A Voice in the Dark

Posted on Wed Jul 21st, 2021 @ 2:30am by Captain Björn Kodak & Commander Satoru Takomi & Lieutenant Sharrina Blackstone & Lieutenant Kennedy Ryan Walsh & Ensign Ezra Gonzalez & Ensign Noah Balsam & Lieutenant Nir Giorgiou

Mission: The Place of Skulls
Location: Transporter Room; Jungle Ruins
Timeline: Mission Day 4 at 1100

[Transporter Room]
[USS Sojourner]
[1100 Hours]

Though the Captain would be accompanying the Away Team to the planet below, it still fell to the First Officer to select and lead the team that would be beaming down. As such, Commander Takomi had considered the mission parameters and made team selections based on whose skillsets would come in handy on the planet below. His orders had gone out via the computer, alerting those on the participant list to arrive at the Transporter Room at 1100 hours sharp. And given the team's makeup, there was a clear division of labor to Takomi's thinking.

While the Sojourner's sensors had determined that the ancient ruin below -- found via the sphere's provided coordinates -- did not seem to present a threat, Lieutenant Blackstone and one of her cohorts had been tapped to provide security for the team. Doctor Ryan Walsh would, of course, provide medical coverage and boots-on-the-ground biology support as needed. Lieutenant Nir had been selected to attend to any technological needs the team might have -- stumbling upon left behind Chameloid technology could certainly be a possibility. And rounding out the team was the young -- and recently promoted -- Ensign Gonzalez, who would act as the team's resident archaeologist and anthropologist: two skills that would be crucial for studying whatever evidence of civilization was left behind in the ruins.

But then there was Kodak. His presence on the team would be a complicated wrinkle to navigate. While the Captain's accompaniment wasn't begrudged -- after all, it was understandable that he'd want to be along for the search for his people -- it did present extra factors to consider. One was the Captain's safety, of course. Blackstone and her partner would certainly be able to see to the Captain's safety from an external threat perspective but what if Kodak hurt himself traipsing around the ruins? Not only that, but what about the division of command? Takomi was deemed in charge of the mission but it was only natural for people to look to the Captain when he was present. As the new XO, however, Takomi would indeed need to work hard to establish as the command authority without alienating the Captain. And ensure the Captain didn't open himself up to too much risk...

So much swirled around in the possibilities of the mission but the actualities wouldn't occur until the team actually beamed down and got to work. So for now, the potential worries were packed away as the Captain and First Officer checked their gear while congregating near the transporter control console. As they waited for the members of the Away Team to arrive, Kodak turned to Takomi and offered a slight smile to the man.

"Well, it's your first away mission as my XO," the Chameloid's startling eyes regarded the human. "You ready to take the bull by the horns, Satoru?" Kodak asked, mischief sparkling in those eyes.

"First, and hopefully not last," replied Takomi at first. Whatever the concerns of this unconventional mission, the XO seemed to have compartmentalized them fairly well for the moment... even if that comment perhaps had the barest edge to it. Walking that line between jest and reprimand, it was a softly spoken word of caution... one that dissolved into a grin as he added. "Though I do hope horn grabbing won't be necessary. You said your kind can only take humanoid forms, no?"

Doctor Kennedy Ryan Walsh carried in a medical kit into the Transporter Room. He stood aside by the door waiting on the rest of the Away Team to join them. He took in a deep breathe after he realized who the two other men were.

"Doctor Ryan Walsh," the Captain turned, nodding as the man strode through the doors. "I've been working on meeting all of the new crew. I understand I just missed you in Sickbay when Doctor t'Nai did my physical? It's good to meet you," he said, reaching with an outstretched hand towards the human. Kodak offered him a reassuring smile. "Glad to have you along for this."

Doctor Ryan Walsh raised an eyebrow as he wasn't aware that the Captain was joining them on their Away Mission. He was even more nervous about what awaits them on the surface. He didn't want to come across as disrespectful in his first meeting with the Captain and his First Officer. He nodded and accepted the man's hand, he took it lightly, "Yes. Doctor Ryan Walsh. Likewise, Captain." He nodded, "I was probably doing some lab work when you visited us in Sickbay."

"No worries," the Captain replied, "I'm sure we'll have ample time to interact down on the planet below." He smiled at that, relishing the opportunity to get to know those under his charge. "Thanks for tagging along on this mission, Doctor. I'm sure your skills will be of great value on this mission."

"Of course," Dr Ryan Walsh nodded his head, "whatever you need, Captain."

Ezra trundled in a moment later, armed to the teeth with a tricorder, his ever-present PADD, and a carrying case slung over his shoulder, meant for collecting small artifacts to bring back to the ship for analysis. "Here we go again," he thought out loud, and he let out a long breath that was somewhere between an exhale and a sigh. "At least we aren't in makeup this time," he added, subconsciously rubbing his neck as if the irritation caused by the cosmetic surgery from some months before was still present.

"You made a pretty good alien colonist," Kodak smirked from where he stood, leaning against the transporter console. "But agreed that it's nice not to need cosmetic surgery and concealer for this mission. Hopefully," he began, "your archaeological and anthropological skills will come in handy down there, Ensign."

Ezra offered an awkward half-smile and a quick "hm," but otherwise didn't respond, unsure of what else to say in the moment.

The Chameloid smiled at Gonzalez, hoping the expression afforded some level of encouragement to the young scientist. Kodak then looked away, however, as the doors swished open again, this time admitting the new security officer he'd met a few days prior. Half-Klingon and quite adept in all things Security-related, he was encouraged himself by her presence.

Sharrina entered quietly, eyes taking in everyone already gathered. Normally, she liked to be one of the first people to any briefing; punctuality had been damned near bred into her. But these were unusual circumstances. And as the newest member of the crew, she decided to keep her silence for now and watch and listen.

Except then the Captain was referring to her by name. "Lieutenant Blackstone," Kodak nodded in greeting. "Glad you're coming along for this mission. We're not entirely sure what to expect down there...but it'll be good to have your keen eye and good aim along if things go sideways."

Sharrina nodded at the greeting but smirked at the rest. "With respect, Sir, this is Starfleet. Things pretty much always go sideways," she commented haf-jokingly. The smile and joking manner vanished the next second as she continued, though. "But thank you for the compliment. I do appreciate it."

After a brief nod, Kodak's blazing gold eyes were then drawn away from the half-Klingon as the Chief Engineer entered the room -- last to arrive but perhaps one of the more important members of the team. "Lieutenant Giorgiou," he smiled, "Welcome. Your skills may come in handy if we find more Chameloid technology down there." Kodak held up the puzzle sphere as an example of such, offering it across to the engineer. "It's unlocked and open, just in case you want to examine it?"

The Engineer stared at the alien device before he did what temptation demanded: he took it up. "Hmm... interesting. I've never seen anything like it," his examination couldn't go far, but Nir was at least able to assess that it innards were probably meant for a small amount of storage, as well as a data interface. He didn't understand the language that it was in, though he'd seen a similar script on some cargo on Kentauros. "I'll see what I can do... and I'll rope the Kid in on some text and metallurgical analysis." Nir patted his hard case tool kit without explanation

Nodding, Kodak looked his First Officer. "Well Commander, it's your mission. I'm just along for the ride. We can get started whenever you're ready?" He took a few proactive steps up onto the transporter pad and took his favorite position -- the front right. He stood there silently, watching his XO expectantly.

Takomi nodded his head in response to the Captain's expectant stare, and with the pleasantries of the assemblage out of the way strode up on to the transporter pad himself. As he claimed the front-center position, he turned to regard the rest of his away team and declared, "All aboard." And although the words contained within them a note of eagerness and levity, his expression was all business, his posture stiff, and his hands folded behind his back. Once everyone had taken their positions, he shifted his attention to the transporter operator. "Send us down."

Swirling lights and the sound of rising energy assailed their senses for a moment as all that they were became digitized. Diced up, buffered, and recompiled, all in less than a blink of an eye. As they materialized, they found the cold sterile surroundings of the Sojourner replaced by a verdant landscape, wild and living. In every direction spread foliage, a writhing blanket of underbrush that curled, coiled, and strove for the small dapples of sunlight that managed to penetrate the canopy above. It, too, was rife with vital essence, host to bright colors and shifting movements of light and shadow that spoke volumes toward the critters who claimed its branches as home. Life above, life below, the brown trunks of towering trees between, like mighty pillars holding two separate worlds apart.

Their target was perhaps a hundred meters or so in front of them, barely visible through the dancing shadows and the jungles density. Set back within the shadows, struggling to rise above the mire of vines and leaves, or perhaps succumbing to their reclamation, was a structure. Little was determinable at their current distance, and Takomi nodded as he took out his tricorder, taking readings. "There is some sort of interference field around that structure, which is why we have a small walk ahead of us. Ensign Gonzalez, Lieutenant Blackstone, take point. Ryan Walsh, you and Giorgiou hold the rear. Captain?" Takomi paused briefly, a small smile flickering across his face. "Safe right in the middle."

"Understood Commander," the Chameloid Captain confirmed with a nod. "Not really looking to get into trouble today but I appreciate keeping an eye out all the same," he smiled.

Nir Giorgiou complied with a caveat- once the transporter had dropped them into the middle of this foggy, stinking jungle, Nir opened his case pulled from it two baseball-sized orbs. He flicked each on. With gentle, rounded hums, and a fuzzy, blending blur of the area under them, the balls rose and free-floated close to Gonzalez and Blackstone's positions. "Online, Kid," he said with a tap of his commbadge.

Doctor Ryan Walsh smiled as he saw his roommate Noah's invention being deployed in the field for the first time.

"Understood," a young voice said over the comm. "Nothing yet but lidar systems are-are, uh, online. The main structure is-is straight ahead... you seem to be passing, um, s-some kind of remnants on your left and right... about twenty meters apart. Straight across. Maybe a wall? Or gate system to a c-courtyard?" The-there's an energy anomaly, ss-sort of cylindrical in shape... in front of you, maybe fifty meters.. We-we may lose contact."

"Got it," Nir said. All he could see of what Noah spoke of, frankly, were trees, vines, and hanging webs of pale, dewy blue-green moss.

"Strange about that interference field," Kodak commented. "This place looks quite old. I mean, everything is so overgrown," he said, eyeing the surroundings. "But I guess that makes sense. That recording from the sphere was made at least 40 years ago. Probably before I was born. But this place looks even older than that, I'd say." He had a tricorder out -- which was happily scanning with it's trill-trill-trilling noises -- but he left the analysis up to the experts. For now, he just focused on the sensation of being there...of being on a potential path that could lead to finding others of his kind. Could some of them be here even now? He wondered.

Sharrina took Gonzalez and moved ahead of the group, weapons ready. She kept hers at a position where it was easily brought up and fired quickly but would, hopefully, not be perceived as overtly threatening until and unless needed. Her eyes were in constant motion around them, looking for anything that might be a trap, a trip to one, or hostile in some other way. So far, she had not found anything.

She was also listening to what the others said. She gave a small amount of extra focus to the building's ruins ahead of them as the captain talked about it, but did not stay on it long. She could not afford to as all of these lives were her responsibility. He was right, though; it did look older than that. In fact, it looked older than some of the older structures on Qo'noS. She wondered what it had been.

"Interference field could mean that it is being occupied and used by someone," she commented as they continued. "Or it could just be a left-over security measure from the last beings who used it." By 'last beings' she did not necessarily mean the people who built it. More likely someone who had squatted here for some reason, or beings who had come to loot whatever treasures might remain. Either way, the knowledge that the field existed made her even more cautious and aware.

"If there is someone here," said Ezra, focusing his tricorder on the ground, "They haven't gotten very comfortable. Or if someone left, they were careful to clean up. No forgotten toothbrushes here."

His tricorder starting trilling and chiming as it picked something up. "I think I spoke too soon. I'm getting something, um, over there." He pointed to a dark shape slumped in a ruined corner a few meters ahead. "That's definitely not a toothbrush."

"Definitely something to keep us on high alert," the Captain nodded, carefully picking his way through the jungle and stepping purposefully. "I do wonder how many other people have visited this ruin. It's a backwater planet even for Klingons. No offense," Kodak directed towards Blackstone. "If you didn't know this place was here, I'd best most folks wouldn't give this world more than a cursory scan at a distance. That field definitely means someone has been here. But they didn't have this," he said, holding up the onyx puzzle sphere that would act as one-half of the keys apparently needed to unlock the ruin's secrets. His own DNA served as the second key, it seemed.

"I'll see if I can nail down what's going on there," muttered Nir to the pair while he unslung his engineer's satchel. "But my gut says it's not natural. I'm no geologist, but the only time I've seen rock interfere like that was with conductive chthonian metal alloys." He smiled wryly, "And you don't find that on worlds like this."

The Kentauran moved off, stepping high through some tall plants. The balls he'd unleashed hummed their soft medical sound and approached the walls of the central ruin. They began to spin with a rounded whine, taking holo-renderings of the ruin surfaces.

"Buh-Balsam to Ensign Gonzalez..." His voice was crackling- badly, "I'm-I'm getting a lot of" his voice phased out and warbled like it was rolling along a bell curve, "... degrading the images... buh-but I'm sending them through the image-enhancing alg-"

"Getting a lot of what?" Ezra asked. "I can't hear you."

"Boosting..." Noah's voice sounded strained through a sieve, "I'm putting the images through an image enhancer now, Sir," Noah repeated, the connection far from clear but it was at least intelligible. "Getting a lot of interference here from the uplink... the (inaudible) -acket threshold is buh-below 60%."

As Nir, Gonzalez, Ryan Walsh, and the second security officer got closer to the ruins -- and, thus, the interference field -- Takomi, Kodak, and Blackstone had held back. This was in part to let the forward team get a better sense of things before bringing the Captain further onto the scene; in a way, it was akin to moving bishops and pawns before potentially exposing the king on a chessboard. But there's been a secondary reason as well: it was time to check in.

"Takomi to Sojo," the First Officer's tone was even, measured, and perhaps even a bit aloof. "As expected, the interference field is getting stronger the further into the ruins we get. This may be our last chance to check in for some time," the XO denoted. "However, we are, for the time being, perfectly--"

And that's when it happened. The ground beneath Satoru suddenly gave way, the human falling deep into the darkness that's been uncovered below. Kodak, for his part, had a little more time to react before the ground attempted to swallow him whole, too. Even as Blackstone fell herself, a scaled, viridian arm bulging with muscle caught her by the arm, the woman swinging like a pendulum. Kodak-as-Gorn grunt-growled with the exertion of holding Blackstone aloft while also attempting to hang onto the rock formation he'd grabbed above the mouth of the hole.

"Hang onto me very tightly. I'm going to swing you up," the Gorn wheezed around a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth. Looking down at Blackstone, the lids of his excessively large eyes blinked to block out the falling dirt and debris from above. As expected, the half-Klingon seemed to be holding on with a steady grip and so Kodak began to swing her back and forth, capitalizing on the momentum being gained. Once the pendulum swing had arced back enough, the Gorn pulled her forward with all his strength, arcing Blackstone now forward. The woman flew up and over the edge of the hole, hopefully landing with a minimum of scrapes.

"I'm going down for Satoru-san," the Gorn's speech slithered before the green-scaled beast of a man let himself -- in a controlled fashion -- fall into the dimly lit chasm beneath. He fell for a few seconds before his hind-claws touched ground, his powerful calves, thighs, and knees bending to absorb the brunt of the fall. Thanks to a prehensile tail thrust out at just the right angle, Kodak was able to keep his balance. And there, just feet away, he could see the still body of the First Officer.

"I'm alright," Kodak shouted up even as his body shifted back to it's standard, human-like form. "I think the Commander is severely injured, however." Moving to Satoru, he could see evidence of broken limbs and a cracked skull. The pooling blood beneath the Commander's head was not a good sign. "Kodak to Transporter Room," he said, tapping his combadge quickly. "Transporter Room, can you read me down here?" Wherever here was, exactly...

"Transporter r...re...Capt..." The transmission was garbled, hard to understand. A moment later, it repeated, this time clearly. "Transporter Room to Captain. We read you."

Kodak sighed with relief. "Transporter Room, we need an emergency beam out for Commander Takomi. He's gravely injured. Beam him directly to Sickbay."

Several long moments passed without a response and then, with the glowing motes of Starfleet transporter technology, the Commander's form began to disappear in a haze of sparkles. The transport was shaky at first -- the spritely cloud of energized particles faded in and out with Takomi's body. It seemed as if the transport might not complete, which caused Kodak's stomach to knot itself with worry. But then the transport strengthened -- perhaps they'd narrowed the annular confinement beam? -- and the Commander was gone.

"We have him, Captain," came the voice on the other end of the line.

"Very relieved to hear that," Kodak said, thanking -- as his mother would say -- his glückssterne...his lucky stars.

Standing to take a look around -- at least what he could see in the limited light from the hole above -- Kodak believed they'd fallen into a burial chamber of some sort. Activating his wrist beacon, he splayed the strong beam of light across several rows of what appeared to be coffins. Unlike the human variety, however, these were not covered by any kind of lid. The bodies inside were open to the air and seemed to have decomposed to an extensive degree. There were also other bodies -- just a couple that he could see -- that seemed to be much more recently deceased. Unlike those in the coffins, however, these bodies were simply slumped on the ground in random places.

"Tomb Raiders?" Kodak wondered even as he heard commotion from above. Looking up, he saw a long stretch of rope being lowered. He could just barely make out the faces around the lip of the hole. "The Commander has been beamed back to the ship!" he called up, eyes drifting to settle on what might possibly be why they'd come: a larger pillar, ornately decorated and giving off a deep, slowly pulsing red light: similar to the one that had come to life from inside the puzzle sphere. "Come down one at a time," Kodak ordered. "I think we may have found what we are looking for!"

Once the team had fully descended, Kodak started issuing orders, the mission having become his given Takomi's injuries. "Doctor," he turned to Ryan Walsh, "I want you pick a couple of these bodies to beam up to the Sojo for further analysis. I realize it's a bit grizzly but we need to know what happened to these people. And if they...are Chameloids," he gulped almost imperceptibly, "pick one of the oldest and one of the most recent corpses you can find. We'll put them back later." He only hoped he wasn't violating sacred burial practices with the order.

Doctor Kennedy Ryan Walsh was a rattled deep to his core, just in an instant Commander Takomi was injured. He wasn't certain about his injuries but he wished he was closer to provide instanteous medical care before transport back to the Sojourner. He listened to the Captain but was still uncertain about his orders but understood the gist of them.

"Ensign," Kodak then turned then to Gonzalez, "there seem to be quite a lot of artifacts interred down here with these bodies. Without disturbing anything too much, try to get a sense of these people. Who were they? What were they about?" It was then that the Chameloid looked to Nir and pointed to the column deeper into the burial chamber, still giving off slow pulses of crimson glow. "The sphere gave off a similar light," he said, handing the device over to Nir once more. "See what you can make of things?"

Lastly, the Captain had orders for Blackstone and her accompanying Security officer. "This place is big. Do what you can to keep us safe down here. I'll leave establishing a perimeter and conducting sweeps to you, hmm?" He offered the half-Klingon a wan smile, glad to see that she wasn't much worse for wear given the earlier fall.

Nir had returned to the site of the cave-in of artifacts, his expression troubled. When he had the Captain's ear, he presented him his findings. He held out his tricorder, flicking at its holographic display so they could both see it. "That's a problem..." He muttered to the Chameloid, "Whatever interference this is, its not natural, and its dispersal pattern looks planted. From the ion half-life in the atmosphere, I'd say its less than six hours old."

"Less than six...hours?" the Captain said, his hackles rising slightly in alarm. His eyes rose from the holographic display of the tricorder and swept, once again, across the large crypt they were in. "There may be others here: either on the surface or maybe even down here somewhere. Lieutenant," he waved Blackstone over so that Nir could fill her in, "we may be in trouble. Do whatever it is you can."

Once the Captain had given his orders to the Away Team, Doctor Kennedy Ryan Walsh pulled out his tricorder and knelt down to do several scans. He looked over his shoulder to make sure the Captain was still there. Then something caught his eye, "Captain. You may want to take a look at this one before I beam it to the Sojo!"

"Mr. Nir, keep on that obelisk for now. Excuse me," Kodak nodded to both he and Blackstone, moving away towards the Doctor and whatever it was he wanted him to see.

Nir acknowledged, approaching the obelisk the Captain had indicated. He was, in all honesty, left in the dark. These technologies were old, seemingly primitive, and nothing like he'd seen. Using his tricorder, he summoned Noah's holographic spheres. They hummed over and Nir instructed them to scan and render the obelisk.

"Alright Doctor," Kodak said, kneeling down next to Ryan Walsh. "What did you need me to look at?" His eyes scanned the body, not having a medical tricorder of his own to furnish helpful readouts. As it turned out, he didn't need a tricorder to understand why the Doctor had called him over. The eyes of the body in question said it all: permanently locked open in death, the startling yellow-gold eyes gave it all away. "This...this is a Chameloid," he locked eyes with the Doctor, his stomach sinking. "Get the bodies up to the ship, please. Before this interference field gets any worse."

Nodding, Kodak moved away, hearing Ryan Walsh call for the transport of the bodies behind him. They vanished in a haze of sparkles, though the transports -- just as with Takomi's unconscious form -- took much longer to complete than normal, fading in and out before finally disappearing completely. The Chameloid made his way to reconvene with Nir and the spheres, which the Captain quizzically eyed before looking directly at the engineer.

"This has to be it, right?" Kodak asked, staring at the ancient technology built into the obelisk. An alcove was inset into the pillar with a concave plate that had to be a receptacle for the sphere that had brought them here.

"You're more right than you know."

The honeyed smoke of a voice came from the darkness, followed immediately after by the unmistakable sound of crunching ground under boots. "Uh, don't even try it, Lieutenant. Hands and phasers were we can see them," the feminine, almost bemused voice seemed pointedly sent at the Half-Klingon Security Officer. The accent was deeply familiar, but elusively exotic. Then it paused. "Captain Kodak. So nice to make your acquaintance. I didn't think I'd get the pleasure firsthand. But then you came right to us..."

Scheisse, Kodak cursed internally, eyes shifting to regard the source of the voice. What had they just gotten themselves into? And how had they missed the presence of others? That damn interference field, he sighed, raising his hands and trying to get a sense of how many others accompanied the woman. We're in trouble... the Chameloid thought, eyes resting on a hulking Orion coming out of the shadows as well...


=/\= A joint post by... =/\=

Captain Björn Kodak
Commanding Officer

and

Commander Satoru Takomi
Executive Officer

and

Lieutenant Sharrina Blackstone
Security Officer

and

Lieutenant Kennedy Ryan Walsh
Assistant Chief Medical Officer

and

Ensign Ezra Gonzalez
Science Officer (Archaeology and Anthropology)

and

Midshipman Noah Balsam
Engineering Officer

and

Lieutenant Nir Giorgiou
Chief Engineer