Page 158 - The Chronicles Ser2 (6-10)

“Odd; it’s warm to the touch. Which in itself is not
surprising; what is surprising is it’s not the metal
that’s warm, it’s this “enamel” coating that is?”
Stenerton said with a puzzled look on his face.
“Let’s try that Ultrasound; miss Habra, could you
look in that draw over there and retrieve me
some US gel for the probe of the unit.” he said
absentmindedly, forgetting he was not talking to
one of his staff. T’luha found the tube of gel and
Stenerton put a little on the probe of the US unit
and began working it over the surface. As he did
so the cylinder emitted a sub-harmonic growl and
the vibration made the probe dance on the
surface. He tried again; though applying greater force to keep the probe in contact and the cylinder
made a strange mid-range humming. The results on the screen were jumbled, but what happened
when he stopped the scan surprised them all even more. There was a loud click from the cylinder
and the end with the crescent moved a fraction of a turn. T’luha picked up the cylinder and wiped
off the residual gel in the process she realised the end had loosened around a previously invisible
seam or joint. She unscrewed the end and put it, the outer cylinder casing and its intricate contents
down on the desk. The crystalline units of the circuitry glistened, and the metallic inner walls of the
cylinder shone bronze-like in the lights of the Med Bay. “Wow!” was all any of them could say.

Hubris returned to his quarters and opened a case of data crystals. Taking out six of them he
mounted each in a reader and set about scouring their contents. When he had heard the sound
recording Faraday had given him he had realised that there was a connection that the others had
overlooked. The data crystals were thesis on Music and Base twelve mathematics. One of his former
students had been fascinated by the relationship Maths had to music, the inter-correlation between
Harmonics and language. He realised as soon as he heard the first two sequences of the recording
that there was a harmonic, cadence and distribution correlation. Maybe; just maybe the Kryst
language had a Harmonic and cadence correlation. It took him a little over twenty minutes to apply
the equations from the thesis; the result astounded him to the point he doubted his sanity. The
solution suddenly had become obvious. The Kryst based all of their culture on twelve and related
numbers. He extrapolated the result to the Kryst Glyph set and found there were three groups of
twelve major character symbols. Setting aside the peculiar allegory constructs of the language he
concentrated his efforts on relating the symbols to sounds taken from the recording. Thirty minutes
later he had an approximation of the sounds associated with each symbol. There were thirty-six
principle sounds and twelve interpretations of the intonation emphasis of each, implying different
meanings for the symbols for each intonation and its cadence, almost a kind of musical language.

“It’s almost like ancient Mandarin in the way it uses intonation!” he exclaimed out loud. He quickly
collated his findings and headed back to the Lab. He bumped into Michael in a corridor sending him
reeling. He helped the poor lad up and apologised and as he continued away down the corridor he
shouted “Eureka!” leaving a bemused and puzzled Michael scratching his head.

Krysta had been asked to come down to Med Bay by Stenerton; who wouldn’t say what it
was all about, other than that she’d be interested in seeing the patient he was attending. Puzzled
she agreed. Stenerton had forced himself to keep a straight face and keep his tone flat during the
conversation, but Tom and T’luha’s sniggers had almost given the game away.

“She’s on her way here. Pulse the medical scanner at that circuit again Tom, I want to see if this ECG
unit responds as well” Stenerton said like a child with a new toy experimenting to see what it did.
Previously after T’luha had opened the cylinder he’d used a medical scanner to take a reading. The