Night Turns to Morning (part 1)

Posted on Tue Nov 3rd, 2015 @ 4:04pm by Lieutenant Illise Hale & Lieutenant JG Teenah Spartacus
Edited on on Tue Nov 3rd, 2015 @ 4:06pm

972 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Of Gods and Men
Location: Gekkaro
Timeline: First night

ON

[Hale and Spartacus' room]

Illise sat on the bed in the room she shared with Spartacus, with a growing frustration. To the casual observer she might of been writing in the notebook resting on her lap, but instead of a pen she held a small tool. She had been trying for over an hour to get a better reading from the tricorder hidden inside the book with little success.

The situation was not good. The Calypso has somehow been knocked out of orbit, and the rest of them were stranded on this world. This world, inhabited by a pre-warp civilization. As a scientist and a Starfleet officer, Illise's training told her to avoid interference with a pre-warp civilization. But something was happening here. This 'Frenatus', who ever or whatever he was, had the command of technology which should not be present in this system. Worse, he was a god to these people. They needed to know more.

An error message appeared on her screen. Illise groaned aloud and tossed the book on the bed at her feet. It was virtually useless, and might as well of only been a book. The interference was just too strong, and the scanners too weak to get any clear readings.

Illise sighed and looked towards the window. It was night, but the town was lit with many lanterns to hold back the dark. In the distance she could hear the voices from the temple, low and rhythmical as the people continued to pray to their 'god'.

Spartacus came out after a long bath and well scented, she had her bed clothes on as she toweled her short hair. The drone auras overlapping; the spikes that had occurred set her mind into motion. She was paying attention to the people; body language and then just the echo of the prayers mixed with the auras each mixing with the next.

"Sorry I took so long Hale." Spartacus said. "Believe me when I say you will thank me for the headache you have managed to avoid." She pad her way to the beds. "Fear..." Spartacus began. "The base of all his power is fear." She explained. I know that aura well and the lack of it you might say." She walk next to her fellow crew member. "He is playing on their innate fear and using it for his advantage. The Auras in that temple are consistent in a type of pink; radiant and changing with the mixes of sundress of whites and black to varied degrees." She spoke quietly. "The only consistency is the placid passion they share; the thought like children being protected from the dark. He makes them not fear so much; comforts as their protector and that makes it easier for him to get them to follow. They are in belief he can take their fears and sooth them as a people. Thus the consistent auras among so many."

Illise looked at the other woman , briefly caught up in her remarkable description of the people's emotional state. She wondered what it must be like to see the world in such a way. But then she remembered what Spartacus was truly talking about and looked away.

"It's wrong." Illise scowled, "Not all people hold the same values as the Federation, but this type of manipulation of a pre-warp civilization is generally thought of in the same way." She leaned down and picked up the tricorder by her feet and pulled it out of the book. "Now the problem won't be just Frenatus, but his followers. There is almost no way to move within the boundaries of the Prime directive here." She pried open the back of the device and looked critically at the circuitry, wondering if she could reconfigure it with the tools she had. If she couldn't get through the interference maybe she could work with it.

"What will be the problem is more what will they put in the void after we are gone, once a culture is so built around a religious type mentality and that 'Deity' is removed there is a void that need be filled. The conversion is the difficult part; these people are making a choice to follow, they want to be taken care of and accept he will do it." Spartacus continued. "They accept it as a culture and a change will be a radical one. How they continue will be significant in the development of their future culture."

Illise nodded her agreement but kept her eyes on the tricorder as she began making adjustments. "They will either look to fill that void with something else or banish the belief altogether, depending on how things end here. Either way they're will be damage, that can't be avoided." The tricorder started beeping, a good sign that she was on the right track. "All we can do now is to try to minimize that damage, and hopefully keep ourselves out of the history books."

The beeping continued for a few seconds before becoming a high-pitched whine. Grimacing, Illise quickly flipped the tricorder over and reset the scanners. It wasn't perfect, certainly not a detailed scan of the area, but then that was not what she was trying to do. Until the interference was shut down that would be impossible. Instead the tricorder now acted more like a compass, with the expecting that it did not point north.

Illise waved it back and forth as a test, noting that the signal was definitely stronger to the east. "Now we're getting somewhere." she said to no one in particular, excitement creeping into her voice. She snapped the back cover into place and got up from the bed. "Get changed." She told Spartacus, "we need to find the captain."

(To be continued...)

Lieutenant JG Illise Hale
Chief Science Officer

Ensign Teenah Spartacus
Counselor

 

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