Info Central

Posted on Wed Feb 3rd, 2016 @ 1:53pm by Captain T'mpest Michaels & Commander Rylie Cattmor & Ensign Belle Maryweather

964 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: A Civil Act
Location: Underground City

ON

T'mpest passed several buildings as she searched for one that looked promising. Much as she wouldn't admit it to the others, she was going a lot on instinct. One of the buildings near the center of the city appeared to have more light than the others. Or, rather, the light was brighter. Not by much, but it was enough for T'mpest to take note. "That one," she announced to no one in particular.

With a lighter step, she headed in that direction.

"Where are we?" Belle had been quiet, though that was mostly because she'd been more working with her holo-camera - getting everything documented of this cool and mysterious place.

"Some sort of underground city," T'mpest replied. "The mystery is that those on the surface can come down, but they can't go back. It is my hope that we will find answers ahead."

Cattmor was still taking in the somewhat dim surrounds as they headed to the oddly brighter spot in this subterranean world, being emitted from a curiously lone building. "What kind of civilisation builds a one-way mode of transport underground?" she asked practically to herself, "And then still disappears anyway?" She was also hoping for some concrete answers from the building ahead--there was something about this whole thing that really wasn't sitting well with her, though she could give no firm reason as to why at this time.

"One that is trying to get rid of people," T'mpest replied.

"Well... kudos, they succeeded." Rylie quipped.

T'mpest gave her an amused half-smile. "Indeed. However, I do not intend to remain down here."

She continued towards the building that seemed to have the most light and the most energy. There was an energy that practically hummed through the air -- and her mind. Was the city run by AIs? It was an intriguing possibility. The feeling grew stronger as she got nearer. No doubt Rylie would also be aware of it, as her telepathy was quite impressive.

What could only be described as a slight ringing in her ears, ever increasing, Cattmor did sense... something. What, she had no idea, which bothered her already bothered mind, playing through various scenarios, not a lot of which ended very well. She got the sense that T'mpest was running through similar things, operating on some form of gut instinct; whether strictly from her gut, or some other place she didn't really know, nor did she really care, she just wanted some answers and some actual work to do to alleviate her mind running through an increasing number of solutions, or rather endings.

The door opened as the small group approached. T'mpest paused for a moment, then walked in.

The first thing everyone saw as they entered the building was a large, column-like beam of light in the center of the large room.

"Captain," Belle gasped slightly as she read her tricorder, "This is almost pure antimatter, like our warp drive. However, unshielded like this, we should be dead. Something is stopping the radiation from getting out of that beam of light... If anything, we seem to have found our energy source."

Reaching for her own tricorder, more to corroborate the readings than anything, Cattmor stated, "I agree, captain. The power running through here is astronomical compared to the rest of the city." She looked up to stare at the light the beam was giving off, and squinted her eyes. Something about this was kind of familiar, though what she couldn't pinpoint, as if she knew this place. "I think I've seen something like this before." she said taking in some of the further surroundings; control panels and various blinking lights and other machinery and electronics. T'mpest's eyes were on her at that point and she didn't know where to go from there. She shook her head... "It's a vague detail, probably not relevant."

"Pure antimatter in a light beam?" T'mpest repeated. "Fascinating. That is reminiscent of Tesla's theories of free electricity sent to all the homes on Earth through the air. I wonder if they knew of Tesla or came up with a similar idea on their own?"

"Wireless energy..." Cattmor mumbled more to herself than to anyone else. Given her own background she'd heard of Nikola Tesla, even saw some parallels in his theories when compared to some of those from her father's employ. This though, she knew, was something they were never able to reproduce safely; either that or her father had fabricated the data in which to corner the market; she wouldn't have put it past him, or his associates. "It's something that quite a number of people have been working on, I think. From personal experience and beyond the theories, it's always been down to the economy; money. I guess these people worked past that in some way."

"Indeed. Not only did they appear to have perfected it, they found a way to sustain it over a lon gperiod of time," T'mpest added. It was an amazing feat, and one she would love to learn more about, but she wasn't sure it was something Starfleet could perfect any time soon.

The whispering in the back of her mind became more pronounced to the point she could almost hear words. It reminded her of the AIs on Abydos, another abandoned city that was kept alive by AIs running the computers. She hoped these would be receptive to newcomers. She also hoped they would know how to get back to the surface.

"Hello?" she said loudly to the room at large. "Can you hear us?"

For several seconds there was nothing. Then, in her mind she felt the response. "We hear you."

____
OFF

Captain T'mpest Michaels
Commanding Officer

Commander Rylie Cattmor
Executive Officer

Ensign Belle Maryweather
Science Officer


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