Crisis on Cressida, Part 4

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Captain's Log

Supplemental: Time is running short. With only an hour left before the city fails completely, we must focus our efforts as diligently as possible. A group of Klingons has set our efforts back, though only trivially, as they engage in a suicide mission on the planet below. The evacuation will continue apace as an away team travels to the planet in a commandeered shuttle to attempt rescue of our personnel and prevent any further cultural contamination.

Lieutenant Cohnson piloted the the commandeered Orion shuttle down to Kizomic VI, with Captain Ral and Lieutenant Ma’a’yan making up the rest of the away team, with Urotoxa as a prisoner in tow. As they descended through the gaseous and then liquid layers of the planet they saw a small city carved out of a calcium-like growth of solid material surrounded by a group of Kizomic natives pointing spears and other simple weapons at an approaching creature: an amalgamation of a dozen of the same devouring creatures the crew had encountered in the city above, half floating, half sinking in the Kizomic atmosphere, but obviously headed towards the city. The Klingons were already trying to attack the creature — floating in their stolen Starfleet EVA suits — to no avail, their disruptors could not function in the dense liquid atmosphere. The creature’s corrosive tentacles wrapped around and burned through the suits on two of the Klingons, exposing them to the atmosphere and killing them in seconds.

From the Orion shuttle above, the crew scanned the scene, finding that the hostages in the stolen shuttle were safe and the Kizomic city was unremarkable. Because it was too dense and heavy in the liquid layer to maintain its altitude, the creature was decidedly sinking, although fighting against it on a trajectory that put it undoubtedly on track to land in the center of the native city. It also had a concentration of gradons along what appears to be its digestive tract, implying that it likely fed on minerals rich in gradons. Science Officer Ma’a’yan knew that gradons are a type of particle that move along dimensional gradients and the energy they release is termed “gradonic radiation.” The crew posited that generating a burst of gradonic radiation might draw the creature away from the populated area and Lt. Ma’a’yan reconfigured the shuttle’s deflector dish to target the burst outside of the city, in the depths of the liquid layer, while Lt. Cohnson piloted the shuttle outside the limited reach of the creature. The burst instantly drew the attention of the devourer amalgam and it dove off after into the distant depths of Kizomic VI.

With the creature safely dispatched, Lt. Cohnson landed the shuttle, aligning it with the disabled shuttle’s cargo hatch, chanting “aft-to-aft” the whole time. The crew was able to free the restrained Ensign Deadman and civilians and repair the minor sabotage that had disabled the shuttle. As Security Officer Cohnson cuffed the now drunk on battle Klingons, Captain Ral and Urotoxa met a representative from the natives who came down to speak with them. The Universal Translator struggled with their language but they were able to convey the basic ideas: “Many thanks help. Outsider woman work with machine,” he pointed at Urotoxa. “Friend yes — bring supplies, food — ask to be alone to work with machine,” now he pointed at the sky. “We not interfere but demons arrive — woman leave suddenly — worry that she bring demons — but she bring you — she bring help. Many thanks — she save us all.”