Back To The Tower (part 1)

Posted on Fri Mar 11th, 2022 @ 7:02pm by Captain Bethsabée Leroux & Captain Stenn & Commander William Gerhard & Lieutenant JG Ethal Reade & Chief Petty Officer Manishie Karalo
Edited on on Fri Mar 11th, 2022 @ 7:03pm

Mission: Mission 5 - Babel
Location: Unknown Planet
Timeline: Day 280 20:00
4110 words - 8.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Beth had not thought they would be returning so quickly to the planet but here they were staring up at the tower trying to take it all in. It was amazing to see from below the sheer amount of power that seemed to be twisting out the top of it in light purple hues. The captain thought she would feel heat or something coming from the tower but it did not feel any hotter than it had been less than a day before if anything it was colder due to it being night.

She glanced around at the people assembled taking in their reactions to it all. It was a quickly assembled team and normally she would have sent Sam but with the lack of communication, she was needed as O’Connery was out of action in regard to being able to move around. Being a polyglot was important sometimes and why she had brought MacDonald as well.

Walker looked at the tower as they walked towards it. She was growing to hate the damned thing and with it emitting some kind of field that kept the ship from moving didn't help her view of it at all.

William gazed up at the tower before turning his attention to the doorway inside. There seemed to be light coming from inside, but he surmised it was just reflections coming from the top of the tower. He looked towards the captain for orders.

“Everyone clear on the plan? We go in and find the source.” They had the equipment to get up the tower after the stair collapse and to break through walls to investigate if they could find nothing in any of the rooms that were discovered empty.

Stenn had brought the Command Fire team with him, Magnusson and Singh, who both had passable Vulcan and McAndrews who spoke Gaelic and English but was excellent in battle signs. The MACO troopers gazed up at the Tower, this was Stenn's first encounter with the structure.

It was large, the outer surface with an almost metallic sheen to it, and tall, over seven hundred and fifty meters he estimated. He had read the reports that stated it was self-repairing, taking carbon molecules from the air to rebuild itself.

He was intrigued by the possibility that it was an organic structure, possibly sentient. Vulcan had machines with high levels of artificial intelligence, but that was not the same as being sentient. That led into questions about the crews’ intentions towards the structure. The beam from the tower was effectively immobilizing the ship and something needed to be done. He was not sure if going directly to an aggressive approach against the tower the right course of action.

Vulcans had nearly destroyed themselves and their planet through violence, the adoption of logic and the rejection of dangerous emotions had saved them. They were now an essentially peaceful society, yet logic and pragmatism dictated that sometimes the appliance of violence was the only course of action. Stenn’s own career was that of a solider, to apply violence is required, yet the decision to fight must still be based on logic.

“Have we fully considered the possible reasons for what is occurring before we take action?” He asked Leroux “What does the Tower intend to happen by disrupting our communications and holding us here, what is the outcome for the structure of such actions?”

Beth glanced to the Marine from staring up at the power coming from the tower towards her home. “The only estimation I can gather is whatever this is does not want us to leave.” Beth answer simply for the man before translating for the others to see if anyone else had any suggestions.

“That would appear to be the case, but, again, why?” Stenn replied

"The structure seems to have considerable power, yet it did not prevent us moving into orbit, nor from landing or physically entering itself. It did not prevent shuttles from moving to and from the ship. nor our movement around the surface. That beam could probably damage or destroy the Atlantis, but it is only preventing us moving. What does it achieve by holding the ship in orbit, something happened that triggered this action. If the structure is simply a programmed machine, is it some form of trap? Are we being detained for somebody else to come, whoever constructed it originally? It appears to be of great age, are those builders still alive and will they come?

If the structure is more sophisticated, perhaps sentient, it may still be following a programmed reaction, or it could have taken this action for another reason, one chosen... by itself. I recommend we should attempt to determine what those reasons may be, before proceeding further. " He finished with an old proverb "Knowledge gives strength to the arm"

Walker could only pick up a word or two of Vulcan due to her time guarding the Vulcan Embassy on Earth as she listened to the conversation between the MACO Commander and the Captain. She now wished she were more fluent in a second language other than Standard. How do we talk to it? Throw a rock at it?" she said but what came out to the others were "Cow po sea faulk shit? Fool a sock dat kit?"

Magnuss translated for Stenn. How does one communicate with a sentient structure? he wondered. Something from one of the reports came to him. "There was mention of markings, or writings on the inside, some kind of hieroglyphs?"

Beth raised an eyebrow at Walker but looking at the Marine and nodded. There had been hieroglyphs that O'Connery had been working on translating before the structure had failed.

William looked over at Walker with an upraised eyebrow as the gibberish flowed from her mouth. They had been able to communicate well in hand gestures, but it was almost comical what she was saying. If the situation were different, he may have even smiled some, but there was work to be done. He looked over to the captain and spoke to her in Swedish, "If I may suggest ma'am, have the MACOs posted outside to watch the treelines. Even though we only found some wildlife, given the circumstances we shouldn't be too careful." He carried his phase pistol on his hip since the confines of the tower precluded bringing his plasma rifle.

"The Marines can stay outside to secure but Stenn comes in I need his observation skills," Beth said simply before translating it several more times. When this was all over and they got languages back Beth was going to teach everyone french or something to avoid this in the future. They had gotten reliant on technology that had failed them.

Once translated Stenn nodded and dispatched Magnusson and McAndrews to the trees and had Singh take up a position near the entrance way. To the Vulcan it made little tactical sense to split their force, there had been no evidence of anything larger than small animals being present on the planet. If anyone was coming to the planet, it would most likely be from space. He was not going to leave his people standing in the open by the tower if there really was any threat in the trees. Magnusson and McAndrews would move into the trees, it meant they were much farther away to respond and would have to recross open ground again if there was action, but the alternative was to leave them exposed to an enemy within the cover of the woods. Singh would remain in the doorway, where at least there was some cover, and she could potentially support the other two. So much for more cooperation between Armory and MACO, Gerhard had just made a suggestion to the Captain with no discussion on the tactical situation.

Beth frowned as she listened to the orders for the Marines and pursed her lips she was going to discuss it with both Stenn and Gerhard when it was all over. There was a tension that she could no longer let carry on for much longer, they all needed to put egos aside to concentrate on the future of them and the 70 people on the ship. Beth shook her head and gave them both a pointed look before she stepped inside of the tower and stopped dead as she took it in. "This is not how we left things," Beth said in French as saw that the inside of the tower was barely damaged as it had been 12 hours before with a collapsed staircase and rubble in the middle.

Walker watched the MACO Troops take up farther positions and sighed, before turning her attention back to the tower, taking her position on the other side of the Captain. Not being able to effectively communicate was frustrating for her. Her attention was then caught by the change in the Tower, the stairs that had collapsed were now repaired, looking as if they had never given way. "I'll be damned," she commented that came out to others as "Das see rammed."

William entered after the captain and looked around in surprise as well. All evidence of the previous damage was gone, and the tower looked like it did when they had first entered. The other item of note was the slight glow that emanated from the walls. He looked up towards the top and pointed before speaking in his rough French, "There's some kind of light source coming from the top, though none of this is as it was before."

Manishie was asked by William to join them on this expedition. At least that's what she had thought he asked her in German. She wasn't really that confident. But he seemed pleased that she had tagged along and hadn't pushed her out of the shuttle when she boarded. Now they were going back into an alien structure to figure out why it had taken a shine to them.

Beth shook her head firmly understanding the rough french. Unlike a lot of her countrymen, she had no issue with someone butchering the language at least they were trying especially with the current situation. "I want to find a route down," Beth admitted as her eyes followed the hieroglyphs as they twisted around the tower going up. "The power is going up I want to know the source."

Once Stenn heard the translation and nodded. "With a structure this tall there must be deep foundations, possibly basement or sublevels" He began to look over the floor for any signs of an access point.

Ethal was part of the away mission to inspect the tower. She was with the group inside the tower. Not being able to communicate with the others so easily, she knew her best bet was to show what she was not able to say. Ethal had her scanner out to try and record as many readings as she could about the tower and if there was anything they were not seeing. She also noticed in this time that Stenn was particularly focused on the floor as if trying to look for something. Two people looking is better than one She thought as she started to search the floor. Did she know what Stenn was looking for? No. But she was sure that if she found something he would be the first to know.

“Exactly so we need to look down,” Beth said pointing down to the floor as remembered Ethal was here. It made sense to bring her along as she was able to make sense of what was happening despite her lack of language abilities. Some people were just willing to try their best despite everything and show willingness.

Some of the floor was covered with dust, dried grass and old leaves that had blown in through the open doorway. Stenn moved some of it aside with his boot. The floor was made of the same material as the rest of the structure, it seemed to be divided in to roughly two-meter square slabs, there was a faint line marking the outline of the slabs. He moved aside a pile of debris heaped up against one wall, underneath it, instead of a plain square this one had a circle outlined, which was subdivided into nine equal segments.

He called the others over and pointed to the different shape. Looking around it seemed this slab was the only one with a segmented circle marked on it.

Manishie was making her way around the room. Everyone seemed to focus in on the circular slab that Stenn had just revealed. She wandered off in search of some other clues. The walls were all smooth and there didn't seem to be any sort of interface available. "Who built you?" She asked in her native Hungarian, "Fából vaskarika." (an iron ring made of wood) The idiom had never made more sense to her than in this moment. Here was an inanimate stonelike substance showing signs of organics.

Kneeling down, William pulled a hand scanner from his pocket. After activating it, he ran it over the indentation in the floor and checked the readings. Looking back up at the captain, he spoke in German since a majority of the team spoke it aswell, "I'm not detecting anything below here, but given the circumstances our scanners may not be able to penetrate the floor."

Stenn called to Singh. "Corporal, your weapon please"

She jogged over and handed him her rifle. As the Detachment's Scout Sniper her weapon had a multi-function scope. He flicked it on, pointed it at the circle and cycled through the various modes. When he reached the thermal setting, the circle showed up as a different, slightly brighter, color than the surrounding slabs.

He held the scope out so Leroux and Reade could see the image. "The circle is warmer than the surrounding floor, not by much but definitely different temperature" He explained in Vulcan to Leroux and miming hot and cold for Reade.

Once they had seen the difference, he returned the rifle to Singh, who went back to her post at the door.

Ethal walked over eagerly to Stenn as he called others to look at something in the floor. She pondered what it could be there for. Are we looking at some sort activation pad? Or maybe it’s the outline of a way down? Stenn then signalled to her about the fact the circle was warmer than the surrounding flooring panels, which in return she gestured to him that she understood and then gestured again to show she was thankful.

Ethal’s curiosity for what it could be or do was getting too much and she dropped to her knees to get closer to the symboled floor panel. She first placed her hand flat onto it to get a feel, confident it was not dangerous. Ethal felt a slight vibration along with the heat that Stenn described. She next traced the indentations of the circles outline with her finger and then gave a few knocks to the circle panel. This was all coming to the same conclusion for her. She looked up at Stenn and gestured as best as she could to him to say that the panel could open.

Manishie had been running her hand along the hieroglyphs tracing the wall, spiralling upward. It was clear that they spiralled down into the floor around the place where the circular slab was. The cold of the stonelike structure under her fingertips suddenly replaced with a warm vibration. She looked up to study the symbols her hand had reached. It didn't mean anything to her, other than the fact that it was vaguely circular in shape. She traced the indented symbol around the circle with a finger and heard an audible, mechanical, click from where the other had gathered, "Ich glaube es war entsperrt"

Ethal heard the click from behind her and turned slowly and cautiously, oblivious of what Manishie was up too. As she turned she saw the circle starting to turn. As it turned the partitions in the circle split apart as they retreated into the floor. Only a dark void remained. I swear that I did not active anything by what I did Ethal pondered what could have caused it to open. She hastily gave a quick glance of the room they were all in and saw across the room that Manishie touching some of the hieroglyphs. It must have been Officer Karalo that activated it, though in this state I’m not sure if I will be able to communicate that to anyone She hoped to thank her after they could talk again. Ethal felt a bit hesitant now the hatch was open, she knew her place was to assist the away team and it was not her decision of what to do next.

William jumped back as the floor began opening up. As he looked down into the blackness, he looked over to the captain and gave her a curious look. "I guess we missed something in our initial scans," he said in German before pulling a flashlight and shining it down into the opening. His light barely penetrated the blackness, but he could tell that whatever lay beneath was massive. He checked around the opening and didn't see stairs or any indication how to go down into the area. "Looks like we will have to rappel down," he said in German before looking to Stenn. While William knew he and the MACOs had experience with rappelling, he wasn't sure about the rest of the away team's knowledge.

"Captain Stenn, If you and your people rig up a rope system, I'll act as your belay and lower your team down first. Once you give us the all clear, we can start bringing everyone else down," he said in German as the captain translated into Vulcan.

Once translated Stenn nodded, he used his tactical light to check the shaft himself. the bottom looked to be about fifteen meters. Far enough to break something if you fell but short enough that their lines would reach. He looked round realizing there was nothing to secure the lines to in the sparse room. He crossed over to Singh at the doorway, gave her some instructions and she jogged off to the treeline. Stenn then went to help Gerhard sort out the lines and harnesses.

Ten minutes later Singh, Magnusson and McAndrews returned. They brought two logs, one around nine feet long by four or five inches in diameter, the other only three feet long. The MACO operators held the long one up, Stenn looped two lines over it and they set the log down over the hole. Then he and the others fixed their weapons to the chest harnesses and donned gloves.

Turning to Leroux he explained. "Myself, Magnusson and McAndrews will fast-rope down. Corporal Singh will cover us until we secure the bottom, then join us. Lieutenant Gerhard can set the rest of you up with harnesses, rappeling figure-eight descenders and fall-arrest clamps that will help you descend the lines."

The Captain pursed her lips translating for everyone. "Works for me." She assured not at all sure how she felt about going down the dark hole. It felt out of place.

William pulled on a set of gloves and a harness as he took hold of the ropes. He checked to make sure they were tight before he set about passing harnesses and gloves to the remaining crew. He gave some rudimentary instruction using hand gestures and any common languages he spoke with them. One thing about rappelling for the inexperienced was trust, and the language issue was only adding to the already difficult situation.

Stenn pointed to the shorter log. "Somebody needs to remain here, if the hatch tries to close, they will need to try and jam it with that log" He mimed the circle closing and putting the log in it for the others.

Beth nodded to the security crewman with them and translated the instruction for them before she looked down the hole. Now was not the time to be scared of the dark or height.

Stenn and Magnusson crossed to the shaft and sat down on the rim, leaned forward and took hold of the ropes. McAndrews sat on the opposite side. Singh knelt by the edge, her rifle pointing down the shaft.

Stenn and Magnusson eased off the rim, looped their feet around the ropes and swiftly slid down, the friction from their boots, knees and gloved hands slowing their descent to a safe speed. McAndrews quickly followed them down.

At the bottom, the shaft opened out into a larger space, a circular room, about eight meters across, three meters high. Stenn and the others played their tactical lights over the walls, ceiling and floor. There was a round corridor leading off horizontally and another shaft in the floor going down. There was a stronger sense of vibration here, they could feel it through their boot soles.

Magnusson checked the tunnel; it ran some ten meters then curved away to the left. Stenn crossed to the vertical shaft, this was much shorter maybe only five meters deep and ended in an inverted T shaped, intersecting with another horizontal round tunnel that ran off in both directions. Besides the shaft and tunnel, the compartment was bare, with no markings on the wall or floor.

Going back to the shaft Stenn called up. "Corporal Singh come on down. Then the rest can join us" Singh shouldered her rifle, sat down, grasped the line and slipped down into the shaft.

Beth watched the woman go down before she followed after seeing it was set up for someone smaller so it was easy for her to go down next. "Do not be long." She said to the rest of the away team as she was lowered living her life in their hands for a moment until her feet were on the ground again. She unclipped herself and tugged the line to let them know she was safe at the bottom. "All good." She called in Swedish.

William turned to the group and gestured for the next person. After rigging their harness in, he helped ease them over the edge. He once he felt the tug, he turned back and pointed to Maddison and gestured for her to hook in. He then pointed to Ethal motioned that she would be next.

Although not understanding what the captain said, Walker knew the all-clear signal of the rope being tugged twice as she attached herself to the rope and began to rappel down. After a minute of descending, her feet hit solid ground she detached herself from the rope and tugged twice. Turning, she activated her torch in order to see where she was going. Down here, however, she could hear a slight humming sound in the air. 'Machinery?' she wondered. "I wonder what that sound is?" she asked but came out "Dye sunder fat cat pound kiss." She immediately sighed in frustration.

Once the rope was tugged twice, Ethal knew it was her turn next. She took a few deep breaths before attaching to the rope. Here goes nothing Ethal thought to herself as she descended into the hole. Landing at the bottom she un clipped from the rope, tugged it twice and joined the others. Instinctively her scanner was already out and taking readings as she took in the immediate surroundings.

"Chief your next," William said in German to Manishie. He followed up with hand gestures as she nodded. As Manishie lowered herself down the rope, he looked over at to his last two armory officers. "You two stay up here and guard the entry way, but be alert in case we have to get out of here fast," he said in german. Both nodded that they understood him.

When he felt the tug, William hooked himself in to the lines and backed himself over the edge as he gripped the rope firmly. He eased off on his brake hand and slowly lowered himself down the line. When his boots touched the ground, he unhooked himself from the line and pulled a flashlight out of his cargo pocket and activated it. He joined the rest of the group as he scanned the surroundings. "This place is huge, how come we didn't see this when we did a planetary scan," he asked the captain as he stood next to her

TO BE CONTINUED...