Aberrant: The Long March - Chapter 1: First steps on the Road

[Medianoche]

Estaban looks at Omar.

"Frankly, I am a bit afraid of getting lost. I've tried it a few times, using part of my body, and I rapidly lose my sense of direction. Maybe if I could take a light with me ..."

When Marcus turns to lightning, Estaban shrugs. Instead, he moves around the chamber sticking his head and torso into the walls to see what he can see ... which isn't much. After a bit of that, he looks back at Omar.

"It still hasn't gotten any easier ... but I feel ... I don't know ... something. Like a force is pulling me away from here. Its weird."

[The White Rat]

"I can uderstand that..I mean...I'm still getting used to my new powers. At times it is uhh...what's that word...overwhelming. As to being pulled somewhere?" Omar looks at Esteban. "Is it somewhere away from these caves, or to somewhere more distant?"

Omar hears the sound of rock sliding, and sees that a passage has opened into another group of caves. Marcus walks out and Omar smiles at him. His guess paid off. He had remembered his ancestoral practice of concealing tombs from graverobbers in the ziggurats, to deduce that the same thing may have been done here. I rock! Omar cheered to himself.

[Isabel Mendoza]

Isabel was amazed, amazed at the art, yes, but also at the attitude of her companions. They're just taking as normal that some superhuman or even non-human beings made this thousands and thousands of years ago. Wasn't all this, and the revelation it is, the reason people were being killed?. Fascinating as she found it all, there was a question that couldn't be avoided once they'd explored even the extra rooms her borther had uncovered:

"What do we do with this now?"

[Li Ai Jun Yen]

"Find out who did it, and why people are dying," Raina said calmly.

[Mr Fox]

Dr. Flowers looks to Raina, "Well, I don't have any formal training in Astronomy, but I did stay up quite a few nights with my father looking that the stars through his homemade telescope when I was a child. I could probalby give you some assistence with your work if you manage to get some reference books and that computer you mentioned." After a moment she adds, "Despite the camp being undisturbed, we all had laptops and they went back to the states with us when we left so there's no help there."

[The White Rat]

After exploring the newly found areas in amazement, Omar returns to where the Doctor is talking to Raina. He looks over at Marcus and waves him over to where they are standing.

"Marcus," Omar speaks loud enough for everyone to hear "and this goes everyone. Do we know any astronomers or astro-physics professors at University or elsewhere?"

[Medianoche]

"What do we do with this now?"

Estaban moves to his sister's side and says,

"Sister, I don't know. This is ... is ... is something way beyond anything I think any of us have experienced before."

He pauses for a moment then adds,

"Do you ... any of you, know this style of art or architecture? I mean, it still seems hu ..., I mean terrestrial in origin, as opposed to something truly not-of-this-world."

"If someone from our present, or even our future, came back in time and did this, can we figure out who they might be and/or what environments might have influenced them?"

To Omar's question, Estaban shakes his head in the negative.

[Li Ai Jun Yen]

"This artwork... It is like Pre-Raphaelite and Realism, but beyond artists of either school," Raina explained haltingly. "The colour... is in the rock, not on it. I can't really explain more."

[Thoranon]

Marcus decides it time to explore some more. "I'm going to look around." Then wanders off.

[The White Rat]

"Hold on Marcus!" Omar hollars, "I'll come with you, that is, unless you plan on moving through walls."

Omar heads out to check out the rest of the place.

[Andrew Murphy]

From down the hall the sound of footsteps can be heard and the reflected light of a flashlight can be seen. A man rounds the corner, stops short upon seeing the group and offers a handsome smile, "Uh ... hi, are you part of the dig team?"

The man stands about 5'10", he possesses a wirey frame but moves gracefully; that he may not be physically powerfull is clear, but it is also easy to see that he makes up for it with speed and flexibility.

He is dressed in hiking boots and jeans with a black t-shirt on. Over his head he has a thin stocking cap. He appears to be a day or two past his last shave but his olive skin and dark hair mean that he can pull of the look quite well, even in the dim light is is easy to see that this man in handsome.

Over one ear is some sort of communitcations device while over the other is a head up display, the green panel folded over his left eye is streaming data, evident by the faint glow from the eyepiece.

[Thoranon]

Marcus is looking for anything that looks like it might move, doors, cabinets, switchs, whatever.

He will look up when he hears an unfamiar voice, "Who the heck are you?" Then prepare to throw lightning if he doesn't like te answer.

[Andrew Murphy]

"Smythe ... Randall Smythe, I was hired as an independant investigator by Global Expeditions ... the company sponsoring the dig? Are you part of the dig team? Global Ex sent me in after word that the team had abandonded the site. They tasked me to investigate and secure the site if need be."

Randall gestures to the walls with his flashlight, "Pretty impressive no? Looks like the builders had some pretty advanced technology, it's no wonder Global Expeditions would want to make sure that they site was preserved."

[Mr Fox]

Dr. Flowers walks forward, "Global Ex? I was part of the dig, and we were sent by the Univeristy of Texas. Who is Global Ex?"

[The White Rat]

Omar finished his examination of the camp and headed back inside the caves to tell everyone what little he found. He paused when he saw the stranger. Quietly he moved closer and when he was about 10 feet away, he spoke in his deep baritone voice.

"I hope you are here as an ally? I'd hate to have to twist you into a pretzel." He moved closer to the electronics bespectacled man. When he is a few feet from him, he holds out his giant hand. "My name is Omar."

[Andrew Murphy]

"Global Expediations provided the donations to the University which allowed them to fund the dig, while they are not direct sponsors they do have more than a pasing intrest in the dig."

He turns to Omar, "Randall, pleased to meet you. I guess you could say that I'm here as an ally, Global Expeditions sent me when they heard that the dig staff had abondoned the site. I'm just here to make sure that the site is preserved for research."

He claps his hands together, "Well this is awkward, it would appear as though nobody told you all I would be here. If you'd like I can go and report back that the dig site is under control and that the university has restaffed the dig, job done, unless you would like to me to stay and lend a hand?"

[Mr Fox]

"Ah, I wasn't aware that Global funded the dig, I don't tend to pay attention to where the money comes from just how much is in the budget and why there's never enough." Dr. Flowers chuckles and walks over to shake Randall's hand.

"Pleased to meet you, as far as staying it's up to these good folks. I'm the last member of the dig that is still alive and they've been gracious enough to offer me protection."

She looks at him quizzically, "You wouldn't happen to have any expertise in science would you?"

[Esther Bluecorn]

Raina shifts on her feet, watching the stranger steadily. Finally, she asks, "What is Global Expedition's stake in all of this?"

[The White Rat]

"So your a mercenary...of a sort." Omar wasn't sure what he thought of Randall. He seemed like a nice man, and he acted sincere enough, but his abrupt entrance made Omar cautious.

"If you are here to help, then you could start by telling us what you can do for us." Folding his trunk-like arms, Omar looked down at the smaller man, and grinned. "Are you a follower of the sport of wrestling?"

[Andrew Murphy]

Randall pauses for a moment obvisouly recieving some information from his eyepiece, "You must be Dr. Flowers is that correct? And the rest of you are?" He pauses long enough to get everybody's names.

"Well at any rate the rest of you are apparently not with the University as well. Seems like you are as much mercenaries as myself then, no? At any rate as I said before my primary reason for coming was to ensure that the dig site was secure against damage from vandals and the elements.

"I do have some expertise, I majored in Computer Science and Engineering and I have a strong background in the classical sciences as well. A sort of Jack of all trades, if you will. If there is anything in particular you would like to help with?"

[Mr Fox]

Dr. Flowers looks to the novas, "Well, I guess technically I'm in charge of the dig site, but I'll leave it up to you guys if you want him to have a look at the fixtures. I don't think any of us have the backgrounds to figure anything out about how they work.

[The White Rat]

Omar turns to Dr. Flowers. "If it leads to the killers of our family and friends, then I have no objections to Mr. Smythe looking at any of the art, or fixtures."

He swivels around and looks down at the smaller Randall "I personally, would appreciate it, if you tell us everythng that you discover."

[Andrew Murphy]

The look of dawning comprehension crosses Randall's face, "What exactly am I getting into here? You mention the killers of your freinds and family, the good Doctor here says that she is the last of the dig team still alive ... what's going on?" As he says this he edges towards the outside of the group, clearly spooked by this talk of killers and people dying.

[Mr Fox]

Dr. Flower's responds, "Well, everyone of the original dig team has suffered 'accidents' or died abruptly of natural causes since the discovery of this site." She smiles ruefully, "By knowing of this place you are perhaps in danger now as well."

[Thoranon]

Marcus looks around at everyone, "I think someone is trying to keep something here a secret. I don't believe any of the deaths were accidents. We need to kep our guard up and see if we can't figure out what's so important here."

[Thoranon]

Marcus looks at Randall, "Is there anything we can do to help?"

[Andrew Murphy]

Randall lets out a long breath, "Boy oh boy when it rains it pours eh? OK Let me look around, if there is anything in particular you want me to look out let me know. Archaeology isn't my field of study but maybe I can help you guys out.

"Are there any conclusions you all have already made? What about notes & journals left by the dig team?"

[Mr Fox]

"We only had two days at the dig before the cave in. The first day we discovered the caves we called in to the University to report the find, the second day the cave in occured."

Dr. Flowers stops suddenly, "It just occured to me that we've found no bodies in the caves. There were five people supposedly in here when the cave in occured. We presumed they were either trapped in here or buried in the rubble, but the complex itself is undamaged."

She continues, "Well, chalk up another mystery. I hope they are alive somewhere. As for what you can do, how bout taking a look at these fixtures..." She leads the way deeper into the complex to where there are intact artifacts.

[The White Rat]

Omar, speaking with bravado, flexes his massive arms. "Don't worry, Randall, I can protect both you and Dr. Flowers." He then winks at Randall and laughingly slaps him on the back, saying. "I suggest you stay close, otherwise, whoever killed the others might just get you too."

[Medianoche]

Estaban studies the newcomer while staying slightly between him and his sister. As the discussion turns more to the problem at hand, he decides to speak up.

"Something I don't understand is that why kill the research team and not destroy the site entirely? They destroyed the hall we were all in, so they possessed the power, but they choose not too. They left these superior artistic displays, as well as the majority of this complex intact. I don't believe the purpose of these murders was to bury the existance of this complex, but instead to lay ... I don't know ... something like a trail of bread crumbs for us to follow. Does anyone else think this way?"

[Andrew Murphy]

Randall rubs his chin thoughtfully while pondering Estaban's line of thought, "Certainly a valid train of thought young man. That they would kill to protect something indicates that they are driven toward their goals, but as you say, they did not destroy these tunnels. It's obvious that these corridors were stripped of their contents very thoroughly and yet they missed this other section entirely. Or at the very least left it unmolested.

"I see two possibilities. The first is that the perpetrators knew about this other section and were hoping that the dig team would not find it and thus left it alone. They may have staged the theft of the artifacts and the death and disappearance of the dig team to divert attention from the site itself.

"The other possibility," he continues as he begins to examine the lamps and the wall in the deeper section, "Is that the people responsible did not know about this section and felt that the cave in and the death's of the team would delay any further work on the site. It is entirely reasonable to assume that the cave in was no accident, but instead sabotage."

Randall continues to examine the fixture and the walls within this undisturbed section, "I suppose it is possible that a third explaination is that the cove in was staged by those members of the dig team who were caught in it, they used it to cover their theft of the artifacts from within the site.

"Obviously they knew nothing of this deeper section. That would explain the lack of bodies. The other team members might have befallen truely random misfortune. Granted this seems unlikely and while I think it is probable that members of the dig team may be involved I cannot see why the other members would be killed off."

[Mr Fox]

Chapter 1: Part 2

As evening sets outside the caves you all are getting pretty weary of the mystery and have decided you have pretty much done here all that you are going to be able to accomplish without more supplies and equipment. Gathering in the ‘Dining room’ as it’s come to be called, Morgan speaks up with a suggestion.

“Hey guys, I’ve got an idea. Right now the bad guys don’t know that we’re here right? As far as they know they’ve stripped this place bare and sealed it up and killed everyone that knew anything about it, with the exception of good Dr. Flowers.” He smiles reassuringly at the Dr. then continues, “So, this is the last place they’d ever look for her, or for us. This place is history to them. Sure they could come back, but why would they when they got the only technology that was in here, or so they believe.”

Looking at everyone, “Why don’t we make this place our own base of operations? It’s got to be the safest place on the planet from those goons. I’m pretty quick now at simple tasks, so why don’t I pack up that camp and have Omar help me move everything in here then we can seal up the entrance so that it doesn’t look like it’s been disturbed. If they return just to check on the place they’ll assume that the locals made off with the camp equipment. As far as getting out goes, I can make warps to anywhere on the planet, so long as I never leave while someone is inside there isn’t any danger of being trapped.”

After discussing it for a few minutes most of the group decides that at the very least sealing up the caves and bringing the equipment in side sounds like a good plan while everyone figures out what else they would like to do. Omar and Estaban help seal up the entrance and erase the signs of your presence while Morgan breaks down the camp. Once it’s all in neat piles he opens a warp to the big chamber and everyone helps carry the things inside. Lastly, Estaban helps erase signs of your presence then follows everyone inside.

After eating the last of your rations you all decide it’s time some of you make a trip back to civilization. Raina decides that it is time for her to return to Puerto Rico and see what she can do for her family now that she is a nova with the skills to become one of the wealthiest artists in the world. The rest of you decide to continue with the investigation for now.

[Mr Fox]

Morgan, Estaban and Isabel decide to stay behind with Dr. Flowers and send Marcus, Omar and Carter to get supplies and gather whatever else is needed in the way of lab equipment, computers etc. Morgan says he will open a warp inside the closet of your apartment every once every 12 hours. With that he opens the warp and the three go through.

After they leave the four remaining do their best to make the caves livable. The three outer most rooms function well enough as bedrooms once cots are set up. Morgan set up his and Omar’s gear in the outermost chamber since they are the two most directly combat oriented. ‘Just in case.’ The two ladies take the left hand room and the Estaban puts his and Marcus’ things in the right hand room. The cooking gear goes into the kitchen and the rest gets set up in the dinning room. While Morgan and the two ladies get things situated Estaban transforms into shadow and goes exploring through the rock around the caves. After a bit the remaining folks hear water running in both the kitchen and bathroom. The holes in the wall above the sink are spouting water that is brown and muddy, as does the large pool in the bathing area, as well as several small jets of water coming out of small holes in the walls and floor of the bathing facility that you hadn’t noticed before in the side nooks. After a few minutes the water runs crystal clear once the dirt has been flushed out, the water is also quite warm. With the warm water flowing again the complex warms up to a comfortable 68 degrees except in the bathing chambers where it is around 90 farenheit.

When Estaban returns he explains that the water was flowing in channels beneath the complex but over time the channels had ceased to line up. It only took a bit of telekinesis to move the rock around just enough to put the water back to its original course.

****************************8

Estaban and Isabel, is there anything else you would like to do inside while the others are gone? What supplies or other things would you like them to bring back?

Marcus, Omar, and Carter, where do you plan to go and what do you plan to do? Also, I have a PM coming to you guys.

[Medianoche]

Estaban takes some time to familiarize himself with the outer surroundings of their base (the 'Outside World') so that he can locate places to hide out, or spy on the entrance and such. He will touch base with the ladies inside from time to time, but will spend a good deal of his time ghosting through the nearby terrain.

[The White Rat]

"What the hell?" Omar bellows, obvious anger and frustration mounting. "Will these people ever stop!"

Omar looks around the apartment, searching for any evidence of who might have robbed the place. He will call the local authorities and have them do a fingerprint sweep, and see if anything comes up. Hopefully, something can be gleaned from the action/inaction of the police. If the cops are intimidated or silenced, then they are dealing with powerful people.

Also, Omar will call his new ward, the son of the deceased wrestling coach, and have him board an airplane and fly to live with relatives in Kurdistan. Omar's lawyer will facilitate the travel arrangements and coordination with family members in Iraq.

Since most of the others went through the food rapidly, Omar decides that he will stop at the Local Sam's Club and stock up. While there he picks up 50 lbs each of beef and chicken jerkey, 100 lbs of potatoes, 20 gallons of H20, a 10 lb block of cheese, 10 lbs of pasta, 50 lbs of apples and 50 lbs of oranges. He also picks up a Coleman lantern, a deck of cards, and 2 books. He puts all these things inside a heavy canvas tarp, which he ties up and carries back to the caverns. Omar believes that the others will get pick up supplies as necessary.

Omar will get on the phone and see about getting some security guards for his own home. All billing will be sent to Omar's lawyer. Once that is complete, he will return to the cave complex, where he sets up his things next to the far wall, opposite the opening's location.

[Mr Fox]

Estaban scouts out the whole area and finds the best hiding places and nooks. You also find several other small caves in the nearby rocks although they all appear to be natural.

Omar arranges for security at his place after discovering that it has been tossed just like the rest, but the officers do seem to do a good job. They dust the whole place for prints and appear to be serious about investigating, though they do say that 9 out of 10 cases never are solved. There are no prints to be found in the place besides yours and the guests you've had. The bad guys must have worn gloves and the cops say that it looks like a professional job.

Sending your ward to Kurdistan will take time because of the need to get a travel visa and passport. Meanwhile the security you've hired can watch over him.

[Andrew Murphy]

Randall and the other step through into the apartment and immediately see that it was been robbed, the perpetrators ransacking the place but leaving the more obvious valuables behin. Randall quickly does a walkthrough of the place and determines that the electronics and other items of value seem to have been left alone.

"Looks like whoever did this was looking for something pretty specific, they didn;t take any of the easy to fence items, the stero, jewlry, et cetera. Clearly they aren't professionals, they either wouldn't have made such a mess or they would have taken some of the items as a diversionary tactic ... Well I would think so anyways."

Randall stick his head back through the warp and informs the others what has happened and that Omar is phoning the police and calling for security. Once he has done that Randall heads out of the apartment ahead of the others.

[Mr Fox]

Sorry, I didn't make it clear. Carters place is just fine. No one is aware he is involved the characters and the digsite. Also, if you want to analyze the lights you will need to get some lab equipment to take back with you.

Oh, and since Raina left that leaves you to analyze the stars on the ceiling to determine the age of the caves. Of course, you portable computer has an uplink to the optnet right? If not you will need to pick up some astronomy references, otherwise you can just download whatever charts you need.

[Mr Fox]

Twelve hours to the minutes after you stepped through the first portal into the Houston apartment, a second warp opens in the same closet. Through it you see Morgan smiling and waiting.

Everyone lends a hand carrying the supplies through and those who who were gone for the day find the temperature in the caves to be more pleasant now than the water is flowing naturally again.

Carters lab equipment is set up in the only room really available for experimenting which is the big spherical cavern at the back of the complex. The cots from the camp are replaced with inflatable beds in the bedrooms and supplies generally get stowed away in their proper places.

And finally the spherical room with the stars is where the computer equipment gets setup. Carter had the time before returning to set up his charts in his own computer with the modern night sky so that all he has to do to fix the time the cave system was lived in is to photograph the ceiling and edit the pictures into the right format for the astronomy programs to accept. Then it will do its number crunching and spit out an answer once it's done. Basically, the program runs the sky backwards based on the known movement of the planets and stars until it gets to a point that the two night skys match. Given how far back that goes, it could take many hours or even a couple days before it gives an answer.

In fact you have 34 hours before his systems beep an alert that it is done with the calculations. Surprisingly the match is acurate up to 99.7% with only one major anomaly. There is one moderately bright star in the sky that shouldn't be there. The age of the cave system is surprisingly set at approximately 3,307,000 old give or take a thousand years.

****

If you plan to do anything particular during the day and a half that the computer is crunching numbers go ahead let me know in your next post. Otherwise, continue on at the point the that you get the readout.

[Medianoche]

The news that Isabel's and Estaban's place has been ransacked causes Estaban to stick closer to "home". Beyond that, he realizes it was just a temporary abode and not someplace either of them had much attachment to.

In dealing with the the news of the starscape and its age ...

"Wow ... That's old." Medianoche's brow furrows and then he has a brainstorm.

"What if that missing star was stolen away," he blurts out, "or somehow masked? In either case, it was less than three million light years away because the light no longer reaches us. I wonder if that system had a habital world or what? If its masked, could it still be out there with the descendants of the people who made this place ... and could they still be interfering with us even today?"

Looking somewhat self-concious about his outburst, Estaban adds,

"Well, its just a thought. Ummm ... not that it matters all that much to us right now, anyway."