Archaeological Arms Race: Not nearly as common as it might be, given the amount of stuff various Precursors have left lying around, inasmuch as most of it isn’t weapons technology, most of it isn’t working, and not all of it is super-high-tech, such that a lot of time you just end up with an interesting design twist on principles you already knew. Which can still be valuable, of course, but isn’t quite the same thing. When it does happen it can do interesting things to the local balance of power, but by and large it’s a really bad idea to bet your life on being able to dig up some ancient godweapon just when you need it.
artifacts
Trope-a-Day: Holy Is Not Safe
Holy Is Not Safe: Anything made, shaped, or Vorlon-touched by a weakly godlike superintelligence may be holy, but is also very likely to be powerful enough to be catastrophically dangerous if misused, mishandled, or otherwise generally mucked about with.
(Especially things like, say, the Eye of Elmiríën, which is to say, an artifact of the eikone of order, law, and perfection. Its gaze wants to burn all imperfection and entropy out of everything. Since it is an imperfect universe filled with imperfect things, looking at it hurts almost as much as being looked at by it.)
At Least It’s Not A Bar?
“Five scientist-explorers were exploring an abandoned outpost in the Expansion Regions one day when they came across a freshly-excavated artifact, still humming with power and covered in unknown controls.
“The first, a galari, said ‘We should transport this back to our laboratory, so that we can investigate it properly, and spread the word of our discoveries. Think of what we could learn from it!’
“The second, a kalatri, said ‘Take it to our laboratory, yes, but we must keep this quiet. It could be dangerous, or disruptive, or corrupting. It is best that people do not know of it until we can be sure they will not be harmed, and use it well.’
“The third, a codramaju, said ‘We should keep it quiet, but so that we can master it before others know of it. We could build a hundred new technologies with what we learn, and be wealthy beyond our dreams.’
“The fourth, a linobir, said ‘We should master it for its power. The elder races built machines powerful beyond imagining. If this is one of these, the galaxy would be ours for the taking.’
“But the fifth, an eldrae, said nothing – for with the press of a keyswitch, both he and the artifact had vanished away.”
– anonymously-posted extranet joke
Of Things Dug Up
Artifact #19,246: the Sapphire Sphere
Unearthed during the Iniscail excavations, located in a central position in the third lefthand side room of chamber seven. The Sphere is a dull matte sphere two spans in diameter, a pale blue in color and emitting a constant glow of the same color. The Sphere weighs five stoneweight.
– Excavator Taris Veran-ith-Vere
ANNOTATIONS
1
Artifact 19,248, located nearby, is an ornate brass stand which may be intended to hold the Sphere.
– Excavator Taris Veran-ith-Vere
3
Intended usage: a light source, perhaps? Or given the position of respect it was found in, possibly a religious symbol?
– Academician Halir Muetry-ith-Mirari
4
A light source? Of which we’ve found no others of its kind in the entire rest of the complex? Are you seriously suggesting that we’ve found a Precursor ornamental lamp?
As for a religious symbol, if we called everything we dug up and couldn’t understand a religious symbol, we’d have nothing but. And there’s no reason to believe the Precursors even had religion.
– Academician Iridal Selequelios-ith-Serris
8
Whatever temperature the surrounding room is in, the Sphere maintains a constant temperature, around blood heat. Intense heating or cooling can change it locally, but it returns to its normal temperature unnaturally fast.
– Academician Hieras Octarthius-ith-Octian
14
The Sphere cannot be opened by any method familiar to us, nor does it possess any discernible power source. Exposure to sunlight or common chemicals effects no change or reaction.
– Academician Hieras Octarthius-ith-Octian
33
The Sphere is unresponsive to attempts at verbal or telepathic interrogation.
– Academician Hieras Octarthius-ith-Octian
372
In light of the inability to open the Sphere with conventional methods, drilling, or chemical erosion, I have submitted a request for explosives. Perhaps careful blasting will let us investigate the interior.
– Academician Isif Larathyr-ith-Lyrian
374
Academician Larathyr-ith-Lyrian has been dismissed from the Initiative. Firstly, Precursor artifacts are very rare, and while permission may occasionally be granted to perform destructive testing on those of which we have multiple examples, no such testing is to be proposed on unique examples.
Secondly, blasting? After what happened to the Penjel facility, a researcher proposes blasting?
NO EXPLOSIVES! EVER!
– Supervisor Kendrian Cyprium-ith-Reyne
1118
With today’s better measurement instruments, the constant temperature of the Sphere is recorded as 307.54 degrees. No variation in this was observed over a half-year period. Nor has any previously-undetectable variation in the intensity of the glow been identified.
– Academician Excellence Hieras Octarthius-ith-Octian
2019
The Sphere doesn’t just emit blue light. It emits monochromatic blue light of wavelength 464 nm along with thermal radiation appropriate to its temperature.
– Academician Sinté Quendocius-ith-Quendocius
4311
Under new scanning series, the Sphere appears to be opaque to neutrinos. It’s another datum, I suppose, but still no progress in identifying anything that might be in there.
– Senior Technician Vivalíé Peressin-ith-Peressin
5096
The Sphere may be the device referred to in sections 91.4 and 93.2 of the damaged inscriptions from the Mazir asteroid site. Relevant translatable phrases include its description as a ’resonant monoluminor’, as an ’automorphous facilitator’, and ’the purpose of noetic energy-conversion for dynamic change’, although, per 33 above, it remains opaque to mental interrogation.
While this in itself provides little insight, it is hoped it may provide some possible directions for future research.
– Linguist Excellence Ciriath Essenye-ith-Estrey
6522
No, clear it for shipment to the Museum. It’s been sitting on the supervising researcher’s desk as a paperweight for nearly 1,400 years at this point. If it wasn’t a danger then, it’s not going to start being one tomorrow.
– Administrator Excellence Antar Calaris-ith-Calir
7322
Oh, for the love of –
It is a lamp. Of course it’s a lamp. ’Resonant monoluminor’ – makes light of one color via resonating electrons. As for the rest – ’automorphous’, ’noetic’, ’dynamic change’ – it’s a light you think by, or rather, a light you learn by.
Five millennia to discover that we’ve found a self-powering Precursor library lamp. We’re the best in our field, ladies and gentlemen.
– Academician Excellence Iridal Selequelios-ith-Serris
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