Archaeological Quirks

Posted on Tuesday May 7th, 2019 @ 4:00pm by Captain Cayne Morrigan & Civilian .
Edited on on Thursday May 23rd, 2019 @ 11:05am

Mission: Welcome to Union Mining Station Number 42
Location: Various
Timeline: September 16th, 2421

After a long flight, mostly spent shooting the breeze with other travellers, Namira came aboard the station. She knew that her first trip should have been to say hello to the station commander but she'd heard of the recent issues and didn't want to leave important things to chance.

As such, she accompanied the on-duty cargo handlers to what was going to be her new cabin, where all four large cargo containers of freight were brought, securely under lock and key, before she asked the station's computer to direct her to where she'd find the commander.

After a brief walk, at least one full circle around the outer ring as someone had programmed the computer to give anyone who was asking for direction a little exercise for good measure, she eventually arrived and touched the younger man's arm to get his attention. "Good morning. Captain Morrigan?"

Cayne hadn't been prepared for her touch, nor had he heard her slip up next to him. He jumped and spun, his eyes wide in surprise. "You scared the shit out of me!" He wasn't in his office, rather he had been watching the shuttles all day, waiting for a shipment of supplies that they desperately needed. "Who are you?" She wasn't a familiar face. Not that anyone really was, but he was pretty sure he hadn't met her yet.

"I'm Namira," she smiled, sniffing the air. "And you're good, scared or not, I don't smell anything that shouldn't be smelled." She extended her hand. "I've just arrived, I'm the archaeologist who will take a look at those ruins you've found."

"Oh..." He shook her hand firmly and smiled a little. An expression played across his face that said a wide variety of things that he was feeling. He didn't remember any ruins or anyone mentioning any ruins. Had he missed a memo? Should he act like he knew what she was talking about? Or should he admit his ignorance? His brows furrowed for one moment and then he chewed his bottom lip. He opened his mouth as if to speak and then didn't and looked at the deck and shuffled his feet awkwardly. "Ruins, you say? Maybe we should walk to my office and you can tell me all about it." He gestured toward the doorway out of the shuttlebay.

"There's not much to tell," Namira said, walking beside him, quietly wondering to herself why the computer had told her to walk from the shuttle bay, all the way around the station, back to the shuttle bay. Or was this a different shuttle bay? Shuttle bays looks all alike, after all. "Not yet anyway. I've been asked to survey a set of ruins that will hopefully answer a few questions about the planet's history. But before I'm going to fly down there and start digging, my first course of action will be a detailed mapping of the planet's surface, including ground penetrating scans, to determine what sites are the most promising to dig, or at the most danger of being destroyed by the mining or by natural processes."

Cayne stepped through the open doorway into the hallway beyond and headed down it. "So... I don't know if they told you or not, but you came in on Oome... I've been trying to get them to bring crew to Vorl. It's not like there aren't any shuttle bays over there." As they walked the hallway seemed to be widening. "Although, you're probably going to have to come back to Oome for your quarters and the science labs and stuff..." He was proud of himself for remembering where the labs were.

"I will spend the first few weeks without even setting foot on the planet, most likely," Namira said. "There's no point before the survey is done. Then I'll see about possibly setting up a mobile laboratory down there. It all depends on what I'll find, and how far away things are from one another. I'm keeping my options open for the moment."

Cayne nodded. He stopped at the end of the hallway at a pair of wide double doors. "So, we like to call these the space walk..." The doors slid open to reveal what looked to be a long bridge open to space. Of course it wasn't open, it was surrounded by protective shielding, but all of that shielding was completely transparent. "This will take us over to Vorl. Right now, we have to walk it. I'm thinking about seeing if we can install some sort of moving walkway..."

"And a protective covering in case of power failure," Namira said. "I didn't live to a hundred and seventy-four to be killed because someone thought it looked cool to have a long stretch of plank that could not be evacuated in time if someone flicked the wrong switch."

Cayne laughed softly and nodded. "Right? The walkways are too long and too slow. Although, I admit that all this walking might be good for me... I'm getting sort of tired of running back and forth over these bridges. So I'm sure you noticed when you arrived that there are three sections to the station... We're headed for the command center now. There's another space walk on the other side that will take you to all of the mining facility. Not that there's anyone over there at the moment... all of our people are no longer working because no one is bringing any ore from the planet... so that's fun. So there are ruins down there?" So much for pretending to know what she had been talking about.

"I've done my time mining for ores, I don't want to go back to that kind of life, even though working with the miners themselves was great," Namira said. "And yes, there are ruins down there which Union Central thought someone should take a look at, and this someone is me. So I'll be taking a shuttle down, and land in that section of asteroid that has my lab in it, if only to avoid these walkways. Getting some exercise is great, but not out here." She quickened her pace, this entire structure made her feel uncomfortable.

Cayne kept pace with her. "Yeah, I'm not fond of them either. It doesn't really make a lot of sense design wise. We've definitely got shuttles." He snorted in sarcastic humor as they reached the other side of the walk. "And welcome to the command center."

The large double doors slid open to reveal a two story room with a lift to the upper level. "We'll go up here... to my office." Cayne led the way to the lift and then to his office. "Where did you transfer from?"

"I was on Triskelion, finishing up the excavation of an arena of sorts," Namira said. "A place for ritual combat, between three distinct factions that once lived on the planet. We don't know if it was for religious reasons, or as a means to decide who would lead, or both, as we found no written documents and only had artefacts to interpret. But we know for certain the fighters themselves had to be coerced, they wore devices that inflicted pain on command."

Cayne scrunched up his nose in distaste as he led the way through another set of doors and into his office. "Please, have a seat and we can get you checked in and make sure you know where your quarters and labs are." He went to his own desk and sat down. The surface of the desk was covered with tablets and paper and file folders. He started to sort through them. "And you ended up here because of these ruins? They must be important..."

"They're unknown, and interesting," Namira said. "If they turn out to be mundane remains of a known species, I'll move on to greener pastures." She watched him go through the pile of stuff on his desk. "No, no, you're doing it all wrong. You need to carefully remove the top layer first, put it to the side, then see what covers what, and get a chronology of artefacts. If you just shove everything around like this, you'll never be able to reconstruct the order in which they were deposited."

Cayne stopped what he was doing and stared at her. He blinked slowly then looked down at his desk for a moment and then back at her before busting out laughing. "It's way too late for that, I'm afraid. I've been here like three months, just stirring this mess around." He made a stirring motion with one hand over his desk. "But in all seriousness... so if the ruins aren't interesting you go on to the next thing that might be interesting? Just like that?" He seemed to suddenly find the tablet he was looking for and picked it up. He scrolled through its contents quickly with one finger.

"I'm an archaeologist, if there's nothing here for me to dig, then of course," Namira said. "Though, I used to work in a mine a long time ago, and as an ecologist and sensor operator before, so I suppose, if you're short-handed, you needn't worry about growing longer hands and can just ask me for help."

Cayne made a little noise of agreement, looking intently at the tablet in his hands. "So, your quarters are on Issi... and your lab is on Oome. We're on Vorl now... so Issi is that way and Oome is that way." He pointed in opposite directions. Then he laughed a little. "This station... sometimes I feel like I'm just sending people down the rabbit hole. I'm pretty sure I know why the miners didn't have a problem overrunning it. We're going to have to step up security around here."

"So, where can I get a breathing mask and helmet?" Namira asked. "Until those walkways are reinforced, I don't plan on crossing them without that equipment." At least that way, even if the rest of her body were to be exposed to the vacuum of space, a shuttle could be dispatched and rescue her before her air went out or her body froze over.

Cayne laughed again. "You can get those things... but I want you to know that there was combat on this station, full on combat and not one crack on the space walks. They are reinforced... they're actually even on their own generators, but they are unnerving. I agree with you there and all of them are rather long walks, but you're more than welcome to see the supply officer for the things you need. Of course, he's over on Oome..."

"I'll take a shuttle", Namira said, standing up. "Maybe I'll set up my lab on the planet after all?"