PNPC Nyra Tal - Can you two stay forever? This is the most fun I've seen in ages (and that's saying a lot for an archaeologist)
Carter Schimpff
(( Archaeological Survey Site, Serein Basin – Rylor ))
Nyra Tal’s volunteer trench had already yielded more than anyone had reasonably expected for a casual afternoon of archaeological labor. What first appeared to be a simple metal fitting – unearthed by Natasha Cole with a level of patience and observational precision Nyra was beginning to find increasingly difficult to dismiss as incidental – had, under closer examination, suggested itself to be part of a larger locking mechanism.
Between Cole’s practical deductions and Jovenan’s incisive, enthusiastic scientific observations, the three of them had already begun sketching the outline of something older and more purposeful than random debris: not merely an object, but a system.
And systems, in Nyra’s experience, were where things started to get fun.
Tal: All right. New working hypothesis: this square is more interesting than it was five minutes ago. ::small smile:: Let’s see how far that extends.
Cole: So my square just got promoted?
Jovenan: With promotion comes greater expectations. The square better not start slacking now.
Tal: ::with mock seriousness:: I hereby promote Square C-7 to the provisional rank of ‘significant.’ ::sideways smile at Jovenan and Cole:: If it continues to exceed expectations, it may be considered for expanded accolades.
Nyra’s attention returned to the exposed soil, though not so completely that she stopped tracking the motion of the other two in her periphery. Cole resumed brushing at the edge of the find with the same measured patience she had shown from the beginning – careful, but not timid. There was no performative caution in it, none of the exaggerated delicacy people often adopted when they wanted to look competent in a field they didn’t understand. She simply adjusted, observed, and proceeded.
That, Nyra thought, was a much rarer instinct than people gave it credit for.
A moment later, a line began to emerge beneath Cole’s brushwork—cleaner than the surrounding breaks in the soil, straighter than chance.
Nyra’s focus sharpened at once.
Not random, then.
Across from them, Jovenan had already begun glancing back toward her own square and then toward Cole’s again, mentally trying to map the relationship between them. Nyra could practically see the planetary scientist’s mind turning over possibilities – wall, threshold, floor line, collapsed architectural edge, something structural rather than incidental. It was a familiar and quietly satisfying thing to witness: that exact point at which curiosity stopped being passive and became active, hungry, acquisitive in the best possible way.
It was one of the reasons Nyra had always preferred fieldwork to departmental routine. In the field, thinking had shape. It happened in the body as much as the mind – hands in dirt, knees in dust, eyes narrowing against sunlight while the world reluctantly surrendered one truth at a time.
Cole: ::tilting her head:: There appears to be a seam here. ::looking up at Nyra:: I think it belongs to something bigger.
Nyra shifted closer again, one hand braced lightly against the edge of the trench as she leaned to inspect the line for herself. The seam was subtle but real, running with enough consistency to suggest intention rather than fracture. Her eyes tracked it a few inches farther through the soil, following its logic the way one might follow the beginning of a sentence before knowing yet how it ended.
Jovenan: A structure? That has to be a very lucky find!
Tal: ::squinting:: Hm, possibly. Archaeology tends to reward patience more than providence, in my experience. ::eyes tracing the emerging seam:: Though I’ll allow: it does look promising.
Cole: This is already a better shore leave story than I was expecting.
That earned a brief, genuine smile from Nyra – one she didn’t bother disguising. There it was again: not just participation, but enjoyment. Not the forced politeness of someone humoring a specialist, but the distinct and rather dangerous glimmer of a person realizing they might actually like this.
It was, in Nyra’s experience, how archaeology got you.
Not through lectures or reports or the persuasive elegance of preservation ethics, however correct those things happened to be. No, it got you like this – through one buried seam, one object where there should not have been an object, one afternoon in the dirt when the ground suddenly began telling you its long-hidden stories.
Jovenan: Agreed! If only more shoreleave destinations had activities like this. I think a lot more of our crew would be willing to come planetside.
Nyra exhaled a quiet laugh through her nose and brushed a fine layer of dust from the back of one hand with her thumb. It was difficult to argue with the logic. Offer a little sunlight and the illusion of recreational choice, and apparently even shipbound Starfleet officers like these could be tricked into enrichment.
It wasn’t an altogether unworkable outreach strategy, now that she thought about it.
Tal: If the rest of your crew are anything like the two of you, we’d be delighted to have them. You’re quite clearly a brilliant scientist, Jovenan. And Natasha. ::arching an eyebrow:: You… are becoming increasingly difficult to classify.
She smiled to show that this was a good thing in her book.
Cole: Response
Jovenan: ::to Cole:: I’m also quite impressed by your deductions. Did you ever consider becoming a scientist?
Tal: There’s still time to defect. ::lightly, to Cole:: You’ve already demonstrated strong observational instincts and an acceptable tolerance for uncertainty. That’s most of the job.
Cole: Response
Nyra let the exchange settle without pressing it further, though her attention remained more finely tuned than she would have admitted aloud. Jovenan accepted praise with the open, unguarded ease of someone who had not yet learned to distrust being seen accurately, while Cole seemed to receive it differently – more like a person who filed compliments under unexpected variables and intended to examine them later in private.
Interesting, again.
Not because it was mysterious, exactly. Nyra had long ago lost patience for the kind of pseudo-depth people mistook for intrigue. But because Natasha Cole, thus far, kept refusing the simpler versions of herself. Security officer. Dry wit. Alert posture. Good eyes. All true. All incomplete.
The pattern kept extending just beyond the edge of what was currently visible.
Which, in Nyra’s professional experience, was usually where the most worthwhile things lived.
Jovenan: I’m stepping back to my plot. Not going to let you hog all the discoveries!
That drew Nyra’s attention back outward, and with it a fresh flicker of amusement. There it was at last: competition. Mild, unserious, but alive. Jovenan’s hands landed on her hips with theatrical resolve before she turned back toward her square, clearly unwilling to allow Cole’s excavation sector to monopolize the afternoon’s glory. The impulse was familiar enough that Nyra felt a brief, private stab of recognition – part Jorin’s relentless love of puzzles, perhaps, or perhaps simply her own longstanding inability to leave a challenge alone once it had declared itself.
Either way, she approved.
Jovenan resumed work with renewed enthusiasm, trowel striking the soil with just enough extra purpose to announce that this had, at least temporarily, become a contest. Not a serious one. Not really. But then, the best intellectual rivalries rarely began as serious things. They began like this – lightly, half-jokingly. They usually ended six months later, with a collegial argument over coffee and field notes. But that, too, was part of the fun.
Tal: By all means. If this turns into a professional feud over excavation squares, I’ll consider my afternoon extraordinarily well spent. ::airily:: I believe you're next up for a miraculous discovery, Jovenan.
Cole/Jovenan: Response
Nyra flashed a wide smile at the blonde science officer.
Tal: Excellent! A word of advice: don’t chase the dramatic interpretation. ::lightly, but not unkindly:: Archaeology punishes optimism almost as reliably as it rewards patience. Look for repetition instead – alignment, matching cuts in the stone, anything that suggests this seam belongs to a larger pattern.
Cole/Jovenan: Response
Nyra settled back onto one heel, one forearm resting loosely across her knee as she studied the disturbed and undisturbed soil in tandem. She was aware, in that quiet, peripheral way field scientists often became aware of weather or light, of the particular quality of focus the two women had brought to the trench.
Jovenan’s mind moved outward in widening circles, possibility branching into possibility. Cole’s tended to narrow cleanly toward use, structure, pressure points. Different instincts, and yet highly compatible ones.
Tal: If this is part of a threshold or access point, the interesting pieces may not be the obvious ones. ::gesturing lightly with the brush:: Fasteners. Post holes. Wear patterns. Evidence that something opened, closed, or was handled repeatedly. Small clues are still clues. Especially here.
Cole/Jovenan: Response
TAG/TBC!
===
Lieutenant Nyra Tal
As Simmed By:
Lieutenant JG Roy Bancroft
Medical Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240205RB1