“Decision Bells”
Stardate 74417.5;
June 02, 2397
Episode 59
Prologue
Golden rays of sunshine
streaked across the placid morning sky, shedding light on a new day—and if all went well, a new Federation
colony. For the better part of a week,
the Starlight had been combing over the entire region in search of a world
suitable for colonization, and today seemed to be their lucky day.
Erin Keller stood in the middle of a vast,
rolling countryside, tricorder in hand—though she had yet to scan
anything. Her senses were still wrapped
in the crisp morning air, and the constant droning and chirping of the insect
population was presently more engaging than any data her tricorder
proffered. Besides, Erin knew that
while she was making the most of this delicate moment, the others were toiling
away at their tricorders, gathering all the data they could possibly desire,
and then some.
A large deciduous tree loomed just a few
dozen meters away, but its shadow, exaggerated by the sun’s low angle, danced
quietly beneath Erin’s feet. This,
she decided, is worthy of my attention.
Erin swiftly pointed the tricorder at the tree, and watched as some data
flitted across the screen. It was
nothing earth shattering, and Erin quickly discarded the data in favor of a
visual analysis.
She estimated the tree was still young—ten,
perhaps fifteen years old. Its bark was
smooth and undamaged, and none of its three-pronged leaves appeared to be
damaged or diseased. And perhaps best
of all, it would make for a perfect place to sit and watch the sun creep above
the horizon. She carefully seated
herself on the ground before the tree, making herself comfortable in the crisp,
dew-laden grass just as the shimmering golden sun began to peek over the
distant horizon.
“So far, so good,” said Kendall
Johnson. He stood about a meter away,
apparently more interested in duty than the sunrise.
Erin afforded him only a moment’s
attention. “Keep me apprised,” she
said, and abruptly turned back to the sunrise.
Kendall, however, did not catch the
drift. “Talyere and Doctor Hartman are
already running some analyses on the soil and water. That’s looking good, too.
No contaminants of any kind have been found so far, and in fact, I’m
willing to bet that this place is going to make for an…”
As warm, sundry rays of morning light washed
over her body, Erin suddenly found herself oblivious to Kendall’s discursive
babble. The exquisite sunrise was a
moment in time so perfect, it deserved nothing less than Erin’s complete and
undivided attention.
Slowly, the vibrant sun crept into the sky,
banishing whatever darkness that remained and spreading warmth and joy over
this strange new world—and as this perfect moment reached its apex, Erin Keller
was soon reminded of another similar moment…
Another perfect day…
For as far as the eye could see, the rolling hills of some distant
planet were alive with the delicate pink and purple blossoms of Ti’vhalan
Orchids, the cool, gentle breeze carrying their sweet scent through the crisp
morning air. As Erin wandered through
the seemingly endless plain, the warm sunlight beat down on her skin, bringing
a smile to her face.
At Erin’s side, the delicate little Angela. Her head happily bobbed back and forth as
she took in the sights and sounds of the verdant expanse, her cheerful laughter
carrying along in the gentle wind.
“Come on, Mommy!”
She wandered a bit further, periodically looking back to that her
mommy was still there, until finally, something in the grass caught her
attention. Slowly, Angela dropped her
ragged pink blanket on the ground and got down on her hands and knees to
investigate the spectacle before her.
“Mommy!” she called out excitedly, “I found a bug!”
Erin quickly crouched down behind her daughter to see this bug for
myself—and a smile immediately cracked her face. “That’s not a bug, silly!”
Angela quickly turned to her mother, shocked. “Then what is it?” she asked curiously.
“It’s called a butterfly…”
Erin’s eyes suddenly blinked open. The perfect moment was over, and given the shrill noises coming
from Kendall’s tricorder, she had a lingering feeling that the moments that
would follow would be far from perfection.
“What is it?”
Kendall’s brow furrowed as he studied the data. “I… I don’t know,” he admitted. The discursive confidence that had filled
his voice earlier was completely gone.
“It looks like there’s something beneath the surface…” He gulped.
“A compound of some sort.”
“The last time I checked, this place was uninhabited.” Keller quickly plucked the tricorder from
her belt and flipped it open.
Immediately, it was abuzz with activity.
“There aren’t any life signs,” said Kendall. “Just a compound.”
“I see,” said Keller, her tricorder confirming Kendall’s
words. “How the hell did we miss that
before we beamed down?”
Kendall shrugged. “I don’t
know. There must be some kind of
dampening field that prevents long-range scans… or something.”
Or something. That was the part Erin didn’t like. In her myriad experiences, “or something”
tended to be rather unpleasant, and with that in mind, she rose to her feet,
brushed the grass and dirt from her bottom, and went to a mental yellow alert.
Her first task at this heightened alert status was to collect the
rest of the away team—Sarah Hartman and Talyere. And since they were already approaching, Erin decided she could
move on to her next task. She quickly
tapped her communicator. “Keller to Starlight.”
There was a brief moment of silence before Alan Christopher’s
reassuring, and perhaps overly confident voice filled the air. “What is it, Erin?”
She made hast to glean as much data from her tricorder as
possible, and then said, “We’ve found
some sort of complex beneath the surface.
I can’t determine much else, other than the fact that it’s big.”
“Sound interesting,” said Christopher. “Poke around a little bit, see what’s
going on, and keep me apprised of the situation.”
Erin nodded. “Very well,”
she said. “Keller out.”
Less than a second later, Talyere was at Keller’s side, examining
the data on her tricorder screen. After
a moment’s study, he pointed to the small topographical map in the corner. “Doctor Hartman and I believe there is an
entrance at these coordinates.”
Immediately, Keller zoomed in on the indicated coordinates and
placed them under a bit of scrutiny.
“That’s about a kilometer away,” she mumbled, but found that she could
not deny Talyere’s assumption. There
was clearly some sort of passageway…
“Why don’t we check it out?”
Fifteen minutes later, Keller stood at the entrance to the
compound. A few small bushes occluded a
dark brown hatch built into the ground, and if she hadn’t been looking for it,
Keller was relatively certain she wouldn’t have found it. Using her boot, she cleared away some of the
twigs from the hatch and then tapped at the small interface that subsequently
surfaced. The doors smoothly hissed
apart, and revealed a bulky metallic ladder that lead straight down into the
heart of the compound.
Erin stared down into the abyss for a long moment. She didn’t hear anything ominous, nor did
she see anything—but to her chagrin, that did little to appease the butterflies
in her stomach.
“I’m not detecting dangerous anything down there,” Hartman gleaned
from her tricorder after a long moment.
“But if you can’t handle it, I’ll go first.”
Keller glared at Hartman.
“I can handle it, thank you very much,” she affirmed. “I’m just collecting my thoughts.”
“Well, handle them a little faster,” scoffed Hartman. “We don’t have all day.”
Ignoring the Doctor’s banter, Keller turned her attention back to
the abyss. It was dark, but in
retrospect, wasn’t all too foreboding—and with that in mind, Keller carefully
lowered herself into the hole, asserted herself on the ladder, and then
carefully made her descent into darkness.
As she descended, the moist, clammy air almost immediately made
Keller’s clothes stick to her body.
Even worse, the stale air reeked of sulfur, a stench so uninviting it
made her want to retreat to the surface and vomit. But above her, Erin could already hear Kendall’s boots clanking
on the rungs. Retreat was not an
option; thus, she forged ahead, and after a few moments, eventually reached the
bottom.
When she hopped off the ladder, Keller was surprised to find a
smooth tiled floor beneath her feet.
The walls, though still shrouded in darkness, were obviously
manufactured, and in the distance, Keller could see faint lights at the end of
a long corridor. While she waited for
the others to descend, she decided those lights would be their ultimate
destination.
The clanking of boots on the ladder stopped after a few moments,
and two wrist beacons summarily flared to life; both Talyere and Hartman had
brought beacons. Keller, however, was
not expecting to visit a dank underground compound, and didn’t bother to pack
one… Now she wished she had.
The lights didn’t reveal anything interesting, however. The floor was gray, as were the walls—and
considering their underground location, they were incredibly well kept, giving
the entire facility a sterile feeling.
But that feeling died the second Keller took a step forward.
She stumbled on something.
It moved, slightly… then
groaned, and in an instant, both light beacons were shining on the gray clad
body at Keller’s feet. Slowly, one of
the beams began to traverse the body, and it didn’t take long for Erin Keller
to realize that she had literally stumbled upon trouble.
It was a humanoid with earthy, grayish-brown skin, a string of
lackluster bumps on either side of its head, and a pair of terrified green eyes
that seemed to drill into Erin Keller’s skull.
It was a Velora…