The Whispers of Xylos

Kammus

Starfleet Intelligence has received word of a signal coming from a previously uncatalogued planet; designated Xylos V, deep within the Eridan Belt. The USS Pace, being the closest federation ship in the region, dispatched a runabout with three teams to assess the situation.

While not being strictly a Starfleet operation, the alliance was made aware of the signal, and the USS Sinking-Creek was tasked with transporting other team members which may provide additional support to the investigation.

Xylos

Approaching Xylos V, the faint, repeating energy signature intensifies, revealing itself to be a highly encrypted, non-standard distress call. It appears to be consistent with a continuous, automated beacon, instead of an active plea for help. Scans show Xylos V to be an M-class world, but with unusual localized atmospheric and geological disturbances. The temperature is +40c/105f in the shade, and most of the immediate area around the signal is devastated, and devoid of life. Active weather systems, and surface instability are registered. Orbital scans show a vast desert, and reveals a massive, ancient, and partially cloaked structure on the planet’s surface, unlike any known Alpha/Beta Quadrant architecture. No discernible life signs within or around it.

The signature is unlike any known natural phenomenon and is accompanied by faint, fragmented data bursts. Investigate the source, ascertain its nature, and determine any potential threat or scientific value. Exercise extreme caution; the nebula is known for unpredictable spatial anomalies.
Runabout

Kammus

ACT I: Initial Scans

The teams aboard the runabout gathered to introduce themselves. Thrysis, from the Pace lead the starfleet science team, while various other members joined as they were able. A Romulan, Caitian, and even a Horta joined to solve the mystery.

Upon beaming to the planet, initial scans revealed a huge structure, partially cloaked, and very strange shifting geologic activity, coupled with unstable weather patterns in the immediate area.

LT. CMD Thrysis Personal Log // Supplemental

This planet is terrible. I mean, really, really, not good. Hot. Wind. Dust. We should probably just tag it for terraforming and start over at this point.

Anyhow, I’m leading this team of scientists and researchers from across the region to a mysterious unmapped planet. I suppose some traders told Starfleet Intel there use to be a race of people called the Xylosians? Xylophonians? Xylazerians? So they tagged the system XYLOS, and we’re on the fifth planet. So; Xylos V.

Did I mention its hot.

We just completed our initial survey, I’ve taken the liberty to holoimage the journey, in case something actually happens, I want it recorded.

This huge structure seems to be some sort of long term dwelling, or perhaps a research center? The whole place is deserted. The Horta, using a Hologram to communicate - ingenious if I do say so - called Viii,,,, veeee… Vixs-ah? Vichhhhha; its hard to make rock sounds. They’re great. Very helpful.

The hologram however, it quite, unique:

Horta

The distress call is automated, I can tell that much because it repeats every 14.2 minutes. Vixah says the desert sand, rocks, all the desolation happened within the last few days.

We entered the structure, very interesting: stone, alloy, different methods of construction but on top of older existing builds. Like they couldn’t, or wouldn’t leave, generations.

We found a console which we were able to translate; the langue is similar to an offshoot of Proto-Romulan or Reman, and a mix of Breen. At least the math and science symbols match up to something I can read. Quantum fluctuations, some really wacko algorithms. WOW, I have been around Corelli too long.

At least one of the members is extra cautious, phaser at the ready. Shissar, I believe their name was. Very helpful.
cat

Logs were recovered from the console, 50 years worth of logs. I wonder if its some resarchers’ life work? Would I be that dedicated? Probably not.

Vixah detected it first, then the scanners confirmed, when we activated the console, it powered up something deeper into the compound. Naturally, we had no idea there was a huge courtyard. As soon as we stepped into the light, the weather changed about 8 times, and the ground shifted. A flash of light.

At least we know what sent the automated distress beacon; there is a large tower that seems to be the source of all this trouble to the west. We were able to record and translate an audible warning:

Here is a copy of the original distress call.
ORIGINAL REC

Here is the translation from the UT:
TRANSLATION MATRIX 9/TT2

So here we are. I’m beaming back to the Sinking-Creek to get out of this heat, I think some of the team are going to secure and scan the immediate area inside, away from the weather. My antenna are beginning to droop.

Holoimages:

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END LOG

nynik

Personal Log – T’Vixah’kren (Vixah)

Location: Surface of Xylos V, near Resonance Structure Sigma-12
Time Index: Post-Away Mission, Phase One

Begin Log.

The silence here is not absence. It is resonance. Memory. A place that once sang with purpose, for a people, now gone… it is as if it is a person itself….. but one that is holding its breath. Xylos V is a new world for me, and though there is plenty of work to do, I can’t help but relish the opportunity a new world presents.

I remain while the others return to the ship. The heat presses on them, but beneath… beneath the sand and stone, it is different. Cooler. Stranger.

The harmonic distortions lacing this site are not random. I feel their pattern as I move beneath the surface. The structure’s design is crude in parts, elegant in others. Someone tried to bind this place together not just with mortar, but with energy… to guide precise flows, to tune them, perhaps, as one might balance a magnetic field across subspace. The attempt failed. Catastrophically.

The others do not feel the echoes as I do. Their steps brush surface. Mine sink beneath it. I can feel the threads they do not notice: the hollowed conduits once bright with power, the static crawl of decayed isotopes, the faint groaning of tectonics pushed from rhythm.

Commander Thrysis ( @Kammus ) leads well - cautious, but not paralysed. Her orders are clipped, but adaptive. She is uncomfortable in this heat, that much is clear. Most humanoids are, but Andorians especially. Still, she held focus even when the projections flickered and my holographic limbs stretched beyond Euclidean geometry. She did not flinch. She showed concern.
The Romulan Nalys ( @pinkestspring ) is… pragmatic. Efficient. There is no sentimentalism in her, nor any wasted movement. She translated the console script with speed and seemed unfazed by the implications of what we were reading. She will not be startled by what lies ahead, but I wonder if she truly feels the scale of what occurred here.
Lieutenant Ki’ras ( @darthhorvath ) is a paradox. Sharp, eager, and scientific in thought, but whimsical in gait. His Caitian tail movements alone generate more entropy than the average comet trail. Yet his mind turns quickly. He speaks of boreholes and quantum decay as though chatting over tea. And he accepted my mint with… grace. A gesture I offered in part to reduce tension, but also as calibration. Humour stabilises humanoid decision trees. Even mine.

We retrieved over five decades of scientific logs. Most of it fragmented, but not unrecoverable. The mention of a “Resonance Harmonic Emitter” appears central. A cloaking mechanism perhaps… or a generator designed not merely to conceal, but to alter space around it. When the emitter failed, collapse followed. The structure now phases in and out, walls that are both present and absent, matter caught mid-thought.

There was a moment, brief but instructive, when I pressed my projection into a distortion node. It nearly tore the interface apart. My core remained intact, but the sensation… I cannot describe it in carbon-based terms. Like being misremembered by reality.

As the others returned to the runabout, I elected to stay. Not from stubbornness, but from necessity. This place is too fragile, too layered to grasp in a single pass. The phasing ruins need mapping…. carefully, patiently, from the ground outward. If the harmonic grid is still live in some form, it might be listening. I must listen back.

The tower in the central courtyard looms, as if asking for study. But not today. Not yet.

But soon.

End Log.

Kammus

Personal Log - Thrysis

What a mess. We finally pieced together what happened here on Xylos, and it’s worse than I thought. Their “Resonant Harmonic Emitter” was supposed to be their triumph, but it became their downfall. They were trying to “tune” this entire planet to their harmony, to build a better world, but the logs we recovered tell the story of the end. And yet, the damn device is still active.

Now, teams on the ground are hitting the same walls: temporal distortions, and areas out of phase with reality are causing widespread issues. James and Fiiduu are doing incredible, dangerous work mapping with tricorders, but it’s a constant struggle. And there’s this huge spatial distortion growing from the base of the tower, just expanding, and we have no idea how to stop it.

Just as I was about to say something, the Sinking-Creek broke through with an urgent transmission. A highly localized resonant field was expanding rapidly near our position, much larger than anything we’d seen before. “Be cautious,” they warned. Vixha then added to the grim picture, suggesting it’s not a replacement of our reality but an overlap. The emitter, she speculated, seems to have drawn fragments from the past, imprinting them into spacetime from its early calibration.

Honestly, the thought of going inside one of those bubbles makes my skin crawl, but I admitted it was a possibility. I also wondered if we could stabilize it from here. Ki’ras suggested a portable array from unaffected areas to triangulate us, like a “beacon of normality”. He also thought tackling it from the outside might be possible. For now, I’m just focused on gathering as much data as we can. If going inside is an option, we’ll consider it, but stopping the expansion from outside seems like the better approach. It’s all about resonant frequencies, right? Ki’ras agreed, adding that each would depend on location and the amount of “overlapping”.

Ki’ras was inputting data into his tricorder. We started to implement the plan. My tricorder screamed with alarm, then a flash. Ki’ras adjusted the tachyon flow. The temperature spiked. I don’t know what happened in the ground, but whatever Vixha did, it might not have worked out in our favor. This is getting out of hand, fast.

Kammus

Peril on Xylos!

Our team of heroes find themselves in a desperate struggle against the unknown forces of time itself! Trapped in a swirling vortex of temporal chaos, Thrysis, Ki’ras, and James work frantically from their present, their every move a gamble against eternity. Meanwhile, their comrade Vixha, along with two brave medics, are marooned in a reflection of the past. Their mission: to stabilize a powerful harmonic resonance transmitter, a task that has already taken its toll, leaving Commander Thrysis wracked with pain from the strange harmonic energies.

With a push of a button, the situation takes a turn for the worse! The stabilizing fields begin to expand uncontrollably. Thrysis, now recovering with the help of a much-needed hypo from James , realizes the terrifying truth: “The past is the present!”, the timelines are converging, as the two towers, the two harmonic resonators begin to work in harmony. The boundaries of time are blurring, forcing our heroes to act as if both moments are one and the same. Working in tandem, Ki’ras and Vixha make a series of precise adjustments to the tower’s glyphs, their efforts met with success as the ominous red hues of danger fade, replaced by the hopeful glow of yellow and cyan.

Sabotage!

Just as victory seems within their grasp, a new menace emerges from the shadows! Researcher 47, a native of Xylos, with a unknown motive, slams a hand onto a glyph in the past, shattering the carefully orchestrated sequence! The tower’s hum splinters into a jarring discord, and the alignment begins to unravel. Thrysis’s tricorder wails a dire warning, she reports “Quantum variance shifted 5 percent negative! We’re way off base now? What happened?!”.

In a heroic display of heroic protection, Vixha envelops the entire glyph ring, using her molten form to create a living barrier against further sabotage, and Researcher 47 trying to claw his way through the poor Horta.

The Final Showdown!

With Vixha buying them precious time, Ki’ras and Thrysis devise a new, audacious plan. Enhancing the power of the already established tachyon beam with support from their runabout, they blast a shimmering pathway through time itself, a mist filled doorway that connects the two realities. Researcher 47, in a desperate attempt to protect his “lifes work,” makes a mad dash for the phaser, but Thrysis heroically grapples with him. She throws the maniacal researcher through the shimmering portal and into her own time. The researcher is tumbles to the ground, but the danger is not yet over!

Ki’ras seizes the opportunity, taking control of the tower’s console on his side of the divide. With the help of a new, more cooperative researcher in the past who points him to the correct glyph, Ki’ras expertly inputs the final corrections. The tower’s glyphs turn a soft cyan, and the rings begin to slowly align. But just as he believes the day is saved, Researcher 47 in the present, still fighting, grabs Thrysis’s phaser! Vixha, ever vigilant, surges from beneath the ground and contains the rogue researcher in a protective bubble, securing him once and for all. With the timeline finally secure, our heroes can rest, their adventure concluded… for now! 🚀

Kammus

Continuing quandries

While trapped in the past with two medics, Vixha worked to stabilize the harmonic resonance of a tower with Ki’ras, James, and Thrysis, who were working from the present. Vixha attempted to control the tower, using the newly found glyph rings, but the fields began to expand instead of stabilizing. Thrysis was in pain, something about her Andorian phisology was sensitive to the unique resonance properties being manipulated on this planet.

Ki’ras communicated with Vixha, noting that the changes initiated were propagating into their time stream. He concluded they would have to tackle the tower’s control from both sides of the timeline. Vixha reported that the boundaries between time pockets were blurring and they needed to act as if both moments were one. Vixha made an adjustment, which caused the tower’s glyphs to change from red to yellow and cyan. Ki’ras and Vixha synchronized their efforts, and Ki’ras was able to match the frequency. Vixha then instructed a medic to mirror her rhythm on the glyphs to open a stable path. The medics did their best, and for a time success looked very hopeful.

Thrysis discovered she could sense both timelines, making her feel even more ill. When Ki’ras suggested she try to communicate with Vixha’s group, she shouted “HELLO!” but felt they could not understand her. When the medics and Vixha aligned all three positions on the glyphs, the field began to lock both phases into harmony. Thrysis reported that she could no longer see the other timeline, believing it was working. She suggested that the quantum realities might collapse into their current version, moving everything forward.

Disaster

As Vixha steadied herself, a researcher named 47 rushed to the tower and touched an unlit glyph, causing a chaotic and negative shift in the quantum variance. The tower’s hum splintered, and the harmonic pressure staggered Vixha and the medics. Thrysis was thrown to the ground by an unseen force. Ki’ras shouted for James to give Thrysis another triple dose of the analgesic. Thrysis was able to sit up, and she and Ki’ras decided to use the tower’s power from their reality to punch through with tachyon beams.

Vixha sealed the glyph ring with her molten form to prevent further interference, enduring great pain. Ki’ras used the runabouts tachyon beam to strengthen the already present pattern buffers, clearing a path to the tower’s counterpart in their reality, then headed in first. Researcher 47 shoved past the medics and plunged their hands into Vixha’s molten surface, causing the air to fill with the scent of burning scale. A mist-filled doorway through time allowed both teams to see each other. Ki’ras and Thrysis tried to stop Researcher 47. Thrysis was able to throw Researcher 47 through the doorway into her present time, and Vixha retreated from the glyph ring. Researcher 47’s hands were burned away to nothing.

Ki’ras approached the console to fix the situation. Another researcher, cautious, approached and touched a grey symbol on the glyph ring, which stabilized the tower. Vixha’s hologram flickered back, and she directed Ki’ras to press the glyph the new researcher had shown. Ki’ras confirmed the harmonics were stabilized for the time being. Researcher 47, now in Thrysis’s time, managed to grabb her phaser, threatening to press buttons not wanting to see his life’s work undone. Vixha’s true form emerged and enveloped the researcher in a protective grip. She cooled her mass to form a solid bubble, containing the researcher without killing them. Vixha reported containment was achieved, and Researcher 47 dropped the phaser. Ki’ras was bewildered by the scene but continued his work.

Will the team stabilize the planet? Will Researcher 47 make it home for dinner? Find out next time!