When Ensign Chad Harris voluntarily beamed down to the planets surface, in the hope of gaining vital information as to who or what was taking over the minds of his feel crew members, including that of his fiancée; he had no idea what he’d be facing.

On the surface the planet exhibited no resemblance to what any of them had witnessed from their scans over the past few days.  Gone were the rolling hills, forests and patchwork of farm land; so to were the houses and the people that had occupied them.  In fact, other than those deliberately brought here; there was no life anywhere.  This was a barren planet, and had been for possibly countless years

He reached down to feel the emerald green sand at his booted feet; as the rest of those he’d transported down with, including Ensign Cho, trudged away as if he wasn’t there.  The sand was warm and coarse to the touch; he scanned some of it with the tricorder he’d brought; but the device failed to give any accurate or meaningful readings.

Chad’s eyes followed the direction in which his companions were heading; that’s when he spotted those members of the ship’s crew already on the planet and somewhere in the region of 200 Romulan’s.  Almost everyone was on their hands and knees, at the lowest point of a small depression and fanned out around it; everyone; frantically digging as it their very lives depended on it.  For all the New Zealander knew, may be their lives did depend on it, or possibly they were working towards hastening their eventual death.

The position of the sun partially behind one of five towering structures, cast a wide shadow across most of those hard at work.  Chad studied the huge monoliths, which formed an arc at one side of the dig site.  Each stood a good 160-170 metres tall, around 80 metres at their widest point where they sunk into the sand and no more than 10 across their claw like tips.  The surface of each, seemed black and cold; regardless of whether it was in direct sunlight or protected by its own shadow.

Ensign Harris circled clockwise around the depression, cautiously approaching the closest of the structures.  From a distance they had appeared featureless; but the nearer Chad got, the more he started to make out subtle details.  The air around the structure seemed electric, it made his hair stand on end and skin tingle; the effect growing stronger the closer he got.

Harris tried scanning the structure with the tricorder, but unlike the sand that created bizarre readings; this thing produced none at all.  According to the small built in screen on the device, he was looking at absolutely nothing.

“You’re rather big for something that doesn’t exist.” Chad muttered to himself and the imposing dark shape. “And things that aren’t there, don’t usually cast a shadow.”

He looked back at all the Starfleet and Romulan personnel hard at work.  Regardless of rank, role, age or physical ability they all dug like mad.  A shimmer of light caught his attention, followed by the realisation that more members of the USS Grus crew had just arrived.  It wasn’t long before they to, joined the mass of workers. It took him a few minutes to pick out Cho amongst the throng; but the slight of her made him commit to going on.  “I won’t let you down.” He whispered.

As the first hour on the planet drew to a close, Ensign Harris made his first report back to the ship.  He had no idea if anyone would hear what he had to say about the place, or whether any of it could prove useful; should someone attempt a rescue.

He spent the next hour; first walking around the base of the structure, until he arrived back at his start point, before approaching the thing more closely.  Intricate carvings and symbols adorned three sides; the one furthest from the depression being blank and featureless.  It had probably been perfectly smooth when new; even the marks of whatever tools had been used in its construction weren’t visible; there wasn’t even an indication of where two sections met.  The notion that this was one solid piece was beyond comprehension.   Such a feat seemed impossible.  There were little pockmarks indicated the fight against time and the elements had its effect on even the toughest of materials.

Chad eventually closed to within an arm’s length of the thing.  The carvings and symbols were meaningless to him, and he looked back towards all those digging and wondered if Cho or any of the others could understand any part of it.

Reaching out gingerly, he carefully touched the inky black surface; or at least he attempted to.  It was as if an invisible barrier, no more than a fraction of a millimetre was keeping his skin from actually making contact.

‘Release me’

The voice came from nowhere, yet seemed to be everywhere.  Chad snatched his hand back and spun around, half expecting to find someone standing right there behind him; but no one was close.  He crouched down in the sand, one eye on those digging, the other on the tower.  A woman’s hand gently lay on his right shoulder.

“Mom, you can’t be here, he said softly.” Recognising the familiar patterns of veins and wrinkles.

‘Release him and we can all be together.’ 

“No, I can’t.” He shouted, shaking the hand from his shoulder. “I won’t!”

‘Then watch them all die slowly.’

He was alone again, the image of his mother dissolving into individual grains of sand, which feel to the ground. “Without food and water they are all going to die anyway, and you’ll still be trapped.”

‘There will be more ships and more people to sacrifice.’ 

“Once they know what’s happening here, no one will come near the place.”  Chad shouted defiantly into the air.

‘Already the next ship approaches.  All hope for you is lost.’ 

On the second hour, Ensign Harris managed to transmit another report back to the ship; which included images collected from the monolith he was studying.  His third message would be his last.  The pull of the unseen forces had eventually grow too strong for him to resist and he soon joined the frantic digging.