Episode 37: Act 5 [The VerbenaVerse]

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~~META:
title = Episode 37: Act 5
~~
====== Episode 37: Kordikar - Act 5 ======
//Game was 5/14/20.//

===== Stardate 49374.27, Tuesday May 16th 2372, 2236 hours =====
==== Jessa Meets Ssleestak's Armpit. ====
[[trek:characters:mel|Mel]] and the rest of the away team runs after [[trek:characters:zug|Zug]], and [[trek:characters:ssleestak|Ssleestak]] hisses happily with joy at his trophy. They follow Zug down a hallway that sports garish stripes of color along the walls, and through a set of double doors that leads to a staircase. Zug runs down the staircase and the others keep up; they note the decor suddenly shifting to industrial gray. The stairs terminate at a platform surrounding an open shaft, and Zug runs forward and jumps down feet-first! The Starfleet crew follows, some more reluctantly than others. They all fall down a long shaft; the Andorians whoop with glee and Ssleestak whistles, but [[trek:characters:ktral|K'tral]] mutters a Vulcan prayer as she plummets. Zug and the Starfleet crew fall several stories before Zug screams up, "Scrunch up like this!": He pulls himself into a ball, still feet-first, and Ssleestak hollers instructions. Mel yells, "Remember your academy drop-training!" 

The Starfleet officers comply, and then they see Zug below them as he hits a ‘plane' of zero-G and leaps to a nearby platform! Below the zero-G disk is open sky leading to Kordikar's surface far below, so the Starfleet crew copies Zug as best they can. Ssleestak performs a surprisingly graceful leap, until [[trek:characters:jessa|Jessa]] slams into him; he grabs her and makes it to the platform. He curls around her to protect her as he lands and rolls; Jessa ends up with her face smushed into his armpit. Thankfully, Gorn smell like warm sand. [[trek:characters:thaltirian|Thal'tirian]] manages to snag K'tral and get her to safety while the others make it with varying degrees of grace. K'tral gets to her feet with a ‘I meant to do that' expression.

==== The Drop ====
The Starfleet officers look around quickly; they are on a large circular platform surrounding the shaft's exit. Bullet-shaped maintenance vehicles lie scattered about in cradles, secured to the wall with thick chains. Zug points to one and yells, "That one!" He charges that way as Ssleestak helps Jessa up to her feet. They follow Zug and as they approach, they see holographic flames painted along the side of the vehicle. Zug hollers, "I need a copilot…" and then [[trek:characters:phillip|Phillip]] charges ahead before Zug can finish the sentence. Phillip and Zug rush into the cockpit, which has two seats. Phillip eyes the tactile controls, buttons, and manual stick with glee while the others settle into safety chairs and strap in. They realize these vehicles are meant to transfer maintenance personnel along the underside of the floating city.

As soon as everyone is strapped in, Zug hits a bright, cherry-red button and the clamps holding the pod detach! The pod plummets in freefall and K'tral's praying gets louder. Ssleestak yells to [[trek:characters:fal|Fal]], "The aerodynamic properties of this pod are…" Fal offers, "Fascinating?" Zug howls back, "Wait till we hit bottom! The natives throw things at the pods, like spears and rocks. Once they threw a trebuchet!" Mel yells back, "Wait, they used a trebuchet or threw a trebuchet?" Zug laughs, "Both!" Mel sighs but tells Zug, "If you ever make it to our starbase, you need to try Dading." Phillip sighs but Zug looks back curiously. Mel adds, "You put on a special suit and orbital base jump from our station to the planet below!" Zug howls with glee at the thought.

As they plummet to the surface of Kordikar, Phillip nudges the pitch and yaw and realizes Zug is running some intense calculations in his head to compensate for their weight, speed, and the like. They're aiming directly at a massive dun-colored ziggurat that looms from the jungle below. Zug then yells, "Brace!" as he slams his palm into the big red button! The retro-thrusters kick in and everyone lurches forward in their seats as gravity reasserts itself. Jessa groans as she's pretty sure the Tyr symbiont just tried to escape through her belly button. Fal thinks sadly, //"[[trek:characters:luca|Luca]] would have loved this,"// before shaking off the memory.

The pod comes to a stop a meter above the ziggurat's surface and then swings wildly like a pendulum! They see thirty red-skinned natives already present, holding spears and other primitive weapons. Ssleestak finds the radio and tries to transmit, "Krenim!" to the natives, but the wide arc of the pod's swinging means they don't understand him. The natives do throw up a net to capture the pod, although the momentum of the pod rips said net out of their hands. However, it is enough to arrest their momentum, so they swing to a stop. Zug looks back and declares cheerfully, "Your turn, captain." 

==== "Into the Hole, Boys!" ====
The sides of the pod pop open and Mel, Zug, and the Andorians manage to get out with dignity. The rest of the away team stumbles out and falls, and Jessa and K'tral are violently sick. K'tral aims for Zug's shoes, but the young man dodges, grinning the whole time.((This is actually part of the sport.)) The away team is swiftly surrounded by hostile natives, and then the Starfleet crew suddenly realizes the ‘natives' are red-skinned Orions as the familiar pheromones kick in! Ssleestak points to the sky and roars, "Krenim!" 

The natives shrink back but turn as an ancient crone hobbles up to them, leaning heavily on a piece of wood as a cane. Ssleestak tries to keep his face open and friendly – and not displaying any sharp teeth. The crone eyes them and Mel gestures to the sky and repeats, "Krenim!" The crone hisses, "Dilin?" Mel frowns and points to herself as she replies, "Deline." The crone motions, and four male natives pry up a massive flagstone to reveal stairs leading down into inky blackness. Fal murmurs, "Impressive, that slab has to weigh between five and six thousand kilos." The natives step out of their way, so Mel gestures and orders, "Into the hole, boys!" 

==== Seared Gorn Smell Delicious ====
The away team hustles into the ziggurat and descends the treacherous stairs. They activate snap-lights to reveal time-worn stone walls on their left, and an open shaft on their right. No guardrails exist, so the away team makes their way down carefully; Ssleestak takes the lead in case he falls. He clears a path as he descends, while Fal, Thal'tirian, and K'tral examine the structure and Phillip curses the old dirt around him. Jessa tries to keep up with the others, while Mel keeps an eye on the entire team. Zug brings up the rear, looking around curiously. They find desiccated corpses in niches along the wall and realize the gritty taste in the back of their mouths is ancient Orion.

K'tral stops suddenly when she spots some ancient hieroglyphs marred by newer, debased symbols. The entire away team stops behind her as she warns, "These are about one hundred and fifty thousand years old, but this newer set – only ten thousand years old – warns of danger up ahead. Fiery death." She then hears a faint hum and yells, "Hold!" Unfortunately, her warning comes a split-second too late for Ssleestak, who leaned forward to clear some debris from the stairs. A harsh, red light flares across the stairs and sears Ssleestak as he scrambles back as gracefully as he can. Luckily, his natural armor and hardiness prevented serious damage, but he announces, "Be careful, that stings!" He then gets a whiff of his partially cooked skin and asks, "Does that smell good to you guys?" Fal admits, "Ancient Bajorans did utilize reptilian creatures as culinary ingredients." 

The others look revolted and Ssleestak hotly defends eating reptiles until the buzzing in his head clears and he stops talking awkwardly. He hands Fal his tricorder, which sloshes due to liquefied internal components. They see red energy fill the space between them, but it is unstable; some bands are an intense, angry red while other striations are barely pink. Ssleestak grunts, "Huh. Literally fiery death. Got it." K'tral leans over and pats him on the head. Phillip whistles and exclaims, "Wait, I think this is a Matruse Device!"((From //Star Trek: Venerable//. Thanks [[players:joe|Joe]]!)) Everyone looks at him blankly, and he sighs with irritation and explains, "They're booby traps that protect Iconian outposts. Usually they work in pairs like an airlock. There was an Andorian, [[trek:characters:itaxa|Ensign Itaxa zh'Matruse]], who first triggered one like a decade ago."

Fal nods as the memory resurfaces, but everyone else looks lost. Ssleestak shrugs and asks, "Did they disarm it?" Phillip frowns and replies, "I think so, but if I remember right, it caused a feedback loop that cracked open a mountain." Ssleestak concludes, "Let's not do that," and he, Fal, and Phillip examine the wall of energy and find the emitters. After a few minutes of fiddling with their tricorders, they manage to shut down the energy safely, without causing any feedback loops. Fal muses, "One down!" but Phillip cautions, "Yeah, but potentially many more." Ssleestak holds out a hyper-spanner as a dowsing rod and the away team continues their slow descent.

==== Desperately Seeking Saval ====
The away team reaches the bottom of the stairs to find three corridors branching out – and several bisected, desiccated corpses on the ground. They hear the whine of a Matruse device from the leftmost corridor, and Ssleestak opines, "We should go there. Phillip said they protect the Iconian gates." K'tral retorts, "You go first," while Fal reminisces on an Academy buddy who called himself "the dungeon master." Mel leans towards heading left, but Fal points out, "The central part of the structure would be dead ahead, captain. And Phillip did say the Matruse Devices are capable of moving within a structure."  

Mel considers that carefully, but before she can decide, her combadge beeps. She taps it and hears static and a faint trace of [[trek:characters:saval|Saval]]'s voice. The signal cuts out and Mel frowns, knowing her first officer wouldn't contact her unless there was a real problem. K'tral offers to boost the signal but needs to sacrifice two combadges to do it. Jessa and Phillip pluck theirs off their uniforms and hand them to the Vulcan. K'tral pulls out a tiny multitool and pops them both open. She connects their circuitry together and then to her combadge, successfully boosting the signal.

Mel taps the jury-rigged combadges and calls out, "Deline to Saval." Saval's reply is still laced with static, but is much clearer; she says, //"My apologies captain, but I must insist that alacrity is required from you and the away team. We are taking heavy fire up here; we have casualties and multiple hull breaches. Our temporal shielding is down to 10%."// Mel replies, "Understood, commander. Hold out as long as you can." The signal cuts out and Meld decides, "We stick together and head down the central corridor." The away team complies, and they head quickly down the central corridor. They notice after a few moments that the rough-hewn walls start to turn pink, and then into smooth pink marble, while geodesic designs appear on the floor, although they are badly degraded by time. 

==== Julienne Wabai. Gross ====
The next discovery is grislier, as the away team finds a boot in the middle of the corridor, smoke rising faintly from the severed stump. As they move onward, they find more neatly shorn body parts, including a hand still clutching part of a heavy energy weapon. Zug says quietly, "That's a Wabai repeating blaster rifle." Mel frowns and wonders, "Did the crew of the spy ship land near here?" Zug frowns as he mentally maps out the region, but then slowly nods. Ssleestak stops and grabs one of the severed feet. He then hefts it and hurls it down the hallway ahead – and watches as another Matruse Device snaps into existence, shearing the severed appendage in half! 

Fal, Ssleestak, and Phillip move forward carefully and disable the second Matruse Device, and all the while Ssleestak hums the classic //Indiana Jones// theme. The away team moves on and finds a severed green arm – and the top of a skull, neatly sheared to reveal part of the hapless Wabai's brain! Ssleestak eyes the captain but does not pick up the arm. Mel buries her reactions and leads the away team into a central hub room, with three corridors branching of in a radial hub, and a redoubt in the center. They move forward and realize the redoubt was likely once a central computer station, as they see spaces for the technology, but anything present has long rotted to dust. 

==== Fal Loses His Leg and Mel Loses Her Trusted Friend ====
Mel then hears a high-pitched whine and yells, "Take cover!" Starfleet training kicks in and the away team scrambles into the redoubt, but then an energy blast shoots out form one of the other corridors and vaporizes Fal's left leg as he tumbles into the redoubt! He rolls into the cover and says numbly, "I think I'm not ok." Blue disruptor fire sails over the redoubt and Zug observes flatly, "That's not a Wabai weapon." Mel winces as she realizes the disruptors are set to kill. She swiftly realizes that the crossfire is coming from two of the other corridors leading into this central hub.

[[trek:characters:shantaar|Shan'taar]] risks a blind shot at the roof of one of the occupied corridors, but his phaser – set at heavy stun – doesn't penetrate. Phillip fires a snap-shot at the other corridor, but the enemy manages to dodge. He drops back down and reports breathlessly, "Humanoid, orange-colored uniforms. I think there's a half-dozen in each corridor, hunkered down behind some fallen debris as cover." Mel nods as she pops up and fires, drilling an enemy right in the torso. She ducks back down, but not before seeing her adversary – who she guesses is the Krenim. More disruptor fire fills the air, so Ssleestak dials his phaser up to the maximum setting and mimics Shan'taar's plan by firing blindly at the ceiling of one of the corridors. The higher setting definitely has an impact, and dust and debris rain down on the Krenim.

K'tral does the exact same thing to the other corridor, firing her phaser at setting sixteen and creating a dust cloud for cover. Jessa tends to Fal as he holds up his phaser and moans, "I can't connect my tricorder to [[trek:characters:sola|Sola]]!" There is a whistling noise, and Mel looks up in horror to see a grenade arcing down on their position! There is a blue blur, and then [[trek:characters:threyshaan|Threy'shaan]] leaps up and smacks the grenade out of the sky and into one of the occupied corridors! The grenade explodes, shredding the Krenim, but Threy'shaan is pierced by multiple disruptor blasts as he comes down; he hits the ground and crumples, dead! Shan'taar spares his fellow Andorian a glance before triggering an overload in his phaser and hurling it at the other corridor! The makeshift grenade exploders, killing the rest of the Krenim.

Mel stares at Threy'shaan body but whispers, "How is Fal?" Fal insists, "I'm fine, Ssleestak!" Mel decides, "We have to keep moving. I'm not leaving Threy'shaan here." She takes his //ushaan-tor// blade as Ssleestak gently picks up his corpse. Zug silently reaches out and takes Threy'shaan, freeing Ssleestak to fight or disable devices as needed. Mel relives Fal of his phaser and silently hands it to Shan'taar. They head down the unoccupied corridor, with Shan'taar at the rear. Jessa helps Fal and Ssleestak sticks behind them and tells Fal, "Commander, I need your help with this tricorder." He hands Fal back his liquefied tricorder so Fal has something to focus on.

==== The Lessons of the Federation, as Told by Ssleestak ====
The away team hauls ass, but then Mel suddenly stops when she hears a rapid-fire pulse weapon from up ahead – and bodies hitting the ground! Zug states, "That is a Wabai repeating blaster, captain." Mel hesitates, but then a familiar voice calls out, "Captain Deline?" Mel answers cautiously in the affirmative, and [[trek:characters:galannaar|Captain Galan'naar]] steps out from a corner up ahead. Mel lowers her phaser and greets Galan'naar; the Wabai captain asks her, "Do any of your crew need medical assistance?" Mel eyes Fal and nods, so a female Wabai field medic rushes up and starts treating Fal, coordinating with Jessa to cover her unfamiliarity with Bajoran physiology. 

Galan'naar and eight other Wabai join the Starfleet away team, and Galan'naar admits, "After my absconding with a flotilla to help you against the Dai'Loq, the Intelligence Bureau finally had the excuse they wanted to demote me and remove me from my ship. I was assigned this espionage mission on a holo-ship, but the Solstice plowed through the illusion, revealing us to the Tizit. We did a controlled crash-landing and penetrated this ziggurat in the hopes of avoiding Tizit retribution-squads. We then detected energy weapons' fire and stumbled into a firefight with an unknown race. We heard your ship's warning about the Krenim, so we assumed that was them."

Mel nods as Galan'naar spots Threy'shaan's body, but he says simply, "What do you need, captain?" Mel replies firmly, "Cover." Galan'naar states, "Then you shall have it. Everyone, form up on Starfleet, escort protocol." The Wabai move to obey, but Zug glares with naked hatred at Galan'naar. Galan'naar stares right back and says flatly, "We either squabble and die separately, or work together with Starfleet and all live. Choose, boy."((One critical facet of Tizit culture: Tizit history is a living, breathing thing, laced with reincarnation beliefs. Something that happened to the Tizit collectively hundreds of years ago is considered personal history for people living today, as they were ‘there.')) Ssleestak interjects softly, "Remember what we told you of the Federation? We try to make friends where and when we can." Zug grinds his teeth but carries Threy'shaan's body without complaint. The combined team hustles down the corridor, and they pass a pile of Krenim corpses riddled with energy fire. Mel eyes them coldly for a second before dismissing them and moving on.

==== Mel Loses Her Chief Engineer ====
The team reaches the control hub, a large room with untarnished pink marble walls and ceiling, and clean geodesic designs in the floor. The hub station is set against the wall, with an inactive gate on either side. One of the four control stations is heavily damaged from a partial cave-in, and as they enter a synthesized voice blares, //"Tatar kesh!"// This voice repeats the phrase every minute, and Fal starts singing Baby Shark along with it. K'tral frowns and ventures, "I think it's saying, ‘Maintenance required.'" She gestures to the damaged panel, so Ssleestak lumbers forward and immediately starts working. He reroutes some of the ancient circuitry, and then the right gate suddenly flares to life! 

Unlike other Iconian gates, this one remains fixed to one location, an apparent mirror of the room they're standing in. Fal mumbles, "That's obscene," and Jessa retorts, "Fal, I need you to keep your thinky-thoughts on the inside, ok?" Thal'tirian scans the station with her tricorder and then says hoarsely, "Captain, the gate is showing this very room – one hundred and fifty thousand years in the past!" Mel groans and Thal'tirian adds, "I think it wants us to go into the past to repair it." Ssleestak shrugs, and then steps through the gate! He stumbles out into the same room, but empty, and the gate closes behind him.

Fal calls out, "Ssleestak! I figured out the loophole!" Mel curses as her chief engineer has vanished, but in the distant past Ssleestak shrugs and heads to the panel that will be damaged in the future. He recalls the sequence [[trek:characters:meridian|Meridian]] passed along – blue, blue, green – and taps that into the panel. He notices the little dish on top of the control panel and drops his combadge into it. He then hears people behind him, and he turns to see the red-skinned natives staring at him, spears pointed at his chest. He points to the sky and hollers, "Krenim!" The natives look at him blankly, so he lets loose a massive roar! Most of the natives scurry backwards, except for one small woman who stands her ground, looks up at him, and roars back! Although her roar was tiny in comparison, Ssleestak grins widely and parts her on the head with affection. He then starts talking slowly, trying to establish basic communication.

==== Starfleet Assistance ====
Back in the present, the damaged panel ripples and then is repaired, with the sequence already lit up! Jessa passes the tricorder over the gate, but it remains inert. Mel curses again but heads to one of the other panels. K'tral claims the third panel and Jessa scoots over to the fourth one. They enter the desired sequence and then Mel plucks her combadge from her uniform. To her horror, she finds Ssleestak's badly corroded combadge in the dish, but she places hers next to his. There is a faint hum as the gate powers up, and then another combadge appears in the dish! This one is from a few years ago, and then the right-side gate partially clears! 

Although it's like looking through a pane of very dirty glass, the away team spots several Starfleet officers on the other side, wearing the previous iterations of their uniforms. One of them, a tall man in command red, reaches out and touches the glass. Mel steps in front of him and the figure seems to recognize her, although she can't make anything definitive out.((Captain [[trek:characters:aaron|Aaron Englyss]])) Fal slurs, "Is that [[trek:characters:vaughn|Elias Vaughn]]? Wait, where's Ssleestak?" Mel winces as she realizes her chief engineer is trapped in the distant past, but then a fourth combadge appears in the dish! This one is the same style as Mel's, although when the left-side gate partially clears, the crew on the other side is definitely wearing different uniforms – they're all black, with gray shoulders and colored undershirts. Mel glances over as a short female in command-red steps to the gate and peers through to them; with a start Mel realizes this is Captain [[trek:characters:stadi|Marena Stadi]] of the //USS Stargazer-A//!

==== "This Time, Everybody Lives." ====
The gateway's hum increases slightly in pitch, and then Threy'shaan asks, "Where's my //ushaan-tor//?" Everyone spins in shock as the living, breathing Andorian disentangles himself from a horrified Zug and looks around in confusion. Mel immediately hands his blade back, which he accepts without question. Fal coos happily – as he stands on his two legs! Jessa and the Wabai medic rear back, and then they hear the whine of a transporter beam as Ssleestak rematerializes, also looking confused. Fal cries out happily, "Ssleestak!" Ssleestak replies, "Fal Marik!" – and then realizes the Bajoran has both legs and Threy'shaan is alive! 

Mel's combadge beeps and she retrieves it from the dish before tapping it. Meridian's voice echoes through the chamber, //"Congratulations, Captain Deline. You just saved an entire planet's history."// Mel says softly, "I don't understand. This time, everybody lives?" They can hear Meridian's smile in her voice as she replies, //"Yes, captain. This time, everybody lives, although your// Solstice //is heavily damaged. But you were successful, and the Timefleet came back and destroyed the Krenim cruisers and the weapon ship. This partially reset the timeline, and we managed to lock on to Ssleestak with our temporal transporters. Figured you'd want him back."// Mel agrees enthusiastically as Ssleestak nods furiously, and Meridian chuckles and replies, //"It's time for us to depart, captain. Be seeing you."// The channel then cuts out.

Mel immediately hails her //Solstice//, and Saval replies a moment later, sounding a bit confused. She reports, //"The Krenim are… gone, captain. We've taken heavy damage and have sustained casualties, but no fatalities."// Mel whispers, "Our record continues." Saval replies, //"Yes, but barely. Captain, deck one took a direct hit."// Mel immediately demands, "Is everyone alight?" Saval replies, //"Yes, thanks to the emergency force fields. I hope Ssleestak doesn't have any plans, however. He's going to be very busy."// Ssleestak hisses sadly, but nods in acceptance. Saval continues, //"Unfortunately, captain, we can't lock on to you to beam you out, there's too much radiation. You need to exit the structure."// Mel states, "We're on our way." She ends the hail and Galan'naar announces firmly, "I vote we go wherever the alcohol is." Mel agrees wholeheartedly. 

<WRAP hide>
=====Summary=====
Zug brings the away team quickly to his ‘dropper,’ a repurposed maintenance vehicle. Phillip copilots as the pod plunges to the ziggurat below, but they manage to exit safely – if not gracefully – and communicate with the native red-skinned… Orions? They head into the ziggurat and Ssleestak triggers a Matruse Device; thankfully, Phillip recognizes it. They find shorn Wabai body parts and have to dismantle a second Matruse Device before they are ambushed by the Krenim. Threy’shaan is killed and Fal’s leg is blown off before they manage to kill the Krenim. They keep going and find Captain Galan’noor, the commander of the downed Wabai holo-ship; he and his team join them after a confrontation with Zug. They reach the Iconian hub and Ssleestak jumps into a portal that deposits him one hundred and fifty thousand years into the past so he can repair the device. Two other Starfleet teams – the //U.S.S. Boston// downtime and the //U.S.S. Stargazer-A// uptime – activate Iconian Gates, giving the 29<sup>th</sup> century Timefleet the signals they need to emerge in orbit of Kordikar and destroy the Krenim – which partially resets the timeline. Threy’shaan is alive and Fal whole, and the Timefleet uses their temporal transporters to return Ssleestak safe and sound – and confused. 
===== =====
</WRAP>

----

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[[{}trek:solstice:recap:37_act_4|<= Act 4]]
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[[{}trek:solstice:recap:37_act_6|Act 6 =>]]
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{{tag>star_trek solstice recap}}
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