Unauthorized Investigation

Posted on Wed May 11th, 2022 @ 12:55pm by Lieutenant Ayana Hillis & Lieutenant Commander Shoniara T’ghann-Travis Dr

Mission: Jupiter Mystery
Location: Planet

Ayana sat in the pilot seat as the shuttle zoomed towards the surface of the planet. She was trying her best to get them to the surface as quickly as possible. It appeared they had a small window where the Washington wouldn't spot them until they were already on the surface, and that was something Ayana hoped for at this point. She knew what they were doing was wrong, but she had to take the risk. She hadn't mentioned it, but she felt a calling to return to the planet. Something was down there, and she was determined to find it.

Shon sat in the shuttle next to Ayana wondering at what they had done, something possibly career ending but she had tried to deny the feeling of compulsion she had that was growing stronger every hour they had been away from the planet. She looked over to Ayana. “Have we been discovered yet?” She asked.

"No" replied Ayana. "We'll be on the surface before they are aware of us at this point. I can't say how much of a head start we'll have, but that is something to worry about later. I'm putting us as close to the center of the ruins as I can. I believe something in that building will tell us something important."

Shon sat next to Ayana as they approached the planet. “Is there any way we can prevent them from following us?” She asked.

"Wishing we were Romulans?" teased Ayana. "It would be nice if we could cloak ourselves, but sadly nothing we can do. Once the figure out we are gone, the captain will come looking for us. I could do something to make beaming difficult, but I don't want to do that in case of an emergency. We will simply need to be efficient with our time."

Ayana brought the shuttle in and landed it near the center of the ruins as she said she would. She looked out and noticed the rain coming down, "It would appear the weather is a bit more wet than the last time we were here, though it isn't too bad. A light shower. We will hardly notice it in our environmental suits."

Shon put on her environmental suit and handed Ayana’s to her. She gathered together as much of her equipment that she could and pulled it over her shoulder. The shuttle door opened and she brought out her tricorder and tested the rain. “The rain is unusual in that it contains liquid oxygen molecules along with the normal electrolyte that contains varying amounts of major and minor ions. I am reading Sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, chloride, bicarbonate, and sulfate ions. Very approximate to Earth’s rainfall.” She sighed, “this planet keeps on giving!” She exclaimed. “Let’s go?” She said to Ayana.

Ayana nodded and stepped out, the sound of the rain tapping on her suit as she left the shelter of the shuttle. It reminded her of her time at the academy when they had to do tactical training in the suits in the rainforest of Brazil. It rained much like this for nearly 7 hours straight and when it stopped, the humidity made it difficult to see as it fogged up her helmet. The bout of nostalgia was wonderful, but she knew she had to focus on the task at hand. "I think we should return to inside the main structure. I think we will find something worthwhile in there." She started walking towards the entrance, making sure Shon was following.

Shon followed like a beast of burden carrying her equipment, finding the suit cumbersome and disallowing for fine movements. They entered the ruins, everything looked the same yet something seemed different. She still felt buzzed, excited and hyper stimulated.

Ayana pulled out her tricorder and began scanning as she made her way towards the throne and where the secret door was located. Something felt different, though nothing was out of the ordinary based on her tricorder readings. She hit the glyph on the throne and opened the hidden door and then looked back at Shon, "I'm going down." She slowly made her way down the stairs, intent on giving this sublevel a proper and through inspection.

She scrambled after Ayana as fast as her suit would let her until she heard a rip in the area of her thigh and a soft breath of air entered her suit. She sighed, Ayana did not need to know at this point.

As Ayana looked around at the area in which the artifact had been, it seemed like the area had a luminescences to it. She scanned the area and to her mild surprise, it did indeed have some sort of light emanation coming from it. As she continued to scan she looked up at the wall and saw that certain symbols were glowing. "Shon! Get down here!"

She went over to where Ayana was scanning, “Well we did not see that before, it is as though we have triggered something.”

"I downloaded the entire symbology database of ancient Earth before we left. Based on that, the symbols that are illuminated are for different ancient deities. Specifically, Horus, Apollo, Amaterasu, Baldur, and Lugh. They are the gods of light in the major ancient mythologies, Egyptian, Greek and Roman, Japanese, Norse, and Celtic. To say that I am confused at this point would be an understatement." Ayana looked at Shon in hopes she might have some sort of pearl of wisdom.

Shon thought for a moment, “ All languages have a sound system, a system for forming words, a way of organizing words into sentences, a systematic way of assigning meanings. So, there is something in common with them all. Try cross referencing the symbols with each other. Maybe they will interact with each other in some way.”

Ayana tried referencing things in her tricorder. How she wished Celes was with them at this point. This was right up her wheelhouse. "The names of the gods, if we place the first letter of each and reorder them, it spells BLAAH. Could that be some sort of joke or trick? Maybe if I press the symbols in that order?" she questioned aloud as she reached out and began pressing the symbols.

As Ayana touched each symbol the glow from each became decidedly more green in hue. As Ayana pressed the final symbol the room began to shake violently for a moment and an audible click could be heard. Ayana looked at Shon, "Well that certainly seems to have done something."

"A brilliant deduction" said a voice from the darkened corner.

"Indeed. But we mustn't be too cruel to our saviors" said a second voice.

Shon jumped at the sudden voices.

The two figures stepped out of the shadows and into the light, allowing themselves to be seen by Ayana & Shon. One was fair skinned with long reddish hair wearing what looked to be a type of poet shirt and leather pants and a plaid green cape, the other also fair skinned with long black hair wearing a golden horned helmet and dark colored leather clothing along with a dark green cape. The two of them both had the look of mischief.

"Who are you?" asked Ayana.

"Ah yes. Well, I am Lugh, and this is my good friend Loki."

Ayana looked at Shon in stunned silence. What exactly had they just done?

Shon stood back in amazement “Really? Lugh one of the most prominent gods in Irish mythology. A member of the Tuatha Dé Danann, a warrior, a king, a master craftsman and a savior. Loki the Norse trickster god, you are expecting us to believe this is you standing in front of us. Who are you really?” She took out her tricorder and opened it in order to scan the beings.

Loki looked at Shon and Ayana. "Why does she give you this glowing description and I am just some trickster? I'm offended."

Ayana looked at Shon, "You seem to know quite a bit about these two."

She smiled at Ayana “I took Norse and Celtic deities during my college years and even taught classes for interested students at the Academy” Looking back at the being who called himself Loki she said, “you should know that trickster is not just one word to describe such a complex character as yourself A high member of the Aesir tribe you were known for your many schemes and deceptions. A shapeshifter, your forms were as varied as the motives for your mischief, which included wealth, women, wisdom, and the sheer pleasure of knavery. Your appearances were never quite what they seemed. While Your antics frequently embroiled the gods in sticky situations, your tricks often rescued them from troubles as well. So, you see there is no need to be offended.” She smiled.

Loki laughed. "You are an educated one, and I like that. You aren't of Earth, some sort of different creature. You remind me of my daughter Hela."

"Loki, we haven't time to banter with mortals. We must seek out the others."

"What others?" questioned Ayana.

"The others gods of course. We came here long ago with a contingency of followers. It appears the followers fell without our protection" replied Lugh.

“Are your new followers our people Lugh?” Shon asked.

"I have no followers here" Lugh replied plainly. "Loki and I have been, otherwise preoccupied for some time. We did at one time have human followers here though, but they have presumably all died in our absence."

Shon was honest. “We have come here to find our missing crew of many, some are human, some are other lifeforms. Do you know where they could be, or who has taken them. Surely great deities such as yourselves would know?” She attempted to flatter them.

Loki laughed. "Missing people? You think we took them? Lugh has told you, we have been otherwise preoccupied. We do not know what has become of our brethren, let alone any of your people who may have been misplaced. If they came down here, I assure you, they likely have met with a sad fate."

Shon bowed to them. “I am sorry to ask you questions but you know all the answers being Gods, may I beg your pardon and ask you what ‘sad fate’ do you mean?”

"Death of course. Without our protection no mortal species can survive long here."

“You said we were your saviors so answer me the question as to why, as you say ‘no mortal species can survive here?” Shon was beginning to get irritated by the pair. She whispered to Ayana, “can you scan them?”

"I already have" Ayana replied. "Tricorder readings are inconclusive."

Lugh looked at Loki and then to Ayana and Shon, "We were in a snaree of sorts, and you opened the way out for us. We are most grateful. As such, you are deserving of a reward, and we choose to gift you with a cure to your current affliction." Lugh waved his hands over Shon and then Ayana, "Now you are free of the malady that befalls mortals here. I suggest you leave here in haste. You will only be protected from it for a short time, and returning here could be problematic for you."

"We really must be off. I'm sure we shall see you again." Loki gave a brief chuckle and then the two vanished.

Shon looked at Ayana. “What was that?” She announced not being able to prevent laughter. She began to take her protection suit off.

Ayana stopped Shon, "I wouldn't do that. Loki may be the known trickster, but my study of Celtic figures also mentioned that Lugh was a trickster as well. Better to play it safe and wait until we are back to the shuttle."

Shon looked at her ruefully, “it doesn’t really matter Ayana, I ripped a hole in my suit coming down here so let’s hope he told the truth. So is there anything else that could help us down here?”

Ayana looked at her in shock, "You might have told me earlier." She looked around. "I don't know if we can find anything else here. I think we may have done something potentially bad as it is."

Shon snorted, “all the scenarios are potentially bad Ayana. Have you seen any symbols for higher gods such as Odin?”

"Yes" Ayana replied. "Symbols for several different gods. Odin, Thor, Morrigan, Danu, Dagda, Brigid, Ra, Anubis, Amaterasu, and several others."

“Try pressing the other Norse symbols, Odin and Thor? These are obviously not the Gods of legend but beings who seem to truly think they are.”

"What makes you say that? I recall in my days at the Academy in StarFleet history the Enterprise encounter Apollo. Who is to say that isn't the case here as well." Ayana walked over to the wall and pressed the symbols, but nothing happened.

Shon pondered, “if what you are saying is true then maybe these ‘Gods’ have been, for want of a better word ‘imprisoned’ by some other deity for the good of the galaxies. Most of these Gods were all powerful and dark, such as Morrigan, Amaterasu and Anubis. Also why are there only Earth gods here?” She traced her fingers over the symbols. "What do you think our next step to be Ayana?"

Ayana thought on these questions. "I can't say why only gods from Earth seem to be noted. Considering all of the buildings have an Earth design it goes to the theory that the inhabitants were human, while I don't know how that might be true. As for what to do next, I would say we should return to the Jupiter. I think our curiosity has been satisfied. Time to deal with the fall out."

“Surak!” She exclaimed I had forgotten about that, neither do we have any information that might soften the blow. Oh well I always wanted to return to Vulcan.” She sighed “better leave me here Ayana, the Captain has not dealt with my last infraction.” She laughed. “Let’s go.”

Ayana gave a soft chuckle. "You have been on a bit of a roll with rule infractions. Don't worry, the captain won't be too rough on us."