[Astrum: Heavens] [E-6] [Highdarklord] E602B

Vatoot kept a slight smile on his face, bowing his head to each of the other honored people, "Odimas, Queen Aljuña, and Magistrate Frodebos, it is an honor to have been invited to this feast. I apoligize for my companion's tardiness, but he is a strange fellow, insisting on carrying his various trinkets to different occassions. He shouldn't be too long though," With that, Vatoot sat, the private following his lead.


"I certainly hope that we don't accidently offend any of you with our table manners, I suspect that our people have radically different customs when it comes to food and feasts."
 
"At royal feasts such as this, we uphold a very strict and specific code of demeanor." Odimas said, then smiling and loosening up a little, "But, as Adibos has just returned from a long journey himself and I haven't had a decent meal since yesterday, I think we can forego our peoples' culinary customs. It is a very special occasion, after all. So, dig in!" He declared with a faint chuckle. "M'lord, if ya'll be excusin' me, ain't this bein' a bit.. reckless?" Odimas, who had already piled up a bit of everything in front of him, laughed, "Relax Frodebos. Our guests of honor, have come from beyond the great smart ones, they are tired, weary and no doubt starving. What kind of image would we give them, if we did not show leniency in our customs, to strangers from afar, whom are in need?" Frodebos seemed disappointed in Odimas' response, but nodded, "Yes, ya's be bein' right of course, m'lord." He said and started gathering foodstuffs onto his plate.


Odimas looked at the Mundus, "As Magistrate, besides his judicial duties it is Frodebos' responsibility, to uphold the cultural customs and traditions of our people." He explained, then took a bite off of the grilled leg of an animal of some kind.
 
Vatoot nodded in apprecitation, "A lot can be told about a people based on their traditions and customs, of which Frodebos, I would enjoy hearing more about, if for no other reason so that if another feast is conducted, we can engage in them properly, or at least as properly as a foreigner so foreign as ourselves could hope to."


As he spoke the private and himself both gathered small samples of many different foods and began lightly nibbling at them, giving plenty of time to chew. "As the good king personally witnessed, our own people, the Mundus, have their own assortment of traditions we carry out. Reminds even the most inquistivte explorer of his home."
 
"Oh." Frodebos said, looking at the Commander with a hint of surprise, "Well, as much as me's be lovin' to teach of our customs an' such, in detail, me's fear it'd be takin' many 'nites an' days, just to be startin'. We's Abudadosians, be a people of lotsa' traditions an' customs, ya' see. Many values an' beliefs as well." "Though the beliefs be more of a dyin' sort." Adibos chimed in and Frodebos nodded, "Aye, not lotsa folks be believin' in the gods an' spirits no more. The art they's be callin' science, has clouded they's memories, of the old ways, of how's things was before Abudados. It'll be bringin' peril to many, some'a day." "Unfortunately." Odimas said and turned to Vatoot, "Though ours is the most prominent tribe, it is not the only one. There are those, that wish to burn us all down, all because our ancestors followed Abudados here and abandoned the old ways."


The doors to the dining hall now opened and the Major entered, bowing his head respectfully at Odimas, "Pardon my tardiness, your Highness." He then raised his head and walked over to the Commander and leaned forward, "We should leave." He whispered, "Now." The Major looked at the Commander and there was an uneasy seriousness in each of his eyes.
 
Vatoot nodded in understanding, "Of course, there are many intricate traditions that revolve around any society." It was then that the Major walked in and spoke to Vatoot.


He blinked in understanding, passing a subtle eye stalk sign to the private and the Major, indicating the standard evasion plot about to be coordinated. As the commander looked back to Odimas and began to speak, "Now your highness, you say that other tribes are out to get you because you followed Abudados here?"


As if on cue, the private faked a collapse, making a strange almost meowing sound. Both the Major and the Commander jumped to their feet and rushed to him, "Private, are you all right?" Vatoot asked, his voice full of concern. The private began to shake and groan, "Must be the condition... Sphyloghonorads..." the commander whispered to the Major, before standing up, "Your highness, I must regretfully beg your pardon, but we must get our companion back to our quarters and begin treating him with our medicine if he is to recover quickly and safely. He is suffering from a condition we've learned is unique to his tribe but we thought we had under control. As long as we can treat him, he should be fine, and there isn't anything to worry about."
 
Odimas stood and nodded, "Yes, of course." He waved over a guard, "He will help you take your friend to your quarters and be posted nearby. If you require anything, do not hesitate to ask him. You are honored guests and you'll be made as comfortable as possible, during your stay."
 
The Major and Commander lifted the private underneath two of his arms, the private allowing his other two arms to hang limply. "Thank you your highness, we will keep you posted."


The Commander allowed the guard to open the doors for them as they took the private back to their quarters. Once they reached them, they laid the private down on the bed and waited for the guard to shut the door and leave. "Remain laying down for a time private, in case one of them decides to enter unannounced or we are being watched," Vatoot whispered to the private as they laid him down.


Turning to the Major the commander quietly whispered into his ear, an eyestalk watching the door and the other two scanning the rest of the room looking for anything that had changed, "Why do we need to leave? What did you find?"
 
The room seemed to be as they had left it.


"I barely got half-way through the transfer of information, when I started looking through what was on the tablet." The Major explained, while digging out his portable computer, "Among a few other files, it held a bunch of written records.." He pressed some buttons on the device, then stopped and looked at the screen, ""One day, there'll be a strike of thunder in the stormless sky and on that day, three strangers will arrive from a distant land, declaring peace and friendship. Trust them not, for they are the harbingers of our doom."" He looked up at the Commander, "It goes on to describe our names and appearance, in freakish and impossible detail." "Impossible, how?" The Private asked, still lying down and acting sickly. The Major looked at him and Vatoot, then shook his head and sighed. "It sounds insane and I cannot explain it, sir, but.." He took a deep breath, "The information was recorded, six hundred years ago. I swear, I am not making this up."
 
"Send everything up to the mothership... I suppose they have some kind of information sourced to them from somebody... but we'll clearly need to re-evaluate how we go about this. Somebody somehow knows something we don't know and was able to transmit it over 600 years in the past, and is predicting something we don't know to have occurred yet... perhaps we can head it off, or worse case scenerio, the Admiral can find a way to use it to our benefit..."


"Do you feel they might try to eliminate us? Or befriend us? They did mention that there were the other tribes who wanted them dead... or do you think the forces we met entering the system might strike at them?"


Preceding the information being transmitted to the mother ship, the Commander sent a request asking for a pair of dropships to be readied with fully equipped away teams to take up orbit, reayd to drop in on the village to retrieve them if needed. The Admiral approved the request as soon as he received it and ordered the away teams readied and prepped.
 
The Major looked at the Commander and for a while was speechless, clearly trying to find the right things to say. Eventually, he just sighed and shook his head, "I've been called one of the most prominent scientists of our time and.. I'm all out of theories, thoughts and ideas on this one, sir. I mean, if this really is a message from the past, predicting our arrival- then whatever we decide to do to act upon it, might have already happened and lead to this message being left beh.. forward. Of course, if we don't do anything, that might lead to this message being left.. here."


"Whatever we do, I don't think we should tell them. For one, I'd bet sneaking into their king's throne room, is some sort of a crime and you've seen how behind in technology they are. A computer tablet would likely appear as magic to them, and the records could be interpreted as a message from their gods.. A message that says we're the, "harbingers of their doom"."
 
He nodded in understanding, "However Major, just as the tablet could be viewed as magic by them, we could claim that it was calling out to you and led you to it... whether they view it as magic or not, we are total strangers, and we could spin this to decieve them to our benefit... perhaps instead of doom as we think of it... we could spin it as meaning the doom of their current way of life... That much we know is true, they now believe that the mountains are crossable, and if we tell them where we're really from their universe will have been expanded a thousand-fold..."


He thought silently for a moment, "Major, I suspect that no matter how we think about this these people are doomed in some way... we have changed their way of life in no small way. They've even said themselves they have abanonded the old ways in favor of science... any thought of uplift is out of the question, at least at this stage... perhaps we should speak to their King in private... however Major, you are the closest we have to an expert in the matter. If you feel we should leave, we will leave and provide an explanation of some kind to them."
 
The Major sighed and seemed somewhat troubled, "Sir, this is time travel -stuff, we're talking about here. Quantum mechanics and theories of relativity, that are way.." He paused for a moment, scratching his head. "Their Roadbuilders!" He suddenly exclaimed, "I bet they might know something. For the time being, I don't think we should discuss any of this with the locals. These 'Roadbuilders' are the only ones who might know what the meaning of this tablet is, and if so, we should try to get some information from them, before revealing what we know to King Odimas."
 
He nodded in understanding, "That's some seriously accurate predictions though... if somebody had the ability to accurately so far into the future... I'd rather believe they found a way to send data into the past. We should seek to speak with their historians. All the information they have about the Road Builders we need to gather up... Abidos... we need to speak to him then," He sat in thought for a moment, "The question is how should we go about this... both of us or just one of us should speak to him sooner than later..."


"We certainly still have time to meet with him today, or worst case scenerio tomorrow of course."
 
The Major hemmed, "Well, if it would be alright with you sir, I'd like to stay back and read more of what I managed to download from the tablet, while you go ask about these Roadbuilders from Adibos." "What about me, sirs? I'm I to have the day off, or..?" The Private asked and Maj. Karakt responded with a smirk, "Well, if you're 'feeling better', you could go poke around and see what you can find out about these.. other tribes." He glanced at the Commander, "Iiif that's fine with you, sir, of course."
 
The commander chuckled, "A day off? In the field? You keep dreaming private. I"m with the Major. Go poke around, ask questions, find answers, do what you have to do to gather additional intel, and remember, stay out of sight. You're still recovering or the like. Sneak out the window, past the guard, or whatever. I'll get him to take me to speak Adibos though," The commander ordered.


"Major, do your thing with the intel we have gathered. Start breaking it down and figuring out what's of use to us right now. Remember, all three of you, there's a pair of heavy drop ships in high orbit ready to drop down if anything goes south that you can't get out of. Don't be afraid to call down the troops to keep yourself alive."


With that the commander opened the door, "Guard, I would like to be taken to Adibos. I need to speak with him soon."
 
"Yes, sir." Said the guard, nodding, as he escorted the Commander through the hallways of the building. This time the Commander was lead several floors downstairs, no doubt underground, where he was taken to perhaps the largest library or archive, he had ever seen. The massive hall was round in shape and it's walls were lined with wide bookshelves, that reached at least three stories above, connected with stairs, balconies and ladders. There were dozens of natives in the hall, most of them reading and writing. In the middle of the room, was a large table, at which Adibos sat, neck deep in some big, dusty book- With some pieces of paper nearby, onto which he'd scribbled something.


"He was'a wishin' to be meetin', sire." Said the guard and Adibos lifted his head, waving the guard away. "Ah, Vatoot. I'mma sorry we's had to be cuttin' the feast short, eh? Please, have a'da seat, me's be hopin' your friend is'a alright?"
 
Vatoot's eye stalks lightly bumped together in awe at the size of the library he was entering, and he made a light whistling sound at the same time, "Amazing... so many books..."


Once they reached Adibos, Vatoot nodded, "Yes, my companion should be just fine, though it appears this may be the limit of my people's advance for a short time, as we have begun to run low on the special medicines we use to treat him, and with no time to expirement, we will have to head back to our homelands soon to restock."


"I am amazed at the sheer size of this library Adibos, it is many times larger than any I have ever seen in my travels, and many times larger than the largest one in my home city. I suspect only the Grandmasters of the Nine Arts and the Chief of all Chiefs have larger libraries from my homeland."
 
Adibos hemmed, with pride in his voice. "Aye, this'a be a pride of me's folks. Though, we's didn't'a build it, all them books an' scrolls you's be seein, was written and gathered by us, over many'a generations. It's da'entiiiire history an' knowledge, of 'is tribe, see? From da'plans of the first hut we's ancestors built, to you's folks arrival today, which'll we's be recordin' and addin' to da'collection, soon enough."
 
He nodded, fighting back a grin at how such a basic trick by himself and his group would likely become a major point of their history, or at least their legends. "Its a repository of history, but what about the knowledge your people have? Does it have the details of your machines, the details of how you've advanced socially, culturally, and technologically? The writings of your greatest minds too? Though of course, it would have quite a bit of information about your heros and the Roadbuilders, right? Abudados's history would be detailed too... correct?"
 
"Well, we's be havin' records of them sciences too, of course." He hemmed, "Though there's but guesses an' theories, 'bout dem Roadbuilders, they's folks was long gone, when we's arrived here. We's got these specialists, called 'ancientologists', whos'a been studyin' what's left of them Roadbuilders, since the start of we's tribe. Most of us scholarly likes, be figurin' them Roadbuilders was an ancient tribe, that died or moved away, yeah? But some of them ancientologists, be sayin' they's found records an' writings, that tell they's Roadbuilders took into the sky an' left 'is world!" He shook his head and chuckled quietly in clear disbelief, "As for Abudados, we's be havin' plenty of records of him as well.. though nobody's really knowin' where'd a ways, he'd originally come from, when he done arrived in the swamps."
 
He nodded as he listened, "Well, who's the best ancientologist you have? These Roadbuilders seem like they might be on particular interest to my own people to see if we can do our own research on them, mayhaps link them to something in our own legends. Abudados... tell me about him please."
 
"Me's been dabblin' in ancientology me'self, actually, since me've been doin' lotsa' travelling recently." He leaned back in his chair and hemmed, scratching his chin. "And the topic o' Abudados, be a rather extensive one, see? He was'a great leader and lead we's folks, for a long time, he's did. They's commoner folks, be callin' him a prophet, but he's was'a visionary, if's'a anythings. He's'a taught we's folks, how to be buildin' better huts ands'a weapons, yeah? Abudados' ideas, created our infrastructure, as we's done lacked a proper one in them swamps. He paved us'a ways, for technology and science.. Then, at the peak of we's a'tribe's dawn, Abudados done left us and journeyed to them'a great smart ones. Never to be returnin'."
 
He nodded, "So he came, lifted you up from your old ways so you could being to prosper, and then left when you no longer needed him... the swamps you came from, have your people ever investigated them to see what your beginnings were like? And why do you call the mountains the great smart ones? Surely you know that they are but stone and soil, they are no smarter than the ground itself."
 
"Why do yous'a be callin' yourselves the Mundus, hm?" Adibos said with a wink, "We's'a people once had a belief, that they's mountains was ancient golems, see? They's was called the 'great smart ones', now them stories of golems be little more, than a way to be scarin' the youngins from wanderin' into them mountain tribe's territory.. but we's be still calling them the great smart ones, after the myth of they's golems, yeah? Just'a like we's be calling these, da'Promised Steppes, for Abudados done promised to lead us here and so he did."


He paused to take a breath, "Speaking of'a which- Yes, we's have'a been to them swamps many'a times. There's a still a tribe living there, with which we's a be friends.. They's be trading us goods that can'a be only found there, and we's be teaching them about science." Adibos now sighed with some concern, "Though lately, we's been worried, that them tribe of the Barren Cove, might'a be attackin' them swamp folks."
 
Vatoot smiled in response, "Well, that makes sense then... never really called them anything else so no reason to call them otherwise..."


He thought for a moment, "Have you done anything to confirm that the Barren Cove tribe is indeed attacking them? And if you have, is there a reason you haven't taken steps to help protect your swamp allies or undermine the Barren Cove? It is a fairly simple matter to confirm such a thing after all, and of great importance to crush such attacks on your allies, directly or indirectly."
 
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