Coves of Broz - Part II

Posted on Saturday, 23 May 2020 - 7:02pm by Commander DeVala Victrix Ph.D & Lieutenant T'Lanna Vali

Mission: Operation: Recall
Location: Broz
Timeline: MD 7

Lieutenant Commander Victrix and her companions had materialized on the surface of Broz and had been traveling for several minutes through what felt like a rainforest of sorts until they reached a bit of a clearing, a somewhat rocky shoreline greeted them with beautiful water closing in on the rocky shore and then pulling back in a repetitive process. The tide was not very high at least at not this point. She turned to her companions "I think that's a cover up ahead," she said a bit giddy with enthusiasm at the sight. "If I don't see another insect for a while, I'll be happy," she added swatting at her legs as she lead the way across the shore.

“Commander, might I suggest you don’t do that in front of the natives.” T’Lanna looked at Victrix. “Romulans, like Vulcans have copper based blood. As such biting insects don’t seem to find it as appealing as biting on Humans, I know it’s awkward for you but a Romulan wouldn’t be bothered at all.” She offered a smile. “It’s one of the plus points of being half Vulcan, along with slightly increased strength and lifespan.

"Damn," replied Victrix shaking her head. "You have a very valid point, lieutenant. Thank you for the save" added Victrix who pressed on trying to ignore the bugs. "I don't want to be spotted squishing my own red blood out if these suckers."

“Exactly. I’m sorry I didn’t think of it sooner or I could have advised you to use some bug repellant.” T’Lanna offered an apologetic smile.

Victrix shook her head "No need to apologise, it was poor planning on my part. I should have been prepared for bugs. We knew the geological information about the planet and the climate. The signs were there and I was too narrowed in on making sure to look right."

Less than amused with his necessity for sunglasses, the cadet looked around hoping that at least some of the dimming lense optics would be of use. The conversation between the commander and lieutenant was less than exciting, but thus far the group hadn't made contact with the locals. Whether or not that was fortunate he didn't know, yet.

"Lieutenant, you may be right in that Romulans would not bother brushing away individual insects, however it is not uncommon for them to spray their more exotic colonies regularly. Different as their blood is, it still includes vital nutrients for hematophages."

T’Lanna nodded. “I think we all had our minds on other things. Well hopefully you won’t need to worry about them so much now we’re out of the forest area. Once we move more inland away from this beautiful view ...” She looked at it almost longingly. “Then there should be less bugs.”

"Yes, though I want to check out that cove up ahead" replied Victrix picking up pace a bit. "The tide is low and I'm betting that water is not even knee high, especially for anyone taller than me" she added poking fun at her small size. "Just be careful where you walk, Senior Chief Petty Officer Muniz did say something about Cnidaria like creatures...jelly fish he had said referring to them on Earth."

T’Lanna nodded. “Indeed, their sting can be quite painful so best avoided if we can.”

As they approached the cove area something caught Victrix's attention. "Cadet, do you have that scanning device I asked for" she said. Though they had to be discreet, Victrix didn't go beam down completely without tech. "There's writings on the walls. I want to scan it. See if you can translate any of it" she said as she admired the intricacies of the language.

He nodded in simple response. "I did. I rehoused it within a replicated tricorder from an old Romulan design we have in the databanks." He gradually shifted his position, walking forward past the waters in the cove as he began to scan. "I would advise caution in where the tide laps at the sand. Colloid thinning pockets may form beneath you."

"Meaning...quick sand?" she asked for clarification.

"Quite."

T’Lanna looked at the writings with interest. “Let’s get some images to take back with us, it could prove useful as well as interesting.”

Victrix nodded. "Lieutenant Kingsley will probably like that as will the stuffy folk sitting at their desks who gave me orders to come down to Broz."

Rhydian's progress translating was slow, but in the least not sparing detail, as he grabbed multiple spectrum readings of the glyphs as he began translating. "It appears to be a retelling of history which took place from what I can only assume is nearby. In the distant past. Not uncommon for these forms of etching."

"Get as much of it scanned as you can. I want as many of the glyphs as you can grab" she said as she crouched down in the sandy area and found a shell. It was small and pink with streaks of white. "Beautiful," she said admiring the exoskeleton of an aquatic life form that was evidently deceased and had been eaten from its protective exoskeleton, leaving the 'seashell' behind for the beachcombing Victrix to find. She stuffed it into her pocket.

“Now that is something I love to do” T’Lanna grinned. “I love to hunt for shells and anything else that might be unusual. If I had more time I’d probably spend some of it hunting but I’ll pass right now.”

Absorbed into his work, the cadet moved repeatedly to grab continuous density scans overlapping with previous spectrographs. He looked at his timekeeper sporadically, regularly checking the alottment until they needed to return to the ship. "I will better be able to analyse these from an appropriate console. Even a properly equipped team of archaeologists would require no insignificant portion of time here." His finger tapped, recording another entry as he did another successive sweep, moving onto the next grouping to repeat the process.

"From what I can discern on a cursory translation, a larger community once existed in our nearby vicinity. It appears to have gone extinct following seismic activity, which triggered an event called the Waves of Decalith. The rubbings are faded, but a soft-bodied mollusc is etched significantly larger encompassing these details. Likely some form of deity they worshipped or even feared, associated with the tides."

“Perhaps the waves brought with them the mollusc or it preceded the waves like some harbinger of doom?” T’Lanna looked curiously at Victrix. “Perhaps we should be moving along? We do only have a limited time here.”

Before Victrix could respond she muttered a one syllable word under her breath with a soft f in the begining and hard k at the end. "Cadet, put the deice away...now" she said swiftly and adjusted the skirt of the Romulan uniform she was wearing. There were several almost humanoid, apelike creatures approaching them. They had come from somewhere and they were carrying weapons. They had bronze helmets protecting their skulls which reminded Victrix of the Romulan Centurions of the 23rd century. "Brozul" she said softly to her two companions.

"Clearly," the junior-most party member added, slipping the 'Romulan Tricorder' into his belt loop. He came about, standing next to the others. He warily eyed the approaching natives, folding his arms over one another as he looked forward.

Victrix to his side, he took a step forward, anchoring his place. "Jolantru. Ilairhi Darox, hveolhaonn. Teidr yhaim ieiuqh. Stev." Hail. You may call me Ambassador Darox. Lower your weapons. Now. He disliked speaking in an authoritative tone, however knew from experience Romulans were rarely among the forgiving sort in their verbage. If anything, they were exact. Forward. Often imperious.

The Brozul continued to approach, distant clicks of their mouths jabbing at a form of early, albeit unrecognised language. "Hlun emael jamnae. Teidr yhaim ieiuqh," he stated considerably firmer as he dug into the ground faintly. I will not repeat myself again. Drop your weapons. Once more they were met with the dimly intelligible language, unable to translate directly. A product of tension built as the natives grew closer, no sign of fear immediately present within their expressions.

Only within a metre did they finally slow until an elderly individual unhurriedly limped themself forward. A primitive cane rested in her palm, visibly fashioned from one of the local trees, atop of which a fetish sat. It rattled until she finally came to a halt, staring the Braidan down before flicking her wrinkled palm. Her escorts lowered their antiquated weapons as she once more spoke in what was quickly becoming apparent as a broken language.

"T'hea iekil'eirh ilhnaes iudaiht let aeulleakjs'hnvaeh'n it hnafirh'rau aeek'h'i aeih nhrai hvaedroalh aeek'h'i 'hh nnefi Rihannsu." We have returned to see what has become of what is ours.

She rattled the cane once more though it was not hostile. If anything, this was more of a celebratory thing. Perhaps it was the arrival of Romulans that pleased the Shaman so. The shaman looked at Victrix in particular, saying something in Rhiannsu that Victrix could not quite make out.

Victrix tugged on Rhydian's arm a bit and whispered into the young man's ear "What did she say? I don't want to impose on these people, but if they have any Romulan artifacts I would love to see them."

Tempted to brush the senior officer away given her invasion of his privacy, the cadet restrained himself in the interest of professionalism. And the fact they needed to be discreet. "She wishes to host us within their village. Something about a grand feast. We don't have time for this. There is less than forty minutes until our reserve power is gone. Significantly less if you plan on bringing artefacts."

"Easier if you scan them," she replied. "Tell her that we are appreciative of the offer for a feast, but that we do not have time for that. We just want to have a look around for a short while, then leave."

Rhydian frowned. It was rude in most cultures to decline a gift, however he also knew and had readily put forward they were short on time. Handling this was going to be a delicate situation. "Vr'akden, raeda recendt. Faikaru vr'vhuin bontwe iebhe." At another time, when we return there shall be a grand celebration. Our mission does not currently permit us the time needed. His outlook shifted briefly, looking over to the counselor as she spoke.

T’Lanna was giving the whole conversation a curious look over, the woman’s body language was all off for a simple invite for a feast. “Commander ...” She looked to Victrix cautiously. “This is not an invite to a feast, the body language is all wrong. She’s not pointing us towards a village, I think she wants to go through here.”

"I trust both your read of body language and the cadet's translation abilities, lieutenant" she said reassuringly. "We are practically dressed as gods. So, I'm not expecting trouble. Let's get a look around and then we can head home before our window closes on us."

Victrix made the Romulan gesture to the Shaman, effectively bringing her arm across her chest, fist clenched. Taking the information to kind the cadet switched his gaze back over to the shaman. The leader figure was indeed not directing towards a likely community, if anything was to be certain. Not from what sensors had picked up prior to beaming down. "Perhaps there is truth to both what she speaks, and her body language. Expedience is a must in our case though. I for one have no desire to be stranded on a small island for the rest of my life."

“Indeed” T’Lanna nodded trying not to do too much smiling. Romulans weren’t known for smiling, quite the opposite.

Victrix lead her two companions to a place not too far away. They were left alone though she suspected some Brozul were nearby. It appeared to be a sort of sacred area. There were structures with glyphs on them. "Cadet, scan those. Don't worry about translation now. We will cross that bridge when we are safely back aboard" she instructed.

Strapped for time as they were, the cadet was expedient in his multi-layered scans of both the glyphs and surrounding area. It wasn't has hopeful or full of quality as he'd have liked, but translation would have to come later. With any luck the imaging programmes aboard would be able to filtre out any unnecessary grains and help focus on the details.

Victrix and Vali were scouring an area and uncovered a small statuette. "This looks to be something important" she said to Vali. It was metallic in nature. She looked at Vali and nodded, taking some steps back. "Probably best not to touch it. We don't know if it's radioactive or anything."

T’Lanna nodded, she wasn’t going to do or go near anything that might risk hers or her baby’s safety. “Plus we don’t know if there have been any old traps left around for trespassers.”

"I have no intention on getting cursed or meeting my end in any temple of doom" replied Victrix. "Gorgeous craftsmanship though" she added. The Commanding Officer turned to check on the cadet. It's hard to think of him as a cadet. As soon as he gradates from the program he will be in the lieutenant ranks she thought to herself. "Cadet, how are we looking on time?"

"Five minutes, commander. It would be adviseable to begin our exit. Now, so that we are not running uncomfortably close to the window."

Victrix snapped her fingers. "There's no place like home" replied Victrix. "Make it so, Cadet."