Planet Arkadia Storyline/English/2.4 Progress In Ruins

2.4 Progress In Ruins

Date: 30 DEC 3007 Time: 1107hrs Location: Planet Arkadia Sundari Zhen was having the time of her life. She was far to the north of the main base exploring one of the ancient ruins. She had chosen to set up Archaeological Digs only at all the smaller sites, which were clustered around the remains of three ruined cities, located in the corners of the continent not occupied by the Fleet’s main base. She’d decided to name each Dig after old, sometimes extinct, Earth animals that she had come across during her years as a student. She could still remember the exhilaration of learning about these animals and wanted to capture some of that excitement here on Arkadia. While the Digs’ names were yet to be approved, her teleporter deployment plan suggesting that every Dig should receive its own teleporter, had been quickly authorised. That was fine by her, since she considered the construction of the teleporters significantly more important at this early stage. She had chosen to oversee the installation of the teleporters personally. Not one to let others work while she did nothing, she had joined the work crew and was now covered in dirt and grease just like all the other workers. She’d found the last few weeks stuck in space an uncomfortable experience and she’d found herself missing the outdoors, as most of her life had been spent working outside on one project or another. But since Commodore Harvir had deployed an entire platoon to secure each Dig, she was enjoying working under open skies once again. She had hitched a ride with the troops as they’d departed the main base, so she’d arrived at the ruins some time before the construction crew, which gave her some time to explore without any interruptions. Her brief look around had already convinced her of one important detail: the ruin must have been abandoned for a lot longer than anyone had originally suspected, thousands of years at least, not just a few decades. What remained of the buildings themselves had aged remarkably well, though sadly not as much had survived as she had hoped. The fact that anything had survived at all showed how well the structures had been originally built. Until she had access to proper equipment and could begin excavating, it was impossible to tell how much of the ruin had been buried through the ages. She hadn’t found anything so far that revealed any clues as to what had happened to the inhabitants, but she had a feeling that it would only be a matter of time. Experience told her that ruins this well preserved always had secrets waiting to be discovered. Judging by the vague outline of the ruin and the heavy fortifications of the outer walls, she determined that it had been built primarily for defence. This led her to speculate that this structure may have been built during the war with the Oratan, though it would be impossible to know for sure until she could compare the style and layout to the ruined cities. It was her theory that the city ruins predated the war, so they should have a very different layout to the Dig she had been exploring. The only problem was that there didn’t appear to be any evidence of violent destruction. Considering how hostile the invasion had been, according to The Signal, she found it odd that all structures hadn’t been completely wiped out. Several other archaeologists had arrived with the construction crew to help set up the camp and start exploring the ruin. Among them were Jasmine and Kimi, two of the five junior members of the Archaeological Society who had volunteered for the mission to Arkadia. They were eager but inexperienced, so Sundari had agreed to take them on as her assistants and mentor them. The other three were helping set up camps at other ruins in the south. Jasmine and Kimi had already made an interesting discovery, finding a number of intricately designed pots in a hidden alcove at the base of an inner wall. How the pots had remained intact for so long she had no idea, but they would no doubt shed some light on the Arkadian culture once the team had a chance to study them properly. It was an incredible discovery to have been made so early. If there were such historical treasures hidden in other ruins then they were going to need a lot more archaeologists to hunt for them, not to mention help study each new discovery. Too few archaeologists had joined Liberation Fleet she reflected, but more could always be recruited when the next fleet arrived. While Sundari helped out with the teleporter, the military engineers were busy fortifying the Dig, which included both the camp and the nearby ruin. By the end of the week, one of the imposing new gun turrets would be constructed in a position that allowed it to protect the entire Dig. She didn’t like the idea that the turret was necessary, but she wasn’t so naïve that she didn’t consider the possibility that they might need it. Besides confrontations with the hostile humanoids over the past weeks, strange and vicious native animals had also been reported attacking the troops. The automated turret could easily deal with either type of threat, at least in the small groups encountered so far. The very act of it firing would serve as a warning system, alerting everyone in the Dig and giving them time to respond. As the turret was constructed and until the area was deemed secure, a platoon of heavily armed expeditionary troops, equipped with special issue kit, would provide more than adequate protection. There was a loud click as the technician completed his installation checks and activated the teleporter, allowing it to power up. These smaller teleporters were not as intricate as the larger teleporters installed at the Firebases, lacking the halo of bright inward facing lights or the solid integrity of the main support columns. Instead, more delicate columns surrounded a central platform, which was slightly raised and accessed via steps that circled the entire way around the device. Sundari beamed a smile at the other workers, proud at what they had achieved. Her smile faded quickly as the teleporter started humming as it began charging up. Someone’s using it already! She thought in shock. What kind of idiot would use it before we’ve had a chance to calibrate it with the network? The humming grew louder, accompanied by an intense glow emitted from the centre of the machine. Suddenly, there was a bright flash and through the glare Sundari could just make out the outline of a human figure. Her vision cleared and she found herself facing Milton Lee, who was looking around the ruins in an appraising manner. ‘Is this it? I expected—’ Lee said, before cutting off what he’d been about to say with an abashed look at Sundari. She got the impression that he was a little disappointed in what he saw, but at least he didn’t say that outright as he usually would. She took a moment to look around at the Dig, trying to picture how it would appear to someone who had no idea about archaeology and what it involved. ‘It might not be much to look at, but it’s an amazing find. I think this ruin is several thousand years old, making it much older than we thought. It’s certainly better preserved than any ruins of a similar age that I’ve seen on Earth,’ Sundari said, feeling slightly defensive. ‘Thousands you say? That would make the technology of The Signal even more amazing if it’s survived all that time. I wonder if there’s some way to work out exactly how old these ruins are. Shouldn’t be anything too hard for me to do,’ Lee said, trying to make up for his earlier gaffe. ‘That would be very helpful,’ Sundari said, gratefully. Then she remembered the manner of Lee’s arrival. ‘Milton, are you insane?! What are you even doing here? Surely you of all people would know better than to use an uncalibrated teleporter! You could have gotten yourself killed. Again!’ ‘What? It wasn’t calibrated yet? But that would mean… my head could’ve…’ Lee paled as he considered the implications. ‘How was I to know? I was just on my way to convince the Commodore that I understand the situation better now and ask him to lift the restrictions that he’s imposed on me. Then I remembered that he made you liaison to represent all the civilians. So I decided to pay you a visit, and when I checked the status of the teleporter it was online, so I just came through.’ Sundari opened her mouth to rebuke him again, but decided not to say anything, realising that he did understand what could have happened. He wasn’t trying to do the wrong thing; he just didn’t always think things through first. A wry smile crept across her face as she began to understand why Harvir had been so eager to pass the liaison responsibility on to her. ‘Milton, what am I going to do with you?’ She sighed. ‘You always seem to find new ways to cause trouble for yourself. I can’t keep up. I think you’d better explain what you need from Toán, so I can talk to him for you.’