Archaeologist's Treasure Trove

Posted on Wed Oct 12th, 2011 @ 5:19pm by Captain Benjamin Byrne & Lieutenant JG Maeik Gaius PhD (NPC)

Mission: Kingdom Come
Location: Nevarran Archives
Timeline: MD10 1316hrs

The two archaeologists had been working in the archives for over six hours, but both were happily content to continue working, as enthralled in their work as they were. Benjamin was sitting on the edge of a raised part of the cavern; he didn't know what purpose it originally served, but for now it was a convenient place to park himself without sitting in the right-angled zig-zag the hard chairs required, which became uncomfortable after som time. In his hands, he had a large volume of an aged book; it was dated to about one hundred and ninety to two hundred years old; the period immediately after the culture's closure of itself to the outside galaxy, and a period that he had learnt the Nevarrans had for some reason stopped using computerised methods of recording their history (this period only lasted about twenty five years; it would appear that the efficiency of a computer far outweighed whatever the reason was that they fell into disuse for archival for that time period).

Gaius looked up into the gaping void of the archive. The shelves, seemingly made of the same rock that formed the cavern, spiralled up until they were well out of sight, leaving him gazing in awe at the sheer scale of the task at hand. While some of the information had been computerised by the Nevarrans, there was still so much history contained in these old tomes that it was enough to make one's head spin. His eyes fell over the expanse of the cavern. Stone cases housed scrolls and books, leather-bound descriptors of a world that was in some ways so regular but in others, so alien.

Benjamin's muttering - an old habit that began to see its revival whenever he found a particularly interesting piece of information - suddenly raised to an all-together louder volume, surpassing that of which could be easily ignored. "... and the archival data of the great technology was sealed away deep under The City; the fear it had caused in the nation's heart causing such panic as to immediately recall all external flights, to seal ourselves within our own borders. It is a decision I cannot help but disagree with, but to which the King and His nobles are almost in unison."

The book carried such a flamboyant but overly personal style throughout the rest of the excerpts he had skimmed in it thus far; it would appear that the author - the name was illegible by now on the book's cover, the material used to craft it onto the hardback leather was of such poor quality - was a man of some influence; enough for his recounting to be stored in the Archives, and he had been chronicling events almost as if one would a diary, though one meant for mass consumption at a later point in time. Unfortunately, this seemed to be the closest to specifics that the histories here would allow them; all of them, especially this volume, seemed to refer to the events of two hundred years ago in such a way that the reader was expected to already know of it; to have that background knowledge already within them. If there had been any specific recounting of the events that lead up to what was referred to by volumes in the Archives variously by paper and data alike as The Closure, The Event, The Isolation and so on, then it had long since been removed from the archives. But this segment; 'sealed away deep under The City'... that gave Benjamin pause for thought.

Gaius popped his head over the bannister on the staircase above the Captain. "What was that you were saying, sir?"

"Just something I found in this journal," the captain said, looking up at the other officer through his reading glasses. "'the archival data of the great technology was sealed away deep under The City,'" he repeated. "I'm assuming 'The City' refers to the Capital," he continued, looking back down at the page for clues. "But it's not very specific; the whole journal lacks context. It's obvious he didn't have any readers from two hundred years later in mind when he wrote it." He looked up once again to find Seocuil. "Are there any other archives besides this one? Or any deeper chambers at all? I've not been able to find any reference in here thus far of this 'great technology' this journal talks about, and there's no record of any such texts in the data file we were sent."

"These are the only such archives on the planet," the Nevarran responded. "The only thing comparable is the historical archives topside for the storage of information pertinent to the rest of the systems within the Cluster."

Obviously their history isn't seen as being as important as the homeworld's. "And no deeper caverns?"

"You've already been into all of the caverns that we have knowledge of. Any other caverns have long since caved in. Our scans have consistently shown them to be full of rocks. There's very little chance anything will have survived in those caverns."

Benjamin stood up, a curious expression coming across his face. "Any of these caved-in caverns run significantly deeper than this one?"

Soecuil nodded. "There is what was believed to once be a significantly sized series of caverns and tunnels that caved in some hundred and fifty of your years ago. It is the deepest cavern we have indications of, which led to it being more vulnerable to earth shaking events."

Benjamin put the book on the nearest table and gave the Lieutenant a significant look as he removed his glasses. "I'd like to see the entrance of this cavern, if I could. Our sensor equipment may be able to tell us something about the areas beyond it that yours haven't been able to."

The Nevarran exhaled heavily through his large nasal cavities. "Very well," he said at length. "But I can guarantee that you won't find anything that we haven't already."

-------------------------
Captain Benjamin J. Byrne
Commanding Officer

&

Lieutenant JG Maeik Gaius PhD
Archaeologist
NPC Played by LCdr Ballard
USS Endeavour