Title: "The Shatterer of Worlds"
Summary: What happened when the Guidestone was first discovered in the wreck of Khar-Toba which eventually led to the launching of the Mothership?
Author's Notes: Even though Homeworld came out more than seven years ago, I still consider it one of the best games in terms of engrossing storyline and gameplay. The manual that came with the game had a painstakingly thorough backstory on the people you represent. What interested me was how the Guidestone was first found in Khar-Toba and how it led to the building of the Mothership. The part was brief and it gave a small outline of what happened as well as who discovered it. I simply expanded on it. For the record, I wasn't too thrilled with the sequel which completely derailed a lot of plot points from the first game. I make a quick reference to it in this story.
As I wrote on a similar game related fic, I hope some people out there still remember the game and enjoy this story.
Reviews and Critiques Welcome.
Mevath Sagald leaned back in her seat as she stared past the specially reinforced window and out towards the swirling gale-force winds of a sandstorm. Even within the protected confines of her personal dome, she could still hear the tick-tick of large grains of sand raining on its outer surface. Some have been said to go mad with that constant racket, but as an archaeologist – whose job it was to work in sometimes demanding locations – she felt more at home here than anywhere else.
Her eye caught movement outside and watched the last of the sand rovers leave the area, heading for the capital located in the more temperate regions of the northern pole. The last team members had all said their goodbyes to her an hour before. She sighed and shook her head, turning slightly to face the person she knew would be waiting for her.
Joran Sagald, team leader for the excavation, leaned on the frame of the door, gazing at her with half a smile. Not too many people would think they were brother and sister, but while she had red hair and he black, they did share the same high cheekbones as well as aquiline nose. Unfortunately, the similarities ended there. While she was a hunter of the past, Mevath's brother had slowly become more of a politician than archaeologist. Mevath had no problem getting her hands dirty, but Joran – especially as team lead – knew more about handling people and egos than he did about excavation. As team lead he also had extensive contact with the Ministry of Science, a Ministry which, of late, had been more and more frugal in its funding of the dig.
"Is that the last of them?" Mevath asked, looking one last time to see the rovers fade into the storm.
"There was supposed to be one more for the two of us plus a handful of techs still here, but it got bogged down due to the storm," Joran said. A computer screen nearby displayed the latest satellite imagery of weather patterns over the Great Desert. A large red smear, indicating the current sand storm, covered a good portion of the desolate wastes that banded the equatorial regions of the planet. A large red dot, indicating the site of the dig itself, was also smack dab in the middle of it all. Joran walked over and sat on a chair opposite his sister's desk. "The crews said there was just enough room for you, but I told them that we'd wait it out until the storm ends."
Mevath smiled. "Thanks, brother."
"Don't thank me, yet, little sister. When we do get back, the Ministry is going to want a full accounting of what you've been doing up here all this time."
Mevath muttered something about the Ministry and a certain impossible anatomical act. Her brother frowned, but said nothing. Fiery haired and fiery tempered, Mevath had an attitude that had gotten her in trouble more than a few times. Perhaps that was one reason she'd been allowed to stay as long as she had in this dig and away from everyone else's hair. Even the head of their clan, kiith S'Jet, had been more than a little exasperated over her increasingly frequent demands in the past few months for money and personnel.
"I can't believe they want us to up and leave," Mevath growled, just above the howl of the winds. "Don't those bureaucratic fools know that there's still more to learn from this site? Don't they understand what this site might truly mean to us, the Kushan people?"
Her gaze once more wandered out past the large windows and to the other domes of the archaeological research station. Most were half covered with sand already. Many roped off areas had been covered in sheets of plastic to protect what had been painstakingly unearthed over the years. Each area was also electronically marked off with special beacons, driven deep into the ground, to make locating easier.
Even without the beacons, there could never be any mistaking the massive structure in the very center of the site with its large gigantic girders and crumbling plating.
It'd been blind, stupid luck when, thirty years ago, a satellite had misfired its thrusters and had accidentally scanned a portion of the Great Desert. However, it'd surprised the technicians on duty when the radar returns found something extremely large and metallic many meters below the great sands. After several follow-up flybys, an expedition had been later organized and sent into the hazardous region. Braving temperatures and conditions that daunted even the best of environment suits, those first explorers were nonetheless astonished to find the remains of a massive, ancient starship, buried in the sands.
Careful surveying later on had found the ruins of a city spread out around the wreck. Dating of artifacts found the site to be close to four thousand years old. Along with exhaustive evidence that indicated the Kushan people were biologically unrelated to other lifeforms native to Kharak, this conclusively set aside any doubt that they had not evolved here, but had – for some inexplicable reason – been brought here from another planet.
The main archaeological research station was then set up and a more thorough excavation began in earnest. What they had found within the ship as well as the city provided scientific breakthroughs in metallurgy, composites, fusion and possibly hyperspace technology. By this time many believed that the site had yielded all that could be found. The dig was an incredible archaeological discovery, but that took second seat to the scientific wonders that had already been plundered.
When Mevath Sagald joined the team, the city, named Khar-Toba ('First City' in the Kushan language), still had whole areas that had barely been explored. Personal excavations led to some tantalizing clues that there was something in the form of an observatory or temple hidden in the sands. Some feeling inside told her that this was more important than any scientific find. Unfortunately, over time, many of the people she'd initially convinced in helping had moved on. Still she kept digging. Finally, after several team members had gotten injured in accidents involving cave-ins, the Ministry had decided to put its collective foot down. Funding had been cut and many of the interns and specialists were recalled back to the capital. Only Mevath stayed as long as she could, often trading her seat on a rover for someone else to sit in. Sadly, time, a well as people, had run out.
Seeing the far off, wistful stare of his sister, Joran looked apologetic. "Can you blame them, Mev? They think we've found everything that could be found from this place." He walked over and sat on the edge of the desk. "I think it's time to pack it in."
Mevath glanced at the weather report on the computer again. Its revised estimate was that the storm would now end in twenty-four hours.
"Maybe you're right…" she said slowly. Mevath then abruptly stood and walked over to a knapsack, stuffing it full of tools, rope, flares and other items. She then slung it over her shoulder and grabbed a flashlight. "But I still have a day still the next rover shows up."
"Mev…" Joran groused in mild aggravation.
Mevath brought up a hand. "Look, brother, I know there's something down there – I can feel it."
Joran shook his head. "You must have Somtaaw blood in you somewhere."
Mevath laughed. The Somtaaw were a minor kiith, known for their expertise in mining as well as smelting of ores. Legends spoke of several members having prescient dreams, telling them exactly where rich veins of ore could be found. Mev smiled, taking the comment as a compliment. She grabbed another flashlight and threw it at Joran who easily caught it.
"So, you going to help or just stand around, pretending to be a coat rack?" Before Joran could answer, she walked briskly out the door.
"I can't believe we're related," Joran muttered, running after his sister.
oOoOo
When the research station had been initially setup, all the domes were interconnected with flexible tubes large enough to walk through. Khar-Toba had then been found to have underground levels, probably as a defense against the harsh conditions of the desert. More tubes and walkways were then been built to allow better access to the city proper.
While glancing every so often to a map on her tablet computer, Mevath led Joran into the depths of the city. Lights, strung up along the stone ceiling, dimly lit the passages. Many of the walls and ceilings had been built or buttressed with metal taken from the wreck of the ship. As the metal had run out, the original inhabitants had been forced to use the rock and sandstone abundant in the area. There was a distinct mustiness in these passageways – the scent of undisturbed air from ages past. Every few feet, a small sign on a wall could be seen that had a numeric designation, giving indication as to where they were. They two paused briefly at an intersection while the map was consulted.
"Mev," Joran said, running a flashlight up and down a semi-darkened corridor, "mind of I ask you something?"
"Hmm?" his sister mumbled, engrossed in the map. She blinked and looked up. "Yes?"
"I wanted to ask you: Just what is it about this place, this dig, that's got you so…so…?"
"Obsessed?" Mevath offered with a smile.
"Dedicated I was going to say," he replied smoothly. "As your brother I know you probably better than anyone. We've grown up together and all that, but I've never seen you so intent on finding anything like this 'observatory' of yours before. Not to mention you've stepped on some very important toes with your demands for more funds. I guess I'd like to know why."
Mevath sighed. She slung the computer under her arm and closed her eyes. "Before I answer your question, answer me this: what do you see around you?"
Joran frowned in bemusement. "What do I - ?" He played his flashlight here and there. "Well…I see a corridor, probably taken out from a section of the ship to serve as support. I see some rusting walls, some sand on the floor. From the looks of it, this area might've been some communal area for the city. Why?"
Mevath said nothing. She then opened her eyes and ran a hand softly on a side of durasteel that had been used to brace the wall.
"What you see as a simple corridor, I see people walking all around trying to eke out a living from whatever harsh punishment that sent them here. I can see children running and playing, carrying the hopes and dreams of the Kushan people. I see a race struggling to survive against incredible odds, when they could have easily lain down and died. This is the first city, brother. From this oasis of humanity the people of Kharak were born." She played her flashlight on a section of wall. Many of familiar sigils of the kiith were etched here: Soban, Nabaal, Manaan, and Somtaaw among others. Almost as if, at the time, they'd wanted to leave some clue as their existence, on the off chance they ultimately perished.
"But all this has been verified, Mev," Joran said quietly, almost out of respect for the dead that might still roam the halls. "I think there're even some people who suggest it was more than one ship that landed here."
"But don't you see, Joran, that's all we have: suggestions and ideas. There's absolutely no indication as to where these first settlers came from, or why they were sent here. We already know that the fusion power plant that originally powered the ship had been taken out sometime after landing to give power to the city. Even so, it couldn't have lasted more than a few decades at most. In all that time, it stands to reason that someone must have taken the time to leave some form of message behind for us to find."
Joran's face twisted a little. "Maybe. But don't forget that these people were living day to day under harsh conditions. Their first order of business would have been survival."
"Their first order, true, but once the city had been built there must have been some people from possibly our own kiith who devoted themselves to recording and studying the physical environment. They could then have easily left some notation somewhere of where we came from."
"You sound so certain."
Mevath shrugged. "It's just something I would have done had I been there. Look, you know as well as I the holy wars that had raged across our planet centuries ago. Many of those wars involved interpretations on why exactly we came to this planet. Our people nearly died out had it not been for the time when we developed science. It was only the discovery of Khar-Toba that finally ended the last of the religious strife that had still simmered amongst our people. Thankfully, that old world of thought broke apart. Unfortunately, the current world we live in can't last too long either."
"Why do you that?" Joran asked.
"We know now at least how we arrived here," Mevath said slowly. "But we still don't know where we came from. I believe the Kushan people need some goal, some purpose in order to survive." She shook her head. "This world cannot sustain us for too long. You've seen the projections our planetary scientists have made. Already the sands are creeping closer to our polar cities. Something must happen soon or else we face extinction again."
Joran said nothing. Finally, pursing his lips, he said, "Alright, where do you think we should go?"
Mevath looked at her tablet computer again. A schematic of the current area glowed on the screen. "Well, this area of the underground city has parts that collapsed over the years. I ran some sonograms and I think this" – she pointed to a roughly circular area on her screen – "is where we want to be."
Joran leaned in and scanned the schematic. "How do you propose to get there? Every passageway leading to it is blocked off." He pointed to sections of the maps that glowed red.
"Those are the direct ways," his sister said with a smile. She touched a button and a thinner set of lines appeared crisscrossing the larger ones. "These are air ducts that were built to allow air to circulate. I think one of the reasons the city was abandoned was that when the fusion core broke down or ran out of fuel, the air down here became too thin forcing the people to eventually leave."
A small segment of the map expanded and a duct opening glowed red not a few meters from where they stood. Upon reaching it, Mevath and Joran worked with tools to pry the rusted grating off of the meter tall conduit. A flashlight showed nothing but enveloping darkness farther into the depths.
"How far do you have to go?" Joran asked as he watched his sister put on a head band and a small, but powerful flashlight attached.
"I have to go down this tunnel about ten meters and then go south. I'll hopefully be able to go past blocked entrances and find an opening afterwards." Mevath took out a two-way radio, attached one to her ear and handed another to her brother. On the off chance that they lost contact, the radios also worked as tracking devices. Joran took out his own tablet PC and nodded when both he and his sister showed up as to distinct red dots on screen.
"Good luck. And please be careful," he said. Mevath flashed a smile, hunkered down and crawled into the duct.
Several minutes of crawling later, Mevath came to a junction. Breathing a little hard, she looked back and could barely make out her brother blinking his flashlight at her. She blinked back.
"Okay, I'm at the first junction. I'm heading south now," she said into her mike.
"Got it," her brother replied.
On hands and knees, she slowly crawled forward, the beam from her flashlight barely cutting into the darkness. Through her gloves she could feel the grittiness of the floor get worse. Eventually, she looked down and noticed a layer of sand getting thicker and thicker. She swore a little as she found out why. Up ahead, almost three quarters of the passageway was blocked by sand. She looked down at her computer and found one air vent led directly to one of the main caved in areas.
"Mev? Everything alright?" her brother asked.
"Yeah. I just came up to a blockage of sorts. It's right where another air vent meets one of the areas that was blocked off. It's not too bad, so I'm going over it."
"Go easy, sister. Some of that sand might have eroded the metal over the centuries," Joran cautioned.
"Right."
Mevath slowly crawled forward to the mound of sand. Gently, she started pulling and pushing some of the it away. She paused briefly when she heard – and felt – the barest of tremors on the floor. After a full minute nothing else happened. Releasing a breath she'd been holding in that time, she then cleared out just enough of the granules to make her way through.
As she shimmied up and over the remains of the sand pile, she spoke into her mike. "Okay, I'm through. I've only got a few more meters to go till – "
Something right underneath her groaned slightly. Rusted metal cracked and snapped at the corners of the ducts. A large section of metal suddenly broke off and fell into darkness, carrying her a screaming Mevath with it.
She barely cleared the hole before the metal landed on something, leaned forward, and slid down, abruptly stopping a second later. Heart pounding in her ears and somewhat breathless from the fall, Mevath lay on the metal slab, trying to collect her wits. From where she lay, she made sure there was nothing broken. Thankfully, aside for a few bruises, everything felt fine.
Apart from some feeble light filtering through the gaping hole on the ceiling, everything around her was covered in pitch blackness. She fiddled with the flashlight until the beam shot out again and unsteadily rose to her feet.
The metal plate she fell with lay at an angle on the edge of a massive pile of sand, rocks and debris. The slope of the pile to the floor had been gentle enough for her to simply slide down like some youths surfed the sand dunes. Mevath shook her head at her luck.
Shining her flashlight here and there, she could make out that she'd fallen in one of the main passageways that had been originally cut off. Mevath turned back to look at the other end of the corridor from where she stood. Just beyond the range of her light, there appeared to be a set of doors. She took a step forward but stopped when her radio squawked.
"Mev, what's going on? Are you alright?" Even through the mild interference, there was no mistaking the concern in Joran's voice.
Mevath coughed once before answering. "I'm okay. I fell through a weak portion of the duct, but luckily a sand pile cushioned the fall." As she talked, she slowly made her way to the doors.
"You're showing up fine on my screen. Do you need some help?"
Mevath was about to say no, when she caught the first details of the doors before her. Her voice caught in her throat as she gazed at what was carved into the ancient stone.
"Actually…" she started absently, "yeah, I'm going to need some help." She filled him in on what to expect along the way so that the two of them didn't get stuck down here. "Get over here as quick as you can," she finished.
Not even bothering to wait for an answer, Mevath swallowed as she ran her hand gently over the cracked, ancient doors before her. Carved deep into the sandstone were twin symbols, one for each door. Set within the center of a large ebony sphere, were two white spheres, one small on top with a larger one on the bottom. A final black sphere lay within the larger of the two. In simple terms, the glyph looked to symbolize the celestial spheres. Archaeologist Sagald was very intimate with this symbol – it was the sigil of her own clan, S'Jet. Out of all the clans, hers was the one where most of the scientists, engineers and such came from. Every clan member's main philosophical desire was to look at the world around them and question, observe, predict and record.
If these symbols figured so prominently on these doors, then something very important had to be beyond them. Still in awe with her mind swimming at the possibilities, Mevath barely noticed the rope coming down from the gaping hole right above the sand pile. Joran climbed down and landed gingerly on the debris. He then tested the rope to make sure it didn't give way and gently climbed down to the floor. Untying the rope from his belt, he ran over to where his sister stood.
"Mev, you okay? What did you find - ?" His eyes glanced to where her sister's hand rested on and his mouth opened in mild surprise. "Oh."
Mevath ran her fingers over the edges of the doors, then right between them. A fine edge could be seen. Unfortunately, there were no handles or knobs with which to pull the doors apart. The backpack was then set down opened up. Two large squeeze bottles were pulled out, one red, the other black. The black one she opened and spread a dull grey paste in a circle right in the center where to two doors met. Carefully, the first bottle was closed and set aside.
"You sure you want to be using that?" Joran asked, eyeing his sister opening up the red one.
"No choice. I didn't bring any explosives and at least this stuff will be local and not cause anything to collapse." Mevath then spread a shiny red paste over the grey. Stuffing everything back into her backpack, she grabbed her brother's hand and ran with him as far from the door as possible.
The two pastes interacted and began to steam. A hiss came from the chemical compounds intermingling. The ring went from white hot to red in a few seconds. Finally, it burst into flames and quickly dissipated, leaving a blackened ring behind. Mevath went over and inspected the charred circle. Turning her flashlight over, she gently tapped the center. At the third tap, a circular piece of stone fell backward into whatever chamber the doors led to.
Turning the flashlight on, she shone it inside, her eyes dancing here and there. After several moments, she said nothing.
Unable to stand the suspense, Joran blurted, "Well, what is it? Do you see anything?"
His sister slowly nodded. In her mind, she knew what her gaze took in hadn't had eyes fall on them in over five millennia.
"Yes," she said quietly. "I see wonderful things."
She then took a deep breath and shook herself from her reverie. "Give me a hand here," she told her brother. Mevath gripped one side of the burnt circular opening, while her brother gripped the other. They both pulled and strained. Finally, with some creaking of ancient gears, the doors parted just enough to allow the two of them to pass through. Once inside, Joran's eyes widened as he finally got a good look at what had daunted his sister.
"Great Maker," he breathed.
The two archaeologists stood at the far end of a large semispherical chamber. Evenly spaced columns went from the sand-covered floor to the domed ceiling high above. Diffuse sunlight shimmered down from overhead skylights.
On walls of the chamber, itself, were diagrams of the outer planets of the Kharak system. Other sections had constellations of stars etched here and there. A rudimentary calendar, used even to this day, graced another part of the wall. The light shimmering down from above gave the area around them an almost sacrosanct setting. In the center of this room lay what looked like a pile of debris.
Mevath wasted no time. She dug out a very compact and durable digital video recorder and immediately started filming everything around her. She did a simple complete pan of the whole chamber and then started a close-up of every inch of the encompassing walls, her recorder capturing everything.
Joran, seemingly at a loss for words, could only look around. "You were right, Mev, you were right." His sister kept recording, but there was no mistaking the slight smile on her face.
Mevath finished her initial recordings and walked to the center where the debris stood. "Where do you think the light comes from?"
Joran shrugged. "Mirrors and crystals? It wouldn't be hard to melt some of the sand to make some reflective surfaces and position them so that sunlight is directed down here." He gazed up above and then across to certain points on the curved wall. "I think…I think the mirrors were used to direct images of the night sky and project them down here. Those ancient kiith were able to figure out a calendar of sorts when certain stars aligned with the patterns on the wall." He shook his head. "Incredible."
Mevath zoomed in on some of the reflective lenses above when the small screen on the camera chimed and a small indicator of a battery with a red X on it blinked on and off. Annoyed, she pointed the camera down and popped out the battery. Luckily, she had a spare already charged up. Clicking it in place, the camera came back to life, but still in zoom mode. Its sensors detected the lenses' focal point too close for its current setting and automatically adjusted. When Mevath glanced again at the screen, she frowned.
She'd pointed the camera down while she'd changed the battery, but the camera automatically focused on the pile of debris next to her. On top lay a flattened stone of black obsidian. She almost dismissed it out of hand, when her practiced eye caught writing of some sort on it.
Not quite sure knowing why, she kneeled down to look further. The debris was actually a pedestal of some sort, half-buried in sand. The stone itself was covered with the dust of the ages. What puzzled Mevath was why this particular rock had been put there in the first place.
Pulling out a fine brush, she gently and carefully first dusted off the pedestal. Although the surface of the dais was cracked and rough, she could still make out what was etched on the stone: two circles, the larger of the two on the bottom. A set of wings hugged the smaller circle, came down, and branched away from the large one. This looked like no kiith symbol anywhere on Kharak. It was possible that it did belong to some clan that died out soon after landfall. Mevath shook her head. But if that were so, why would it be displayed right here in the center of the Observatory? Another thought then crossed her mind: could the two circles represent celestial bodies? A star and a planet, perhaps? Or planet and moon? A detailed picture was taken and Mevath then looked at what was on top of the small dais.
Jagged and burnt around the edges, the flatten stone looked made out of some form of ebon rock. It looked unremarkable since it barely spanned the width of two hands. Again, Mevath carefully brushed aside any accumulated dust, and, as she did so, grew more and more confused.
Off to the left side was carved a representation of she first thought be a storm cloud. However, on the farthest edge of the swirl a small dot was encircled with a small legend connected to it. Below the legend was written a single word: Kharak. Mevath's heart skipped a beat. If this was the planet they were currently on, then the swirl had to be a depiction of the galaxy, since Kharak itself was one the far edge of it. A single white line, straight and true, went from where Kharak was on the right to somewhere deep within the picture of the galaxy. A complex set of numbers clearly pointed to this point within the galactic core. The legend itself was half gone, but the word below it was intact. Some more careful brushing and the word slowly became clear.
Hig – Higaar - ?
Mevath's face fell and the brush slowly dropped out from her hand and on to the floor.
Higaara.
The Kushan word for 'home.'
Mevath blinked several times, completely stunned. Her eyes again traced the line from Kharak to this new world – from where the Kushan people lived now, to where they once lived?
Our home, she thought. This is where we came from.
Everything, everything she'd worked for came down to this one moment. But she desperately needed confirmation.
"Joran!" she yelled.
Her brother, studying some hard to read glyphs jumped at his name and ran over to where she sister kneeled. Mevath said nothing but simply pointed to the rock.
"Just tell me what you make of this," was all she said.
Frowning, Joran knelt as well and peered hard at the stone. For half a minute he said nothing, but his eyes slowly widened and he ran a delicate finger on the line joining the two worlds.
"Great Maker," he breathed. Joran shook his head and gazed at his sister. "Do you – do you have any idea what this could mean?"
"This is it, Joran!" Mevath exclaimed. "This is exactly what we've been looking for. Final, conclusive proof of where we came from."
Joran's initial excitement slowly ebbed and his face turned a little hard. "Not to play the cynic, but are you sure about this? I was just reading what I thought was some form of historical account of 'three cores' or something, when at the end, in big bold letters it read, 'Just Kidding.' I honestly don't want you to embarrass yourself when you present this to our clan head."
"This place hadn't been disturbed in centuries, brother. This feels too real to be a hoax," Mevath said. "Yes, we're going to need to do some more analysis when we take this back with us. But…" she paused, looking thoughtful. "I don't think we should bring this to our kiith'sa."
Joran did a double take. "What? Mev, procedures clearly state that any artifact must first be reviewed by the head of the finder's kiith – "
"This is bigger than any one clan or group of clans," Mevath interrupted hotly. "This isn't some relic that will be displayed in some case in a museum. Something like this could be used politically as leverage. There'll be partisan fighting and nothing will get done. If we don't do this right, we could inadvertently start another civil war. You of all people know the bickering that still goes on between all the clans."
Joran sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Okay, assuming for the moment you're right: what do you propose?"
"Something as monumental as this has to be brought to the attention of all the clans – at the same time if possible," Mevath said.
Joran's eyes widened. "You can't be serious! Security will never let you in. You try and take this to the ministers in the capital and you're risking your career."
"That's why I need you with me, Joran," Mevath said and forestalled any argument by saying, "I don't know how to go through the main capital building and I don't know how to talk to politicians. Only you know the right things to say."
"You're asking me to risk political suicide over something that hasn't been properly examined yet?"
"You know I wouldn't be asking unless I knew it was true, brother. This – " she pointed to the stone " – is bigger than the two of us."
Joran sighed and walked away for a few steps. He snorted and checked his chronometer. "Well, we've still got some hours before we're picked up. By the time we reach the capital we might just make it during an open session of the council of ministers."
Mevath smiled gratefully. Gently picking up the stone, she placed it inside her backpack. Then, she and her brother left the chamber, never looking back.
oOoOo
Tiir, Capitol City of Kharak. 48 hours later
The main capital for Kharak was a sprawling metropolis that had been steadily growing over the yearsafter many of the planet's internal conflicts had died down. Built near the northern polar region, a series of aqueducts brought in precious water from the slowly melting ice. Right in the center, a massive domed building, the Daiamid, rose higher than any other structure in the city. In here the elected members of all the clans came to meet and discuss any and all topics necessary to the governing of the planet.
Currently, a joint session of all ministers were discussing several trade and energy bills that, at the moment, weren't going anywhere. The Prime Speaker watched the haggling back and forth with a bored and jaundiced eye. His only job was to simply maintain order and break a tie in any votes if necessary. He was about to use his gavel to bring the talking crowds back to the main topics for today's session, when the main doors leading to the council chamber abruptly opened and two sand-covered people walked in, followed closely by security personnel. The tall male the Prime Speaker recognized somewhat as a regular expert sometimes brought in to speak for clan S'Jet from time to time. The shorter female was a mystery to the Speaker, though he wondered at the furtive glances she was making everyone else, as well as something she had wrapped in her arms.
Joran almost stopped dead in his tracks when every single face turned to look at him and his sister as they barged into the chamber. His own credentials had gotten him past security, though a few wondered at the cloth-wrapped bundle his sister kept close to her chest. He looked around and gratefully found the Minister of Science getting out of his chair and walking over.
"Joran?" he asked. "What is it, my boy? What happened at Khar-Toba?"
At the mention of the first city, more than a few ministers' ears perked up and looked in their direction. Joran glanced at his sister who pleaded with her eyes. He smiled wearily.
We're either going to make history or we're going to be the biggest fools in the history of the world, he thought.
Back up by commentary from Mevath, Joran took a deep breath and in a calm voice that carried just far enough over the crowds, explained what had happened. He spoke about the Observatory his sister had found, the special stone wrapped tightly in cloth and just what it might mean to them all. When he was done, no one said a word for a few moments. Then, in an explosion of emotion, everyone around the two of them spoke out all at once.
The Prime Speaker looked on in incredulity when almost every minister surrounding Joran, the young woman as well as the Minister of Science stood up and immediately engaged in shouting matches with the three. A few ministers actually tried to calm the rest, but were not having an easy time of it. Joran Sagald went over to a table reserved for the science ministry and beckoned the young woman to come over. She gently placed whatever was in her hands on it. A sky camera floated over to the group. Used to focus on any one minister while he or she spoke, it put the image of whatever it focused on to two large projection screens that dominated the chamber.
Joran caught the floating camera right over their heads and had its lenses focus on the remarkable stone lying on the table. He then pulled out Mev's camera and plugged it in to the main audio-visual circuit. On one of the two main screens a close-up of the stone appeared, on the other, the pictures taken while inside the Observatory started cycling for all to see. The Minister of Science, listening intently over the din of the others, looked astonished at what Joran had just said.
Mevath sat close by, making sure no one tried anything untoward to the artifact. She looked over and knew that Joran was clearly in his element, fielding every question and taking every verbal attack with ease. More than one minister was genuinely curious about the implications of what she and Joran had found. Other minister's unfortunately, were calling the find a fake, a hoax or a conspiracy made up by clan S'Jet. She hotly responded with enough invective to set her opponent's ears aflame.
The young woman found herself smiling a little. From what she'd heard this was the most excitement the Daiamid had ever experienced in years. Well, every society needed a kick in the pants from time to time. People would demand confirmation and she and her brother would be endlessly interviewed. The data would be examined thoroughly by the top scientists from every clan.
In the end, Mevath already knew the conclusion was foregone. All around her chaos reigned, but something good would come out of it. She felt slightly guilty at what she'd started, but society, as a whole, would have to change and adapt to this new discovery. The young archaeologist leaned over and touched the relic. There was no knowing who had left this – this 'guidestone' behind, but whoever it was, she sent a silent thank you across time and space.
Briefly, she wondered if sometime in the future some expedition would ever journey to their world of origin. What wonders would they encounter? What possible beings would be out there, waiting for them? Something told her, though, that she would not live to see that day.
I have merely opened the door, she thought. It will be for others to enter and begin the journey.
Saddened, Mevath realized that right here and now, her life's work was complete. It didn't matter, she thought with a smile.
The world would never be the same.
-FIN-