Episode 85
Prologue
The Farhelian Mountains, Ka’Tula Prime
Stardate 73591.7
As the side of a mountain rapidly filled the
forward view, thick smoke and crimson flames spewed into the Dark Star’s
decrepit cockpit. Alan Christopher held
onto the helm for dear life as Erin Keller hastily worked underneath the
operations station next door. And just
as he closed his eyes to prepare for the end, Keller emerged the underside of
the station.
“You’ve got thrusters, little buddy!” she
shouted. “Use them!”
Without saying anything, Christopher placed
his hands on the barely lit helm—thanking himself for taking the time to
memorize the controls—and then set a course away from a horrid death in the
side of a mountain.
For her part, Erin simply clutched the arms
of her chair and watched as the mountain’s face slowly crept out of sight. For a very—very—brief moment, Erin
thought they had averted disaster… but the ship was still moving incredibly
fast, and without anything but maneuvering thrusters, it was still heading for
the ground—and a very large pine tree.
Erin’s eyes briefly crept over to Alan, who was concentrated solely on
the helm. “Alan,” she said
quietly. “You might want to watch out
for that—”
But her warning was too late.
Rocks and pine needles danced over the
windshield, and the forward section of the hull made an unpleasant creak as it
was forced out of shape by the tree. Christopher quickly shoved himself away
from the helm as it burst into flames—and by that time, the helm didn’t really
matter. The Dark Star had already gone out of control, and was skittering
rampantly across one of the rocky terraces about halfway up the
mountain—nothing could be done to save it.
The manic Dark Star skittered over a large rock, throwing the vessel onto its
side and into the air amidst a massive cloud of roiling dust. As one of the warp nacelles broke away from
the hull and crashed to the ground, the other belched out a considerable amount
of pasty blue drive plasma before bursting into flames.
After cutting through some thick underbrush
and a few more rocks and trees, the smoldering hulk that was once the Dark
Star finally came to rest in its rocky grave.
“We
have to get out of here!” Christopher shouted as the ship finally came to a
stop.
That task was easier said than done,
however. The ship was resting at nearly
a forty-five degree angle, and flames were pouring out of every conceivable
access point. In the background, the
faint sound of the dying warp core could be heard, a sound that concerned
Christopher greatly.
Without hesitation, Erin ripped the phaser
from her belt and increased its setting to maximum—a setting that would
completely vaporize anything everything that came in contact with the
beam. She pointed it at the ceiling and
fired. The bright orange beam pulsed
rapidly as it encompassed its target in a radiant red-orange hue. Moments later, as Keller ceased firing, the
ceiling simply withered away, revealing the great outdoors once more.
Rapidly, Christopher stepped through the new
doorway, followed closely by Erin.
Without bothering to look back, both Christopher and Keller raced for
cover behind a considerable rock as the agitated warp core started to fracture,
an event so powerful that it shook the ground.
“Get down!” Alan told Erin as they crouched
down behind their rock. He just hoped
it would be sufficient.
Seconds later, an immensely powerful explosion
rocked the entire mountain, spewing a mushroom cloud of flames and debris out
in every conceivable direction. For a
brief moment, Alan saw the rush of flames creep around the edge of their rocky
alcove—only to be extinguished by the lack of oxygen at their altitude—if
anything, that was their saving grace.
As the debris settled down and the flames
died out, a feeling of doom flooded over both Christopher and Keller—they had
just witnessed the death of the Dark Star…
As the Dark
Star’s smoldering hulk
elicited its final gasps of thick gray smoke, Erin slowly placed her back up
against the large gray rock that served as their shelter, and slid to the
ground. “Now what?” she asked after
expelling a hopeless sigh.
“I’m not sure,” said Alan as he joined her
on the ground. “We’re all by our
lonesome in the mountains in a region where sensors can’t find us, and any ship
that tries will be destroyed. It
sounds less than optimistic, doesn’t it?”
“It does,” Erin concurred. “I could
use something to eat.”
Alan pulled a small, leafy plant from the
ground and held it up before Erin. “Balifexis,”
he told her before throwing it over the edge of the cliff. “Not a very tasty plant, but high in
nutrients—and toxins. If I were you,
I’d stick to emergency rations.”
Erin pulled up a similar plant and threw it
over the edge. “To bad there aren’t
any,” she said, motioning with her head toward the Dark Star’s remains. “If I
starve to death, promise you’ll eat me.
I’d hate to rot on this damn mountain.”
“There’s not enough oxygen up here to start
a fire—I hate raw meat,” said Alan.
“But if you’d like, I can throw you over the edge of this precipice.”
Erin tossed yet another plant over the
edge. “Just make sure I’m dead
first.” As she moved to grab another balifexis
from the ground, her hand stumbled upon a sharp object in the vegetation. She quickly thumbed the object and brought
it to Alan’s attention.
It was a small diamond-shaped crystal with
alien writing inscribed upon the golden sphere in its center. “It looks like ancient Ka’Tulan writing,”
Alan decided. “I can’t read it,
though.”
Erin hastily surveyed the surrounding
terrain for other similar crystals.
Though she didn’t see any, she did see something else. “Footprints,” she whispered. “And they look fairly recent.”
“I’m fairly certain this spot isn’t a very
popular tourist attraction,” said Alan.
“Those footprints could be Drayan’s.”
Erin frowned. “Is your sister related to
Bigfoot?”
“Big-who?”
“Some sort of almost-human beast that lives deep
in the forest on Earth,” explained Erin.
“Oh,” said Alan. “Well in that case, there’s a good chance they’re related,” he
quipped before realizing his joke probably wasn’t as funny as it sounded.
Though Erin smiled, she didn’t laugh.
Instead, she rose to her feet and brushed aside the excess dirt clinging
her filthy uniform. “Let’s go,” she
decided.
And without any additional banter, Alan
abandoned his spot beside the rock and made haste to catch up with Erin,
already several meters ahead of him.
Little did they know, they were being
watched…