Tyhat's Journal
~Fan Fiction~
Tyhat's Journal
Mirokahg AgeHigh above the beach, in the cliff wall itself, in the shadows just under the overhang of mosses and plants, the cave opening could be discerned, if one knew where to look. From a distance it merely looked like a slightly deeper shadow under the overhang. The hundreds of carefully carved steps that rose in a switchback from beach to cliff top were concealed behind natural and fabricated outcroppings of rock.
The climb was a wearying series of stairs, thirty to the right, a landing, and thirty more to the left, repeated to the top. The rock walls inside the stairwell were several feet above our heads and smooth, except for a carved indentation that served as a railing. At each landing there was a small stone bench against the far wall, and discrete openings where the beach and sea could be viewed by standing on a raised platform inside a small alcove.
At each landing there was a carved symbol as one entered or left the landing. The same symbol at entry and exit points, but a new symbol at each landing, as if they had been numbered. The Linguists made careful tracings of all the markings we found, and I made quick sketches in my journal for easy reference. Though not a Linguist myself, I find that being aware of a native language helps me to decipher many a conundrum in an alien environment.
About half way to the top one of the landings was longer than we'd seen before, going into the cliff wall in a depression that offered shelter from above as well as from the sea. This cave-like depression had a bench carved from the stone of the cliff along the interior side, and towards the sea a series of observation points. There was another opening into a small interior room completely bare of markings or furnishings except for that landing's particular symbol.
The stairs were broad enough for four people to walk abreast. A whole crowd of people could have climbed those stairs and remained hidden from view, yet we found that nesting birds had taken over some of the higher viewing niches, and the deep sand on the lowest steps was smooth and unsullied with footprints except those of the first Maintainer party to come this way.
As we rested at the midway point, I wondered what interpretation to put upon this design. Was it protection from enemies that had caused the original inhabitants to build in this manner, giving them hidden access to and from the beach, and convenient positions to post a watch for the approach of hostile forces? Or was it a desire to fit their construction in with the environment and leave nature in a pristine state, while giving themselves places to rest and enjoy the view?
The larger landing was repeated in the same style about three quarters of the way up the cliff. The view from here was as beautiful as I'd thought it would be. There were unobstructed views of both the beach and the sea. Even with our lenses on the highest magnification, we could not detect any islands or boats anywhere on the horizon.
As we reached the top of the last set of stairs, I was amazed to find a very large cave opening, clearly either constructed by intelligent beings or at least shaped and enlarged by them. At the front of this cave, towards the sea, a series of the same kind of viewing alcoves were cut along a raised step. A person could stand there out of the sun or rain and be treated to a spectacular view. Again we used our lenses to scan the horizon, but with no better success.
There were many sea birds nesting in the cliff side. Though their nests were mostly a good distance away from the stairs, we could see them fly out over the water, dive swiftly, and return with what looked like fish in their bills.
We could also see tiny birds of a different kind that seemed to live in the overhanging vegetation at the very top of the cliff. They would dart out and catch the little insects that swarmed around the deeply hanging green foliage. There were several different types of plants hanging from the top of the cliff, and in some places thick moss had taken root in little outcroppings further down the cliff wall itself. It seemed rather lush for being exposed to strong winds from the sea. It hung down in profuse abundance, and seemed to fairly drip with moisture. Some of it was near enough that we could see that it was covered with the tiniest blooms, fragile iridescent things, that opened to the sunlight, but closed in the shadows.
Turning to examine the cave, we crossed an open plaza between the viewing alcoves and the mouth of the cave which rose above our heads to about five meters. The entrance to the cave was unadorned and rustic, as if it had been left in a natural state. The interior of the cave was also natural and unadorned, but the floor was smooth, and, as we made our way deeper inside, this natural theme gave way to the precise regularity of deliberate construction.
After a walk of about fifty meters we came to the first of a series of nodes. The room was circular. There was a row of support pillars along the walls, and another smaller circle of pillars in the center of the room. The ceiling was as flat and smooth as the floor, except at the very center of the room above the inner pillars, which slightly domed.
The support pillars were smoothly rounded, as were the finials and bases. The architecture had plain and simple lines, but was not crude. The design had a sturdy elegance. The only adornment was more writing carved into the walls at each tunnel entrance and on the floor in the very center of the room. Obviously more numbers and what seemed to be words or letters.
Here in the darkness we could easily see that the carved symbols on the walls had been painted with some kind of reflective coating so that they were more clearly visible. The stone used for the pillars seemed to be the natural stone of the caves itself, a sand colored granite, but the floor in the center of the room looked as though it had been carved out and the carvings filled with a substance that was then polished down so that the floor was smooth, but the characters inscribed contrasted with the natural stone and shone faintly with the same pale blue light as those on the walls.
We proceeded with a little more caution from this point. Although the Maintainers had found no signs of natives currently living in the area, it was not unheard of for follow-up expeditions such as ours to stumble upon hostile natives or even wild beasts. The Maintainers kept up their vigilant watch, the Cartographers charted our progress, and we Analysts took our measurements and samples, and made notations of everything we found.
The Maintainers led us through a tunnel which went back into the cliff away from the coast. At length we came to another node and a rest period was called. This node was like the first we'd seen except that it seemed a little sleeker and less rustic, and the adornment of the center of the room seemed more pronounced and a thus little more odd.
We wondered why, with a style of architecture so streamlined, they would choose to put what amounted to a gazebo in the center of the room. It seemed to serve no purpose that we could see. Various explanations were suggested from a post for a guardsman, a rest area out of the flow of traffic, a refreshment station, or even a place for religious practice. One young guildsman said it looked like a good place for a linking book. He was, of course, hooted down. The laugh did us all good.
After our rest period we walked on for hours until we began to sense a change in the air. It grew a great deal more moist, and smelled of rain and wild flowers. Not long after, we came to another node and beyond it another plaza with a view of the interior of the landmass. High above the valley floor, yet still below the rim of the cliffs, we stared with gapping mouths at the scene before us.
The land stretched out as far as we could see. Beyond the reach of our sight, even with our lenses, the land melted into indistinct blues, purples and mist. It was impossible to tell if the cliff walls, which arced away on either side of us, continued all around the valley below. There was a great waterfall just visible in the far distance, which suggested that the height of the cliff continued at least to that point.
As I stood there taking it all in, I realized that our linking in point at the beach must be on a small peninsula of a very great landmass, perhaps even a continent. Our current location atop the interior of the cliff seemed higher than the one we'd climbed from the beach. The valley floor must be deeper than the level of the sea at this point. The drop before us was sheer. There was no stair on this side, and no visible way down to the floor of the interior.
This was as far as the first group of Maintainers had come alone. Since they had found obvious signs of intelligent construction, our combined party was required to make a thorough search of the Age, before it would be deemed safe for more investigation. It was decided that we camp here in the last node for the night, so as to be well rested for the descent to the valley, which would have to be laboriously made with ropes and climbing gear. There was no telling what we might find in all that dense forest at the valley floor.
As excited as I was to be of this party, my first early follow-up expedition, I soon dropped off to sleep. I was awakened some hours later, startled, but I didn't know by what. I had the lingering impression that something had awakened me, perhaps a sound of some kind, but the node was perfectly quiet, except for the breathing of the sleeping guildsmen around me.
Perhaps it was the strange place, or the remnant of a forgotten dream, but I found that I couldn't easily settle back to sleep again. I rose out of my bedding quietly, so as not to disturb the sleepers, and crossed the node to the tunnel towards the plaza. My feeling of something being out of place remained, but I sensed no danger.
I wandered along the tunnel to the plaza and was hailed by the two guildsmen on guard there. The jungle was alive with night noises, some predatory. I concealed my apprehension from the other guildsmen, but I hoped that whatever made those sounds would stay clear of our party when we descended after sunrise.
After a while I turned back towards the node, thinking that I'd try again to sleep, but the feeling of something being wrong hadn't left me. I decided to stroll back along the tunnel in the seaward direction and see if the guildsmen there were well.
As I crossed the node, I took up a small lamp to better inspect the floor of the "gazebo" by it's light. I realized, in swift succession, that not only were the colors and shapes of the markings on the interior floor of the gazebo different than they had been earlier, but that I had an unobstructed view of them, which meant that the young guildsman who had facetiously told me before retiring that he hoped to obtain an idea of what those structures were used for by "sleeping on it," had disappeared!
I quickly subdued my panic, and made a check of all those sleeping in the node. It wouldn't do to raise an alarm if the young man had merely moved to another location during the night. Carefully, I checked our party, identifying them one by one. Young Ahkahton wasn't among them.
Could he have gone to the two guildsmen posted seaward of the node? "If so, where is his bedding?" I wondered, as I stared again at the floor of the gazebo. Something about the new markings discouraged me from walking inside the structure, as I had done earlier in the evening
As I watched, the colors in the floor intensified. I stepped back, seeing lines appear on the surface of the floor, which then separated into sections and spun away, leaving an open hole in the floor. Through this hole a dome arose, followed by a cage containing Ahkahton himself, his hair fairly standing on end! When the platform came to a stop, the bars of the cage retracted, and the whole structure appeared again as it had earlier, as an innocuous gazebo in the center of the room. The very slight noise of the device, and our excited whispered conversation awoke one of the senior Maintainers to whom young Ahkahton eagerly repeated his story.
He had just started to dose, when he had noticed some markings under one of the railing sections. Dreamily, he'd lifted his hand and brushed his fingertips against them to feel the depressions. As he did, they had turned from the light calm blue that they were into a bright glowing orange. He had just enough time to suck in a breath, before the bars extruded from the railings and the platform descended a level! There he found himself alone in the dark, trying to figure out how the thing had moved and how it could take him back to where he'd been.
His first instinct had been to hurriedly press more buttons, hoping to return immediately, but he was arrested by the sensation of the dark space around him. He couldn't see much, but the room seemed larger than the one above, and he felt drafts as if from tunnels where there were none above. He could hear, as well as feel, the moving currents of air flowing through them, and he stayed quite still to make sure nothing else was moving in there.
After a time, he lay down on the floor as he had been to sleep, and examined the markings on the railing. He noticed one that seemed like the marks on the walls of the node above and pressed it. Again the bars had extruded, and this time he was returned to his friends.
The senior guildsmen decided it was important enough, as well he might, to awaken his Guild Master. Soon half the camp was gathered around the lift, as we began calling it, considering a plan of action. A party was formed to descend and scout the lower room. I longed to be a part of it, but only Maintainers were chosen, Ahkahton among them.
By the time I was able to travel via this lift, the Maintainers had discovered that there were four levels which it served. My first work following the discovery was on the next lower level, the one with the transportation system, trying to figure out how it worked, and how long it had been since it was last used. The lift also went to the valley floor and up to the top of the cliff.
On the lowest level, there was only one tunnel out of the node, that towards the interior of the landmass. The large cave opening had been reinforced, and was barred by doors of a very heavy, strong material. There were viewports in these doors, and beyond them there was a very heavy set of gates with strong thick bars and a fine strong mesh stretched across the inside of the bars. Those gates were bolted on the inside and the bolts were locked with a device similar to what we found on the inside of the heavy doors. We couldn't get the doors open without breaking the locks, and it was felt that we ought to leave them as they were pending further discoveries.
On the uppermost level, the lift went into the open air. It came up under the cover of a domed pavilion of a similar design as the lift, but much larger and a little more ornate. There was a more civilized aspect in the land around the pavilion. It seemed landscaped into gardens for a short distance on either side, bounded with a low wall beyond which nature had been left to itself. There were pleasant rest areas within the gardens, and several viewpoints both towards the sea and towards the interior. We detected no roads or even a path leading away from the area, and concluded that travel must be done via the transportation system two levels down.
The transport system seemed very simple to operate, but we were unable to discern it's power source for quite a while. The builders had hidden solar power collectors in various places so that they wouldn't be detected unless you knew where to find them, or stumbled over them as we happened to. These well designed devices continued to operate unattended, shutting themselves down when not in use. Once we discovered how to activate them, we had lighting and transportation wherever we desired.
That first node, where we discovered the lift, was at one extremity of a transport system that followed the cliff wall around the landmass, with a branch that went off to the sea where we had linked in. We were able to call for a car and ride in it to the next station, where we sent it back for the rest of the party. The cars would hold about fifteen of us at a time, with our gear, and so we were moved in two parties from station to station, exploring each along the way.
Most of the stations were mere stopping points, simple nodes with one level up to the top of the cliff. At the cliff top there was only a very small garden area concealing power collectors. After visiting half a dozen of these nodes, we found another one that had a larger garden at the top, and this time we discerned the hidden access to a series of chambers like our eder tomahn, equipped to support travelers much like ourselves. There were some books within these chambers and writing materials, which our linguists are carefully studying.
At this important discovery, there was some discussion about whether we should return along the way to find more of these hidden chambers and their contents, or go on. Our senior Guild Master decided to send two guildsmen back to New D'ni with a report, and a request for another party of guildsmen to begin at the linking in point and follow us, inspecting the chambers as they came along.
We moved forward even more cautiously after that. Though there had been no signs of a violent culture. To the contrary, it seemed very like our own, and most of us considered the locked and barred doors to the valley floor to be a protection from wild animals rather than warring people.
More simple nodes followed this one, and soon we were a great distance from our linking in point and that first garden on the cliff top. At the next large node, we found a difference. There were, for the first time, large mechanical doors and gates across each opening out of the node. They were even more imposing than the doors and gates we'd seen at the one node on the valley floor level.
Within the fortress node, as we called it, there was an eder tomahn arranged with such great comfort, that it seemed more a home than a way station. There was even one room which must be called a library, fitted out as it was with shelves full of books, a desk, many journals and writing materials, and comfortable furniture.
I particularly noticed that many of the books seemed uniformly printed, while some, which looked like journals, were hand written. There were also many loose papers with writing and drawings of various kinds on them. Again guildsmen were sent back to New D'ni, this time taking with them a linking book written in this library so that the Linguists could link in here directly and begin the work of deciphering the wealth of writing here.
It was on the cliff top of this place that we had our greatest surprises. A party of us had taken the lift up to the surface. The gardens there more extensive and beautiful than anything we'd seen yet. One thing that had troubled us was how these places were maintained in good order, when we'd seen no recent signs of people. We wondered if parties of workers came periodically and felt that they couldn't have left too long ago, because the lush foliage would certainly have overgrown everything very quickly.
Here, when we reached the pavilion at the top, we spotted movement and quickly discovered a series of mechanical devices, sweeping, mowing, weeding and pruning the pathways. We watched their operations for a short time, but, apparently sensing our movement, they withdrew from the paths into the flower beds. Drawing their extensions into themselves they assumed the appearance of decorative items which we remembered having seen in all the other locations.
Also within this garden we found a large structure designed for living and working there on the cliff top. It's largest room faced seaward and was arranged as if for observation. There were instruments of very fine quality, some whose function was immediately clear to us, and others which were completely foreign. There were some telescopes trained on a certain point on the horizon, and looking through them we saw a distant group of rocks in the midst of the sea, just slightly higher than the water level.
Also in this structure there were sleeping quarters, a kitchen, a room which looked like a dining hall, and rooms dedicated to personal hygiene. There were preserved foods and other supplies stored in a room off the kitchen, and a small garden containing plants which looked quite edible
By this time, most of us were very uneasy. Though the arrangement of everything we saw was very like the sort of thing a D'ni would do himself, and though we were all eager to see all that we could, these things were clearly not the work of any D'ni. Nor was the writing that of Terahnee, who were the only other civilization on a par with our own that we'd ever heard of. Of course, we all thought of humans, surface dwellers like Ti'ana, and we remembered the disaster that had befallen our people through contact with them. Curious as we were about the people who had made these things, we had no desire to expose our people to potentially dangerous outsiders.
Our leader decided to send a guildsman home to confer with the Grand Master of his Guild. We were ordered to be alert while we explored the area, making whatever tests we could in the time remaining to us. We all felt we would be recalled as soon as a message could be sent to us, and we wanted to make the most of the remaining opportunity. There were a great many linguists engaged in copying all the materials they could find in hopes of the translation shedding light upon the culture.
One of the cabinets found in the library contained maps of this Age. There was one huge landmass shown, with deep valleys in the interior, and cliff walls very high and wide surrounding the valleys. There were markings shown at intervals on these cliff tops, and we could see what looked like it could refer to the place in which we stood, and the nodes we had traveled through from the beach to get there. Assuming that this was the case, the other and larger markings would indicate a civilization of intelligent beings dwelling on the cliff tops.
One of the most interesting and startling things I saw was a small portrait of a man among some loose papers in a stiff paper folder. The picture looked mechanically produced rather than hand drawn, and was of the head and upper body only. His eyes were very large, and they were dark and opaque around the irises. His hair was cut extremely short upon his head, and he had no facial hair at all, yet he seemed no longer young. His features were very pronounced. He looked very strange to me, but he had a smiling expression which was reflected in his eyes. That smile seemed to tell me a great deal about him, and perhaps about his race. He looked an amiable person, intelligent, even cultured. Even if the accommodations here were not more casual than those within their cities, these people live in a state of advancement which we seldom encounter on the Ages we Write.
As we had expected, word soon came that we should return to New D'ni immediately, great care being taken by the last to leave that no linking book or remnant of a linking book should be found behind us. This was done by setting the incineration contraption upon a rock in the sea at low tide. The last to link out set the short timer before he linked, so that the ashes of the book would be washed away when the tide rose.
Months later I was able to see a report of some of the materials which had been translated. The people of this Age seemed to be peace loving, intelligent beings with many values we D'ni admire. They dwell on the cliff tops at this end of the landmass, so as to lessen the impact of their habitations on the environment of the valley floors.
On the southern side of the continent, the land smoothes out gradually from deep valleys and cliffs, to rolling hills, to vast plains, and at last again to the sea. Our linking in point was the only sheltered bay on the north side of the landmass. There are small stretches of beach all around the landmass, but no harbors, and the winds and surf are very strong. Only the one sheltered beach on the north, and the very southernmost beaches give good access to the sea.
Our translations indicate that there are sea animals that migrate to that northern beach, and that is why all signs of inhabitation must be concealed. It seemed that this area was an observation point from which to observe the natural world.
As we suspected, there are various predators in the valleys. To avoid danger, all entrances to the valley floor are heavily barred. After seeing drawings and descriptions of some of the creatures, I am more than ever grateful to Ahkahton for his discovery of the lift in the night, which prevented us from repelling down to the valley floor the next dawn.
The Book of this Age, it's linking books and commentary have been stored with great care among other rare Books containing potential hazards to our people. We are not likely to visit this Age again. Are we turning our backs on great treasures of culture and friendship with the inhabitants? Very possibly, yet I must agree with the decision of the High Council in this matter. We have seen the trouble that can come of mingling with advanced cultures other than our own, and the disaster of old D'ni is far too recent for us to regret the use of caution, regardless of the suspected loss.
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