Day Two - And Things Are Different - Part III
Posted on Wed Feb 18th, 2026 @ 6:20am by Lieutenant JG Peri Valeri & Lieutenant Commander Yivliph Ra-Gruvloveii & Lieutenant Commander Anahera Chernova & Lieutenant Xavier & Lieutenant Amanda Rose & Staff Warrant Officer Madelyn Steele & Lieutenant Endymion Tox
Edited on on Wed Feb 18th, 2026 @ 6:33am
1,820 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission: Preservation Instinct
[PREVIOUSLY]
"If I can survive being imprisoned with Haruna, I can survive anything." Amanda flashed her former love interest a winning smile and a wink. She then lowered her voice further and asked seriously, "Are we ready?"
From the safety of the foliage, the rustling stopped.
[CONTINUED]
Inside the building Madelyn wondered just as to the wisdom of what was planned to be done. She walked back out to where Amanda was, "Are you sure you want to do this?" she had to hear it once more from the counselor's own lips.
"Yes, I am. Why would I not be?" the Counselor asked, wondering at Madelyn's concern.
"Just concerned about a fellow crew member, that is all. I do know that we all put ourselves into some form of danger, when we go out to explore. From what I am seeing, you are quite capable." Madelyn catching the glint of steel in the woman's eyes.
Madelyn smiled slightly, giving a nod towards Amanda. She turned around and headed back inside.
Outside Anahera watched as foliage for signs of a threat. She thought Amanda was brave, but foolhardy for wanting to let herself get kidnapped.
Amanda warmly smiled at Madelyn. "I'll be just fine. Wait and see." She then patted Madelyn on the shoulder and whispered, "You probably should all leave now."
Madelyn gave a slight smile as she headed into the heart 0f the power station. She needed to get the power on and find out just what happened to the scientists.
'She's right,' Yiv said, looking around the group, he motioned Xavier over, 'we'll head into the entrance of the power station, keep an eye on Amanda. The rest of you,' he looked around the assembled group, 'to your assignments, and don't let each other out of your sight.'
To sell her part, Amanda pulled out a tricorder and started taking readings, knowing that nothing was going to appear. She headed slowly over in the direction of where the movement had been, but attempted to make it look like she was just doing random scans, as opposed to noticing anyone or anything about the area.
Madelyn could only shake her head as she went to go check on the status of the power. She did wish that Peri was there to work with her, but, the lady needed to be keeping watch over the rest of them. She checked each connector went to throw the switch. Nope that didn't work. Next try. There was a bit of clutter and Madelyn muttered to herself as to the flotsam that seemed to have collected. Dirt, some twigs. Cobwebs that were thick with dust. Why isn't this turning on.... Madelyn clearing away the debris, what was that? She scoffed inwardly, that is why the power won't turn on, there was teeny tiny coupling that wasn't connected right. Madelyn shifted her light, it stopping on something that looked a bit strange. Drag marks, some sort of residue. She carefully avoided stepping on it and connected the last remaining coupler. The lights came on.
"We've got power!" she called out as the humming of the generators filled the air, as they sent out the needed energy.
From the shuttle, Peri saw the power come on and grinned. "One small step for engineering..." Hopefully the team could now find out what happened. Thinking of that, Peri decided to try connecting to the station's computer.
Still watching Amanda anxiously, Yiv tapped a combadge. 'Great job Chief,' he said vaguely, before asking more firmly, 'any idea why nothing was working before you worked your magic?'
"There was a coupler that had been loose, but it was out of view. There was also evidence of something having been there, dragged then some sort of shimmering residue, and there was some disintegration of the flooring where I found the residue. it was dried but still rather curious." Madelyn answered.
Madelyn fired up the connections to the main laboratory in order to connect with the files there. Monitors lighting up, the play of colors dancing across her face.
"Okay Peri, I've got things up and running, now to see if I can connect with the files and see if I can get the last recordings. Wish us luck."
Amanda looked around. She still had not been kidnapped. She could see Yiv's eyes spying on her. Perhaps she had to get further away. Well, she would do what she could to mark a trail. She tried to find the softest areas of land and stepped heavily as she continued to run her scans. Either way, she was going to make certain that her kidnapping was going to help her be found. Worst case scenario, she knew that there was still the tracker, as long as nobody found it.
For several minutes, nothing happened. There was a rustling in the trees, a snap of a twig, then nothing. The birds didn't stop chirping--except when Amanda approached. No footfalls. No crunching. Just the rustle of leaves from the trees and the brush around her. But something was watching her. Something was keeping just close enough. It had been too long since others like this one were here, and the watcher wasn't going to scare this one away.
Then, when Amanda was far enough from the others, she was completely enshrouded by something that felt like a hundred tiny threads brushing against her skin.
Amanda tried to observe whatever what was enshrouding her. Nothing had shown on her scans and she certainly had not seen anything out of the ordinary that would cause her to be trapped by anything. If she was a Vulcan, she might have vocalized, "Fascinating." However, she was not, and she tried to see what these threads were on her skin. Please, don't hit my tickle spots. It would be a shame to be captured and laughing at the same time!
Holding his breath, Yiv saw Amanda disappear behind the bole of a tree. It was as though she had vanished. He waited several long moments, watching, listening and sensing for a change in their surroundings.
Nothing ... He let out his breath, hung his head and thought. After a while he raised it again, having made up his mind. 'I think enough time has passed. She must have been taken.'
Tox shook his head. “Yeah but by what?”
Xavier moved over to Yiv. “Sir, I think you should wait on the shuttle.”
Knowing the pilot was correct, Yiv still yearned to head out after his comrade, to provide the dashing rescue, and above all make sure she was safe. 'Yes I suppose you're right,' he said a little tetchily. He raised a hand. 'You are right,' Yiv repeated in a more conciliatory tone. 'That is the plan.'
Xavier sighed. "Please take the Nurse with you."
Tox turned. "HEY! I may be needed."
"Sadly, Vulcans are incapable of eye rolls." He said as he waited for the XO to see if Tox would go with him to the shuttle or with the team to get Amanda back.
Yiv arched an eyebrow at Xavier, 'they also reportedly can't lie, but we know that's an obfuscation.' He sighed, 'Tox should come with us. Amanda might get hurt.'
Xavier flushed green. "Yes sir."
Tox grinned and threw an arm around the XO. "And that, friends, is why he's the boss." He grabbed the XO's wristed and did a fist bump. "That's our thing when we steamroll the annoying Vulcan from now on."
'Not if you enjoy two rank pips on your collar, Lieutenant,' Yiv replied mock-severely. 'Enough horseplay, the shuttle should save our bacon any minute now.'
Something resembling a smirk formed on Xavier's face but disappeared quickly.
Tox on the other hand, in his dramatic fashion, mimicked a song to his heart, "I stand wounded and chastised." He grinned through it all and winked at the XO.
From the shuttle, Peri noticed that the counselor was no longer on sensors. She tapped her combadge. "Shuttle to Commander Ra-Gruvloveii. I've lost sensor contact with the counselor."
He hissed, then tapped his own combadge in response, 'nothing at all? No anomalous readings near where she disappeared?'
Madelyn got on comms. "Found something, but not certain what I am seeing. There are camera viewpoints where the scientists are working at their station, then a movement, a brief flash of green then static. it was very fast." the engineer looking at the image rather perplexed.
"Commander, she was there, the it was as if she walked through...something and was gone," Peri said.
Then, to Madelyn, Peri said, "Any way you could send that to me? I might be able to slow it down and clear it up enough to get a usable image."
"I will send it right away." Madelyn doing such quickly. "Just that flash of green..." her brow furrowing at the mystery. Then it occurred to her, she might need a sample of that residue to send it to medical or science. "I am going to get a sample of that residue I had found earlier."
Making her way to where it was. She took a scraping using her knife, patted her pockets to see if she had something to put the sample inside. To her delight, she had a baggie, empty making certain there wasn't anything to mess with the sample. Well, there was a small crumb in it. They would be able to rule that out.
Licking his lips in impatience, Yiv hit his combadge once again. 'Anything Peri? We can't leave her too long.' A gnawing feeling in the pit of his bowels suggested this was one gamble too far for his crew.
"Sorry, sir. It's as if she just...disappeared. I can give you the exact coordinates of her last location." Peri quickly sent them to his PADD. Then she took any information she could from the scans and sent them to the team in case they helped figure out what happened.
Anahera prepared herself to go after the Counselor, once she was located.
"I have a sample for science or medical to figure out what it consists of." Madelyn stated.
'Alright,' Yiv replied tightly, 'get that sample analysed so we can get a lock on whatever took the Counsellor. Mean time the rest of us can take up some immediate scans of her last known location, see if that brings in any more data.'
A post by
Lieutenant Amanda Rose
Chief Counselor
USS Ontario
Lieutenant Xavier
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Ontario
Lieutenant Endymion Tox
Head Nurse (NPC)
USS Ontario
Staff Warrant Officer Madelyn Steele
Chief Engineer
USS Ontario
Lieutenant JG Peri Valeri
Assistant Chief Operations Officer
USS Ontario
Lieutenant Commander Yivliph Ra'Gruvloveii
Executive Officer
USS Ontario
Lieutenant Commander Anahera Chernova
Chief Security Officer
USS Ontario
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