Memory stick part 2

Okay this has become a is a multipart thing. youn might want to read part 1 further down first.

Vernon directed the work team to a cave entrance that hade been blocked off by a land side. Huge boulders were knotted together by vegetation. The heat and flying insects made a miserable existence for the guys. There wasn’t much space to manoeuvre and the men took their turn breaking up rocks and dragging away vines, roots and debris. By the end of the first day I was able to work my way into the entrance proper and started to explore a little way into the cave.

It was discussing. The smell was fantastic, small bats clung the low ceiling. The floor was crawling with all manor of creepies feasting of the thick layer of bat shit The oil lamp I had been provided with was next to useless. Several times I brushed into the bats causing a cascade of them to take flight. I guess I would have been no more than 10 meters into the cave where I discovered the remains of some unidentifiable animal as my foot sunk through its bug infested corps. This was enough for me and I beat my retread back to the crawl hole and mad a hasty exit.

Howls of laughter greeted my return. ’Laddie did you have young lass in there with yea?’ One of the men managed to get out between guffaws. Even Vernon was actually smiling, now that was a first. I dusted of and jumped fully clothed into the small creak fully clothed. I swear I could not get that smell out of my nose and could feel the bugs crawling across my skin for the rest of the night.

The next day the cave entrance was fairly accessible. A good portion of proof rum mixed with lamp oil was thrown in and ignited. It made a satisfying Woof followed by a cloud of black smoke and bats. The flames dwindled and a few of the more adventurous ventured into the cave. Loud cries of complaint issued from the crew: ‘Caw….did you drop one jimmy’ and the like. It was all a lot of fun but Vernon was starting to look serious.

‘Right you lot clear the cave’. His order was followed with no hesitation.

He called me to his side, lit his lamp and proceeded inside. The lamp was a marvellous contraption. It emitted the purest white light with no smoke or heat. Noticing my inquisitiveness he assured me that it was a scientific device, no magic involved. Still it was amazing and revealed the cave in all its gory. I noticed details that I had missed totally before – this was not a cave it was a structure. I could see beams and flat surfaces.

I could not fathom this place : ladder like foot holds were on all the walls and ceiling. Shallow glass protrusions glinted in under the glare of Vernon’s un-magic lamp. What I assumed to be guard rails where also apparent but made no sense on the walls. We pushed onward. May be 50 meters on we found the end wall of the cave/structure and what clearly was a door way, but unlike anything I had seen before. Vernon produced a wallet containing an assortment of intricate tools.

The door object was made of some moulded material. I reached out and touched it. This was surprising. The door appeared to be some sort of painted metal but had the same feel as finely finished wood. Vernon spoke ‘Until now you have assumed a passive role in this adventure. I have trained you these past four years in the ways of magic, mechanics and science. It is time you put those skills to some use.’

I didn’t have a clue what he was on about as he handed me his tools. ‘Fathom the mechanism of this door and open it’. Fair enough, he had directed me to lean the art of lock picking ‘as an exercise in logic’. I had excelled at this task, easily opening all the doors I could find, mind you most of this was done late at night in my fathers castle; you would be amazed at what junk people put under lock and key. Firstly I evaluated the target. It was like a flat panel fitted into the jam. There was no handle or key hole. I explored further, and, after dusting of the area surrounding the frame I found a small slightly recessed panel. There were what appeared to be words (in some strange language) inscribed in squares on the panel. Clearly they were the mechanism.

Simple things first; I pressed one and then the other. The door dissolved in front of my very eyes, clearly this was magic. Some strange magic that left no flavour. The revealed room was no more than a few meters square. It smelt strange, sweet but not pleasantly so. Vernon gestured me on. We entered and another of those strange panels was evident. This one was larger with two columns of numbered squares and unlike the other the symbols in the squires were illuminated.

We puzzled the markings for some time. Vernon reached out and pressed the one on the lower right side. The door re-appeared and my stomach started to rise to my throat Vernon steadied me with a hand on my shoulder. The illuminated numbers changed colour one at a time in a sequence down the panel. I believe we were moving down!

The chamber we reached was like some sort of mini stadium. A guar rail surrounded a round depressed pit. The floor of the pit was some sort of grid mesh. I spotted another of those strange panels mounted on the rail. We walked around. As we reached the panel it illuminated. There were many symbols in different colours.

I remember feeling very afraid. This are had the feel of some sort of cauldron of some powerful mage. I relaxed and heightened all my senses as per Verons teaching. I could feel no entity or presence in the paranormal aspect. This calmed me some what. I noticed Vernon busily setting up a small work table he had produced from beneath his robes. “Right lad we have seven days to cipher this mechanism”.

And so for the next six days we worked in this timeless room where neither light or temperature changed. I learnt the ways of the travelling room well in that period. Running errands back to the surface, bringing down supplies, emptying the waste bucket and the like.

The crew had established a fine camp and seemed very content with the area. On my frequent appearances they would ask of our progress as a way to glean some information as to what this mission was about. I always answered truthfully providing minute detail of the work of deciphering the strange script. Of course this did not help them in the slightest.

On the sixth day on one of my errands to the surface the captain of one of the minor ships ran up to me very excitedly. “We have found some ruins”. The crew had become bored and had taken to exploring the area.

“They are covered in glyphs and text, some of it is in very old standard, I have read it”

I knew immediately this would be useful. Despite Vernons astounding intellect, and my assistance, we were never going to decode the words on the control panel. I collected some tools, paper and measuring sticks then asked him to show me. Within an hour I stood within an obviously ancient structures. One wall contained text in several languages carved into grange granite. Could recognise the ancient standard and also the strange symbols we had been deciphering. Working carefully and quickly I made rubbings and highlighted details that were missed in this process. I immediately headed back to Vernon with this information.

He started to berate me for my tardiness but he saw the look in my eye and the rolls of paper I was carrying. Quickly I set them down on the ground and unrolled them. Vernon immediately understood what lay before him. He was elated and almost hugged me but caught himself mid act and feigned interest in his sleeve – this was the first time I had seen him at anything less than 100% in control of himself. I was proud.

“My boy, this is it. Look here – see the list of our numbers see the corresponding symbols – I know we already had that but look….” He went on for some time and yes it was obvious. We had stared at the strange marking for this long week and knew them all. Now we had meaning. The ancient text spelled out the rules of a team sport essentially the same as football. There were minor differences - each break in play, due to a goal score or time out would last exactly 15, 30 or 60 seconds. I don’t understand why. As we read the strange text it became intelligible. The syntax was the same as ours. Some words were much shorter than and they didn’t worry to much about gender, punctuation or joining words. But it was simple.

Now looking at the control panel was as if some one had relabelled everything. There was still a disturbing blank portion in the middle of the screen but the word “ON” was easy to understand. Vernon forbade be touching the console for a further 48 hours – this was a clear 12 hours in front of the event predicted by his contraption. “twelve hours will be more than enough to master this mechanism” were his final word on the subject.

We spent the next two days on the surface. This was a relief. The captain who had discovered the text was congratulated and Vernon awarded him two years wage for his discovery. In fact he was in such spirits that he awarded all crew a full years pay on our return home. There was much merriment and feasting than night. The next day Vernon and I inspected the ruins. It had clearly been a sporting arena. I don’t know who I failed to see this on my first visit. I guess the jungle growing in the play area might have disguised it. The text was in what I suspect was the entrance to the place. It was represented in twelve languages. Vernon said he recognised five of them but the others were a mystery. It is strange that on the whole world only standard is spoken (mind you some of the dialects are barely recognisable).

Veron spent most of the rest of the day examining the site while I was content to sit in the sun, watch the birds fly around and generally just be lazy for a day.

End of part 2