Answers

Posted on 24 Feb 2014 @ 9:47pm by Commodore Harvey Geisler
Edited on on 22 Mar 2014 @ 8:38am

716 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Echoes
Location: USS Black Hawk, Sickbay
Timeline: January 2, 2388 || 1330 hours

Commander Geisler entered sickbay, after having paced back and forth on the bridge for the last half hour. He'd sworn he'd already worn a line in the carpet. If future missions would wind up like this one, he'd be sure to replace sections of the bridge flooring with steel. He'd grown tired of waiting to hear from the doctor, especially since a member of his crew was still missing.

Sickbay was quiet, amazingly, and the doctor nowhere to be found. A nurse spotted the captain and quietly informed him the doctor had just stepped out following stabilizing their patient.

"Can I talk to her?" Harvey asked, almost demanding. The woman they'd found aboard the shuttle was their only chance at answers.

"She's conscious," the nurse replied. "But no more than five minutes. She was starved and dehydrated. She needs rest."

Harvey nodded and moved over to the surgical bed. The clamshell was in place, providing intravenous fluids to strengthen her vitals. He studied the patient's young, freckled face for a moment and she tried to focus her eyes on his. "I'm Commander Geisler of the USS Black Hawk," he introduced. "We were assigned to retrieve your team today. Looks like just a little too late."

"Not too late," Jennifer quietly responded, her voice almost a whisper. "Jennifer Atkinson," she introduced herself to Harvey. "Most call me Jenny."

"Jenny it is," Harvey replied, offering a half-smile. "Can you tell me what happened?"

Jennifer closed her eyes, gathering some strength. Without opening, she said, "We were studying the planet, looking for an ancient civilization. There was hardly anything on the surface. Finally a month ago, we found an underground city. It was well-maintained, spotless. Didn't look like it had aged a day. But there was no one there. The deeper we traveled, the deeper the mystery got."

She cleared her throat and paused for a moment, gathering more strength. "We think we found the equivalent of a command center, about four days ago. We were looking around when we noticed Turok was missing. We thought he simply went exploring and didn't think anything of it. Mom... I mean Elanor... stayed behind when we had to head back to camp for a few things. We came back, and all we found was her satchel and tools. We searched hours and we were about to give up when Dad and I watched T'vek disappear in front of our very eyes." She tilted her head back and exhaled, her strength failing her.

"Is that when you left?" Harvey asked, moving closer to the bed.

"Captain," pressed the nurse. "She needs rest..."

Harvey turned sharply. His instinct oddly was to snap at her, but reason quickly curbed that idea. "This woman is the only one who holds the key to finding six missing people."

"That's when we left," said Jennifer, her voice growing weaker. "We took with us an artifact that we thought would counteract the magnetic field. It works, but I couldn't get it working until after my dad was taken."

"Do you know who did it?"

"No." Jennifer opened her eyes and looked at Harvey.

"What about this... Command Center. What is it for?"

Jennifer frowned. "The last couple of days, we started to think this underground city was designed to protect a weapon or something just as dangerous. We couldn't really find controls in the place, just displays." Jennifer closed her eyes and rolled her head back.

"Captain..." the nurse said softly.

Harvey nodded. He backed away from the bed, reviewing the conversation for important details. He tapped his combadge, about to order an engineering crew to take a closer look at the artifact when he heard Jennifer moan.

"Captain..." Jennifer took a deep breath, "Has the magnetic field still been growing?"

He moved back to the bed and nodded.

"The field... grows with every abduction. Something... is... rebuilding..." She exhaled as her voice disappeared.

"Rebuilding?" Harvey asked. He wanted to jostle her back awake, yet his medical instincts warned him against that. Harvey's attention turned to the nurse. "Get her well, quick. I don't care who you have to call in."

OOC: EDITED FROM THIS POINT TO REFLECT PERSONNEL CHANGES

With that, Harvey walked towards the office where he hoped to find the Chief Medical Officer.

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