The Heart of Darkness (part 4)

Posted on Sun Oct 19th, 2014 @ 6:08am by Commander Rylie Cattmor & Lieutenant Commander Dylan Blake & Lieutenant Commander Orin ch’Valri & Lieutenant Jensen Foster & Lieutenant JG Rami Miral

2,828 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: What Dreams May Come
Location: The Edmorn

[Excerpt from Part 3:]

"Without the code, you don't stand a chance." A gruff laugh could be heard just off camera, almost bordering on maniacal. "Here, I'll fix it so you won't have to watch." As soon as the last word was spoken, the assailant's other hand whipped down with some form of tool or implement and struck just where he'd intended with deadly accuracy, as it punched straight into the other's eye socket, spilling optical fluid, blood, even some brain tissue down the engineer's face and splattering it on the console, before his prone body was flung back a couple of metres using the tool as a lynch-pin.

[...And now Part 4.]


The face of the assailant now appeared in all its ferocious, disgusting glory. Half its face had been torn away leaving clear view of its jawline, deep nasal cavity, the muscles barely attached keeping its eyeball slightly off kilter, with what looked like electrical burn marks across the rest of the forehead and across the hairline. "No-one leaves here, and no-one lives, there are just dreams. This ship will burn. Ashes, ashes, we all fall down." It let out another gut wrenching laugh before smashing the console with a well placed fist, sending the static lines once again.

The stunned air hung like a cloud of dense chromo-vapour for a few seconds before anyone spoke. "We have to leave." Rylie said quietly as the hereditary marking aroound her eyes starting to get brighter, especially in the low lighting; what she'd seen on the screen, coupled with remains Rami had found made Cattmor's flight instinct impossible to ignore. Logically, there was no-one left here, no-one alive at any rate - the sensors, tricorders, even her own senses confirmed it. There was just something about the video and surroundings which spelled disaster was right around the corner.

"Dreams?" Miral said. "Like the ones I had last night?" She turned to Rylie. "It may already be too late."

Rylie turned to Miral, a slight frown creasing her brow as her own nights had been far from restful. Even during waking hours, she'd had flashes of nightmarish imagery. "You've had bad dreams as well?"

"Yes. Things from my past..." She shuddered. "Not something I want to relive."

A flash of an image was all Rylie picked up before she hurriedly slammed the door shut on picking up any more thoughts from Rami; it was a difficult skill she'd been forced to have a lot of practice with over the last few days, and one that caused her discomfort, with a touch of disorientation every time. The image seemed eerily familiar, almost like shared dreaming. "Anyone else?" Rylie asked once she'd momentarily recovered.

"I've had a couple of disturbing..." Jensen paused, dreams just didn't quite cover it for him. "Nightmares. I've had a few of them. Nothing I want to share either though..."

"Me too," Blake added sheepishly.

Orin was quiet for a moment. It was interesting to hear them all talk about things from the past and nightmares since that's all Orin saw when he closed his eyes at night. Replays of past events and missions. Faces of the dead. It was the crap just a different day, for him anyway. He took a moment to shake off an uneasy feeling before speaking up. "Everyone needs to relax. I understand that most of you aren't accustom to getting bad dreams, but the important thing to remember is that they are still dreams. They can't hurt you unless you let them. I won't lie and say I haven't had nightmares, some of which might beat all of yours, but I never turn away from the fact that they are still dreams. You all need to stay head strong. We can't go losing our cool now. Stay to the mission. We all knew this wasn;t going to be a walk in the park."

Miral indicated the body in the corner and the monitor. "They maybe dreams, but whatever happened here cannot be ignored. I'm beginning to wonder if there's a connection."

Glancing at the body in the corner and then, once again, at the monitor, Jensen answered: "I was wondering that myself. And you are right, of course, Lieutenant ch'Valri. We all need to keep our wits about us and not loose it."

Having been busy with the console Blake hadn't seen the body until Miral pointed. A shiver rippled down his spine at the sight of the remains. "Thanks for the reminder guys, as if we weren't scared enough."

Cattmor almost envied Orin; at least had the benefit of training and practice to keep his thoughts in check. He'd seen things, done things which practically defied belief, and Rylie saw them--as each member of the team went round recounting their experiences of dreamscape images without verbal detail, Cattmor saw it all regardless. Despite his checked-in attitude, there was something still bothering the Aenar, who almost looked like a piece of the furniture garbed in his dark suit in these surroundings. Thoughts came in huge droves from the group too, pummelling into Rylie's psyche that did nothing but make her flight response more pronounced. Like Orin, she'd seen much, done much, but there was something about this place, something about this situation which repulsed her to her very core, and she felt like something was getting a big kick out of their thoughts and feelings.

"I think the connection is pretty evident." Rylie said with an edge to her tone. "Dreams or not, something got to the crew, turned them insane, and they set on each other. From where I stand, that marks any continuation of investigation on this ship meaningless. The crew's dead, the last log recorded says they put it on themselves--case closed."

"Could the gas cloud be affecting the environmental controls?" Miral asked. "Perhaps there's something in the gas that's altering our brain chemistry?"

Rylie took a sharp intake of her suit's recycled air, "No idea, and even if that were a consideration, the suits should be protecting us from anything like that. And in any case, I don't want to stay here long enough to find out. At this point we can do just as much back on the Ranger."

"We should take the records back to the ship, we might be able to find out what happened." Blake offered having been unable to contribute in the medical chatter.

"I agree. There isn't much else we can do here, I vote to take the records and ourselves back to Ranger," Jensen replied. "Maybe once there I can study the data and see if there is a connection between our dreams and what happened here."

"Fine, fine, just get it all transferred quickly; crew logs, system logs, everything. I just think we really need to get back to the ship." Rylie stated hurriedly, the burning sensation around her eyes just making things worse, before turning back toward the compartment where they beamed in.

Still feeling as if he was being watched, Jensen followed suit. He wasn't feeling comfortable and knew everyone was beginning to feel the same if they hadn't began to do so already. The sooner they got back to the Ranger the better.

Orin didn't move. He couldn't shake the feeling of uneasiness all around him. Because of his uncontrolled telepathic abilities, he wasn't sure if it was coming from everyone or himself, but he knew there was something off or unfinished. "Wait." He said softly as he stood in place and slowly turned around, keeping his eyes, ears, and antennae opened for anything that would help alleviate these feelings.

"What is it?" Miral asked, turning to ch'Valri.

"I don't know." Orin replied as he looked around one last time before looking over to Miral, his face still covered by the tint in his helmet. "I feel like... something is missing. Unfinished. It's hard to explain." He let out a bit of a laugh. "One of the things I need to get used to. Working with people who don't know how I am."

"That's okay. You haven't been on board long. Give us some time and we'll get used to you," Miral said cheekily. Then she sobered. "Is there anything you want to check out before we head back to the Ranger?"

Cattmor turned back around the corner as soon as she realised not all of the team were present at the beam in site. "What's the hold up you two? Come on." she ordered. Since her last outing as the lead in an away team, she'd vowed she'd never lose anyone again. A dangerous promise, but one she was determined to keep.

Miral turned to Orin. "Ready to go or do you need to look around a bit more?"

"What kind of logs have we taken?" Orin said as he looked over to Miral.

"Computer logs, crew logs and what's left of the database," she said. "Pretty much as much as we can."

Despite her better judgement, Cattmor re-entered the chamber where Rami and Orin were still standing, discussing something she firmly believed to be immaterial, and the thumping of her heart proved it, the marks around her eyes virtually emitting their own light. She couldn't understand why the others were not moving. "Is there a problem, Lieutenant?" she firmly asked in the singular, but asking neither 'Lieutenant' in particular. "Why are we not looking at a Federation transporter room right now?"

"Lieutenant ch'Valri isn't sure we should leave yet," Miral said.

Knowing he'd regret it, Jensen re-entered the room he'd just left. All because the emotions coming from there were beginning to cause his head to buzz rather loudly. Casting a quick glance at Cattmor before turning his gaze towards his fellow Lieutenants, he spoke quietly, "Even though I'm pretty sure we really should be staring a transporter room right now, I am slightly curious as to why you three are still standing here. Not to mention you are all wreaking havoc on my empathic abilities... But that aside, I did get those weird tricorder readings before it, you know, died..."

Now that he'd brought that up, Jensen felt the need to mention the other thing. "Oh, that and just before it did, I saw a shadow-figure. Maybe that's what Lieutenant ch'Valri is picking up on? Though honestly this place has me spooked, especially after seeing that vid..." Jensen couldn't help the shiver that coursed through him at the remembered vid.

"And you didn't say anything!" the voice of Lieutenant Blake came over the comm. having been left in the adjacent area. "Gee thanks Doc I feel real safe now."

Cattmor couldn't help seeing what Jensen saw -- the shadow-figure, the alcove, the sensor blip -- and it just heightened her sense of danger more than it had been already. Her skin felt like it was covered with prickly itches that would not be soothed even if she could scratch them through the EVA suit. She instictively grabbed her phaser from the holster on her hip and powered it up to full intensity. "I'm... sorry," Rylie started as she turned to the doctor, "if this is uncomfortable for you Mister Foster, believe me, there's nowhere I'd rather be right now than not here."

Smiling, somewhat weakly, Jensen responded, "It's alright, Rylie. But I do think we should let Lieutenant ch'Valri continue looking around. Maybe there is something more we have missed in our rush to leave. All because of our feelings towards the vid and the state of the ship."

"For starters, it's Commander to you." Rylie said sharply, sharper than she'd really intended although she wasn't feeling particularly guilty on that fact at the moment.

"Sorry, Commander," Jensen replied sheepishly, "I didn't mean to call you by your first name... I'm having just a touch of an issue with my abilities... making it rather hard to not be feeling everyone's emotions at the moment. I'll work on it."

"You do that." she said, inwardly chastising herself for displaying such professional disregard for her colleague as he had done breaching protocol. She also made a mental note to rectify the situation at a later date, then turned to Orin and continued, "All right Lieutenant, without me having to peek, you have ten seconds to convince me that there's a reason why we need to stay here."

Orin looked over to Rylie. He stood firm and tall as he walked over to her slowly, breathing outward with every step of the EVA suit. As he came to a stop in front of her he crossed his arms over his chest slowly. "Unlike most of you, I don't have accurate training in my psionic abilities. I may be part Aenar, but I'm still a born and bred solider. I can't stand here and tell you why I feel what I feel. However, I can tell you this. I learned to trust it. My team refers to it as a Spidey Sense, even though I don't understand why. They have come to trust it and understand that it just is. Jensen might be right, maybe it was that shadow thing, but maybe it wasn't. I do however know that if I can stand in the middle of a forest and know, without seeing, that a sniper has his eyes on me and my team or that few feet away there is a field mine ready to blow one of my top officers straight to hell, then I can tell you, with complete conviction." He paused as he moved his hand to his control gauntlet and triggered the tint in the glass of his helmet to fade so that she could see the look in his pale eyes.

Orin stared at her for a moment, her light shinning in his delicate eyes as he spoke the words. "We are missing something important or useful." before closed his eyes and pulling away with slight cringe. He kept his eyes closed as he felt his way back to the control gauntlet and switched the tint back on, shielding him from the brightness however his attempt to show control and strength left him temporarily blinded. Luckily, he found he healed pretty quickly and would soon regain his sight again.

Cattmor was sure that it was not Orin's intention to invade her personal space, but it still felt like their suits were mere centimetres from each other, as the muscles at the back of her neck tensed slightly, almost causing a shiver to cascade down her spine which she barely managed to hold off. Instead, she just stared straight into his pale eyes all the way through his speech, her own green ones slowly getting a purplish luminescence to them as if the heat pulsating across her temples had melted into her eyes and made the retinas glow; Rylie only breaking the look when Orin did.

Miral watched the interaction for a moment, then headed for the door. "Give me ten minutes." There was a place they could get more information. The computer core itself. If the computer was damaged in the crash -- or before -- the backup computer should at least have some record.

"You're kidding, right?" Blake asked with mock horror as she passed him. "Aren't we suppose to be leaving?"

As soon as she was out in the corridor, she pulled out her tricorder and headed for the computer core -- or what was left of it.

"Lieutenant, wait..." Rylie said into the coms before she sensed what Miral's plan actually was, "All right, go on. Just be careful." It almost physically hurt to let her go alone, but Orin was still blinded, Blake was still in the other compartment, which just left her and the doctor. She certainly didn't want to go, even though she still sensed no-one else alive on the ship. Without taking her eyes off of Orin, she spoke into the com mic, "Lieutenant Blake, you may as well beam back to the Ranger. Set up the transfer of the data logs, or a way to access them, then get some sack time." Then she went on to Orin, "Despite the situation and this spidey-sense, whatever that's suppose to mean, you have until the time it takes for Lieutenant Miral to return, and if you haven't found anything conclusive, we getting out of here no matter what your gut is telling you. Mister Foster, I know it's just as uncomfortable for you, but I want you here with your empathic talents to see if you can find anything to back up Lieutenant ch'Valri's claims that we've missed... something."




Lieutenant Commander Rylie Cattmor
Executive Officer

Lieutenant Orin ch'Valri
Chief Security/Tactical Officer

Lieutenant Jensen Foster
Chief Medical Officer

Lieutenant Dylan Blake
Chief Operations Officer

Lieutenant JG Rami Miral
Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer

 

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