Lone Survivor
Posted on Sun Sep 14th, 2025 @ 7:50pm by Lieutenant Commander Harrison Knox & Chief Petty Officer Gildran Trusk & Lieutenant Stormy Knight & Captain Rylan Gray
2,138 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission: A Silence of Friends
The transporter beam dissolved into darkness and stone. Lieutenant Commander Harrison Knox steadied himself on the uneven cavern floor, the low rumble beneath his boots reminding him that this moon was far from stable. Thin air scraped against his lungs, carrying the metallic tang of mineral dust. His wrist lamp cut a pale arc through the gloom, revealing jagged stalactites and rivulets of water trickling down the walls.
Beside him, Lieutenant Stormy Knight swept her tricorder in steady arcs. The device chirped intermittently, each sound echoing in the hollow silence. At the rear, the trio was completed with Chief Yeoman, Gildran Trusk. His presence on this away team felt more like a chaperone than anything else. Trusk had insisted on accompanying them after the last away mission Knox had spearheaded.
The Tellarite also swung a tricorder and when both his and Knight's made a synchronized detection, he spoke up “One individual,” she murmured. “The readings are faint but holding. It is still consistent with the samples you collected, Lieutenant. Source...two hundred and eighty meters ahead.”
"Good. We need to proceed with caution. They have no idea who we are and I don't want to scare them away."
Knox nodded but said nothing. Words felt too heavy here, as though speaking them aloud might collapse the cavern itself. He carried his own tricorder in one hand, phaser in the other, not certain which tool would prove more vital before this harrowing journey was over. He took a short breath. "I really hope they have the answers we need," commented Knox.
"They had better. If not, the Captain and others may very well be dead," quipped Trusk.
The passage narrowed, forcing them into single file. Their lights shimmered against shallow pools scattered along the ground. In one of them, bubbles rose lazily to the surface, releasing a hiss of noxious gas. Trusk's tricorder stuttered with static as it passed over the fumes. Trusk raised a hand to caution Knox, and together they skirted the pool, careful not to disturb its surface.
They pressed on.
The tricorder signals grew stronger, steadier. No longer just a fading blip lost in interference, this was a living being, undeniably Gurani. Trusk's features tightened with focus, though Knox could see the stubbornness behind Trusk's eyes. Weeks of sleepless nights in Sickbay had left their mark, yet his determination seemed to sharpen as they closed the distance.
At last, the tunnel bent sharply and spilled into a broad hollow chamber. The walls glittered faintly with veins of crystalline ore, reflecting their light in fractured patterns. Both tricorders chimed almost in unison.
“They...are here,” whispered Knox, lowering his device slightly. His voice stumbled not with fear, but anticipation.
Knox’s grip tightened on his phaser. Somewhere in the chamber ahead, hidden in shadow, was the source of the signal. A single life that had endured when an entire species had fallen.
He stepped forward, the sound of his boots crunching against stone far too loud in the silence. This was it, the moment they would discover whether they had found hope… or something far more dangerous, defeat in the form of a dead end.
She had been studying a vein of crystalline ore, reading its properties, when her AI companion alerted her, in Gurani, to the presence of aliens. She rose slowly and turned to face them, speaking a series of quiet commands to the AI as the trio came into view. Her expression was neutral as she turned her pale yellow and gray eyes on her visitors and waited, saying nothing. Physically unimposing, being slender and small of stature, she was dressed in what could be described as delicate body armor, form-fitted with a collar that extended up to her jawline, covering the entirety of her hands, and ending in thigh high boots, into which she tucked the device she'd been using. And while the outfit covered the majority of her body, a black body suit could be seen in the cutouts on her torso and the underside of her arms with patches of gray along the neck and traveling down the front of her body in a narrow line. She had long white hair, pulled up in a high ponytail with one tiny braid on each side, and two metal devices, a tiny silver-white triangle on her forehead and a larger, half-circle on her chin, and pointed ears that extended up and out somewhat.
Knox holstered his phaser. She was physically unimposing and he did not want the individual to feel threatened, she was already outnumbered as it were. He studied her features. She did look similar to what his brain fathomed as a living Gurani. "You are....Gurani?" he said it in a way that presented it in a hybrid fashion. It was both a statement and yet also a question. One that his eyes and their devices said was yes. "A living one," he added.
She watched the weapon first and, when the intruder finally holstered his weapon, silently signaled the AI to move to passive alert status and listened as the AI translated his words. Asking for her identification before offering his own. Was that the way of their people, she wondered, to lead with questions because their concerns outweighed any others? Or had time alone made her suspicious. Her people had always valued civility in their dealings with each other; her time in cryostasis had put her out of date with current events and with the cultures of other worlds. If this were indicative, she did not look forward to interactions.
"We're from the Federation, a collection of worlds that you may have never heard of. We're explorers, scientists, but some of my people are dying because of what we found." He turned to Knight. Stormy had a way with words, intelligent ones that he did not. His vocabulary was tactical albeit blunt at times. Hers was eloquent and precise.
And then, her question was answered. For this creature, his own concerns came first; she chose not to answer. Instead, she signaled the AI to prep her ship and began to gather up her gear, including the bag of crystal samples she had picked up. Valuable in what they could mean for her future.
Stormy held out both hands while projecting that they came in peace. She didn't know if the woman had any form of telepathy, but it wouldn't hurt. "Please wait. We mean you no harm. We need your help. We were on your world to learn more about it and the people who lived there. Our people are sick from the disease that killed your people. We're looking for a cure. For us, and for you. If you help us, we think we can make it safe for you to return to your world. Or we can help you find a new place where you no longer need to hide."
She stopped, one gloved hand wrapped around the handle of her case, and listened while the AI translated their words into her own native Gurani. Having a mental connection to Doran, the AI, had helped her more than once in her years of isolation. She pulled the device out of her boot and ordered the AI to translate for her as she spoke. She wanted to believe but the male had held a weapon on her and trust was not so easily gained. "Were you greeted when you arrived?"
Stormy nodded. This, at least, was a good sign. Or she hoped it was. "Yes. An AI named Striel. He let us look at the medical records and take DNA from a body in the morgue to help find a cure. But we need your help. And, in turn, I think we can help you as well."
Knox kept still but continued to elaborate. "Striel was all that was left there. We found no others like you, not alive at least. As Lieutenant Knight has stated we do require your help."
"Require," she repeated as the AI provided the explanation to her. She looked from one to the other, finally resting on the one who had said nothing, and nodded. "What help do you ... request?"
Stormy frowned at Knox. "We aren't going to mandate you help us. We need it, but you have a choice. We would like some blood and tissue samples from you. As I said, we have DNA and tissue samples from the morgue, but the body has been there a while. All we want is to find a cure because our people are dying. You are, as far as we can tell, the only survivor of your species. We believe that by helping us we can help you not catch this plague."
After sending a silent command to the AI, she cocked her head to the right in agreement with the request. "I will permit this," she said and stepped forward, moving towards Stormy as she signaled the AI to keep watch on the other. "What must be done?"
"I need a number of samples. Extracting them is painless," Stormy assured her. "Fluid and tissue samples, plus a series of scans."
"You may make your scans," she said. "I will provide you with the samples. I will not permit you to take them yourself." This seemed, to her mind, a reasonable compromise. As the last guardian, she had a responsibility to the future of her people, so nothing could be left to chance. Nothing.
"That is acceptable. Thank you." It was everything she hoped for, so Stormy was privately thrilled. "Is there anything we can do for you?"
"No," she said as she held out her hand to accept whatever it was they used to gather samples. What she knew combined with the AI's vast store of knowledge, gleaned in the years of wandering, would be enough for her to figure out how it worked. Hope was offered but not accepted. Hope was a dangerous thing. Hope destroyed led to despair and too much was at stake for her to let that happen. And yet, the woman seemed earnest and genuine in her desire to help. She struggled with the alien language and her own habit of silence, developed through years of isolation, to offer more. "I have ... resources."
Stormy nodded. "If we find a cure, I will pass it on to Striel." If she could. "Would that be acceptable?" She dug out a hypospray to collect blood, a Petrie dish for a tissue sample, and a vial for a saliva sample. She handed them to the woman one by one. "Hold this to your neck and press. It will collect a blood sample. This one is for tissue. The vial is for saliva."
With the AI's help, she collected the samples and passed them back one after the other though she found the process distasteful. Then again, she reminded herself, she had been alone for some time now and had, perhaps, lost the habit of doing things any other way than her own. "And this well help you?"
"Thank you. The last thing I need is a scan." Stormy held up her science tricorder. "I can simply wave this over you, or hand it to you so you can do it to yourself. Which do you prefer?"
"You may proceed," the guardian answered. She stood quietly, feet centered shoulder-width apart, waiting.
Stormy adjusted her tricorder, then ran it up and down the other woman. When she was satisfied, she verified that she had what she needed and nodded. "Thank you. On behalf of my people, I thank you for your help. We will send a message to Striel when we find a way to stop the plague."
The guardian nodded. "It is good," she said as she gathered up her gear. "I must go."
Stormy nodded. "Thank you again. And if you speak to Striel, tell him we are almost there and to give us a little more time." She felt certain that, with the fresh samples, she'd be able to make the corrections she needed for the serum to work. The difference a living sample would make was everything.
She turned to Knox. "We should go, too."
Knox nodded in agreement. "We should. Its imperative that we find a cure. Hopefully, this is our means of doing so. If we do though, I worry it will be too late to get Striel to stand down."
I need this to work. For Rylan, for the crew. We cannot afford another dead end thought Knox. Trusk stepped forward beside Knox. In this, they were unified.
"Knox to Thunderbird, three tp beam up."
The Guardian
Guran III
Lieutenant Stormy Knight
Chief Science Officer
USS Thunderbird
Lieutenant Commander Harrison Knox
Acting Captain
USS Thunderbird
Chief Petty Officer Trusk
Chief Yeoman
USS Thunderbird
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