From: Peter Aspinall (writing_rules_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Mar 10 2008 - 06:13:26 PDT
“Anybody home?” (contd-“Small Steps.”)
Location: ATLIV II
Scene: Outside
Stardate: [2.8]0310.1314
The village was eerie, despite it being daylight none
of the huts where the villagers lived were
particularly bright, and there appeared to be no power
for the lighting most of them had installed.
The team entered the third hut, slowly and
methodically as they had the last two, Izzy taking
point. The main room was, as with the last two, a
large living area combining all the necessary
functions, an area with cooking utensils and a basin
was stacked with pans that had not yet been washed.
Most disturbing though was the large table that
dominated the central space; here simple plates, some
of them a little misshapen as though people had tried
their hand at making their own, lay on the table, all
of them had food on them, the remains of a meal only
half eaten, most of the eating utensils lay on the
table but several platters of food caused Peter to
glance at the floor where sure enough a few of the
utensils lay as though dropped.
“This is creepy.” Pointed out Izzy matter of factly.
“Yes, I get no residual energy readings, no signs of
weapons fire, but then where is everybody?” Commented
Peter as he played a tricorder across the walls of the
hut.
Xordin was clearly worried, his people were vanishing,
they had found no one, no bodies either, they had just
disappeared.
“I find no biologicals that shouldn’t be here.”
Commented Aerdan.
“Lets move on then.” Called Peter as he waved the
others out of the hut, once again Izzy going first and
Peter bringing up the rear.
This hut was the worst of the lot for each of them; as
they approached they all heard something inside the
hut, Izzy entered with her phaser drawn, and Aerdan
nearly walked in to her.
The floor was swimming with water, the tap in the
relatively simple plumbing the villagers had set up
was still running in to a basin of dishes. Floating in
the water was a doll; Peter felt as thought he could
almost hear a young girl asking where her dolly was.
“I don’t think we are going to find anything.” Said
Peter hurridly from the doorway.
“I agree.” Replied Aerdan not taking his eyes off the
flooded room.
Izzzy didn’t reply but moved further in to the room,
sloshing through the water, her tail held high as
though she was afraid of getting it wet.
Peter nearly called her back but stopped as he
realised what she was going to do.
Relatively silence broke as she turned off the tap,
only punctuated by the regular dripping from the
surface around the basin. On her way back Izzy picked
up the doll and sat her on a chair facing the door.
Peter couldn’t help but think that now the doll was
waiting for a little girl to come back.
“Xordin, the central building, I assume it houses all
the services for the village?” Asked Peter of the
Prince; their familiarity making such informality
easy.
“Power, communications, storage, the well is
underneath, yes everything that is for all the
village.”
“Then let’s try there, I don’t think we will find
anything different in any of the huts.” Peter said.
None of them complained, there was something
profoundly disturbing about the fact all life here
seemed to have just stopped in mid stride.
Scene: Palace corridor
Matthew was guided through the palace by one of the
aides to the royal family and as they walked he noted
many features that were reminiscent of the palace’s
time as a starship rather than a planet bound
building.
Still the place was large and comfortable and as they
climbed higher Matthew noted there seemed to have been
a subtle shift in gravity.
Unfortunately it also seemed that the palaces safety
measures were still functioning despite being on the
ground the breach in the outer hull of the palace as
it were was inaccessible.
“Is there any other way up there?” Asked Matthew.
“The only one I can think of would be to climb the
outer skin of the palace.” The aide looked quite
apologetic, but it was clear to Matthew if he wanted
to get this data.
“Well lets see about getting me outside then, is there
a balcony, an old airlock or something?”
“There is an exterior maintenance hatch two floors
down.” Responded the aide helpfully.
Matthew motioned for the aide to show him and then
wondered just what he was letting himself in for.
The hatch opened on to practically nothing, there was
a thin lip along the bottom edge of the doorway,
luckily the palace was not smooth and there should be
plenty of hand holds, especially when he got closer to
the damage.
He began to climb out when he looked down, and after
the initial sense of vertigo, realised he had a safety
net of sorts.
Nestled on the landing pad with doctors and the
injured moving in and out the ULYSSES could catch him
if he fell.
Tapping his commbadge he called ships computer, Arcus
of course being offline so that the holoprojectors
could instead allow the EMH to be used.
“ULYSSES, monitor my progress, I am going to climb the
palace exterior, if I fall please transport me to the
ground.”
[[Monitoring in progress.]] Replied the computer,
devoid of the resemblance of concern or even humanity
by the absence of Arcus’s interface.
Now, thought Matthew, he could climb and worry about
the problems of the mission and not about the distance
to the ground.
NRPG:
Ok guys, things seem quite, i have heard from some of
you but can people just let me know about any
problems? Hopefully Margie will be back with us
relatively soon but until then I will always respond
to an NRPG and I am sure if you are having problems
with things to write Joy will also be happy to help.
Peter Aspinall
STONEHENGE Webmaster
Council chair
The voices of.....
Cmdr Peter Aspinall
EXO
USS STONEHENGE
Lt Cmdr H. H. Drake
ILO
GS2
Lt Heath Carr
ACTi
Starfleet Academy
Adm Arto Halle
COO
Starfleet Command
test'; ">
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