Act 1
Crystalline pinkish hills sparkled under the pinkish atmosphere. Stars seemed to peer out from the daily sunset like clouds.
Wheeled ships crafted from heavily forged iron carried tons of sparkling minerals across the rocky surface. They were like stalactites on wheels with red glass windows.
Huts of brown rock like formations were scattered around the pinkish hills.
The people living in them are humanoid. But, to compensate for a very thin sphere of air that encompasses their planet…Iron red courses through their systems: Leaving the breathing systems internal.
They have their breathing holes indented, connected to two sets of lungs. And, so they have no noses to speak of.
Hints of dark red reflect out from their otherwise nearly colorless crystalline rich skin. And, their hands are big and rough like roughly formed chunks off mountaintops.
Mines were everywhere, leaving crater after crater as far as the wandering eye can see. There were rows after rows of crystalline forged elevators to go down to row after row of caves.
Some children were playing with jagged chunks of minerals like snowballs. Yet, the rocks just bounced off their faces with mostly just minor scratches. They just were laughing their days away.
Miners were highly valued. The currency was crystal. Even the name of the race was Crysal: Closely resembling the very word of crystal.
The more sparkly a Crysal was…the more highly revered he or she was in society.
Crysals could admire themselves in the mirror for days. Yet, they were merciless parents and miners. They worked hard, admiring their more permanent scratches as mementos of their hard work.
But, as time went on on this beautiful sparkling planet…everything started to break down.
The mines were cracking apart from scratches day in and day out.
Minerals to promote growth and solidification of crystalline based crops were being quickly depleted. Crystalline dark gray cucumber resembling spikes and crystalline bright blue trees bearing banana resembling fruit crumpled before the cold breezes of night.
The more sparkly beings came to blows with the less sparkly over what was left to share. More and more of the wheeled ships were quickly turning into battering rams.
As days turned to centuries… Most of the Crysals retreated into the mines and caves. They had become more than mines: They were then military bases against each other.
Flaming stalactite like spears were thrown from cave to cave. Crysals were left behind in the fallout of burning up caves. Only the cold breeze could rush in and put out the flames before they engulfed the planet from the inside out.
The caves were getting closed up and bordered up with what remained of the crops. The rock like hospitals were on call day in and out to the point that most of the miners were being taken there on crystalline like wheeled stretchers.
Relatively more presently…
Mineral dust clouds sweep through the caves. Not a being is left in sight.
And through the dust of the caving in mines…a giant hand seems to merge out from it. Clouded over by dust...the very blurry hand of crystal reaches out to the USS Voyager: Looking almost ready to crush it in its dusty sparkly palm.
And, as the dust begins to finally clear… Kes wakes up in her very dark quarters: More than a little startled by the vision that appeared before her.
Presently, in Kes’s Quarters…
She sits up, fairly nervously and shaken. But, after some awkward minutes…the thundering of falling rocks dies down.
Kes finds her Combadge to the left side of her bed. She taps her Combadge.
Fairly casually and half tired… She checks over the Combadge, “Neelix?”
Over his Combadge… Neelix answers, “yes?”
Kes checks, “are you the only one up?”
Fairly concerned… Neelix figures, “as far as I know? Yes. But, everyone will be up fairly soon. I was just on my way to the Mess Hall to do some inventory. Why do you ask?”
Reluctantly… Kes reasons, “never mind. It can wait until the Captain gets up.”
Neelix figures, “all right. But, you sure we shouldn’t wake her?”
Kes answers, “yes. I’m sure. But, thanks.”
Neelix adds, “anytime, Kes.”
Kes puts down her Combadge. And, she lies back down on the bed to sleep a little more. She has a fairly strong feeling she can sleep in first…before the nightmare comes closer to reality.
