Planet 1: Lethe - Planetside
Posted on Tue Nov 12th, 2024 @ 10:30pm by Lieutenant JG Lyras & Lieutenant JG Abrasax & Lieutenant JG Alena Alessa & Lieutenant JG Mirez
2,392 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
Episode 8: Palingenesis
Location: Lethe
The Earhart flew above Lethe's surface for a good landing site. Abrasax checked the scans that he had the Waverider's sensor suite was aimed at. He turned to Alena. "How are you doing with the telepathic interference?" He asked, he also posed the question in his mind as well hopeful that Alena could use his mental voice as an anchor of sorts to help her focus.
Alena sighed. "It's getting worse. Whatever it is that is causing the interference is closer to us now. I don't know what it is exactly, but I keep hearing these voices. As if there are a battle going on nearby. And then the next moment, silence", she said with a frown. She did not like the unknown. It was weird to put it mildly. She felt as if she was listening to a history lesson or something by audio, and then it was cut off for some reason.
"Can you make out what they are saying?" Abrasax asked curiously.
From one of the other stations, Lyras listened to the conversation, while also keeping an eye on all telepaths present. It was a means for him to try and keep his focus because whatever this was, it seemed to keenly try to divert it.
"It sounds like a war is being fought. Like protect the eastern side. retreat, move to the western gate. There is also a mention of a girl. They keep saying that the fight, or the war in general, is in her name. It seems like the whole thing has taken place eons ago. The other sounds... it sounds like old-fashioned gunshots. Something I've only heard about in history lessons", Alena said, answering Abrasax. With a frown, she went on, "I think these things might be remnants from a time long gone. Since it doesn't sound like the modern time's handling of things".
"Does that not depend on the level of technology of the people below?" Lyra's asked "even if they are technologically advanced there is no reason to assume they did the same to their weapons is it?"
Ensign Mirez gave Lyras a thoughtful look and responded in kind, “True, some cultures might advance in one area while leaving others relatively primitive. But it’s odd to hear such specific remnants, especially of an ancient conflict, as if it's still alive somehow. Could there be something deeper influencing these impressions?”
Before she could continue, the computer console beeped, and Mirez glanced down. “The navigational system has located a suitable landing site,” she announced, her calm voice contrasting with the tense atmosphere. She tapped a few controls, bringing up the coordinates on the main display. “It’s about 73 kilometers southeast of here. Terrain looks stable, and it should be safe to land.”
"Well that's why we are here to answer those questions." Abrasax smiled and turned to Mirez. "Excellent," he piloted the Earhart to the coordinates and began pre-landing checks then programmed the computer to land.
As the waverider touched down, Abrasax stood. "Well let's go," he encouraged. He headed to the equipment lockers near the airlock, got a tricorder and phaser then waited for the rest of the team.
While Lyras did gear up with a med-kit and a tricorder, he didn't touch the phasers. "Ready," he announced as he approached the airlock.
Ensign Mirez quickly followed suit, moving to the equipment lockers with efficient, practiced motions. She grabbed a tricorder and, after a brief pause, took a phaser as well. “No telling what we might encounter down there,” she muttered to herself, securing the phaser to her side.
The hatch opened and Abrasax led them out. He walked a good 5 meters out from the Earhart and glanced around, he pulled his tricorder out from the holster it was in and opened it. The operating sounds of the scanner/analyser device calmed him somewhat as it was he glanced down at its tiny display to check their immediate area. "Seems clear," he called back.
At those words, Lyras walked out of the shuttle and joined the science chief, taking out his own tricorder. "This place seems peaceful," he said, despite that odd feeling that was tugging at his senses. He looked towards Alessa, casting her a somewhat worried look. "What do your senses tell you?" He asked, "where do we go
"There's definitely something going on here. But it doesn't feel like it's taking place in the present. If the war shouts were from now, we ought to have seen a bloody battlefield of some sort", Alena said, her mind lost in her thoughts. "I wonder why we, the telepaths that is, is feeling/hearing these things. It's like... i don't know. Like a remnant of the past maybe". She shook her head, trying to get out of her thoughts and back to talk with the people around her. "This place definitely has secrets. While it would be good to get some answers, I admit it's feeling like something is very wrong with this place".
Abrasax turned to face Alessa. "I do recall from my history classes that some crews had experienced telepathic recounting of histories from some monolith device that produced a Psionic Field..." His voice trailed off as he began to tinker with his tricorder's scan settings to look for Neuro-Transmissive Waveforms.
Meanwhile…
Deep beneath the surface of Lethe’s lone, dark sea, hidden amidst the shifting tides and the silence of the abyss, Euryale stirred.
Her eyes fluttered open, revealing the sharp, predatory gleam of a creature long forgotten by myth. The centuries had done nothing to diminish her hunger—only suppressed it, dulled it as she slept within the vast metallic shell of her spaceship. The hum of advanced systems around her had kept her in a state of hibernation, an equilibrium between life and death. But now, something had changed.
She felt it—an energy, a presence. The souls of living beings, like beacons in the dark, had entered her realm.
The ship’s sensors had detected the Earhart’s arrival and the subsequent movements of the away team as they touched down on the planet’s surface. Euryale, no longer the primitive monster of ancient tales, was far more than just a being of stone and serpents. Her ship, a product of millennia spent scavenging knowledge from fallen civilizations and absorbing their technology, responded to her commands as she silently awakened the vessel’s systems.
The ship itself, camouflaged against the sea floor, hummed to life. Though its exterior appeared covered in rust and coral from the deep waters, beneath the surface it was a marvel of engineering—a lethal predator, just like its mistress.
Euryale rose from her stasis pod, her form still draped in the semblance of her mythic origins. The serpents that crowned her head were sleek, their eyes glowing faintly as they sensed her pulse quicken. She stretched, her body tall and lithe, armored now in the technologies of advanced species. The ancient Gorgon had evolved.
But her hunger—ah, that remained the same.
“The living,” she whispered, her voice a rasp that echoed within the silent ship. “They come… for answers. But they will find only me.”
With a flick of her hand, holographic displays materialized before her, showcasing the exact coordinates of the intruders. Their energy signatures pulsed on the screen, vibrant with life. She could almost taste them already.
She let her thoughts simmer, her mind sharp as she planned her next move. Capturing them alive would be paramount. The energy she fed upon from their souls was far more potent when harvested slowly, savored over time. A quick death would waste the essence she craved, and she had waited too long for such a feast.
Euryale moved swiftly to her command chair, while her thoughts commanded the controls. The ship began to ascend slowly, barely disturbing the ocean’s surface as it rose toward the light. But she would not approach them directly—not yet. No, she would let them walk into her grasp willingly, unaware of the trap that awaited them.
“Prepare the containment pods,” she commanded her ship’s systems. The internal chambers shifted and reconfigured, large containment cells opening like jaws ready to devour the unsuspecting crew. A low chuckle escaped her lips as she felt the rising pulse of her own excitement.
“They will come to me soon enough,” Euryale whispered. “And when they do, their souls will be mine.”
With a final glance at the holographic display, she settled back in her seat, her ship now on a silent course towards the away team’s landing site. Her hunger, long denied, would finally be sated.
Surface of planet Lethe
Lyras nodded as he listened. "It does," he agreed somewhat anxiously, "you seem to have a strong connection here. I feel a sense of loss and longing, but I cannot place it. Like we are being directed somewhere?"
Mirez took a deep breath, savoring the cool, dense air of Lethe. Her nostrils flared slightly as she adjusted to the atmosphere—no longer dependent on a respirator like the Benzites of old. She glanced around at the barren, silent landscape with an analytical eye.
“Seems stable enough,” she remarked, her tone calm but with a hint of curiosity. “The air has an oddly metallic quality, though. Not unpleasant, just… different.” She glanced over at Abrasax, nodding in approval. “Lethe’s got its mysteries, but at least it’s letting us breathe easy. Still, something feels… off. Like the place is holding its breath, waiting for us to take the next step.”
She raised her tricorder and began her own scan, her tendrils twitching slightly as she focused. “I’m picking up faint energy readings in the distance, but nothing immediate. I guess the tricorders will tell us more as we go,” she added, her voice calm but tinged with the slightest unease.
Alena closed her eyes. Her telepathy was causing her a headache. "I do have the feeling of being directed. But I also have the feeling that there's something wrong here. As if there is something that both want to be found, and don't want to be found, all at the same time", she said. "I still hear those cries of war, commands of retreat or advance. I also hear some kind of screams. Soul-shattering screams. As if someone was depending on that sound for their lives. Then, the sounds stops abruptly. As if someone is cutting off the sound", she went on. The feeling of dread and despair in the air wasn't helping on the headache. "There must be something that is the cause of this", she murmured.
Lyras moved closer to her, running the scanning wand of his medical tricorder over her. "I can give you something for that headache," he offered quietly, though the tone of his voice betrayed his anxiety. "I think something is calling us...I feel...pulled along? Like I have no choice but to follow this voice...I cannot explain it, and I do not think I can ignore it.”
Mirez listened to Alena and Lyras, her usually calm demeanor unsettled by their words. She couldn’t hear what Alena described, but she felt the oppressive weight in the air - the strange, charged silence that clung to everything around them. It was as if the planet itself held a dark secret, waiting to ensnare them.
“Directed… pulled along… it’s almost like Lethe has a mind of its own,” Mirez murmured, glancing down at her tricorder’s readings. “There’s no sign of any physical anomaly causing this, but… it’s hard to shake that feeling.” She looked over at Alena, concern flickering in her usually analytical gaze. “We should stay sharp and… maybe not stray too far from each other.”
"I agree", Alena said. "Pulled along is a good term for it. But still. I feel like a fly about to hit the spiderweb. This place seems like a minefield. One wrong move, and we are done. The pull... it certainly is someone who is doing it. But who? I don't like that it's likely a who. Because is that is the case, we are in trouble to the neck", she said as she rubbed the back of her neck. "While it seems... well... deserted, there is certainly something about this place that feels... wrong".
On the Gorgon ship.
Euryale studied the away team’s telemetry with a calculating gaze, her serpentine locks shifting as she devised her approach. Direct action would only alert them, so instead, she activated a subroutine in her ship’s systems to emit faint energy “echoes” nearby—organic-seeming anomalies that tricorders would detect but could not pinpoint. These subtle pulses would act as breadcrumbs, guiding the team deeper into Lethe’s wilderness and closer to her.
To mask her ship further, she adjusted its energy emissions to blend with the planet’s natural magnetic fields. As a final touch, she sent out a telepathic pulse—a whisper of battle cries and desperate commands, amplifying Alena’s already heightened senses. A satisfied smile played across her lips; soon enough, they would be in her grasp, unaware they were following the path she had set.
“Come closer,” she whispered softly, knowing her prey could not hear her words, yet feeling confident that they would heed the call of their own curiosity, their own unease.
Planet surface.
Lyras glanced between his tricorder and his surroundings, unconsciously following the readings it supplied. Occasionally, he rubbed at his temples to ease the vague headache he suffered. "Something is here," he answered, pointing towards his readings, "whatever it is, it is getting stronger."
The Vulcan hybrid paused, eyes fixed on his readings as he continued to walk. "The problem is I do not know what it is that my tricorder is reading, or where exactly it is leading us."
Abrasax nodded, “yeah definitely Neuro-Transmissive Waveforms coming from somewhere, it is getting stronger and—“ he trailed off as the Chief Science Officer tapped at his tricorder a few times and smiled. “I think I got a location, this way.”
He started off in the direction and continued to monitor his tricorder for any more specific information as they got closer.
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