Chapter 3
"Ensign Smith reporting for duty, sir." The young blonde haired man said as he joined the rest of the landing party in the Digitized Conveyor Room.
He snapped to attention before Commander Taggart.
"At ease, Smith." Taggart said, not really looking at the boy. "Alright guys, let's saddle up." Taggart stated, clapping his hands and rubbing them together in glee.
Lazarus, unthinking of his actions, leaned down and murmured into Tawney's ear. "Why do I get the feeling he's enjoying this entirely too much?"
Tawney shivered involuntarily as his breath caressed her flesh. And not being able to agree verbally at that moment, she simply nodded.
Lazarus felt Tawney shiver and arched a brow, but didn't comment.
Instead, he straightened back up just in time to hear Taggart laying out the basics of the exploration party.
"Now, first off, when we get to the surface, I want a quick scan for any energy traces consistent with mining activities." Taggart instructed, handing the surface scanner to Tawney.
She nodded. "Aye, commander."
Tech Sgt. Chen, a short, older looking man with dark hair that receeded slightly at the hairline, was at the controls of the digital conveyor. He turned to Taggart, his brow etched in a worried look.
"Commander, I seem to be detecting some sort of electromagnetic interference due to a storm brewing in the planet's atmosphere."
"Is there a problem, Chen?" Taggart asked, coming to stand beside the Tech Sgt.
Tawney and Lazarus followed.
"No sir, not at the moment. But if we remain this close to the planet's gravitational pull during a full onslaught of one of these storms, we may begin to develop problems with a few of our devices, including the ship's scanners."
Taggart's face dropped in a look of disappointment. "If we were to go down to the surface, what are the possibilities of you being able to convey us back when we are ready?"
Chen shrugged his shoulders. "Shouldn't have any problem if you are at the exact coordinates I convey you down to." He informed the commander.
Taggart's expression immediately brightened again. "Well, alright then. There shouldn't be any problem. This is going to be a simple in and out mission anyway."
He then motioned for the others to take their places on the platform of the digital conveyor. When everyone was in place, Taggart nodded to the Tech Sgt.
"Okay Chen. Digitize us."
In a flash of twinkling lights, the four figures contorted slightly and then disappeared from the platform.
*~*~*~*~*
A second later, down on the planet, twinkling lights flashed in a clearing surrounded by a densely wooded forest. The four figures of the landing party soon appeared within the lights. Then the lights faded, leaving the commander and his three crew members.
Bringing up the scanner, Tawney began her search for a direction in which the miner's facilities would be. After a moment, Tawney looked at the device with a confused look and a frown gracing her face.
"Uh, Commander?" She said, giving the commander a questioning look.
"What is it, Lt. Madison? Did you find them already?" Taggart turned to look at the beautiful woman beside him.
"No sir, that's just it. I haven't. The scanner shows no sign of mining activity within a three mile radius. We did convey down at the right coordinates, didn't sir?" Her voice held a slight hint of the fear that was beginning to creep up her spine.
This wasn't right. They were at the right coordinates, she had checked them herself. There just wasn't a mining facility anywhere in the vicinity.
"Now now, Tawney, no need to panic." Taggart said, catching the fear in the woman's voice.
He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
Neither of them saw the slight look of anger that flitted across Lazarus' face at the contact. Lazarus quickly reigned in the look though, chiding himself yet again at his weakness in matters where this human female was concerned.
Feeling the need to either break the contact before he broke the commander's arm, Lazarus settled on clearing his throat.
The commander relinquished his grip on Tawney's shoulder, much to her relief. Turning, Taggart looked at the rest of the party.
"Alright. Now, obviously someone is here or there wouldn't have been a distress signal, right?" He asked in a no nonsense tone, placing his hands on his hips.
"Yes sir, but where in all of this..." Tawney exclaimed, stretching out her arms and turning in a circle to indicate their surroundings. "...do you suggest we look?"
Taggart looked around. Outside of the small clearing, there was not much else but shrubs and trees. Not a very building-friendly enviroment.
Pursing his lips together, Taggart was silent for a moment. Lazarus, Tawney and Smith all looked expectantly to their commander.
Finally, Taggart seemed to come to a decision.
"Alright, this is what we are going to do. Lazarus, I want you to go due North and check that section of the forest for any signs of life, human or otherwise, within a three mile radius. Lt. Madison, I want you with Smith over in the Northwest quadrant. And I will be the Eastern quadrant. From the coordinates we recieved, one of us should come upon something. Now, I want us to rendezvous back here in one hour." He stated.
They all took out their time crystals to note the hour, and then nodded to one another.
"Good luck, everybody." Taggart said as they set off on their tasks.
It didn't take long before the four were deeply ensconced in the forest.
*~*~*~*~*~*
Tawney and Smith had walked in silence keeping an eye out for anything vaguely resembling civilization. Finally, Smith broke the silence with a question.
"So, what's up with you and the commander?"
The sound of a voice after so much silence startled Tawney, and a small shriek escaped her throat before she could stiffle it.
"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." Smith said, his voice matching the apologetic look on his handsome face.
"It's okay." Tawney said, now that she had calmed herself down. "And there is nothing UP with me and the commander." She added as an afterthought. "Now, come on, we still have some ground to cover."
Smith moved behind Tawney to follow her, both unaware that her earlier outburst had alerted something to their presence. And said something was now silently stalking them.
*~*~*~*
Taggart had not gone more than a mile when he noticed the sky taking on a greenish tint.
Hmm. Must be the storm Chen warned about. He thought.
He continued on his way, when he just happened to notice a thick wall of vines and shrubs that seemed to go impossibly high.
Walking over to it, he placed a hand cautiously on it, only to find a wall of stone behind the tangle of leaves and branches.
"Well, I'll be..." He said softly, as he began pulling vines from the surface to reveal the side of a building quite effectively concealed within the foliage.
He began pacing the length of the wall until he found the entrance.
Trying the door, he found that it opened quite easily, so he pushed it completely open and took a tentative step inside. But not before taking out his trusty photon phazor.
After a quick sweep of the inside, which seemed to be quite thoroughly trashed, Taggart came to the conclusion that there didn't appear to be any signs of life in the building. So, Taggart put his weapon away and began going through some open folders that lay on a counter that was littered with broken glass and scattered paper.
"Well now, let's see what we have here." He murmured to himself as he flipped through the files with an amused expression.
But after reading four or five pages, the amusement melted into a look of surprise and then horror.
"Oh, my God." He muttered, before quickly beginning to gather up all of the folders.
*~*~*~*~*
Lazarus was just reaching the two mile mark, when the sound of a terrified scream pierced the silence.
He recognized it immediately as Tawney's and felt an icy grip begin to squeeze his heart. Taking out his phazor, he quickly began running in the direction he thought the scream had originated from, when another one was emitted.
Honing in on the direction, Lazarus raced off through the thick shrubs, praying all the while to Ipthar that he make it there in time.
Finally, he burst out into an area that was less constricted with trees only to behold a horrible sight.
Tawney stood just a couple of yards from him, seemingly frozen in place with a terrified look etched on her face. She held her phazor pointed in a direction just off to his right.
Slowly, Lazarus turned and saw the body, or what remained of the body, of Ensign Smith. He was in a crumpled and bloody heap, and crouched over his body, growling in Tawney's direction was a creature that should, by all rights and purpose, not be there. On this planet or otherwise. But it was there, in all it's razor sharp-toothed glory.
A Kreemorian Fangor Beast.
The creature was much like a saber-toothed tiger, with it's cat-like features, thick covering of orange colored fur, and sharp teeth and claws. The only difference being the scorpion-like tail the creature possessed.
Lazarus saw it tense a second before it sprang to launch itself at Tawney. He noticed she still hadn't made a move to fire her phazor, so he quickly grabbed his, took aim, and fired.
Or at least, he tried to fire.
The thing didn't seem to want to work. Thinking quickly, he immediately threw it down and began to run. He reached Tawney a split second before the Fangor Beast and grabbing Tawney around the waist with his left arm, and her phazor with his right hand, he wrenched them out of the way and fired.
The creature was upon them when it fell, colliding with them and knocking them all into a motionless heap.
They lay there for a moment, none moving. Then frantically, Lazarus rose up and began to work quickly in extracting Tawney and himself from the close proximity they were in with the creature.
He pulled Tawney a safe distance away and began inspecting her for injuries.
"Aww, dammit!" He exclaimed when he saw her side.
Apparently the creature had gotten a good swipe in, because the side of Tawney's uniform was in tatters and he could smell the blood he was sure was seeping from her wounds.
"Dammit, dammit, dammit!" He raged again.
Finally he calmed himself down. Taking Tawney's stricken face gently in his hands, he made her look at him.
"Miss. Madison." He started, but quickly recanted and started again. This was no time to be formal. "Tawney? Tawney, answer me, love."
Love? Now where had that come from?
He made a mental note of the endearment and quickly went back to his task.
"Tawney, it's Lazarus. Say something to me."
A flicker of recognition came to her eyes as she whispered his name.
"Lazarus?"
"Yes, Tawney." He said, not being able to help the joyful laugh that burst from his smiling lips. "It's me. You're going to be alright, love."
There it was again. What was up with that?
He didn't have time to ponder on the question, because at that moment, Tawney came out of her shocked state and immediately burst into tears as she threw herself into his arms.
"Oh God, Laz. I was so scared. We didn't even have a warning. Poor Smith. He never knew what hit him. Are you sure it's dead?" Her voice was muffled from her face being buried in his chest like it was, but he understood what she had said.
Softly stroking her hair in a comforting gesture, he answered. "Yes, it's dead, Tawney. It's all over."
"Thank God." She exclaimed, finally getting a grip on her sobs and pulling away slightly to look up into Lazarus' face.
For a moment, neither spoke. Just looked into each other's eyes. As if it had a mind of it's own, Tawney's right hand rose up to cup Lazarus' cheek gently.
"Laz." She said softly, as she raised up on her toes just as he began to lower his face to her's.
There was just a whisper of space between thier lips, when suddenly Tawney was overcome with a wave of dizziness and with a groan, she completely collapsed into Lazarus' arms.
*~*~*~*~*
tbc...
A/N: I want to thank everyone who had given me feedback so far. I really hope you enjoy this part, and I will try to update as soon as I can, but I need to work on getting another chapter of my other stories out. But I promise to have a next part out asap. :)
Rose
"Ensign Smith reporting for duty, sir." The young blonde haired man said as he joined the rest of the landing party in the Digitized Conveyor Room.
He snapped to attention before Commander Taggart.
"At ease, Smith." Taggart said, not really looking at the boy. "Alright guys, let's saddle up." Taggart stated, clapping his hands and rubbing them together in glee.
Lazarus, unthinking of his actions, leaned down and murmured into Tawney's ear. "Why do I get the feeling he's enjoying this entirely too much?"
Tawney shivered involuntarily as his breath caressed her flesh. And not being able to agree verbally at that moment, she simply nodded.
Lazarus felt Tawney shiver and arched a brow, but didn't comment.
Instead, he straightened back up just in time to hear Taggart laying out the basics of the exploration party.
"Now, first off, when we get to the surface, I want a quick scan for any energy traces consistent with mining activities." Taggart instructed, handing the surface scanner to Tawney.
She nodded. "Aye, commander."
Tech Sgt. Chen, a short, older looking man with dark hair that receeded slightly at the hairline, was at the controls of the digital conveyor. He turned to Taggart, his brow etched in a worried look.
"Commander, I seem to be detecting some sort of electromagnetic interference due to a storm brewing in the planet's atmosphere."
"Is there a problem, Chen?" Taggart asked, coming to stand beside the Tech Sgt.
Tawney and Lazarus followed.
"No sir, not at the moment. But if we remain this close to the planet's gravitational pull during a full onslaught of one of these storms, we may begin to develop problems with a few of our devices, including the ship's scanners."
Taggart's face dropped in a look of disappointment. "If we were to go down to the surface, what are the possibilities of you being able to convey us back when we are ready?"
Chen shrugged his shoulders. "Shouldn't have any problem if you are at the exact coordinates I convey you down to." He informed the commander.
Taggart's expression immediately brightened again. "Well, alright then. There shouldn't be any problem. This is going to be a simple in and out mission anyway."
He then motioned for the others to take their places on the platform of the digital conveyor. When everyone was in place, Taggart nodded to the Tech Sgt.
"Okay Chen. Digitize us."
In a flash of twinkling lights, the four figures contorted slightly and then disappeared from the platform.
*~*~*~*~*
A second later, down on the planet, twinkling lights flashed in a clearing surrounded by a densely wooded forest. The four figures of the landing party soon appeared within the lights. Then the lights faded, leaving the commander and his three crew members.
Bringing up the scanner, Tawney began her search for a direction in which the miner's facilities would be. After a moment, Tawney looked at the device with a confused look and a frown gracing her face.
"Uh, Commander?" She said, giving the commander a questioning look.
"What is it, Lt. Madison? Did you find them already?" Taggart turned to look at the beautiful woman beside him.
"No sir, that's just it. I haven't. The scanner shows no sign of mining activity within a three mile radius. We did convey down at the right coordinates, didn't sir?" Her voice held a slight hint of the fear that was beginning to creep up her spine.
This wasn't right. They were at the right coordinates, she had checked them herself. There just wasn't a mining facility anywhere in the vicinity.
"Now now, Tawney, no need to panic." Taggart said, catching the fear in the woman's voice.
He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
Neither of them saw the slight look of anger that flitted across Lazarus' face at the contact. Lazarus quickly reigned in the look though, chiding himself yet again at his weakness in matters where this human female was concerned.
Feeling the need to either break the contact before he broke the commander's arm, Lazarus settled on clearing his throat.
The commander relinquished his grip on Tawney's shoulder, much to her relief. Turning, Taggart looked at the rest of the party.
"Alright. Now, obviously someone is here or there wouldn't have been a distress signal, right?" He asked in a no nonsense tone, placing his hands on his hips.
"Yes sir, but where in all of this..." Tawney exclaimed, stretching out her arms and turning in a circle to indicate their surroundings. "...do you suggest we look?"
Taggart looked around. Outside of the small clearing, there was not much else but shrubs and trees. Not a very building-friendly enviroment.
Pursing his lips together, Taggart was silent for a moment. Lazarus, Tawney and Smith all looked expectantly to their commander.
Finally, Taggart seemed to come to a decision.
"Alright, this is what we are going to do. Lazarus, I want you to go due North and check that section of the forest for any signs of life, human or otherwise, within a three mile radius. Lt. Madison, I want you with Smith over in the Northwest quadrant. And I will be the Eastern quadrant. From the coordinates we recieved, one of us should come upon something. Now, I want us to rendezvous back here in one hour." He stated.
They all took out their time crystals to note the hour, and then nodded to one another.
"Good luck, everybody." Taggart said as they set off on their tasks.
It didn't take long before the four were deeply ensconced in the forest.
*~*~*~*~*~*
Tawney and Smith had walked in silence keeping an eye out for anything vaguely resembling civilization. Finally, Smith broke the silence with a question.
"So, what's up with you and the commander?"
The sound of a voice after so much silence startled Tawney, and a small shriek escaped her throat before she could stiffle it.
"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." Smith said, his voice matching the apologetic look on his handsome face.
"It's okay." Tawney said, now that she had calmed herself down. "And there is nothing UP with me and the commander." She added as an afterthought. "Now, come on, we still have some ground to cover."
Smith moved behind Tawney to follow her, both unaware that her earlier outburst had alerted something to their presence. And said something was now silently stalking them.
*~*~*~*
Taggart had not gone more than a mile when he noticed the sky taking on a greenish tint.
Hmm. Must be the storm Chen warned about. He thought.
He continued on his way, when he just happened to notice a thick wall of vines and shrubs that seemed to go impossibly high.
Walking over to it, he placed a hand cautiously on it, only to find a wall of stone behind the tangle of leaves and branches.
"Well, I'll be..." He said softly, as he began pulling vines from the surface to reveal the side of a building quite effectively concealed within the foliage.
He began pacing the length of the wall until he found the entrance.
Trying the door, he found that it opened quite easily, so he pushed it completely open and took a tentative step inside. But not before taking out his trusty photon phazor.
After a quick sweep of the inside, which seemed to be quite thoroughly trashed, Taggart came to the conclusion that there didn't appear to be any signs of life in the building. So, Taggart put his weapon away and began going through some open folders that lay on a counter that was littered with broken glass and scattered paper.
"Well now, let's see what we have here." He murmured to himself as he flipped through the files with an amused expression.
But after reading four or five pages, the amusement melted into a look of surprise and then horror.
"Oh, my God." He muttered, before quickly beginning to gather up all of the folders.
*~*~*~*~*
Lazarus was just reaching the two mile mark, when the sound of a terrified scream pierced the silence.
He recognized it immediately as Tawney's and felt an icy grip begin to squeeze his heart. Taking out his phazor, he quickly began running in the direction he thought the scream had originated from, when another one was emitted.
Honing in on the direction, Lazarus raced off through the thick shrubs, praying all the while to Ipthar that he make it there in time.
Finally, he burst out into an area that was less constricted with trees only to behold a horrible sight.
Tawney stood just a couple of yards from him, seemingly frozen in place with a terrified look etched on her face. She held her phazor pointed in a direction just off to his right.
Slowly, Lazarus turned and saw the body, or what remained of the body, of Ensign Smith. He was in a crumpled and bloody heap, and crouched over his body, growling in Tawney's direction was a creature that should, by all rights and purpose, not be there. On this planet or otherwise. But it was there, in all it's razor sharp-toothed glory.
A Kreemorian Fangor Beast.
The creature was much like a saber-toothed tiger, with it's cat-like features, thick covering of orange colored fur, and sharp teeth and claws. The only difference being the scorpion-like tail the creature possessed.
Lazarus saw it tense a second before it sprang to launch itself at Tawney. He noticed she still hadn't made a move to fire her phazor, so he quickly grabbed his, took aim, and fired.
Or at least, he tried to fire.
The thing didn't seem to want to work. Thinking quickly, he immediately threw it down and began to run. He reached Tawney a split second before the Fangor Beast and grabbing Tawney around the waist with his left arm, and her phazor with his right hand, he wrenched them out of the way and fired.
The creature was upon them when it fell, colliding with them and knocking them all into a motionless heap.
They lay there for a moment, none moving. Then frantically, Lazarus rose up and began to work quickly in extracting Tawney and himself from the close proximity they were in with the creature.
He pulled Tawney a safe distance away and began inspecting her for injuries.
"Aww, dammit!" He exclaimed when he saw her side.
Apparently the creature had gotten a good swipe in, because the side of Tawney's uniform was in tatters and he could smell the blood he was sure was seeping from her wounds.
"Dammit, dammit, dammit!" He raged again.
Finally he calmed himself down. Taking Tawney's stricken face gently in his hands, he made her look at him.
"Miss. Madison." He started, but quickly recanted and started again. This was no time to be formal. "Tawney? Tawney, answer me, love."
Love? Now where had that come from?
He made a mental note of the endearment and quickly went back to his task.
"Tawney, it's Lazarus. Say something to me."
A flicker of recognition came to her eyes as she whispered his name.
"Lazarus?"
"Yes, Tawney." He said, not being able to help the joyful laugh that burst from his smiling lips. "It's me. You're going to be alright, love."
There it was again. What was up with that?
He didn't have time to ponder on the question, because at that moment, Tawney came out of her shocked state and immediately burst into tears as she threw herself into his arms.
"Oh God, Laz. I was so scared. We didn't even have a warning. Poor Smith. He never knew what hit him. Are you sure it's dead?" Her voice was muffled from her face being buried in his chest like it was, but he understood what she had said.
Softly stroking her hair in a comforting gesture, he answered. "Yes, it's dead, Tawney. It's all over."
"Thank God." She exclaimed, finally getting a grip on her sobs and pulling away slightly to look up into Lazarus' face.
For a moment, neither spoke. Just looked into each other's eyes. As if it had a mind of it's own, Tawney's right hand rose up to cup Lazarus' cheek gently.
"Laz." She said softly, as she raised up on her toes just as he began to lower his face to her's.
There was just a whisper of space between thier lips, when suddenly Tawney was overcome with a wave of dizziness and with a groan, she completely collapsed into Lazarus' arms.
*~*~*~*~*
tbc...
A/N: I want to thank everyone who had given me feedback so far. I really hope you enjoy this part, and I will try to update as soon as I can, but I need to work on getting another chapter of my other stories out. But I promise to have a next part out asap. :)
Rose