And Touched The Sound of Silence
Posted on Sun Dec 29th, 2019 @ 12:47am by Commodore Tyler Malbrooke & Lieutenant Commander Vaebn tr'Hwersuil
Edited on on Sun Dec 29th, 2019 @ 4:29pm
1,670 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Episode 8 - The Silence
Location: Planet Wren IX
Timeline: MD004 1345 hrs
Vaebn looked at the Silence again, knowing his comrades would forget as soon as they left, and began to build the cover story to protect his new acquaintances. He would definitely never forget what happened here, but these events would have join the dark recesses of his memories and the other secrets buried within. His crew began to walk away and Vaebn turned to leave but paused for a moment. He looked back at the Triad, Distant cousins of mine have a saying that I am somewaht familiar with, and I believe fits well here, he held up his right had and displayed the old Vulcan sign, Live Long, and Prosper. Vaebn lowered his hand and turned his back to the Silence, and walked away for the first and last time.
The three members of The Silence tilted their heads as the one whose name they know through his memory made the hand gesture. They attempted to imitate the gesture however, their digits could not replicate it. They watched as the group turned and walked away. The Silence knew that they would forget, and wondered if the one called Vaebn would hold up his agreement. They were not sure about that, what they were sure of was that this group known as The Federation would be worthy of further study.
A few minutes had passed, and the pain was starting to subdue. But he could not remember why his head was in pain. He looked over to the rest of his away team. Quinn started to gather his composure. "You all okay?" He asked, hoping he was not the only one experience a massive head and amnesia.
“Other than a headache,” Ameri replied. “And I feel disoriented I am fine.” She felt confused like there was something she was supposed to remember but she couldn’t remember what.
Quinn did not hear a response from the others, he walked over to Vaebn, to get a visual inspection. "Lieutenant you okay?" Quinn asked, he had a lot of questions. On what just happened. He felt like, he was drugged. Or was it a bad roofie feeling, he felt? All he knew for sure, was he had a massive headache.
Vaebn was standing in the spot he bade farewell from when the Commander approached him. "I'm fine sir, aside from a headache that the Doctor can no doubt prescribe something for." Vaebn turned to face the commander and the rest of the team. He lifted his arm and input a number of commands into the wrist unit he wore, "It appears that these crystalline structures, remnants of a race long since gone, radiate some for of energy fields that encompass the planet. From what I can tell from our readings," he glanced at the tricorder to verify the findings, "the energy field disrupts neural pathways and is especially dangerous to non-psionic physiology, such as humans, judging by the differences between you and I. I highly recommend we depart from the planet with all haste before another energy wave causes irreparable damage to all of us." His fingers continued their dance as he purged the tricorder data of the Silence alone, leaving only the energy readings and the static the voice of the Silence caused their systems. All he had to do now was get close enough to the others to purge any data they had as well. He had to get this right, for the sake of his crew and anyone who might come behind them.
Quinn was relieved that his chief scientist was okay. "Let's get off this rock. Until we can get a better understanding of what is going on down here." Quinn started to say, still feeling very droggy from what the Silence had done to him. The sad part was, he did not know they had done this to him.
Ameri listened to them as they spoke but said nothing. She was feeling confused, like she should know things she didn’t and her head hurt. What had happened to them?
Vaebn tapped his communicator, “Pioneer, this is Lt tr’Hwersuil, send down a set of pattern enhancers and prepare for an immediate beam out.” He cut the communicator and began to help his team, “Commander, are you going to be okay?”
Tallida stood. Frozen in place. Her head was pounding and her mind was reaching for something as if something was missing. It was all a haze as if a fog had settled over her mind. It took a few moments for the voices of the other crew members to cut through the fog and for her to piece together that they were in the process of trying to return to the ship.
The pattern enhancers materialized nearby, “Stay here for a moment sir,” he bowed his head as if in pain and gritted his teeth, “I’ll have the enhancers set up in a moment. I’m not sure how these energy spikes will affect our transport out, so I assessed this to be an adequate precaution.” He stepped away and began to set up the enhancers.
*Anyone can assist – Vaebn has a reason for this*
As he set up the primary device, he connected his wrist device to the system. As the enhancers came online, his fingers tapped a few commands, causing the buffers to emit an imperceptible energy fluctuation that, by his calculations, should render all of their tricorders inoperable and erase all the data they had recorded. It was a simple command protocol in the buffer subroutines, one that could easily be dismissed as interference from the surrounding energy spikes. Granted it would also erase his Romulan sensor enhancers, but the sacrifice was worth it; as long as no evidence remained of what they had truly experienced. After completing his, calibration of the pattern enhancers, Vaebn made his way back to the rest of the team. “Sir, I’m not sure how to read the ambient spikes in the surrounding energy field, but we may want to leave forthwith, before any other changes in the planetary field causes further injury to us.”
Quinn looked over to Vaebn, "What's the hold up, get us out of here." Quinn started to demand, as he walked over to his romulan science chief. He wondered, what was holding them up. His head was still pounding, but it was starting to fade a little bit.
"Just another moment sir," Vaebn stated, "I need to make sure our transporters can cut through the rise in energy fluctuations. Otherwise, I cannot be certain that they will work properly, or cause further damage to the crew."
Ameri tried to listen to them but her head was pounding. She wanted to go back to the ship and forget they had ever been here.
Vaebn stood and quickly strode to the XO, "We're ready sir," he stated and gestured to the active transporter enhancement grid set a few feet away. He assisted both Ameri and Tallida to their feet and help them walk to the transport site. He turned to the XO who was right behind him, "We should wait another minute sir, the field may diminish and give us a safer exit window."
The intensity was starting to fade, but it was still very painful. Quinn could not wait any longer. He reached over and tapped on his combadge. "USS Pioneer, beam up the away team." Quinn cried out in pain, as he tapped on the combadge. Within a matter of seconds, a beam of light dematerialized them, and rematerialized them on the USS Pioneer.
"Sorry Vaebn, but I could not wait." Quinn said, as they walked off the transporter pad. Quinn looked over to Vaebn. To see how he was doing. Then he looked over to Ameri, and reached out to hold her hand, to make sure she was okay too.
Vaebn looked at his team and then made eye contact with the XO, "I completely understand Commander. I was hesitant because of the interference, and did not take into account the immediate affect the energy distortions were having on the rest of the crew." He bowed his head to the XO, "My apologies sir." He held out his hand to assist Tallida off the transporter pad, "We should all go to sickbay and have the Doctor examine us for any residual effects of the distortion waves. We should also investigate this phenomenon further if we are to find some for of defenses to it. Our tricorders should be uploaded immediately so the science teams can get to work."
On the Bridge the Operations Officer of the Deck called from her station. "Captain, all away teams are aboard and are being seen by Dr Ballston"
Tyler took one last look at the planet on his viewscreen. He had no idea what happened down there, or even why they came here. However, he knew that they needed to get back to Empok Nor. Something, well everything seems wrong and off. he thought. "Ensign Price break orbit and set a course for Empok Nor warp 9, raise the shields and maintain red alert through out the ship." He ordered as he sat rigid in the command chair.
A joint post by:
Commander Quinn Ó Flannagáin
Executive Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Ameri Ó Flannagáin
Chief Operations Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Vaebn tr'Hwersuil
Chief Science Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Tallida Ovaa
Chief Counselor, USS Pioneer
The Silence
Silence Will Fall
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