Into Darkness (Part II)

Posted on Sun Feb 16th, 2025 @ 5:42am by Lieutenant JG LuAnn Lovegood & Lieutenant Commander Anahera Chernova & Lieutenant Commander Aaron Marcus & Lieutenant Amanda Rose & Lieutenant Percival Bálor Ph.D

1,540 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Standing By
Location: Priapus

[PREVIOUSLY]

"Marcus to Lieutenant Lovegood. I am reading Lieutenant Balor in distress. As Chief Medical Officer I am transporting him back to this shuttle for treatment. Stand by for transport." He began to get a lock on Percy's communicator.

[CONTINUED]

"Acknowledged." There really wasn't anything else she could say. The doctor was right. Percy was in full panic mode and he would be better off on the shuttle under the doctor's care than sitting in the scientist's base of operations.

"Energizing now." Aaron said and Percy disappeared into the transporter effect, a moment later the Lieutenant materialized in the shuttle. Aaron administered 3 ccs Alprazolam via hypospray to settle the panic attack and then sedated the Lieutenant for the time being. "Transport complete Marcus out." He closed the channel and took a look at Percy's vital signs. The medications had begun to take effect and his vitals stabilized.

LuAnn tapped her combadge. "Lovegood to Chernova and Rose. The doctor transported Percy to the shuttle for treatment. If you think it's safe, find out if the bodies of the scientists are in that cave, but don't get yourselves in trouble." Or eaten.

Anahera tapped her badge to confirm she'd received the message, and continued to evade the bear.

The bear got close and its paw clawed at Anahera. She unsheathed her K-Bar knife and stabbed at the animal's paw.

It sliced at the tender flesh of its paw, the bear withdrew it and, roared in pain.

"Stay back, fluffy." She called.

LuAnn had a bad feeling about whatever was in the cave, but she wasn't going to run in there to help. Not with two armed security officers already there. And Amanda who was...somewhere. She wasn't sure if the other counselor was going to the building or staying what the security team. She shook her head. She needed to go in the back and see if she could at least get the power working. So, she wouldn't startle any wild creatures, she began to whistle an old Disney tune.

Just as Amanda had arrived at the Command Center, Percy evaporated in a transporter beam. She cursed, "Damn it, Doctor! Always acting too quickly!" With that, she headed back to where the Doctor was located and looked to see if Aaron and Percy were both there. Either way, the Doctor was going to get a piece of her mind.

Seeing an opening, Anahera leapt forward into a small alcove. The sickly sweet smell of rooting flesh invaded her nostrils. It was unfortunately a familiar stench to her.

Looking up, the Security Chief spotted a stalactite hanging down from the cave ceiling in front of the alcove.

The bear lumbered towards her. As he came in range, Anahera fired, praying she wouldn't bring the whole place down.

The pulse hit the ceiling where cone-shaped stalactite was affixed.

The stone 'horn' fell burying itself in the Cave Bear's brain. There was a short roar of pain and surprise, and then the oversized teddy bear crashed to the cave floor, kicking up dust.

Anahera examined the alcove and found the mauled corpses of the scientists.

Knelling down, she began the unenviable job of scanning and identifying the scientists.

"Chernova to Lovegood, I've defeated the Cave Bear and discovered the scientists' bodies."

"Excellent that you took care of the cave bear. Did you find all of them?" LuAnn was not looking forward to reporting this to Percy, but she wouldn't give that task to anyone else, either. "If you can mark them all for transport, the Ontario can beam up the bodies as soon as it returns."

"I've found four and I'm marking them for transport now." Anahera said. "There's tunnel exit nearby. I'll see what I can find."

Four. Not all, but it was enough to assume the rest were dead. "Roger. Be careful." LuAnn let out a slow breath. Percy was not going to like this. She wouldn't tell him until he was stable. And maybe not until the Ontario was here to beam them up.

Anahera moved carefully though the cave exit, her eyes adjusting to the light. When she was several steps away from the cave, a bush in front of her began to rustle.

Before she could move her rifle into a firing position, a large raptor burst from the bush and pounced at her.

Before it could reach her, the former mercenary, punched it in the side of the head with her metal fist, sending it flying across the clearing and landing with a loud, wet crunch.

Others converged on her and she readied herself for battle. Then she heard a voice shout "Take cover.!" Before an armed concussion grenade rolled in front of the raptors.

Jumping behind a large fallen tree, Anahera protected her head with her hands, as the grenade threw the raptors to the ground with great force.

Once the raptors were incapacitated, a female figure, hole in a nearby tree and rushed to Anahera's position.

Looking up, Anahera was surprised to see a Vulcan face. "I'm a friend." The Vulcan said, seeing Anahera reach automatically for her weapon.

Anahera had a lot of questions, but they'd have to wait. "Thanks for the assist. I'm Lt. Commander Anahera Chernova, Security Chief of the USS Ontario."

"Doctor T'Fral Khan, Geologist." She replied.

As soon as she heard the explosion, LuAnn tapped her combadge. "Lovegood to away team. Is everyone okay? What happened?"

Amanda called back on the open comm, =^= I'm fine but when I find the Doctor, he may not be. =^=

Aaron monitored the comm traffic and laughed at Thorny's comment. Percy was resting comfortably on the biobed in the rear of the shuttle. It seemed that the storm they tracked had begun to make its way in faster than expected. To make all matters worse the sensors read a large explosion. He quickly took a look at the vital sign readouts. Thorny was alive and well, Lovegood showed no worse for wear. Chernova showed the typical effects of physical exertion and fight or flight response activated but other than that no immediate danger. "Well, it looks like our Security Chief is having a grand ole time blowing something up. Glad it is not themselves." He said to essentially empty shuttle.

Anahera was going to reply to Lovegood, when Khan grabbed her shoulder. "Anahera, it will be dark soon, we best return to the shelter of my tree. You can contact your crew from there. The scavengers come out at night, and they are not too concerned whether their food is dead or still living."

"Understood." Anahera said and followed the Vulcan scientist into shelter.

Once in the shelter, Anahera tapped her comm. "Chernova to Lovegood. I've discovered a survivor. She was responsible for the explosion." Anahera said. "Also make sure everyone is in shelter when night falls, it seems the local 'clean up' teams aren't picky about what they clean up."

Report made she turned her attention to Dr. Khan. "So, what happened?"

"We were searching the cave structure for ancient relics." T'Fral began. "Things were going well, we found some relics that they archaeologists began studying and cataloguing for travel. I was studying rock formations. While our leader and our chief biologist were studying native flora and fauna." She sighed. "Then we met the cave bear...."

"Anahera, I'm in the building they used as an office. Is that safe enough?" LuAnn wasn't so sure with the blood trail. "The doctor and Percy are in the shuttle."

Amanda made her way back to the shuttle and looked for the Doctor. He was going to get a piece of her mind, the moment that she saw him, well, maybe after she checked on the annoying pig.

Aaron had monitored the communication traffic and realized that he had been right all along. The shuttle was the safest place on the planet right now. He checked the status of the storm coming in and realized he had a short window to get everyone back. "Marcus to Lieutenant Lovegood. Lieutenant I have transporter lock on everyone including the doctor with Commander Chernova. Recommend I transport you all back here to wait out the storm and return to Ontario as soon as possible."

"Agreed. Beam us aboard." LuAnn made sure she had the data from the computer, as they weren't likely to come back.

"Very well. Everyone stand by for transport. We only get one shot at this so please no one move." It was at this point that Aaron noticed that Amanda had already made it back to the shuttle. Great. One transport I don't have to worry about. he thought. "Thorny sit down and be quiet and that is an order. Before you say anything keep in mind I outrank you and I am your Department Chief. So, this is just to let you know I have a whole bag of sit down and shut up with your name on it."

(To be continued...)

Lieutenant JG LuAnn Lovegood
Counselor/Botanist
USS Ontario

Lieutenant Amanda Rose
Chief Counselor
USS Ontario

Lieutenant Percival Bálor
Chief Science Officer
USS Ontario

Lieutenant Commander Aaron Marcus
Chief Medical Officer
USS Ontario

Lieutenant Commander Anahera Chernova
Chief Security and Tactical Officer
USS Ontario

 

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