Visiting Pangaea (Part III of III)
Posted on Wed Apr 29, 2020 @ 11:03pm by Ensign Calaban Bel-Asher & Lieutenant Alanna Wells & Captain Lazanos Torena & Lieutenant JG Natalie Cross & Master Sergeant Miranda Schultz & Civilian T'gan
1,866 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
Et In Arcadia Ego
Location: The Portal Complex, Pangaea
Timeline: MD04 1100
Previously in
Natalie retrieved her tricorder from her waist and opened it. By no means was she a scientist but if she could help pickup anything and share with the science team it made it worth a try. She motioned the tricorder around trying to track the mass.
"Definitely intelligent," Alanna said, standing. "It's trying different places. I wish we could find a way to communicate with it." She had so many questions...
The force field flashed bright blue with an impact. It was another hundred meters again from the previous one, and twice as strong, the forcefield scattering blue sparks all the way back to their position, and making the sharp electric buzz sound loud enough to hurt.
And now the continuation
"Can you hear us?" Alanna called out, following Natalie's suggestion. "We'd like to talk to you. Why do you want the portals?"
It gave her an idea. Alanna turned to T'gan. "Do any of hte portals go to a world with those creatures? Could it be trying to go home?"
T'gan raised an eyebrow. "I do not know. It is an interesting theory." She pulled out her PADD and connected to the portal site command and began to search the database.
Laz stayed in position, phaser at the ready. The tricorders gave them a rough idea where the interloper was, and if it got through the field decisions would have to be made he’d rather not make. He glanced at his Marines nearby and gestured at them to hold. Whatever it was could take a direct, sustained hit on these forcefields, which made it tough. Laz did some rough calculation in his head for what kind of energy output his phaser would need to at least stun the creature, and it was pretty heavy. Tapping his comm for the Marines, he said, “Phasers to 3.8, let’s try to not kill anything.”
The forcefield buzzed again, this time in the same place as before, and more tentatively. there was a seconds pause, and then it flashed three times in quick succession.
"Forcefield integrity is still good," Alanna said. "I wish we could get a good view of whatever it is."
"Hey," she called again. "We just want to talk. You know, you Tarzan, me Jane?"
Three more tabs at the forcefield.
Calaban frowned. "This things hit the field so often it should be charbroiled. Yet we can't see it, and its still poking. Are we sure it wants to talk?"
"I have no idea," Alanna admitted. "It's getting some sort of reaction."
"I am registering temporal fluctuations," T'gan said. "They are not as strong as we register from the portals. They could be residual. I will need to study the data."
Miranda went up to the force field and took a defensive position in case whatever it was managed to breach the perimeter.
As whatever was on the outside continued to hit the forcefield Natalie put away her tricoder and retrieved her phaser. She took cover watching and waiting.
“Maybe it’s code,” Laz suggested. “Like Morse code? It’s trying to communicate using the forcefield?”
"That's an interesting idea," Alanna said. She set her tricorder to look for a pattern in the thumps.
Three more came, 100 meters from their position.
"If it's code, we'll need more than three hits," Alanna said. Still, just in case, she squatted down and picked up a rock, hitting it on another one in the same pattern of three. She really didn't expect anything, but it was worth a try.
With the phaser in her hand Natalie stepped out from her cover. She took a deep breath looking over to Alanna for a moment. She placed her phaser back at her waist and nodded to Alanna. They would need more than a couple or three hits on the force field, and she'd make sure they get it. She wasn't going to try anything hostile or intimidating to whatever was on the outside, but she was going to get a little closer.
Her feet and legs felt heavy, they didn't want to move. Was it fear of whatever was out there? She wondered as she convinced herself to move forward. A few steps at a time she moved closer to the force field. Watching for reactions from the being on the outside.
Laz wasn’t crazy about Natalie getting closer to the force field and whatever was on the other side of it, but then the bigger brains present were trying to figure out what was happening. For his part, Laz gestured at the other Marines to spread out a bit to ensure they had Natalie covered and kept her out of their line of fire. He did the same, keeping his phaser close at hand, just in case. It felt almost eerily silent, aside from the occasional tapping that Alanna made. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
Miranda nodded and moved up to keep a closer eye on the intel officer.
T'gan watched both Natalie and Alanna. She went over to the science officer and took the rock. "I'll take over. See if you can feel anything closer."
Alanna was thinking the same thing. As a telepath, she might get some sort of thoughts or images from whatever was out there. She caught up to Natalie and smiled. "Don't get too close," she warned, not so sure she'd do the same. When she was just out of reach of the barrier, she opened her mind to see what she could pick up.
Natalie stopped at the barrier with Alanna. She looked around taking a count of her surrounding. Her hand resting near the phaser. She felt anxious waiting for something to happen. Part of her was unsure if it was such a great idea stepping up to the barrier but something had to give. It was going to be either them or the being outside. She looked over at Alanna for some type of response.
"If it has any level of intellect, I hope to feel something," Alanna said. "Animals radiate emotions. Higher life forms project thoughts or images. This creature is alien. I may not understand what it's thinking, unless it uses imagery, but I hope to find out if it is trying to attack us, get home, or communicate."
"Are you picking up anything?" Natalie asked stepping in closer to Alanna but still keeping a watchful eye to the barrier.
"No. It's like there's nothing there," the science officer replied. "I don't know if it's a natural protection, or if something's missing. It's like a...void where there should be something. It's fascinating."
"What do we do now?" Natalie sighed as she asked the question. She had been hopeful that Alanna would be able to pick up something.
“We either let it in or keep it out,” Laz said. “I’m partial to keeping it out until we know more. A lot more.” Between the caves and the colonists on this world, he wasn’t going to open the field for an unknown entity without knowing exactly who or what it was and how to handle it. He glanced at Schultz. “Let’s keep security sensors sweeping this area. Give it some extra TLC, Sergeant.”
"I'm in agreement with keeping it out, but is there anyway that we can possibly get eyes on it...?" Natalie asked looking in direction of Laz. "A recon of the target per say."
"I wouldn't, unless we can surround it with a forcefield," Alanna said. "It did significant damage when it first attacked the colony."
"Putting a barrier around it could be counterproductive to what we are trying to accomplish. Do we have any recon drones we can deploy?" Natalie asked looking between Alanna and Laz. In another lifetime she had used miniature recon drones to do this type of thing - get eyes on something or someone from a fair and safe distance.
Alanna turned to Sergeant Schultz. "Do we have any ready to deploy?"
Natalie looked around hoping that one of the Marines would have an answer.
"Yes, ma'am. We can have one here in two minutes."
"Could you inform CnC we need a drone to check the alien at the force field?" Alanna asked.
"Aye." Schultz called in the request to Lieutenant Sh'zera.
Laz has utilized recon drones more than once in the past, and they were useful in a pinch. It was always better to have your eyes on the landscape yourself, but the drones were small, quiet, and possessed highly sophisticated sensors. It wasn’t long after the call came in that Laz heard the soft, telltale hum of a drone overhead. “You can hook into the drone’s sensors with your tricorders, now,” he told Wells and Cross.
As with the tricorders, the drone reported a mass of carbon ninety eight meters from their current position, but no great details beyond that. A moment or two later the drone came into view, and that changed. All of the readings being fed to them went wild, fluctuating crazily, from nothing to far more than physically possible of all manner of elements and compounds.
"Wow." Alanna checked the readings again. "That's incredible. Alter the scans to check across the spectrum to see what else we get."
Natalie stepped closer to Alanna, looking down at her tricoder. But it was just noise across the sensors. There was nothing to fix on. It went on for two whole minutes and then silence. All the tricorders went to normal, not even the carbon mass was still there.
Laz looked at his own instruments, smacked his tricorder, and then frowned as he looked at Alana and Natalie. “Am I going crazy or did the thing just disappear?”
"You're not going crazy," Alanna replied. "I need to have a good long look at the readings before I can make any theories. I don't know if it's gone gone or just...not there."
"Beautiful. Love it." Laz shook his head and uploaded his tricorder data to the security server. He looked at Schultz. "Get this data saved to our sensor sweeps. If any readings like this pop up again within sensor range, we need to move on it."
"Yes, sir," Miranda replied. "I'll get it done as soon as we get back to CnC."
"Speaking of which," Alanna said, "Should we continue the tour?" She sent her data to her shuttle. She'd go through it later. She'd also copy it to the computer in her office inside."
Natalie was puzzled about what had just happened. She hoped that Alanna would be able to find something in the readings. But for now. "Yes, please let's finish the tour." She was interested in seeing the rest of the area.
Alanna glanced around again, then took more readings, just to be sure the creature-or whatever it was--had gone for now. "Okay. Calaban, will you lead the way?"
[OFF]
Lieutenant JG Natalie Cross
Chief Intelligence Officer
Deep Space 5
Marine Captain Lazanos Torena
21st MEU
DS5
Lieutenant Alanna Wells
Chief Science Officer
Deep Space 5
Ensign Calaban Bel-Asher
Assistant CSO
Deep Space Five
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