The Keepers (part 4)

Posted on Tue May 24th, 2016 @ 1:24pm by Captain T'mpest Michaels & Commander Rylie Cattmor & Ensign Belle Maryweather

815 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: A Civil Act
Location: Beneath the Planet

[PREVIOUSLY]

"That only creates more questions," T'mpest said, shaking her head. "I need to go there and see what is left." It might be dangerous. T'mpest wasn't sure if she could keep the others from following her -- or if she should. Or perhaps there was another way. She turned and headed for another building.

[CONTINUED]

If the others followed her, fine. If not, T'mpest still needed answers. Something caused the inhabitants to leave or die off and she wanted to know what it was. The voices did not seem to have the answers to this particular puzzle.

She headed out a side door and past two buildings, heading in the direction of the area excavated in the video. She entered one of the more decrepit buildings and headed for the top floor.

Belle followed her commanding officer, partially because it was her commanding officer, and part because she was very intrigued by the whole situation. She did, however, keep an eye on her tricorder, and made sure she recorded as much as possible.

Bringing up the rear with CPO Addy brought on new meaning as Cattmor exited the building and hung right back from the rest of the group, almost taking in the sights of the huge underground city cavern. She watched as T'mpest and the others entered a building that looked as if it were ready to collapse at any moment, as she bent down and idly touched the dirty ground, fishing out a rock from the clay like covering. She glanced up at Addy and then back down and tossed the rock aside. Her own thoughts were all a jumble, not to mention anyone else's. As she stood, she couldn't help but think that this mission had very few outcomes, most were unsavoury. "We better catch them up."

This building was not as well maintained as the others. The buildings beyond it seemed to be in a state of disrepair. It made T'mpest wonder if there was a correlation with that and the disappearance of the inhabitants.

As she walked into the building, the voices in her head grew fainter. That, too, was odd. Still, she knew where to go -- mostly -- and headed for what should have been the control center. There were several darkened crystals. She did not intuitively know what to do, so she spent several minutes examining the crystals. However, as she considered the crystals and their placement, they began to make more sense. She found a compartment with extra crystals and began to replace the damaged ones.

Cattmor entered last, well, second last with Addy bringing up a watchful rear to see T'mpest again replacing damaged crystals with apparent ease. She slowly paced around the area attempting to take in everything else other than what the commanding officer was doing; even stopping by Belle's shoulder to take a glance at the tricorder readings. Rylie sighed lightly but otherwise made no sound, and just watched suspiciously from the sidelines. Apparently, from sifting through the mumbling thoughts of the others, she was the only one with feelings of trepidation.

T'mpest glanced over to Rylie and then back to the console. She needed information before hypothesizing on what may have happened, but the images of a geothermic chamber were enough to concern her. She began to search for information on why the chamber was opened, what they were looking for and what happened after.

Every time she came close to an answer, the information was blocked. She needed clearance, which she neither had no could be given. But there had to be someone who used to work in this building that had the clearance. A quick check of the computer in front of her told her what she needed to know. "There is an office two floors up from here. I believe I can access the information from there." She turned to Orin. "If you will accompany me, I will make this quick." She had a growing feeling that they should not linger too long in this building.

With a nod, she turned and headed out the door. This time, she used her tricorder to find teh stairs up and quickly climbed the two flights. The office she needed was locked. She looked around for a manual override while she tried to contact the AIs to see if they could help. She didn't hear their words, but she had a clear impression that they could not. That, too, bothered her. "Why would the computer AIs have control over every building in the city but this one?" she asked Orin.

Finding nothing, T'mpest turned back to the door and used her Vulcan strength to break in. "Sometimes the simple solution is the most efficient." She dusted off her hands and walked into the room.

____
OFF

Ensign Belle Maryweather
Science Officer

Commander Rylie Cattmor
Executive Officer

Captain T'mpest Michaels
Commanding Officer

 

RSS Feed