Page 227 - The Chronicles Ser2 (6-10)

Lance was rummaging in
the boxes of documents that had
been locked away with the
“Sarcophagus” in the room. He
noticed a sealed plastic wallet that
had discoloured with age. He
opened it and let the contents fall
onto the desk. It was a type
written sheet with a scrap of what
looked like green vellum attached.
It appeared to have originated
from some Government Agency.
The signee had a terrible stylised
scrawl of a signature. No name
was typed beside it so the person
could not be identified. The item
Reference number carried the
suffix MORT; so Lance assumed
that meant Mortuary. It was
addressed for the attention of
Operative Carmichael and carried
their Operations number. Lance
noted that the “alien” script on the
fragment bore a resemblance to
Kryst “B” dialect, but only some of
the symbols matched. The others
were different and didn’t translate in Kryst, Voodon 2 or Hagunenon Simplex. Though some symbols
from each language had their counterparts in the fragment of text. He coughed to get Sandra’s
attention.
“What do you make of this?” he asked. She took the item in her gloved hands. Holding it up to a
bright light source she used a jewellers Loupe to look closely at the smaller glyphs.
“Hm; I see what you mean. The material’s odd too. Feels like Vellum but the colour is all wrong. I
recognise the Font of the typed document. It matches some other documents that our Military
friends found in another section of the building. Mostly plans and supporting docs; for some kind of
weapons platform that was never built. “Star Wars Project” it seems to have been called” she
commented adding “Scan the fragment and send it to the Portable Hive. Maybe the Venosian Bio-
Net can come up with something” she finished saying when a loud cursing shout came from the Ante
Chamber where the sarcophagus was located. They rushed in to discover Harriman; a biologist,
wiping some sticky fluid from his face.
“Booby trap!” he spluttered “Was opening a panel on the side and must have triggered a destruct
mechanism for one of those Gel tube things. I’m going to decontamination” he added and stormed
out. The contents of the tube must have been under pressure and they’d splattered all over the floor
and adjacent wall. The rupture had also done something else. It had de-misted the crystal window
inset into the lid. The “Sarcophagus” turned out to be a stasis pod, similar in construction to the
Kryst units. However there were some marked differences. The occupant appeared to be human and
male. Judging by the clothing he had been “entombed” around the late Twenty fourth or early
Twenty fifth century (Old Calendar). That would have been during the Economy Wars aftermath.
Could this be the missing magnate from the Matsu-Hiro-Chin house?
“He seems remarkably well preserved. Hello? What’s that around his neck? Looks like another of
those Medallions.” Sandra said. Lance came over and looked.