One With the Planet (Part Three)

Posted on Tue Jul 14th, 2020 @ 9:23am by Sasha Vieers (Deceased)
Edited on on Tue Jul 14th, 2020 @ 9:25am

Mission: The Evils Within
Location: Hesiod Green

ON:
Quietly, the Hesian elder moved across the room and knelt before Sasha. "And now, my Child, I am ready to receive my gift."

Sasha blinked, "What's that now?"

"I get to be the first one!" Ja-Bo declared with a smile, the biggest one she had shown so far. Her weary eyes peered into Sasha's, moistened with emotion but brimming with unrestrained joy. "My old body is about to give way, but I will go freely with you. In hope, not pain. I offer myself to you, Child, as the first to be Renewed!"

Sasha breathed out, as the dawning realisation of the suggestion hit her. "You want... me to..."

"Make me one with the planet." Ja-Bo nodded firmly, grabbing hold of Sasha's hands in her own and pulling them close to her chest in a gesture of praise and appeal.

Vieers gulped, eyes widened once more. She moved away from the woman with her loving request.

"Please!" Ja-Bo cried out, "I have waited so long!"

"NO!" Sasha yelled in response, leaping off the straw bed and across the room. "I won't!"

The Hesian elder believed so absolutely that the Federation officers on her planet were mythical saviours, with the power to end the lives of the native inhabitants in order for them to be reborn in paradise. She was one of the last followers of the "Children of the Stars" religion, completely devote in their faith that the visitors from above will somehow heal this sick and dying planet of Hesiod Green and reincarnate its people. It was a prophecy deigned to come true; and Sasha's arrival in Ja-Bo's cave was irrefutable proof that her time had come. She was begging to be killed, under the belief that she will be reborn.

Ja-Bo bowed her head upon receiving Sasha's rejection. "Am I not worthy?" She whispered. "I have suffered many cycles here. Alone, in my cave. Shunned by my people. Ridiculed by the Village Masters and the rulers of our society. Called a nuisance, delusion, unstable. But I have stayed faithful to you, Child. I have stayed true. I believed when others lost their way, surely I am deserving?"

Sasha had backed up against the cave wall, her body coming to rest against the cold, hard surface. She couldn't believe the situation she found herself in; this old woman begging to be murdered under the impression that it would fulfil the prophecy of the Grey Beast saving her people and planet. But Sasha knew what death truly meant, and to kill another by her own hand was unthinkable. There was a time, after the Bubble Universe, after her world was torn apart on Paradise, that she had thought little of the consequences of death. Now it was all that occupied her mind, the depth of her actions having caught up with her over time, and she felt the true guilt in every cell of her body.

Unless.....

A dark voice popped into her mind. The devil's advocate. That voice inside her that supported so many of Sasha's ill-advised decisions in the Bubble universe, Paradise, and beyond. The one who could justify anything she did as long it was a means to an end for Sasha. A voice she thought she had drowned out with guilt, but now re-appeared again.

Unless you kill Ja-Bo to protect yourself. She thought.

Ja-Bo was the only one of the Hesians that Sasha had accidentally made contact with, ultimately violating the Prime Directive and diverging from her main mission. She was now no better than the people on Pithos, with their careless concern for the Federation's first standing order. No one on Pandora or the Away Teams likely knew that Sasha had been discovered and interfered with the native people; so if Sasha delivered on Ja-Bo's request to become "one with the planet", she would ensure that no one ever could find out.

Kill the Hesian and you'll be fine. She thought.

Sasha would be giving this woman the "gift" she had spent her life expecting to receive and Sasha could then continue on her journey, merely explaining the delay in her arrival as having gotten lost in the landscape, or needing to take shelter. Temple had been stupid enough to let her go without an escort, there's no way even he would find out. Ja-Bo was actually begging to be killed, she would thank Sasha for doing it. Wouldn't she be further violating the Prime Directive by refusing the request and possibly disproving the Hesian's entire belief system? What would happen to Ja-Bo then?

No one will miss her." She thought. Do it.

Ja-Bo was an outcast from her own people; they didn't come to visit this cave anymore, she had said so herself. It would be a long time, if ever, that her body was discovered and the Pandora would be long-gone. She could make it look like an accident, or suicide. Use the stove to burn the place out. She'd had to find all of her equipment first, make sure she left no trace of her presence or Federation technology. She wasn't going to make the same mistakes she did on Paradise; she was sloppy and haphazard then - she left too many clues for Griffin to find. This time she'd do it right, leave no evidence.

One old woman stands in your way to freedom. She thought. Do it!

If she completes her mission on Pithos, finds the information of Starfleet's corruption and mishandling of the facility, Vieers would earn some reprieve in her sentencing when she goes to trial. She may not even serve a full life sentence. They may, as Temple suggested, find more useful ways for Sasha to spend her time. All it takes is killing some pathetic old creature in a cave who is literally asking for it; and she'll be able to make something of her own ruined life once more. It was a win-win situation; she could sleep at night knowing she had done Ja-Bo and herself a favour.

DO IT! The voice cried out.

"NOOO!" Sasha screamed burying her head in her hands. "I WON'T!"

Ja-Bo reeled back in surprise, shocked by the alien's sudden outburst.

"You...you have the wrong idea about me." Sasha stammered, breathing hard. "I can't do that. I'm not going to do it!"

Sasha looked around and realised she had come to rest against the cave painting, eye-level with the Pandora-shaped "Grey Beast" on the wall, it's mouth open wide with a bright blue ray of light shining upon a group of Hesians. It was mocking her, telling her to go ahead and make Ja-Bo one with the planet. Frightened, Sasha immediately moved away and sat by the table instead. She knocked over Ja-Bo's knitting in her rush to find safer space.

"I see." Ja-Bo nodded quietly.

A few moments passed as Sasha regained her breath and tried to silence that awful voice once and for all. Ja-Bo seemed to be mediating, taking in the news with quiet determination. Finally, she opened her eyes once more, the beginnings of a smile evident on her chapped lips.

"Of course." Ja-Bo nodded, "One final test."

Sasha was now just trying to find the exit, She just wanted to get out of the cave and back to the Pandora, return to her cell where the voice couldn't convince her to do anything. Of course she knew that the voice was really just her own mind, her own dark thoughts, but she didn't want to be that person anymore. She had to find the way out, but it was nowhere in sight.

"What?" She asked, tired.

"It was selfish of me to assume that I would be first, or that I would receive your gift alone." Ja-Bo replied, her voice cracking with emotion. She fell down onto her knees. "Please forgive me, Child of the Stars! I have spoken above my place!"

Sasha watched the old woman sob into her hands, the surreality of the moment washing over her. "Stop. It's fine. Don't... don't do that."

"No, I am impish and impatient." Ja-Bo whimpered. "I see now that we must gather together for the great Death. We are all Renewed together. As the picture shows."

Sasha's eyes fell on the cave drawing again, but she quickly looked away. At least the woman was no longer asking to be murdered, so Vieers was relieved a little. "Sure. Whatever."

Ja-Bo stood, wiping the tears off her cheeks. "So we will go then? To my people."

"Why?"

"For the final test, of course." Ja-Bo smiled once more, that deep belief settling in after being shaken momentarily "It is my duty, as the prophet, to herald your arrival and gather my people for the great Renewal. It's right there, in the picture. All of us together, receiving your gift. 'One with the planet', means not the individual, but 'one' as a people. And once they see me with you, the Child of the Stars, they will believe in you again! Oh of course! This is the way it happens."

"I... don't think that's a good idea..." Sasha fumbled, trying to think of a suitable excuse. If she was seen by more of the Hesians, she would only further violate the Prime Directive than she already had. It was not the mission that Temple had sent her on, and she wasn't sure if she would survive out on the planet's toxic atmosphere without her breathing equipment.

Ja-Bo, however, was full of resolution once more. She turned back towards the bed and lifted one of the blankets. Underneath this was a small lever which, when she pulled it, caused the bed to shift forwards, as if on a track. Once the bed was moved, the entrance to the cave was revealed underneath, a dark tunnel shaft. There was also a small cubby-hole in the wall, from where Ja-Bo pulled Sasha's supply belt. The Hesian elder turned and handed the belt over to Sasha.

"We must leave at once!" She declared, not wasting any time. Before Sasha could say anything more, she was dropping into the tunnel and disappearing out of sight.

Sasha quickly put on the belt and rummaged around for the communicator badge that Crewman Milkovich had designed. She pressed it eagerly, hoping to get a response from the Pandora. But there must have been interference from the density of the rocks around her as the device returned nothing but garbled beeps. Without any real equipment or tools on her belt, save a few bits and pieces of survival gear, she didn't have enough to work on the device while inside the cave. Sasha knew she had no choice but to follow the woman out into the surface world again in the hopes of making contact with the Pandora.

"Come on!" Ja-Bo could heard in the distance, her voice echoing through the tunnel and cave. "We have great news to share!"

"Can't wait." Sasha sighed to herself. She stepped forward to follow but felt something roll under her foot. Curious, Sasha looked down and saw it was one of Ja-Bo's knitting needles that had fallen on the floor. Silently, she picked it up and concealed the long needle down the sleeve of her tunic, before heading over to the tunnel shaft and dropping down.

OFF