Chapter 0: The Prelude
The rumbling subsided slowly, leaving the ship at its normal peace. A stillness that could only be compared to being clamped down in drydock. The crew remained alert, ready for anything although they wouldn't likely be prepared for it.
A decent ship but one better suited for survey missions than the far boundaries of the wilderness. Despite the years and the turbulences it had been through, it was well maintained. Its captain was alert but maybe a little disappointed at the result, his officers were loyal but also a little expecting and often tried to make their own path in life, even if their captain had already planned otherwise.
The lights flickered to their normal state, as if nothing had happened. The once red lights and high-energy emiters quieted themselves and took no need to resume their normal states. The crew however, would not relax so quickly; the windows and the view screen revealed nothing of comfort. No stars, no planets, no haze of a nebula, or even the blackness of space.
"Captain, our systems are coming back online. I'm reading some sort of structure directly ahead of us. ... but the readings don't make sense."
" 'Sense'? How?"
"We can't seem to get a fix on where we are, apparently we can't even tell how long we were out either. ... "
"The 'structure'?"
"A station of sorts, not sure what size ... or shape, but its out there ... its up on the viewscreen now!"
Barely seen was a spare dispersion of lights, like star points in the distance. Giving the order to hail or send a probe did nothing. Not wanting to provoke whatever was out there with weapons fire, even a glancing shot, was not an option. Moving closer, the lights seemed to remain steady in their intensity and distance, but they were getting closer, according to the sensors.
" ... First, prepare teams for away missions. We need ... "
"Captain! You can't be serious, for all we know we could beam into a vacuum or into a wall."
Ignoring his First Officer's interruption and the following paranoia, the captain gave the order to continue preparing teams. Further scanning the station revealed little, although it showed a place where the atmosphere and gravity was sufficient for a transport down.
His First Officer starting to arouse discord among the bridge, the captain again gave his order and headed to the transport room. He was eager to get there but desparate to leave.
...
"This wasn't a room, its more of a *field*."
"Complete with grassy plains and a ... a *sky*?"
"Stay sharp, men! Don't get too caught up in that, better not to think about it. ... There's a structure a little whiles from here, lets get moving."
Several teams beamed into a vast open plain. Plants were all about them, colorful, tall, elegant, and simple, but no wildlife: no insects, or birds, or other little critters. In a traditional sense, it was a clear sunny day, but with clouds, no blue skies and without a star's light. There were shadows but no sources of light.
Some desribed the experience of an overdose or an *incorrect* visit to Sick Bay. None of them soldiers, but each armed with weapons nonetheless. They marched to the center of a seemingly infinte plane where a tall structure stood.
"... its like half a dyson sphere, or something ... but look up into sky. There's nothing, no light, not even darkness ... "
"Don't stare at it too long, Ensign, it'll make your head hurt."
"Lieutenant, couldn't we have just beamed closer?"
"Doesn't work like that, Ensign."
"I'm the transporter officer! It *does* work like that!"
"Shut it, you two!"
Stiffling all conversation, the Sergeant led the march for what seemed hours and the structure in the distance never seemed to get any closer. Without a sun or stars or moon, nobody was aware of how much time had past but most were preocupied with their surroundings or their worrisome equipment. It wasn't the ereily repetitive surroundings, the fact that there were no noises other than themselves, or the realization that none of them were getting tired or exhausted but that they couldn't communicate outside their line of sight.
Marching for what felt like days, the structure moved. Not slowly or by mechanism but instantly and to behind them. Almost as if they had marched to and beyond without noticing, the team turned around and found this time they were actually making ground closer an closer.
Once at the structure, it was like a large antenna relay, but with equipment, weapons, and rations; a command center, armory, and cafeteria all in one. The strangest part was that each saw writing or descriptions in their native language, or atleast what each individual considered to be their native tongue.
Better fed and rested, everyone was tense and trigger sensitive. The Ensign, nearly obliterated the structure by firing into a cache of grenades, that he thought 'had moved'. The Lieutenant never stopped talking, even when eating or drinking, and everybody coped with it in their own ways, but as the Sergeant observed, they were all slowly going insane due to the lack of communication and having *too much* comfort of the place.
" ... ergeant ... please respo ... "
"Captain?"
"You disappeared for several hours, but we're reading you clearly now. What's your status?"
"We've arrived at the structure, its suprisingly accomodating, uncomfortably so. ... Did you say 'several hours'? I'm sure we've been down here longer than that."
"Yes, we beamed you down, lost contact, but we found you at the structure and everything cleared up. ... so, 'accomodating' is right, as you say."
...
"Welcome down, Captain. We've explored the entire structure: nothing of any danger. The only thing we don't know is the control consoles."
" 'Control Consoles' ?"
"They're suprisingly vague and control something we can't locate."
"What *have* you found out?"
"The structure looks out in geometric directions, I'm thinking of 'sections' of this dyson-place ... each control console should correspond to one of those eight sections."
" ... and ?"
"Two sections are displaying: red, one is displaying: yellow, three are displaying: green, one is displaying: blue, and the eighth isn't responding."
"I want a team to each of those section. I want to know what at each, maybe those colors mean something."
"We don't have enough ... "
"Get volunteers if you have to! No one ever has found anything remotely similiar to this, I want as much found out before we leave."
" ... actually, Captain ... "
Harshly turning about, the Captain and Lieutenant silenced a crewman with only a single look. Their glare insisting that his next words shouldn't be an opinion or remark, the crewman had actually come about with a small meal. A meal made from the structure's cafeteria section. It was actually quite good.
...
"According to my tricorder, I should be standing next to you ... "
"Well, *you're not*. ... this place doesn't make any sense. Everything isn't as it should be; I could have sworn I walked *down* a flight a stairs just to get to *up to* a higher level."
"Well, Captain, we've never proven this whole thing isn't a giant holodeck. We could be in a test chamber of a much more powerful race of beings."
"I don't want to hear that, Crewman. But I think I've seen enough, I turned four left corners and ended up on a straight path across the building."
"I've met up with a few of the others. No other lifeforms or evidence of intelligence. ... In fact, I think you're standing in front of us."
"Impossible, I took point and how could *all* of you be ... "
Looking up from scrapping off a floor sample, the Captain looked up and to his suprise, his team was returning from far ahead of him. Seeing that nobody had made any significant findings other than the 'escher' like world layout, the Captain hailed to return; luckily all they had seen hadn't interfered with communications.
"Team Green-One requesting return transport. Five to beam up. ... this is frustrating."
...
"Team Red-One, returning!"
Within the signal enhancers, a medical team pulled out the only survivor on an anti-grav pad. An Ensign who had been burtally mauled, it was amazing he was still alive, yet alone awake and screaming at the top of his voice. A bloody mess, they were more suprised to find him *at all* and being alive and awake were only something more curious to his condition. A strange parasitic spores had cauterized his wounds and prevented excessive bleeding, but it was altering his DNA and body chemistry; easily readable but curing it required the facilities onboard a starbase not a small survey ship.
" ... I could see it crawling ... sliming around benearth their skin ... and then they got back up ... they started to talk! Their voices! THIER VOICES! Make them stop, makethemstop, makethemstop ... "
"Ensign, do you know where you are ... ?"
" ... I HAD to ... I KNOW I was right ... Their voices, their speech ... You're not going to make me one of them! ... "
"Nurse, can you sedate him?
Ensign! You are safe here, you're going to be all right ... "
" ... I just played dead, *they* only got the live ones. Yes, yes, played dead. But their faces, their voices, their bodies ... Make them stop! ... "
Trying to sedate him, his spasms became more violent and it was clear something was growing where the spores had cauterized his body. As his vitals stopped, his body didn't. The Nurse panicked, but the Captain, fearing for the rest of them, grabbed a phaser and vaporized the body. Shocked at what they had witnessed, the only unanimous agreement was that his suffering was over, and that any physical remains were gone, both him and whatever parasite that was.
...
" ... by the Prophets ... "
" ... my god, look at them ... "
"Red-Two, Sergeant, what do you see?"
"Captain, we have come across a tall spiralling pillar. Gathered around it are ... bodies, ... very many, very mangaled. ... It is disturbing, *even to me* and from what I can tell, the corpses *are still recent*. ... The blood is still ... "
"Get out of there now, Red-Two! All of you return immediately!"
"Captain, something isn't right here ... "
"All of you, this is an order: return immediately!"
Hearing increasingly chaotic laughter, the Captain repeated his order several times, each more desparately than the previous. Unable do anything but speak to them, the laughter on the other side turned to screaming and then to bodily sounds, horrible sounds; sounds of fear, pain, and death. As the sounds abruptly stopped, the communication channel didn't closed. After several minutes of silence, the recieving end was stopped, not destroyed but deactivated.
...
"Captain, we found what looks like whats left of a city. Everythings overgrown and natures has retaken everything, its almost beautiful ... "
"You sure? Your's would be the first team to find something *pleasant*."
I wish you could be here, Captain, its beautiful. We haven't found any sign of war or disease, but we've found contructs and machines, and another human! Shes alive, we think, the only living person in this whole area. ... Everything else has rusted and fallen into dust ..."
" ... a life sign ... 'Last one'? ... How is she?"
"We've gathered in this building, its a stasis tower. It seems to touch the sky, and every level is packed with stasis units; I'm suprised its still standing given the world around it."
"Don't get distracted, Blue-One, how is she?"
"She is: in stasis, just as I said. All the other pods broke and their occupants are dead. From what we've encountered, the next closest survivor was about several hundred years ago! ... Her's might only last a couple more *decades*, a century at most ... this technology is still unbelievable! ... And I see why, even the air, everything is so ... so calm and peaceful ... "
"Focus, Blue-One. What do you suggest?"
"She's human, we think ... we could bring her over, her pod is detatchable, but ... not re-atachable ... strange ... "
" ... and you say she'll be willing to help us about this place."
" ... I feel so *at ease* here, I could stay here for weeks ... "
"Blue-One, bring her. I'll have the technicians create a power cell for her unit. But as for you, round up your team and get back here *now*; that's an order."
The human, was a blue-haired, fair-skinned girl barely in her teens. Compared to the other teams' experience and how unusally well being this team was experiencing. The Captain decided to go against his gut, which was repeating the dangers seen by the others'. "Do it, but be careful. I don't want any accidents.", he kept whipsering to himself.
The technicians hooked up their makeshift powercell, and the pod was extremely compatible. The occupant never even had any lifesign fluctuations between being disconnected and being reconnected. Wanting to revive her here and now, the Captain instead beamed her to the ship. Her pod would be under guard and not be activated until all were aboard.
...
"Captain, can you hear us?"
"You're loud and clear, what have you found?"
The voice he heard was frantic and out of breath. The Captain recognized it as one of the younger lieutenants.
"Thank goodness! Finally found a spot where we can get a signal out. ... We've been out here for days! This place is nothing but darkness, we can't see a thing, scanners, tricorders, flashlights, *matches*: nothing works. ... "
"What have you found? Terrain, plants, weather?"
" ... there has been something with us, *somethings* have been stalking us. We can hear it, *feel it* moving around us. ... We lost one, he went insane three days ago; we think he fell into a ravine or something. We carried his body mangled it was all eaten out. ... Captain, we can't find our way back! DON'T LEAVE US HERE! Please!"
" 'Several days'?! You haven't even been there *one day* ... but anyways, I'm sorry, we can't beam you back, you'll have to find your way to the transport pad."
"NO! PLEASE! We won't last any longer here! There's only two of us left!"
"I'll try and send some help, try and make yourselves seen. ... Can you still hear me? ... Yellow-One ... Damn it, lost the signal ... "
Futher attempts yielded no results or further communication. Some thought it was because there was noone left to respond, but the Captain wouldn't hear of it. Several more went in to find Yellow-One, but without risking lives. Sending in a probe, this section seemed to have a time dilation as well as every object, including the air, completely absorbing all light.
...
"Green-Two, what's your status."
"Ah, Captain, we've discovered some interesting buildings. They all seem to respond to our presence. They are quite advanced, and they are automated. Machines patrol and maintain the area. They're non-hostile and seem *almost friendly*, but will attack if anyone tries to disrupt anything. I have a man who lost his hand when a drone vaporized his tricorder. I lost an *entire man* when he tried to hack a system."
"Do you feel able to continue or to return?"
"Maybe some other people, but nothing s'been *dangerous* so far. I'm sending some wounded back, prepare the medical staff."
"See what you can gather. Leave as soon as you can, in as so much as if you *feel* threatened in the slightest. I've already lost enough good people."
...
"Captain, a team is returning.
Clear the transport pad!"
Four people beamed in. They wore simple, makeshift clothes; they all looked malnourished and their voice was deparate and ragged. But seemed overjoyed and amazed when they looked around. A young woman couldn't seem to control her excitement, and ran up to the Captain.
"Hello! Are you the Captain?"
"I am."
"Its a pleasure to finally meet you! My grandmother always talked about returning to see you."
" 'Grandmother'?"
"YES! She was a corpral under you; we are Green-Three. She told us of stories about *the Starfleet* and *the Federation*. After decades of work, we've finally been able to return to you."
"I'm still trying ... to understand. How old is your 'grandmother'?"
"Oh ... she died about fifteen years ago, but she was about sixty when she died. My father raised me alone after my mother died. My life, *our lives* have been rough. We've lived *counting every morsel and every drop*. Our familes, would like to return here and be taken back to your ship. ... Please, Captain."
The others that accompained her were talking with other crewmen, all saying roughly the same thing. Notcing that each person carried a combadge, now old and worn and using makeshift batteries to be powered. The attention shifting to the Captain for the final decision. After medical scans confirming their identities, he let them stay and return with their families; having heard of encounters like this, he still assembled security and medical teams to prepare for their return.
As soon as they left, they returned; now crying and extremely disheartened. It looked as if they had been gone for days. Tending to them, it was said that although they had only been gone from their families for barely an hour, years had passed. Their home's supplies were already stretched to their limits, and all had been staked on them returning with help. In the short time they were gone, the remaining people had started fighting for food and as order broke down, the survivors killed each other off and then themselves starved to death.
Trying but having little experience, the Captain tried comforting the four grandchildren. Returning them to the ship, the Captain annouced the order to return to the ship, it was time to leave this place.
...
"Okay, that's it ... this station is mess of trouble. ... "
"But also a 'mess' *of wonders*. Captain, if a team of us could stay and research ... "
"NO, we don't even know how we got here. And as we've seen, we don't know how long we've been here either. We leave together."
After a few disagreements, there was a general consencus and all obeyed. Ensuring that no equipment or contaminants were left behind, all that was left was a marker from the ship. Everyone's experience was very skewed, some teams had gone to nightmarish places, while others had gone to serene landscapes. Yet, neither wanting to go to see first-hand the others' experience out of fear or worry.
Sitting once again in his chair on the Bridge, the Captain could feel the emtpiness from his missing people, but also felt the weight of their discovery. He was confident that this would give his name and his ship some meaning, almost a little too overconfident. How they got there was still unknown but now that they were all once again on the ship, they would get home. Some to see their loved ones, some to share their experiences, and some to meet their families for the first time, and some simply for the reason of *getting* home.
- END OF CHAPTER -