Down the Rabbit Hole...

Posted on Sun Aug 14th, 2022 @ 6:51pm by Lieutenant Johnathan Anderson III & Lieutenant JG Taina M'Tras & Lieutenant JG Andrea Carrington
Edited on on Wed Aug 17th, 2022 @ 8:23am

Mission: S1 Episode 3: Phage
Location: Zapara IV
Timeline: Mission Day 3 at 1125
2192 words - 4.4 OF Standard Post Measure

As soon as the team reached the bottom of the shaft, Johnathan activated his shoulder-mounted search lights, their twin beams stabbing at the void of darkness for about ten meters. "Let's move out, our crew is counting on us to find more of those crystals!"

Andrea turned on her light as well adding to the visual field they had. “Do the crystals have any particular ores, or minerals that we could use the tricorder to search for? It would shorten the search time.”

Johnathan relayed what information he knew about the Crystals, stating that they would need to be within about five Meyers to even start to detect those signatures.

"M'Tras, am I correct in my understanding that Catians have excellent night vision?" He asked as he looked over at their teammate.

"Yes, sir," M'Tras said, her vertical-slitted eyes adjusting to the bottom of the shaft. She had not activated any lights herself. She readied her tricorder.

Johnathan nodded. "Then you will take point. I will be 2 meters behind. Monroe, you stay two meters behind me. We move slowly and carefully, keeping each other in sight at all times, understood?"

Andrea nodded. “Understood Sir.” She hoped they wouldn’t be below ground for long, the whole area felt claustrophobic enough without getting even deeper.

"Yes, sir," M'Tras answered and then fell almost errily silent. Despite the heavy uniform boots, she moved with an almost eerie silence, every step carefully placed. She had her tricorder out in one hand, scanning for the precious deposits even as she moved. Her entire body was tense and taut, like a loaded spring.

“Did I ever tell you I hate tight, confined spaces?” Andrea looked around. “The sooner we get this done and get out, the happier I’ll be!”

Johnathan chuckled softly. "You're claustrophobic, yet, you serve on a warship, out in space. Kind of a contradiction, don't you think?"

“Maybe, but the ship isn’t claustrophobic. There’s no confined corridor space, not like this.” Andrea smiled. “Besides I’m not claustrophobic, I just don’t like restrictive spaces. I err...I used to be a victim of abuse, and torture. Being shut in a confined space was just part of it.” She moved along following Johnathan.

Nodding silently, Johnathan replied quietly. "I'm sorry to hear that. I hope you made the responsible party suffer in the end."

M'Tras glanced back and then forward again. She couldn't help hearing some of the conversation. She placed a hand briefly to the wall of the cavern as she followed a turn in the natural pathway. Then she paused and checked her tricorder. "I found some..." She was already pulling out her tools, working at the wall.

Andrea nodded in answer to Johnathan’s question. “I killed them all.” She glanced towards M’Tras. “I think you found an entire vein.” She motioned to where there looked like a whole trail of crystal gleaming in the walls.

M'Tras pulled her tools back. "You're right. Ok, I'll go find the far end of this and start working it there. Then you can work this end and we'll meet in the middle." She glanced back to Johnathan. "If that works..."

Johnathan nodded in agreement. "Sound thinking. I was about to suggest the same thing." He took in the entirety of what they saw of the vein and whistled softly. "If this is but the tip of what is here, then I dare say, ladies, we will have found a significant share for our ship and Captain." He then looked at both women. "While I'll make sure you get the credit for finding the sample, M'Tras, you both have word that the Captain will hear how much you did here today."

He then reached for his own tools and stepped to the wall. "Now, let's get to work, before someone else tries to claim our team's find." He smiled honestly at them both, then got to work, chiseling out the precious stones.

Andrea got to work on her patch of the vein as well, there was certainly plenty of it. “The Captain will be pleased with all this.”

"Thank you, sir," M'Tras said as she moved further ahead, locating the end of the vein and activating her tools, beginning to carefully work it from the cavern wall.

Andrea looked towards Johnathan. “We’re only going to be able to take so much at once, are we going to have to come back for more?”

Johnathan looked at the vein, at least what was visible of it, and did some mental calculations. "I'd like to get as much of this as we can, before heading out...." he pursed his lips, thinking.

Then an idea occurred to him. "Keep working, I'll be right back." He then turned and hustled back the way they had come.

M'Tras looked up curiously but, "Yes, sir," was all she said. She kept working.

Andrea watched Johnathan go before carrying on with her work.

A few moments later, Johnathan returned, carrying a set of transporter enhancers. After setting them up, he tapped his commbadge. "Send em down, Chief."

Two figures materialized, revealing two of the flight department slaves, the Andorian male and the Bolian female. Each had digging tools with them. "Get to work, I want as much of that blue crystal harvested as you can find. Also, I want any other precious gems and metals found to be collected Ted and sorted as well."

Both slaves nodded respectfully, then quickly got to work. Their master had always been fair with them. However, they also knew that he would punish them if they failed him.

A few containers materialized next. "Here, he spoke to Andrea and M'Tras. "Use these to collect what you've found. Let's see how much we can find over the next few hours. First round of drinks is on me when we are done."

Andrea grinned. “I’m never one to refuse a free drink!” Pausing to throw in the pile she had on the floor, she got back to work.

"Sounds pleasant!" M'Tras agreed cordially.

Johnathan grinned to both women. "Then let's get to work!" He chuckled and smiled a bit broader.

M'Tras kept harvesting the material, moving swiftly and systematically as she worked her way back from one end of the visible vein.

From the shadows down the tunnel, an odd chattering sound could be heard. Johnathan stop what he was doing and looked in the direction of the sound. "Hey, you two hear something?"

Andrea looked towards the sound, “Ohh yeah...”

Suddenly, there was a dull rumbling from below them. The rumbling grew louder and the floor started to crack open, as if something was emerging from below.

"Get back!!" Johnathan called out to everyone as he quickly backpedaled away from the wall. Just as he cleared the space, the ground he had been standing on burst upwards, as a huge worm-like creature, three meters around and an unknown amount long. It had stubby finger-like protrusions running along the length of its body in rows, clearly how the creature propelled itself forward.

As at least two meters of it exited the hole it had burrowed, it swung its head at the team and hissed, jagged, multi-mandible jaws spreading wide, exposing its mouth, which was full of razor sharp teeth.

“OHHH SHIT!!!!” Andrea backed away before turning to run, she wasn’t aiming to be worm chow anytime soon. “What in the hell do the creatures on this world eat!?”

Taina, it seemed, was the unlucky one. The creature was between her and the other two. She backed away, every muscle tense, ready. The engineer knew just what a phaser set to kill would do if it hit these walls. It didn't bear thinking about. But a high stun should be safe. She doubted it would work, of course, but best to at least try it. She aimed and fired, hoping she could stun the creature, even as she pressed back further from it.

As soon as the creatur was hit, it spun to face the threat. While it had no eyes, it used its sensory organs and licked on to its prey. Hissing loudly, it opened its maw again and shot out a jet of some kind of acidic substance, hitting M'Tras in her right thigh.

Andrea could only watch in horror, it seemed their weapons were more or less ineffective against this creature.

Taina hissed angrily as the acid burned into her thigh. For once, she wished the empire had more modest uniforms.

Johnathan reacted quickly, tapping his commbadge. "Anderson to Vengence! Medical emergency beamout for Lieutenant M'Tras! Send her directly to sickbay!"

Taina backed away as far as she could. Waiting for the beamout. It didn't come. "Any chance anyone can get a transporter enhancer past that thing? Or just closer?" She was already crouching down on all fours, perhaps looking prone to the creature, but she was wired taut, ready. It hurt a little to use her injured thigh but she didn't think the muscle damage was too heavy to function as she forced through the pain. Hopefully.

Johnathan cursed to himself. He should have brought more security down here. He would have to improvise.

Looking around quickly, he saw an option. "M'Tras! Get ready to move towards the tunnel opening!"

"Yes, sir!" she shouted.

Hearing her acknowledge his order, Johnathan grabbed the item he saw. It was a tunneling charge, one designed to burrow down into rock, then be detonated remotely.

After reading the charge in his right hand, he reached across his body and drew his phaser with his left. He took aim at the beast and fired, hoping to get its attention aimed at him instead.

The creature reacted immediately, Turning towards the new threat. It spread its mandible and hissed again, spotting more acid.

This time, Johnathan was ready and barely dodged the acid. "RUN, NOW!!" He bellowed as he hurled the explosive directly at the opened maw of the beast.

Taina didn't so much run as leap and at an angle. She gripped the wall to one side of the beast, ignoring the agony in her thigh, as she pushed off again almost immediately, practically bouncing. She shoved sideways as she collided bits of the doomed creature.

As she passed him, Johnathan saw the device land right where he wanted it, directly in the creatures open mouth. He instantly turned and caught up with his injured teammate, helping her move faster. "Fire in the hole!" He shouted a second before he pressed the detonator switch.

There was a brief delay, then the creature exploded a meter past its head. Acid sprayed everywhere but in front of it, it's large head blocking most of that direction. It then dropped like a bag of potatoes, finally dead.

After the dust started to clear, Johnathan coughed several times and stood up, small bits of rubble falling from his back. "Everyone okay?" He called out to his team.

Andrea shifted from under a small pile of rubble. “All good here, just a few cuts and bruises.” She coughed as she brushed herself down.

The slaves both replied that they were uninjured. Which left on M'Tras. Johnathan looked for her, as he called out. "M'Tras? Where are you?"

Taina looked up from where she'd taken a somewhat undignified landing, a few bruises and scrapes added to her more serious wound. She pushed herself up. "Here, sir."

Turning towards the voice, Johnathan saw the young officer struggling to get up. Moving over to her side, he offered his hands to her. "Here, let me help you up. That leg wound looks serious."

Taina accepted the hand up. "Thank you."

Moving over to them Andrea looked at the wound. “I’m no medic but it’s pretty deep, luckily the acid sealed the blood vessels.”

After helping M'Tras back up onto her feet, Johnathan saw the severed head of the creature. Moving over, he saw that the entire jaw was still intact. Removing his phaser, he reset the confinement beam to its narrowest setting, then surgically cut the massive jaws free. Once done, he picked it up and examined his find. "This will be a very nice trophy on my wall. My first animal kill here in the Delta."

He then turned to the slaves. "Collect all of the gems and precious metal that was mined and get it back to the ship." He then handed the jaw to the Andorian slave. "Get this cleaned and ready for mounting in my quarters."

"Yes, Master," the Andorian bowed respectfully as he took the remains.

Johnathan then turned to his team. "Well, ladies, I don't know own about you, but I could use a drink. First off, M'Tras, let's get you to sickbay. Then, once you've been treated, I want you both to meet me in the officer's mess. First rounds on me."

Andrea grinned. “Aye Sir! I’ll look forward to it!”

"Sounds good," Taina said.

Moments later, the tunnel was filled with transporter energy, as both the team and all of their discovered riches were brought up to the ship.

~END~