The Voyage of the Joyous Venture
Part
15
'Come in and see my etchings', said the Myrrb;
it may be just a Tree to you, but to me…; Kidnapped!
In the afternoon the crew of the Joyous Venture (sans Sangiv) arrive at a vaguely cultivated copse just below a set of cliffs. The cliffs are made from stratified rocks as are the caves within them. A few hundred yards from the cliffs the terrain gets broken up. The crew decide to proceed on foot. At Antonio's suggestion they make camp before proceeding since it is only an hour until sundown. They take lights, imagers and inertial tracking devices with them. Each individual has an ear piece, throat mike and camera; the hope is this material can be used to create a 3D reconstruction of the site at a later date.
A Jan-Ganyr emerges to greet them, not the same Jan-Ganyr as they met earlier but this Jan-Ganyr appears to be aware of the conversations with the previous one. Robert manages to take a DNA sample by offering the Jan-Ganyr coffee.
Jan-Ganyr says the cave gets very narrow at the end, Antonio and Robert may find it difficult. The pictures are more sophisticated than cave paintings. It seems the paintings are gradually shifted back into the caves, overwriting previous works; in this way the Eber historical record is continually edited and compressed. The story tells how the great old ones visited Eber hunter gatherers; the coming of the great old ones represented by objects rising in columns of fire. Jan-Ganyr explains that the great old ones had others with them who looked like great old ones but were to them as humans are to the crew of the Joyous Venture. Jan-Ganyr explains that the pictures are mostly painted by Myrrb since it is rare for a person to possess both the talent for speaking and painting. The scenes show the landing of the colonists; the hunting of the Eber; attempts to make contact and then the arrival and return of Ruiz Sanchez. Jan-Ganyr explains that Ruiz listens rather than speaks. At the cave entrance is the arrival of the new great old ones.
Miho takes rock samples every 10 yards. There appear to have been attempts to work the rock but naturally flat areas are nevertheless reserved for important pictures. Where things are painted over the crew use UV and take further images in the hope of retrieving the underlying picture.
After about 100 yards the team reach a crawl space. All of the crew venture within except Antonio. The final area shows the wars of the Ancients, depicted as predominantly, though not exclusively, human. Non-humanoid figures include a winged serpent and a Masonic style eye within a pyramid, both reminiscent of Bheekhu artwork. Some great old ones have the two-jointed arms of Eber.
The pictures show Myrrbii acting as bricklayers alongside smaller things with many legs - arthropods. Jan-Ganyr says these are pets of the great old ones. Robert shows him pictures of a microbot and the scarab artefact from Bheekhu. He recognises neither. He does think there is some similarity with the pictures from Felix Holstein's papers. The picture shows the arthropods crawling out of some sort of gap which tallies with descriptions in Felix's papers. Jan-Ganyr offers to show the crew one of the great old one pets. In exchange, Robert says he will show her Clarence.
The crew are
shown a strange tree in the middle of the glade back at the copse. It is older
than the others. Possibly diseased, it is 16 to 18 feet high and has formed a
large gall at the top of the trunk about five feet in diameter. Robert deduces
there is something living in the gall. Jan-Ganyr lets
him take a sample leaf, explaining that the pet speaks but doesn't talk. It is
currently asleep, but when awake it talks to other Jan-Ganyr.
This is how Jan-Ganyr communicate
and how he knew to wait near the cave.
The tree creaks in to action; its leaves changing angle. Miho makes sure she is filming and scans various wavelengths; there is heightened activity but nothing specific. Rather than the tree, Komiko watches everyone involved closely. Jan-Ganyr becomes very distressed and explains that bad humans have kidnapped a Jan-Ganyr and its mate. She indicates the direction in which the attack took place. The crew hastily depart on a recce.
It is dark and Antonio is wearing sunglasses. Nevertheless he keeps the truck upright. Most of the party sleep but Miho and Antonio remain awake, Antonio driving and Miho navigating. They arrive at the spot at dusk. They find evidence of something being loaded into a truck and tracks leading to the settlement of Neu-Anfangen. The crew give chase.
January 20th: Arriving at a large barn, hours later,
after the local