Chthonic (Part 2)

Posted on 09 Jul 2013 @ 6:57pm by Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Petty Officer 1st Class James Watt & Commander Andreus Kohl & Commander Andreus Kohl & Petty Officer 1st Class James Watt & Lieutenant Kiri Cho

3,655 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: Rojar II R03
Timeline: MD6 - 0400

Abruptly Kiri came to a stop, tricorder in hand. This wasn't right, it wasn't. Looking uncertainly over her shoulder she checked again, then finally squatted down, inspecting a small crack in the ground.

"What's the matter?" Watt asked, walking up to her.

"There is a type of moss here," Moving the rocks aside slightly, "Scans showed there was no life at all on the surface." The tiny blue green plant confused her, there was no light. There was, wait. Checking her scans again she could see it, all around them there was bacteria eating the rock, very slowly but they were giving off ultra violet light. Not that it helped them see anything without their torches. But if there were plants, or at least one, there might be more. This was new.

Tilting his head, Kohl aimed his helmet torch at the moss as well. He sounded nothing but anxious, when he asked, "Is... this... going to help us find a way out?"

Liyar lifted his tricorder up to scan some of the rocks. "It means there is life on this planet that our scans did not pick up," Liyar said. "If we missed this," he didn't need to finish the sentence but for a gesture of his good arm.

It wasn't her fault, she checked time and again, Pendleton had checked. Taking a breath Kiri finished her scan and looked at them, "We don't know what is down here," The pit of her stomach had gone from fluttering to chokingly tight. "We should stay close and move forward carefully."

Refusing to leave anything unsaid while he was hemmed in on every side by endless rock, Kohl asked, "Is moss suggestive? Does the presence of moss suggest a specific something else may be here?"

"It is possible," Liyar answered, kneeling down to observe the growths all along the wall and through the cracks on the ground. "What we do know is that our initial scans can no longer be trusted. We picked up no signs of life on this planet's surface. Yet, there appears to be life below. At least, in the form of bryophytes."

"If we are careful, we'll be fine," Kiri didn't really believe it but she tried to sound sincere, "It is possible that there is animal life if there are plants, or at the very least insect."

Instinctively, Kohl's hand moved to where his phaser was usually holstered during away missions. HIs hand connected with climbing gear instead. Kohl patted himself down, feeling his sides and his waist in a panicked pattern, until he located his phaser. He didn't need his tricorder now, not right now. His patients were stable, if not well. His phaser was what mattered if there was unknown life somewhere down here.

Leading the way deeper Kiri scanned the cave, keeping alert and almost as curious as she was afraid. There were indeed more mosses as they went deeper, some fungi, though they barely any of them seemed to have formed Sporocarps. The bacteria was everywhere here, eating the rock and causing large amounts of it to become smooth. After about five minutes she came to a stop though, she wasn't sure what she could hear. There was their footsteps, the trickle of water and clicking. Quite, maybe distant but she could hear clicking, maybe rustling? Looking slightly confused at her tricorder which didn't seem able to pick up that much she asked, "Do you hear that?"

Liyar had his head turned to the side as Kiri spoke. "Affirmative." He had only one hand, it was either the phaser or the ra-de'kutha. He felt far more comfortable with the latter. The rest of them had phasers and were hopefully trained in their use. If not, Liyar calculated it would take him four point two seconds to make the switch if it were necessary.

At Kiri's question, Kohl held his breath. He leaned closer to Kiri and he looked at the display on her tricorder too. He closed his eyes, then, and focused on nothing but his aural senses.

"A possible path to the surface?" Watt suggested.

"It has to be," Kiri answered as she turned to look at him, "But," A strange thump stopped her dead and she froze up. From somewhere high above them, a transparent centipede, half a foot long with long segmented legs had landed on the top of her backpack. It almost instantly started to weave its way downwards, though she couldn't see it she knew it was there. Rather shocked she glanced towards Kohl.

Every tendon in Kohl's neck tightened and he stared at Kiri with alarm flashing behind his eyes. He secured his grip on his phaser with both hands, but he hesitated. The centipede was beautiful, and it was native, and the away team were the invaders in its home. Kohl felt guilty about even thinking about vaporizing the creature.

"Don't move, Lieutenant," Watt said, drawing his phaser and setting it to stun. He'd spotted the creature, since he'd been slightly behind Kiri, looking at her when the thing fell. Calmly, he took aim on a wide-beam setting and fired a two-second burst.

Liyar knelt down beside the stunned creature and examined it. It was a complex organism, which meant there were undoubtedly more. This one hadn't been dangerous, but that didn't mean another couldn't be. He was starting to get the impression they were not alone down here. All around him, he could feel it as the cave grew alive before them. Plants, insects, nature lived here. "Perhaps the same interference which made it necessary to take a shuttlecraft down prevented us from properly identifying this ecosystem," he postulated. He made sure the creature hadn't been hurt by the stun, giving it a quick scan after he shuffled around to his tricorder, then stood.

Her fingers twitching Kiri looked at the ghostly creature, that could have bitten her and killed her. She had no idea if it was poisonous or not but there were so many risks everywhere and it was starting to wear her down. Staying here wouldn't be any safer than going on though. Taking a breath that made her throat wobble, "That is likely," Repeating what she said before, "We just have to be careful." Checking that there were no creatures that would take advantage of the insects stunned state she started moving again. Uncertainly looking upwards every few steps.

"We should try to find a way out," Watt said, "if we do not return and the Galileo attempts a rescue mission, they may presume us dead if our biosigns are blocked by properties of the caves."

"No... No-no-no," whined Kohl. To Watt, Kohl asked, "Why did you say that? You shouldn't have said that. I didn't think of that... until now." All the while, Kohl couldn't manage to look anywhere but the centipede laying motionless on the rock floor. Kohl's phaser remained clutched in a death-grip. From out of the darkness, something in a dark crustacean-looking shell crawled into the beam of light from Kohl's helmet. The thing skittered towards the centipede and clamped a claw right into the middle of its flesh. Kohl swallowed a gasp as he turned to follow the others.

Watt gave Kohl an odd look. "Are you all right, sir?" he asked, thinking the situation might be getting to this medical officer.

As he followed after Kiri, Kohl turned to Watt with a baffled expression and wide eyes. Kohl thumbed back over his shoulder and he said, "We've been literally buried in the ground. Of course I'm not all right."

Watt said nothing to that at first. It was true, after all. "Well, all the more reason for me to suggest we attempt to free ourselves. I might be able to rig a beacon amplifier that could reach the surface in shallow caves with some of our equipment, but it would take time, we should find a faster solution if we can."

"The oxygen level readings indicate that we are not trapped in a closed environment," Liyar mentioned, sticking pulling the ra-de'kutha from his teeth as he replaced the tricorder at his side again with his one decent hand. "Oxygen is flowing. Which means that there is an exit, we merely must find it."

"The cave systems cover most of the planets crust," Kiri answered, the cave getting greener and greener as they went on. "Most of interconnected so it shouldn't be hard to find another way to the surface," The trickle of water became a stream ahead, taking the centre of the cave into a damp foot of water. They scattered as soon as the light came near them but Kiri was sure she could see some tiny fish. Little clicks, scuttling and even what sounded like a very distant howl seem to echo up the caves. A few seconds later was their first plant, at least a Earth like plant. A vine that snaked through cracks in the rock, almost nothing seemed have any pigment though, making everything seem rather ethereal.

Keeping close to one side of the rockface, Kohl avoided trampling on the water and the fish. He kept apace with Kiri's onward trek towards the source of the water. Kiri's words calmed some of the panicked theories forming in his mind, but the oppressive darkness all around them kept his heart-rate high. He glanced down at the tricorder on his hip, and he asked the others, "Are you detecting any readings to indicate traces of Princessium or Dilithium?"

"Small amounts, but not the despots we detected," Kiri squeezed herself through a small gap and then came to an abrupt stop. Until she felt a push from behind she didn't move at all, it was amazing. Her readings had told her of the water, but like this? The cavern was huge, the ceiling at least fifty feet high, clouded in mist. Below the water looked crystal clear, showing the rocks at the very bottom as it very slowly bubbled. Pillars of rock broke up the view but there were other chambers, this lake was larger than she could see. Then there was the rest, green plants covered the walls, some with fruit. Large floating lily pads then, before anything else, a strange squeaking. At first she couldn't place it but it was getting louder.

Liyar heard it too, and he tensed instinctively, hand tightening over the ra-de'kutha gripped in his fingers.

As Kohl came squeezing through the small opening in the cavern, he didn't notice the sound. His senses were overwhelmed by the verdant vista before him. The vast pools of water and the greenery was certainly unexpected down here, beneath the ground. He was dumbfounded into silence, for once.

"What's that sound?" Watt asked, emerging from the crevice and stopping short in the tavern at the sight before him.

The sound was getting louder, it felt as if it was almost coming from the rock rather than the air. Then her torch lights caught something, a flitting of black that disappeared into the dark. Then the cave wall that had been illuminated turned black. A mass of tiny winged bodies started to cloud the roof space. High pitched squeaks starting to make her ears hurt. At first they seemed to just be swarming, then they started towards the group in a flurry.

Something deep in Andreus Kohl's Argelian genetic memory told him to attack the winged attackers before they could flank the away team. But that instinct was so old, so long before his people's Great Awakening, that it provoked no desire to use his phaser. Rather, every drop of blood pumping through his body told him to rip the creatures out of the air with his bare hands and hurl them to the floor and stop them with his boots. All the while, far closer to the surface of his conscious thoughts, the triage training kicked in.

Instantly, a bright wave of blue-white erupted from the tip of the silver weapon in Liyar's hands, creating a small dome overhead which the creatures bounced off of. The dome flashed in and out of existence, and some of the bat-things escaped through. Liyar ignored them and directed his energy toward the shield. "We need to move, we cannot risk using phasers, we could easily cause another collapse." The shield beacon fluctuated again and Liyar narrowed his eyebrows in concentration.

Of course, Liyar reacted faster than Kohl. With limited heartbeats to think about it, Kohl supposed Watt was an engineer. His skills weren't essential in the bottom of a cave. And Watt was large, roughly the same height and build at Kohl himself. Meanwhile, Liyar was... well, Liyar was Liyar. The Vulcan was larger, faster, better than them all. Kiri, then, was the away team's commander. She was the leader, and she had studied the sensor readings, and she was Kiri. Kohl draped an arm across Kiri's shoulders and he shoved her towards the small opening to head back the way they came. He moved his frame in between her and the few remaining creatures on the attack.

Kiri felt herself being pulled, she wanted to resist though. There hadn't been another way out, the amount of water, there had to be a way out. Pushing through the gap she tried to protest as something cut across her hand. Tripping she fell through, twisting her shoulder uncomfortably. Even if they all got through, wouldn't the only thing stopping these creatures be the shield?

Watt hurried towards the entrance of the cave and turned back just before he reached it. He started to fiddle with the settings on his phaser and yelled at Liyar. "Get over here! Get ready to run." The engineer's phaser started to emit a high-frequency hum.

Liyar followed them back, keeping a wide distance between the bat-things and the other team members, so that only a few would periodically get through. Once he was near the entrance the shield exploded outward in a final burst, driving the bats back enough so he could duck through behind Watt.

Watt tossed the phaser and it flew after the swarm, buzzing in a high-pitched frequency. It started to overload quickly and warnings lights flashed on its control panel. The engineer ducked in after the others and pushed Liyar ahead of him. "Keep going," he yelled, "we need to get out of the crevice. Find cover," Watt said hurriedly as he emerged after the others into a larger area of the original tunnel network. A moment later, an explosion echoed through the tunnel and a blast of high air pressure shot from the crevice that had just exited, bringing loose rock with it.

His hands crossed over one another, Liyar cast the ra-de'kutha behind him and above their heads, creating a dome that some spare rocks and debris bounced off of before everything fell still again.

The flock seemed to waver for a moment in the touch light before scattering, trailing upwards into the shadows. Trying to catch her breath again Kiri looked at the three of them, "Is everyone okay?" Her uniform had a few tiny bite marks but none of them had pierced flesh.

"Functional." He stared at his hand. Extended to create the shield, it had created a prime target for the tiny creature things, and he had a few scrapes across the back of his palm and knuckles. Otherwise he was fine, and he checked the rest of them to make sure they could say the same.

When torchlight shone in Kohl's face, he squinted at the brightness. "I'm okay," he said enthusiastically, while a trickle of blood painted a line down the right side of his face.

"You are bleeding," Liyar pointed out, tapping the side of his own face in the same spot. "Do you possess prophylactic in your medical kit? Any of these bites could contain disease or infection."

Grabbing for the medikit strapped to his body, Kohl dug into its guts and let slip an Argelian curse at himself for letting himself get bitten. He slapped a new cartridge into his hypospray and injected himself in his shoulder. "Thank you," he told Liyar quietly. Holding up the hypospray, Kohl cleared his throat and announced, "Everyone check everyone for bites."

Quietly Kiri mumbled something about vampires as she stood up and looked at Watt, rolling her shoulder gingerly as she did so. The sound that was being produced still made her teeth hurt, "You look okay, is the sound still working?"

"I'm all right," Watt said, standing up and brushing himself off. Other than a scrape on his hand he seemed unhurt. The man had an uncanny amount of luck in the injury department. "The sound? From the phaser? I overloaded it. I hope it attracted them. If they were flying near it, the explosion would kill or knock out almost all of them." he gave a shrug, "It works with bats. Do we have enough reading from the tricorders to scan for lifeforms here?"

"Somewhat, there was more life signs than the bats, but, I don't know where they were, or how big. We have to go through there though, there isn't another way," If they could hold off the bats long enough to get to, well somewhere. The water was moving so there had to be other entrances.

Kohl had palmed a small steri-field generator and was waving the field of sterilizing radiation over his face until the trail of blood was washed away. He nodded at each of Kiri's statements, but he winced early on and his eyes glazed over. "Sorry," he incredulously interjected, "You detected life signs? Can you be more specific than 'life signs'?"

"Not without getting closer," Kiri looked at him rather worriedly, "It could be a school of fish, or animal plankton or something huge, or just bacteria sludge." Taking another breath, "It didn't attack us before though, so maybe its not important?"

"I suggest that we do not ignore it, but neither should we allow it to deter us. I can possibly get us through the area with the creatures, if you believe that it is the only exit. The ra-de'kutha will protect us, but I will need more power than I possess. I would have to link with someone in order to generate a stable field wide enough to protect us." He immediately looked to Watt, who was thus far the calmest individual of the bunch.

Panicking wasn't exactly state of mind she was in, but it felt rather similar. She was trying to come up with a plan, a way of escape and it was coming together. The level of risk though was far more dangerous than she would normally allow though. Too many variables and those she did know were hostile, she also thought she had the most experience with telepathy. Of the four, she was the weakest, the slowest, "What do you need?"

"I could rig something up," Watt said, "But we'll lose another phaser. I'd rather spend our resources trying to get a signal amplifier rigged, so we can contact the Galileo, but..."

"If the ship couldn't scan this deep, I don't think we'd be able to contact them, I tried boosting the signal density as far as it would go," Kiri looked at Watt and then back to Liyar.

"I require someone who is sufficiently calm. Mr. Watt, if you would permit it, I would like to create a small telepathic link between us in order to use your presence as a stabilizer on my mind. This will allow me to generate an entirely stable shield capable of encompassing us all and remaining in tact while we cross. There will not be any averse effects to you, although you may feel my mental presence." Liyar looked to the engineer impassively.

Watt gave Liyar a slightly skeptical look. "A mind meld, sir?" he asked.

"No," Liyar shook his head. "A mind meld is a far more intimate process. What I need will simply require a shallow mental link."

After a moment of silence as he considered all the vulcan had said, Watt gave a nod of his head. "Very well."

Liyar inclined his head and then reached forward with his good hand, placing it against Watt's shoulder and opening a small channel between them, mental threads bobbing along in the universal sea until they touched, and Liyar withdrew his hand, but the link stayed, like a separate sense of breathing through the engineer. Liyar held out the ra-de'kutha and in front of them all, a large blue-white force emanated from it, spreading out over them and circling them. "We are ready," he told Kiri.

Watt shivered when the vulcan withdrew his hand but he stayed calm. He looked even more calm, even, as if the vulcan presence in his mind gave him a serenity that he had lacked, for all his cool-under-pressure attitude he maintained. "I'd get phasers out, if I were you," he said, looking at Kiri and Kohl.

The two of them did so with his advice, Kiri wasn't quite sure how useful she was going to be though. Placing herself behind Liyar and Watt she edged forwards, expecting them to do the same.

At first when they moved through the gap there was nothing, then slowly, circling in the air at first before edging closer towards the shield. It was almost as if they could sense where it was and knew better. The screech became almost deafening as they advanced.

[OFF]
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Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Andreus Kohl
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Liyar
Diplomatic Officer, VDF/SDD
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Kiri Cho
Science Officer
USS Galileo

PO3 James "Striker" Watt
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo
played by Psylus Anon

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