Lieutenant Commander Riley Delar: Probably Won't Work...
Zeph
After having awoken some sort of hologram, and stabilized it to the point of asking relatively simple questions, they had gleaned a lot of information about the culture, and the entities known as “The Befores” which used to inhabit this place before it slipped into decline. The AI was very helpful, despite having been dormant for so long.
Forsyth: Ok, what were the Befores like?
Enak: They were quite technologically advanced, that much I can say.
Riley : Truth. I would hazard a guess they hid an entire mainframe somewhere in the stone, to create this (motioning to Kaelith).
Kaelith: The Befores, allow me to share what I am permitted to, were a great species. They were adept at creating just about anything they dreamed up. I was invested by one Before who was fascinated with the absorption of knowledge, only they felt their own senses were far too limited to absorb it quickly enough, so he devised a system, K-A-E-L-I-T-H which could take in information from many sensory inputs.
Arlill: What does your name stand for?
Kaelith: In the Before’s language it’s hard for your tongues to replicate or brains to abosrb, but it roughly translates to “Knowledge is Everlasting, Knowledge isn’t Good nor Bad, Knowledge must Grow.” ::beat:: It loses some of it’s esteem in translation.
Enak: Better than I’ve heard in other places.
Riley had heard the phrase “Knowledge is power, power corrupts, be evil” somewhere before, but to be honest it was probably something in relation to one of those old twentieth century comics and an entity known as Cobra.
Forsyth: We’ll work it out. Our translation matrix is very good; it can understand stuff that you wouldn’t think of as languages.
Meanwhile, the clattering of a tricorder to the ground caught Riley’s attention and he turned his head to look over at the ensign.
JoNz: Uh ::to all:: Excuse me, but we may have a communications problem with the ship…
Arlill: Report ensign?
Arlill: Can we confirm the source of that transmission?
JoNz: Confirmed source is the Butler and its not our equipment that has the issue.
Arlill: The O-E-B?! That can’t be good! ::turning to Kaelith:: Do you have enough energy to reach out to the ship?
Kaelith: I’m afraid my systems have stabilized but my external transceiver, as you might perceive it, isn’t full powered.
That made sense, he supposed. Especially since the AI was coming back online after a long slumber, so that meant they were probably on their own.
Arlill: Ok, that’s fine, thank you, ::turning to the others:: we need to get to a beam out location. There’s plenty more to learn here, but our ship might be in trouble.
Enak: Well, in that case, it was nice meeting all of you.
Forsyth: Wait, what?
Enak: I’m still digging here. If y’all are moving on, I’m staying here.
The young Caitian picked up the tricorder and stuffed it into one of her pockets, and then proceeded to grab the duffle bag of gear which was assigned to the away team.
Forsyth: Right, of course.
Riley: Any last requests before we go, Enak?
Arlill / Kaelith: Response
Enak: I will ask that you leave the generator here so I can talk to Kaelith some more. Assuming he’s willing to talk to me.
JoNz: I'll defer to the seniors but I see no issues with leaving the fusion-reactor.
Forsyth: Don’t see why, sir?
Riley: I also don’t forsee an issue leaving it here. Perhaps some instructions to repair it in the event something breaks would also be a good idea.
Arlill / Kaelith: Response
Enak: Thank you.
Forsyth: Okay, be safe now.
Arlill / Kaelith: Response
Riley moved quickly to catch up to the rest, with Alex giving a wave of farewell to the archaeologists and JoNz carrying one of the bags of stuff. He was nervous, of course, but didn’t let it show through his carefully practiced mask of calm.
JoNz: I hope nothing serious happened. ::walking briskly::
Forsyth: Me too…
Arlill: Response
JoNz: And the Zet are who?
The Bajoran opened his mouth to answer, before he realized he hadn’t actually done that much reading on them. Fortunately, Alex had done the reading enough to answer the question, and maybe had a bit more experience with them than he did.
Forsyth: A highly dangerous and capitalistic race that has been a threat to some of the crew, they can also be annoying at times. We have one on the ship, and he was very badly injured.
Arlill / JoNz: Response
Riley: Any of them hate us enough to take over comms on the OEB?
Forsyth: There is one Zet that seemed to have a vendetta against the Captain, long story, and I was not there for most of it.
Arlill / Jonz: Response
Forsyth: Sir, if it is Ehths or even King….Tortilla, then we may have to fight our way through.
As Forsyth walked quickly to catch up to Lt. Commander Arlill, Riley raised a brow at the perhaps deliberate mispronunciation of the name. He didn’t have anything to add here of a constructive nature, so he let the conversation continue and kept his silence.
Arlill / Jonz: Response
Forsyth: Understood, but how do we get back to the Butler?
Arlill / Jonz: Response
Riley: Wait a minute, what about Commander Nilsen’s team? Did they come down via shuttle or transporter?
Arlill / JoNz / Forsyth: Response
Riley nodded slightly as he considered the information. His idea probably wouldn’t work, but he thought it should be mentioned.
Riley: Well, if they have a shuttle, they have a transporter. Us taking the shuttle back to the ship would probably be too risky at this stage because we may get shot out of orbit. However, if we use the shuttle’s transporter system to beam into the ship itself, we might be able to re-establish control.
Arlill / JoNz / Forsyth: Response