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File #15

The underground passage seemed to continue on forever as Muraco and Yusa continued cautiously down it, with just a small flashlight to continue illuminating the way forward. Yusa's tricorder was utterly failing to navigate and map the wide twisting passages and this lead to Yusa deducing that there was possibly some kind of dampening field which was negating the use of their technological advancements.

They had been travelling for what seemed like a couple of hours, discovering one dark and dank stone passage after another. Before they had completed their descent, Muraco had reminded Yusa to re-enter the frequency they had used to open the vast passage under the crystal spire and close it.

It was his hope that the residents of Warrior's Rest would not be able to find their way in or even know where they had gone. It would provide them with relative safety...

For now...

However both of them could not stay in these passages indefinitely and as the passages seemed to continue with no end in sight, Muraco wondered if they could run out of provisions and die down here, leaving two skeletal corpses to be discovered thousands of years later when somebody else ventured down here.

It was a sobering thought and one that he continued to push to the back of his mind as he crouched down, his massive purple frame becoming more and more discomforted from the narrowness of the passages.

Yusa on the other hand had regarded these labyrinthian passages with awe, continuing to discuss with Muraco, but mainly just himself about who could have built such a complex series of tunnels and what their purpose could they be?

He had many different theories, which of course, he was more than happy to share with Muraco regardless of if he wanted to hear them or not.

After what seemed like hours of wandering aimlessly and Yusa's excessive conjecturing which contrary to Muraco's ordinary behave, he actually found somewhat soothing, reminding him that he was not experiencing this alone, they had discovered something of note.

The passage led to a huge door, made out of some alloy which Muraco was unable to immediately identify. It had a very unusual, metallic finish which seemed to appear as if rain was rippling on the surface of an ocean, with a characteristic blue hue.

"I think we've found the source of the dampening field..." retorted Yusa, in response to Muraco's casual glance back. He had come to expect Muraco's desire for an explanation with that particular expression. This experience that they had gone through together, had somehow helped them to bond considerable better then the total strangers that they had once been on the Warrior. "According to my tricorder, the field is being generated from whatever is on the other side of this door..."

Muraco put out his large purple paw. "Odd..." he thought as he continued to observe the reaction. "No reflection...". The "door" if it could be called that seemed to be almost completely liquid in appearance.

He edged his paw closer and closer towards the door until his appendage finally made contact with the door...

...passing right into it...

"Commander!" replied Yusa sharply, slapping his paw away from the door, with his darker claws. In a completely random moment in Muraco's head, he suddenly realised that the Chief Science Officer of the Warrior's appearance very closely resembled that of a goat. A non-sentient species which resided on the Federation's capital planet of Earth.

He was tempted to backhand the little goat in response to what he just did but his size would easily causing him considerable damage so he advised himself against it and remained in control of his temper.

"I was only gonna touch it!" exclaimed Muraco, pulling his hand away in shock.

Yusa continued to look unimpressed. "We don't know what this... thing is, it could have electrocuted you or poisoned you... or..."

Yusa continued to list off the ways that could have resulted in Muraco's death and Muraco found this concern to be considerably both amusing and touching on some level. His paw had passed through the material completely which lead to his assumption that this door was some kind of holographic construct and was harmless.

Only one way to test it...

Grabbing Yusa's arm while he was busy listing off the proper Starfleet Science procedures regarding investigating alien technology, Muraco pulled him easily through the rippling door, Yusa's loud and continual protests of "What are you doing!?" echoing through the passages as he was pulled through.

"What did you think you are doing!?" proclaimed Yusa on the other side of the barrier. "Do you know what that barrier could do to us? Has done to us!? I am going to put you in for disciplinary action... this is outrageous!"

Muraco found this to be a hollow threat. At the moment, he would be happy just to return to the Warrior but for all he knew, all of this was actually reality and the ship itself had long since been destroyed, keeping Muraco and Yusa in a desperate battle to understand their surroundings.

This chamber was large and was completely different from anything that either of them seen on this planet up till now.

It resembled that of some sort of control room, which consoles strewn about the room, the walls were metal and of significantly more advanced construction then both the Benamite Crystal Spire that they had discovered and the stone passages themselves.

Yusa looked around, amazed by the intricate detail of everything around him and completely so unaware of finding this down here that he immediately dropped any further complaints to Muraco about what he had just done, flipping open histricorder and discovering to his amazement that it was working again.

From this side, with his device working, he could see that the "door" had been an intricate holographic projection, similar to the ones used by Starfleet, mainly in the Holodecks of Starships and Starbases but this one was significantly more advanced, including a localised dampening field to confuddle any attempts to try to scan it with conventional equipment.

It was obvious designed to prevent people from finding this place.

"It seems you were correct..." replied Yusa solemnly, dismissing his protest but not in any way condoning Muraco's reckless actions. "It seems to be some kind of advanced holographic matrix but it doesn't use photons... curious."

On the walls of the room were several "pod-like" structures imbedded in the walls, Muraco making a mental note that they looked like the same pods they had encountered on one of the Warrior's previous missions, involving investigating an abandoned Dominion cloning facility, left behind after the end of the Dominion War.

Was it possible that this was some kind of research or medical facility?

Yusa dusted himself off and cautiously walked to one of the alien consoles which seemed to be in full operation. He wondered how an alien species was able to power anything down here. Whatever this technology was, it was definitely not Starfleet or resembling anything he had seen in Warrior's Rest.

"It seems to be alien in origin..." he announced to Muraco, who was busy examining the pods on at the far wall of the chamber. The central console that Yusa was at was circular, with some kind of advanced holographic display in the center of the circular console.

"I don't recognise any of the language and neither does the linguistic database... the closest..." Yusa's voice began to trail off as he tapped a few buttons, which had a rather simplistic design, resembling various different primary colours, especially for an alien society as advanced as this one.

He looked over his tricorder to provide the closest match to any species which had been previously encountered by Starfleet and frowned when the computer had completed its analysis.

"Iccobar..." he muttered. "I've never heard of that species before..."

His thoughts and calculations were cut short with an excitable and loud bellow from Muraco, who was on the far side of the room.

"Yusa!"

Yusa rushed off the console to join him, leaving his tricorder sat on the top of the console. When he reached where Muraco was standing, he looked up in shock.

Inside one of the pods was somebody they both recognised, a man who they both had come to respect and trust.

"How is that possible!?" exclaimed Yusa

As far as both of them knew, he had been on the Warrior, fighting for his life which Doctor Tao had already told Muraco that he had unfortunately lost and here they were, staring at the body of the their Captain.

Captain Alexander Greyfell...