[Vezda Power Chamber]

Michael held a stern look upon his face as he and Archie crossed the vast power crystal complex, deep inside the Vezda Mega Structure underneath Heilagt Auga. Archie was quick to maintain the commander’s pace, who was marching towards the exit with purpose.

“I must say, sir, your performance had me concerned for a brief moment there,” Archie spoke, trying to break the awkward silence.

“Sorry, had to maintain character so it didn’t have reason to doubt its assumptions about why we were here. Given the technological advancements it had against us, a confrontation would not have ended in our favor.” Michael explained, still focused on his destination.

Holding his hand out, Michael directed the same activation code towards the Veil Portal at the end of the room and stepped through.

=WHAM=

Michael was thrown back as his hands shot up to his face. He had walked full speed into the solid stone wall and bounced off. Thankfully, Archie was just in place to catch him before he fell all the way back. “MOTHER FU—” Michael cursed, his HUD Shades fell off his piece, being shattered as well by the impact.

“Sir, are you alright!?” Archie asked, looking between Michael’s reddened nose and the wall. Archie, too, tried to trigger the activation code for the Veil but was unsuccessful.

“Damn…” Michael cursed under his breath. Their access to the Vezda’s system must have been tied to WILL; shutting him down must have locked them out of the system altogether, including the Veil transporting system.

Archie tapped his comm badge, “Away Team to Fox, come in.”

Romen: “Fox here, read you loud and clear.”

“Be advised, we managed to deactivate the AI on the station and appear to be out of danger, but we are now locked out of the structure’s systems and can’t get back to the survivor. Please lock onto our signal and beam us to the location of the supply crate.”

Romen: “That’s Clear, stand by for transporter lock.”

Archie turned his attention back to Michael, who had finished nursing his wound, “I’ll be ok. Let’s just get this all done and over with.” Michael professed. With that, the two members teleported out of the power chamber.

[Vezda Control Room]

Bui still lay unconscious, propped up against the wall and the supply crate the Fox had beamed down before. After materializing, both Michael and Archie went to check on him. As Archie ran another round of scans with his Tricorder, Michael attempted to jostle the Wolf Prince awake.

“Common buddy, wake up.” Michael stated hopefully.

“He was under the same cyclopropane anesthetic that we encountered inside the labyrinth.” Archie explained. “There is no telling how much has gotten into his system. He could be out for another half hour at most, if we are lucky.”

Michael tapped his comm badge. “Angelus to Fox, Doc, do you read me?”

Doc: “I hear you, sir. How can I help?”

“I got a Brynarian here that was exposed to…” Michael turns to Archie, “What was it again?”

“Cyclopropane, sir.” Archie answered.

“…exposed to Cyclopropane Gas, he’s currently out of it, best guess of how to wake him up sooner rather than later?”

Doc: “You should have a vial with smelling salts in your pack.

Cyclopropane is a fast-acting, mild sedative, but in a gaseous form,

it's also fast-clearing. If they're no longer under administration,

a strong sensory stimulation should do the trick.”

“Thank you, Angelus Out.” Michael replied, reaching into his pack to find the vial of smelling salts.

“Might I inquire as to the current plan, sir?” Archie probed as Michael withdrew the vial he was looking for.

“Wake him up, give him the rest of the memory wipe drug Doc gave us, and beam him the hell out of here. End this nightmare once and for all.” Michael advised. He popped the cork on the bottle and naively gave it a small whiff, jerking back violently from the experience.

He was about to administer the salts to Bui when there was a tremor under their feet.

Recorking the vial, Michael stuffed it hurriedly in his pocket. “What was that?!”

“Seismic Activity?” Archie asked, moving to the pedestal in the middle of the room, and placing his hand on it to see if it would activate. When nothing happened, he tapped his comm badge. “Away Team to Fox, we are detecting some tremors down here. Do you read anything?”

Romen: “That’s clear, Away Team. The Structure you are in is showing signs of 
instability. Standby.”

Trixie: “Archie, you're both inside a bipyramid that’s been using anti-grav 
stabilizers to maintain its position inside a giant chasm underground. We are 
picking up major energy spikes; those stabilizers look like they're about to 
go offline. Y'all need to get out of there quick.”

“We can’t, half the governing body of the planet is right above us.” Michael mandated.

“If the structure falls, what happens to the surface above?” Archie turned to ask the comms.

Trixie: “Most of the continent would be fine, maybe a 3.2 earthquake? But 
the whole of the central valley will most likely collapse in on itself.

Michael tossed the vial of smelling salts to Archie, “Wake him up.” He ordered, as the Commander moved to the back of the room where the remains of the Synsmadr lay. Michael remembered his talk with Arnorr, who indicated the Nemandi all wore rings that allowed them to access the Vezda technology on the surface. Maybe the Synsmadr’s ring would have more administrative powers?

Prying the ring carefully off the fallen elder, Michael moved over to the pedestal and placed the ring on his own finger, then set it on the top of the orb. To his relief, the system came online, the viewing screen showing an outline of the superstructure. Several sectors were flashing red; unfortunately, the text was now in an alien dialect and not translated for them, probably another personal touch of WILL while he was activated.

“I got access, but I can’t read anything,” Michael reported, as Archie roused Bui from his slumber.

“Wha…Wait…Huh?!” The prince muttered belligerently, taking in his surroundings.

“Bui, Buddy, sorry to do this, but I need you on your feet!” Michael ordered from the center of the room.

Archie helped the prince to his feet and helped guide him over to Michael. “What happened? Last thing I remember was being attacked by that large black hound…” he asked groggily.

“No time for that now. The point is, you won. You’re the last. I have to send you back to the surface, but I need you to do me a huge favor.” Michael stated quickly, while multitasking and attempting to decipher a language setting.

“What? Ok…?” Bui mumbled, still trying to gather his bearings.

“As soon as you get up there, I need you to order the immediate evacuation of Heilagt Auga. Everyone needs to high-tail it back to the mountain passes. The ground underneath you will start to shake. If you don’t do this, everyone will die. You, your father, Vigdis…everyone.” Michael explained, turning to look Bui in the eye and impressing the seriousness of his words.

“I…uhh, yes. Yes! But what about you?” Bui asked, starting to take in the situation.

“We are staying behind to try and stop that, but if we fail, you need to get everyone to safety. We were never heard to steal anyone’s glory anyway. It’s all up to you now, Bui.” Michael admitted.

“Thank you, Lord Michael. It has been an honor serving with you. But, what if no one listens?” Bui questioned.

“My boy, you’re going to be the first in two centuries to return from this ordeal. That and the ground shaking beneath your feet, I doubt many will question your orders too much.” Archie inspired.

“Yeah, just channel your inner ‘Dad’ and command their attention,” Michael added with a smirk. “You ready?”

Bui nodded

“Angelus to Fox, Transport our straggler to the surface,” Michael ordered over comms.

Romen: “Transport the Local? What about the Prime Directive?”

“Not an issue right now, just do it!” Michael barked.

Without another word, Bui began to dematerialize before him.

With Bui gone and hopefully getting potential casualties out of the way, Michael and Archie’s attention shifted to the control pedestal. Even Archie could not make heads or tails of the language on display. The sections of the ship that were designated for the gravitational stabilizers were flashing red again, more rapidly, as the structure under their feet began to shudder once more.

“It’s going to take them 10-15 minutes to evacuate the surface, and that blinking doesn’t give me positive vibes that we have that long.” Michael explained.

“Use me.” Archie announced.

Michael looked to his first officer with confusion, “What?!”

“WILL was the Control program for the facility. We took him offline; now there is nothing regulating the systems. Plug me in, and I can try to interface with the system and settle things back down!” Archie described.

It wasn’t just the lives on the surface that Michael was trying to save. He had not forgotten about the hundreds Archie had told him that were plugged into the Bio Farm, like Hakon, whose lives also hung in the balance. It was Risky, it was stupid, but it was honestly the best shot they had at the moment to try and do the right thing.

Archie lifted his sleeve, revealing his Mobile Emitter. Michael nodded and quickly ripped it off his arm, and slamming it down onto the pedestal, hoping there was some sort of technological interface built in that he didn’t know about. Once again, his prayers were answered as a blue digitizing light ran from the Mobile Emitter into the control orb.

The shuddering grew stronger for a moment, almost knocking Michael to his feet before coming to a complete stop.

There was silence, eerie, hopeful, tense silence. “Archie?” Michael called out, hoping his First Officer was there somewhere and could hear him. His hand hovered over the mobile emitter, ready to snatch it off at a moment’s notice, before a figure materialized before him.

WILL appeared as an almost transparent, greenish gold humanoid figure with very little detail, almost like a faceless manikin with neon green eyes. The image was probably in mimicry of the Brynar people. This figure, however, was a Bluish Gold transparent hologram with the distinct features of Archie in his Starfleet uniform. “I am here, sir, I apologize; I was stabilizing the structure as quickly as I could. We are ‘in the clear’ at the moment.”

Michael gave a huge sigh of relief. “Thank you. What’s our status?” he asked. The screen’s text scrambled once more and re-settled into a common language Michael could understand once more.

“Well, WILL was not deceiving us; the facility is critically underpowered. I fear we still may be facing a total power and structural stability loss here soon.” Archie explained.

“What is the composition of the ground underneath us?” Michael inquired.

Archie tilted his head in confusion, but scanned below. “Compacted Soil and Rock, sir. Plan?”

Michael nodded. “Let’s make sure the surface is clear first, but I want to try and bore this structure deeper into the ground, use it as a stabilizing base instead.”

Archie nodded, “It might be feasible with the current power levels, though it could constitute structural integrity issues on the lower decks. I suppose you don’t care too much about that?”

Michael shook his head, “I want to leave this an empty husk, never again capable of doing what it was intended for, as long as it doesn’t collapse the ground above, I don’t give a damn how wrecked it gets.”

“Very well, sir, I will start work on the power conservation transfer. will be ready to drill down on your command,” Archie stated with a flicker and disappeared from view once more.

The tension was slowly subsiding from his head as Michael tapped his comm badge once more. “Angelus to Fox, please keep an eye on the surface. Let us know as soon as all lifeforms are safely within the mountain range.”

Yeager: “Aye aye, Captain! Glad to hear your voice again!”

It took about 20 minutes, but it appeared Bui was able to get the message across as The Fox called back down with the ‘all clear’ sign. Michael called out to Archie once more. “If you’re ready, begin structural descent!”

Archie’s transparent form appeared next to Michael once again, “Preparations have been made, sir. I’ll have to pull full draw from the remaining power crystals, but it should not take too long.”

“Very well, Activate.” Michael commanded.

The facility came to life once more; the screen before them indicated the golden power threads moving from the crystal power chamber to all corners of the ship, as they jerked down, pressing into the ground below them.

[3% ground penetration]

[5%…]

[7%…]

Michael watched the progress screen as the Vezda ship was pressed deeper into the ground, wedging the lower half in place to keep it stable and prevent the danger of a surface collapse.

[13%…]

[17%…]

[23%…]

Michael allowed himself the hope that all things were finally coming into place when the worst occurred. The screen before them began to flash red, Archie’s face scrunched in confusion.

[22%…]

[20%…]

“Archie? Why are we going back up?” Michael pursued.

“Unknown sir, it’s not me… it’s…” Archie began, but the next voice that echoed in the room terrified both into petrification.

“Progenitor…”

The screen flashed between the red alerts to a digitized green crackle, as the form of WILL forced its way out of the view screen and reformed into the real world. Its eyes locked on Michael and Archie, burning with emerald fury.

“I have been waiting eons…” the voice growled in a deep, harmonized voice.

[15%…]

Michael, quick on his feet, snatched the Mobile Emitter off the Pedestal, ripping Archie’s program out of the alien computer system, and gripped his collar where he had hidden the emergency transporter.

In an instant, Michael was whisked away from the Vezda structure and the planet of Brynar, as the Transporter Room of the Fox came back into view.

“BRIDGE, SHIELDS UP!” Michael called out over comms, pressing the button on his XO’s Mobile Emitter, reinitializing him once again.

They were out of harm’s way, but they were NOT out of danger yet.

[TO BE CONTINUED]