The Event Trilogy (Book 3): The Archive and Beyond

by Larson, Thomas

  “I, ah, I am Tom, and this is Asuna.” I stuttered.

  “Yes, I know, you are interesting specimens, no wait that is wrong; you are interesting and honored guests. RRqil, you may leave us.”

  “Yes First Hatched, but I was going to help with translation if needed.” She protested, but not too hardily.

  “No that is not needed, I have done my, what is the term, homework,” again with the grimace and hiccups.

  After RRqil had left, “My Bonded will join us shortly, she is in the other room preparing the meal as is your custom, I hope that you will approve of the effort. We do not often try to simulate the foods of your race. I hope you will enjoy it.”

  Asuna picked up the ball here, “I am sure it will be very good. If you would allow it I will go assist her, if that is acceptable.”

  “Yes, yes that would be wonderful! You can involve yourself in ‘girl talk’.”

  That resulted in a kind of funny twitch from Asuna.

  “I am sorry, I meant no offense, I thought it was a term accepted regularly.” Said ….crap, I don’t even know his name.

  “No offense was taken, I was just surprised by your use of the idea.” replied a smiling Asuna. “If I may, I am guessing it is through the door over there?”

  He nodded.

  After Asuna had left the room we continued with the conversation.

  “We have been with your people for many thousands of years and watched you grow. We have had much learned from our contacts but you are the first to ever ask to see about the others that have been with us. This is curiousness to me.”

  “Well your Hatchedness, part of it is boredom, no denying, but part of it is that we, Asuna and I are curious about our own roots, those who came before us, and this is such a unique opportunity.”

  “You may call me KHriz; I only put that First Hatched thing up on my crew. My Bonded is called HYlon. One must keep up the appearances.”

  We chatted on for a time about where they had been, and their ship. It appears that the power unit is still not working correctly, it has been on the ‘fritz’ as he called it for about 6000 years and they have been stuck in the loop orbit around Earth (Blue Wet Stone) and Mars (Red Marker Stone) ever since. The names work for them.

  He explained that when his predecessors, other First Hatched, discovered life on the Earth they were intrigued and initially it was just a science experiment to occupy time while they were fixing the engines. But over time it became clear that the engines were not going to be fixed. So what happened was the study of the biologicals became a full time job. They had sent a message back to their home world but it would be a considerable time before any rescue ship could arrive.

  Suddenly the door to the other room opened and the aroma that came through it was, breath taking it was, could it be, Spaghetti and sauce?

  Asuna poked her head in the room and with a big smile said “Dinner is served.”

  We moved through the door to a comfortable and somewhat spacious room with a table and chairs. This layout was not standard issue to the rest of the crew quarters. China and silver place settings were laid out with napkins, and candles. This was very much unexpected.

  As I scanned the table, Wow, just wow, after months of mush, real, I think it was real, spaghetti and meat sauce.

  “How?” I asked.

  “It is good to be the First Hatched, it has some perks and whenever we make a visit to the Blue Wet Stone I would have a list of things that I wanted brought back, for research purposes, of course.” There was a grimace and hiccupping by them both.

  “You should try this wine, it is a rare vintage, I think. It is called “Boone’s Farm” from your 1960 era,” offered HYlon.

  I choked back a laugh, “Wow, that was a main stay back in that era.” What was the old saying about it, ‘What’s the price, fifty twice, and 7 cents tax’, I remember it well! I thought to myself.

  We had a nice dinner, it was amazing how much KHriz and HYlon had assimilated from our society, our mannerisms, and the various Earth cultures. I had the feeling that he truly had a feel and feeling for the human race; he seemed to be concerned about our future as well as our past.

  It was truly a wonderful evening but as all good dinner parties do, it sadly came to an end. I hope we have the chance to do this all again.

  Back in the cave Asuna looked at me, “What did you think?”

  “I like them; they are down to earth people it seems.”

  “I agree, almost too down to earth, they seemed human, at times I pictured them as, just another couple sitting there.”

  “Yeah, you know, you’re right.” I said thoughtfully, “almost human.”

  We cuddled a little while, maybe it was the events, and maybe it was the glasses of Boones Farm. Boones Farm, in space, who’da thunk.

  March 16th

  Kind of a bummer, we were awakened early this morning with RRqil rushing us off to the safe area in the innards of the ship. It was another solar storm. And as I thought about it, all safely tucked away I wondered about Earth, were they getting the storm? No, well yes, but no, not in a dangerous way, there would be Aurora, Northern Lights, but not radiation thanks to the atmosphere and the magnetic belts around the planet, the Van Allen Belt if I remember my 6th grade Earth Science.

  It was boring, just sitting around; Asuna and I did not even have a topic to discuss.

  March 17th

  Still in captivity until the noon meal, that spaghetti last night has ruined me, back to the warm mush. Oh for just a taste.

  “What do you think; want to check out a couple more rooms?” I asked.

  “As opposed to doing……….Sorry, just a little edginess from the boredom of the sequester.” She said.

  “Yeah, but you have a good point, ain’t much happening but the rent.”

  “What?” she said giving me a look of ‘what are you talking about crazy man’.

  “Sorry, it’s an old saying, ghetto saying I think, about nothing happening, it is like watching grass grow or paint dry, I was just trying for a funny.”

  She grimaced and hiccupped, and then we both laughed, a lot.

  Egyptian, definitely Egyptian, I think the giveaway was the sand, and the hieroglyphics and window opening that showed an image of the Sphinx, with the nose still attached.

  It struck us both as definitely upper crust, lots of gold, linens, feathered peacock fans, and comfy cushions. The stone walls all seemed to be made of sandstone, but not the red kind I was used to, this seemed the color of real sand. And there was no fire pit, a couple of standing fire lamps, but cooking was not done here, nor was there the need for warmth.

  There were papyrus scrolls, on the table. We took the time to examine them. This era was kind of known to us from school, although it turns out to have been much earlier than we had studied or realized. As we looked at the Hieroglyphics, it was, they seemed familiar; we recognized Set, Anubis and Thoth, and Isis, Horus and others. There were also some that seemed less familiar. There were cats and scarabs, they were all there. But what was odd was one of the goddesses, was scratched over, changed to make it look like; this is weird, like a lizard.

  “Winston, where these writings taken from the same location that the guest was taken from?”

  “Yes Tom, they were.”

  “Are they the real deal or remakes?” asked Asuna, slowly and thoughtfully.

  “They are originals, taken with the Princess.” Winston responded.

  “Princess? Do you know her name?” She asked.

  “Affirmative, she was Ahmose-Henuttamehu, she was a daughter of Pharaoh Tao by his sister-wife. She was here for almost two of your years because of the loop cycle. But not much else is known about her after her return.”

  “Okay, and did you ever break the code of the Hieroglyphics?” I asked.

  “We did take some time trying, and were able to come to understand a few of the figures. We could tell certain of the sacred beings. It appeared that the small animals with pointe
d ears… Cats, were also considered god creatures”, explained Winston.

  “Did you figure out which god it was that she scratched over?”

  “Nut”

  “Nut?” said Asuna.

  “Yes, Nut.”

  Sometimes getting information from Winston is difficult because it is predicated on asking him the right question. Sometimes he would just ramble on at great lengths missing the point of the question completely.

  Patiently Asuna said, “Winston, have you, the QUalz ever determined the identity of Nut, this Nut?”

  “Yes Asuna, Nut was the wife of Geb, She was the goddess of the sky and stars.”

  Silence, then.

  “Ah, so it may have been a case where she believed in the goddess but when she was taken into the sky and saw the QUalz she had a change of understanding.” Asuna suggested.

  “Yes, but if that were the case why won’t we see lizard guys in the later Hieroglyphics?” I countered.

  That was a question that we debated for several days. And we never came up with a reasonable answer. It could have been that the princess was not so powerful, or was not believed, or maybe with all the in-breeding, just considered nuts…..Sorry, …… anyway, it would be nice to do some further research back on Earth, but that isn’t an option.

  March 18th

  Still no word from the camp, but the RRqil told us that the tech said that there was a chance a message might reach Earth. It may be garbled and take a couple of days, but we could try.

  We headed back to our room, and hid away for a little bit. We put together a message, telling the camp we were okay and asked how they were doing, was everything okay.

  After we finished that I also put together a little packet file addressed to Margo. I really miss her, and want her to know it. But I didn’t want to make it too drippy.

  I had a little chill for a moment as I thought back to her Mom, Anne and how she had written and taught me to write interesting postcards. I know things are not permanent, and with the way the world went to shit, we were lucky to have the time we did together. I miss her, but …… anyway, this is what I wrote her.

  One of the things that is interesting about space travel is although there is so much to see, after a very short time, as your home world drifts away into the distance, it becomes very boring. Don’t get me wrong, there are days or even just hours where it is extremely exciting. But for the most part it is boring, a black velvet painting with lots of little twinkly lights. So it is not all that and a bag of chips.

  One of the things that I have found out about the QUalz, the little lizard folks who are our hosts, is that as reptilian they tend to like it on the warm side. The temperature on the ship is 95 degrees. It reaches a point where you are sweating all the time. Asuna and I are pretty much down to underwear or just wrapped in a little piece of cloth.

  I wonder and worry about how you and the camp crew are doing. You are in the middle of winter and even though you are, or were, well stocked with food, I hope you are okay. I miss you all.

  One never realizes how attached you get to the herd. Most of all, I miss you Margo, you are my daughter and maybe I was wrong in leaving but I think what we are doing here on the ship is important to the future, to you, and to the remains of humanity. We need to have a way to fight the virus, and this is the best way I could see.

  Asuna and I are getting along, we have to. It is very different, 24/7 together, not much space in space….Oh, I made a funny….Space is something that we all need, it was one of the reasons that your Mom and I never lived together before the meteor. I miss her, I miss you, I love you, see you in December.

  Tom”

  I will give Asuna credit, even as she read over my shoulder she never teased me about what I wrote. She just put her hand on my shoulder and said, “Very nice, I know she is important to you. There was a time when her mom was also. And they helped make you who you are, and who I love.”

  “Thanks Asuna, I love you too.”

  We brought the message down to the communications center and the tech sent it out. I asked him to do it a few days in a row, just in case it didn’t get through the first try.

  We did a little more exploring this afternoon and although we found a number of rooms that were from early man, jungle rooms, and forest rooms we found nothing that seemed to be really traceable to a specific region nor were there any artifacts of great interest. Winston told us the locations of the rooms in time and place on the planet, but they were not attached to any significant cultures or events.

  I think the message going out, and having Asuna over my shoulder was kind of a sobering event for both of us. We seemed a little quiet for the rest of the wake cycle. But it was also a kind of reaffirmation of our feelings toward each other. The simple statement of loving the other, we had kind of fallen away from saying it, and it was nice to hear.

  March 22nd

  I missed writing yesterday, but it was another day of not much discovery. No exciting rooms, more humdrum than anything.

  Today we also found a stone room, clearly a constructed one, man-made. It was hot and humid in that room and there was a, what I can best guess as an altar in the middle. It looked like it could have been used for a human sacrifice. Oh, boy, I hope that, well, maybe the QUalz in their lack of knowledge of humanity at the time did not think this was a sleep device.

  Imagine, you come home from a hard day of doing whatever and get ready for bed and find a rack, or place that you are used to seeing humans killed. Might be a little unsettling; think I will sleep on the floor.

  Winston said that the guest here, # 17, was some sort of leader or holy man, and this was a copy of the room in which they found him. His attire was different in that he wore some form of head covering, with feathers and a kind of face, animal face worked into it.

  The altar itself was of a dense grey stone, Limestone I think, and it had images carved into it. Those images depicted men and creatures. Ironically it appears that the guest, #17, had done some work of his own on it and had created large lizards, but they were a little different than the QUalz, they were more snake like. I wonder, did he improvise on the QUalz, or is there something else going on here. I wish that we were able to look at this from a historical research perspective, but that information is now gone.

  I muttered to Asuna that I wish I could have a picture of some of these places for when we get back. It would be interesting to visit a bookstore or library and see if we could match some of this up.

  “I have an imaging program built in. I can make ….Photographs…. if you wish,” Offered Winston.

  “Yes, that would be great…how do we do it?”

  A small screen popped up and in that screen was an image of the altar that was in front of us.

  “See the red button on the side of the screen?” asked Winston.

  “Yes”

  “Push that and the image is recorded” explained Winston.

  “Wow, this is just like a smart phone” said Asuna.

  “Yeah, it is, I wonder, maybe Steve Jobs was taken” I laughed.

  “That name does not sound familiar” replied Winston.

  I was still chuckling, “Hey Winston does this thing allow me to take a picture facing me? A selfie?” I asked.

  “Yes, press the down arrow and you should have that ability.”

  “Ooh, Asuna, let’s do a selfie, you and me, in the room.”

  “Ah no”. She replied.

  “Why not?” I asked, a little confused.

  I got the look, “Because we are not dressed and I don’t want pictures of me with my oppai hanging out.”

  “Oppai? We have shorts on and oh,OH, your boobs, I get it.” I kind of laughed, she just glared.

  We stayed in that room for the night, it was actually kind of creepy, a ritual room, which may have been designed for human sacrifice. It was also a little different in that it was as usual warm, and humid, but for some reason, I guess because it was jungle, there was a lot of noise,
animal and bird noise, the calls of some strange winged creature, the howl of monkeys, I even think I heard the roar of a jaguar.

  March 24th

  We explored a little more and worked our way through rooms that were pretty uninteresting. There was a fishing village that Winston said was from the area of Sri Lanka.

  We also found a mountain location in the Himalayas, which I think would have been very interesting if it was a monastery, but it was just a little mountain hut. They were a similar type hut to those found in the Andes. These were all from around the time that would have equated to the birth of Christ. But all were also without much in the way of writings or pictographs so there was no ‘story to tell’.

  “Winston, I have a question for you.” I said.

  “I will attempt to secure an answer for you.”

  “Why is it that we have not seen any rooms from the ancient Greeks, or some of the Phoenician region, Crete, and so on?”

  “There was a change in the ideas of the First Hatched, it was before KHriz, and the Hatched at that time felt that we, the QUalz, might be interfering with the development of humans and called a stop to our visits and studies. We spent a thousand years with no contacts what-so-ever.”

  “I see, I guess it makes sense.”

  I wonder where things might have gone had they not taken a break, I wonder how some of the religions might have developed if we knew we were not alone, that God or the Universe was inhabited by others.

  “When did it change back, when did you start visiting again?” asked Asuna.

  “At the end of the leadership of First Hatched LLarr, it was then that the visits and guests began again. Then the rules were changed and we rarely took guests for any long periods of time. Typically it was for a few days and the rooms are not as customized as these early rooms. They are more just replicas that were designed to keep the guest comfortable for the few earth rotations that we had them.” said Winston.

  “It is late, and nearing the end of the day, but let me ask you, how many First Hatched have there been?” I asked.

  “There have been three, BAiju, LLarr and now KHriz.”

  “I, ah, how long do they live?” I had never considered the ages of our little reptilian friends.