STARBASE ONE
"Groundbreaking"
Prologue
"Rattus amphibious," said McQueen. "No, wait - Anura rodentia." She turned to the others with a grin.
Threv caught her eye and he awkwardly shrugged. "Uh, both sound good to me."
They, along with a few other science officers and MACOs, were assembled in a clearing in the vast forest to the north of Starbase 1. Driven by Commander McQueen's sense of adventure, they had travelled quite deeply into the woods, where the trees were densely packed together. They even formed a canopy of leaves and branches high overhead, resulting in a dimming of the suns' reddish light.
McQueen, ever-obsessed with naming the wildlife, was now trying to find a label for the small, half-amphibian, half-rodent animals that seemed quite populous in this region. They were the same creatures as those they had encountered, burnt to a crisp, in the Vale of Mists over two weeks ago. Threv suppressed a shudder at the memories of that day.
"Neither of those designations is taxonomically correct," said Lieutenant Sylor. "And 'Anura' literally means 'tailless', which is obviously inappropriate."
Threv looked to the creatures as they darted back and forth between the plants growing around the trees. They did indeed have mammalian tails, as well as fur, but possessed the slimy heads and limbs of amphibians.
McQueen put her hands on her hips, with an exaggerated look of annoyance on her face. "Well, you're just no fun at all."
"Thank you," Sylor replied drily.
"They're kinda like frogs and they're kinda like rats," said McQueen, also watching the creatures intently. "Oh! Frats! No… Rogs? That sounds better. They're rogs; it's settled."
Sylor did not respond, nor look up from his scanner.
Major Kimura started chuckling. The major was second-in-command of the MACO Company assigned to Starbase 1, and had requested to help escort the forest expedition, as he was beginning to feel 'cooped up.'
"You have a gift for this, Commander," Kimura said. "What was it you called the plants again?"
"Weepers," McQueen said proudly.
Threv now turned his attention to the plants in question. They seemed to grow out of the trees themselves, with long vines hanging from violet eye-like openings at the top, giving them the appearance of weeping. Hence Commander McQueen's apt name.
"They're probably crying 'cause these bugs keep eating them," said the botanist, Lieutenant Hafeez.
The weepers did seem to attract a particular Berengarian insect in large quantities, and they rapidly devoured the plants. Their consumption was even quick enough to see with the naked eye; with the vines gradually disappearing as the team watched.
"Good job these critters are here to protect them," said McQueen, pointing to the rodent-amphibians, or "rogs."
The rogs happily lanced their long tongues out, catching several of the flying insects on them, then swiftly retracting them back into their mouths.
"Yeah, they're like locusts," said Hafeez, presumably referring to the insects. Threv didn't know what locusts were, but Hafeez was focused on the bugs. She kept attempting to get closer to a swarm to get a better scan, but they always flew off as she got near.
Making sure no one was looking at him, Threv now allowed himself a slight shudder. Due to his homeworld's sub-zero climate, he had rarely seen insects, and they tended to unsettle him. He turned away from the others to try and take his mind off the bugs, and as his gaze passed over the thickly-grouped trees, he thought he saw a flash of pale blue between them. Against the backdrop of natural greens and browns, the Andorian skin-tone had stood out but was now gone.
His eyes scanned back and forth, looking for some trace of what he had seen, as he pondered on what the source could be. As far as he knew, he and his bondmates were the only blue-skinned people on the base - could it have been one of them?
He recalled that Sherene had recently received permission from Starfleet Command to interview some of the staff for her newscast, but he didn't think she would be so foolish as to come all the way out here just for that. Commodore North had declared the forest off-limits to civilians until properly surveyed.
Threv turned back to the rest of the survey party. The science officers were discussing their readings while Major Kimura and the two other MACOs watched them. All were facing away from him, so none of them would have seen the flash of blue.
He resumed gazing into the woods and again saw another hint of blue skin between two trees, for a bit longer this time, clearly in the shape of a humanoid.
Worried that it might actually be Sherene and that he would be scolded for, or at least embarrassed by, her indiscretion, he quietly headed towards the sight. The others did not notice him moving away.
He soon reached the trees where the glimpse of blue had been, but there was no one there. He looked around for any sign of Sherene, or anyone else, but there were only trees in every direction.
"Sherene?" he whispered. There was no reply.
Thinking that perhaps Sherene - or whoever it was - had seen sense and left, or that maybe his mind was just playing tricks on him, Threv started to head back to the rest of the group. He didn't want to be gone too long, or questions may arise.
He was certain he was heading back in the same direction he had come from, but there only seemed to be more and more trees ahead of him. He couldn't be lost; he'd only walked a short distance.
He walked for at least double the length he had travelled away from them, but still only found more trees, closely packed together. Something was wrong.
"Commander?" he called out, willing to accept the humiliation of being lost. "Major?" There was no reply.
"Anyone…?"