Away team one: Heart of the nightmare

Posted on Tue Dec 14th, 2021 @ 7:29am by Commander Sthilg & Captain Gary Taylor & Lieutenant Colonel Azhul Naxea & Lieutenant Commander Rin & Lieutenant JG Miraj Derani & Legate Imik S'Niohun [Lia Taylor] & Staff Sergeant Liam "Swede" Reece [Reece]

Mission: Season 5: Episode 3: CAPETOWN
4054 words - 8.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Sthilgs eyes kept darting from side to side as he lead the team through the valley that appeared out of a nightmare. Ship's appeared to fade in, out, and crash sometimes all at once as the mountain appeared to shift around them.

Pausing as the gorn kept flexing his restored arm his white eyes fell on her. The wreck of the Capetown. She had slid down the mountainside and now lay on her side her wrecked belly exposed to the world. From a gash in her side flowed the purple lightning as it rose to the sky.

" Looksss like it's coming from the primary cargo bay. " The lizard said as a loud crash of lightning roared across the sky.

"That's not a good sign. The emergency beacon on that class should be in the secondary cargo bay." Miraj picked her way over the ground, trying not to look at the strange phenomena around them, concentrating on the path in front. "She's probably badly busted up internally. Did we bring climbing gear?"

Liam looked at where the Capetown was located. "I can do the climb. My suit still has its attachments from Falkirk." Slinging his rifle behind his back, he tapped a few commands into his left gauntlet. As he lifted first his right foot, then his left, climbing claws extended from the soles. He then grabbed a small device on his chest plate, and and pulled out a few lengths of monofilament cable. "Colonel?" He asked as he handed the loose end to her, so she could secure it to her armor.

Naxea nodded, taking the cable end and fitting it to her suit. "Take it slow and easy, Sergeant," Naxea said as she checked to make sure the cable was secure, giving him a thumbs up in the process.

"Yes, Ma'am!" He replied earnestly. Then, after moving over to the edge, he double checked the line and his gear, then slowly started over and down the face of the mountain. The Capetown was about seventy meters below him, close enough for his one hundred meter spool to get him to the hull. As he descended, he made sure his hands and feet had good holds before he let go and moved lower.

Imik stood watching the phenomena and simply nodded, the Humans were finding things difficult. She wanted to say that in her system there was a similar planet to this, and that she was used to it so could operate fairly well in the conditions. But decided to keep her mouth closed, she had already learned that the Humans didn't like what they called a smart arse. Whatever having a smart posterior had to do with things. She watched the Sergeant begin his climb, not what she would have done but that's the Humans for you.

When Liam was about ten meters from the ship, a bolt of purple lightning shot out and struck the cable up above him. It instantly corroded and snapped under his weight. Aa he was mid-movement, he lost his grip and started to fall. "Shit!" He exclaimed.

After dropping two or three meters, he managed to catch himself, unfortunately, when his did so, he jerked his left shoulder hard enough that he dislocated it. He grunted loudly in pain through gritted teeth, but held himself from falling any further.

Slowly, he lowered himself the rest of the way down, then collapsed against the cliff face, holding his injured arm.

"Shit!," Naxea exclaimed as the sudden loss of counter weight, sent her flying in the opposite direction when the cable snapped. "Sergeant, are you alright," she used the comm, forgetting Sthilg's warning from earlier in the moment of worry for one of her Marines. The static feedback caused her to scream in pain as she held her head. Luckily the suit's computer detected the feedback and shut down the comm immediately much to Naxea's relief. "Damn this place," she cursed through heavy breaths as she got her bearings again.

Freya had sensed the upheaval in emotions and Liam’s pain from where she stood above. “There’s something wrong!” She looked towards Sthilg. “I’m sensing someone in pain.”

Imik now decided to mind walk herself into the vessel, and began to visualise what was there. But she now sensed a presence, an ominous presence which she thought better to leave than provoke it. She turned to Naxea, "Colonel, I would urge caution. I believe we are not alone in entering this vessel".

Naxea looked at the exchange officer and nodded. Her suit's sensors didn't register anything but she knew that the woman had unique abilities. "Thanks for the heads up."

The Legate turned and pointed at a what looked like a sealed door, "Perhaps an attempt at that place might prove a better start, as climbing at this point appears to be difficult".

"I know. " Sthilg said sticking his head over the cliff and looking down. He saw the white suit of Liam standing out against the hull of the ship. " I can sssee him. We're coming ssseargent hold on. " He yelled as he looked around. There had to be a....... he thought before with a crash what looked like part of a romulan warbird wings that was hanging off its frame finally collapsed.

Falling down from it's place higher up the mountain it scraped against the cliffside forming a slope down towards the cape town's wreck. " Activate mag bootsss and move." The gorn said leading the way towards the now improvised bridge.

As he stepped onto the metal a look of fear was on his face as his full weight stepped onto the metal. It held.

Following behind Sthilg, Naxea was still recovering from the feedback. Her head was pounding yet she had to focus on the task at hand.

Sthilg slid of the wreck wing and after making sure his team was safely off he hurried over to the marine. " What happened Liam?" He said pulling out his medical tricorder

Liam grunted as he replied. "Sorry, ugh, Doc...cable broke on me. But...it shouldn't have...ugh..was less than...year old! Shoulder...dislocated...when I caught myself."

" Your lucky it could have been a lot worssse." Sthilg said as he examined the cord. " According to the ssscanner, the burnt area'sss have aged nearly half a millennium. No wonder it sssnapped"

Liam chuckled through clenched teeth. "Heh, glad it...it didn't...hit me then."

" Let'sss get you inssside. If i remember correctly the main sickbay shouldn't be far" The gron said helping the marine to his feet as he lead him towards one of the cracks in the ship.

Liam took the help in standing, then feel into step hehind Sthilg, holding his injured arm close to himself.

Freya followed on behind Sthilg, she’d been looking around the area noting odd details. “Wasn’t that a wing from a Romulan ship? What would that be doing here?”

" I have no idea my dear. " The gorn said as he helped Liam through the crack in the hull. Inside the ship the corridor in a far too pristine condition for having been here for over two hundred years. " There mussst be sssome kind of time alteration going on. " the gorn guessed.

Freya nodded. “Agreed. Question is, is there any danger to us? Surely if we get stuck in a pocket of time it’ll change us too?”

Liam spoke up. "Not to put too fine a point on it... but...ugh...my shoulder is screaming that there is...is danger to us."

Freya nodded. “Err...yeah sorry! Actually I might be able to help you with that.” She reached out a hand to touch him. “May I?” She waited for a nod before taking a moment and the lightest touch. “How’s the pain now?”

A couple beats after she touched him, Liam felt the pain go away. Sighing softly, he grinned slightly. "The pain's gone!" He tried to move his injured arm, but still had no control over the limb though. "My arm is still dislocated."

Freya smiled. “I just blocked the pain receptors in your mind. I learned it from a healer on my world. It’s only temporary relief though I’m afraid, it’ll wear off again in a few minutes.”

"Well then," the Marine responded, "Then let's find sick bay so my arm can be fixed!"

"We should pop it back in place," Naxea suggested. "I doubt the sickbay in this wreck will be of any use and getting back to base camp with one arm is going to be a challenge. But it's your call, Sergeant."

Liam nodded. "You're right, Colonel. Better to set it now, especially before the pain hits me again." He looked over to Sthilg. "Sir? Would you care for the honor?"

"Have to be careful I'm not usssed to having both of my real armsss." The doctor said as he gently did his best to pop the arm back into place

Liam grunted, gritting his teeth, when his arm was maneuvered back into its socket. "Whew!!" He exhaled as he slowly worked the joint. "I'm sure I'm gonna be sore as hell later, but thanks, Doc. Two real arms or not, you're still the best M.D. I've met in a long time." He smiled his gratitude up to the large reptilenoid.

"Don't mention it my friend. Jussst ssstop by sssickbay later ssso I can give it a proper examination." the md replied with a smile.

Liam nodded and grinned. He was thinking of saying something else, but changed his mind when he saw the ship's XO approach the group.

Gary walked over to the group. "No one goes anywhere without a partner. especially not with these time pockets. So find a buddy and stick together." He said firmly.

"Yes, sir. I'd like to get a look at the main computer core. See what they can tell us about what happened," Said Rin.

" Easssiessst way to the core will be through the sssickbay. The main corridor is completely broken. " The gorn said leading the way. He'd walked this path before in what felt like a lifetime ago. Pulling open the doors the doctor had to stop and blink. The medical bay looked to be in a pristine condition without even a dust layer. It looked straight out of a holodeck program. " Well that wasssn't like this lassst time we were here." He said out loud.

"Very good Lieutenant, just make sure you take one of us with you." Gary reminded Rin.

Gary looked at Sickbay, "Well, it's like that now Doc. Could it be another time pocket?"

Rin nodded and looked to the others. "Anyone want to join me? Preferably with computer knowledge."

Liam spoke up. "I have some, Ma'am. I was doing some cross training, at my last post, in electronic warfare."

"Mossst likely." The gorn said feeling puzzled about this whole mess. "I'll head down to the main cargo bay and sssee what'sss causssing the lightening."

The doors to sickbay opened, revealing Miraj, She was hovering on the rocket boots outside, but at a sharp angle that left her diagonally across the the door way. "You may want to plan that carefully." she grabbed the top of the doorway, tapped the controls for her boots, and swung around and down into sick bay. "I've crossed at least three different gravity fields just getting on board. This place is so weird."

"Thisss isss why I went into medicine and not temporal mechanicssss'sss." the gorn said looking round the room. " Look even the picturesss are back." he said pointing to one wall which healed some pictures of a vulcan and human in the early blue jumpsuits of early starfleet.

Naxea sighed--she hated anything to do with temporal anomalies or time travel. "I'll go with you, Sthilg," she stated.

" Thank you my freind." The lizard said as he though back to the broken ship's layout. " Easiessst way is thisss way." He said leading the way down the dark corridors.

Sthilg lead the way through the wrecked ship following the path he had taken so long ago. As he led the way for his friend the light behind them seemed to fade and become an all swallowing void.

Naxea followed behind Sthilg with her pulse rifle at the ready as she recalled Imik's warning that they weren't alone.

Rin and Liam broke off from the group and headed toward the computer core. It was weird, walking through pristine yet abandoned corridors. It was almost as weird when they would reach points where the bulkheads were worn and decayed as if they had been abandoned on a mountain for decades.

"So, L-T," Liam spoke quietly as they moved. His eyes continued scanning for any sign of a threat to either of them. "You ever see anything like this before?"

"I definitely have not," Rin replied. I wish I knew more about temporal mechanics because it's really quite fascinating. Incredibly localize phenomena: one wall pristine, the next corroded. "We're able to interact with both. Your cable aged in a matter of minutes, yet Sssthilg regrew an arm lost in an incident completely unrelated to this. Time isn't just wrong - its inconsistently wrong."

She opened a door to the computer core room and stepped through, suddenly falling hard against the wall.

"And gravity has taken a cue from time, it seems," she continued, righting herself best she could in a room that was now, for all intents and purposes, leaning at 15 degrees.

Rin shuffled along to one of the terminals, bracing herself so she didn't fall back down the gravitational slope of the room. "Let's see what secrets we can convince these systems to give up."

Seeing her struggle, Liam suggested, "Ma'am, magnetize your boots." He did so with his and then stepped onto the deck plating easily, though standing at an odd angle from her.

"The title is 'sir,' Sergeant, but thank you," Rin frowned slightly as she adjusted her boots and righted herself before scrutinizing the antiquated interface system. She tapped in a series of codes meant to give a user access to an outdated system no longer in service. Problem was, the system didn't seem to agree with it's status. In fact, the computer clearly thought it was on a fully functioning ship, running a slew of absolutely unnecessary operational programs.

"So, Sergeant, want to practice breaking into one of our own computer cores? Because that's what we're looking at."

Stepping up next to her, Liam nodded, "Yes, Sir. Sounds like fun." He looked at the different consoles, chuckling to himself to see all the actual buttons, knobs and actual keyboards. "Which one do you want me to start with, Sir?"

"Let's start with basic level access and work from there. I want to know what happened in the days or hours before the crash."

The more they worked, the weirder it got. Processes were running on top of processes, often conflicting with each other. And a good half of them were too advanced for a ship the age of the Capetown.

Rin flipped some more switches, frowning. "This isn't the Capetown's original core. System says there was a refit... 25 years after the Capetown went down. We're looking at a version of the computer core that never existed in our timeline. We might even be looking at multiple."

"Multiple computer cores?" Liam asked, confused. "How is that possible?"

Rin hit her comm badge. "Rin to Taylor. I don't think we're merely dealing with pockets of time flowing differently. I think we're looking at versions of alternate timelines altogether, sometimes stacked on one another."

In a crackle of static what appeared to be an echo of Rin's message crept from one of the ancient speakers.

Liam looked up at the speaker and frowned slightly. "Gotta love time distortions."

"Not sure that's the word I'd use."

Another burst of static followed from the speaker as a shallow voice in the accent of the Saturn free colonies crept through. " Hello? Who is this? This a priority Starfleet channel." it said calmly.

Looking over at Rin, Liam's face registered suprise. He stayed silent, as since she was the ranking person present, she should be the one to speak.

"This is Lt. Rin of USS Elysium, attempting to render aid on USS Capetown. Who am I speaking with?"

A slight laugh came from the coms. " Very funny whoever you are. The Elysium is not due for construction till 2269 with the seventh batch of Constitution-class. " the voice replied. Rin suit lit up as it's computer had run a voice scan matching it with one lieutenant Eoynoe assistant chief of engineering USS Capetown 2267. T

Rin looked at Liam. "I don't see anything to gain from arguing with the lieutenant. Let's catch up with the others, unless you have another idea."

Liam stood and shook his head. "No, Sir. I imagine to do so would run the risk of altering the time line somehow."

"I think we are well beyond that." She downloaded what data she could, less because of any value in the data and more just to be able to later study the effects of time distortion. After that, she led Liam back toward the cargo bay where the others had been heading.

Liam nodded silently. She was right. There already was damage to the time line. They would just have to wait to see how much.

As the pair moved back through the ship, he kept an eye out for any danger.
_______________________________________________________________

Sthilg's torch lead the way through the wrecked ship. He and Naxea had taken around fifteen minutes to just reach the fifth level with gravity and time shifting several times as they did so. The doctor had stopped and scrapped an indicator into the hull in case others followed. His feet began knocking boxes out of the way as they neared the main cargo bay. " Watch your feet, " he said to his marine companion as his foot went through a box hiding in the dark.

Naxea looked down at the boxes, wondering what they had contained at one time. "You know, I really hate missions like this...or anything to do with time travel and alternate realities."

" Next mission i'll make sssure is a nice peaceful one with plenty of time for you and your future husband to have some peace." The gorn said shaking the box off his foot. Panning his torch over the box revealed a vulcan science academy logo. " Oh, dear. I may have jussst sssteped on sssome pricelessssss archaeological artifactsss." He said weakly.

"Nothing is ever peaceful on the Elysium," Naxea replied, chuckling as she looked down to see shattered remains fall from the box. "They should have packed them is the proper containers and not a fragile box." She wasn't a scientist but even she couldn't believe someone would be so careless with an artifact.

As the two made their way along the corridor the boxes began to cover the floor. As well as float in mid-air and stick to the ceiling. As the gorn was about to say something he saw the faint purple light creeping out of the cargo bay doors.

Carefully pocking his head around the gorn jaw dropped at what was there.

Spinning free of any restraint was what appeared to be a giant stone circle purple lightning zapping from a purple gem that sat atop it. Several sections were missing yet did nothing to stop it spinning

"A time gate." Sthilg gasped as he remembered the old pulp novels of his name sake.

Miraj came up behind them, silent on the repulsors of her boots. "That is not an emergency beacon." She looked around the cargo bay at the ring of sparking stone, to the scattered remains of the broken ship beyond it. "At least, not a Federation one."

"Where did it come from?" Naxea wondered as she looked at the large spinning gate.

" My guess..." Sthilg said as he looked around the cargo bay and the spilled open smashed boxes. Almost all bearing the march of the vulcan science academy. " It must have been part of the archeological dig that the ssship picked up before it crassshed. Sssomething must have activated it."

"So we swtich it off and go home?" Miraj asked. SHe couldn't see anything that looked like an off switch. "Or maybe... transport it into space in a gazillion little pieces?"

" If we can dessstroy it my dear. Thisss thing hasss sssurvived been buired under rock and a crassshing ssship." Sthilg said. His white eyes started into the purple light and for a moment he thought he saw something. The gorn moved like lightning grabbing Miraji and pulling her out the way as a bolt of purple lightning shot out from the circle. Like a coiled snake it wrapped around a box and began pulling it towards the circle until another piece of stone burst from the box and flew into the alien light forming another piece of the circle.

"Then we need a more direct approach," Naxea said as she removed several phaser power cells from her pouches. Would these do the trick, Sthilg?"

" I don't know my dear." the gorn said as he stood up and looked around. Seeing a small rock the gorn picked it up and after taking careful aim he threw the rock into the center of the portal. With a slight flash, it vanished. " Well...." he began before he stopped as his foot came into contact with another rock. No he thought as he picked it up. The same rock. " I'd leave the power cellsss in your holssster Colonel," he said as he held the rock in his figures.

"So what do we do?" Miraj could still smell the ozone from the purple lightening that had nearly fried her. "We're all going to be crispy if we keep standing here."

"We need to find sssomeway of ssshutting it down." the gorn pondered as he walked backward and forward in the cargo bay. " If it'sss a gate it must be going sssomwhere. " he said tumbling at his helmet's radio as an idea came to mind. With a crackle, it burst into life as the radio chatter from a long-dead crew came through. " And I think we know where it's going."

Without saying anything he slowly approached the spinning device and extended his what had been artificial hand. It was like forcing his hand through treacle as some resistance was met but it slowly moved. Withdrawing his hand he examined his suit. No damage from what he could see.

Looking back at his friends the old gorn gave a warm smile. " Whisssh me luck." He said before leaping through the hole int time and space.

"Sthilg!" Naxea called out, stepping forward as she did so. Seeing her friend disappear into the portal, she wondered what the hell he had been thinking.

TAG reactions

With a crackle of purple light, a gorn hand moved through the portal. " It'sss alright I'm fine. Though you'll want to sssee thisss" the doctor called.

"Are you serious, Sthilg?" Naxea asked as she approached cautiously

Sthilg's head emerged from the purple light. " It'sss okay it comesss out in the cargo bay two hundred yearsss ago.

"Awesome." Miraj said, and nipped past the Bjoran marine to dash through the stone ring. "See you all in the past!"

Naxea sighed as she opened comms to the others. "Colonel Azhul to all Away Team, assemble in the cargo bay. Doctor Sthilg and Ensign Derani just entered a damn time gate." She wondered what the hell the two were thinking going back to a ship 200 years in the past. What limited teachings she had had on time travel told her that was a big 'No No.' What if someone saw them? The Federation hadn't even had first contact with Bajorans 200 years ago.

Rin and Liam arrived several minutes later.

"Well, that's not...entirely unexpected," Rin commented at the sight of the gate.

Gary came up beside her, "Time gate." He muttered then turned to Naxea, "What's the status of the gate as well as Sthilg and Derani? Are they alright?"

"I'm guessing those didn't come standard."

Sthilg's head emerged again. " It'sss sssafe to travle through sssir." he said to Gary

~TBC~