Within The Sound of Silence
Posted on Sun Dec 29th, 2019 @ 12:48am by Commodore Tyler Malbrooke & Lieutenant Commander Larim Myles & Lieutenant Elen Diari & Lieutenant Commander Hermia O'Rourke & Lieutenant Junior Grade Mignon Mejia
Edited on on Sun Dec 29th, 2019 @ 1:50am
2,207 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Episode 8 - The Silence
Location: Unknown Station In Orbit of Wren IX
Timeline: MD004 1315 hrs
She turned again and saw a bright light. Ingrid made an attempt to come to a sudden stop, but she had too much momentum built up. Instead, she smacked into a strange object and fell backward onto the ground. Feeling the pain in her stomach from the impact, Ingrid groaned and opened her eyes. A strange device pulsated from the center of a round room.
"What the..." she said, her voice tired.
When Ingrid took off at a run the Silence did not know what to fully make of her, or her intentions. However, being the species that they were they were acutely aware of their surroundings and what people did to interact with them. In a moment they knew where she was headed. "How could she know. She must be stopped or all is lost." The three spoke in unison and just a quickly vanished into the shadows to catch Ingrid Hollister.
"We have to find Hollister," Mignon said, heading off after Ingrid.
"Agreed." Larim said. "But all stay close. Move out!"
"Aye, sir." Hermia said. "I'll cover our six."
The Silence Triad, as they had taken to calling themselves arrived in the ante chamber where Ingird Hollister sat rubbing her head. She had not known it but she had entered one of the sanctum sanctorum of The Silence. This was the room that housed the device that made forgetting possible. It projected their psychic will into the reality, and now it was malfunctioning. The three looked at the woman and had no idea why she had decided to run. The same member of the Triad who spoke before spoke again. This time while his voice was still gravely and guttural there was an accusing edge to it. "YOU! You have discovered the secret of Silence, and for that you will now be forced to pay the ultimate price..."
The Silence crowded the woman in a circle all reaching forward as if they would strangle her. They were interrupted by the arrival of the rest of the Pioneer crew.
Ingrid had already tried flight a million tines over. As these strange people crowded her, something in her body remembered all the martial arts training she had gone through. She was a master of the aggressive underground fighting style from her homeworld called Uproar. As she lifted herself quickly to her feet and got into her stance, she felt her legs shake. Where these creatures even touchable?
"Hey!" Mignon called as she ran into the room. "Are you okay?" she said, addressing Ingrid.
"Kindly step away from our friend please." Larim said, phaser drawn. "Doc. I'll cover you. Go see if shes alright. "
Hermia approached Hollister. She put her medkit on the deck. She knelt down beside the Lieutenant, pulled out her medical tri-corder and began to examine her.
"How are you feeling, Lieutenant? Are you experiencing any pain?" She asked Hollister.
Ingrid's heart was pounding in her chest, but she was on her feet. As the Doctor approached her, she felt a mixture of relief and annoyance. Relief at having company; annoyance at her bow anticipated fight being interrupted.
Hermia placed a hypo to Hollister's neck. "This will calm you down." She said.
One of triad had made it's way to the machine that Hollister had slammed into. He examined it in an effort to make sure that she did not damage it. "It is undamaged, however, power will need to be directed to it if we are to remain Silent."
"Can we help?" Mignon asked. "First, to help repair your machine, then to help you avoid any more curious people like ourselves."
The Silence regarded her words for a moment. What they wanted to say was if she wanted to help she should simply leave. However, their machine was damaged. That combined with the word that they had received from those on the surface was causing quite the stir within The Silence. "This machine is a neural projector, that is keyed to our brainwaves. It makes what we want to be seen, seen. It also augments our natural abilities allowing people to forget our existence. You have come like the rest of them and seek to succeed on the backs of The Silence.
"No. We came to find out what happened here," Mignon corrected. "We're explorers. We're...curious. But we can try and help." She nodded to Elen. "We have an engineer. She might be able to help fix your machine. And, if you want to be left alone, we can help with that. Help keep others from coming here after we leave."
"What the actual hell is going on here?" Ingrid asked, looking at Mignon like she was out of her mind. "Who are you talking to?"
El was leaning on a bulkhead, looking at her nails,"Probably Mignon's talking to whoever's powered up that Overpotentialed Thought maker over there, with the broken stabilizer and dislodged regulator." she explained.
"I'm talking to some ghosts," Mignon said, smiling at the Silence as she answered Ingrid. "They need help repairing their machine."
The science officer then addressed the three aliens. "You heard Lieutenant Diari. She knows what's wrong. Can she proceed?"
The Silence regarded the group for a moment. The the three turned their startling gaze upon Diari. "You can fix the device? You would be willing to do this and then forget? You would all forget?" Then one stepped forward a kneeled down next to Hollister and Hermia. It spoke audibly to Hermia "Can you fix your friend?"
"Yes." Hermia said. "Her, injuries are only superficial." She added.
"As long as we can set up something to keep us, and others, from coming back, I'll help and forget," Mignon said, although she would really like to remember these people, and learn more about them.
The triad of Silence conferred among themselves. It had never been done, that is they had never allowed an outsider to tinker with their equipment. However, if Silence was to be maintained then allowances would have to be made. "Very well. You will repair the device and then you will return to your ship unharmed and forget all." They spoke in unison. Elsewhere on the station the image of Cardassian bodies fizzled and then came back into existence as the image the Silence wanted projected was interrupted.
El went over to the device, and noticed The Silence standing there "Hello chaps" she acknowledged, while getting some tools out of her top pocket "Shouldn't take too long, have you got a new stabilizer, as this one snapped ?" She showed them the two parts of the strut " Can't repair it without weakening the metal too much", as she pushed the regulator back in place with a click.
"If I were you, I'd get that there, replaced the next time you service this" Elen continued pointing to another part of the machine, "It's beginning to leak fluid there around the seal, see ? Won't affect the running just now, but it's something to keep an eye on."
The Silence had little to no idea what she was talking about. "Most of our engineers gave their lives the last time ships came to The Silence." The regarded Elen as she made her repairs. "However, you seem different than them although they wore the same as you..." One member of the Triad spoke and was interrupted by another. "Most of them did at least. But they were here for our abilities and that is something that we can never give to anyone. The consequences would be dire."
"We don't want your abilities," Mignon said. "We came to learn more about this place. We didn't know you were here. And now, we want to help you. We'll leave, but unless you let us help you keep people away, more will come after us."
"Well, that's it fixed apart from that stabilizer, I'll make a new one, and try and make it so you don't have to change anything apart from the power cell for a few years, should take about fifteen minutes, then we'll go. Don't want to, you seem like interesting guys, would have been cool just to talk with you, you know, get some intelligent conversation." El answered, going over a bench to make the new part.
The Silence grouped into a circle and they appeared to be conversing although no words were being spoken. This lasted for what seemed to be about five minutes. One member of the three stepped away and appeared to be dejected as if he had lost an argument. The other two stood forward. "Since the Engineer needs fifteen minutes we will chat for fifteen minutes. In return for your assistance, we will answer your questions. However, you must know that when you leave you will forget." The Silence spoke aloud for all to hear.
Mignon nodded. "Who or what is the Silence?" she asked.
Their heads tilted as The Silence regarded her question. "We are The Silence... You are who you are and we are The Silence. Silence will Fall..." The trio responded rather cryptically.
That wasn't exactly what she wanted to know, but she had a feeling they didn't have the same base of reference. "Did you build this station, or find it?"
"This installation exists in The Silence, to stand against the great noise beyond. We once attempted to evaluate the noise however, we found the noise to be encroaching. They tried to take what is unique of The Silence, to weaponize it. To use it to their motives. We ended them, quieted the noise and allowed Silence to Fall." The trio spoke in a roundel this time. One would begin a sentence and then another would finish the sentence. Much like the choruses that Shakespeare wrote about.
"I wish I understood," Mignon said. "But I guess that, since I won't remember, it's okay. If what little I do get is correct, I'm glad you keep the noise from encroaching."
The Silence regarded Mignon for a moment they did not understand why these Beings were perplexed. However, thus far they were repairing the device. So long as they did not learn what the device did The Silence would remain hidden from the noise. One member of the Triad stepped forward and pointed at Mignon's comm badge. "You are one of the noise, one of those that came before..." It was interrupted when Diari spoke.
El wiped her hands on her jacket, "Well, that's the best I can do here, It won't need any major fixes for a few years, but tell you what, if it needs repairs, here, when you contact us, say this to me, like you say, we'll forget who you are when we leave, but this will mean I will trust you and what you say." handing over a scrap of paper to one of the Silence. "Your Xi neutrino generator is just charging up and will be good to generate a system-wide field when that green light goes on."
"If you don't want us. or others, come here, you'll need to transmit a message from a buoy to warn people to stay away. Say there's toxic radiation or something to keep us from getting curious again," Mignon offered.
The Triad nodded in unison as they agreed and acknowledged the offer. "The Silence will use that which the Noise has left to keep the Noise at bay. We thank you for keeping the Silence. For The Silance is golden and Silence will fall..."
The Silence's speech was cut short as Larim's comm badge chirped and produced the sound of Captain Tyler Malbrooke's voice. "Pioneer to Away Team prepare for immediate transport back to the ship."
"Captain..." Hermia called into the comm channel. "...Lieutenant Hollister is injured but stable. We need immediate transport to Sick Bay."
"Acknowledged Dr O'Rourke. Malbrooke out!" Tyler replied.
A moment later the transporter effect took hold of the team leaving The Silence to wonder why they were there to begin with. The Silence had many questions, however, they did have one answer. The Noise may be loud, and may close in at times however, it is not all bad.
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Commander Larim Myles
Chief Security/Tactical Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Ingrid Hollister
Chief Flight Control Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Junior Grade Elen Diari
Chief Engineering Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Hermia O'Rourke
Assistant Chief Medical Officer, USS Pioneer
Ensign Mignon Mejia
Alien Archaeologist/Anthropologist, USS Pioneer
Captain Tyler Malbrooke
Commanding Officer, USS Pioneer
The Silence
Silence Will Fall
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