Down in the Underground - Part 2

Posted on Mon Dec 14, 2015 @ 2:14am by Commander Caden Aldrex & Captain Maritza Soran & Lieutenant Benj Amoran & Lieutenant Kivan Ta'Gas & Ensign Jessica Mayhew

1,264 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Pangaea (Wrap up)
Location: Caves of Pangea
Timeline: MD 4/1430

OLD:

When the light from Jessica's lanterns hit its eyes the statue opened its four mouths and drew in breath. Then with the ghastly sound of grinding rock it stood and held its spear out, the sharpened tip pointing at the away team. "Góshé śatam?" it asked. "Sas saptá mezēnai!" It was a guttural, spectral voice.

NEW:

"By the Prophets…" Ensign Kivan uttered as the saw the large figure come to life and then rise to its feet. They had triggered some type of security mechanism within the cavern that had brought the figure to life. No doubt it was a sentinel of some sort, designed to stop would-be looters from desecrating the cavern. Kivan reached for his weapon as he slowly stepped back towards the upward slant towards the opening of the cavern.

Soran followed him, tricorder in one hand, phaser in the other. 'What happened, Ensign? What set it off?"

“I don’t know,” Jessica said, yanking out her tricorder, keeping her phaser level with the statue. “I can’t make sense of these readings, and the UT is having trouble with the language.”

The statue took a threatening step forward. "Kóh taru! Tsét'soyé, ut dl'ishtłohé, ut zelmis, ut dahszíné, ut gostán Rusalka!"

“Rusalka?” Jessica asked. “Wasn’t she one of the fae on the station?” She looked up at the statue. “Rusalka?” she echoed back, pulling up an image of the fae woman from the security files. She used the tricorder’s holo function to project an image of the fae woman.

Upon seeing the hologram the statue instantly fell back to its knees and bowed its head. "Iyą Rusalka. Haastį' ut germe. Haastį' diz skárke....most noble. Most wise. Mother and queen of all. The eminent one for whom even the stones come alive to serve. I have stood my post as you commanded. Command me again so that I may please you."

It wasn't going to work. The image can't speak. Reade hovered near the back of the group, an uninvited tag-along. Perhaps now was the time to break away and do as ordered. He allowed himself a reassuring nod, and content with that, Lieutenant Reade Short made his way back and chose another tunnel.

Jessica didn’t notice Reade slip off, intent as she was on the threat of the statue. The security officer looked over at Commander Soran and shrugged, then back at the statue. “Uh…we…we come to explore this…sacred place. Queen Rusalka has, uh, been away a long time and wishes to know the state of her…affairs.”

While Jessica spoke, Maritza leaned closer to Kivan. "Can you tell what's powering it?"

It took several moments for Ensign Kivan to register that someone was speaking to him. "N-No, whatever is controlling or powering that thing is not registering on my tricorder or any other sensors," he said, his voice wavering. He had read about the antics of the Fae when they were on the station. He was reluctant to refer to their capabilities as being "magical". Cardassians refused to believe in such non-corporeal or tangent things. However, at the moment he was quickly running out of alternatives.

"Everything is as she left it," the sentinel replied to Jessica. Then, regarding the destroyed artifacts, he added, "For the most part. It looks as though someone else may have come in here. They did not awaken me so they must have been consumed by the others. Do you know when Rusalka will return?"

Jessica paused. “She was unable to give us a timetable,” she told the guardian. “You mentioned others. What others guard these ruins?” she asked. “Is there a way to let them know of our peaceful intentions so we may continue our work?”

"You are not the chosen Successor," the sentinel said. "You are not safe. Leave this place."

“Who is the…Successor?” Jessica asked. “We just want to take a look around. We promise not to disturb anything.”

"You have been warned."

Benj had been running a medical scan from his medcorder. He shook his head. “It's not sentient. I'm not at all sure what it is that is powering it or even what is making it interactive, but physically, although impossibly, it's just stone," he commented. "There is a slight, very slight, aura of energy coming from it when it speaks, but that isn't any form of life that my instruments can identify."

Jessica bit her lower lip. “So do we proceed, Commander?” she asked Maritza Soren. “Sounds like it could be dangerous.”

Soran looked at the readings on the medical tricorder, and then leant over Kivan's shoulder to look at his. "That's not strong enough to say if that's even life at all," she told Amoran. "It could be anything." She came to a decision. "Everyone spread out, back towards the structure, let’s see if we can find what's powering it and shut it down."

Jessica nodded and took a step, and then paused to look at the statue. “Um…thank you for your help,” she said, and then turned her light toward the structure that filled the cavern, moving slowly toward it, pulling out her tricorder and aiming it ahead to alert her of any movement or danger.

It was then that a man's scream echoed down the passageways.

Ens. Kivan pivoted on his back foot and immediately reached for his phaser at his left side as he searched for the source of the scream. "Lieutenant Short!" the Cardassian shouted as he tried to scan the area to get a reading on just where the officer was located within the location.

“There!” Jessica said, pointing, as Short’s comm indicator pinged on her screen. Hurrying without running – that would be dangerous in the dark – she headed in that direction, her heart pulsing in her chest as she headed in that direction.

In the adjacent cave, Ensign Osyr heard the scream too. He had been examining some carved words on a stone. Now he was anxiously aware of just how isolated he was from the rest of the group. Calm. Will yourself to be calm, he told himself. Time to get back to the rest of the group. He drew his hand phaser and began making his way back.

"Who is missing? Do we have anyone else who isn't here who should be?" Benj asked, looking around in the gloom and realizing it would be nigh impossible to tell unless they all shouted out like a roster. They were currently too busy hurrying towards where the scream had come from, and Short's comm, to do anything right now, but he made a mental note to suggest a regroup and check off of all the names they started out with as soon as they got a chance.

Jessica checked her tricorder. “Ensign Osyr is in the next cavern,” she said. It was hard to read a tricorder and keep her footing in the dark as her light bounced around as she hurried along

Soran knew from the scream that whatever they found wasn't going to be pretty. It was a scream of gut loosening terror, of seeing the last thing you'd ever see. She was ahead of the others only by virtue of being closest to the structure to start with; the others were only a few meters back. But she reached the blinking point on the tricorder, light in hand first and saw…

Not very much.

To Be Continued ...

 

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