Board Thread:Archive/@comment-24866242-20140529220037

Katrylle Morgahn posted October 15, 1998 05:13 PM


 * Latin to English translation; A new Cycle of the Ages. (Thanks Sal!)

Slowly, Kat opened her eye and frowned, both causing a searing pain to shoot through her head. The eye snapped shut again and it took her a moment to will the pain to a duller throb. Once she was able to concentrate on something other than the white hot knife piercing her skull, she again slowly opened her eye. It was the obvious that made it into her fuddled brain first. She realized that she was laying on her back, something hard and stone-like beneath her and a brilliant violet sky overhead. She wrinkled her nose absently as she not only tried to inventory her entire body but her memory as well. Where was she? How had she gotten here?

Gingerly, she lifted a hand to her head, touching the warm trail of blood that still flowed from the small wound that was the source of at least part of the pain. Apart from that, everything else seemed to be intact. Absently she reached for her ever swelling belly, her frown deepening as she tried to remember how she had ended up face up on a rocky surface on some weird planet. She laid there for a short while longer, silently watching the planet's twin moons vying for space with the brilliant sun in the exotic violet of the afternoon sky.

Twin moons. Violet afternoon sky. Yes......Pylidore Six. The ruins. Slowly, the "where" was coming back to her and with it, the "how".

Katrylle Morgahn posted October 15, 1998 05:14 PM

One Week Before:

Ry was on another of his mission runs with Kala and had been for over a month. Ryan and Kai were on vacation to only god knew where and Kat was suffering from pregnant woman's syndrome...bored beyond all sanity. Normally, this would be something that others should worry about but, for once, Kat had decided on a less destructive way to ease the boredom.

She had commissioned a supply run from Wilsey Five to the colonists on P-Delta Two that took the better part of three days. Now, with that run complete and another 500,000 creds in the "treasury", she decided there was some time to devote to one of her favorite hobbies before they had to rendezvous with Ry and Kala's ship.

While on P-Delta Two, one of the colonists had mentioned a small continent on a nearby planet that, while habitable, was void of all humanoid life forms. What had caught Kat's attention was the fact that this continent on Pylidore Six had not always been this way. There were several stone ruins that spoke of a race long ago vanished, never to return. Antiques.... Archaeology.... mystery. Kat could feel the excitement grow.

Perhaps it was fate or just dumb-assed luck, but only three days before she had put the finishing touches on the Scarab, a ship she had designed and began building while with the Doombringers. She had been working on it off and on for the past two years or so, modifying the designs and taking her time so it was just right. At first, she had thought it to be a fighter but, as the years past, it slowly developed itself, as if with a mind of its own, into a "discovery vessel"; an 8 man shuttle, habitat and science lab with equipment to cover just about every science known to the worlds. Now, it was complete and, suddenly she had a situation with which to test it.

Aside from herself, Kat had decided that two of the seven remaining slots on the Scarab would be taken by Ilrea and Tilvos. It wasn't that she couldn't find a baby sitter for the kids, quite the opposite, but Ilrea had begun expressing an interest in some of the artifacts that Kat had collected over the years. Besides, it had been too long since the kids had had some *real* fresh air.

Kat's copilot was the Vextis Chief Science Officer, Korbin Deylington. Though proficient in most of the sciences, Korbin's specialty was ancient civilizations, his passion only barely surpassing Kat's.

The fifth seat was taken by Dante, partly out of boredom, partly to keep an eye on her, Kat suspected. The last three seats were taken up by Ray Thomas, Lesley Cowen and Pimcia Basette...grunts... "red shirts" as Ryan liked to call them. She wasn't sure why the majority of the crew were "red shirts" to him, especially since there was no real uniform on the Vextis, but she never bothered to ask. She figured he was just being Ryan again.

Kat and Korbin's excitement had infected the others as the Scarab left the Vextis hanger. It would take just under a day to reach the spot that housed the biggest cluster of ruins, but they were all fairly certain it would be worth the wait.

Katrylle Morgahn posted October 15, 1998 05:15 PM

Present Day, three hours ago:

Ilrea and Tilvos were napping. Kat had been right about Ilrea's growing interest. Under Korbin's watchful eye, Ilrea had already discovered several glyph covered stones and enough pottery to fill a medium sized store room. Several times, Korbin made the girl seem to blush when he complimented her on a find no matter how minor, though the red tinge would never be seen through the ebony fur covering her body. The kid was having the time of her life.

It had been a week and the reason for the sudden abandonment of what appeared to have once been a major metropolis was still hidden in the shadows. It would seem that, unless some miracle occurred, the ruins would retain their secrets for others to discovered. The Vextis had been scheduled to rendezvous with Ry and Kala in two days and, cutting it to the last minute, it would mean everything would have to be packed in the Scarab and ready for take off by 6 pm at the very latest. Still, even with the deadline, Kat couldn't resist one last look around.

The building that had most interested her was the large one in the "city center". They had all taken guesses at what it had once been and the general consensus was split between a temple and a palace. In either case, it was definitely the focal point of the city.

As the others packed the Scarab, Kat picked her way among the rubble of the huge stone building. Most of it was still standing, much as it had been the day it was deserted, she suspected, but there were still spots where a column had fallen or a ceiling or wall had collapsed. This had been the first building they had mapped out and, as the map progressed, they discovered there was a large section unavailable to them. In the center of the structure, there seemed to be a room or set of rooms with no door or access portal and the Scarab had not been equipped with a teleporter device, something Kat was determined to fix as soon as she got it back to the Vextis. This little puzzle of the "missing room" intrigued them all, but none more than Kat.

It was a character flaw, she supposed, but puzzles had always been her curse. She hated them. Not because she couldn't solve them, but rather, when confronted with one, she could rarely think of anything else until it's solution was revealed. This mysterious room was a puzzle on a grand scale and her frustration level had grown to near obsession. She had spent the better part of three days poking in all the little nooks and crannies of most of the surrounding walls, pulling loose stones, stepping on others, but still the room remained a mystery. If she didn't crack it today, she knew she'd spend a great amount of time on the Vextis mulling it over.

She allowed herself to wander aimlessly through the ruined palace, letting her mind wander even more freely. So lost in her thoughts, it wasn't until her blaster was in her hand and she was leaping back from some unknown danger that she realized something was terribly wrong. Unfortunately, the lightning fast reflexes she had gained with her new body were too busy saving her front side to worry about her back side. That, combined with the awkwardness of her new shape, sent her careening into what she didn't yet recognize as a hastily bricked up doorway. The force of her body colliding with the decaying wall sent crumbling bricks and woman tumbling through into the space beyond. There was no way she could stop the fall so she rolled with it, twisting in such a way that the baby would be protected from the impact.

Once the dust had settled and she was able to breathe again, she slowly stood, taking care to check herself for any injuries aside from the small abrasions on her shoulder and back. She smiled softly as she felt the baby give one hell of a protesting kick and gently rubbed him back to calmness with her free hand, her faint whispering of reassurance the only echo heard. When his movements had settled, she took a quick moment to look around, actually gasping in surprise when she discovered the room or rooms weren't as she thought them to be. Instead, spread out before her, was a vastly overgrown outdoor garden. Though intrigued, first thing was first. She needed to find out what happened in the hallway.

Blaster still in hand, she carefully stepped back through the hole she had made. She listened carefully for any sign of what had so severely startled her but the building was deathly silent, unnerving her nearly as much as whatever it was that had caused her to jump in the first place. Cautiously, she took a second step into the hallway but there was still no movement. Discouraged, she decided her imagination must have been playing tricks on her. After all, even through her surprised flailing she had never sensed any *real* danger. So she turned around to return to the garden and came face to face with a creature that had been looming just over her shoulder.

Rapid blaster fire echoed throughout the ruins for several minutes before Kat realized the creature was not attacking. It took a few more shots for her to calm down enough to understand the thing wasn't doing a damn thing, in fact. It hadn't moved, it hadn't uttered a single sound....it was a flippin *statue*! Suddenly, the blaster fire was replaced with a long string of cussing, the likes of which would make most seasoned Mech pilots blush.

"Who th' BLOODY fuckin' hell would put sumthin like this in th' fuckin' hallway?!!!!"

The creature was taller than her, which wasn't saying much in the first place. Scorch marks marred what had once been a perfect torso and head, appearing placed with specific intent. Looking closer, however, it was as though the creator of this creature had been on some seriously bad drugs, Kat thought with a brief expression of humor flitting across her face, though it resembled more a muscle tic.

The ancient robes that clothed the man were definitely of the same time period as the ruins. Just as obvious was the fact that this *thing* had once been a man, and not what now stood before her. From the waist down, it was still, in effect, very much a human-like male. From the waist up, the horror began. The stone "skin" and "muscle" was split from skull to waistline, revealing the skeleton beneath. Guts of all sorts spilled down the front of the man's robes, draping over his feet and onto the floor to end in a sloppy looking puddle. Upraised arms as though warding off, and the twist of horror that made up what remained of the face caused Kat to shudder with revulsion. Silently, she wondered if the artist who had fashioned such wanted to represent the creature as still among the living while it's body subdivided upon itself.

Unfortunately, what ever demon had possessed the artist, it had not left him with this beginning twist of human representation. There appeared no semblance of peace in what had continued to form, for sprouting from several spots along the skull of the statue were worm-like creatures with incredibly large, razor sharp teeth. Even in their stony representation they appeared to writhe, and the teeth to gnash together with promise that they *could* rend flesh from bone.

Dry humor overcame the anger at the sudden appearance of the tortured creature and, in some twisted sense of respect for it, she whispered "G'lord...an' I thought *I* got migraines!"

She wasn't about to second guess the artist's reasons for creating the monstrosity before her. She had no desire to even attempt it. Her curiosity sated over the menace in the hall, she once again found her way through the crumbled opening she had created to the garden. Stopping just inside, she flipped open her wrist com.

"Scarab, this is Kat. Y'guys leave m'yet?" It took several seconds for the voice she recognized as Pimcia's to answer.

"We're still here, Kat. Just packing up the last of it. You going to be back soon?" Kat could tell Pimcia was tired. She had been working entirely too hard, feeling that, as a woman, she needed to over do it to be looked upon as an equal to the others. Kat' hadn't been able to understand the girl's reasoning, but she never had told her so.

"Nope. Got me a puzzle solved an' I need Korbin t'bring th' kit. Oh...an' tell Dante he might wanna bring a coupla bandaids. Nuthin serious, jist sum cuts."

She heard the tail end of Pimcia's laughter cut off abruptly. "The doc isn't going to like that, Kat. But I'll let him know. Where will we find you?"

Kat stepped further into the garden and judged the position of the hole with the position of the planet's sun. "Looks like yer openin's in th' south-west quad. Oh...an' Pimcia? Watch oot fer th' door man. He's a handsome devil."

Kat could hear the confusion in the other woman's voice. "Door man? You mean there are other people here?"

Kat laughed. "Y'll see when y'git here. Hurry up though...we dinnae hae much time afore liftoff an' I wanna VR o'this joint."

Katrylle Morgahn posted October 20, 1998 01:12 PM

She could tell the garden had once been the epitome of splendor. Now, however, that splendor was given over to the wild abandonment and disorganized whims of Mother Nature. Gone were the finely manicured lawns and carefully pruned trees and flower beds. No more were the immaculate pathways and pristine fountains. The mass of tangled color that were the mismatching of weeds, vines and other assorted overgrowth had long ago choked the life from any cultivated vegetation. The once sparkling water that had musically trickled from the many fountains scattered throughout the area now lay silent in a thick green murky death that, for some odd reason, reminded Kat of "astro-turf".

Still, the garden had a wild beauty to it and, at the same time, an ominous depression. Kat realized suddenly that, other than the soft breeze rustling the trees, there were no other sounds. No bird song, no insect buzz....nothing to indicate that there may be some form of animal life represented in this madhouse of color and tangle. It was almost as if whatever curse that had caused the inhabitants to abandon not just the building, but the entire city had infected the wildlife as well. Grabbing up a branch from a nearby apple tree, she poked and prodded as she explored the garden, trying to stir up some form of wild life. What she stirred up instead was something she would have rather left buried.

As she prodded an especially fragrant tangle of vines she realized that the foliage was staring at her. About hip high an eye appeared, white as stone and just as unmoving. It took a lot for Kat to quash the desire to pull her blaster but she succeeded. Instead, she carefully began pulling vines for the thing buried beneath, using the twelve inch Bowie from her boot to chop at the more difficult ones. When she was done moments later, the horror revealed caused her to seriously wonder about the people of this strange land.

Like the man out in the hallway, this too had once been a human of sorts. Unlike the one in the hall, however, the torment suffered was not of vivisection. From the chest up, arms included, the man was just that; a man. Propped on his hands, his torso was lifted upwards and his head thrown back in searing agony. Mouth opened in a silent scream, the man's eyes were wide with terror, again portraying the image of living torture.

Slowly, Kat walked around the statue, stepping over the precisely crafted scales of the snake like tail that formed the lower portion of the man's body. "This guy's a nut!" Still, she couldn't help but admire the craftsmanship that went into sculpting this atrocity, how the scales slowly faded to become human like skin as it reached his upper chest.

Once again she stood before the monstrous statue, studying it, a feeling of dread tickling her brain as a faint rattling sound invaded her thoughts. Looking around in search of its source, a frown drew her brow together. Little by little, Kat realized the sound was growing. More discerning was that with it, other noises began to make their presence known. Only problem was, rather than the sounds of nature one would expect, Kat was beginning to hear what appeared to be a party in progress. With the growing fear that usually accompanied a mainline vision, Kat attempted to contact the Scarab. Her fingers never reached the comm.

As if the program changed on a holodeck, Kat very suddenly found herself in the garden as it had once been. All around her strolled the rich and mighty, dressed in their finest robes, and though she was out of place in her oversized t-shirt shirt an denim, no one seemed to take any notice of her. It was as if she were invisible.

The party was in full swing. Holding center court was a huge, obviously self important man perched atop an ornately carved throne. Several courtiers surrounded this man, each vying for his exclusive attention. Only one stood out from the others.

Slightly behind and to the right of the throne stood a tall, foreboding man. His robes, though the same style as the others, were a rich blood red accented with the deepest ebony. His hair was nearly as black as the coloring on his robes, and within the highlights brought fourth by the odd sunlight, she could swear she saw tints of red flickering. His face, though handsome, was devoid of all emotion.

Kat realized that it was his eyes that radiated the foreboding she had felt. Blacker than any starless night sky, the irises completely filled the entire eye socket. Even from the fairly large distance she kept from the group, Kat felt sickened to her soul as she looked into the depths of those eyes.

The roar of laughter from the man on the throne drew her attention away from the "other". The leg of some large, cooked bird gripped in a meaty paw, the "king" reached up with his free hand and clasped the front of the blood red robes and tugged the "other" down to eye level. The king must have had some pretty nasty breath and Kat could not help but chuckle as the younger man winced at the stench and spitting of food he was subjected to as the king bellowed in his face.

"Maestro!!! You throw a grand party, sir! But it is not enough. I wish for this party to be remembered throughout all time. Let no man forget my generosity!!!"

Kat's chuckle died in a heartbeat as the younger man's evil smile began to form. His black eyes lifted to look directly at her, as if his reply was in response to her instead of the man he served. His voice was very soft, merely an undercurrent for the other sounds surrounding her, yet she heard it as clear as if he was yelling in her ear. "It is as you wish, sire."

The screams began. Tormented screams of terror and agony drew her once again from the eyes that withered her soul. Without realizing it, the very action born of instinct, her blaster was in her hand and she dove away from something that moved too close to her.

All around her, things began to change once again. Those who had been happily chatting, drinking, dancing and walking now writhed, their bodies possessed by unseen demons intent on twisting these people into creatures like themselves.

Next to her, a woman ripped the hair from her head as her feet began to transform, lengthening and anchoring themselves deep into the ground. The skin of her legs fused together and what appeared to be tree bark overtook her human form.

Hands that reached towards Kat suddenly sprouted buds, then leaves, then flowers as they were also overtaken by bark. With the migration of the new "skin", the woman's body became rigid, but her screams could not be silenced even as the transformation completed itself. In horror, Kat watched as the woman's eyes, nose and mouth became moving knot holes, the pathetic yet unheeded screams mingled with others.

In a panic, Kat glanced around her to watch in some form of macabre fascination as each person present suffered their own personal hell. One man who had been leaning against the stone wall became part of that wall, his living tissue swallowed by stone yet transformed in such a way that his screams were still heard. Another man fell to the ground, the lower portion of his body blending and reshaping itself to the form of a snake.

Slowly, Kat lifted her single eyed gaze to the king. Instead of being perched upon his throne as before, he now knelt on his knees, pleading with the younger man. A shiver coursed down Kat's spine as the younger man again held her gaze intently with his own. His cold laughter rang loudly over the din.

"STOP!!!!!" As suddenly as it had begun, most of the screaming stop. Only the voice of the king remained, sobbing and pleading. The other's eyes flashed dangerously as yet a third man entered the garden. On the one word command, Kat watched as each pathetic figure surrounding them was instantly transformed to complete and solid stone.

"You are too late, priest. The last wish has already been granted. Even now, the portal weakens."

The priest glared, ignoring the sobs of the simpleton king at their feet. "You're wrong, demon. Although I may have been too late to stop you from *this*...." His arm swung in a large arc to encompass the garden and its grizzly contents. "I *can* stop the portal." With that, he began mumbling in a long forgotten archaic language. The hatred in the "other's" black eyes intensified, driven by what Kat determined was a forming fear of the priest and his mutterings.

Instantly, the "other's" hand flew upwards and anything not securely rooted down took flight, battering themselves against the priest. Kat too was pelted by several of the objects and, even as she tried to fend them off, she could not help but be amazed at the priest's intent. It was as if he did not notice the objects violently bouncing off him from every angle.

Suddenly, a stone larger than the others connected with Kat's skull, sending her to the ground in a heap. Just as suddenly, she was back in the present, head encased in a blinding white pain, staring up into a strange, violet afternoon sky.

@#@#@#@#@#@#@#@#

The Present:

"KAT!" The thudding of several pairs of feet became louder. Soon the sky and its twin moons were blocked from view by the very concerned maw of one of the Vextis' chief medical officers. "Are you alright? Lay ssstill. Let me look you over. What happened?" The questions were rapidly fired at her, preventing any possible answer until Dante took a breath.

"Which one y'want m'ta answer first?" Kat winced as the doc's practiced touch brought fourth a flash of stab in her head. Without meaning to, she snapped at him "Careful!"

Dante had the grace to flash her an apologetic look before starting with the questions again, this time asking them at a much slower pace. "What happened here?"

The good doctor knew about Kat's visions and the telekinetic powers that most times accompanied them. It was no surprise to him to hear she had recently come back from one of her little mental trips. What had surprised him, much as it had her, was that she had been hit by at least one object during the vision. Usually the TK was contained outside a 5' radius beyond her central point. She had never been struck by anything invading this circumference before.

As if to make light of the subject, Korbin presented Kat with two halves of a rock, the likes of which she had never seen before. "The outer shell was definitely stone of some sort, but the inner portion was something completely different. So deep a red as to appear black, the exposed core of the stone glittered like a fine jewel. Within the very center of the two halves, were pronounced indentations. Perhaps a formation caused by an air pocket during the gem's creation was the only explanation Kat could come up with.

Korbin nodded towards the stones in Kat's hand. "Got blood on them. Must have be your downfall." He reached over, taking the halves from her. Bouncing them lightly in his hand, he judged their weight then chuckled again. "You''ve got a hard head woman." His last comment drew laughs from them all.

Carefully, Dante eased Kat to her feet, offering support until the obvious dizziness she was experiencing subsided. Once sure Kat was alright, the group turned and made their way to the entrance of the garden. They might have made it too had Kat not stopped suddenly. Turning to look in the direction of the snake-man statue, Kat shuddered. She forced her gaze back to Korbin. "I want a VR of this place. Everything. I want to study it back on the Vextis. Make sure you get the stuff under the weeds too. Its important." Korbin nodded once as he handed the stones back to Kat. Turning his back to Kat and Dante, he then directed Thomas and Cowen to get the equipment set up.

It was only then that Kat noticed that Pimcia and the kids were not among the group. "Ya shoulda made one o' th' men babysit." Kat's comment wasn't directed to anyone in particular and no one answered.

Supported by Dante, they left the others to transform the garden into an exact, digital replication. The process, though finely detailed, only took an hour and a half. A short time after the team returned to the Scarab, the ship and its crew made a hasty departure. Kat never looked back and the stones were left forgotten in the pocket of her vest. 