ST:TTV105 | "Not Alone"

Stardate Unknown

Ghadruiil had been coiled up in a huge mass of scales, with the entrails of some creature laid out in a spiral around him. While the humans and other beings on the Gainsborough found it barbaric, repulsive, or at best morbidly interesting, to Ghadruil this was a matter of faith.

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Ghadruiil had been coiled up in a huge mass of scales, with the entrails of some creature laid out in a spiral around him. While the humans and other beings on the Gainsborough found it barbaric, repulsive, or at best morbidly interesting, to Ghadruil this was a matter of faith. This snake-like creature was one of the high priests on his homeworld of Aurking, a tropical world that to the Federation seemed to be uninhabited by anything sentient. In truth, the Korlackress had been living underground for a thousand years, swearing off space travel and technological advancement for fear of causing ecological destruction or another war in space like the on that almost wiped out their species. Even now they were still experiencing the effects of the war that sent them into hiding, a bioweapon that weakened their eggs, severely decreasing the amount of Korlackress that could be born.

When the Federation encountered his species, Ghadruil decided to join the Gainsborough as a guide, offering what limited information he could about the unexplored space they were in, which was once partially ruled by the Korlackress Empire for a brief amount of time. In recent months, however, Ghadruil had become more secluded and had less and less interaction with the Gainsborough crew. He had failed his mission, to find any Korlackress colonies that were still alive or even any evidence of them. He never disclosed to any aliens that this was his mission, and thus he had no reason to return home. So he stayed aboard the Gainsborough, mostly acting as a representative for his species as they prepared to return to the galaxy. And so it was that right before the Gainsborough had been destroyed, this high priest was doing one of his ritual prayers.

"To the god of night and death, whose great body comes for us all and brings terror to remind us we are still alive. To the god of fear, who endows us with respect and-" Ghadruil's prayers were suddenly cut off as the Gainsborough rocked back and forth. It wasn't unusual for there to be a fight, and so he tried to brush it off and continued with his prayers. "To the god of fear, who-" The ship rocked again, more violently than before. He uncoiled from his mass and prepared to make his way to the bridge to see what was going on when a bulkhead fell and blocked the path. Suddenly an announcement for evacuation sounded overhead. The Korlackress were not ones to run away from death or a fight, and so he braced himself against a bulkhead and stayed on for a bit longer. That was the plan, at least, until he saw the enemy ship through the viewport. "To the god of fear, who endows us with respect and reminds us when we are inferior." Knowing that the ship wouldn't last long against whatever this enemy was, Ghadruil raced to an escape pod, easily being able to squirm through the rubble and debris in his way. Once he squeezed all twenty feet of himself in there he ejected the escape pod, but not before a final rocking of the ship caused him to hit his head and lose consciousness.

A few hours later he awoke and found himself on a planet. Upon opening the door he found it to be a tropical rainforest, not unlike his home, though the gravity wasn't as low, nor the oxygen levels as high. This was a new world, and it looked uninhabited. Now seemed like a good time for the priest to finish his prayer, before looking for other survivors. "And to the god of the unknown, who is the enemy of prosperity, but shall not be trifled with lest one wishes to invite death."