ilexx: That's not really important, but if you really want, I guess I could elaborate. :-p
Yvy: Thanks! Oh, and...any news on "Sun"?
me: Yes, the fandom is a bit thin on the ground unfortunately...
Thanks for the reviews, and on to chapter 2:
"There is nothing here to contradict their claim, Captain," Rommie stated after a thorough sweep of the planet's surface. "Everything points to a civil war. However..."
"What?"
"It appears we may be too late. The war appears to be in its finishing stages, and I doubt it's turned out well for either side." She paused. "Troops appear to be...scattered, lost...and I'm getting a lot of erratic readings from all over the planet. Dylan, there may not be much we can do to help here." Beka gave her captain a questioning glance, wondering whether he would pay his ship heed and leave. No, of course he wouldn't. And he wouldn't be Dylan if he did.
"Well, there are still people alive, right?" he asked Rommie, who gave an affirming nod.
"As I said, scattered troups are on the planet, and I'm also reading a few safety bunkers...many of which seem to be broken into, but some are intact. I can't scan for lifesigns within them, but it seems worth looking at." Dylan took a deep breath and placed his hands on his hips.
"Right. Well, just in case, I don't want to bring Andromeda too close. Beka, you and I will take the Maru down to the surface. We'll draw less attention to ourselves that way." His first officer raised her eyebrows as she followed him off Command and started walking with him at a fast pace down the corridors of the ship.
"Attention? Dylan, you said these people were mind-readers."
"Don't remind me," he groaned. "They are, yes, but I'm hoping this whole thing they're going through might be enough to distract them from our thoughts."
"Mind-readers give me the creeps," Beka said with a shudder. "But creepy or not, it seems they were telling the truth. I doubt they'd make it look this real just to get the Andromeda from us."
"Well, I don't know what to hope for right now," Dylan sighed in reply. "Let's just get down there and check out some of those bunkers. We don't want to get too involved in their conflict, but those people in there are likely civilians, children...people who are innocent in this whole thing. At least we can help them."
The journey down was quiet, both of them thinking about the powers of telepathy, and neither being particularly happy with what they came to realise.
"I've located an intact bunker," Beka said eventually, starting to steer the Maru down towards the surface. "There are no troops in the area, so we should be safe to land." The Captain nodded his consent, and she began the descent towards the bunker in question. The land, they discovered as they left the ship, was bare and desolate, bearing resemblance to that of an earthy desert or a scrap-heap. Here and there on the ground were corpses as well as dropped guns which seemed overly primitive for such an otherwise advanced race. The sky was dark and ominous, as if the very heavens reflected the chaos down on the ground.
"It's over here," Beka whispered, feeling an odd sensation of worry about waking the dead soldiers. "See the roof, there?" She pointed to a barely distinguishable building which must have been a basement, since only the roof was even visible from the ground. "I don't know how to get in though."
"Well, either there'll be an opening in the roof," Dylan replied, "or some type of hole in the ground. I'm sure it'll be securely locked though." She gave him a thoughtful look.
"Do you think the occupants could get out from inside? I mean, if they wanted to." He shrugged.
"One would hope so. Then again, maybe they assumed the soldiers would be alive to let them out afterwards." Beka shuddered at the thought of being locked inside such a place while others fought outside.
"Well, we can let them out," she tried to cheer them both up. Starting to climb the roof, they looked for an opening, but were unable to find one. Eventually, Dylan jumped back onto the ground and walked around the roof, suddenly giving a surprised yell. "What?"
"There's something here...hang on." He kneeled down and, after a few moments of investigating, lifted up his forcelance and shot at whatever it was he had found. Beka jumped down from the roof and gave him a curious glance.
He appeared to have shot at a locking mechanism, which caused the ground just in front of it to open like a hatch. There was a ladder leading downwards, although they couldn't see the end of it. They both stared at it before Dylan made a grand gesture towards it.
"Ladies first." She gave him an annoyed glance before starting to climb down. He grinned at her as he followed. The climb down was short, but once they got down they couldn't see much.
"I'd have thought it'd be easy from now," Beka muttered as they both tried to fit inside the cramped space. "Is this a door or what?" She grabbed a handle and pulled. Not surprisingly, it didn't open. In the limited space she had, she gestured for him towards the lock. He pulled out his forcelance again and shot it.
"Right," he said, "let's get in there and save some people."
"That ought to be your catchphrase," she grinned in response.
"What about the one's I've already got? I quite like Let's bring it..."
"All right, all right. Let's bring it then." She opened the door and walked inside, then blinked a few times as she looked around her. The room was dimly lit by a single bulb in the ceiling, and there were people packed everywhere. Old ladies, young women, little girls...and they were all dead.