Legend of Souls (Part 2 of 4)

Posted on 18 Sep 2014 @ 12:17am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Scarlet Blake & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Jared Nicholas & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant Asahi Kita & Commander Norvi Stace & Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant Commander Amynta Markos & Commander Luke Wyatt & Lieutenant Elijah Williams IV, M.Sc. & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Lieutenant JG Grayson Jones & Lieutenant Oren Idris Ph.D. & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Amon Mormont & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Alexion Wylde & Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Stark & Petty Officer 1st Class Siren Hex Saalm

2,413 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: Lyshan III - Subterranean Cave Network
Timeline: MD 07 - 1440 hrs

Previously, on Legend of Souls (Part 1)...

Allyndra shifted her focus from one to the other and then fell on Luke. "You look like you cracked a rib there, I am going to give you a bit of anaglesic otherwise it will continue to hurt. Be careful, we don't want it to be a broken one."

Elijah had been so focused on his own pain - which he still wasn't sure if his spine was messed up - and helping Lieutenant Stace that he didn't think to check in. Though he knew his voice could be heard over the comm, he still needed to check in. "I'm here and okay," he said into the open comm, though honestly he wasn't sure how he was.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Alexion had made his way across to Asahi when he'd heard the resounding cry of pain from him. He helped shift him into a better position to sit before scanning him, taking a moment to catch his own breath.

Asahi was, naturally, a giant baby about anything resembling more than a small headache. Injuries were extremely few and far between, and, even if this was something more minor, it sure as hell felt like he was about to die. Between pained near-screams and noises resembling a dying Earth moose, there was a 'thank you,' and, quite possibly, a 'cut it off ohmigod.'

"You have yourself a dislocated knee," Alexion sighed, shaking his head with something close to frustration as he searched through the kit. He leant over him to press a powerful painkiller to his neck, followed by a stabiliser. "I will have to pop it back in position, just keep breathing, you will be fine..." he said casually, already putting his hands on his leg, feeling for the disfigurement. "Three..." he didn't even get past the first number that time, pulling hard to 'pop' it back into place.

"Dislocated knee." Asahi repeated the words unintelligibly, unsure as to what that meant other than 'ow' and a future trip to Sick Bay. Breathing was, predictably, difficult when he was so concentrated on the pain, but he managed through it. Of course, the moment he had his bearings, a searing pain shot through his knee and up through the rest of his body, causing him to let out an ungraceful scream.

Alexion ignored the noise, keeping focussed on his knee as he got the regenerator on it to start healing the tissue around the joint. "This will not be a complete fix. It will help, but it will need to be fully repaired back on the ship," he let out a long breath as he finished up healing the full depth the small, hand held regenerator could manage. He slapped the man's shoulder in a comradely manner before walking away without another word.

Asahi frowned after the man's retreating form, mouth clamped shut for fear of another undignified noise of pain escaping. He was grateful there were doctors about, but not quite as grateful for how much 'fixing it' had to hurt.

Several meters away, Oren slowly attempted to push himself up, but let out a strangled cry as pain shot through his arm when he put his weight on it. Falling down onto his stomach immediately, he slammed the ground with his right fist to let out some of the adrenaline so that he wouldn't make another sound. Breathing hard, he slowly moved the rest of his limbs, which we luckily not broken. Bruised and cut, but not broken. Counting it as a victory, he attempted to roll onto his back and managed on the third try.

"Broken arm here," he announced, his eyes closed as he tried to keep his voice as steady as possible, despite the throbbing pain traveling through his entire body. "There's more than that," he added, managing to make out about three cuts on his limbs - back of his right thigh, across his back and his left arm. "But the arm is from the fall." He'd never broken anything in his life and he finally understood why his former colleagues complained so much when they slipped and fell badly at a dig site.

"Here..." Alexion frowned as he pressed the painkiller to the young man's neck, taking the cradled arm to feel carefully. "All I can do is heal the tissue, we'll have to immobilise it until you get back to the ship," he sighed with frustration, using the small regenerator on him to do what little he could. "Don't use it," he said firmly, meeting his eyes.

Returning the man's instense gaze, Oren faltered slightly. It wasn't often that he faced someone so much older than he was and he was instantly curious by what he felt. But the moment only lasted a second before another spike of pain short through his arm as he involuntarily tried to lower it. Stifling a groan, he nodded.

"As tempting as moving it is, I'll try to resist."

"This...is not...how I wanted to spend my first away team after an avalanche away team..." Aria groaned, staying down as she tried to get her head together. She wasn't hurt, just bruised and battered. She pushed herself up, slowly, rolling her shoulders with a whimper. "Holy...shitballs...that smarts..."

Laying amongst a farther pile of rubble was the environmental suit containing Andreus Kohl. He lay there motionless and unresponsive, except for the subtle movements that accompanied his breathing. Kohl's suit remained functionally intact, his body managed to escape grievous injury, but his mind was unconscious.

Amynta pushed herself up, slowly, touching her helmet. She tasted blood and licked her lips, grimacing. Nothing to be done about that though. She blinked, slowly, trying to focus her eyes. She finally tried to figure out where everyone was. Wounded people. She looked up, taking a breath. "Bloody typical," she said, taking an unsteady step before taking another, forcing her head straight.

As the uridium dust began to clear and visibility increased, more of the away team's surroundings slowly came into view. The darkness of being close to three kilometers below ground was frighteningly apparent yet there seemed to be a strange red ambient lighting which softly pulsed from the rocks all around them.

The most discernible feature of the area was the massive expanse the Starfleet team had fallen into. It was cave-like in structure with a massive open area spanning close to five visible kilometers, and it was littered with a series of large obelisk-shaped rock formations equally spaced in mathematical row-and-column arrangements as far as the eye could see. Though the rock was natural in its composition, the placement was not, and it soon became evidently clear that the cavern the away team was currently in was not a natural structure.

Once his head cleared, Elijah finally had a chance to look around. His spine still hurt and when he looked down he still had a hold of Stace's hand. He didn't want to let her go, he promised to help her and he would. Once he helped his department head into a seated position, he did another look around and his jaw slacked. He again had never seen anything like it, it seemed so... uniformed and for the first time in a very long time, he was frightened. He looked on with a keen, geologist's eye and he had cursed himself that he didn't have his tricorder. "This doesn't look like any cavern I've seen," he said into the comm, drawing on his experience. "It's to... perfect."

Allyndra began to struggle with her suit. She needed to be free of the thing and pulled the tab and pushed out. The helmet and parts she needed yet to breath the not yet stabilized air that was even poorer down here and she eyed the opening. "I can make that easily," she said but then her attention was drawn elsewhere.

"It's pretty," Aria looked around, with a frown. "I don't like that, pretty means deadly. This is not a good, happy place to linger..."

From within each rock obelisk -- of which there were thousands -- several non-corporeal entities began to emerge. Their red energy wisps and tentacles were identical to those seen inhabiting the Cardassian bodies just moments ago, but now there were hundreds of them manifesting. Hundreds of thousands...possibly millions across the entire expanse of the cave. Their curiosity and defensiveness was visible as several began to swarm around a decidedly large and superior obelisk near the middle of the cave complex, and several other of the beings began to move towards the away team to investigate their presence.

When they arrived at the group of bunched-together Federation personnel, they slowly circled the team and observed. Waiting. Judging. Hoping for one of the corporeal beings to volunteer itself for an imperative exchange of information lest more bloodshed occur.

Elijah swallowed hard as the corporeal beings began to inch closer. Was this the end? His eyes followed the beings as they began to circle the team, he wasn't sure what was going to happen but he felt his heart begin to race. Were they being studied? Why weren't they attacking? Did they want to communicate? Harvest them? And the questions inside his head went on and on. All he knew was this was all unnerving and he just wanted it over. Strike the team down now or leave the team be. The waiting was too much.

Stace looked up to Elijah as she sat, motionless on the floor just staring out to the red mirk that wafted over slowly to them. She swallowed hard and then gripped her thigh in desperation.

John instinctively reached for his phaser rifle, for what good it might have done him anyway, he tightened his grip around the trigger and stood ready. His crew did not deserve to be in the position they were in, and if this was going to be their end, he would make sure they went down rifle-in-hand.

"Why aren't they attacking us? The last squadron didn't waste any time?"

"Maybe it thinks we're not intelligent enough to be worth it, which I can totally understand considering what we do for a living," Oren chimed in, not caring that he probably sounded like a bitter, petulant child. He was in pain, dammit! And, after fifty years, if you saw one amazing underground cave, you've seen them all.

"Or maybe they're waiting to see who looks the tastiest...to have us from lunch...maybe with a smoothie...or make us into a smoothie..." Aria whispered, her eyes wide. She felt quite exposed.

Amynta looked at Rice for a long moment, taking a breath. "If I was going to kill and then eat you, Rice, I would do so with a nice glass of white wine," she said dryly, moving past her, carefully. Because she did see Rice's point. This? This was not good.

Honestly Dea had no clue what these entities wanted. Deep inside she wanted to run but there was no good escape path. These entities could be very aggressive they'd seen that firsthand. So her only option was to try to get to the bottom of this sooner rather than later. Dea stood as still as possible allowing a being to come closer and proceed with what it wanted. Really she had no idea why they had chosen her. Whether it was because Dea happened to be one of the Senior Staff or some other reason. Science really didn't fall under her job description. At the same time Dea didn't want to see what occurred if she attempted to decline.

Seeing that the large, fleshly sack of water identified as 'Mialin' had seemingly taken the initiative to begin the information exchange, one of the larger wispy energy beings moved closer to her and slowly extended a single red tendril towards her head. Ever so slowly and delicately, the creature inserted its tentacle through the side of her EVA helmet until it touched the side of her temple, after which it quickly pressed inward into her cranial cavity and made contact with her delicate cerebral cortex.

There was not much time for thought transference and the non-corporeal entities had not had much luck keeping their humanoid hosts alive for very long, therefore the download of information was swift and almost instantaneous.

As the entity approached Dea her fight or flight reaction became far stronger than it had ever been. She had to resist that urge to flee for fear of what would happen. Witnessing the tentacle pass through a solid object like her EVA helmet only reinforced that fear.

A collection of jumbled images surged through Mialin's brain almost too quickly to comprehend. Snapshots of the large pillar at the center of the cave were extremely prevalent, and a prolonged memory of several unidentified aliens surrounding the vertical shaft and physically touching it as a means to interact with its consciousness seemed to be the most important and pervasive of all the memories. And then, it was over. The energy tendril quickly recessed from Dea's brain and returned to its host, hopefully not having damaged the humanoid too badly.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CDRE Lirha Saalm
Mission Advisor
USS Galileo

CMDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo

CAPT Jonathan Holliday
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Lt Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Andreus Kohl
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Elijah Williams, IV
Geologist
USS Galileo

LTCMDR Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Asahi Kita
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

PO1 Lyras Ueda
Diplomatic Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC Kita]

ENS Aria Rice
Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

Oren Idris
Anthropologist/Archaeologist
USS Galileo

LT Amynta Markos
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

MWO Amon Mormont
Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC Markos]

ENS Grayson Jones
Asst. Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

LT Norvi Stace
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Luke Wyatt
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

SWO Alexion Wylde
Medical Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC Blake]

PO2 Siren Hex
Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC Blake]

PO1 Gabriel Stark
Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC Blake]

LT Jared Nicholas
Linguist
USS Galileo

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