Tainted Love

Posted on Thu Dec 16th, 2021 @ 3:01pm by Captain Nycolas Temple & Mauricio Arnaldo & Lieutenant Krysia Kaleri-Smith

Mission: The Gauntlet
Location: Deck 6 - Sickbay

ON:

It had been some time since Sasha had passed, and the crystallization of her body underneath was discovered. She had been brought out to the main Sickbay and investigated at length. The medical team had carefully and respectfully removed the rest of the black dust, revealing the humanoid-shaped crystal underneath. With the window shields somberly shut again, there were no lights to reflect upon her surface, and underneath they could still see her body entombed within. Nyx was standing by her side, a pensive look of sadness and confusion on his face.

"You say she wasn't in pain?" He asked Krysia and Mauricio gravely.

“No, there was no pain” Krys smiled warmly. “In fact quite the opposite. I can let you see her last few minutes if you like?”

"No, thank you," Nyx shook his head, walking around the bio bed. "And this happened when you put her closer to the window?"

"She requested it." Mauricio spoke solemnly from his chair in the corner. He hadn't left her side, "I thought it was helping, she felt like it was good for her. But... I don't know. Maybe the crystalizing was already happening underneath the black dust, or maybe the exposure to the nebula heat created it?"

Nyx frowned, "Medical have not been able to give us a clear indication of how." He looked to Krysia, "Does she... remind you of anything?"

Krysia nodded. “Yes...the crystalline structures on the planet. She was badly infected by the air there, more than any of us.”

Nyx moved over to the nearest console, "Agreed. Both the Away teams, and Sasha's personal logs, recounted coming across these structures." He started scrolling through the large swarths of text from their Hesiod mission; it had been a busy few days for the Pandora. "There was something else that your team saw in the shuttle...." He looked over to her, "What about the Hesian's dead?"

“The ones that we saw were...covered. I didn’t pay much attention to them." Krysia answered.

"Because it seemed so cruel." Nyx nodded, as he looked back to the mission notes. "A 'valley of death' was the description..."

[Previously, "New Life and New Civilisations"]

Mindo, Kaleri, Fick, Sandoval, and Rrareth were travelling in a shuttle across the surface of Hesiod Green. While the appearance of life signs on the sensors became increasingly prevalent as the runabout made its way across the jagged planet surface, this seemed to be entirely at odds with the visuals that the crew were seeing at the time. Hesiod Green was by all appearances an endless desert of rocks, scorched earth, and a desolate landscape one would never want to spend very long visiting. The dark clouds swirling above only added to the ominous and barren visage. And though any visible signs of life appeared to be impossible, they persisted in the distance.

However, not much further into the team's journey, the shuttle's sensors eventually began to identify something within the inhospitable landscape. Biological matter. Flesh. Hair. Fluids. Then... scraps of clothing, made of linen. But it was all in decay, rotting and aged, signs of the formerly living. At first it was just a blip on the scanners, and then a few more, and more again, until there was almost a thousand individual markers of some deceased people.

“Does that answer any questions?” Krysia shook her head in disbelief.

As the shuttle drifted over a particularly steep rock-face, they came upon a large, round clearing, which was entirely flat - as if all the rocks had been broken down or purposely removed. Across the entire length of the field were the bodies. Thousands upon thousands of bodies - thrown into this site entirely unceremoniously. Some were older than others, some barely a week had passed since they had arrived, as told by the shuttle's sensors. There were bones and flesh, but nothing that could be identified by species on the Federation's database. Skulls and skeletons indicated a humanoid frame at best. And what was increasingly telling is how the bodies were each covered by the same kind of grey blanket and nothing more. No clothing, no uniforms, just bodies in blankets. Whoever these people were, they didn't believe in ritual burials.

“Oh my...” Krysia looked away from the gruesome sight that was laid out below them. It was a horrific sight compared only to a horror movie or a mass extinction event. She kept her gaze diverted. “What happened here?!”

John got up from his seat to take a closer look, and almost immediately regretted it. "Ziara, can you do a radiation scan? I have a... disturbing theory about what happened here."

It wasn't the first time that Ziara had seen something like the valley of death. She whispered something that wasn't translated in Caitian. Then her fingers flew over the console to run the scan that John had requested. "Yhea, me too."

"Radiation?!" Krysia looked at John concernedly. "If you're hunch is right, will we be safe in here?" She was obviously concerned for the safety of her twins.

"Well, those definitely aren't our life signs," Fick offered with a snort. "So... not everything is dead down there... Maybe this is the way they bury people..."

[Present Day]

"Thousands of bodies, left in a cleared area." Nyx recalled the mission notes. Mauricio had stood from his chair and walked over to the console screen, reading over the Captain's shoulder as he explained. "At first it appeared the Hesians didn't care about their dead. Just dumped them in a pile. But we later learned they were deeply religious."

"They did have a strong belief that they would become one with their gods, that they were destined for something higher.” Krysia agreed.

"Exactly!" Nyx spun around and looked at her, a twinkle of realization in his eyes, "One with the planet."

[Previously, "Observing the Unknown"]

The Away Team were now surveilling a group of Hesians conducting a funeral march for another deceased member of their village. The aliens were shrouded in heavy cloaks, with hoods drawn, and masks over their faces. They appeared humanoid in physical features - two legs and arms, generally around 5 to 6 feet tall. The group communicated in basic hand signals, as two of the aliens picked up the pulling bar at the front of a large cart and used their own physical strength to move the vehicle. Two more stood at the front, while two trailed behind at the back, as if guarding the cart. Inside the tray of the cart was a large mass, covered by a blanket.

As the procession continued, one of the aliens at the front of the cart began to talk. He was reading aloud from a sermon, his voice carrying through the valley of rocks. "We commit you, brother, to the winds of this world. Your soul has been uplifted and your possessions have been repurposed to sustain the lives of our community. Your body will become one with the planet, in the hopes that it will live again."

"One with the planet." The others murmured in unison.

Krysia watched with interest, observing the rituals of the planet's natives.

"Interesting ritual. Not unlike so many others of its kind," Fick commented. "Lots of people bury their dead... some even set them on fire."

"My people fire a coffin into the void to wander the stars forever. However, this feels different from just a burial." Ziara commented.

Meanwhile, back at the entrance to the mountain, a larger group of aliens slowly appeared. They were all wearing robes with hoods, and masks over their faces. Most were full face coverings, but some just had a respiratory, breathing mask over their mouths. It was apparent then that the aliens were not immune to the toxic air of the planet, but were seemingly equipped for it. The group swelled in numbers until there was at least fifty of them standing together, before they too started to follow the dirt track in the same direction of the cart. These were the mourners; evident by their audible crying and quietly sung hymns.

Every now and then, they would all murmur, "One with the planet" together.

[Present]

"One with the planet." Mauricio repeated as he read the words from the screen.

Krysia nodded. “Sasha has become one with the planet. At least in a sense. The last thing she said was “Ja’bo and she was gone!”

"Yeah," Mauricio nodded, looking over her body, "What is that?"

"Ja-Bo was a Hesian that Sasha met on the planet." Nyx explained, "She fell unconscious after observing a large crystal formation."

"Crystal?" Mauricio peered over to Nyx and Krysia, catching on to what they were saying, "Sorry guys, I wasn't here for this part. You said there were crystals on Hesiod Green?"

Nyx shared a look with Krysia, before nodding solemnly. "It was the first Away Team who came across them initially."

[Previously, "Strange New Worlds"]

Outside the Pandora, a wild and dangerous terrain greeted the away team, consisting of Brennan, Griffin, Smith, and Jameson. Jagged rocks met jutting crystals within a fog so dense that it caused the team to pause periodically to wipe the mist from their visors. These moments of pause allowed them to place down beacons of light to mark their path so they could find their way back to the ship, and the light helped to cut through the fog to make their journey safer.

Shae was entranced by the unique mineral composition of the rocky terrain and the softly glowing crystals that sprouted forth. Even with her human ears, she could hear the crystals ‘humming’ and she wasn’t sure if the rest of the team could hear the faint song that followed them, but it was hauntingly beautiful. The crystals seemed to be reacting to their presence, the hum and glow gently intensifying as they drew closer to large, towering formations, and ebbing as they moved away and closer to the coordinates of the base. During each pause to clean their visors or place a beacon, Shae took scans of these formation, and the readings she got back fascinated her all the more: whatever reaction these elegant spires of singing crystal were having to them was blurring the line between light and sound, such that as the humming vibrations grew intense enough to be audible for the team, the crystals seemed to develop on aura of fire. Her tricorder registered no heat from these flames, and daring to test a theory, Shae reached out with her gloved hand to touch a crystal. The crystal hummed beautifully, the flames changing to a lovely blue hue as the crystal resonated with Shae’s energy, but no harm came to the scientist. Smiling as she drew her hand back, she transmitted her readings back to the Pandora and they again resumed their trek towards the base.

Aeryn was amazed by the crystal formations, it was so beautiful that she wished they had time to stop and study the area as well as record the humming that everyone had heard. It was amazing to stand and watch the way the crystals reacted to Shae's gloved touch.

[Present]

Nyx gave a shrug, "When Sasha went out into the planet's surface, looking for the Away Team, she came across the crystals as well. They were remarkable because they stood out as these beautiful, bright glowing crystals in the middle of this desolate, dead planet. Now I think we know where they came from."

Mauricio walked over to Sasha and put a hand on her shoulder, before looking directly at Temple. "Tell me, exactly, what you are saying, Captain."

Nyx didn't hesitate, "I'm saying the Hesians leave their dead in a large open field. The particles in the air causes the bodies to develop this rock-like covering over their skin. The radiation of the planet then turns that rock in the crystal formations."

"And the Hesians believe this is how they become one with the planet?" Mauricio asked, "By... literally, becoming part of the planet?"

Nyx nodded. "I never realised until now how literal that was."

Letting out a deep breath, Mauricio could only shake his head, "And they want this? The Hesians want to become crystals?"

"From Sasha's recollections, most of the Hesians had fallen out of religious devotion, but some - like Ja-Bo - remained true believers." Nyx explained, "Ja-Bo also believed devoutly that great beings from the sky would come down and save her people. So, when the Pandora appeared and she found Sasha, it only confirmed that belief. Sasha described Ja-Bo's beliefs to be pure love. From what I can gather, Ja-Bo and Sasha wondered the planet together to get back to her people, and this exposed Sasha to lethal levels of the atmosphere."

"Love? Ja-Bo's beliefs lead to Sasha's death, that sounds like a tainted kind of love." Mauricio remarked, "But how did the same process happen to Sasha, when she was here on the Pandora?"

Nyx thought about this for a moment before giving a shrug, "We removed Sasha from Hesiod and brought her here, but her body was already infected by the poisoned particles. It wasn't until she was exposed to the heat of the Nebula that the crystallization process occurred."

“So by bringing her to the window we...” Krys shook her head. “We allowed the process to finish.”

"More than that. I'd have to confirm with the Science department, but it seems to have excelled the process to happen almost instantly." Nyx remarked, "The Rentara Nebula has higher concentrations of gojiric radiation. That, combined with the effects the Indigo Sky particles are having on the hull, has crystalized Sasha's skin in a flash."

"Oh." Mauricio was heartbroken by the news, feeling an instant wave of guilt wash over him. He took a few steps backwards and fell into a chair with a slump. "Poor girl."

Nyx immediately held up his hands, "Hey! Do NOT feel responsible for this. Every medical check and diagnostic, including the routine check-up completed on Sasha this morning, had been confirming for weeks now that Sasha's death was imminent. It was only a matter of when. Whatever happened here, you were not to know and you are not to blame. Either of you. I want to make that clear."

Krysia nodded. “Thank you Sir. To be honest I’m glad she’s no longer suffering. She was the happiest I’ve ever seen her when she...” She hung her head. “Left us.”

"Agreed, this condition looked so painful and torturous." Nyx sighed, "The poisons had truly infected every part of her body."

Krysia looked towards Nyx. “Perhaps all of those on the away team should have a thorough medical examination? Just to make sure this isn’t some sort of contamination that interacts with the body?”

"We did, when you all returned," Nyx answered, "While you were recuperating in Sickbay or your quarters, everyone was appropriately scanned and cleared of similar infections. We were able to flush any toxins out immediately. Except for Sasha, she was too exposed."

Mauricio had remained silent for a moment, since the guilt had come over him. He was watching Sasha's body intently, remarking at the wonderful - and horrible - event that had happened before him. If someone had described this to him, watching a person turn to stone and then crystalize - he wouldn't have believed it. But it did happen. After a moment, he was able to stand again and he placed a hand on Sasha's shoulder.

"Rest now, Sasha," He whispered. "Be at peace."

Krysia smiled as she looked towards Mauricio. “She is Mauricio, She’s finally at peace.”

The trio sat in silence for some time as they regarded Sasha's silent, permanent rest. There would be funeral plans to be made, official reports to write, and someone would need to figure out what to do with a crystalised body. But for now, there was only the silence and the mourning.

OFF