[snip]

For Cross her added scans in passing of this micro layer would reveal not only the obsidian properties like Jasper picked up but that there was some kind of organic decay among it as well! However, so faint was it she could not get a real good read on it. Also picked up near their feet were tiny fungal patches which when light would settle on them and then moved on would leave them faintly glowing in the dark!

Her brain cells went into overdrive at what she found up until now,were the bugs going into hibernation because of the fungus?Their mode of survival? Cross thought about the fungus that turned ants into zombies making them climb a tree and position themselves at the edge of a twig,which at some point the fungus would sprout out of the now dead ant.

Tia flipped open her communicator. =^=This is Lieutenant Ezial… we need engineering and science to do some digging, so to speak. We’ve arrived upside-down. Need to make sure this isn’t temporary.=^= She took a couple steps forward and smiled. =^= Walking seems to be all right and jumping....=^= She moved towards a section of the wall where the ‘floor’ she was on was closest to the ‘ceiling’ above them. She bent her legs and smiled in almost feral glee as she leapt up as high as she could.

If she landed on her feet once more, she would report that was well also… if she didn’t… at least her arms were up to perhaps brace her fall a bit.

Tia’s jumping found her back on the ‘ceiling’ with ease. It would seem up here was formerly down and vice versa.

The doctor was horrified seeing Tia jumping ‘’Lt what the hell are you thinking!’’ she exclaimed ‘’This is not a bouncing castle you know and listen up everyone,first do not touch any bugs,second do not shine your torches on the fungal patches under your feet.....I repeat do not touch anything’’ Cross said in a dead serious tone.

She then took a sample of both a bug and fungus without touching any and secured them in specially designed containers.

Jasper was at a loss why he was here if the chief was here too. But he tried to continue his scans he even adjusted the tricorder to attempt to scan other things besides just engineering things.

Cross went again near the engineer ‘’With your tricoder could you scan for anything that isn’t organic in matter? Has it picked up anything that may give us an answer of why we are upside down?’’ she wondered if it was the planet or something/someone having nothing better to do then play tricks on them.

Jasper’s scans going through different wave lengths and such didn’t turn up anything really that he could find. At least mechanically or technologically from reference nothing showed up at first. Then as he tuned into more higher wave lengths he did pick something up.

In this case he would find a faint trace of what his education would term as ‘reality particles’ also known in some more advanced circles as ‘quantum wave forms’ though the newer term had not yet caught on that he knew, though given he had heard the Ark Angel’s Lt Trainor mention the word during his time on the ship maybe he could figure by the late 24th century Trainor came from the term had caught on.

These reality particles seemed to be running opposite what they were used too, in this case the laws of physics were in reverse, up was now down, down was up, left was right, right was left, etc etc, this would also probably explain the second or so delay of the comms the computer on the merrimack and in turn their comm units when sending or receiving things was delaying in playing it all back as it was attempting to re-translate the reverse speech into speakable terms. Now that he knew this it would be child’s play to reconfigure each person’s comm unit and relay this information back to the Merrimack to have the NE comm officer there do the same

“Please follow the Security Chief’s advice for our safety,” added Glen. “There are some very curious things going on here with the light sensitive bugs and the upside down-ness. Until we can work out what this all means then I don’t like it at all. I’m not sure jumping is a good idea either. Maybe more passive investigations until we know exactly what we are dealing with.”

Glen contacted the ship, a few minutes after Tia. =/\= Kord. I don’t like what we have found down here, but I can’t put my finger on it to explain to you. It may be nothing. Please keep an active transporter lock on us. Glen. =/\=

Furthermore for anyone doing scientific scans (from the science members) they too would confirm and pick up the ‘reality particles’ that Jasper had found, and with their more scientific background could confirm the adjusts the engineer would suggest. This meant though that likely scans they were picking up for the moment now were in reverse of what they might expect, meaning the passage going ‘right’ actually was going left! It might even be possible that this same anomaly was affecting their perceptions of what they saw, meaning what they thought was ‘right’ as mentioned was left, and what was ‘down’ was up etc etc.

How to fix this on a physical level probably was beyond the scope of medical or even their own current abilities, so they just would need to be actively adjusting their own thoughts of perception to account for this.

William stared at his tricorder quietly for a moment. His posture changed as he tensed up. He carried himself taller this time as he did the equations in his head “Ensign Ericsson, do you see these.. Particles?” He asked the engineer, his Scottish accent softening up “Do they seem wrong to you as well?” He asked the engineer who he assumed would be atleast moderately familiar with this type of whatever strangeness it was.

Cross sat on a rock near the group,she had no inclination to leave the landing party. As a doctor there was not much she could do until someone would be able to explain to her what was going on.

Jasper looked at the science officer a moment before answering. “Yes, Sir! I believe you are right they are wrong.” Jasper said calmly to the officer. As he noticed the doctor now sitting. “Are you alright Doctor?” Jasper asked her softly.

Cross nodded with a small smile,not that there was anything too smile about ‘’Just waiting for you guys to explain to me what’s going on’’ she replied to Jasper .Taking a deep breath while continuing ‘’The only thing I’m sure about right now is the bugs and Fungus’’ the doctor eyed them suspiciously ‘’Apart from that nothing else’’ she ended the sentence with a heavy sigh.

“I am not sure myself maybe the science officer does?” Jasper said calmly to her trying to alleviate her fears or concern.

William stopped moving as he read over his results. The only facial expression was that of mild surprise in almost a Vulcan manner of raising a single eyebrow. In reality, he was trying to make sense of it as fast as he could. “Ok let me try and sum up. There are certain particles, we call them Reality Particles because the Scientific field lacks imagination” his body seemed to have relaxed more as he posture took a less rigid stand and his accent heightened again “Long story short they’re going the wrong way, making up down and left right. This may just be meddling with our perception of reality or it may be affecting reality. You heard the comms being all crackly, that’s because we are most likely speaking backwards and upside down.” His hands moved quickly almost causing him to drop his tricorder. And as if someone lights a fire under his behind he finally got an idea. He placed his scanner in its holster and fumbled around in his pockets until he found a small notepad. He opened it and started writing “Leonardo Da Vinci famously wrote all of his notes backwards .” He turned the small booklet around where they could see his signature written and below it an odd squiggle mirroring it “Now what’s happening here is more like this” He scribbled something down before showing them the results “Now I’ve written backwards and upside down. That’s what we’re in now. Somehow reality is fumbling, gravity should be pulling us to the floor but reality thinks gravity is up here.” He paused for a moment “Well, that is something is making reality think that or do that” He stopped again. He wasn’t sure if his ramblings made for coherent speech.

Cross put a pressing finger on her lower lip trying to conjure what William said ‘’So what’s on my right is actually the left and what’s on my left is my right and I’m suppose to be sitting on the ground when in reality I’m actually on the ceiling?’’ she asked in a fashion like this was no big deal and it happened all the time ‘’Lt you said our transmitters are effected but it seem that your writing stayed exactly as you put it down and our scanners are also scanning as they should ‘’.

“Well that’s because we are already in the reverse particle field. The transmission must have been garbled then reversed and translated to regular, that’s atleast my best guess.” William answered.

Now the doctor looked at her fellow crew members ‘’Shall we call this planet the upside down planet or is there something else effecting these reality particles?’‘.
She now wondered how much it was effecting them…if it was would they most probably be sick and throwing up cause of motion sickness, also called seasickness, which is a common disturbance of the inner ear. This is the area of the body that affects one’s sense of balance and equilibrium. it happens when the brain receives conflicting messages about motion and one’s body’s position in space.

“Is there any way to restore the correct balance of the particles?” As Jasper asked and wondered as he started thinking about the problem. He was quiet for a good Minute or so before speaking again. “Could we send out an inversion wave to help correct the issue?”

‘’What if we were transported outside the cave?’’ Cross asked ‘’Would we face the same problem........ any thoughts guys?’’ she asked.

For those of engineering skills, like Jasper, being transported back to the ship say probably the transporter chief would need to manually reverse the materialization process on the vertical axis to ensure they didn’t resolve upside down and go head first into the floor. Now if they were put on the surface, who knows what might happen though since there was no atmosphere doing that would be suicide without an EVA or environmental suit anyhow.

As for Jasper’s inversion wave idea, it might be possible, but would need more study and time, and probably equipment to setup, something they were kind of in short supply of at the moment. Perhaps moving on down the tunnel to the main chamber area would show them more information on what they had picked up earlier. As if to emphasize this one of the NE Andorian red shirts out on patrol ahead called back, “..Hey Captain? NE Hopes’tu Live here, I think you should all see this!” he said

GM CockRoach