LtCmdr Jovenan – Someone smart might have suggested staying put, but we’re explorers!
Jovenan
((Upper caverns, inside the cliffs, Callis I))
Jovenan abandoned any pretence she was unaffected by hunger. There was no guarantee that the fruits they had discovered were entirely safe, but the sugary juice that dripped from the fleshy fruits enticed her. After days of nothing but inoffensively flavoured ration pack mush, fruits – fresh, tasty fruits full of fructose and vitamins and all those other pleasant things – were hard to resist. She sunk her teeth into another purple fruit and drank the liquid that poured out. It trickled down her chin, but it didn’t matter. In the past days, such carelessness would have been wasteful, but now there were plenty of fruits and plants around them.
Jovenan: Maybe the earlier dwellers brought these fruits with them after the disaster. This might have been their garden. If so, there might be even more edible plants.
Her teammates were also enjoying their newly discovered source of nutrition. Perhaps some caution should have been paid to how much they ate the fruits, since there was actually no evidence yet that the garden – if it was indeed that and not just a natural, shielded oasis – could support them for long. Still, after what they had gone through, the team had deserved a little joy to their lives. Bergmen finished his fruit and discarded the pit to the ground.
Bergmen: Compost. ::blinks:: So, for tonight, will we set up camp here, or do we plan to return?
Bancroft: Getting up here nearly killed us. We shouldn’t waste that effort.
K’Wara: I agree, at least for tonight, though I'd feel better with some of our supplies up here.
Jovenan agreed. Compared to the deep waterfall cavern, this place was a paradise. The darkness, the flicker of the campfire casting shadows to the walls, the constant roar of the waterfall and the coldness that the pool emitted were replaced with the caress of the sunlight on her skin. Jovenan sat down to the grass and turned her face towards the oculus of the rocky dome above. She closed her eyes, just enjoyed the warmth on her skin, and inhaled deep the earthy scents of the fresh air.
For the first time, she felt that they had everything they needed for survival. They still had water from the waterfall cavern, although she suspected the pond in this cavern was just as safe. If they brought their tents up and find a nice little corner in the tunnels or in the cavern itself, they had shelter, too. Although their campfire was gone now, they still had the means to produce a new one. And now they had food too. The predators were still a threat, but at that moment, she allowed them to slip off of her mind. The weight of stress rolled off her shoulders, and she felt like she could sleep again. At the same time, it allowed her to think again matters that weren’t as high up in their priorities for survival. Namely, of their friends and loved ones. She opened her eyes and looked up to the hole in the ceiling. It would be silly to think she could see Vitor or anyone else from the roof, but she still wanted to try.
Jovenan: We must be pretty high up to the cliff to be this near to the surface. Do you think we could see far from up there?
Bergmen: That depends, Commander. It depends on the weather outside. ::shruggs shoulders:: If it is good and there is no mist, then, in theory… probably… yes, we could see quite far.
Jovenan didn’t know what she expected to see. Crashed pods, camps of the other crewmembers? The city of the native people of the planet, a lush forest or fields as far as the eye could see? She realised she was being overtly optimistic; there was likely nothing more than the endless plateau they had crashed into.
Bancroft: A little fresh air might do us well, too.
K’Wara: Considering the wind pressures, I’m sure we’ll get some of that regardless. I don’t see any easy way to get up there though.
Bergmen: I can try to climb higher and check, if needed. Then report back on how things look outside.
That was a peculiar offer from someone who had at first rejected the idea of climbing the cliff to here. Perhaps Bergmen had discovered his natural talent or interest in rock climbing and wanted to try it out again. Jovenan, however, wasn’t all too eager to send him out there right away. They were tired, and attempting to reach the top of the dome seemed too big of a risk without any of the professional equipment.
Bancroft: ::sighing:: There’s got to be a better answer than more climbing, right?
Jovenan: Agreed. It’s not worth the risk of falling.
Bergmen: Response
Bancroft laid back on to the grass. They had all earned their moment of rest, but at the same time, Jovenan kept looking at the oculus. The sky felt so close to them now. Within the rock, she had felt isolated from the rest of the worlds, from her loved ones; there was nothing but the mountain in the existence. But now, she was staring at the same sky she hoped Vitor and the Captain and Commander Munro and everyone else was looking at. It was so close… yet so far away.
Bancroft: If this really was a garden, then there has to be an easier way in. Nobody hauls water and food up a vertical shaft just for fun.
Jovenan shrugged without pointing it to anyone in particular. She had assumed the water was rainwater that had fallen through the oculus, but the residents or refugees of the cavern would have indeed needed to bring the plants and the fertile land in – and themselves, when the flood came in. They had picked this cavern to settle, perhaps because it was the easiest to access. He had a point.
K’Wara: Presumably, they took it through the tunnels. ::looks around:: Or they have another access point that we haven’t found yet. This place is a bit overgrown.
Jovenan: I doubt they took the same route as we did. They escaped here after the flood, and exploring the tunnels and scaling a cliff aren’t something scared and injured people with children and old people would do. The cliffs were full of holes, maybe there are some leading in here.
Bergmen: Response
Bancroft: Sounds like a plan worth chasing!
Pushing herself up from the grass, Jovenan stood up. She straightened her skant uniform a little, realising that the green plants had coloured the back of her clothes. It was hardly an issue to her, though, as their uniforms were hardly up to the code when it came to cleanness. There were neither replicators nor washing machines down in the caverns.
K’Wara: I agree. Considering past experiences, I suggest checking the cavern walls. See if our absentee hosts left more instructions for us?
Jovenan: Let’s check that. We should learn more about our new campsite anyway, like we did in the waterfall cavern. See if there are any threats or other things we should be aware of.
Bergmen/Bancroft: Response
They set out to explore the cavern. Jovenan’s attention was to the carvings in the walls, so she headed straight to those she saw nearby – the light coming through the oculus made them much easier to find and to see. They were more legible now that there were no long shadows around them nor the sick hue of the chemlights, but more than the clarity, the new environment made it easier to concentrate on interpreting them. That, of course, didn’t automatically mean she understood any of it. The writing was just as alien as it had been down in the waterfall cavern, but there were luckily plentiful pictures. Jovenan wondered if the light was tricking her, or if the drawings were also cleaner.
K’Wara: Hm?
Jovenan turned from the drawings. Her team were still there around her, but the wild plants between them obscured some of their figures.
Jovenan: Don’t go too far yet. Let’s try to stay together so that we can see each other.
Bergmen/Bancroft: Response
She turned her attention back to the drawings. The theme of the flood or tsunami repeated, but there were also other events, objects and people depicted. She couldn’t tell what had caused the flood – there were no easily identifiable images with meteors falling from the sky or indications of earthquakes. Of course, the locals might not have been aware of the cause of the disaster anyway. There were also depictions of more complicated matters she couldn’t begin to wrap her mind around. Lines that could have been a web or a lattice of some sort crossed around… a map, perhaps? Stellar configurations? Tools? She didn’t know. However, she didn’t notice anything that resembled the predators yet. In the waterfall caverns, the escape from them had been the central figure, yet here the residents didn’t apparently find them important enough to carve into stone. Had they appeared later? What had happened for some people to take shelter in the deep cavern and etch a scene of them running from creatures on the rock wall? Jovenan felt shivers travelling down her spine, although she didn’t know anything yet for certain.
K’Wara: Commander, Lieutenants - I think I found something here.
Turning her head rapidly towards where Tamio had called them, she realised they had ventured somewhere. She joined the others and reached their location by a dead-end tunnel leading away from the cavern. It took her a moment to notice it, but there were indeed something in there, something that didn’t belong.
Jovenan: A door? Why would there be a door in here?
Bergmen/Bancroft/K’Wara: Response
Jovenan scratched her head. Most of the tunnels were bare and in their natural state, with the occasional exception of the carvings. The fact that there was a single door had to mean there was something that the ancient dwellers considered important enough to close off. It probably also predated the flood, considering that the refugees hadn’t left much else of such refinement behind them. Or something like that.
Jovenan: Can we open it?
Bergmen/Bancroft/K’Wara: Response
When the slit between the door and its frame was wide enough, Jovenan peeked in. There were no predators lurking in there, at least not immediately behind the door, waiting to jump at them when the door was open. In fairness, she couldn’t see too deep in there either to verify that, as the room behind the door was dark and the sun’s light didn’t shine directly into there. However, the metre or two of wall that were revealed were very different from the lumpy natural rock in the other corridors. These were definitely artificial.
Jovenan: Oh wow. ::pause:: Let’s, um, pack some fruits and water with us before heading there. And we can probably make some torches now that we’ve got wood, right?
Bergmen/Bancroft/K’Wara: Response
TAG/TBC
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Lieutenant Commander Jovenan
Chief Science Officer
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11