The Unlikeliest of Influences - 21104.01

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By Tyra Crawford

The bar was loud as Tyra clicked her beer bottle against the table she was sitting at as she turned her attention back to her two drinking companions, close friends, and former colleagues.

Isabel David raised an eyebrow in silent question and Tyra smirked in response, knowing exactly what Izzy was asking – which was whether they should continue their mischievous assault on their companion’s dignity, or more accurately, his questionable taste in women.

Cal Gregory seized the slight pause in his companions’ onslaught to quickly change the subject as he gave a questioning look towards Tyra’s shoulder. She didn’t even need to look down to know that he was looking at the scar on her shoulder that was visible against her tan.

“Another new one?”

She shrugged. “I’ve had it about as long as I’ve known you.”

“Good story?” He asked with a raised eyebrow and twinkling blue eyes.

“Not particularly.”

“Humor an old friend, Ty. Please?” He aimed his biggest pout at her, and while she rolled her eyes at him, she caved nonetheless.

“Well, if I remember right, it was the summer I turned 15…”

14.5 years earlier – Ariutas II

“Your niece might be the most infuriating brat that I’ve ever met,” I could hear Lieutenant Andrews, the lead security officer assigned to the science team, exclaiming about 15 feet below me, followed closely by my aunt’s amused laughter.

From my position lying on the rock ledge that overlooked the dig site on the southern continent of Ariutas II, I could see and hear everything clearly. However, I wasn’t wise enough to keep that advantage to myself.

“I expect better from you. You could at least refer to me as the psycho redhead, or my personal favorite, ruler of the known and unknown universe. I was a brat when I was 6. So all I ask is some level of originality….” I offered as I slid forward so that my head and long red hair hung over the ledge. My hair obscured my face and my sarcastic smile from view, but there was no missing the tone in my voice. I didn’t quite expect the security lug below me to catch that inflection though.

Liz Crawford, the lead scientist of the archeological dig, looked up at me with a reproachful look, but avoided the subject. “For someone who spent a long time in a hospital only 3 months ago, you’re certainly energetic…too energetic.”

I was quick to answer, too quick. I knew a moment later that I’d given away how uncomfortable talk of my coma and the reason for said coma made me. “Making up for lost time…people might have gotten the impression that I was sweet, and unassuming. Obviously, I cannot let such a blasphemous view of my personality persist any longer than necessary.” I said with a thick southern accent and the biggest smile I could manage before disappearing back over the ledge and onto my rock.

For the most part, Ariutas II was your typical Starfleet sponsored archeological dig. The planet itself was now uninhabited and possessed a mix of tropical and desert climate zones. It also had the required creepy native wildlife, the obsessive science staff running rampant, plenty of caves and cliffs to entertain, and enough social anthropology questions to keep the adults busy… exactly how I liked it.

The reason that I say that Ariutas II was only mostly normal was that it had one atypical feature. While I was told many, many times about how common underground burial sites were – yes, I suspect I could teach an Academy course on ancient Egypt-- , apparently, what appeared to be an underground city was not as common, especially in this region.

I’d been going on these digs every summer for 8 years, so I knew the routine. I had to act interested enough that they expected me to care about the next discovery and eventually, I became part of the scenery and no one cared that I was gone.

By my fifth day in the camp, I’d already found entertainment. The area that the excavation crew had selected as their dig site was in a basin surrounded by red dirt/clay cliffs filled with sparkling mineral deposits. While trying to climb one of the cliff faces, without equipment, I’d landed hard enough to knock rocks into the cliff, revealing a small three foot hole at the base.

I widened the hole some with a “misplaced” chisel and once it was wide enough that I felt confident that I would be able to struggle my way out once my curiosity was satisfied, I anchored my rope, tied it to me and prepared to repel inside. However, it turned out to be less of a repel and more of a free fall, which left me hanging upside down 2 feet from a dirty floor until I dropped into a heap in the dirt.

I found myself in nothing more than a manmade cave. It was a disappointment. There weren’t even drawings on the wall.

If I’d been paying more attention to my surroundings, I might have noticed the weird grate-like feature that was present along the edge of the flooring, which hinted at the corridors purpose. However, 15 year olds have the attention span of a goldfish and the observational skills of a blind gopher.

As soon as I had my bearings, I took off for the room’s only exit, which took the form of a large hallway. The hall had been carved into a rectangular shape that probably stood 15 x 10. While the ceiling was still smooth, neither the floor nor walls had maintained that smoothness. It looked like they’d been eroded over time.

All I found for 10 minutes were halls branching off each other before I finally found a gap in the rocks that I hesitantly slid through. I now found myself in a small room that my light sent archaic shadows across. The room was empty except for two large figures, status it appeared, that stood one on each side. The one on the right had 6 arms and an elongated face while the other had 10 arms and a puffy head. My light made their features seem hideous.

I was in the process of counting the arms of the one on the left, being careful not to actually touch it, when I felt a tight grip, a clawlike grip, grasp my elbow with no pretense of gentleness. I screamed, dropped my light, lashed out at the attacker and managed to take a step backwards into one of the arms.

For a moment, all I could feel was the throbbing in my head and the only noise in the room after my scream stopped echoing was the heavy breathing of my attacker. In a panic, I dove for my light, and rolled onto my back quickly, not thinking that being on the ground with just a light to protect me wasn’t the brightest idea I’d ever had.

My light now illuminated three hideous figures; the third being Lieutenant Andrews with blood running out of his nose as he glared at me with what I suspected most people would call a murderous look. There was a moment of silence as we just stared at each other.

“I change my mind…you’re not a brat. You are a reckless psychopath,” Andrews practically growled at me.

I couldn’t contain the self satisfied smirk that curled my lips. Apparently, my boxing was paying off judging by the broken nose I’d just given him.

“Hmph…you’re just sore that a girl hurt you,” I taunted as I stood up and walked past him. He made a move to grab my arm but I skillfully moved just out of range of his uncoordinated movement.

Andrews looked like he was about to start raging at me, and I probably deserved it. However, his words were drowned out by a “whooshing” sound that sounded like air being pushed through the tunnel outside. If only it had been just been air…

One moment, we were standing in a small room, and the next, I found myself slammed backwards by what I later determined was a wall of water. The room we were in had a secondary entrance that was covered by a rotating rock…a rotating rock that splintered into smaller stones when it was impacted by the water.

I don’t actually know what happened in the 30 seconds that the water proceeded to hammer the room, where the water came from or how I survived in one piece. All I know is that when the water level lowered to mere puddles on the floor, I was pinned backwards against one of the arms belonging to the statue on the left side. The hand had actually punctured my shoulder to the point that the silver hand could be seen through the shoulder and I was literally hanging from it.

As soon as I realized my predicament, I felt the pain and promptly started screaming again. Somehow, Andrews, who was in better shape, managed to slowly pull me down and gently bandage the nasty wound up without letting me break another bone on his face, though I tried.

“Listen, I need you to stay calm but our way out is now blocked,” he sounded deathly calm, almost like he was just telling me that I had a hangnail. While I was moaning over my shoulder, he’d done something productive and checked the hallway we’d come through.

I just stared at him. My left arm was now worthless and I was stuck in a cave with a moron. It didn’t process that he’d probably saved my life, or that my belief that all security officers were morons might be based on nothing.

“I’ll find us a way out…” Andrews assured as he stood up to leave me sitting on the muddy floor.

I wasn’t letting that happen as I jumped to my feet. “So you expect me to entrust my survival to you?” The now familiar feeling of anger and adrenaline rushing through my veins prevented me from feeling the searing pain in my shoulder.

“Yes, I do. You got us here, I’ll get us out.”

“Bullshit. No…the only thing they taught you in the Academy was how to shoot your phaser. Well, honey, unless you’re going to shoot a rock, you’re skills are freakin’ useless.” I spat out with a lot more attitude than was probably safe.

“Okay…I’ll leave you here to dig your own way out.” He just stood there staring at me with an expression that was so smug that I was kind of concerned. “You want to be an engineer, right? Alright, build yourself a transporter out of rocks, and get your skinny ass out yourself.”

With that, he turned and walked out of the room, leaving me to gape after him. No one talked to me like that….

After a moment, I ran after him as best as I could, not caring that for whatever reason, he was going deeper into the tunnels. When I caught up with him, he turned on me quickly before I could speak, and for a moment, I was sure I’d be getting a broken nose in return.

“What is your problem with me? With security? Did one of us not bow at her highness’s feet?”

I leered, feeling my face turn red with anger. He had no right to question to me and my feelings. He hadn’t lived my life or been failed by security like I had been. Then, I cringed and my shoulder-- well one shoulder-- fell from its prideful stance.

What was my problem? I’d never had a problem with security before Luna. In fact, I’d relished spending time in the security office on my father’s ship as a little girl. But security should have been there to save Carly…they should have stopped the beating. Then I’d not have lost a sister and two months of my life. I failed to acknowledge that I was alive because of two security officers… I hadn’t entered that into the equation yet. In my mind, I needed a target for my anger, and it couldn’t be myself or I’d tear down every defense I’d built to protect myself. It had to be security.

I bit my lip hard and forced myself to meet his eyes, eyes that were filled with frustration. I didn’t say anything because whether it was pride or inherent stubbornness, he couldn’t know I was wrong but I suspect that my eyes gave me away as I stepped around him into another section of cave. He seemed to accept the silent and subconscious admission as he dropped the subject for the moment.

We were in those caves for close to 8 hours before we found our way out into the jungle. We ended up about 5 miles away from the dig site, but once we were out of the caves, we were able to contact the camp site.

Those 8 hours were fairly important in the grand scheme of things. Not only had Andrews saved my life by being there because I would have failed at navigating, he showed me that I was lying to myself quite successfully. I had somehow, over the last 3 months, shifted the blame for my misfortunes, for my physical and emotional pain, onto an undeserving party and away from the monster that really deserved it.

And my opinion of Andrews and his profession also improved after he promised not to mention the full extent of my transgressions to my aunt. According to his story, I fell into the cave…

Present Time

“See, nothing exciting but now you know how I got the scar, the start to how I joined the department of morons, and how I broke my first nose…” Tyra winked as she finished off her beer.

Cal grinned, handing her a new beer to replace her now empty one. “I knew that you hated me when we first met—you’re such a discriminator,” he teased before his attention was caught by a passing waitress.

Izzy laughed. “Does the Lieutenant know that you now wear the mustard uniform?”

“He was at our graduation, and he never lets me forget to my disdain. I think he’s forgiven me for ruining the perfect lines of his face though…” She shrugged slightly.

Her blue eyes flickered to Cal with a mischievous grin. “So can we now hear how you got your broken nose? Rumor has it, it came from an Orion girl…”