Temple of Doom

Posted on Sun Jun 26th, 2022 @ 5:34pm by Petty Officer 1st Class Tia Smithy(Kosugi) & Captain David Hawkins & Lieutenant Commander Mel Torma & Lieutenant Josey Wales & Lieutenant Edruj Daughter of Thrawn & Cadet Third Class Aarfa Barakzay & Ensign Emma Walken (Walken)

Mission: The Goddess
Location: Holodeck
3000 words - 6 OF Standard Post Measure

//ON//

Tia was curious as to all of the excitement, and she overheard what the plan was to well... Find things about a temple and whatever else there could be. The origin of the blood stealers, so she followed the newest head of Engineering, Lieutenant Edruj Daughter of Thrawn, heck if they didn't want her there, the captain or her superior officer could just tell her to leave. Tia gave a shrug though and stepped into the Holodeck that was prepared. She wanted to be a part of this investigation.

Her eyes widened at seeing the structures before her, and felt a shiver as if something had walked over grave. She was feeling a bit... nervous and scared but also having a heightened sense of curiosity. Weirdly shaped vegetation seemed to crawl over buildings and her attention was caught by what might be a temple of some sort. Was this where they were going to do some investigation and find clues in this holographic representation?

As David stood before the temple, an unsettling feeling swept over him. His last sight of the ancient structure was over five years ago, and he never in his wildest dreams thought he would be standing before it once more. Even though it was a holographic representation built from a number of scans, it was quite impressive nonetheless. Yet it did no good as his mind kept replaying over and over again the experience. He felt the ache of his scar acting up again as the images flashed before his mind. At the core, he knew it was only a phantom pain and a mind trick. It was easier to ignore it than to leave it behind, but that was another thing that was harder to do. However, he continued walking forward as he entered the temple and wandered through the corridors of the structure made of stone.

"Why is it all the horrible cults know the best architecture?" was the first question spoken by the binary life form, Mel Torma. She kept her hands to herselves, even in a holographic representation, since she simply didn't know where that temple had been. She had ideas as to what was done there, and even that left a fowl taste in her abundant soul.

Her fur bristled a bit as she took the first few steps to follow David. "Cold in here, or is it just me?" she asked. She gathered her tail up behind and around her, like a security blanket attached at the hip. She'd never admit it, but this place gave her the ...

"This place gives me the creeps. "

" That's because you have common sense. " Said Josey. " Your mind is telling you about all the torturing and suffering that went on in here, Just remember this is a holographic representation and the safety protocols are on and in place. There's nothing here that can hurt you, We're here to investigate and find what clues we can and see if it leads us to our people. Focus on that and you'll do fine. "

Aarfa looked around quietly. She wasn't sure what she was seeing - she'd encountered the cult but never seen their temple. Worse, her greatest strength for investigations was olfactory, but holograms were notoriously bad at reproducing that. Sure, they convey a general scent. She smelled a faint touch of decay and blood, but it was generic - lacking the myriad underlying subtleties that would let a Kainan know whose blood, how long ago it had been spilt, who else had been there and whether they'd left a track. For her, this was like looking at an old grainy black and white photograph ...except that she was walking through it which always triggered an uncanny valley feeling. "I'm sure it's safe," she said, consciously trying to keep her hackles smooth. "That doesn't mean it isn't unnerving."

"Oh good, it isn't just me." Mel sounded relieved that she wasn't the only one unnerved by the facsimile. To that, she offered Aarfa a nod, while her other field of vision stayed focused on the scene around. "I'm seeing a lot of pre-industrial Terran influence in the structure. Though, steepled pyramid shapes aren't anything new. Did you know there are over thirty..." and she stopped talking. Boom. Done.

Her twin picked up the conversational slack without missing a beat, "... seven hundred instances of these structures throughout the Alpha quadrant alone? And over twenty six recorded instances in the little bit of our home sector..."

"... that we've explored alone." citing interesting trivia must be how she dealt with fear. To the eyes, she was a pair. To the ears, she was just one person speaking with an interesting cadence. To the olfactory senses, she was just one scent. Both bodies had the exact scent, with the exception of things beyond her control such as where soap soaked in better, where her fur care treatment didn't fully wash out. Tiny little imperfections let those with a keen sense of smell track individual forms, but underneath it all, she was one scent. One form.

Aarfa's ears swiveled, orienting on each being as she spoke. The information was interesting, if only in putting numbers to a sense that such structures were common to many species and civilizations. Her own had made them with spiral ramps rather than steps, but the basic structural concept was the same. Truthfully her mind was more occupied sorting out the oddity of a scent shared to such a fine level - beyond even 'identical' twins - but then the flow of speech one to another suggested a deeper level of twinning. She made a mental note to look up the species when they left the holodeck, but for now the focus had to be on the mission.

Josey got closer to the walls and began checking the area. " This kind of reminds me of an Aztec temple, with some of the designs and carvings. With the Aztecs, if it was a god of light then the Sacrifice was taken to the roof and offered to the god within his sight. However if it were a dark god, Then the sacrifice was taken deep into the temple and the blood flowed into channels like this that would drain into a hole that would fill a cauldron so that the god may consume the blood and souls of it's victims."

Edruj may have been an engineer but she had the blood of the warrior. As such she remained on guard with a weapon at the ready as she looked around these ruins. "This place is without honor..." she muttered as she took this all in. She was here for no other reason except seeing the end of this mission as it were. Edruj leaned over to Tia and whispered. "Be ready for anything there is something that feels odd about this place."

Mel listened to Josey give a wonderous lesson on human savagery. "You take me to all the nicest places, Captain."

"I hear its not much better then what Hayter has done for you from time to time back on Memphis Island," David remarked trying his best to stay light hearted but still the mental images continued to flow through his mind.

Emma remained in the rear of the group she wasn't sure why she was here as a Biologist. "On my top ten creepiest places I've ever been to.

Josey chuckled. " I don't know about that. " He said trying to lighten the mood. " A few potted plants, some throw rugs and some curtains could brighten this place right up I reckon. Might even make a cozy bed and breakfast one day. " He said with a look of amusement in his eyes.

"Dia's knees, you're a genius!" the pair of Mel said in unison, then turned quickly to David, "We're seeing the temple representation as we're going to see it. Dark, dank, bloody, filthy... This is a holodeck! Clean it up!" she exclaimed.

"We're going to miss something if its dark, if it's covered in filth or blood or whatever THAT is." she motioned with distaste. "But if we're looking for anything that's going to stand out, it might..."

"... not stand out if it's got gunk on it." she offered. "Think we could tidy the place up, so we look like pros when it's time to actually do a temple run?"

Tia's eyes went wide at this, she hadn't thought of that sort of request. Would it work? She moved slightly to the back where an unknown person stood, she said quietly, "Hi I'm Petty Officer Smithy, and this place does look creepy."

"I should be back in the labs, this is more of an adventure they should have called my brother for. I'm Ensign Emma Walken, biologist." She answered Miss Smithy looking around again. "Something better not jump out, or so help me."

"If this is a holodeck it may be possible to simply shut the program down. If the program is shut down anything that is holographic would disappear leaving only empirical evidence." Edruj already scanned the far horizons. She looked for anything that would lead her to the control panel as she spoke.

"Wait, wouldn't that close everything down including the object we are needing to look at?" Tia blurted out. "I would actually like to get a feel for this if we are going to be going there."

Josey stroked his chin and thought. " So what your suggesting is to remove the layers of blood and filth from the area and see if there is anything worth investigating beneath for clues and evidence. I reckon that's a good suggestion, and it's good thinking as well. " He paused a moment. " Computer bring light level up to daylight standard and remove all the layers of blood and grime off from any floors, walls and objects. " About a full minute later the room shimmered and changed. " Nice, bright and clean. Not creepy at all. This is what you was suggesting, correct? " He asked.

"Precisely..." Edruj replied with a broad smile.

"Not a bad idea. Mind you, still this damn Temple of Doom. I'm surprised we haven't seen trap doors and boulders to run away from," the captain remarked as he stepped up closer to the center 'sacrificial area'.

Mel gave a pair of nods. "Mind you, it'll ruin the decor but I think we can live with that." she looked around, both halves of her totality looking in opposite directions. To see the world how she sees it...

"See now if there's something on the walls or something like a message or a carving, we'll see it." she pointed out, and gave a nod to Josey. "Nice."

"Okay Captain where will we find what you are looking for, now that housekeeping has been through here? Is it in the center?" Tia feeling just a touch more comfortable with things cleaned up but still would they be missing something.

She also whispered back to Emma, "Well at least we won't have to worry about a jump scare unless it is planned for this set up."

"To be honest, I am not sure what we are looking for. Was hoping to see something stick out, maybe missed the time we were here a while back. At least before I killed the man and stumbled away," David replied as he sighed almost irritated that he didn't know completely what was left for them to pick up on that they hadn't seen before.

Josey scanned the room visually. " Alright, Let's search the room for any carvings, loose stones, hidden passages or anything out of the ordinary. If you find something of interest, then let us know." He brought out the tricorder and began to rescan the room for anything that couldn't be seen in the original scan. and then glanced up at the ceiling. " Well from this artwork on the ceiling, I would say that this goddess of theirs seems to like eating her victims hearts as well. Anyone else find anything? "

Tia was looking around having decided she would do a small amount of exploring, she spoke up. "I don't think she eats hearts the only thing I've noticed is that they were taking the blood, and no hearts have been ripped out of people's chest." she snapped out, then "Er sorry.." Tia leaned up against one of the walls she was investigating and let out a squeal as a panel opened up and 'swallowed' her, Tia disappearing from view.

Mel looked around, searching for any form of sign, hint, or notion that could help them. "Good to know we don't have to worry about anything jumping out and... Miss Smithy?" the squeal caught Mel's attention, ears perked. She peered around, curiously, eyes wide and alert. Mel was adorable, cute and fluffy and the biggest ball of positive energy this side of the plus side of a warp capacitor. It was hard to remember that her people descended from predator stock. Hunters. Trackers. Killers.

"Miss Smithy?" as if calling her name again would summon her like some poltergeist living in a model. "C'mon, this isn't funny. If you jump out at me I swear we're going to have words."

Josey was studying a fifteen centimeter square cube with with some type of rune writing on it when he heard Tia's squeal and looked about the room, His hand instinctively reached for his phaser. " What's going on? Who is in distress? " He asked.

After a few moments Tia's voice could be heard a little bit breathless and a bit muffled. "I am glad this is a simulation with safety features. I would have been killed, not fun going down a very slick stone slide and landing in a pit of vipers. I'll get with you as soon I can get out of the pit. Oh wait..." she could alter the program for the moment for her to get out of the pit. "Okay I am out." though she was now contemplating if this was what they will possibly find if looking for the hideout of the Trinity it would best for people to be prepared.

Now that it was cleaner it did look somewhat less spooky. However, Edruj was still at a loss. She did not see anything that would remotely shed some light on who or what they looked for. The Klingon was getting a little frustrated and it showed. "I am an engineer used to working with what I can see. I am not even sure what I am looking for here."

There was a clatter from another part of the area where everyone was at, and Tia picked herself up from the floor. She had come from a side passage, and had tripped over some pieces of- she wasn't quite certain as to what it was. "Um what the heck is this?" looking at the debris that was there. "is this part of a machine? I had found a few vats or something through there." gesturing with her thumb behind her.

Josey turned to Edruj. " It seems that Spitfire has found us a machine, I hear that your one of the best engineers in the fleet. Could you take a look at it and figure out what it does or what it might activate? I'm pretty handy when it comes to working on some machines like shuttle craft, Fighters and speeder bikes. and I'm pretty fair with most other types of machinery, But I'm willing to bet that I'm nowhere close to your level of skill. "

Tia looked at the piece of whatever it was she was holding, "We could examine these pieces individually, a more thorough look at them? " Turning her eyes towards Captain Hawkins. "Maybe a smaller group? Or send the different pieces to maybe Commander Torma to look at and some to engineering this way we can concentrate on it. Otherwise this particular setting no matter how cleaned up it is, still difficult to really concentrate on this. Part of me wants to explore a bit more but I want to also concentrate on this? What do you think Captain? I'm sure we can get some copies made for some of us to examine."

There was a long pause as David ran his fingers across the stone frame work. There was no doubt that this was a master piece. Anyone that thought otherwise were blind to the fact that it took a massive amount of ingenuity and attention to detail to construct such a device and structure. But the reasoning for it was nothing short of pour evil.

"Yeah..." the commanding officer remarked started before taking a deep breath and slowly turned to the younger enlisted member. "... not a bad idea. We will be arriving at the station and reconnection of the saucer section will start soon. That will give us some time to go through the additional detail. Make it happen. I want the findings to me before we head out again. That should give everyone more than enough time to really research the details and get other opinions on it. Great work people."

Josey looked a the piece of machinery that he had picked up and was beginning to study it, he had an idea but he wanted a quieter setting and less people around just in case he was wrong.

Tia gave a nod towards Captain Hawkins, and smiled slightly at the words he spoke. Well now it was time to find more information, and find out where these barbarians got their idea for this whatever it is. A possible machine from hell? She turned around and proceeded to make her way to the exit of the holo suite. They'll probably have to have the likeness of the pieces she found, transported to the various stations, like Science, Engineering and even Security.

Tia passed by Emma Walken, "Well looks like its time for other fun. I 'll see you around." giving a smile to the woman, before the engineer left.