Tools of the gods

Posted on Sat Nov 3rd, 2018 @ 5:06pm by Commander Rita Paris & Captain Enalia Telvan & Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi

Mission: Hera v Hera
Location: Merkoset 347, Temple of Hera
Timeline: 2395

Thex was happy with herself as she closed the door on her armours locker. That mission had gone fantastically well. Minimum casualties, damage and she didn't have much to patch up on her girl. Now she just had to get out of her... she had been to think before the universe decided otherwise.

=^= Lieutenant Commander sh'Zoarhi, we have a bit of a situation on the planet that I'd like for you to take a look at. The scientists are arguing if it's a power conductor, a generator, a transducer or something beyond the ken of mortal men. I'd like an engineer's perspective, if you will. Could you beam down please? =^=

" On it, just give me a second." The andorian replied as she grabbed an engineering jumpsuit and pulled it on over her toga before grabbing a tool belt and kit. Within minutes, she was back on the planet ready to get to work. It didn't take her long before she found her friend. " So Rita what do you need me to take a look at?" She asked.

Turning to square off with the chief engineer, Rita started to say something, then thought better of it and apparently let it go. Turning toward the temple proper, Paris began leading the way. "Frankly, I have no idea. Let's classify this as 'alien technology so advanced as to appear to be magic' category. Whatever it is, we need to know whether it poses a danger to the citizenry. Might be some artifact that would enable a despot to rise, might be a flux capacitor, might be her sewage reclamator. So call the engineer."

Okay, so going to be a long day Thex thought to herself. Tech that resembled magic was something that was never covered at the Academy. " Well, lead on, commander... lets take a look at it and see if we can work out what's it's doing."

Moving through the temple throneroom into one of the antechambers, a wide stone staircase carved flawlessly out of the mountain itself led down a good forty meters, until it branched into three separate stairways. Choosing the southern stairs, Paris led the way down, passing distracted technicians and scientists, each accompanied by a Security officer who was keeping an eye on the surrounding environment for the researchers according to the first officer's orders. Passing them, the security officers offered nods to the XO and chief engineer- after all, even in work coveralls the petite Andorian was imminently recognizable, and though she had abandoned her power armor for her usual minidress uniform of a bygone age, Lieutenant Commander Paris cut an unmistakable figure that was instantly recognizable to the crew of the USS Hera.

Taking a landing along the way, Paris led the blue-skinned grease monkey through a well-maintained corridor intil they came upon a chanber that glowed from within with a bluish-white light. Half a dozen science officers and engineers were quietly debating just what function the device, which resembled an old cathode ray tube the size of Thex herself, with cables and conduits running to and fro. It pulsed with bluish-white light, thrumming at a cycle about once every three seconds, and as the command duo approached, conversation died down.

"Well this is something," Thex said as she had a look around the strange device before placed her bag down and began to pull out a large scanner as well as a portable shield generator. "Everyone want to stand back in case this thing has a booby trap?" She said as she activated the shield. The small crowd moved back a distance as she activated the industrial scanner. Given there was no big boom everything appeared to be going well. Thex's eyes were fixed on the screen as data began to come through. " Now this is very odd. It appears to be generating Koslayntine and Xubliyrium particles."

"For the sake of argument let's assume that the last science class that I took didn't cover those particles. What do those particles do, Commander?" the first officer asked. hell, she wasn't even positive if those particles had been discovered the last time she was in a science classroom. "If it'"s generating particles, what's powering it?

" A good question. Koslayntine has only been found briefly as a byproduct of the Dominion's warp drive systems, and Xubliyrium was an energy source the Romulans were working on, but they had to scrap it when the Dominion war broke out. " The andorin said, realizing her friend from another era wasn't quite as up to date as her. The andorian moved the scanner and tried to scan the what appeared to be a copper base it was sitting on. " Well, the bottom material is so dense the scanner not going through. I guess the bottom bit is a power generator that generating the particles, but what for." She said looking up at the tubes. " Any idea were these go?"

"We've been trying to figure it out, but the power conduits buried in the floor are shielded, ma'am. Engineering has been discussing ways to dig them up since our scans won't penetrate, but we're not sure what might happen if we expose the conduits," one of the science officers explained, illustrating some of the conflict the two teams had been encountering with one another.

"Good idea. We don't want to damage anything. Commander, you were here earlier. Any ideas on what it could be doing?" the andorian said as she pressed her head and antenna against the wall.

That earned the Andorian engineer an quizzical expression from the first officer. "Ah, I was upstairs fighting for my life, Lieutenant Commander. I didn't make it down this far until the investigation teams alerted me to the potential problem, and frankly, science isn't my specialty. Maybe you'd like to call the chief science officer-" Paris stopped what she was saying as the glowing 'bulb' intensified in brightness and started thrumming more audibly. "Who touched something? What did we do, people?"

"Ah, I was flooding the area with chroniton particles to see if they would interact with the object," one of the science officers admitted. "Since they tend to incite reactions with other particles, I wanted to see if they would excite or calm the Koslayntine particles, or interact with the free-floating Xubliyrium. It appears that it is making pairs with the Xubliyrium to form an all new particle... amazing!" They young science officer was clearly excited over his discovery, but the first officer was more concerned with initiating a reaction over which they had no understanding nor control.

"Well, knock it off," Paris ordered as the 'bulb' flared brighter and the thrumming increased. "I don't like the sound of that. People, get me some answers as to what's happening here..."

" Wait," Thex said as her antenna started picking up something. " It's caused a vibration that I can feel. it's heading in that direction." the andorian said as she looked down on of the corridors.

Pointing to an engineer and a scientist, Paris began issuing orders. "You and you, yes you, follow the direction the chief's indicating and see if you can pick up on what she's hearing. You," she indicated the science officer who had spomen earlier. "Chroniton particles, keep it up. It's getting results, so stay on it. The rest of you, let;s make sure we aren't starting a self-destruct mechanism for the planet, shall we? You write a report of what's going on, 25 words or less, and send it to the chief science officer." As for herself, Lieutenant Commander Paris debated reporting it in to the captain yet, but unless it was going to explode or fart rainbows, the captain would want to know when and if it developed into something.

Right now it was a glowy bulb.

Thex had pulled her head away from the wall and was thinking. What could Hera be doing with this? She was a godess of women, marriage, family, and childbirth yet none of this seemed to have anything to do with this.

As the andorian was wondering the answer a sound of moving stone began in the room. The centre began pulling back and lowering causing the starfleet personnel to hastily move back. After the creaking had ended the centre of the room had turned into a spiral staircase moving downwards.

"Well, it looks like we may have an answer and now another question." The andorian said to the startled group.

Tapping away at the PaDD at her side, the second in command tapped out a message to the captain of the Hera, informing her of the situation and sending along the relevant scans, files and imagery. Speaking without looking up as she filed the report, Paris prepared. "Get me two security officers with phasers in the lead, the commander and I will be next, and I want one science and and one engineering officers with us."

Swinging the slender black belt crisscrossing her body, Paris flipped the top on her old-school black and silver tricorder and turned on the flashlight function as she began tuning the tricorder's scans.

Thex had drawn her own scanner as the small party made their way down the stairs. They didn't go far before ending in a small chamber. Sitting on several pilths sat seven Pithos. Each was a diffrent colour with a wax seal covering the top. " Well what has she been hiding down here?" Thex said as she bagn scannign the jars.

"I don't know, but I don't like it. Nobody touch anything and nobody open anything- scans only, people, and stay alert," Paris ordered, uncomfortable at the fact that this looked an awful lot like burial rituals from ancient earth history- sinister burial rituals.

Thex had been scanning the storage jars and was even more puzzled by what was inside. The jar she was scanning appeared to contain a broken human breastplate, greaves and helmet. Scanning the others she quickly detected that they contained a broken staff, shield, bow, spear, trident and most peculiar of all what appeared to be a solid gold apple.

"Well, this is odd," the andorian said as she looked at her scanner. "The energy from upstairs appears to be being channeled into each of these jars and the items inside them."

“Upload the scans to the science department, please,” Paris muttered as she sent an update to the Captain. Out of her depth dealing with mythology which might as well be advanced technology, there was no rush. “Nothing is currently in danger of blowing up, is it? We’re not reading feedback surges or anything of the like, and the power flow appears to be stable?”

While she might be clueless, Paris was always good for asking questions.

"All energy levels are normal. Besides, no explosives are detected. I guess these are weapons or relics of her people. Probably broken or damaged and she doesn't know how to fix them." Thex said as she continued to scan the items. What she'd give to be able to have a look at some of these.

"All right, I think we've got some engineering. Science officer, front and center!" Paris barked, and the blue-collared scientist hustled over.

"Yes ma'am? Commander? Lieutenant?" It was clear that the man was spooked being in the bowels of a temple amongst a collection of ancient reliquaries being fed power by an alien thingamabob upstairs, then being called on the carpet by the full-figured first officer.

"Ensign...?" Paris leaned in with upraised eyebrows.

"Yes, ah, yes, Lieutenant Commander...?" the scientist replied meekly.

Those eyebrows dropped and the pretty pilot's expression settled into a disgruntled look. "Your name, Ensign. I was asking your name."

"Jones, ma'am," The ensign blurted out. "Ensign Ezekial Jones."

"Thank you, Ensign Ezekial Jones," Paris' face had settled into one of patient calm. "Please tell me that according to the science department's dictates, you've brushed up on your classical mythology, and that with the help of your shipmate Ensign..." Paris pointed at the engineering ensign, who had been watching the entire exchange, and was ready when his cue came.

"Ensign Smith, ma'am"

"You and Ensign Smith have by this point formed some sort of feasible hypothesis for just what we're seeing down here, have you not?" Of course, Paris strongly suspected they had not, but wanted to see them think on their feet. It was a desirable trait in a Starfleet officer.

"I... uh, we were... uhm, I need to check my readings..." Jones mumbled.

"Go do that. I'll check in with you again in one minute," Paris offered a mildly disapproving half-cocked eyebrow and pursed lips, then turned to her own tricorder.

"I need a why, Ms. sh'Zoarhi. Why is she keeping these down here, what do they do and how can we determine those answers. Can these objects be safely handled, are they artifacts of the Merosians which should be turned over to them, are the cosmically powerful artifacts that might change the course of destiny for the universe? And is there a scan setting for this.... I really should take a class on the modern tricorder..." Paris muttered at the end as the complexities of the datastream she was seeing was well beyond her education to interpret it.

"I think I may have something. Can I see your tricorder? " The andorian asked politely. Paris handed it over with no fanfare, assuming that the engineer would have no trouble because of the unique casing.

"There, that's it," Thex said with a grin on her face. "The particles that are being produced are being fed into the storage jars. Most likely to power some sought of nanobots. It looks like these things are being repaired."

“That makes sense- these are probably weapons of legend or somesuch. Plus that, of course,” Rita chucked a thumb at the jar containing the golden apple, which she knew all too well from mythology. “Any sort of timeline for reconstruction at current rates, Lieutenant Commander?”

"Hard to tell. A few months to a few years is my best guess. They don't appear to be working properly. I guess Hera doesn't know her tech very well," Thex said sending the scanners recordings to ship.

“Or she was feeding them power as she saw fit and this is just the backup auxilliary. Can you fix it? Do we want to fix it?” Paris considered- if they were in a battle with the gods, weaponry of that milieu might be handy, but she had an innate distrust of Hera and anything she left laying about.

"I think I could fix them. Though probably not here. I'd like to be in my workshop on the ship." The andorian replied as she gave the items another scan.

“And that’s my cue,” Paris tapped her left breast. “Lieutenant Commander Paris to Captain Telvan, do you copy?”

The captain replied with no delay, though there was some minor fuzz on the comm. "Telvan here, go ahead."

“We have a number of artifacts recovered down here. Our chief engineer thinks that the system we have been monitoring is actually a repair system for some of these broken artifacts. You have the scans and all the data in the report. At this point Ms. sh’Zoarhi wishes to relocate the artifacts to the Hera for more study and possible repair. Your orders, ma’am?” While she would take independent action with no hesitation, this was one of those decisions that definitely required command approval.

"I'm looking over the scans now. The computer suggests that at least three of them are indeed mythological artifacts. If you believe it safe enough... Engineering lab..." Enalia paused for a moment as she checked the status of the labs. "Engineering lab four is now ready to receive a direct transport."

“Chief sh’Zoarhi, you heard the Captain. If you believe it is safe enough, we have clearance for site to site beaming. Would you like to disconnect them from the power feeds first to see what sort of reaction occurs?” While she was a far cry from a scientist of any caliber, Rita did spend a lot of time with one, and after all these years more than a little of Sonak had rubbed off on her. And part of that involved controlled testing to determine potentialities of the action, provided that time was not of the essence and care could be taken. Which was most certainly the case in this instance.

"I'll shut down the power source first of all. Then we'll start moving them up to the ship. Give me a few minutes so we can purge the upstairs area of particles. " The andorian replied.

“All right gentleman, you heard the chief. What sort of particles is she wanting to purge, Science?” Paris called out, making the mission into a pop-quiz exercise for the crew.

"The chronitons? " suggested one of the science team.

“Interesting answer. Engineering, how is she going to safely disconnect these artifacts from the power supply upstairs?” They wouldn’t always learn by watching the senior officers do all of the work, after all, so Rita wanted the two junior officers involved as well.

"We could flood the area with Nuflalt- that should shut down the power supply," Replied a rather timid human.

"Another intriguing answer," Pris half-turned back to the Andorian engineer. "Chief sh'Zoarhi, how'd they do?"

"Very good, commander. I can oversee this if you need to be elsewhere. " The andoran replied with a slight grin on her face. She would enjoy taking a look at this stuff.

There was an intuition borne to Rita Paris that had served her well her entire career. Sometimes it was a voice of common sense, sometimes one of daring, and sometimes one of insight. It spoke to her in feelings, hunches, choices that came to mind, and the occasional bit of whimsy. That little voice in her head that wasn't Sonak, that she listened to quite faithfully.

It told her to stick around, because these things were trouble.

"Not at all, Commander," Paris smiled. "This seems to be turning into a training exercise, so I think I'll stay to supervise and insure these are all safely onboarded and accounted."

The andorian nodded as she got to work yelling orders and making sure the team knew what they were doing. She was actually surprised at how well things went and before long they were ready to began the transport.

"Here goes nothing..." Thex said as she gave the signal to begin the transport. The first jar began to move and soon vanished from it pillar.

=^= Engineering Lab 4 to Commander Thex- we've got it. =^= came the reply.

Offering a thumbs-up, Paris tapped her commbadge, making her bountiful bustline bobble a bit. "You heard the lady. Test successful, transporter rooms 1 through 3, begin site to site beaming to Engineering Lab 4." At that, Rita began to ascend the spiral staircase. "I think you can take it from here, Chief. I'll skip all the transporter activity if it's all the same to you. Joint science/engineering project to analyze the finds? Smith, Jones, you two report to the Captain's yeoman with daily reports, but you two are the leads on this. The Chief may be hands on, in which case you assist and suggest possibilities. Understood?"

The entire time she'd been speaking, Paris was walking up that spiral staircase, up a cylindrical and smooth hole in the mountain, which had excellent acoustics. She couldn't hear the answers from below, but the first officer was confident those orders would be carried out by the crew of the USS Hera.