Why’s It Always Crystals? - Part 2 (ST:D x The Inhumans crossover)
Chris’ breath forcefully left his body as he slammed into the crevice wall with a loud crack, he had only been falling for a few seconds but he had already resigned himself to the world of pain he just knew he’d find himself in when he hit the bottom. At least he hoped that was what awaited him. The only other alternative he could imagine is dying on impact and, after everything he’d managed to live through, he really didn’t want the thing that killed him to be him losing his damn footing. He could still hear Burnham’s panicked voice echoing all around him, following him down into the darkness, yet he couldn’t quite process exactly what it was she was saying. The adrenaline coursing through his veins had forced his brain to filter out any extraneous sounds and, apparently, Michael fell under that remit. Not that it mattered anyway, he hadn’t yet been able to get his breath back and it felt like he wouldn’t for a while, so he wouldn’t have had a chance in hell of answering her.
The crack he had fallen down was narrow enough that once he had hit the wall he stayed against it, his back scraping along the jagged surface of the wall taking the skin off as he fell. After a few more moments of free fall he, strangely enough, felt himself slowing down. Don’t get him wrong, he still felt like he had left his stomach up at the top with Burnham and saw no sign of the bottom of this pit, but he was definitely not falling as fast as he had been. The reason for this was not immediately clear if anything it had only become more baffling, as the wall he was sliding down appeared to smooth out the further down he went. It was only when he reached the bottom that he figured it out. The wall, which had been completely vertical when he first started falling, in fact, started sloping out near the bottom and continued to do so until it had become perfectly horizontal. It reminded him of an old playground ride he had only ever seen pictures of - a drop slide, he believed it was called. Affectionately nicknamed a ‘death slide’, and after what he had just experienced he could definitely see why. However, unlike those rides, this version did not have a long flat section for him to decelerate and, instead, stopped rather abruptly. He catapulted off the end and was sent skipping like a stone across the lake of water that had caused this natural phenomenon, before plunging into its icy depths.
With his lungs begging for the oxygen that they had been deprived of, he kicked towards the surface and found that the water was only a few feet deeper than he was tall. He swam over to the opening that he was shot out of, as he moved closer the water became shallower, allowing him to stand with his shoulders above the water as he called up to Michael, who was still shouting down after him.
“I’m OK. Nothing broken at least.” He added with a chuckle.
“Sir?” A sigh of relief. “What’s down there? Can you see a way back up?”
Miraculously, the lights on his EV suit still worked. He observed the new cave that surrounded him, it didn’t look too different from the others he had just left. All he could see was a narrow tunnel branching off, carrying a ravine further into the rock, but nothing that indicated a way of returning to Burnham. He relayed this information back to her, hoping she’d be able to come up with a solution but also fully prepared to order her to carry on with the mission without him as he tried to make his own way to the surface.
“Captain, I have rappelling gear in my pack but the only anchor point up here doesn’t seem to be strong enough to support your weight, it will just crumble.”
“It’s ok Burnham, you carry on along the path. I’ll stay down here and- “
“With all due respect Captain,” Burnham interrupted showing no said respect, “I believe it best we stick together. We still don’t know anything about this energy source and these tunnels are treacherous, if we split up and one of us gets in danger then it could be lethal.”
Knowing she had a point, but not seeing another way Pike could only respond, “Well then, what would you suggest Commander?”
“The anchor is strong enough to support me, so I’ll make my way down to you-”
“No, Michael-”, Pike tried to interrupt when he realised what she was saying.
“-and we’ll carry on through the tunnel down there.”
“Michael, if you stay up there we know you can get out, you come down here and that is no longer the case. I wish there was another way but you have to leave me, that’s an order.”
There was a pause before Burnham’s voice echoed down to him again, “...I’m already on my way down sir.”
Pike could only sigh and contemplate how he really needed to start being less lenient with his officers, as it seemed to be a running theme that few of them listened to him in situations like this. He hopes that Burnham and Number One never meet, if they did he might as well resign his commission straight away, they would be unstoppable.
As he waited for Michael to reach him, he decided to try and scope out the tunnel that was now their only hope for escape. It was located at the point in the cave where the water was shallowest, only reaching his ankles, and was smaller than it seemed at first glance, just wider than himself and as tall as his waist, he could only cringe at the incoming pain that his back will inevitably feel. There was a scrape of boots over rock followed by a quiet splash as Burnham exited the crag and slipped into the water, she waded towards him and peered over his shoulder. Not even her years of living on Vulcan could help her hide the disgruntled sigh upon seeing the confined space they’d spend the next who knows how long making their way through. They shared a look before Chris, hopefully for the last time on this seemingly endless expedition, got down on his hands and knees and made his way into the tunnel with Michael joining him soon after. Only the sound of their breathing and the sloshing of the water, which wasn’t getting any shallower, could be heard - they both just wanted to get out and were too focused to try and attempt a meaningless conversation. For the first time since entering the caves they seemed to have caught a break, the tunnel seemed to be on a slightly upward trajectory and was hopefully taking them towards the surface.
They’d been in the water for long enough that the cold had started to permeate through the suits thermal regulation system when they finally saw a light at the end of the tunnel. He crawled with a renewed vigour, Michael following close behind, both eager to get back to Discovery or out of the caves at the very least. As he got closer the sound of running water began to echo around them, getting louder as they got closer until they finally reached the end.
Pike once again found himself short of breath as he reached forward to continue to crawl and instead found that the ground was no longer where he expected and instead rapidly steepened to form another pool that he promptly, and rather ungracefully, fell into. Except this time the water was shallower than he was tall, it was only by sheer dumb luck that he didn’t whack his head on the rock below and instead landed flat on his back, adding to the already long list of reasons he isn’t going to be able to move tomorrow. He sat up, spluttering as he broke the surface only to be greeted with Michael chuckling as she contorted herself so she could enter feet first, having learnt from his mistake. Chris could only self-deprecatingly smile at her as she offered her hand to help him up, which he gratefully accepted.
Having recovered from his unexpected swim, he was finally able to take in their new surroundings and he very quickly found the source of the light. His heart sank. A beam of light from the surface entered yet another cave through a gap in the ceiling, after which it bounced off the multitude of crystals that lined the edge of the pool, illuminating the darkness. Both Pike and Burnham looked around in awe, so distracted that they both startled when Tilly’s voice disturbed the quiet they had been in for what must have been hours.
“Captain, Michael? I don’t know what you just did but the readings we’re getting have just got even larger and I didn’t think that was even possible. Is there anything new around you that looks like it could be the source?”
“We’ve ended up in a cavern full of crystals, Ensign, we’ll take a sample and bring it back to Discovery for further analysis. Can you get a transporter lock on us?”
“Affirmative Captain, we can be ready to beam you out at a moment's notice.” A pause. “Well, maybe a bit more than a moment, we are getting some slight interference - nothing to worry about but it’ll take a bit longer to actually get you out of there.”
“Thank you, Ensign, I’ll let you know when we need to beam out.” Pike replied, “With more than a moment's notice.” He added with a smile.
Burnham started to take some readings from the cave, to look for any sign as to what these crystals were and where they came from. As she did this Pike pulled out a laser cutter and knelt to take a sample, the moment he started cutting through the crystal is when things started going wrong. A white mist started to hiss out from the crystal, quickly beginning to fill the cave. As Pike staggered backwards trying to get away from the mist, Burnham’s scanner started going crazy.
“Captain, the readings I'm getting are showing that this gas is potentially toxic,” Burnham reported as she hit the button to activate her helmet. Pike went to follow suit, only to find that at some point during one of his numerous falls the mechanism had malfunctioned. By this point the mist had already filled over half the cave, it was being emitted faster than it could escape. Pike knew immediately he only had seconds, a minute maximum before there would be no clean air left to breathe.
Shaking his head at Burnham to try and convey his predicament he commed up to Discovery, “Ensign, I know I promised a moment’s notice but we need to beam out of here now.” He tried to keep his voice level but inside he was panicking. He had gotten out of so many sticky situations, come back after being hurt so many times but right now he couldn’t see a way out.
“We’re trying Captain but the interference has dramatically increased, we need more time.”
Pike didn’t reply.
The mist had filled the cave. Pike was holding his breath for as long as possible trying to give the Discovery crew as long as possible to get them out of there. But his lungs were burning. He couldn’t hold on much longer. Distantly he could hear a panicked Burnham communicating with Tilly, trying to get them out of here.
“Beam us up! We need to get out of here now, beam us - “
Pike breathed in.
