The Heart of Darkness (part 7)

Posted on Thu Nov 27th, 2014 @ 4:48pm by Lieutenant JG Rami Miral & Commander Rylie Cattmor & Lieutenant Commander Dylan Blake & Lieutenant Commander Orin ch’Valri & Lieutenant Jensen Foster

1,030 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: What Dreams May Come

[An excerpt from Part 6]

Orin paused slightly. He was still facing down as he felt the whole away mission had gone to hell and back. This was far from what he was used to and he was too set in his old ways to change how he felt and thought. "If there is one thing I did however pick up on, with the help of Lieutenant DeViro, was to know when someone was in my head." He said as he positioned his helmet to face Rylie before continuing. "I know you can tell how I feel and I did my own homework on your species. I know how you can look into peoples minds, and not only take in their emotions and thoughts, but also view imagines of memories. So, at what point during your sightseeing did you think all of this would affect me? There is nothing here I haven't seen before. All this empathic and telepathy crap is all new to me and for the last 25 years of my life I have mistaken those feelings for instinct and I have used those instincts as a soldier, not an explorer. You can't stop me from thinking how I think, just like I can't stop you from popping into my head and removing what you wish, but in any case, you're forgetting one thing. What you see is exactly that, your interpretation of those events. I lived them and I know why things were done a certain way. Doesn't mean I wanted those conclusions, it just means that in the stir of the moment that was all that was left."


[CONTINUED]

Rylie was wound up worse than a cheap watch, and barely registered anything of what ch'Valri said to her; she heard it, and would no doubt have to assimilate it, but that wasn't happening right now, not on this ship. She slowly turned back around, nodded sharply at Orin in a vain attempt at acknowledging, then addressed Jensen, "Are you alright, Lieutenant?" Rylie asked trying desperately to sound as sympathetic as she could.

It took Jensen a few minutes to respond, him still reeling from the recording and emotions attached to it. Blinking back tears, he voiced, "I'm not sure Commander." He gingerly got up from the floor and shook his head, trying to clear the memory, but it seemed as if embedded in his mind -- doomed to forever be there, now a memory of his own. Feeling wetness on his face, he said, his voice cracking just a touch, "The sooner we get out of here, the better."

Just then, Miral walked back into the room. "Got it." She stopped and looked at the others. She didn't need to be a telepath to see that something had gone wrong while she was retreiving her prize.

Jensen was still reeling a bit from his vision, but had to say it was almost a relief when he heard Miral's voice over the comm. He'd been curious as to what she was going after. Then, when she'd come back with a slightly damaged computer core matrix, his curiosity was piqued yet again, and found he it was an almost obsessive reaction.

"Interesting," he said, taking a step closer to his crew member, looking over the device with keen interest. He'd rarely seen a computer core matrix up close. "I may be out of my league with this one, but I do think that shall help in our investigation." Turning towards Lieutenant ch'Valri, he spoke, "Does this help allay your feelings, Lieutenant? Or is your Spidey-Sense still kicking in?"

For Rylie's part, she'd gone back to leaning against the dead computer console, she sincerely hoped it was the former option, and couldn't help holding a breath awaiting the Lieutenant's response.

Spidey Sense? Miral thought, looking at Orin.

"An added instinct." Orin added, looking over to Miral. "Crow, Jack Addy, began to say it and it caught on. A reference to a Earth Comic Book character. Spider-Man. It's best described as a heightened feeling of a possible danger or threats. Often, the character, would get this feeling moments before an attack. I am sure there is something scientific behind it, but my team will always refer to it as a Spidey Sense."

Catching movement out the corner of her eye, she looked round to see Lieutenant Blake come around around the corner into the main chamber again. "Lieutenant, I thought I told you to get back to the Ranger?"

"Believe me Ma'am I would have left if I could," Blake replied sheepishly. "But comms are down, I can't raise the ships."

Rylie started to panic a little and tapped her comm panel of her suit, "Cattmor to Ranger..." But there was nothing, no response, no activity, not even any static on the line. "This is Lieutenant Commander Cattmor to the USS Ranger, come in please." And still nothing.

Realizing that he was still in a delicate state, Jensen did his best to squash down the sudden and crippling panic that came over him. Swallowing and taking a calming breath, he spoke, "Commander?" He hadn't liked what he'd heard from Blake or the fact that Cattmor had gotten no response. "Granted this is not my first away mission, but they normally do not go like this."

It was all Cattmor could really do, to look across the chamber in Foster's direction, her heart seemingly skipping several key beats. "You've never been on one of mine before," she replied quietly, almost too quiet to be picked up clearly through the EVA suit comm channels.

Cattmor's reply didn't sit well with Jensen. Let alone the panic that still wanted to take control, it was all Jensen could do to keep his breathing even and calm. He just concentrated on breathing while letting the others figure out what to do.


(To be continued...)

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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