Within

Posted on Mon Aug 10th, 2026 @ 2:00pm by Lieutenant Kailani Young & Lieutenant Drake Yarrow

1,294 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Mission 9 - Unearthing Life
Location: Somewhere
Timeline: MD03 - Morning

Drake unfurled himself from Kailani and stretched slightly. He watched her for a moment and wondered if she had awakened from that. However, just looking at her, a bit of sand attached to her, hair slightly tangled, and her curves just begging for his attention, he had to wonder how fortunate that he was that the Avian pollen had put them together so soon. However, nature called and reluctantly, he started walking down the beach to find somewhere private to relieve himself.

Kailani groaned as she rolled over on her side. She felt sand against her hip and pushed herself up to look around. "Drake?" she called after him, after a moment. She reached for her bathing suit.

Hearing Kailani's voice, he called back, "One moment!" He finished with nature's call and noticed a glint in the distance. What's that? He trotted back to where Kailani was and asked with a mischievous smile, "Do you really have to put that back on?"

"For now," she said. "I feel kind of exposed just walking around like this." She peered past him. Frowning. Did she see something?

Drake looked at Kailani. "Did you see something too?" he asked her, concerned that something was wrong.

"I'm not sure," she said. "Maybe." She put the swimsuit back on.

"Did you bring anything more with you, in terms of clothing?" Drake asked. "Maybe we should go see whatever we both think we saw? It could be a fun wild goose chase. After all, it could be nothing more than the sun reflecting off a shiny rock."

"I have some shoes," she said, "and a towel."

"Don't think that the towel will help, but shoes will for any walk. You want to get them on and see what we can see?"

"Yeah," she said, even as she slid them on and moved to join him.

Drake reached out his hand to hold Kailani's. "Should we leave all of our other stuff behind? Should be OK, right? Unless some sort of animal were to take it."

She took his hand. "It'll probably be ok," she agreed hesitantly.

"There's nothing precious in there, is there?"

"Not precious," she said, "but should we leave anything if there might be something or someone unknown here?"

"Well," Drake replied thinking about it. "Scans showed nothing but animals, right? So, I suppose the worst case scenario is that we have the remainder of our food eaten and some of our clothes ripped up, right?"

"Could any of our food be toxic to the local wildlife?" she asked. "We wouldn't want to damage the ecosystem."

"I couldn't tell you," Drake responded with a shrug. "Guess we're going to have to take one risk or the other. Animals or that thing that is out there."

"We are guests on this planet," Kailani said. "Let's pick up our trash first. I'm a good girl."

Drake gave Kailani a knowing grin. "Oh, you're such a very, very good girl." His playful tone changed to a more serious one, as he said, "I'll go find some rocks. You put everything in the containers we have. Hopefully the rocks will keep any animals from getting in or trash from flying about. Good?"

"Sounds good," she agreed. She gave him a quick kiss and walked back over to the food. She bent over to pack it all in the containers.

For his part, Drake started combing the area to find the largest movable rocks that he could. Apparently, though, the beach did not have many larger rocks, probably due to erosion. He accumulated several of the largest rocks he could find, mostly fitting within his fist, and brought them to Kailani. "Best I could find," he told her apologetically.

"It'll have to do," she said, helping him place them on top of the container. "I guess we should go investigate now."

"Yes, let's go." He took Kailani's hand both because he enjoyed holding it and hoping that it would steady Kailani in her less than sturdy clothing and shoes.

Kailani smiled as she took his hand. She followed him.

The walk took the pair about a half a day but eventually they found an entrance to a cavern right along the waters. The same glint continued to reflect off the water as they got there. However, upon getting to the entrance, it was gone. Drake asked, "Want to go inside and see what might be in there?"

"Could it have just been the sun?" Kailani asked, but she didn't think it was. "I guess we should."

"I agree." Drake started towards the center of the cave and the moment that he looked like he was about to enter, bounced off something invisible and fell on his behind. "Well, that certainly had a kick...."

"It must be a forcefield," Kailani started the obvious. "We really should have brought tricorders." She had, of course, brought her communicator. But she waited another moment for some reason she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"But there were no signs of life here," Drake protested. "Who or what would put something here?" he asked her. Thinking for a moment he said, "Why don't you feel around this forcefield in one direction and I'll go the other and we can see if we can get in? What do you say?"

"Maybe that's just because the forcefield blocks our sensors," Kailani suggests. "And sensors can't always recognize intelligence from orbit. Maybe it's not humanoid and was miscategorized as animal or plant life. That exists here."

"I just plot courses. I let you fly them," Drake replied cheekily. He started feeling around the forcefield and continued getting rebuffed by it.

She smiled at him and starting feeling along. Eventually, she found a crack in the rock. "I don't think it covers this!" she said as she pressed through. She grimaced as she scraped her thigh. "Maybe I should have brought some real clothes!"

"I promise, I'll kiss it and make it better. Besides, what fun would real clothes would have been? There was not suppsoed to be anything here, remember?" He moved over to Kailani and scraped himself on his back. "Well," he said as he rubbed his back. "The things we do to satisfy our curiosity. Still want to go on?" he asked.

"Oh, I'm sure you would," she teased him. But she nodded. "Let's." And she pushed forward, a bit more slowly now, not wanting any more scrapes.

The rocky entrance of the cave started to give way to something more smoothly created, obviously created by technology. The floor also smoothed. The moment that their feet struck the smooth area of flooring, lights came on. The source was not immediately obvious. "What do you think of this, Kailani?"

"Nothing that isn't obvious," Kailani said. "We were definitely wrong about this place." Not immediately seeing the source of the light, she started to look around. "Anyone here? We come in peace!"

After Kailani shouted, a garbled voice sounded throughout the area. On the walls, some sort of flowing golden lines appeared. Upon closer inspection, none of the lines were uniform. There were breaks and some had interconnections. Was this a form of writing, or just artistic design? A soft hum could be heard from further within.

"We come in peace," she said more gently. She lifted her hands, palms open.

Something garbled responded, but otherwise nothing changed.

Drake looked at Kailani and suggested, "Perhaps we should move further in?"

"Let's," she said, stepping deeper inside. She listened carefully.

They walked several more steps as the golden lines pulsed more vibrantly. However, they did not get far as they were soon engulfed in transporter beams....


Lieutenant Drake Yarrow
Chief Navigator
USS America

Lieutenant Kailani Young
Chief Helmsman
USS America

 

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