Back to the Tower (part 2)

Posted on Tue Apr 5th, 2022 @ 8:02am by Captain Bethsabée Leroux & Captain Stenn & Commander William Gerhard & Lieutenant JG Ethal Reade & Chief Petty Officer Manishie Karalo

Mission: Mission 5 - Babel
Location: Unknown Planet
Timeline: MD 280. 20:30 Hours
4642 words - 9.3 OF Standard Post Measure

Having descended down the vertical shaft they found in the Tower's ground floor the crew now found themselves in a circular room, about eight meters across, three meters high. There was a round corridor leading off horizontally and another shaft in the floor going down.

The tunnel ran some ten meters then curved away to the left. The vertical shaft was around five meters deep and ended in an inverted T shape, intersecting with another horizontal round tunnel that ran off in both directions.

There was no light except that of the crew's tactical and flashlights. Besides the shaft and tunnel, the compartment was bare, with no markings on the wall or floor.

There was a stronger sense of vibration here, they could feel it through their boot soles and faint humming could be heard.

The MACO team covered the two exits, while others examined the compartment.

Gerhard was the last to descend. 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

Beth pursed her lips as she took in the vastness of the space. She had theories around it all but the simplest theory and the one miles ahead of everything she had been thinking was the material of the tower. It was like nothing they can see before. “Nascimento did comment about the material of the structure. Absorbs the natural carbon from the air to self-repair itself could be masking as we did not find the tower in our scans only by sight.” Beth reminded. “It did make find bio signs difficult in the collapse Lieutenant,” Beth commented.

Manishie knew why she had been brought, but she would've rather stayed upstairs on pole duty. She looked around the large room they had landed in and tried to figure out what to investigate. Something should give them a clue as to what was holding them there, and why it was affecting their ability to communicate properly. "The material itself reads as organic, right?" She tried to confirm in German. It was a fascinating prospect, using organic materials that could self-repair for buildings.


“Let’s go.” She indicated the corridor ignoring the other shaft for now. They had to investigate there before they looked down.

Hearing which way the Captain wanted to start first Stenn signalled his Operators. This was where their specialism came in. Singh and McAndrews took point and moved into the tunnel. Himself and Magnusson followed, some four meters behind them.

Like the vertical shafts, the tube was some two meters in diameter and perfectly round, no flat part on the bottom, so they had to walk on the curved floor. Stenn and Magnusson had to lean inwards to keep their heads and shoulders away from the sides that arced in just over their heads.

The tunnel ran straight and then curved to the left, as it made the turn it began to descend, at around a twenty-degree angle. They had to lean backwards against the slope as they made their way down.

William followed after the captain and kept his light low on the ground as the floor pitched downward. He chose his steps carefully as the steepness and rocky terrain made the going slow. He marveled at the tunnel since it would've been a significant undertaking to excavate the caverns.

Ethal kept close to the rest of the team as they made there way through the tunnel. She was used to rough terrain like this as when she was younger she would be taken on cave exploration missions with her parents. She loved those exploration missions and she was happy here now to be here doing something that reminded her of those happy times.

"Not a fan of this." Beth murmured to herself keeping a hand on the wall as they went down to keep her balance.

Just as Beth spoke that she wasn't a fan Manishie slipped on the inclined surface and landed hard on her behind. "Au, shit!" She cussed something in her native Hungarian before scrambling to get back up, "I'm ok. I'm ok."

Stenn had his carbine unslung to use the tactical light, but was not feeling threatened. Whoever had constructed this Tower appeared to have given it enough power to destroy the Atlantis if they wished, but, so far, they had not done so. It also seemed illogical this was some form of elaborate trap that relied on them walking into it to secure them, but his curiosity was piqued by their exploration.

After approximately two minutes walking Singh called back. "Tunnel ends just ahead, seems like another big compartment"

The tunnel opened out on to a flat floor. This seemed to be a very large space, the beams of the crew's lights only just picked up the walls on the far sides. Unlike the first room, this one was rectangular; the tunnel having entered in the center of one of the short sides. The ceiling was perhaps ten meters above them, the far wall about fifty meters away.

Some of the walls seemed to have deep cracks or fissures in them, a couple ran across the ceiling as well. The material seemed duller than above, the edges of the cracks were chalky and broken.

From their position in the tunnel the only thing of note that could be seen was a series of blocky plinths dotted across the floor. Perhaps half a meter square, and two meters tall. They also looked different, almost a white marble material. There were thirteen of the plinths, eleven were upright, two were laying on their sides as though tipped over.

Scanning the room with her troch, Walker sighed. The place was a maze and she felt like a lab rat trying to navigate it. The humming did seem louder here. She approached on of the plinths, looking closely at it. There were some indentations covered with dust. Blowing on it, revealed a symbol. "Hey, got a symbol here," she called and immediately regretted it as her words came out as "Pay, shot in kambale beer." 'I am so not speaking anymore,' she thought to herself.

William made his way over to where Walker had called out. He gave her a thumbs up as she pointed at a symbol on the wall. He looked back over to the captain and called in German, "Walker found something over here."

"Indeed she did." Beth mured as she tried not to laugh at what had come out of the woman's mouth. She crouched to look at the symbol better herself. "I think I have seen this before upstairs," Beth said pulling out her notepad that had on the symbols in that they had catalogued. The woman glanced at the plinths for a second considering sitting on one before she changed her mind and knelt on the floor shinning her torch on the notebook to see the images.

Manishie walk in between the plinths, her hand running over the cold white stone. It seemed very close to marble in every respect. The different plinths having different symbols on them. "Ez egy temető" She whispered to herself in Hungarian, remarking on the fact that it looked like a graveyard, but she didn't have the grasp of German to convey this to the others there.

While other crew examined the center of the room and plinths, Stenn and the MAVO Operators fanned out around the edges. Magnusson and McAndrews took the right side, Stenn and Singh the left. Singh shone her light into one of the cracks in the wall, it was perhaps six or eight inches wide low down, but increased to maybe a foot as it climbed the wall, then lessened again where it reached the ceiling. Peering in, she noticed the wall seemed to be very thick, at least two feet, beyond the smooth surface it appeared almost fibrous within. The edges were discolored and flaking away. She touched it lightly with her gloved hand, the edge crumbled like soft chalk, turning to dust. She looked to Stenn.

"If this is an organic structure, there would appear to be some problem with its regeneration process, some kind of molecular breakdown with the cellular bonding" he observed, then rephrased it when she struggled with the more complex words in Vulcan. "It looks like it is getting old and sick"

William walked over to where the MACOs were standing after hearing the translation and pulled his hand scanner and took some readings. He looked over the data readout before nodding in agreement, "Lieutenant Reade, what do you make of this?" He gestured for the science officer to come over and handed her the scanner. "It looks like the carbon levels in the are here should be high enough to allow the structure to regenerate," he offered but seeing she didn't fully understand his German, so he gestured to the scanner and the air around him.

Ethal made her way into the room and she spent a moment just taking in the new surroundings and occasionally using her torch to get a better look. Her mind was firing on all cylinders at this point trying to determine what they were all looking at. She heard what sounded like her name come from William so she walked over to him. He handed her the scanner and she had a look at what he had found.

She could see the carbon levels were much higher down here but it wasn’t being used by the structure. As he gestured what he was trying to say, Ethal managed to get the gist between what he gestured and what he showed her on the scanner. She quickly gestured back that she understood him before grabbing out a pad and a pencil from one of her uniform pockets and quickly drew a tower and some rudimentary representations of carbon atoms and a broken arrow from the carbon atoms to the tower. This broken arrow also had a question mark next to it. Ethal handed this back along with his scanner. She then gestured as best as she could that the question marks answer could be found down here.

William nodded that he understood her. He took the drawing from her and turned to a fresh page. He did his best sketch of the crack and wrote the current year with a question mark. He then pointed to the crack and then indicated the scanner to show carbon dating. He was trying to communicate if Ethal could determine how old the crack was.

Beth found the symbols but heard all the words in Vulcan and German and nodded. It was a sound theory about getting old and sick and would sum up the almost confusion that was among them. "It is dying," Beth said simply.

"Then it must want us to help heal it, but I don't see how that can be possible. This material is far outside anything we might have on the ship," William called to the captain in German. Since it seemed to be accepted by all that the tower was somehow sentient, he had not referred to it as an inanimate object. "And why disrupt our communications and prevent us from speaking standard, that would only complicate things," he added as an afterthought.

Beth listened to everything and shook her head. She did not have any answers to it but looked at the plinths. "Help me up onto one of them," Beth said pointing to one of the ones still up right.

Stenn moved over, believing he might understand what she was thinking. He nodded to Leroux. "With your permission captain" and took her by the waist, easily lifting her up on to the plinth. "You think this is a way to communicate with the structure?"

Beth had not had time to argue as the Vulcan easily lifted her up allowing her to scramble up onto the plinth and look at it properly. “It seems logical,” Beth answered first on Vulcan then other languages for the others as she looked down at them. She did not enjoy heights at all like that but it did allow her the chance to look at everything from a different angle.

William stood at the base and looked up at the Captain with the others. He shined his light around to see if there was any reaction to their surroundings. When nothing happened he looked back up at the captain, "Well, nothing changed down here. How's it on your end?"

Beth looked down and nodded. She definitely felt different but she could not explain what it was. She stood up straight and suddenly froze as images flashed through her mind of the planet. "I... I am seeing images in my head." She whispered not sure what language she was speaking as she tried to focus on it all and not fall off the plinth. How could anyone deal with that alone and then she realised not one person could stand it alone? There were 13 plinths for a reason - thirteen humanoid looking people had used to stand there.

William looked on as the captain stood there looking off into the distance as if transfixed. His alarm bells began ringing almost immediately, There was no telling what could happen if she was receiving some sort of telepathic imagry.

tag

"It's like it is trying to communicate," Beth said doubling over breaking the connection and power that the plinth had other her. There was only so much she could take before in burned her out.

"Are you all right," William called out before looking over at Stenn and motioning to help him up to pull her back to the ground level. "Hang on, I'll help you down," he called back up to her.

"No..." Beth instructed quickly. "I think it wants to communicate... its... strange it's all pictures. This world used to have many guardians but they all left."

He did not understand the words between the Captain and Gerhard but when Leroux's doubled over Stenn raised a hand to brace her leg to prevent her from falling off. The moment he made physical contact with her he felt some kind of energy surge down his arm and slam into his head. He felt his body almost lock up and a stream of jumbled images appeared in his mind except it was not his mind! In the rapid flashing images that were appearing he saw some that were above him and looking down at him...

He suddenly realized he was sharing some level of consciousness with Leroux!

Stenn had high telepathic abilities, even among Vulcans, but was totally unprepared for this sudden situation. It was different to a mind-meld as he could not really read her thoughts, it was more like they were almost sharing a dream. Something from the plinth was feeding these images to Leroux and when he made contact with her, they were being shared with him.

He gathered his mental composure and tried to focus on the images, they appeared to be of this planet, but perhaps in its past. There was also something else there, another kind of massage, but it was like trying to read multiple lines of text, that were crossing in all directions before your eyes at high speed, almost impossible to decipher. But interspaced with that other message was one particular image that began to repeat more often, it was of this cavern, with the plinths and there were figures stood on each of the plinths.

There was one last thing, somewhere he did not want to go, but it was washing all over his mind - emotions!
Strong, powerful feelings, so intense were they, he let out a groan. He had to stop them, he had to block those parts out before they could consume him.

It took all of his will and logic training to do so. But the moment he got his mental barriers in place, the second he felt his logical calm return, the waves of emotions stopped and withdrew. Leaving a strange sense that whatever was sending them realized those feelings were unwelcome and would not force them on him. As he drove the emotional thoughts away the last vestige seemed to be a feeling of... regret

Focusing his concentration, he tried sending a telepathic communication to Leroux. Captain, are you aware I am here? The plinths do seem to access some kind of telepathic communication system. A system with an emotional element to it"

“Yes… it is very emotional but I do not believe it wants to harm us. Just tell its story. It is confused and does not want to be alone." Beth explained and said it aloud in Vulcan and then translated for William. She was not sure whether he understood her thoughts or her attempts to.

It is very powerful, almost too much. I can see why there are more plinths. Stenn sent to Leroux Perhaps with more participants it would be easier to communicate. I will ask my operators to join us He let go of her leg, feeling the telepathic link reside.

Turning to Magnusson and Singh he explained the situation and requested their help. "I do not believe the telepathic entity within this structure is malevolent. But it is very powerful and there may be unknown risks, therefore I will not order you to participate. The decision must be your own"

The Sergeant and Corporal shared a look, then nodded. "If it helps the tower to free the ship we're in Sir. What do we need to do?" Magnusson asked

Stenn pointed to the plinths. "I believe occupying one of the positions will link you to the entity. Sergeant McAndrews will remain on the ground as security"

The two of them fanned out and stood by a plinth, after a moment's hesitation Magnusson and Singh clambered up. Stenn followed suit.

William watched the MACOs move and looked back up at the captain. She nodded to him, so he motioned for Manishie and Walker to follow the MACO team members. Finding his own plinth, he clambered up on top of it and felt something overcome him. The sensation was hard to describe, but he looked over at the captain and felt a connection with her somehow. As the others found their own positions, he felt connected to them.

Ethal had been carbon dating the large crack in the wall to get a better understanding of what was going on here. She was starting to regret her younger life choices of not learning another language as she was now paying the price. From behind her a lot of words were being spoken to each other in various different languages and she felt like she better go over as to not be left behind.

Walking other to the others, Ethal saw members of the crew clambering the plinths and Stenn pointing to empty plinths and some of his soldiers occupied them. Her pace quickened. Now standing next to a plinth she felt apprehensive about getting on it. The risks were unknown and anything could happen. Ethal turned to see the other crew members on the plinths including the captain. It gave her an ease of mind to see them not in any immediate danger from being on a plinth. Ethal took a deep breath and clambered up onto the closest one to her.

Instantly she felt different, her perception had been heightened like she did not have to see her surroundings, she could feel her surroundings. Then she realised it wasn’t just her surroundings, it was the others who were perched on the plinths to. Ethal felt strange as she was sharing a link with the others. How much is this link sharing? She thought as she pondered what was going on here.

Once everyone was on a plinth the pressure on Beth changed and it moved between everyone as if time was of the essence. Beth closed her eyes so she could focus on not moving and causing herself an injury from falling from so high. She could feel every one as if they were right next to her instead of meters away. They were connected to each other but Beth did not reach out to them she reached out to what was calling to them. The images were fast and did not make much sense - Trees, people, oceans, it was a whirlwind that would take people time to process.

It appears to be providing a shared level of communication both between the structure and between us Stenn replied to Reade telepathically. You will also note, Lieutenant, that there is now no barrier to comprehension. You, I and the others can understand each other without difficulties, there is also an emotional transfer to the link He kept his own emotional blocks in place but knew the others would be feeling things from the structure

I am glad that I’m finally able to converse with people again, this will make things easier at least for the short term she replied back. She dared admit it but she did miss talking with people and this was the a step in the right direction. She was managing to handle the overwhelming dump of information and emotions that the tower was sharing with them but she knew it was going to hit her later and that was definitely something to dread.

This is a little weird Singh offered It's sort of exhilarating. I feel like the structure is trying to share its history with us. But it sort of feels... like it's... sad? Like it misses the people who were here before?

The sensation was euphoric as William saw the images playing across his mind. The realization hit him as he felt Singh's thoughts, That must be why it is keeping us here. The structure is keeping us here because it thinks we are the former inhabitants. I wonder if we can communicate back. As he communicated with the others, William felt overcome with a warm sensation as he felt the structure responding to him. He saw the others reacting to the sensation as well.

Manishie looked as all the others seemed to get up on the plinths without too much hesitation. In her mind she was still standing in the middle of a graveyard and climbing on top of an alien headstone was not really something she had on her to-do list for this decade. As everyone stood there she wondered if she should keep her distance, make sure she could intervene if something went wrong. All of them looked pretty blissful though. "Csavarja." She set aside any qualms and climbed on top of one of the remaining pedestals. She also didn't want to be the only one down here that missed out on a once in a lifetime experience.

Immediately the thoughts and images washed over her. Accompanied by a blissful sensation of warmth and something she could only describe as love. She thought about the people she cared about, the people back on Earth. The people on the ship that she was close with. Imagining their faces, a feeling of missing them bubbled up.

As Maddison finally relented, climbing up onto the last plinth, she almost immediately felt a warm sensation course throughout her body. She began to feel a sense of wanting as well...as if this was home. 'No, this isn't home. She thought to herself. What in blazes is going on?' she questioned, looking around.

Beth winced as the images became quickly and the emotions became sadder filled with regret as the images changed to dust being spread on the wind and then finally darkness. It does not think of us as its former inhabitants. It just... does not what to be alone in his final moments. We have stumbled upon it at the end. Beth said connecting the feeling to how she had always imagined her husband feeling at the end of his life when there was nothing more that could be done for him.

Stenn could feel the intensity in the telepathic link changing, it was getting more powerful as more people had joined. The exchange was becoming stronger, and he could now sense the thoughts of others in the group much more clearly than before. He let the waves of emotion flood over him, concentrating on his own mental blocks, Becoming like a rock on the shore, washed over by the sea but untouched within. There was excitement, fear, sadness and loss. He concentrated on keeping the thoughts out, for his personal logical calm and not wishing to intrude on the privacy of the others.

It's too much. Beth stated as the telepathic connection became stronger Beth tried to pull back and away from the people in the group. She did not want to see their memories nor did she want them to see the highs or lows of her life but the connection made it difficult until it was almost like a great breath entered the cavern and then left the next second breaking the connection and leaving everyone alone again.

There was a final surge in the link, Stenn felt, then it rapidly began to fade, the entity within the structure was failing, was it dying? Before he could analyze that it was gone...

Silence descended in the cavern until heavy footfalls fan in. "What happened?" The crewman who had been left up the top demanded having come to find out why no one had returned within the time frame that he had been given nor why no one had answered the communicator's requests. "What is this place." He added taking in the symbols that were lit up moments now faded as the light in them went out.

"Not a clue," Maddison replied, sitting down on the plinth so as not to fall as she recovered. "Wait as second..." she began to realize that she wasn't speaking jumbled words anymore.

"It looked like magic." The crewman commented as he moved to help people down.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," Beth commented aloud having always wanted to say it in a real-life situation. She nearly toppled off the plinth as she tried to stand up straight again and figure out what was going on. She realised instantly that she was speaking standard again as was the security crewman without hesitation had moments before. "Looks like whatever the planet was doing is over?"

William stood for a moment on the plinth as the experience faded. He took a breath before looking around and seeing the others getting off their respective stands. He climbed down himself and joined the rest of the group, as he heard the familiar sounds of standard being spoken. "That was incredible," he said realizing he himself was speaking standard. "I guess, this structure just wanted to share it's story with us before it died." He looked at his surroundings again with a different perspective. While he had been skeptical at first when Elegy said it was possibly alive, It was clear he had been right all along.

"It would appear the entity has ceased to be" Stenn noted "It was perhaps pinning for its creators at the end"

“Most likely or like most creatures did not want to be alone at the end.” Beth said finally able to get down from the plinth and stand on her two feet shakily. “Let’s get back to the surface.” She ordered needing to see sunlight and process what she had experienced.