Sea & Sky: Welcoming Committee
Posted on 31 Mar 2023 @ 10:05pm by Commander Calliope Zahn & Lieutenant Commander Maurice Rubens & Lieutenant JG Hannah Wagner & Chief Deputy Marshal: Ridge Steiner - FMS & Lieutenant Commander Cesar De La Fuente Ph.D. & Lieutenant Ethan Gunnarsen
Edited on on 06 Apr 2023 @ 11:56pm
Mission:
M3 - Into the Deep
Location: Korix, Tiss'Kott
Timeline: MD09 ~0420HRS
2618 words - 5.2 OF Standard Post Measure
As they approached the coordinates, a figure appeared above them, silhouetted against the light shining down through the water. With its whole body lazily undulating side to side, it appeared at first to be a large fish or shark. Then it rolled onto its side and its legs scissored and arms flew out to the side before it gracefully somersaulted and dived directly for the Acamas. It matched the Arrow’s speed precisely as it came alongside and peered into the canopy, curiously regarded Gunnersen, De La Fuente, and Calliope, directly below the canopy.
There was no mistaking it: it was a Korinn.
Steiner hid a small smile, the creature seemed to be enjoying its swim and was almost playful in its movements.
“Incredible,” Commander De La Fuente breathed, staring at the being and then, reluctantly tearing himself away to scan it and see the details that a corpse could not provide.
Hannah plastered herself to the window before her as she stared unashamed at the creature before her eyes. Dancing in the water as it was doing, she eyed it with a professional curiosity. This was a sub-adult, not quite to its full size, if the disparity between its arms and its length was any tell.
She was smaller than the female they’d discovered in space. This Korinn wore silver chains, too. Clearly visible were a number of pearls and drops of precious stones hanging from the intricate linked silver chain that was pulled taut by the drag of her quick movement. She pointed toward the south and then with an easy kick of her feet it shot away, up and behind.
Almost as soon as she was out of sight, another much larger Korinn appeared overhead. And another. And another. Soon there were half a dozen formed in a phalanx just above the Acamas.
“I guess this is the welcoming committee,” Steiner commented.
“First contact,” Cesar offered to the crew quietly.
Ethan slowed the shuttle minutely, the engines steadily maintaining their level as he trained on their unexpected escort.
They led the way for nearly an hour, showing no signs of tiring even though they set a rapid pace. They passed another village, larger than the first, but still smaller than the city. The tea-cup shaped structures there also looked dilapidated, bleached coral and yellowed seaweed and kelp hanging loosely from the buildings. A single Korinn broke from the Phalanx and dived in between the structures. Body language was difficult to discern, but to the Acamas’s crew it appeared that it was reminiscing - the Korinn slowed considerably and even paused outside one of the structures.
“This used to be their home…” Calliope knew that nostalgic draw to look in through old windows and to remember other times, ones lost to you.
Just as the last structure disappeared, another more magnificent sight rose about before them. A great reef, two thousand-feet tall stretched up before them like a mountain stopping just below the surface of the water. It would have been a wonder, but it too looked neglected as if all the living coral and other animals had moved away. There were splashes of color throughout its skeletal remains, but not enough to drive away the bleakness.
“That….is so wicked,” Wagner breathed in wonder as she watched the scenery change.
The escort turned so they swam parallel to the reef, a hundred feet to their left, for several minutes. Then the leader rolled onto its back and descended toward the Arrow’s canopy. He emitted four whistles which pinged against the craft like little pebbles hitting a window.
“UT isn’t getting anything,” Cesar shook his head.
When it became apparent that the crew onboard the Acamas had no idea what he wanted them to do, he held out its hand to say ‘Stop!’
“Oh,” De La Fuente chuckled, “That seems universal enough,” he smiled over at Gunnersen.
He came closer, until he was within a foot of the Arrow. Several inches, if not a full foot taller than the female body they had on the craft, he wore a great many more silver chains oozing with pearls and precious stones of red and blue that floated into a geometric pattern around its body when it stopped. From a small pouch on the chain it pulled out a grease pencil and, at first, appeared to begin to draw on the Acamas’s canopy.
“Maybe their language is pictograms?” Cesar mused eagerly. This was the form of Science he was the most interested in: culture, language and the like. What new and exciting form of life had they discovered and what new way to communicate did they practice?
What the crew thought might be a picture or some form of cuneiform writing began to take on a familiar shape of the Standard language, if poorly spelled.
WELL COME TRALE US CLOSE WE COME TO PORT ALL
De La Fuente stared, jaw agape at the words on the glass then slowly looked over at Zahn, “How…?”
Calliope shrugged, her eyes wide, having said little else while absorbing the scene of the Korinn swimming alongside. They were elegant, if strange... “Possibly the same way they knew how to make out their help message in Standard?” Whatever way that was exactly, remained the mystery.
Looking directly up at the eyes of the messenger as he finished his message, she waved her fingers. He imitated, like a mirror, but with the odd double-palm and six fingered hand that opened and closed like a clam.
Steiner smiled, so far things seemed to be going well, despite the loss of comms with the Pathfinder, he did not have an uneasy feeling about the situation.
“Alright,” said Calliope, “Trail them close… to the portal, I think.”
The large Korinn— apparently a male— kicked his feet and soared back to his group. As soon as he joined them, they started swimming again faster than before. They angled down, each kick of their legs took them deeper, toward the bottom of the reef.
New sights began to appear. A series of evenly spaced twelve cylindrical buoys anchored to horizontal poles that jutted out of the reef swept passed. Each buoy was made from a light resin and was decorated with different markings and symbols that were similar in appearance to those found in ultraviolet paint on the deceased female Korinn.
They reminded Calliope of paper lanterns, and although they couldn’t read them directly through the windows, the computer displays false-imaged the UV sensitive inks on the Korinn and the scenery, allowing Calliope to appreciate the patterning, even if the meanings were lost on her.
“How fascinating. I wonder what the patterns mean” Hannah murmured to herself, delighted by the multitude of lines. The double lines on one of the creatures pulled the eye and she wondered if it was deliberate or not. An elder perhaps?
The fact these people had a basic comprehension of Standard led to a wealth of questions Ethan had no time to even start considering as he focused on his guides. Beside him, he could tell De La Fuente seemed to be sharing the sentiment. “Seeing anything suggesting we’ve been here before?”
“Nothing at all. But I am picking up quite a bit that isn’t on our visible spectrum. I’ll overlay it on the forward glass and to our EVA suits if we get out there,” Commander De La Fuente answered, and at the touch of a button the somewhat dull and bland colors around them were now awash with varying tones not visible to the human eye natively.
While wondering at these artifacts, the Korinn phalanx executed a smooth left turn and headed directly toward the reef. Up ahead looked to be a passageway cut through the reef. One of the Korinn on the end of the phalanx broke off and floated by the opening motioning for the Arrow to proceed.
She hadn’t been expecting the rapid lead into the depths of the reef, nor had she expected the brilliant splashes of color in the reef. Somehow it was as appropriate as it was unexpected, and the doctor smiled gently.
The passageway angled up and narrowed, leaving the crew worried they could go no further, but it was only a momentary concern. Suddenly, the passage opened into a grand hall, three-hundred meters long, half that wide, and tall. For nearly the entire extent, a crystal skylight stretched overhead allowing the system’s star to light the interior in brilliant rays. If that weren’t impressive enough, the crystal was carved with a procession of hundreds of giant Korinn figures. Each Korinn was individual, their faces unique to any other in that parade. They looked content, excited, and happy. Clutched in their hands were a myriad of items: twirled and twisted shells, strings of fish and pearls, fluted rods, or a dozen different artifacts.
“Set us down, Mr. Gunnarsen.” Calliope said as she stood, staring through the canopy to the ceiling above. “Gently.”
Easing the Arrow to a suitable landing point, Ethan settled it lightly and shut down all but the systems needed to maintain their position against the current.”We’re secure, Commander.”
Calliope took one more look at her communications link to the Pathfinder. It was still down. At the much shallower depth they currently sat at in the reef, it shouldn’t have been the case. If they weren't getting a signal from here, neither were the buoys, making their pings back to them pointless. Out of respect for the magnificent hall they were sitting in, Calliope shut off the repeater. There had to be some other interference. Or Pathfinder might have been forced for some reason to leave orbit, breaking the connection on their end. Well. Once they talked to these people, she would have to sort out the communication black out with the Pathfinder.
“Let’s suit up.” Calliope said as she shouldered her breathing tanks and collected her helmet. “Mr. Tilmer, Mr. Gunnarsen, stay with the ship.”
Tilmer stood up. “But I —”
“You’re the best person to help with a signal lock if one of us needs beamed back, and you can handle the comms if you get a signal to tune in on.”
Tilmer sat back down.
“Let me know if any messages come through from Pathfinder. Everyone else, seal on your helmets and meet in the aft compartment by the loading ramp.”
Hopefully no-one noticed the tremor of her hands as she fastened her suit and slipped her head into the helmet to fasten it too into place. Hannah didn’t want to be underwater, or outside of the tiny zone of safety the shuttle provided.
Steiner went aft, ducked into the alcove, grabbed his helmet and carbine, He donned the helmet, clicked it into place, checked the seal and opened the visor. Then trooped back to the ramp.
As everyone assembled in the aft compartment, Calliope did a headcount and a quick check of everyone’s suit seals then a life-signal check on her helmet display. She sealed the compartment door off from the rest of the Acamas creating a bay, then set the compartment to flood at a steady rate and watched as the water built up from the floor.
When the water reached the ceiling, a green indicator came up on the rear loading door. Her self gathering the first contact case, Calliope motioned for the team to collect the casket, leaving behind the computer core for now, and then opened the rear hatch. A few bubbles escaped as the seal broke, and Calliope led the way forward. She’d been EVA more often than diving, but the pool had been a constant friend during her recovery, giving her relief from all her sore joints and allowing her to rebuild her strength. It was familiar, the softening of gravitation due to the floating feeling in combination with the contradictory limiting resistance of motion through the water. Free and restrained at the same time. It was heavy and slow to walk through the water in a full suit. She made her way without rushing, pausing out on the floor a few steps away from the ramp, to allow for the rest of the team to follow and form behind her. It occurred to her that they must look very plodding and inelegant to their new hosts.
Steiner shut his visor as the ramp area flooded. Once they were out in the water he checked his buoyancy, he was a little light, and decreased it to remain neutral. Satisfied he took in the view.
Calliope turned slowly to take in the full view of the massive room they stood in and to better appreciate it. She’d been in places like it— cathedrals and immense travel ports. But in none of them were people able to experience the height and breadth of the space by freely soaring through it. She imagined once this place teamed with swimming Korinn.
Cesar followed the group out, hovering with the casket opposite of Doctor Wagner and immediately glad he’d allowed the overlay of colors unseen to human eyes to really take in the full grandeur of this place, even if it was clearly not what it once was. He could have spent decades here just trying to unravel the differences between the panels overhead and his scientific mind was absolutely awash with questions.
Behind him, Gunnery Sergeant Johannes and Corporal Binns moved out to flank the group, letting Commander Zahn and the others take the lead but clearly in a position to assist should things turn hostile, though Johannes was less and less concerned as things progressed. De La Fuente had been spot on that something wasn’t right, but that something wasn’t anything that would give him pause. At least not yet.
At the far end of the gallery was a massive statue of a Korinn, its arms opened wide in greeting. Hewn from yellow rock with swirling white vein, its age was an open question. While the lines of the statue had sharp lines, the gray pedestal it was positioned on was dulled by the constant water flow through the chamber.
“The craftsmanship is incredible,” De La Fuente mused as he took in the giant statue, jaw agape in mesmerized awe.
Calliope smiled. Before this trip, she wouldn’t have taken the heavily inked officer to be a fine art aficionado. But the more they interacted, the more she was realizing what a fan of cultures and art he was. “Look at the floor inlay…” She pointed around them. It was itself an artwork, as if they were walking on a mosaic made of various highly polished and tightly fitted shells. She supposed with the traffic being mostly swimming, it was rarely tread on even in ages gone by, and though a layer of plaque was developing, probably not difficult to restore the existing luster. There was a stirring motion in the water and Calliope looked up again.
The phalanx that had been leading the Acamas executed a perfect 180-degree turn above the statue’s head and slowly floated down to its feet. They were soon joined by four other Korinn who swam to the front of the small group.
As Calliope approached the group, a Korinn swam forward. In nearly flawless Standard, if somewhat muddled, she said, “I am Uanika of the Irix School, the Great School, voice of the Korinn. Welcome to Tiss’Kott.”
