The Heart Of Darkness (part 2)

Posted on Tue Oct 14th, 2014 @ 5:38am by Lieutenant JG Rami Miral & Commander Rylie Cattmor & Lieutenant Commander Dylan Blake & Lieutenant Commander Orin ch’Valri & Lieutenant Commander T'kaarch & Lieutenant Jensen Foster

1,302 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: What Dreams May Come
Location: The Edmorn

[Excerpt from Part 1:]

Slowly he lowered his head and closed his eyes, removing his goggles from his face. He ran his hand long side the suit until he reached a pocket and tucked the goggles into it to keep on him for when he needed them. After that, he slowly removed his helmet from under his arm and lock it into place. Which his eyes still closed his reached to the control panel on his other arm and tapped in a code that tinted the glass of the helmet so that it no one could see though it. Finally he opened his eyes and walked over to an empty spot on the transporter pad. "Again. My apologize. Ready when you arm, Captain."

"Then let's get this over with. Chief, set us down in the aft engineering section." And after all the others stepped on to the pads, Rylie put on her own helmet, and the team were off with an: "Energize."

[...And now Part 2.]


// The Edmorn

Once the light from the materialization process died out, it was practically pitch black save for the team's helmet lights. "Mister Blake, see if you can get some power to the consoles and get to work. ch'Valri, Foster, are you picking up anything?"

He slowly removed his tricorder from the holder on the EVA suit belt and began to scan around. "Nothing so far. Running into the same problem with the tricorders as we did with the ships sensors. Something is causing interference." Orin replied from inside his EVA Suit. If there was oxygen, this would be the perfect opportunity to remove his goggles and walk about freely. His eyes adjusted far better and quicker to the dark then anyone else did. The pitch black was his playground.

Blake shuffled off in the direction Cattmor had roughly indicated, located a terminal and got to work. While the others moved around the section casting long shadows in each direction Blake chewed his lip to distract himself. He'd only been here for a moment and felt jumpy. With perhaps more difficulty than normal being hampered by the heavy gloves he removed the access panel and connected a portable power supply to the main line. After a shower of sparks and some colorful language on his part, the terminal partially powered up. "I've got at least partial power on this one." he called out to the others.

"I'll take partial over no right now." Rylie acknowledged.

Dylan started tapping the semi glowing screen. "We might be able to squeeze something out of here..." the small screen flickered feebly before dying out. "Or perhaps not," the Lieutenant sighed tapping the console with more force without success.

The general thoughts of disappointment were all too evident to pick up across the room as Cattmor continued to scan for something she knew not what. Standing in the centre of the compartment, tricorder in hand, trying not to sense the myriad of different thoughts from all around her, it almost seemed like she was tapping controls and reading information at random in a bleak effort to distract herself. There was almost a palpable feeling of dread and doom in this place. "If you can't get anything from in here, according to the specs, there should be more consoles in the adjacent chamber, sort of like a backup area for the senior engineers."

"Might have to," Blake's voice replied packing up his gear. "I'll try one more before moving on."

Meanwhile, reading his tricorder, Foster turned in the opposite direction Blake took. Alternatively flicking his gaze from tricorder to surroundings in front of him, he called out, "Nothing to report, yet..." He walked a bit farther, the only light being that from his helmet. He looked down at his tricorder and found a perplexing blip in the data he was recieving. It seemed to be a lifesign, faint, but somewhere ahead of where he was currently. But when he looked up, the light of his helmet flashing dim light ahead, he saw nothing. Nobody anywhere.

As soon as he'd finished his thought he felt the hairs of the back of his neck rise, like he was being watched. Turning slightly he cast the glow of his helmet light around, but once again, saw nothing.

"I had it too. Could be anything--their equivalent of an otra," she said before realising no-one actually knew what that was, "a bug."

"A bug? Like an insect?" Jensen found that a little hard to believe, especially when the same blip kept popping up. He was about to move forward, when he was suddenly overcome with uneasiness. Granted, it didn't help his own uneasiness, but more to the matter he went with his instincts and headed towards whom the sensation came from.

"Don't worry, Lieutenant Foster. I wont let any bug harm you." Orin replied in a stern voice. He wasn't one for playing Bug Exterminator, but if it would ease Foster, and the others, he would happily do it just as long as it kept them all together and ready for anything that came ahead.

Rylie noticed the other member of the team was feeling perhaps a little more uneasy than anyone else, and that they were standing alone, apparently not doing a great deal. Approaching them, looking in the general direction they were looking in, she spoke up, "Rami? Something wrong?"

"Yeah," Miral said quietly. She'd walked into a dark alcove to see if there was anything unusual there. She pointed into the dark corner. Someone had created a piece of 'art' with what appeared to be human intestines. "Degas or Picasso?" she asked wryly. Part of the body stuck out of the nearby access panel.

Miral shook her head. "Sorry. I'll see what I can find in the computer."

When Rylie saw the remains, it was all she could do to force herself to swallow. Rami's off-handed comment then stuck in her head and she wracked her brains attempting to think of the reference, but to no avail, as she looked blankly at Miral's profile through her EVA helmet. In the split second she reached out to get the thoughts, she managed to stop herself, instead taking the ethical route, "I don't get it, are you saying the crew did this?" she asked just as Miral started to move off.

"Etched in blood for all the world to see." Rylie stated quietly.

Orin had seen worse, but this was something far more unsettling. It would take someone completely out of their mind to do something like this to another being. This only meant that they had to keep their guards up. "Whoever, or whatever, did this might still be around. We need to stay together and keep our eyes and ears opened." He stood up and looked over to the others, speaking in a commanding voice. "More importantly.. watch each others backs. I don't plan on losing any of you."

Miral nodded in agreement and carefully checked to make sure her knife was still accessible.

Jensen had joined Rami and Cattmor the moment he'd sensed the former's uneasiness. Now it was all he could do to keep his own stomach in check after feeling Cattmor's revulsion as if it were his own. He calmed himself and attempted to keep a professional air about himself. Taking quick scans with his tricorder he spoke, "Definitely one of the crew. Nothing much beyond that, though. Other than the... umm... yeah..." He got up from where he knelt and swept his tricorder out in front of him.

(To be continued...)

Lieutenant Commander Rylie Cattmor
Executive Officer

Lieutenant Orin ch'Valri
Chief Security/Tactical Officer

Lieutenant Dylan Blake
Chief Operations Officer

Lieutenant Jensen Foster
Chief Medical Officer

Lieutenant JG Rami Miral
Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer

 

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