Pot of Gold Hidden Behind the Rainbow
Posted on Sat Oct 15th, 2011 @ 9:13pm by Captain Benjamin Byrne & Lieutenant JG Maeik Gaius PhD (NPC)
Mission:
Kingdom Come
Location: Nevarran Archives
Timeline: MD10 1337hrs
The trio of archaeologists had traversed a number of tunnels, each one getting progressively deeper until they came to a small cavern - shaped almost like a bulge along a straw, with its only openings other than the old air holes (which were obsolete since the installation of air control units over a century ago, and thus were sealed off) at either end of he space. As the three entered into it, their destination was immediately obvious across the room; the next tunnel had been completely caved in, with some old yellow tape on tall metal stakes creating a small perimeter around it, warning off casual curiosity with danger signs.
"That is the tunnel that leads to the deepest caverns," their guide said, standing near the entrance to the small bulge chamber and gesturing with one hand. "It has been completely caved-in, as you can see. Any attempt to dislodge the rocks would cause too much instability on the rock above us."
"Well, visually I'd say your assessment is sound," Benjamin said, stepping closer and leaning forwards, as if doing so with a squint would somehow make the whole situation look more optimistic. He pulled out his tricorder from its belt pouch and opened it, the devices electronic whirrs and beeps resonating in the stone chamber, and sounding incredibly out of place. The captain held it up towards the rock pile, hoping to discover anything that may suggest a way to retrieve what was once inside. "Lieutenant..." he said, his brow creasing. "What do you make of this?"
"Well, it looks like rocks to me, except for this little band here. That definitely looks off," the lieutenant responded, looking at the tricorder. He was an archaeologist, not a geologist, but he'd definitely never seen that reading on a tricorder pointed at a rock before.
"Right," Benjamin responded, as he moved closer to the border of do not cross tape, tricorder resolutely in front of him as he reached it just slightly past the tape from where he stood. "Now, I'm definitely no engineer, but that discrepancy to me looks very similar to the type one might expect to find in the camouflage systems of a duckblind."
"'Duck blind'?" their guide asked, coming closer now and frowning, trying to make sense of what these officers were saying. "Look, captain; I assure you that there is nothing but rocks there! We've had plenty of our own people come and investigate this tunnel, and all of them have come to the same conclusion."
"Perhaps," Benjamin said, slowly and absent-mindedly; clearly his mind's automatic way of trying to placate the man whilst resolutely ignoring him. He moved the tricorder around in a rough circle in front of him, and listened to the slight series of low beeps as its focussed scanning arc fell across the lower two corners of the caved-in tunnel, and the central section of the roof of the opening. Putting his tricorder away, he motioned silently to Gaius as he stood back, and drew his phaser. Over the sudden alarmed shouts of "No! What are you doing!?" from their guide, he quickly and precisely fired at the three points that the tricorder had pinged, and watched as section by section, the rocks disappeared, as if removed by an eraser, until the tunnel was just that; an open tunnel.
Their guide was stunned. "... wha....?" The word took a long time to form in his lips, and even then it wasn't completed. Benjamin turned to face him, holstering his phaser.
"If we'd have come here ten years ago," he explained, "our older tricorders would have missed that too, and even then they were more advanced than what you have," he shrugged. "Disadvantage of not exploring for two hundred years, I guess. This cave-in however was nothing more than a very hi-tech illusion; not holographic I don't think, but some engineers would be the best to decide that." He turned to the Lieutenant. "Care to stroll through history with me, Lieutenant?"
As the two turned and headed down the passage, their guide was torn by indecision. Half-uttered attempts to speak passed his lips as he tried to decide between going back to the surface to contact his superiors, or following the officers down into the tunnel to stop them from stealing, damaging or ruining anything that was down there. In the end, he chose the latter.
As Seocuil joined the two officers at the end of the tunnel, he almost ran into the backs of them. They were standing at the exit of the tunnel, arms held above their shoulders. As he peeked between them, he could see why.
"That... that's a uniform from the Drust dynasty..." The remark drew rather more attention to him than Benjamin would have liked.
"You're Nevarran," the one man in the chamber remarked, as the aim on his rather old-fashioned, if perfectly clean and serviceable, phaser shifted. "What are these two aliens doing down here?"
"As I said," Benjamin interjected. "We're here on the request of the Nevarran Government for trade negotiations. The King gave us permission to study some of the archives."
"We were under orders that this chamber was to remain sealed unless receipt of a direct communicae from the Royal Family!"
Benjamin couldn't help but think 'We?' - there was only one man other than the two Starfleet officers and Seocuil in the present. Were there more in the sections of rock spreading out from this first chamber? "King Tasgall-"
"Tasgall?" The man with the gun interjected. "No, Queen Drust issued the orders! The Drust Royal Family!"
Bejamin and his counterpart were confused, and thus looked to Seocuil for clarification. The chronicler answered timidly as he searched his memory. "The Drusts were the rulers of the Cluster until about a hundred and sixty years ago, when they had no legitimate heir to take the Queen's place. The Aeolstans were the next rulers until the Tasgalls rose to the throne last century."
"That... that's not..." the man with the gun was clearly becoming confused and upset as the conversation went on. He eventually, if slowly, lowered his gun, and perched himself on the edge of the table nearest them. "We were ordered to keep the historical data in this chamber sealed away, keep all knowledge of it from any verbal, written or computerised records, unless the Drusts ordered its release to the system again. Myself and fifteen others were put into stasis pods, each awoken as the last guardian died of old age."
"What information was it that was locked away down here?" Benjamin asked. Though he was understandably curious and desperate for more information on this man and his fellows, he couldn't help but think that whatever had been hidden down here... would be a momentus discovery to the Nevarran world today.
"Technology," the man answered simply, before elaborating. "Before the information was sealed away down here... we Nevarrans were observers of the galaxy - our scholars and tacticians both observed events in the galaxy and other races from afar. We had the ability to create micro-singularities at will, and direct them wherever we wanted. Nowhere near big enough or stable enough to send anything physical through, but they surpassed the old telescopic monitoring equipment of ages past."
"I don't know what they discovered," the man continued. "They never told us, and the data on that topic has been sealed; only the Royal Family may open the files and read their contents. But I do know that Queen Drust felt that it was of such significance; such danger that she ordered all the equipment destroyed, and fired into the stars of the Cluster, and all data pertaining to the technology and its discoveries locked away in this chamber."
Benjamin traded a glance with Gaius. This certainly was a momentous find, though he didn't feel quite a giddy as he would have done had it been a find pertaining to a long lost or extinct civilisation. Instead, his mind was filled with the potential consequences of their find... what will it mean for the Nevarran people? For their relationship with the Federation? Was Teyrn Drust knowledgeable about this, is this why he wanted to keep the Federation away from the Cluster? Did the King know anything? He guessed that he knew the answer to that last question, since he had perceived no deception from the King's mannerisms whilst they had been here, nor any sense that he had been hiding anything. Even so... the ramifications were huge.
"Uh... if you... I think it would be best if you returned to your ship," Seocuil eventually said, speaking up and breaking the silence. "I... I need to speak with His Majesty about this. And we Nevarrans should be the first to study the information that is down here. A-and we should make sure that these guardians are properly cared for."
"Yes, of course," Benjamin said, moving as if snapping out of a trance. "Any assistance we can offer you, please let us know."
--------------------------
Captain Benjamin J. Byrne
Commanding Officer
&
Lieutenant JG Maeik Gaius PhD (PNPC)
Archaeologist
Played by LCdr Ballard
USS Endeavour
