Pompods

12

Once again, Baru had gotten engrossed in his findings and had lost all sense of time. His companion had draped itself across a section of books and scrolls and was peacefully sleeping away. Occasionally it would twitch slightly, its arms and legs shifted as if it was running or attempting to grab something out of the air.

Without the suns to gauge time, he did not know how long he had sifted through the various manuals, tomes and scrolls of text that they had discovered.

After he had freed his companion from the skull, it had become insistent that he follow it. Several passageways had been discovered that led in various directions, but his small companion had urged him in its own way to follow it. Where it finally led him had astonished him.

Deep within the mountain they found a cavern large enough to contain a small portion of the village itself. His torch had been insufficient to illuminate the cavern and he had been forced to use a few of the clear gemstones to light up its vastness.

The cavern had become a repository for the knowledge and treasures that the ancient ones had wished to keep safe from the elements. Several work tables had been placed in the center of the cavern with books and parchments stacked unevenly upon them. They had discovered the skeletal remains of a second ancient one resting in a chair with its upper body sprawled atop one work table, as if it had rested its head for a moment and never woke. Baru had been careful to not disturb its final resting place.

Along the walls of the cavern were nooks and shelves that had been built into the stone walls. They had been filled and were crammed with tomes of ancient knowledge and various objects.

He had cleared one of the tables to study the materials. The ancients' written language was similar to what they currently used to record their own history, although many terms and words used had no reference to him. It had taken him a while to fully understand what they had written and stored here.

Many of the tomes kept here were old with pages ready to crumble to dust. Manuals filled with knowledge and drawings of objects and machinery that no longer existed. Their significance or use lost on him as he could only speculate at their function.

A section contained the ancient's history before they had arrived, these were older and had been harder to decipher. Books bound in animal skins to help preserve the knowledge written within. Rolls containing drawings of objects, places and beings, many faded and each one more intriguing than the last.

But it had been the small hand bound pages that had intrigued him the most. Each that he found was of a recording of an event after they had landed. Many were pages that had been written by a variety of people and bound together. The legibility of each entry varied immensely from page to page.

There were numerical values with initials and names associated in front of each entry. Baru guessed this was their way to keep track of dates and events but made little sense to him as he had no point of reference to assign any of their values. He could not tell how long ago these events would have taken place as they did not keep track of the yearly cycles but only of the substantial events that took place within them.

What he could piece together helped him form a story of the events that followed their arrival to this world.

317.09.17 ships recorder, Lt W.SF

We have finally found ourselves a new world. The ship's Main Energy Memory Extrapolation Engine has confirmed the suitability this world can offer us. It contains enough fauna and flora to help us rebuild on this world. Many of us are eager to start rebuilding our lives as we've become too accustomed to living in the confines of a lower gravity. The ability to breathe fresh air and feel the ground beneath us has invigorated many.