Mist & Shadow
Posted on Wed Apr 7th, 2021 @ 5:30pm by Ieliene t'Leiya & Devora t'Leiya & Lieutenant Commander Sofia Nikedoros & Lieutenant Commander Payton Bray
2,438 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
Frizzle
Location: Kocoa Caverns, 13 Clicks from Haumea Proper
Timeline: MD
It had not been long till the group found themselves down another twisty hall, one that Payton was increasingly puzzled by, but hopefully one that led them to an exit. Tricorders were on the fritz, only allowing for inconsistent readings of their surroundings. The further in the group traveled, the brighter, yet less predictable the caverns became. The odd larvae-like creatures all over the walls moved quicker and with more life the longer the group kept onward, and behind them, a distant scratching could be heard.
Payton endeavored to ignore the odd noises and sights all around them. Part of her wanted to stop and collect samples, but there was more at stake than a scientific discovery. “Sometimes the unpredictable can turn into a bit of a learning experience,” she offered, looking behind her toward the students following behind. “So far, you’re all doing very well. No one has touched anything we cannot identify, and we’re all staying together. Good!”
In the cover of darkness, Ieliene and Devora glanced at one another and rolled their eyes at the idea of praise for something so basic those much younger than them and their classmates should be able to easily accomplish it.
Since she was the senior officer, Sofia had stepped up and taken the lead. Her light moved over the walls of the cavern, sweeping across the crevices and over uneven rocky ceiling that seemed to be getting lower. The odd scratching from behind pushed her to move more quickly than she might have otherwise in an unknown cave system, but as they went further it seemed seemed to be turning to chittering, whispering... shadows shifted and Sofia had a flash, almost like one of her rare strokes of precognition - a twisted skeletal shadow, head outlined in a greenish glow.
She gasped. "Did you see that?"
Ieliene, who had been studying the screen on her tricorder, shook her head no, human style; but Devora, apparently the designated "watch our backs" sister at the moment, had a knife out now, eyes rapidly scanning the area around them. "No. Where was it and what did it look like?"
"Up ahead, but it moved so quickly..." Sofia stared at spot, wondering if all the strange things happening were making her imagine things. "It was angular, dark, but with a greenish ...aura, I suppose , near the head."
With her question about knives and children interrupted by a lively slug falling on her shoulder, Payton peered forward. "We had scanned this whole area for life. Maybe insectoid creatures could have escaped our readings, but something bigger... how big do you expect it was, Commander?"
"Definitely larger small insects," Sofia replied, still scanning the last place she'd seen it. "Closer to human sized."
"Oh good," Payton deadpanned, reaching into the small bag she had brought with her to pull out a flashlight. "Maybe it's friendly? Maybe it's just a bigger plant-eating insect, whatever these little things turn into." Whatever thrill-seeking desire she had went away at the thought of finding a larger creature in a hole that they had yet to find an escape from. She shone her light forward, though it did little good with her in the back. She could hear the children fearfully chattering about monsters. "Do you think it was sentient? Or simply another creature in the dark? Maybe it knows a way out?"
Ieliene seemed to have copied her sister; she still the tricorder in one hand, but a blade of her own in the other; while Devora, for her part, now had a flashlight in her hand that wasn't holding a knife. The pair had edged slightly closer to one another, shoulders almost touching in a position that would let them immediately set back to back if anything attacked them. Nervous, vigilant glances continually scanned the area; showing their fear in a rather different manner than most of their classmates. Devora's eyes spotted something on the ground nearby, then Ieliene's; and the older of the pair groaned under her breath in a softer version of almost exactly the sort of sound an annoyed teenager on Earth might make, as well.
"I don't think we have much choice but to go that way, unless we want to stay put." Ieliene said. "We'll be going in circles otherwise." She waved a hand back the way they'd come down, then at the half of the split ahead of them that wasn't towards whatever Sofia had spotted...As Devora pointed her flashlight full on, revealing the little scrap of purple fabric...The same purple fabric the younger sister's shirt was made of; a shirt that now had a jagged ripped edge at the bottom where she had clearly been tearing her impromptu path markers out of it. "Tricorder didn't show that, even." Ieliene's lips pursed in frustration, almost a pout; mixed with a momentary blazing anger in her eyes as if she considered it a personal affront that the machine wasn't working and hadn't correctly tracking the cavern layout. "Stupid interference."
Going in circles... Sofia contained a frustrated sigh. At least they were still all together. She glanced around to check that. Then counted.
Oh no. She was clergy, so she didn't curse. At least not out loud. "Where's Charlene? When's the last time anyone saw her?"
"Uhh...I dunno, maybe ten minutes ago? She was with Melia." Ieliene shrugged. For all their seeming maturity in the face of the current situation compared to their peers--with survival training and the skills, and presence of mind to do things perhaps even the adults had not thought of; Ieliene and Devora's training at this point in their lives had been that to keep a single person, or a pair at most, alive; their true experience before now limited to having survived their own such tests. They had no training or inclination to think beyond that, to the survival of a larger group that might behave in ways they had been trained not to. "I think they were back there." Ieliene waved a free hand--the hand that held the tricorder, not the knife--towards the gaggle of their peers behind Sofia. One of the youngsters in question, Melia, was visible near the edge of the group, but Charlene was not.
And that was about when the scared, hushed murmurs stirred amongst the young charges. Payton's hand reached out to touch the shoulder of the more fretful of the two instructors. After a paused moment, she knelt down to Melia, a young Andorian child who was trying her best not to panic like most of the other students. "When was the last time you saw Charlene?" When the answer came in a shrug, Payton gave Melia a pat on the shoulder. "It's alright. We'll find your partner. Just try to stick with the group, okay?"
Payton's gaze met Sofia's, a knowing, Starfleet gaze. "Did we pass any odd tunnels on the way through? I can go back for her, just in case she was caught in something, but I didn't see anyone stop as we went through."
That seemed like a bad idea. First rule: when lost in spooky tunnels, do not go off alone. "You shouldn't go on your own," Sofia replied. "It appears we are going in circles anyway, so we might as well all go back."
Ieliene and Devora glanced at once another, shrugged, and turned around, following Sofia back the way they'd come.
"Of course, of course." Payton turned on her heels to shine her flashlight down the tunnel, deciding to take the lead for their return trek. "Now the question is, how loud do we want to be with-"
One of the teachers, in fright, hurried up in pace to match the scientist's, hands cupped over his mouth. "Charlene! Charlene, are you there?" His voice echoed down the hall, but before he could let out another call for the girl, the sounds of skittering and screeching erupted from whence they came. He looked toward Payton, the sound of uhhhh looking to come out of his mouth. Payton, who visibly cringed.
Ieliene and Devora had a rather different reaction than the teacher: At the eerie sounds advancing on them, they both turned in a whirl, back-to-back, each girl with her own blade out and a flashlight in her opposite hand, arrayed to leave the older, more "experienced" sister facing the direction of the threat.
Dear Lord... Sofia spun in time to catch another glimpse of shadow topped with greenish glow - more than one! Ieliene and Devora might be the only ones armed, but Sofia was an adult and Starfleet. She stepped in front of them and straightened, hands raised at her sides in a peaceful gesture (albeit one easily shifted for an aikido throw) and spoke in a clear, measured voice. "We mean you no harm. We come in peace."
After a long, tense moment; the green glow intensified, with sudden, even higher pitched, earsplitting shrieks, and solidified into a pair of strange, bipedal creatures with long arms ending in huge arrays of a few "fingers" ending in a sharp claws, with chitinous skin and strange, smaller heads that almost blended in with their bodies, except for the array of sharp teeth in their lipless mouths. They didn't seem to care for or perhaps to understand Sofia's message of peace, and abruptly made it clear that they did not come in peace, as they both lunged for her.
Ieliene and Devora, behind Sofia, shared a microsecond of a glance, eyes both going wide in fear and what was probably a variety of curse words, and split, each girl dropping in a crouch and staying low as they each launched themselves toward their respective targets. Exquisitely sharp blades connected with each creature's legs, but the creature's skin was so thick it was possibly little better than a distraction...Although since it spoiled the creature's aim, it was a useful one. Neither girl stuck around to let her opponent strike in return, doubling back to a better distance, though Ieliene hissed as the creature she had struck managed to connect on the shoulder with a pair of claws as she did.
Romulan kids... the tone of the thought in Sofia's head was both wonderment and consternation - if they hadn't darted in she might have caught one creature's arm and thrown it into the other one. Now, she crouched instead, extending one leg and spinning in a dragon's tail sweep to knock both off their feet. "Ee-yah!" she yelled, part as a ki-i but mostly to get the creatures to focus on her rather than the children.
Ieliene looked at the creatures; the only barest impact the strike had had on them; and the group of her peers, sobbing or frozen in terror along with, unfortunately, the two teachers; and in an urgent, exasperated tone, screamed at them the obvious solution they were somehow failing to grasp and implement: "RUN!!!!!!"
Dear Lord, please keep those children together, Sofia prayed. Ielene might have had a decent instinct to run, but a group of panicked children running around dark tunnels was a disaster in the making. But she didn't dare try to run after them when she as the only adult between them and the creatures.
The kids, frightened by the sight of two monstrosities coming after them, gave a start as soon as Ieliene gave an alarm. A few screamed, and the less-noisy of the two teachers grabbed the arm of the nearest child. "This way!"
Payton gave the other teacher a small shove in the shoulder as the two creatures began to scramble back up. "Go!" she hissed, pushing him back towards the group of students. She stubbornly worked her way past, stepping up next to Sofia, large bulky bag between her two arms. The creatures did indeed seem focused on Sofia, both of which seemed to sniff the air around them before their heads swung toward the noise of the screaming children.
Ieliene, for her part, stayed still as a statue, hand touching Devora's shoulder to beckon her to do likewise. Given the rest of the group's apparent lack of not only survival skills but even instincts, best to let them get a head start if possible.
Sofia's brows drew down as she watched their behavior. "I think they may be blind, or at least not rely much on sight," she observed sotto voce to Payton. As a test, and to draw their attention away from the children, she gave a loud sharp whistle.
The creatures indeed immediately re-oriented their attention towards the sound. Nearby, Ieliene and Devora watched, and Liene met Devora's eyes in the dark, both sisters gathering a variety of rocks, sample kits, lunch containers, and whatever else they could find that could be thrown and make a decent noise, stockpiling the items in their arms or in open pouches or bags for easy access. Just as the creatures were about to advance again on their position, Liene threw a heavy rock with an impressive distance and force, striking a cave wall further down in the opposite direction, drawing the attention of the creatures again, throwing another to cover the sound as she and Devora fled in the same direction their peers had earlier, flinging still yet another item--this time a lunchbox--as she whisper-screamed to the two adults to follow.
Payton's head whipped toward the two Romulan children. Resourceful as they may have been, she expected them to have dashed off with the rest of the group. But their plans were greatly appreciated. She only hesitated to follow as she looked back in the direction the creatures were in. They still had a missing child to find, but with the two raking terrors between them and their search area, Payton had second thoughts. It would do no good to the party if there was one - or two - fewer adults to keep the rest of the group safe. She shot Sofia a look, before angling her head towards the direction of the two girls, silently asking if the other woman agreed with the action.
Her inclination was to try to communicate and reason with new life forms, but the children came first, so Sofia quickly made the same calculation as Payton. With a firm nod, she turned to join the other woman in hurrying after the rest as silently as possible, praying the creatures would be distracted enough by the diversion that they wouldn't follow.
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