What Lies Within Us - Chapter 2

What Lies Within Us

by Gabi

Disclaimers in Chapter 1

*********

Chapter 2

"Shouldn't you rather have taken T'Pol along? On a deserted planet like that one a science officer probably would be more of a help than a security specialist."

Trip turned his head, looking at Malcolm. "Mrs. Perfect has been buggin' me enough today to last me for the whole week. I'd rather have you with me."

Malcolm allowed himself a small smile. "You don't think much of her theory about magnetic minerals blocking the scanners, do you?"

"I didn't say that."

"Well, let's say you hope she's not right."

Trip grimaced. Malcolm sure knew him damn well. Of course he hoped to find something a little more exciting down there than only stones and rocks, but he didn't really know what it was that he was expecting.

They didn't encounter any problems as they entered the moon's atmosphere, leaving the vacuum of deep space behind them. Trip set a course to the area's coordinates, piloting the shuttle safely through the atmosphere.

"Now how about that?" he asked.

Malcolm heard the surprise in his friend's voice and joined him at the helm. His eyes widened as he glanced out the main window.

"What's that?"

"Dunno, but it has definitely nothin' to do with magnetic minerals." Trip checked the sensors but they didn't provide any information. Below the shuttle a thick white wall of fog stretched into all directions, impenetrable not only to the scanners but to the human eye as well.

"It's coverin' the exact coordinates T'Pol gave us."

"You mean that fog is the area we can't scan?"

"Right. Doesn't look like normal fog, does it? Call Enterprise and tell them about what we found. I'm gonna look for a landin' site."

The foggy dome covered some kind of depression, and scanning it quickly with his eyes Trip came to the conclusion that landing a shuttle in there probably wouldn't be a good idea. Beyond the depression conditions weren't much better, though, the surface being richly covered with boulders and small rocks.

"I hope you don't mind a short walk," he said to Malcolm when he'd finally found a place where he could land the shuttle. "We're about a 1000 meters away from the fog, not countin' the climb down into that depression."

"No problem." Malcolm was already getting out the mountaineering equipment they needed to rappel down the cliff. "What's the temperature out there?"

Trip took a glance at the sensors' display. "Quite cool. About 18°C."

"Well, we're not here for R&R. Do you think we should take some rations with us?"

Trip shook his head. "We take a look at this, try to get a few samples and then hit the road. Shouldn't take too long."

"Alright." Malcolm grabbed his phase pistol and gave one to Trip as well.

"D'you think one of these rock's gonna attack us?" Trip asked, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth as he clipped the phaser to his belt. Of course he wasn't being serious, though; over the years Trip had seen enough dangerous situations to know that even the dullest away mission could prove quite risky when something unexpected happened.

-###-

The rocky surface of the moon made the trip more troublesome than they'd expected. More than once the men slipped on the crumbling stones that covered the ground in large quantities. A gusty wind blew, swirling up clouds of yellow dust which at times blurred visibility completely, forcing them to stop in order to orientate themselves. Finally they reached the depression, coming to stand at the edge of a 60 meters precipice. The dome of fog reached up almost 20 meters. Up close, it looked even more impenetrable than before.

"Do you think this is a natural phenomenon?" Malcolm asked, opening their backpack and getting out two ropes and harnesses.

Trip stood at the edge of the precipice, staring down at the strange fog. "No," he said simply. "If it was natural then the scanners woulda picked it up."

Picking up a rock he threw it down into the fog. It went right through the white mist and disappeared. Malcolm shrugged, securing the ropes on a large boulder.

"Well, then let's find out what's going on down there."

They had no trouble rappelling down the precipice. The rockface had many ledges and uneven spots they could hold on to, and only a few minutes later they had reached the bottom of the depression. Malcolm put the climbing equipment back into the backpack and stowed it away behind a few stones. Then he came over to Trip who was once again trying to calibrate his scanner so it would scan the area.

"Nothing at all?" Malcolm asked curiously. "Maybe it's a force field?"

Trip reached out, touching the fog with the tip of his finger. There was a small hiss as his skin made contact with the white substance.

"Seems so," he said. "Not a very strong one, though."

Malcolm raised his eyebrows. "Well, it'd certainly be a leap in the dark, going in there," he said. "And not a very scientific approach, either."

"And just how scientific is scannin' it when the scanners don't pick up anything?"

Carefully, Trip stuck his hand through the fog, ready to pull it back in case the field gave him an electric shock. He only felt a soft tickling as his skin made contact with the fog.

"Now that's a weird kind of force field." Trip pulled his hand back and examined it. "Well then, let's go."

Throwing Malcolm a sideways glance, Trip took a deep breath and stepped through the field. A moment later Malcolm was standing next to him again.

"Are you crazy?" the Armory Officer said in an accusing tone of voice. "You can't just go in there without me-"

He broke off, taking a look around. At a distance of about 50 meters there was a square grey building of gigantic dimensions. Malcolm gasped for air.

"What's that?" he asked.

"I've no idea." Trip's breathing was coming in ragged gasps as well. "D'you feel that, too?"

"Yes. The air in here is clearly thinner than the air outside." Malcolm took a glance at the display of his scanner which was finally providing data again. "It's as if we were standing on top of the Rocky Mountains. I wouldn't recommend playing Race Me in here."

Malcolm glanced back at the foggy force field which now seemed to be the end of the world, thick and impenetrable to both eyes and scanning equipment.

"That was really stupid of you, just walking in here," he scolded. "What if there'd been a deep canyon right behind the field? Or just plain vacuum."

"Why would anyone want to cloak a building like that?" Trip said, ignoring Malcolm's last remark. "Any life signs?"

"None at all. The scanner doesn't pick up anything inside that building."

"Then let's go look for an entrance."

"You want to go in there?"

"Of course I do. We're on an explorin' mission, remember?"

"I've got a bad feeling about this."

"Come on, Mal, d'you want to tell the Cap'n we managed to get through that force field an' found a building only to go back without takin' a look at it?"

"You may have a point there." Malcolm looked back at the high building. The bad feeling was still nagging at the back of his mind, but he couldn't put his finger on what exactly it was that was bothering him. "Do you think there's anybody in there?"

"Well, if that's the case then I hope it's a reception committee waitin' for us right behind the door."

"I don't know," Malcolm said. "Anybody who goes to so much trouble cloaking their building is probably not too keen on having visitors."

"Let's go and find out about that," Trip suggested, setting off for the building.

Keeping a wary eye on their surroundings the two of them walked around the sinister-looking building, but there was no sign of life anywhere. Suddenly they found themselves standing in front of a door of rather gigantic dimensions.

"It must be at least four meters high," Malcolm said, tilting back his head to get a better look at it.

Trip nodded. "It's rather obvious that whoever build this thing are certainly no midgets." He cast another glance at the door. "Any ideas how we're gonna get in there? D'you see some kind of openin' device or somethin'?"

Shaking his head, Malcolm began to feel the door's surface as far as he could reach standing on the tip of his toes. Suddenly the bulkhead slid aside as if opened by magic, leaving an opening that was big enough to navigate a shuttle through it. Startled, Malcolm stumbled a step forward. Trip managed to dash inside just in time before the gap closed again.

"Probably some kinda sensor panel," Trip said. He began to feel the surface of the door as well, this time starting from the bottom of the bulkhead. When he'd reached a spot just a little above eye level he suddenly felt something scratchy under his fingers and a moment later the door slid aside again.

"Good," Trip nodded, satisfied. "At least we're gonna get out of here again." He shivered. "It's quite cold in here. A lot colder than outside." He calibrated his scanner. "11°C. Not exactly what I'd call home sweet home."

Malcolm shrugged. "At least the wind's gone. Well, then let's go and take a look around."

A long corridor stretched out in front of them, forking into several parts at the very end of it. Trip pulled out his scanner, glad to see that it was finally picking up signatures from inside the building.

"I'm pickin' up a big energy source," he told Malcolm.

"Well, they're going to need one to be able to maintain this kind of cloaking field," Malcolm said. "Lifesigns?"

Trip shook his head. "Nope. The building seems to be deserted."

"But why? I don't understand it. A building, a cloaking field and no one around to guard or take care of it. What's the point?"

Malcolm was still suspicious, but his scanner didn't pick up any life signs either.

"I think we should go an' look for that energy source," Trip said. "Maybe it'll give us a clue as to what this is all about."

Using his scanner, Trip led the way through the building. It was nothing short of a maze, and after a while they'd lost track of how often they'd forked left or right.

"We should have strewn crumbs to mark the way," Malcolm muttered in frustration.

"Usin' the scanner it'll be no problem findin' our way back," Trip tried to cheer him up. "I think we're almost there."

A big door blocked their way but it slid aside as well when Malcolm touched the rough patch at eye level. Now that they knew what to look for, the sensor panel was easy to spot.

As they entered the room, Trip whistled in amazement. They were standing in a huge computer room, obviously some kind of control center. Trip was in his element immediately, forgetting about his surroundings in a matter of seconds as he tried to get access to the computer terminal in front of him.

Malcolm looked around. It was his job to be paranoid, and since Trip was oblivious of everything else when he got the chance to tinker around with some machine, it was Malcolm's responsibility to make sure that they weren't going to be attacked. Malcolm frowned. This mission had gone very smoothly up until now - too smoothly. Energy-generating devices, high-tech computers, a cloaking field to hide them, and not a single bio sign? What was all of this about?

"Getting anywhere?" he asked Trip over his shoulder.

"No." Trip's voice sounded frustrated. "I've accessed the data, but I have no idea what it is that I'm seein'. We shoulda taken Hoshi along. To me this is just a bunch of weird hieroglyphs."

Malcolm allowed himself a small smile while he was still keeping an eye on the door. "Too bad we forgot to make English galactic standard before we left Jupiter Station. What are you going to do?"

"I'll just download the data and leave it to Hoshi to make sense of it. I think she'll be able to decode it, usin' the UT back on Enterprise. Maybe then we'll be able to find out what the point of all this is."

"Okay. How long will it take?"

"Keep your shirt on, Lieutenant," Trip said grinning. "We've got all the time in the world."

Malcolm grimaced in Trip's direction and drew his phase pistol. The cold feeling creeping up his back told him that they did not have all the time in the world, rather the opposite. Malcolm felt the knot in the pit of his stomach harden. If there was one thing Lieutenant Reed relied on then it was his sixth sense letting him know when something was wrong and right now it was indeed telling him that something fishy was going on here.

TBC

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Two folks have made comments

Like it like it like it. It's a very interesting start to a hopefully (and probably) even more interesting story... ;)
Don't leave Malcolm out completely, okay? I mean, his rate of involvment's great so far, and I know this is a Trip site, just... keep him involved. Please? ;)

ooooh, plz write more, i'd rather read than write when ive only got 1 unbroken hand left. Gr8 story so far, cant w8 4 more