Mission 16 : The Maya Enigma

[Daniel Schirra]

Mission 16 : The Mayan Enigma

Synopsis:


It had been six long months since the USS Excalibur returned to Earth ... Six months in which everyone aboard needed to heal
Services had been held for those lost, including Daniel's wife and daughter
On the Excalibur, an extensive refit and systems upgrades were undertaken, and now, both ship and crew were once again ready
Departing Earth orbit, the USS Excalibur left the System and jumped to warp


~~~~~~~~~~


They had been assigned to deliver much-needed relief personnel and medical supplies to Starbase Twenty-Four in the Korri Sector following reports of a System-wide pandemic
The journey thus far had been relatively uneventful, when too late, sensors picked up a subspace shockwave approaching
In Cargo Bay Two: Captain Schirra, Commander Psonoir, Lieutenant Commander T'Seng, and Lieutenant Agosta, were going over the supplies in readiness for transport when the alarm sounded
Despite all efforts from the Bridge, the shockwave, travelling faster than light, slammed into the Constitution Class Starship a second later, causing catastrophic damage and loss of life

As Engineers and Crew scrambled to restore power and life support throughout the stricken vessel, Officers forced their way into Cargo Bay Two, startled at what they saw
Schirra, Psonoir, T'Seng, and Agosta, along with most of the stores and medical supplies, had disappeared

Hours later, fragmented logs identified a small vessel alongside the Excalibur in the moments before the shockwave hit
Unfortunately, the Raider vessel, a fraction of the size of the Constitution Class, was unable to withstand the shockwave and was carried countless lightyears, before falling behind the dissipating wave
With no means to locate the unknown vessel, it, and the missing Excalibur Officers, were out of reach of the stricken Starship

Now ... The crippled USS Excalibur, barely surviving, its warp core destroyed, was rapidly using up its battery reserves
Struggling to cope with the number of dead and seriously injured, with remaining supplies running out
Operations Chief, Lieutenant Commander Sarah Wentworth, now in temporary Command, had no option but to send a distress call in the hopes that they would be found in time


ooo000ooo

[Daniel Schirra]

In the Cargo Bay of the Excalibur, they all heard the alarm at the same time, but before anyone could react, the Excalibur tumbled end over end as the subspace shockwave slammed into the ship. Daniel, like the others, lost consciousness, but not before he believed he felt the tell-tale caress of a transporter beam.

Darkness ensued ..... There was no way to tell how long he and the others had been unconscious, but they came around as the small craft was buffeted by the atmosphere of the planet they were rushing towards. Schirra saw the others coming around and told them to find some way to brace themselves against the impact he was sure was coming ..... The first hit threw them across the cargo hold like ragdolls, the second likewise, and then, the ship tumbled several times before coming to rest.

Stardate: 2268.0531
Location: Unknown ::

Daniel felt himself being helped to his feet and realised with relief that his Exec' had survived. He looked around to see T'Seng and Agosta scrambling shakily to their feet. Above them and along the bulkhead to the ground, was a large gash, approximately half a metre wide, hot dry air flooded the hold. They were moving cautiously towards the opening when a Humanoid male appeared. He began gesticulating with what they assumed was a weapon, demanding they follow. Daniel tried to speak to the man, but instantly realized that their universal translators were not functioning, so with little option, they clambered through the opening and onto roasting hot sand and away from the ship.

"That doesn't look good..." Karka said, pointing to the mid-level of the Drive Section, which had apparently sheered off from the Bridge on impact. Close to where they had exited the ship, coolant could be seen flooding from a gash in the hull, boiling as it made contact with the sand, "... We should put some distance between us and the ship, now!" he said, taking several steps forward before shouting out to the three remaining raiders. Whether they simply didn't understand the warning or believed they could somehow save goods from the damaged section, the Excalibur Officers would never know ..... Daniel looked around, seeing a small outcrop of rocks approximately a hundred metres away.

"Come on...!" he said, turning to run, but halting as one of the Raiders screamed at them. The man raised his weapon, slamming his hand against it as it failed to fire, it was all that Schirra needed, "... RUN ... NOW!"

The four ran, Daniel limping from a possible ankle injury, while the others too were struggling due to various injuries sustained in the crash, but thankfully they made the outcrop and turned to see if the Raiders had headed their warning. It was then the Drive Section of the ship exploded, the blast spectacular against the setting sun. All four dove behind what cover they could as jagged sections of molten bulkhead and fluids whistled overhead, some slamming into the very outcrop they were hiding behind.

Then thankfully there was silence, interrupted only by the snapping and crackling of metal expanding and contracting as the fire burned.

It took several hours for the fire to die down enough that they could approach the charred wreckage. Of the Raiders there was no sign ..... They had crashed on what appeared to be the side of a small rise, as they scoured the still-smouldering debris, Karka stopped, raising a hand to shade the last of the sun as he peered into the distance.

"It looks like someone noticed the explosion," he said, pointing down into a small valley where a small group of people could be seen heading their way.

Quickly finding concealment several hundred metres away from the crash site, they waited. Lt Agosta, a 'history buff' as she often called herself, commented on the approaching group, pointing out that the approaching group resembled the Mayan People, indigenous to Earth approximately a thousand years ago ..... With a sudden sense of dread, Daniel realised that they could be stranded on a planet that was home to a pre-industrial civilisation!

With the Prime Directive foremost in their minds, they had no option, the Excalibur Officers turned and ran ..........

~~~~~~~~~~

The four had run less than three kilometres through the cloying sand when they finally had to stop for breath ..... Given they were relatively fit, it was clear that the atmosphere had a lower oxygen content at ground level than Earth. Dropping onto the sand on the side of one of the many dunes, they looked back to where they had crashed. The glow from the fire could still be seen in the dark moonless night, and Daniel wondered if the Security Officer was right about the newcomers.

"What made you think that they were Mayan?" he asked as they got their breath.

"I didn't say they were Captain, but their clothing and body art seemed similar,"

"But the Mayan disappeared," Koni said.

"Yes, practically overnight. Or at least their cities were seemingly abandoned, the Mayan people still strive on Earth,"

"We should keep moving..." Koni said, looking back the way they had come, "... Even in the dark, whoever they are would have to be blind not to be able to see that someone was near the explosion," It hadn't occurred to Schirra, but now he stood and looked back down the dune, their tracks stood out. The issue was that there was no way to hide their tracks, he tried using his jacket to clear the footprints but had no luck.

"OK, let's go, we'll try to put some distance between us and our curious friends out there, then our first priority will be water and food," Schirra said, setting off, the others following.

"..... so you're saying that the people heading for the crash site were Human?" Karka asked as they walked.

"The people heading for the ship were clearly Humanoid, they wore a type of shorts, their legs and torso uncovered... They were a good distance away so I couldn't be one hundred percent sure, but I'm guessing that each of them had a hand, painted on their chests and faces. The Poqomchi, Mayan from the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, worshipped a Goddess named, Ixchel, who helped with pretty much everything from the Moon, rain, earth, and even war, the hand was supposed to be her hand. She would also lead the Mayan on what they called their Sacred Journey,"

"So you think that these are somehow descendants of the original Mayan that build temples like Chichin Icha?" Daniel asked.

"I don't know Captain..." Caryna said, a little too sharply, wishing she'd never spoken, "... I just thought that the people coming to investigate the fire 'looked' similar to the Mayan of Earth,"

"Either way, from what little was saw, they didn't look like they were carrying anything resembling a phased weapon..." Koni said as she caught up with Karka, "... The Raider's weapon didn't fire either!"

"Maybe there's something about the planet's magnetic field that suppresses that type of weapon?" Caryna commented.

"That's something we'll need to find out because if we can't find a way to contact the Excalibur or anyone off-world for that matter, we might need to start considering we'll be here for the duration," Daniel said. He knew full well that it was too early to even think about being stranded but still felt he had to say it. Behind him, the other three stopped walking for a moment, each silently contemplating living out their lives on an unknown planet! ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

On the dunes Karka recalled the sensation of the major impact on the Excalibur. He didn't know that the ship had been tossed upon a sort of cosmic surf, little damage being done in the initial buffeting - when it was thrown by the main wave - but suffering a couple large hull breaches as its structural integrity failed under the shear forces at being flung away whilst at warp speed.

He'd closed his eyes briefly as he understood that the cargo bay itself was breached; there was a brief rush of air into escaping vacuum before a forcefield secured the cargo bay. As he opened his eyes again he saw the three officers with him collapse to the deck unconscious while he himself tottered, nearly overcome himself with sudden oxygen deprivation, his fundamental Hybrudean physiology - disguised within what was actually a human body - reinforcing him against the effects.

He endured in consciousness during the ensuing transport and found himself groggy and only dimly alert in a dark and cramped mercenaries' vessel. "He can't be like the others," one of their captors said, prodding a scanning device against Psonoir's thorax, "He's still awake."

"Not for long," another Raider came up out of the gloom and struck Karka with the back of his hand, the blow enough to render him unconscious at last.

He'd awoke with the others to a new hell, their stranded and doomed Raider craft hurtling through the atmosphere of an unknown world to plunge into sandy desolation beset with encroaching shadow as the anonymous system's star set on the horizon of dunes.

Having watched members of a native species approach the destroyed Raider craft and then fled with the others, he recalled the events of the past hours while edging his way down the slope of a dune facing the fading light of the sunset.

"... something about the planet's magnetic field that suppresses that type of weapon?" Caryna was saying.

"That's something we'll need to find out because if we can't find a way to contact the Excalibur or anyone off-world for that matter, we might need to start considering we'll be here for the duration," Daniel said.

Karka kept that consideration in mind, in the back of his Hybrudean brain with its biomechanical engineering, but there was a more pressing concern before them. Desert nights could be cold, depending on the planet; if the group could, he thought, they should return to the crash site and find a way to reignite some of the charred and warm wreckage or relight the fire started there by the possible Mayans. He told the others his concerns, "... Either that or we search for a cavernous space, perhaps where we can light a new fire to spend the night."

"That system of mesas," Koni signalled away to their right, at a complex of rock formations some two to five miles distant. "And what are those dark patches in front of it?"

"Flora," Karka nodded, the Chief Science Officer side of him coming to the fore, "It's probably not very flammable; at noon the temperatures are likely high, if not completely unbearable; plantlife here must be hardy and resistant to great heat."

"Very well. Our survival techniques will need to be stretched to the limit if we're going to light some of it. What we need is some timber," d'Agosta said.

"We could perhaps return to the site of the downed craft and recover some of the wreckage for the new fire instead. There could be highly flammable materials still remaining," Karka said, and thought on another matter, "Are we suggesting no industrial civilisation, no technology reliant on electrification or other similar modes of power, can exist here because of the magnetic field of the planet?"

"The locals have been stunted in their development because of the natural characteristics of their world?"

With the darkness coming on more intensely and the last particles of light from the sunset vanishing from the atmosphere, the desert plain's own lights - and there were a few of them - suddenly became visible in the distance. Tents, Karka realised, of the Mayans probably, and numerous fires amongst them, all of them some miles off on the plain beside the dunes. Most tents stood far apart by themselves, but there were a few gaggles of five or ten or more such dwellings, which had to be temporary, nothing out here could survive for that long. These Mayans in particular must be nomadic or maybe they were on a hunting trip.

Karka looked ahead and thought instead about going towards the rock formations up and to the right, something the captain ordered he and Koni do anyway while Daniel himself with Caryna d'Agosta headed towards one of the mile-distant individual tents, standing by itself and presumably occupied by one or more possible Mayans.

As Psonoir and T'Seng climbed shallow relief towards the mesas, the Hybrudean grew dizzy. He halted. Something had happened, he didn't know what, a vague image had flashed through his partitioned mind and he felt for an uncanny moment as if he was forgetting himself.

He tried to picture the image but it had escaped out of reach and faded like a dream. T'Seng asked what was wrong but he shrugged it off and pushed on in the search for some cave for shelter amongst the mesas, and wondered how Schirra and d'Agosta were fairing.

[Daniel Schirra]

Two hours earlier, they had separated ..... Having identified a small jagged outcrop approximately three miles away, though all four had reluctantly admitted that the rocks could be up to ten or fifteen kilometres away in the gloom of the late evening, there was no proper reference. So with a word of caution, Karka and Koni walked away, for a moment, Daniel watched them go, and then he and Agosta began their own walk .....

He and Agosta had picked out one of the tents that seemed furthest from the other two and cautiously approached.

They were less than thirty metres from the tent when they heard voices, suddenly they heard a whoosh of thick material as an opening appeared. A male stepped into the moonless night, eyes seemingly scanning the horizon before he walked away. Daniel was about to move forward when Caryna tapped his shoulder, he turned to see her holding a finger to her lips as she tentatively shuffled close enough to whisper in his ear.

"Wait ..... He's not going far..." she said, pointing to a small group of rocks, "... Bathroom ....." she said, raising her eyebrows.

Schirra lowered himself onto his chest as the male disappeared from view, only to reappear moments later. He inwardly chastised himself for not realising where the male was going. They watched as he returned, picking something off a rock beside the fire and biting into it, then replacing the remainder before returning to the tent. But rather than re-enter and pull the swathe of thick fabric over the entrance, he suddenly paused, eyes locked on the distance... At first, Daniel was convinced the man was looking directly at them, somehow able to see through the darkness, then the two heard a low growl off to their left, and saw what could have been a wolf, it was watching the man with the same intensity, eyes almost glowing as if possessed, until, as if by some unspoken mutual consent, they broke eye contact. The male returned to his tent, while the animal continued on its way .....

More cautiously than before, the two inched their way around the rear of the solitary tent, now they could see something else: Two poles had been driven into the sand, a long pole resting between the two, something was hanging from that pole:

"They appear to be hunters Captain..." Caryna whispered, even lower this time, "... Those could be their protein source ....." she said as Daniel looked at what seemed to be four animal torso's, the lower legs and heads missing.

"..... Sheep maybe?" he asked.

"We can assume so, or this planet's equivalent. There would be no need for the legs or heads unless they are being stored separately... This differs slightly from Earth's Mayan. Their staple diet was the likes of Maize, potatoes, beans, fruit, and milk, meat and fish was almost an after dish if you will,"

It seemed that whilst moving around the small group of tents, they had found themselves 'down-breeze' of the central fire. The aroma of cooked meat invaded their nostrils, reinforcing their hunger even more. Both knew they needed to find food quickly. His mind made up, he began to crawl forward until he was stopped again:

"Better if I go, Captain," Caryna suggested, but this time he shook his head. Cautiously, eyes flicking towards the closest tent every few seconds, he made his way towards the circle of stones containing the fire, and then out of sight. Still hidden, Caryna felt almost helpless, as she waited for the inevitable 'cry' that would announce his capture, and then she saw him, heading towards her, making every effort to hide his passage with a small branch. As he reached her, he rolled on his back and lowered the zip of his jacket. The smell of cooked meat rose, and she took the four pieces of charred meat from inside, along with what looked like two cooked potatoes, laying the booty on a nearby rock.

"We should eat... We need to keep up our energy levels, " he suggested, she didn't argue, "... I picked the smaller pieces of meat from around the fire, so unless anyone counted what was left after their late meal, hopefully, they shouldn't be missed..." he said, biting into the food, and he found himself wondering if he'd ever be able to face synthesised protein again, he finished the potato in two bites as the morning sun touched the peaks of the far off mountains.

"..... They're waking!" she said suddenly, both dropping behind the lip of the dune as the first of the Mayans stared in the pre-dawn light.

They watched as the tents were dismantled, and practically all evidence of the previous night's fire and occupancy eradicated. Two men dismantled the makeshift rack before placing the long pole holding the meat over their shoulders. Once satisfied they had left the ground as they found it, the small group set off towards the North, He and Agosta watched as the Mayans disappeared from view in the early morning haze, Caryna suggesting they could now be returning to their village .....

~~~~~

They gave the hunters a good hour before they climbed to their feet and headed for the meeting point. Reaching it in good time, they found concealment and waited ..... With no chronometer, Schirra and Agosta had to use the sun as a guide to 'guestimate' the time. An hour passed, then another, Daniel getting more concerned about the others, of which there were still no signs ..... Agosta commented that they may have just been delayed, it didn't ease Schirra's concerns any ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

The Excalibur had continued to list for some hours before Wentworth decided not keep up with the thruster adjustments, she let the vessel roll a full 360 degrees every couple hours or so. It would save power which could instead be put into extending life support as long as possible, by days if not weeks. The Constitution class ship's acting commander didn't know how long it would take for their distress call to be answered... Considering they'd been the only starship in the sector when the call for emergency relief to the Korri planet had come through, it could be quite some time.

One of the medical staff entered the bridge and approached Wentworth who sat in the elevated central chair. Uh oh, the Ops officer voiced under her breath, she'd not been looking forward to this, "Have you come with the latest casualty report?" she asked hesitantly.

It hadn't been easy taking command, it was the first time she'd really been in the position except on the rare occasions when the CO, XO and Chief Engineer had all been on a landing party, and it'd come at virtually the worst possible time.

Unwin had nearly taken command but the two had agreed that under the circumstances he'd serve the ship better from engineering and tackling the almost impossible repair job himself. As Acting CO Wentworth had to deal with the casualties herself while also trying to scan for their missing four officers.

The medical officer nodded and handed her a bulky PADD, "55 confirmed dead, Commander. 158 more injured, the vast majority of them will survive but it will be some time before they can be returned to duty."

"We'll be below operational capacity until two thirds of the injured personnel return, Commander," her deputy Ops officer Lieutenant Thorough said from his station.

"Renew our distress call and try to boost the range by drawing power from shield reserves," she instructed, not having wanted to do this considering the effect it would have on their defensive capability. They had to hope there weren't any less than friendly vessels wandering this region, if any ships had weathered the shockwave better than themselves...


Unknown planet

Karka caught up to Koni who stood at the entrance of a cave which seemed to yawn open the more she looked at it. "In there?" Psonoir asked, following the CTSO's gaze into the dark space amidst the system of mesas.

"It's better than freezing to death." She paused, glancing at Karka briefly and gesturing to the mouth of the cave, "After you."

He looked at Koni dubiously and then took ginger steps into the darkness, bringing his consciousness acceleration ability to the forefront of his mind, ready to flip that switch in case anything unpleasant was lurking inside, anything he might like to get out of the way of.

Night had fallen completely outside and what heat there was in the cave was starting to leak into the cold of the desert. Depositing on the floor the various shrubs and bits of brushwood and other tinder they'd found, they succeeded in starting a small fire. The cave interior round them had become visible with the first licks of flame, and Karka had discovered glyphic symbols of what could only be the extraterrestrial Mayans' writing inscribed into the ceiling. He understood nothing and wondered whether Caryna know something about it.

T'Seng had been unnerved by the writing, "The Mayans were known to sacrifice people to the gods, Karka, especially if those people were outsiders."

"They'll have to catch us first," he said quickly as he studied the indecipherable squiggles, "Besides, these Mayans are from another planet, there's no guarantee they'll have the same practices and customs as their thousand year old Earth cousins." He tried to convince himself this was true.

As he got lost in his thoughts the same vague image from earlier in the day returned to him, in the evening heat haze as he'd climbed towards the nearest mesa, the image unspeakable and impossible to capture in the mind's eye. The symbol and again the forgetting, an abyssal void and an unknown man in a blue uniform staring at writing in a cave.

He came back to himself, back to the knowledge of Karka Psonoir, the Excalibur and Starfleet, and found that Koni was speaking, "... begs the question, how did these people get here? Are they actually human?"

He gulped and recovered his speech, "I doubt it. If I had my tricorder I could know for sure. Cultural contact with real Mayans must've taken place, somehow."

As the day came up they headed for the agreed rendezvous point at what they'd decided to call the eastern end of the mesas, taking the meagre fuel supplies for fire with them.

No sign of Schirra or d'Agosta. Descending through a further ravine, Karka realised they'd taken a wrong turn some way back; the way up ahead was barred. Miscellaneous items of wood and stone were stacked at a pass leading out of the mesas, and in front of it, in the gully immediately ahead of Karka and Koni were about a dozen Mayans, with spears and bows and arrows.

"Hail the great lord, Kohun Ahk!" a collective voice rang out in an unrecognisable Mayan language, echoing through the ravine. Half the Mayans had bowed before one individual in an elaborate headdress, who was about to gesture for his soldiers to rise when he saw the two Starfleeters at the head of the gully. He pointed at them and shouted in the unknown tongue and the soldiers burst towards them, their terror of their chieftain outweighing terror of the strangers.

[Daniel Schirra]

The sun was already climbing into the cloudless sky, and he estimated that the others were now somewhere close to three hours overdue ..... He had initially delayed going in search of Karka and Koni purely because of the terrain, paths meandered between rock flats, some mere meters above the sand, but some much higher. The two teams could pass each other going in opposite directions, and by as little as a few metres and never know it ..... He glanced up at Agosta, who was staring off into the distance and made his mind up. He clambered to his feet and found three thin branches:

"OK... Let's leave a subtle hint as to which way we have gone, on the off-chance that they return from an unexpected direction,"

Caryna watched as he placed the sticks in such a manner that anyone coming across them wouldn't give them a second thought, but then suddenly realised that if you lowered yourself onto your haunches in the right position, they actually formed something akin to a deconstructed arrow configuration.

"Clever," she said, nodding appreciatively.

"Something they no doubt didn't teach you in survival training," Daniel said with a wink as he set off. Caryna looked at the four seemingly random sticks and shook her head before following him.

Two Hours Later ::

"These are their tracks..." Schirra said, kneeling as he looked up ahead, "... At least we don't need to go back to where we originally separated," They continued on for thirty minutes when Caryna led the way until she suddenly stopped.

"Captain," she said, pointing at the footprints. Daniel walked over and frowned. The tracks they had been following were distinctive even though the sand around each footfall had been settling overnight, Federation tread pattern on issue boots was still, albeit barely, recognisable. But now there were two tracks, one crossing the other.

"They went that way... Thei original heading..." he hypothesized, pointing in the direction he and Agosta were moving, "... But see here, the later footfalls have dissected the original, so it looks like they came back, but from a slightly different direction, but then why head 'away' from our rendezvous point?" he said with a frown.

"Maybe they knew they couldn't make the meeting point in the failing light, and chose to find shelter?" the Security Officer suggested.

"Possibly... It's what I would have done" Daniel confirmed, rising to his feet to take a look at their immediate surroundings. There was a small rock outcrop a few metres away and he headed there. At first, there was nothing to be seen, then he looked at the low ridgeline. Again he could see numerous entrances into the harder ground, which he assumed would be mostly dead ends. He returned to Caryna and told her he was going to climb higher.

Nodding, she found a suitable rock and sat down, watching the Captain as he climbed approximately twenty metres above the desert floor before returning:

"It looks like there are a number of cave entrances just beyond the ridgeline, the new tracks are leading that way,"

Again the two set off, pausing every ten metres to ensure they didn't go off after one of the indigenous people by mistake ..... Eventually, they came across the first of the shallow caves, unfortunately, each entrance was about the sand over a shelf of rock, so they had no way of knowing which, if any, the two entered. From ground level, each cave looked barely fifteen metres deep, but more than enough to afford adequate shelter for the night. They claimed the small rise to the first entrance, even with the sun bathing the first few metres, the caves nevertheless looked unwelcoming, so he could imagine what they looked like with only starlight to give any illumination. He told her to wait and he would check inside the first one, but she pointed out that given how long their colleagues had been missing, it might be quicker if they each checked the numerous caves.

"Do you ever just follow instructions?" he asked with a grin as he pointed to the nearest entrance.

"You always encouraged your Senior Officers to voice their opinions. I doubt I'd be on the Excalibur if I didn't open my mouth when I felt the need ..... Captain," she replied with a shrug, walking away before he could think of a suitably scathing retort. Shaking his head he took a few steps into the cave entrance until his feet were on the divider between sunlight and darkness. Part of him wanted to just shout into the darkness, but that clearly wasn't an option, so he stepped over the line. A few moments later he exited the empty cave and waited for Agosta to reappear.

"Empty," she said as she shielded her eyes from the sudden sunlight.

"Same here. Let's try the next two," he said, moving along the shallow ridge barely a metre above the desert floor.

"Sir ....." Caryna said, looking at the sand. As he approached, he could see the tracks, two people, side by side. Silently thankful they didn't need to continue searching the caves, they set off, but had gone less than twenty metres when the tracks disappeared, or more precisely, were enveloped by countless others, obviously formed by people bare-foot!

"Captain .....?" she asked quietly.

"These tracks couldn't have been here that long..." he said, looking out to where the ravine opened up, they began to run, keeping an eye out for any straggling natives, stopping only when the last of the rock cover disappeared. Ahead was open desert for as far as the eye could see, despite there being a relatively large number of people making the tracks, they were almost invisible unless you were on top of them. Keeping their concerns unspoken, they began to follow ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

Karka recalled fleeing through a ravine towards a deeper set of crevices, pursued by the dozen or so possible Mayans who yelled some sort of war cry. Arrows had been strung and loosed towards himself and Koni, who'd fallen behind somewhat having struggled over a boulder that blocked their route.

Eventually he'd reached a dead-end, the crevice wall rising precipitously before him. He'd turned, the Mayans about him with their short spears pitched towards him and on a rise at the head of the decline in the ravine the chieftain silhouetted against the sky. Karka had watched as the Mayan leader removed his headdress, revealing a completely shaved head, and then hollered at his soldiers. They reversed their spears and struck Karka unconscious with the butts of the weapons.

Escape had seemed not so difficult then. He pulled at the shackles again; perhaps it wouldn't be much longer before there was a little give in the threading of the heavy rope binding his wrists and ankles. The ropes were ran through steel rings attached to large blocks of which had been set into the earth. Above him the canvas rippled in the wind and on the air from the open fold of the tent came a strong smell of smoke from the abodes of the nearby settlement.

He'd seen the arrow design made with the sticks and realised Schirra and d'Agosta had been the way they had been taken.

The dozen Mayans had dragged them across an empty desert which had filled the horizons, eventually coming to this place that he'd heard the natives refer to as Narinje or something like it, and while Koni had been taken inside the walls of the town he'd been held in a series of enclosures just outside it along with others, lowly Mayans captured in battle perhaps. Ritualistic phrases were spoken over him once he'd been locked in these bonds.

Increasingly sure that they planned to sacrifice him, it was then he'd noticed the symbol on the pauldron of the priest, just as the diminutive Mayan had finished his litany...

A memory stabbed at Psonoir, a strong feeling of familiarity and an unremembered individual as well as one well within his recollection, respectively Karka Psonoir and... He shook his head, unable to remember. Yet the priest's insignia - and he would find it on all the Mayans he would encounter - was the same as the image that'd placed itself in his mind. Only now could it truly be seen and recognised. He assumed it was a tribal marker, belonging to the Mayans from this settlement and perhaps surrounding villages only.

Close by he heard the sound of metal on metal, as if a blade was being sharpened, and felt the urge to call out. "Let me go free. I can help your people. Food... Medicine and the means to make more... Education..." Violating the prime directive, he added to himself hopelessly. He wondered where Koni was and if she was in any danger; unbeknownst to him, she at least had been spared much of the trouble and was actually being sponsored by one of the chieftain's dignitaries for an office at the chieftain's court, albeit against her will.

The priest entered the tent and nodded towards the open fold, two Mayans outside grabbing the corners of the canvas and tent poles and pulling the structure away. Now under the open air, the priest glared at Karka and jabbed a finger to his left, "Ajaw Kohun Akh!"

Karka turned his head as best he could and saw the chieftain with the feathered headdress, "Ajaw... Your word for ruler or chieftain?" he asked weakly.

The priest was enraged and shouted 'silence!' in his own tongue. It was considered blasphemy for the sacrifice to utter anything, particularly anything about the ruler. Fanning out from behind the ajaw chieftain was a group of presumed courtiers, including - to Karka's shock but considerable relief - Koni.

There has to be something we can do to facilitate communication, he thought. A homemade universal translator may just be viable if they could acquire the necessary raw materials.

"You're making a mistake," he said to the priest, "Look, something is happening to me. I keep recalling another individual who wears your symbol; it's as if that person is me. I'm not him, not one of your tribe... I am Commander Karka Psonoir of Starfleet, United Federation of Planets." Well, I have smashed the prime directive there, he thought. But considering another Starfleet officer was here, it would be better than saying Karka Psonoir, a Hybrudean from the 29th century.

The priest glanced at the ajaw chieftain, his officers and T'Seng - all presumably here for the sacrifice - and the two high-ranking Mayans laughed. Do they understand something of what I'm saying? he wondered suddenly, Or are they simply familiar with what people usually say... Are we Excalibur officers not the first people to come here? He began to wonder if other ships had crash landed on the planet in the past, ships that may still be here, and again about how people with Mayan customs came to be here...

[Daniel Schirra]

They had followed the tracks as best they could, even so, several times they were forced to backtrack after unknowingly heading off on a tangent. Leaving the desert region, they passed into an area of thick forest, now tracking became almost impossible.

More than once they had hidden as they heard someone, or something, approaching their location. Once they saw a young girl, no more than seven or eight years old, she was leading a ram by a thick cord tied around its neck. Behind, several sheep and newborn lambs were following, and they realised with some relief that her home, and hopefully where Psonoir and T’Seng had been taken, couldn’t be too far away now.

Daniel shook his head, grinning inwardly as the girl sat down on a boulder no more than fifteen metres from their position. She tied the cord around the tree and took what he assumed was bread from her satchel.

They could only sit on the ground, hungrily hoping that the girl threw away some of the bread once she had had her fill. He was about to change position when the Security Officer put a hand on his arm and pointed … He wasn’t sure what Agosta was pointing at for several seconds, then realised that the ram was looking directly at them!

Both knew that if it began to feel threatened, it would make their presence known to the girl, who would undoubtedly run to sound the alarm. Both watched the ram in some bizarre contest to see who, or what, would break eye contact first ... He had the distinct feeling it would be them, given that while not well up on animal behaviour, he couldn’t recall ever seeing a ram blink.

Her hunger sated, the girl stood and untied the ram before moving off, but rather than obediently follow, the animal remained perfectly motionless, its eyes still locked on Schirra’s. The girl peered into the trees then turned and counted the flock. Satisfied none had gone astray, she tugged on the cord, her strength belaying her petite stature as she almost yanked the ram off its feet ... With one last ‘glare’ the ram moved off, glancing back towards the new-borns before presumably satisfying itself there was no longer any cause for concern.

Schirra and Agosta gave the girl and her flock ten long minutes before clambering out of concealment to follow her tracks. Thirty minutes later the trees began to thin out, and they were forced to fall further behind for fear of being seen by the girl, or worse, the suspicious ram.

"Look .....!" Caryna said suddenly.

Through the trees, they could see wisps of smoke rising.

"Fires," he whispered.

Ahead they could see the girl and her animals moving down from the treeline towards the village. Caryna got his attention a second time, pointing well beyond the first of the stone buildings. Each one was identical to its neighbour, but as they looked further into the settlement it was clear the buildings were getting exponentially larger ... Each building had at least one terrace, so possibly a ground and first floor, while those further into the centre had three sometimes four of these terraces.

"Any idea's on where to start looking?" Agosta asked.

"Despite my concerns regarding the safety and wellbeing of Koni and Karka, I'm inclined to wait until sunset..." Daniel replied, pausing for a second before continuing, "... Once the streets begin to clear we’ll have more chance of moving around undetected, it might give us a better idea where they may be being held too,"

"Let's hope they're not in any hurry to get answers out of their guests," Caryna said quietly, lowering herself to the grass ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

USS Excalibur

The Constitution class was still dead in the water and the batteries were beginning to run seriously low. Still, Unwin thought he might be able to conserve yet more energy in order not only to keep the distress beacon online but to power the impulse engines at a low level, too.

He couldn't focus though and was forever palming off other duties to his engineering subordinates to keep his mind uncluttered, but there were only so many technical experts to assign around various parts of the ship to see to the terrible damage, before he had to take on one of those jobs himself. He manoeuvred himself within the crawlway, managing to turn on to his back and present the ODN recoupler to the exposed circuitry. One problem to solve before he could think about giving the bridge impulse power to play with was that the starship kept listing heavily to starboard; a fault in the computer core - parts of the hardware damaged by the shockwave impact - seemed to make the computer think the Excal was at the wrong orientation and it kept introducing a 'correction' of some 30 degrees right roll and 10 degrees forward pitch.

Unwin lost his grip on the recoupler and it clattered to the crawlway's metal grille flooring. He understood the helmsman had readjusted the ship's attitude numerous times but each time the computer had very gradually rotated the ship back to the same offset position. The impulse engines couldn't be gimballed at that extreme an angle and so the chief engineer needed to get rid of the error, which was difficult considering the amount of corrupted data the computer was taking account of each time it calculated the starship's position and velocity.

The intercom a couple metres down the crawlway sounded and Unwin, cursing again, turned himself around with difficulty and reached out to tap at the control. What was it? "Commander, you should come to the bridge. A vessel has approached... Wait, she's firing!"

"Call Wentworth, too. I'll join you shortly," he instructed and clambered out of the crawlway, feeling the impact of weapons fire on the Excal's already considerably weakened shields.

He entered the bridge and took the engineering station, half-rotating in his port-side chair towards the three central seats, "What do we have?"

"A vessel has approached and fired without warning. It's of very similar configuration to the ship whose presence to port at the time of the shockwave impact we pieced together from sensor records," Wentworth's stand-in at Ops said as Wentworth herself now took the centre chair.

"They've hit our forward and ventral shields..." Koni's deputy said at tactical, "Wait... They're breaking off."

"If only we could pursue," Wentworth said, watching the viewscreen as the small black dart of a ship shot away and eventually jumped to warp. "How far are we away from quarter impulse power?" she asked Unwin. He grimaced and began to reply but was cut off by the tactical officer again,

"Sir, there's a ship approaching. Not the same one... Ah, it's hailing."

Wentworth glanced at Unwin who stared impassively; he would advise her if she wanted but she was in command. She nodded and turned to forward, "Accept it. On screen if available." It wasn't but a voice resounded around the bridge.

"USS Excalibur... We take the markings on your hull to be indicative of your vessel's name... Ours is called the Rentaclan, we picked up your distress call. I'm Noik from the Vrezku Alliance. It seems you've had a lucky escape.

"Hello, Mr Noik," Wentworth said, "I'm Lieutenant Sarah Wentworth of the United Federation of Planets. And yes, this is the USS Excalibur."

"We're sorry you've had to encounter a vessel of the Raiders. They're a right old menace to this sector. They detected our approach and have fled. We the Vrezku are engaged on one of our usual mopping up exercises against some of them, to keep our shipping lanes clear, or some such..."

Discombobulated by Noik's informal tone, Wentworth replied, "If the Raider ship took fright at you we thank you for your intervention. Be aware that this is the second time we've run into them, Noik. We encountered a vessel of theirs - a different one we believe - around the time the shockwave hit. We have a strong suspicion they took some of our crew."

"Yeah, the interstellar disturbance. Shockwave, you call it... hey, interesting," Noik said, "Presumably that other Raider ship was carried off by the... er, 'shockwave'? I couldn't say where it might've been carried or where they might've gone if not too heavily damaged; this area's not very familiar to me. The Vrezku Alliance has its home at the very edge of the sector in a zone you're probably more familiar with. Come to think of it, the Raider ship you mention could've been carried many hundreds of lightyears, meaning hundreds of thousands of star systems..."

"We're in need of assistance. We were heavily damaged by the shockwave," Unwin said.

"I can see that. I'm afraid we can't do much," Noik said. Unwin waited impatiently. Was that it?

Eventually, Noik decided to explain, "Well, we don't have adequate resources to assist stricken vessels much above our own modest tonnage. We'll give what we can, we'll send a couple more ships to assist with basic supplies and limited repairs until your own people see your beacon, and maybe we'll look to ward off any Raider ships that happen to pass this way; they'll try to scavenge you. For now though, take it easy, alright?" the diminutive Vrezku Alliance vessel turned and jumped into the supraluminal, leaving them aghast.

* * *

The unknown planet

Night had fallen but still the sacrificial axeblade had not, and Psonoir was again pinned to the ground by metal bolts. He wasn't sure but he thought he might've been taken into the town, borne on a litter for sacrificial victims. Images assaulted him of dark skies and frame-dragged incandescent lights, flickering through his mind's eye, but he couldn't tell if this was a true memory or a shadow of a dream, he only knew it remained vivid in his thoughts.

He tried yelling out for Koni but it was as if his voice was muted, the near invisible walls if walls they were dampening out all the sound. At least he had been fed, he reflected, and knew there to be a storeroom of food nearby. If only he might escape, take what he could of the food and find the other three, wherever on Hybrudea they were.

[Daniel Schirra]

An hour after sunset they began to make their way towards the first of the buildings .....

Keeping as much as possible in the shadows, they tried to investigate each structure as they reached it. They seemed uniform, a single-story cube-like construction. Most were clearly homes containing families, but then they came upon a larger building, Caryna suggested it could be a meeting hall or communal area. Either way, it was empty, so of no use to the Excalibur Officers.

Several times they were forced to take cover as people moved around, but then as they moved further along the wide thoroughfare they began to see more ornately designed buildings, larger, two then three-story constructions, and in the far distance a massive temple-like structure, sixty maybe seventy metres in height.

As they approached the first of the larger buildings several men exited carrying burning torches. They moved along the thoroughfare towards the central structure, igniting kindling in metallic baskets along either side of the roadway. It was clear to Schirra and Agosta that they would need to re-evaluate their search method. They moved to the back of the first building and continued forwards, it was then Agosta stopped, peering into the semidarkness ahead. .....

"I might have been wrong before," Agosta whispered.

"About what?" he asked.

"The origins of these people. At first I thought these people were actually Mayan, but the chances of two identical civilisations developing lightyears apart is practically impossible. There’s no mistaking the similarities, but there are noticeable differences ..... Had this been a genuine Mayan city, the main road would be wider, there would be gardens, grassed areas, statues denoting their Gods, and importantly, ways of moving vital water around, raised channels, aqueducts, and holding pools. We’ve not seen anything remotely like that thus far,"

"So 'Mayan-like' but in your opinion, that's where the similarities end?"

"I'm no history expert, but I'd say so," the Security Chief replied, turning suddenly!

"What?" Daniel whispered.

"That building, there’s a light inside. I thought for a second I saw someone moving around,"

"Another home? ... Wait here I'll take a look..." he ordered then moved towards the back of the building where could hear several people speaking. Risking being seen, he crouched below one of the windows, he inched upwards and could see two men, they were clearly questioning or interrogating someone, but whoever it was seemed to be against the same wall as the window and thus out of sight ..... He moved away and back into the shadows:

"..... Two men, they don’t seem so happy with a third person in there,"

"Psonoir, T'Seng?" she asked hopefully.

"No idea ..... Whoever else was in there either wouldn't or couldn't reply," he said frustratedly. Suddenly the voices fell silent then a door slammed closed. This time both retraced Schirra's steps and Caryn moved under the window. Schirra got down on all fours so she could stand on his back to reach the small opening, after only a few seconds she dropped to the ground next to him.

"It’s KONI. She's gagged and looks unconscious; we must get her out!"

"Any signs of Commander Psonoir?"

"No, just T'Seng..." Agosta said already rising as Schirra pulled her back down, "... Maybe they are holding him elsewhere?"

"Then we need to try to locate him before freeing her ..." he said, knowing he wanted to free T’Seng but couldn’t risk being discovered before they had both, "... We have a few hours before dawn, I doubt they will do anything to harm either one before sunup. Come on," he said, moving away ..........

[Daniel Schirra]

Despite reservations, the two continued their search of buildings as best they could for another hour... Further down the main avenue which seemed to separate the buildings, they could see numerous structures still under construction, one, almost four stories high still had a mass of scaffolding around it, while the building to its left and right, one-story structures, were adorned with several carved figures ..... As it grew closer to dawn, the likelihood of being discovered grew exponentially, so Daniel finally decided they would return and release Koni T'Seng. They had no way of knowing that had they checked one of the smaller buildings, they would have been able to climb the external stone steps to the roof, where Karka was secured .....

As they reached the building holding T'Seng, they again checked the room. While Caryna waited, Daniel moved along the side wall towards the front, relieved that no one seemed to think that the bound woman needed constant guarding. He returned to the back and knelt to allow Agosta to clamber up and into the room, quickly, he lifted himself onto the stone cill and then dropped inside. As Caryna untied Koni he moved to the door, listening intently for any sounds of approach. Koni nodded as she was wakened, Agosta held a finger to her lips but the Tactical Officer seemed to be drugged, her eyes cloudy, speech slurred.

"Can she walk?" Schirra asked.

"I think so," Agosta replied, removing the gag and blindfold before lifting T'Seng to her feet. She waited at the back of the room while Schirra opened the door a fraction, checking the avenue beyond, turning, he nodded, then tentatively stepped outside, Agosta, holding on to Koni close behind. Quickly they moved around the back of the building then across the open ground to the treeline .....

"What about Commander Psonoir?" she asked as she set the Tactical Officer down against a tree and began checking her vital signs as best she could.

"I'm going back to take another look, you take Koni north and find somewhere to hide yourselves,"

"Ca ... pt ... ain," they both turned to see Koni trying to get to her feet.

"No ....." Agosta said, urging T'Seng back down, "You need to rest,"

"I'll ... be ... OK..." T'Seng said, realising how thirsty she was, "... They forced me to drink something, a moment later I lost consciousness ..... When I woke ... They questioned me and Commander Psonoir before someone came and ordered the Exec' to be taken out of the room. I don't know what happened to him after that ..... Captain, we have to get him out!"

"..... And we will do," Schirra replied, looking around.

"Maybe we could go back in, make another search?" Agosta said, but even now they could hear sounds as people rose and began their daily activities, thankfully thus far no alarm had been sounded regarding the disappearance of one of their captives, but they all knew that would change the moment her former captors returned to question her further.

"What did they ask you?" Daniel asked.

"I ..... I couldn't understand them," T'Seng replied.

"So they're conversing in a language the universal translators can't decipher," Caryna commented.

"Conversation isn't my main priority," Schirra said, looking back towards the sprawling city ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

As the day came up, the walls of Karka's prison began to lighten in their hue, and as he looked around he realised that he'd been outside the whole time. The walls had been the walls of the night, which had been incredibly quiet; while being used to populous post-industrial planets with their customary sounds, being on a world with wholly organic technology, no electrification or other means of power generation, made for an almost meditative silence.

Despite the metallic bolts he was able to crane his neck and see over the edge of whatever platform he was on. He found he was situated on the small roof of the pinnacle of a building, rising several platformed storeys, perhaps three or four, above the ground. A few of the natives could be seen going about their daily tasks and he wondered where the others were out there in all that. Was Koni with them now or still incarcerated as before?

His reflection was interrupted by the sounding of a horn and seven robed natives - quasi-Mayans - emerged on the small rooftop: the priest from the previous day, five others dressed like him, and the chieftain with the headdress.

"Now is the time for delivering to the god her chosen victim. Ours is not to give freely, but to surrender to the almighty one what is not ours," the head priest spoke in his inexplicably Mayan-related tongue, though it was indecipherable to Karka who for whatever reason couldn't benefit from the universal translator affixed to his torn and ragged uniform.

"The god demands the blood sacrifice. The god demands the blood of the outsider," the other priests chanted three times while the head priest and the chieftain remained silent.

"Let us surrender his sacred body in the same way we surrender those of prisoners from the men across the waters," the priest intoned.

A new quasi-Mayan appeared from steps that seemingly led down an external facing of the building, in a headdress like the chieftain's but wearing red robes. "The executioner," Karka murmured to himself as the axe the native carried became visible, glinting in the morning sunlight.

If he died he might return as another instance; it wouldn't matter, Karka decided, there would be a way back to the Excalibur for Karka Psonoir. This world-line would come to an end, but there were many other versions of himself existing in alternate timelines any of which he could access from the Hybrudea of the 29th century if he so chose. Of course, there was the philosophical matter of whether he would be the same person as the one who perished here, but...

"Before the goddess Ixchel we make sacrifice..." the head priest was saying and began to nod to the executioner, but he was interrupted as a young man in sackcloth and ashes ran on to the platform, screaming and lamenting the death of his mother; the priest's eyes blazed, "Hold, you fool!"

In a state of madness the young man barrelled into the silent chieftain and forced him back. They began to fall, the young man hitting the dust of the roof, but the chieftain was too close to the edge... He went over and plummeted down the stepped slope of the small ziggurat, his body striking the carved granite twice before coming to rest on the main street.

There was a pause. "The sacrifice has been disrupted," the head priest declared simply. "You have killed our leader," he turned mournful eyes on the young man, "And, what is of greater import, you have desacralised our task here. I must again pronounce the liturgy. First, however," he nodded at his five attendants who picked the mourning man up and threw him screaming off the edge of the building to join the chieftain. A crowd of natives had become onlookers; walking over to the two bodies they strangely spat on both the chieftain and his killer.

"The leader's son will inherit, and may his reign be blessed by Ixchel," the executioner stated, and remained ominously on the rooftop as the head priest began reciting quasi-Mayan verse to make Karka suitable for sacrifice once more.

The Excalibur officer tried the metal bonds again; there was no give, but the intervention of the crazed mourner had given him perhaps an hour's reprieve...

[Daniel Schirra]

Outside City ::

It had taken the three Excalibur Officers almost two hours to find somewhere they considered relatively safe, while Caryna remained with the traumatised T'Seng, he had found a deep vase or ewer and had gone in search of much-needed water .....

Having found a point of reference, he began to move up the rise ahead of him, Still concerned as to the fate of his friend and Exec' he almost walked right into a small party of natives, all women, who were carrying wicker-style baskets of fruit. He waited for them to pass down the trail before retracing their steps.

Finally, he came upon a large grove and had to stand back in admiration ..... There were numerous foodstuffs being cultivated, squash, avocado, tomatoes, maize, he could hear water running too!

"About time we had some luck," he muttered as he circumnavigated the crops until reaching a stream that he assumed supplied the city below with their fresh water. He filled the ewer and then took off his tunic. He moved through the crops picking only what he thought they would immediately need, knowing they could return if necessary... By the time he returned to the others, Koni was sat up and clearly rested. He handed Caryna the ewer and she helped Koni drink before taking some herself, he had put his tunic on the ground and picked what they needed, enjoying the cool nourishment in silence.

"What about Commander Psonoir?" Caryna finally asked what was on their minds. Daniel had no way of knowing what had occurred in the city after they had left, but he could only hope that Karka was still alive.

"Without weapons, we're vastly outnumbered..." he said, pausing to bite into one of the tomatoes, "... Our best option would be to go in under the cover of darkness and free him,"

"If they keep him alive another day!" Koni said in almost a whisper.

"You think he's already dead?" Caryna asked her.

"No ..... At least I didn't get the impression they wanted to kill either of us immediately ..... When we first arrived, they had brought two men into the central plaza area, where the largest building is..." she explained, she too pausing to sip more of the water to quench her thirst, "... We could hear them arguing, and assumed the two prisoners were from a neighbouring settlement or sect. But far from holding them, they knelt both in the square and beheaded them there and then!"

Daniel and Caryna looked at her, realising what could have happened.

"They questioned you both?" Schirra asked.

"Yes ..... All that first day ..... The universal translators either couldn't decypher their tongue or had been damaged in some way. So they became more and more frustrated. One of the hierarchy seemed to want our deaths, but others seemed more 'curious' if that's the right word. They took Karka's tunic, feeling at the cloth, knowing it was not something they or their neighbouring cities could have manufactured. It at least gave us a stay of execution, but they came back, beating the Exec' almost into unconsciousness several times. Late in the afternoon, they came back but this time dragged him out of the room ..... They didn't bring him back," she said before falling silent.

"We need to rescue him, Captain," Caryna said.

"Koni, we didn't have much time to look around, what weapons did you see?"

"Basics... Clubs, spears, animal hide slingshot, blowpipes, for hunting, knives... But they are extremely proficient with what they have Captain, I wouldn't like to put odds on anyone taking them in one-to-one combat,"

"Nevertheless... They aren't going to keep Pisnor alive indefinitely, so we're going to have to risk it,"

"There was one other thing Captain..." Koni said, finishing the avocado before continuing, "... We got the distinct feeling they were readying themselves for conflict, there were lots of weapons on show, much more than you'd expect for a peaceful settlement,"

"It's known that Mayan rulers often attacked neighbouring cities, they would take all their treasures as their own, enslave the males and force them to work, sometimes until they dropped dead through sheer exhaustion..." The women were forced into the fields to work the crops, some were ....." Caryna didn't finish the sentence, nor did she need to.

"Captain, there's no way we could hope to find Commander Psonoir during daylight, we'd never get close," Koni said.

"Then we go back as soon as the sun sets!" ..........

~~~~~~~~~~


As they reached the city, the fires had already been lit, and the central plaza or square was deserted. They made their way around the buildings, almost circumnavigating the open area before coming upon the buildings they had seen the previous night. Atop one of the single-story buildings someone was standing with his back to them.

"Guard, lookout?" Schirra asked.

"Why post a lookout in the centre of the city?" Koni whispered.

"Sir, the Mayan often used the roofs of buildings for, other purposes," Caryna said worriedly. Daniel looked around and could see stone steps leading to the roof of the building they were concealed behind. He told them to wait as he began to cautiously climb, nervous that he might alert the occupants within ..... At roof level, he risked raising his head and looked over the wide avenue towards the lone man. Someone else was on the roof, prone and seemingly tethered!

"He's on that ROOF... We can't wait any longer, we may never get another opportunity like this, we're going to get him out, NOW!" he said as he returned to the others. In silence, they crossed the avenue and flattened themselves against the wall of the nearest building. Moving slowly, they took turns crossing the small space between each structure until they were below the roof where Karka was being held. Atop the roof were four baskets, one in each corner, all lit, the flames casting eerie shadows. Daniel began to climb the steps until he was directly beneath the roof level. The guard, was mere metres away, his back still to Schirra, he waited impatiently while Agosta and T'Seng checked there were no others wandering around then climbed the last few steps.

He took one pace forward and then landed a blow to the man's carotid artery, catching the unconscious man, lowering him before he fell, he waved to the others who clambered onto the roof ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

The walls of the day had once more turned to black and Karka began preparing himself for the inevitable. There had been no sign from Schirra or d'Agosta, or indeed T'Seng if she'd been able to join up with them - for which there was no guarantee anyway - and it was clear to him there wasn't going to be an intervention, from the Excal officers or anyone else.

Alone of the Mayans remaining on the roof, the priest had droned on in the unknown language, alike to many Earth Mayan languages but different from all in crucial respects. The Excalibur officer wondered whether those key differences - for if nothing else was obvious, these fundamental aspects were - were significant, might tell his colleagues (not him as he was about to be executed) something about how this society with so many similarities to the civilisation of Central America came to be here.

The head priest ceased in his latest hymn to one of the Mayan pantheon and turned to another group of priests who'd arrived, "My litany is over, Ixchel has been placated! She has forgiven us for our tardiness in surrendering what is hers." He smiled unnervingly.

"The ritual has been consummated. The ritual has been consummated," the priests intoned.

Emerging onto the small platform that formed the roof was one of the officials from earlier, and if there were any doubts in Psonoir's mind about who it might be the ornately decorated axe he carried in two hands banished them. Karka looked at the head priest, "You've really spared no expense." The priest knitted his brow, just as frustrated by the language barrier as were Karka and his Excal colleagues.

The priest cried out in baffled rage and beckoned to the executioner. The torch light in metal bowls now illuminated the Mayan's red robes and the blade of the axe; he approached Karka and shifted the axe into one hand, lowering it by its head to the sandstone of the small ziggurat.

"Well, it's a nice night for it," Psonoir said, looking up at the flame-reddened skies. You're doing well, Karka. Equanimity, like Zeno of Citium, the avatar of his friend Lirwa said in his mind. "What?" Psonoir said aloud.

The priest heard him and this time he'd managed to understand, though Karka had no way of knowing it because the priest spoke another indecipherable phrase to the executioner, which in his own language went something like, "The outsider is puzzled. He has no idea of the glory he is about to experience. Still, this man and his friend's ignorance of the sacred law is not to be tolerated. He must be sacrificed, and the woman must be sacrificed; there is no more."

The executioner nodded; minutes remained before the axe fell, but the pair wouldn't get to what they wanted as shadowy figures raised themselves on to the rooftop and charged the short distance.

The Excal officers ran past the robed temple staff who clearly didn't want a fight. The fragile priests cried out and cowered away from the apparent onslaught of an unknown foe. There had been the man and the woman, perhaps from the heavens. Were there many more?

"Expedite the sacrifice!" the head priest hissed having managed to compose himself, "The great Ixchel will understand. All this is meant to please her."

Schirra and T'Seng headed towards the executioner who'd begun raising his axe, while d'Agosta made for the head priest. The executioner grinned at his opponents, an expression which split his face-covering tattoo, and swung his huge axe-wielding arms loosely at Koni, slashing her badly - but in no way mortally - across the left upper arm.

Karka lay there helplessly in the apparently unbreakable chains that ran through eyes of metal bolts fixing him to the ground. The melee went on above him, the head priest having drawn a poison-tipped knife and showing himself to be adept in close combat, making stabbing motions as Caryna tried to draw closer.


Across the plaza, centre of Narinje

"There is news. I'm afraid the sacrifice of the outsider is not going to plan," the grey eminence Kehm'ja spoke to the new ruler of the city in the mostly empty court of night. He regarded the leader skeptically; this young whelp was there to be manipulated.

"I didn't care for my father's policy in that matter," the newly ordained chieftain said, "Return and prepare for our fight with the men of the river. I told you I want ten thousand men ready by dawn," he stepped down from his pedestal, "We'll lead the two outsiders before us into the inevitable battle; during the parley... well, perhaps our enemies will know something about them."

"There are now four of them, ajaw!"

[Daniel Schirra]

The three clambered up the exterior stone steps and paused, listening intently to what was clearly some ritualistic incantation. Caryna whispered to Schirra that she was concerned given Psonoir's situation .....

Daniel stepped onto the roof, careful not to give his presence away as Koni and Caryna followed suit. He took a step forward and incapacitated the first of those present, lowering the unconscious man to the roof as the executioner turned, his eyes almost glowing in the firelight as he saw the three outsiders, he silently reflected on his good fortune, hoping the gods would look favourably on his actions.

With Schirra and T'Seng moving towards the axe-wielding native, Caryna turned to the priest. At first, he had seemed almost frightened at their appearance, but now he was clearly standing his ground as he pulled a slim dagger from his belt.

Twice she was almost cut, but had put the stone dais Psonoir was shackled to between her and the man. The executioner was overcome, the axe falling from his grasp as Daniel landed a kick to his jaw, tumbling the man over the edge, a 'thud' announcing his impact with the ground. The priest turned, his eyes darting back and forth between them. For a second they thought he would run, or rather 'jump' but instead he turned the knife over in his grip and then lunged at Psonoir!

Caryna threw herself at the man, forcing him to miss plunging the knife into the Exec' but again he recovered only to have Schirra land a blow to his temple, finally knocking the man out cold. Caryna kicked the knife off the roof and the three turned their attention to the dais and the shackled Excalibur Officer.

Frustration grew exponentially as they tried and failed to release the chains until Karka patiently suggested the axe. With weapon in hand, Daniel carefully slid the blade between the links and began to turn, forcing the link open a fraction. Taking a breath he repositioned the blade and twisted it again, then a third time unto the link was open enough for Psonoir to release his hand. With Koni and Caryna acting as lookouts, Karka and Daniel worked together to open the remaining shackles. Psonoir turned to lower his legs over the edge of the ornate stone dais as he rubbed each wrist in turn.

"Can you walk?" Daniel whispered.

"We'll soon find out," Karka replied, pushing himself off the dais, the three could see him stifling a cry as pain shot up each leg as if he were ablaze. Taking several deep breaths he felt relief as the pain began to subside.

They had been on the roof for less than five minutes, though it felt much much longer, and they were beginning to be concerned that their efforts might be discovered at any moment, so patiently Daniel helped Karka down the flight of steps, he could feel his Exec' tense for a second with each footfall, and hear the sharp intake of breath, but as they reached the bottom Psonoir insisted he could manage on his own, reluctantly, Schirra released his hold.

"Which way?"

"Back the way we came ...... We found a secluded spot off the proverbial beaten track," Schirra replied, nodding to Koni to take the lead.

Crossing the plaza undetected, they moved between the single-story buildings on the outskirts and into the treeline where they endeavoured to put some distance between them and any possible pursuers! ..........

[Daniel Schirra]

Despite Karka's pain, which was easing quickly now that his full circulation had been restored, they had made good time ..... What was worrying Schirra as they retraced their steps, was the fact that despite hearing unmistakable sounds of a large gathering of men in the city, no one seemed to be pursuing them. 'So why not?' he wondered.

Reaching the area where the crops and fruit were grown, they quickly picked enough to see them through the next three days, careful to pick randomly so as not to leave gaps, they picked avocado, maize, tomatoes, and even a few potatoes, then they began to move upstream. This allowed them to get to higher ground and hopefully see any pursuers much earlier.

"Captain ....." Caryna said as they walked along the bank.

"Yes,"

"What happened, the last I remember is us being in the Cargo bay ....."

"Yes, but somehow we were, relocated," Karka said cryptically.

"Where are we?" Koni asked.

"You're guess is as good as mine Commander..." Daniel replied, inwardly frustrated with his lack of information, "... This is clearly an 'M' Class planet, as to technological development, if what we had seen so far was anything to go by, as Caryna initially thought, they're remarkably similar to the Maya, which lived on Earth some five hundred to seven hundred years 'before' the birth of Christ ..... As to how the two races could have developed almost three thousand years and who knows how many light years apart, is, to say the least, beyond me,"

"Expanding from a single to multi-story structures tends to follow a regular progression..." Agosta said, trying to help, "... Building one level atop a first you wouldn't try to go bigger, for obvi ....." she stopped speaking suddenly, pointing ahead of them. Everyone moved off the track and into relative concealment and waited. A moment later a dozen men, carrying axes, and spears passed by. Daniel waited until they were well out of sight before moving.

"They were dressed differently..." Agosta said, glancing back down the track, "... Two of them were carrying blowpipes, likely with curare-tipped arrows, normally for hunting, but would kill a man in seconds if the dose was large enough,"

"You think they are why nobody has come looking for us?" T'Seng asked.

"Possibly ....." the Security Officer replied, "... Sir ... Are we going to be stranded here, for ....." Caryna stopped mid-question, but everyone knew what she was asking.

"We have food, water, shelter shouldn't be hard to find, so we're not going to starve, die of thrust, or freeze to death. Our priority is to find out if we've already met the apex technology race on the planet thus far, which seems likely unless any of you have spotted any contrails crisscrossing the cloudless sky?" he immediately regretted his reply, knowing that he should be setting an example, not snapping at his Officers, but it seemed they already understood his frustration.

"We should assume that the Excalibur is actively searching for us," Karka said.

"Then I suggest we all enjoy our enforced vacation before we're forced to return to business as usual," Daniel said with a wry grin before setting off once more

~~~~~~~~~~

In the centre of the Plaza, the young Chieftan eyed those before him with complete disregard. On their knees, trembling with fear: two guards, the priest, and the executioner .....

One pace behind the Chieftan, Kehm'ja watched proceedings, knowing full well that any comment, however insignificant, could see him kneeling with the others, but he had to speak if only to secure his tenuous position.

"My Lord, our two best warriors... They will hunt the strangers if you so wish..." the Chieftan barely nodded in agreement and Kehm'ja quickly dispatched the two with a wave of his hand, "... and these?" he said, waving at the kneeling men.

"Behead them, and their families!" the Chieftan said, before walking away ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

Back-post, escape from the city

Psonoir limped along with the others, doing his best not to fall behind which given the efficiency of his Hybrudean-adapted respiratory system and the speed of his metabolism in repairing the slight atrophy, wounds and bruises inflicted on his legs wasn't too much of a problem. Still, the limp was real, while the exaggeration he put into it was habitual, a perhaps unnecessary warding off of suspicion from his fellow officers at his healing powers.

The four were in a tight spot a couple times in escaping the city. The second time, Karka had even used consciousness acceleration to allow him time to predict the movements of a number of Mayan spearmen and choose a moment to dart through the intersection undetected.

They arrived at the grove that three of them had left just after sundown. It was now nearly morning, the star of this unknown system - at whatever small or vast distance it was from the Excalibur - edged its way towards the southern horizon. "There is food?" Karka asked, and was led into the zone under cultivation. He traipsed through the greenery and picked some fruit down from trees, "Most excellent."

* * *

The city Narinje

The courtiers had returned to the cool darkness of the royal chamber, in the wake of their chieftain who led on in his eccentric way, dour and lenient one moment, playful, sadistic and cruel the next. "I don't wish for them to be sacrificed," the young man who had been made chieftain in place of his deceased father declared.

As the ruler spoke, an attendant entered the court chamber and whispered to the would be power-behind-the-throne, Kehm'ja, while another courtier from the row of titled nobles spluttered at the chieftain, "But Ixchel demands their blood, ajaw!"

The chieftain turned on the speaker, his headdress of feathers vibrating with the sudden movement, "Who is better placed to understand the will of Ixchel than I, Marija? I am the goddess's intermediary and spokesman on the face of the..." he trailed off and frowned. On the face of what? What was the nature of the All? he asked himself not for the first time.

An idea of a distant homeland or an imagined memory came to him, an image of the grandeur of Chichen Itza, or how his people thought it might be. None of them had ever known it except through - and they were unaware of it - an artificially installed and phylogenetically preserved set of shared experiences, memories not their own but of the Maya of Earth... Semi-consciously, the new chieftain knew that this culture of his had travelled a long way in space, even if the bearers of the culture - he and his fellow tribesmen - had not.

"Of course. You are our ajaw," Marija replied and did obeisance.

The ajaw/chieftain had him rise while the grey eminence Kehm'ja thought on the young man's distraction. The idealistic youth was worrying about problems of origin again, no doubt, about where the things of their tribe had come from, customs, religion, technology. Kehm'ja thought he might eventually use the youth's preoccupation to his advantage,

"Then we're to allow the outsiders to live and instead see what our enemies make of them?" Kehm'ja asked, the chieftain nodding. "All is well then, ajaw. Word has just arrived from a retainer of mine, one of the scouts has found the outsiders to the northwest!"

"The men of the river patrol that area. Take a small unit with you," the chieftain nodded.

* * *

Present, some way into the hills up river

They'd climbed alongside the river for some miles that morning. "But there has to be something we can do. We can't remain here forever," T'Seng was saying as they sat down for lunch, wiping renewed blood away from the cut on her arm - delivered by the axe of the executioner. "If we can gather enough raw materials, we might be able to build a primitive version of... some form of Starfleet tech."

"What though?" Karka said, "A communicator? A tricorder? The latter may be useful, but I doubt whether we'd be able to find some of the more exotic metals that would go into a basic device. The same goes for a long-range distress beacon, say; actually that would be even more difficult. I suppose we could create rarer metals in chemical reactions... look to find them in so many decay products, but the reaction would have to be fission or fusion and I don't see how we could find the requisite energy source..." he trailed off.

Schirra had seen it, "Get down!" But they had already been spotted. The Mayan spearman on the distant rise darted away from his vantage point, heading back towards the town with news of the outsiders, too nimble and distant to be held in his flight.

The quasi-Mayans came when the sun was well up, but not in force. Psonoir espied them making their way through the trees up towards the Excal officers' location... A small number of spear and bow-wielding Mayans now arranged themselves either side of a clearing in the trees - at the start of the approach to the grove - and Kehm'ja, the grey eminence in the court of the new ajaw, stepped forward into the open space, flanked by two courtiers of lesser rank,

"I am Advisor Kehm'ja!" he called out, "The chieftain of the city-state of Narinje beckons you to his side. This is no trap. He wishes... to preserve your lives, to withhold them from the goddess Ixchel," the Mayan tried not to grind his jaw. He would play along with the young chieftain's wishes, for now; it served his purpose to have the city's new ruler think he would obey him in all matters. Unfortunately, just as before, the outsiders hadn't really understood.

Karka glanced at the others with whom he crouched amongst the trees and foliage, shaking his head, but Caryna thought she'd detected one or two words that almost sounded like Federation standard.

"We wish to show you to a neighbouring city. The tribesmen from the river and from the cities beyond it may help us understand some of your customs, and your infidelity as regards the goddess," Kehm'ja continued.

"He mentioned another city. No name," Caryna said.

Daniel nodded at her appreciatively. At first Karka thought Caryna had begun to crack this Mayan language but then realised all four of them had understood some of the speech; Karka discerned enough to suggest a sentence, "I think he wants to take us to that city... and perhaps to others. Or so he says."

"Why would we surrender ourselves to those who tried to kill at least one of our officers?" Schirra called through the trees down to the clearing, and the Starfleeters heard a muffled cry of triumph; evidently the Mayan official had understood in return. Their universal translators had begun working; had the devices learnt the language or had something been blocking their functioning... some sort of interference? There was a hubbub from the clearing; weapons were being thrown on the forest floor.

"I say again my name is Kehm'ja, advisor to the chieftain of Narinje city-state," the deep voice carried a long way, "Look, the honour guard is now disarmed. Come, I'll take you to the chieftain, he will join you to our army that is to challenge our neighbours. You will join us in the parley. Our neighbours' habits, too, are unusual. They will know who you are and where you have come from." Karka doubted it.

[Daniel Schirra]

They had eaten and moved further into the jungle ..... They were discussing options, Karka addressing Daniel directly. Schirra saw his Exec' glance, for a fraction of a second, to his left without pausing his conversation.

"Company?" Schirra mouthed silently, Karka blinked twice.

There was no point in trying to conceal themselves or run, so they waited while the incomers reached them, waiting as one, presumably their leader, stepped forward:

"I am Advisor Kehm'ja...!" he called out, "... The chieftain of the city-state of Narinje beckons you to his side. This is no trap. He wishes... to preserve your lives, to withhold them from the goddess Ixchel,"

"Why would we surrender ourselves to those who tried to kill at least one of our officers?"

"I say again, my name is Kehm'ja, advisor to the chieftain of Narinje city-state..." the deep voice carried a long way, "... SEE... The honour guard is now disarmed. Come, I'll take you to the chieftain, he will join you to our army that is to challenge our neighbours. You will join us in the parley. Our neighbours' habits, too, are unusual. They will know who you are and where you have come from."

"What guarantees do we have that you or your 'ruler' are not trying to entrap us without bloodshed?" T'Seng asked. forcing the Advisor to look in her direction. For a second he remained silent, then spat an obscenity, the context making it clear he wasn't willing to deal with a mere 'woman' before returning his gaze to Schirra and Psonoir, then waved a hand, all around them, natives suddenly stepped from the trees only metres away. Had Schirra not seen it with his own eyes he wouldn't have believed anyone could have got so close to the Federation Officers undetected, yet there they were, most notable, they appeared unarmed.

"My Lord wishes you no harm, alas, that cannot be said for others, those we wish to defeat for example ..... You have seen what happens to the disloyal, almost suffering the same fate yourselves. So ..... Will you come?"

Daniel turned to Karka and spoke quietly:

"Well?"

"I don't think we have much choice, even unarmed we're outnumbered twenty-to-one," he said, falling silent as Schirra turned back to Kehm'ja:

"We will accompany you back to your city, but we will 'NOT' walk at the head of your army or anyone else's,"

"This is what my Lord wishes, it would be, unwise to deny the great honour he is bestowing upon you...!" the Advisor said, the unspoken threat clear as crystal, "... Maybe our newly appointed Ruler will be able to persuade you, after all, he only wishes 'your' presence," he finished, glancing at the two women dismissively.

"..... And our, colleagues?" Karka asked, but Kehm'ja merely grinned.

"There is work, they will help the city thrive, it is rewarding work to serve our appointed Ruler, do you not have such a system where you, originate from?" he asked, eyes locked on Schirra.

"Where we reside, all are equal, no one is set above another," Caryna said defiantly glaring at the Advisor almost hearing him to act, but all her comment got was a chorus of laughter from the surrounding natives until Kehm'ja raised a hand.

"Before we make a decision on whether to accompany you..." Schirra said, knowing there weren't really any choices here, they went or likely died here and now, but he pressed on, his face expressionless, "... I want your word that my associates will remain free and unharmed, otherwise, we might need to decline your, offer,"

"My word is Law among our people, when I speak, I speak for the ajar as if he himself was addressing his subjects," he said cryptically.

"Then lead on," Daniel said, turning to look at the others before following Kehm'ja ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

OOC: Sorry if the post is a little long

IC:
"You will be taken before him now. Bow, be respectful! He is the right hand of Ixchel upon this earth," Kehm'ja told them. The entrance to the central chamber of the ajaw's palace was a wide rectangle of smooth surfaced granite blocks inscribed with various symbols, a writing system representing the mysterious quasi-Mayan language no doubt.

"You call your world Earth?" Karka felt impelled to ask, the advisor barely tolerating that someone should speak at this sacred moment.

"What? Ah... you play the same foolish games as the ajaw. Theorising on the nature of 'the world', what makes the soil, what is a star, how does the goddess Ixchel produce the water she brings to us... and other nonsense like that! The earth is the earth... There is no more. Enter!" the advisor boomed and a small forest of spears was lowered threateningly. They had become the distinguished guests, apparently, but Karka still felt as if their lives could be snuffed out at any moment.

Was the chieftain, or ajaw as Kehm'ja called him, some philosopher then? As the four of them were ushered into the expansive room at the centre of the court, Psonoir wondered whether his enquiries extended to ethics and even the slightest of respect for the life of others - he could at least hope so.

Candles scattered the gloom and revealed - against one of the short sides of the chamber - a modest throne upon a dais. The throne was empty. "Our apologies," one of the courtiers already present said, Karka was told his name was Marija, "His Divinity is coordinating a new strike on the men of the river." His Divinity was evidently the ajaw/chieftain. The nervous courtier cowered away suddenly, Karka being unsure of the problem until he noticed that the grey eminence Kehm'ja hadn't missed a beat and with his spearmen had waltzed to the area in front of the throne dais, "In the ajaw's absence, Advisor Kehm'ja commands us, wherein his word is the Law of Ixchel, as he has told you," Marija managed.

"Kehm'ja, will you listen to us? You are making a mistake. We can tell you where we come from," Schirra said.

"Foolish games. Certainly for us, who know little and would speculate uselessly. The ajaw would wish to know it, though..." Kehm'ja said and looked away regretfully, dismayed at his ruler's curiosity. "No, we don't expect you to enlighten us as to your origin... It is clear from your behaviour and manner of dress that you are simpletons, uncivilised folk from unknown parts. Our antagonists, the men of the river, will tell us all. They know of these things. Prepare yourselves for the parley... These will look after you."

Kehm'ja called forward several people wanting to take Schirra and Psonoir away - various attendants carrying new apparel and various unguents, and a number of concubines, while brutes bearing spears forced T'Seng and d'Agosta away from the other officers and into a corner of the chamber.

Karka looked sharply at the grey eminence, "Beyond returning to the city with you, we told you we would not cooperate."

"As you are fully aware, you have no choice in the matter," Kehm'ja intoned.

"We'll go into the parley with your enemy," Schirra agreed, "But we will not allow our officers to be treated this way," he pointed to the security and tactical officers who were being forced out of the chamber by a side-door. "We'd rather die, knowing that they are being treated like dirt."

"You have already changed your position," Kehm'ja clasped his hands together, "No, soon you will do whatever we ask of you. Won't they, Marija?"

"As you say, Advis- "

"Kehm'ja!" the ajaw announced his presence. Karka watched the man warily as he entered the court chamber with his ceremonial guards, all decked out in what he guessed were the regal colours and iconography of Narinje. The chieftain approached his counsellor and spoke in his ear, "These are our honoured guests, Kehm'ja. You wouldn't be causing trouble for them, would you?"

Was he really chiding him or only putting on a show? Karka observed politely that the chieftain himself had given orders to sacrifice two of the Excalibur officers to the gods.

The young ajaw looked surprised, "Come now, the command was given by my father. I followed the policy, yes, but soon realised the serious error the late ajaw had made. I would suggest you start looking for a friend at court... Who better than myself? I'm afraid you'll find little sympathy from Kehm'ja. He is constantly wanting to drop the axe on all and sundry, I have my own taste for blood, that's for sure, but I have to hold him back!"

Psonoir studied the Mayan closely. Was this a reflection of reality or just court theatre? He had to believe there was something in the young man that would guide events such that the Excalibur officers would not end up being killed... He was new to his office - now his father had been murdered by the crazed mourner during Karka's sacrifice - and he was young. Was he still impressionable?

"In light of the outsiders' customs, we say that their women will be treated with the respect owed a well to do merchant," the ajaw decreed and Kehm'ja nearly choked. "To ensure adherence to our new law, for the rest of this day we allow one of the two outsiders to stay with the women so that they may be assured they are being kept here with honour. One will watch over their women, the other will be immersed in our customs and prepared to meet the perfidious, but knowledgeable, men of the river. At nightfall the outsider with the women will return, and will be similarly acclimatised to our ways. This is our most sacred will." The ajaw nodded at Kehm'ja and the nearest guards. "You really are the most curious people..."

Spearmen stepped up to Karka and virtually surrounded him. Am I still a distinguished guest? He was led from the chamber to see Koni and Caryna but only for the rest of the day, while Daniel was taken alone into another part of the palace for supposed cultural immersion.

* * *

Arriving in cramped quarters in a corner of the palace's second floor, Psonoir was relieved to find the two Excal officers at least comfortable. Through the small head-height window he could see the daylight was already fading. He could just make out the guard standing inside the door. Karka walked up to him, vaguely wondering whether he was free to leave. "Who are these men of the river?" he asked eventually.

The guard seemed troubled, speaking slowly, "They are of the Maya... They dwell by the river." Karka waited without expression. "They are Maya, but they wear clothes like yours. The ajaw says they know things. They'll know about you!" Nothing more was forthcoming, and it was evident the guard had reached the limits of his knowledge.

In a daze Psonoir turned and sat heavily on a chair beside Koni and Caryna. Clothes like ours? Surely not? Perhaps all outsiders' wear is seen as the same, the alternative was unthinkable...

[Daniel Schirra]

"To ensure adherence to our new law, for the rest of this day we allow one of the two outsiders to stay with the women so that they may be assured they are being kept here with honour. One will watch over their women, the other will be immersed in our customs and prepared to meet the perfidious, but knowledgeable, men of the river. At nightfall, the outsider with the women will return and will be similarly acclimatised to our ways. This is our most sacred will..." The Ajaw nodded at Kehm'ja and the nearest guards. "...You really are the most curious people..."

Daniel watched, remaining purposely silent, thus allowing the young ruler to believe his word would be obeyed without question as the room cleared, but the moment the doors closed the Ajaw's expression changed dramatically!

"You no doubt believe us foolish, nieve, unlearned..." the young Ruler said, lowering himself onto an ornate throne while the two remaining guards and Kehm'ja, watched.

"I meant no disrespect ....." Schirra said, making the slightest of bows before continuing, "... But you appear young for such an exalted position,"

"I was born on the eighth day of K’ank’in, seventeen cycles hence," the Ruler said, his eyebrows raised as if expecting Schirra to comment. Daniel meanwhile had given up trying to remember his history and made a less than educated guess that the boy looked around seventeen years old, no wonder the Advisor silently loathed his Ajaw.

"You mentioned those of the river. Can you tell me anything more?"

"What more is there to know, you will be indoctrinated into our ways and will lead my most experienced warriors into conflict... This is my wish and so it will be done," the Ajar said as if the subject was now closed.

"I'm sorry, but we explained to your Advisor that while we would freely accompany him into the city and to the audience you so graciously allowed, we would in no way be a party to any conflict you have with a neighbouring city or peoples. It is our most strict rule of non-interference, we call it our 'Prime Directive' and because of this cannot be part to your rivalry," for a second the Ajaw eyed Schirra as if trying to decide what to make of the strangers' defiance. Yes, they were outsiders, but surely they would know the consequences of openly defying their Ruler would they not?

"You refuse?" he asked, looking like the question was almost alien to him.

"We do ..... As I said, we are not permitted, regardless of the circumstances or threat to our own lives, to take sides in a species' domestic conflicts ..... We can, however, offer to mediate between you and the River Peoples, in the hopes of a mutually agreed settlement between you both, thus avoiding any loss of life on either side,"

"The River People, they are Maya, but 'different' from ourselves..." the Ajaw said, seemingly considering the offer to help as he rose from the throne to approach Daniel, once within arms reach he brought his arm up, backhanding Schirra so hard he was knocked off his feet, Dan tasted blood as it oozed from the split in the inside of his right cheek. The Ajar continued as if the event hadn't taken place, "... They had thought to defeat us once, but we fought back, but only by bringing the ki'thit and tur'koi cites into the fight, now though, those of the River have gained their trust, and we are, less." the youth finished, clearly unhappy at admitting they had tried, and failed, to be rid of whoever was living beside the river.

Daniel began to get to his feet but the tips of two spears at the back of his neck forced him to remain crouched on one knee.

"You will learn our ways, not all of course, but enough that when you stand before the River People they will know we have help,"

"One, even, all four of us isn't going to convince anyone you have an army Ajaw!" Schirra said as the blow landed, knocking him unconscious ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

After a while there were signs of activity outside the room, butts of spears being slammed against the granite flooring. "Advisor Kehm'ja!"

The Mayan courtier entered in his long robes with an unarmed heavy, ignoring Koni and Caryna and turning to Karka, "You are to come with me, to learn our ceremonies, to lose your barbaric attire and be donned in the fine robes of the court and in other ways made suitable to be in the presence of the divine ajaw."

Karka had grown used to the length of the Mayan planet's days, but he hadn't realised the time had arrived already. It was distinctly different from Earth time, the use the quasi-Mayan sages tried to make of the ancient Mayan calendars only led to confusion, as those were configured for Earth time and another world was something most of them couldn't conceive, except through some distant inherited memory.

"What about my colleagues?" Karka tried to keep the aggression out of his voice.

Kehm'ja's furrowed his brow, the only part of his head that possessed any hair, and eventually realised that Psonoir meant Koni and Caryna. Unlike Karka the Advisor didn't hide his personal offence. "You, my blue-dressed barbarian friend, are to come with me. The ajaw's ruling is that the women remain here... in honour!" he spoke the words as if he was having a hard time believing them.

"And do you always follow the ajaw's rulings?"

Kehm'ja paused, "He who has command is to be obeyed at all times, as if we were conducting the rituals of the goddess Ixchel. At all times," he repeated firmly and smiled, turning to exit the room and expecting Karka to follow him. He didn't move, and the heavy had to force him. He nodded to Koni who'd promised to do all she could to escape with Caryna, as long as it seemed prudent to try it, and was pushed out the door into Kehm'ja's wake.

He meditated on the grey eminence's words, he who has command is to be obeyed at all times... Who does Advisor Kehm'ja really think has the power in his city-state?

* * *

The Advisor left Karka eventually, giving him a dark look as he was given over to an attendant. Karka was made to dress in the standard robes of the Narinje court. Looking ridiculous, he was led into the rooms of the ajaw and into a study, the ajaw was sat at a long table weighted down with endless sheafs of real paper made from animal skins; with him were two simply attired and elderly Mayans, sorting through some of the codices.

"The other outsider!" the young chieftain rose and approached him excitedly, "Myself and my wise men are in search of an important inscription, written at least 500 cycles ago. We understand it mentions people from the heavens and foretells their coming. That's where you have come from, isn't it, the heavens!"

Karka put on a look of puzzlement, "How can one drop out of the sky?"

"Ah ha, It's a question I've often asked myself. But now I have one before me who may answer it!" The ajaw returned eagerly to the table and riffled through some of the papers, "Your compatriot said some interesting things." Karka realised he meant Captain Schirra. What have they done with him? "He spoke of a prime directive. Nothing has ever been heard of in this world, and yes, I believe there are others... though the likes of Kehm'ja think I'm wasting my time. My sages travel far and wide collecting information and building Narinje's archive of knowledge. We know of a vast multitude of peoples, their histories and cultures on the face of this earth... and none of them resemble you. I know about your flying machine, lost to the flames."

The ship on which they were brought here, Psonoir guessed, of the people who'd kidnapped the four of them from the Excalibur almost immediately before the event that'd evidently blown the kidnapping vessel way off course - and worryingly may have had a similar impact on the Excalibur...

"Then allow us to try to go back," Karka said eventually, hoping that Daniel would not mind. It was now about damage limitation. This pre-industrial society had already become aware of them, had an inkling they were not native to the world - however tenuous and limited their understanding of their world as just one entity amongst many was. To ask to be able to leave as soon as possible was the simplest way out.

"But your colleague has already promised to mediate between us and the men of the river," the ajaw said innocently.

The caprice of the ajaw was complete as he gestured at a wall, at which time an unseen attendant activated a series of ropes and pulleys, raising another wall which was shown to be a giant door, it retracted into a slot in the ceiling and shockingly revealed a prison cell in which was ensconced Captain Schirra!

The youthful ajaw looked again at Karka, "Perhaps you alone will mediate with our enemy. Perhaps both of you both will. Let's see," he laughed as if this was entertainment. He gestured again and a section of the wall in the cell rolled back... After approaching the new aperture at first, Daniel then stood back, as one by one in loped three panthers which turned towards the CO. The youth's previous excitable curiosity at the outsiders was for the moment gone as his eyes began to evince something like bloodlust.

[Daniel Schirra]

Impossibly slowly, his senses began to return ..... He coughed, expelling copious amounts of dust and grime from his parched throat before finally trying to open his eyes .....

He was face down on the ground, tentatively he rolled onto his side and then pushed himself into a seated position. Cautiously he reached up to where the blow had landed and could feel the swelling along with the sharp pain that seemed to run through him as if electrocuted. He recalled having a conversation with the city's leader but couldn't recall the contents of their conversation. Knowing he needed to get up he braced for the pain and scrambled shakily to his feet, it was then he realised he was tethered, a manacle, around his left ankle, was joined to a stake in the centre of the room by a thick corded rope!

As his eyes became accustomed to the dim light from a small opening towards the ceiling, he noticed a small jug, reaching down he picked it up and heard something moving within, he sniffed realising it was water, though he was half expecting the liquid to be poisoned, thrust got the better of him and he took a sip, ready to spit the contents out, but it was simply water so at least the Ajaw seemed to want him to remain among the living. He was examining the wall with the opening towards the top when he heard movement behind him, he spun, raising his hand to shield himself from the sudden illumination.

He could see two figures silhouetted against the light, then heard someone speaking .... The Ajaw, but he wasn't addressing Schirra!

"Perhaps you alone will mediate with our enemy. Perhaps both of you both will. Let's see,"

He heard another sound and turned, an aperture in the side wall was slowly rising ..... At first, he remained motionless, then took a step toward the opening, it was then he realised something was on the other side, and from the rank aroma, it could only be an animal! ..... His sense of self-preservation immediately took over and he moved to the back of the room, dragging the tether with him and waited, eyes wide, flicking between the rising door, the Ajar and his companion, then back to the opening as one, then a second and third animal entered the room.

For a moment, the panthers eyed Schirra almost dismissively as each glared warily at its brothers. One took a step forward only to be challenged by one of the other two, its objections were quelled by the low, deep-throated grown emanating dangerously from the leader of the trio. Now, with the pecking order established, the first one approached Schirra.

"If you wish to say your goodbye's I would suggest you do so quickly," Schirra heard the Ajar say and realised that whoever was standing with him could only be one of the Excalibur Officers!

"KARKA... KONI... CARYNA... IS THAT YOU?" he shouted as the lead panther snapped angrily at him. He couldn't hear any answer, his mind was consumed by the animal before him: Built for survival, muscular, agile, and fast, this thing could chase another animal across short distances, but they were more known for their prowess at ambushing their prey, now, confronted with something that couldn't escape, it was seemingly savouring its moment. Its eyes burning into his as it moved left and right, every now and then emitting a guttural growl to keep the other two in check.

"RELEASE HIM!" he heard Karka demand as his thoughts unfathomably drifted. He remembered the family pet from when he was a child, a tabby cat, loving, fun to play with, always clambering on his knee or bed hoping for some attention. But that tabby had a darker side, it had been bread from a long line of hunter-killers, and every now and then liked to show off its skills, he'd head his mother chastising the cat as she disposed of whatever corpse it had left her. It wasn't the cat's fault, it was simply 'programmed' that way.

But here was something much more adept ..... Fifty, sixty kilos of pure, murderous, killer!

Again the leader took a pace towards him, this time sniffing curiously at Schirra as the other two walked circles around each other, their eyes locked onto the impending meal. Then a crack, loud, sharp, the leader seemed indifferent but the other two reacted, both moving back from Schirra.

"You will do as I ask...?" the Ajaw was asking Karka. Daniel didn't hear, couldn't take his eyes off the animal before him .....

The panther, having amused itself long enough, paused, eyes watching Schirra, it seemed frozen in place, light glinted off the eight black, razor-sharp claws finding purchase on the ground before it ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

"You will do as I ask...?"

Karka would've found it impossible to acquiesce to the ajaw's demands in any normal situation... He knew Schirra wouldn't wish him to surrender to the chieftain even in extreme circumstances, but he thought the decision was already out of his hands, "I will..." he managed eventually and pointed to the captain, "But will he? You've already taken us into your army... I don't think we have a choice."

"You must do so willingly. Do you not by now understand that I am of a semi-divine nature, the representative of the goddess Ixchel on this earth? She demands to be loved by an act of our own free will. I will not force you... You'll come to the parley because you want to."

Karka's curiosity was piqued in a couple ways; there was that word again, 'earth'... he remembered what Kehm'ja had told the four of them about the ajaw's curiosity concerning events on other worlds. Kehm'ja called it earth because it was the earth, the ajaw at least seemed to recognise that the existence of other earths or other planets was possible and perhaps highly likely, and he'd also worked out that the Excalibur officers couldn't be from his own world, thanks to his archivists who apparently went round the different quasi-Mayan cities and catalogued everyone and everything they saw.

How do they know to call it earth? Just a coincidence? Karka thought. Concerning the real Earth, perhaps these Mayans had a memory of it, phylogenetically inherited from some primordial ancestor, and yet they clearly weren't human, so those memories if that's what they were had to have been implanted in the Mayans... But by whom?

Secondly the ajaw seemed to think that threatening the death of Schirra should constitute willingness on the science officer's part to join the army of Narinje. "So your goddess indulges in blackmail, ajaw," he turned to the young man.

"This is my whim, not hers!" the ajaw was infuriated. Karka saw that the panthers had ceased to circle and one of them - the largest - was heading inwards, about to strike at Schirra who had clenched a fist and was ready to swing for the side of the cat's head if or when it chose to lunge.

Psonoir thought the CO may be able to take down the lead panther, but with his attention occupied by the cat the others would surely immediately pounce on him. "Your colleague is under threat, reticent outsider..." the ajaw was saying, and the lead panther pounced at the same time as the grey eminence Kehm'ja entered the room.

"Ajaw! The army is ready to march. What... is this...? Your father would be disappointed in you, ajaw," the advisor said as he saw Schirra surrounded by the panthers, the captain gripping the lead animal by the throat as it snapped its jaws wildly and shook its head from side to side, trying to loosen Schirra's grip and bite through his fingers. "How is this outsider supposed to speak with the men of the river if he is dead?" Kehm'ja intoned.

"You're right..." the young ajaw sighed, beckoning to the same unseen operator of the ropes and pulleys; the walls of the cell itself were raised and the panthers, at first tearing forward, curiously on seeing the ajaw mewled and backed away submissively; they leapt for the black aperture in the far wall and disappeared from sight.

Karka glanced in surprise at the ajaw's strange power and then at Kehm'ja, almost wishing to utter a word of thanks, but the courtier turned away from him dismissively. "Are you alright, Captain?" Karka asked Schirra instead, as the CO emerged into the main area of the ajaw's study where Karka, the ajaw and the two researchers - who'd since fled in terror of the big cats - had been speaking.

"I think so. Koni and Caryna?" Daniel asked.

Karka nodded, "They're safe, at least the last I saw of them. The ajaw has recruited us into -"

"Silence! You speak thus in the presence of His Divinity? As if he wasn't here?" Kehm'ja cried, though his indignation seemed somewhat artificial.

"Enough, Kehm'ja," the chieftain actually shoved the advisor away, "As I keep insisting, they are not from this world and do not know our ways. No, as you are well aware, they speak a similar language to the men of the river." We do? Karka asked himself, So was it true what the guard from earlier had implied, that the men of the river might themselves be outsiders to this world? The ajaw laughed, "Well, I am well satiated with all this! Now come, we'll take you to the river dwellers - they will tell us exactly who you are."

They were led to a unit of the ajaw's infantry, Karka looked over the soldier's equipment he was given and realised the hilt of his dagger contained a large quantity of tungsten, one metal he could use to start building some primitive versions of Starfleet tech... He wondered whether it was worth attempting or if they'd better sit tight and wait for the Excalibur, if the ship ever found them...

[Daniel Schirra]

Convinced he was about to die, Daniel had closed his eyes thinking not of the impending attack, but of Mackenzie, his only surviving family, now back on Earth being looked after by his wife's parents. He would never see her again, would never have the chance to tell her how much he loved her, and how sorry he was that she no longer had a mother or sister... It was then that something within him changed, he wouldn't blindly succumb to his upcoming demise without fighting. With all his strength he opened his eyes to see the panther already leaping toward him!

He reached forward, fists grasping handfuls of fur on either side of the animals glistening teeth, the canines six maybe seven centimetres long snapped together before it opened its mouth again, its eyes locked on his as it twisted trying to release the grip preventing it from ripping the throat out of its victim ..... All the while Schirra could hear nothing other than the breathing of the panther until as suddenly as the attack had commenced, it ceased .....

"Are you alright, Captain...?" he heard the voice addressing him but for a second couldn't bring himself to reply as he staggered forward. He felt someone taking his arms, helping him remain upright, and then saw Karka, "...Captain?"

"I think so. Koni and Caryna?" Daniel asked.

"They're safe, at least the last I saw of them. The ajaw has recruited us into -"

"Silence..! You speak thus in the presence of His Divinity...? As if he wasn't here?"

They were taken away, finally entering a room where several of the women began treating Schirra, wrapping the wounds caused by the panthers razor-sharp teeth on both his forearms and left cheek. The Ajaw seemed amused at the proceedings, but it was obvious that Kehm'ja was, and he was voicing his objections to the point where they wondered how he was able to speak to their ruler with such ill-disguised contempt, but before the argument could ferment into a two-way shouting match someone ran into the room and dropped to his knees before the Advisor, shuffling around to kiss the feet of the Ajaw when he realised his error.

"What is it!?" Kehm'ja snapped.

"My Lord ..... Someone has entered the city!" the man said, clearly terrified.

"An outsider?" the Advisor asked.

"Yes, My Lord..." the man said, still clinging to the Ajaw's ankles. Kehn'ja kicked the newcomer hard, "... My Lord he wishes to ..... Converse,"

"Why?" the Ajaw asked suddenly.

"Devine Eminence, please forgive me, he stands in the main square waiting for your attendance..." the man said, fearing for his life, "... He ... He proclaims to be an emissary of, of the River People!" the room was completely silent for a moment before the Advisor stepped forward and yanked the messenger to his feet.

"What has he said?" he asked, glancing for a fraction of a second at the Ajaw, then the two Federation Officers, before returning his gaze to the messenger.

"Only that he wishes to speak to the Ruler of the City,"

"Then we shall go see what this, emissary, has to say..." the Ajaw said, striding past the Advisor, "... Bring them!" Out in the bright sunlight, the crowd parted as the Ajaw walked among them, everyone dropping to their knees, head on the soil so as not to defile the God Ruler by looking him in the eye ..... All but the visitor that was ..... He was standing in the middle of the massive open space, at his feet, a long spear, a bladed weapon similar to a machete, and a short-bladed knife. He stood motionless, watching the Ajaw and the approaching party impassively.

"You wish to address our Ruler?" Kehm'ja asked, taking a step forward. The emissary was about to reply when he noticed the two men being led into the square behind the Ajaw. For a second he appeared dumbstruck as he took a step forward, stopping only when several of the Ajaw's personal guards stepped in front of him. He stared at the two men almost in complete disbelief until the Advisor asked again what he had to say.

"My Lord is aware you are preparing an army..." the man said, eyes locked on Schirra and Psonoir, "... He is prepared to speak with you,"

"He wishes to offer surrender?" the Ajaw asked almost laughing.

"Surrender... No... But he is aware, as he believes you are, that he controls the river and the life-giving waters that flow along it,"

"He is concerned that we will retake our lost lands and rule the river after we battle?" the Ajaw asked. Rather than reply, the man knelt and began to pick up his weapons, eyes on the guards who had taken another step forward, but at the Advisor's order, they stood back, raising their spears.

"You must be hungry, please accept our hospitality while the Ajaw considers your Rulers' proposal..." he motioned for two of the women kneeling to take the messenger to the main Hall and there feed and wine the man. Daniel and Karka watched the exchange in silence as the messenger was led away, Kehm'ja signalled for Daniel and Karka to accompany him to the Ajaw:

"Feed him and sate his thrust, then send his head back to the River!" the Ajaw was saying dismissively as they approached.

"Kehm'ja ....." Daniel turned to see Karka looking at the Advisor. "... I believe it would help if we were allowed to speak with the messenger,"

"Why?" the man asked, his eyes narrowing.

"He might tell us something beneficial to your upcoming battle," Daniel said.

"What could he tell you that would be of use to the Ajaw?"

"We won't know that until we speak with him..." Daniel replied with a shrug, "... If he tells us nothing then nothing has been lost. His Ruler will no doubt understand the Ajaw's reply when he fishes the messengers' head from the river," for a long moment Kehm'ja seemed to mull over answering, then gave permission for them to speak with the messenger. A guard took them to the hall where the man was eating meat from the cooked carcass of a boar. The man's eyes widened as he saw the two enter. Karka held up a hand out of sight of the guard to stop the messenger from reacting, then turned and told the guard to leave them alone, reluctantly, he complied. Once the room was empty Daniel and Karka sat opposite the man:

"Your, FEDERATION!" the man whispered, tears forming as he tried to hold on to his senses.

"Who are you?" Karka asked quietly, glancing around the room to see if anyone was trying to overhear their conversation.

"Commander Kevin Parks, Exec' USS York ....."

"..... The York went missing over two years ago!" Daniel said.

"..... We were carrying out research when we were caught in what we thought could have been an Ion storm. It disabled the ship and killed ninety percent of the crew on the first hit, a dozen more on the aftershock. Those left had no option but to get off the ship. It blew up seconds after we ejected. We drifted for over a week then crashlanded here, some freakish throwback to a pre-Christianity civilisation on Earth, Nazca, or maybe Mayan. There are only three of us left, the Captain, Gregor Adams, one of the crew, Yvonne Ward, and myself. We were captured trying to get food and imprisoned, but when they realised we had, skills, they allowed us to live."

"You've been helping them advance!" Daniel demanded.

"Far from it ..... In fact, we've been working around the proverbial 'clock' to ensure they don't realise what they 'could' have..." Parks said, suddenly falling silent as he eyed the two, "... Who are you, do you have a ship in orbit!?"

"No..." Karka reluctantly replied, "... In fact, we were on an away mission and hit by something we couldn't explain,"

"..... And your ship?" Parks asked, but all Daniel and Karka could do was sit in silence. The messenger was about to speak again when the door opened and Kehm'ja entered ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

Unwin had the watch on the bridge while Wentworth was catching up on her first sleep in 48 hours. "Commander, I believe the Vrezku Alliance vessel has returned," the stand-in at Ops reported to the engineer, "Ah, short range sensors indicate a shuttle of sorts is leaving the vessel; it's requesting to dock with us..."

"What did you bring for us, Mr Noik?" Unwin asked the Vrezkan who exited the shuttlebay; Wentworth had been roused and along with security guards had been on hand to greet the Vrezkan as he'd stepped down from his small personnel transport.

"Scan the sky," Noik made an expansive gesture at space beyond the walls and ceiling, "You'll find a half dozen small Vrezku craft a parsec distant, equipped with what you've told us you call tractor beams. They've come to give you a tow!" Unwin blinked and pointed out that the Excalibur's primary mid and long-range sensor grid was still offline, the ships wouldn't yet be visible. "No matter. You still don't have to take me at my word by the way... I'll have the four personnel of each tug contact you and tell you what you need to know. And here are my shuttle's own sensor readings of the six craft for you to check over," he handed a bulky Vrezku PADD to Unwin, "We'll have you where you need to be very shortly. Home!"

"Where we need to be," Wentworth said to Noik and made a point of pulling the PADD roughly from Unwin's hand, "Is in search of our missing officers, not back at a Starfleet installation. But thank you, Noik. Now, what speed will your tugs do and how much mass can they shift?" she asked and scanned through the Vrezku PADD's details.

"Well, we'll go wherever you like," Noik said quickly, adding, "We're capable of warp 2."

Only warp 2? Unwin thought grimly, Well, better than nothing. The Excalibur would at least be able to travel between stars without the crew growing old in the process; the problem would be to discover which way the missing officers had been cast - it was long since any hypothetical engine signature would've faded from the Excal's vicinity, a signature left by the suspected vessel that'd possibly kidnapped Schirra and co in the midst of the shockwave's impact.

"That is not all..." Noik went on, "The mass we can shift... Well, we have reason to believe that towing your vessel will have a somewhat deleterious effect on the performance of our tugs' engines... They may only be capable of warp 1.4."

What?! Unwin thought, maintaining just enough decorum to thank the man and ask him to lead on. Wentworth and Unwin began plotting a series of headings for the Excal, as it began its painfully slow search for their missing crew... Which way to head first? Well, towards those nearby regions with more dense concentrations of stellar matter...


The unknown planet

"The ajaw demands your presence," the grey eminence said without ceremony, catching Parks as he was lifting another impaled piece of roasted boar to his mouth. "Not you, outsider," he emphasised the latter word, as if to differentiate between what he saw as being two types of outsider, thinking Parks was a native to these parts but not of the same tribe, while Psonoir and Schirra were from elsewhere, some place only the ajaw cared about.

"Yours is a thankless task isn't it Kehm'ja?" Karka said as he rose from the table, "You have to do as you are commanded, bring people to the ruler of Narinje, a city you think you yourself should ru- "

"Do not waste your time," Kehm'ja grinned but looked away sharply; Karka saw the Advisor's fist clench round the hilt of his ritualistic weapon, his voice evinced cold fury, "Those who deny the will of the ruler, blaspheme against the goddess. The ajaw on the other hand, he has decided to meet with his enemy, the ruler of the riverfolk."

"He has?" Parks asked, dropping his knife and boar meat.

"They will talk," Kehm'ja spat, disgusted by his own words and not by the fact the river people's emissary had spoken, "Swap notes on the hue of the sky at night, on the varieties of beasts, plants, on whether there any people who are not Maya besides barbarians like yourselves, the changing of the tides of the sea far from here... Useless! And they will talk of the fighting... At least in that respect the ajaw sees things aright... He'll deploy the strength and martial prowess of our city. But you are to be preserved for now, for the sake of this talking," he pointed at Parks.

"Then he can come with us to meet with the ajaw," Schirra said, "We'll mediate on the ajaw's behalf, through this emissary, just as he mediates on his own ruler's behalf with you."

Kehm'ja nodded minutely and they were taken to the palace chamber where the ajaw held court. Shortly after they all departed Narinje and traipsed with a column of wagons and randomly accoutred soldiers down through parched semi-desert and uneven relief; they finally reached the greenery of a sizeable river winding from left to right towards some far distant sea.

The ajaw pointed from his large steed, "Those lands will soon be ours. First, I must speak with their chieftain," he glanced at the nearby Kehm'ja, "You remain here, Advisor, with the main force. A retinue of twenty as well as these three are coming with me," he gestured to the three outsiders perched on their diminutive donkeys.