[snip]

Once Glen replied Rogers nodded, =/\= This station is oddly bigger than it appears on the outside, perhaps influence of the Finite Stone piece somewhere here. We’ve covered almost 4 kilometers of flooring over three large arena like floors. Most were open ended, a few pillars of nondescript black metal we can’t identify. We tried our phasers on it but it reflected back at us, thankfully no injuries though Ensign Martin got out of the way in time.=/\= He said.

=/\= Our shuttle team has entered the other pyramid and it looks remarkably similar. They haven’t used their phasers. =/\=

There was another round of static on the screen which soon cleared up complete with pictures and rough scans of the black metal Roger’s mentioned. =/\= You may want to tell your shuttle team to watch out for this, in case they get any ideas of shooting down where their at.=/\= He suggested.

=/\= Thanks! We will inform them of that. =/\=

After another pause he continued, =/\= Right now though we found what seems like a crude control tube room, these circular holes seem to match binary coding we think, using crude metal rods of various colors to configure and change some kind of computer network we think. Nothing in the Avenger’s records seems to match this, not even what little we got on the Finite Stone. Anything on your end? =/\= He asked.

The NE at the science station asked if he should check and Glen indicated to the science officer to carry out a computer records image search.

Checks in their computer data banks actually turned up something similar, though not an exact match the tube/hole configuration with colors did seem similar in setup to those used by the Ancients during their trip to Andromeda those two years ago. While again not an exact match it might be possible they could provide, if they wished, Captain Roger’s some clues and help from their own databanks.

When the science officer relayed this information along with its restricted status to Captain Glen, he felt as if a shadow had passed over his soul at the mention of the Ancients. He tried to remain professional, but the shock ran very deep. His skin was cold and clammy and he felt real anger.

Glen’s initial surprise at the link with the Ancients, quickly subsided to a rather begrudging acceptance. It seemed that the Merrimack could never be free of the experiences during that time, and it could never forget the painful memories associated with it. John would now have to decide whether to share the information gained on those missions with Captain Rogers or not. It still irked Glen that Rogers had never thanked him for coming to his aid, and for saving his butt from the Orions, and he realised that he actually knew very little about him, except that he was a little gung-ho. On the other hand, his rank and the situation demanded that he should, at least, tell him something on a ‘needs-to-know’ basis.

=/\= Captain Rogers? We do have a partial match in the Merrimack databases. It comes from redacted top secret documents created during classified missions, for which you and your crew don’t have the necessary security clearances. There isn’t time right now to achieve all the necessary security clearances for personnel handling that information, however, we may be able to assist you by helping to decipher the tube/hole configurations and colours, as they do seem quite similar in setup to something that we’ve seen before. I might add that this discovery places the ‘Reality Stone’ in a completely different light now. I need you to understand that what we are dealing with here is possibly something of huge importance and danger, and I must advise extreme caution going forward. =/\=

William stood and watched the Science NE do his job with an odd expression on his face but didn’t protest. If the Captain wanted it done this way then who was he to say no.

“William, that library information comes from before your tenure aboard the Merrimack,” Glen told his CSO. “I want you to investigate the links more closely to see exactly how similar, so I will give you full security clearance to do so.”

William nodded gravely. He wondered if it was before or after his first tour on the Merrie back when he was a non-commissioned crewman

Glen then turned to Kord. “This would be a game-changer! Don’t you think? I thought we had seen the end of the Ancients, Elders and Harvesters. We defeated them in the past, Starfleet defeated them in the future, yet they may still turn up in the present!”

Tia had been running all over the ship helping with issues here and there. She had finally gotten stuff under control and come to the bridge to be at ground zero for whatever was gonna happen. As she walked in, though, and looked around. She felt like she had intruded on a private conversation. “Ummm… permission to take my station, Sir?” She glanced from the CO to the others in the room wondering what was going on.

“Please do,” replied Glen. Then looking at her expression he added, “We’ve discovered that the Reality Stone may be linked to an old enemy we encountered once or twice. It means that it was possibly designed as a weapon rather than to make the universe a better place. It makes me very uncomfortable. We lost a lot of good crew fighting them. Some of the crew were tortured or suffered unspeakable acts, and we have never been officially able to discuss any of what happened. It has been a Cross we have had to carry. This news, if it is true, will stir up those old memories again among the longest serving crew members.”

William opened said files on his consoles and got to work.

Glen turned again to Kord, “Even if it is not built by the Ancients, this thing is looking more and more as if it was built as a weapon!”

Glen looked back at the main view screen which was now split in two showing Captain Rogers’ feed from his team in space and Tinga’s feed deep under the ocean. It looked like Tinga was now making her way inside the pyramid.

Glen contacted Tinga to update her. =/\= Tinga! Captain Rogers has informed us to tell you not to fire your phasers inside. That black rock simply reflects the phaser beam back at you. If you discover a control tube room for some kind of computer network, let us know. There will be circular holes in a binary coding system, with metal rods of various colours to configure and change. We are working on a solution for the code now. =/\=

=^=Acknowledged. I’d like to take a crack at that code myself if we run across it.=^=

Tia sat at her station and began the algorithms to try and figure out the coding. The information opened to her to access was added to the data already running and she started playing with the various combinations of sequences trying to see something, herself.

Glen found it peculiar that William and Tinga would each work alone on solving the code puzzle. He thought it said much about the personalities of his two officers. He wasn’t going to make them collaborate; working independently might actually be the quickest way to solve this code if they weren’t just repeating the same methodology. Which officer would find the solution first? Now that was a question, thought Glen.

Meanwhile, Glen watched the split-screen views of the two “away teams” at work. That’s what the Merrimack had decided to call ‘landing parties’ now, and it seemed to be quickly spreading from Starfleet Academy to all Starfleet ships.

-Glen, CO