Legend of Souls (Part 4 of 4)

Posted on 18 Sep 2014 @ 12:18am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Commander Scarlet Blake & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant Asahi Kita & Commander Norvi Stace & Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant Jared Nicholas & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton & 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

2,936 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: Lyshan III - Subterranean Cave Network
Timeline: MD 07 - 1510 hrs

Previously, on Legend of Souls (Part 3)...

What happened next to the team was similar to a lucid dream only more vivid and real. All around them, what appeared to be a holographic projection encompassed their vision. Images of the space-time continuum in its most basic linear form of parallel and curved lines began to appear, showing a rough timeline of past, present, and future events yet to be. The focus of the projection, however, quickly regressed to the past and began to show images of Lyshan III several million years ago. Now a desert Class K planet similar to Mars, Lyshan III had once had a thick atmosphere similar to Earth's and supported a vast and balanced ecosystem. Thousands of different species inhabited the world, the most sentient of which was an ancient humanoid alien race of subterranean nature. Sensitive to light and not well-adapted to survive on the surface, the race had evolved to live underground and had created a complex and thriving society many eons before life even began to form on Earth.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

The projection quickly changed and sped forward through the timeline. The aliens, with the help of their futuristic technology, had placed heavy emphasis on bio-molecular research and development. Genetic altering became the standard for the species over the next hundred thousand years until the race had become an almost-unrecognizable shell of its former self, a culture which had embraced modification to its fullest. Eventually, the technology developed to transfer their consciousness of the brain into its most primal source, a simple collection of nerve impulses and the resulting thoughts not bound by the confines of any organ or bodily shell. The transitional experiments to a non-corporeal existence were slow at a first with many failures, but as another few thousand years passed, the technology was refined to allow the race to leave their bodies with the help of the planet's abundant uridium ore which acted as a natural conduit for energy transference and metabolism.

Another million years quickly sped through the projection with jumbled images surrounding the away team, until finally the space-time continuum reached the present-past of twenty years ago. Images and animations of the ancient race now living peacefully in their non-corporeal form took precedence, but then a familiar scene began to appear. The appearance of the Cardassians. A militaristic and opportunistic power bent on conquering all worlds within their grasp, they had set foot on the planet a couple decades previously in the hopes of exploiting it for their own benefit. At first it was teams of surveyors, then colonists, then terraformers. Then the miners came. Drilling deep into the planet's crust, they began to harvest and export the aliens' energy uridium source without mercy. Soon the heavy equipment came and another humanoid faction named the 'Federation' began to participate, extracting as much of the mineral ore as they could with no regard for anyone but themselves.

Scared for their future existence, the non-corporeal beings began to fight back. Slowly at first, not wanting to harm another life form, but their subtle cues to leave the mine and vacate the planet went unnoticed. More years passed as more uridium was exported eventually leaving the beings to an uncertain and potentially-fatal existence. The subtlety of their warnings soon turned into more proactive attacks, anything they could think of to do in order to prevent the extermination of their way of life until finally there was no choice but to openly defend themselves and attack the humanoid soldiers and miners who were slowly killing them.

The projections swiftly fast-forwarded again to the most recent memories, a large Cardassian security team led by Tratar then reinforced by a Federation team from a vessel known as "Galileo". Between the two of them, they had attempted to destroy the mine and bury the aliens home and civilization, yet fortune had been on their side when the beings had forced the team to retreat back to their control center and deactivate the sequence. And then...emerged a beautiful creature.

Tiny in size yet also the most prolific and adaptable of all alien species ever encountered, the small ball of fur was a diamond in the rough that had changed the entire complexity of the encounter between the humanoid and non-corporeal species. The 'tribble' as it was named, was not only a resilient life form, but also able to be inhabited without damage to its physical form. For a race who had long-abandoned the physical in favor of the intangible, it was a precious being capable of providing the long-forgotten joy and pleasure of corporeal habitation which had been abandoned several millennia ago. Perhaps...its offering and a cease to the uridium pillage could prove to be a peaceful solution to the aliens' impending genocide. And, if only there was a way for the fleshy, watery Starfleet life forms to understand this.

"Not... not what I thought... not..." Reduced to minor thoughts and pained groans, Asahi found his bearings, scrambling up and leaning against the obelisk, any thought that continued contact would harm them long since gone. "Not... what?... Not... huh?"

Luke sat against the wall looking down into his hands a drip of blood dropped from his noes and onto his hands as he regained sight and functionality momentarily to most of his limbs. He went to speak but no words come out. Instead his lips trembled as a pain shot through his chest and his body went slack.

It was over, the pain, the glimpses through history. It was over and yet, it seemed like it all just begun. The information was horrifying, and Elijah felt himself sick to his stomach at it all. Throwing up, with a helmet on was not an option, so he took a few deep breathes to steady his tumbling tummy. He looked around, everyone seemed to be in the state he was in. The biggest question though was, why?

John said nothing, and simply panted heavily as he fought to get the air back into his lunge which had been so unceremoniously knocked free before this projection had begun. It was as if he had been given a holographic show right behind his eyes, and finally understood what exaftly was going on here on Lyshan III.

"What..so...so they see us as invaders? We're destroying their home without even knowing it...did anyone else see that?"

"It happens throughout history," Stace replied quietly, breathing deep yet softly as she spoke. "Time and time again." Her knowledge throughout her lifetimes had, she sometimes thought, favoured her with a perspective that not everyone possessed. "Civilisations, through no fault or malice of their own, fail to see the consequences that happen just out of plain sight. And sometimes it's not from lack of trying either." She heaved in another faltered breath and then allowed her face to fall into a saddened, bewildered expression.

Scarlet was still laid out on her side, reluctant to move with the throbbing in her head. But she had seen it all. Felt it, even. Slowly, she got a tingling hand under herself, using it as leverage to force herself up to sit. "Well now, we can change it."

Allyndra made her way back after the visions had ceased just in time to come in on the tail end of the conversation. "Well they should have tried a bit harder. Too many have suffered and died because of this. However, I think Captain," she turned her attention to Holliday, "that it is clear we are dealing with a first contact situation. The problem as I see it is that we have our rules but they do not apply to the Cardassians."

"This is a joint mining facility. Whatever views we might have, Starfleet will need to involve the Cardassian government in making a decision. The best thing we can do right now is make the strongest case we can for reducing our activities."

John looked again at the obelisk, trying to understand the sheer scope of what this civilisaion must have accomplished before giving up their corporeal form and transcending his own plane of existence.

"The uridium mined here is vital to the Cardassian rebuilding efforts - without it their ship manufacturing will be severely compromised...but we cannot allow a sentient species to be harmed simply to make room for economic progress."

Alexion had sat up slowly, a frown etched into his grim expression at what they'd witnessed. He rubbed his cold, ungloved hands together. And sometimes, people just ploughed on ahead and took what they wanted, regardless of who they hurt in the process. He swallowed back a feeling of bitterness before pushing himself to stand. "Whatever we do, it has to be fast. We need to get out of here; many are injured, and more have punctured suits."

Allyndra nodded, "Agreed, this revelation needs to be shared and discussions need to take place and I have many to attend to." She did not feel sorry for the creatures, they had made their own way. Her race had as well, paid a price and learned to live and find a new path to the mistakes of the past without anothers help. "The air is thin but enough that I think I could make it back up through the hole."

"This bio-electric field - that is what is inhibiting our transporters, correct? Perhaps if we could convince these creatures to lower the field long enough for us to contact the ship we could withdraw safely?"

John looked towards his science officers with the question, he was not an engineer and neither was he particularly useful in a laboratory, but if they could simply contact the ship, it would make leaving much easier.

"They wouldn't need to lower it completely, either," Stace grunted, shifting her weight to her other leg as she still remained seated on the ground. "Just enough to get a low frequency carrier wave through. I'm sure Asahi can configure one of our suit's communication transponder to patch through it. The Gally could then pin point our location via that."

Said volunteered engineer was currently staring off into space, still attempting to process what he had just witnessed. He tuned in the moment he heard his name, wincing as a pang of sharp pain reminded him of his current situation. "... It shouldn't be too difficult." He agreed, but held up the tattered remains of his own suit. "I just need a suit that has a transponder attached in order to pull it off."

Stace looked over to the engineer and painfully raised both eyebrows. Tearing her own transponder off the arm of her suit, she feebly tossed it over to the lieutenant. "It's a good job my legs broke the fall, huh?" she joked with a wince. "Take mine."

"I like your legs." It was out of Asahi's mouth before he realized he said it, but if he was asked about it when they returned to the Galileo, he would deny it and chalk it up to the pain tolerance he didn't have. Instead, he flopped to his side, biting through the agony in his knee, grabbing the transponder and cracking it open. After a pause and an attempt to find his now-nonexistent belt, he frowned. "... Grayson, do you still have your tools?"

"Still attached sir. Although, getting to them might be a bit of a problem." Grayson was still cradling his right arm after the fall, it hurt all over, like many tiny fractures surged through his bones. Being no doctor, he could't state for sure, but it hurt... a lot. His tool kit was hooped onto his belt on his right side, there was no way he was getting to it right now.

Asahi glanced over at the younger engineer, attempting to ascertain how far the distance was between the pair of them. Flopping to one side, he reached out and pulled a pair of tools from it. "Yay teamwork?" He chuckled lightly, tinkering about with the transponder. "Shouldn't be long now..."

"My left arm is at your disposal." Grayson grimaced as he tried to laugh.

Asahi looked like he was about to laugh, but instead bit his tongue and focused on the task at hand, using spanner and pliers to re-wire the transponder. "Shouldn't be long now..."

Once the two-man engineer team had managed to reconfigure the transponder and activate it, it didn't take long before Lirha's voice crackled through the comm with heavy static. "...Saalm to.......report......"

Wincing through the bruising that was steadily forming along his ribcage John slapped his commbadge.

=^=Commodore Saalm - do you read? Ma'am are you able to get a transporter lock on us?=^=

Luke was still slumped up against the wall of the obelisk dried blood sneers across his face and covering his Eva suit. He had regained himself to the point of being able to look around and see the rest if the away team holding to the hope that the Galileo would respond and essentially save them.

Elijah found himself holding his breath, hoping the Galileo would respond to their hail. He just wanted to go home. As much as he thought this was an adventure at first, he now thought otherwise. This certainly would never be an experience he would forget. He swallowed hard, bile still fought to rise but he continued to fight it.

Dea was still passed out cold after the encounter with the alien entity. Lying in the same position that Wyatt had placed her in.

Andreus Kohl, meanwhile, was starting to sit upright. He was confused and concerned by the vivid dreams that had beset upon him while he was out, but the attempts to communicate with Galileo sounded like a far more pressing matter to him.

It took a few long seconds while Lirha did her best to cut through the radio interference from her Ops station aboard the Nova-class' bridge, but finally she was able to produce a stable carrier wave to the away team. "Captain Holliday? Report your situation. We lost comms with your team forty-five minutes ago," replied the commodore through the captain's commbadge with concern prevalent in her voice.

"Captain," Scarlet let out a long, steadying breath, trying to gather her thoughts into a coherent stream of words. "We've made first contact with a non-corporeal species, but we've sustained a lot of injuries in the team, we need to get back to the ship for now and try and figure out....what we saw."

Lirha's fingers began to fly across the controls of Galileo's primary operations console as soon as she heard the report of injuries and a request for a beam out. She suddenly felt terribly guilty from the thought that her ship's crew had come to such harm without her even being able to communicate with them, and she quickly dialed up her previous expertise as an Ops officer in an attempt to establish a lock on the away team and return them safely to Galileo.

"Acknowledged," she curtly replied to Blake while simultaneously working the ship's transporter targeting scanners to attempt to lock on to the group. There was a plethora of biological signatures she had to wade through, many of which she wasn't familiar with or even sure should have existed, but after a few moments she was able to isolate the lifesigns of both the first and the second away team who had apparently rendezvoused and were now together. Thanks to Galileo's advanced sensory equipment, she could also detect multiple injuries to many of the teams' personnel, and she made a split-second decision to simply beam the entire group to sickbay without bothering to decipher which injuries required medical treatment and which were simply superficial. That was not her area of expertise, and she quickly tapped her commbadge to alert sickbay to the impending situation.

"Saalm to all medical staff, we have incoming casualties be beamed directly to sickbay. Prepare for a triage situation," she called out to every medical officer currently aboard the ship. With close to twenty of the away team who were about to be transported into the tiny sickbay, it was no doubt about to become a chaotic scene.

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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