[sb118-butler] Lieutenant. J.G. Alex Forsyth - Some possible discoveries
Robert Forsyth
(( Treasure room, Archeologist “Base Camp”, Surface, Marohu III ))
They had found another statue, but unlike the first one, which nearly killed them, this statue seemed safe at least until both Commander Arlill and Ensign JoNz unexpectedly experienced vivid visions after approaching it. The exact nature of these visions was initially unclear to the team.
Forsyth: Take a deep breath, like this. :: Taking a deep breath, then let it out :: and start from the beginning, sir.
Enak: And don’t leave anything out.
Alex rolled her eyes at Enak, finding his lack of concern for people appalling. She instead ran a scan on both the XO and the Ensign to see if there was any telepathic energy affecting them.
Arlill: Response
JoNz: It was as if I was right there in a field of flowers, yet I was taking in the smell and not so much being in the field if that makes any sense?
Riley: I might have a theory. Are we welcome to advance them?
Enak: I’m all ears.
She concluded that whatever had affected them had passed, and they were no longer being affected by it. The tactical officer trained her tricorder on the statue while also listening to Commander Riley's theory, and noticed a similar pattern she got when scanning the wall of the other room.
Arlill: Response
Forsyth: I’m getting that same interference with the walls of the place, something in the rock makes getting a clear reading difficult…
JoNz: I’d be interested in that theory.
Riley: Out of body experience caused by something within the statue?
Alex continued scanning the room, doing her best to compensate for the interference. She wondered what had caused the out-of-body vision for the XO and Ensign, and how the team could prevent this kind of mental effect from happening again.
Enak: Well, that certainly sounds like a good idea.
Definitely better than anything he currently had.
Arlill: Response
Forsyth: Maybe it's a way to learn what happened to the planet. I think something similar happened on one of the older Enterprises.
She thought back to that weird experience she had from that dimensional wormhole during the Collector encounter, where she saw visions of an alternate self with a robotic arm. Alex hoped she would never lose her arm.
JoNz: What if it’s some sort of transporter…but that makes no sense as I didn’t go anywhere, and neither did the Commander. Or did we?
Enak: As far as I’m aware, you both were here.
And nothing from their scans suggested the use of transporters, which means that what they saw was of the mind. She
Arlill: Response
JoNz: Unless we’re both having an existential crisis? I know what I smelled though.
Enak: I don’t doubt that.
Arlill / Riley: Response
She fully believes the new Ensign, having had similar things happen to her.
Forsyth: Yeah, you are not the first person of this crew to have a weird vision. We all have something similar happen to us; it probably isn’t even Commander Arlill's first time with this as well.
Enak: I think we need to consider that there was something that happened, but not necessarily physically.
Arlill / Riley: Response
Forsyth: Agree, but we need to learn what exactly happened.
Arlill / Riley: Response
JoNz: First contact? What if they’re right and we did just experience first contact with the I-Kiyo through…through this statue?
Enak: Well, that would be interesting if the statue caused time travel.
Alex hoped not; she had enough time travel when she first joined the Butler and did not want to deal with temporal investigation again.
Enak: Because, correct me if I’m wrong, but the I-Kiyo are already known to the Federation, now?
Arlill / Riley: Response
JoNz: That's my bad, I jumped the gun as the Humans say and got excited; you're right ::to Enak:: that the ‘Kiyo are already known to the Federation.
Forsyth: Yeah, Chief Engineer Lahl talked about them a few times.
The idea that I-kiyoians were once on Marohu III in the distant past was interesting, though, and made Alex wonder something.
Enak: Is it possible that you were looking at some memories of some of the people that were here first?
Arlill / Riley: Response
JoNz: …and I likely picked up the smell ::points to nose:: as this can be overly sensitive.
Forsyth: Yeah, a glimpse into the past.
Enak: Well, just thinking, as it’s possible that you did see something, and that something was the past and the memories of those here. That would be really cool to have data on. Almost tempted to touch the statue myself.
The tactical officer shook her head at the lead archaeologist, as they did not know how it worked and could not risk any of them damaging their minds or the data.
Arlill / Riley: Response
JoNz: ::looks up from conversation:: Oh, that's not a good idea.
Forsyth: Yeah, we don’t know a lot about this tech.
Arlill / Riley / Enak: Response
JoNz: ::flips an ear back:: Could this statue function as a transmitter node of a Holodeck set-up?
Forsyth: Good question, maybe.
Arlill / Riley / Enak: Response
JoNz: If this thing does transmit memories as well, are we seeing recordings or live moments in these people's history?
Forsyth: Not sure, but I assume it's some kind of advanced virtual reality device.
Alex felt her engineering side light up with possibility at uncovering how such technology works, and maybe being given the chance to help study it.
Arlill / Riley / JoNz / Enak: Response
Forsyth: Which begs the question, is Marohu III their original homeworld?
Arlill / Riley / JoNz / Enak: Response
Forsyth: They were advanced once, so it's not out of the realm of possibility.
She was not fully versed in the I-Kiyoians' history, but she knew that they suffered some kind of hard reset and were starting over again. The recently encountered Konaii were in a similar state, having lost their homeworld to the Dominion.
Arlill / Riley / JoNz / Enak: Response
TAG/TBC
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Lieutenant. J.G. Alex Forsyth
Tactical
USS Octavia E. Butler
D239910AF1