Anomalous Day
Posted on Fri 11th Jun, 2021 @ 12:12pm by Nicha th'Elex & Sorra Yarime (Yari) & S'lani
1,714 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
Waging Peace
Location: Unknown Planet
Timeline: MD 1, 1700 Local Time
The Conundrum zipped through the small debris field that was what was left of the two Orion ships. At full impulse it was able to achieve orbit in only a few minutes. Aezash had been scanning for life signs, but some strange interference in the upper ionosphere kept his sensors from working correctly until the Conundrum got close.
It took more than 30 minutes to find the escape pod due to several sources of interference and the size of the pod in relation to the planet's surface. =^=Found them, life signs are weak. Prepare for imediate transport.=^= Aezash said over his comms. He didn't wait for Nicha to respond. He grabbed a first aid kit from the closest bulkhead and activated his wrist control panel.
Aezash and Nicha simultaneously transported down to the planet's surface at the same time to the same location even though they were on the Conundrum in two different locations. They found themselves only 20 meters away from the crashed escape pod.
By then, both S'lani and Yari had gone farther into the trees to prepare for the Orions to come looking for them. "They are here," she said to Yari. "I do not know which ship arrived first."
th'Elex whistled a high, thin sound that many species would not hear, but he knew his boss would. If he had just been kidnapped and mistreated by Orions, he'd be expecting them on the planet to pursue their runaways, and he imagined that Yarime expected the same. The man was good at hiding, and it would take a while to discover him, if he didn't want to be found. Maybe the whistle would shorten that ... if the man remembered their last time in the woods of a far away planet.
Aezash studied his tricorder which he was using to search for life signs, "The minerals around this area seem to be masking all life signs, any ideas?"
th'Elex whistled again, duplicating his previous sound. "If that doesn't bring him out, I think we'll have to go tree to tree and call his name. We can't be that far from the crash site, but there are plenty of hiding places here." He waited a moment and then added, "Alright then, I'll go right and you go left?"
A few minutes before.....
Yari and S'lani had managed to get out of the trashed escape pod. "I think we should find a place to hide, then work on our wounds." Yari pulled an alien scanning device from some sort of survival kit and tried to scan for a place to hide. "There is too much interference from the minerals on this planet to get a good scan, but I believe there is a cave close by that we should be able to hide in. We can cover the entrance with vegetation to help conceal it from prying eyes."
"An excellent idea." S'lani was still limping, but she was determined to get herself and Yari to safety before doing something about it. She pulled out her knife in case she needed it to cut down any brush and headed in the direction indicated. She felt ... grateful that if she were stranded with anyone, it was with someone she had come to trust.
Yari pulled a light source from the survival kit that he looped back over his shoulder. He took the small 10 centimeter capsule and snapped it before shaking it get the fluids inside to begin producing light. "Okay, lets go in."
Nicha kept his scanner in his left hand and his phase pistol in his right as he pushed through the jungle foliage. He muttered words that sounded like "interference" and "disgusting growth hormones", as well as an occasional yelp indicating small pain. Nothing much was coming through on the scanner, but he didn't want to dispense with it, just in case it did at a crucial moment. He wondered if Aezash was having better luck in his direction.
S'lani went in, looking around for any wild animals. Caves were logical places for their habitats. Over to one side were several boulders. She scanned them, then sat down to give her ankle a rest before preparing a fire.
"Let me take a look at that," Yari said as he dropped to one knee beside her and pulled a small Medical scanner from a first aid kit and scanned her ankle. "You have a hairline fracture. We need to wrap your ankle, keep it elevated and put something cold on it ,since we don't have a regenerator for it. You also have to stay off if it."
"I will accept a wrap, but if I stay off my foot, I will be unable to protect you," she said, looking at him intently.
"I'm not exactly helpless, you know." He smiled as he got ready with the medical supplies. "Let's get that boot off so we can get it wrapped and elevated."
"You are far from helpless," she admitted. "But I do not want you getting hurt."
When he pulled off her boot and she sucked in her breath, not wanting to lose consciousness. The boot had supported her foot and ankle. Now that it was off, she realized she wasn't going to be walking until her foot got medical attention.
What seemed.like a seismic event occurred. Dust and small pieces of Rick fell from the cave's ceiling. "Although it would be ideal to keep you off of your foot, I think that it's preferred to stay alive. We should get out of this cave."
Aezash cut through the under brush. He switched his visor from infrared to other various modes, but he couldn't detect anything with his visor or the tricorder. It was as if everything on this planet was trying to interfere with any detection device. He took another step then heard a light whoosh as if something quickly rubbed on something else. In a flash, his right leg was pulled out from under him. He hit the ground on his back, nearly knocking the wind out of him, then he was yanked skyward by his right ankle. His helmet must have hit a rock, because he lost consciousness as he hung from a tree.
He woke after some time had passed. His arms dangled from his shoulders, and the blood had gone to his head. His vision was blurred as he opened his eyes, but his hearing, thanks to the battle suit, was better than perfect and he easily heard the group of six as they walked on the forest floor five meters below him. The dense tree foliage initially obscured Aezash's hanging body from their vision, until they were directly under him and one of them had happened to look up. On the other hand, Aezash had been aware of them and had been tracking them with his thermal vision. He had pulled both disruptors from their holsters while he was still hidden and had them trained on the group.
The built-in HUD in his battle suit could track more than ten targets at one time. His right eye tracked the first three individuals and they were painted with red indicating his right disruptor. His left eye tracked the other three who were painted in green, indicating his left disruptor.
The group of six, consisting of two Klingons, a Romulan, two humans and an Orion, had been sent out of their encampment to find a crashed escape pod they had tracked since it had come into the atmosphere.
Aezash was waiting for the group to pass before he tried to cut himself down, but one of the Klingons had looked up and spotted him. The Klingon lifted his weapon and began to say something, but the sound coming out of his mouth was cut short by Aezash's twin disruptors as they cut down the group before they could do anything.
Disruptors were not the noisiest of weapons, but neither were they particularly quiet. Nicha froze as he heard the sound of two back in the direction he and Aezash and parted ways. Swiftly, he turned back, unknowingly just a few meters from the crash site of the pod they sought. Quietly, as only an Andorian could, his blue-skinned body wove through the trees and bushes, leaving barely a leaf trembling.
His scanner didn't divulge anything about the area he was heading into, so he slowed his advance to almost nothing and came upon the site of devastated plants and bodies. It was impossible to tell what kind of disruptor had been used, but it wasn't Varon-T, as the effects of that one were unmistakable. He suspected this might be Aezash's work with thoron-based weapons, but where was Aezash? He stood still, searching, and then looked up as he heard one small thrashing sound before something dropped down a meter and a half in front of him.
Aezash dropped and landed on his feet with a thud, bending at the knees. The height was almost painful to drop from, but he had hung there by his hands so the he would land properly without hurting himself.
"I was pulled up by some type of snare, well hidden. A search party was either looking for me or the pod. Either way, it's possible another party might come when these are overdue." They needed to find the others and quickly.
"Then perhaps we should continue in the way I was heading. There were some hills there, possible hiding places, and this direction seems a bit crowded," th'Elex said. "Should we drag the bodies into the brush? It's probably pointless, but it might delay them a little."
"Sounds like a plan." Aezash began, "Watch out for traps, there could be more of them."
S'lani nodded. "Yes." She took her boot, but could not get it back on as her foot was too swollen. She loosened the laces and tried again. If she went barefoot, she would not be able to get very far. She tied the laces as tightly as she could and stood, determined not to let the pain slow her down too much. "Ready," she said.
"Put your weight on me and keep it off that ankle," Yari said as he put an arm around her waist.
To be continued ....
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