Into The Temple
Posted on Wed Mar 12th, 2025 by Ensign Valencia Roma & Lieutenant Commander Freya Preston & Lieutenant Commander Samuel Bancroft & Ensign Dexter Elliott
Edited on on Wed Mar 12th, 2025
1,137 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
M01 - The Hooke
Location: Ruins, Terra Nova
Timeline: Present
Freya would have liked to have seen much of the planet despite what she'd said to her daughter earlier when Charlotte seemed upset that Freya was going down to the planet. Beaming off the ship seemed to be a quick experience for the Commander and soon she found herself, and the away team she was leading, down on the planet near the ruins that the Novans had discovered. The area only a couple kilometers away had been the original colony.
Emma Logan saw the away team from the ship arrive and grinned warmly before approaching them, "Welcome to Terra Nova," Emma remarked. "I'm Emma Logan the leading scientist here."
Sam thought about the name for a moment, "That last name sounds really familiar Miss Logan," He said to her. "Also, it's nice to meet you. I'm Lieutenant Bancroft, this is Ensigns Roma and Elliot, and this is Commander Preston."
Freya allowed the Ops officer to speak and introduce each of them, "I believe the name Logan has probably been here for quite some time if I'm not mistaken?"
Emma continued to smile warmly, "Yeah my ancestor was responsible for the original bad blood between United Earth and the Novans. However, I'm more than happy to have you four here and the ship too." She turned and began leading them toward the rest of the ruins. "So at first our scientists believed that these ruins had been left by the Novans who had first settled here, until we found an artifact. Now we're not so sure."
Valencia found herself more than a little intrigued, "An artifact?"
Emma nodded, "Yes," She answered.
Dexter had little to add, he was simply an engineer and anything scientific didn't really intrigue him all that much if he were being honest with himself. Even the news of an ancient artifact wasn't all that interesting despite the potential mechanical properties associated with it. His only appreciation was being included in this part of the mission. "Is there anything you can tell us about it?"
Emma shrugged as they entered the main part of the ruins, "We contacted Starfleet almost immediately after finding it. They told us they'd send a team to help us investigate further. After that we simply waited for your arrival after halting our plans to rebuild here."
Freya looked around as they pushed deeper into the tunnels, "Have you dated this place?" She asked.
Emma frowned, "There's not a lot of organic material in here," She admitted. "We believe the children that had survived the asteroid strike may have tried hiding here."
Valencia paused in front of one of the walls and looked at it, "These tunnels are certainly hand dug," She pointed out. "Someone even took the time to carve into them. Did any of the survivors ever do that?"
Emma shook her head again after pausing in front of the location where Valencia was standing, "We were curious about that as well, however, we have no record of any of them ever doing that. They would have been so focused on surviving in an alien environment anyway that I doubt it. Why do you ask Ensign?"
Valencia continued to analyze the glyphs that covered the wall. "Because these look very old. I know the asteroid was hundreds of years ago, but I would estimate these to be far older than that."
Sam paused, "Are you sure Ensign?"
Valencia nodded, "Oh yes," She answered. "And I would even go so far as to say that humans never made these marks either. It has a lot of linguistic characteristic to it if I may be so bold." She continued to look down the tunnel, "I have no way to translate it though. Do you know what may have been here originally?"
"No," Emma answered truthfully.
It was Dexter that noticed something interesting so he stopped. "Hey look." He said when he noticed the little bit of wiring that ran up the top corner of the wall, "Has anyone been in here before you guys that you know of Ms. Logan?"
Emma turned and looked where the Ensign was talking about, "Not that I know of."
"What is it?" Sam asked when he looked up and saw what the Ensign was talking about. "That's not anything modern, I doubt the colonists would have even put that there. They have no reason to, which way is the artifact you found?"
Emma pointed, "Through that door." She answered. "It looks like the wiring that's tucked up in there goes in that direction too."
Sam nodded very slowly, "I'm going to guess, nobody had noticed that before now. What about the glyphs?" He asked after studying them himself.
Emma shook her head, "Nope."
Freya found herself standing next to Valencia as she tried to make sense of the ruins. "This must have been a temple of some sort. There was probably a power source here at some point as well," She pointed out and didn't wait for anyone to confirm or deny what she was suggesting. "I would like to see if we can find the power source." She turned and looked at Dexter and Sam, "Can you follow the wiring back in the opposite direction?"
Sam looked at Dexter for a moment and nodded, "Certainly can." He replied to the Commander before giving a single nod in the direction of the Ensign. "Let's go."
Dexter suddenly felt very useful whereas before he honestly didn't. "Sounds like a great time sir," He replied to Sam. Then he followed behind the operations chief in the direction that the wiring was leading. It went deeper into the ruins wondering what they were about to run into.
Freya watched as they both left before turning her attention to Ensign Roma, "What do you need to see if you can date these glyphs?"
"Ideally I would want some organic material." Valencia answered, "Are there any other chambers here?" She asked Emma.
Emma nodded, "Oh yes," She said. "There's a chamber near where we found the artifact. I can take you there, but we hadn't found any organic material. Just a lot more of these glyphs covering the walls. They simply looked like scratches to us when we first found this place."
Valencia smiled warmly, "These aren't scratches, but some of them are very degraded so it's hard to tell. Can you take us to the chamber?" She asked.
Emma nodded, "Certainly, it's this way."
Valencia returned the gentle nod and followed behind Emma with Freya not far away from them. She found herself most intrigued indeed. This place was far more interesting than whatever the artifact was, and it led to a much greater mystery because if Valencia was correct, this place pre-dates the Novans by thousands of years.
Emma Logan Ph.D.
Written by: Freya Preston
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