The Crimson Tide Pt III
Posted on Thu Jan 19th, 2023 @ 1:41am by Gunnery Sergeant Gaagii & Lieutenant Commander Rowena McGowen & Lieutenant Paul Michael & Captain Edmund Merrick & Sergeant Major Lachlan Barr & Lieutenant JG Mira Jayna & Sergeant Miranda Schultz & Corporal Andrew Shy
Edited on on Tue Jan 24th, 2023 @ 7:11am
0 words; about a 1 minute read
Mission:
Episode 13 - Crooked River
Location: Jutari Planet
Timeline: MD004 1930 hrs
The underwater facility fascinated Jayna. She was eager to explore, and she wanted to find out what the distress call was about and help anyone that needed it. But what was more curious was that this underwater facility was either secret or unknown by the Jutrai.
Paul looked for a way to enter the building....but he wasn't seeing anything.
Disturbingly, the sound of water dripping echoed through the complex and that was something you just didn’t want to hear in an underwater facility.
Especially one at depth.
For the past hours? Days? Rude had been listening to nothing but his heart pounding in his ears.
But that was better than the screams…the screams had been bad. The other noises that had came after the screams had been the worst, though.
Those noises were such that Rude was likely not going to sleep again. Ever.
Lights in the facility had become iffy. The power relays were damaged, a result the landslide and that had precipitated every thing else: The shielding, running on back ups, had been overwhelmed after the first 24 hours, proving that the power couplings hadn’t been up to the task. The feedback backlash and sub-standard components had shorted out most of the systems.
That had affected containment…
Rude felt his stomach rumble and it made him anxious. He began walking as quietly as he could for his quarters.
Hopefully THEY weren’t there…he had food reserves squirreled away. Maybe he could find a weapon. Then make his way to the..
He was in mid thought as he stepped through a partially cycled lock in the central node of the living quarters section. His foot stepped into water and it distracted him as he looked down…and saw a tentacle curl up around his leg, changing into a hand as it gripped into calf…then sprouted claws and he screamed as it shredded his flesh and other tentacles reached out for him, from both above and below.
Gaagii prepared to take a walk as the saying went. He was not fond of having to go out into the water. But, at least it was only for a short time as they were to board this installation and see what the Jutrai had been hiding deep within the ocean. He began to wonder if this had anything to do with the feet that washed up on shore.
Merrick checked his gear one more time, taking a few prepatory breathes. He looked towards Lieutenant Michael, "I suggest that we see if we can connect to that emergency docking ring there, would make it easier for those of the away team to get over to the inside. And less of a chance to meet up with another creature of the watery kind."
Jayna finished checking that her equipment was ready and looked around to assess everyone else's level of readiness and waited. She liked Merrick's suggestion. At this depth, she had no interest in running into whatever may be down here.
Sergeant Schultz was suited up and ready to go. She'd checked that her comms were working and her HUD showed everything was online, then waited for her superiors to give the orders.
Gaagii turned toward Merrick and McGowen. "Sirs, if you would like I can do what I do best. Scout ahead that is."
Rowena looked at the information they gathered of the facility. "I agree with Merrick, the emergency docking ring is our best bet. I also agree with sending scouts ahead, but don't go out is alone Staff Sergeant. Lieutenant Merrick, you're in charge of the marine, send a scout team. We need to secure a path. We will need to find a control room from where I can access the facilities systems. We will need some grip of what is going on. Maybe take no unnecessary risks." She nodded to the marines present.
Jayna took the opportunity to copy data from the sensors to her PADD so she could have a closer look at the ocean floor and the building ahead. It was mostly out of curiosity, but she wanted to have some idea of what they might be heading into--if that was possible. She was also curious to see if there were any signs of sea creatures nearby. Just in case.
Merrick gave a nod to McGowen "It will be done."
Gaagii signaled Shy to accompany him as he stepped toward the door. He made one last check of his suit to make sure all was in working order. Gaagii found that his thoughts were not on the mission for the moment but instead on Sophia back on the ship. He stepped through the door and into the darkness beyond. "Corporal stay on your toes. We are going to progress three clicks and report back. Do not fire unless fired upon."
Nodding, Andrew sealed his suit and stepped into the lock with the Sergeant. As the Serenity's lock sealed and cycled, Andrew watched the systems scroll as water moved to cover them both and then the outer hatch opened. Half stepping, half diving into the water.
After a brief moment of getting his suit's buoyancy set, he glanced over at Gaagii and gave him a thumbs up. "My suit's five by five sergeant. Guess we should go knock on the door?"
Gaagii had a brief moment of disorientation as he was uncomfortable underwater. However, that feeling passed quickly and he checked his suit. "I am five by five as well. Yes, we should be polite and see who is home first." Gaagii began to make for the hatch. It was slow going but he eventually got the hang of walking through the water.
Following Gaagii's lead, the two marines let their (modified) suit's systems propel through the inky blackness. The suit's sensors extrapolated a visual of the cliff above. The complex. And the water's around them out to twenty meters. As they approached the lock, Andrew activated his suit's snooper routines and soon it had found a link with the facilities computer network.
"Looks like their systems are having problems," Andrew commented as he viewed the readout on his face mask. They had maneuvered close to the lock and their suits were set to station keeping while they looked for a way in. "Primary power problems. Backup power is there but I'm reading lots of repair tags. I think they had a power surge or something..."
Glancing at the image of Gaagii's face as he worked, Andrew said, "We can either cut our way in to manually override the controls or slap a rooter to the plating. It'll worm in, giving us direct link to at least the door's systems. I'd recommend having the Commander or Warrant officer do the actual hacking. My touch is not as light as theirs. Only downside is that Serenities systems would be linked to the facility for however long is needed and possibly get hit by any more surges or bugs in the net."
"Set the rooter up and have it start entrance. I will get an uplink to Serenity." Gaagii told Shy, the former was glad that he had Shy with him to keep him on task. He opened a comm channel. "Gaagii to Serenity. Warrant Jayna in a moment your screen should read a rooter in place. We need you to gain control of the door and access their computer system."
"Getting the data now." Jayna took a moment to look over the door mechanism and the rooter. There was a lot of damage and she wanted to be careful how she hacked in. She set up a quick bypass through one of the repair subroutines to shut off the alarms and unlocked the door. From there, she accessed another subroutine, and then another, following them like breadcrumbs until she got into the main computer. After that, it was a simple matter of giving McGowan access. And, since she didn't want any more data to be corrupted or lost, she carefully copied everything to a secure sandbox for analysis.
Once the backup began, Jayna opened a comm channel to Gaagii and Shy. "Door's open and the welcome mat is out. Sorry, there's no red carpet."
"Just a soggy carpet sadly." Lachlan chipped.
Andrew was able to watch Jayna's progress after he'd attached the rooter and then watched as Serenity began twisting around to match locks. "Sergeant," he called Gaagii, "We can stand on tip toes while the ship docks and cycles. Won't hurt to pop the inner door early and clear before the shuttle's hatch pops."
"Do it..." Gaagii said as he tried to take the uneasiness out of his voice. The darkness of the water got to him. The man had a deep connection to the land and the water did not make him comfortable. "Once we are in activate video feeds and remain silent. No audio transmissions if we can avoid it."
Five minutes later, Shy was looking with distaste at the staging area Serenity had docked to. It Wasn't much more than a large round room with three access corridors branching out. What he didn't like was the roughly three to five inches of water that seemed to be flowing and puddling. Emergency lightly flickered, giving off multiple shadows and random noises creaking through the facility.
Hoisting his rifle, he said. "Well, this looks like a warm faecal bath....what now?"
"We take it by the book. Five kliks in each corridor and then return to staging. Observe and report." Gaagii said almost relieved to be out of the water for the moment. "My thought is what is this place and how do the Jutrai not know about it.
Schultz was glad to be off the shuttle--until she got a look at the staging area. She had no idea what was floating in the water, and wasn't sure she wanted to. It was, in a word, disgusting. At least she was not wearing just her cammies. She moved in and to the side to allow others to come in behind her,
Jayna came in behind the others and scanned the water for later analysis. Medical might want a sample, but she'd let a medic take care of that. Just the fact that someone felt the need to build something this far down piqued her curiosity. Who and why were of primary interest, but also what happened to cause so much damage. She wasn't sure the computer would have the information she needed and hoped they'd find something--or someone--in those five klicks. "Any life signs?" she asked.
Andrew gave a speculative glance over his shoulder at the rest of Pioneer's crew, then muttered a prayer as he brought his phaser rifle up, his helmets HUD for the fist time giving him a closed in feeling. He stepped carefully into the water pooling on the floor of the left hand corridor. He had to move carefully: shuffling his feet slightly to keep the noise down. Andrew had taken five paces when he froze as his com came alive and a whispering (excited?) voice sounded out, "I've got a body!"
Lachlan had looked out at the scene in front of him. "Shite, literal shite." he muttered to himself as he began to wade a little through the 'soup' at his feet. "I'll take this one." Lachlan nudged his rifle in the direction of another opening (Labs). He noted Corporal Shy moving towards another.
He heard the shout from the third and final opening (engineering route) of someone finding a body but something had caught his eye under the flickering light of his own path. "You see that?" he flashed his rifle light towards a bundle on the ground.
Jayna chose to go with Lachlan, hoping the labs would give them more information. "The bundle? Yes." she moved a little closer. "It looks like...clothing?"
Lachlan approached and knelt down. Rolling the bundle over it revealed a somewhat unfortunate soul, a Jutari in what looked like a lab technicians clothing. The man looked like he'd melted. The state of decay he was in was not unlike something from an old horror film. You could see his rib cage, his skin disintegrated in places, an eye completely gone. There was certainly no need to check his pulse. By the looks of it he'd been dead for some time.
Jayna scanned the body and the area. As gruesome as it was, they'd need the data to piece together what happened. On a strictly intellectual level, it was both fascinating and horrific.
"I've got one too. Poor buggers had a fight with death and lost." he commented as he scanned farther up the corridor. There were a few more 'bundles' and he sighed thinking it would be more of the same.
There was a shuffling noise that perked up Lachlan's ears as he frowned and looked around. He was suspicious, "That you?" he asked behind him. A simple shrug in the negative was given and Lachlan simply shook his head. "Place is like a fucking ghostship." he then felt a hand grip his ankle. He looked down at the one good eye this corpse had left and it was staring at him. "Fucking hell! Davy Jones is alive!" he said falling backwards and pointing the gun at the zombie getting all handsy.
Jayna kept her tricorder scanning with one hand and raised her phaser with the other and hit the body with a heavy stun.
Gaagii's eyes widened at the mention of the ghost ship. There were a number of legends in the lore of his people surrounding ghost ships. Some of them date back to the tall sailing ships on Earth. However, none of them ended well for the people who found the ghost ships. He leveled his rifle and took and made to assist the First Sergeant. "Barr you ok? Not sure if it is worth staying here any longer."
Jayna turned to Gaagii. "We need to make sure there's no one alive here first."
Gaagii knew that Jayna had the right of it. However, he had reached his breaking point and just did not care anymore. "Are we sure that it is even work looking for survivors. I mean if I were stuck here I would rather die than live with these images."
"Would you rather live wondering if you left someone behind in these conditions?" Jayna asked. Granted, the chances were slim, but she couldn't walk away if there was a chance someone was still alive. At the same time, she couldn't blame him for the way he felt. This place was definitely creepy. "Maybe you could keep an eye on the boats?"
Lachlan looked up at Gaagi as he began to kick the 'zombie' in the face. "Of course I'm not okay! I've just been grabbed by a fucking zombie! Half his face is gone and the other half thinks I'm lunch!" he shouted as he managed to almost break free of its grip. "Shoot the bloody thing!" he added as a shot fired off dropping the seemingly undead being.
As he stood up he straightened his uniform and patted himself down. "We will do a quick sweep before we go. Clearly there are things at play here that make this trip more dangerous than we thought. No-one is keeping an eye on anything apart from clearing this station. The sooner we clear it, the sooner we get off." Lachlan looked over at Merrick and Commander McGowen for their two cents. They could either agree or disagree. It was their call.
Gaagii was taken aback, almost as he did not notice the zombie like creature. In a swift motion he aimed his rifle and took his shot. The creature evaporated into a mist. "What happened here? Nothing seems right?" He hustled over to the Chief of the Boat's side.
Merrick had not been paying attention to what had happened, he had gone a few feet down a hallway in order to investigate something when the shout of Lachlan had drawn his attention. He quickly moved back towards the area just in time to see Gaagii vaporize a, zombie? Blinking rapidly, Merrick slightly shuddered. When in Tyler's table top games he'd faced zombies and was triumphant, but seeing a true one in reality that caused goosebumps run up and down his spine. He looked sharply at Lachlan.
"I concur, lets get this place cleared, as soon as possible, and get topside." Merrick looked back in the direction he had been going, "I'll go check on Engineering, I had been heading in that direction when I heard the shout." in the back of his mind, Merrick was hoping he'd not find any zombies there but the search needed to be done.
He keyed in his com and called Lieutenant Michael, "Lieutenant ,how is the Serenity faring? Any signs of disturbance of the fish kind ?"
And while he waited for an answer Merrick headed back down the hallway, in the direction of engineering, his rifle at the ready in case there would be a jump scare happening.
Jayna wanted information. The suit picked up flashes of life, but they were fading in and out. She wondered what could be causing the fluctuations. As teams were heading to engineering and the labs, she headed in the other direction to see what she could find.
"Looks like I'm with you," Schultz said, coming up beside Mira. "this place gives me the creeps."
Jayna nodded. "I do not know if it is the nature of the facility, or its depth, but there is something odd here. My father would call it the spirits of the dead, but my mother would call it illogical."
"My folks would call it haunted." Miranda looked around, hoping that wasn't the case. "The sooner we get out of there, the better."
Heading for Engineering
Edmund could feel his heart start to race, he had to pick engineering. However he knew he had to face his fears, after all its been years since his wife had passed away. He still though felt that old familiar tightening of his stomach, which happened off and on where engeering was concerned. The creepy nature of this one mission, was causing his mind to race as well. Perfect surroundings for a horror film, and he was walking towards an area that could be destined for scariness. Sure he was a marine, supposed to be tough determined not one to back down. He was all that, but that still didn't mean Merrick didn't have concerns he had to move through.
As he continued towards engineering, Edmund whipped his head around thinking he saw something out from the corner of his eye. He shivered as he thought he felt a coldness just brush past him. "I am just hoping I don't see the ghost of my wife coming down the hall." he muttered quietly to himself. He shivered slightly as he felt another cold spot. Well so he thought. His boot kicked something and he looked down to see just what that was. He jumped back as he noticed it was the hand of someone seeming to be reaching out towards something or someone. Cut that out Edmund, you are just spooking yourself more than what you are needing to do. Some brave marine you are. Merrick continued on, hoping that the body he saw, wasn't going to move up on him whilst his back was turned.
Rowena didn't think she would find herself in a situation like this again. The nightmares of the Malificus bridge, and the missions that followed after. She rubbed her arm as they walked through the corridors. The mark on her arm seem to itch so badly right now it almost burned, but she tried to hide her discomfort. "Try to stay focused everyone, I know the scenery is everything but a hotel room on Risa. And trust me, this is most likely the tip of the iceberg. So be prepared for things far worse than this." Her voice being as calm as possible to hide her over fluting of emotions she was feeling now.
As she is scanning the surroundings with her tricorder she got really strange readings. She tapped her tricorder. She looked over to the rest of the team to see if they had any problems with their tricorders as well. She wasn't phased by this. As in the missions of the Malificus whe learned not to trust her equipment more often not. She turned back and almost dropped her tricorder as she saw shimmering image of some sort disappearing around the corner. She blinked slowly and then shook it off. She blamed the fact that she hadn't been sleeping very well lately. Maybe she would just cave in and accept Starfleet counselling advice to take sleeping medication. She would need more rest. But medication didn't work in the past, so she wasn't really trilled of using them. She took a deep breath and continued on in the corridor.
Michael continued to scan with his tricorder, but the results weren't making sense. He was feeling like someone was watching him, so he kept looking up every now and then,
Lachlan and his team moved into the labs. They were looking for survivors first and foremost. If they found any data on what the hell was going on down here that was a bonus but right now Lachlan would settle for not getting grabbed by a putrefied hand again. "How we looking?"
Gaagii had his rifle shouldered and ready to fire. This whole mission had put the usually stoic man on high alert. He swept the rifle from side to side as he entered the lab and jogged toward a door on the far right side of the room. "Everything seems clear and secure for the time being." He said as response to Lachlan.
"There looks to be some data stored on this computer. Cover me whilst I download it for the geeks back on the ship." Lachlan ordered. "I don't see anything dangerous happening but you never know... sure as hell didn't expect zombie-like creatures."
"Yes, sir! There is nothing about this mission that seems right. The sooner we are back on dry land the better." Gaagii said as he kept his eyes peeled for anything living or dead.
Gaagii held his ground to allow the Pioneer's Chief of the Boat to get glimpse of the computer records. He kept his head on a swivel and as his sight passed one of the black screens he would have sworn he saw a female Jutrai's reflection. Gaagii quickly turned about to see who cast the reflection and saw no one. "What in the nine hells is that?"
"Got it." Lachlan said as he pulled a small disc from the console terminal and turned to see, and hear, Gaagi look as if he had seen a ghost. "Everything alright, Staff Sergeant?" he asked moving towards him. As Lachlan stepped next to the man he noticed a shadow pass a window in a nearby lab but when he turned saw nothing to confirm his apparent imagination. "I swear I just saw something move passed there..."
"I just saw a woman walk past the window of the door. Well, I saw it in reflection and when I turned to look at the actual door nothing was there. When I saw the reflection she stood still and stared..." The stoic man had breathed heavy. The goings on in this mission had definitely gotten the better of his cool nature. "...I am not sure what is going on here and I am not sure if we are supposed to know."
"I'm not a superstitious man Gaagi, but I don't think this place likes us." Lachlan commented as he nodded for them to begin to move out of the area. As he did so he looked at a reflective panel on a nearby desk and a flash of a screaming face could be seen and he could almost swear he heard a screech of pain. "Jesus Christ!" he yelled.
"Master Sarge what's the yelling about? Are you okay?" Is what Gaagii wanted to say however, it came out more as a series of chatters as the temperature within his suit dropped substantially. "The suit is malfunctioning..." He shouted over the din of alarms that rang in his helmet. The sniper was at a loss, he was unsure if he should take the suit off or how he could help Lachlan. About an intense minute later the alarms stopped and just as suddenly his suit returned to normal.
Lachlan also noticed the drop in temperature and started hitting his arm readout with his finger. It was strange but not unusual for a sudden temperature drop in a lab environment and as it rose back to normal the frown disappeared from his brow. "I think we should make a move out of this area."
"You won't get an argument from me. I am going to take some images before we leave. Something tells me the Jutrai would never believe this." Gaagii used his suit's recording device to take some images. He took pictures of the labs and of the bodies around. On the way out he took special care to get a picture of the thing that attacked Lachlan.
Mira and Schultz entered the first of the quarters. It was utilitarian at best. One bed, one chest of clothes, one table and chair. No personal items of any sort and nothing to give them an idea of what was going on.
"This is depressing," Miranda said, keeping her rifle at the ready.
Jayna shrugged. "This is to be expected. I would assume most of the information will be found in the labs, but we need to check every room anyway."
The second room was also empty. The third room, however, looked like someone had been here. The bed was mussed and something had spilled on the table. Jayna scanned it. "A fermented corn beverage."
"That's disappointing." Schultz came over to have a look.
"Did you expect blood or body fluids?"
Miranda gave her a sheepish look. "Maybe." She caught sight of something moving out of the corner of her eye. "Did you see that?"
"See what?" Jayna turned, but saw nothing. Still, she scanned the room, just to be sure. There were no unusual readings.
"I don't know. A movement of some sort, but I'm not really sure if it was my imagination or not." Miranda shivered. "Let's check the next room."
When they walked into the next room, Jayna felt a frisson of…something. Were they being watched? She looked around the room, but saw nothing out of order. She was more careful as she prowled around, checking every nook and cranny.
"It feels…odd…in here," Schultz said, going over to check the chest. It held one pair of coveralls.
"Like we're being watched." Jayna nodded. It was how she felt, too. She paused to listen, but even with her enhanced senses, she caught nothing more than the two of them moving and breathing. Her tricorder did not detect any hidden cameras or any technology, either.
Out of the corner of her eye, Miranda saw something move in the mirror and turned to look behind her to see what it was. The only movement in the room was Jayna. She needed to get this done and get out of here. There was something seriously amiss. "Let's get out of here," she said, heading for the door. "There's go."
She didn't wait for Mira, who watched her leave with a raised eyebrow before following. In the corridor, she noticed that Schultz had already gone into the next room. While Jayna felt the same trepidation the other woman exhibited, she would not let it distract her from the task at hand. She paused in the doorway to check the room before entering. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Miranda turned and smiled. "I didn't think a Vulcan would know Shakespeare."
"He is considered one of the greatest writers of Earth's history." She raised an eyebrow. "Is that where your first name comes from?"
Schultz nodded. "My mother loved The Tempest." She saw another movement and turned. "I would have sworn someone was there.”
"Indeed. I, too, saw something in the mirror." Jayna went closer to investigate.
Miranda came up behind Jayna and looked in the mirror. Someone who looked Jutrai walked by the clothes chest. She again looked at the room behind them. "Do you see that, too?"
"I do. It’s almost like a psychic imprint." Jayna scanned the mirror and looked down at her tricorder. "It’s not physical as it doesn’t show up on a scan."
The Jutrai walked out of the room. Two minutes later, he ran back behind the mirror doubles, followed by another Jutrai. Both their faces were contorted in terror. Jayna could almost hear a scream, but it was more an echo than an actual sound. Her head began to throb as other Jutrai began to fight with something they couldn’t see.
A red liquid splattered the other side of the mirror. Jayna reached out a hand to touch the reflection. A long, slim tentacle that resembled a jellyfish dropped from somewhere above their doubles and whipped through the mirror, making contact with her. She felt both a physical and telepathic shock tingle through her mind and body. She cried out and tried to pull back, but neither she nor her double moved as the tentacle entwine around her mirror self.
"Jayna?" Miranda saw the Vulcan’s reflection scream as some sort of tentacle wrapped around her face and neck. She grabbed the warrant officer’s shoulder to pull her away, but as she did, she felt a sharp sting on her hand. Then she, too, was caught by the image of another tentacle dropping down and wrapping around the other Miranda’s hand and forearm, pulling her closer...
For several seconds, Jayna felt petrified by the tentacles. Her mind told her body to move, but it wouldn't respond. She could see nothing but darkness as pain and fear tore at her. She fought against it, using all her training to reject what she was seeing. And then, she was free. The mirror again showed nothing but her image and that of Sergeant Schultz.
“What the hell was that?” Miranda whispered, shaking her head to clear away the remnants of whatever that had been.
Jayna shook her head. “I’m not sure.” There was a series of tiny red pinpricks like she'd been stung by something across her cheek and neck. She moved aside the collar of her jumpsuit to reveal more welts. She looked down at Miranda's hand. It was also red.
Miranda turned away from the mirror to check the room and began to scratch her hand
"Don't do that." Jayna scanned Miranda's hand, and then her own welts. "We've been stung by…something. The tricorder is inconclusive.” Even while they were caught up in the mirror, the tricorder registered nothing unusual. She shook her head, which reminded her of her headache. It felt like the ones she used to get when her mother taught her how to mind meld, but this couldn't be the same. There had to be some sort of creature that caused the reactions. "Scratching will make the rash worse. Wait until the doctor can treat it.” They also needed to report what happened. She wondered if others had similar experiences.
"Don't we need to check the other rooms first?" Miranda again went to scratch and stopped herself.
Jayna again looked at her tricorder. "There are five more rooms. We'll check them, then go back." She would not get close to another mirror, but maybe they would find something useful. They didn’t, but that may have been a good thing.
"Where to now, Warrant?" Miranda asked. She wouldn't mind getting out of this place sooner rather than later.
"Back to the rendezvous point. We'll stop to check anything that may be relevant." Jayna wasn't happy with the little they'd come across and hoped the other teams fared better.
Andrew glanced through another set of quarters and shook his head. Still nothing. As he turned back toward Jayna and Miranda, he saw them both staring at him from further back int he corridor, speaking to him but he heard nothing in his ear. Frowning he, ran system checks, getting back normal readings. Looking back toward the women, he saw them yelling at him and he hit the release for his helmet and cleared the visor, opening his mouth to ask what was wrong.
Then a black substance came up from the floor, grasping at his calves as the same substance began pouring around his head from the sealing. It was viscous and sticky and he tried to get away from it but it continued to push it's way into his suit, attempting to find a gap between the armor and the body sleeve he was wearing.
Then it began trying to pry it's way into Andrews mouth and found openings in his nostrils and ears... The Corporal whipped his head back and forth, he dropped his phaser carbine and began scraping at his face. As the substance began forcing it's way into his eyes, he screamed and then gagged. The scream was cut off as the substance entered his mouth.
Jayna ran over to him and pulled out her knife, carefully cutting at the ooze so as not to injure him. She wasn't sure if this was another illusion or the real thing, but she wasn't going to take any chances.
Miranda was a beat behind. She shot at the place where the ooze was coming up from the floor, hoping to drive it back.
"Is that..." Something seemed to be inside the ooze. It looked like part of a body.
"Is what?" Jayna asked.
"Never mind," Shultz replied. If she said it aloud, it would make it more real and right now, she didn't want that. "Let's get him out of here."
Jayna gave her a brief, very Vulcan look. "That is our intention."
-Serenity-
Alone, Paul kept the comms open and had the scanners running on automatic. He wanted to hail Auba, but that wouldn't be proper procedure.
A Joint Post By
Staff Sergeant Gaagii
RECONN Team 2, The Cure
USS Pioneer
Sergeant Miranda Schultz
Communications Specialist
USS Pioneer
Staff Warrant Officer Mira Jayna
Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer, USS Pioneer
Intelligence Liaison, The Cure
Corporal Andrew Shy
Tactical Systems Operator Team 2, The Cure
USS Pioneer
Master Sergeant Lachlan Barr
Chief of The Boat, USS Pioneer
First Sergeant, The Cure
Lieutenant Commander Rowena McGowen
Chief Intelligence Officer/Second Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Paul Michael
Chief Flight Control Officer, USS Pioneer
Captain Edmund Merrick
Executive Officer, The Cure
USS Pioneer
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