The science of symbols

Posted on Wed Mar 26th, 2025 @ 1:02pm by Lieutenant JG Asher Kane & Ensign Daniel Franklin

1,836 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: A marathon not a sprint
Location: Deck 9- science lab II
Timeline: Md05 1050hrs

In one of the many science labs aboard the USS Wolff Ensign Franklin stared intently at his Lcars console, his cup of coffee long gone cold as he stared at the screen occasionally zooming in and out and flicking between the various pictures.

A few seats away from him, Asher Kane was muttering to himself as he did yet another analysis. He was still getting used to more generic science duties, having been absent from active service for a bit. So, he was trying to refresh his own memory. In the end he finished and sat back, stretching his legs and put his arms above his head. He turned his head, looking at the man sitting close. Ensign Franklin, that was it. He looked at the screen, at the images, his eyes drawn to it. They looked ancient.

Picking up his coffee and taking a sip Daniel almost spat it back out when he realised it was cold, groaning he stood up and headed for the door mug in hand.

Asher looked at him get up before he returned to what he was doing, sending the data through before opening another file on the Lcars console.

"Hey Lieutenant," Daniel called back as he stood in the doorway, he'd not really paid much attention to the other man in the same lab with him. "Do you want anything from the replicator?"

Asher considered it for a moment, pausing. "Won't say no to some chai," he said and looked at him. "Milky chai, hot usually works on Starfleet replicators. Thank you, Ensign."

The door closed behind Daniel and then opened again just over a minute later and he re-entered the lab with two mugs in hand, a chai for Asha and a fresh coffee for himself. "One chai tea."

"Thanks," Asher said and took it, taking a deep breath of the scent. "Appreciate it." It wasn't often people offered to bring someone something from the replicator. The science department wasn't the most social ones.

"No worries." Daniel smiled. He looked over Asher's should at what he was working on. "Anything interesting?"

"I'm...catching up with normal science," he admitted, giving him a small smile. "Trust me, I'd rather be comparing Progenitor syntax to the known species language database, but here I am...trying to catch up as a valued member of the science department." Not that there was anything as sophisticated as mapped syntax for the species that, for most, were fairy tales. Even Asher, with his love for languages, was dubious to the truth behind it all. Since it had reached a dead end with Captain Picard and the Enterprise before the war, no movement had happened since. So he had read about it at the Academy and that was sort of it. But there was truth in it: he would much rather be doing anything except what he was doing right now.

"We can't always work on what we want to," Daniel told him, the man was quite new to the ship but he'd tried his best to fit in with the other scientists. "sometimes we don't get to work on the things we specialise in."

"Yes, not always need for someone like me," he said, meeting Daniel's eyes. Kane didn't mind, what the Wolff had going for it was it was willing to have him and his son on it. And he knew the Chief was a linguist too, so there may be even less need for his specialism here.

"You're a language specialist right?" Daniel asked then looked back to his own computer. "you know I might have something that could interest you."

Kane looked at him with surprise and nodded, standing. "Sure, it'll be better than what I am doing right now regardless," he said unashamedly.

Leading Asher over to his computer Daniel sat back down in his chair. "Friend of mine from the academy sent me a few pictures from a dig he's working on in the Indrumi system," He bought up some of the images he'd been sent. "They found some tablets with a series of symbols on, they're fairly sure it's a language but they can't make heads or tails of it."

Kane frowned as he sat down, watching them for a moment. He tilted his head, clearly thinking before he stood and went to his desk. He came back with paper and pencil, giving Daniel a small smile. "It's a...tactile thing," he explained, taking the pencil and drawing the symbols, taking his time. He took one and drew it a few times. Once as a whole, then a few more times with it in building blocks, starting with one symbol and building on it. "It reminds me of a featural writing system rather than logographic," he said quietly. "But we'd need a bigger sample of writing to make sure."

Daniel was certainly surprised when Asher returned to his side with a pen and paper, writing on a Padd with a stylus was one thing but writing on paper with an actual pencil was a rare thing these days, he watched intently as the man worked. "Give me a moment." He got up from his chair and fiddled around with another nearby console, a few moments later more of the images displayed against the practically bare wall on one side of the lab, scaled up to be easily read even from a distance.

Asher looked at it before he looked down at the paper. He tapped the pencil against it, enjoying the sound it made as he thought. "Do you have more of these symbols?" he asked, wanting to see if there were more characters.

Tapping his console he changed to another set of pictures sent to him. "Try these."

Asher smiled as he nodded, looking and writing down. "I think we're talking featural here. If you look, there's building block words here..." he went to the console to highlight. "And here...these symbols are identical underneath it all. Does your colleague know anything about the culture these artifacts are from?"

Daniel was silent for a minute as he read what accompanied the images his friend had sent. "They quantum dated some material they found at one site to more than 2000 years old, a burial with grave goods of silver jewelry, weapons and animal bones they gene sequenced.. results were quite close to earth horses. The planet is kinda flat plains and low hills." He paused as he thought. "Maybe a Steppe culture?"

"Maybe, or thought they'd take things to their afterlife with them, or both," Asher said and frowned, considering something. "Featural would be quite advanced, in theory, for a culture like that. Not impossible, but..." he paused, sitting back as he looked at the writing again. "More unlikely. Maybe I am viewing it wrong...these could be symbols rather than writing. I would need more samples of their writing to be sure one way or another."

"Unfortunately that's all there is for now," Daniel told him. "That's all he sent me but if I let him know we're interested in helping him he should be able to send us some more information."

"I'd love to get more," Asher admitted as he looked at him, excitement clear on his face. "But for now, do you want me to write up a few theories on what it may be? I am...decently sure this is language rather than religious symbols, but it may be worth to have both options. It is, with such a small dataset...very subjective."

"A theory is better than nothing. I'm sure he'll be happy with any help I can send his way." Daniel said as he tapped at the keypad of his computer. "The Indrumi system is quite a long way from here, even with all these subspace boosters it'll take a day or two to get any more information from him."

"Alright, a day or two will let me add in some...detail," Asher said with a smile, feeling oddly excited. "I'm missed this." The words escaped him without him having a chance to stop it.

Daniel smiled too. "We'll have to find you some more stuff to do, it's a shame we're mostly around the core worlds right now. No alien worlds for me to investigate."

"Just stuck with research and science projects until you get a chance, huh?" Asher asked as he looked at him. Truth was, he was...finding it hard to slot in again. Especially as a single father picking up the uniform once more.

"And they say the sciences are the best jobs to have in the fleet." Daniel chuckled. "You'll have to go get cross trained as a security officer or something."

"Yeah, let's not. I suspect I'd be really bad at it..." Asher said with a smile, raising an eyebrow. "Just managed to pass my...non science subjects."

"Most of us scientists are cross trained in something, I'm probably a little out of practice but I can weld a durasteel hull patch if I need to, I know how to contain a plasma fire if the suppression system isn't working. Things like that." Daniel told him. "Red alert klaxon goes off I become part of damage control."

He considered it for a long moment, clearly thinking about what he might be good at. "I think I need to sit in on a few departments, find out what I am able to do," he said softly.

"Why don't you have a chat with Lieutenant Kail, he's one of the damage control team leaders," Daniel suggested. "Damage control can be dangerous, maybe a bit more than being security but it's really interesting too."

Asher looked unsure for a moment, watching him. "I...want to avoid the dangerous ones," he admitted, watching Daniel. "I'm a single parent. If...the worst was to happen, my son is an orphan. I know there are risks within Starfleet...I am trying to not take unnecessary ones. But there's always the...medical option. I did well enough on the basic ones."

Daniel smiled, he'd not met Asher's kid but knew it was a good reason for keeping to the 'safe' roles. "Always useful to have people cross trained in medical, even if it's only the basics, enough for people to survive until they can get to sickbay."

"I'll reach out to them," Asher said firmly, clearly having made a decision that felt...good. Decent. He liked that idea, helping. And he wanted to be a valued member of the crew, not just some blueshirt in the background.

"Be sure you do." Daniel smiled again. "When the phasers start flying any bit of help the medical department can get is good."

Asher nodded and took a deeper breath, looking over at what he was supposed to be working with. "I'll...do that," he promised, his mind balancing what had happened in the last hour. "Thank you, Franklin."


OFF:

Ensign Daniel Franklin
Alien Archaeologist/Anthropologist
[Pnpc Taliserra]

Lieutenant Jg Asher Kane
Language Specialist
[Pnpc Slattery]

 

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