And The Children Shall Lead Line-by-Line

[Athena28]

Hello, Welcome!

We recently completed The Killing Game thread in the VOY forum!

For anyone unfamiliar with our "game," you are asked to post only a single line (defined as one character speaking without interruption by another character) per message. You can post as often as you like, but someone else must post a line in between your posts.

Our "rule" is that if the episode has a "To Be Continued..." on the end, it is done in a single thread, but if it's just an arc of related episodes (like the Dominion Occupation Arc on DS9 or the Xindi Arc on ENT), each episode is a separate thread.

Get ready for a story, here we go!

 

[Athena28]

Captain's Log, stardate 5029.5. Responding to a distress call from our scientific colony on Triacus. We are beaming down to investigate.

[Planet surface]

KIRK: Professor Starnes? It's Kirk.

 

[May 20]

(The man collapses without speaking.)

MCCOY: He's dead, Captain.

 

[Athena28]

KIRK: He didn't seem to know me.

 

[May 20]

(Kirk takes the dead man's tricorder, then goes over to a woman and removes a vial from her mouth.)

MCCOY: Cyalodin.

 

[Athena28]

KIRK: Self-inflicted.

 

[May 20]

(Kirk replays the tricorder.)

STARNES [OC]: Must destroy ourselves! Alien upon us. The enemy from within. The enemy!

 

[CaptVader]

KIRK: All this. Self-inflicted. Mass suicide.

 

[May 20]

(The sound of children playing, then the kids run into the scene. There's a girl, three small boys and one older boy.)

MARY: You missed me.

 

[CaptVader]

STEVE: I did not.

 

[Orac]

Tommy: Hi. Who are you?

 

[CaptVader]

KIRK: Kirk of the starship Enterprise.

 

[May 20]

TOMMY: I'm Tommy Starnes. This is Mary, Steve, Ray, and Don.

 

[CaptVader]

MARY: Come on. Play with us. Come on. (They make a circle and dance around Kirk.) Ring around the rosy, pocket full of posy. Ashes, ashes, we all fall down! Ring around the rosy, pocket full of posy. Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!

 

[May 20]

Captain's log, supplementary. We have buried the members of the Starnes exploration party. Everyone has been deeply affected by what has happened here, with some important exceptions.

 

[CaptVader]

[Planet surface]

(Grave markers with just surnames stand behind one or two mounds of soil. Kirk plants a UFP standard. The children have had enough.)

MARY: Let's go and play.

(They run off to the cave entrance and play tag)

 

[May 20]

KIRK: No sign of grief?

 

[CaptVader]

McCoy: No, Jim. No indication of any kind.

 

[Orac]

Kirk: Or of fear.

 

[Athena28]

MCCOY: They seem completely secure and unafraid.