The small ship fell out of the clouds. It came down shaking and shimmying in the wind currents, turbulence that diminished as we dropped farther and then swung around into a more gradual descent. I felt queasy all the way down.
The shuttle was tiny compared to the Enterprise, naturally, but large enough to comfortably hold the away team of thirteen, two pilots, two armored terrain vehicles, and a smaller, faster, and more maneuverable flyer capable of making further exploratory surveys of the planet.
We watched out descent on video monitors mounted in the ceiling around the cabin, choosing from among several different views of the ground, the sky, even the surface of the shuttle itself. The shuttle's skin was coruscating metal, color and texture changes popping chaotically across its surface. Every so often it all snapped into focus, a perfect camouflage against the terrain below, but then the focus burst apart and the chaos returned. Once, decades or centuries earlier, that metal skin worked perfectly, providing three-dimensional camouflage, making the shuttle almost invisible from any vantage point, but like so many other things on the ship, it functioned sporadically, and nobody knew how to repair it.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl2Geic3voP
The terrain below was awash in the orange glow from the rising sun, the sun's rays cutting in under dissipating clouds. A muddy river snaked through densely wooded flatlands, the woods bordered several kilometers to the west by a ragged range of foothills that in turn gave way to higher stony mountains scared by swaths of burned trees and vegetation. No signs of smoke rose from the charred stumps, the spikes and spines of blackened wood. A herd of large, mottled beasts moved through the devastation.
Down by the river, a large section of the woods had been cleared, and in that clearing was a town, dozens of low buildings, roads and pathways and other artificial structures. There was no movement in the town except for leaves and bits of flotsam blown about by the wind, a few pieces of cloth flapping from their places of attachment. But no creatures moved, unless it was inside a building and out of sight. How likely was that?
We approached the town, descending more slowly now, arcing around it. Finally, over an open space just back from the river----a flat rectangle of dirt partially fenced---the shuttle drifted into a hover. Stationary for several moments, we started a slow vertical descent with loud, wailing noises from the shuttle's engines. The dust below us boiled and swirled until the shuttle touched down. The wailing faded, the engines shut down, and eventually there was silence.
We waited for an hour or so while sensors and probes were dispatched and data was transmitted back to us. When everything checked out as we'd expected, we readied ourselves, masking our faces with breathers. The shuttle's belly opened up and dropped down, a wide ramp leading to the ground. A few minutes later, led by the soldiers, we walked down the ramp, and took our first steps on that alien world.
There was nobody left alive.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtPv5lpafmw
We had not expected to find anyone, but the desolation of the settlement was surprisingly grim, and I could feel the emptiness as I stood near the shuttle, looking out at the buildings. A pall rapidly settled over us, worked its way into our bones so that it became impossible to dispel. A discomforting stillness hung over the area, as if there was nothing alive; no humans, no animals, not even tiny creatures like insects.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7mGzeuAbqI
I noticed the light more than anything else. It was like nothing on the Enterprise, even in the largest of nature rooms that tried to re-create natural environments. Not brighter, but more intense somehow, so that everything around us seemed to have the faintest hint of shining outlines. I had forgotten what real sunlight could be like.
The soldiers insisted on leading the way as we left the fenced landing area. Our first task was to find the source of the transmission. William Riker, the head of the science team, had some instrument that homed in on the signal; we followed him through the buildings, along rutted pathways. I searched each structure we passed for signs of life, but everything was dead and quiet, abandoned and forgotten.
The transmitter was on top of a building near the middle of the town, powered by surrounding arrays of solar panels. There was no way to know how many decades it had been pulsing out its steady, meaningless transmission. Dave Bailey wanted to destroy the transmitter---out of pique, I think. But the science team wanted to take a closer look at it over the next few days to se if there were codes or messages stored somewhere, anything more meaningful.
We were not a military-minded group, and after we found the transmitter, we started to disperse---the science team members stayed together, thought they ignored the soldiers; Deanna Troy and Father O'Heron drifted toward the outer edges of the settlement; Bailey stuck with two of the soldiers; and I went off on my own.
And that's when I found the bones.
There had been a rectangular building of rotting wood down near the river. The sunlight slashed through cracks and jagged holes and broken windows. I stood in the doorway, watching dust luminesce in the beams of light, when the bright white curves of a rib cage caught my eye.
We spent most of the day making a general search of the settlement, through all the buildings that were easily accessible. We found the remains of at least a few of those who had once lived here. Only bones. No flesh remained. Four skeletons mostly complete and completely bare except for an occasional shred of colored fabric or bands of plastic or metal, oxidized rings circling white finger bones. The scattered pieces of two or three others, maybe. Once we had gone through the whole settlement, we started collecting all the skeletons, partial or whole, every bone that looked like it might be human. The science team examined the bones as we collected them, particularly the complete skeletons, but it soon became clear there was no way to glean even a clue to the reasons any of them died----there were no obvious signs of trauma, no shattered and strangely disintegrating skulls, no unusual lesions.
In an open area near the woods, the soldiers blew open a small pit with explosives and stone burners; then we carefully laid the skeletons and bones on the bottom.
Fahter O'Heron stood at the edge of the pit, gazing down at bones and earth. She made the sign of the cross, and started to speak.
"Absolve, Domine, animus omnium fidelium defunctorum ab omni vinculo delictorum. Et gratia tua illis succurrente...."
A dead language spoken for the dead. None of us understood what she was saying, and if the dead could have heard, I'm sure they would not have understood, either; they couldn't hear, so maybe it didn't matter.
But I was sure Father O'Heron understood what she was saying, for there was strong emotion in her voice, a sadness eased by hope, a comfort and acceptance.
".....Dies, illa, dies irae, calamitatis et miseraie; dies magna....."
We were all silent, standing along the edge of the pit on either side of her, gazing down along with her on all those bones. She was beautiful, and in a way magnificent, and my admiration for her grew as I watched and listened.
".....Kyrie, eleison.....Christe, eleison....Kyrie, eleison."
She once again made the sign of the cross, and this time everyone except me joined her.
That was it for the day. William Riker and the other science team members wanted to us the last of daylight to explore the town, but Bailey, Deanna Troi, and I overruled them, and we all returned to the shuttle. There was no hurry. The dead there had been long dead, and the living had nowhere to go.
Father O'Heron remained until dark standing at the edge of the pit, presumably praying; then she, too, returned to the shuttle. I wanted to talk to her about the graveside ritual, but she said she needed to be alone. She gave me a copy of the text she had spoken from (I still have it), then retreated to one of the armored land vehicles and shut herself inside.
There was no translation for the text, no explanation, but I read it over several times, quietly aloud; the sound and rhythm of it gave me an unexpected sense of comfort.
A violent storm blew in during the night, and it only worsened throughout the day. I couldn't see the settlement through the viewing windows or on the monitors, just the vaguest of dark outlines through the torrential rains crashing down from the black clouds above us.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHKRq7DrwmM
It was odd. Stuck inside the ship for all these years, searching for a habitable world, waiting for the chance to walk on solid ground once again, maybe even breathe open air, and now that we'd landed we were trapped inside a small metal vessel with far less freedom and space than we would've had if we'd still been aboard ship.
The storm raged on. Three days and it never let up. We barely managed to get daily transmissions through to the Enterprise, appraising them of our status.
Father O'Heron went out into the storm the morning of the third day. Sergeant Tane wanted to take one of her soldiers and go after her, but I persuaded her to stay with the shuttle. I reminded the sergeant of her duty to the ship and the away team, arguing that if she or one of her soldiers were lost, she would put us all at greater risk. I didn't believe any of it, but I felt that if Father O'Heron needed to go out into the storm, she should be allowed to do so.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuYfDp18VcS
She returned several hours later. The shuttle's security/detection system apparently wasn't working, for we only knew of her return when we heard her banging on the shuttle's hull. We lowered the embarkation ramp, and had to help her inside; she was so wet and exhausted s he could barely walk, but at the same time she looked somehow invigorated. She wouldn't answer any questions. She dried off and changed into another cassock, then settled down in silence to read from an old bound book with thin, translucent pages. She seemed content and peaceful, and I thought that maybe we should all make trips out into the storm.581Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqg16eo16ls
