Team 2: Finding the other Obelisks

Posted on Sat May 11th, 2013 @ 10:08pm by Captain T'mpest Michaels & Lieutenant Commander Morai Keen & Lieutenant Commander Dylan Blake & Lieutenant Jimmy Cooper & Captain Elsie Halliwell

2,376 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Rumours, Promises, and Lies

ON

As the team walked, the deserted land seemed endless. Jimmy, for one, couldn't wait to get out of here. Still, they ploughed on, until they came close to the point where the emissions came from. Here, the land was more cracked and hilly, though the reason of this wasn't quite obvious.

"Commander," Jimmy broke the silence, "The emission is coming from there, we may need to climb or at least follow one of the paths."

"We'll take one of the paths as far as we can and climb from there," T'mpest said. She was carefully scanning the terrain and the odd readings. The land looked like it had seen some seismic activity and she wasn't sure if the road farther up would be passable or not. But from what she could tell, they shouldn't have too much trouble getting to their destination.

Following their gaze Blake felt a smile tug at his lips, he enjoyed climbing and other physical events for pleasure. The craggy face would be a welcome challenge after the cramped shuttle journey.

"Commander, I'm getting a fainter reading at 023.2 degrees. Can you verify?" Jimmy looked at his tricorder, then looked at T'mpest.

"I'm getting the same thing," Dylan reported returning his eye to the scanner.

"As am I. The question is, should we stick together and examine both sites in turn or split up?" She looked at the other three. "Opinions?"

"With the current situation I would think that dividing would be no less harmful than having a one team go from point to point?" Keen said as he was checking his Medical Tricorder. "I would suggest we split and which team gets a more intertsting reading can call the other to get more focus?" He had to admit the physical activity was better for him, he had missed his running partner from the other ship. The chief Medical Officer was his friend as well as one of the people he helped on occasion. "Besides, the quicker we get an idea of what is happening the better for us all I think?"

"Fine with me," Jimmy answered to no-one in particular. "But perhaps we should contact Captain Halliwell to be sure?"

T'mpest nodded and tapped her combadge. "Michaels to Halliwell."

Halliwell looked to her combadge and stopped walking, slowing the others of her group down. "Halliwell here. Go head."

"Request permission to split into two teams to examine two signals."

She paused for a moment and considered the question, looking to Kendrick before replying. "I'd prefer you to stick together, Commander. If neither teams find anything of significance in our selected locales, then we'll rendezvous at the third."

"Very well. T'mpest out."

She turned to the rest of her party. "As you heard, we will stick together. For now, we continue on our course." She turned and continued to climb.

"Right Commander." Keen said as he ascended the climb; each step up the incline seemed to get a bit slick and he found his footing not as sure as he would like. "It is me or is this incline against us?"

"It is not the incline that is against us," T'mpest said. She was feeling an increased tension and paranoia. She found that if she looked at it analytically it was easier to deal with. She hoped that she was getting close to finding out what was at the root of the problem.

They continued to climb and talk ceased as the team focused on their footing. Finally they came to a plateau and T'mpest stopped to admire the view.

The plateau extended for several kilometers. The rusty-colored sand here showed veins of red and orange. Twin suns hung high in the sky. It reminded her a little of Vulcan. In the far distance was an odd shimmer. It was like something was there but not there. "I believe that is our destination."

Here on a flat surface the assault of psychic energy was greater. It undulated like waves of energy. Fortunately, it did not seem to have the force felt on the ship, but it was still enough to cause T'mpest to wish she had her telepathic dampeners with her.

"What's WRONG with this planet!?" Jimmy exclamed as the headache he'd experienced for days increased. Not having the feelings of a Vulcan, to him it was just an attack on his senses, which dampened his mood considerably.

So far unaffected by the force Blake frowned at Jimmy's outburst. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"I've been having a headache since we got in this SYSTEM." Jimmy explained short-fused. "I think that... thing... might have something to do with THAT."

Not being a scientist Blake wisely bit down a quick remark and the urge to tell Copper to pipe down. For he knew there could be a connection especially considering had had happened to the Dubai. He glazed at the others in his company wondering if the brief look of distress on T'mpest' face was linked to Copper's headache though Commander Keen looked as lost as he felt. The Ops officer shrugged, "Then let's find out."

T'mpest felt it wiser not to comment at this time. She continued walking until they got close to the shimmer. It didn't take long to see that it was some sort of cloaking device that was failing. What it was hiding was mostly cloaked, but there was an odd shimmer indicating where the cloaked device was.

Walking within a meter of the cloak caused the object to become visible. It was a large pyramid shaped obelisk, about a meter and a half in height. It was of a black obsidian-like stone with purple veins running through it. Geometric shapes were carved into the sides and each side had an indentation. T'mpest pulled out her tricorder and began to scan, but she could get no readings off the object.

Keen had heard the comment about the headache; it was not unlike his own conclusions. Of course these objects had something to do with it; just like the Prophets are central to his belief. Perhaps these were amplifiers; it would explain the growing tensions... sometimes he hated his beliefs, they were not scientific. Mysticism is what most called the unknown and in front of his is a big chunk of 'Unknown.'

"Not hard to figure out that like an iceberg we have only that which is on the surface." Keen noted as he was quite apt at keeping his feelings under control, though he felt the 'Stone' coming back and just hoped it was fleeting? "Though there are things going on here that are not scanned by the tricorders. " He tried to fully activate the universal Translator and see if there were any similarities in the symbols?

Unable to cope with the information, the tricorder tripped a safety and disabled entirely. Jimmy looked at Keen's tricorder with some confusion "I've never seen a tricorder do THAT before. Try re-booting it."

Blake walked the circumference of the object scanning it with his eyes while the others struggled to analyse any data. "I'd imagine it goes down some distance," he scrapped the soil with the toe of his shoe. "But where the hell did it come from?"

"No idea. That is one of the things we need to find out," T'mpest said. She was curious about the workmanship of the obelisk and reached out a hand to see if the veins of purple could be felt. A jolt of energy shot through her, causing her to stumble back. The headache she'd been feeling magnified ten-fold. Okay, that was not a good idea. She put a hand to her head, feeling like a hundred pinpricks of electricity were dancing across her skin. She fought the strong desire to turn and attack the rest of her party.

"Commander," Blake hurried around the base to her side having seen her stumble backward and saw the increased look of discomfort flash across her narrow face. "Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine in a minute. Thank you for your concern," she said. She couldn't afford to be ill right now and would exert all her will to stay upright.

At that point, Jimmy had enough. He suprised everyone by grabbing his phaser, and before anyone could respond he shot at the Obelisk. The phaser beam lighted up part of the obelisk briefly, which diverted the phaser beam away and upwards. "Die, stupid thing." He added needlessly, as obviously his efforts had little effect. "Let's get there as soon as possible and destroy that thing. Or at least disable it."

"That's enough," Blake knocked aside Cooper's extended phaser arm. "Have you lost your senses?" he snapped. "There's no knowing what you may have done to it. Are you trying to get us killed?""

"May I gently remind you, Lieutenant, that I am the Chief Science Officer, and I scientifically decree that THAT THING SHOULD DIE?!" Jimmy had lowered his phaser altogether, and was all but screaming at Blake who was standing right next to him.

Wincing at the volume used Blake stepped closer into Cooper's personal space. "Decree or no that doesn't give you the right to pass judgement on sentinel life or otherwise."

"May I remind you both that I'm in charge of this team?" T'mpest raised her voice to be heard over the squabbling. "We need to find out what it is and we need to disable it. However, shooting it clearly does no good. Nor does yelling at it. I suggest, Lieutenant Cooper, that you use that scientific brain of yours to come up with a logical way to deal with the situation."

Jimmy sighed and centered on himself to calm himself. "None come to mind at this point, Commander. Let's get to it and have a look up close."

"Commander Keen," Dylan turned to the final crew member, whom to his knowledge hadn't displayed any indications the alien artefact was causing a change in his behaviour. "Anything?" he nodded to the tricorder still held in his hands.

"The phaser did not work because it is like a flashlight upon a prism and that like an iceberg for every inch we see above there is at least three below." Keen said calmly. "Not even the Ranger has enough power to destroy it were that the true desire." Keen checked his medical tricorder. "AND all it might do is add to the tensions we are all feeling as violence promotes violence."

The argument gave T'mpest something to focus on besides the untenable noise coming from the obelisk. As scanning proved futile and shooting it more so, she finally had to conclude that they were ill equipped to properly examine the device. "I suggest we move on to the second reading and then go back to the ship. Perhaps the Ranger's sensors will allow us to find out what we're dealing with."

Breathing out a heavy sigh Dylan shrugged his shoulders at the commander's suggestion and fell into line without further comment.

As they got further from the obelisk T'mpest's headache eased and the stress levels lowered. To her, that was a clear indication that these devices were behind the problems on the Ranger and the Dubai.

The second obelisk was identical to the first, only the psychic energy emitting from this one was practically non-existent. Even the cloaking device had failed. T'mpest pulled out her tricorder to see if she could get readings from this one but the tricorder was unable to penetrate the surface of the rock. Still, she took what readings she could of the soil and ground beneath them for comparisons on the ship. She also took a few soil samples. "Anything else you'd like to try?" she asked the group.

"Unless Cooper wants to try and blasting it to pieces again," Blake sneered wondering why they'd hiked all this way only to learn nothing of value.

"It's not like you had any better ideas," Jimmy countered with his brows raised. "At least we/ve got them mapped now. Perhaps we can learn something from the bigger picture."

Out of his vision Blake mimicked Cooper's snapping reply silently.

"Agreed," T'mpest interjected. "Let's rendezvous with the others and see if they had better luck."

Changing the view is always better in the end." Keen said as he scanned the ground surrounding the object. "Could we get some idea of age by reading the ground around it? Like layers of sentiment?" Keen theorized. "It is not my specialty but if we know how long it has been here it might lead to how long it will be ... working?"

"All we could determine is how long it's been here, but that may not be an absolute number. There are far too many factors that are inconclusive for that. Nothing but an analysis of the obelisk itself and how it works will give us an idea of how long it will continue to function. And, by the way this one feels it is barely functioning at all," T'mpest said.

"Tricorders aren't giving us the information we need," T'mpest added. "But we might be able to do more with the ship's sensors. Especially now that we know what we are looking for."

Fortuitously, Captain Halliwell's voice cut through the discussion like a knife through butter. "Commander," she began without waiting for a reply, "we've had some developments on our side of the search. You and your team remain where you are. We're at the Campbell now so we'll shuttle over to collect you." The fair-haired women shot a glance to Reisha as the sliding doors of the Aerowing revealed their sanctuary. "When you board, don't be alarmed. We have accrued a visitor and we'll explain en route back to Ranger what we've discovered." She broke off for a second and then added, "How are you all?"

"We are well, Captain. We will await your arrival."

"Good," came Elsie's genuine reply. "We'll be with you shortly. Halliwell out."

OFF:

Commander T'mpest Michaels
Executive Officer
USS Ranger

Lieutenant Jimmy Cooper
Chief Science Officer
USS Ranger

Lieutenant Dylan Blake
Chief Operations Officer
USS Ranger

Lieutenant Commander Morai Keen
Chief Counselor
USS Ranger

 

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