Page 169 - The Chronicles Ser2 (6-10)

these and the other end into a receptacle on the squat cylinder. There was a shallow indent on the
surface and he placed the sphere into this. A flashing glow from a spot on the upper half of the
sphere showed that something was happening. And a bar indication elsewhere on the surface slowly
increased in length. Hubris had spotted a cartouche on the upper part and did a rough translation
“That reads Sturm or more likely Storm! I wonder if that was the child’s name?” he said. After about
ten minutes the flashing stopped and the bar too appeared to have reached its limit. The sphere
emitted a short quiet bong sound.

“That was quick!” said T’luha and pressed one of the two buttons. The device started playing a soft
melody; a pleasant and quite complex tune. Another pulsing light came from the toy and a
holographic projection displayed three squares that were sub divided into four smaller squares. Each
one of these carried a symbol that was different to the rest. The first set of four were flashing. A
synthetic voice repeated a phrase three times. “I think it wants you to touch the smaller squares”
Hubris offered. T’luha moved her finger to the glowing image. As her finger came into the space
representing the upper left square a tone sounded from the toy. She tried the other squares and
they also played tones, part of a musical scale.

“Interesting tonic scale; almost like Hubarian tonic scale” Hubris said. The Toy played a sequence of
squares then flashed the entire group of larger squares.

“Ah! I see; I have to repeat the sequence. Let me see…” T’luha said and responded accordingly. The
Toy played a chromic fanfare. She pressed the other button and the display changed to a
representation of the rotary control with flashing indicators alternating the direction of the arrow
heads. She twisted the control on the Toy and another fanfare issued forth.

“It’s an educational Toy, and probably designed to expand its repertoire of lessons as the child
progresses, very clever work!” Hubris said.

By the main settlement near what appeared to be the
remains of a shrine to some deity; an obelisk was unearthed
that had fallen over. It had broken at its base to reveal a
hidden chamber. Inside they found a broken ornament with
symbols impressed on one of three columns. It had been
broken; probably by quake activity some time ago. The base
appeared to be of some kind of wood; extremely hard and
almost white in colour. Three columns one hexagonal crystal
which had broken about a third of the way down; another
conical crystal column and a metallic square sectioned
column with a crystal sphere on the top. It was this column
that had the three indented symbols. They were not clear,
but looked like a circle, an inverted triangle and a six pointed
star. Bearing in mind proximity of the Obelisk to the shrine; it
was safe to assume it had some religious significance. The Kryst it seemed followed a belief in one
deity; monotheism. For such an advance race, they seemed to be rooted firmly in a religious past.
Unfortunately the symbols representing the deity had suffered damage and could not be made out.
The more that the teams found out about the Kryst; the more paradoxical their understanding of
them became. Further finds would show them to be farmers that used Organic methods to grow
crops and decorative plants; highly advanced engineers, but they seemed to shun deformity
respecting only perfection. The latter came from the
research centre. In a locked basement chamber the
consoles and units that had been in the upper chamber
were eventually found along with a large number of data
discs. When the consoles and units were eventually