"For thousands of years those of this ones discipline have turned over strata, marveled at the works of our ancestors, mused over the tools they have left behind and tried to understand the past from their perspective of these so called stone breakers.
But now this ones profession finds itself picking through the artifacts of civilizations long gone, with no analogue or continuum. Where once there were stone statues there are now long dead banks of computers, instead of a simple lever we appraise technological feats beyond our comprehension. The time will surely come when this ones colleagues accept the truth.
We are now the stone breakers. "
- Oiit Oye Ieietz, 9748, Eeiieieeieiaetz eetz academic, xenoarchaeologist, historian and author
Athutta, abandoned city of Kobi Au Tau, 20. 08. 10234
Athutta, a garden world, verdant green continents surrounded by vast blue oceans, it's pristine beauty broken only by the faint bands of desert at the equator and the ice cap on the south pole.
Athutta had divested itself of most of the remnants of civilization that had once held the world in an industrial grip, the natural cyclic processes of the environment having washed away most of which had once tainted it. But despite thousands of years slowly reclaiming it's own, traces remained of the now insignificant creatures that had built monuments to themselves upon it's surface. These scraps and shells of civilization had persevered the test of time where mother natures influence was less powerful. Forests wrenched apart stone and steel with roots and running water, deserts shredded structures with sandstorms whilst icy conditions pried open and splintered everything subjected to it's might. But it was in the barren, dry plateaus of hamada zones that structures could survive intact.
Now the skeletal remains of a once prestigious city dominated the flat expanse, defiantly standing despite a millennium of abandonment.
Now, however, aliens poked and probed it's innards, exploring it's long silent halls, seeking to profit from the treasures it could offer up.
Kobi Au Tau, the spaceport ruins, 20. 08. 10234
"Wall details? There are computer installations that need to be decoded, the data present on those disks would be far more valuable."
"This, other, is a space port, it took others to other worlds, these wall details hold vital clues to other settlements!"
"They're posters!"
"The hard-drives will be corroded!"
"Fellows! Stop! Eeiz, take those wall details down and process them, they will be pursued if they have merit. Iieaez, open those terminals, get on with ones work."
Eeiz spun round, rolling off to get on with taking pictures of the various details on the wall. As part of the standard equipment on extraterrestrial worlds the majority of the Phale A'Theins work was carried out through environmental tanks. Encased in a reinforced glass dome mounted atop a wheeled metal box with mechanical arms the Astrological Exploration Company could carry out it's work in relative safety. When heavy duty work was required then automated suits could be employed.
"Will the hard disks be corroded Iieaez?" Iioeietz asked once Eeiz was beyond the short range communication network.
"Difficult to say, if conditions have been favorable then we stand a good chance of being successful."
Iieaez, floating in the glass tank, tapped away at the control panels which surrounded him with his tentacles in it's interior, guiding and controlling his environmental 'tanks' movements and he sought to pry off the computer panel. Fine mechanical claws, versatile in their design, withdrew tools from a compartment in the metal box serving as Iieaez's pockets and began trying to get a grip on the covering.
"It must pop off." Iieaez said aloud, guiding a flat tool head to the edge of the panel and applying leverage. There was a groan and the grating of flexing metal, but the panel refused to come away. "Damn it."
"Well keep at it, this ones going to see if Oietz is having success in the control room."
Iioeietz spun his environmental tank around and guided it out of what had essentially been an office in the space port complex, lights hand been strung up, powered by solar panels set up outside with wires now trailing through the complex as Iioeietz's team got on with their work, introducing light to darkened corridors for the first time in centuries.
They were leaving tracks in the thick dust wherever they went, but he followed the map displayed on his screen, indeed he focused more on what the screens in his tank were showing him than he did on his surroundings. Reports were continually fed to him, read out's displayed, the map which he used to navigate was continually updated as they explored more and more.
Trundling through the sloped corridor, passing rooms with doors they had opened, awaiting for their decayed contents to be searched, he came to an enclosed balcony overlooking what had probably served as a garage, or possibly even a show room. 3 small van sized vehicles, probably hover cars, although the possibility remained that they were capable of planetary wide transport were being extensively searched over by several Phale A'Theins, one had already begun being dismantled in the pursuit of finding out it's technological secrets. He moved along the balcony, heading for an opening that led out and over a bridge, connecting this building to the taller but separate control room for the space port.
A report caught his eye, labelled urgent.
:// (!) Holographic control terminal activated.
A flurry of chemicals were released into his watery environment, prompting the hum of cleaning systems, in response to his excitement. But before he had the opportunity to type in a reply the electrical impulses of his leading engineer's communication, Zeiet, burst out from the conduction rod enabling them to talk to each other.
"Iioeietz get here now! It's working! The holographic display is functioning perfectly, these ones have read outs crystal clear!"
Iioeietz sped across the bridge in excitement, to his left he saw through the glass windows the gleaming steel figure of the Inquisitor, shaped like a stereotypical rocket with four reinforced guidance fins doubling as landing gear mounted onto an egg shaped hull that tapered to a spire reaching for the sky. All alone on the expansive landing pad the Astrological Exploration Companies equipment, which was scattered around it, looked more like clutter than the odd pieces of masonry which littered the area.
Moving onward though he entered through the archway, approaching the lift they had set up to move their wheeled chassis up to the top. He could barely contain his delight at what Zeiet's accomplishment could hold for them.
