PNPC Nyra Tal - Bringing Yesterday's Stories into Our Lives Today
Carter Schimpff
(( Archaeological Survey Site, Serein Basin – Rylor ))
Nyra handed each of the two new volunteers – Jovenan and Natasha – a brush and a narrow trowel from the tray beside the trench.
Tal: Then let’s test the hypothesis.
She indicated two empty squares in the excavation grid.
Tal: Jovenan, you can take C-8. Cole, right beside her at the edge of the trench in C-7. ::small, amused glance:: Perimeter awareness may prove useful if any aggressive pottery fragments attempt an escape.
Nyra stepped down into the trench herself, kneeling easily in the dust.
Cole: Understood. I’ll secure the area and neutralize any hostile ceramics.
Jovenan: Set phasers to stun. We want to make sure they make it intact for interrogation.
Cole’s response carried a dry precision that matched the posture Nyra had already clocked, humor deployed without disrupting the rhythm of the work. Jovenan followed in kind, her tone bright with the kind of imaginative exaggeration that suggested a mind comfortable moving between theory and play. It was, Nyra decided, a promising combination – one grounded, one expansive, both attentive.
Tal: Excellent. I’ll expect a full threat assessment if anything attempts to flee your sector. ::beat, sly smile:: Try not to escalate unless the pottery makes the first move.
As they moved to their respective squares, Nyra remained where she was, though her awareness tracked them both with quiet consistency. Jovenan’s initial survey of her grid was quick but not careless, her gaze moving across the soil with a scientist’s instinct for pattern before she committed to motion. When she began to work, it was with an efficiency that favored progress without sacrificing control – trowel first, then brush, the sequence intuitive rather than instructed.
Cole: You know, I can see the appeal. There’s something nice about work where the goal isn’t to stop a disaster, just… uncover what’s already there.
Cole’s voice carried softer this time, thoughtful in a way that suggested the work had already begun to exceed whatever expectations she may have had. Nyra’s trowel slowed by a fraction, her attention shifting just enough to register the sentiment without abandoning her own task.
Most officers accustomed to crisis environments treated stillness as something temporary, something to be endured until it inevitably gave way to urgency. Cole did not sound as though she were waiting for that interruption – she sounded as though she had accepted its absence.
Interesting.
Jovenan: Now you know how I feel before my perfectly good space dust mapping mission is ruined by transuniversal invaders, or something silly like that!
Jovenan’s reply followed easily, her humor anchored in experience rather than complaint, and Nyra found herself smiling faintly as she worked. The two of them were already establishing a conversational rhythm – one that required no intervention, only observation.
Tal: It’s one of the few disciplines where nothing happening is considered a success. ::glancing briefly upward:: Statistically underappreciated.
Then – a subtle break in the steady cadence of excavation. A tool meeting resistance where none had been expected.
Nyra’s hand stilled mid-motion, the edge of her trowel resting lightly against the soil as she listened. There was no sharp intake of breath, no abrupt movement that suggested alarm. Instead, the pause that followed carried a quality she recognized immediately: attention narrowing and focusing.
She rose smoothly, brushing the dust from her hands as she stepped toward the neighboring square. By the time she reached them, Cole had already set aside the trowel in favor of the brush, the transition executed without hesitation. The strokes that followed were controlled and deliberate, clearing the soil in thin, careful passes rather than disturbing it in search of a faster answer.
Cole: Lieutenant… I think I found something that is either interesting or very bad.
Nyra stepped down beside them, positioning herself close enough to observe without crowding the work. Jovenan had already moved in as well, her approach considerate of space, her attention dividing naturally between the emerging object and the surrounding sediment.
Cole began brushing away the remaining soil, revealing something metallic beneath the surface – aged, but not so degraded as to have lost its structure.
Cole: It looks like a fitting… or maybe a latch. Which feels like an important detail, archaeology-wise.
Nyra crouched, forearms resting lightly against her knees as she studied both the object and its context. The surrounding sediment remained cleanly stratified, its layers intact, with no sign of recent disturbance. Whatever had been uncovered had not been placed here carelessly, nor recently. It belonged to the layer it occupied.
Her gaze flicked briefly to Cole – not assessing, but refining a prior assessment – before returning to the object itself.
Jovenan: Have you found a lot of metal objects from this area before?
Tal: ::tilting her head:: Not many. Metal doesn’t tend to survive here unless it’s deliberately preserved or unusually well-made. ::indicating the object:: Which makes this… highly interesting.
Cole: Response
Nyra’s attention moved briefly to the surrounding soil again as Jovenan continued, her analysis extending beyond the object itself to the integrity of the layers encasing it. The observation held – no visible disruption, no signs of later intrusion. The object had been sealed by the same environmental processes that had preserved the rest of the stratum.
Jovenan: Doesn’t look like the soil was disturbed before we got here. I don’t think someone would have buried it here, at least not long before it got under the flood soil, or very deep. ::looks closer:: It’s a bit crude, but very sturdy. Could they have bought it from a travelling merchant?
Nyra inclined her head slightly in acknowledgment, though her eyes remained on the excavation, tracking both the object and the pattern of reasoning being applied to it. Jovenan was not simply observing; she was integrating. Very smart woman.
Tal: Possibly. Though if it was trade, we’d expect to see more than one example. ::tilt of her head:: So the question becomes…
She let the thought taper into silence, leaving the conclusion unspoken and the space open – an invitation rather than a prompt, offered without pressure but not without intent.
Cole: Response
Nyra’s mouth curved, quick and bright, the expression arriving a fraction before the small, conspiratorial wink that followed – brief enough to be missed if one wasn’t paying attention, but unmistakable if one was.
Right in one, Natasha.
The conversation shifted again, this time toward function, and Nyra leaned back slightly on her heels as the question took shape.
Jovenan: If you only one big and sturdy lock, what would you use it for?
A lock was not defined by its construction alone, but by its purpose – what it secured, what it denied, and what that suggested about the people who had chosen to use it.
Nyra’s gaze moved between the two volunteers, not lingering on either, but taking in the contrast of their approaches. Jovenan’s curiosity expanded outward, exploring possibility. Cole’s, by contrast, appeared to narrow toward application, toward use. Together, they formed a useful tension.
Nyra reached forward, not to take the object, but to steady the soil just beside it, fingertips pressing lightly into the packed earth as if anchoring the moment in place.
Tal: A lock is less about what’s inside than what’s outside. ::a small pause, then to Cole:: What do you think it was designed to resist?
Cole: Response
Nyra shifted her weight slightly, eyes returning to the exposed metal as she traced its outline again through the air, mapping edges without committing to contact.
Tal: Possibly. Though if it were purely defensive, I’d expect reinforcement along the hinge points as well. ::lightly:: What does that suggest to you two?
Cole/Jovenan: Response
She leaned back onto her heels, brushing a thin line of dust from the edge of the square with two careful strokes, widening the visible boundary without disturbing the underlying layer.
Tal: I don’t think this is a standalone piece. Objects like this tend to belong to systems.
Cole/Jovenan: Response
Nyra glanced once more at the surrounding grid, then back to the object, as though mentally extending its presence outward into the unseen soil beyond their square.
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/Jovenan: Response
TAG/TBC!
===
Lieutenant Nyra Tal
As Simmed By:
Lieutenant JG Roy Bancroft
Medical Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240205RB1