Final Resting Place

Posted on Sun Jan 20th, 2019 @ 8:41am by The Narrator & Lieutenant Commander Meilin Jiang & Lieutenant Francesca Ricci

Mission: S1E2: A Temple To New Gods
Location: Cradle Facility
Timeline: MD3 12.30PM

The two armoured Crawler's entered the airlock together. It was large enough for both, having been designed to service the large earth moving equipment that had been used in its construction. The atmosphere was flooded with chemicals to kill off any airborne pathogens or fungal spores, followed by a thorough chemical rinsing to sluice off any chemical or radioactive fallout from the outside world.

And all the while the second Crawler, manned by the Military Cadre, kept the wide barreled maw of its cannon firmly pointed at the other.

After a few minutes the wash ended, and the air was purified to the extent that it could, and the far door's opened into the cavernous hanger beyond. Along both sides of the chamber were lines of vehicles similar to the design of the Crawlers. Some were designed along similar lines to earth movers of the 21st Century, whilst other were of a much more militaristic bent. At the far end was a pair of sleek dragonfly-like machines, their wings folded back along their fuselages for space saving.

A welcoming committee of soldiers waited for them. Unlike the ones that had ventured out onto the surface, they were not bedecked in the clunky deep sea diver suit like armour but were in uniform. The slug throwers, on the other hand, looked small and waspish in their black onyx hands.

"Hold it right there Kisbeck!" boomed an amplified woman's voice the soldier's cordon. She was easy enough to pick out, holding a bullhorn up to her face to speak.

"Formation Leader Kle!" the Philosopher tried to sound at ease as he made a mess of climbing down the metal steps of the crawls hatch. "It's a pleasure to be welcomed by your esteemed-"

"Next multi-syllable word out of your mouth and there will be one less mouth for the yeast vats to feed," Kle responded, a shimmer of green running through the longer fronds atop her head. "Now step away from the crawler, and let the Military Cadre do its job of protecting this facility by any means necessary."

"They are here to help!" Kisbeck said and gestured back to the open hatch.

"The last aliens to say that brought about the end of days," Kle said. She seemed to set her shoulders. "To the alien's inside the crawler, if you can understand me, come out of there with your hands up or you will be fired upon with lethal force! You have 6 seconds to comply!"

Meilin unfastened her harness. "Stay inside," she said to the others, then exited the vehicle with her hands raised. She set one foot on the ground, then held it for an instant. When nobody fired, she took another step, and then another. In slow, deliberate motions, she set herself diagonally opposed from the crawler by a dozen paces. Only then did she address the angry woman with the loudspeaker.

"Air, land, and water," she said, hands still over her head. "That is what we offer. In exchange for lowering your weapons and accepting our friendship, our crew is prepared to render as much aid as is possible with intentions for more."

Meilin turned away from Kle and began addressing her soldiers. "My world is one of plenty -- food for all, clear skies, and open oceans that span three-fourths of our surface, all filled with life. But it was not always so."

She looked back to Kisbeck before continuing.

"There was a time when we were at war with one another. We nearly destroyed ourselves. The survivors picked up the pieces and rebuilt. One of our master builders drew the attention of a benevolent race who recognized our potential, saw that we had learned from our mistakes, and gave us a helping hand. Our world was purified, our people brought back from self-inflicted extinction. We are now partnered with that race and hundreds like them in an interstellar union called the United Federation of Planets, and as officers of its Starfleet, we continue that original mission of our founding -- to seek out new friends on new worlds."

Extending a hand back to the crawler, she lazily turned her face away from Kisbeck back to Kle. "Your Philosopher Prime explained to us the horror of your predicament. We saw the recording of the Concordance with our own eyes. What happened to this world and its people was heinous, and while we cannot turn back time, we can help turn the tables."

She lowered her hand in front of her face and counted off the words as she spoke. "Air, land, water. Will you accept our offer, or will be conformed to the image of the Concordance in your final death throes?"

"Kisbeck told you about our plight?" Kle said, lowering the bull horn and looking at the Philosopher, who had shed his helmet. "He told you 'everything'?"

"You don't understand Kle, you're too blinded by this little show of force to the larger pic-" A high pitched twang filled the air, as a snub-nosed pistol appeared in Kle's hand and a bullet sparked off the concrete by Kisbeck's foot. Kisbeck screwed his face up but kept on speaking. "They can save us. Save our species!"

"Save it? They killed it!" Kle bellowed, her fronds a brilliant red as the gun rose, pointing squarely at Meilin. "He told you about the crack in our water tank? Told you it happened the same time as your spacecraft entered orbit three days ago? Did he tell you the impactor that breached the tanks upper casements had the same logo as is on your 'vert and uniforms?"

At this point Dania made an exit, her hands in the air, her weapon having been left on the vehicle.

"No, he did not." Dania said, "I am Dania Storm, my role is gathering information. He did however tell us of people of our organization wreaking havoc sometime ago. We did not know of this occurence but it was not action sanctioned by our leaders. It is not our way. As such, we need to find them and make sure they do not harm anyone else. Perhaps we can do both...help you, and make sure our rogue element is contained." she glanced over at Meilin, before looking over at Kle, again.

"Find them?" Kle's brow furrowed. "You mean 'it'. The missile your station fired at us when it entered orbit, some sort of kinetic impactor?"

"They don't know anything about-"

"They knew enough to come here!"

"Only because their station landed in orbit by accident!" Kisbeck said in a voice pleading for understanding. "They are new here, explorers. They mean us no harm, and they were at the same risk to the Concordance that we were. I saw them use explosives to escape the Temple after it had sealed up. Does that sound like a planned action to you?"

Kisbeck took a step closer to Kle's cordon.

"If the impactor was intentional, then why would they offer to fix the damage? To ingratiate themselves with us? What do we have to offer them? Fifty times recycled water? Yeast porridge?" Kisbeck tried a smile. "Let them help, at least let them try and fix the damage to the water tank."

"Under Cadre guard," Kle said slowly.

"Well I'd have hoped for something a little better but I can see this bridge of trust needs support from both sides," the Philosopher said and let out a breath. "We can start by lowering the firearms surely?"

"Not just yet," Kle said with narrowed eyes. "I want them all out of the Crawler, and their equipment left here. A show of good faith."

Inside the vehicle, Bahat looked around at Lieutenant Ricci. With Storm and Jiang on the ground, she was the ranking officer. "We're not going to do that, right?" she asked, then looked to their security escort for support. "Right?"

Francie raised her eyebrows. "We absolutely are," she replied. "I'd rather die doing what's right than live because I killed someone who was afraid of me. Come on," she added, removing the phaser she'd been given and leaving it behind, then standing and heading towards the exit with her hands up.

As the group disembarked the crawler, the cordon of soldiers backed up. The ones from the first Crawler were getting out more slowly, their bulky armour making them look more like sci-fi pill bugs than not.

"Well isn't this a pretty sight?" Kle muttered, stepped past the line of troops and walked up to the Starfleet personnel. She still held the bull horn, but her free hand rested by her hip and the holstered slug thrower there. The onyx skin and colourful fronds were a clash of colours, and the golden streaks radiating from the narrowed and distrustful eyes made pretty her discomfort.

"I am Formation Leader Kle, commander of the Military Cadre of this Cradle Facility and as close to God's smeared ashes as you're likely to see this side of a funerary pit. I will accept your help in cleaning up the mess you're station made. What I will not accept is the spreading of any un-collaborated information. No more of this talk of escaping. This is our home, and we have a plan for it," she lowered her tone of voice. "You may have awed Kisbeck, but he's a doddering fool sent to this place a decade before the Concordance arrived. This was his aged exile. You want to fill his head with marsh lights, be my guest. But I will silence any of you who make that mistake of thinking we're all of the same mind. Am I clear?"

"It is admirable to want to keep your home and make it work," Francie said, already liking this new girl's spunk and determination. "If you need any help, we will do everything we can. You need only ask."

"Fantastic," Kle said through pressed lips, and on one heel turned and made a hand gesture to the soldiers. "Armed escort and follow me."