Chapter 7: In the Valley of the Shadow:
In the cold wastes of space above the surface of the moon, an unobserved disturbance began to take form without even the hint of fanfare. A churning point occurred from nowhere, as if an invisible substance was causing the very substance of space to boil. The disturbance began to pulsate and writhe in a way that space by definition should not and with a glaring stab of light, a rift opened from the dimension of null space. The rift danced in the heavens and twirled until it established itself as a vortex proper and along the spatial corridor slid a crippled Shadow-Ghost fighter. It was limping along, the signs of its damage evident in the pock-marked surface of the midnight black vessel as damaged electrical leads snapped and popped. The ship halted its advance, conducting a scan of the moon's surface below. After concluding its study, it went into stealth mode, and began its descent.
* * * * *
Jester was flat on his back; his arms buried deep in the entrails of the TARDIS' master control console. A serpent's nest of wiring hung loosely from the underside as he worked with sonic screwdriver in hand to repair the damage done from fleeing Gallifrey. Resting his head on the console's plinth, he tugged, twisted, tucked and swore muted Gallifreyan curses as he coaxed the ship to respond to his repairs. The main drive had suffered what he called a complete nervous breakdown which had managed to drag the vortex shields, the architectural configuration system, the Mean Free Path Tracker and about a dozen other systems off line with it. It had not helped his cause having to deal with the organic matrix leads which had seemed to fuse with all of the ship's major systems. When he and Amilana had reconstructed the console before his departure, the leads had merely been attached to some of the power couplings, but now, the two had grown interfused and the TARDIS was more of a living entity than any other TARDIS had ever been before. The Time Lord continuing digging into the bowels of his ship.
* * * * *
Beverly had woken from her sleep and was feeling remarkably well. She cast a glance around her at the room she was in. It was in stark contrast to what she was used to; the entire room was a blank, sterile white. The Hesperus had been filled with plush carpeting, and had earth tones that one tended to find settling. Here there was traditional clinical sterility that made her feel cold and she sensed an edge to the atmosphere. All around her were white walls with roundels inlaid in them and at the far end of the room there was an assortment of odd medical devices that were unlike anything she had laid eyes on before. When she had gotten an eyeful she stood up noticing that she was in some kind of billowy, translucent garment and that her own clothes had been cleaned, neatly pressed, folded and laid on the bed opposite her. She mused over this and then remembered the strange man from her earlier confrontation when she had awoken in this strange place. That brought back to her memory her damaged limb and she instinctively raised her arm to look at it. She could trace just the barest hint of a scar and was amazed that the bone had healed so quickly. Or, at least, she assumed it had been quickly. She really hadn't a clue as to how long she had been out of it. Deciding the she should at least thank her host for saving her, she dressed in her uniform and set off to search the ship for any sign of him.
* * * * *
The SG fighter hobbled through the atmosphere and came to land, undetected, behind a small rise that afforded a view of the wreck of the Zephyrus and the stand of trees beyond. Far off to the right could be seen the cliffs and the ocean beyond that. The disabled ship hissed as an entryway opened and the beings that the Federation called the Shadow Ghosts began to emerge. The individuals couldn't be seen clearly and they appeared as smoky shadows without a definite humanoid form. The trick was that you couldn't tell if they were or were not there. They were transparent enough that you could see through them and unless you concentrated very hard on what you were looking at, you wouldn't see them. A force of about five separated; two headed for the Zephyrus while the remaining three headed towards the cliffs.
* * * * *
Beverly was puzzled by the ship. Its corridors were labyrinthine, seeming to fold back in on themselves and they were all the same stark white with the inlaid roundels. She found herself having to backtrack, constantly retracing her steps until in frustration she muttered, "That's it, I give up!" Leaning back against the wall, she slumped to the floor and sighed. She brushed her bangs back out of her face and after a second, gave a brief chuckle as a thought occurred to her. Speaking to thin air, she said, "Okay! You win! Just let me find that guy who runs this place." She turned and allowed herself to drift through the TARDIS corridors, the heels of her boots resounding in echoes.
* * * * *
Jester had nearly completed the repairs to the console and was replacing the panels to the console's underbelly. He didn't hear Beverly enter the room. She noticed a pair of legs extended from underneath what appeared to be a rather odd-looking six sided control panel with a string curses in an unknown language coming from the same general vicinity. She snuck up to the console and peered over the edge and said in a loud voice, "Excuse me! Can you direct me to Wonderland? It's just that I seem to have fallen down this rabbit hole..." Her statement was interrupted by a loud bang, a muttered curse, and the clattering of equipment across the floor. The legs scurried to find purchase on the floor of the room and before too long, the surprised and disheveled form of Jester stood in indignant rage, spluttering at the doctor, who was clearly unimpressed. Regaining his composure, Jester pointed to the main double door of the ship and blurted, "You! Off my TARDIS!" Beverly crossed her arms and just stared at him. Jester's posturing collapsed as he suddenly remembered who she was and began tripping over himself to apologize, "Oh, um, how lovely to see you again my dear. How are you? All better, I trust. That was a nasty break you received to your forearm and it's a lucky thing I found you..." She held up a hand, and silenced him for a moment and snorted derisively as a grin began to pull at the corners of her mouth and said, "All I want is to know where I am and who you are. Also, would you mind telling me why you didn't just leave me in my uniform?"
"Um, ah, oh," was all the dumbfounded Time Lord could manage.
"By the way, my thanks for rescuing me," she added. Jester had collected his wits and said, "You're quite welcome. You seemed to be not the only survivor of the ship that crashed. Several of the crew I noticed had indeed died. I figured we could help more people if you were nursed back to health first. I assume you are a doctor."
"That's right. Look, I'm sorry I startled you. My name is Beverly Siobahn Michaels, and I am the chief medical officer of the Galactic Federation Starship, Zephyrus," she paused a moment, choosing her next words with care, "You said it crashed? I mean, well of course, it did, I was on it. What a stupid question that was. Were there many injuries?"
"Well as I said, there were a few fatalities, but most of the crew seemed just banged up a bit. I brought you back here to the TARDIS hoping that the medical bay would heal your injuries. You recovered remarkably fast. I had planned, when you were well, to go back to the Zephyrus and tend to the rest of the crew. I thought while you recuperated, I'd tend to the repairs of the TARDIS." Jester turned to the console to see how his repairs had turned out. He touched a control on the six-sided console, and was greeted with a shower of sparks. Beverly chuckled and then laughed as the lighting in the console room went dark. Nursing hurt pride, Jester said defensively, "Well, nobody's perfect," as he went back to work on the console.
* * * * *
As the three shadowy forms descended the hazardous trail towards the beach, sibilant whispers could be heard stating the creatures' intended purposes, "Thisssss moon would make an exxxxcellent base of operationssss. We must annihilate all opposition from the humanoids."
"Agreed. We must not raisssse suspicions as to our activities here. A preemptive strike is what is called for." A third SG spoke up, seemingly the group commander, and warned, "We must conduct repairs to our cruiser if we are to have any hope of defeating the humanoids. Let ussss not forget that they are in a weakened position. We must bide out time and make ourselvessss known only when we are in a far better position to dictate terms. The trio glided down the ledge.
* * * * *
The GFS Zephyrus crash site:
Captain Jensen had revived with other members of the Zephyrus crew and had begun clearing the wreckage of the ship. Lieutenant Vargas, who had been ushered into the position of chief engineer, upon the death of the original, had been hard at work checking the ship for continued space-worthiness. Amazingly, the ship was structurally sound and the engines, while pretty banged up, were still capable of space flight. The concern lay in the fact that out of a crew of ninety-seven, approximately forty had perished in the crash and that left the ship with basically no more than a skeleton crew as far as full operational status. Another concern was the fuel vessel of the engine itself. It was, basically, an atomic engine that produced power through a series of matter/antimatter reactions. The antimatter section of the vessel had cracked and it was a complete surprise to all who had survived that the ship had not blown apart and taken the moon with it on impact. Vargas stepped onto the bridge and made for Jensen, who was busy with a technician over a readout.
"Captain," he started, "The ship is by and large space-worthy. We have managed to maintain our structural integrity and all systems should be operational within five to seven days. I am, however, concerned about what we are going to do for fuel. I've had to erect an emergency shield around the fuel pod and we've lost a great deal of antimatter. In fact, in order to leave this moon, we'll need to replace it. We have neither the resources, nor the manpower to fix it." Jensen cursed to herself before she spoke, "So, our options seem to be to find someone on this moon with the technology to aid us or wait for the Federation to rescue us. Is there still no word on what happened to Doctor Michaels?"
"No ma'am. She's just disappeared. And what's worse, we think we may have detected not one, but two distinct alien vessels, but since the sensors are only up to about forty-five percent capacity, we can't be certain." Jensen mulled over her options over and she didn't like any of them. Michaels had to be found and she really couldn't spare anyone to look for her, but her crew needed medical attention from a professional and she and a few volunteers had only managed basic patch jobs with first aid, leaving her with a crew of only thirty-six able to function out of the few who had survived. Time was precious, as the situation on Grand Paradiso was no doubt growing steadily more grim.
"This is what I want," she stated to Vargas quietly, "Kelly, Martas, and Knox are to form a search party. Since it will only be the three of them, they need to be thorough. If Michaels wasn't a damned good doctor, I'd leave her carcass to rot in this hell-hole and get on with the business of saving our necks. Unfortunately, we need her. Vargas, I want you to get on to a solution, any solution you can think of, no matter how convoluted it may seem to you, to fix the fuel pod," she turned to address the bridge crew and patched herself through to the rest of the ship, "The situation that faces us is as you know a grim one indeed. The fuel pod is in need of replacement and there is none to be had. The engineering crews are going to be working at their hardest and most creative to solve the problem. The rest of you are to continue to work to get the Zephyrus back in the air. Grand Paradiso and the Federation are counting on us." As she finished speaking, a small rumble shook the ship causing everyone to look up. Jensen just shook it off as nothing, stating, "Let's continue working, people, it's either a storm brewing outside, or the ship settling; nothing to worry about." Everyone continued on with their work. Jensen, however, was not convinced by her own words.
* * * * *
Jester had managed to get the lights back on in the TARDIS to their dim emergency setting, and Beverly was surprised to find herself working along side him offering assistance when he asked. She thought it was very odd, because she couldn't remember him asking her to help. His words broke in on her thoughts, "...sensors registered a dimensional disturbance in the fabric of the space-time continuum and the next thing I know is, 'Boom!' here I am." She didn't get to ask him anything else because he shouted, "Eureka! Now, let's see if all this blood, sweat and tears work has paid off." He had, with Beverly's assistance, managed to reconnect the damaged leads and wires in the console and had tested the power flow to each with a neutron flow detector. If, according to his guess, everything was working properly, then the TARDIS should be travel worthy once more. He wasn't sure how, but the organic leads actually seem to be enhancing the ship's abilities. When he had applied the neutron flow detector to them, they had pulsed faintly like a blood vessel. He closed the last panel on the console and rubbed his hands together. To Beverly, he seemed like a child who had discovered a new toy. Brushing his long, dark locks out of his face, he grinned up at her and said, "Cross your fingers, here goes." She playfully did as she was bidden, smiling back at him. He looked down at the console, his face serious once more as he slowly brought the console up to power.
"Come on, old girl, you can do it. Just take it one step at a time." He slowly increased the power and as he did so, the lighting became a little brighter and a soothing hum began to fill the air. He gradually pushed the power to its normal limits for the ship when at rest and was greeted by a bleep or two from the console informing him that the ship was now fully repaired. Beverly noticed that the edge in the atmosphere seemed to have dissipated and the stark white of the walls had seemed to actually soften, taking on a warmer quality. This is way beyond odd, she thought. Just then a small tremor shook the console room.
"I hope that didn't have anything to do with your repairs," she stated.
"I should say not," Jester replied, "That was external. Let's have a look. He moved to the scanner control and opened the shutters. Swinging the arc to cover three hundred and sixty degrees, he nor Beverly noticed anything unusual. "The scanner shows nothing out of place," she said, "But the only way to be sure it isn't malfunctioning is to go out and look around." He walked over to Beverly and offered her his arm, "Fancy a stroll, my dear?"
"Gladly," she said with a smile. Jester operated the door controls as, arm in arm, they exited the ship.
* * * * *
Kelly, Martas, and Knox had aimed their search towards the cliffs. At that moment, another small tremor shook the area. They glanced cautiously at each other and dismissed it, continuing to head towards the cliffs.
* * * * *
Beverly and Jester had looked around them and noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Jester spoke up, "Well at least we now know that there's nothing wrong with the TARDIS scanner. But what caused the tremor we felt. And, was it a localized phenomenon?" Beverly was puzzled as well. Her puzzlement went to fear as another, more pronounced tremor shook the area, "That felt like a prelude to an earthquake," she said, "But it didn't seem that serious. Like you said, it could be localized. All the same, I'd like to get back to the Zephyrus and see that the ship is alright." They headed towards the cliffs.
* * * * *
Deep beneath the surface, a long slumbering behemoth began to stir, it's eons old rest coming to an end...
* * * * *
The trio of SG warriors were watching the humans as they searched for their missing crewman. They had noticed the ledge leading to the beach when they stopped as if they had discovered something.
* * * * *
"Martas! Kelly! Knox! You're alive! Thank God!" Beverly greeted them all, "How is the Zephyrus? Are there many casualties?" Kelly spoke up, "Doctor Michaels, we're glad we found you. Half of the crew of the Zephyrus perished in the crash, but the with the remainder, we should be able to get the ship back into space. However, those that survived we could only give first aid to. We need your help with the rest of the crew. Also, we need a replacement for the fuel pod. The antimatter vessel in the pod is shot." The trio seemed then to notice Jester for the first time. Martas gave him a once over and said, "Who's this clown?" Jester snorted indignantly and introduced himself and explained how he had rescued Beverly in the hopes of helping the Zephyrus crew. "Tell me about the antimatter vessel of your ship's fuel pod. Maybe I can help."
"You're familiar with warp engines?" Martas asked.
"I'm familiar with a whole range of things, madam. But I've dabbled a bit with antimatter and I'd like to help you if I can." The quintet started to head back to the Zephyrus when they were halted in their tracks. The Shadow Ghost warriors had surrounded them. The shimmering distortions of the air and the sound of sibilant hissing accompanied a very faint smoky, wispy quality which was they only way to tell anyone was there. One of the shimmering apparitions hissed, "We have you surrounded, humans. We will convert this moon to serve as a base of operations and cannot allow any witnesses to our activities. All humans will be destroyed."
All three warriors brought some kind of odd shadowy weapon to bear on the group. The quintet waited for the blast but it never came. At the moment the SG's had readied to fire, a massive earthquake shook the moon...
