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"The Batty Engineer"
Rating: PG-13 Thanks, Pesterfield. Yeah, they're supposed to be waders, I just couldn't think of the word. And stalactite ("t" for top) and stalagmite ("m" hangs towards the bottom). Thank goodness I'm not a geologist, LOL. Four “Swamps. I hate swamps. Rates up there with deserts and snowdrifts.” Phlox glanced over his shoulder as he lifted his booted foot out of the moist bog with a loud slurp. “I thought you grew up around swampland, Charles.” Trip scowled, but Phlox couldn’t tell whether it was because of the swampland comment or the “Charles”. “Not all of Florida is swampland, Phlox, and not all Floridians like it. It’s got mosquitoes the size of your hand and gators the size of small hovercars. Humid and sticky and wet and yucky.” “Ah.” Phlox managed to keep his balance as he stepped lightly onto drier ground. He reached out and supported Trip, then did the same for Rostov, Hess, and T’Pol. The Vulcan looked as uncomfortable as Phlox felt; the heat was definitely different from the dry heat of the Vulcan sands, and sweat trickled down her aristocratic features. “Bloody hell,” muttered Malcolm as Mylene helped him across. He wiped a handkerchief across his brow. “Sameer, how can you stand this?” Lieutenant Sameer Khartoumb, Travis Mayweather’s Exobiology expert, chuckled and shrugged lightly. “I spent a year on Higamasu Three, Doctor. If you can survive that, you can survive this or the Everglades.” He swept his scanner around the area. “This area’s crawling with all sorts of new life. Doesn’t look like anything’s poisonous, though, but we ought to be careful.” “Indeed,” said Thala. She pointed at a network of cave entrances cut into the nearby rock. “I believe the engineering team from your ship is already there.” They trudged through the mud until they saw Lieutenant Kelby and his team at one of the entrances. Kelby crouched on his knees as he connected a cable to one of the portable generators. Like the rest of the landing party, Kelby wore a pair of rubber waders over his regular uniform, chest-high and glowing in the lamp light. His knee high boots were caked with dirt and his sleeves were rolled to his elbows. It was strange seeing the normally immaculate looking Kelby with his hair stuck up in irregular spikes. “Almost there, Chief!” Kelby called. “Just have to double-check the connections, then we can hook up the replacement equipment to the power junction.” Phlox came over to his side and nodded in approval. “Good work, Richard. Anna, you and Michael come with me. We must restore power to the other Shelters. Ensign T’Pol, Lieutenant Commander Tucker, Mistress Thala?” “Right with you, Phlox,” reassured Trip. He reached up and switched on his helmet light and the others did the same. Thala and Trip led the line of engineers, with Phlox and Malcolm close behind. Mylene stayed with Sameer to help him catalogue the swamp life, while Kelby and his team continued to fuss over the generator. “Good thing the Cap’n’s not here,” Trip commented. “This would give her the creeps.” “She did well underground at Beta Polaris,” T’Pol pointed out. “Yeah, but she still doesn’t like enclosed spaces very much.” He shone his torch along the walls and whistled at the intricate formations at every step. “Wow. How far up do these things go?” Thala’s answer echoed on the walls. “They could extend up for hundreds of meters, depending on the size of the cavern. The network in here is quite extensive, Lieutenant Commander. Do not be alarmed at the rustling sounds; the natives here are not venomous or dangerous. Doctor Reed, some of the lichen growing along the rocks have medicinal properties.” “Hmm...this crop could be used as an anti-bacterial agent, and this seems to have cooling properties...” Phlox chuckled to himself. Once Reed was intrigued by something, it was doubly hard to shake his concentration. He and the doctor shared plenty in common, including curiosity. Again, a restless stirring came from high above him, but he kept moving. His scanner glowed with a soft blue light as he followed the curve of the tunnel. Then he came to a four-way intersection. T’Pol anticipated his question. “We must go left, then straight ahead another fifteen meters, Commander. We should encounter another cavern entrance, which we must enter.” “Thank you, Ensign,” Phlox replied and followed her directions. To his right, he saw a set of power conduit cables embedded deep within the rock. Normally, they would be shining with harnessed power, but now they were silent, except for a sharp crackle at the power junctions. The second cavern entrance was much larger than the one above ground. Phlox didn’t have to duck his head to enter it. He stepped into a pool of water that sloshed around his ankles; he tried not to wince as he negotiated his way farther into the cavern. The ceiling had risen out of view, while the floor became slicker with something worse than Denobulan iceskin. For every action, there was an equal and opposite reaction. Phlox knew that Law of Thermodynamics by heart, as well as the one that stated, “Objects in motion tend to stay in motion.” He heard a soft curse, then a hard thud, then something collided with the back of his legs, bowling him over like a set of tenpins. There was nothing to hold on to, nothing to stop his forward momentum. Phlox careened across the floor of the cavern, cursing up a blue streak in his native language, which was punctuated by another voice in frustrated...Vulcan? Phlox saw a stalagmite rising out of the floor and hooked his arm around it. His other hand grabbed the shoulder strap of a set of rubber waders. The strap stretched, then snapped back hard, and Phlox’s unfortunate companion flew backwards into him. Phlox knew who it was immediately when the swearing switched to English...with a Southern accent. “Charles.” “Ouch. I think I did something to my shoulder,” Trip said. “This floor’s slicker than vacuum lube. You okay, Phlox?” “I am unharmed.” He managed to sit up, one hand still on the rock formation, the other on Trip. “I lost my scanner in the fall. We must have slid deeper underground.” “Yeah. I think you can let go, Phlox; I got myself anchored to another rock.” Cautiously, Phlox did so. He tapped his helmet, but the warm glow of the light threw irregular shadows on the opposite wall. “My light is malfunctioning.” “I got a glowstick, Phlox. Here.” Trip snapped it, then handed it to Phlox, who slowly moved it around. They were in a different cavern, about fifty meters from the edge of a cliff. If Phlox hadn’t caught that stalagmite, he and Trip would have flown off into open space to an uncertain fate below. Trip shared the realization. “Whoa. Looks like you stopped us just in time, Phlox, Thanks. I owe you one.” “Not a problem, Charles.” He frowned and glanced over his shoulder. “Do you hear that?” “Hear what?” Trip fell silent, and the muffled voices echoed from behind them. “That isn’t Thala and the others.” “It’s coming from one of the caverns we slid past. Someone else is down here.” “Do you think we can haul ourselves up and check it out?” “If we are cautious. If only we had some kind of climbing equipment!” “Remind me next time to bring Travis down here. This is his kind of thing.” Trip shifted his weight and said, “Okay, you’ve got the glowstick and the better hearing, Phlox, so you lead. I’m right behind you.” “Very well.” Slowly, Phlox managed to get himself back to his feet, reverse his orientation and inch his way back up the cavern, firmly making his way from stalagmite to stalagmite. He heard Trip doing the same close behind him. I suppose this will definitely improve our muscle tone and endurance...Doctor Reed would approve of such exercise. But Phlox was an engineer, not a sportsman, and the effort made him more tired than he expected. But that effort was rewarded when the voices became more distinct. Phlox heard four separate people, three males and a female. There was the scrape of metal upon rock, then the crackle of dirt being sifted through a sieve. Someone was excavating a mineral out of the cavern? A treasure hunter, perhaps? Phlox had heard stories of such people when he was in San Francisco; most of them were unscrupulous, greedy for riches in any form. He stepped into the side passage and onto more stable ground. As he and Trip rounded the bend, a blue glow shone from the end of the hall. They both took cover behind some rocks, then peered over the edge. Men and women were scanning the walls, taking samples, sifting through the refuse. One of them shouted something and held what looked like some sort of crystal over his head. The stone was a dull crimson, with sharp jagged ridges. Then others took up the cry as they discovered more of the stones. The commotion shook the walls. Suddenly, a soft thrum began under the raucous yelling, and it quickly became louder and louder. It took Phlox a moment to identify the sound: the beating of tens, perhaps hundreds of wings, punctuated with shrill shrieks. It became a roar, like the thunder of the incoming tide. The jubilation stopped abruptly as realization crossed the miners’ faces; they scooped up as many of the crystals as they could hold and fled toward Phlox and Trip. The tsunami grew in size: a black wave of glowing eyes and sharp teeth pouring from the ceiling and careening off the walls. Phlox’s eyes widened in surprise and fear as he realized the nature of their attackers. “Bats!” he exclaimed. “They are bats!” The wave quickly overwhelmed two of the diggers; they screamed as they were knocked down by the sheer force of the bats, their arms covering their heads to protect their eyes from the wicked fangs and claws. The crystals fell on the hard surface of the cavern and bounced away, but those were the least of their problems. “Down!” Trip yelled. “We can’t outrun ‘em!” Phlox saw the logic in the suggestion: the bats would quickly catch up to them and attack, but if they remained where they were, the chances of their survival were much better. So he made himself as small as he could and covered his ears. The high-pitched wails threatened to burst his eardrums and he could feel tiny claws skim his hair, but the bats left him mostly unharmed. And just as quickly as they came, they disappeared. Phlox was frozen to the spot, afraid to look up, afraid to see the aftermath. After a full minute of silence, he uncurled himself from his ball. A few meters away, Trip Tucker did the same. Trip looked to be in one piece, even if he looked stunned. “I’m all right,” Trip said. “You?” Phlox nodded, then a scraping sound caught his attention. He looked over his rock and saw the remains of the two unfortunate rock hounds. The sight made him queasy and he focused on the bat directly in front of him. The bat poked at one of the crystals and turned it over. Then it looked up at Phlox and made a mewling noise. “It’s a baby bat,” Trip whispered. “Looks like it got lost in the chaos, Phlox.” But the engineer wasn’t listening. He walked around the rock and knelt in front of the bat. Their gazes met, then Phlox asked, “May I see your treasure, Little One? It seems strange to both of us, no?” The bat squeaked, then hopped back a step to give Phlox access. He touched the crystal with a gloved hand, then picked it up. It caught the lights of the glowstick and sparkled with ruby-orange highlights. Phlox had never seen the like, but his instincts told him this was something valuable. The little bat chirped something else, then Phlox nodded. “You’ve lost your kin, hmmm? We must find them and reunite you all.” He extended a finger of his free hand and the little bat hopped on. It wavered a little as it gained its balance, but its claws barely punctured the fabric of Phlox’s glove. “Lieutenant Commander?” Trip was crouched next to one of the bodies, and he rose with a grim expression. “We’ve gotta get topside and talk to Captain Sato. I think we’ve got a big problem here.” |
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