ok ppls, you wanted more? well here you go! enjoy! and please, no flames!
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Harper panted in the darkness. 'Hand over hand. Right over left...' he thought to himself. He'd been crawling behind Dylan, along the continuous wall, for hours. His hands were rubbed raw from feeling his way down the rough wall texture. His chest was tight and his head spun. His limbs tingled from lack of oxygen and there was a dull and constant pain just behind his eye sockets. His legs ached and his knees were almost numb from crawling on them for so long. He couldn't endure much more of this. "Dylan," he panted. "I---" but he couldn't say any more. He collapsed on the floor, leaning his head back against the wall he'd come to hate. He could hear Dylan sit down beside him.
"You're right. We should have taken a break sooner." There was a silence in which the only thing either one could hear was their own heavy breathing. After a while: "How are you holding up?"
Harper said nothing for a moment, the words of his response playing inside his head, but not backed by the energy to speak them aloud.
"Harper? If you aren't feeling well-"
"No... I-- I'm fine... No. I'm not fine. This is ridiculous! How do we know we aren't going in freakin' circles? Or going downhill instead of uphill? Or... Dylan," he finally broke down to pleading, "please, can we stop. I'm so tired."
There was a long silence. "No."
Harper sat in mild shock, but then again, why was he so surprised? Dylan was set in his ways. Harper knew that he was becoming very sick. It was obvious. And if he pushed himself much further... 'Oh, suck it up,' he thought viciously to himself. "Fine," he replied to Dylan, flipping onto his knees once more and feeling along the wall. Dylan hesitated. What if Harper was coming down with something worse than altitude illness? With a pang, Dylan recalled the horrid memories from over three hundred years ago. But he had to keep going; he couldn't let Harper get too far ahead of him. So on they crawled.
**************************
"Do you hear something?" Rommie sat erect beside Trance's slouching figure.
"Hmm?" came Trance's weak reply.
Rommie said nothing in return. She did not know what was happening to Trance inside her head. There was much that she did not know about this new golden Trance. She was still very much a mystery to the whole crew. There. Rommie heard it again: a distant panting and dragging sound. "Trance, listen."
Trance tried to sit up. She was concentrating so hard to keep the voices from invading her head again, that it was hard to think of anything else. Reluctantly, she pulled her head up, straightening her back against the stone wall. Rommie was on her knees now, leaving Trance still on the floor. "There. Did you hear it that time?" Trance strained her ears. Beyond the pounding of her blood, she thought that she could hear the distant traces of someone breathing, heavily. And then-
Rommie gripped Trance's shoulder. Voices, echoing in the distance. A soft murmur. It grew louder.
"What should we do?" Trance whispered shakily.
In response, Rommie placed one hand lightly over Trance's mouth and called out, "Who is it? Who's there?"
The murmuring stopped. The panting stopped. The dragging stopped. A long pounding silence. "Rommie?"
"Dylan?"
"Rommie! Where are you?"
"Over here! Follow my voice!"
"Is anyone with you?"
"Trance."
There was a brief pause. "It doesn't sound like she's there."
"She's... well, I'm not really sure what's happening to her."
Trance! Harper thought he would collapse right then and there. She was alive. But what was wrong with her? Nothing could be wrong with her! She was the healer! The oracle. The one who knew everything. He wanted to say something, but if he thought about talking and crawling at the same time, he would surely fall over. And in his state, he couldn't risk not being able to get up again. He slowly pulled himself along behind Dylan.
Dylan was moving as fast as his body would allow. Rommie continued to talk: something about Trance's head and a lot of fainting. At last, he could feel body heat. He reached out.
The person's shoulder jerked, but they made no noise. 'This must be Trance,' Dylan thought. Soon he felt another person. "Rommie!" She was gripping his arm and pulling him slowly toward her. He sat on the other side of her and collapsed. "Harper? You doing all right?" Dylan called out. The sound of dragging was his response.
"Harper's with you?" Rommie said in surprise.
While Rommie and Dylan began to talk, Harper pulled himself forward until he felt something warm ahead of him. It was Trance. Sitting against the wall beside her, he tried to steady his breathing. "Hey," he managed to whisper hoarsely. She did not respond verbally, but reached out a feeble hand, landing it on Harper's shoulder. With that, she fell into her catatonic state again. Harper closed his eyes, and, sitting shoulder to shoulder with Trance, he passed out.
"But Dylan," Rommie was whispering, "you could have made him worse."
"We wouldn't have found you then."
"True, but- I just don't want anything to happen to him. And with his weak immune system as it is, even in a controlled environment. Who knows what illnesses are on this planet."
"It's not viruses that I would worry about."
"Dylan, what are you not telling me? I know that you're hiding something."
"And why are you so sure?"
Rommie hesitated. "I... I guess I just know my captain too well."
"Do you now?" Dylan's head was leaned in close so that they could talk without disturbing Harper and Trance, who were obviously not WITH them . Rommie made no move to pull back, even as she sensed Dylan leaning in closer. She wished that there was some light. ANY light at all would be better than this total and utter darkness.
"You're avoiding the question," Rommie said finally.
"Maybe it should be avoided," Dylan pulled back slightly.
Rommie said nothing. Dylan's tone had changed. Now it was tainted with the underlying bitterness of a bad memory. She heard Dylan sigh. 'He must be tried,' she thought sympathetically. She pulled away so that he could rest. She sat in the darkness, wishing that she too could fall sleep, and suddenly felt very much alone.
*****************
"Dylan? You awake?" Rommie felt the stale air shift slightly as Dylan sat up.
"Yes. How about them?" He cocked his head in Harper and Trance's direction, but soon remembered that Rommie couldn't see him.
Yet she seemed to understand. "I can't really tell... Dylan, I strongly believe that Harper has outdone himself. He's almost as bad as Trance. He barely responds to anything. And all three of you must be starving."
"Not to mention Tyr and Beka. That's next on our agenda."
"No, we can't go anywhere if those two aren't capable of moving. We can't risk splitting up and then not being able to find each other again. You know that."
"Always the logical one... So what do YOU propose we do?"
"I don't know. That's your job. You're the captain aren't you?"
"I hadn't noticed."
Rommie shrugged irritably. "I don't think we should move. And you're not going to get any kind of opinion from them, so it appears that you have been overruled."
"Well," Dylan almost laughed, "I suppose we should stay here for a while then- but only for a little bit mind you. We're likely to starve here if we stay too long in one place."
"All right then," Rommie said with satisfactory.
The two sat in silence, Dylan resting and Rommie thinking.
************************
"Dylan!" Rommie practically screamed.
Dylan jerked out of sleep and sat up quickly. Three huge luminous figures approached the group at an alarming rate. Dylan looked over and, to his horror, saw Trance rolling in violent convulsions, tearing at her head and hair. Harper looked barely conscious. Looking back at the figures, Dylan shielded his eyes. Their light stung like walking from a dark room to the outdoors. Rommie was standing protectively in front of the other three. Dylan struggled up, leaning against the wall. He realized that the creatures were the same aliens who had taken them. Only now they looked quite different, their skin giving off millions of tiny pinpricks of light. Their once beige transparent shin now glowed a faint yellowish color.
"Dylan, do we attack?"
"No," Dylan said, turning to Rommie. Oh, how good it was to see again!
After a moment, Dylan looked again at the aliens. Now they were close, very close. The ground shook slightly as they approached. They stopped right in front of the four crewmates. Dylan was breathing heavily. Rommie and Dylan stared for a long time, and the three aliens stared back with unblinking eyes, intently searching for some form of communication.
"AAAAAAAA!!!" Trance's shrill scream startled all of those standing. She flung herself against the wall. "GET OUT! GET OUT! LEAVE ME ALONE!!!" One alien looked at the writhing golden creature on the floor for a moment, staring straight at her head. All at once, Trance stopped moving. She looked up, as if it was the very first time she had been awake, her eyes full of wonder. She stared intently at the alien, her forehead wrinkling with concentration. Her expressions changed as if she were having a conversation in her head. Then she nodded and looked up at Dylan and Rommie, who were both in shock.
"Tr- Trance... What..." Dylan tried to ask.
Trance smiled.
"But you were so sick," Rommie objected.
"I'll tell you everything later. But right now, we must go with these aliens." Her head moved back a little and she smiled at the alien. "Excuse me, we must go with these three Kolg."
Dylan and Rommie stood awestruck. "All right then," Dylan said breathlessly as he stepped around Trance and hoisted up Harper's limp body. Trance's face fell. She reached out a tentative hand and touched his dangling arm. "He'll be fine, Trance. Don't worry."
"Right."
They followed the Kolg down a now illuminated passageway carved out of the planet's stone core. They walked in silence for some time before Rommie said something.
"Trance, what happened back there? You- well we thought that you had gone mad. You seemed to not be with us. You were- somewhere else."
"I could hear them speaking," Trance murmured. "All of them at once. I don't know how else to describe it. They were all inside my head, but they did not know it. They were having normal conversations. I heard only a few at first, then more and more. I must have had their entire population inside my head. The pain was..." Her voice trailed off. She stumbled slightly. Rommie reached out to help her walk. "Thank you. I'm pretty drained."
Rommie waited for her to say more, but she did not continue. Rommie knew that she shouldn't pry. She should wait until Trance was ready to speak in depth about it. Dylan was struggling with Harper's body over his shoulder ahead of she and Trance. His feet dragged against the ground as he tried to keep the pace of the Kolg. Rommie thought for a moment. "Were those voices the same as that presence you felt earlier?"
"Yes," Trance nodded. It felt like ages ago. But now she could see. She watched Harper's head bounce against Dylan's back with every step he made. She felt a small pang of fear in her belly. His skin looked blue- or was it just the poor lighting? 'Oh, what I would give for the med. deck right now,' Trance thought sorrowfully. She herself did not feel well; she was dizzy, her stomach churned, and her heart beat in irregular flutters inside her ribcage. However, it was clear that Harper was much worse. She looked over Dylan's other shoulder and studied the nearest Kolg. What strange, silent creatures they were! Never had she encountered something quite like this before!
Her thoughts traveled back to the hateful words that had stuck out in her head. "... Murder us all." What had it meant? And why was there so much sorrow and fear in this race? These thoughts made her feel even worse. And what had just happened? As the three Kolg had approached, the voices had returned at full, even worse than before. And then they had stopped. A female voice, powerful and calm, had spoken softly to her...
"You must harness the link. It will kill you if you cannot control what you hear. You must find that mental harness. You are different. You can hear us. I will have much to discuss with you... after the trial," the voice had said. After the trial? Trance had missed that part at first. 'What trial?' she thought in sudden alarm.
"Where are Tyr and Beka?" Trance said suddenly.
Rommie looked up in surprise.
"Dylan and Harper are with us. What about Tyr and Beka?"
"I don't know. We didn't find them. Why?"
"I'm just... concerned. And why shouldn't I be? They're a part of the team!"
Rommie smiled a little. "I think Tyr and Beka can take care of themselves just fine. I wouldn't worry too much." This was a joke, but Trance did not see the humor of it. "What is it?"
"They... these kolg... they're taking us to a trial."
"WHAT?" Rommie said too loudly. Dylan turned around.
"Trial. That's what they told me."
"Who told you what?" Dylan asked.
"We'll talk about this at a more convenient time," Trance said shortly, fore they were reaching the end of the tunnel. Dylan and Rommie looked forward too. They gaped. The dim tunnel opened into a huge room with towering ceilings and walls of faintly glowing yellow. It was some type of fluorescent mineral. Hundreds of Kolg milled about, their skin glowing not quite as bright in the cavern's light.
"There they are," a strange voice hissed in Trance's head. She turned her head sharply too see that many kolg had stopped to stare at them. Voice's picked up as the aliens glanced at each other. Trance stumbled slightly at the voices, but now it was basically like hearing people murmur around you, as if they were speaking verbally... but they weren't.
The three kolg led them through the crowds of radiating hulking figures and to the opposite end of the cavern. Here, the stone had been cut in such a way that it rose in rough tears to create a platform. One of the three kolg climbed this now and stood facing the growing numbers of curious kolg.
"My people," it began- the same female voice that had spoken to Trance before- "These are the one's who murdered U'dam." The crowd broke out in murmuring. Some cried out angrily. "But they will have a trial." This caused much protest.
"Just kill them!" Trance shivered. It was that hateful voice. She stepped closer to Rommie and Dylan.
"Do not underestimate these creatures," said the female kolg with an eery calmness. "One of them can hear us." All talking stopped abruptly. "Which one, I will not say. And they will not reveal it to you either. You must treat them each with the same respect as if they can all understand you. You never know which one will be listening..." Then, as she continued to speak, Trance heard separate words in her head. The same voice, but only a whisper as the louder voice spoke to the public. She was speaking individually to Trance and separately to the other kolg... at the same time. "Listen to me now. The others cannot hear this. Do not react to anything that we say. If you speak with your other friends, none of us will understand you. Can you be trusted? Can I trust you?"
Trance was not sure how to respond without all the others hearing. She looked carefully at the kolg standing above her.
"You are wise. I can see that now. I can hear your thoughts. Most cannot, so do not fret. Only the other Elders and I can hear you... if they bother listening." And then she stopped. Trance could now hear what the female kolg was continuing to say to the crowd. She marveled, but soon remembered to keep her face blank. Rommie and Dylan were standing stiffly. Trance hesitated to speak aloud. It was hard to believe that the kolg would not hear her. "Go on," the female kolg whispered, with a note that one would hear if someone spoke while smiling fondly.
"They can't hear us," Trance said to the other two.
"Are you sure? Why are they all just standing there?" Dylan shifted Harper's limp figure to the floor.
"Yes, I am positive that they can't hear us. And they are not just standing. They're communicating."
"Talking?" Rommie asked.
"Yes," and Trance began to explain everything to them.
After all was said, Dylan started, "So we're on trial? For the murder of..."
"U'dam."
Rommie cut in, "But we killed so many of them. Why are we only on trial for the one?"
"Wait," Trance put up a hand. The female Elder was speaking to her, cleverly not looking directly at her.
"What do they call you?" she asked.
Trance thought her name, hoping that the kolg would hear it. She did.
"Ah, Trance Gemini. An interesting name. I am Daedra, the Second Elder. Wait- do not look at me while I speak to you." Trance looked at the floor. "The trial will begin now," Daedra said, and Trance could tell that she was now speaking to the whole crowd.
"They're starting the trial," Trance informed Dylan and Rommie. She swallowed nervously and glanced around at the public.
"How does it look for us?" Dylan asked.
Trance shook her head. "It's too soon to tell. I'm sorry." Dylan nodded.
"Should we sit down or what?" Rommie asked.
"If we sit, we sit at the same time."
"Why?"
"Because we can't let them single any of us out. If they do, then they might figure out that I'm the one who can hear them." The others nodded.
"So... on the count of three?" Dylan suggested.
"One... Two... Three." They all sat down and waited in silence. Trance listened to the accusations.
"They killed him. And all of those soldiers! There's no denying it!"
"I am not," Daedra replied calmly.
"You can't make the decision yourself!"
"Bring the First Elder!"
"The First Elder!" the crowd chanted.
"Silence!" a commanding voice hollered. The hall fell deadly silent once more. The crowds parted and murmured prayer-like addresses to the massive kolg that emerged from the cave entrance. This one glowed so brightly that Dylan, Trance, and Rommie had to shield their eyes. He towered even higher than the rest of the kolg. Moving slowly, he made his way through the crowd towards the platform. "Honors," he said briefly to Daedra, positioning himself beside her.
"Honors," she replied back in a terribly respectful tone.
"Who is that?" Dylan asked. Trance pulled back abruptly.
"The First Elder."
"Isn't that other kolg the Second?" Rommie asked.
"Yes."
"I think I might actually be starting to understand these creatures," Dylan commented. "All right, you can listen to them again. You're our ears for this you know."
Trance nodded and smiled, then shifted herself mentally to listen to the kolg trial.
The trial went on for hours, heated and very much divided.
"It doesn't look good for us," Trance commented. "But I don't think that Daedra will let anything happen to us."
"You think," Dylan repeated. "Great."
Trance went back to listening.
"We can't kill them! Don't you see that?"
"They deserve nothing more than what they gave U'dam!"
"And the soldiers!"
"No! They deserve life! Not death!"
"They fought in self defense!"
"Let the Elders decide!"
"No! Let the public decide!"
"This is getting us nowhere! Idiocy!" Daedra spoke after long being subdued. "We shall not harm them! If we can make them understand our culture, then it won't die with the planet!" Her words were harsh and cutting, leaving everyone to think.
"A valid point," the First Elder added. "You," he turned to the crowd, "do not listen to her words of wisdom! What has become of us? Has the Green Blume destroyed everything? Our morale? Our decency? We are alive, so let it be peaceful while it lasts." The crowd contemplated this.
Trance's heart beat wildly. The Green Blume? While this lasts? While WHAT lasts? Life itself?
"Honors!" a powerful voice called out from the cave entrance. All turned to look at the large kolg who had just entered.
"Honors, respected guard," the First Elder said. "What have you to say?"
"I have nothing to say, but much to show."
To Trance's horror, the guard stepped forward.
"What?" Dylan asked urgently, hearing her gasp and seeing the terrified look on her sparkling face.
"L- look," was all that Trance say. The three crew mates stood.
Rommie gasped and cried out, covering her face with shaky hands.
Dylan cursed under his breath.
Before them, through the parted crowd, the hulking guard stood with two figures, one slung over each massive shoulder... The limp and broken bodies of Try and Beka.
*******************
BWAHAHAHAAAA!!!! ok that was fun. you like? PLEASE R&R!!!!! --- and i promise, nobody dies... or DO they? hmmmmm.... **strokes chin. thinks to self: DO they now...?**
~TBC~
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Harper panted in the darkness. 'Hand over hand. Right over left...' he thought to himself. He'd been crawling behind Dylan, along the continuous wall, for hours. His hands were rubbed raw from feeling his way down the rough wall texture. His chest was tight and his head spun. His limbs tingled from lack of oxygen and there was a dull and constant pain just behind his eye sockets. His legs ached and his knees were almost numb from crawling on them for so long. He couldn't endure much more of this. "Dylan," he panted. "I---" but he couldn't say any more. He collapsed on the floor, leaning his head back against the wall he'd come to hate. He could hear Dylan sit down beside him.
"You're right. We should have taken a break sooner." There was a silence in which the only thing either one could hear was their own heavy breathing. After a while: "How are you holding up?"
Harper said nothing for a moment, the words of his response playing inside his head, but not backed by the energy to speak them aloud.
"Harper? If you aren't feeling well-"
"No... I-- I'm fine... No. I'm not fine. This is ridiculous! How do we know we aren't going in freakin' circles? Or going downhill instead of uphill? Or... Dylan," he finally broke down to pleading, "please, can we stop. I'm so tired."
There was a long silence. "No."
Harper sat in mild shock, but then again, why was he so surprised? Dylan was set in his ways. Harper knew that he was becoming very sick. It was obvious. And if he pushed himself much further... 'Oh, suck it up,' he thought viciously to himself. "Fine," he replied to Dylan, flipping onto his knees once more and feeling along the wall. Dylan hesitated. What if Harper was coming down with something worse than altitude illness? With a pang, Dylan recalled the horrid memories from over three hundred years ago. But he had to keep going; he couldn't let Harper get too far ahead of him. So on they crawled.
**************************
"Do you hear something?" Rommie sat erect beside Trance's slouching figure.
"Hmm?" came Trance's weak reply.
Rommie said nothing in return. She did not know what was happening to Trance inside her head. There was much that she did not know about this new golden Trance. She was still very much a mystery to the whole crew. There. Rommie heard it again: a distant panting and dragging sound. "Trance, listen."
Trance tried to sit up. She was concentrating so hard to keep the voices from invading her head again, that it was hard to think of anything else. Reluctantly, she pulled her head up, straightening her back against the stone wall. Rommie was on her knees now, leaving Trance still on the floor. "There. Did you hear it that time?" Trance strained her ears. Beyond the pounding of her blood, she thought that she could hear the distant traces of someone breathing, heavily. And then-
Rommie gripped Trance's shoulder. Voices, echoing in the distance. A soft murmur. It grew louder.
"What should we do?" Trance whispered shakily.
In response, Rommie placed one hand lightly over Trance's mouth and called out, "Who is it? Who's there?"
The murmuring stopped. The panting stopped. The dragging stopped. A long pounding silence. "Rommie?"
"Dylan?"
"Rommie! Where are you?"
"Over here! Follow my voice!"
"Is anyone with you?"
"Trance."
There was a brief pause. "It doesn't sound like she's there."
"She's... well, I'm not really sure what's happening to her."
Trance! Harper thought he would collapse right then and there. She was alive. But what was wrong with her? Nothing could be wrong with her! She was the healer! The oracle. The one who knew everything. He wanted to say something, but if he thought about talking and crawling at the same time, he would surely fall over. And in his state, he couldn't risk not being able to get up again. He slowly pulled himself along behind Dylan.
Dylan was moving as fast as his body would allow. Rommie continued to talk: something about Trance's head and a lot of fainting. At last, he could feel body heat. He reached out.
The person's shoulder jerked, but they made no noise. 'This must be Trance,' Dylan thought. Soon he felt another person. "Rommie!" She was gripping his arm and pulling him slowly toward her. He sat on the other side of her and collapsed. "Harper? You doing all right?" Dylan called out. The sound of dragging was his response.
"Harper's with you?" Rommie said in surprise.
While Rommie and Dylan began to talk, Harper pulled himself forward until he felt something warm ahead of him. It was Trance. Sitting against the wall beside her, he tried to steady his breathing. "Hey," he managed to whisper hoarsely. She did not respond verbally, but reached out a feeble hand, landing it on Harper's shoulder. With that, she fell into her catatonic state again. Harper closed his eyes, and, sitting shoulder to shoulder with Trance, he passed out.
"But Dylan," Rommie was whispering, "you could have made him worse."
"We wouldn't have found you then."
"True, but- I just don't want anything to happen to him. And with his weak immune system as it is, even in a controlled environment. Who knows what illnesses are on this planet."
"It's not viruses that I would worry about."
"Dylan, what are you not telling me? I know that you're hiding something."
"And why are you so sure?"
Rommie hesitated. "I... I guess I just know my captain too well."
"Do you now?" Dylan's head was leaned in close so that they could talk without disturbing Harper and Trance, who were obviously not WITH them . Rommie made no move to pull back, even as she sensed Dylan leaning in closer. She wished that there was some light. ANY light at all would be better than this total and utter darkness.
"You're avoiding the question," Rommie said finally.
"Maybe it should be avoided," Dylan pulled back slightly.
Rommie said nothing. Dylan's tone had changed. Now it was tainted with the underlying bitterness of a bad memory. She heard Dylan sigh. 'He must be tried,' she thought sympathetically. She pulled away so that he could rest. She sat in the darkness, wishing that she too could fall sleep, and suddenly felt very much alone.
*****************
"Dylan? You awake?" Rommie felt the stale air shift slightly as Dylan sat up.
"Yes. How about them?" He cocked his head in Harper and Trance's direction, but soon remembered that Rommie couldn't see him.
Yet she seemed to understand. "I can't really tell... Dylan, I strongly believe that Harper has outdone himself. He's almost as bad as Trance. He barely responds to anything. And all three of you must be starving."
"Not to mention Tyr and Beka. That's next on our agenda."
"No, we can't go anywhere if those two aren't capable of moving. We can't risk splitting up and then not being able to find each other again. You know that."
"Always the logical one... So what do YOU propose we do?"
"I don't know. That's your job. You're the captain aren't you?"
"I hadn't noticed."
Rommie shrugged irritably. "I don't think we should move. And you're not going to get any kind of opinion from them, so it appears that you have been overruled."
"Well," Dylan almost laughed, "I suppose we should stay here for a while then- but only for a little bit mind you. We're likely to starve here if we stay too long in one place."
"All right then," Rommie said with satisfactory.
The two sat in silence, Dylan resting and Rommie thinking.
************************
"Dylan!" Rommie practically screamed.
Dylan jerked out of sleep and sat up quickly. Three huge luminous figures approached the group at an alarming rate. Dylan looked over and, to his horror, saw Trance rolling in violent convulsions, tearing at her head and hair. Harper looked barely conscious. Looking back at the figures, Dylan shielded his eyes. Their light stung like walking from a dark room to the outdoors. Rommie was standing protectively in front of the other three. Dylan struggled up, leaning against the wall. He realized that the creatures were the same aliens who had taken them. Only now they looked quite different, their skin giving off millions of tiny pinpricks of light. Their once beige transparent shin now glowed a faint yellowish color.
"Dylan, do we attack?"
"No," Dylan said, turning to Rommie. Oh, how good it was to see again!
After a moment, Dylan looked again at the aliens. Now they were close, very close. The ground shook slightly as they approached. They stopped right in front of the four crewmates. Dylan was breathing heavily. Rommie and Dylan stared for a long time, and the three aliens stared back with unblinking eyes, intently searching for some form of communication.
"AAAAAAAA!!!" Trance's shrill scream startled all of those standing. She flung herself against the wall. "GET OUT! GET OUT! LEAVE ME ALONE!!!" One alien looked at the writhing golden creature on the floor for a moment, staring straight at her head. All at once, Trance stopped moving. She looked up, as if it was the very first time she had been awake, her eyes full of wonder. She stared intently at the alien, her forehead wrinkling with concentration. Her expressions changed as if she were having a conversation in her head. Then she nodded and looked up at Dylan and Rommie, who were both in shock.
"Tr- Trance... What..." Dylan tried to ask.
Trance smiled.
"But you were so sick," Rommie objected.
"I'll tell you everything later. But right now, we must go with these aliens." Her head moved back a little and she smiled at the alien. "Excuse me, we must go with these three Kolg."
Dylan and Rommie stood awestruck. "All right then," Dylan said breathlessly as he stepped around Trance and hoisted up Harper's limp body. Trance's face fell. She reached out a tentative hand and touched his dangling arm. "He'll be fine, Trance. Don't worry."
"Right."
They followed the Kolg down a now illuminated passageway carved out of the planet's stone core. They walked in silence for some time before Rommie said something.
"Trance, what happened back there? You- well we thought that you had gone mad. You seemed to not be with us. You were- somewhere else."
"I could hear them speaking," Trance murmured. "All of them at once. I don't know how else to describe it. They were all inside my head, but they did not know it. They were having normal conversations. I heard only a few at first, then more and more. I must have had their entire population inside my head. The pain was..." Her voice trailed off. She stumbled slightly. Rommie reached out to help her walk. "Thank you. I'm pretty drained."
Rommie waited for her to say more, but she did not continue. Rommie knew that she shouldn't pry. She should wait until Trance was ready to speak in depth about it. Dylan was struggling with Harper's body over his shoulder ahead of she and Trance. His feet dragged against the ground as he tried to keep the pace of the Kolg. Rommie thought for a moment. "Were those voices the same as that presence you felt earlier?"
"Yes," Trance nodded. It felt like ages ago. But now she could see. She watched Harper's head bounce against Dylan's back with every step he made. She felt a small pang of fear in her belly. His skin looked blue- or was it just the poor lighting? 'Oh, what I would give for the med. deck right now,' Trance thought sorrowfully. She herself did not feel well; she was dizzy, her stomach churned, and her heart beat in irregular flutters inside her ribcage. However, it was clear that Harper was much worse. She looked over Dylan's other shoulder and studied the nearest Kolg. What strange, silent creatures they were! Never had she encountered something quite like this before!
Her thoughts traveled back to the hateful words that had stuck out in her head. "... Murder us all." What had it meant? And why was there so much sorrow and fear in this race? These thoughts made her feel even worse. And what had just happened? As the three Kolg had approached, the voices had returned at full, even worse than before. And then they had stopped. A female voice, powerful and calm, had spoken softly to her...
"You must harness the link. It will kill you if you cannot control what you hear. You must find that mental harness. You are different. You can hear us. I will have much to discuss with you... after the trial," the voice had said. After the trial? Trance had missed that part at first. 'What trial?' she thought in sudden alarm.
"Where are Tyr and Beka?" Trance said suddenly.
Rommie looked up in surprise.
"Dylan and Harper are with us. What about Tyr and Beka?"
"I don't know. We didn't find them. Why?"
"I'm just... concerned. And why shouldn't I be? They're a part of the team!"
Rommie smiled a little. "I think Tyr and Beka can take care of themselves just fine. I wouldn't worry too much." This was a joke, but Trance did not see the humor of it. "What is it?"
"They... these kolg... they're taking us to a trial."
"WHAT?" Rommie said too loudly. Dylan turned around.
"Trial. That's what they told me."
"Who told you what?" Dylan asked.
"We'll talk about this at a more convenient time," Trance said shortly, fore they were reaching the end of the tunnel. Dylan and Rommie looked forward too. They gaped. The dim tunnel opened into a huge room with towering ceilings and walls of faintly glowing yellow. It was some type of fluorescent mineral. Hundreds of Kolg milled about, their skin glowing not quite as bright in the cavern's light.
"There they are," a strange voice hissed in Trance's head. She turned her head sharply too see that many kolg had stopped to stare at them. Voice's picked up as the aliens glanced at each other. Trance stumbled slightly at the voices, but now it was basically like hearing people murmur around you, as if they were speaking verbally... but they weren't.
The three kolg led them through the crowds of radiating hulking figures and to the opposite end of the cavern. Here, the stone had been cut in such a way that it rose in rough tears to create a platform. One of the three kolg climbed this now and stood facing the growing numbers of curious kolg.
"My people," it began- the same female voice that had spoken to Trance before- "These are the one's who murdered U'dam." The crowd broke out in murmuring. Some cried out angrily. "But they will have a trial." This caused much protest.
"Just kill them!" Trance shivered. It was that hateful voice. She stepped closer to Rommie and Dylan.
"Do not underestimate these creatures," said the female kolg with an eery calmness. "One of them can hear us." All talking stopped abruptly. "Which one, I will not say. And they will not reveal it to you either. You must treat them each with the same respect as if they can all understand you. You never know which one will be listening..." Then, as she continued to speak, Trance heard separate words in her head. The same voice, but only a whisper as the louder voice spoke to the public. She was speaking individually to Trance and separately to the other kolg... at the same time. "Listen to me now. The others cannot hear this. Do not react to anything that we say. If you speak with your other friends, none of us will understand you. Can you be trusted? Can I trust you?"
Trance was not sure how to respond without all the others hearing. She looked carefully at the kolg standing above her.
"You are wise. I can see that now. I can hear your thoughts. Most cannot, so do not fret. Only the other Elders and I can hear you... if they bother listening." And then she stopped. Trance could now hear what the female kolg was continuing to say to the crowd. She marveled, but soon remembered to keep her face blank. Rommie and Dylan were standing stiffly. Trance hesitated to speak aloud. It was hard to believe that the kolg would not hear her. "Go on," the female kolg whispered, with a note that one would hear if someone spoke while smiling fondly.
"They can't hear us," Trance said to the other two.
"Are you sure? Why are they all just standing there?" Dylan shifted Harper's limp figure to the floor.
"Yes, I am positive that they can't hear us. And they are not just standing. They're communicating."
"Talking?" Rommie asked.
"Yes," and Trance began to explain everything to them.
After all was said, Dylan started, "So we're on trial? For the murder of..."
"U'dam."
Rommie cut in, "But we killed so many of them. Why are we only on trial for the one?"
"Wait," Trance put up a hand. The female Elder was speaking to her, cleverly not looking directly at her.
"What do they call you?" she asked.
Trance thought her name, hoping that the kolg would hear it. She did.
"Ah, Trance Gemini. An interesting name. I am Daedra, the Second Elder. Wait- do not look at me while I speak to you." Trance looked at the floor. "The trial will begin now," Daedra said, and Trance could tell that she was now speaking to the whole crowd.
"They're starting the trial," Trance informed Dylan and Rommie. She swallowed nervously and glanced around at the public.
"How does it look for us?" Dylan asked.
Trance shook her head. "It's too soon to tell. I'm sorry." Dylan nodded.
"Should we sit down or what?" Rommie asked.
"If we sit, we sit at the same time."
"Why?"
"Because we can't let them single any of us out. If they do, then they might figure out that I'm the one who can hear them." The others nodded.
"So... on the count of three?" Dylan suggested.
"One... Two... Three." They all sat down and waited in silence. Trance listened to the accusations.
"They killed him. And all of those soldiers! There's no denying it!"
"I am not," Daedra replied calmly.
"You can't make the decision yourself!"
"Bring the First Elder!"
"The First Elder!" the crowd chanted.
"Silence!" a commanding voice hollered. The hall fell deadly silent once more. The crowds parted and murmured prayer-like addresses to the massive kolg that emerged from the cave entrance. This one glowed so brightly that Dylan, Trance, and Rommie had to shield their eyes. He towered even higher than the rest of the kolg. Moving slowly, he made his way through the crowd towards the platform. "Honors," he said briefly to Daedra, positioning himself beside her.
"Honors," she replied back in a terribly respectful tone.
"Who is that?" Dylan asked. Trance pulled back abruptly.
"The First Elder."
"Isn't that other kolg the Second?" Rommie asked.
"Yes."
"I think I might actually be starting to understand these creatures," Dylan commented. "All right, you can listen to them again. You're our ears for this you know."
Trance nodded and smiled, then shifted herself mentally to listen to the kolg trial.
The trial went on for hours, heated and very much divided.
"It doesn't look good for us," Trance commented. "But I don't think that Daedra will let anything happen to us."
"You think," Dylan repeated. "Great."
Trance went back to listening.
"We can't kill them! Don't you see that?"
"They deserve nothing more than what they gave U'dam!"
"And the soldiers!"
"No! They deserve life! Not death!"
"They fought in self defense!"
"Let the Elders decide!"
"No! Let the public decide!"
"This is getting us nowhere! Idiocy!" Daedra spoke after long being subdued. "We shall not harm them! If we can make them understand our culture, then it won't die with the planet!" Her words were harsh and cutting, leaving everyone to think.
"A valid point," the First Elder added. "You," he turned to the crowd, "do not listen to her words of wisdom! What has become of us? Has the Green Blume destroyed everything? Our morale? Our decency? We are alive, so let it be peaceful while it lasts." The crowd contemplated this.
Trance's heart beat wildly. The Green Blume? While this lasts? While WHAT lasts? Life itself?
"Honors!" a powerful voice called out from the cave entrance. All turned to look at the large kolg who had just entered.
"Honors, respected guard," the First Elder said. "What have you to say?"
"I have nothing to say, but much to show."
To Trance's horror, the guard stepped forward.
"What?" Dylan asked urgently, hearing her gasp and seeing the terrified look on her sparkling face.
"L- look," was all that Trance say. The three crew mates stood.
Rommie gasped and cried out, covering her face with shaky hands.
Dylan cursed under his breath.
Before them, through the parted crowd, the hulking guard stood with two figures, one slung over each massive shoulder... The limp and broken bodies of Try and Beka.
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BWAHAHAHAAAA!!!! ok that was fun. you like? PLEASE R&R!!!!! --- and i promise, nobody dies... or DO they? hmmmmm.... **strokes chin. thinks to self: DO they now...?**
~TBC~