Her stomach did settle. Eventually. The nausea stayed as well as the vice grip of uncertainty and confusion.
It didn't make much sense, or logic. T'Sol was at the camp, making baskets and cooking food for dinner, how could she also be a mummified corpse under rubble? The one at the camp wasn't a hallucination. No. Michael knew a hallucination didn't weave useable baskets. If it was all in her head, she would have dropped it all on her way; there wouldn't be meals because they split their cooking between them. A hallucination wouldn't be able to provide her information she didn't already know. She didn't know who the captain of the USS Utopia was….
What was T'Sol if she was long dead?
Michael didn't know. But… she only assume that it was tied to how she survived. The only viable answer was that pit. One she had actively avoided since waking up at the bottom of it. She had long since covered the opening with branches to avoid accidents….
If she had fallen and died there, was there something in that water that….revived her? That, to her, was the logical assumption. Given she had woken up in there but still, she had to test the theory. Again. If T'Sol was as real as her corpse, she had to bring her the proof. Going back empty handed with claims would only be…unwelcomed.
She had to take the body back.
Michael inhaled deeply, squashing the uncertain feel in her stomach as she pushed herself up and off the sandy ground and stepped back towards the cave entrance.
The body was still half covered. She couldn't carry it back, not without damage… she'd have to make something. A sledge of sorts. For a moment, Michael was glad…. glad to have taken the wire-saw. Now she had the more useful tools. Her eyes rose back to the body, then to the cavern behind. She'd have to come back for the other things tomorrow. The priority's had shifted now.
Feeling stronger, Michael pushed herself up to her feet, kicking sand over her little, regurgitated mess and knelt beside the mummy, her fingers washing over a thin layer of sand back over the body before she headed towards the trees. They were after all thinner than the ones at the bottom of the hill.
Useful.
Michael's breath laboured heavily as she pulled, her muscles burning and her palms aching but she didn't allow herself to stop.
It took a while to construct a basic frame and support. Using leaves to line over the inside branches, she used sand over that before she had re-dug the corpse from under the sand and dragged it onto the sledge with another layer of sand over the top to protect it from the twilight-sun and all other avenues of environmental decay.
Far from easy but she didn't allow herself to stop. Ahead, now, she could make out the distant flickering light through the trees. The cooling air bristling at her skin but it began to feel good.
"Burnham?!" A sudden light suddenly appeared, boring into her from a much closer difference
Michael hissed, the light searing at her eyes, snapping her eyes shut and it took everything not to drop the branch-handles "What?" though after a second, the light dropped down.
"I said to be back earlier, I thought you got lost. Why didn't you pick up?" T'Sol remarked, Communicator in hand as she drifted closer. The light shone down past her to her sledge. "What's that?"
"Help me take it to the pit, then we can talk" Michael kept her tone level, though looking at the Vulcan in front, she felt…confused. Confused because this woman was somehow, in two places right in front of her. Right now. But that didn't mean she couldn't use her help before she dropped the facts to her. If the pit could bring her back after her fall, she could use the pit again, bring T'Sol back for the answers.
T'Sol's eyes narrowed, uncertainly lacing into her posture and expression but nodded with some…interest. Slipping the light and the communicator on top of the sand, the Vulcan picked up it up at the bottom two ends of the frame, immediately lifting the burden of strain.
Definitely not a hallucination.
Michael kept quiet though as they walked, feeling the stare linger just as much as the silent questions that bubbled away. Her eyes stayed ahead nonetheless. It wasn't too dark she couldn't see now, but it was significantly harder as the stone seemed to blend in quite well to the surroundings but the clean stone was easier to track by feeling the subtle changes of patterns under her boots. The pit sector stood out, mostly to the close break of trees and the large covered opening was hard to miss.
But even getting near it, she could feel the ebbs of discomfort that returned again. Her heat beat increased, she could feel a new flush of sweat coat her skin, her mouth ran dry and her grip tightened. Michael swallowed thickly, her breathing picking up a fraction but she tried to push the feelings away.
Slowing down, Michael gently lowered her end of the stretcher down and knelt to the floor, carefully edging to the branches covering the pit and began to pull them away. Each branch away, she felt a panic run through her veins. Opening up the pit felt wrong. That she could fall down it again… it made the nausea return.
"What is this?!" T'Sol's voice changed. From collected to a harsh confused; a demand.
Michael stole a glance to see the Vulcan brushing through the sand, exposing now the boots of the corpse, but her attention ed fixed, pushing away the layers.
"Captain," Michael swallowed, rolling from the edge back towards them, allowing her focus to chance. Though she grabbed the woman's wrists as she went to clean away the top section of the sand. "Captain, tell me, how did you escape the cave in of your camp?"
T'Sol's eyes rose, her eyebrows pulling in. "Excuse me?"
"Your camp. You were there when it collapsed, yes?"
"…yes."
Michael nodded, "So how did you escape the cave in?"
T'Sol's eyes narrowed but it didn't remove the hint of confusion that laced within those dark brown eyes. She didn't speak.
"So, from what I can tell by my scans, the cave-in happened four weeks ago. I arrived here three weeks ago. Where were you in the seven days after the cave in?"
The expression didn't shift on the Vulcan's face. "No, the cave in happened the same day you arrived." T'Sol responded with, her tone tighter, as if trying to convince her to drop it
"Or you simply have no memory of it. Your…appearance when we first met was more pristine than I would have expected for a Vulcan that would have been trapped here 4 months before." Michael continued, despite her fear of the pit, she did feel more confident as she spoke. "You also don't seem to remember disappearing on me every night… but I think it does have something to do with this planet. I don't know how but I will find it out."
T'Sol's expression stayed fixed but she moved with a sense of urgency, slipping her hands free and brushed away the sand until… the face of the mummy came into view. The woman's posture freezing up.
Michael watched her, slinging her bag off before she dug out her tricorder. One way to see what this other T'Sol was….
"I don't…understand." T'Sol breathed out, "This cannot be me. I'm real."
"Discovery never picked up your life-sign on the planet during the scans. You died that night, T'Sol. Just Like I did." Not that she was buried alive. "You didn't resurface until after I came back. But…. These scans, there's no Vulcan bio-sign coming off of you." On the screen though, it was lit with…distortions. A wide energy fluxes were making it hard to get a simple reading but there was a…mass and pulsing heat signature from it. Nothing more distinguishable. "You're not a ghost, you're too tangible for that… perhaps a…reconstruction of your consciousness held inside a…type of energy mass. Very similar to the energy fields being emitted from the pit."
It didn't make a lot of sense, but it certainly did peak the scientist within her. Something beyond making food and furniture.
"No." T'Sol jumped to her feet. "No. I can't be dead. I feel real." She shook her head. "I cannot be dead."
Michael's eyes rose to the Vulcan. "Here, see if I'm wrong." She held the Tricorder out though the Vulcan yanked it quickly from her hands, immediately restarting scans on herself quickly but the captain shook her head as soon as the results appeared. "This doesn't make any sense!"
"Then don't try to see the logic being the facts, Captain. You died a month ago in your shelter. You appeared a week later after I died on this planet. You're… not aware of anything more because for some reason, it was only after I died that you appeared. I don't understand why but I believe that it's something to do with this planet."
T'Sol dropped the tricorder off to the side roughly, shaking her head. "Resurrecting the dead it not possible. Freshly dead, perhaps through medical breakthrough…. If my body is there and a month passed, I cannot exist here. Something is wrong!" T'Sol shook her head again, her hands coming to her hips, pacing quickly around the edge of the pit. "Logically, perhaps neither of us is real. Humans do have a concept of an afterlife or perhaps a dream-state as a result of drying brain activity."
"Both of us?"
T'Sol gave her a stony look. "There is no logic in jumping to vivid conclusions."
"Your mummified corpse is right next to you and you're in complete denial about being dead." Michael dryly pointed out but she couldn't help but feel frustrated. She didn't know why but she expected more of a reaction from the woman. Something more. "I know I died, T'Sol. I remember holding the rope, feeling the burn in my palms from the grip, the strain in my muscles and the smell of my own sweat…. I remember feeling the fall, seeing my captain's face… then there was nothing. Pain came after I woke."
"Human brains can invent a narrative to things that cannot comprehend. You fell, hit your head and had a dream about falling to your death, it's not that hard to comprehend." T'Sol remarked back.
Michael's eyes narrowed but she found herself moving forwards, not quite resisting her own fear as anger swallowed it all…. "How about you experience it first hand and tell me if it's all a dream, Captain."
She didn't know why she did it, nor what it would achieve; it only took a quick shove to send the captain back, the woman's heel clipping on the pit ledge before gravity and physics took over, the Vulcan disappearing over the edge with a startled sound… and for a second, Michael felt mortified… horrified at the gesture alone that was so out of her usual character, the fact that she had willingly done this on a flash of anger… the fact that they were now screwed; she didn't want to be alone.
The Vulcan fell out of sight. Her yelp disappearing quickly.
There was no splash.
Her heart beat rapidly in her chest…. Craning her hearing but…there was just silence. No sound, no water movement…
Nothing.
"T'Sol?" Michael breathed out, tilting forwards but the reality had her falling back away from the edge…. Her breathing coming out in short pants….
God, what had she done?
The feeling like she had killed someone didn't leave. At all. Let alone the fact that it was her only company. A part of her hoped the mirage of the Vulcan would reappear, probably as narky as a Vulcan could get but she didn't. No one came and it made the feeling so much worse…
Michael wanted to leave the pit edge too. But she couldn't bring herself to, even as the exhaustion caught up with her, the hunger too. But she couldn't.
Her reality was now this; alone with a Vulcan's mummified corpse on a planet that was weirdly specific in term s of how it handled the deceased. Of course, now her own work load was doubled, but it wasn't like she was short of things to work with. She had food, water and shelter. But alone? No. She didn't like that. Alone with herself, alone with her thoughts… it was like prison time all over again, only new, she had another problem to mull about now.
She had to fix this.
Swallowing down the turmoil of emotions. Michael forced herself to move. She had to see if the put would work. T'Sol's corpse would need to be submerged. Dropping her down… it'd get her down but at their height and fragile nature- there would be something snapping off on impact to the water surface. She needed to lower her down. There was no way in hell she could drag her to that cave exit like this, not at this time and not when the gap was small for something so stiff.
Using the light, she found her way back at the house, throwing more wood onto the fire, and picked up the other lights. Michael was pleased to find her rope still tied up, grabbing that and a mashed bowl of root-potato and headed back.
Soon, the pit area was lit up far more effectively, the dark now officially closed in and the cold pricked at her skin but she didn't hesitate to get to work. Shaking off the unnecessary weight of sand. She fixed the rope under the corpse's arms, and over the chest. There was weakness in the top arm but the shoulder would support the dead weight. With a sharp gesture, Michael stabbed the fusion anchor into the stone, trying her best to ignore how dark the pit was before she began threading the rope end through it and tied the end off with a stick, winding it up quickly.
Her fingers carefully retuned to slip under T'Sol's arm pits, keeping the pull tight on the supporting rope as she gently shifted it towards the edge of the opening, feet first. The stiffness working in favour to add a little balance of surface area as the boots scrapped along the stone surface.
"Ignore the edge." Michael whispered to herself, loosening herself as she the weight was balanced between the edge and the rope. Gently moving back, letting go of the mummy before she took a firm hold of the wound-up rope, planting her heels into the lip edge for support, she began to steadily let the rope go.
T'Sol's form disappearing over and into the dark…..
It took a few minutes before she heard the sound of water moving letting go of the rope fully. Biting back her feelings to grab one of the resting lights and crawl over the edge, shining the light to see the rope floating and bubbles of air rising to the surface, nothing more. The weight in the body too dense to float….
But there was nothing. The water looked the same, there was…no lights or anything…
Would this even work?
Her steps echoed as she walked, the light streaming from her vest she crawled her way through the dark cavern. Her breath came out in short pants and her body ached but she stil forced herself to keep moving.
Since dropping T'Sol down, there had been nothing for hours, even as the night passed, until the water got hotter.
Michael hadn't conceived that it would have been something that would take a while. She hadn't realised it. But it did make sense. Logically. Undoing the effects on her, she was freshly dead so it wouldn't have taken so long. T'Sol was mummified; dried out and no doubt had a lot longer to rehydrate and renew a lot of the flesh. If there was some sentient mind behind all of this, she would love to hear all about it.
The low sound of bubbling began to echo towards. Her head rose but it made her step faster, the heat suddenly feeling immense. It tickled over her skin like it was fire but it lit her with excitement; something was happening.
The mutineer felt the heat get hotter and she could feel the sweat once again bead over her flesh but she sighed out as the cavern chamber came into view once again. Familiar but…dimmer than she remembered. All her senses had been…out of order. She couldn't deny the beauty of it. The inside stone formation of the red stone lines against the chalky white looked….unusual for a naturally occurring. The plants were expected, and looked to have grown throughout the cave system. Abundance of moss coated around.
The morning light shone down through the entrance above, water bubbled as if boiled, steam was settling above it like dry ice, that broke and weaved over its surface as the bubbles under popped, exposing the brief moments of water underneath. It felt…odd to observe it. But she felt the sense of familiarity, the water looked hotter than it was, the feel of…strength that being in it felt like. Even as disorientated as she had been; it wasn't something she could…fully recall. She remembered struggling to get to the surface; the need to breathe… the panic that fuelled and adrenaline rush to get her going. Kicked her into action.
Her eyes continued to observe, knees bending until she felt the soft mossy floor against them and settled down.
Waiting.
The surface broke. Startling Michael from her doze to immediate alertness as water splash and slapped around, a gasp for air echoing in the chamber, water frothed but Michael watched as T'Sol's arm spun widely her head tilted back, mouth open but eyes closed as she fought the water for breath.
Acting on instinct, Michael dove forwards into the chamber; the hot water suddenly submerging all around her, wiping away the previous tiredness and aches that had lingered within them. It only took a few strokes before she reached the Vulcan, the woman's arms immediately latching onto her, pushing her down to keep herself up but Michael resisted the woman's attempts, grapping her wrists.
"Calm down!" She called, half-swallowing the water as it shot into her mouth, gagging a little but the Vulcan didn't seem to hear her, pulling her wrists free but accidently kicked away. It took a sharp breath before Michael used the rope attached around the woman to help to pull her with her, going under the surface until she felt the bottom of the pool; kicking off that to push her along back towards the ledge. Hindered by the weight but she felt the struggle weaken a fraction.
"Come one… stay with me…" Her fingers clawed to the side, wedging her foot into a crack in the ledge support to keep her balance. Michael pulled on the rope, pulling the captain towards her.
The Vulcan gurgled on the water, slipping under but Michael pulled it faster, her fingers just about grabbing onto the woman's uniform before pulling her back against her, the woman's head lolling against her shoulder, her mouth falling open. She couldn't breathe….
Michael wrapped her arms over her, she placed her fist against the woman's diaphragm and using her other hand to curl over it, have over forced her weight into a pushing force inwards and upwards against her abdomen.
Immediately, the captain' body jerked, water was the first to come up but not everything. Michael forced a second one, dark sludge suddenly expelling passed her lips…
"Come on…breathe." She whispered, but on the fifth and last one, the Vulcan coughed and spluttered, before wrenching up. Michael almost gagged to see the amount of dirt and sand that deposited into the water, washing away the moment the water splashed over it, cleaning it all way.
It almost made her feel nauseous but the fact that the Vulcan was breathing, was enough. She could feel each breath the woman took, the fast heartbeat against her palm over her side; the woman's face was flushed with green and her eyes were closed, the lack of resistance said enough; the Vulcan was out of it, just as she had been after too…
Getting her back to the house would be a challenge… but not impossible.