JDL | "Tracking" | CSec, CSci, COO, HNur | LtCmdr Caldwell, LtJG Roswell, Ens Locke, Ens deLaar

Posted on Mon Mar 10th, 2014 @ 6:29pm by Lieutenant JG Saia Roswell & Ensign Markus Locke & Ensign Sina deLaar

1,727 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: In the Dark
Location: Noturan Wilds

=/\= Noturan Wilds, Just Inside the Forest's Edge =/\=

Qip, the Noturan Sentinel or "Hrakthi'ta" who had volunteered to bring the Federation visitors out into the woods, was rapidly beginning to regret that decision. Tracking the movement of creatures in the wilderness was a stealthy maneuver. Qip was used to moving swiftly through the snow with a graceful guile. These people had difficultly simply walking. Their equipment needed constant attending to, and their need to adhere to strict rules for little things like staying in single file was almost all the man could take. While one or two of them seemed at least adept at moving, the others were dragging on.

While trying to keep up with the group, icy gusts of wind hit Ensign deLaar right in her face. It was unbelievable that there could be air that was even colder than her surroundings anyway. When she breathed it in, her lungs started burning and she had a coughing fit.
“Another place where I don’t belong.”, she thought to herself.

When they had set off, the sun had been shining, her uniform had done a good job in keeping her warm and she had applied some protective lotion on her face and hands. She had been looking forward to a nice afternoon stroll in the glistening snow, chatting with their hosts and maybe catching glimpses – but from a good distance – of the rhinos.
But the freezing winds which were blowing down from the mountains were definitively hostile.

“If they leave me behind here, I’ll be scared to death even before the cold gets me.” She hurried to follow – maybe walking behind Saia a little bit too closely, but she had such a hard time keeping up with their speed and was afraid of falling behind and out of sight.

"Do you not train for weather? Surely your grand technology has brought you to many different places. He said to the group.

Saia was somewhere in the middle, but she heard him and chirped out an answer, "We spend most of our time aboard our ship. For some of us, this is the first time we've set foot on a planet not home to our own species or Earth."

"With respect, Lieutenant," Ensign Locke broke in almost cheerfully, "Earth is home to a multitude of environments. We used to go into the Yukon tundra when I was younger. Wood cabins, trekking through the traplines in snowshoes, crossing frozen rivers." Markus' memories of his uncle taking him into the frozen north to "keep to his roots," much to his father's displeasure, were some of his favorite. The first time he'd seen the Northern Lights first hand was like seeing magic firsthand. Even so, it had been many years, and Markus' footing in the wilderness was not what it once was. One more thing his father had taken from Markus in his "plan" for his future.

"Mind you," Markus continued on, "we just shot holophotos of our prey. The Yukon is a protected pres-" and he was cut off by a rock giving was beneath him, causing him to fall sideways into the hard frozen ground with a loud "oomph!"

Saia tried to move to catch him, but nearly slid herself.

Qip heard the crack in the ground and immediately spun around. "Are you hurt, Federation?"

An audible groan emitted from the prone lump that was Ensign Locke, but he slowly forced himself back up to his knees, careful of the ground beneath this time as he shook the icy particles off his jacket. "Just my pride, mostly," he said resignedly.

The sentinel smiled wryly, "It is too bad your technological wonders have failed you on our world, strangers. You could learn many things from the experience in the wilds."

There was truth in the words, and Markus' uncle's lessons seemed all the more pointed now in this instance, but this Noturan was making, in Locke's opinion, an unfair assessment of them in what was definitely not their best circumstances. Markus was about to retort about how well the Noturan's would do surviving an ion storm with their paltry technology, but they were saved before he could make the diplomatic gaffe.

Their responses were cut short when the ground seemed to vibrate, the snow shifting slightly beneath their feet. Oken's eyes widened before snapping toward the edge of the valley walls. In the distance he could see, nearly 2000 meters up to the edge of the small valley, a cloud of white was beginning to pick up speed down the side of the mountain. Trees and rock-faces vanished beneath the wave of snow barreling toward where they stood.

"Snowfall!" The Noturan yelled. He ran over and helped the human officer to his feet, then grabbed the looped length of rope strung across his side. With a quick motion he tied it off to the hilt of his axe and hurled the weapon up into the branches of the treeline. In the dim light of the sky it was difficult to make out where the axe had swung over, but Kip knew exactly where to throw it and where it would land.

The rushing snow was growing louder. Looking to the young spotted woman in blue, he pushed the rope toward her, "Can you climb this?!"

Sensing the young woman's inevitable mental slide, the Noturan Sentinel shook his head quickly, not giving her a chance to respond. With a swift motion he wrapped the rope around her waist and under her rear, giving her a hastily fashioned seat. Qip yanked on the rope leading up into the tree and the axe fell down next to him with the rope thrown over a branch about 15 meters up.

Saia yelped as he began hoisting her up into the tree at break-neck speed. In a matter of moments he was climbing the tree himself as she clung desperately to the thickest branch she could wrap her body around. She hurriedly undid the rope and threw it back down for the others.

Ens deLaar felt the vibrations in her bones even before she heard the low menacing rumbling in the distance. She hurried along with the others to the trees. Whatever this was that was coming at them, to be up there seemed to be their only chance. There was no way that she could pull herself up on that robe. Instead she fumbled through her pockets, a large lump swelling in her through and finally found a pair of gloves. She put them on and instantly jumped on a tree next to the group, fighting, grabbing at the branches above her and kicking the ones below her, desperately trying to gain height.

She started to panic, since most of the low branches were rotten and dry and just gave in under her weight. When she finally found one that was strong enough, she got on it on second try. First it wasn’t easy to balance herself but the higher she got, the denser the tree became. Still, this was no ladder, constantly pulling herself up from difficult angles and becoming more and more tense at the thought that falling down would be her end, made her arms cramp and become lame. Panting she tried to collect her thought. She didn’t want to make the fatal mistake and choose the wrong branch that would snap and that would be it. She groaned and climbed on.

Sina had no idea how long she had been climbing. But the twigs above her had become so dense that she almost couldn’t get through. In addition to that, she was dead certain that the tree had started to sway with her movements which made her freeze in horror every time it happened. She wrapped her arms around its trunk and finally managed to also get her legs around it, bracing herself for what was to come.

Ensign Locke rushed to the nearest, widest tree he could reach, looking back toward where the others were to mentally log their general locations with respect to his, and he began to climb on the downhill side to keep it between him and the oncoming avalanche. He'd gotten up a dozen feet when the wall of snow hit, and he held on as tightly as he could as the snow packed in around him. At the last minute, he touched upon an idea and released one arm to reach into his belt kit just as the pitch black surrounded him.

For an immeasurable amount of time Ens deLaar had the silliest hope that they had been mistaken. That the avalanche would wear itself out and never reach their forest. Then a wall of storm hit them instantly bending her tree. She could not even hear herself scream as she clutched against it with all her might. There was turmoil, she was thrown to two side, branches, pieces of wood and soil thundered past her or hit her almost knocking her off. Her arms and shins hurt terribly – the next larger chunk that came flying would maybe just smash one of her limbs. She couldn't breathe, this was just the air cushion being pushed in front of the mass of snow. Any second she could be gone, being hit by a deathly blow or slipping and just disappearing in the chaos.

Maybe she should do just that? Let go and get it over with? But she heard her husband’s voice in her head: “Don’t you dare and let go!” She loved his voice so much. She loved him so much. “Don’t leave me alone! You stay up there as long as it takes. I know you can!”

She just ordered her limps to lock around that three and forcefully sucked in any tiny amount of air she could get.

When the snow front came Sina was engulfed in split seconds. She snow slid in every tiny gap of her clothing, her ears, nose and the pressed around her. Throwing her head frantically from side to side she tried to preserve a little space in front of her mouth for breathing, but it was almost stronger than her.

Then there was silence.

== END LOG ==

Lt Cmdr Mathew Caldwell
Chief Security Officer

LtJG Saia Roswell
Chief Science Officer

Ensign Markus Locke
Chief Operations Officer
USS VINDICATOR

Qip Oken
Noturan Hrakthi'ta

 

RSS Feed