Here there be dragons...

Posted on Sun Nov 5th, 2023 @ 9:58am by Captain Shran dh'Klar & Lieutenant Inara Senn & Lieutenant Wyatt Steele & Lieutenant JG Vienna Steele

Mission: Damn Dirty Apes
Location: Five miles from the Beta Team Base Camp

Inara led the team out of the base camp through a savannah towards what appeared to be a mountain in the distance, directed by her compass that began to shift more focused between north-northeast and northeast, but the needle wasn't still, it was like it was straining towards the direction. In the distance they noticed something very ominous. It wasn't a hurricane, there was no fierce winds, but clouds were rotating over the peak.

Lightning crackled in the maelstrom above. It wasn't like normal lightning. It was distorted and folded into slow patterns. It didn't touch the ground. Inara flipped open a tricorder. "Unbelievable... It's defiantly not natural. I'm picking up broad spectrum fluctuations in the EM spectrum. I wonder..." She noted. "I'm throwing out a quick hypothesis, but what we're looking at may be the end result of a Zero-Point Generator. It's influencing the entire EM and subspace spectrum, even visible light."

“I can’t say I’ve heard of a Zero-Point Generator before” Vienna looked at Inara curiously.

"Nor have I." Wyatt chipped in.

"It's a type of quantum energy on the near zero wavelength." Inara noted. It was explored in the twenty-first century on Earth, then Zefram Cochrane made his first warp flight using matter-antimatter. It was easier at the time to use CERN's antimatter research after World War III than to reinvent the wheel and use Zero Point energy. Someone here seems to have taken this to new levels. Even more than the Romulan's Quantum Singularities."

"You don't want to go there, Humans." A voice came from an Elder Ape man. "Not one single person, Ape or Human, who has wandered to these mountains has ever returned alive."

Inara looked at the two officers. "A talking ape... wonders never cease."

"A talking human?!? Wonders indeed never cease." The old ape noted.

"Touché." Inara noted suprised. "So, what is your name, my good simian friend?"

"My name is Augustus." He noted. "I once had the grandiose dream of trying to conquer the forbidden mountains. The thing about grand dreams is sometimes they become grand nightmares." He noted.

“May I ask...” Vienna gazed at Augustus. “Why is it you don’t seem to be bothered by us? Others here seem to hate Humans.”

"Because when you've learned inconvenient truths others would burn as in books, and bury as in scholars. It changes your entire perspective, and suddenly when an old man has seen so much hatred. It does something to you, and you spend your life never hating again. I can say this. My people are not ready to know the secrets I know. To know we were once the same race. How can I hate you when we were one brothers and sisters." The hermit noted.

Vienna offered a warm smile. “I’m glad to hear that, to say I’m curious about your people is an understatement.”

Wyatt stood off to the side as Vi, Inara and Augustus talked about different things. He kept an eye peeled making sure nothing snuck up on them be it man or ape.

"You need to go to the old place, Don't You?" Augustus noted.

"Yes..."

"And what will you do in that accursed place?" Augustus mentioned.

"We have to stop it. It's preventing our starship from being able to retrieve some of our people." Inara noted.

"But there's great power there, within the mountain in the ruin." Augustus noted. "Surely you would desire its power? Or do I sense another purpose behind your journey here? I've seen what you seek, both its majesty and hubris. The Humans built this place, and made us, made us to serve. And when my army learned this, that they and humans come from the same blood, they went mad. Only I remained, and I learned. In a way, deep down, we are all like them. Obsessed with survival. Their only thoughts were superiority, and they created ape-kind to serve them." Augustus noted and chuckled. "My how the tables have turned. Now, Ape-kind considers itself superior... and take the humans so they can serve them."

Vienna smiled as she looked at the elderly ape. “In the eyes of the Federation your world, your people, are a unique species. You may have begun from Human interference in the natural order of things, but you have evolved to become a distinct species. Apes on Earth do not speak.” She offered a smile. “It’s a shame that your people are so against Humans, you would have made a strong addition to the Federation. It’s not just Humans that make up the Federation.” She smiled but said no more.

"Say no more!" He commanded. "If Athos knew what happened here, he'd never forgive me for leading apes here to die, but I do know how to traverse the forbidden land. And live to speak about it." Augustus noted. "Never let the ghosts touch you, they will kill you. And time is not right here. If you see images of you friends and kin, stay away from them, or you will disappear, never to be seen again. Remember my words well." Augustus turned to leave slowly. "I live to warn people of this land, and that is penance for my past transgressions."

Vienna was glad she had the foresight to record the conversation, something she’d learned in her years in intel. If needed, they could refer to what they needed to know again.


A signal attempted to come through, =^=Shran t... eam, report.=^=

Augustus looked at the humans as the strange, disembodied voice spoke. "What marvel is this?"

TBC