From: Alix Fowler (selyara_at_hotmail.com)
Date: Fri Aug 31 2007 - 23:33:10 PDT
"I'm a pilot, not an Alien" (cont. "The other team") * * * * * * * * * * * * * Location: RESTIIN II Stardate: 2.70901.0222 Scene: West Path Tanith reached up to scratch a vicious itch that had started somewhere on her shoulder blade, and grumbled inwardly as they trekked across the baked desert. **Why are these things always so *damn* itchy?** She thought to herself. **And who do they think we'll fool with them anyhow? *I* at least will look like a really tall, really anorexic one of them... I wonder if they have supermodels here?** The idea of that amused her greatly, and she whistled a little tune she'd picked up in her years of aimless wandering. The ensign nearest her turned to give her a rather curious look. "Bored?" He asked, a wry- or at least she thought it was wry- look on his face. "Itchy, mostly. And a bit bored. This would be so much more fun if they'd dropped us down here with no food and water." She scratched at her shoulder blade again. "Not that we're here for my own personal entertainment." "Fan of survival adventures?" Cochrane asked, keeping pace with her. The woman had been rather silent and cold when she was on the ship, keeping mostly to herself and interacting with the rest of the crew only when it seemed necessary, and this sudden interest and direct interaction surprised him to some extent. "Oh yes." Her face changed from it's rather dour expression to one that he suspected would have glowed if she hadn't been completely covered in prosthetics. "Can't get enough of it. You know there's something very powerful about having to work to survive, I suppose it's like getting back to your animal instincts or something. I always feel much more alive on one of my jaunts than when I'm stuck on the ship or something. That's boring as sin." "Well, Starfleet isn't exactly the best place for one who hates being on ships, is it? Rather interesting career choice you made." He responded glancing back over his shoulder to where Daniel was laboring his way up the path, his face looking strained. "It beat what I was doing before this." She said sharply, the closed, ferocious expression returning to her face like a wall slamming down. She looked back at the marine, and then back at the path. "Is he okay? I thought Marines were supposed to be fit, but he doesn't look like he'll make it up the hill alive the way he's going." "I think he got stabbed in some sort of insurgency among refugees recently. At least I seem to remember that. And I think you're exaggerating a bit anyhow, he's no worse than most officers." Cochrane kept padding forward. "I guess." Tanith's expression eased a bit, but her sudden deadening silence said she was still pondering the issue. The terrain was pretty enough, deep red sandstone outcroppings, mixed with little tufts of vegetation and occasional darting forms of animal life seen out of the corner of the corner of the eye, but there was a sort of unbearable *silence* around it that seemed more oppressive to the away team than any heat or humidity. The rocks beneath their feet became almost imperceptibly more rounded until instead of outcroppings, they looked more like rust colored pillows, or tufts of wool than anything else, and the plant life sprang more vigorously from the soil between them, adding occasional spots of color to the landscape. "Water path." Tanith remarked, glancing at the sky. "We're lucky there seems to be no chance of rain today we could find ourselves in a flash flood. Some probably came through quite recently though, from the look of the flora, I bet there's some still down if you dug deep enough." "Probably." The half Caitian agreed as the ground turned from rocks to a fine red silt which stuck all over their boots, skin and clothing. He froze, his ears picking up something from below his feet. "Wait, do you hear tha-" The sentiment was drowned out by the sudden sound of Tanith's yowl of surprise, Ben's grunt as the wind was knocked from him, and the sound of sand and stone falling as the ground gave way underneath the hapless officers. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Scene: Underground caves. Tanith exploded out from under the pile of sand spitting and cursing as she tried to get the grit out from her mouth and nose and watering eyes. Near her a pile moved as her Captain sat up with considerably more decorum. Ensign Stephens had miraculously, or perhaps due to his feline heritage, managed to land on his feet, rather than in an ungainly sprawl, though from the expression on his face he had not managed much better in the 'sand in the orifices' department. The three officers looked up at the hole some 15 feet above their heads. "Are you okay down there?" Daniel's voice filtered down from where he stood outside the hole, a safe distance from the still unstable edge. Kenta looked around at his officers, who gave a thumbs up. "No injuries here. It looks like the ceiling of this place just got too thin to handle the weight of the sand, and with the recent rain and all of us on top, it just gave way." "Well what next?" Daniel's voice was somewhat anxious. Under normal circumstances he probably could have hauled them up by a rope, but he didn't think he quite had the strength. "I think you might have to come down here." Kenta eyed the edges of the hole. "It seems rather unstable around the edges, trying to climb up from down here might be very dangerous and result in a cave in on the other crew waiting to climb." "And the caves would be a perfect place to conceal some technology where it couldn't be found." Tanith added, spitting on her hand and attempting to scrub the rest of the dust from her face, but succeeding only in making it smeary and streaky. "Okay, hang on then, I'll find my way down." Daniel said with a sigh. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * NRPG: General tag? I'm settled down at grad school now, go me, and ready to start writing again! Congrats to Rahul, I know you and Erik will make a great team, I can't wait to write under you two! Alix Fowler <selyara_at_hotmail.com> Lt. Tanith Corwin FCO USS PATRIOT "A dew sufficed itself And satisfied a leaf, And said How vast a destiny How trivial is life." -Emily Dickenson. _________________________________________________________________ Kick back and relax with hot games and cool activities at the Messenger Café. http://www.cafemessenger.com?ocid=TXT_TAGHM_SeptHMtagline1 From HyperNews_at_youth.net
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