It took all but twenty minutes to reach the sister planet, Draloos V, but that was only because the two planets happened to be very close to each other in their orbits. From space, the planet looked somewhat like Earth, but the ratio of land-to-water seemed larger on this planet. As such, the planet was more green and brown than it was blue. There were also many beautiful white swirls of clouds in its atmosphere. From orbit, the planet looked rather harmless.
“We’ve arrived at Draloos V, sir,” Ensign Ester announced.
“Very well, Ensign. Full stop,” captain said. “What can you tell from here, Lieutenant?”
“Breathable atmosphere, moderate temperatures, and plenty of moisture. There is heavy vegetation in most parts of the planet. I’m not detecting any humanoid life,” said the science officer.
“Do we know where the cargo ships crashed?”
“Yes, sir, we do. There are several crash sites.”
“Alright, remember, nobody beams down to the planet under any circumstances, everybody got that?” the captain reminded everyone.
“Then…what do we do instead? We can only do so much up here,” asked Jenovia.
“Chief? The stage is all yours,” Seth said.
“Uh…yes, thank you, captain. We are using one of Starfleet’s new experimental devices to serve as ‘surrogates’ for ourselves when we transport to hostile environments. They look like simple, metal puppets, and in many ways, you’d be right, that’s what they are. But they’re strong and durable, and can be connected to us in a way that responds to our physical movements. So, I raise an arm, it raises an arm.” And so he did, as a demonstration. It was rather underwhelming, but he got the point across. It was interesting to see the odd expressive mannerisms of LeCroy being exhibited by the mechanical android.
“Ahem…the point is, we can transport these surrogates to the planet and we can operate them safely from the ship. This idea has been explored before, but we’ve developed it to the point where we can use them reliably on everyday missions. We call them surrogate androids, or – SA’s, for short.”
“And, we just stand here on the bridge?”
“Um, no, you guys move into that room on the side of the bridge there.” The doors on side of the bridge opened up to reveal a small holodeck. The doors opened almost as if it was a hidden room in a mysterious mansion. Seth didn’t recall this room being in the technical manual.
“The surrogate machines can also transmit advanced sensory information to this holodeck, so while you guys stand in there, you will be able to see and hear everything that they do. So since you can sense everything that they sense, and they move in every way that you move, it will literally be like you are there.”
“So there are going to be five of those puppet things walking around on the surface? What if on some other planet, we had to talk to people? We’d look like idiots,” Santiago remarked.
“Err, good question, captain, but not to worry. They are each equipped with holoemitters, so that they will project an image that is exactly the same as yours. So, they will look exactly like you. These were invented not only for crew safety in hostile environments, but also to protect the environment from our own contaminants. We carry a lot of microscopic organisms that could mess up an ecosystem. Not that our microbes would have any chance on Draloos V…”
“So there’s also no need to wear the biohazard-suit,” Dr. Min added. “You’ll be safe there.”
“I say it’s about time they invented something like this.” Ensign Ester said.
“Although you will essentially be holograms, your tricorder and phasers on the surface will be real,” LeCroy added.
“I’m looking forward to this,” Santiago said, with almost child-like enthusiasm. He did a little dance, and watched his SA ‘self’ do the same. He laughed. LeCroy was not amused.
“We only have eight of these androids on the ship, and they are expensive and difficult to make. So please take care of them while you’re down there,” LeCroy said. He was looking straight at Santiago.
“Do we feel exactly what they feel?” Seth asked.
“Well, the neural connection will cause you to ‘feel’ changes in pressure and temperature. It is designed, however, to mute any pain. So if the surrogate broke its arm, you would definitely feel it and a strong sense of discomfort. But it wouldn’t feel the same way as actually breaking your arm. Incidentally, you also won’t be able to use your arm the same way; it will really behave as if it was broken. The computer will alert you to disconnect from your, um, counterpart.”
“In case you’re wondering, if anyone gets ‘killed,’ or there is severe trauma, the connection will automatically be severed. But to make my job easier, please try to stay out of harm’s way,” Dr. Min said pleadingly.
“No promises, Doctor,” Captain Seth said. “Let’s go.”
***
The SAs beamed down to the planet, and the holoemitters that projected their images activated momentarily after. The team, which consisted of Captain Seth, Dr. Min, Ensign Ester, Captain Santiago and Commander Ariele, looked around and tried to get a feel for their ’bodies.’ The feeling was eerie, because they couldn’t tell from their senses alone where they were; was it the ship or the planet?
“This is messed up,” Captain Santiago said. “I’m really still on the ship, right?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Dr. Min said.
“Alright, people, let’s get moving. We need to find out as much as we can. Ensign, you know where those cargo ships are?” Seth ordered.
“Yes, sir. They’re seventy meters ahead of us.”
“Amazing,” Dr. Min said. “According to my readings, these plants are extremely photosynthetically efficient. Their sunlight-to-biomass conversion is nearly three times that of a typical Earth plant. They use several different light-absorbing compounds to utilize a much wider range of the light spectrum. These plants can even capture ultra-violet radiation.”
“That’s just fascinating, Doctor, but let’s save the science project until later.”
“I’m just saying, Captain, that if for some reason Draloos IV can’t recover their cargo shipments, there are other ways to satisfy their energy needs. There has to be a more elegant solution than just stripping this planet of its biomatter.”
“Noted, Doctor. I wouldn’t mind hearing your ideas, but let’s just focus on the mission right now.”
A very pretty and unusually shaped butterfly landed on the hand of Ensign Ester. It stood there, slowly flapping its delicate wings. She studied it carefully, and smiled from its beauty. She tried to scan it with the tricorder in her other hand. With the ability to roam around this planet first-hand, it might be a good opportunity to study some of its rich species. Biologists all over the Alpha Quadrant would love to use the SA technology.
“Ensign, don’t touch anything,” the captain ordered.
“Aye, sir.” She shook it away. “The cargo ship is just up ahead, maybe fifty meters or so.”
The ensign suddenly stood an inch or two shorter than usual. Seth looked at Santiago, who seemed to notice it, too. “Ensign, are you ok?”
“Yeah, why?”
“You seem….” And she became shorter still. She was sinking. The soil beneath her began to soften, and she began to sink further. Everyone took a step back.
“Ensign, don’t move. Take my hand.” Seth signaled Santiago to pull his other arm for support. As the ensign began to realize what was happening, she began to panic. She was breathing heavily, nearly hyperventilating.
“Captain…”
“Ensign, I need you to calm down. Hold on…” but it was not working. The earth around her was getting looser at the surface, but she could feel it getting tighter at her feet.
“Captain, it’s pulling on me…I can’t…”
Seth bolted towards her. “Hold on!” he yelled, extending his arm as far as he could to reach hers. But his hands slipped and he and Santiago fell backwards.
Ensign Ester toppled to her knees and hands, and now she was sinking on all fours. “Captain, help me…”
“Don’t be afraid, you’re not really here, remember?” Seth said, trying to calm her down.
“Well, it feels real to me!” She could feel how cool the soil was on her hands beneath her. It was getting slimy deep down. She was almost at her neck now.
“Captain to the Dragonfly. Something’s happening to Ensign Ester.”
“We see it, Captain. We’re going to sever the connection.” It was odd to see the Ensign in danger while being on the holodeck. The surrogate android was transmitting all sensory information and projecting it as a holographic image, so whatever it ‘felt,’ the ensign had to feel too. And since the android was being devoured by the soil, so must the ensign. In essence, the holodeck was eating her alive.
“Guys, hurry up. She’s exhibiting signs of shock,” Dr. Min quickly added.
Ensign Ester, or at least her surrogate android, kept sinking. She gasped and gasped for air. The ground just got softer, and moister. It looked like the ‘roots’ from the nearby trees were sprouting from under the ground and grabbing her as well, further pulling her into the ground. Seth pulled out his phaser.
But Ester’s face suddenly went silent, and her head just drooped, which hopefully meant that the link was severed. “Is she alright?”
“Yeah, we got her. Be careful guys…”
Her image on the SA dissolved, and all that lay there was the naked stick android, sinking fast into the ground and eventually disappearing. Seth turned to Santiago. “It’s a little unusual that that particular spot would suddenly go weak.”
“You think something was trying to get her?” Santiago asked. Had to be.
“Get out your phasers. Wide dispersal pattern. Everyone spread out,” Seth ordered.
Seth and Santiago fired their phasers and evaporated the soil, maybe several meters deep, where Ensign Ester’s android body was taken. Nothing yet, just more soil. Dr. Min took out his tricorder.
“I’m….I’m reading faint signs of…something massive beneath. Maybe another several meters.”
“Something? What is it?”
“I don’t know. The reading is too faint, but it’s large.”
“Where’s the body of the SA? We couldn’t have destroyed it, not on that setting.”
“Alright, maybe we should get back to finding that cargo ship. I’m not sure I want to know what’s down there. If necessary, we can come back to it. Everyone, watch your back.”
They began moving again, but with greater unease. Through the tropical calm was an eerie sensation that everything was out to kill them.
“Captain, we found the missing biohazard-suits.”
The biohazard-suits lay there, contorted into awkward angles. Dr. Min did a quick scan on each of them.
“The men inside these suits were ‘digested,’” Dr. Min began, “by some sort of corrosive enzyme. But the suit itself remains largely intact. The enzyme appears to corrode relatively quickly, at least by enzyme standards, but it must have felt like an eternity to these victims. It looked like they died very painful deaths. I’m not detecting any sort of anesthetic or numbing agent.”
“What can you make of them, Doctor?”
“I should take them back to my lab, so I can study exactly how this was done to them. It may shed some light on what’s going on here.”
“Very well, Doctor. Keep me apprised.”
“Doctor to Transporter Room. Lock onto the following coordinates, and transport the subjects directly into my lab. Be sure that they are quarantined by a Level 3 force field,” Dr. Min explained.
“Understood, sir.”
“I should be heading back to investigate. Will you need me much longer here?”
“Actually, we’re getting close to the cargo ship. We’re only about thirty meters away,” Ester added.
“Understood, then I’ll be heading back.”
The remaining three team members headed toward the crash site where the cargo ship lay in ruin. The cargo ship was fairly large, and rather boxy. It had to be, in order to bring in the amount of biomatter that they did each day.
“It doesn’t look like it crashed from space. We probably would have seen much more extensive damage,” Santiago suggested.
“Jerad said that their transporter range wasn’t that long, maybe forty or fifty meters. So the cargo ships had to stay relatively close to the ground,” said Seth. “Where are the crewmen?”
“There doesn’t seem to be any traces of them,” Santiago said. “Hold on, I’m picking up small quantities of their DNA from my tricorder. Looks like there were three of them…” Santiago followed their trail right outside the ship. He stopped about twenty meters away from the ship. “Looks like they left the ship, but the trail seems to stop right here.”
“Let’s check the logs.” The captain dusted off the console, and managed to pull up some files from the ship’s primitive computer. An image of one of the crewmen appeared on the small screen.
“Cargo Ship’s Log, Stardate 63840.7. ‘Nother day, ‘nother dollar, figuratively speaking, anyway. This is the last day of our shift, and we’re just cruising around picking the best spot with the densest vegetation. We’ve already hit the northern part of this continent which is pretty clear now, so we’ve started moving south to pick up more of this crap. But the type of vegetation seems a little different down here than up north. But I’m sick of all of the stupid paperwork I have to fill out every time we transport up an “unknown” species. It’s a freaking plant, for God’s sake. Ya hear that, Gordon? Oops! Don’t know what the hell we just picked up there, but it looked pretty scared…haha. I’m going home once we’re finished here. Should be a breeze, ship is fully operational and skies are sunny. Honey, don’t wait up, I’ll be home in time for dinner. End log.”
“There’s more a little later,” Seth said.
“Cargo Ship’s Log, Supplemental. Dang it, looks like we’ve hit a bit of snag here. This was supposed to be a routine operation: Pick up shipment and go. I can’t believe this. Not sure what it was, thrusters seemed to be working fine when we left Draloos IV. As we were initiating the transport, we started getting really heavy. Our windows got real dark by some large and growing mass. Like some giant bird kept taking a huge crap on us, and our navigational thrusters just couldn’t handle the extra weight, you know? We don’t have the means of viewing our hull, so we had to land the thing just to see what the heck was going on. Christ, on my last day before my vacation, too. Anyway, once we’re all suited up we’re going to clear whatever’s on our hull and hopefully get the hell outta here. End log.”
“I didn’t see anything on the hull. Whatever it was, it’s cleared out now,” said Santiago.
“So is the cargo bay. There’s nothing in there, and they said that they completed the transport,” said Ariele.
“The last log is fragmented. Maybe we’ll get a few more answers. I’m trying to clear it up a bit.”
“Cargo Ship’s Log, Supplemental. Oh my …. They got….Jefferson and Sam……the…. ….something…………*SHHH*…..….I’m locking the door. I don’t know what’s going on, I left those two alone for just a few minutes just to see what was going on our hull, and…….I thought the…supposed to be safe!!…..*SHHHH*…..face….they can’t inside here….can’t….”
The log ended. “Captain Seth, there is only a biohazard suit left inside. There is no body inside of it,” said Commander Ariele.
“Great, we have more questions now than before,” said Santiago.
“I’m reading faint traces of everyone’s DNA…well, all over the place…” Ariele said. She stepped back trepidatiously. Her hand that held the tricorder was beginning to tremble.
Everything Seth heard and saw left him with greater unease. This planet wasn’t just hostile. Something or someone hunted these men. Whatever it was, it was not likely that the people on Draloos IV could depend on these shipments any longer to sustain them. Captain Seth tapped his combadge. “Seth to Lieutenant Commander LeCroy, I want this cargo ship back on Dragonfly, and I want you and Dr. Min to go over every centimeter of this ship. I want a full report when you are finished. We’re not getting any answers by us just looking at it.”
“Understood,” LeCroy responded.
“Seth out.” Seth turned to Santiago and Ariele, with a look of deep concern etched in his face. “I think we need to come up with an evacuation plan.”
