Meet The Locals – Part One

It had been a hard twenty four hours. The crew of the Firefly had worked long and hard to get as many of the damaged systems back online. The one thing in their favour was the fact that the cloak was still online, hiding the vessel from sight. It took a few hours for main power to come back online, allowing a much more detailed analysis of the damage.

Since Klaas and Quinn had returned from their recon the previous night, nothing more had been said or done. Like the rest of the crew, they had worked alongside the others to get the ship working as best they could. Now everyone was together, taking a break, eating, but no-one talked much.

The Firefly was in bad shape, severely crippled by the attack on them by the black Akira vessel they had encountered. Patching up the hull would be fairly easy to repair, making the ship once more space-worthy. However, they had no weapons systems working and only limited sensors meaning that they were virtually blind and defenceless.

All that was academic however, because the most damaged system on the ship was the warp core. Heavily damaged, it was in need of not only some major repairs, but also some spare parts to replace those destroyed during the attack. Without the core functioning, then they would be limited to sub-light speeds, essentially trapped in the system or looking at a prolonged voyage of years to reach the next inhabited system. Their only hope of leaving was that they could find the parts they needed to repair the warp core somewhere on the planet.

According to the Starfleet database, the planet they had crash-landed on was warp capable and the locals were friendly. The last contact the Federation had with the planet however was nearly twenty-five years ago and from what they had seen outside, a lot had happened in the past twenty-five years. Something had happened, something that had either destroyed this world completely or put it back into a pre-warp state.

Harper had managed to recover some of the sensor data taken during their enforce descent, which had showed nearly twenty small settlements surrounding them. However no life-signs were picked up in any of them, meaning they were most likely abandoned. The sensor reading also showed no major energy readings within scanning range.

If they were going to get off-world again, then someone needed to go out again and find out more about what happened. As soon as the meal was over, Quinn brought up the subject of another recon.

“We need to find out what happened on this planet.” He remarked. “That means taking a more detailed look around. That settlement we picked up twenty click north is our best starting point.

“Well the planet’s atmosphere is more or less safe. I’ve not picked up anything that our medical bay can’t fix.” T’Pek stated. “I’d like to inoculate everyone for the effects of low level theta radiation, but once that’s done there’s nothing stopping us exploring further.”

“Then we’ll leave in an hour.” Quinn said.

“We !” Captain Stryker remarked. “And just who would this “We” be ?.”

“Klaas and myself.” Quinn replied. “If we move fast, we should be able to reach the settlement before first light.”

“That’s a long way to trek in one night.” Stryker said. “Especially because we don’t know exactly what’s out there. You’d make much better time if you had some wheels.”

“Wheels ?” Quinn remarked. “What sort of wheels ?”

“Follow me.” Stryker replied, rising from the table.

They headed towards the starboard cargo bay, which appeared to contain various crates and barrels. Trance and Harper were soon moving some of them aside to reveal a small six-wheeled vehicle.

“Not the fastest form of transport, but she’ll get the four of us where we need to go a lot faster than moving on foot.” Jack stated.

“The four of us !” Quinn remarked.

“Trance and me.” Stryker replied. “That’s the deal, take or leave it. If you want to go on without us, be my guest, but you’ll be on foot.”

“Fine.” Quinn remarked, a note of annoyance in his voice. “Let’s get loaded up and off.”

The buggy made short work of the trip across the planet to the nearest settlement. Luckily most of the journey was across flat open ground. What would have taken them nearly six hours to do on foot; they had done in just under three. Hiding the buggy in one of the abandoned building on the edge of the settlement, they continued on foot further into the settlement.

“Let’s split up and see what we can find.” Stryker suggested. “We’ll go this way, you go that. Only make contact over the comm. If you find something, we still don’t know what happened here, the less noise we make the better.”

Quinn nodded and headed off in the opposite direction to Trance and Stryker. The settlement was not very well build, as if it had been put up in a hurry using whatever materials whoever had lived there could find. Whoever had lived here must have left in a hurry as well. Although the settlement had been abandoned for a long-time, there were still signs of habitation, the remains of rotting food on the tables, jugs of stagnant water, clothes still hanging on a line to dry.

Finally Stryker and Trance reached the edge of the settlement and ahead of them was a fenced off area, lined with what appeared to be wooden crosses. Trance got out the tricorder and started to scan the ground.

“There are bodies here.” She remarked. “I’m picking up about thirty, all buried about six feet under the ground.”

“An old-style cemetery.” Jack remarked.

“What’s a cemetery ?” Trance enquired.

“It’s a place where you bury the dead.” Jack answered. “When someone dies, you dig a hole and place the body in it, usually in some kind of container.”

“We’ll I’m picking up individual bodies, they appear to be all lined up in the same direction.” Trance remarked.

“That you indicate some kind of ceremonial significance.” Jack stated.” Some kind of religion. Any idea what they died of ?”

“Tricorder autopsies are more T’Pek’s thing.” Trance replied. “She’ll be able to make much better sense of the readings. I’d say that they died between ten and fifteen years judging by the rates of decay. Looks like the oldest are towards the front, with the newest graves towards the back.”

As they continued to walk through the graveyard, they finally reached the rear of the cemetery where the ground changed. Instead of the small, individual mounds marked with crosses, there was a single large mound, almost five metres round. Beyond that was the beginning of a forest, with small trees heading off into the distance towards their larger cousins. There were no crosses marking this mound, but on the ground were the remains of over a dozen bunches of flowers as if the graves were being visited regularly and the flowers left behind in tribute.

“This grave is different.” Trance remarked. “I’m picking up almost a hundred bodies, all buried at the same time.”

“How long ?” Stryker asked.

“About five years.” Trance replied. “They weren’t buried like the others; the bodies are just a tangled mess as if they were just dumped into a pit.”

“A mass grave…..” Jack remarked. “I guess we have found the inhabitants of the settlement.”

“Yes….The question now is who buried them.” Trance remarked. “I’ve analysed the ground around the grave, it was dug by hand, there’s no evidence of any machinery being used to dig the ground out and whoever buried these people took a long time.”

Suddenly Trance moved around, pulling out her phaser and pointing it into the darkness. Stryker reacted seconds later to his tactical officer’s move, drawing his own phaser.

Trance was scanning the surrounding area with her eyes, what she was looking for Jack had no idea. Then without warning she fired into the forest, forcing a shadow to move away from the firing point. Trance’s aim moved again, firing ahead of the shadow, forcing it to turn once more.

“Come out and show yourself.” Trance ordered.

For a moment there was silence, then a small figure emerged from the darkness and Jack shone the light onto the shadow revealing a young female. She reacted to the light, shielding her eyes.

“Jack, move your light away, she’s probably sensitive to the light.” Trance suggested.

Jack moved the light down the girl’s body pointing it at the ground around her. As he moved down her body, he saw the small bunch of flowers clutched in her hands. Trance moved forward, her phaser still pointed at the potential threat.

“Who are you ?” Trance demanded.

The girl was silent at first and then she uttered a single word. “Hello”.

“Stryker to Quinn.” Jack said into his communicator. “We’ve found someone.”

[Where are you ?] Quinn’s voice came back.

“The edge of the village to the east, we are at the back of a graveyard.” Jack replied.

[We’ll be with you in five minutes.] Quinn stated.

By now Trance had come within a few feet of the girl.

“Hello.” She said. “What are you doing out here in the dark ?”

“Dark safe.” The girl stated. “They don’t come here in the dark.”

“Who don’t come out in the dark.” Trance enquired.

“The pale skins.” The girl replied. “They only hunt during the day.”

“Where do you live ?” Trance asked. “Are you alone ?”

“We live in the safe and sound.” The girl answered. “In the trees.”

“We….” Trance stated. “…..so there are others.”

“We live at the safe and sound.” The girl repeated.

“So what are you doing out here, all alone.” Jack asked.

“I came to respect the fore-elders.” The girl stated. “It is my turn.”

“The fore-elders !” Jack exclaimed. “You mean the graves.”

“They are our fore-elders.” The girl stated. “It is our duty to respect the fore-elders, when it is our turn, we will join them in the new world.”

“How old are you ?” Jack asked.

“I have survived seventeen cycles.” The girl remarked.

Trance did a quick arithmetic check. “She’s about fifteen in Earth years, this planet’s solar year is shorter than ours.”

“She’s just a kid.” Jack remarked.

“I am no kid.” The girl protested. “I am a senior, my first-born is nearly three cycles old.”

By now Quinn and Klaas had arrived, startling the girl. She looked up at the sky, noticing that it was starting to lighten.

“Darkness fades.” The girl said. “We need to reach safe and sound. We need to go now. Safe and sound, come.”

The girl quickly ran to the mass grave, placing the flowers with the rest and then headed back to the edge of the forest, urging the others to follow.

“What does she mean safe and sound ?” Quinn asked.

“I’m not sure.” Trance replied. “But I’m guessing its some sort of shelter, a safe place. I’d suggest we follow her and see what else she can show us.”

The five of them moved swiftly through the forest, the girl leading the way. Her eyesight must have adapted to the dim light. Overhead, the early morning was starting to appear, but the forest canopy kept the majority of the searing heat off the floor. Finally they reached a clearing and the girl slowed down, walking towards the centre of the clearing. She touched the ground and suddenly there was a noise and vibrations started to come through the ground.

A tube appeared from the ground and a silver door opened up.

“This could be more of a shelter than I thought.” Trance remarked.

“Come, safe and sound.” The girl remarked, beckoning the others to enter the lift.

They all entered the lift, the girl pressing her hand onto a control. The doors closed and the lift descended into the ground. After about a minute, the doors opened and the five of them looked out.

“This is safe and sound.” The girl stated. “You’ll be safe from the pale-skins here. I need to find the elders, tell them that you have returned to take us away. Wait here.”

The girl was off like a shot, leaving the four of them to take a look around.

“What is this place ?” Stryker asked.

“Best guess, some kind of bomb shelter.” Quinn replied. “It’s probably heavily shielded which would explain why we never picked up anything on the sensors.”

The lighting was low, most likely because the people who lived down here were photo-sensitive. If they only left the safety of the shelter at night, that would have made sense. The walls were made of some kind of alloy, but Trance’s tricorder could not identify it. They stood around for about five minutes before the girl returned, this time with five others, none of which could have been much older than twenty.

To be continued……