Here Be Dragons

Posted on 15 Feb 2014 @ 9:51pm by Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant Olsam Mott
Edited on on 16 Feb 2014 @ 5:06am

2,262 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 05 - Solstice
Location: Akkadia - Archives of Warraquim
Timeline: MD27 - 1000

ON:

Allyndra sat at a table and pinched at her nose. Her eyes hurt looking at the all the books and papers. The archives were only organized generally but not well internally thus one had to go through many books and papers to try get the information they sought on the genetics of Akkadian regeneration.

She realized it was quiet and she wondered if Mott was reading or looking in one of the other vaults.

Olsam rounded the corner coming back to their reading table, looking like a stack of books with legs. He dropped them on the table and released a small cloud of accumulated dust from a couple of the volumes. "I found these over in the corner back there; I think they're medical case files, maybe. I'm not sure."

He sounded a little depressed. The Akkadian language had definitely been developed by a species with compound eyes, which not only made it difficult to learn but also a little unpleasant to look at. He'd programmed a PADD to scan documents and translate into Federation standard, but the translation software didn't seem to like the language any better than he did. He was constantly having to ask Allyndra questions to puzzle out the meaning behind what the PADD generated.

"I say we pay some of those apprentices five strips of latinum an hour to come down here and do this for us while we sip drinks on the beach," he said, heaving a sigh as he struggled to open a heavy book cover.

Allyndra laughed. "Ah, that we could. Even most Guild members, let alone apprentices are allowed here. You know, Warraquim means gather of knowledge. That seems to have been the problem, gathered but put away and..." She stopped almost saying forgotten and instead substituted, "unused."

"If you wish to take a break, go ahead, I will take a look. I think we are definitely in the right section as some of these also indicate genome files and the what they all had. Give your eyes a break."

Part of him wanted to press on, but he knew his eyes would appreciate the break. He yawned and stretched, looking off to the side. "I think I'm going to take a little walk around, rejuvenate my body." He gave her a quick smile and took off down a hallway almost too quickly, as Olsam neither walked quickly nor purposely sought out anything that remotely looked like exercise.

In reality, he'd found a locked door earlier that he was dying to inspect more closely. It took him a few moments to find it, tucked off in some area so remote that even the floor was dusty, and stood before it captivated. It was massive, and promised to hold behind it a vault that was equally as impressive. Sadly, he'd been unable to find a keypad like the other vaults had; even if it had one he probably wouldn't have been granted access to it.

Instead, the door seemed to be inset with a few keyholes. He'd seen a few such things in old holovids, though never privileged enough to see one in person. Until now. If only he had a key... Seeing none around, he leaned down and tried to peer through the hole. It reflected nothing but darkness, so he stuck a finger inside to try to trip the locking mechanism. Finding nothing he could trip, he tried to remove his finger only to find it was stuck.

Panic set in immediately. Sweat formed on his brow and he danced in place; what was he going to do!?

Allyndra watched the Bolian go. He had been actually a great help. He seemed to have a knack even if he had to use a reader, of parsing enough to pick some interesting research. Allyndra found some sections and perused the case files. They were on the subject but did not really help until in one it was mentioned a particular A'ksu by name. Her files would be in one of the other archive rooms and Allyndra got up to go find that room.

As she stretched and went into the hallways intending to find the proper vault she glanced around looking for Mott. He was no where in sight and she wondered just how much he had wandered. She figured just a little bit but he was no where in sight and as she turned she noticed the translator sitting still back on the table. That concerned Allyndra, since she was not sure exactly how good Bolian special instincts were and without the translator he would not be able to read the Akkadian script on the walls and archives.

She shook her head and figured she better go look for the good doctor.

Olsam finally managed to free his finger from the lock, and he stood back from the vault door to inspect it. Clearly the Akkadian sign at the top said, "Pick these locks, Dr. Olsam Mott." Or something like that.

He looked around the area and then began digging through the shelves, trying to find something suitable. He actually had a surprising amount of lock-picking experience for a Starfleet physician - plenty of time in the holodeck playing spy adventures had made him something of a journeyman at it. He finally located an odd shaped metal bookmark and then innocently snapped off a long piece of a bookend (it was half broken anyway, he told himself) before making his way back to the door.

After several long moments of work he finally managed to spring the lock. Now that he understood the mechanism behind the first one, the other two were relatively easier, though they all seemed made for different keys. Once the final mechanism had been tripped, the massive doors began to slide open with an extraordinarily loud scraping sound, like they were moving on rusty hinges.

The sound echoed throughout the archives, and Olsam flinched. Somebody was bound to hear that and come looking for him, so he quickly dashed inside to have a look. The room was disappointingly empty. It didn't even have any bookshelves! No books, no scrolls... Just a column of dusty light illuminating something in the center of the circular room. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a something covered with a very large cloth.

Unable to resist temptation, Olsam grabbed up a wad of the cloth in his hands and pulled. And pulled and pulled and pulled. Finally, he managed to free the cloth from its restraints and slide it off the object. Underneath was a glowing silver disc about the size of a Type-9 shuttlecraft; it was so alluring he just had to reach out and touch it.

When his skin came into contact with the object, he pulled it back immediately. "Oh," he murmured, sending an echo around the chamber. The device was warm to the touch! With such a sleek metallic appearance he'd expected it to be cold. Wondering if it might be some sort of holographic projector or something, Olsam made a circuit of the disc but found no discernible controls. Finally, he just wrapped his knuckles against it.

Allyndra was puzzled on exactly where Mott had gone to. She thought maybe at first to get a snack but she was sure he would have said something to the effect. The place was somewhat of a maze and she stopped hands on hips.
As she pondered what to do she finally noticed a set of prints in the light dust. They were leading off and she doubted that anyone else was down here besides them. Slowly she followed them along noting they seemed to be heading deeper into the more restricted parts of the archives. He certainly could not get into those, of that she was positive.

Allyndra continued to follow the faint prints but noted that they were becoming clearer as the dust was thicker. She herself had never been this far in and she looked up at a few of the remaining archive places suddenly noticing a name. It was the name of the A'ksu, the genius that had figured out how to give her people their remarkable regenerative abilities.

She paused in her tracking to try to access the archive. She was Guild after all and she knew already the secret history. Thus, she was sure that she would have the ability to enter into even the most restricted.

The door lock seemed reluctant but after a moment finally clicked open.
She was about to enter having almost forgotten the errant Doctor Mott. Allyndra turned her steps to continue to tracking and several minutes later came to the ancient door. The door was open and inside the room was a silver disc, similar to the one from her younger days. A movement of blue and she caught her breath. They would both never make it out of here if this was discovered.

"It is called a Fold Ship," she said as calmly as possible but there was a slight tremor in her voice.

Olsam actually screamed. Loudly. Although it was really more like a high-pitched squeal. For a moment, he thought he was going to black out. But he regained his composure and turned slowly, afraid of who he might find. When he saw Allyndra he seemed to relax a bit. Maybe if he just kept talking and asking questions they wouldn't have to address the uncomfortable topic of his presence in an obviously restricted area.

"A what? Does it fold up? I couldn't find any buttons..."

Allyndra stepped into the room then turned and touched a spot on the wall letting the door the doctor had picked close again. She was positive that no one else was in the deep archives but she should not take the chance.

She turned again. Allyndra then walked toward the object, next to the doctor and put one hand on the slightly warm surface. "No, it folds space-time, sort of. Here," she made a complex series of singing tones and a section seemed to disappear. "Come," she waved a hand and entered the small ship.

She entered and sat in one of the seats after the doctor came in. She made motions with her fingers and a section of the ship opened to reveal the room. A few more moves of her hands and suddenly the room vanished to be replaced with space and the view of planet.

"Do you recognize it?" Allyndra asked. He should she thought for she had sent the Fold ship to his home system.

"Oh, Bolarus," Olsam said, staring. "Uh, is this a tiny holodeck?"

"No. A long time ago the A'Burab'atu made these things. They can move from one spot to another in basically no time."

Olsam looked skeptical. "The who? They can do what? That seems...very dangerous.... No wonder the door was locked."

Allyndra smiled and then with another quick move of the hands the outlines of the Archive appeared again. "A'burab'atu, it means to do things quickly. There were always individuals who had intuitive insights and we bred ourselves for those characteristics. You are correct, dangerous especially to the balance of power and those that might use such technology to ill."

She turned her full attention to Doctor Mott. "Neither of us will even leave this planet if you can not keep this secret at least for now."

Olsam nodded, but inwardly he was nervous. So nervous his stomach gurgled. He was horrible at keeping secrets. Horrible. Of course he'd never really had a life and death secret before, so maybe that would help. Even so, he had a little tickle of an urge to run to the nearest comm station and tell Teth all about it.

"Now then, let us leave this and I found the A'burab'atu that gave us the ability to regenerate so well and his notes."

"Oh, thank goodness," Olsam said, climbing out of the ship after her. He helped her replace the sheet covering the ship and as they exited the chamber he shouldered the doors until the closed behind them. The locks re-engaged with a loud click. "I hope the notes are easy to read. Like a 'how to' manual."

"I would hope so as well but considering the age of the material all in old Akkadian and even I have trouble with that one. But we shall persevere, I have confidence in our combined abilities doctor."

"As do I," Olsam said, sounding distracted.

He fought the urge to look over his shoulder as they walked away from the locked room. The ship inside had seemed so small, so innocuous. Just a tiny little silver disk. Moving almost instantaneously from point to point might have fascinated an intrepid explorer, an engineer or a Starfleet admiral; it just worried Olsam. He had a basic understanding of folding space-time, like an artificial wormhole, but he knew the Federation was nowhere near close to producing that sort of technology. That it existed already made him very nervous. What would happen if someone got their hands on something like that, including Starfleet? What if the Borg were to assimilate Akkadia?

The ethical questions weighed heavily upon him as they walked back toward their work area, the dust on the floor growing thinner and thinner as they went. Some things were best left undisturbed, he finally decided.

OFF:

Lieutenant JG Olsam Mott
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

&

Lieutenant Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

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