All Aboard! (Part 4)

Posted on Wed Jul 31st, 2019 @ 10:12am by Lieutenant Commander Amber Quinn & Lieutenant Azusa Nakano & Lieutenant Trei Jansum & Lieutenant JG Paris Deville & Lieutenant JG Tessa Nicoles
Edited on on Wed Jul 31st, 2019 @ 10:28am

1,271 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Caverns of the mind
Location: Planetside

]CONTINUED]

[OLD]

From what she saw, there were a couple of long-term experiments and a number of plants being cultivated. The long-term experiments had gone unchecked for far longer than two months. The plants were looking worse for wear with several dead or near-dead. "Good work," she said to Trei. "It's curious that some of these experiments seem to have gone for four to six months without any attention. For the plants, it's hard to say."

[NEW]


While the others focused on their areas, Amber went to the main research area. To go along with what Paris asked, she paused to reach out telepathically and listen. There was a feeling of emptiness that she found unsettling. It was almost as if they'd left the facility before they abandoned it.

Then she began to look through the logs. She went back a month before they disappeared and began reading.

Azusa had moved over to the small base operations/engineering console. "Theres still plenty of power and the generators are running smoothly" she said "no signs of an overload or malfunction, so no need to evacuate because of any dangers" she reported.

None of the reports from the other members of the away team surprised Amber. From what she was reading, there were no problems or concerns about the planet or the facility. And then she came across a note about a system of caves. A team went in to investigate and found a tribe of cave dwellers. At first the reports were about the rock and mineral content and how the primitive people survived in the interwoven tunnel system. But as she read, the entries grew more and more succinct, and then they stopped altogether. This bore investigating. She noted what directions were mentioned and then copied the logs and sent them to the Aurora for further analysis.

Paris couldn't help but notice Amber's determination to get the answers the way she was trained. Which was understandable. Her hyper focus was something he had no problem with. He also didn' mind her brushing off the exercise and not participating. It was there was no communication between anyone other than what was necessary. Paris was trying to give them a new perspective, maybe even demonstrate his way of thinking so they might understand for future missions, but it seemed to be pointless. He was there as an outside observer and their means of exit.

Trei stopped and closed his eyes for a moment. Do you feel that? he said to her.

She picked up on what he meant. "Yes. I wonder what led to it."

Trei stood still, his eyes still closed. Absolute silence from this place. Usually when someone inhabits a space, there's some kind of, I guess you'd call it psychic energy. Like your quarters on the ship. You spend so much time there, that even if you weren't there, I'd still feel something. I don't feel anything now except for us. He opened his eyes and looked at her. "They've been gone the entire two months. But Lt Nakano said something about the food sitting on the table."

"They've been gone longer than that, although not physically," Amber said. "Listen."

Trei nodded, closed his eyes, and listened. Nothing. He felt nothing. He didn't even feel animals. The place felt completely empty. Deserted. Abandoned. As if all life within had been gone long ago.

Then he opened his eyes. He saw three glasses that had molded, but they were grouped around the same place. He let his eyes wander. The remains of some food were lying close by, being crawled over by vermin. Trei went over and moved it a little, and found that it wasn't one, but quite a few meals covered in mold, almost as if they forgot they had been eating. He frowned; who would forget they were eating or drinking? He looked around again. The stem of a fruit lay close by, along with some kind of insects.

"Why would they leave their food uneaten, only to get more on top of it?" He pointed with his chin to the glasses. "Who leaves a glass out for every day? My father would have killed me if I did that, even as a kid.

"I don't know," Amber said. "The logs only talk about finding a tribe of cave dwellers, but nothing about any problems, or having to leave."

Nicoles had been moving about looking for signs of problems; discarded band-aids or the like; some kind of sign there is a reason to call for help or anything out of the ordinary. While looking about something came to her.

"They are all slobs." She pointed out. "Food with mold and none of them have made their beds or the like." She observed. "Since when does Star Fleet send a pack of all messy people on a mission?" She pondered a loud. "This place seems more like a hovel than a Observation station. Messy but not looted or tussled, just like the people did not care about keeping it clean." She continued. "The Medical Bay is not used but not as messy; like they did not go in there or anything, just avoided it or the like? just seems like the main living area and their rooms were the places they were last?"

Amber continued to look around, checking communications logs and supplies. She was mindful of what Paris said, but the generators were working properly and power and air filtration hadn't been interrupted. Just other things left undone.

Trei closed his eyes and listened with his ears this time, and used his nose. He smelled something rancid, opened his eyes and followed his nose to the most horrible bathroom he had ever laid eyes on. He backed out, coughing. "Doctor," he called.

The door sensor shows departure but no sign out log of same time stamp. No prior logs for the day preceding the departure and no putting station on stand-by except by automatics. The computer logs stop two days before departure and interior sensor detect the life signs of team prior to departure. No electronic systems used 46 hours prior to departure of team.

"Mr. Jansum, clean it up," Amber said, walking past him. "I'm going to check the hydroponics."

Trei grimaced and went to find a mask that would help filter out some of the smell and got some gloves. Then he began the task of cleaning the mold and midlew that had become encrusted on nearly the entire floor, tub and sink of the room and around the commode. He really would rather have not done the toilet. It had a yellow...substance caked around the bowl that came off in flakes when he tried to clean it, just show more underneath. He was soon gagging again. I am not throwing up. I will not, he thought to himself. He had seen worse. He had been near disaster zones and with people who were bleeding out, some of whom did not make it. That's different! his stomach said. This is far worse!

Shut up he told his stomach contents. He scrubbed and scoured until the mold was gone and all that was left were the stains that would never come out. He stood up, coughing, and headed out to find the others.



(To be continued...)

Lieutenant Commander Amber Quinn
Executive Officer

Lieutenant JG Azusa Nakano
Chief Engineer

Lieutenant JG Paris Deville
Chief Flight Control Officer

Lieutenant Trei Jansum
Chief Security Officer

Lieutenant Tessa Nicoles
Medical Officer

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