Mining Field

Posted on Tue Jun 27th, 2023 @ 6:30pm by The Narrator & Commander Ayanja Tusalo & Lieutenant Commander Aarix Teral & Ensign Sara Richards IX & Master Warrant Officer Gamze

1,797 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: World Wide Web
Location: Asteroid
Timeline: Day 4

Hask had been right, the gravity on the asteroid was more of a polite suggestion than a law of nature. Materialising outside of the craft in EVA suits, the gentle puttering of suit thrusters was enough to kick up little fleeting clouds of dust and glittering ice crystals. The gravel beneath their boots shifted, resettling, and apart from its muddy completion the geology paid them little mind.

Aarix's suggestion to land in the clearing, as calling the slight depression in the asteroid's surface a crater would have been pretentious, was on the money. Along one edge of the clearing metallic debris was embedded in the rock, a thick fragment of processed matter with piping and markings adorning it. Whilst on the other side of the clearing, beyond the shuttle, the ground was peppered with the gentle powder blue stone work unrefined dilithium crystal.

As the away team got their bearings, the container Hask had been chiding the two deckhands about appeared among them. From its sides, six sturdy legs unfolded, before curling back against its side. A turret-like head protruded from its upper face, squinting out at the word as it turned this way and that.

"Detected; low-level dilithium deposits, impregnated with uraninite salts and other impurities," the machine muttered, sounding...hungry? Peckish? "Also detected, trace organic materials. Calcium. Phosphates."

"Biocybernetic analysis is incomplete but I do not detect any active weapons capability," Gamze reported from her tricorder readings. "But perhaps someone familiar with weapons readouts could confirm?"

The six-legged automaton moved away from the away team on controlled little puffs of gas. A scanning beam playing out ahead of it picking out the gravel.

"Subsurface deposits of titanium alloy ingots," it muttered. The scanning beam turned amber for a second, and the gravel began to shift and fizzle. From the rummaging sand glittering metal items began to float upwards, ejected by the tractor beam gently raking away the surface layers.

"Thought this rock was supposed to be lousy with dilithium. How long until we hit the deposit. Titanium deposits mat slow us down." Aya offered. While mining or metallurgy weren't her thing, the drills were still Phasers in principle.

Gamze's vocalizer hummed. "There is more than dilithium down here," she reported. "Current scans show signs of refined titanium alloys and nanoscale precision-machined objects such as you might find in a surgical trauma ward. If I didn't know better, I would say there is a Sickbay down there, or perhaps an advanced synthetic cosmozoan. And, for the life of me, I couldn't decide which would be more amazing."

"Dilithium deposits detected at 500 meters," the robotic shrimp said, as it continued to sift the loose gravel. More sparkling chunks of titanium began to litter the surface as it was unearthed. "Secondary dilithium deposit also detected at 100-...detected at 95 meter-...detected at 80-75-70 meters."

"The dilithium deposit appears to be moving toward us," Gamze reported. "Perhaps we should retreat back to the shuttle and observe it from there?"

"Agreed, fall back, let's give this thing whatever it is some room." Aya motioned the others to start backing away slowly she didn't want them running in a panic but she did want them moving.

"Gamze to Hask," said Gamze into her combadge. "We need immediate retrieval. Do not touch ground. Repeat: do not touch ground."

If Hask replied it was overshadowed by what came next. The gravel-strewn surface of the asteroid did not so much as explode as erupt before them, directly under the drone surveyor. Dust and particles of ice reflected the wan light of the star, scattering it into a blinding fog that did as good a job hiding what had arrived as revealing it.

At first glance, long multi-jointed legs attached to a central spherical core gave a suggestion to a spider or crab. But the way the legs, easily five meters long a piece, went from rigid and angular to sinuous and flexible made a comparison to a jellyfish or cephalopod more apt. Two of the legs were buried into the rock it had come out of, whilst the others curled and flattened around the mining drone. Compared to the smooth black composite panels of the drone, the creature's rounded body was almost beautiful: a deep cobalt shade that danced in the light.

The back of its body cracked open, revealing teeth like that of a geode meth addict, and the legs of the creature flexed to turn its body over as it turned that demon dentistry on the drone's body work. Said body work was already cracking under the strain of the creature's embrace.

"Uncanny!" Gamze trilled through her vocalizer. The fronds that governed her speech generating device were going wild. "It appears a mineral entity is consuming a mechanical construct derived from similar minerals as itself. We are witnessing a new chapter in the circle of life that, until now, was reserved solely for animal and vegetable lifeforms."

"I'm glad you're so excited but lets gush about the Scientific ramifications of this after we're out of biting range!" Aya called back as the team ran from the emerging... creature. "Hask we may need a beam out if you can't get down here, do you have a lock on the Away Team!?"

"I am attempting to boost our combadge signals for a stronger transporter lock," Gamze said. "There is no telling what fields might surround a construct such as this."

Drones comm unit let out a squeak of static as the scuttling horror crushed it, bisecting it in two. The compressed gas stored within for its thrusters exploded, spinning the creature away in a flurry of scrabbling limbs and gnashing teeth. Only for two more to rise from the asteroid's surface to menace the away team.

"Hask here, that's no go on the pickup. There some sort of seismic event kicking a lot of rocks and other ejecta up into my flight path-" Hasks voice cut off as a hollow thinking sound echoed through the comm link. "Scratch that I just got pinged by debris, port nacelles got something lodged in it."

Gamze chittered through her fronds. "I do not think that is going to end well for the shuttle," she said to Aya. "Perhaps we ought to call for support from the Daedalus to retrieve us and the shuttle."

It was already hard enough for Aarix to move with the minimal gravity, so backing away from this creature while equally surprised by its mere presence proved a challenge. "We need to back up more," he said when he felt the ground tremble from the rocky creature's movements. "With such a weak gravity, the surface may be susceptible to liquefaction."

Sara certainly wasn't going to complain about backing up, and a sense of panic began to settle in when she couldn't move her feet. Her attempt to move made her fall, and looking down she saw both of her feet stuck in the ground, the liquifaction Aarix just mentioned. She was surprised it was even possible on this rock. "I'm stuck!" She called out, trying hard to keep her panic contained. The creature looked much bigger from the ground, and Sara's breath was quick as she tried to free her feet as well as keep her emotions at bay.

Aarix spotted her fall and moved to help, keeping an eye on the creature. As long as the thing stayed focused on the drone, he had a chance. Taking care to not get stuck himself, he crouched behind her and scooped his arms under hers. "Kick your feet as I pull, Ensign."

A scream nearly flew out of Sara's mouth when she felt something grab her. Was it one of the creature's long legs wrapping around its next victim? Then she heard Aarix's voice over comms and forced herself to take a deep breath. When she felt him pull, she tried to kick, her feet feeling like they were being dragged into the center of the asteroid. Not wanting to be eaten by a sentient rock gave her the motivation to keep trying, and eventually she felt the ground's grip on her loosen. The second she was free, she fell back into Aarix, then scrambled to her feet to back away from the danger spot with him.

"This is an ill-advised location in which to plant roots, Ensign Richards," Gamze said. Due to her vocalizer, her tone was utterly unable to be distinguished between humor and candor.

"Can't say I disagree, on your feet Mister Aarix, Ensign, lets get moving!" Aya had her Phaser drawn pointed in the general direction of the creature the group still backing away. The Commander glanced toward the shuttle and all the debris being kicked up, pickup wasn't looking good and only getting worse. "Hask, any luck with the transporter? If you can't get us out of here get Daedalus on the horn and apprise them of our situation!"

As if on cue the shuttle flew across the patch of sky the asteroid was facing towards. Two of the rock spiders had latched onto the port nacelle, which was a crushed beer can leaking bright streamers of plasma.

"I'm trying to set up a transport relay, hard to do with whatever these things are!" Hask snapped back. "I can lock onto the Away Team, but I can't get a lock onto the Daedalus!"

"Can you not beam us to you?" Gamze asked. "Or a few clicks away from this thing?"

"I can do that, but the furthest away from those things is into the asteroid, there's a void in there that is registering no movement, might be a compartment of a ship buried in the asteroid. I can site-to-site you there whilst I back off to get my hitchhikers off, try and get the Daedalus on the comms." Hask's voice buzzed.

Aya didn't like that solution, if something happened to hask they'd be trapped but if they couldn't get away from the creature they may have to fight it. Not like they really had a better option if they couldn't get aboard the shuttle. At least it would buy them time. " If you can't get us aboard the shuttle, beam an emergency survival kit ahead of us then do it... And set up a bouy so Daedalus knows what happened!"

"I am uploading tricorder scans through shuttle comms," Gamze reported, her digitized voice carrying little of the urgency she felt. "Please add them to the buoy logs."

"And hurry!" The spider, creature, thing looked as if it was almost done with their probe. Aya really didn't want to have to find out how effective their hand phasers were going to be up close and personal.

 

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