Existential Threat

Posted on Wed Apr 17th, 2024 @ 5:12am by Commander Kevin Lance
Edited on on Wed Apr 17th, 2024 @ 5:18pm

Mission: Flux
Location: Somewhere in the Shackleton Expanse
Timeline: Current

:on
{Lucin's Cave}

Kevin's patience had just about run out. He had wanted to punch the little man until he brought Mira back but neither threats of physical violence nor appeals to his better nature were working. Perhaps it was time for a more existential threat.

"It's your job to keep your people safe," Kevin said with a coolness he did not feel.

"Of course," Lucin replied, "I am the Protector."

"And you use this device," Kevin pointed to the pad that Mira and Kronnelti had disappeared from, "to protect your people."

"No," Lucin exclaimed, his face scrunching up in distaste at Kevin's ignorance, "This is a personal displacer. I have much larger devices to displacer our population centers."

"Where did you displace them to?"

"Its more a matter of 'when' I displaced them too," Lucin answered, then he turned to K'ner, "Please step onto the pad, young lady. I am certain that the Feasters will arrive any time now."

K'ner didn't move but Kevin ordered, "Stay where you are Lieutenant. No one else is using that pad before I do."

"Fine!" Lucin gave an exasperated sigh, "I will recalibrate the displacer for your...bulk."

"No," Kevin stated flatly.

"No? Then who do you want me to send?"

"No one," Kevin replied, "You are going to tell me how you displaced my crewmembers and how to get them back or I will destroy your device."

"With those little things?" Lucin pointed at K'ner's phaser rifle, "Don't test my patience."

Kevin's comm badge chripped. =/\= "Norris to Commander Lance." =/\=

Kevin smiled as he tapped his badge, "Good to here your voice, Commander Montgomery."

=/\= "Apologies. It took Ensign Chin sometime to isolate a carrier wave frequency that could cut through the interference from the unknown power source beneath the ground." =/\=

Kevin grabbed Lucin by the shoulder and walked to the mouth of the cave. "All is forgiven and I will make sure that the Captain is informed of Mister Chin's ingenuity. But right now, I want you to destroy a mountain."

There was a pause then =/\= "Did you say that you want us to destroy a mountain?" =/\=

"Affirmative," Kevin answered, "There is a large mountain approximately twenty kilometers to the west of my position. I want you to turn it to slag."

There was a longer pause then =/\= "Aye, Commander. Commencing attack run in thirty seconds." =/\=

Kevin planted the little man on the ground looking in the direction of the mountain. "This is preposterous. I will not be intimidated."

"Just watch," Kevin commanded.

Almost immediately after, phaser beams and photon torpedoes from the the Norris pierced the atmosphere and struck the indicated mountain. The beams superheated the exposed surface sending up blowing clouds of ash. The torpedoes plunged through the liquified rock to explode deep under ground, sending chunks of debris in all directs and exposing more of the mountain to the phaser's vaporizing blast.

Within seconds, the mountain was noticeably smaller and continued to shrink as the Norris continued to pound her target. Within minutes, the climate of the planet would be altered for years if not decades.

Lucin looked on in horror as the mountain was disintegrating before his eyes. "Stop it!" he screamed, "Make them stop!"

Kevin tapped his comm badge in a deliberate and leisurely manner, "Cease fire, Norris. I think I made my point."

Immediately, the phaser beams stopped their destruction and a few photon torpedoes changed course to explode harmlessly in the upper atmosphere.

"You're a monster!" Lucin shouted at Kevin.

"Ooohhh, not yet," Kevin said giving Lucin an evil smile, "If you don't tell me what I want to know, I will destroy this mountain and the equipment that I assume you use to displace your civilization. Then I will summon the Feasters and ensure that you are on the hors d'oeuvres course."

Lucin blanched in genuine fear, "You would destroy an entire civilization?"

Kevin leaned into the little man's face. "The way I see it," he said coldly, "You would be the one destroying your own civilization. Hardly the work of a Protector."

The man slumped. "What would you know," he asked resignedly.

"You displaced your civilization in time," Kevin asked, "When are they?"

"Approximately 1.1 million years in the past," Lucin replied. Kevin hid his shock. It wasn't long in astronomical time but the gulf when compared to a human lifespan was unimaginable.

By now, K'ner and Walker had joined them. Kevin wondered how much of the mountain's destruction they had seen and what they thought of him. Monster was too kind a name for what he would do to get Mira back.

"How do you accomplish that," Kevin pressed.

Lucin launched into a long technical explanation. Kevin had trouble understanding the mechanics behind the science but Walker was able to clarify things. Essentially, the displacer devices swapped cities for land over a million years in the past. Lucin's people would remain hidden from the Gorn for three solar cycles of the planet, more than enough time for the Gorn to lose interest and move on. Then the displacers would be used to reverse the swap.

The cities carried the displacer devices and anything and anyone within the limits to the past with them but the main control hub in Lucin's cave remained in the present as a navigation beacon. Destruction would mean that the cities would be stuck in the past without a means to return to the present.

"So why return to the present?" Kevin asked, "Why not stay in the past and avoid the Feasters forever?"

"There are no dangerous lifeform in the past," Lucin replied, "but the air is poisonous if breathed too long. We manufacture an oral medication but its effectiveness wanes over time and we have to return or face our demise."

Which would explain why the threat of destroying Lucin's cave had been so effective.

:off

Lieutenant Commander Kevin Lance
Executive Officer
USS Chuck Norris