Commander Ava Munro - Don't Pull Levers When You Don't Know What They Do
Ava Munro
((Underground River Station/Platform - Callis I))
Ava struck one of her own chemlights and threw it into the right sided room from the stairwell. The illuminated blinking eyes of the feral animals were giving her the heebie jeebies.
The chemlight hit the wall and they could see the small animals. Lizard-like, or what she assumed was, everything on this planet seemed odd and not quite what you'd expect - which was pretty much the definition of alien. It scuttled out of sight between the recesses in the stones.
Imril: This room could have been looted. Or smashing things up might have been an attempt to keep anyone else from making use of what was left behind.
Munro: A good note to make about the mindset of the previous occupants in any case. Whatever was taken from this room must have been important to them and they didn't want anyone else to have what was left.
Ava entered into the room further, her eyes picking apart the smaller details.
Broken. Everything in this world had been broken. Whether it was the Maelstrom, the people or survival it seemed to her that this world was just broken.
What would it have been to survive this place? What had the people been reduced to just to live?
Out of frustration she kicked a piece of debris aside, and was met with a curious metal board partially buried under some fallen stones.
Munro: Here, help me with this?!
Imril: Aye, sir.
Ava heaved as she struggled to move the stone, and with Imril's assistance the board gradually slipped out from underneath.
Munro: It looks like a map.
Then she noticed the small crystals dotted on the map. There was lines that connected each of them, and between the lines faded images. They weren't scribbles or crude depictions. They were highly detailed pictures that depicted civilisation. Cities, towns and villages.
And in the corner, a family. A picture that had been stuck to the board, not part of the original design. A keepsake. The fact that someone cared enough to put it here … and that it wasn't taken gave her an eerie chill.
Her eyes couldn't stop going to the picture. She couldn't know if they were smiling or not, they had slim mouths, the most striking thing was the eyes. They had 4 eyes, a pair at either side of the head. She had the sense that they were happy. This family was, once, happily living their lives.
Imril: Fascinating…
Ava couldn't resist a sideways glance towards the engineer, a mirthful grimace on her face.
Imril: What? Somebody had to say it.
Ava returned her focus to the board.
Munro: :: respectful :: This is the world they had before. The crystals must be something they used in their maps.
Her finger glanced over them and she turned the board over. On the other side there was a scratched on symbol.
The symbol was several loops that interconnected with a small round emblem inside the loops.
Munro: I don't know what it means but maybe we should mark this down. It must have been important for them to record it. I think whoever left it wanted someone to find it? I know I'm clutching at well nothing but little facts that we have, that we don't fully understand but I think these people were building something? Maybe it's the way out of here? We should follow the markings on the floor, if we can track it?
Imril: We should take the map with us. There are tests I can perform on the metal to see if it’s the right kind to work for a Faraday cage. If it is, we can come back and peel those signs off the doors, too.
Ava nodded her agreement, the board wasn't the easiest shaped thing to carry but it wasn't too heavy and she was intrigued as to the significance of the crystals and more so the sketched symbol on the back.
She carefully removed the picture of the family, taking one final look at it before she slipped it into the pocket of her trousers.
oO someone needs to remember these people existed Oo
There was a flush of emotion. An overwrought sense of agony as she imagined Harper never knowing what had happened to her mother. The pain of that thought was so powerful that she had to steady herself against the stone wall as she stood.
It wasn't going to happen. She had to get off this planet. She had to see her daughter again. If she gave into the belief that they wouldn't be able to leave she couldn't handle it, she wasn't strong enough to bear that. There was no choice but to get off this planet.
None.
Thankfully Imril didn't witness her moment of weakness, they were shielding the chemlight and interestingly the crystals glowed a soft pink.
Imril: These crystals are glowing, too. Just like the ones out with the others. Just not as brightly. Might have something to do with their size. These are much smaller. Might be they’ve absorbed a little light from the chemlight and are phosphorescing it back at us.
Munro: I just hope they aren't radiated.
With a sense of relief, they left the ruined room. There was a glimpse into a desperate civilisation in the grip of ruin that felt heavy in that space. It made her think that all worlds and civilisations could fall just as easily.
And she believed it.
They followed the tracks across the stone floor, buried beneath tiles that had smashed, warped and ruined over the years. Revealing nothing but the foundations built upon.
Unfortunately, the tracks led right to the stairwell. A series of small marks, breaks in the longer trail but even deeper, suggested that the item had been lifted up and fell back down. An unsuccessful first attempt to get it into or onto something?
Munro: Well this is not helpful. Even if we got on the other side they could have taken whatever it was kilometres away :: shrugs ::
Imril: Look at how these pieces of stairway are lying under the stone. All of them squished over to one side. The stairway used to be here ::Motioning to the left:: and something else was here. ::Motioning to the right:: A lift of some sort. There’s a piece of frame sticking up beside this boulder, which is propped up from underneath the floor. And this broken bit of brickwork here, part of a wall that separated the two. I’d lay odds the Callisians set off the rockfall themselves to protect the item or themselves from something above coming down… Callisans? Callisee?
Munro: That seems to be the most likely. Or they trapped them down here. It doesn't make any sense that a place this large would only have one entrance? Not if it was used for transportation?
Imril: It’s poor design to have only one way in and out of a place. There’s got to be another way down. Maybe one that doesn’t go all the way up. Let’s check the other door.
The other door. There was a reason they opted for the right side first. It was a lot more exposed, due to the damage.
The left side door was intact, and appeared to be more fortified now that she could see it more clearly in the glow from Imril's chemlight.
She placed a hand on the metal.
Munro: Imril, this is solid. No way we're pushing this open. Let's look for a manual release.
Imril: Response
Ava and the engineer skirted around, she pulled at vines across the wall. Several minutes later she found another door, half rotted with the damp.
Munro: This seems to be a side compartment.
Ava pulled out her last remaining chemlight and activated it before throwing it in. As it glided across the room she could see the shadows cast against more machinery. Several large levers were connected to large long dead machines.
Imril: Response
With ease they managed to force the moulded door to the side, which disintegrated into several unappealing clumps around them.
Ava stepped inside, it was clear almost immediately that the room had been altered and hybridised in some way. A mesh of metal machinery had been removed, and bricks with old cabling had been attached and lowered into the ceiling and the floor. Like chains.
Munro: The people had adapted this lever. Maybe it opens the door?
Confident in her assessment, Ava didn't hesitate to pull one of the levers and nothing happened at first. Then she heard a stuttering rattle from beneath her…
Then the churling roar of moving water.
Oh no…
Imril: Response
Munro: :: panic :: The others?!
Imril: Response
((OOC - this has caused the gears to move and the water to begin to drain in the other area where Silveira, Jaran and Breys are currently located))
TAGS/TBC
First Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240004LL2