[sb118-artemis] Ensign Tho’Bi - There is No Spoon

[Tobi]

((Inside Giant Tree Root - Below the Kangew - Breetia Township, Galaris IV ))

The giant root flexed and shuddered as the two Starfleet Officers made their way slowly through the murk. Favoring one side, the Bajoran Lieutenant took a moment's pause from labouring forward, to lift her hand to the rough and irregular surface; loose ribbons of moss drew back, and then wrapped around her fingers. The Andorian sensed the deep green spirals trace across the landscape of the Lieutenant's fingers.  

In the damp, rich air, and the warm silence of the root, the Starfleet Officers could almost forget the violence and horror of the world above, and, instead, simply marvel at the wonder of the strange new world they had discovered. 

The heavy slosh of war-weary legs punching and dragging through the murky water, made imperative demand upon the two officers; their frames, black with gold across the shoulders, snapped to a state of readiness. In the dim, shifting low light, the stocky figure of Grunden General Kexxin trudged into dull rendering. 

Then up ahead there was a shadowy figure. His steps revealed from moving across the murky water, as he neared she realised it was General Kexxin. 

Tho'Bi: General Kexxin of the Grunden Clan ::bows slightly:: It is I (beat) Ensign Tho’Bi of the Birev clan ::sweeping gesture toward Vailani:: and my commanding officer (beat) Lieutenant Vailani of Bajor.

Kexxin: Response 

Tho’Bi: ::to Kexxin:: My people say (beat) ::softly:: Lexshu’resh kash’thesal shran’thira (beat) The coldest winds bring the warmest hearts together. ::bows:: I am sorry we met (beat) in such sorrow for your people.

In contrast to the stilted and staged ritual of the Andorian Ensign, the Bajoran Lieutenant's demeanor remained guarded, her expression stern. She greeted the Grunden with a functional nod.  

Vailani: General Kexxin, I assume you know what happened on the surface? We were almost killed and we’ve lost contact with the others in my team and our ship? 

Kexxin: Response

No sooner had the Grunden's gruf tones found resonance in the embracing acoustics of the root, the warm ambience was punctuated by a stuttered series of distorted blunt tonal phonetics, emanating from Lieutenant Vailani's combadge. 

MacKenzie: =/\= Ma……ie.. o…va … ani. =/\=

Instinctively, the Bajoran snapped her fingers to her combadge, only to be greeted with the double flat rapid burst of disrupted communications. 

Vailani: :: to Kexxin :: Something in this township is jamming signals getting out? Does that have something to do with this attack? 

Kexxin: Response

Vailani: Okay, we might be able to bypass that if we can get access to a communications terminal? :: to Tho’Bi :: Don’t lose that power pack. 

Tho’Bi: ::nods:: Aye, Lieutenant. 

The unlikely trio of a Bajoran, a Grunden, and an Andorian ambled their way through the unrefined, yet graceful curves and elevations of the rambling root system. The Andorian’s antennae twitched, as the primal recesses of his mind attempted to find pattern within the interwoven channels of surge and pulse; organic interconnection, unhindered by the convoluted contrivement of intellect.

From time to time, they would arrive upon greater chambers, swollen outwards against the weight of dirt; bulbous subterranean hubs, where giant root rose up from the root tunnel curved floor, wall, or ceiling; scything across their path, only to burrow outwards, and on through unknown distance of dirt.

These giant roots within root would have to be clambered over, his one meter ninety centimeter frame making lighter work of it, than the one meter sixty eight centimeters of his Bajoran commanding officer. He watched as she hauled herself over the ancient spines; with each one conquered, she carried her injured leg a little more.  

Tho’Bi would have offered to help, but knew enough to know Lieutenant Vailani would not have appreciated it, especially in front of the General.

As they rounded a long arching corner, the root tunnel suddenly pitched downwards; in the shifting murk, their eyes could make out the dull shimmer of water; its level remained constant, as the root dove down, depth of liquid conjured by virtue of falling base.

Beyond the depth, a ladder of root grew out of the rounded, uneven wall behind, and upwards, towards a Grunden-and-a-bit sized hole in the curved ceiling.

Vailani: This day just gets better and better. 

The smile had crossed the blue of his face before he had time to realise it, let alone stifle it. By the time the young Ensign had dispatched the errant smile, the Lieutenant was already wading into the murky water. The tall Andorian followed, the water washing around his waist. As the shimmering threshold reached the Bajoran's shoulders, she pushed off and swam the rest of the way.  

Rather than swim, the young Engineer pushed his way through the warm ice on foot.  

He reached the ladder just after the Lieutenant. The rough, random-shaped rungs kept working upwards for hundreds upon hundreds of meters, beyond where even his antennae could sense, let alone his eyes.

Tho’Bi: ::looking up:: woah ::looks at Vailani:: There is no spoon. 

He smiled at Vailani, but quickly realised the Bajoran had no idea what he was talking about.

Vailani: Response?

Tho’Bi: it's an old human… t-two dimensional holo-novel… from before… the… Eugenics… i-it doesn't matter, right now.  

Vailani: Response?  

Tho’Bi: ::looking up:: You should go first ::to Vailani:: that way (beat) if your leg gives out (beat) you can land on me ::smiles::

Vailani/Kexxin: Response 

The climb was arduous. Vailani heaved and dragged herself rung by rung, with Tho’Bi close behind, his long arms stretched up, either side of her legs, so she had nowhere to fall, but down onto him. The proximity earned him more than one boot to the face. General Kexxin followed a short distance behind, seemingly lost in his own thoughts or ghosts.

Root gradually blended into bark, and as it did, the space around them grew tighter. The air began to lose its dampness, but not its warmth. The climb through darkness felt endless, with no light below, and none above… until, a bright shift of daylight cut across the shaft.

As he fought his fatigue, arms and legs aching as though gripped by metal vines, the young Ensign began to feel a fresh breeze upon their skin. As he drew even with the opening, bright sunlight erupted over him. The Andorian stepped out and found himself beside Lieutenant Vailani.

The green and brown of the landscape stretched out below them, broken up sporadically by the purple and shimmering blue of forest tree and leaf; rivers and streams glimmered under the sunlight, and above them, the clouds felt almost close enough to touch.  

((The Giant Trees of Galaris IV))

The Ensign's boots had found footing upon the rough bark of a mighty branch, jutting out towards, and forming a natural bridge to another huge, towering tree.

Kexxin: Response? 

As the Grunden General led them across the great bough, the Andorian cast a glance up at the tree they had just climbed; the deep purple of its trunk soared upwards into the white of the clouds and beyond. His eyes tracked downwards and came to rest on the black, smoldering scare cutting into the countryside below. The charred and decimated remains of the forest where they had found the drone.

Tho’Bi: ::pointing at the burned forest:: We must be the far side of the drones forest (beat) beyond the mist.

Vailani/Kexxin: Response 

As he crossed the halfway point of the tree-bridge, the bough began to thin out, accommodating only single file; the wind seemed to circle around him, pushing and pulling at his arms, torsos, and legs. The Andorian senses picked up a regulatory in the mess of organics; a familiar material to the space-born Andorian, metal. It tracked upwards on the trunk of the tree opposite, a thin line of silver, glimmering in the sun.

Tho'Bi: ::shouting ahead to Vailani:: There's an antenna attached to the tree up ahead (beat) that must be the communications device. 

 Vailani/Kexxin: Response

((OOC: Apologies for the chunks of text, kinda got my World Building Freak on… but it really only moves us from ladder to antenna.))

TAG/TBC

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Ensign Tho’Bi

Engineering

USS Artemis-A

A240203T11