LTJG Josh Herrick: Who are they?
Mark P
(( Underground Tunnels, Alpha Brenkelvi II ))
After Josh had lifted his foot, he was almost relieved when nothing immediately happened. But in the last centimeter before the stone regained its place, there was a faint click which was followed by the rhythmic drumming growing louder and faster, accompanied by a rumbling sound a short distance away. After a few more moments, it became eerily quiet until the Ops Chief spoke up, scanner in hand.
Arlill: I’ve got good news and bad news.
Etan: I’ll take good news for 2 bars of latinum. :: he deadpanned.::
Herrick: Just two bars Commander? ::eyebrows raised, trying to set his anxiety at ease::
Maxwell: Response.
Arlill: The good news is there appears to be fresh oxygen passing through this space. And the bad (beat) We’ll need to find a new way out, our path back has closed off.
Etan: That stone tile might have been some sort of old fashioned ‘booby trap’. ::he said::
Josh’s claustrophobia had been mostly under control, that is until he heard that they were now trapped underground, on an unknown planet and he was at fault – even if logically he couldn’t have known that the ‘booby trap’ was there. He closed his eyes and took a few calming breaths.
Herrick: ::regaining his composure and thumbing back the direction they came:: Perhaps, that’s what happened to our friend back there; at least this one wasn’t lethal... yet.
Maxwell: Response.
Arlill ran a scan.
Arlill: The doors composition make them excellent heat conductors. (beat) We aren’t cutting through them with our phasers.
Etan: There has to be some way to open these doors.
More deep breaths from Josh, trapped was definitely a term that he hadn't yet been able to come to terms with.
Maxwell: Response.
Arlill: Sorry sir, I don’t think we’re in danger of dying here and now.
Maxwell: Response.
Arlill: Because if we were, we’d probably already be dead. ::a stark expression across his face::
The XO considered the situation for several moments, leaning against the wall as he did.
Etan: I think you might be on to something, Lieutenant. :: beat :: When Herrick lifted his foot off the tile, the tunnel collapsed behind us- and we know there is another source of air somewhere in this complex. :: he tapped his chin. :: Let’s conduct a full sweep of the floor and see if we can find another mechanism to open this set of doors.
Josh was relieved that the commander shared that idea before he’d spoken up; his idea of manually running hands against the floor and walls to find a potential trigger point wouldn’t have held up against the idea of scanning, at least as a first step. He recalibrated his tricorder to display detailed structural scans of the stone floor and a meter below it.
Herrick: Aye, sir.
Arlill / Herrick / Maxwell: Response.
The team had pulled out their tricorders and walked around the available area, each of them focusing on a particular area to ensure nothing was missed. However, each of them seemed to pick up the increased thermal spectrum readings as they all looked at each other at the same time.
Etan: Something is happening. I’m picking up some sort of thermal current under our feet. :: he checked the readings again. :: I think it’s heading for the-
A loud scraping noise filled the space around them and the large doors slowly swung inwards. The team stood and watched. Ahead of them, the tunnel widened into a brobdingnagian cavern.
Herrick: This is ancient tech ::looking around in wonder:: The amount of ingenuity...
Maxwell took the lead, carbine in hand. Before all the wars of the last several decades, his father had said that the idea of having ‘muscle’ accompany scientific missions was a bit at odds with Starfleet’s idealism. But, through time and unfortunately the loss of many good officers, it now seemed standard practice – and, as long as they didn’t have an impatient trigger finger – Josh appreciated it. Maxwell led the way, with the rest of the team close behind.
Arlill / Maxwell: Response.
The walls were covered in the same symbols that had adorned the structure’s entrance and the door. The ceiling was barely visible, mostly hidden in the gloom where the wall lights could not reach, and on the far side, a sheer cliff dropped down into an abyss.
In the center of the room, however, hovered a large spinning globe made of some sort of fluid metal arranged in translucent layers that were rotating in countless different directions. It hovered above a plinth with three prongs pointed towards the center of the object at 45 degrees.
The seemingly eager archeologist went to scan the orb. Then, it was almost like watching his arm repeat the action several times, all of them stopping in the same place.
Herrick: What the...
Etan: Well that’s new.
Arlill / Maxwell: Response.
Etan then waved his hand in front of it, Josh smirked as it almost looked like he was waving hello, but it quickly fell away when the same effect happened. It was almost like there were 4 arms waving until he stopped, and they all synced up again.
Etan: It’s putting some sort of chroniton energy. It’s warping time-space in the chamber.
Josh again switched the display on his tricorder; but it wasn’t finetuned enough to give any more helpful information on the chronitons, but it did provide some other interesting details.
Herrick: That low-level energy field... it isn’t so low here. It's overwhelming the tricorder’s scanners; I can’t get a good reading outside of the chamber. What we were detecting outside was likely a result of the amount of energy pouring in to keep this... ::pointing to the orb:: thingy going.
Arlill / Etan / Maxwell: Response.
Herrick: Does the direction that the chronitons are spinning matter?
Arlill / Etan / Maxwell: Response.
The away team got closer at the Commander’s behest to try and get better readings with their assortment of tricorders. As all the scanning instruments focused on the orb, the readings started to shift and evolve and a small surge of chronitons picked up and the orb expanded slightly and touched the back of Josh’s hand and suddenly the room was filled with figures,
For a moment, the room filled with hooded figures. It was hard to make out who they were, but they seemed to pay no attention to the four officers that had surrounded the orb in the center of the room. All that Josh could make out was the ridged noses that seemed to peek out from the hoods. Caught off guard, he instinctively pulled his hand back and they faded away.
Herrick: Did anyone else see that?
Arlill / Etan / Maxwell: Response.
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Lieutenant JG Josh Herrick
Acting Chief Engineer
USS ‘Oumuamua
O240005JH3
he/him/his (player/character)