"The Excavation"

[Guest Sar'vek t'Jhiin]

It took a bit of engineering genius, but before the tide roared back in, Dheno managed to get a barrier up between the sea's edge and the ruins. That was a start, at least. Now, the excavation was na a race against time -- at least not as much of one. Besides, the sooner they got the ruins out of the destructive saltwater, the better. For certain, Sar'vek was advocating a permanent unit set up to minimize the corrosive effects of the tide after they had left.

 

Frankly, she was na entirely certain how to feel about the situation. On one hand, there were legalties about the whole thing that made her edgy. They had na assurances that the Federation -- or any other power, for that matter -- had na already claimed the planet. And if they had na, once the rumors started spreading about rivers of latinum and fantastic vanished civilizations, someone would indubitably show up to challenge the Rihannsu claim to the planet.

 

Then there was the excavation itself. Sar'vek, despite the mandatory classwork at the academy, was na comfortable calling herself adept enough at archaeology to fully lead a project -- especially one as extensive as theirs. But they were in na position to call in a full crew from homeworld, and she was certainly na about to express such self-doubting sentiments to her superiors.

 

After some preliminary inspection of the site, t'Jhiin was leaning towards something of a bifurcated approach. The crevasse gave them a unique opportunityto tack the ruins from the side rather than just from the above. The other windfall they'd managed was the rock encasing the structure -- volcanic ash had a nice habit of flaking and dissolving without too much stress on that which it protected.

 

Sar'vek had already taken a good set of samples from the crevasse. The positioning of the rock that overhung the the face of the... whatever the building was... was just such that there were portions of the site that were perpetually in shadow -- and possessed certain photosensitive dating qualities as a result. Assuming that had been the case since the eruption engulfed the city, and had na come about as the result of subsequent pyroclastic flows, they had a menkha chance of accurately dating the site. Ideally, the last time the sands had seen light was when the eruption occurred. If that was indeed the case, then once they were back on the ship, they could run an analysis that would measure the electrons emitted once finally exposed to light, and run calculations based off of those emissions to come up with a reliable age. Of course, if they were lucky enough to locate organic remains, radiocarbon dating became an option, but at the moment, they were stuck with sand and dust.

 

Now, the trick was going to be excavation sample selection. Sar'vek certainly wanted the "front" of the ruins, facing into the crevasse, included. T'Jhiin already had io of the teams running a test trench (what was presumably) above the ruin, and was linked into the ship's computers for a predictive model of what they could further expect from what the trench was already turning up.

 

Eventually, the teams had the site blocked out in io-meter squares up topside. The crevasse work was a bit more difficult to plot out, but the same io-meter-at-a-time principles were going to be employed, just working horizontally rather than going vertically into the ground. Though she was planning to go in from the side with a more comprehensive goal of clearing out that structure, the computer randomized what blocks were to be unearthed on the surface level.

 

Once the actual work was underway, the Daise went ahead and reorganized her teams, putting a few more men on the planet and breaking up some of the other groups. Although they could na be as thorough as t'Jhiin wished -- after all, they would have needed years and years to properly attack even the few samples selected, she still set up a team to record and ssort through the soil and ash that was being taken out of the diggings. The material was brought a bit away and run through a series of sifters and sorters and freshwater washers. Besides picking up the larger fragments in the mesh, any possible bits of charred material would float while the dirt was rinsed away. Then, the remaining material was bagged and would be brought back to the ship for later analysis.

 

Then came the artifacts -- the movable ones, not just the permanent site features -- that needed mapping and careful record of their original positions. The latter, at least, was easy enough -- a set of datum transmitters sent out signals, and each artifact's relative location to the datum rods was catalogued and holopictured before being removed and prepared for transport back to the ship. Sar'vek had called up for some small craft to play as ferries -- she was na trusting the transporters not to accidentally tamper with later study of the items.

 

And as far as those items went... so far, evidence was suggesting some sort of late iron-age civilization, highly urbanized and artistically developed. The main structure that was visible seemed to be some sort of temple, and the test trench turned up such a variety of items that Sar'vek was suspecting that they must have cut through a market or storage facility of some sort. The excavation blocks were just starting to get worked on... time would tell what they revealed. Time and a lot of brushwork, chipping, and patience.

 

The fact that preliminary surface scans of the planet had not indicated further largescale archaeological sites was bothering Sar'vek, and what t'Jhiin was starting to suspect was that they needed a low-level small craft sweep of the continent. Getting some kind of idea of the scope of the civilization would be useful in interpreting the site. She doubted that this io was so old that all other sites had disintegrated over time, and a better idea of the landscape was always a good idea.

 

She hesitated a bit, though. Sar'vek knew that the scientific gain, as was so often the case, was na going to buy the research alone. So, craftily, she gathered another, geologically-inclined team to do a flyover and see if they could na track down the real source of the latinum deposits -- while, also, getting detailed scans of the rest of the potential archaeological landscape. The Talon crew might have been drooling over the latinum present at their archaeological site, which was located in a caldera, but as far as Sar'vek knew, latinum was na necessarily associated with vulcanism. Therefore, it was likely that the volcano likely did not dredge it up from chthonic realms to deposit it, and if they operated on the theory that it did, they would likely be working under a misconception. That said, it would take a menkha deal of seeking to track down the actual source of the metal, and if that had the bonus of helping her with the excavation, well, na io could complain about that, h'nah could they?

 

Besides, if the rest of the crew was as obsessed with the latinum, they would be far less likely to get in the way of Sar'vek's work. Since she had resigned herself to the fact that the Senate would na be granting her any mineral rights to the planet, she had turned her attentions from the geological to focus on the archaeological, and left the lat-grubbers to bicker and drool amongst themselves. After all, Science would be getting something more valuable than a few vials of latinum, anyway -- she and the most visible members of the team would get quite a lot of recognition for their work. She was particularly excited over the ramifications it could have for a few of her better junior officers -- something like this could really jumpstart a career.

 

With a sigh, Sar'vek activated a mobile anti-grav sonar resonance unit, setting it on automatic to weave through the excavation teams topside. She wanted some major structures identified regardless of their relationships to the sample blocks -- and then she wanted them cleaned out. Along with shiny latinum artifacts, she wanted some impressive buildings available for the Khre'Riov to admire and be able to walk through. The more t'Rexan thought Talon's teams were accomplishing, the more support she was likely to give, and the more time was likely to be spent at the planet. If things kept going as well as they were, however, Sar'vek did na think she would have a problem convincing her of their importance.