Cr.02.08 =/\= Alien vessel, this is Chozo Expeditionary Force vessel Carezna. Please respond. =/\=

Whatever they were expecting it wasn’t what happened next; a white/blue light formed around Whyte and then he disappeared. Both Alyxx and Chakotay stared stunned at the spot where the cultured male had stood. Then Ayala’s report stunned them still further saying there’d been other multiple transports across the ship.

“Do we know who?” he asked, helping Alyxx to retake her seat as her headache appeared to be getting worse; she held onto his hand, keeping his still rolling emotions grounded. The Gorn came close to the pair in the command centre and scanned them both, as they waited for the full reports to come in.

“Sit, Captain,” guiding the tattooed male to the second command chair. “You’re both showing increased activity in the adrenal glands, and releasing the hormone cortisol, because you’re enduring higher levels of stress,” he quietly informed them.

“I suppose we’re in fight or flight mode?”

“Yesss!”

“What external forces could cause that?” Alyxx asked, trying to get her thoughts together around her thumping headache. A soft hiss into her neck helped ease some of the pain, giving the Doctor a soft smile.

“Lieutenant of sciences, any strange noises or low level energy sounds affecting the ship?”

“Like that first noise that brought us here?” Marks asked, checking his console and other displays. “We haven’t really understood what that noise was or investigated it properly. Too busy checking other sciences and other information around us,” he said as he worked. At tactical and Ops they also ran several scans across the ship, rather than the area of space they occupied.

“The crew that were abducted appear to be on the asteroid ship, as far as the sensors can tell,” reported Centurion. “There’s about nine missing persons from Carezna unaccounted for.” 

The Gorn took his medical tricorder around the rest of the bridge crew and noted their elevated levels of the cortisol hormone.

“Captain, the computer is picking up a continuous low level energy sound. I’m not able to pinpoint it or tell you when it could have started,” said Lt. jg. Rhodri, who’d replaced the junior Ops officer, working his operations consoles.

“Inside the ship or outside?” Chakotay asked quietly, his temper only just held in check.

“Sorry, Captain,” the Bolian male just shrugged his shoulders. “It could be both or either,” he added unhelpfully.

“Engineering. Are you picking up this unusual low sound?” 

“Aye, Sir,” responded the voice of Lieutenant Dalby. “Our Chief disappeared a moment ago,” he added. “I’ve initiated a deck by deck search, as the sensors here appeared to indicate more than one source of the noise/sound, Sir. All internal.”

“Understood,” he acknowledged.

“Low continuous sounds that the brain cannot identify or know the source, can be like a continuous itch you can’t scratch and thus can’t ignore. It sounds much like tinnitus, the sound in the ears that won’t go away and is often caused by stress or traumatic events,” Alyxx said quietly, her voice saying out loud what she was thinking.

“Like finding we’re a thousand years in the past,” noted Henley from the Helm.

“I get the feeling we’ve been under this low sound since that first screech, that brought us here.”

“You could very well be right, Cap,” said Centurion. “I’m getting reports from the search teams that they’ve found some devices that are not part of our ship’s systems,” he said, his eyes glued to his boards.

“Why do I get this feeling there’s a but coming?” 

“Because there is.” He looked up a moment gathering his thoughts on the matter. “They’re not in our current timeframe.” Chakotay let his head fall into his hands again.

“They’re in our former time?” Alyxx asked.

“Yes, Ma’am,” responded Marks from the science station.

“That’s why we couldn’t pinpoint them before now….!”

“Because we weren’t looking for them.”

Silence permeated the bridge as they all took in what they’d just discovered. As to where the abductees were no-one on Carenza, really knew, or how they were fairing.

=/\=

Whyte shook his head, trying to clear it of the ringing noise in his ears, whilst thinking about where he was to where he had been. One minute, he’d been standing on the bridge of Carezna awaiting a response to their hail and the next, ‘here wherever here was’, he thought to himself as he looked around the semi-dark area. Two others stood just as dazed as himself close beside him, the Chief engineer and the albino female – Tatti. 

“Where are we, Sir?” asked Ensign N. Lessing from science, his voice echoing in the cavern-like space they found themselves in. Following him was Ensign Pakavi from Intel and the civilian female Reed-Marks.

“Commander?” questioned a third voice from the shadows of the cavern, moving toward the group all three wore the Gold of Operations department. Whyte mentally put names to them all, Lt. jg. Collins assistant to Ayala, Ensign Tibal assistant Ops and CPO Kane transporter chief. ‘Well at least I’m getting to know the crew and putting names and faces together,’ he thought ruefully to himself.

“We’re three groups of three,” he noted, carefully.

“At Rivendell all operation stations are in groups of three,” said Pakavi, the native american human male.

“Why us? What’s so special about us?” questioned Lessing, frowning puzzled. “None of us are ever together, whether on or off duty,” he added, looking round at his fellow abductees. 

“Puzzling,” noted the human/Vulcan female, her Vulcan features standing out as a contrast to her fellow humans. The other hybrid in their group, the Bajoran/Cardassian male Lieutenant Chief of engineering, his eyes scanned the featureless area around them, looking for anything to give them a clue as to where they might be. But there was really nothing outstanding to give them any solid clues.

“No doors, or any other features at all,” he said, eyes still roaming over the semimetal-like walls. Suddenly something else did appear, that was almost as alien to the area as they were; a blue/white light hovered above the floor in the near centre of the cavern, its light illuminating the area around them.

“Commander!” said Tatti, gently getting the male’s attention. All of them moved cautiously toward the glowing light that shone so brightly still hovering above the floor, glinting off the metal walls. Slowly it lowered to the floor, the glow of the light dimming to reveal a shape within.

“Looks like a box or chest,” noted Kane. “I could do with a tricorder,” she added sourly.

“We’ll just have to use our own eyes instead,” Pakavi said. Tatti, who stood near Whyte, agreed.

“Listen,” cautioned Collins, cocking her head to one side, yet not at the box shape. Chief also cocked his head, hearing it too. At first the others with less sensitive hearing couldn’t pick it up and then whispering emanated throughout the cavern.

“Like the sound of many voices,” noted Reed-Marks quietly. “I can’t make out any words though.”

Whyte stood transfixed as if he could hear words or could make out some. “Spraakverwarring, confusion of tongues or babel,” he said softly, surprising his fellow crew. “Dutch, the language of my mother,” he smiled with a shrug of his shoulders. 

“Can you make out anything else?”

“Niet openen of alles zal verloren gaan,” Whyte said haltingly, listening to the whispered words.

“What does that mean?” asked Lessing.

“Do not open or all will be lost,” said the female voice of Reed-Marks, smiling at Whyte tentatively. 

“Like Pandora’s box,” said Tibal speaking for the first time. They all turned to look at the box that stood on the floor, the light around it now gone, but the whispers still echoed around them.

“What are they saying, Commander?” asked Collins concerned for him, his expression one of deep concentration.

“Terug naar de bibliotheek – return to the library,” he said, eyes closing as the whispers became intense, drowning out all other noise.

“Hur’q-waarschuwing komt eraan!” he shouted, his hands covering his ears as the whispers increased. He shouted the sentence again, trying to block out the pain the whispers were causing him. Chief responded, by indicating to Lessing to pick up a handle on the box, whilst he took the other and for the rest to gather round them. Pakavi helped Whyte to stand with them, who was still clutching his head, as the sound increased to a screech and the same blue/white light surrounded them and they disappeared again, leaving the cavern empty of people and sound.

=/\=

Meanwhile on Carezna, instead of a response to their hail, sound had started to filter in throughout the ship affecting those with sensitive hearing first. Hoon clutched at his head, growling softly as the sound hit him. Both Chakotay and Alyxx put their hands over their ears, even though they both knew it would be a futile effort. Ayala took command hearing his friend mutter words neither of them wanted to hear.

“Get them out!” he said over and over again, ignoring the centurion dressed male. Alyxx just softly moaned holding her head. At a loss of how to help he ordered those still able and least affected by the sound to assist those that were. 

“What’s happening outside the ship,” he bellowed above the sound.

“Not sure Lieutenant Commander, sensors are compromised. All I’m getting is static,” noted Lt. jg. Rhodri the Bolian male.

“Sensors internally are not giving clear readings either,” shouted Marks.

“Transport in progress!” Rhodri said.

“Where?” Ayala asked, as the sound increased to a screech and then stopped. The sudden silence was deafening, which was punctured by soft moans. Ayala breathed deep, his ears ringing with the after effects of the sound. “The transport, where?” he asked calmly.

“Mess Hall. Nine crew members and a chest,” puzzled by this bit of information.

=/\= Lt. Tatiana to bridge=/\=

“Go ahead Lieutenant,” Ayala responded, helping Chakotay to sit more comfortably in the command chair, a junior officer handing him a warm cup of sweet tea.

“Commander Whyte is reeling from mental sound, but I think you need to hear what he’s saying,” she said carefully, before speaking to the male. “Commander, please repeat what you said.” At first he just mumbled, then his words became clear.

“Hur’q-waarschuwing komt eraan.”

“There was something else you said after, could you repeat that, please,” Tatti spoke calmly.

“Luister naar de muzieknoten. Muziek!”

“Why are the translators not working?” someone asked. Those on the bridge wondered that too.

“He’s speaking Dutch,” Alyxx Darkka said, breathing deep as she took the cup of sweet tea handed to her, feeling exhausted by the pounding headache she’d endured over the last few hours if not days.

“Listen to the musical notes,” said a soft female voice from the turbo-lift. “The other was – Hur’q warning coming!”

“Helm what is our current position, both in location and time?” asked the Centurion, still looking at the young Bajoran/Human female – Dyani.

“We’re still in the same location, but….”

“Year Henley?” turning to look at her.

“2393. Two days after we originally arrived here, Sir,” her tone reflected her astonishment.

=/\=