Nightshift 49: The Labyrinth

[loyal_soldier]

[From here]

"Oh bloody hell, not another one." Another room that looked not only useless, but confusing. He didn't even have a clue where this was. "We should--" he was cut off by the sound of the suddenly much larger door closing with a rather final sounding 'click' behind them. "...Keep going, apparently. There has to be another way out of this

Comments

[sewenteen_sir]

Chekov turned around after following Captain Kirk through the storage doorway. Kirk's decision had gone against Chekov's recommendation, but it wasn't as though the recently promoted captain hadn't gone against dozens of recommendations and regulations before. And he'd come out of it a captain, so honestly the decision was probably sound.

At least, Chekov had thought so until he realized the door closest to the party had no handle and couldn't be pushed open. A small wrinkle of worry creased his forehead as he looked around their new environment, but he made no comment. Captain Kirk looked as though he understood their situation quite well, after all, and there had been no reason for the next room they came upon to lack a functioning door.

No ceiling, from what he could see, and the walls were somewhat nondescript. Visibility was low as well, making attack a definite possibility. His frown deepened as he wondered what sorts of things made their habitat in a long hallway with walls that were virtually impossible to scale. Unsurprisingly, not many pleasant things came to mind.

"Go ahead Keptain," Chekov said with a small nod of his head towards the direction Roxas was going. "I will take ze beck.

"Zat is a good strategy," Chekov commented to Roxas with a smile. "Did you know it was deweloped in Russia?"

[doneinthree]

Kirk tore himself away from his staring contest with the door to follow the two teens, letting Roxas take point. It wasn't until Chekov made his comment that Kirk realized why Roxas was walking with his hand on the wall: the surefire way to navigate your way out of a maze was to keep sticking to one wall until the exit. It was a technique he'd picked up not in Russia or Starfleet, but as a young man growing up in a state which loved its corn mazes. He'd never thought this knowledge would have any practical use outside of Iowa, but... then again, Kirk could see how Landel's Institute could get boring enough to warrant the time and effort to carve a maze out of stone.

Assuming this was the Institute. For a certainty, they were still under Landel's sadistic jurisdiction, but if the head doctor was keeping a labyrinth somewhere in his hospital, it wasn't on any of Chekov's maps. And then there was the silence. For hours, no matter where he was, the falling rain had lurked in the background, but here... nothing. Less than nothing. If there was any sound at all in this place, it was coming directly from the three of them.

"Let's pick up the pace," Kirk ordered as they came out of the long hallway into the first set of passages. Oh, why did he have a feeling that this place was going to be huge? "And stay alert. We don't know what else is here with us."

Half an hour later... Or was it an hour? Two hours? Five? There weren't any clocks here. There wasn't goddamn anything except grey walls and mist and the echoing of their footsteps. Nor was there taunting from the intercom, or periodic radio messages to mark the passage of time and reassure them that they weren't going to be trapped here forever. Their latest turn (he'd lost count after the first five) took them past a spot where it looked as though someone had futilely tried to scratch their way through the wall, because that wasn't creepy.

"Who the hell needs a maze this big?!" demanded Kirk.

[rischiarare]

At least the walls didn't have thorns this time. It made this particular maze a lot easier than the last he'd been in. Though he wanted to give Chekov a questioning gaze behind him, he was actually afraid he might somehow forget which direction he was going in; the place had turn after turn, and if he lifted his fingers for one moment and turned around...

No thanks. Getting lost in a cold, stone maze was one of the many things Roxas would be happy to announce he had not done.

"What's Russia?" he asked, still trying to gauge the distance in which he was able to see through the fog - three feet, maybe. It kept him from hitting his nose on any perpendicular walls, at least. Again that night he was wondering where Luxord was when you needed him: he'd be a great ally to have in Wonderland, since the Nobody had a gift for time and places that didn't make sense. They hadn't gotten lost in the rose garden because of that.

This is so dumb, he was thinking after a time, where the fog hadn't let up and the rough texture of the wall hadn't changed. Had someone dumped them underground? It was cold, sure, but for this much fog? And he was getting tired. Physically, and of looking at gray walls. At least the roses had sometimes been fantastic colors.

[sewenteen_sir]

Chekov, even after traversing the maze for what felt like hours, was still going strong. Marathon training had done something for him, at least--his stamina while under duress was excellent. Bringing up the rear had also afforded him the opportunity to sketch as they moved forward. A partial map of the area would be useful at the very least, though part of him hoped they never had to return here. The fog and the scratches in the wall were only the tip of the glacier as far as this whole maze was concerned.

"A crazed man bent on driwing eweryone in ze building insene, sir," Chekov offered, checking over his shoulder again. "Zough where he keeps his maze... perheps underground." Though if his influence reached as far as Doyleton, it was anyone's guess where they were. If they were underground, they were many many stories underground.

"Russia is my homeland," Chekov said, answering Roxas' question. He tried not to look too mortified. "It is where I was raised, until I went off to school."

The navigator shone his light down a corner opposite the wall they were following. Nothing down that way, thankfully. For how long they had been walking, it was a near miracle they hadn't come across something more aggressive than the fog. Still, he was beginning to wonder how big this maze was, and if they'd ever find the way out.

[doneinthree]

For his part, Kirk actually was feeling all the wasted time and walking and teleporting piling on top of him, but like hell if he'd ever let his body accept something as normal as exhaustion. There's always an exit, he'd said earlier, and the last thing this place was going to do was make him a liar. His flashlight barely penetrated the seemingly constant haze ahead, but still Kirk didn't let his hand drop as they continued pushing through the winding passages of the maze.

Underground? It was definitely a possibility. "At this point, nothing would surprise me." At least this was better than trudging through miles of freezing tundra and getting chased by horrifying eldritch creatures. Maybe. There was still time for that to happen, but if a hulking monster was planning to jump them on the next turn, it was being frighteningly quiet about it.

The conversation between the two young men thankfully filled the silence, and helped set Kirk's nerves at ease, letting him focus on getting out of here. He hated the stillness of this place, the monotony; and missed with sudden fierceness the noise and activity of Starfleet, even during the whole Narada crisis. No matter what the circumstances, Kirk always knew who he was and what to do while in the thick of conflict.

"Where do you come from?" he asked Roxas curiously. Not Earth, or at least not their Earth. It was unlikely a native Human wouldn't know the name of their largest country. "We're from a world called Earth. Same name as this world, apparently, but a different version of- Is that a door?"

Kirk stopped in his tracks for a second, but only a second. If that really was an exit, they weren't spending another frustrating second in this place. Without another word, he strode past Roxas, and pushed it open.

[to here]

[sewenteen_sir]

A door. After hours of searching, finally they had been rewarded with a way out of the foggy, desolate, endless maze--with all of their limbs in tact. Apparently Landel was happy enough watching them struggle through the maze, since they hadn't encountered another multiplying animal or worse. Face breaking into a relieved smile, he followed the Captain and Roxas towards the door. Nothing could have been any worse than this maze. At least the next place they were transported to might have a readily accessible door. Captain Kirk pushed open the door leading out of the maze, Roxas followed, Chekov right behind him.

The door closed behind Roxas, nearly pushing Chekov back into the maze. It might have broken his nose if he hadn't stepped back, at the very least.

"Keptain!!" Chekov shouted, mostly as a reflex. Part of him knew that the Captain and Roxas were long gone--already in a new room somewhere in the prison. He felt a cold chill run through him, realizing that he had been cut off from any form of communication with anyone, left in a deathly silent, foggy maze with only one way forward.

But the same door would lead to a different place. The closet door had opened into the closet, but let them out to a different place. Was it possible that the door would lead him to the same place, though? Were they all linked to a completely different place, or was the transporting truly randomized?

He had two options: stay in the maze and wait for the morning to come, or attempt to reconnect with the Captain no matter how many doors he had to run through. His choice was simple: Captain Kirk was his captain, and not making an attempt to rendezvous was unacceptable on professional and personal levels.

Chekov turned on his flashlight and opened the door. It was dark, but that didn't mean anything. Whatever came at him, whatever obstacles he encountered, he was a Starfleet officer. He would do everything in his power to find his Captain and continue with their mission. Which meant stepping into the unknown.

The young ensign straightened his back and stepped through the door into the dark void in front of him.