Down on Eden IV: The Polaris

Redding's team was the first out of the airlock. The sounds and smells of a primeval jungle and a not too distant sea shore assailed all their senses as the hot, stuffy air made their eyes water for a moment as they tried to pierce the deepening gloom of the sunset. Even before they got out, they saw two columns of smoke rise over the high bowing tree tops, one, thick and grey to their left, another thin and whitish far to their right.

He put his hand on Osenos shoulder, and pointed to the second trail of smoke.

"Might be from one of ours, I'll head straight in to the Draxx landing site, you see if you can recover Moore and Sutra."

And after a nod of acknowledgement he signaled the MACOs to follow him in a standard field formation, with Yiral close behind.

He turned to one of his people at random, a female Tellerite, keeping his voice low. "Corporal, stick with commander Yiral and make sure she doesn't step into anything unpleasant, understood?"

The woman glanced over at her then nodded "Understood sir" and repositioned herself near Yiral but with a subtlety she hoped would go unnoticed by the El-Aurian.

Alpha team moved along at a good pace, there target wasn't to far off so they didn't need to worry about wearing themselves out on the short run, stopping only for a few seconds at a time to check for spotters or possible improvised traps.

Redding was vary impressed with how the MACOs performed the jobs and was thankful now that he asked Oseno for his input.

As they approached their objective Redding stopped and motioned for them to open position, immediately 2 of them went left and 2 went right creating a line where they were at the least 10 meters apart, leaving the corporal and Yiral with Redding.

With a quick look around Redding moved in to the area, his team moved with him.

Barely a few steps and both his flanking teams signaled him.

"Movement on the left, Sir!"

"Commander; Lifesigns on the right, closing in."

And as he heard it, he saw a large shape looming in the shadow of the trees right in front of them about three meters distant. there was only one form detectable, barely discernible, but by the outline of the massive head and shoulders atop a vertical frame, Redding could make an educated guess as to whom or what it could be.

Taking care to use as much cover as he could Redding moved closer to his man on the left. When he reached what he thought was a reasonable spot he called out to the figure "We are from the United Federation of Planets and do not wish conflict! Are you in need of assistance?"

Given their responses so far to attempts at a peaceful resolution, Redding wasn't expecting much, but the offer needed to be made.

The silhouette slowly came out of the shadow of the trees. It was definitely bipedal with thin limbs, digitigrad but with four-fingered well formed hands. It was rather tall and slim albeit abnormally large at the chest and shoulders. The neck was seemingly fused with bunched muscles to the shoulders, supporting an enlarged head that was the only part that didn't look Human. It was looking just like the head of a Terran wolf.

It looked exactly like the alien being they had seen on the viewing screen of the horizon, wearing an identical form-fitting mettalized suit sporting a few instruments blinking on it's arms, although of a duller, lighter color and completely dripping wet as if he had just emerged from a deep swim. And it's voice was just as low, cavernous and growling.

"We are the Draxx. You are trespassers."

And so saying, it leveled a wide-nozzled, cylindrical gun-like weapon and fired right in Redding's direction. 

What came out of the weapon looked more like a water spray than anything else. It shot in a slight arc like a string of droplet-shaped pellets that flew right at the XO of the Horizon and instantly covered him under some kind of thick, cold, syrupy liquid. he felt nothing except being completely drenched as after a dense, heavy rain and a slight smell like ammonia enveloping him.

From the sides could be heard the approach of the other Draxx survivors of the crash also firing their strange squirt guns at every member of Redding's team. And just as he turned around, he perceived more than he saw in the thickening shadows like sparkles and tendrils of reddish energy coming from over the treetops and through the foliage all around them.

The realization that this race of canine-like creatures were spraying him with an ammonia like substance was not lost on him, but so far it seemed non-lethal.

But for some reason he found himself more concerned with the light show than with the Draxx.

"Pull back! suppressing fire!" Too many unknowns and nothing to gain by pressing an attack, after all they were here to help and clearly they didn't want it.

Phaser rifles set to stun struck out from the group doing minor damage to the landscape but in a impressive display, meant to force opponents to take cover and slow their progress as they retreated.

The Draxx certainly reacted as the Horizon First Officer expected from their retaliating fire. With swiftness belying their bulk, they dropped to the ground. What they did next however was not what could have been expected most in the present circumstances; they shot at one another.

In moments, they too were fully drenched in the same liquid they had sprayed on the Starfleet people. And then, the crackling balls of pulsing lights fell upon them all.

For a brief moment, Redding and his people felt a tingling, unpleasant sensation, as if thousands of tiny needles were pricking their skin. But it lasted only a few seconds before the electric discharges that tried to envelop them suddenly recoiled with stroboscopic flashes as if short-circuiting violently. Most light forms flew swiftly away from them, back where they had come from, but a few that had lingered longer over a few wet bodies seemed instead to diffuse and disperse in all directions. the last sound of their fizzling away sounded uncomfortably like the dying breath of someone in agony.

And then, there was only silence in the forest.

Slowly, the Draxx rose from the ground. There was about eighteen of them now, coming out slowly from the foliage, weapons leveled and eyes to the sky. But they came from three different directions towards the Federation personel in what was obviously a coralling maneuver.

Redding watched as the Draxx closed in but raised his weapon upward, addressing the Draxx he had talked to earlier. "I'm starting to think that "Your not suppose to be here" was more of a warning than a threat." and signaled for the rest of his team to stand down.

He wanted to tell them about the rest of the crew off looking for Moore and Sutra, but he needed to see what they had planned to do with them first.

"So you didn't want us killed or taken by those glowing balls, that's a good start, but what now?" he tried to make it clear they wern't planning to surrender, but it was hard to judge any effect body language had on them.

For a moment, the Draxx who seemed to lead looked at him and came very close, his muzzle sniffling sonorously as he did so. Then he sat on his haunches, his gun pointing upward. The others followed suit, but all with lower different angles to their weapons, forming a half-circle in front of the Starfleet officers while looking around attentively, ears and noses moving.

"You will die with us. There is no escape from the prison."

That was good enough for him. "Commander Redding to Oseno, Do not engage any Draxx unless you come under attack, we are in contact with the main group. Do you read me?"

"Alright, this is a prison planet of some sort. Is it just a given that we can't leave or are we allowed to try?"

The Draxx leader emitted something between a growl and a sigh.

"This is how the Zetarians escaped in the first place... twice already. How you may manage to get past the barrier is beyond our own science. But if you do, you will allow  some, if not all of them, to escape. That, we cannot permit."

He attempted to be a as serious as possible saying the next part.

"Our prime directive is one of non-interference, we are only here to retrieve a stolen worker pod and its personel. Our offer of assistance was just out of the spirit of cooperation, no trespass was intended. If at all possible we respect the rules and laws of all reasonable people, and will comply with them."

For a moment, the alien sniffed the air between them.

"You speak like an enlightened people. Yet, you act like a childish one. Most puzzling."

He looked at his own people for a moment, exchanging looks and snarls before turning his lupine head once again to Redding.

"You have expressed good intentions in both words and deeds... and care for your own, the sign of a civilized people... despite doing many foolish things. I beleive that it was so only out of sheer ignorance. We will now see the truth of them.  We offer you the honor of joining us in the Sacrifice."

***

Jureth inspected his people briefly as they began moving away from the Polaris, and ensured that all of them were outfitted as he had ordered. The heavy armaments may have been overkill, but they were going up against the unknown and even if they never used the weapons it gave Jureth some slight comfort knowing that they at least had the means to protect themselves. 

"Mister Variel," he said to the intelligence specialist "Take the point, I suspect you have far more experience on the ground than any of us."

Variel nodded with a wry smile "If you only knew Sir." 

Oseno indicated that the others should follow him as he fell into step behind Variel and they set out in a column formation weapons held at the ready. Oseno looked back at the Polaris one last time as they moved away

"Everyone remember where we parked."  

They hadn't moved more than 100 yards when Oseno's combadge came to life

 "Commander Redding to Oseno, Do not engage any Draxx unless you come under attack, we are in contact with the main group. Do you read me?"

Jureth tapped the device "Understood Commander, do you require assistance? Sir, can you hear me?" 

Reddings voice came back at him. *I read you Oseno, We have a new threat in the area, imparitive you meet with my group ASAP. We need to.. well, we need to wet you down.*

Oseno wasn't sure he'd heard Commander Redding right, and looked to T'Lana behind him for confirmation. The Vulcan officer raised an eyebrow as she nodded and Jureth responded.

"Understood Sir, moving to your position now, Oseno out."

Jureth shouldered his phaser rifle,  pulled out his tricorder and sidearm then looked at his point man "It seems we have a change in plans. Let's form a skirmish line and we'll move toward Commander Redding's position, everyone keep your eyes open. I have this odd feeling that something isn't right."

The team fanned out in line formation with each team member not more than 2 yards apart from the next and on Jureth's direction they moved forward while the Bajoran followed the signal from Redding's combadge. Part of him wondered if there was a possibility that Redding was under duress of some sort and they were walking straight into a Draxx trap. He dismissed it though, Redding was calculated and intelligent enough to use some type of code give some sign that he was in trouble and his tone of voice had sounded for emphatic than forced.

Eventually Oseno could begin to make out figures ahead of them, several in fact, and the tricorder told him that at least some of them were Commander Redding and his team. The others matched the small amount of data they had on the Draxx. As they drew closer Jureth issued orders

"Weapons ready," he said evenly "we don't know what we're walking into, but do not fire unless fired upon."

Soon they were close enough to the assembled group to communicate and Jureth halted his people and addressed Redding while keeping his phaser trained forward. The other members of his team kept their rifles trained on various targets, their bodies poised to react immediately if the situation got out of hand.  Oseno tapped commands in the tricorder sending their data and position back to the Polaris as he spoke.

"Commander, reporting as ordered...what's going on Sir?"

The biggest Draxx that was crouching nearest to the first officer and directly in front of him flickered his ears.

"You are a prudent kind; unfortunately, not good enough to heed a warning and avoid getting trapped. Now, you will have to sacrifice yourselves to save the rest of your pack."

Oseno did not waiver, he had faced off with larger, and stronger species nevermind a physical monstrosity named Khan Noonien Singh. He had no idea what this Draxx was talking about, and the security officer in him wasn't interested in finding out.

"If you presume we are trapped, then you presume too much. You have two options, you can release the rest of our people, and surrender immediately and unconditionally or...each of these officers with a weapon trained on you is a superb shot you are free to take your chances." 

"Oseno, that won't be necessary," It was Adira Yiral's voice that spoke up firmly "You need to listen to what they have to say. There is a bigger threat here than you would believe, I didn't understand it at first, but I can..feel that something else is here, something is not right. Put your instincts and training aside, and listen." 

Oseno looked at Yiral and could see the pleading in her eyes and he returned an icy stare to the Draxx who had spoken to him

"Alright, I'm listening...but if you so much as flinch you won't know what hit you."

***

Aboard the Polaris Shawn Hunter had taken precautions against attack as soon as the two away teams had left the ship. He'd ordered all entrances sealed and forcefields errected around them. Then he'd ordered the engineers to begin making what repairs they could to the ship's power grid. He was on the bridge along with the science officer Ji'lan when the data from the away team began coming in.

"Lieutenant Hunter," the Orion officer said "I am receiving data from the away team, it's from Commander Oseno's tricorder Sir."

"What kind of data?" 

"It's sensor data, positioning data...and...that's odd" 

She looked again at her console noting the odd pattern that seemed to be shoved for lack of a better term in between data streams.

"What's odd?" Hunter asked now standing behind her

"There is another pattern here. I didn't see it immediately, but there is some other data forced into the breaks in the data streams." 

"What is it?"

"I'm not sure Sir, but there is a definite pattern to it. Computer, isolate the exstraneous data at indexes four, eight, and twelve. Filter all other data out."

The computer complied and the two officers watched as the same data pattern repeated itself over and over again. It took Hunter several seconds, but then a realization dawned on him

"It's the Commander, he's trying to signal us!"

"Are you certain?"

"Yes, it's like what we did when we signaled the Horizon, it's a coded burst...old Earth Morse Code. S.O.S"

"S.O.S? what is that?"

"No time for a history lesson, we have to get off the ground now!" 

Hunter tapped his combadge "Hunter to engineering, I need engines, shields, weapons and transporters."

"I can give you engines and shields now Sir," came Akaal's reply "Weapons and transporters could take a few minutes....or days." 

"We don't have days Lieutenant," Hunter replied as he sat in the command chair "Commanders Oseno and Redding need our help."

"Then I had better get to work," Akaal out.

"Computer," Hunter ordered "Initiate take off sequence, and sound Red Alert. Route command functions to helm station."

The crack pilot didn't really feel at home in the command chair and it was almost a relief as he slid into the helmsman's chair. The ship's alarm klaxon sounded and Shawn Hunter lifted the ship off the surface much faster than the computer would have, pulled up her landing struts and gained altitude before heading for Commander Oseno's position.

***