Freila, how far is it to the village?"
"Bringing the body with us, it should not be any later than sunset," Freila said, waving them to follow. She paused briefly and asked Jessica, "What is radiation?"
“An invisible poison,” Jessica said. “Hard to detect without the right equipment.” She sighed. “Wish I had a tricorder to know what just happened.” She shook her head.
Freila led the group away from the old, rickety building and the unconscious thugs. As she did, they got a glimpse of two other small, rickety buildings. The environment was arid scrubland with small bushes that had barbed branches with red berries the size of a small marble.
“We can’t eat those until they turn purple,” Freila remarked. “They make you sick if you do.”
Alanna made a mental note, in case they were around long enough to eat them.
As they moved on, the terrain started to get hilly, and off in the distance they could see that it turned into forest. Freila pointed out some of the wildlife as they moved along. The most intriguing was a lizard approximately ten feet long that had six legs.
As the sun started to go down, they made it to the edge of a forest at the top of a moderate sized hill. Looking back, they could see a singular mountain some distance away, as well as a large body of water, most likely a sea or ocean. The forest ahead seemed very dense and Jessica wondered how they were going to carry the litter through when Freila reached out with her hand. After a few moments, branches move out of the way with a small trail revealing itself.
Magic? Alanna wondered. Somehow, it made sense in this place.
Freila led down the path, and after they all got on the trail the branches closed behind them. As they move forward, the canopy of the trees got thicker and it got darker. In an act of defiance, the leaves of the smaller trees and shrubs gave off a luminescence that combated the darkness and made it so they could see reasonably well, like when it turned dusk on a summer’s evening. There were numerous sounds in the forest, and they could see what seemed to be birds flitting here and there.
Alyssa was fascinated with the forest. It almost felt alive. She could even imagine the trees talking to each other. It reminded her of places she'd read about in fantasy stories.
To Be Continued...
[OFF]
---
Freila, Native Guide
NPC by Lt(jg) Jason Haines
Yolanthe Ibalin
Owner
The Box of Delights
Avis Larant
Investigative Journalist
Ens. Jessica Mayhew
Security Officer
Ensign Tizo Criteser
Security Officer
Lt Annora Tessaro
Chief Security Officer
Lieutenant JG Alanna Wells
Chief Science Officer
Ensign Brianthe Oaxaca
Botanist
Lt Cmdr River Morgan
Locum CMO
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