[2259.116] -- [Away Mission on Dayoumir VII] -- [Open Post]

[kirktastic]

(OOC: If you want to be a part of this away mission, please read the whole post including OOC comments at the end for all information, captains orders, etc.)

Kirk stared down at the ice planet on the forward view screen unhappily. He didn't have the best relationships with ice planets, and the idea of going down to this one had him less than pleased. The circumstances surrounding it he liked even less. The report he had gotten from Starfleet was complete - up until one week ago. The colony on the planet had vanished into silence, reminding him painfully of Juxta. The Enterprise happened to be the closest ship capable of handling something like this, and here they were.



The information started off basic. It wasn't a colony meant to spread humanity throughout the universe, but instead it was meant sheerly to be able to harvest a rare mineral that didn't get formed beneath the ground, but was actually contained in the ice itself. There were more detailed reports on that, but that was more Spock's area than his. A colony of more than two hundred that had been reporting well and good up until a week ago, but when their weekly report came, Starfleet got nothing at all.

The colony was spread out over a large area - Kirk had a good set of maps to work with - but the area was dangerous. The ice seemed to spread and move almost like a living thing, and Starfleet suggested that if something happened to, say, the colony's energy sources, it could have already started taking over buildings.

Jim stared down at the console in front of him, then stood up. Messages flew out to certain people quickly, Jim leaning over and typing, unable to sit still.

To: Spock, Bones

I need you to look over the attached information, find me the best people you think will be right for this. We'll need to be able to cover a large area to get all information required. Get back to me, quickly.

Captain Kirk

He set Communications on trying to reach anyone at all down on the planet. His father and Uhura in particular, knowing they above all others would be able to pull off a miracle while they got their away team together.

There was just something in his bones that wasn't settled right about this, and he didn't even know why.





Major Thread Starts (post new threads under the topic it matches to, please!)

All Sign Up Threads
All Transporter Room Threads
All Debriefing+Transport Threads
Beginning of the Away Mission/After Transport


(OOC: There's the beginning of it! Here's how this'll work - check the first comment below to 'sign up' for the away mission and to get orders for your character. This is meant to be a serious mission, not crack, so please take that in mind. We won't be waiting for people to post, this will be more like a 'party post' in the sense that things will be going on at different times to different people. Occasionally, and without warning (mwhahaha) the NPC_Aliens account will be posting on individual threads as to planet and/or outside influences will be occurring. If you have questions, want something specific to happen, or would like a particular thing to do, send me a PM/IM.)

Comments

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

Progress.

Spock let out a slow breath, eyes closing as his adrenaline died down. His mind relaxed, too, so he could better focus on the meld (was this even a meld?).

The connection was muffled. It took him a moment to figure out why, staring at his hand, before he realized that his glove was still protecting his hand. For a moment, he sat at a stalemate of whether to risk his fingers or to just forget about this meager attempt at saving his own life...

He huffed out a breath. Fingers could be saved. Spock withdrew his hand, wrenched the glove off, and then pressed his now-bare palm to the rough, pocked, horrifyingly cold bone matter. His body gave a violent shiver, scraping some of the lighter bones around him, but he kept his hand there.

What are you?

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[npc-aliens.livejournal.com]

The ethereal head jerked unseen, and the pressure turned into a strange nuzzling sensation. The creature was clearly curious about him.

What are you?

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

...what was the word? Petakov? Adorable?

Spock. He told the creature, and with it the essence of what he was, Vulcan-Human, male, young, a scientist. Why am I here? Is this your...home?

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[npc-aliens.livejournal.com]

The curiosity ceased at the word home and the sound echoed again in Spock's mind, but with knowledge. It was a roar, something heard from beyond the grave.

THIS IS NOT MY HOME.

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

And there was the pain again, not as concentrated but still there. His hand moved across the bone.

Then why am I here?

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[npc-aliens.livejournal.com]

The air between them rippled.

Food.

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

Spock wondered if his father had ever come upon this situation during his younger diplomatic days when he didn't cater to the Sol system explicitly. Probably not, as Starfleet (him) usually sorted these things out, first.

...I do not want to be eaten. Is there something else you can consume?

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[npc-aliens.livejournal.com]

Last of food gone. You and others came. Will devour.

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

This was going well. He scrambled for another question, something to keep it talking, but his hand was cold, his nerves were cold, this bone pile was uncomfortable...

What do you eat? Specifically?

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[npc-aliens.livejournal.com]

Energy.

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

Not a straight forward answer. Kinetic? Electromagnetic? Thermal? Spock wouldn't suggest "life-energy", since that had no place in his body of knowledge...yet it looked the most probably answer at this point.

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[npc-aliens.livejournal.com]

Energy.

The ethereal figure stepped forward, but didn't seem willing to touch the bones for whatever reason.

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

Whatever the creature ate, there was a strong likelihood it wasn't a component Spock could live without.

Does something else have this energy you need?

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[npc-aliens.livejournal.com]

Energy. We are starved for it.

The creature poked towards the bones, a huge skeletal claw trying to move them.

We will not die.

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

Spock shifted away from the creature, pushing his back up against the other bones and the other side of the rib cage. Do not take my energy, He told the creature directly, though held back on simply forcing it through. I can find other sources for you. Not other people necessarily, but there had to be an artificial means to simulate it.

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[npc-aliens.livejournal.com]

Hungry, so hungry, they destroyed us. They deserve to be our prey!

There was a blast of rage, rage deeper than the heart could take, that Spock had felt once in his life before at a Romulan not to long ago. It echoed so much longer though, through ages and ages of time that made Vulcans look like specs of light in the eye of the universe.

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

He still hadn't shaken the rage completely. There were distractions--love, work, danger--but none of it truly soothed the blame he placed on Nero, and he doubted it would ever really disappear.

It didn't mean that this blast didn't hurt, the sheer magnitude and intensity of it making him curl up and press his forehead to his arm as he tried to compartmentalize it away.

I am not them.

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[npc-aliens.livejournal.com]

YOU COME AND INVADE OUR WORLD, LIKE THEY DID. THEY DESTROYED OUR WORLD, DESTROYED OUR KIND.

It was screaming now, its anger building.

YOU COME AGAIN TO HARVEST WHAT YOU PLEASE.

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

This was like dealing with a child. A human child.

Or, similarly, a Romulan.

You do not know that. He still tried to get through. A migraine began to build right between his eyes. There is nothing here that I want.

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[npc-aliens.livejournal.com]

I have witnessed it since they've come! Their machines that dig into the ice, leave holes in a dying world!

It focused on him, like a laser.

We want to live again.

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

Spock wasn't so certain that he could maneuver himself away from the sight, either, anchored where he was against the bones and into this other mind.

How do you know doing this will resurrect...you or your world? His hand was beginning to ache, too. I assume you took the others, and yet you are still not "alive."

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[npc-aliens.livejournal.com]

There must be a way, must be a way to save them...!

Something rolled over Spock. It was as strong as that anger, but this time, it was a great void of sadness. It pulled on his mind, then pulled it down into darkness.

He saw a completely different world. It was lush, and beautiful, and he could see the creature as it once was. It was almost reptile like, with shaggy layers of scales. Two great blue eyes with no pupils, and it was as large as one of the great dinosaurs of Terran history.

It had children... a mother. Those children discovered the thing in the ground. Shiny and strange and alien. She warned them to stay away, but strangers found them. They started to kill her children, one by one, and roast and devour them while the land around the alien-thing started to die.

There was no where to go. They couldn't swim, and there was no where left on the planet as the green died faster and faster. The water tasted bad, couldn't drink salt.

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

Ecological disasters weren't foreign to his mind or the history he had learned; Vulcans hadn't always shared their land well, eliminating what could kill them or taming what was smart enough to surrender. A different time, a different planet, both gone. This, too, tainted his memories of dinosaur films and books he had been provided as a child.

There may be a possible solution, or a way I can assist you, but only if I am alive. Spock did want to help, pushing through that desire and willingness towards the creature, but he wasn't so skilled as to directly change its mind.

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[npc-aliens.livejournal.com]

The creature only continued. It's emotions poured over Spock as the creature watched the last of her species die, lumbering pregnant, her life-mate dead and gone as he protected her. She found her way to a deep cave, somewhere warmer than the above ground. She was exhausted, afraid.

She was intelligent. No others of her kind had been seen since her life-mate died. She gave birth laying in the very depths of the cave. Her children suckled at her, but there was little to give.

They died, one by one, without ever having seen the light of day. The overwhelming sense of grief, loss, as she nosed the dead bodies of her last litter. Alone. Alone.

Then, alone, she died.

Re: AWAY MISSION - It be cold, Vulcan.

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

Unpleasant. He had felt worse but this would be a near second or third, the horrible, cold, empty feeling of dying. In the back of his mind, it almost felt familiar, but he didn't know from where (or whom).

How are you here, if you are dead?