Ice Planet Expedition: Through the Looking Glass, part 2

Posted on Sun Feb 14th, 2010 @ 6:18am by Commander Raven Adams & Khiy Tal'ehrihn & Commander Basil Hart & Commodore Edward Fannin

1,104 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: FORGING AHEAD
Location: Tiberius X
Timeline: Current

Basil smiled with admiration at T'mpest. She had a style all her own. And he definitely wouldn't want to be on the wrong end of those Vulcan muscles. By the time he got Ty to the shuttle, the naked officer had stopped shivering, and his skin was cold and clammy. He saw Nurse Raynes in the shuttlecraft, already using a filter. "Nurse! This man has hypothermia and is delusional! Wrap him in heated thermal blankets to raise his core temperature, and make sure he gets a filter on his face stat!" He grabbed the filter someone offered to him and placed it over his nose and mouth, breathing deeply. He hoped he hadn't gotten too much exposure or he could still go loopy, as it took a while for the fungus to be neutralized in the body. "Make sure he stays warm and stays put. Is that clear, Nurse Raynes?"

"Yes, sir," Yvette said. She only can do little without the doctor's authorization.

Samantha hadn't slept much the night before. After waking from a nightmare she went for a long walk. At one point she almost headed for the caves, but the sound of gunfire made her jump and quickly change direction.

She finally made her way to her tent where she finally fell asleep, exhausted, just before dawn.

She woke to shouts of Ty screeching something about snow cones. Concerned, she hurried out of her tent to see what was going on.

She watched T'mpest carry Gifford into one of the shuttles and followed. "What's going on?"

"There appears to be some sort of fungus in the ice. When our shuttles and tents melted the ice, the spores were released into the atmosphere, causing some to hallucinate," T'mpest replied.

"Interesting. How did you come up with this theory?"

"Ask the doctor," T'mpest replied.

Sam nodded and looked at Basil, noting that he was putting gas masks on Gifford and Seven. "How did you find out about the spores?"

Through his mask, he replied. "I scanned one of the first victims, and found increased levels of activity in the 5-HT2A and 5-HT1A serotonin receptors in her brain. That's something that you don't see every day. Reminded my of some things I picked up in pharmacology class at the academy. On Earth, there is an entire family of fungoids which alter the brain chemistry, causing hallucinations. I scanned for the chemical markers of similar fungi, and found latent spores in the ice, and active ones in the air. My theory is that our activity began melting enough ice to release the spores, which we all aspirated."

Sam nodded, understanding. She put a mask on and grabbed a stack to distribute. "While you take care of your patients, I'll get the masks distributed to the rest of the team." Raven, who was now feeling better, also grabbed a stack and followed suit.

Back in the tents, Trent's eyes flew open and he sat up quickly from his bunk. He was having nightmares about those creatures from the caves and the result had left him feeling anxious and queasy. His hands wiped the sweat off his forehead and he sat up for several moments trying to calm his thumping heart down. Though the minutes passed the feeling never left him, in addition he couldn't shake the notion that something was watching him. He shook his head trying to pass off the thoughts as nothing more than post battle jitters.

Trent knew it would be cold outside, but he decided to leave the comforts of his tent and meet the brisk air in the attempts to cool his overheating body down. Without waking the other occupant of the double tent, he pulled down its zipper and was greeted with a blast of freezing air. He hunched down and took a step outside. It was a beautiful night. The moons seemed to dance off the frozen surface and he could help but stare up at them while appreciating the frigid conditions.

A moment later Trent’s eyes caught some movement and he looked down at the ice. What he saw turned the blood in his veins colder than the surface he was standing on. Dozens of the creatures from the caves were milling about the camp, sniffing and clawing at the tents. They must have overwhelmed the sentry and made their way over the ice. “F***ing rats.†He said through gritted teeth. He slowly bent down and reached back inside his tent for TR-116 he kept inside. With deft hands he pulled the weapon free without making any sound to alert the creatures.

He took aim at the nearest one and flicked off the safety as a grim smile creased his face. Those things were going to pay with blood for the Marines they killed...

The two women split up and began handing out masks to everyone. "There's a virus," Sam told them. "Nothing life-threatening, but it's better to be safe than sorry." She'd just given out her last mask when she heard Trent yell. She turned around just in time to hear several rifle shots and see Raven tackle Trent, knocking him forward onto the ice.

She ran over and took the rifle out of his hands as he yelled something about getting every one of those "#$^& rats."

Raven bounded on his backside, causing him to stop swearing at the rodents and start swearing at her.

With a quick uppercut, Raven knocked him out and the two women put a mask on his face before dragging him to the shuttle.

T'mpest was surprised to see the two women return carrying an unconscious Marine. After they explained what happened, she looked at Basil. "I think we should break camp and head back to the Typhon. Science teams can return later. Ones who are more prepared for the planet's... peculiarities."

Sam nodded and went in search of Damon to tell him what was going on, and to give him a mask.

T'mpest took the rest of the masks and went in search of Harmos and Zach.

Raven made sure Trent was okay, then she, too, left to start breaking camp.

OFF

USS Endeavor:

Commander T'mpest Michaels
Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant Commander John Gifford
Chief Intelligence Officer

Ensign Beatrix Marelle
Alien Archaeologist/Anthropologist

USS Orion:

Lieutenant Commander Samantha York
Chief Science Officer

1st Lieutenant Damon Raine
Marine CO

Petty Officer 3rd Class Yvette Jaynes (NPC)
Nurse

Trent Kushner (NPC)
Marine Rifleman

Starbase Typhon:

Lieutenant Commander Basil Hart
Chief Medical Officer

Lieutenant Commander Raven Adams
Chief Intelligence Officer

Ty Seven (NPC)
Intel Officer

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