Sea & Sky: Difficult Circumstances
Posted on 03 Apr 2023 @ 11:42am by Commander Calliope Zahn & Lieutenant JG Hannah Wagner & Chief Deputy Marshal: Ridge Steiner - FMS & Lieutenant Commander Cesar De La Fuente Ph.D. & Uanika
Mission:
M3 - Into the Deep
Location: Korix, Tiss'Kot
Timeline: MD09 beginning~0425 ending~0450
5296 words - 10.6 OF Standard Post Measure
Calliope stood a moment, taking in the Korinn speaker, Uanika. She had heard right— The Korinn woman had delivered the greeting in Standard, and was not being filtered through the translator. The sound was something like a parrot sing-speaking in its throat and the pickups in her helmet eliminated some of the muddled effect, correcting for the watery muffle and clarifying the sound.
“My name is Calliope Zahn,” She said through the speaker of her suit, talking with almost comical annunciation, as she attempted to account for the way the water would buffer the sound. “My rank is Commander, I am a member of Starfleet, an exploration and military force, and we serve the United Federation of Planets. We found your space station, and we received your call for help.”
As Calliope had spoken, Uanika started whistling and clicking rapidly. Another of the Korinn, a much smaller female, whistled and hummed back.
“This is Tck’cos, the Grand Crest of the Irix. P’ta’too, advisor to the Grand Crest, and T’orpeo, my…” Uanika paused, feeling self-conscious about calling him her assistant, “...a valued emissary and a great scientist among our people. We invite you, Calliope Zahn to swim with us into the Sanctuary for deliberations.”
Tacos the Great, Patooie advisor to Tacos, Torpedo the science guy, Calliope thought to herself as she tried to commit them to memory. Calliope knew she was gonna screw this up already. Maybe she should have snagged Khourushi or some other purple collared type from the station before rushing out on this mission. Regrets. Hopefully she wouldn't need to repeat a lot of names.
"Lead on. We will follow."
The Korinn turned to enter the wide-mouthed oval entrance and entered the atrium of Tiss’Kot. Its crystal ceiling was carved with simple ripples, as if someone had frozen water in the seconds after a stone had been thrown in. Skeletal coral grew up and down the walls. On the farside of the room, a wide corridor stretched hundreds of meters into the distance. Most of the chambers were off that passage. The Korinn, however, didn’t go that way. Instead, they swam through another much smaller opening to the right, just off the atrium.
Tck’cos had decided that they should hold the talks in the First Chamber and not in the Constellation Chamber at the far end of the complex. A wise decision. It would’ve taken them all the rest of the day to get there. Where the Korinns’ movements were graceful and quick, the air-breathers were ponderous in their suits. Plus they were manhandling a large box. She wondered what that could be. Scientific equipment maybe.
“This is the First Chamber,” Uanika told their guests, “Traditionally, this is where the Spawnless schools were greeted by the crests…the leaders…of the schools of the Great Spawn Tiss’Kot.”
Listening, Calliope wondered about the language they were choosing to use. Spawning and spawnless… mating ritual stuff? Calliope decided not to venture into those waters and end up with her foot in her mouth. “Your chambers and halls are vast and very beautiful.” Calliope complimented. But it wasn’t lost on her that they were choosing the past tense to talk about the place, and the nostalgia the swimming escort had displayed remained with her. “But it seems to be very old and empty. You don’t still live here?”
“No Korinn ever lived here,” Uanika said, shocked by the very notion. “This is the spawning sanctuary!”
“Oh, I— I’m sorry. I meant, no one has…” Calliope held her arms open, trying to be more precise. “No one has been swimming through it much.” A spawning sanctuary. That had to mean the temple-like grounds were home for… making more Korinn.
Tck’cos rested a hand on Uanika’s shoulder. “What did she say that has bothered you so?”
“She asked if anyone lived here! I told her…” P’ta’too looked aghast and beginning to whistle his support for Uanika’s response, but the look on the Grand Crests’ face immediately silenced him. Of course, Uanika realized without having to be told, it was a trivial insult in the scope of everything else.
“There is no need for apologies. There will be much to learn of each other,” she offered the Commander.
Manipulating the data PaDD embedded in the forearm of his suit, under the pretense of looking about, De La Fuente sent a text based message to Calliope’s suit: Simple statements always work best. Beautiful. Amazing. No observations.
“Our Science officer, Commander Cesar—” She decided to hold back his last name as their hosts seemed to struggle with the ‘f’ sounds. She pointed him out. “He reminds me that I talk too much.” Calliope was curious if they would find that funny, being happy to diffuse a misunderstanding at her own expense when necessary.
Uanika nodded solemnly, “It is good to have a teacher who is patient. Tck’kos is my teacher and she is kind with her criticism when I make a mistake. Commander Cesar must be very proud of you to allow you to be his voice.”
So jokes were going to be a different level of cultural exchange. Too fast, Calliope. she told herself. “Yes, a lot of people have been kind enough to allow me to lead this trip.” She decided to leave it at that, and accept that something was also going on with Uanika. Possibly she'd been given the lead simply because she spoke Standard the best. Something that was still a mystery as to how.
“We have your computer core from your space station.” Calliope motioned behind them, where they had parked. “There may be much valuable data. It is aboard our shuttle. If you would like it returned, we will gladly release it to you. But if we are to work together, we would prefer to keep it longer, to study the information your station gathered for twenty years.”
“We wish to work with you,” T’orpeo spoke with slow muffled draw, “on this, but also I wish to learn more of you as a people.”
“I am very eager to learn more of your culture as well,” De La Fuente spoke up, swimming slightly forward to draw their attention to him. “Studying other cultures is my focus as a Scientist,” he explained. “To have the chance to understand what this place means to your people… would be an incredible opportunity,” he said, gesturing about.
Tck’kos whistled loudly after Uanika finished translation. A strong affirmation. This was all going well so far. Uanika looked askance at the other thing they brought. Was it a gift of some sort? She hoped they would not be insulted that she hadn’t given them a gift, too.
“We also want to return your dead to you.” Calliope said. “This female astronaut Korinn, from your station, we collected her to bring her home to you. We did not know your culture’s tradition for the dead, but we have the greatest respect, especially in Starfleet, for those who have sacrificed their lives in service to their people. We prepared her remains as we would one of our own.”
Uanika translated as Calliope spoke. P’ta’too chuffed angrily and trilled, “What are we supposed to do with something dead? It’s just more pollution for our waters!”
“They were trying to honor the body,” T’orpeo retorted. “It is their way.”
“Do all air-breathers honor dead bodies? I thought the ones on the island used them for firewood…”
Tck’cos clicked irritably and again silenced her advisor. She motioned for Uanika to continue, but what does one say when receiving a corpse? “We thank you for the…er…gift of the dead body. We will find a nice place to keep it.”
“While we, as humans, are reverent of our dead. Not all Federation member worlds share the same. There is another Federation member world, Pacifica, who also dwells in the oceans. They possess no known death rituals. As Pacificans cease to be, they are simply allowed to drift into the abyss to complete the circle of life. Whatever is your way, please do. Please do not be concerned with offending us,” Cesar smiled as widely as he could.
“Drifting is…very…nice,” Unakia offered. The practice sounded weird, but at least the act was familiar.
“The casket is secured in a way that our peoples would use to offer highest honors to the dead.” Hannah said softly, her voice carrying astonishingly well through the water. “It will not decay or pollute the waters around it from within the fastenings of the box”
As they came forward with the lavishly shrouded glass casket, Calliope pointed out the pallbearers. “Commander Cesar I’ve already introduced and this is Lieutenant Hanah Wagner.” Calliope had to wonder if the Korinn were equally mentally butchering their names too. The idea comforted her. “Wagner is a healer.”
“I believe you use the word, ‘doctor.’ Or is she a ‘nurse?’” Uanika was pleased with herself for remember the distinction.
“I am a doctor” she answered with a gentle smile and a slight inclination of her upper body to the Korinn. “I am primarily a healer of the sick. I am sworn to preserve life, as much as I am able, and harm none in the doing.” A shortened version of her hippocratic oath.
“I didn’t know you would have our word for Doctor.” Calliope explained. “How… how is it you came to speak Federation Standard so well?”
Uanika waved her hands up and down, the equivalent of a shrug. “The Irix in captivity taught us. They learned from the sunrise people.”
If Calliope could have she would have scratched her head. Who lived in the sunrise and how had they taught them Federation Standard? “People from the sun rising? I don’t understand. This is the first time on record that any of my people have met your people. We call this a first contact.”
“That is correct. This is the first time that the free Korinn have met your people.”
“The ‘Free’ Korinn?” Cesar asked, “Are there… Korinn who are not free?”
“There are the Z’ala Korinn. They are the collaborators of our great enemy. Even worse, there are those among them that worship the Pyrryx,” Uanika spat a few bubbles from her mouth. “They hunt the Irix, capture our people, and enslave them on an island. The Slave Irix, though we are one people. Did you see the island from space?”
Calliope caught mention of the Pyrryx right away, her pulse rising in the life signs monitor. The Korinn knew them by the same name… There had been suspicions it was the Pyrryx they had referred to as the enslavers in their help message. There had been an icon of the pyrryx with what looked like a warning in their communications on the Korinn space station. Now there was no doubt at all.
“Yes, the island was the first thing we noticed about your planet, as most Federation races do not commonly live in the waters. We tried to send a message to the tower on the island, the one by the mine. We couldn’t get any good scans…. readings with our sensors. There was a lot of trouble seeing.” Calliope tried to explain, uncertain if some of the words would be known as well as Doctor was.
“The sunrise people thought it might be a problem doing the sensor readings, because of what is being mined on that island,” Uanika said thoughtfully. “There is a mine there that takes an ore from our planet. We were told that you call it ‘kelbonite.’ We don’t understand why the Pyrryx value it so. It is very common on Korix and has no application that our scientists can devise. The operation is killing us, bleeding chemicals and metals out into the currents that carry it all over our world.”
There was more mention of the sunrise people, and Calliope tried to make sense of it. Possibly it was a way of describing other offworld visitors… “So the mine is what has poisoned your waters.” Calliope summarized to make it clear that she understood. That explained the dead or sickened ocean life.
“Mine waste is being dropped into the oceans unfiltered? No wonder everything is dying. Commander, if the fix is so easy to employ as filtering the mine waste?”
Calliope doubted it. The trouble was throughout the entire planet and had been piled on for decades. “If the Korinn could filter it, I’m sure they would have without us. We would probably need to send a science vessel with specialists to help address it. I will recommend it to Starfleet. What was it again, that they’re mining?”
“If I may,” Cesar chimed in, to clarify. “Kelbonite is a material that when refined a certain way is used to build starships, like ours in orbit. It can also be used for to create a type of armor plating that is incredibly useful and adaptable,” he explained.
“So, they would want Kelbonite to build their spaceships, for their armies. Are the Pyrryx here, on your world, now?” Calliope knew that if they were present, it would change the urgency of the mission. They were meant to head back to the Station at first sight of them.
“There’s always at least one,” Uanika said. “It lives on the island.”
“But not in the water?” Gunny Johannes cut in from the edge of the group, his attention clearly piqued. Cesar didn’t need to be an empath to see that the mere mention of Pyrryx had put him on edge. He couldn't help but feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up at the thought of a fight underwater, or in their runabout.
Steiner had loitered around watching and listening to the interactions and quietly checking out the structure for defensible places if things went south. He perked up hearing there were Pyrryx here, he was surprised there was only one. Still even just one of those things would be a handful.
“We’ve never known them to come into the oceans. They are content to stay on the island. The Z’ala do hunt us, though,” T’orpeo said.
“My ship has orders to disengage— to stop our mission— and return to our star base if we encounter any Pyrryx. I’m afraid we cannot stay long.” Calliope tried to say without trying to sound rushed.
Uanika felt her heart begin to beat faster as she translated for the others. They were going to leave? So soon? She looked worriedly at Tck’cos, but the unflappable Grand Crest gave the young female a gentle and encouraging touch on the arm. They’d known the Federation was careful.
“It’s up to you and T’orpeo, now,” Tck’cos said. “Do all you can.”
Taking a breath, Uanika spoke with an authority and confidence she didn’t feel, “Our planet is dying. T’orpeo and I ask that we accompany you so that we might plead with your leaders to help us.”
“We would be glad to bring you with us.” Calliope was relieved that they had already decided on accompanying them to space. A delegation would make a lot of things easier to account for, as they could speak for their own people. “Our ships and stations and cities are mostly oxygen-nitrogen air. Are you able to survive out of the water?”
“We have equipment,” Uanika said, motioning like she was putting on a mask. “It will allow us to breathe. Although we will need to submerge in water for a few hours each day. It doesn’t have to be much, just enough to cover our bodies. For our health, you see.”
“That can be arranged for you,” Calliope agreed.
“You will of course want to gather the sunrise people, too. They are in great danger, too.”
“I’m sorry.” Calliope looked around to see if anyone else on her team could understand what was meant. “The sunrise people? The ones who taught you to speak Standard. Are they a different race of people? Somewhere else in your solar system?”
Uanika too was confused, until she repeated Calliope’s words back in her mind. Ah! She’d been using an imprecise word. “My apologies! Not ‘people.’ Crew. That is the word you say to describe your people on a ship, correct? The crew of Sunrise. They look like you, although I was once told there was a blue-skinned person among them, but he died many years ago.”
Calliope was still confused, though they seemed to be saying a ship was here, and also that it had been here a long time. “There are… Federation people? On this planet?”
Cesar was shaking his head as well, not really sure what they were saying when he had a sudden thought, drifting back to the front of his mind as if quietly summoned. “Commander,” Cesar said with a sharp draw of breath. “Commander, when I was scanning this sector of space for any previous scouting runs there was a log entry that a ship was lost somewhere within a light year of this sector. It was called the USS Sunrise!”
It clicked into place. “You mean,” She said, turning back to Uanika, “the other Irix learned to speak standard from some lost crew members of a Federation ship? And they’re still on this planet?” Calliope started wondering about going back to Pathfinder and Theseus and organizing all the shuttles they had for a rescue of possibly hundreds of people. “Are they on the island? With the other Irix? Do you know how many there are?”
“They are. Originally it was forty and six. They had pups over the years, but most died. Now it is only two adults and two pups. You and your kind do not survive long in slavery.”
Managing that incredible and terrible news, Calliope motioned to Stiener. “What do you think? Even with our delegates aboard, we can fit four more with us on the Acamas.” Lance’s code errors on the waverunner and suggestion to take an Arrow were truly a stroke of genius that had made everything so far possible. Her husband was going to strut about it quite a bit when the reports came in. Maybe she’d really misjudged him and he was more flexible than she’d given him credit for. Maybe working in the field could grow on him. But she was getting ahead of herself. With word of the Pyrryx on the planet, this mission was already at a close, and they needed to return with the delegates post haste as it was. She was unsure what the best call would be and was looking for someone to help tell her which way to fall. She’d named Steiner as her second, so it seemed fitting to hear his take. “Should we attempt a rescue?”
Steiner shrugged, or at least he did within his suit, not sure if it made it out. The news of Federation citizens being held here was unexpected and indeed he was duty bound to come to their aide. Even so, just rushing in was not the way to go.
“We’re here on a First Contact mission Commander, we’re not equipped, trained or staffed for hostage rescue.” he put it bluntly. “We don’t know who they are, where they are, under what conditions they are being held, what the local bad-guys have for numbers or firepower. All that and the lack of training or equipment means, no, we should not attempt a rescue..” He had a sudden nagging doubt about this sudden information of there being Federation survivors here. But it did explain how these Korinn could understand and speak Standard. Could there be people alive after years? That said he was not going to abandon the idea totally. “But, if we trust our new… friends here. Then maybe we should gather more information, from them” he nodded his head towards the Korinn “Possibly stake out the location this Sunrise Crew is being held at. Gather details, find out what the bad guys have and then with that knowledge, formulate a plan that is going to work. And any plan is probably going to involve a lot more of these guys” He pointed at the two Marines.
He was probably right. It was beyond the scope of what they had prepared for. But before Calliope could agree with Steiner on that count, Uanika volunteered something else.
“I believe they will need to leave today. If they don’t, the Z’ala will most likely kill them.”
“How do you know that?” Steiner asked the Korinn “I’m Steiner by the way, I’m a…” he thought for a second and went with an old fashioned term “ peace officer. If they have been keeping them as slave labor for years, as you say, why would they now be in danger?"
“The captive Irix have been planning an uprising to destroy the mining operation and escape. They were waiting for help and you are here now,” Uanika said, letting the air-breathers reason out the conclusion. “Your people are known friends of the Irix on the island, both with skills that would be valuable to an uprising. It is my understanding that one is a chemist and the other a warrior. I doubt the Z’ala would believe they were innocent.”
While Calliope watched the Marshal considering the urgency of the survivors’ situation, she spoke to the other issue. The issue of the Irix having begun a revolt on the basis of the Federation making an appearance. They were betting the farm on something that was still tenuous. “You must know we can not promise the Federation will help your planet.” Calliope said. “We’ll bring your delegation, but I can not know how it will turn out when those in the Federation leadership consider your cause.”
Uanika translated for the others. As she stopped her whistling and clicking, Tck’cos swam forward put herself in front of Calliope. She began her own musical address, Uanika translating a few seconds behind. “You asked why there aren’t more Korinn in Tiss’Kot. I was spawned here, watched great performances here, and was honored to be raised a leader of my people here. Thousands swam through these halls every day and during the great spawns tens of thousands used to come here. I remember it well. Where are they now, you asked? They are dead.
“You have seen our world from above, taken your samples of our water, passed through our empty cities and still you don’t understand. We don’t seek alliances because we are too weak to throw off the Pyrryx. We seek help because we are dying. You put one of our bodies in a box and call it an honor. What use to us is a corpse in a box? We have too many to count. Perhaps there are so many worlds in your universe that ours will not matter to your people. It matters to us and you are our only hope. If you fail us, we’ll die. Today or tomorrow.”
“Look, I’m not a Diplomat, okay, I spend my time chasing people who break the law,” Steiner replied to the Korinn. “But I do know that the Federation is not in the business of supporting revolutions. You cannot just start an uprising and expect us to join in. It doesn’t work that way, we have our own laws about engaging in armed conflict.” He held up his hand placatingly. “Clearly your people are suffering under the Pyrryx and those who are helping them. As the Commander said, I am sure the Federation will listen, but that will take time. So you need to contact these Irix and stop whatever they are planning, they need to wait!”
“Steiner—” Calliope put a gloved hand on his big shoulder. “I think they mean to say it’s too late. It’s already begun”
Steiner looked between Zahn and the senior Korinn. “Your people are starting the revolt now?”
Tck’cos turned her head to look at Steiner, her gaze imperturbable. She clicked and chuffed loudly and Uanika hesitated with the translation until urged on by the Grand Crest. The younger Korinn looked stricken as she spoke, “You are a tadpole trying to understand whales.”
“Excuse us, one moment, Great Crest—” Calliope tried to motion for Steiner to move to a bit of a sidebar.
Steiner moved off with Zahn while his mind clicked into Marshal gear, except there was nothing in the book on this! He ran through scenarios and likely outcomes, none of them good, but there was one fallback. “So we have a duty to aid Federation Citizens, this Sunrise crew, if they exist. But we can’t start a war on the locals, however, we can use force to protect Federation people under assault…” He gave Zahn a rolled-eyed look. “It’s ugly and barely legal, especially if they are actively engaging in this revolt themselves, but we would have some justification to intervene. Your call Commander…”
Calliope took a few more breaths, trying to think while the helmet felt more and more confining. It wouldn’t matter if it was legally justified in the federation. If they got involved in someone’s revolt, it could be an entanglement locking them into an entire war. Calliope knew she had to avoid that. But they also couldn’t leave people behind. Especially not ones who had suffered for so long… “We’ll work this out if we can. But,” She was aware she was still audible to the Korinn nearby. Uanika was especially tuned in to her words, Calliope could tell by the way she leaned into a floating pose with her head tilted. “We will not take any extreme risks with the Irix delegates on board. If it’s too dangerous, our own survivors will have to hold out long enough for us to get word back to the Pathfinder to send a different team for them. The delegates are our priority.”
Uanika felt a pang of frustration: these air-breathers had such concern with laws. To her it seemed they were arguing over splitting scales on a caught fish. The imprisoned Korinn had told the free that the Federation took dialogue very seriously, yet the Sunrise crew had been attacked, stranded, and enslaved but still their own people dithered. She worried that she would never understand the trata’nosa.
“Thank you for telling us about the Sunrise survivors.” Calliope returned her attention to the Great Crest and her fellows. “We had no idea anyone had lived from that crew. Our shuttle team is not prepared for fighting in a revolt, but we will do our best to recover our people without risking yours. If you have any information about where to locate them on the island, any maps of the area, or information about the weapons or technology the…” She tried for a moment to recall what they had called the other Korinn. “...the collaborators have, it might help. But we don’t have long. We should get in the air as soon as possible.”
Calliope moved cautiously towards the Korinn that she thought least liked her, evident by his body language— the one she had committed to memory as Patooie the advisor— and extended to him her welcome package. She spoke slowly so that Uanika could translate as clearly as possible, trying to convey her earnest feelings but suspecting that the suits hid most of her ability to express body language and that their language differences would lose all the meaningful inflection. But there was little she could do but to hope to be understood— “I have some information which the Federation offers to new worlds to share about our own. We have put it on media like the type we found on your space station. I regret that your planet has had such a terrible reception to the broader galaxy. I wish we had met under different circumstances. And… I hope we will be able to return with your delegates and much better news for you one day soon.”
P’ta’too hesitantly took the package. As he did so, he shot a look toward Uanika, “What good is information about other planets? Does it have anything useful on it? Weapons plans?”
“I doubt it,” Uanika whistled back, “From everything that has been said, I believe not interfering must be some sort of religious doctrine. I think talking about themselves is their way of being friendly.”
“Weapon systems would have been friendlier,,” he chuffed glumly.
“He thanks you for your gift and looks forward to getting to know your people better,” Uanika told the crew. Tck’cos blew out a quick line of tiny bubbles, a Korinn snicker. It was better not translated what P’ta’too thought of the air-breathers. After the brief levity, the Grand Crest placed her hand on Uanika’s and squeezed. The time had come. A knot formed in the young Korinn’s chest. “T’orpeo and I are ready for the journey. Our equipment and other needs for travel are nearby. We shall gather them.”
“Collect your things then, and meet aboard our shuttle.” Calliope said simply, trying to process everything that had just unfolded and everything yet to be figured out, while also imagining what it would be like to leave your dying world behind in search of help from strangers without even a promise to return home. These two were braver than she thought she could ever be.
Steiner was more than a little confused, interspecies relations were clearly not an easy task. Hopefully he would get a chance to ask questions of these two delegates since the leader had not been particularly forthcoming with information. If the locals had up and started a shooting-war the quicker they could find the Starfleet crew and extradite them the better for all concerned. But trying anything without knowing the situation on the ground was going to be messy and dangerous.
Hannah’s heart thudded in her chest as she contemplated the things she’d learned and seen. Starfleet had solved greater ecological disasters than mine waste leaching into the water, and it was not overly difficult to sort out filtration for the waste water so that it didn’t poison people. They could help these people, and they were walking away because of the mere mention of an enemy? That didn’t seem like the starfleet she knew. They had to do better, for their people but also for these water-dwellers who never asked for their home to be poisoned to build ships of the line for the enemy. This…is a disaster.
There was a dull rushing sound over head, as if a windstorm were blowing, only it had to be the motion of water outside of the hall of Tiss’Kot. Calliope looked up and over her shoulder at the domed crystal roof again as they were leaving the First Chamber, but there was no more light filtering through. It was a dull gray. The sun must have set or clouded over.
