[snip]

William spun around in his chair “Well our files mention a color-coded system as you apparently recall, with the similarities between what we have here and what we had there. Although from what I understand we can’t assume that these color codes will translate over, at least the team should be informed of these color codes but they’d need to take care when identifying which correlated with what.” He explained.

“So, we can’t really help them more than that?” replied Glen. It had been a long shot, but he had hoped for something a little more. “Tinga hasn’t come across these codes yet, but Captain Rogers asked me if we could help him. I guess he can make random combinations and see what happens. That’s exactly what was tried by us before, last time, but back then circumstances were dire and the need was more critical! If they aren’t in any danger, I don’t really want them putting themselves into new danger by tripping off some kind of alarm.”

At that point, Glen noticed Tinga had begum speaking into an orb. It appear to be replying. This was a positive development, so he stopped talking to William to watch the viewscreen.

Kord thought he might have heard the Orb’s original language before, but he couldn’t be sure as he didn’t understand the language. It had just sounded familiar.

Glen thought that Kord seemed to recognise the Orb’s native tongue. “Have you heard that before?” he asked.

When the CO spoke to Kord, Tia turned to look. She kept forgetting how old her lover was and it never failed to amaze her when he said something that reminded her that his and her chronological age difference was measured in centuries and not decades. She hadn’t been able to shed any light on the colored objects and was actually surprised she had lost track of things around her to the point she hadn’t realized progress, though minimal, was being made behind her.

“Possibly.” Kord replied, “But it was something thousands of years ago. Perhaps in passing. It sounded familiar but it wasn’t anything I could make out.”

Kord would recall bits of information that even in his younger days was quite old for his time. The information he could recall from those long ago years mostly was based on third party hearsay and handed down tales and records of the Finite people. What he recalled of their language was it was based on several dialectics which had deep roots in pictures and hand gestures similar to sign language and hieroglyphics. One picture in particular he had run across on some nameless rogue asteroid in the depth of space one time on a stone rock had been of some kind of humanoid like figure holding a silver-blue colored orb like one would a child. As he recalled the meaning that some now long dead alien he had met at the time and had long forgotten their name or race had explained they had believed the picture meant communication and intent as well as protection.

Glen gave the Avenger an update =/\= Captain Rogers. I’m afraid that we aren’t making much progress on the coloured rods. It is similar to something we’ve encountered before but not the same at all. I’m sending what our database shows was the previous meanings of the different colour code combinations, but there is no guarantee yours will be the same. Sorry, I can’t give you better news. I have had my best people working on this. =/\=

=/\= Understood Captain Glen, every bit helps, my XO tells me that some probes she launched has given hints we might have some Orions sniffing around some light years away trying to find us or their missing compatriots we dealt with earlier. If you can send over what you got we’ll do what we can on our end and correlate scans as they happen..=/\= Rogers said. =/\= I’ll comm back once we got more to relay. Rogers out.=/\= He said ending his side of the comm call.

“Sir if we could get some visual and scanning data regarding the color schemes and power outputs we might be able to determine more information as to what they do” William shot out in the dark. Who knew it might actually work. “Worst case scenario we have more details to work with” He said hopefully.

Scans could easily be gotten from their own team by requesting it be sent up, and Rogers was already through the Avenger at work working with the information the Merrimack had sent them.

“I’ll ask Tinga to scan them and send then to you, when they reach that point,” replied Glen. “At the moment they are still speaking with an Orb, and at present it appears to be friendly. I don’t like the sound of the Orions in this Sector. It means we’ll need to pick up the pace a little.”

For now there was very little for Captain Glen to do other than to watch and listen. He wished that he was down there with Tinga and her “away team,” as they were now calling the landing party, but mistakenly or not, he was still aboard the Merrimack. If one day in the future, all Captains would remain behind aboard their ships, while their officers had all the excitement down on the planet, well, he hoped he would be dead before he got that old.

-Glen, CO