PNPC Crewman Jozial Renirs – How did I end up down here?
Jovenan
((Cave, Rakantha Province, Bajor))
So far, it had been a typical cave. Dark, slippery, smelly cave, but many of them were, or so Jozial would imagine. The hidden goodies were still to be discovered; what was the point of a cave if you didn’t put anything in there? At least they hadn’t yet found out the pools of water here weren’t invested by sentient, long-lived worms who could take over your body. She never understood what make the ancient Trills go “hmm, I’m gonna cut my belly open and put this slimy creature in there”. Kahless, her species were disgusting sometimes! The spots were cute though.
Renirs: So, what do you think this cave is for? I wanna find some old Cardie guns, those are expensive. Or a bear!
Jozial pointed the lit screen of her tricorder at her feet and around the walls as she kept moving. Too bad she hadn’t packed a torch. Bet a phaser could have sufficed as well, but no. Besides her tricorder and the cave’s mouth somewhere behind them, the only notable source of light was the tender telepath’s tendrils occasional blinking.
They weren’t walking too fast, and it was obvious there was nothing here, so Jozial moved on ahead.
Gnai: ::after a lengthy pause to think:: Unclear. The cave is natural, but the entrance blockage was not. ::scanning another broken stalagmite:: It appears that something cleared the stalagmites that had formed in the cave. ::pause, and then with a louder volume from its speakers as who knows how far Renirs had wandered off in this dark:: You may not be too far off with your hopes of Cardassian influence! ::quieter, to itself:: Hopefully you are though.
Yeah, didn’t caves always have those pointy bits that dropped on your head or that you could pull out and use to beat up an evil android that’s after you? The ones she saw had been cut down. That means there must have been someone in here before, spent quite a time and effort as well – there must be something in here!
“Click.”
Renirs: Huh?
Jozial felt something move under her foot, accompanied by an audible click. She had stepped on something, but before she could raise her foot and look what it was, her field of view was turned bright white, and her ears were filled by an infernal noise. The realisation that her head, arms and legs hurt followed soon after. She was no longer standing, though in the utter darkness she couldn’t tell where exactly she had ended up and in which posture, though the slimy, cold, hard rock under her side told her a lot.
Gnai: ::loud again:: Crewman Renirs!! Are you okay!
Renirs: My ::bleep:: ::bleep:: in the ::bleep:: ::bleep::, ::bleep:: ::bleep::! ::Bleep::!
A grimace on her face, Jozial was clenching all her muscles as she was lying on her side on the ground, hoping that it, or the shouting, would take some of the pain away. Mines! The corrupt cops, humanoid traffickers or even the teachers didn’t use those to get her! That was a sneaky, cruel, twisted method of hurting people. Better write it down.
She saw something bright approaching her. It was glowing, illuminating the surrounding air. Was it an angel? A friendly Prophet or Megan having come to take her away? She watched in awe as its subtle hair dancing in the air as it got closer and…
It was the freaking jelly.
Gnai: ::kneeling in its suit next to her:: Renirs, what happened? There was a flash, did you set something off? ::pause:: Can you move? It may be prudent to move you from the cave if you are seriously injured.
Jozial moved the toes in both her feet and turned from her side to her back, looking up at the glowy jelly who had crouched besides her. Huh, she hadn’t realised before looking it from up close that it kinda looked like something she and Kliss might have had on their date in the seafood restaurant on the Cat Station a few shoreleaves back. Better ask it for some recipes later.
Renirs: I’ve got both my arms and legs still there, at least. ::moves right leg:: Kahless, that hurts. And ::moves left leg:: ::shouts in pain:: Oh ::bleep:: ::bleep:: like a ::bleep:: plasma injector!
Jovenan: Gnai? Renirs?
Oh great, more audience. Despite her earlier thoughts, she was now glad that they hadn’t had anyone goodlooking with them for the exercise. She didn’t care enough about these people to try and impress them with pretending not to be hurt.
Gnai: Lieutenant Jovenan, there is some sort of defensive mechanism in here it seems! Caution is advised. ::extending a mechanical hand to Renirs:: Perhaps leaving might be wise.
Jozial took the hand she was offered and tried lifting herself up. She got to a seating position and, taking support from the tentacle tank’s “shoulder”, she tried to lift herself up to at least one foot.
Jovenan: What kind of defence mechanism? Are you injured?
Gnai: Response
Renirs: They’ve got mines in here! Not like, mines with dwarves and coal, but mines that you step on, and it goes boom, and I stepped on one!
She managed to get herself up, though she had to lean in onto the jelly’s robotic suit. Too bad it didn’t seem to have significant strength in its suit so that it could have carried her out – not that she would have wanted that anyway, if someone’s gonna be carrying someone, it was Jozial herself, and the person carried would be a lot hotter than anyone else present.
Jovenan: Don’t move. If there was one of these traps, there might be more of them, and I don’t want you to trigger more of them by accident. Was there any indication of the trap, like a tripwire?
Come on, I just got up!
Gnai: Response
Renirs: I stepped on something! It was like a button, it moved under my foot and then it exploded!
Jovenan: =/\= Jovenan to Savel and Chevalier. Terminate the exercise. There’s been a small explosion in the cave, likely some old trap. I need your help in here. =/\=
Savel/Chevalier: Response
As the not-so-cheery-cheerleader was having a call with her friends by the entrance, Jozial leaned heavily against the robo blob’s prop. They had been told not to go anywhere, but Jozial didn’t really want to remain here standing on just one foot that also hurt and having to rely on someone for her getting out of there.
Renirs: Do we just stand in here until someone comes to get us out? Can’t we use the tricorders to check where the mines are and just not step on them?
She realised she wasn’t holding hers. Looking around, twisting only her neck while supporting her upper body against the tank, she couldn’t see much around herself and certainly not in the dark.
Gnai/Jovenan: Response
Renirs: I might have lost mine. Mine, my tricorder, not like ::stops, grimaces in pain::
Echolocation would be so useful. There were so many telepathic or empathetic species, but for some reason, echolocation wasn’t so common among the smart species. And then there were the Trills like Jozial, whose superpower was being good at connecting with worms. Urgh.
Gnai/Jovenan: Response
Renirs: Okay, but can’t we just walk out the same way we came? And watch out for the slippery parts as well.
Gnai/Jovenan/Savel/Chevalier: Response
TAG/TBC
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Crewman Third Class Jozial Renirs
Enlisted technician
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11