trans_9 | A Gate To...?

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A Gate To...?

Still in the city.

Considering the sheer size of the megalopolis that Stacy was carrying around, Lyta was hardly surprised that even after hours walking up and down its 'streets,' she still got the feeling that she hadn't even begun to scratch the surface with this place. If the large blue--and perfectly symmetric--blue tree had taken her breath away, then what she saw when had turned this last corner had left her just as awestruck in its beauty. A massive gate, cast in gold filigree, with the shapes and forms of what appeared to be angels carved into its surface--each flawless, as if it'd been etched into the giant doorway by a skilled craftsman. It was beautiful, yet at the same time mind boggling. The contrast of the 'ugliness' of Stacy's interior with some of the gorgeous structures she carried inside of her left Lyta with more and more questions the longer she explored. And rarely with any answers.

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"Human wave attacks? I'd go with it," Cybil joked, her voice deadpan.

She looked up at the massive gate.

"What I want to know about this thing is--where does it lead?"

"I don't know," Lyta said, following the captain's gaze back to the gate. She shrugged. "I suppose we could knock and see if anyone answers," she added sarcastically.

Nathan approached it, and stared upward.

"I could try to see if I can open it from the other side." And with that he rose in the air, straight up to head for the top of the gate.

"Hey! Hey, wait a second! For all we know, it's keeping something in rather than keeping us out."

"What a show off..." Lyta said aloud, looking up and following the man's figure as he flew up toward the peak of the enormous gate, keeping him within line-of-sight.

Get down here before you do something stupid, she scolded, slipping the message straight into his mind.

"And you thought the teenagers were going to be hard to control," she said to the captain, although not taking her eyes off of the man flying overhead.

The telepathic message startled him, and briefly he thought it was somebody from home.

Parkman? He turned his head to look back down. No, that was from that Lyta woman. She's like Matt. He started to descend.

"Just trying to get a better view of the situation, you'd do the same if you could." He stated as he landed on the ground by the two women again.

"You're familiar with reconnaissance, right?"

"Yes. But opening giant gates on an alien spaceship when we don't know where they lead isn't exactly a good idea. If we try it, we ought to at least have more people capable of a fight here, in case we'll wind up in one."

"Any suggestions of who?" Lyta said, glancing behind them as if looking for any volunteers. "I'm not a fan of waking things up that shouldn't be awakened, but I'm not exactly comfortable having a hot-headed teenager that might cause more problems than he solves tagging along, either."

She then turned to the door, stepped toward and placing her hand on it, running her palm down its engraved surface. "And we'll never know what's behind it unless we look..."

Nathan glanced at Lyta, "You're some kind of telepath, right? I know a guy back home who could do that too. Can you pick up anything from the other side?"

"No," Lyta answered with a shake of her head. "It doesn't work like that. I have to be on a line of sight." Okay, so that wasn't one hundred percent true. "I can stretch it around corners sometimes by following the flow of the walls or even when the thoughts bounce off them. But with an actual physical barrier...? Not a chance. I won't be able to sense anything until we open it."

"If we open it."

Something about it had her instincts going and she didn't know what exactly it was. She just had this sense of...foreboding.

As beautiful as the carvings were, something wasn't...right.

Nathan frowned, and looked it over again.

"I'd say we should, or do you want those damn kids to open it themselves? Better we find out what the hell it is first?"

"He's got a point," Lyta said looking over at Cybil. "Some of them have been itching for a fight ever since they got here. Do we really want them poking around without knowing what's there first?"

"I just have this feeling, okay?" she said, looking at the gate. "And believe me, I have very good instincts."

A hologram flickered, dim and static-ey because the nearest projectors were not in good shape.

"There is no fence to sit on between heaven and hell. There is a chasm, and in that chasm is no place for any man.”

"..........I'd say your instincts were on the mark then."

Swallowing a lump that had built up in her throat once the projection flickered away, Lyta looked back up at the door with apprehension in her eyes. She lowered her hand, giving the door three soft raps as she did, and stepped back slowly. Maybe going in was a bad idea.

"What do we do about the others?" she asked, looking over at Cybil. She was--apparently--the captain, after all. "What if they open it anyway?"

"We can't open the gates," Cybil said, her voice going flat, still staring at the gate, rather than ??. "We're not the ones with the keys."

Then the world went white, and she and fell to her knees, holding her head.

"Gnnnnh!"

Nathan gave Cybil a sharp look at the flat tone, and then went to help her back up.

"What the hell is going on?"

Whatever it was wasn't affecting Nathan and Lyta directly, though Lyta likely could sense the turmoil in Cybil's mind.

"They went like lambs to the slaughter. A thing which is always subject to the direction of another is a dead thing. Your reach will likely exceed your grasp, but freedom lies in being bold. Self-determination is never easy."

"I don't know," Lyta said, her brow creasing in concern. Stepping toward the crouching woman, Lyta knelt down. "Cybil?" she said, placing a hand on the woman's shoulder...

Bad move.

Extremely powerful thoughts, especially ones with a lot of emotion attached to them, were next to impossible for a telepath to block. Even more so when the telepath was in close proximity to the source.

"I'm getting tired of this thing's tricks." Nathan stood up again, and knocked hard on the gate.

"Let her go. Now, or we're coming in by force."

She was burning.

"Those who aide the demon, they must be cleansed by the fire from whence they came!"

She was always burning.

But she always went offscript. As her flesh bubbled and burned, as her clothes blackened, she screamed:

"I know it's not real, you sick fucks! I know what you're trying to do--and you're not going to make me forget what you've done! You murderers!"

Christabelle and the crowd in the church disappeared and figures appeared at consoles, revealing that it was all part of a room, she trapped in a sort of medical table with insect-like legs holding her in place, trapped, she was hooked up to wires, something was stuck in her skull. Holograms, and technology messing with her nerves, causing her pain, making her feel something that wasn't there. All illusions and lies, playing on an old memory to break her.

Their faces weren't visible, and they only seemed vaguely humanoid in form.

"Run the simulation again."

"But, sir, it appears we may just have to kill her, or force the process and send her back brain-altered like the Fenton boy--"

"She stays. She was the captain. Run it until she breaks. The others forgot. She will as well."

"I won't forget," she snapped. "And when I get free, I'm going to kill you, do you hear me?! I'm going to kill you for what you did to my crew!"

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