Archeology twiddles

Posted on Sun Feb 24, 2019 @ 1:56am by Civilian Jason Haines & Captain Maritza Soran & Lieutenant Alanna Wells

4,863 words; about a 24 minute read

Mission: Doors of Perception
Location: Pangae Castle Ruins
Timeline: MD 4, 1300

[ON]

The weirdness started with the geophysics, and went from there. According to the geophysics, there was no pit, no indications the soil on the edge of the castle ruins had ever been disturbed in the past. Certainly no indication that the ground there was dense with bones. A bone sample had shone is was a particularly strong bone, highly mineralised, even after they would presumabaly have leached into the ground for millenia.

The area had been cordoned off, and now the pit was surrounded by excavation tools, and scale sticks, artefact trays and all the other detritus of a dig site. Many half exposed skeletons could be seen poking out of the bit wall, and more were partially buried in its bottom.

Alanna was impressed. "And this just showed up?" she asked one of the people watching the site.

The petty officer in security yellow nodded. "We found it when we secured the site after the sabotage opening night, ma'am. And none of the overnight crew then remember seeing anything either. Place gives me the willies."

Alanna nodded and smiled. She could understand why. "As long as they don't reanimate, I'm good."

Jason had been delayed but finally caught up with Alanna. He looked about and then let out a "Woah." He went over to a section of the castle and placed his hand on the stone and just stood there.

"It's pretty spectacular," she said, grinning. "The site has already been sectioned off for excavation, but I want to have a look at the bottom of the pit."

"Well, it is spectacular", Jason said looking up at her. "but that's not what I was referring to. I've been here before, in a dream, that didn't seem like a dream."

She turned her full attention to Jason. "Really? Will you tell me about it?"

He walked back over to her and then went to the grass and sat down. "It's a bit lengthy, you might want to sit down. You see, I have a quasi-reoccurring dream of the day that my mom died. We were in a hover-craft accident when a team of horses darted across the road when we were visiting her home town in Ireland. Well, in my dream the other night, it wasn't a team of horses that crossed our path. It was what the Irish call a Dullahan; an ancient Irish omen of death. It's a dark cloaked man, on a dark horse, whose head has been severed and it carries it around. If it lifts it head and turns it on you, you die. Well, that's what happened to my mom."

He paused a moment as thinking about the dream was hard.

Alanna listened intently so she could understand not just what he said, but the nuances of his dream.

"After we crashed, even though she was dead, my mom got out of the hover-craft and started walking", Jason continued. "I tried and tried to catch up with her, but no matter how fast I ran, I couldn't. So, in the dream we walked for most of the day and the sun was setting, when we got here. She walked right up to this pit and fell in. Well, I scrambled down into the pit and heard a childish laugh. I looked up and there was what I guess you would call a pixie. It was standing in front of an entrance to a tunnel. It motioned for me to follow and like the idiot in a horror novel, I did. At the other end of the tunnel was this pond with an island on it. On the island was a unicorn, a stag, and a huge black mastiff."

He paused a moment and then said, "And that isn't the weirdest part. The pixie says to the unicorn , 'Your highness, I've brought the prince like you requested.' After looking me over a few moments, the stag said, 'He is still not ready'. The unicorn agreed with the stag and then the mastiff's eyes glowed red and it breathed fire all over me and then I woke up."

Alanna could easily sense that Jason was upset and confused about the dream.

She put a hand on his arm in sympathy. "And this is the pit you saw?"

Jason looked at her and nodded.

"The pit, the castle, everything around here. The dream was the first night I was here, so I had not even been planet-side yet", he said. "And after having learned more about the portals and everything that is going on around them and the planet, I am curious if there are Fae portals near Ireland. I am not sure how familiar you are with Irish mythology, but Fae figure prominently in it."

"I know a little," she said. "I'm more familiar with Pre-Columbian Americas. Do you think there's a connection with the Fae here and the Fae in Europe?" It was an intriguing possibility.

"Well, if these are portals that seem to be able to go all sorts of places and times, it wouldn't be too far fetched", Jason replied. "But I just find it weird that I dreamt of this place. Even weirder that someone thought I could be a prince. Definitely dreaming there."

"I don't know about that. I'm sure there are people who think you're a prince among men," she teased. "Seriously, though, I don't know much about these Fae. I wasn't here when Pangaea appeared."

Jason laughed a little.

"Well, now that we've dissected my dream", he said to her. "Why don't we actually find out what is here. Although, if we find a tunnel, I might no be a little reluctant to go in. I don't want to be barbecued by Fido the friendly hell-hound again."

"I don't blame you. I'll go in and tell him you're busy," she smiled, trying to lighten the mood.

"I think that will work", Jason said getting up. "I'm ready if you are."

Alyssa nodded and stood. His dream notwithstanding, she was looking forward to getting into the pit to have a good look around.

They walked back to the petty officer. "What's set up to get to the botto of the pit?" It was always better to ask before she started poking around.

The Petty officer indicated an expanding ladder. "A couple of Science officers have been using that. Its anchored up here so it can't fall in."

Alanna looked over the ladder and automatically checked to make sure it didn't damage any of the bodies. "Thank you."

When she was sure no one was trying to use the ladder, she began to climb down.

Jason let her get down to the bottom before making his way down himself. He looked around a bit apprehensively wondering if he was going to see a faerie or unicorn or even a leprechaun. Compared to that, the bodies around them seemed not to bother him.

Alanna circled the pit, examining it carefully as she did so. The bodies were like nothing she'd seen before. "I wonder if the appearance of this pit has anything to do with the attack the other night," she said. She was eager to have a good look at the bodies to learn more about their physiology. "No tunnels so far," she added.

"I was more worried about leprechaun's than tunnels", Jason quipped. "Do you mean the one at the opening of the facility? Did the castle show up as well or was it here before the bodies were found. How do you think they may be related?"

He pulled his tricorder out and started scanning.

Alanna stopped to look at a body that was still in fairly good shape before pulling out her own tricorder. "The span of internment cover several thousand years. Many of them look to have been part of a ritualistic killing. Fascinating."

"Riveting", Jason remarked. "So, you skipped my question. Was the castle here when the bodies were found or was it found when the bodies were discovered?"

"The castle was here when the planet showed up. This pit just...appeared. This is the first time I've seen it." She went to a skeleton and examined the bone structure. "The area around the ladder will be excavated first. We could go check the castle and see if there are any new tunnels there."

"That's exactly what I was thinking", Jason said. "Hopefully we don't find too many more bodies in there. I much prefer the living."

"I don't know, they both have their fascination. The dead aren't so good at conversation, though. And, come to think of it, they're terrible dancers." She ran her tricorder over the ground around them to get more readings. "Okay. We can go topside and see what else we can find there."

"Yeah, I can see how lack of muscles can interfere with dancing", Jason replied, closing up his tricorder. "But at least they don't argue all that much when you complain about the replicator food."

"True."

He let her go up the ladder and then followed her.

Alanna nodded her thanks to the petty officer and headed for the tent that had been set up as the temporary headquarters for the site. She didn't want to get in the way, but she did want to see how they were doing and make sure nothing had been overlooked.

"Doctor Wells," she said to the security officer near the front door.

He checked his list and nodded.

Inside, the tent had been sectioned into an office, a break room, and a large open area where the bodies were being carefully laid out on tables to be scanned, catalogued, and tagged.

The scientist in charge was busy talking to another scientist, so Alanna just nodded in greeting. "We're going to look at the temple," she told him. When he nodded back, she turned to Jason. "Do you have any questions, or should we see what we can find at the temple site?"

"Not at the moment", Jason replied. "I don't know enough of what I don't know right now to ask intelligent questions. I think we can just go to the temple. Please lead the way."

Alanna nodded. She gave the tent one more glance and headed back outside.

The temple wasn't far away. It was built in a spiral pattern and consisted mostly of rubble. Or it had. She made her way to the center to see if there had been any changes there.

Jason walked along, his tricorder out, but pausing enough to appreciate the architecture and looked for symbols of any sort along the way. When they got to the middle, he growled slightly.

"You know, this planet is a pain in the butt with tricorders", Jason griped. "The energy fluxes makes it difficult to keep it calibrated properly. This area seems to be a bit more problematic too. I wonder if there is a portal cave under here somewhere."

"I don't know, but I'd like to find out. It would made sense with the pit appearing," Alanna said.

"Have we begun to try and make a map with the energy fluxes overlaid on it?" Jason asked. "I've not read reports about tricorders having to be re-calibrated so much. I wonder if there are zones where the energy is different. This planet is so large I don't think a single energy pattern could be used to calibrate sensors of any sort with. Its probably why transporter use is so problematic."

"In the portal complex, yes. But there wasn't a problem here before the pit appeared. We should look at the energy fluxes and see what's changed." She checked her tricorder and compared the new scans to the ones on file. "The atmosphere is another matter."

As they began to explore the castle ruins, Alanna noticed odd changes. Moss and debris had been scraped off the walls in some places, and there were fresh scrapes in the lichen. She scanned the newly-disturbed areas to get as much information as possible. "These marks are similar to the ones on the door to the science facility."

She noticed a corner where lichen had been pulled away from the ground. "This is interesting."

Jason scanned with his tricorder and said, "I've never seen a dna reading like this before. Have you been able to determine if it is local or if it may have come from the portals?"

"Not yet. If it's local, it's from the planet's past. Best guess is it's from another time and place," Alanna said. "I don't think I've seen anything like this before."

She went over to a large boulder that smashed onto the mosaic floor. "I wonder if this was deliberate?"

Jason scanned it and said, "Good question. So, have we setup any sort of sensor grid to help and try to contain the assailant of the facility door. If it can do that to a door and the local stone, I would hate to see what it can do to a person."

"I'm not sure if security has set one up. I've got extra sensors and alarms at the science facility in case of another attack. What was interesting is that the main floor was torn up, but the lower levels were untouched. I'm checking the computers to see if any systems were breached." She waved her tricorder to the debris. "This is an interesting turn of events."

"Maybe it is looking for something", Jason said. "Were there any sort of samples from the area in the facility when the attack happened?"

"I don't think so. There was nothing like this before the attack."

"Hmm", Jason muttered looking at the remains of the mosaic.

"I think, we may have a clue as to our visitor and perhaps our burial pit", Jason said to Alanna. "Look at the mosaic."

He pointed to the albino humanoids in the mosaic.

"Those claws would definitely match the damage we've seen." She set about carefully clearing away rubble to get a good look at the broken mosaic. She set her tricorder to record the images to be sure she didn't misplace any of the pieces. "I wonder if one ore more of these humanoids appeared with the pit?"

"Does albinoism have dna markers?" Jason asked. "If it does, maybe we can scan the bodies and see if there are any in there."

"Albinism is genetic. We could find out through skin cells, too. It's worth a look." There were some fairly intact bodies in the pit. But with time and decay, it was hard to tell the original skin color. It would definitely be worth testing. "I think some of the skeletons look similar to these."

"Well, I will let you determine that science lady", Jason said chuckling. "I'm just the idea guy. The next question, is what scratched the mosaic? Was it one of the albino's or whoever impaled them on spikes or some sort ancestor."

"That is the question," Alanna said. "If we go with the attacker being one of the albinos in the mosaic, the destruction could be put down to anger over past treatment. It would also explain why it tried to destroy the mosaic. And if it was responsible for that boulder, it's not something we want to take lightly."

"Agreed", Jason answered with a nod. "and I wonder if they are native to here or once again, from another dimension or time."

"From what I read, there was no sign of anyone but the Fae on Pangaea before the pit showed up. But we really don't know much about the planet, either."

"Perhaps they are Fae or some off-shoot", Jason said. "They wouldn't be the first race to try and kill others of their race off, who were not like them. A lot of planets have tales of genocide somewhere in its history."

Alanna nodded. "If whoever--or whatever--is responsible for the attacks does prove to be one of the humanoids in the pit or mural, I hope its sentient."

"I'll take peaceful towards the living over sentient", Jason replied to her, looking around, now wondering if they were being watched by a creature of some sort.

"I have so many questions I want to ask. But I agree that non-violent is important."

"So, what now professor?" he asked.

"Well, we've confirmed that there are no tunnels in the pit, or in the castle," she said. "And that there is a possible connection between the bodies in the pit and the mosaic. We can see if there's more information in the command tent or move on to something else."

"We could check the bodies for evidence of spear wounds", Jason said. "Even if those spears in the picture slid through space between the ribs, they had to have a big shaft to hold them up like in the mural."

"Good idea. I'd like to see if any of the more intact corpses show signs of albinism." It would also give her a chance to get more readings to take back to the station.

"Lead the way oh evil one", Jason said with a smirk, rubbing his hand together like an old vid minion.

Alanna chuckled as they went back to the pit. She had another look at the bodies as they climbed down, looking for signs that they were the same humanoids.

"What can I do to help?" Jason asked. "If you can give me a download on what I need to scan for, I can do some preliminary scans for you if you want."

"Sorry. I thought you had some." She copied her scans to his tricorder so he could look for comparisons to the mosaic. "It is imperative for evil ones to properly instruct their minions."

"Yes, master", he said and started the scan. It took about five minutes of careful moving around the bodies before the tricorder beeped at him.

"Looks like the tricorder is excited about something over here", he said, moving a bit so Alanna would be able to have room to do more in-depth scans.

"Oh?" She went over to see what he found. "What's it saying?" She set up a new scan on the tricorder. "Oh."

"Oh what?" Jason inquired. "What did we find?"

"They look to have claws that would match those in the mural. An this one was and albino."

"Well, looks like part of the mystery is solved", Jason said. "Do you have a stretcher system to get bodies out of here or were you going to use transporters."

"We remove as much soil as we can by hand so that we don't miss anything. The dirt is sifted and analyzed, then stored. Once we get most of the remains isolated, we transport it so that nothing is misplaced or moved. Then we we tag and catalog it and do more detailed scans. Each phase of the removal is recorded and documented. Any bits that belong to the body are also tagged and kept n the same table. When we're done here, everything is carefully shipped to another facility for storage and more research. Or Federation Science may decide it's better to give them a proper burial here. It depends on the situation."

Alanna looked down at her tricorder as it continued to gather data. "That's odd."

"What's odd?" Jason asked, looking over her shoulder a bit at the tricorder.

"I'm trying to do a cellular analysis to see if I can get more than surface readings. But when I do, I get something else." She showed him the tricorder. "Watch when I try to scan bone marrow and DNA." The tricorder began to scan, but when it was done, she had a soil analysis. "Before that, I got one on the clothing."

"I've never seen a tricorder do that unless there is some type of interference", Jason said. "We are close to the portal, maybe it is throwing something out that is tweaking the tricorder."

"Possible." She went to a small table and took a sample kint. "We'll do this the old-fashioned way." She found a broken bone and manually extracted a bit of marrow and put it on a slide. She carefully covered it with another slide and put it in a protective case. "I want to see if it does the same thing under a micron microscope." She prepared another slide with skin and hair samples.

When they were safely stored in her cross pack, she turned to Jason. "Let's see if we can figure out when and where this pit came from."

Jason nodded and ran some scans.

"Although there are some similarity in the nature of the soil to nearby sections cataloged before by scans", Jason said. "There is definitely enough difference to say that I don't think there is enough of a match to say that the landscape is contiguous, but I'll let you get a geologist to check it."

She nodded. "I think we're looking at something not only from another time, but probably from another planet. Or universe. I know of nothing like this in known archaeology."

"It's almost as if someone wants to drive us nuts", Jason said reading his tricorder. "The temporal and dimensional overlays here are a bit frustrating."

"They are, but it's fascinating at the same time." She grinned. "I don't expect to get all the answers right now. But I do want to know if any living creatures came with the pit. That could be dangerous."

"Well, it wasn't Timmy the Stickman who made those scratches", Jason said with a smirk, putting his tricorder away. "We'd have to do a search of the area, looking for tracks, and all that good stuff. I wonder if the Klingons have any skilled hunters."

"No, I don't think the creatures from the mosaic came to life and attacked. But your suggestion is a good one. We can see what measures security has taken to find out who did this. I've just got the computer files from the science building."

"That's a good start, but I was only half-joking about the Klingons", Jason said. "When young Klingons are considered worthy enough to carry a real d'k tahg, they are often sent on a hunt. One thing that a lot of races lose as they advance is a connection to their more primal natures. The Klingons are not one of those races."

"True, but I don't think I want any Klingons proving their manhood by hunting our alien guests. I don't want them dead before I have a chance to find out if their sentient."

"That's why you tell them, they must be alive", Jason said. "That way they would know they would be considered a child forever if they killed it. But you are the boss here."

"Only with the science. Commander Soran is in charge of the planet as a whole."

"Well, our guest could be counted as a scientific mystery", Jason replied with a chuckle. "Lead the way doctor Livingston."

"Right this way, Mr. Stanley." She went back to the main tent to ask what security measures were being taken to find out who attacked the colony.

The answer was some frustration. The initial search for the intruder, tantalisingly glimpsed by Annora on the night, had led to a trail that had ended at the open pit, and the discovery of a tiny bead that the sensor equipment was having trouble scanning, just like the bones of the pit themselves. And from the pit, the trail had been lost. The intruder hadn't been seen since, and sensor scans off the area at all ranges came back negative.

"Has there been any odd animal activity in the area?" Jason asked. "If there is, maybe that will give us a clue as to where to pick up the search."

"Do you still have sensors up in case it comes back?" Alanna asked.

The officer of the watch, a middle aged telletite petty officer who'd seen it all, nodded. "They've been up for three months, ma'am. All through construction. Didn't spot anything then. Doubt they'll spot anything now."

"It's always good to be safe," Alanna replied, smiling apologetically at the petty officer. "Actually, if there's going to be anything, it will happen while we excavate this pit. But good to know we'll see whatever it is that comes to make a call." She would have to talk to T'gan about having an office here on the planet where she could have a closer look at the temporal oddities.

"So, what now?", Jason asked.

"I think we've done all we can here for now--unless you have something you would like to do?"

"I'm good", Jason said. "Had my share of corpse forensics for the day, even with all the discoveries."

She chuckled. "And I'm going to load this data into my computer and see if I can find any information to help us figure out some of the mysteries. Granted, it may take a while to solve them all, but archaeology teaches you patience."

"Well, I am not always the best student", Jason said as he waited for her to get the data. He had enough of his own and a few ideas that he needed to check out.

"I'll be happy to help, if you need it," she offered, taking some final readings, and another sample to study on the station.

"Well, I've had a number of lessons in patience", Jason replied. "I don't think a refresher will do any good. I'm ready to rock when you are."

Alanna laughed and shook her head. "Let's go find a shuttle back to DS5."

"Oh, get me a ticket for an aero-plane, ain't got time to take a fast train, lonely days are gone, I'ma going home, my baby just wrote me a letter", Jason sang quietly as they walked along to get a shuttle.

Alanna chuckled. "Nice."

They were fortunate to find that a shuttle was leaving wtithin the hour for DS5.

"There are many things you can say about my singing", Jason replied. "Nice isn't one of them."

"I don't have a problem with it," she assured him. "Why? Do you get complaints?"

"Let's say on stage night, if I sing while playing guitar, I play the guitar louder than I sing", Jason answered.

"Well, I can't address that point without empirical data."

"Well, I will try not to give you that data", he replied. "Your ears will thank me."

"I'll let you off the hook," she said, smiling. "At least this time."

A moment later, an the announcement to board the shuttle to DS5 came over the comms.

Jason let Alanna board first and then took a seat and yawned a little.

"Don't take this the wrong way", Jason said. "I am going to close my eyes and try to get a few zzz's on the ride back. I still have a ton of things I need to do today."

"No offense taken," Alanna assured him. She appreciated that he told her he was tired. It would give her a chance to look over her scans and data to make sure she wasn't missing anything. And she had to admit, at least to herself, that as much as she enjoyed the company of Lieutenant Haines, she wanted to think over what she'd learned today. And then see if she could arrange to get more data.

When the shuttle landed Alanna touched Jason's arm. "Thank you for coming with me today."

Jason looked around a little confused and then smiled and said to Alanna, "My pleasure. Almost got shot by angry Andorians, learned a lot, got some ideas, had fun, and most importantly, didn't get eaten by a sharp-clawed creature. A hell of a day."

"We aim to please," she quipped. "On be half of Air Bizarre, we hope you enjoyed your trip."

Jason laughed and said, "I will make sure to let management know that the service was supreme."

Alanna was still chuckling as she got her gear and stood to file off the shuttle. "As long as we didn't bring any living souvenirs back with us, they should be pleased."

"None with me", Jason replied with a smile and a shrug. "I hung around with the necromancers today."

"That explains a lot." She grinned at him and stepped off the shuttle.

"Yeah, one was sort of a freaky lady", Jason said with a bit of a laugh, following. "Thought she was going to ask one of the skeletons for a date."

"Hmm. I don't think I want to see what they get up to during a full moon."

"That's the truth for sure", Jason said. "Probably summon all sorts of unnatural things, like bald tribbles or something like that."

Alanna pretended to shudder. "That would be horrible. I prefer my tribbles to be hairy."

Jason laughed a little and then said, "Well, Ms. Wells, it has been a most intriguing day. I however do have a bunch of things to tend to, so I must bid you adieu for now. I hope you have a wonderful evening."

____
[OFF]

Lieutenant JG Alanna Wells
Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant JG Jason Haines
Chief Intelligence Officer

Deep Space Five

 

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