Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ladybird" data-source="post: 2331245" data-attributes="member: 10689">Episode 1: Closer to Fine. Part 6 - CommunicationsWhile Reinhart and Hramov stayed downstairs to oversee the transporting of the notebook and tablet reader, the rest of SG-17 trooped back up the rope ladder to the basement of Yusupov Palace. With a sigh of relief to find something to sit on that was neither an archaeological artifact nor a block of red sandstone, Kathleen sank into a chair and pulled out the secure satellite phone that the General had given her before she left the SGC.“Major Fitzgerald!” The General’s voice came crackling over the phone after a moment or two of switches between extensions at the SGC. He sounded far too cheerful. “Good to hear from you. How are things over there? Cold enough for you?”“Yes, sir,” Kathleen answered, with a dutiful smile even though the General couldn’t see it. “I just thought I should check in and let you know what we’ve found, sir. It’s…pretty interesting.”“I would expect nothing less, Major. What have you got?”She quickly outlined the results of their search so far.“You’re right, Major. Pretty interesting. You haven’t gone through the ring transporter?”“No, sir. We’re fairly sure that it’s still operative, but we don’t want to do anything until we’ve got a better idea of where we’ll go. We’re hoping that either the notebook or the tablet reader will give us more information on that.”“Well, keep going with that,” the General said vaguely. “Let me know what you find on the other side.”“Yes, sir. Oh – I’ve also got a bunch of digital pictures of the inscriptions on the stone tablet. If I can find a secure net connection, I’m going to send them back for Chen and the rest of my – um, I mean, the rest of the computer team to look at. If they can get a head start on cracking that encryption, it would be a big help.”“Well, you can send the pictures, Major, but…your Think Tank buddies are a bit busy right now.”Uh-oh? “Is everything all right, sir?”“Well…” The General hesitated. “The Russian team has gotten themselves into kind of a tight situation. All of the computer people are tied up with trying to help them get out of it.”Kathleen grimaced. “Understood. I hope everything turns out all right.”“So do I, Major. Is there anything else?”“No, sir. I’m going to go report in to General Andreyev, if that’s all right.”“Go ahead, Major. You’re dismissed.”“Goodbye, sir.” General Andreyev, when Kathleen finally reached him on the phone, was much less blasé about the presence of the ring transporter. “You found what? Well! I suppose that would account for those naquadah readings, yes. Are you going to investigate further?”The sound of tromping feet and slightly edgy voices announced the return of Hramov, Reinhart, and the materials from downstairs. Kathleen quickly filled General Andreyev in on the rest of the information, then excused herself to start looking at things for herself.I haven’t seen one of these in more than a hundred years, Orieth thought as he picked up the tablet reader.  With a few deft motions, he brought the screen shimmering to life, ignoring the faint recoil that Joe felt at the slick touch of the unfamiliar metal.  Hramov crowded in, poking his head curiously over the Tok’ra’s shoulder. “How do you know how –”  he began but Kathleen cut him off before he could get any further. “Doctor,” she interjected smoothly, “could you please come give me a hand with this notebook? You probably have much more experience with this kind of thing than I do.”Her flattery had the desired – and predictable – effect. Hramov immediately pulled away from the Tok’ra, puffing up with pride as he said, “Certainly, Major. I would be happy to show you how to do it.” With a barely-concealed sigh of relief, Orieth resumed his perusal of the tablet reader, while Hramov’s distracting stream of chatter, redirected towards Kathleen, continued in the background.Screen after screen of numbers whizzed past Orieth’s eyes. These must have meant something at the time, he thought. Perhaps I’ll be able to come back to them later and sort them out… The endless stream of columns and numbers abruptly gave way to diagrams, and Orieth hastened to slow down the scanning speed. Ah. Now this is more like it… Orieth’s admiring smile started to show on Joe’s face. “Whoever did this really knows their ships,” he said out loud.Kathleen lifted her head from the notebook, jumping at the opportunity to escape Hramov’s litany of patronizing instructions. “Ships?” “Yes,” Orieth replied. “There are inventories of parts, diagrams, sections, everything for building Goa’uld ships…and…oh. Also for a kind of ship that I’ve never seen. It’s not Goa’uld.” “Really?” Kathleen asked in surprise. “Well. I guess we have a really new player on the board,” she murmured, and pushed her chair back from the table, getting up to take a look for herself. “What else is on there?”Orieth flipped through a few more screens. “Architectural diagrams – mostly for the building of the tomb. There’s one more room below the one with the mausoleum in it, and it looks like that’s where the ring transporter leads.”Kathleen leaned over Joe’s shoulder, careful not to crowd him, but unable to hide the eagerness in her voice. “Is there any indication of when these records were made? What about that symbol that was on the inscription?”“No, there’s no sign of the symbol. And no indication of what it might mean, either,” Orieth added after another moment or two of searching. There aren’t any names mentioned, anywhere in here. “As for dates…” Screen after screen of symbols and diagrams blurred past Kathleen’s eyes as Orieth skimmed back through the information. “There are a few here. They’re using the Goa’uld dating system, of course…”“Right.” Kathleen gave the symbols one more look, then closed her eyes, running the calculations and comparisons in her mind. “That would correspond to…late nineteen-teens, in our calendar. I can’t get any more precise than that, but it certainly makes sense. I would have expected whatever was going on here to stop at the Revolution in 1917, if not earlier.” She looked back to Hramov. “How are you doing with the notebook, Doctor?”“Well…it was written by someone named Yusef. And the first page seems to be a list of things to do,” Hramov began, then reluctantly admitted, “I have gone no further than that.”Kathleen felt a small twinge of sympathy. Very small. “All right. Let’s see what we can do together.”</blockquote>

Verification