Wayward

Dreams

     Tib looked down at Lark's floor. He was really hoping what he was about to say wasn't going to make him sound crazy. "Tib, are you ok?," Lark asked starting to become even more worried. Tib took a deep breath "I've been seeing things," he said looking back up at Lark. Lark stared back at him not saying anything. "As soon as we got here this figure started appearing in my dreams," Tib said as he looked out the quarters window to the planet. "A figure like a person or.....," Lark said trailing off. "An apparition of sorts," Tib said, "I honestly believe it's connected to this place." "Well why is this so important," Lark asked as she started to think Tib really was starting to crack under the stress of his new commanding role. "Because as soon it started appearing in my dreams everything has gone wrong on this leg of the Project," Tib said trying to convey his concern, "the landing incident, the survey ship crash, all of it." Lark sat back she was starting to see why he was concerned, but she couldn't let him continue without telling him about Kelvin. "Tib...," she trailed off again, "Kelvin was on the missing ship." "Officers meeting starting soon, please begin making your way to conference hall one," Tib and Larks' comm both chirped. Tib stood up and started walking to the door keeping his feelings in check. Lark followed after him and met him at the door. "There's something you're not telling me," Lark said knowing the look in Tib's eyes. "It told me that we were all going to die out here, that we can't escape it," Tib said as turned back from her and opened the door. Now Lark knew why it was bothering him so much. "Why didn't you tell me this sooner?," Lark said as her and Tib exited her quarters. "To be honest I didn't think anyone would believe me," Tib answered. "Why did no one tell me that Kelvin was on that survey ship?," he asked with a sort of eerie calm. "Because Zo wanted me to tell you, Tib," Lark explained as they headed to the nearest lift with footfalls echoing through the empty corridor. "I'm sorry," she said softly. Tib was fully focused now though as he hoped the telemetry from the probe sent to the crash site had returned with something useful. Lark pressed the call button and stood not really knowing what to say. "Well maybe we won't get any bad news in this brief," Tib said as they entered the lift. They both remained quiet as the lift started up. "So why did you decide to tell me about the dreams, Tiberius?," Lark questioned. Tib was taken aback for a second hearing his full name used form Lark. "Because I trust you more than anyone else here, Lark," Tib said. Lark didn't know what to say back to that. She couldn't believe Tib would trust her that much, even though they had spent some time growing up together and the time they spent at the Academy together. Believing Tib would just blindly trust her without a second thought was hard for Lark to believe. She knew he trusted her more than most people but she had believed Tib's introverted lifestyle would put an inevitable limit on that. The lift hissed as it began to slow to a crawl and eventually stopped. Lark and Tib both stepped out into the corridor hub as soon as the lift doors opened. Lark noticed Tib staring out into the massive viewport which was now mostly covered by one of the ships nacelles orbiting within the drive ring. "What's wrong Tib," she said coming to a stop beside him. "At first I noticed the drive ring was moving pretty slow, even for it, but then...," he trailed off. "But then?," Lark questioned concerningly. "Something doesn't feel right," Tib said. He was feeling a sense of urgency. A sense of a new and present danger as he felt like he had looked the planet in its core. "It's probably nothing to worry about, Tibby, now come on, we've got to get to the conference," Lark said with a pull on his uniform jacket. But things didn't go back to normal for Tib as they started down the corridor to the next lift. His anxiety had taken over as suddenly hisses from the conduits became a creature just out of sight. He could swear that the eyes on the propaganda posters hung throughout the halls followed him. Tib's overactive mind started to blur images of the crew of the Endeavour with the proudly hung photographs. He had that feeling deep inside him again. Something was really wrong, and he couldn't tell if it was him or the universe.

"As you can see, the impact site saw a large spike in activity, even hours after," Lt. Haxon, the Ragnus's intelligence officer announced to the conference of officers while flipping through stills and recordings sent back by the probe. "Scans sent back by the probes show hostile wildlife did, in fact, cause severe casualties, however, there are signs of life leading into the surrounding forest." This was a glimmer of hope that some of Tib's people, and at least with a little luck, Kelvin, had made it out. Tib was sitting quietly taking in still images of the alien planet with rekindled hope that some of his people were still out there. He was surrounded by some officers he recognized, some he remembered, and some he knew wouldn't bother learning the names of. He was calmed by the fact that Lark was beside him, although being in the same room with the arrogant Maxwell made his blood boil. "Can we find these survivors if they're still out there?," questioned Admiral Maxwell. Tib knew the Terran Navy's protocol probably better than the Admiral himself and he knew this whole ordeal was preventable. In fact it was grounds for a court martial since it didn't follow regulations and everyone else in this room knew at least that. "Not unless another dropship is sent," Haxon said looking the Admiral dead in the eyes and shaking his head. On hearing that an idea popped in Tib's head. An idea he hoped would come to fruition. "The first Wayward Scenario of the Triangulum Project and it's the 'pride of fleets' fault," Admiral Maxwell said with irritation, "I thought our flight engineers could at least keep a dropship engine stable." He had no idea of what Tib's corps of engineers were capable of nor did he know the first thing about keeping a engine contained Tib thought to himself. The Admiral's jab and his nonchalant attitude made the anger that was already seething in Tib, who had sat quietly through the briefing, come out. "With all do respect Admiral," Tib began, leaning forward over the table, "you sent my men to die there." Lark snapped her head over to him in surprise, along with Maxwell, who didn't expect this sort of thing from the usually quiet Tib. "Tib do-," Lark said before being cut off by the now enraged Tib. "You had no right!," Tib said shouting at Maxwell and slamming a fist on the conference table. Several other officers murmured in agreement. "We have probes for a reason, so explain to me why you sent down good people without doing a hostile life-form scan," Tib continued, now standing up from his chair, "this isn't the bloody Exploration Age, we don't just send a shuttle of expendables down to a hostile planet anymore!" "That is enough, Frazier, sit down or you are relieved of duties!," shouted the pompous Maxwell whose face was now red with anger and embarrassment that one of his senior officers would act like this. The officer in Tib made him obey orders while staring the admiral in his eyes. Tib sat back down, but the fire inside him was far from quelled, as things began to tune out for him. "You may continue with your presentation, Mr. Haxon, I will deal with any insubordination after this conference has convened," Maxwell announced while looking around at his senior officers, making sure to quickly meet all of their gazes. Tib was far away in thought though as he went over the past weeks events in his head over and over again. Every now and then he would catch a word or two Haxon was saying, something about the creatures that attacked the crash survivors having nine inch fangs. Weird, Tib thought to himself, almost like the ancient Smilodon, but these creatures only slightly resembled them. Then Tib noticed the ruins and the trees. The fact that these trees were purple while the foliage from up here looked green perplexed Tib. "-and here's the bodycam footage we were able to pull off of Kelvin Yalui's person, only the last few seconds were recoverable," Tib heard Haxon say in one of those moments, which caught Tib's full attention and made his heart drop. Tib started to feel hollow. He knew that at least some of his personnel had to have died, but this is the way he had to learn Kelvin was dead? Why did they care so little about their own people out here? Tib's chair seemed to swallow him as he slumped down into it while keeping his eyes locked onto the display screen. "Hello?," the recording of Kelvin's final moments said. Suddenly a sense of urgency and fear could be felt from him as he began to turn and run from seemingly nothing. Then Kelvin stopped dead in his tracks and the recording ended. "Were assuming the same creatures that killed most of the rest of the survivors were the cause of the Lieutenant Commander's death judging by the wounds and surrounding disturbance," Haxon said. Tib knew it couldn't have been, Kelvin was too analytical, too rational to just run from something that the others had been able to kill with the same weapons he was found with. He felt anxiety and panic creep through him as the thought that maybe his nightmare had claimed its first victim, or was at least already influencing events. Maybe something had really singled Tib out. Maybe they really were going to die out here. He could picture the Ragnus's wayward report now. Tib's mind couldn't get "wayward" out of his head. If a ship was deemed "wayward," or missing in the vastness of space, it meant usually death for most of, if not all of the personnel involved, including recovery efforts. He thought about that for the rest of the conference, even when everyone, including Lark had left the room. Everyone but Admiral Maxwell, of course. Despite Maxwell's outer snideness he really did like Tib, well, as much as someone like Maxwell could like an underling like him. It was more of a respect of quality of work; a respect of future accomplishments. Maxwell knew he was stubborn, but he also knew when he saw talent. "Tib, I expect more from you," began Maxwell," when you took this job after Katelyn's death, you were phenomenal, you ran the core better than her." Tib just sat and stared at Maxwell, awaiting his verdict, not caring for any of the emotional lashings and heartstring pulls Maxwell was trying to administer to him currently. "But you don't seem to care anymore, so maybe you and that second in command you're so fond of will find some renewed love for your job on the surface when you go down with that next recovery team," Maxwell said pointing at the view screen showing the planet, while looking at Tib. A smirk formed on his face. That little idea of his had just come to fruition. "What's so funny Tiberius," Maxwell said with annoyance. "Frankly Sir, Tib said through a laugh, "that's what I was going to ask for," jumping out of his seat and almost through the door, knowing Maxwell couldn't force him to stay, now that he had received his "punishment." 

    "Tibby, why do you always find a way to rope me into things?," Lark said through Tib's bedroom PA system. "Guess I just have that natural charm to me," he laughed. "Fine, well look, we can talk about this more in the morning," Lark said, "I have reports to file, so goodnight," Lark said, followed by a beep signaling the end of transmissions. He felt a little irritated by her just hanging up, but he knew she would see him in the morning anyways. Sleep came fast for Tib, who was really beginning to feel the effects of today's work on him. As darkness crept into his head, so did images. Suddenly it seemed as a flash of light had grabbed his subconscious, pulling him down with the weight of a thousands suns into a much clearer view of the foggy pictures running through his head. Images of a chaotic and unfathomable place filled his view. Formless figures were everywhere as Tib tried to wake up from something he wouldn't consider a nightmare but also something he wouldn't consider a pleasant dream. Tib closed his eyes and found he was on the planet below, in a city that was full of hundreds of aliens of a species he had never seen before. He looked to his left, amongst the buildings, and  saw a familiar shape come through a purple nexus almost like a portal. It was being worshiped by a group of the strange looking aliens which seemed to be doing some sort of ritual, but he couldn't focus on that or that he had never seen any beings that looked like this before. The only thing he could focus on was the dark fog rolling around a figure he was beginning to feel followed him everywhere. In a flash he was surrounded by the chaos and screams of war, standing knee deep in an impact crater. Tib saw he was in the middle of plateau looking down into a battlefield where the ghostly figure led an attack on another alien species. He stood in awe as it and its forces showed no mercy as they tore viciously through the enemy ranks. He hardly had the time to take in the sight as an another soul-ripping jump took him to the same city he was in before, only this time, it lay in ruin. He saw the figure standing in the middle, it's ghostly form whipping like a vapor as it turned to meet his gaze. In a flash, like before the figure was over him, only this time, to Tib's horror, his quick glances side to side revealed they were now in his quarters. "Remember Tiberius," it said with a grin, "You Humanoids Are Nothing But Toys To Us." Tib wanted to ask the figure why it would show him this in this time of seemingly almost peace. Tib slowly worked up the courage to ask it this before he realized the figure wasn't making this display of its past to just have some backstory. It wanted him to fear it, to be in awe or it. Tib's face began to show the terror creeping back up inside of him. "What are you?," he yelled, abandoning his original question. "You Already Know," it said with a devilish grin. Tib jolted awake and quickly looked around his room to find he was alone. His mind was a cluster of nothing and everything at the same time as a million things ran through it. Was it their god? Did it destroy them? What was that portal? The foremost thought in his mind, however, was that he was safe from his captor, for now.