Digging into the Data

[rosetto 0]

Sal had had little time to concentrate on anything since his arrival on QoB. He wasn't used to interfacing with so many lives, so many events all coming at him at once. Back on K'Normia he had aides that managed the day-to-day business. He only had to attend himself to the major movements of the chess pieces, sit back and study the play and his oponent and develop his next strategic counterplay. He enjoyed the fact that he was no longer making decisions but this next mission, if one is to refer to the last adventure as a mission, was something that had intriged him since his first encounter of the Zoalus race back on K'Normia.

 

Several years had past and he knew exactly how many because that was the year that his daughter was born. It had been six K'Normian Annuls since her birth and that was about 14 standard years. He also remembered exactly where they were; the strange continent of Westen. He'd went to a local exihibition where artifacts that were recovered had been displayed.

 

2406 -- Robinson Bay: The Zoalus IV Exhibit

 

The room stood and applauded as the viewers fell away and the stage opened up into a great room that had a looming statue of a humanoid figure that was twenty or so meters high. It was dimly lit from below show it appeared in high contrast and the details of the sculpture were visibly enhanced. The room settled and the people who attended slowly walked toward the exhibition. Sal and Ceri followed as they walked up on stage from either side and then past through a grand archway that was decorated with these pictoglyphs that the speaker had mentioned. They were very strange and Ceri raised a hand up to touch the arch. It was just out of her reach.

 

The glyphs were very strange looking and almost insect-like with their wispy antennae that seemed to sprout from differing appendages of each odd shaped body. None appeared to be humanoid form however some seemed to resemble plant or animal life forms. With no frame of reference all reasoning was pure speculation. Sal and Ceri gazed at them silently and then slowly proceeded into the main exhibition area.

 

They came upon a table that displayed what looked like utensils of sorts. Some hand sharpened ends while others were more rounded but all seemed to have what appeared to be a handle or grip. Some were organic while others metallic. Sal read the inscription plate and it simply said ‘dinnerware’ with no details at all. The next display contained crystal pieces of varies colors and shapes. Like the dinnerware each piece seemed a bit larger than life. They were not excessively larger but simply bigger. Sal and Ceri were silent as they read the inscription and pressed on.

 

There didn’t seem to be much detail and much of what they saw was simple tools and implements. The oddest items were the five solids that had glyphs on their faces. There were all made of a translucent crystal material and varied in color as well. The tetrahedron was yellow, the octahedron, blue. The hexahedron was green and the dodecahedron was red. The icosahedron with its 20 faces was perfectly clear.

 

“I wonder what this represents?” commented Ceri. Sal studied the solids and the markings. He noted that every face had a different glyph on it. He counted in his head and spoke, “I think it’s their alphabet, Ceri. Each one of these faces has a different glyph on it, see?”

 

“Yes. I see. How many faces are there?”

 

“Well, from my basic elementary geometry I recall that there are only five solids.” He began mumbling and counting, “four… and six and eight is eighteen. Then twelve and twenty is thirty-two. So, thirty-two and eighteen is fifty.” He added and then continued, “So what does the plaque say?”

 

“Represented here are the five elemental solid forms. On their surfaces totally fifty in all there appear to be symbolic glyphs whose meaning at present is a mystery.” She read.

 

....

 

 

Sal thought deeply about that day from time to time trying draw his own conclusions from what he had seen. He always felt that this culture was much more advanced than what the archaeologists had proposed; that there were meanings within meanings; things that had been overlooked.

 

 

Now Sal was in the science lab on QoB at the main library console tapping away and perusing the available data that he had attained via the Tranquility Public Network. This was difficult work; every few minutes, the data on the screen flickered, the letters jumbling together into a line of static. This was compounded with the steady influx of promotional advertisements provided by questionable sources in an attempt to make a fast buck.

 

The static, Sal attributed to the state of the QoB interface which he was constantly reconfiguring. The isolinear chips on QoB were not in the best of shape and he thought serious about making an investment and upgrading them in the near future. To do this, however, he would have to be more solvent. He still had not heard back from K'Normia concerning the finalization of those deals. He decided that he best send another message off to his lawyer.

 

 

To: Bill Swanson

 

From: Sal

 

Via: SHJ-Rosetto Personal Network

 

 

 

Bill:

 

I have not heard back from you concerning the Douglas & Dawson agreement. I am still very concerned about the sale to Danberry Industries as well. The issues with the October account have seemly resolved themself though. I am not sure whether thanks are required but it is much appreciated on this end.

 

I shall be out of contact for the next few weeks due to the expanse that we are about to enter out here. The Xorax colony is on the far side of the cluster an not well netted, so I'm told. Therefore, I will be making a large transfer of funds to bide me over.