Vice Admiral Quinn Reynolds - Pointing the Way
Quinn Reynolds
((Vermillion Wastes, Gateside Dimension))
It was funny how simply one could state an impossible task. "Find the energy source to the gate." Clear. Easily understood. Almost insurmountable in practice. The landscape meant that the energy source could be in a completely different place one moment to the next. The possibility of locating and somehow interrupting whatever mechanism caused the landscape to shift had been raised, but
Reynolds: It's possible it's some unique point-to-point energy transmission. ::She shook her head.:: But given everything else about this dimension, I suspect it's organic. And we know the vines were tearing apart the facility's EPS conduits to get to the power source there...
Valek: The evidence indicates the system is organic in nature. It is plausible that the system operates as a hive mind or a shared consciousness.
Spelvan: Yes.
Quinn nodded, just a little. The smallness of the gesture was not for lack of agreement, but the ramifications. It was unsettling to think they were walking through a consciousness, that every vine and sprouting fungus could be part of a mind. It would certainly explain the discomforting feeling they were being watched.
Perhaps even more so, when they were offered the chance to see the land reshaping itself right in front of their eyes. The ground shuddered underfoot, and she sucked in sharp breath. It was as though she was watching one static image morph into another; the vines melted and expanded, pouring themselves upward until they became trees. Rocks crumbled into moss and spread across the ground like spilled red ash.
It was like living inside a Salvador Dali painting.
Valek: ::He glanced over his shoulder.:: Interesting. The lake is no longer present.
Quinn followed his gaze and saw only a sparsely vegetated plain behind them, not entirely unlike how the landscape had looked before the forest had arranged itself into existence. It was hard to tell if the world had reformed itself, or moved them. Maybe it was something of both. She shook her head, trying to wrap her mind around it, while Spelvan looked down at his tricorder.
Valek: Admiral, Ensign, do your scans correspond with previous readings? The recent shift suggests we may have been relocated, but I conclude our natural senses may be unreliable and we have not moved at all.
Spelvan: The sensors show that we have, indeed, moved location. Or rather, the location has moved around us. In addition, the resonances we must follow are now in a different direction.
He gestured behind them, and a faint wash of relief cooled the inside of Quinn's chest. The forest had not looked hospitable — or rather, looked less hospitable than everything else — and she was glad they didn't have to push ahead into it. At least on the open plains they could see things coming... assuming the landscape didn't suddenly conspire to hide them.
Reynolds: Then I guess we turn around.
Valek: Response
And so they did. There was a noticeable absence of vines on the ground, and that felt significant in some way, though Quinn hadn't the slightest idea what that significance was. Dust puffed up in small clouds with their booted footsteps, and for a moment, she wondered exactly what headquarters would think of this mission report. From a distress call to wandering through a different dimension. Such was Starfleet life.
Spelvan: Unrelated to our previous conversation, I have been experiencing possible auditory hallucinations since we entered the gate. Or perhaps psychic aural intrusions. I am assuming that neither of you have been encountering this phenomenon?
Reynolds: No, nothing. ::A small frown caught on her brow, yet another thing to feel uncomfortable about.:: We had similar reports back in the facility. It's odd. Not all telepaths have heard it, and not everyone who heard it is a telepath. Unless Commander Marshall has a secret she hasn't shared with the class.
Valek: Response
The ground shuddered again, though there was something more determined in its trembling this time. All three officers stopped where they were, feet planted to keep their balance, and watched as a deep crack opened up in the ground ahead. It was perhaps half a metre wide, three metres long, and a vine slithered out in a way that made Quinn's skin crawl, creeping forward in their intended direction of travel.
Spelvan: Interesting. It appears the vines may have a rhizomatic network - that is, they grow horizontally, unlike trees with a central trunk.
Reynolds: I wonder if they're vines at all, at least in the manner we know them. I have no idea whether they even vaguely qualify as plants, other than looking like one. ::She frowned.:: The nervous system is rhizomatic, too.
Spelvan / Valek: Response
Reynolds: Do you think there's a way to follow them to the power source? They were particularly interested in the facility's main reactor, especially once the team there interfered with the energy coming through the gate from this dimension.
Spelvan / Valek: Response
Commanding Officer
USS Gorkon
T238401QR0