Fast Frank, stop reading, stop reviewing. You have done nothing but post negative reviews and you hide behind the anonymous guest review to do it. I am sick and tired of your stuff, you have done this with multiple stories of mine. You obviously don't like my stuff so why do you feel the need to do this stuff. So for the last time, stop reading, stop reviewing. It is people like you that is the reason I don't like approving guest reviews.


Chapter 54: The Ambergris Element Part 1

May 2002

Buffy was concluding a log entry as Willow entered the bridge. Buffy glanced up at her wife as Willow moved to stand near her. Buffy smiled at Willow as she continued without a break.

The subject of said log entry was currently visible on the main screen: a smallish, intensely blue-green planet. The light of a modest G-type star reflected phosphorescently back from the spines of interminable ocean. Misty cloud cover added an angelic air to the scene. Xander had for some reason named it Argo.

Argo's one peculiarity worth remarking on—and worth the Enterprise's presence here—was that until quite recently (according to probe analysis), had several land masses. Now its surface was ninety-seven percent water.

No great ice caps had melted to cause this; no biblical flood. According to the data relayed by the probe, this world had been subjected to a series of evenly spaced seismic convulsions—intense without being cataclysmic—in a very brief span of time. The fact that these convulsions had caused the major land masses to subside and vanish beneath the waves was not especially remarkable, It was the time factor which made Argo a world worth a second, more detailed look.

A number of techniques for dealing with such subsidings on a selective basis had been developed, but only in theory. To put them into practice would require a world like the inhabited one. Since the inhabitants of the planet in question frowned on experimentation with the planetary crust and other such intimate chunks of their home, a substitute world had to be located.

Argo was such a world . . . maybe. If so, the Enterprise might have a chance to try out some of those hopefully effective techniques.

Buffy wrapped up the entry and glanced up at Willow.

"Hardly the sort of world one would expect to be riven at any moment from core to surface, Buffy," Willow said.

Buffy nodded, and her gaze shifted to the screen. "No, Will. It certainly seems placid enough on the surface. It's what's under the surface that'll be interesting." She rose and the both of them started for the turbolift.

When they reached the hanger bay they were met by Sam and Xander.

"Hey, Will, Buffy," Xander said.

"Are you coming with us, Willow?" Sam asked.

"As much as I would like to, I have other things I need to deal with. Plus with Colonel O'Neill back on DS9, I am in command while you, Buffy and Xander are gone. Good luck."

The long ovoid shape of the shuttle was broken only by a clear plexalloy dome set midway back on its top. One section of this was raised. A small retractable stairway led into it. Xamder amd Sam followed Buffy into the crew section. They settled into their seats and began doing preflight checks.

"Ready, Buffy," Xander said.

"All right, Xander, when you're set," Buffy answered.

Xander manipulated controls. Slowly, majestically, the two massive doors of the hangar deck began to drift apart. Xander had little trouble handling the entry into the atmosphere. But Xander knew the true test of this new shuttle design would be when they hit the water, and went under the waves.

The shuttle skimmed low over roiling swells as an island appeared on the horizon, once the topmost crags of some mountain range. Xander adjusted controls and the shuttle cut speed, eased downward to a damp landing. They hit gently and then slid smoothly on the waves toward the the shuttle came to a halt, Buffy and Sam unfastened themselves from their seats. Sam and Buffy moved to the storage lockers, started to remove the equipment they would need to properly sample what lived and was lived upon on Argo.

"Sam," Buffy said.

"Yes, Colonel?" Sam said as she looked over from where she was carefully constructing a small, self-powered mesh. It would skim the surface outside the shuttle for microscopic life and return automatically when full.

"This is the largest remaining land mass on the planet, isn't it?"

"Yes, Colonel. There are other islands, but all are smaller than this," Sam said. "Xander, open the hatch."

"Sure, Sam," Xander said as he worked his controls. As he did so, he spotted something. "What's that?"

Buffy looked up from her work and looked where Xander had indicated, "I don't see anything, Xander."

"There's something in the water there," Xander stated. "The water is fountaining slightly?"

Buffy saw what Xander saw, a wild churning and frothing at the spot he had indicated. They all noticed enormous tentacles break the surface and hooked down like a pair of gargantuan anacondas to embrace the shuttle in a crushing grip.

Buffy tried to get Xander to start the engines, but whatever had them was shaking the shuttle violently and her words were lost in the steady banging about.

Released from their seats Buffy and Sam tumbled about the interior like dice in a cup. There was a sudden jolt as if the ship had abruptly slammed into something hard. Either the thing had accidentally struck a sensitive portion of itself with part of the unyielding craft or else it was generally infuriated by its inability to crack the hide of this strange prey, because it had thrown them end over end to bang to a stop against an inoffensive wave.

The shuttle automatically rolled to an upright position. Buffy pulled herself to her feet, saw they were still seaworthy and watertight. "Sam …. Xander?"

Replies came back promptly. "I'm all right, Buffy." "Okay, I think, sir."

Buffy stumbled next to Xander. "What was it, anyway?"

"I have no idea," Sam said. "But I do have to say I hope it doesn't come back. When we had the Asgard construct this shuttle, we had no design specifications for it, and neither did they. We don't know what kind of stress it can withstand."

Suddenly the upper portion of the Argoan life-form erupted from the water hard by the shuttle. From what they could see, it resembled a cross between an oversized snake and a whale, with the addition of four side-tentacles.

"Xander," Buffy said.

"Already on it, Buffy," Xander replied as he moved the shuttle around in the water. He was already taking action. "Firing phasers on stun."

Twin phaser beams bolted from the nose of the shuttle, enveloped the head of the monster in a glowing nimbus. Incredibly, the creature continued toward the shuttle for another couple of seconds. Then its continual roaring faded to an echo. Still moving weakly, reflexively, it sank from sight beneath the waves.

"I have to say that is clearly one of the multitude of life-forms which our probe neglected to record," Sam said.

"Hard to see how something that big could be overlooked," Buffy mused. "Still, with such a large area to cover in so short a time, I'm not surprised. The presence of a predator that size is a sure sign of a thriving ecology. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like this one. Let's get another look at it before the stun wears off. That was a pretty strong jolt it absorbed . . . we should be safe."

Xander nodded. "Submerging."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Xander maneuvered the shuttle as they tried to find the monster. It appeared the monster was not the only life the probe did not tell them about. There was plenty of exotic flora and fauna. Here and there schools of thousands of minute crimson fish darted in and about the densest mosses, so thick in places that the water appeared to be on fire. They reflected metallically off the polished, backs of lumbering, clownish molluscs which scoured the nooks and crannies in the coral like old women at a rummage sale.

"There it is," Sam said, even as Xander was turning the shuttle in the direction of the monster. The creature had drifted slightly south of where it had gone down. Now it rested immobile on the sand.

"Look out," Buffy observed. "Try and set us down close by the head, Xander."

As the smooth metal hull settled gently into the soft bottom there was a slight grinding noise. Sam sat at her console and brought the sensors online. "Dual respiratory system," she observed. "Lungs and gills."

"That's odd," Buffy agreed.

The stunned monster chose that moment of temporary disinterest on the part of its bipedal observers to stir slightly. Its tentacles quivered, disturbing the sand. Abruptly, the gigantic tail jerked spasmodically.

The glancing blow was powerful enough to send the shuttle tumbling across the sea bottom, to come to a stop against a sand hill. As Buffy, Sam and Xander stared out of the shuttle, the monster momentarily seemed to have developed eight tentacles instead of four. And two heads. Also, there were twoof each of themselves.

However many limbs the creature possessed, at the moment all of them were moving in furious motion as it fought to regain its internal balance.

"Xander, it's coming around, and I think we'd better be elsewhere when it does," Buffy said.

The shuttle angled upward, rose from the sand and started toward the island.

"Colonel," Sam said. "Sensors say the stun has worn off and it's following us with incredible speed."

"I don't want to hit it with a second stun," Buffy said. "It could kill it, we don't know. So let's fire a warning shot and hope it takes the warning and leaves."

Sam worked her console, leaving Xander free to steer the shuttle.

"Phasers do not respond, Colonel," Sam said. "We've sustained some damage from being struck below."

"Get us out of here," Buffy said.

Xander worked his console, paused as if shot, ran through the sequence again twice as fast before throwing Buffy an anguished look.

"No use, Buffy!" Xander said. "Engines are offline."

Buffy sighed as she tapped her commbadge. "Summers to Enterprise—red alert!"

Willow's voice reflected the urgency in Buffy's own. "What is it, Buffy?"

"We're under attack, Willow, emergency—beam us aboard." Her last words were drowned in the thunderous bellow which erupted from the monster's throat.

Xander hit the controls, but not fast enough; the great tentacled head rose up, up, blotting out sun and sky—then came down. Buffy barely had time to grab for a hold before the gargantuan skull slammed into the shuttle.

Another deafening howl penetrated the dome and it grew dark as two huge jaws closed on the aft section of the tiny vessel and as a result the hull began to crack.

Shaking the shuttle like an infuriated mastiff with a piece of meat, the monster banged it against a rocky protrusion lying just under the surface. That shake sent shards of glass, torn internal components, and Sam flying.

The interior was a shambles. Seats were twisted like licorice sticks. Xander lay jammed between the pilot's chair and the base of the control console, and Buffy was entangled in the remnants of some restraining straps.

Both Xander and Buffy were unconscious, their limp forms bent and loose. But they didn't come free as the creature swam off, still battering at its stubborn prey.

"We've lost contact, Buffy," Willow's voice yelled from somewhere within a maze of twisted metal. "We've lost contact. Come in, Buffy, come in! Xander . . .!"

Sam let out a whoosh as she broke the surface. She looked around for Buffy and Xander and found nothing. She stared at the distant but still visible form of the monster, the cylindrical shape of the shuttle still clutched tightly in its tentacles . . . what was left of it. Even as she watched, the creature rolled over on its back and vanished beneath the waves.

Sam tried to shout, call, but couldn't manage the breath. Once more the water was calmed, once more the distant island the only projection above the gentle swells. The shuttle, the monster . . . Buffy and Xander . . . all gone.

Sam felt the sensation of a transporter beam and a second later, she found herself standing in the main transporter chamber of the Enterprise, staring at Willow and Joyce.

"What happened, Sam?" Willow asked. "Buffy, Xander …" Her voice faded as she saw the look on Sam's face.

"I didn't know . . . for certain, Willow. We were taking readings on the local version of a sea serpent and . . . we got a little careless. It's reaction-recovery time . . . phenomenal . . . It attacked instinctively. Threw the shuttle around like a toy. A previous attack had rendered the phasers and engine inoperable, but we didn't find that out until too late. I don't know if we could have outrun it on the surface anyway. The thing was fast." Sam took a few steps, found out how tired she was and sat down at the edge of the transporter platform. "I don't know what's happened to the Buffy or Xander. I hope they got thrown free like I did."

"I'll get a search party together immediately," Willow announced.