[sb118-artemis] Ensign Tho'Bi - The Billendeium Connection [Part 2] [End of Act 1]

[Tobi]

((Communications Sphere Chamber - Giant Trees of Galaris IV))

The Andorian felt his bruised and battered back shift against the rough and uneven surface of the chamber.  His mind ran through the signal chain, searching for a fault.  His tall frame meant his feet were sticking out, over the side, cool air whipping around them.  The Combadged was synced to the Tricorder, which in turn, synced to the Communications Sphere.  His fingers traced across the grain of the tree trunk.  The Sphere’s internal wiring was an unrefined, but graceful mess of conventional copper and Billendeium infused tendrils.  His antennae sensed the stretch and groan of the giant tree, as the approaching stormfront began to close in.  The Billendium infused tendrils grew directly into the Sphere, having sprouted from out of the cup-like top, of the branch-plinth.  His dark eyes traced the convolution of warm, pulsating glowing ribbons hanging above him.  The Billendeim ran throughout a vast network of trunk, branch and leaf, spread from giant tree to giant tree, for countless kilometers.

oO Down.  The ribbons of moss hung down.  The branches and leaves hung down. Oo

Tho’Bi: ::muttering:: The trees talk to the ground (beat) They don’t talk to the sky.

He had only solved half the problem.  The Billendeium infused web of giant tree and root could send a signal around and beneath the jamming.  This allowed contact with the ground.  His Combadge, however, was still jammed; thus, preventing him from connecting to the Artemis Subspace Transceiver Network.  He could relay a signal from the ground, but had nowhere to relay it to. 

The young Andorian leapt to his feet.  He needed to get up higher, above the jamming.   

His Tricorder and the Universal Power Supply would have to remain beside the Grunden Communications Sphere; but at the increased distance, he needed something to act as a relay, to boost the signal between his Combadge and the Tricorder; a second Tricorder would be ideal, but his PADD would have to do.

His attention snapped to the horizon as, within the swarming mass of wind and rain, his antennae sensed a close series of vectors, moving as one.  The Andorian gazed in the direction of the approaching stormfront; several metallic objects flashed in the diffused sunlight, one after another.  Drones.

Tho’Bi:  Uh Oh.

He could move faster without his rucksack.  He opted to leave it, not without first stowing the Power Supply and Tricorder.  He took everything off his utility belt, except for his phaser.  

The young Andorian was about to leave it at that, when something ancient and bone deep, compelled him to snap open the pockets on either side of the rucksack; from each, he withdrew a Ushaan-tor[5] (a traditional icepick used by miners on the moon of Andoria).  He secured the two silver-bladed Ushaan-tor on the utility belt.

With everything else tucked away in the rucksack, he lent it against the branch-plinth.  The Andorian tilted his head one way and then the other.

oO Not like the Captain would airlock me for leaving this behind Oo

Pause.

The young Ensign pulled out his PADD; coded in Transporter Command Protocol, a three second delayed beam up request, to be triggered by his own transport, and locked into the automation protocol of the PADD.

Better safe than airlocked.  He had heard the rumors.

The warm glow of the moss pulsated across the rough, curved ceiling, walls, and floor of the chamber.  The skies outside were darkening and the silver skinned drones were continuing to vector toward the giant tree; at least that might mean they’d leave the Away Teams alone.  His dark blue eyes tracked up the root and branch ladder.  The acrid smell of smoke was strong and bitter now.  

Tho’Bi:  ::quietly:: There is no spoon.  

Without the weight of the Engineering kit to slow him down, the Andorian’s one meter ninety centimeter frame moved swiftly up the ladder.  Hands and boots grabbed and pushed at the irregular shaped rungs.  As he moved upwards through the shaft, the intensity of the warm, pulsating ribbons of moss shifted with him.  The cascading spirals of embered luminosity were at their brightest just ahead of him, dimmed slightly as he passed, before becoming warm and dull in his wake.

Every so often, his climb was punctuated by the shaft opening up on snug chambers; some would contain what looked like sleeping quarters; some, surfaces and tools for the preparing and cooking of food; others simply lay empty, refusing to divulge their purpose; all seemed as though abandoned long ago.

With each newly discovered chamber, the young Ensign would pause for a moment to tap his Combadge.  Each time, his Combadge returned no signal.  Those brief moments of hopeful ignorance, waiting for a signal not to be returned, offered flashes and senses of the outside world, before the Ensign would have to move on.

At first the outside world was dense shifting layers of cloud, damp filled his lungs and clinged to his skin and uniform.  Moisture set into the rough wood ladder rungs, making them harder to grip and slowing his climb.  The swirling vortexes of water droplets blinded his Antennae to the progress of the drones.  He would have to hope all was well. 

Eventually he broke through the cloud cover, and the sunlight returned, brilliant and bright.  The air was dry and clean, the acrid smell of smoke, gone.  As the temperature fell, so the Andorian’s rate of accent increased.  The clouds expanded outwards below him.  Within them, he caught glimpses of flashes of lightning, bursting through and across the shifting layers.

It was upon reaching the third chamber, beyond the cloud cover, that his antennae sensed their controlled vectors; silver skinned teardrops rising to meet him.  He did not have long.

He tapped his Combadge.

Silence.

Tho’Bi:  ::staring down at the approaching Drones:: Thullex! [6]

He pushed on.  Though sheltered within the thick trunk of the tree, the winds outside had begun to buffett and shake the tree with an ever-increasing vigour.  The tree, in turn, flexed and strained against the shifting energies, throwing the Ensign from one side of the shaft to the other.  The skin on his hands began to rip open as he clung on; the cold air biting into the jagged bloody tears.  

First ice began to form on the floors and surfaces of the abandoned chambers, and then within the shaft itself.  Great plumes of vapor would expand as he exhaled, ghostly apparitions hanging in his wake, illuminated by the warm light of cascading moss.

As he climbed ever-higher, ice began to form on his boots and then the shoulders of his uniform.  Soon the ice crept across the white of his hair and formed along the rising blue stalks of his antenna.  As he reached a chamber encased in ice, even his Andorian lungs stung with every inhale.  He let out a spluttered cough and his face contorted into a grimace.

The young Ensign tapped his Combadge and waited.  He clung to the frozen ladder as a barrage of air-cold scorching wind rampaged through the once-snug chamber.  He could sense the turbulent wake of the drones and the spin of their rotor blades.  

Crackle.  Splutter.  Silence.

Tho’Bi:  ::breathless and too himself:: Alright (beat) nearly there. 

He looked up to find the ladder severed, shattered and split by the cold.  He would have to continue on the outside of the tree.  His dark blue eyes tracked across the frozen surfaces of the chamber.  For an Andorian, maintaining balance on ice was hewn into their very bones; but doing so, while subjected to one hundred kilometer-an-hour winds, was quite a different matter.

With a leg hooked around the frozen root and branch ladder, he took the silver-bladed Ushaan-tor from his utility belt, one in each hand.  He was unsure as to what had compelled him to bring them, but whatever it was, he was thankful for it.

Tho’Bi: ::staring out into the bright sunshine and infinite skies:: Lex’thelnar med’shara’ven.  Lex’thu’laan ned’nara’ven. [7]

Chinkk!  The silver blade of the Ushaan-tor punched into the thick coating of ice that had formed around the outside of the mighty tree trunk.  The Andorian stretched upwards with his other arm.  Chinkk!  He dislodged the first Ushaan-tor and stretched upwards again.  Chinkk!  Arm by arm, legs dangling kilometers above the clouds, he dragged himself up the side of the swaying tree trunk.  The air-cold scorching winds whipping around his body, trying to pry him away from the monolithic tree trunk.

As he climbed, the young Andorian sang an old folk song of his Engineering Clan, the Birev Clan.

Tho’Bi: ::on the beat of his Ushaan-tor strikes:: Vrel’sha’mar, vrel’keth’nor.  Zal’norash kethni’del.  Kagh! Kagh! Kagh!  (beat) Lex’jal’tor, vrel’keth’nor.  Zal’krasha kethni’del.  Kagh! Kagh! Kagh! (beat) [8]

Below he could sense the Drones circling round and around the giant tree trunk, gradually gaining on him.  He could hear the faint sound of their rotors, humming within the roar of wind.

The Andorian planted hard with his right hand, digging the Ushaan-tor deep into the thick ice.  Bracing himself, he freed the Ushaan-tor, and had intended to return the silver-blade to his utility belt, but a gust of wind whipped around the monolithic trunk and smacked into him like a collapsing rockface.  Plucked from the tree trunk, he swung outwards into the thinning air; as he reached the apex of the swing, the rockface wind drove him hard back into the mighty tree trunk.  The Ushaan-tor sprang from his hand, the silver-blade sent plummeting down, to be lost in the clouds. 

Tho’Bi:  ::low guttural shout::  Lexthu! [9]

The impact slammed his back hard into the frozen coating around the tree trunk, sending shards of ice cascading downwards to the cloud cover and below.  He strained to hold onto the other Ushaan-tor, as his right wrist, elbow and shoulder, hyperextended.  He felt something shift on his person during the impact.  The young Ensign looked down to see his PADD jutting out of its pocket on the front of his jacket.

Without the second Ushaan-tor, he wasn’t going anywhere; up or down.  He was about to tap his Combadge when the Drones ripped up and circled around him and the giant tree trunk.

As though panicked by the presence of the Drones, the giant tree strained and pitched in what appeared to be an attempt to get away from the circling Drones.

The sudden motion dislodged the PADD from its front pocket.  Instinctively, the young Ensign reached out to grab the tumbling PADD, dislodging the remaining Ushaan-tor with him.

His blue fingers snapped up the PADD just as the final trace of friction between ice and silver-blade gave in.

Tho’Bi:  Uh oh.

He felt gravity grab hold, intent on dragging him all the way down to the unforgiving ground.  The young Ensign let go of the other Ushaan-tor and tapped his Combadge.

Crackle.

The Ushaan-tor appeared to be floating in front of him.  Its silver blade glimmering in the bright sunlight.

Splutter.

As one, the Drones formed up in a three drone ‘v-shape’.  Their weapons shuddered to life.

Nothing.

The Andorian shut his eyes.

MacKenzie: =/\= MacKenzie to all Starfleet personnel. Evacuate to the Artemis immediately. =/\=

The Andorian opened his eyes, stretched out his free hand and snatched up the tumbling silver of the Ushaan-tor.

Vailani: =/\= Artemis, five to beam up. =/\= 

The Drones opened fire. Shimmering light began cascading around the Andorian.  The glorious sunlight and infinite blue of the skies became diffused and pale.  The giant tree trunk splintered open in shards of ice and ancient wood.  The sound of the wind, nulled.  The Drones plummeted down the side of the tree, still firing, ripping the trunk open.  He could sense the dull, constant vibration of the transporter room.  The monolithic tree began to split in two, its great and noble form, collapsing into the cloud cover.  He sensed people around him.  Great roaring fires lit up the cloud cover for a brief moment, only to be replaced by the soft glow of the transporter pad.

With a dull thud, his rucksack dropped down in front of him.  To the left of the Andorian, someone was leaning heavily on one side.  He turned to see Lieutenant Vailiani standing next to him.  

Tho’Bi:  ::smiling::  Hey.

End of act one for Tho'Bi 

((OOC: Tho’Bi found himself with a bit of the mission all to himself, so I went with it.  All this two-part sim does, in terms of how it relates to anyone else, is link up the beaming for the Grunden Away Team.  And I’ll do a separate OOC breakdown of any the world building.  The footnotes carry over from Part 1 to Part 2.))  

FOOTNOTES:

[5] Ushaan-tor A Miner's icepick, also used as a duelling weapon in Ushaan duels and played witch by children (from the SB118Wiki)

[6] Thullex! Is an Andorain swear/curse, I derived from the SB118Wiki Guide to Andorain/Graalen.  Literary means “Solid-ice” and is broadly similar to “Frozen hell!”.  It is usually used in anger and directed toward an obstacle (someone or something).

[7] Lex’thelnar med’shara’ven. Lex’thu’laan ned’nara’ven. (The winter is bleak, it does not forgive. The ice is permanent, it does not forget.) Again, I derived the Andorian/Graalen from the SB118Wiki.  Tho’Bi used the English version of this expression in the Sim saying goodbye to Dr. Adea.

[8] Vrel’sha’mar, vrel’keth’nor.  Zal’norash kethni’del.  Kagh! Kagh! Kagh!  (beat) Lex’jal’tor, vrel’keth’nor.  Zal’krasha kethni’del.  Kagh! Kagh! Kagh! (beat) (With heart and pick, we dig for the honor of our clan, Kagh! Kagh! Kagh! The ice is thick, but we but cut through it for our clan, Kagh! Kagh! Kagh!) Once again, I derived the Andorian/Graalen from the SB118Wiki.  I actually wrote this song for a shoreleave Sim, but never got the change to use it.

[9] Lexthu! Another Andorian/Graalen curse/swear word I derived from the SB118Wiki.  Literary means “Patch of deadly ice”.  Broadly similar to “Slippery b*st*rd!”.  It is typically used very bluntly, usually shouted after something goes very wrong.

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Ensign Tho’Bi

Engineering

USS Artemis-A

A240203T11