“Cryptid”
by Lord Thanatos
Scenes:
8.
Do the whining shovel shuffle
SCENE 1: Clump
The
door opens and Captain LT walks in.
Spalding: “Please, sit down…”
With
a face that reveals reluctance LT sits down on the couch in Spalding’s
office…
LT: “What can I do for you, Spalding?”
Spalding: “Well, I was hoping I could do something for you.”
LT’s
face now reveals annoyance as he sighs…
LT: “Oh no, not this again…”
Spalding: “Yes, this again… Come on captain, you can’t tell me that
killing 6 people doesn’t evoke any emotion in you…”
The
captain now leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees.
LT: “Oh you’re quite right, Spalding. Sure I feel emotions regarding
what happened that day…”
Spalding: “Go on…”
LT: “Since there seems no way around having to talk to you about this,
I’ll tell you what emotions I felt at the time…”
With
an encouraging tone, Spalding approves.
Spalding: “Good…”
LT: “Let’s see, ehm… I felt angry most of all…”
Spalding: “I see, anger… And fear?”
The
captain answers without hesitation or room for misinterpretation.
LT: “No.”
Spalding: “No?”
LT: “No. But I did feel very determined. I really wanted that situation
to end as quickly as possible.”
Spalding: “I see…”
Before
the counselor can make a full reply, the captain continues.
LT: “Which brings me to my main emotion at the time; pride. Something
which I still feel right now…”
Spalding: “Pride? You killed 6 men… Tell me, how you can be proud of
that?”
LT: “Oh, it’s not so much killing those guys which makes me proud. If
I had the opportunity to free the woman and escape with her without killing
them, I just might have… But I saw no other way without taking a huge risk. If
only 1 of them would have seen me, I’d have had 6 armed men to deal with at
the same time. Now I dealt with them 1 by 1. It’s a nice story to tell the
grandkids one day… About how gramps escaped captivity and saved the damsel in
distress from the evil men and blabla, and I will do so with pride, counselor. I
did the right thing, I feel no remorse, I did not and will not lose any
sleep over it and I’m perfectly alright in any possible sense of the word.”
Spalding: “Ah, and…”
LT
stands up and doesn’t allow the counselor to finish his sentence again as he
puts his hand on Spalding’s shoulder…
LT: “I hope you feel better after this
little talk, because it really seemed to be on your mind lately. But if you’ll
excuse me, I have some more death to deal with…”
Moments
later the captain approaches his second in command on the bridge.
LT: “What have we got? You said something
about a graveyard?”
The
man diverts his attention to the screen which just flicks on. It shows a large
number of planets and moons in close proximity to each other… A bunch of them
are even touching.
Eisinga: “A planet graveyard to be
exact… Or so we speculated…”
The
captain looks at the screen in amazement…
LT: “Wow… This is weird stuff… How could
this have happened?”
Eisinga: “Good question. There are some
relatively minor fragments that chipped off some of the planets, but you’d
expect a lot more damage…”
Serrag
joins the 2 men standing near the captain’s chair.
Serrag: “Two meeting planets would normally
get smashed into an infinite number of fragments. There must have been some form
of intervention…”
LT: “And assuming it would be
possible that 2 rogue planets got caught in each others gravity and they stayed
in 1 piece, it wouldn’t happen multiple times in the very same location…”
Serrag: “Also, they’re not moving at
all… They’re 100% dead in space. In total there are 23 bodies; 7 planets, 14
moons and 2 large asteroids. Most of them clumped together, but with minor
impact damage…”
Eisinga: “We’ve performed a few quick
scans already… At least 3 planets and 1 moon show signs of previous
occupation…”
The
captain is getting excited.
LT: “Really?... That’s awesome… And that
is deserving of a quick archeological survey at least… Assemble a team of
people which have some knowledge on archeology, lieutenant commander. You will
lead the team and see what you find out there…”
Serrag: “With pleasure sir.”
Then
the captain tempers his own enthusiasm and puts on a more serious face.
LT: “Unfortunately, I can’t be joining the
away team at this time… Admiral Grant will be contacting me in about an hour
and I have to finish that damn report first…”
Eisinga: “Nasty…”
LT: “Yes, quite… Oh well, I’d love to
hear what the initial survey reveals. Keep me updated, Serrag. I’ll be joining
you after my little chat with the admiral.”
Serrag: “Yes sir.”
The
lieutenant commander heads towards the turbo lift.
LT: “I’ll be in my ready room.”
Eisinga: “One more thing captain. I’d like
your permission to lead a second away team to the surface.”
LT: “I didn’t know we shared an interest
in archeology, Eldert…”
Eisinga: “Oh, I won’t be digging in the
dirt sir… It’s for taking some nice snapshots and such…”
A
smile appears on his Eisinga’s face.
Eisinga: “You have to admit that this
interesting phenomenon needs to be properly displayed in Academy textbooks next
semester.”
LT
shortly snickers and then gives his permission.
LT: “Permission granted. Take a team of the
finest photographers and make yourselves famous.”
The
men smile.
SCENE 2: Nine tailors make a man
Two
shuttle craft fly towards the clump of astronomical objects. The first is
occupied by a team led by Serrag consisting of Lieutenant Faulkner and 2 unnamed
guys with a red shirt.
Faulkner: “With all due respect, sir, what
am I doing here?”
Serrag: “Respect is overrated, lieutenant.
But to answer your question, you are currently operating the helm of this
shuttle craft in order to get us safely down to one of the planets, thus
requiring your full attention.”
With
an annoyed tone the demoted officer answers.
Faulkner: “Yes, yes, but you know what I
mean… Besides it’s kind of hard to focus my attention on anything
since I have been up all night working the night shift.”
Serrag: “Your name was on top of the duty
roster, lieutenant. With any luck the mission won’t last the entire shift and
you can retire to your quarters early.”
Faulkner: “If I would return to my quarters
right now it couldn’t even be described as early anymore…”
Serrag: “Hmm, that
reminds me of an Earth proverb, lieutenant…”
Faulkner
looks annoyed with a hint of curiosity and replies accordingly.
Faulkner: “Proverb? What proverb?”
Serrag: “Little strokes fell great oaks.”
Faulkner: “What does that have to do with anything?”
Serrag: “Absolutely nothing. But it’s a conversation stopper if
I’ve ever heard one.”
The
lieutenant looks confused, but Serrag’s words seem to come true; Faulkner
doesn’t reply…
SCENE 3: Looks like a jump ball
Sometime
later onboard the second shuttle, Commander Eisinga is joined by Ensign Amini,
engineering ensigns Bynes and Longworth, the latter fiddling with a holo imager,
Lieutenant Holcraft at the helm for a change and another random ensign
precariously clothed in red.
Holcraft: “Where do you want to go next,
sir?”
Eisinga: “Well, we’ve got enough shots of
the whole cluster. Let’s go in-between that red planet over there and the grey
one on top of it…”
Longworth
looks up.
Longworth: “’In-between’?”
Eisinga: “Yes.”
Longworth: “Are you sure you want a
photographer on this part of the mission? I bet there’s nothing of interest to
photograph in that dark place…”
Eisinga: “Trust me.”
Longworth
jokes while he resumes fiddling with the holo imager.
Longworth: “It’s not like I have a
choice…”
Amini: “Well, I for
Bynes
looks out of a window.
Bynes: “Spooky, but beautiful...”
Holcraft: “I’m not complaining either; I
finally get to pilot a ship… Approaching the planets, sir.”
Eisinga: “Alright, slow down and get us as
close as you can get to where they touch…”
Holcraft: “Aye aye, sir…”
The
shuttle flies towards where the planets join.
SCENE 4: Follow the sitting duck
Serrag,
Faulkner and one of the red shirts leave their shuttle in a space suit. The
lieutenant commander studies his tricorder’s readouts and points in a certain
direction.
Serrag: “We’ll move in that
direction; there are some ruins over there.”
The
red shirt walks ahead, also with his tricorder in hand.
Serrag: “They should be well preserved
because of the lack of atmosphere…”
Faulkner: “…depends on how they actually
lost their atmosphere…”
Serrag: “Perhaps. Let’s hope we will at
least find something to give us an indication of their level of technology.”
The
2 men follow the red shirt at a distance.
Faulkner: “Didn’t look like much from the
scans onboard the Greate Pier.”
Serrag: “Those scans were made from
thousands of kilometers away… You can’t tell from those if you’re going to
find a beautiful, golden ring half a meter under the surface…”
Faulkner: “Don’t count on it either…”
Serrag: “You studied archeology, lieutenant;
that’s why I wanted you on this team.”
Faulkner: “I thought you said I was on top
of the duty roster… You lied? I could be in bed right now!”
Serrag: “Calm yourself before I assist you
in that, lieutenant. And I might not act much like a Vulcan, but I don’t
lie… So tell me… During your studies, did they teach you to be
pessimistic?”
Faulkner: “Not pessimistic; realistic.
I’m not going to expect anything from this little expedition so I won’t set
myself up for disappointment. Though most of this day does turn out to be just
that.”
Serrag: “I’m pretty sure that’s
pessimism…”
To
keep the conversation going, Serrag shows an interest in Faulkner’s
archeological education.
Serrag: “Anyway, where did you study
archeology lieutenant?”
Faulkner
isn’t interested in a discussion and returns to giving short answers.
Faulkner: “Earth.”
Faulkner
walks off while pretending to look at his tricorder. The lieutenant commander
quietly replies to himself.
Serrag: “Yes… I kind of figured that…”
He
shrugs and continues his work.
SCENE 5: Gravity of the chair
On
the bridge Ensign Pattison is in command, being the senior officer by experience
rather than rank alone as there are a whole bunch of ensigns present on the
bridge. She walks up to the science officers and asks them for the results of
the more extensive scans of the cluster of planets and moons.
Pattison: “Anything interesting so far
gentlemen?”
Stuckman: “Well, in a nutshell, 17 of the 23
objects are in the cluster and the remaining 6 are just a few hundred kilometers
away…”
Pattison: “A few hundred kilometers… Then
why don’t they get drawn in any closer? The gravitational pull of the cluster
must be tremendous.”
Stilson: “Unknown… They aren’t moving
relative to the cluster.”
Pattison: “Find out why.”
Stuckman: “We’re trying to already, but so
far we have not found any explanation. Also no clues as to why they are here in
the first place…”
Pattison: “Keep at it, gentlemen… I know
the captain likes his mysteries, but I’m sure he’d like those answers.”
Stuckman
smiles and cheekily replies.
Stuckman: “And I bet you’d like to give
him those answers on your first bridge command.”
Pattison
starts smiling as well…
Pattison: “You bet, ensign. So work harder,
ok?”
She
walks back to the big chair and sits back down. Her face gives away the fact it
is rather comfortable.
SCENE 6: These boots were made for…
Eisinga’s
shuttle is flying between the 2 touching planets at a very low speed. The
‘floor’ and ‘ceiling’ are relatively close to the ship with just a few
meters to spare in either direction.
Holcraft: “This looks more like a cave than
2 giant spheres touching…”
Eisinga: “Indeed… A very deep
cave…”
Amini: “Isn’t it a little dark here to
take pictures?”
Eisinga: “We’ll take some more pictures
when we leave this ‘cave’. But we have to do this first.”
Longworth: “Do what first?”
Holcraft: “This is as far as we can go,
commander… It’s getting too narrow to fly any further without risking
hitting either planet.”
Eisinga: “Alright, set her down,
lieutenant.”
Longworth: “With 2 planets touching, which
way is down anyway?”
Amini: “That’s a new one for the books,
haha…”
Holcraft
lands on the planet of his choice.
Eisinga: “We’ll have to walk from
here…”
Amini: “’Walk’?”
Eisinga: “Yes, the act of traveling by
foot… I hope you mastered that skill; you’re coming with me. Longworth,
Holcraft, you too. Suit up.”
The
team gets up and follows the commander to the back where they find their suits.
SCENE 7: Walson and Statman
Pattison
is still holding the reigns on the bridge when Doctor Shelley tries to draw her
attention. She approaches the ensign who is observing a colleague at work at the
astrometrics station…
Shelley: “Ensign, are you in charge here?”
Pattison: “Aren’t women supposed to be in
charge?”
Both
women smile.
Shelley: “In that case, sir, I have
something to report which may interest you…”
Pattison: “Ok, what is it?”
Shelley
hands Pattison a PADD.
Shelley: “I’ve been getting some strange
readings from one of the moons…”
Pattison
studies the PADD but is unsure what exactly to make of it…
Pattison: “Ehm, there’s a lot of doctory
words here, doctor… What are they telling me?”
Shelley: “Well basically, these readings are
indicative of a lifeform.”
Pattison: “A lifeform? Like what? I mean,
none of the moons here have atmospheres…”
Shelley: “No, you misunderstand… It’s
not coming from the surface of the moon… It comes from the moon itself…”
Pattison: “What are you saying? The moon
is a lifeform?...”
Shelley: “I will have to get more precise
readings with the help from a science station, but yes, that’s basically what
I’m suspecting. A silicon-based lifeform.”
Pattison: “Wow…”
Shelley: “Wow indeed…”
LT
rushes out of his ready room and heads straight for the turbo lift while he
addresses the lady in charge.
LT: “I’m off to the surface, Pattison.
Hold the fort for a bit longer, will you?”
Pattison: “I think you should take a look at
this first, sir…”
LT
halts in his tracks...
LT: “What is it?”
He
walks over to the ladies and takes the PADD which is handed to him… After a
few short seconds he looks up from the PADD and alternates his eyes between
those of the 2 ladies…
LT: “Is this a joke?... A living moon?...”
Shelley: “As real as it gets… These are
just preliminary, superficial scans, so I have very little details for you as of
yet, but we’re working on it…”
LT
looks annoyed…
LT: “Damn!”
Shelley: “Sir?”
LT: “Oh, it means the archeological mission
will have to be at least postponed until we can determine exactly what we’re
dealing with here…”
The
captain now looks at Pattison.
LT: “It looks like I’m retaking the fort
already, Pattison…”
Pattison: “No problem sir, the bridge is
yours.”
Stilson: “Hey, at least you got to tell the
captain the most interesting news of the day…”
Pattison
smiles while the captain, only half aware of the conversation, returns to his
big chair.
Stuckman: “Since you kept his seat nice and
warm too he’ll probably promote you…”
The
science guys start laughing out loud, the captain looks in their direction, not
knowing what the fun is all about. Pattison puts her arms in her sides and
throws a faked annoyed look at comic duo.
Nerissa then steps down towards her conn
position.
Pattison: “You having fun up there,
gentlemen?”
No
reply, if further laughter doesn’t count.
SCENE 8: Do the whining shovel shuffle
The
3 men on the archeological team are digging and taking samples.
Serrag: “I suspect the object to be at about
60 centimeters beneath the surface...”
Faulkner: “There are over 20 large bodies
here; how reliable are those readings with all this confusing gravity stuff
going on?”
Faulkner
puts his shovel in the dirt and scoops a fair amount up, half of which floats
off into the dark sky…
Serrag: “We’ll soon know, won’t we?”
Faulkner: “’We’? I’m
digging here!”
Serrag: “And you’re doing a fine-ish
job…”
Faulkner: “Well, don’t expect me to exert
myself…”
Serrag: “Ah yes, you’re halfway your
second consecutive shift… You’re right, I forgot… I’m sorry. Poor
kid.”
Faulkner: “I’m not a kid!… Sir.”
Serrag: “You might want to change your
behavior accordingly to avoid confusion.”
Looking
grumpier than ever imagined possible, Faulkner aggressively jabs the shovel back
into the soil. The attention of the Vulcan is now directed to an incoming
transmission from the ship.
LT: “Captain LT to Serrag…”
Serrag: “Serrag here…”
LT: “Abort the mission and return to the
ship immediately.”
Serrag: “Understood. Serrag out.”
Serrag
turns to Faulkner again.
Serrag: “Time to pack up, Faulkner…”
Faulkner
springs up…
Faulkner: “What?! I’m almost at 60
centimeters! First you let me dig in this damned, dusty soil and now I’m
almost done and can reap the reward of my troubles I have to stop?!”
In
the same tone as his previous sentence, Serrag replies to Faulkner’s whining.
Serrag: “Time to shut up, Faulkner…”
Faulkner
throws the shovel over his shoulder and spreads his arms out in a desperate
“whatever” expression…
SCENE 9: Cave paintings
Longworth: “Smile, Amini…”
Amini
gets her photo taken standing on 1 planet and her hands touching the next planet
overhead…
Amini: “Hurry up, Rodney… Can’t keep
this planet up much longer…”
Longworth: “Alright, that was the last
one… Don’t forget to send your own picture home to your friends and
family… How many people can say they were on 2 planets at the same time?”
Eisinga: “…told you guys this was a good
idea…”
Holcraft: “Very good idea, but my feet are
killing me…”
Eisinga: “Yes, we’d better head back… We
have a long hike ahead of us before we reach the shuttle…”
Amini: “Sir, what’s that over there?”
Eisinga: “What? Where?...”
Amini: “Over there…”
She
points at a distant object which can hardly be seen to begin with…
Eisinga: “What, that little thing there? I
don’t know, a rock or something… Probably nothing…”
Holcraft: “Well, according to my tricorder
it’s made of some metal… Unsure what the exact composition is at this
point…”
Longworth: “Was this one of the previously
occupied planets?”
Eisinga: “No, neither of these 2 planets
were… Come on team; let’s see what it is…”
They
walk ever closer to the metal object… Holcraft keeps scanning and updating his
ship mates.
Longworth: “It’s about 26 meters in
length. Looks like a large shuttle, sir…”
Amini: “What’s a shuttle doing out
here?”
Eisinga: “They may have crashed here…”
Holcraft: “Or maybe they’re hiding? It’s
a good hiding place…”
Eisinga: “Any lifesigns?”
Holcraft: “None that I can detect… No heat
emanating from the shuttle; it seems abandoned. And I’m reading severe hull
damage. It must have been in a fight or something…”
Eisinga: “Could explain why they were
hiding… By the looks of it, they may not have survived the ordeal…”
Holcraft
suddenly stops while staring at his tricorder. A soft yet perfectly audible word
exits his mouth…
Holcraft: “Shit…”
Eisinga
and the rest of the team halt as well.
Eisinga: “What is it?”
Holcraft
looks up from his tricorder and directs his gaze at the damaged shuttle.
Holcraft: “The Inj…”
Eisinga: “Shit indeed…”
Amini: “Time to get out of here then…”
Eisinga: “No, not yet… There are no
lifesigns on the ship, so we can probably investigate safely… And we must.”
Amini: “’probably’?...”
The
team starts walking towards the Inj vessel at which moment Eisinga receives a
hail from the ship.
LT: “Captain LT to Eisinga…”
Eisinga: “Ah, I was about to contact you
sir… Go ahead…”
The
quality of the link leaves a lot to be desired. A lot of static plagues the
communication.
LT: “Abort the mission and return to the
ship right away, Eldert.”
Eisinga: “What did you say, sir? Abort the
mission?”
LT: “Yes, abort and return to the ship. We
found an unknown lifeform.”
Eisinga: “I’ll send everyone except myself
and Longworth back to the shuttle, but we’ll stay here and investigate a more
familiar lifeform.”
LT: “Communication is breaking up…
Commander?”
In
a louder voice, the commander tries to get the message across again.
Eisinga: “We have something important to
investigate so we…”
The
rest of the sentence was completely inaudible…
LT: “If it’s really that important, make
it a quick investigation, commander… And don’t take any unnecessary
risks…”
Connection
then fails. Eisinga looks at the Inj shuttle and mutters some words to himself.
Eisinga: “Let’s hope this ship is indeed
abandoned then…”
SCENE 10: Shiver me moon timbers
Shelley: “What drew my attention was the
apparent seismic activity on the moon… During a medical scan of one of the
crew members, the medical tricorder picked it up. Normally, with nearby seismic
activity, it disregards it, as it has nothing to do with biology.”
The
captain, Spalding, Reinard, Margon and Stuckman are listening to Shelley
explaining her findings in the conference room.
Shelley: “This time, however, it gave me a
readout of it. This led me to the conclusion it was not normal seismic activity,
but more like a shiver or maybe even an itch…”
Reinard: “And despite the complex gravity
situation in that cluster of objects, there is no reason for seismic events to
happen… All planets and moons in the cluster must be frozen to the core with
the absence of a nearby star. They’ve been here a long, long time… And no
other large objects nearby to cause seismic occurrences.”
Shelley: “Well, the moon in question isn’t
frozen to the core anyway…”
Stuckman: “Indeed… It didn’t show up on
preliminary scans as the heat is quite minimal, but there is some heat near the
center of the moon…”
Shelley: “From the organs… The surface,
however, is like any other, random moon out there… Rocky, cold, no atmosphere,
nothing unusual…”
Margon: “I bet this creature has something
to do with these planets being here together…”
LT: “Or it was just drawn here out of
curiosity, like us… Fact is, we can’t even tell back from front at the
moment and we have to proceed with caution. I’ll instruct Maresca to attempt
communication with this being. Who knows what level of intelligence it
possesses…Doctor, continue scanning the entity. Be sure to be gentle, we
don’t want the moon to come down on us.”
Shelley
nods.
LT: “Let’s reconvene here in 1 hour to
discuss the findings… Dismissed.”
SCENE 11: Food fight
Commander
Eisinga and Ensign Longworth approach the Inj shuttle with drawn phasers...
Eisinga: “Is your phaser set to whooping
Inj?”
Longworth: “Yes sir…”
Eisinga
reaches a buckled door which has a gap he can put his hands in. He puts his left
foot on the damaged hull as he tries to open the door… Longworth decides to
check out the hull rather than help.
Longworth: “Looks like the hull was
subjected to extreme temperatures, sir…”
Eisinga: “Yes, very nice. Just be ready with
your phaser when this midget door pops open…”
Longworth
redirects his attention, his flashlight and the business end of his phaser at
the door. After some manual labor, the door is forced open by the human
intruders. Longworth shines a light into the small corridor that is now exposed
in front of them. No sight of little aliens.
Eisinga: “Let’s go…”
Eisinga
crawls inside, always with his right arm stretched forward so the flashlight on
his wrist shines ahead and allowing him to fire his phaser if necessary.
Longworth: “Creepy place…”
Eisinga: “Indeed, so keep your eyes open and
cover the rear…”
Longworth: “Well, I’m not that cold, sir,
and besides, I didn’t bring my blanky.”
They
inch on through the Inj vessel until they reach the corridor leading to the
bridge.
Eisinga: “The bridge is up ahead, on the
left. The door looks to be closed.”
Longworth: “I’m glad we can at least sort
of stand here… Those other corridors were not up to occupational health
standards…”
Eisinga
walks down the corridor with his head slanted to one side in order not to hit
the ceiling which is just 1.80m high.
Eisinga: “I’m not sure this corridor is
either…”
Longworth: “That’s odd… Even the walls,
floors and ceilings seem to have suffered the same thermal damage as the hull
did… There’s a lot of damage everywhere…”
Eisinga: “Yeah, I wonder what happened
exactly…”
Longworth
looks down to his tricorder.
Longworth: “The bridge reads no
lifesigns.”
Eisinga: “Get your phaser ready anyway,
Rodney, I’m opening the door…”
Longworth: “Ready…”
Eisinga: “Here goes…”
The
commander pulls on the opening mechanism, but it won’t budge…
Longworth: “Maybe it’s frozen stuck…”
Eisinga
lets go of the door handle and looks at Rodney.
Eisinga: “Very well possible. Maybe we can
try…”
The
sentence is cut short by the door falling away from the wall towards the men.
The falling door knocks the phaser from Eisinga’s hand and the heavy piece of
metal lands on Longworth’s legs. An Inj stands in the door opening, apparently
leaning against a railing, and without a second’s hesitation Eisinga swings at
his face and knocks the little alien backwards. As it slams into the floor
several deep frozen limbs break off… Then the commander turns his attention to
his colleague who is struggling to try and get from underneath the heavy door.
Eisinga: “Rodney, are you ok?”
Eisinga
helps to lift the door up.
Longworth: “Yeah, I’m fine… I think the
suit is undamaged… Why do those little mongrels need such big and heavy
doors?”
Eisinga
helps Rodney up whom then sees the damage his shipmate has done.
Longworth: “Did he put up much of a
fight?”
Eisinga: “No, I iced him pretty quick.”
Eisinga
proceeds onto the bridge while Longworth remains with the shattered body.
Longworth: “He was severely burnt somehow…
May have something to do with the thermal damage we see everywhere… Like the
ship was cooked along with every Inj inside… And on top of that he’s kind of
broken up about it now.”
Eisinga: “There’s a whole lot of them
everywhere. Also completely burnt… Just the way I like ‘em, really…”
Longworth: “I thought you were a
vegetarian…”
Eisinga: “That’s right. Still, I like my
Inj well done.”
Eisinga
looks up from one of the dead aliens.
Eisinga: “Let’s see if anything still
works up here. We need to know what happened…”
The
2 men continue to explore the bridge, trying to avoid overhead obstacles.
SCENE 12: Fruition
Captain
LT, Spalding, Reinard, Margon, his direct superior Serrag and Stuckman are
already present in the conference room as the final attendee, Shelley, walks in.
Shelley: “Sorry I’m a little late, but we
were still finishing up some scans…”
LT: “Quite alright, doctor. Please sit down
and share your teams’ findings with us.”
Shelley
parks herself in her usual chair and starts talking.
Shelley: “This ‘moon’ creature, or
whatever it prefers to be called, is… pregnant. And we believe she may have
been born that way.”
Spalding: “Born pregnant?”
With
an engrossed look on his face, Margon responds to that.
Margon: “Ugh… Just like Tribbles…”
Shelley: “Exactly. But hopefully less
fruitful… A galaxy full of these creatures would soon clog up the place.”
Stuckman: “So they don’t need males for
reproduction? That’s weird…”
Shelley: “Weird maybe, but a race without
males sounds delightful to me.”
Smiles
all around, except for Shelley herself, trying to look serious.
Shelley: “Anyway…”
Before
Shelley can continue, Commander Eisinga walks into the conference room.
Eisinga: “Sorry to disturb you, lady and
gentlemen.”
LT: “Commander, welcome. Doctor Shelley just
started telling us about the results of the scans of the moon we encountered.”
Eisinga: “What moon would that be?”
Shelley: “The living moon in the
cluster…”
Eisinga: “’Living moon’? That
sounds fascinating, but first I think the captain should be informed about
something that might pose more of a threat.”
LT: “Oh? What would that be?”
Eisinga: “We encountered an Inj shuttle down
on one of the planets… All 33 occupants were found dead. The ship most likely
tried to hide there after they took critical damage. Logs also show the Inj
Behemoth this shuttle came from fled the scene just seconds after the attack, so
they could not return there.”
LT: “So the Inj were here… Some of them
left for dead. Charming. Anyway, finally something to please the admiral with.
Maybe he’ll back off a little… LT to ops.”
Holcraft: “Holcraft here, sir.”
LT: “Giles, scan for Inj vessels.”
Holcraft: “No ships of any kind detected in
this sector, captain.”
LT: “Thank you. LT out. Doctor, please
continue.”
Shelley:
“So, we suspect they are born pregnant. Next to that we think they only eat
once as what we perceive as the mouth and esophagus have long since been closed
up by rock and debris.”
Margon: “Once? It eats once? I
can’t say eating just once is a good thing, but at least it’s better than
those scrounging Tribbles…”
Spalding: “And what do huge things
like this eat?!”
Eisinga: “I’m
not sure, but I might have an answer to that question.”
He
stands up, produces an image of an alien being on a screen and proceeds to
describe it.
Eisinga: “From the logs
Longworth and I retrieved from the shuttle’s computer we can conclude the ship
was damaged and the Inj were killed by a space-dwelling organism. One or several
of them may have survived the ordeal initially so they could hide the ship. The
organism is about 2.5 meters wide, 14 meters long, greenish in color and seems
to consist of interlinked spheres of about 2 inches in diameter each. This
organism is apparently capable of defending itself with rather high doses of
electric shock. The Inj decided to attack this creature for whatever reason and
they met their doom when the space creature defended itself. It discharged a
huge electric current and fried the ship and those on it to the point that the
hull and internal structures of the ship show severe thermal damage. Anyway,
perhaps these moon creatures eat those space creatures…”
Shelley: “Can I see the scans of the
organism, commander?”
Eisinga
hands the doctor a PADD with the data retrieved from the Inj vessel.
Shelley: “Thank you.”
Shelley
studies the data and quickly comes to a conclusion.
Shelley: “You’re right commander. I found
organic matter of the same origin in scans of the moon creature…”
Stuckman: “That’s nice, but… how does it
travel? I mean, it must be able to travel somehow…”
Shelley: “Unknown… The outer shell is
thick, rocky and featureless, like any moon. No apparent means of propulsion, no
structures of any kind, nothing… It’s hard to determine at this point…”
LT: “How does it move? How old do they get?
Where do they originate from? Why is it here in this odd cluster of planets and
moons? Why is this cluster here? There are so many unanswered questions
and I’m afraid we don’t have enough time to answer all of them before we
have to move on again… The Inj issue, unfortunately, has precedence over
exploration, archeology and making first contact, especially since we now know
we’re on the right track to find them… But since this is only the 7th
silicon based lifeform to be discovered, I guess we should at least take the
time to name this moon alien…”
After
a short moment, the junior most officer breaks the silence.
Stuckman: “How about we call her species Shell Moon?”
Spalding: “It has a thick shell and she was discovered by Doctor
Shelley… Sounds like a good name.”
Shelley
herself doesn’t like the idea very much.
Shelley: “Really, I don’t think I need a moon creature named after me
or anything…”
Commander
Eisinga grins at Shelley.
Eisinga: “No, I think it’s a splendid idea, haha…”
LT: “All those opposed?”
Only
Shelley raises her hand while Eisinga’s grin turns into a very broad and
naughty smile…
LT: “Good, that’s settled then.”
Shelley
throws a sort of angry look at Eisinga and continues to look straight at him
during her thank you.
Shelley: “Thank you so much everyone.”
Shelley’s
expression changes to a rather happy look all of a sudden.
Shelley: “But I think we also need to name the space-dwelling species
the moon feeds upon…”
The
doctor’s angry look returns while she looks at the commander again.
Shelley: “I’d like to suggest we call them Eldertberries…”
The
commander suddenly stops smiling. The captain on the other hand utters a short
exclamation of amusement before bringing the proposal to a vote with a big smile
on his face.
LT: “HA! All those opposed?”
Only
Eldert Eisinga raises his hand while Shelley’s angry look turns into a grin,
still directed at the commander.
LT: “Also settled then. Splendid!”
Suddenly
a voice is heard over the comm system.
Holcraft: “Captain, we have a lifeform coming our way at about 3
quarter impulse.”
LT: “Company dismissed. Doctor, Eldertberry, please accompany me to the
bridge.”
The
three colleagues enter the bridge accompanied by Stuckman whom assumes his
regular station.
Eisinga: “On screen, Holcraft.”
An
image of a specimen of Eldertberries pops up on the screen.
Eisinga: “Oh great. A wobbly, green patch of space goo baring my
name...”
LT: “Now now, cheer up Eldert… Yours truly doesn’t even have a
species named after him… Yellow alert.”
Eisinga: “Sir, I suggest if we do go to yellow alert that we keep
shields down as a gesture of good faith. I’m not sure these are intelligent
creatures, but I am pretty sure they only attacked the Inj because the Inj fired
first, and with success unfortunately.”
LT: “Alright, no shields.”
Eisinga: “At least it cost the Inj a shuttle and 3 dozen soldiers… I
don’t think we want to give these food items any suggestion we might be
aggressive. I’d hate to see what those slime berries could do to the Greate
Pier…”
Shelley: “My guess is these Eldertberries are attracted to the
gravitational mess of the planet graveyard… And I’d further like to imagine
the Shell Moon might be responsible for creating this planet graveyard to
lure the food in for the baby to feed on once it’s born.”
LT: “Fascinating…”
Holcraft: “The lifeform will reach us in 15 seconds, captain.”
LT: “Let it come; we will not show any aggression.”
Holcraft: “Maybe it doesn’t like us being here, sir…”
No
response from the captain whom keeps looking at the alien on the main screen.
Holcraft: “Sir, 5 seconds…”
LT: “Ok.”
Holcraft: “No shields?”
LT: “No shields.”
Stuckman: “The Eldertberries are passing the ship now at about 20
meters distance from the port side hull and are heading for the planet
cluster.”
Holcraft
almost looks surprised.
Holcraft: “It ignored us completely…”
LT: “Alright, time to find that Inj
Behemoth. Oh, and commander, please send your photographs to Starfleet with all
the scans and data you have collected.”
Eisinga: “Yes, sir.”
LT: “And as you wanted to become famous, Eldert… Be sure to add the
names of the Shell Moon and the Eldertberries to the transmission. We can’t
have those missing from Academy textbooks next semester…”
Eisinga
puts on an annoyed face, doesn’t respond to the captain’s words and gives
orders to Pattison.
Eisinga: “Helm, resume previous heading, warp 6.”
Pattison: “Course laid in, sir.”
Eisinga: “Let’s get away from this fruit basket. Engage.”