Mission 16 : The Maya Enigma

[Daniel Schirra]

USS Excalibur
Adrift ::


The Duty Tactical Officer was at her station ..... She had been at Tactical for what seemed an age ..... Lieutenant Commander Sarah Wentworth, the Excalibur's Operations Officer, and 'technically' in Command in the absence of both the Captain and Executive Officers, had asked her to get some rest on more than one occasion, and apart from a 'token' break, the time it had taken her to leave the Bridge, go to the Mess Hall, down a coffee that she was sure had removed at least one layer of cells from the roof of her mouth, she had been back at her station. On the approach of the small craft, she and Mark Unwin had agreed that he would converse with the Vrezku coming aboard ..... Assigning the Tactical Officer Conn, she had left the Bridge and now stood beside Mark during the conversation with a Mister Noik:

"That is not all..." Noik went on, "...The mass we can shift... Well, we have reason to believe that towing your vessel will have a somewhat deleterious effect on the performance of our tugs' engines... They may only be capable of warp one point four."

"Sorry?" Sarah snapped, glaring at the Vrezku.

"Apologies if we are not as ..... 'Advanced' ..... As you ..... Lady .....!" the man had said, returning to his ship without another word. Both knew that Noik had made clear his thoughts about women: They had a place!


~~~~~~~~~~


For the next ten days, the USS Excalibur had been towed, at what in stellar terms was a snails-pace, zigzagging back and forth as the ship's scanners tried in vain to pick up anything that would suggest they had a lead on where their companions may be ..... Hour after hour, day after day, they scanned, at first it was anything larger than a particle of stellar dust, then the minutest indication of anything 'outside' the norm, but each time they were disappointed, frustrated, angered by their lack of success. All the time, Mark Unwin and his Engineers had worked around the clock until they had full impulse, and could see light at the end of the tunnel regarding their warp capability .......... Then, on the fourteenth day, without warning they were contacted by Mister Noik:

"Polorise window," Sarah ordered, seeing the Vrezku appear, the same smug, grin on his face.

=^= It is regret .. That we must depart =^=

=^= What? =^=

=^= We have .. Other commitments .. .. .. There is a region we do not enter .. Spatial 'eddies' pull vessels away .. Leave no trace .. Disappear .. Men =^=

=^= What are you talking about Noik? =^= Sarah demanded, ignoring the look from Mark out of line of the screen.

=^= I have ordered a change of course .. You are now on a heading for the location of that System .. Apologies .. .. .. =^=

Before anyone could react, Noik closed the communication and the screen cleared to show the view of the stars beyond the Excalibur, seconds later they watched in silence as the two vessels that had been towing them at warp turned away.

"How long to the System they gave us?" Sarah asked, dreading the reply. John Reneus at Helm looked at his console then turned to face Sarah in the centre seat:

"We'll drop from warp in around two minutes, So at full impulse, we're looking at approximately..."

"TOO LONG!" someone on the Bridge said, frustration getting the better of them ..........

Unknown Planet ::


Having been forced to mount what looked like seaside donkey rides, they continued to talk hoping they wouldn't be overheard by the guards:

"Far from it ..... In fact, we've been working around the proverbial 'clock' to ensure they don't realise what they 'could' have..." Parks said, suddenly falling silent as he eyed the two, "... Who are you, do you have a ship in orbit!?"

"No..." Karka reluctantly replied, "... In fact, we were on an away mission and hit by something we couldn't explain,"

"..... And your ship?" Parks asked as the Ajaw appeared.

"Those lands will soon be ours. First, I must speak with their chieftain..." he glanced at the nearby Kehm'ja, "...You remain here, Advisor, with the main force. A retinue of twenty, as well as these three, are coming with me," he gestured to the three outsiders perched on their diminutive donkeys.

"Who is your Ruler?" Daniel asked as they moved off.

"His name was KaTor, but he is dead ..... There was talk, that VrLatn, he was like Kehm'ja, an advisor, had disapproved of the Rulers' weakness. One night, KaTor and his family were found dead, KaTor beside his 'Querido' a spouse or wife, there's no accurate translation, and two-year-old Daughter, rightful ascendant to the position of heavenly representative on Earth, either way, all three had been killed. VrLatn has been Ruler since ..... This treaty, pause in aggression, is a ruse. Once within the Rivers' caress, you will all be killed, and he will take the drylands!"

"You crashed here, with your escape pods?" Karka asked.

"YOU WILL BE SILENT!" the Ajaw demanded ..........

[Daniel Schirra]

Daniel glanced back... In the centre of the City, he could see Kehm'ja... More worrying was the fact that guards had dragged Koni T'Seng and Caryna Agosta into the square! ..... Even at this distance, he could see the Advisor grinning as he glanced at the two female prisoners. For a second he contemplated running into the thick undergrowth, backtracking to free the captives, but felt a hand on his forearm. Turning he saw Karka almost imperceptibly shaking his head ..........

The first day went without incident, but on the second morning, they were brought before the Ajaw. He eyed the two speculatively then waved a hand: Commander Parks was dragged before them, he had clearly been beaten, dried blood stained his head, shoulders, and arms. He barely acknowledged the Federation Officers as he was thrown to the ground.

"It appears the River Ruler's messenger is reluctant to tell us what we need to know..." the Ajaw said, biting into a slice of watermelon as he stood to approach Parks, "... I think I have been more than merciful, but it is clear he, or maybe Ka'Tor himself, believes me weak of mind. It is clear that at some point we will be ambushed, all I wish to know is where this will happen, and how strong the force sent to capture us ..... Not too much to ask I believe?"

"Why did you have him beaten?" Daniel asked.

"It was thought that some, persuasion, might loosen his tongue, but it seems he does not wish to make use of it. Therefore, I am going to give him two options..." the Ajaw said, returning to his seat, "... He can give me the information I require, or he can remain silent, thus proving he has no use for that tongue he carries, I thought maybe 'you' could encourage him to help us?"

"Tell them what they need to know...!" Daniel urged the elderly Officer, but Parks remained solidly silent, shaking his head. Risking a beating of his own, Schirra stood and walked to where Parks lay:

"..... He'll cut our your tongue, you do realise that Commander!" Schirra whispered, glancing up at the Ajaw, who seemed to have lost interest.

"If I tell him where he's to be attacked, he will act on that information!"

"Yes, and it will save lives ..... Not only yours, but that of the two Officers Kehm'ja is holding hostage...!" Daniel said, realising he was getting nowhere so he changed tack, "... I 'could' order you to divulge the information,"

"No, Captain, with all due respect, we have been here over two years, we have lived among the River People, besides, given it is impossible for us to return to Earth, your orders mean nothing, Sir," Daniel was about to try to reason with the man again when the Ajaw spat an order. A heavy kick landed in his ribcage and he rolled away in pain, wondering vaguely if one or more were broken from the blow. Parks was lifted to his knees and a strap was put around his forehead before being pulled back so far the man couldn't close his mouth even if he tried.

Ajaw left his seat and walked toward the man. As he did so he drew an ornate dagger from his waistband and turned it over in his hands.

"I do not see why you are so loyal, but I commend you on that blind faith you have given your Ruler," so fast no one could react, he reached forward grasping Parks' tongue.

"NOOO!" Daniel shouted, launching himself towards the two men, he slammed into the Ajaw a fraction of a second before the blade came into contact with Parks' tongue, but not fast enough to avoid the beating he was given as the Ajaw was helped to his feet astonished that any mortal had dared to lay a hand on him. He tried to cover himself and could hear Karka shouting for them to stop, but Daniel could do nothing, all around him went dark and he lost consciousness .....

~~~~~~~~~~

"..... Daniel," he could hear a voice but couldn't open his eyes or reply.

"..... Daniel," this time he fought off his nausea and forced his eye to open, "..... Thank God, I thought they'd killed you!" Karka said, clearly relieved.

"..... Wha....." Dan tried to reply but his throat was parched and seemed clogged with soil. Karka reached back for an ewer and poured a little water onto Daniel's chin to Prince away the dirt from around his mouth. Once clear he poured a small amount into his mouth, Daniel coughed and choked for a second then was able to swallow a small amount. Slowly he was lifted into a seated position and realised he was in some sort of tent.

"Take your time," Karka urged.

"Par... ks?" he asked.

"I don't know... I was concentrating on trying to stop what they were doing to you to notice, but he wasn't brought in here, so ....." the Exec' replied, shaking his head as he dabbed cold water onto Schirra's many wounds, "... They finally stopped beating and all but left you for dead before the Ajaw ordered tents pitched, before going the rest of the way in the morning," Daniel tried to get to his feet but the pain was so severe he almost passed out once more, resigned to staying put, he slowly lowered himself to the ground and closed his eyes. He could feel the cold water on his forehead before sleep took him ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

The air grew increasingly humid as they moved closer to the river, still unable to see it due to the masses of foliage brought forth by the nutrient-enriched soil that hugged the waterway. The greenery constituted a virtual jungle, though somewhat sparsely covered and thankfully free from the variety of insect and reptile life - or this planet's equivalents - that tended to dominate in such environments.

Leaving a half dozen soldiers to guard the Excal officers, the ajaw's party had gone on some way ahead, perhaps three to five miles, before most of them tracked back - leaving an advance guard at the nearest and most northerly point in the company's trek to the river. The tents were reoccupied, the chieftain's men relighting the fires and bringing in foraged food and fodder for their various pack animals.

By this point Schirra was able to stand and at least walk about a little with difficulty, dragging himself around the tent in his Mayan robes. "Captain," Karka called and nodded out of the tent. Into the main communal area between the temporary structures of animal hide, the ajaw and his elite retinue emerged. Two soldiers were carrying something between them; placing it down near the public central hearth, they and the rest departed to the royal tent. Some of the half dozen guards outside the Excal officers' tent beckoned inside to Karka,

"Barbarian! If you want, go and see." Karka shot a glance at them; he saw no reason not to do as suggested. What was it they'd deposited anyway? Followed by Schirra, he crept forward to see...

Deeply disturbed, he checked over the Starfleet officer's body. The cause of death was not immediately apparent. It almost seemed as if Parks had been petrified, no visible wounds, until he saw the discolouration and bloating of the skin round the throat. "Like his avaricious ruler VrLatn, this messenger was known for his love of gold. You didn't know that did you, despite being of his kin?" a soldier said from behind them, "We poured the molten metal down his throat."

Karka shook his head, apparently such a barbaric act was known amongst some peoples of Earth's past - so Lirwa his friend and enthusiast for all things human had told him - though mostly such stories were legendary, distortions of actual events.

Was it a practice found in many cultures with no necessary link between them, instead something about the humanoid lifeform and the existence of raw materials considered very valuable, that led to this sort of mad punishment? Or was there a connection, and the idea of the act had somehow been transmitted from Earth to here?

There were notes of something like a trumpet the ajaw emerged from his tent with his itinerant courtiers. Karka and Daniel were made to stand and moved aside from Parks.

The ajaw waited til all were silent and spoke in royal fashion, "By the will of Ixchel these pronouncements are placed by her into our mouth: We did not need the infidel we see before us to learn that the riverfolk's ambush is planned for tomorrow morning. But we have allayed that possibility by shouted agreement, and will meet with the unholy River Ruler VrLatn just before dawn. Four will be in our presence as we make parley: courtiers Mihr'ja, Jajol, and the two outsiders," his wide-eyed stare - evincing youthful enthusiasm, calculation, naivete and perhaps madness - fell on the Excalibur officers.

In the look Karka realised once again the ajaw was a sympathetic character, but so capricious and suddenly cruel that he couldn't ever be worked with, unless as he grew older he matured in the right direction; at the moment admittedly, it seemed to the Excal officers they'd be stuck here for the rest of their lives, so perhaps there would be a lot of time to counter Advisor Kehm'ja's influence and help shape the young ajaw.

Just after supper with the court preparing for the next early morning's diplomatic encounter near the river, another person found their way covertly to the Mayan camp. She entered silently, found the body of the riverfolk's messenger and grieved, and then using her bulky handheld device with its irregularly illuminated surfaces, tracked down the two humans - one of those not actually human but registering as such, Karka.

She gestured with her device as she approached Karka and Daniel who were trying to eat their gruel, emerging into the unsteady light of a fire, "I'm glad I have this, or I would never have recognised you in that gear," she said quietly.

"Who...?" Karka began and saw the strange device she carried, "What's that?"

"Don't you recognise a tricorder?" she said grimly, "From what I had available it took me almost a whole cycle to construct it. Sorry," she caught herself, "I'm used to this planet's measurement of time, that's about one and a half standard years. I'm Yvonne Ward of the York. I see that they've got to Parks at last." Karka recognised her name from what Parks had told them at first meeting. By 'they', he assumed she was referring to the world's people as a whole, as the York's remaining crew had suffered attrition by various means, intentionally or otherwise.

Schirra nodded, keeping his voice down, "Captain Daniel Schirra of the USS Excalibur. First officer and science officer Karka Psonoir."

"What else have you built?" Karka asked, "And how did you know we would be here, are the river people spying on us?" Ward nodded and suggested the three of them escape into the quasi-jungle as soon as possible. VrLatn may be more understanding of them, she said, but better still would be to show them what the York's crew had come up with (before they'd gradually been whittled down)...

[Daniel Schirra]

The sun was setting as they sat down for their evening meal ..... Daniel, still suffering from the savage beating, and undoubtedly suffering at least minor internal injuries, fought the pain to spoon the feed into his mouth, the taste mingled with flowing and dried blood as he swallowed. He was talking with Karka when the woman approached:

She knelt before them, eyes peering into the distance as she reassured herself that there was no one within earshot of the three. She introduced herself, handing the fabricated tricorder to Karka for examination. Daniel could see it was crudely constructed, almost three times the size of the genuine article, but functioning, after a fashion, it was nevertheless a feat of engineering.

"What else have you built...?" Karka was asking as he returned the device, "... And how did you know we would be here, are the river people spying on us?" Ward had nodded, suggesting the three of them escape into the quasi-jungle as soon as possible .....

"How far to your encampment?" Daniel gasped through the pain in his chest, presumably from at least one or more fractured ribs.

"Approximately one point five kilometres..." Ward replied without turning, "... We had been closer, but VrLatn believed that the Ajaw couldn't be trusted, so he left a small party close while moving the bulk of his forces closer to the river."

"..... Bulk..." Schirra repeated, "... Just how many men does he have?"

"Let's say the Ajaw has underestimated VrLatn greatly and will come to rue his overconfidence. Even now they are being surrounded, thus my suggestion that we leave while we still can, come first light both sides will have much more on their minds than three escaped outsiders. We should be safe if we can make it to the falls."

"I have two Officers still in the city...!" Schirra informed their guide, "... We'll need to backtrack and release them before we go much further,"

"You need not worry Captain. We were aware of them, and we have persuaded several of VrLatn's guards to liberate them before dawn, once free, they will be brought here," the York's crewman assured them, though Daniel couldn't help feel it was all a little 'too' convenient. Their escape, people helping Koni and Caryna, and the construction of the makeshift tricorder. Yes, the York's Officers had been stranded here almost two years before they had, so had had time to survey, and find appropriate materials. In the circumstances, there was nothing he could do but wait to see for himself just how much progress they had made, given only Yvonne Parks, and the York's Captain, Gregor Orlov, remained alive!

~~~~~~~~~~

Yvonne explained it would be early morning before they reached the falls, far upstream from VrLatn's city, despite all his efforts, after two more hours of trekking through the dense woods, Daniel had to finally admit that he was suffering from his beating and needed to rest, reluctantly, Parks agreed, saying she would go on ahead to ensure their passage would be safe. She returned an hour later with two men, both heavily armed!

"These are two of VrLatn's elite guards, they will help us reach the falls safely," she explanained, but Daniel wasn't convinced:

"Crewman ..... Far be it from me to question you're helping us, but you must admit that things might appear, questionable at best?"

"I understand your trepidation, Captain, but we have been here much longer than you, and have forged a bond with the River People, we have help with irrigation, building, and even a very crude wind turbine used in the centre of the city to bring water from an underground river ..... VrLatn has come to trust us and as such given us free rein to come and go as we please, Captain Orlov believes that as long as we're proving useful, we'll be safe. VrLatn is well aware of our little encampment , has been there in fact, and agrees that we need our own 'space' if you like, we're not prisoners Captain, he lets us come and go without the need for guards, indeed, why guard the very people who are helping you eventually defeat the Ajaw and his barbarians! ..... Now, if you are rested, Captain, I think we should continue on?"

Daniel nodded, glancing at Karka for a second, a sense of foreboding rising within him as Parks stood and turned her back. The two guards took the heavy satchels the two Officers had been carrying and then dropped several paces behind the others. As Schirra, Psonoir, and Parks conversed, Daniel glanced back at the two men who seemed completely disinterested in proceedings, presumably happy to be taken off possibly more mundane tasks. Finally, they could hear the falls and fifteen minutes later broke from the thick undergrowth into the open. The morning sun was already evaporating the early-morning dew as they saw the cave entrance ..... Parks spoke quietly to the guards who deposited the satchels at the water's edge, then turned to leave without a backward glance. Yvonne motioned for them to follow her inside and as they acclimatised to the reduced lighting they saw someone else:

"Come in, I've been expecting you... Captain Gregor Orlov of the USS York, now lost ..." a man said, limping himself forward on crutches, Daniel and Karka introduced themselves in turn to their host as Yvonne Parks began to unpack the satchels of fruit and cooked meats. Orlov tapped his leg grinning, "... Infection, some damned indigenous insect, the venom causes paralysis of the nervous system, luckily it stung my lower leg, any higher and ....." he didn't finish the sentence, Schirra and Psonoir got the unspoken implication all too well, both silently happy they had not come across the insect themselves. Daniel turned to Yvonne:

"You said VrLatn might be more understanding, is he expecting to meet us at some point?"

"Yes. We have given him numerous advancements, in weaponry among others that I'd previously mentioned, but he believes having you two here will help him even more," the woman said, glancing at Orlov for a fraction of a second.

"You've given him weapons...?" Karka asked quietly, "... What type of weapons, exactly?" ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

"Two dozen of us walked away from the crash of our escape pods, but after the first week there were just nine of us left," Ward said after the three entered the cave and sat down with Orlov.

She went on, "We came across a tribe, different from this one, out across temperate flatlands. Eventually we escaped, in a way similar to your experience with the Narinjeans - " an ethnonym based on the name of the ajaw's city-state, Karka recognised - "except of course we had no help from Starfleeters. We lost people one by one, despite taking extreme care, until after just six months only the three of us remained. And now after all this time, Parks is gone, too," she cast her eyes down.

Karka shifted in his rickety chair and glanced at Daniel, not sure how far he could trust Ward's words, although it was clear she and Orlov - as well as the late Kevin Parks - were Starfleet, and something like her account had to be true or she wouldn't be here right now, merely being on this planet in the first place let alone alive.

"You were unlucky to encounter the ajaw's people first," Yvonne pointed out, "Coming across VrLatn - and even the previous ruler KaTor was kind before VrLatn killed him - was our good fortune."

The Hybrudean Psonoir couldn't help but feel discomfited, "What's behind that curtain?" he said to change the subject, pointing to a dark rag hung across part of the width of the cave and eclipsing whatever was behind it.

Orlov rose from his wicker chair, "I'll show you," he managed in his gravelly voice. The York captain was worn away, it seemed to Karka, a shadow of his presumed former self, unevenly cut hair, an unkempt beard and the patched and repatched remains of a Starfleet uniform mingled with typical Mayan wear. Hobbling on his crutches, he grunted with exhaustion as he leant against the cave wall and pulled back the rag.

Karka tried not to show surprise. Various pieces of machinery, some of them clearly consisting of ad-hoc engineered duotronic circuitry, were visible beyond, reaching quite a way back into the cave and continuing round a bend beyond which Psonoir had no sight. The other half of the cave - for at the depth of the curtain it forked two ways - was already visible and contained three York crewmembers' ramshackle living quarters; only two would find use now.

"We've built up this equipment," Orlov said, patting a unit, "Sensor systems, a distress beacon - but it'll only transmit about a hundred metres... no good if you want to flag down a starship, we're working on it - and a basic computer core."

"Impossible, surely."

"You don't know just how basic the computer is, Mr Psonoir," Orlov said and laughed, picking up his left crutch again and turning about. He emitted a dry hacking cough, "It's allowed us to calculate what the river people require for their irrigation needs - manpower, water volume, crop yield, weather pattern analysis. This is what we've helped them with."

"You said you gave them weapons?"

"No," Ward interjected, standing from where she'd still sat with Schirra, "At least we gave them instructions on how to build a better bow... Means to protect them from their enemy's weapons ex post facto, by means of penicillin analogues... We've also... provided a basic portable shield generator for when the Narinje ajaw deploys a lot of projectile throwers, as is his wont; the shield keeps sling stones and arrows out quite nicely. A homemade Mk. II phaser would be the next step up, but we've decided it wouldn't be corr- "

"What?" Karka said quickly.

"Well, I take it you chose not to. But you considered it?" Schirra spoke.

"Leave us in peace for the moment, please," Orlov sat down heavily, waving a hand and seeming utterly drained. He fell silent and let his colleague Ward say whatever she wanted to say to the Excalibur officers, the CO of the ill-fated York preoccupied by his own taxed mind.

Ward turned to them attentively, a sharp look in her eyes, "He doesn't sleep well," she insisted, "And you and I came a long way in our escape from the Narinje ajaw. I believe that very shortly your two colleagues will brought here; just before he left one of VrLatn's guards told me the two officers had been rescued successfully. Give yourself time to recuperate." She turned from them and sat down with Orlov, speaking to him quietly.

Karka and Daniel stepped away from them, "There's no way they should have provided VrLatn with half of that technology. No wonder he treats them so kindly," Schirra said.

Karka nodded, "Perhaps they fear for their safety, they give him these things in the interest of self-preservation, but I'm inclined to agree. Medicine I can understand, even though it still breaks the prime directive. But anything involving circuitry... A portable shield generator?!"

The sky was brightening quickly now and trumpets sounded, reminding Karka all too strongly of the ajaw emerging from his pavilion in their previous encampment. It soon became apparent that the River Ruler was approaching.

A couple hours ago before dawn the ruler VrLatn had attended the parley with the Narinje ajaw, and had left his forces to it. The riverfolk were well beyond Narinje in troop numbers, though the ajaw had anticipated his enemy's tactics and had many units waiting in counter-ambush. The ajaw's task of producing his own order of battle had not been without its difficulties, considering his fury at hearing of the outsiders' escape... They were supposed to have taken part in the parley with him.

"Orlov! We bring your lost women... Have you the two newcomers with you? VrLatn the Great wishes to meet them," the river people's herald called from outside the cave, near the part of the falls accessed by a narrow path cut naturally into the face of the escarpment. Yvonne Ward told Orlov to lie down and rest; he accepted gratefully and Yvonne exited the cave, bringing Karka and Daniel in tow.

The Hybrudean saw Koni and Caryna in company with three riverfolk partly lost in mists near the jetting falls.

[Daniel Schirra]

"There's no way they should have provided VrLatn with half of that technology. No wonder he treats them so kindly," Schirra said quietly so as not to be overheard. Karka nodded, glancing back.

"Perhaps they fear for their safety, they give him these things in the interest of self-preservation, but I'm inclined to agree. Medicine, I can understand, even though it still breaks the prime directive. But anything involving circuitry... A portable shield generator?!" they were still discussing quietly when they heard someone outside the cave calling:

"Orlov! We bring your lost women... Have you the two newcomers with you? VrLatn the Great wishes to meet them,"

Yvonne Ward motioned them to follow her into the sunlight .....

Daniel could seeKoni and Caryna standing close to the edge of the falls, perilously close in his opinion. Still, as soon as the Excalibur Officers emerged, the two women were allowed to approach... Discarding protocol, Koni hugged Schirra, clearly relieved to be reunited, he could feel the slight tremors running through her as she finally released her hold and apologised.

"It is good to see you together..." the herald said, smiling as he glanced left and right before continuing, "... Now, it would be disrespectful to keep our great ruler waiting ....." Daniel glanced at Karka surreptitiously for a second. Both hadn't missed the subtle, almost imperceptible change in the man's tone, knowing that despite the request, it was clearly an unspoken instruction. Nodding, the four Excalibur Officers fell into line behind the Yorks Crewman and made their way around the narrow path towards the waiting herald. Once there he nodded, seemingly satisfied, signifying they were to follow, he moved away.

~~~~~

The walk was brief, apparently, the River Peoples' Ruler had brought himself and a small enteragé forward of the line of impressive tents. Daniel glanced past the man trying to estimate the strength of his armies realising very quickly that he far outnumbered the Ajaw's forces. ten metres from VrLatn, the herald held up a hand signifying they should halt, he then approached the Ruler and whispered into his ear, all the while VrLatn's eyes never left the newcomers.

After presumably receiving instructions, the herald returned as VrLatn turned and entered the tent.

"You have been granted audience, please follow me," the man said ..... Entering the tent they were each shown a plush cushion and lowered themselves as VrLatn waited:

I am pleased you were able to escape the clutches of the Ajaw and his rabble..." VrLatn said, nodding to each of his guests in turn, but the smile disappeared as he continued to speak, "... The Lady ... And her Captain, have been generous in sharing their technologies with us. They have ensured our success in the coming battle,"

"I'm pleased they have been able to satisfy your needs," Daniel said, clearly far from pleased.

"Satisfied ..... Yes, to some extent. We have been able to identify numerous materials, their usage previously unknown to us, that have aided the two in their efforts," VrLatn said, eyes locked on Schirra's.

"If I may, once you have defeated the Ajaw and his people, what do you intend to do?" daniel asked, seeing the herald glare at him.

"Do...?" the man repeated, a puzzled expression forming as he feigned giving the question some thought, "... The Ajaw and his Council will be beheaded, those living in the city will come under my rule," he said as if picking a sweet from a tray.

"You must understand that our directives forbid us from participating in such acts,"

"You need not concern yourselves, Captain, the fate of the Ajaw and his advisors was preordained. I would appear weak, even traitorous, should I allow even one of them to live..." VrLatn said darkly as he glanced at Yvonne Ward before returning his attention to Daniel, "... Though I cannot help mentioning that you have already been a great help to myself and my people,"

"Yes ..... Alas, they acted improperly..." Schirra replied matter-of-factly, "... I have not ascertained the reasons for them helping you with technology that is beyond your ability to self produce, and you said yourself that what they have produced is directly or indirectly responsible for your upcoming success," he fell silent as the herald leaned in so Vr'Latn could whisper in his ear.

"Captain," Yvonne Ward warned.

"Am I to understand that you are forbidding us any further assistance?"

"We will be happy to give you help with agricultural requirements: food production, irrigation, building, but as for weap ....." Daniel began but stopped as he felt something extremely sharp break the skin at the back of his neck.

"I'm afraid I cannot accept your terms, Captain. In fact, once we have overrun the Ajaw and his City, I have plans to move beyond the valley and onto greater success, While I have no doubt I could achieve this without your help, I would be foolish to turn away anyone, or anything, that could aid my progress, do you not think?"

"We won't develop weapons," Daniel replied.

"Perhaps some time to, discuss, my requirements with your friends ....." VrLatn said, rising to his feet, the audience apparently over ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

A guard appeared before Karka in the ruler's pavilion and the herald headed outside, calling on Ward to go get Orlov.

"We value our prime directive before all else, VrLatn," the Hybrudean intoned.

The ruler paused, "Control this fool, Captain. Ah, you try my patience! Going by the example of the estimable Orlov, I had thought your people were reasonable. Now leave!"

The guards shoved them with the hafts of spears and they were forced outside. The York captain passed and went inside the tent on his crutches, his demeanour making it clear he knew he'd done wrong; the riverfolk had been made insatiable by a taste of advanced technology, and now it seemed they'd go to any ends to acquire the means to crush their enemies.

They returned to the York crew's quarters at the falls and after about two hours, during which they went walkabout, they saw a grey uncertain shape emerge from the mists kicked up from boulders far below. The falls were at the head of a ravine and the stream that thus flowed through it fell into the river. Further down, the alluvial plain had been irrigated to a wide extent, its organisation quite impressive for a premodern society.

"Who's there?"

The grey shape turned out to be Ward, returned already from the pavilion. VrLatn had asked for five homemade phasers, having had a ridiculously basic prototype demonstrated by Orlov some three months ago. Yvonne told them she was worried for Orlov, that he may well cave in to VrLatn's demands.

"Well, we're glad you're here." They had found something carved into the cliff, Karka had gone exploring and had climbed off a ledge at the very end of the narrow path cut into the near-vertical rock. He saw a smooth surface over the abyss just after the end of the path. It was a plaque, he'd realised, on it was inscribed a few lines of text; he assumed it was in the mysterious Mayan dialect but Caryna had studied the words and disagreed.

"Do you know about this?" Karka now asked Yvonne, mostly just curious about the inscription. Other texts he'd seen had all been in Mayan; this was something new.

"Yes... I had my rudimentary tricorder do an analysis - it took it nearly four months. Your officer is right - it's not in the Mayan dialect; it has a few loan words, but it's in what we assumed was the native language of these people before the Mayans came, however in hell that happened..."

"Wait. It has Mayan loan words? Then it was inscribed after the people of this world came into contact with the Mayans... How do you know it wasn't written by Mayans themselves, adding their own language's words?"

"There's a theory of agency of source and receiving languages," Yvonne replied, "Take two spoken languages in contact, one changing the other. If the receiving language - in this case the native one you see here - displays word morphology that suggests the influence of another language - in this case Mayan - that usually means those who wrote the text learnt it as a second language, in other words they would've been Mayans learning local customs. But, if instead we find loan words from the Mayan source language, as we do, that means those responsible for the writing were natives and natural speakers of the unknown language."

Karka absorbed this, "Then the writing suggests that the people of this planet are not themselves descended from Mayans; somehow, their ancestors started learning a Mayan dialect long ago. When exactly?"

"At least a thousand years, going by the carbon-dating of the inscription, which is obviously a very early stage."

Mayan words in this native writing? How did the influence come? Psonoir thought, Some sort of temporal anomaly displacing them from Earth?

Slowly, Orlov hobbled into view. "I'm afraid VrLatn has broken me. I have promised him the five phasers. It means all our deaths if he doesn't get them."

Well, is this any better? Karka wondered, being amongst the riverfolk rather than in the proto-industrial surrounds of Narinje with its limestone monuments? VrLatn struck him as a strong-man type, wanting to conquer the nearby lands without much subtlety.

"Perhaps we should take our chances with the ajaw," Karka said only half-jokingly and winced, "tell him about VrLatn's plans?" He wasn't sure. While the city-state ruler had expressed an interest in them and their origins, he'd shown himself to be cruel and unpredictable. A child with too many toys, the ajaw had found himself with the power of life and death over tens of thousands; surely it would mean their death if they tried to approach him? At least with VrLatn they may have some sense of what their captor was going to do next, but the fact was he was going to kill them if he didn't get his phasers.

[Daniel Schirra]

They had been discussing the worrying origins of the text on the plaque when the York's Captain hobbled inside the cave:

"I'm afraid VrLatn has broken me. I promised him the five phasers. It means all our deaths if he doesn't get them." Orlov said, clearly embarrassed.

"Perhaps we should take our chances with the ajaw..." Karka suggested half-jokingly and winced, "... Tell him about VrLatn's plans?"

"It's a viable option..." Daniel said, sitting at the mouth of the cave looking down past the falls where he could see two of VrLatn's men, presumably keeping tabs on the FederationOfficers, "... One thing is certain, regardless of promises, we cannot furnish these people with energy weaponry, regardless of their reliability or effectiveness!"

"But you do not understand..." Orlov said, eyes widening, "... He will kill us!"

"Captain ..... You know that you made a mistake, please don't compound the error with another," Yvonne Ward said quietly as she glanced over at Schirra.

"You saw what they did Yvonne!" the Captain said, almost pleading for understanding.

"What's he referring to?" Agosta asked. For a moment, the York crewman remained silent, then she stood and approached the Excalibur Officers:

"I told you that only a few survived the crash..." she began, hesitating as memories flooded back to the surface. Finally, she continued, "... More survived than we first indicated. We were found by Vr'Latn's people and brought back here, well, not exactly here, the city, where we were interrogated ..... At first, we couldn't understand a word, and several of the crew were used to, force our cooperation. They took two of the female crew and beheaded them right in front of us. Finally, VrLatn's aide, or second in command, we didn't know, convinced their leader to allow us to live. We began to grasp the basics of the language, which only got us into more trouble because now we had no more excuses!"

"But you 'must' have helped, the Mayan couldn't know what materials would be of use?" T'Seng said in disbelief.

"As I said, you couldn't imagine what pressures we were subjected to. We were taken deep into the trees, at some point we stopped and he picked out two female Officers, ordering his men to strip and coat them in sap, then they were suspended by their feet from high branches. They set a ring of sap around a large mound, then set it alight. Thousands of what they called fire ants emerged from the mound and he ordered the two lowered. Their screams were torture to those forced to watch. Oh, they didn't die, not at first, they just began to be ..... Consumed ..... Tens upon tens of thousands of inch-long razor-jawed ants can inflict a lot of damage on the flesh of a body if allowed to do so ..... But VrLatn wasn't quite finished. After hours of excruciating agony, they were raised and doused in something akin to petrol to rid them of the ants. Once the sun had dried their bodies, they were lowered into the nests once again. This continued until each of the was, dead. After five days he had allowed ten of us to be 'killed' ....." she said, unable to continue.

"So you agreed to help?" Agosta asked quietly.

"The Captain..." she said, glancing back at the broken man she clearly respected, "... He couldn't stand it, after he had been forced to watch ten of his crew die in agony, he had almost lost his mind, promising Vr'Latn anything and everything if he agreed not to hurt any more of the crew. Vr'Latn readily agreed, and what was left of us were brought here to the caves. Every day we were taken out to search for what we needed."

"That's barbaric!" Koni said.

"Yes, it was, and believe me, if you do not prove your usefulness, you will become all too familiar with Vr'Latn's means of persuasion!" she said, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"We have to find a way to stop all this..." Daniel said after listening to the story, "... You said you have managed to make a rudimentary phaser, did you have access to enough materials to construct an explosive device?"

"The phaser was practically useless, yes it would fire, but with no means to focus the beam it was as likely to kill the person holding it as the target..." Yvonne admitted, making it clear why the River People didn't already carry the weapons, "... We don't have the tools, precision instrumentation, we foraged what we could from the wreck, but it was never going to be enough," she said.

"..... Can we make a rudimentary explosive device?" Daniel insisted.

"If we had enough of what we needed, yes, but Vr'Latn isn't stupid, he allows us just enough to continue working and nothing more," Daniel was shaking his head in frustration:

"But there is a supply... Presumably close by?" he demanded.

"Yes ....." Ward confirmed. Daniel looked at the others, each realising that they might have to take lives in order to prevent Vr'Latn or the Ajaw, for that matter, from getting their hands on technology far beyond their means! ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

"There's a line of hills rich in quartz and other materials we found useful." Yvonne paused, "Bear in mind though that we'll need about ten times what we gathered before to build something really effective, and what we collected for the primitive phaser was hard to find, believe me."

Karka nodded, "We trust in you, Ms Ward. Which way?"

"It's this side of the river, the left bank, and farther down towards the inner sea, which this river flows into. I'll inform the guards we're going on an expedition and they'll let VrLatn know. He'll probably want to send someone with us..." she murmured, "But that may be useful if we really want to find our way there. Lieutenant Parks had the best sense of direction; he knew more of the terrain around here than me and Orlov combined."

The next day just after sunrise they set out. They would've rather gone in the night, giving them a possibility of escaping from the three Mayans (two guards and a guide named Mesopa) VrLatn had assigned them, but in the dark it was deathly cold even in the lush surrounds of the quasi-jungle; Karka supposed the series of oases created by the river didn't have enough depth to temper the desolating influence of the nearby desert.

The eight of them - the four Excal officers, Ward and the three Mayans, with the lamelegged Orlov having stayed behind - made it downstream and ascended into the hills beginning about half a mile from the river edge. The guide Mesopa indicated a formation to them, "Yvonne. The silver. You used it before," he intoned.

"That's not silver," Karka observed, looking up at the mineral outcrops along one high ridge to their left.

"Not silver, the silver. It's what they call rubidium," Ward blurted, clearly surprised to see the formation and probably wondering why she hadn't seen it on some previous trek here, "VrLatn the Great will be pleased," she said unhappily, "It's only one of a dozen materials we need in quantity for a phaser, but there's at least enough rubidium up there to build 20 phasers."

As they approached to begin some basic prospecting - one of the guards had headed back to tell VrLatn, the river ruler would probably be sending a workforce of miners to dig up the deposits of 'the silver' - Karka saw a flash of movement ahead. Suddenly wary, he ascended the 15 degree rock slope with the others, and what he found was even worse than he'd expected.

Elaborately dressed spearmen bearing the mark of the Narinje ajaw darted out from cover of the serrated ridge and thrust spears towards them. One weapon impaled Mesopa, so effectively that the ajaw's elite warrior had to let his spear go to avoid being pulled down the face of the rock with the riverfolk guide. Mesopa went tumbling, the spear snapping under him, down towards the path from which they'd ascended.

Karka had entered Hybrudean consciousness acceleration. As always, he wasn't able to move any quicker but his mind was in a state of hyperactivity, processing of external sense data seeming to slow everything down and the intensity with which he fired neural synapses allowing him to get a good idea of their predicament.

The Narinjeans still had the higher ground (many questions entered his mind: how many of them? was the ajaw present? how had they got here and how had the battle with VrLatn gone?), half a dozen of the elite spearmen pushing down towards them, having blocked their view of the rubidium deposits.

Spears juddered and precessed in slow motion, and the mind-warped Karka identified a gap between them, he ran towards it, irritated as always by his own apparent glacial movement in this state, and forced his way between two spearmen who were attacking Schirra and Ward. He tripped one and elbowed the other in the back; they lost their balance - already precarious thanks to the spears - and clattered in their armour and finery down the slope. Consciousness acceleration was fading; it always took a lot out of him; the number of spearmen was greatly diminished. But now there was the screeching of a wild cat, and Karka braced himself as he witnessed seven or eight panthers leap down on them from the ridge above.

As the panthers were flying mid-air and Karka was trying to reengage consciousness acceleration, he heard a loud bass voice resonate from some way off, far behind the line of scattered spearmen. "Outsiders, you have made a serious mistake!" It was Advisor Kehm'ja.

[Daniel Schirra]

USS Excalibur ...
Four Weeks Earlier ::


Before anyone could react, Noik, Commanding Officer of the Vrezku vessel had closed the communication. The screen had cleared to show the view of the stars beyond the Excalibur, seconds later they watched in silence as the two vessels that had been towing them at warp had turned away.

"How long to the System they gave us?" Sarah had asked, dreading the reply. John Reneus at Helm looked at his console then turned to face Sarah in the centre seat:

"We'll drop from warp in around two minutes, So at full impulse, we're looking at approximately..."

"TOO LONG!" someone on the Bridge said, frustration getting the better of them ..........


Now ::


It had taken ten days to restore full impulse, then two more weeks to jury-rig the warp core to the point where the Chief Engineer, Mark Unwin, could be relatively sure they wouldn't explode the second they brought the core online!

They had brought the Constitution Class Starship to a complete halt almost one-quarter billion kilometres outside the Star System Noik had pointed out, confident that should the Starship explode, the resulting devastation wouldn't affect the far-off Star System, and was scanning each of the six planets in turn ..... Still, with only partial sensors, it was taking much too much time, and concern for their missing Officers was growing ..... In the Captain's Ready Room, Sarah Wentworth was sat behind the desk, opposite, Commander Unwin and Lieutenant Reneus were silent:

"There are no more options open to us Sarah..." Mark said finally, "... We've run every possible test, double and triple-checked everything to death, no pun intended. We either bring the core online or run on impulse for the duration,"

"..... And we still have only partial sensors, and no long-range or subspace communications?" the Acting Captain asked.

"No," the Navigation Officer replied. Sarah sat for a moment, knowing what Sarah must be going through, Unwin and Reneus remained silent. Finally, standing, she made her decision:

"Mark, bring the warp core online," she ordered. all three left the Ready Room, Unwin headed for Engineering while Reneus took Helm from the Duty Officer. Sarah lowered herself into the centre seat and opened a shipwide comm, explaining what was about to happen. A moment later Mark confirmed he was ready and she ordered him to proceed .....

After bringing the core successfully online, the Excalibur had sat motionless for twelve hours while the Engineering team ran even more checks until the word came up that they could cautiously go to warp one point five when ready. Inwardly sighing, Sarah immediately acted and entered the Star System, now with additional power, the sensors were trained once again on each planet in turn, until confirmation came that the fourth planet in the System showed sporadic signs of life, all everyone could do was wait impatiently for the massive Starship to approach the planet in question .....


In Orbit ::


"Begin detailed scans," the Acting Captain ordered nervously. After what seemed an age, the Duty Tactical Officer confirmed that there were possible life signs on the Northern Continent!

"Any indication that whoever is down there is our missing crew?" Sarah asked.

"Hard to tell, we're still only struggling with sensors, at this stage I can only confirm there's life down there, could be animal," the Tactical Officer replied.

"We 'could' try communications," Jenni Gold at Communications suggested, Sarah nodded.

=^= This is the USS Excalibur .. .. Attempting to contact anyone on the surface .. .. .. =^=

=^= This is the USS Excalibur .. .. Attempting to contact anyone on the surface .. .. .. =^=

She repeated, glancing at Wentworth, frustration growing when there was no reply, but the Duty Tactical Officer, concerned, asked Mark Unwin to look at the readings she was getting at her station, he frowned then turned to Commander Wentworth:

"It's possible that something within the planet's atmosphere is possibly either blocking or refracting our signals, there doesn't appear to be any technology present on the surface,"

"Can we refine the sensors to get a better idea of who or what is down there?"

"We can try," Unwin said, tapping the comlink to speak to Engineering.

"What about transporting a search team down...?" Doctor Wundt said, "... If what we're seeing on the sensors 'is' our people it's possible one or more could be injured,"

"I wouldn't recommend transporters..." Unwin said, shaking his head, "... Until we have full sensor capability we have no way of knowing what the interference would do to someone beaming down,"

"A shuttle then!" the Doctor said.

"I'd want to be sure it wouldn't fall out of the sky on contact with the planet's atmosphere," Mark said, knowing he was effectively shooting down plausible suggestions, but this was his field and Sarah, as Acting Captain, needed to know the repercussions of any actions she chose to take. They needed time, otherwise, lives could be lost, if indeed they hadn't already.

On the surface, the Excalibur Officers, along with the two survivors of the USS York, had no way of knowing of the Excalibur's arrival ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

Able to reengage consciousness acceleration for a fraction of a second, it was enough to give him a minute to think about what he had to do. Experiencing the world in this muted frozen state but still limited like the rest of the humanoids present - in how fast they might move - he was at least able to run through possible actions and choose one to get him out of the way of the panther as quickly as possible.

The mindrush faded and he returned to the world of total immediacy as if of light's reflection from cymbals clashing, and found that his fist - as he ducked away from the lead panther whose fangs had been about to tear at his throat - was already rising. His right hand made contact with some force, the feline's high pitched wail and the give he'd felt letting him know he'd probably broken or dislocated its jaw. All the cats missed their targets and tumbled down the rock face, some scrambling amongst limestone boulders below and trying to unsteadily climb back up.

Psonoir remained near the rubidium deposits; Kehm'ja's Narinjean spearmen to his left were finding their weapons ungainly and almost useless on this uneven slope - they'd resorted to pushing the Excal officers, Ward and the two Mayan guards who tried to duck away and ascend to the level of the spearmen.

One riverfolk guard lost his footing as he tried to protect Koni and was surrounded by the Narinjeans who battered him under hafts of spears; with that the spearmen crowded round the other six of them, Karka at the edge of the cordon of shields and trying to escape before he had to submit, too.

"Bring them!" Kehm'ja barked and the surviving spearmen of the ajaw led the captives through narrow fissures in the rubidium deposits to a small encampment a short distance away in the hills.

"Let this one go," the Advisor commanded, gesturing to the surviving VrLatn guard, "Let him return to his people." The guard hardly looked at the captured Starfleeters as he scuttled away from the scene and disappeared behind foliage.

Karka was relieved in some sense... How might VrLatn know they'd been taken prisoner? He would probably conclude that his outsider technologists had escaped and so probably Orlov - still at the river - would be executed... Hopefully the released guard would tell the river ruler what'd really happened.

The four Excal officers and Yvonne Ward were led to the centre of the encampment, "To your good fortune the ajaw is not present. You absconded and left him alone in council with his enemy. He would kill you where you stand. No, in my presence you will be sacrificed to the goddess," the robed Kehm'ja said before them, "But tell me, what were you doing here in these hills on the river ruler's behalf? You will speak the truth. If you do not, you will die in profanity, unpurified for sacrifice."

When no one replied Kehm'ja signalled to a tent, from which emerged a Mayan decked in runes and other symbols and carrying a staff. "This man is a witch doctor of our city Narinje. He is gifted in what the ajaw's damned scribes deign to call sympathetic magic... He will know if you are lying. Now speak and speak well, or die!" Mayans bearing axes stepped up to the five Starfleeters.

The so-called witch doctor's eyes poured into theirs; Karka smirked and spoke anyway, "We were ordered to these hills by the chieftain VrLatn, to bring together materials for fantastic weapons beyond your knowledge." Perhaps it was wise not to lie.

Kehm'ja turned to the witch doctor who looked on them with the same confused, unblinking expression as he apparently tried to unlock their minds. Karka started to get worried as he realised their fates depended on the Mayan's supposed art. Was it all guesswork and would he blurt out, 'lie'? Blurtwork?

The witch doctor was shaking, Psonoir realised. Turning and with his eyes glistening with tears, the Mayan made his way back to his tent. "He accepts your story," Kehm'ja seemed thoroughly unnerved by what he'd just seen, "... You won't die as profane objects, but neither are you to die in sacrifice." Happy distinctions, Karka thought. "Outsiders, would you ignore VrLatn's commands and make these weapons for the ajaw instead?"

"Do we have a choice?" Daniel asked. Kehm'ja nodded and smiled; the axemen remained close.

---

USS Excalibur

The shuttle Belize was prepped and ready to go. Unwin and a half dozen engineers had finished making modifications to permit it to enter the planet's atmosphere and not have all its electrical equipment short out immediately - or so they hoped. Analysing properties of the planet had given them the idea that there was something in the soil, something causing a chemical reaction whose byproducts entered the atmosphere and were responsible for the problems with comms, transportation and other systems. He trusted the Belize was now well protected.

He understood analyses of the planet - though sensors were also inhibited - had given the bridge an idea there were was a mass of foreign material on the world; at least ten separate assemblies of objects, groups of various metals dotted around the same point on the planet's surface. The separation between the two farthest objects was perhaps 100 kilometres. Were they mineral deposits, originally a dense collection of meteorites? Or perhaps even crashed spacecraft or debris? Sensors also detected - with some difficulty - about 700,000 lifeforms scattered over the globe; no sort of industry.

"She's ready to go at last!" he commed to the bridge from engineering's main console, "I recommend Lieutenant Reneus is joined by myself and the tactical officer, if we're heading down."

[Daniel Schirra]

Unknown Planet ::

"This man is a witch doctor of our city Narinje. He is gifted in what the Ajaw's damned scribes deign to call sympathetic magic... He will know if you are lying. Now speak and speak well, or die!" Kehm'ja said. Had their situation not been so precarious, Daniel might have laughed as the so-called Witch Doctor's eyes poured into theirs.

"We were ordered to these hills by the chieftain VrLatn, to bring together materials for fantastic weapons beyond your knowledge," Karka replied casually. Daniel was looking beyond the guards when he realised he was being spoken to directly:

"..... ignore VrLatn's commands and make these weapons for the ajaw instead?"

"What, oh, do we have a choice...?" Schirra asked, seeing Kemh'ja grin. the Advisor waved the axe-wielding guards away, but not too far that they couldn't easily cut down any of the Federation Officers should they decide to take their chances "... We're not giving these people anything!" he hissed.

Slowly they were led back along the trail that would eventually take them back to the caves, but approximately one kilometre away there was a sudden 'thud' and one of the guards dropped sideways into the fast-flowing river, even the rapids couldn't hide the two-metre long shaft protruding from the mans back as he disappeared from view. Schirra just had time to instruct his Officers to dive for cover when the air seemed filled with spears and arrows ..... The fight ..... If it could be called that, lasted no more than five minutes, in which time two-thirds of the Ajaw's people were laying dead or injured, as for the Advisor, Kehm'ja, there were no signs!

Daniel was beginning to think that yet again the in-fighting between the two Rulers had given them an opportunity to escape when he heard Koni call him. He looked around, finally seeing his Tactical Officer, but she wasn't alone.

"You will come with me now, or this woman dies!" Kehm'ja whispered as his eyes darted left and right.

"We had already agreed to do so Kehm'ja, there is no need to try to force our hand," Daniel said, nodding towards the knife at T'Seng's throat. Almost reluctantly, the Advisor lowered the weapon but kept a tight hold of the back of Koni's tunic, effectively keeping her between the Advisor and the Federation Officers.

"Down that way," Kehm'ja whispered. Schirra looked where the man was pointing, and could just about make out a faded, obviously seldom-used trial away from the caves, without a word he moved, the others falling into step .....

Shuttle Belize ::


=^= She's ready to go at last .. .. I recommend Lieutenant Reneus is joined by myself and the Tactical Officer if we're heading down =^= Unwin confirmed from Engineering.

=^= They're on their way Commander .. .. Mark .. Good luck .. .. Bridge out =^= Sarah Wentworth said from the centre seat, trying not to look around the Bridge at the rapidly diminishing Senior Officers.

~~~~~~~~~~

In the Shuttlebay, Mark was joined by John Reneus and Lieutenant Tom Weston, the Duty Tactical Officer ..... They took their seats and Reneus brought the engines online ..... Turning the shuttle, he tapped the thruster control to slow them relative to the Excalibur's forward motion ..... The massive Starship seemed to pass above them until they could only see stars beyond the liquid-aluminium windows. Adjusting their heading Belize began to 'fall' towards the atmosphere, the Excalibur falling far behind them. The first few moments were relatively calm as Unwin and Weston scanned the surface and the small areas of population, the natives were reading as Humanoid, so finding their Officers was going to be anything but easy he knew. John Reneus, the Excalibur's Helm Officer, was fighting to keep the shuttle as high as possible while slowing enough to allow the ground scans, and 'hopefully' reducing the possibility of tell-tail contrails. They hoped that given the time of day, late afternoon on the surface, the tiny shuttle will go unnoticed so high.

The first four hours passed as the shuttle overflew scattered settlements, finally, Weston saw something!

"THERE!"

"What? Unwin asked.

"I picked up unusual readings as we passed over that River, could be nothing but I think it's worth another look," the Tactical Officer suggested. Mark agreed and Reneus turned Belize to fly over the area once more. This time Mark saw the marginal differences as those on the ground were scanned. The only way to be certain they had picked up the Excalibur Officer would have been to fly low, but that wasn't an option.

"We'll have to land and investigate," Unwin said, the frustration in his tone obvious. They all knew it would be dangerous and their search could lead to nothing. With phasers that were anything but reliable, Reneus found a small piece of land deep within the surrounding forest and marked the area on his screen. Finding a heading that would 'hopefully' keep them away from prying eyes, he put the shuttle into a steep dive, levelling off metres from the treetops. Unwin and Weston breathed a sigh of relief as the shuttle dropped into the space barely large enough to accommodate the craft, it was so tight in fact that they had to squeeze past a tree to exit.

"The group we spotted should be approximately five kilometres that way," Weston said, pointing East.

"We can't go in daylight, the Sun should set in an hour or so, we'll head that way then..." Unwin said, turning his phaser over in his hand. Without warning he raised it and fired, Reneus and Weston drawing their weapons as they kneeled, waving the phasers in wide arcs to cover as much of the cloying treeline as possible, "... At least the phasers work," Mark said with a grin as he picked out something to eat from the supplies ..........

[Daniel Schirra]

Surface of Unknown Planet ...
Search Team ::

The three had eaten and checked weapons, then done the best they could to hide the shuttle from any casual prying eyes ..... The sun was beginning to set as Tom Weston checked the faltering tricorder for the heading he had locked onto while airborne .....

"This way, still approximately five kilometres, give or take,"

"Give or take what?" John Reneus asked.

"Give or take whether this thing is giving me accurate readings or complete jibberish," the Tactical Officer said with a resigned shrug.

They moved out, pushing through the thick undergrowth easily at first, but after only the first hour, they were already feeling the efforts of having to try to hack, as silently as possible, through the denser foliage. The tricorder, still flickering between inconsistent readings, informed them that a group of approximately fifty people were somewhere ahead.

"I'm still picking up the odd readings we got from high orbit, there's definitely some materials here that are either extremely rare or have been manipulated in some way by the natives," Weston said, frustratedly pausing every twenty paces to turn a full three sixty degrees before checking the device in his hand yet again.

"You realise our people 'could' be on the other side of the planet," Unwin said.

"They could, but I'm willing to bet if there are materials that could prove useful, they might have at least tried to fabricate something, even if only a flare of some description," Weston said to the back of the Navigation Officer.

"There's no point in speculating..." Mark said as yet another low-slung branch seemed to take it upon itself to slap him hard across the face, "... How far now?"

"Approximately three kilometres, it's possible that we could cut the time down a little by following the river back upstream,"

"But we're more likely to be spotted that way, right?" Reneus commented.

"..... Obviously," Weston replied as if he'd just been asked the dumbest question ever.

"Then we'll stick to making our way closer this way ....." Unwin said.

It was rapidly becoming clear to Mark that his decision to move under the cover of darkness was a foolish one. The sun had now completely set and they were relying on moonlight to keep moving forwards. At their current pace or the fact that whoever they were looking for was only three kilometres ahead, it was unlikely they would get anywhere near the life signs before the sun rose at dawn ... he stopped, taking hold of a thick branch blocking their way and began to saw at the hardwood, suddenly he heard something ahead! ..... Stopping dead in his tracks he motioned for the others to do likewise ..... They could now clearly hear voices, two, maybe three people, some way ahead, crouching, the three waited as whoever was ahead to hopefully move away. Finally, silence fell and Mark finished cutting through the branch, moving it aside and behind another to prevent it from snapping back unexpectedly.

They continued on until Unwin felt a tap on his shoulder:

"There, ahead," Reneus whispered, pointing through a small gap. Mark couldn't see anything at first, then spotted the flickering of the last embers of an open fire. Further along the river there looked like what could be a cave entrance. Kneeling, the three began discussing options to reconnoitre the settlement for signs of their missing Officers when they heard someone speaking near the fire!

"Is that them?" Weston asked, already beginning to stand before Unwin pulled him back down.

"Wait ...!" Mark said, straining to hear the undecipherable language, "... There's no way to tell who's talking at this distance, we need to get closer to see if we can spot any of our people visually,"

"..... and if we do?" Reneus asked.

"We will at least have confirmed that one or more of them are alive and well, as for getting them out, that's another matter..." the Engineer said, trying to see through the undergrowth, "... There's definitely too many for us to overcome, if we can see any of our people we'll have to fall back and try to come up with a means to let them know we're here," he said.

The three Officers fell silent, listening to the broken conversations and movement in the distance as people rose from their nights rest ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

Kehm'ja's people being dead, wounded or scattered away from the scene, he and the surviving supernumeraries tried to stay together at first before they too took thought only for themselves and made this way and that. Kehm'ja, his robes smeared with scarlet, gripped T'Seng and forced the Excalibur officers and Yvonne Ward to stay with him until a few shellshocked spearmen could regroup to the Advisor and leave him not so outnumbered.

The riverfolk had seized the position and sent the ajaw's people flying. Karka wasn't sure whether it was more or less wise to stay with the Advisor or try to flee and present themselves to the unseen riverfolk who must now be massing at the site of the first attack. Neither VrLatn or Kehm'ja seemed particularly welcoming overlords at the present time.

They'd passed down the foot of a crevice and into a broader space, drawing closer to the main course of the river though still occupying the fissures of the masses of rock that at this point reached down to just 50 metres or so from the river's edge. As they took rest in the wider space, Karka realised that the sun was setting, and when they were ready to move on, they were walking in almost complete darkness.

A scout of the Advisor's party (now totalling only seven or eight dishevelled spearmen of the ajaw, some walking wounded) returned as they were taking another break farther on, Karka overhearing him tell Kehm'ja he thought something was amiss... He was sure they were being followed...

"VrLatn's people are close," the Advisor spoke tersely and slapped a depleted wineskin back onto the group's only remaining pack animal. "We have no means of resisting them here. The ajaw's camp is six and a half miles away. Hurry!"

"Must we?" Caryna said and dragged herself to her feet.

"You will be silent," Kehm'ja's lieutenant who'd they'd met about a week ago, the courtier Marija replied, "Or perhaps you would like to be killed?" he said as if asking if she'd like a cup of tea.

"I think I'd like to forego that pleasure, on this occasion, Marija."

"Please yourself. As we return to walking, woman known as Caryna, perhaps you would like to meet the ajaw's sage who travels with us? He is one of His Divinity's learned men, who have travelled the world and catalogued as many cultures, customs and natural phenomena as they've been able to find. I hear that, amongst you outsiders, you are the historical expert as regards the Mayans. The learned man Jalti can tell you something of our past."

"Oh, I'd like nothing better. Can my friends meet him, too?" Caryna was amused and kept up the pretence. Marija bowed obligingly.

The sage Jalti spoke slowly and with great portentousness. Whether or not his claims had any veracity they at least sounded impressive. As they hurried on the last few miles - their two scouts lighting the way by torchlight - and thinking they were shadowed by VrLatn's folk but really by more familiar people out of this world, Karka and Caryna trekked alongside the ajaw's sage.

"My people's wisdom literature and more offhand eyewitness accounts speak of a great Vortex! In bygone times, several centuries, maybe even a thousand cycles ago if such a thing can be imagined," the sage's eyes were wild, "Our people lived peculiar lives which, as far as we can tell from our study, bear little resemblance to those of our society today. We read about them and cannot understand them, they are incongruous with our way of life. Then came the so-called Vortex, as many sources are agreed, and there is a gap in the historical record of a few decades. From the time that records resume, changing slightly with the passing cycles of course, the society we find in the texts is clearly much more like our own. Much more Mayan, you might say."

Karka nodded and looked at the others, already thinking his theory may have been correct. Meanwhile he noticed they'd left the fissures and were passing by copses of trees. Caryna spoke in the gloom, "Jalti, can you describe this Vortex?"

"The sources are unclear and conflict with one another. But most are agreed that some sort of... Vortex, opened." Karka gave the man a wry look. "It is told that it appeared in the heavens. People thought it was a storm, the goddess Ixchel visiting rain on the lands, though those poor fools didn't know about the goddess at that time. Staring into the Vortex was like staring into the void beyond the skies, so the texts say, and yet without stars at its centre. From the Vortex came people, bewildered men from other realms, stronger than our ancestors. Once they gained knowledge of the land they began to attack the natives; here the written sources fail and we assume our ancestors were conquered. We believe the Mayans who emerged from the Vortex implanted their culture into our own and eventually replaced it. Outsiders, we descend from our ancestors... but everything else about us is Mayan," Jalti finished.

Karka's mind boggled. If the quasi-Mayan old texts were to be believed, it seemed that Mayans really did come here from Earth around a thousand years ago. The Vortex... Presumably it was some sort of spatial dimensional portal, probably natural though an artificial origin couldn't be precluded.

"Advisor!" one of the soldiers alerted in a harsh whisper, emerging from the darkness off the right-side of the path. He turned and pointed at the nearby treeline, three indistinct figures could be seen there, watching them.

The group's one archer fletched an arrow and levelled his weapon; he was beginning to pull on the string when Karka saw a flash of red cloth illuminated by the torch carried by another of the Mayans. "Hold! They are outsiders who've come to help!" he cried out, anything to save the life of the security or engineering crewman or whoever of the three was the arrow's target.

At that point the redshirt and the two goldshirts leapt up from their vantage point, flying parallel to them just inside the treeline. The archer tracked with his bow and missing his target prepared another shaft. A gold beam stabbed out from the trees and brought the archer down, unconscious. There was shock and uproar amongst the other half dozen quasi-Mayans. They ran this way and that until Kehm'ja brought them to order.

"We didn't want to do that," a voice called, "Will you talk with us? You are holding our friends." Karka recognised Unwin's voice.

[Daniel Schirra]

The three 'rescuers' had remained hidden while the natives, still holding the Excalibur Officers captive, had eaten a morning meal and then continued on their way .....

While they had a path to follow, Unwin, Reneus, and Weston didn't have that luxury ..... They were forced to silently cut their way through the sometimes thick undergrowth while being constantly aware that any noise could give them away. After almost a full day of travel, and close to exhaustion, they got a break, as the Sun was lowering in the sky, they came across a large open area, long ago cleared of trees, which allowed them to make up time and even get ahead of the people holding their colleagues, all the while hoping they had made the right decision to push ahead, and the people seemingly holding Schirra and the others captive, hadn't in fact taken another track away from the three Excalibur Officers .....

Finally, the group, carrying lit torches in the failing light, came into view, but it quickly became clear that something was wrong!

They watched as someone seemed to speak urgently to the one they thought was in charge, both men looked up in their direction. Confident that they were well undercover behind the treeline, Unwin was straining to hear voices when something zipped past him and impailed itself in the tree behind him with a resounding 'thud' ..... All three to crouched lower and out of the line of fire coming from below them.

"..... Hold... They are outsiders who've come to help!"

Mark heard one of the Excalibur Officers, possibly Karka Psonoir, their Exec' warn as a second arrow arced its way towards them. Realising they could be hit, the three began to move deeper into the trees, but then Unwin paused and drew his phaser. Training it quickly on the archer who had fired at them he depressed the firing tab. The beam lanced across the space between the two groups and hit the archer in the chest, dropping him unconscious to the ground. Panic ensued as the Mayans ran for cover, fearful of any retaliation against the captives Unwin stepped into the open:

"We didn't want to do that... Will you talk with us... You are holding our friends?"

"COMMANDER!" Mark heard, then saw the Captain grasp hold of one of the men he had assumed were in charge, the two spoke quickly as Mark remained in the open, hoping there wasn't a second concealed archer readying himself to fire.

"Mark, it's safe to come down, you won't be hurt," they heard the Captain say, but Tom Weston was hesitant and grasped Unwin's arm as he took a step forward, forcing the Engineer to turn:

"We can't just go down there, there's no way of knowing how many there are, they could easily outnumber us!" Mark looked at Reneus, who reluctantly had to agree with Weston, Mark nodded and then handed the phaser to the Tactical Officer.

"I'll go down first, if anything happens, try to stun everyone in range and we'll clear the mess up once we're safe," Raising his arms, Mark made his way down the slight incline until he was less than five metres from the group of natives. Two stood aside to allow Daniel and Karka to approach.

"How did you find us?" Psonoir asked, glancing back at the Mayans.

"Long story..." Unwin replied, looking over their shoulders, "... Where are the others?"

"Another long sto ....." Daniel began, falling silent as he was spun around. A second guard had picked up the archers bow and raised it in one easy action until the tip of an arrow was barely millimetres from his left eye. Daniel looked directly at the Advisor, trying to ignore the poisoned tip of the primitive but highly leathal projectile, "... You promised no harm would come to these people if we brought them down from the trees!"

"That weapon,  effective indeed ....." Marija said, looking the unconscious archer up and down frowning, "... I would like to see it,"

"Marija, I believe you to be a man of your word. Ask your guard to lower the bow," Karka said slowly, glancing from Schirra, to the tip of the arrow, then back at the Advisor, waiting. The stalemate lasted a full minute before the Advisor nodded, the guard stepped back, the arrow still aimed at Daniel's face.

"You are holding my friends..." Mark said, "... As a show of goodwill and trust, I would like them released,"

"You came here in some form of, flying craft..." Marija stated matter-of-factly, ignoring Mark's demand, "... I would like to see one of these, craft,"

"I'm sure we can arrange that," Schirra replied, glancing at Unwin.

"Good ..... It is fortunate you have agreed to be cooperative..." the Advisor said, taking a step to one side so that Daniel could see what was behind him as he continued to speak, "... It would be very unfortunate if at this stage of our 'friendship' we were forced to decapitate your females for such an easily fulfilled request, and while you do have your impressive weapon, I believe that even you cannot hit 'two' people at the same time. So at least one of your women will alas lose their life..... Now, I believe there are two others, concealed above ..... Please instruct them to join us,"

For a moment Daniel remained motionless, eyes on Koni and Caryna while deep in thought: If he brought the other two Excalibur Officers down, Marija would get his hands on a functioning phaser. 'If he had one, he would undoubtedly demand more' Schirra thought. If he refused, then Koni and likely Caryna too would be killed. The decision was effectively made for him: On the one hand, he would cause the immediate death of two of his Officers, while the other option at least gave him time to think, to plan, to act. He looked at Mark and nodded.

Unwin turned to the treeline and instructed Reneus and Weston to come down from concealment. For a moment all was still, then:

"No," Weston replied. Unwin and Psonoir could only look at Schirra, who took a step forward:

"Lieutenant, come down, now,"

"..... Sorry Captain, I can't do that. If we come down these people will get hold of Federation weaponry, and will undoubtedly force us to take them to the shuttlecraft,"

"You prefer we behead your women?" Marija demanded.

"Kill them, we kill you, and most of us will still leave here alive," the Tactical Officer said, clearly trying to call the Advisors bluff, but Schirra again ordered the man to come out from concealment.

"This isn't open for debate Lieutenant, I appreciate your efforts to secure our release, but it is unnecessary. So I want you to follow my order ..... Now!"

"I'm sorry Captain," Weston replied ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

"Lieutenant, I'm giving you a direct order to come down from those trees!"

"I can't sir," Weston repeated, "It seems the Prime Directive has been broken here more than once unfortunately. This is damage limitation."

Karka nodded to himself, though the argument might be made that with General Order No 1 already breached why bother to stop themselves? Particularly if further intervention and mixing of technologies could help them out of this mess, and perhaps also help the Mayans.

"Lieutenant, if you don't come down at once..." Schirra seemed to search for the words, "You'll be court martialled!"

The deputy tactical officer made no reply; instead something was flung through the air; landing just at the edge of the clearing down the slope from the woods was the Mk II phaser. At first the Mayans took fright but soon one of the remaining scouts scampered towards the weapon and collected it before Karka could move himself. The XO was hesitant anyway, thinking any quick motion might do for Koni, Caryna and Yvonne.

They heard a distant rustling from beyond the treeline and palm leaves leant and vibrated, springing back into place sequentially along a line in the quasi-jungle. Weston's gone and so has the other officer Psonoir realised, What were they up to? He could at least have presented himself and left the phaser behind. The Hybrudean and the rest of them could only hope the man had something in mind.

A guard collected the phaser and came back their way, handing it to the courtier Marija who relayed it to his boss Advisor Kehm'ja. Casually the Advisor pointed the phaser at Caryna and began to depress one of the buttons; Karka could see it was the firing tab, "Don't!" he dived forward, two spears coming up to meet him either side of the grey eminence - who didn't fire the weapon, in fact lowered and handed it to a soldier but glared at Psonoir murderously.

Staring at the hand of the solider that held the phaser Karka saw to his astonishment that its energising system had been reversed. Excellent work Weston, he thought and smiled. Any attempt to fire the weapon would generate a feedback loop that would take out the user - probably on heavy stun. It was still kind of lucky that he'd stopped Kehm'ja so effectively even if Caryna hadn't been under threat; if Kehm'ja had fired and lost consciousness or been killed, that would've probably been the end of Koni, Caryna and Yvonne anyway, and probably eventually all of them, unless Weston and whoever the other one was could effect a rescue.

"Yes..." Schirra said, and Karka realised he'd seen the jury-rigged setting, too, "The weapon is possessed... By a demon. It's the genius and controlling spirit of what we call the phaser, and knows to recognise only our own people in its usage. Only we can use it."

"Total nonsense, Advisor," Marija said, "I suggest you disregard the outsiders' attempt to manipulate -"

"Silence. A demon, you say?" Kehm'ja enquired, "I haven't heard you speak of such spirits existing amongst your people, nevertheless the idea that they shouldn't exist isn't worth contemplating. You will propitiate the demon with the necessary sacrifices to allow I, Kehm'ja, to take control of the weapon. I can think of several uses..." he thought of the young ajaw on his throne.

"It will be done. But yourself the suggested user can't be present," Karka said quickly, "The demon won't tolerate the presence of people whom it's not accustomed to permitting use of the furious energy at its command."

"Very well." Unbelievably Kehm'ja handed Karka the phaser and nodded, "You will perform the ritual and I will set about preparing us for the last three miles of march to the ajaw's camp. "But afterwards I wish to learn how I may enter the circles of those who enjoy the demon's highest favour. What must I do to become his favourite? You will tell me in time..."

"It will be as you command, Advisor," Karka said, and Kehm'ja departed with the glazed eyes suggestive of the dream of absolute power.

"You cannot fool me!" the courtier Marija hurried over and told the six of them - five Excalibur senior officers and Crewman Yvonne Ward - when they were left in the clearing with the Mayan company's four soldiers in distant attendance, "But to contradict the Advisor again would've meant my life. I am a man of science, as is the omniscient ajaw, and I know that such spirits must abide by the rules of the material universe. What is the demon? Tell me! Does it exist on the principle of fire? Or perhaps it's better described by the atomist idea?"

"Neither, though you're getting closer with the second," Karka nodded and Marija frowned and backed into the darkness away from the torchlight. The company of seven Mayans and six Starfleeters was about to resume the walk to the ajaw's camp.

With all Mayans either absent or too far away to notice, Karka 'propitiated the demon' by cancelling the feedback setting.

"We could've let it reverse-flow and hit Kehm'ja," he said, "I don't think we'd be here to talk about though, not for much longer anyway. You know, I may be able to widen the beam... It might take me a couple of hours. Captain, suggest that when we reach the ajaw's camp we start to present the phaser to the ajaw or Kehm'ja, whoever's about. Then if I can modify this phaser here, with one shot we might be able to put about a dozen of them under heavy stun."

[Daniel Schirra]

Daniel had remained silent, listening with intent and a modicum of amusement as his Executive Officer had enthralled the pseudo-Mayans into believing they were in possession of a demon. Finally, Kehm'ja was informed they were ready to commence their journey. With all Mayans either absent or too far away to notice, Karka cancelled the feedback setting .....

"We could've let it reverse-flow and hit Kehm'ja..." he said, making sure he wasn't overheard by anyone as they began to walk, their 'guards' dispersed three ahead and three behind the Federation Officers, "...I don't think we'd be here to talk about though, not for much longer anyway ..... You know, I may be able to widen the beam... It might take me a couple of hours. Captain, suggest that when we reach the Ajaw's camp we start to present the phaser to the Ajaw or Kehm'ja, if I can modify the phaser, with one shot we might be able to put about a dozen of them under heavy stun."

"It's risky to say the least, especially if whoever you hand it to decides to 'test' their newfound 'Demon' by commanding it fire upon the unworthy," Daniel replied. He looked back at the others: Mark Unwin and john Reneus were walking with the clearly relieved Koni and Caryna, while Tom Weston was behind them, seemingly goading the guards every few paces.

"The other option would be to set it to self-destruct," Karka suggested, but again Daniel couldn't decide. Destroying the device would be the better option, his main concern now was the shuttle hidden somewhere close by. The very last thing he wanted to do was allow the Mayans access to such advanced technology, the phaser was bad enough but was thus far being explained as 'Demonic' in nature. There was no way the shuttle could be explained away in the same fashion!

His attention was diverted as one of the guards Weston was goading finally slammed the butt-end of his spear into the Deputy Tactical Officer's midriff, winding the man. Mark Unwin stepped inform of Weston before pulling him back to his feet.

"The guards are getting tetchy," Koni said behind Daniel.

"How are you and the Lieutenant?" he asked, glancing at Agosta.

"Nothing like the impending loss of your head to make you appreciate the finer things in life..." she replied, the sarcasm not lost on Schirra, "... We need to make a break from these people Captain. If we allow them to get control of the phaser, and they use it, there's no telling how far the Ajaw will go n his quest for supremacy,"

"I know ....." Daniel replied.

~~~~~~~~~~

They had walked through the forest for approximately two hours when they were ordered to rest.

Dropping to the ground almost exhausted, the Federation Officers watched the guards, trying to spot an opportunity to escape, but it seemed that at least two were watching them at all times, no doubt following Kehm'ja's orders. A small sack was thrown to the ground between them and they were instructed to eat. Koni, closest to the sack picked it up and opened it, distributing the fruit among the others before helping herself. Karka was trying to make adjustments to the phaser when it was snatched from his grip ..... Everyone turned to see Marija turning the weapon over in his hands!

"What were you doing?" he asked, eyes locked on Karka.

"Our Demon," the Exec' replied as if this was enough.

"I would like to experience this 'Demon' of yours..." he said, raising the phaser until the business end of the weapon was mere centimetres from his face, "... You will command it to appear ..... NOW!"

For a second Daniel wondered if Karka would instruct the Coutier to depress the firing contact, resulting in the man relieving himself of his head, but Karka merely held out a hand, clearly expecting the device to be willingly returned. Alas, Marija was no fool, and rather than returning the weapon, he turned it in his hands until through more luck than judgement, he was holding it correctly before:

"You showed great fear when we threatened your female with this device..." Marija said, seemingly deep in thought, "... Was it perhaps that applying pressure to one of these points could result in the 'ESCAPE' of your imprisoned Demon!?" he asked, stepping forward until he was close to Mark Unwin.

"Press it and find out," the Engineer said with a shrug.

"Hmmm, I believe I shall await your demonstration," he said, throwing the phaser back to the Exec' ..... Unwin gave an exaggerated sigh of relief as he wiped beads of sweat from his temples.

"Please tell me you had made the adjustments to that thing," he said before throwing away the last of his fruit, his appetite gone.

"Is it just me..." Koni asked quietly in the resulting lull in the conversation, "... But aren't they being extremely trusting with that thing?" she finished with a nod towards the phaser. For a second Schirra's heart almost leapt into his throat at the thought that the Mayan had somehow quietly discovered how to disarm the weapon, making its use as either a bargaining chip or weapon moot, while letting their captives believe it was they that had the proverbial upper hand. He reached out and took the phaser, quickly checking the power pack was in place and fully charged, then sighing with relief he handed it back.

Metres away, the Courtier stood watching them, clearly amused ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

Before the group of officers could make a break for it they found they were arriving at the city-dwellers' camp, the quasi-Mayan sun was just beginning to rise over the makeshift tents and pavilions in the midst of the broad jungle clearing. They passed a flattened stone, the height of a person, jammed into the ground; mysterious runes adorned it beside one symbol that Karka recognised as being the sign of the city Narinje's ruler, the ajaw.

They were made to stop in the middle of the clearing and Kehm'ja together with two ragged guards went on ahead into what Karka supposed was the ajaw's pavilion. Minutes later as they stood in the rising heat of the new day, a herald emerged and spoke on behalf of the ruler,

"We hear the outsiders have been returned to us. They have earnt themselves our most sadistic cruelty, indescribable torture and consignment to the ways of the catacombs of our ancestors beneath the earth, where those shades of our forebears will stalk their waking nightmares for all eternity."

"I knew he'd be glad to see us," Caryna said.

As the herald withdrew they were shepherded into the main tent, Karka glimpsing in his righthand periphery the ajaw on his bamboo throne atop a low dais. The ajaw's ceremonial guardsmen began to force them into a series of four cages along one pavilion wall - a cage for each had been intended, but they now had Yvonne Ward of the USS York, Unwin and Reneus with them (they had to assume Weston was out there somewhere trying to get to them).

"The shuttle can't be far from here," Karka was saying to Unwin as the two were pushed into a cage. Unwin agreed; he thought Reneus might've set their craft down reasonably near to here.

"We hear Kehm'ja has brought with him a weapon," they heard the young ajaw's own voice, unmediated by herald, from the other side of the pavilion.

"Yes. Under the spell of some demon, Your Divinity," the Advisor replied. "One of the outsiders means to commune with the demon on my behalf, so that I your faithful servant may use the weapon to destroy your enemies."

"A demon... Concepts such as these amongst our oh so civilised outsider friends?" the ajaw sneered, "Well, perhaps we should give them the benefit of the -"

A ruckus around the cages interrupted the ajaw's easy conversation; Schirra, Reneus and T'Seng had dived at their nearest guards, the CO having espied the phaser in the possession of Kehm'ja's chief aide. The guard attending on the CO stood between him and the phaser.

Karka and Mark were shoved into their cage but, amidst the sudden tumult, the guard in shutting the cage door neglected to bolt it, already turning to lend his assistance to those beset by the three Starfleeters. "Stop them! Stop them!" the 20-something ajaw began screaming like a child.

Reneus bowled over one of the ceremonial spearmen and was then confronted by the courtier Marija who stood between him and the panicking aide who reluctantly held the demon-possessed phaser. Reneus shoulder-charged Marija who went flying and grasped at the phaser; it fell loose and skittered to the dusty ground, and as the helmsman watched it spill, the foot-long blade of a spear pierced deep in his upper leg.

The helmsman cried out and fell while - having left their open cage - Psonoir held off one guard and Unwin was now able to grab the phaser. The engineer pointed it at the oncoming gaggle of Mayans and depressed the firing button. A juddering and flickering blanket of wide-beam phaser energy scythed out and rendered about ten of them unconscious. Kehm'ja gave a strangled cry of dismay, he stood rooted to the spot near the dais, while beyond him the ajaw sat nearly immobile on his throne, seeing his ceremonial guardsmen collapse.

"That's it, no more wide-beam," Unwin looked over the smoking phaser, "Any subsequent efforts can only target one at a time, and I don't think the weapon will last very long after that!" he called out to the others over the hubbub. He and Karka had worked to modify the phaser for wide-beam before dawn during the last break in the march.

The group picked up the wounded Reneus and Yvonne Ward and made from the pavilion, Unwin bringing up the rear with the 'demon'-phaser; Mayans who dared to edge towards the officers froze in terror as the weapon was pointed at them. "You will remain here," the ajaw was calling, "Tell me of this weapon. I don't believe in the story of a demon!"

They ran and knew they were pursued. "Ok, Commander, which way to the shuttle?" Daniel asked once they thought they were far enough clear.

"I think downstream along this river, towards the irrigated fields," Unwin replied and Reneus, unable to speak through the pain, nodded. "We've done well, I think, as regards the Prime Directive. We still have the phaser."

Two arrows whizzed by and impacted a nearby jungle tree.

"Yes, but the way things are going we're going to lead them straight to the shuttle," Karka observed, and the five of them ran into the thick of the trees hopefully towards the river, dragging Reneus and Ward along after them. "Perhaps it's unavoidable!"

[Daniel Schirra]

Unknown Planet ::

Having marginally successfully escaped, the Federation Officers tried to put as much distance between them and their pursuers as possible.

"Ok, Commander, which way to the shuttle?" Daniel asked breathlessly once they thought they were far enough ahead.

"I think downstream along this river, towards the irrigated fields," Unwin replied, eyes darting left and right as he tried to get his bearings.

"Then we go this way...!" Schirra said, pointing approximately ninety degrees left of their intended heading. For a second the others remained silent, each hoping 'not' to pick up signs of the chase, sensing their confusion, Daniel continued "... We can't afford to lead them to the shuttle, this way if they do follow us there will be more chance we could double back,"

"Sounds ..... Fair, enough," Reneus stammered through the pain.

"Sir. It's clear we'll not make good time with the Commander's injury," Koni commented. Schirra had to agree.

"OK, Koni, you and Caryna will remain here with John, we'll lead the chasing party well away before heading back..." the Captain said, deep in thought before continuing, "... Give us two hours, it should be starting to get dark by then. Once you feel safe to do so, start to make your way downstream, we'll catch up in due course. I'd rather the indigenous people 'not' see a shuttle launching from within the midst, but if you can't wait until the sun has fully set, leave and get back to the ship,"

"What about the rest of you Captain?" Agosta asked, seemingly annoyed to be left behind.

"The three of us 'should' be able to keep ahead of anyone chasing, I'm assuming Lieutenant Weston is somewhere close and will join up with us when he can,"

"But if we leave there will be no way to contact you," the Security Chief insisted.

"You have our location, you should be able to keep track of us from the ship, and once you feel it safe, you can come back and pick the rest of us up..." Daniel said, struggling to convince himself of the hastily conceived plan, let alone the others, "... Get out of sight," he finished, turning to move away before Agosta could object further, Karka and Mark Unwin caught up and the three of them headed out from their colleagues .....

Approximately Two Hours Later ::

There had been no signs of their pursuers and Schirra was beginning to be concerned that having captured T'Seng, Agosta, and the injured Reneus, they were simply waiting for any forthcoming rescue attempt, then Karka tapped him on the shoulder and pointed: In the distance, they saw the shuttle rise from the clearing and head away at tree-top level, almost out of sight it began a rapid climb through the low-lying dense cloud and out of sight.

"Well, at least they got away..." everyone spun to see Tom Weston standing watching them, "... The Mayans have made camp approximately three, maybe four kilometres behind us. I saw what you were doing and headed off in the opposite direction, I was less than 'careful' hiding my tracks, and they followed me instead of you until one of them realised their mistake," the Tactical Officer said with a shrug.

"I think we should press on, put as much distance between us and them while they are sat on their haunches," Unwin suggested.

"No ..... We'll rest up for a few hours before continuing on..." Daniel decided, "... Besides, trying to get through this forest is bad enough in the day, and as we've seen, almost impossible without even moonlight to help," He instructed Karka, Mark and Tom to rest while he kept watch for any signs of their pursuers. Having been relieved by his Exec' he too managed an hour of restless sleep. As they readied themselves to continue Mark stopped dead in his tracks, turning to look behind them, he urgently asked the others to be quiet!

Crouching, everyone strained to hear the slightest noise as Unwin took several paces into the treeline, emerging seconds later, a wide grin on his face and a communicator in one hand.

"Looks like they finally managed to overcome the atmospheric issues," he said as he handed the device to Daniel. Schirra flicked open the communicator and spoke in almost a whisper:

=^= Schirra to Excalibur .. .. Schirra to Excalibur .. .. .. =^=

=^= Excalibur to Away Team .. .. Good to hear your voice Captain =^= Sarah Wentworth replied, sounding clearly relieved through the crackling of interferrence.

=^= You have transporters functioning? =^= Daniel replied hastily.

=^= Not fully Captain .. .. That was the fifth communicator we tried to get to you .. All the others didn't erm fare too well .. But we're working on it .. .. =^= the Operations COfficer replied.

=^= Comms are scratchy =^= Schirra said, trying to adjust the gain for better reception

=^= Yes Sir .. We managed to deploy a subspace transceiver in the lower mesosphere .. We're using that to bounce communications .. If we bring the ship any closer we have problems maintaining a stable orbit =^=

=^= OK .. .. We're going to continue to put some distance between us and the Mayans .. Can you check the area well ahead of us .. Try to find a suitable rendezvous point where we can be picked up? =^=

=^= We'll scan ahead and get back to you =^=

=^= Understood .. Schirra out =^= he snapped the communicator closed and then threw it to Karka, who pushed it into a pocket. With a glance skywards, silently thankful that their stay here might be shorter than first thought, he moved off ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

Waiting out the rest of the night and eventually finding their way through the undergrowth of the quasi-jungle, they'd reached the river, downstream of which was a vast alluvial plain under intensive farming. In the distance, small stick-like figures of Mayans silhouetted against the morning sky moved slowly back and forth in the fields, rotating their crops on the land owned by the River Ruler VrLatn.

They'd had three more communications with the ship (whose arrival was still unexpected, how in the Alpha Quadrant had she found them, and where in the Alpha Quadrant were they?) via the subspace transceiver and each time a possible rendezvous point for pick-up by shuttle was defined a little more exactly.

There was a series of low hills immediately across from them, the other side of the river, and Karka gradually realised - where a flat piece of land must exist amongst them - that was the location of the rendezvous point, where d'Agosta, T'Seng or whoever else would set their shuttle down and so retrieve the rest of the strandees and their rescuers.

"It seems the ship didn't reckon on us not being able to walk on water," Unwin observed, understanding as he saw Psonoir scanning the line of hills for an opening on to a possible flat area. Karka pointed out they could swim across.

"Are you serious?" Weston gestured to the fast, localised rapids and looked back into the trees, "Captain, someone's approaching." They were crouched by the very river edge. As soon as Schirra had begun to turn around, a dozen poison-tipped arrows ripped through the quasi-jungle and fell amongst the Starfleeters. There was a cry of pain and a redshirted officer twisted round as he fell; the group realised Unwin had been struck on the shin.

Ducking behind what cover they could find, Karka used the same phaser as before - now of necessity returned to a standard setting having burnt out its wide-beam function - to lay down fire into the trees.

Smoke from the phaser blasts rose and dissipated and eventually a voice was heard, "Outsiders... Or may we say, the concept seems so original though I had suspected such things, offworlders! You will surrender yourselves to us!" the voice of the ajaw, using the royal 'we' once again, rang through the shrubbery towards the wide stream. "Offworlders, we saw your flying machine ascend at dusk. You will teach us of the ways of your own world that lies in the heavens, of the key to your wondrous devices and machines. My Advisor continues to deny its use, but we must add your experience and knowledge to our vast archive; if you would only show yourselves from behind those boulders, we will lead you back to Narinje, in security, honour and peace!"

The four of them remained ensconced behind their separate cover, Karka hoping Unwin was obscured enough - the engineer lay on his side, wincing and stopping himself from crying out as scarlet fluid seeped between his fingers gripping his right leg. He'd snapped off the arrow's shaft but the poisoned tip lay buried beneath the skin.

"Perhaps he wants what information we have," Karka whispered, "But would we be alive once he'd he finished with us? I doubt it."

Obviously they couldn't acquiesce to the ajaw's demands even in the extraordinary event that he may spare them, as the Prime Directive would've been breached most blatantly. "Well... the properties of the atmosphere only interfere with signals coming from above it, correct?" Daniel whispered; Unwin and Weston nodded. "Then the Excalibur can send the shuttle down into those hills and the shuttle can beam us aboard, across from this side of the river."

"We'll need to comm the Excal again," Karka pointed out, and Daniel proceeded to flip open the communicator while Psonoir and Weston tried to think of a way to distract the Mayans during the comm, any interval and the shuttle's descent...

[Daniel Schirra]

"..... Offworlders, we saw your flying machine ascend at dusk. You will teach us of the ways of your own world that lies in the heavens, of the key to your wondrous devices and machines. My Advisor continues to deny its use, but we must add your experience and knowledge to our vast archive. If you would only show yourselves from behind those boulders, we will lead you back to Narinje, in security, honour and peace!"

While the Ajaw was speaking, the Federation Officers were discussing options, or the lack thereof .....

"Well... the properties of the atmosphere only interfere with signals coming from above it, correct...?" Daniel whispered, Unwin and Weston, nodded. "... Then the Excalibur can send the shuttle down into those hills and the shuttle can beam us aboard, across from this side of the river?"

"We'll need to comm the Excalibur again," Karka suggested, nodding Daniel retrieved his communicator:

=^= Schirra to Excalibur .. .. .. =^=

=^= Excalibur .. Go ahead Captain =^= Sarah Wentworth replied from the centre seat. Quickly Schirra relayed the plan to the ship, the Operations Officer pointing out the Prime Directive issue, but given the natives had already witnessed a shuttle leaving for orbit, the point she was trying to make was somewhat moot. She informed Schirra that they were in low orbit and would dispatch a shuttle as they came around the Planet.

"..... fail to see why you would wish to resist our proposal," the Ajaw was saying as Daniel returned the communicator to his sleeve pocket as an idea occurred to him:

"You must be aware that we cannot gift you any technology you are still unable to produce yourselves Ajaw ..... But I do have a proposal of my own for you to consider if you will listen?"

"Speak," the Ruler said. Daniel looked over at the others and then continued:

"If you will agree to allow my Officers to leave the area unmolested, I will surrender myself to you ..... They cannot tell you anything I can't, so holding them is fruitless,"

"Hmm, I believe that my holding them would be 'advantageous' to me, rather than as you say, fruitless, do you not think?"

"No ..... You obviously think that holding one or more of us will encourage the remainder to relent and give you what you ask for, but I tell you now, that will not happen. We are duty-bound by certain regulations. One such regulation - Starfleet General Order One - Our Prime Directive - Is there to not only protect us but to ensure the natural development of any species we encounter. It's something that is set in stone Ajaw,"

"I have found that on occasion, 'rules' can and do get broken. I do not wish to resort to threatening you and your friends, but time is short, and my patience is not boundless,"

"Then we have a problem," Schirra replied, lowering himself behind cover once more.

"You know he'll send his people over here, we can't fight them all off Captain," Lieutenant Weston said as Karka gave out a whimper of pain. Looking over at his injured Exec' Daniel wondered how long whatever toxin the Mayan were using would take to irreparably affect his friend. He glanced skywards, half hoping to see the shuttle pass overhead, but no such luck!

Daniel was about to reply when a volley of blow darts slammed into the surrounding trees, they could hear the 'thwacks' as the long needle-like projectiles hit around them. It was clear the Ajaw wasn't going to relent ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

Still sheltering behind the boulders and waiting for their sign from the skies, the landing party and its remaining rescuees tried to decide how to approach the matter of the ajaw's ultimatum. The city-state ruler's elite Mayan archers were tightening the noose, each of them knowing the lay of the land of the quasi-jungle and moving laterally to get better lines of sight on the beleaguered Starfleeters and slowly surround them.

"I'll give myself up to them," Unwin was saying, the tip of the poisoned arrow still buried in his shin, "If what Caryna said was true, the Mayans won't dispose of an impure victim. In other words, they won't make a sacrificial slaughter of someone stained by their own blood. The ajaw will leave you; you'll have some respite and then the shuttle will come down."

Karka shook his head and was about to reply when Daniel offered, "No, 'His Divinity' has already said he won't accept just one of us... Apparently we're all going back to his blasted city."

"Sand-blasted city," Weston remarked and earned an incredulous stare.

"I suggest we make a run for it," Karka said. The others looked at him from their respective places of cover, silently asking if he'd care to elaborate. "If we can traverse the jungle edge this side of the river down towards the alluvial plains - and away from the ajaw upstream of course - we could make it to a piece of land larger and flatter than that behind those hills over there," he gestured at the other side of the rapids. "The shuttle will identify us on its way down and make landing on the alluvium."

"No river to cross, and a shuttle on our door-step. I like it," Weston replied.

Psonoir grimaced - the issue would be escaping from the ajaw's men; surely they'd know their quarry had left its places of cover and that its most likely course would take it downstream; quite possibly they could outpace the Excalibur officers in their flight, particularly when they had a lamed Unwin to drag along.

Karka sighed in spite of himself as Schirra approved his plan, supposing that was it for them and the Mayan world. He would've liked to have talked with the ajaw - if the young man could've been freed from his cruelty and capriciousness - about what knowledge he'd obtained of his primitive world's customs and its peoples. The Hybrudeans knew next to nothing about this planet, it lying outside the Archival Core's field of interest which mainly consisted of research into post-industrial and warp-capable societies (of no earlier than about the 17th century and no later - of course - than the 31st, the temporal limit of the Hybrudeans' time-travelling capacity). Perhaps he and the ajaw could've found common ground, the Mayan's own, almost pitiably innocent curiosity and Karka's quest for universal knowledge - representative of his species - just possibly allowing for a basic understanding.

As it was the Narinje ruler was a sadistic, spoilt brat and regardless of what qualities he may possess they simply had to get away from him and his ilk as fast as they could.

As they made their way downstream on the left bank, keeping just inside the tree-line to allow them some meagre cover, their sole communicator now carried by Psonoir chirped; he flipped it open. He'd taken point. He gazed ahead, estimating the four of them had about 5 kilometres to go til they reached the new potential landing site. =/\=Excalibur to Captain Schirra. We've launched the shuttle and its on the way down to you now, sir. Lieutenant T'Seng commanding, Ensign Scamacci as pilot. Reneus is still out of action.=/\= The comm was broken up by static due to the interaction of the exotic particles in the stratosphere but the sense was clear enough.

=/\=This is Psonoir. We acknowledge. Relay to Scamacci he should bring the craft down on the left bank, 4.75, maybe 4.5 kilometres downstream from our location, the best you can estimate.=/\= The Excalibur acknowledged. None of them had time to pause and sigh with relief at the news...

"There they are!" they heard the guttural voice of a native.

Karka looked back briefly; his eyes widened and he picked up the pace; the ajaw and about 50 of his troops - spearmen and archers - were in pursuit along the river edge - the 10 or so leading spears, lowered and held between arm and body, about 200 metres away. The Mayans started to sprint, evidently aiming to rip through the four officers with their spears as soon as they overtook them.

Weston brought up the rear with Schirra supporting Unwin in the centre; Schirra passed Unwin into the care of Weston and when the tactical officer protested the CO shoved him in the back towards where Karka was continuing to lead them in their flight. The CO now covered the retreat with the group's one barely working phaser.

=/\=Shuttle Belize inbound! What, you want us to choose a new landing point?=/\= hearing Koni's voice and seeing the shuttlecraft dart through the air above was most welcome.

Karka glanced back at Schirra who was trying to hold back the Mayans with occasional phaser fire, run backwards and find cover where he could. All the same the tips of the spears were drawing closer; arrows describing ballistic trajectories landed amongst the four of them.

=/\=Yes, Lieutenant,=/\= Karka responded, =/\=I assume your pilot received the Excal's information. We're about 2 kilometres away from a viable site... It's irrigated farmland, a little uneven and a number of workers, but it will have to do... Hurry.=/\=

[Daniel Schirra]

Daniel had tried to keep their pursuers talking ..... The last thing he needed was to find out that two of their party - Koni had taken the injured john Reneus and had managed to escape to a location where they could be picked up .....

Without the injured Navigator, the group was making better time but still only just holding off their pursuers when Karka's communicator chirped to life, Daniel halted their progress and listened:

=^=Excalibur to Captain Schirra .. We've launched the shuttle and it's on the way down to you now Sir .. Lieutenant Commander T'Seng commanding, Ensign Scamacci as pilot .. Reneus is aboard the Excalibur but still out of action =^= The comm was broken up by static due to the interaction of the exotic particles in the stratosphere but the sense was clear enough.

=^= This is Psonoir .. We acknowledge .. Relay to Scamacci he should bring the craft down on the left bank four point five to four point seven five kilometres downstream from our location .. The best you can estimate =^= The Excalibur acknowledged. None of them had time to pause and sigh with relief at the news as they realised they had been found yet again. Karka glanced back at Schirra who was trying to hold back the Mayans with occasional phaser fire, run backwards and find cover where he could. All the same, the tips of the spears were drawing closer; arrows describing ballistic trajectories landed amongst the four of them. During the ensuing attack, they saw the shuttle pass overhead and Psonoir's communicator again chirped to life:

=^= Shuttle Belize inbound! What, you want us to choose a new landing point?=^= hearing Koni's voice and seeing the shuttlecraft dart through the air above was most welcome.

=^= Yes .. Lieutenant .. I assume your pilot received Excalibur's information .. We're about two kilometres away from a viable site .. It's irrigated farmland .. A little uneven and a number of workers, but it will have to do .. .. Hurry =^=

=^= Understood =^=

Aboard Takayama Type Shuttlecraft Belize, Koni watched as they passed over the location of their colleagues, this close to the surface scans could easily make out individuals so they could see how close the Mayans were. Three were within fifteen metres while the remained of the chasers were still approximately sixty metres away... Making a decision, she turned to Ensign Scamacci:

"Drop us to two hundred meters and bring us around for another pass approximately equidistant between the Away Team and the pursuing Mayans,"

"Commander?" the young Pilot queried.

"Now, Ensign ....." Koni said as she brought the ventral weapons array online. After a second's hesitation, he turned and began to lose height relative to the high treetops. T'Seng activated manual targeting on the weapons array and waited.

"Commander, with all due respect, you can't open fire on the natives, they are a pre-wa ....."

"Ensign, they have already seen what one of our phasers can do, they have also seen a shuttle launch..." Koni said patiently as she watched the targeting screen, "... I don't intend to obliterate the indigenous population, just give them pause for concern. I'm setting output at fifteen percent, that should scorch a few trees and frighten the living daylights out of any Mayans heading for our people,"

Belize came around onto the heading T'Seng had requested and ignoring the disapproving glances of Scamacci, she watched the readings closely. A thousand metres from the Away Team she fired!

Daniel heard the shuttle first and turned, Karka, Caryna, Mark Unwin and Tom Watson following suit as a beam of almost pure energy lanced from the shuttle and slammed into the ground roughly two hundred metres from them. The beam cut trees in half like the proverbial red-hot knife through butter. Severed branches fell to the ground, on her sensors she could see the Mayan pursuers scattering left and right from the targeted area. Unfortunately, even allowing for the reduced output, the beam had cut a one hundred fifty metres long, two-metre-wide swathe through the dense dry wood, causing most in the target area to burst into flames which began to spread quickly!

"Well ..... That certainly went well," Scamacci said, the sarcasm obvious.

"I congratulate you on your uncanny ability to state the blindingly obvious... ENSIGN!..." Koni snapped back, silencing the man. Scanning the area she could see the Away Team hadn't moved, but following the initial terror, the Mayans were now regrouping approximately three hundred meters on the other side of the scorched swathe, "... Come around once more, pass over the Away Team slowly on a heading for the clearing we saw,"

Without replying, Scamacci reduced speed and turned the shuttle. As it approached the Away Team Koni tapped the comlink to speak to them:

=^= Belize to Captain .. We have located several small buildings approximately fifteen hundred metres from you on a head of two-five-five degrees .. We are flying over on that heading .. The Mayans have regrouped and are closing on you =^=

=^= Understood Belize .. .. .. =^= Karka replied before the comm snapped off.

"Take us to the new rendezvous location," Koni instructed ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

Karka listened to Koni's comm and spun to where she'd indicated. At first he couldn't see a great deal but soon saw a group of buildings indeed nestled against the forestry slightly behind them and way off to their left. The rising steam from the river and the smoke rising from where the shuttle had scored its deep line obscured the clutch of single storey white structures piled atop one another towards the raised edges of the quasi-jungle.

"How about it?" he looked back at Schirra and Weston who had helped Unwin into the cover of a series of boulders as arrows scattered behind them.

Schirra agreed and Karka was diffident, at first not able to see why the structures made such a good rendezvous besides them being much closer than their earlier target of the irrigated flatlands and bewildered farmers - stick-men having stopped in their work seeing the havoc that'd been let loose upstream.

Eventually he realised, as the Excal officers made their approach up the shallow slope towards the structures, that one building was large enough - and presumably of sufficient structural integrity by Koni's judgement - that a shuttlecraft might fit on its flat roof.

They were about 30 metres distant from the squat main structure when they took cover behind some ferns, trying to espy anyone who might be up there. Climbing on the building wouldn't prove a problem, as there was what appeared to be a rather rickety but functional ladder laid against one bleached wall.

"It's either some small hamlet or quarters for probably indentured farmers. Or some sort of retreat for just one person, part of the riverfolk's aristocracy, perhaps, maybe even VrLatn himself," Karka suggested.

"I'd say more likely some aristocrat, if it is an off-season residence," Daniel said, "This area is supposed to be right on the boundary between VrLatn's and the ajaw's territories. Why would the River Ruler himself, VrLatn, station himself here?"

Talk of VrLatn reminded Karka of Captain Orlov of the York who they'd left in VrLatn's custody. He hoped the lamed York CO was alright and VrLatn hadn't exacted vengeance on him for the escape of the rest of the Starfleet officers... Orlov had been in VrLatn's service for a good while; at some point in the future when the Excal officers could, and assuming they made it away themselves, they'd come back for the York captain.

"Koni's coming in to land already!" Weston observed between seeing to Unwin's leg injury, "We have to get up there before the Mayans make it through the breach she's made..."

Karka for one readily agreed. He hadn't much liked the idea of heading back towards the Mayans - at however oblique an angle - in trying to make for this new rendezvous point. They were already back in visual range of the ajaw's soldiers who were clambering through the 150 x 2 metre trench down by the river, shouting at one another in their Mayan dialect, trying to calm themselves and restore order at the same time as they stumbled on even more frantically.

Climbing out of the last of the shrubbery, the group stepped up to the very building that'd been their target. The Belize's hover impulse was screaming gently as it kicked up dust and caused vibrations in the nearby foliage around the building. The craft was settling on to the roof of the structure. "Well then, up the ladder!" Schirra announced.

Karka ducked round the right side of the building that held the ladder and flattened himself against the white-painted limestone wall. For as Daniel had spoke a Mayan had emerged from the building and took aim with some strange object. A jagged and uncertain phaser beam had shot from it! "In the name of the River Ruler, you will surrender yourselves!" the firing Mayan intoned.

Orlov and Ward had already provided VrLatn with prototypes then... No one had been hit; Weston and Karka were about to climb the ladder, Schirra and Unwin were near the enclosing foliage and had a short way to go; apparently the Mayan phaser was one-shot only as the riverfolk Mayan and three of his compatriots had stepped out of the structure and grabbed spears, running towards them.

The shuttlecraft had settled on the top of the building and with a hiss the side hatch came open. Koni emerged and hurried to the roof's edge, quickly locating the ladder and helping the climbing Weston on to the top of the structure.

Karka ascended the ladder while kicking a spear free from a Mayan's grasp. From wanting to flee, Psonoir now hoped the ajaw's spearmen would catch up and be obliged to tackle their riverfolk enemies.

"Into the craft," Koni indicated as she helped him on to the roof. She looked towards where Schirra was trying to shepherd the limping Unwin away from the riverfolk emerging from the building and towards the ladder.

Karka was happy to oblige and slotted into the seat at the tertiary console which gave readouts on comms, sensors and engines.

"Hold it, Ensign..." he said with slight amusement as he saw Scamacci's hand hovering above the helm controls, ready to gun the Belize's hover-lift and forward thrust as soon as he could.

[Daniel Schirra]

Daniel was still scrambling through the last of the undergrowth when he saw the others clambering up the ladder towards the slowly descending Shuttlecraft .....

"Up the ladder!" he instructed as something caught his eye. Spinning, he saw one of the Mayans exit the building, he was carrying some form of contraption Daniel couldn't identify ..... Before he could react, a jagged beam lanced across the open space, slamming into the treeline behind them. One tree disintegrated and several burst into flames as the Mayan again lifted the 'Frankensteined' phaser rifle once again, frustrated when he couldn't fire a second time.

"Into the craft!" Koni shouted as a spear passed by her head by mere centimetres.

They suddenly realised that the building the shuttle was resting on was less stable than first thought as Belize tilted ten degrees to Port, cracking sounds emanated from the roof as beams splintered. Scamacci was about to hit the thrusters when Karka told him to hold. Daniel was the last to scramble through the hatch, a spear slamming into the opposite bulkhead as it too entered the craft!

"What're we waiting for?" Schirra asked as he moved for'ard.

"That ....." Iorte said pointing at the adjacent building ..... Stood atop the structure was a Mayan, clambering up to join him were several others, it was the one of those that got their attention - Captain Gregor Orlov! - The former Captain of the USS York, initially a prisoner, had undoubtedly been a willing participant in arming the Mayans. Now, he was standing beside one of VrLatn's men pointing at the device the Mayan was holding, it was another of the makeshift phaser rifles!

At this distance, there was very little likelihood that the man would miss, as to what damage the weapon could do, no one could say.

"SHUT DOWN THE ENGINES!" Orlov shouted.

"We can't hand the shuttle over to him Captain," Scamacci said defiantly as he brought the weapons array back online.

"Hold on Ensign..." Karka ordered, eyeing the younger man. Finally, Scamacci moved his hand away from the console and waited as the Exec' turned to Schirra, "... I have to agree with the Ensign, Captain,"

Daniel was looking out through the liquid aluminium screen at the small group that had gathered both on the rooftop and surrounding buildings. Orlov was standing approximately twenty degrees to Port. They were watching as another joist snapped, tilting the shuttle another five degrees, everyone knew that it was a matter of seconds before they, and the shuttlecraft, plunged into the building ending any thoughts of lifting off successfully.

"Ensign, increase thrust on the Port manoeuvering thrusters, just enough to level us up," Daniel ordered, eyes still on the Youk's Commanding Officer.

The increased thrust began to throw dust and debris away from beneath the craft, Schirra could see Orlov watching them closely as he lifted the phaser rifle to his shoulder but held-off firing, clearly realising that the Federation Officers were trying only to save their shuttle rather than escape. That said, Daniel had no doubts that he 'would' fire on them if the shuttle lifted more than a metre off the roof in an attempt to escape, so he instructed Scamacci to hold their position for a few seconds, then move the shuttle slowly forward until it could touch down unhindered.

"Sir?" the confused Ensign commented. Schirra repeated the order and then turned back to watch how Orlov would react. The last thing he wanted to do was fire on the rooftop, but he wasn't ruling out the possibility he may need to do so.

At one metre off the ground, Daniel told Scammaci to maintain position as he moved back into the rear of the shuttle and then after a moment's hesitation, opened the door:

"I can't allow you to have the shuttle Captain!"

"Land and disembark immediately ..... Or I will be forced to open fire ..... Be warned Captain 'this' weapon is shall we say an 'UPGRADE' on my first attempt!" Orlov shouted above the noise of the shuttle's engines.

"You think he's bluffing?" Unwin asked ..........