Accidentally a Listening post

Posted on Mon Oct 30th, 2023 @ 7:24am by Lyirru ei'Lyrrveoth

1,254 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Rescue
Location: Romulan Wreck
Timeline: MD 6 1145

Claxons buzzing with minimal power was an eerie reminder of just how long they'd been adrift. Their scientists were studying the imminent collision of a micro gravity well and a planet. They hadn't known that the resulting explosion would affect everything aboard the ship right down to the gravity emitters. It had thrown a shockwave that carried the tiny ship off course by more than 5 light years, and months of travel time. It also left it for all intents and purposes, dead in the water. Their micro singularity had not had enough power in it, once the crew had been able to even scan it, to sustain the ship, and so they reverted to their solar and battery backups. That was enough to keep their major systems alive, after what was essentially an EMP. The engines refused to power up, no matter what the engineers and their students had tried. They drifted for days, trying experimental procedures to adjust their course by microincriments. Their luck ran out when they entered the system labelled on their starcharts as Aehallh. It was so named, for the trio of huge gas giants that looked like ghosts, loosing gas plumes at random into the main body of the solar system. Their white star burned hot and bright for all, leaving in its wake, a system that was not overly hospitable. Their tiny ship, didn't stand a chance and plummeted into the gravity well of the first gas giant that they had come across, a roiling purple and black monstrosity of a planet. The gases alone would kill them all before they had a chance to adjust. She'd prepared her people, and herself for death. All of the prayers prayed, they silenced the alarms and watched the gas giant pull them in, without any recourse for rescue.

Salvation rose like the first rays of silver sunshine in the Hyral mountains, and coalesced into the moon, whose orbit crossed by chance into their path, allowing the free fall to change into something much more...manageable. The burst of hope, had been something that she would keep in her happiest of memories until she was taken from the universe. They'd crashed of course, but at approximately a quarter the speed that they would have anticipated if they had crashed into the giant below them. Never reaching terminal velocity meant that the crew had survived, and that the ship hadn't been obliterated in its entirety. It had turned into the perfect listening post, because at certain points in its orbit the whole moon became attuned to signals from a vast array of space. Their functioning scanners had given them a dearth of information that they shouldn't have rightly been able to receive. Something about the magnetic resonance of the planet and the moon itself. It was incrediable.

Hazel eyes, glinting with gold opened and the memory of their fall left her shuddering in the tiny alcove that she slept in. She'd worked as hard as anyone else, and had opted to take a nap when the moon had sunk behind the bulk of the great planet and the temperature had dropped considerably. The tiny personal heater she'd had blew warmed air over her face, but it was the one luxury that she allowed herself so she could sleep. The cold made the nightmares worse. Lyirru still heard the buzz in her nightmares, and pretended that she didn't hear the others wake screaming with their own traumas. She did so too, but as her area was more private given her rank, she wasn't overheard as much as the others.

Her clothes were well maintained, but the patching was beginning to show in the tunic that she drew over her breast band. Her beauty was marred by the evidence of hard work that survival had taken from her. Every rib showed on her torso, and the edges of her hip bones stood out starkly as well before she shimmied into a pair of leggings. Boots that laced to her knees were scuffed and bore a shiny spot from the jaws of a cloud beetle. Those, were a menace that they'd come across here that they'd yet to manage. An insect the color of the clouds, with the ability to excrete a foamy substance that floated in the air. It burned the skin like acid, and if inhaled...well... That is what had brought the end to Peloska and Elain. A wrap of wool, knitted strongly against the wind and cold went over her long hair, and she wrapped it around her throat, securing it with a button. A pair of thin gloves followed that, and into her pocket she tucked a pair of wrap around goggles that would protect her eyes from the glare. It was too early now to be an issue, however. The night watch nodded at her, and she gave them a salute as she stepped out of the airlock and onto the planetoid. The crunch of gravel was soft under her boots as she thought about how

Lyirru walked, away from the ship, which was now hidden by the trees and the fallen outcropping of rock that had ended the slide when the ship had landed. The rocks had been fitting cairns for their dead. Each pile held a single silver insignia bound to it, their rank as bound to her family. She touched each one as she walked slowly to the edge of the cliff that showed the valley. If she followed the path to the left, she would find herself in a small clearing that they had used the last bit of their power to create a greenhouse. It grew what nourishment they could eke from the planet, at least until they were able to repair the ship.

If we don't freeze to death first. We haven't been here long enough to know what the seasons are supposed to look like.

Gold gleamed in the cuff on her ear as the first rays of sunshine began to illuminate the place a silvery purple. It was strangely beautiful in the mist that rose from the tiny lake that pooled at the base of the cliff. It was fed by a tiny trickle of waterfall, which in the icy chill clinked instead of only making water sounds, as some of the spray froze into crystals of ice as they plummeted to the bowl below. There was a faint tinkling that she suspected if she didn't have superior hearing would have been lost in the gentle wind. It would fade as the sun lit the sky, but the fact that it was so soft told her that at least it was above freezing. That meant they could likely gather water today, and so she walked along the edge of the precipice towards the tiny river which fed the waterfall. It always had a skin of ice on it, but that could easily be broken, to be loaded into the purification systems. Her eyes tracked their path along the ledge to where they'd come to rest...

It wasn't ideal, but no crash site ever was, and each of them knew that they were supremely lucky to be alive at all. This place was cold, hard and strong. It was a blade in the night, and the edge of it had cut their bonds and allowed them to survive. It was fitting that they'd landed here.

They would make their way, by carving the very planet with their knives if necessary..

 

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