[USS Vanguard] Plot is thicker than water!
- From: Kieran Darkwater <kierandarkwater@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ncv80221@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 6 Sep 2004 20:57:21 +0100 (BST)
There it was.
In all it?s glory, like some antiquated pirate?s buried treasure, a bulky
masonry contraption with ornate scrollwork and decorative friezes. At some
point, it was apparent, it had actually been part of a larger construction, and
fine marks still showed where it had been excavated from a building of some
sort with fine chiselling.
It was good work, though the styling showed it had been done far, far later
than the stories would have it. Some of the artwork was reminiscent of
Michaelangelo and Raphael ? Kieran couldn?t help but think of the incredible
Raphael Stanzas in the Vatican galleries. Some of the decoration, however, was
older. The style was similar, not the same, but not so obvious as to stand out,
a testament to the skill of whomever had had it renovated. It wasn?t the style
that made it stand out, nor the materials, but simply the one thing that could
not be falsified: the wear.
"Quiet" said Kieran still studying the markings on the chest like object. "I
think this will..."
Trailing his hands gently over the small wooden panels set into the front
surface beneath the ornate lock-piece, he felt a small inset gemstone shift
slightly beneath his fingers, and when it didn?t react to being pressed he
twisted it.
A small pommel on the chest gave off what seemed to be a small illumination and
then depressed into the chests stone side. As the three peered closer, the top
pulsed, not once, nor twice, but three times. On the third pulse the whole room
flashed with a brilliant white light, and then they were gone.
[Snip]
"Where are we?", Cynan asked.
"It appears to be the arboretum of the Vanguard...", Kieran answered taking
several steps forward looking around curiously.
"No way! That was way cool", Sam said about the experience they'd just been
through.
"Like to do it again?", Cynan smiled looking toward Sam.
"Most definitely", Sam replied.
"Gentleman. I believe there are..."
"Children", Cynan said as five 5 - 8 year olds ran out from behind the (heavily
overgrown) bushes towards them.
"No way!", Sam said again.
"The question is, who's are they, and is this really the arboretum off the
Vanguard?", Cynan said looking around.
"No. The question is are we really here and if we are, what time, or are we
still really in the cavern?"
[/Snip]
?No,? Kieran corrected them, though it didn?t appear they were listening
amongst the gaggle of children, ?the question is: where is the Ark??
[Snip, + extra detail]
In the strange over-grown arboretum, the children rushed around the feet of
the three Vanguard officers; they were shouting and laughing. With a nauseating
perceptual twist the world around Cyann, Kieran and Sam seemed to slow right
down and blur. The scene shifted with the sound of a record needle being
dragged sideways across vinyl. Kieran felt his eyes trail helplessly, the
confusing morass of images and the strange inertias combining to leave his
stomach churning as they settled, finally.
They were alone, in a dark dusty cave, at the cave opening were two
strangely dressed men who Kieran recognised as coming from ancient earth
history. Looking straight past the Vanguard officers they strained to push a
large boulder across the cave entrance. Kieran edged forward, his jaw opening
slightly as he opened his tricorder slowly, reluctant to disturb the action.
The features were classically tanned middle-easterners, speaking in a hushed
gabble of Greek and Aramaic ? two languages Kieran could read but not speak. A
few words began to work through as he settled into the words, but before he
could make any sense of the it, the scene shifted again.
Above the busy streets of Cairo on a roof terrace an attractive young
woman played with a small monkey, again seemingly oblivious to the presence of
three confused men in Starfleet uniforms. Beside her a thick set Egyptian man
with a black beard and bushy eyebrows finished his sentence "...be careful
Indy, some things are not meant to be found". Again the sickening twisting
sensation comes and goes.
In a dusty warehouse lined with row after row of boxes, one particular
crate is enveloped in the shimmering blue light of a transporter beam and
vanishes. This time the men anticipate the shift, which takes them to a tunnel
that they have just passed through. It is swarming with Cardassians working to
rescue their fellows from a massive cave in. The scene shifts a final time,
leaving Darkwater, Mandrake and McCaw in a turbolift feeling dizzy and
disoriented. The Egyptian man's voice echoes in their ears, "some things are
not meant to be found".
At that moment, Cynan Mandrake, Sam McCaw, and Kieran Darkwater emerged on the
bridge.
"What the hell is going on?" Mandrake asked.
Santos cocked an eyebrow. "Didn't expect to see you three so soon."
"We'll fill you in later. What's this about a New Vanguard?"
Zena Quetan said: "We appear to have crossed some sort of temporal threshold.
Best we can tell, we are approximately a century from our last temporal
coordinates. The inhabitants of the planet below claim to be our descendants."
?Temporal Threshold?? Kieran muttered into his tricorder, trying to make sense
of the garbled information it was returning. ?You and me both??
McCaw nodded. "We just emerged from a Cardassian-held planet into the
arboretum. There were children. The plant life appeared overgrown. Then it
disappeared and now, here we are."
Santos frowned. "And the Ark?"
"Yes, but later," Darkwater said, some of the information beginning to make a
little more sense, though not much. He turned away to the science stations at
the back of the bridge and slowly, cautiously, began to work.
Most of the others had already ventured to the surface when he finally sat up,
his perpetual frown furrowed a little deeper than usual as he grabbed up the
tricorder from its interface panel and slipped off the bridge on his way to the
turbo-lift.
When he materialized on the planet, the clearing was abandoned, skirted around
the edge by several obvious paths, none of which interested him. The view of
the dislocated section of salvaged ship would have been incongruous, once, but
the fast-growing vegetation had turned the jutting structure into a sort of
gazebo, hung over with fronds and ivy-like climbers. He approached slowly, the
tricorder sweeping the area continuously, the information gradually converging
towards a confirmation of his hypthesis.
?I think you?d better come with me.? Said a quiet voice behind him, and he
turned into the wrong end of a worn, weathered, standard-issue phaser. ?It
would be a shame-sorrow to have to stun-kill you.? The voice warned, and he
looked beyond the weapon to the slim young woman behind it, dressed in a stark,
black uniform with a high, wrap-over tunic that seemed to button right up along
her right-hand side.
?I should have guessed I wouldn?t get the ?tri-honoured? invitation.? He
muttered, his hands rising slightly to show his peaceful intentions.
?Please turn off the tricorder, everything you need to know will be explained
to you soon enough.?
?Really? and if I refuse.?
?You won?t.? This time there was the vaguest hint of a grin ? a hopeful sign,
despite the businesslike manner in which the phaser completely failed to waver
at all.
?You seem awfully confident.? He observed, even as he reached over and pressed
a few buttons on the tricorder.
?I am. I have been told, and the one I was told by would not lie.?
?He might be wrong.?
?They might. They might have told me that you would attempt to deceive me by
depressing the power-cell test button and leaving the tricorder turned on?? His
eyes narrowed, and he turned the tricorder towards her, his finger still on the
power-cell test indicator.
?Your source appears remarkably well-informed.?
?His words were ? ?I know him better than he knows himself??.? The smile
returned again, in full, and the phaser finally lowered as he replaced his
tricorder in the strap at the back of his waist.
?Thank you. This way.?
?Where are we going??
?To the Temple of New Vanguard.?
?A temple? What idiot built a temple in this day and age??
?You did.?
[TBC J ]
OOC> Sorry it took so long ? I?ve been studying for my final assignment of the
year?
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