Commander Ava Munro - Go Quietly Into The Ground
Ava Munro
((Upper Plateau on The Ruins of an Ancient Radio Tower - Callis I))
((16. 5 hours since crash))
Munro: Couldn't just be easy for once.
This was not the day for ease, or anything pleasant at all. It was moments like this she longed for the boring days at Starfleet Command's Operations Centre on Earth. She'd happily swap swarms with a horde of bureaucratic Vulcans any time at all.
She appreciated the comforting smile from Silveira. His take was far more optimistic than hers.
Silveira: It wouldn’t be any fun if it was.
There was something about Silveira that inspired her. This situation could have broken their spirit, but he was, more so than she, been the source of positive encouragement. Ava nodded, that was that then. She then dropped her pack down, and took out the leftover rations and nibbled on them before sipping some water.
Munro: We're going in. We stay close, any sign of trouble we get out. We don't take risks. It's probably rotted in there, cover your face. Check the ground before you put weight on it, if it's soft we don't go that way. Okay?
In her mind she ran through a checklist that she had begun to form. She was no exoarchaeologist and her priority was not preserving the site but retrieving Imril and Jaran from inside whatever this was. Using a torn piece of her undershirt, which she had tied at the back, she covered the lower half of her face.
Silveira: Okay Commander.
Side by side they entered the darkness.
((Inside The Ruined Radio Tower - Callis I))
Not even a single step inside was had before a foul stench assaulted her. It wasn't merely her sense of smell that was violently disturbed, but all parts of who she was seemed to recoil against the atmosphere itself. The air was thick, oily and …
oO hungry Oo
It was the only word that came to mind for her to describe it. This place was starving. It felt like they had walked into the bowels of this planet and if they stayed too long it would devour them.
The planets unfurled in squelching bursts, the ground grabbed at their shoes with each step and the air enveloped itself around them. A suffocating embrace.
A roof had collapsed, cutting off the space in two. It also meant that they would have to crawl to get to the other side. She sighed and looked at Silveira with a combination of frustration and fear. Mostly fear.
Silveira: We can squeeze through it.
Now it was almost an annoyance. She knew that was her frustration. She sighed.
She bent down and peered into the crawl space. There was nothing but that clawing, slick air and shadows.
Munro: Imril! Jaran!
She waited for a response and then a small, distant echo came from the darkness…
Imril: Did you hear that? Starfleet! We’re here!
((OOC: removed the action parentheses as Ava wouldn't have been witness to that))
Then she heard the doctors voice, not much clearer than before but she could make out the words.
Jaran: Hey, cool it. I said you were cleared for duty, but listen to your body. Allow me.
The slightly louder as they were shouting directly towards them from below.
Jaran: Starfleet! Down here!
Silveira: They're alive.
Munro: :: relieved :: They are :: shouts into the crawl space :: Hold on! We're going to find a way to get to you! :: then turns to face Silveira :: You see any way down?
She watched as Silveira dropped down and looked at each side of the collapsed roof. When he pointed, she looked in that direction.
Silveira: This side looks bigger, I think we should crawl over and find them.
She could see it now, the way that the roof had fallen had created a larger gap at the far side.
Munro: Okay, you lead the way.
He began to crawl through. Ava lowered herself to her knees, her fingers went into the grimy slur that covered the entire place. The foul scent was worse from this angle, and she could feel the moisture seep into her clothes.
After a few agonising minutes, and several moments of terror when she was convinced that the rest of the roof would just decide at this moment to collapse and crush them both. Thank you to Imril's koala and Jaran's prophets that that did not happen.
Silveira faced her and raised a finger to his ear, then whispered.
Silveira: Is that running water?
She remained quiet and listened carefully. Amongst the sounds of drips, the distant buzzing of the insects and the groaning of a dying building she could hear the gentle flow of running water.
Munro: I think I can.
She stood up from her crawled position, looked to the filth that now attached itself and grimaced.
Munro: :: sarcasm :: I wonder if there might be a fully intact stairwell that will take us straight down to them?
Vitor shook his head.
Silveira: Maybe they feel in a well?
Munro: Feel? :: realises :: Oh, yeah. We don't know what the building was used for or anything about the peo -
Her thoughts were interrupted as she peered into an adjacent ‘room’. There were no visible walls, only the vines, foliage and grime that was the norm for this place. The only thing out of place was the corpse, partially covered by rotted vegetation. The moss covered skull was still visible, propped up against a wall. The lower jaw was missing, probably buried somewhere underneath the foliage.
Silveira: Response
Ava treaded carefully as she entered the room, ensuring that the ground was stable enough, at least from her perspective. Scientific curiousity overcame her at that moment.
The question: what happened to the people who had been here?
Munro: Let's take a look. Keep an eye out for anything we can use, that might be salvageable.
She bent down lower to observe the corpse. She was no xenobiologist but she was fairly familiar with most species' skeletal structures and she didn't recognise this. At least it wasn't one of the more widely known Federation species.
The head was larger than a human's, with several distinctive cranial ridges and what appeared to be three visible eye sockets.
Silveira: Response
Munro: I don't recognise the species? Maybe indigenous? :: sighs :: If there is life on this planet it could be our way home?
Silveira: Response
Munro: :: nods :: You might be right. Not much we can do for them now anyway. Whatever this place used to be, it's all rotted away. My mother likes to say that everything returns to the ground eventually, she's a typical botanist :: sad laughter :: she'd love it here.
Silveira: Response
As Silveira spoke there was a new noise… it was movement. When she turned to the direction, back through the crawl space she saw a flash of a shadow. She glanced towards Silveira and placed a finger to her lips, indicating that silence might be best.
She pointed towards a gap in a wall, behind some falling vines and towards the sound of the running water.
Munro: :: mouths silently :: Quiet.
Silveira: Response
Tags/TBC
First Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240004LL2