Away team 2- To shrine or not to shrine, that is the question

Posted on Sat Nov 30th, 2019 @ 2:14pm by Ensign Daniel Franklin & Lieutenant Anthony Edwards Ph. D

2,164 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: The science of stars
Location: Hide site, Shrine of Moor
Timeline: 11th March 2395- Morning planetside

ON:

After a good nights sleep Anthony and Jason had made the first decision of the mission. The shrine was day one and the village and the temple was a second day onwards. Anthony and Daniel had gotten ready and were on their way to the transporter for the expedited trip to the shrine to give them more time for investigating the shrine.

“I am glad Voss and Larsen thought ahead enough to plan a transporter as it gives us more time to explore.” Anthony said half to himself before making it a comment he wanted an answer too by asking. “What do you think of it Daniel?”

"It will come in handy," Daniel replied as he did a final check on the gear he was taking with him. "but we can easily walk to the shrine without needing to use these bracelets, it's only just down the path."

“Yes the walk will do us good. Though I believe caution is advisable, HG and I have been caught appearing and disappearing by children. Though knowing adults, as they would on earth they have a tendency to believe children have vivid imaginations and are given to realms of fantasy so that may in time just be completely. Though let’s not risk reinforcing the thought.” Anthony said to Daniel.

"Naturally we'll have to keep an eye open, I can have a tricorder set to alert us if anything humanoid comes within say 300 meters, should give us enough time to hide or phase" Daniel replied.

"True enough. caution is certain a good direction to take. In that case are you ready to go?" Anthony asked.

"I'm ready chief." Daniel hefted his bag over his shoulder.

Picking up his own pack and shouldering the weight Anthony started moving toward the door. "Right lets go then." This was his first journey away from the hide, he had been looking over the maps of this local area that the probes and his cartography team had made, he was pleased to see that they were quite accurate as they left home base. "Should be interesting to say the least."

After a couple of minutes walk the pair were approaching the shrine when Daniels tricorder beeped. "Hold it chief," He said quietly then checked the tricorder, "There is someone at the shrine, only one life sign."

“I think caution is the best course of action, let’s hang back for a while and see if they leave or they're a caretaker. It maybe infrequently visited so maybe they will be less aware when they return home.” Anthony thought about for a while, as he watched his own tricorder before added, “Though as soon as they start to leave let’s phase out and then we can head in.”

"But if they're a caretaker of the shrine they are probably a priest too, if we phase and go in now we can see what they look like." Daniel countered.

"Okay we will phase and go in then." As he said it Anthony reached for his left wrist tapped his device and began phasing out. the he waited until Daniel phased knowing he would be unable see or hear him until he did.

Daniel tapped the button on his wrist and began to phase too. "This feels so weird." He said as he phased.

"Now you know why I was being so cautious with you. I knew you hadn't phased yet. You get used to it, apart from HG I am the person most used to phasing, and even I'm not completely used to it yet." Anthony said and turned and using his tricorder. "They're still there, so lets go. I'll have HG debrief you on your first episode of phasing if you have a problem with it."

"I think I can manage, it'll be interesting to see how it feels when I phase through something though." Daniel said as he continued on towards the shrine.

As they reached the shrine Daniel un-phased to set up a tricorder to passive scan the area and alert them to any one approaching, he quickly rephased as a man came into view clad in black hooded robes that covered his whole body, a small bowl lay at his feet that contained what looked like fruit. The man was knelt at the foot of the shrine while a staff with a small bell attached to it lay to his side.

"I'd say definitely a priest." Daniel remarked.

"The cowled robe kind of gives it away, doesn't it. I wonder if those fruits are an offering or his breakfast. I am sure if we wait we will find out." Anthony said with a smile.

"Not necessarily, some cultures priests don't wear big ceremonial robes and suchlike. But I'd say that is the case here." Daniel watched as the priest took the bowl and held it up to the shrine and dipped his head for several long minutes.

"An offering." Daniel told him.

"It would seem so. Lets get closer and some more and see if we can hear about his normal daily routine. We might pick up some clues to the rest of the culture." Anthony said with a smile relaxing a little. The first walks among people was always nerve racking for him.

Daniel moved slowly and deliberately forwards despite knowing that being phased no one should be able to see him at all. He walked up close to the shrine where the priest was praying in extremely hushed tones, it was almost impossible for him to hear even stood right next to him.

"It's entirely carved from stone and looks extremely old but well cared for."

“I would guess that would mean it is only every a small group of priests that look after it at anyone time.” Anthony said having moved much slower to stay roughly near to Daniel rather than going straight in. He could barely hear as the priest prayed. He hoped more than anything that his tricorder might pick it up more than he could hear. “What can be learned from it being well cared for Daniel?”

"It's a good indication they take their religion seriously if even a small shrine away from a major settlement is well maintained," Daniel replied. "though it may only be this one priest who takes care of it I'd like to think there are more."

“I expect there are as dedicating your entire life to looking after a small building and seeing people so infrequently to be a social outcast would really only appeal to those that are already social misfits so being liked by people isn’t high on their agenda.” Anthony said before he looked up and said “It’s not only well preserved but some of this carving is quite intricate and definitely intriguing.” He started using his tricorder as a video camera after he stopped the audio recording unsure of how much he had gotten.

Finishing his prayers the priest stood up, bowed slightly towards the shrine then turned and began to leave heading down the path that led back towards the village leaving his bowl of fruit at the foot of the shrine.

Daniel slipped into the spot where the priest had knelt but kept back far enough to not get in Anthony's way. "I see what you mean, this is very intricate carving, theres a lot of quartz in this stone too."

“I wonder if they tell a story like ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs which were carved into the tombs and monuments long before they were ever painted.” Anthony said before he added, “We’ll likely need some form of Rosetta Stone to be able to unlock the carved languages though.”

"It doesn't look like theres any actual language on here, it looks more like it's representing a story." Daniel said after studying the carvings on the shrine for a while as Anthony took scans.

“That is exactly what the Egyptologists thought that the hieroglyphs were when they first found them, before they started seeing consistency in the drawing. When the Rosetta Stone was discovered in the last year of the eighteenth century it gave them the translation that the ancient Greeks worked out over a millennium before.”

"That may be the case but have a look at this," Daniel pointed out a large section of the carving. It showed a person falling from the sky towards the land. He fell from what he thought looked like a cloud formation with several faces peering out from behind it, they all had angry expressions on their faces.

"This could be showing part of a religious story," He suggested. "The gods casting one of their own for some infraction."

Anthony did indeed look closer then seeing what Daniel saw said “Cultural there would be an oral story about something this image, as the anthropologist on our team that I will leave in your hands. It may resemble Satan’s fall from grace in the Judeo-Christian history.”

"Or something along those lines yes." Daniel studied the images some more, the figure had hit the ground and carvings that looked like cracks formed underneath him while the landscape changed from the first section. "It looks like he may have landed here and the force of his landing deformed the land opening a route for water to enter and create this lake, a most interesting story I'd say."

“I guess that explains why the shrine is here.” Anthony said as he listened to the recordings he'd made of the prayers. He was hearing over and over the word Moorr. “Daniel I expect the ejected God is named Moorr, that is all I can give you at the moment.”

"Moorr, an unusual name." Daniel remarked. "I wonder what their other gods are called, apart from their images at the top here there doesn't appear to be anything else about the other gods. Maybe the shrine is dedicated to just Moorr?"

Listening to some more of the prayers and not hearing anything but sentence conjunctions and Moorr Anthony said.. "The caretakers prayers don't seem to repeat anything but what seems to be conjunctions and Moorr. Those facts lead me to a couple of ideas which are, that it is likely dedicated to Moorr and him alone. The second is that being right next to the lake it may even be dedicated specifically to his downfall."

"From what I've seen I'd agree, dedicated to just this god." Daniel said having come to the same conclusion. "Now we just need to figure out what facet of life this god is."

“That might be a lot easier if this planet were the colonised or if it was natural progression of species. From the looks of the age of this temple I expect it is the later, though I expect you and HG will be able to tease more out of it when we pick up more information once we are working on the towns people.” Anthony said.

"Hopefully it'll shed more light on everything but if I were to hazard a guess I'd say he could be related in some way to death or something else about the darker sides of their culture." Daniel said though there wasn't much in the iconography to back up his theory.

“Well the best thing I can say would back your theory is biblically from the Revelation of St John, twelveth Chapter seventh verse, where Satan was cast out of heaven. If it happened in early earth culture it wouldn’t it be impossible for it to happen out here.” Anthony said.

Daniel nodded. "That's what I was thinking too, in a lot of cultures gods of death and the rulers of their respective underworlds are outcasts. Hopefully we can find something in the temple to back the theory up better."

“Well I am not sure we will see much more here the story and the iconography all seems to be centred around that panel. So we should be able to meet up with HG on her way to the town.” Anthony said, “It took her about ten minutes to get there yesterday.”

"I would like to stay here a while longer if there are no objections sir," Daniel said. "Maybe have a look around the lake itself, check if the water is drinkable, what wildlife calls it home, you know, all that kinda stuff."

"I think checking the water and wild life are very good idea's especially seeing as it will help to learn about the rest of the culture." Anthony said.

"Then lets go," Daniel said as he headed back to pick up the tricorder he'd left as a proximity alarm.

"Sounds like a plan to me!" Anthony said glad of having something else to do. they could always come back and look the shrine over again to get more information if the town uses it for any ceremonies.

OFF:

LTjg Anthony Edwards
Chief Science Officer

Ensign Daniel Franklin
Anthropologist/Arceologist
[npc Taliserra]

 

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