[snip]

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

Also happening at that moment was they would find their open comms to the Merrimack squeal slightly and cut out, a check would find they had lost their signal from something. That probably wasnt a good sign! Maybe they really should move ahead to see what was going on in that center chamber!

Nkosenye tried to call the ship twice before swearing loudly in his native language at his communicator. “Masende kababa wakho!” and then he looked around. “We need to move. Perimeter! Fan out to 10 meters! No one outside the perimeter!” and he looked at the rest of the away team. “We need to find what we are looking for, and if possible a more secure location.”

”..Aye sirs” were echoed by the other four red shirt NE’s as they closed up ranks, NE Hopes’tu Live seemed excited though as the team were ready to move head, “..Man wait till you guys see whats ahead! Its beyond words!!” he stated

Cross was more then glad the landing party was about to move deeper towards the central chamber,she was doing her utmost to subdue that impulse reaction to go ahead alone.The need for some kind of stimulation was rearing its ugly head again...........

The doctor was wondering why on this particular occasion she managed to stay put,she soon got her answer for on hearing the CoS barking orders it did dawn on her that this man was not somebody to fool around with.

But Cross was Cross,she had enough and started running towards the central chamber ‘’We are here for a reason and I doubt if its to focus on the Fungus and darn beetles!’’ she exclaimed, now even further away from the group.

Maybe she blamed herself for not firing back when left in charge on the bridge ,opening her transmitter the doctor spoke =/\= Cmdr,Cmdr anything too report?=/\= the female doctor asked as she kept running =/\= Sir acknowledge!=/\= were her last words..............

As Cross broke ranks and darted ahead, she would be the first then to round the bend where Hopes’tu Live had been and down the long passage emerge to the entrance to the central underground cave chamber. While her flashlight danced about in her blind run ahead, causing many of the fungus or beetles to light up/pause/etc in her wake. She (hopefully) would skid to a halt just short of the sharp end of the tunnel and the 20 foot drop to another cliff edge below (or would that be above her now?) further into the vast cavern around her. What could only be described as a ‘city’ was spanned out ahead and below her. But what made the whole thing beyond odd, was that the obsidian made buildings were no bigger then 4 inches or so in height!! Tiny dots smaller then even the beetles were evident possibly showing either more insects or maybe it was life? Who could tell maybe scans might show something.

What was evident though most of all was in the center of this vast underground miniature tiny city like cavern home was at the center were a cluster of 10, 8 inch high by 6 inch long egg shaped objects she could just make out in the dark gloom of the city and cavern. From what she saw it seemed either the mini city and its assume dwellers were either tapping into the eggs in some way by thin strands of what might be some kind of organic root/wire or the eggs were tapping into the city in the same way. Again more scans were needed.

Getting down to the city would be a bit of a challenge a path along the wall to her right (or was that left?) about 10 inches wide led down (or was it up?) to the cavern floor (or was it the ceiling!!). It probably would be wise though to wait for the rest of the landing party, but then again Cross was Cross!

GM CockRoach