Mysteries wrapped in enigmas (part 3)

Posted on Mon 4th Aug, 2014 @ 3:14am by Lieutenant Zhara Rynn & Lieutenant JG Jerika Cheetal & Colonel Marcus DeSalle & Lieutenant Colonel Tallus Karikkar
Edited on on Mon 4th Aug, 2014 @ 3:41am

1,207 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: http://sb109.sim-station.net/index.php/sim/missions/id/6
Location: Various

...Continued from Part 2...

[OLD]

Suddenly the static grew louder, buzzing throughout both the Protector and the Anubis. Then all communications on both vessels went down and there was a ringing silence.

[NEW]

Tallus placed himself into a mental bubble. "I have had enough of being led around." He said powering up his rifle. "Stand back." He said as they had come upon more doors that would not open.

Setting his rifle to a modulating frequency of his own design and making the force just enough to break through the door, Tallus fired his weapon at the frame. For seconds it looked like the door was going to give way. Right when Tallus was about to break through the door a feedback pulse went through the beam straight into the weapon.

Tallus gave a shout as the weapon exploded in his hands. The explosion wasn't enough to kill but it was enough to render the rifle inoperable and enough to knock Tallus back against the bulkhead.

Looking down at his hands he saw that they were severely burnt. Tallus looked at his chest and saw that there was shrapnel dug into the armor set in his uniform. He could feel the tips of the shrapnel dig into his skin every time he moved.

With a grunt Tallus removed his jacket that held the shrapnel. "Remind me not to do that again. I don't know how that is possible. I configure every rifle myself. There should have been no way for the rifle to have exploded." Tallus said as he grunted in pain.

"Don't do that again," Zhara reminded him, knowing he meant to remind him at a later date, but hoping it would ease the stress levels a bit.

She paused again and listened, both with her ears but also with her telepathy. "The entity is keeping us out -- or leading us somewhere. I am not sure which. But whatever it is, the cry went away when you were attacked and now it is back -- a clear indication it is using its energy to do both."

Again she reached out telepathically. "We wish to help you."

"Make it stop!" This time, the words were clear and direct.

"Make what stop?" Zhara asked.

There was a sharp, mental cry, filled with pain. Zhara gasped, the pain echoing through her. "Yes, I see," she thought, her tone ironic.

[Protector]

Jerika Cheetal at communications turned to the Colonel, "Sir, I've lost contact with the Anubis. Internal communications are down as well."

"DAMN!" Marcus swore. "I knew something like this would happen! Lieutenant, see if you can find out what happened, and then see if there's a way to reestablish comms. That's top priority." he started pacing, immediately worried about his teams aboard the Anubis.

"Yes, sir," she said, immediately working to repair the comms. Several moments later, she again turned to the Colonel. "Sir, I can't reach the fighters, either."

"Then use semaphore!" He snapped. Then, he took a deep breath. "Sorry about that. Just do your best. All our lives may depend on reestablishing comms with our teams." He gave her a reassuring smile.

"Yes, sir. Thank you for not making me suit up and use semaphores. I really don't think they'd see me from the other ship," she said with a humorous grin.

[Anubis]

Zhara turned to Karikkar. "We've got something that resembles a person on the monitors and a presence on the ship I believe the logical place to go, apart from Engineering, is the computer core. Perhaps we can find a clue as to why the computer continues to show the same image."

As soon as she made her statement her head began to throb. "Get out! Get out!"

"This way out," she announced. Without waiting for any comments, she headed for the nearest access to the computer core, mentally reciting one of her favorite poems just in case anything was listening to her thoughts as well as her words.

Tallus followed closely behind. This whole scenario was riding on his nerves. From the time that he set foot on the ship he had felt uneasy. Now he was injured to top it all off.

Zhara made her way quickly and quietly towards the computer core. While she did so, her mind continued to puzzle over what they'd seen so far. It made no sense, and yet it was undeniable. Who was it that said when you remove the possible anything you have left, however impossible, must be the truth? She couldn't remember at the moment. She'd have to look it up later.

When they were close to the computer core itself, Zhara announced, "There's a power relay station just down the corridor. I think that should be our next stop." And then she opened the door and slipped into the room with the computer core itself.

At first, it looked much as she would expect. She'd been in a few, but not often, so she had a general idea of what to expect. However, when Zhara began to look more closely, she noticed there were far too many cables and relays attached to the computer core. Many of them went through the wall at the back.

She walked quickly to the wall and began to look for an access panel.

Tallus closed his eyes and focused with his mind. He could sense the presence more distinctly here. Tallus tried a technique that he had learned back when he had visited Vulcan. He cleared his mind of all thought and reached out to the entity creating a bridge of sorts.

"Lieutenant, stop." Tallus said as he felt something brewing. He opened his eyes wide and grabbed Zhara and jumped for the door a moment before it slammed shut. "Anethizine gas. Looks like it wants to keep us away from here."

"The answer is in there," Zhara insisted. "It may want us out, but wee need to find a way in."

The pain was barely controllable. He felt the parasites inside him, irritating his delicately balanced systems. They were getting closer. He shouted at them. "Get out!" the pain multiplied with his efforts. then he begged, "Please, make it stop!" He was beside himself, and didn't know what to do. He knew they were trying to get inside his head. Would that be a good thing, or would that hurt even more. Everything was happening so fast! The chatter and the noise from all the outside voices was deafening! So, he stopped listening. The outside was quiet. But the inside was twice as loud! The parasites said they wanted to help, but how could they? They were not him. But he was so lonely! He thought back, back, to a time before... numbers, he loved numbers, they made it quiet.
He thought to himself, "The square root of 906.01 equals…" He waited for the answer. It always came from the other. "The square root of 906.01 equals…" Where was the answer? He shouted, "The square root of 906.01 equals…"

(To be continued...)

Lieutenant Colonel Tallus Karikkar
Executive Officer/Marine CO

Lieutenant Zhara Rynn
Chief Counselor

Entity

Colonel Marcus DeSalle
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant JG Jerika Cheetal
Communications Officer

 

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