President Hasdrubal had sent his Defense Secretary and Barka to respond to the Starfleeters’ request for a consultation. In line with the President’s recent policy of ‘Dergans for Derganix’, the expedition to the dig site was organized and performed entirely by Dergans, though they easily could have called and asked one of the Starfleet ships to just site-to-site transport them.

The trek involved outfitting a relay of three long range speeder trucks with extra power cells, and 3 days of nonstop driving for the 2 representatives.

As they arrived at the dig site, they seen a few shuttles parked in a clearing near the spire and pulled up infront of what appeared to be the main entrance to the complex. Apparently the Starfleeters had exposed an entire complex that had been buried in sediment over time.

After a long exhaled Barka turned to Boul, “Well that answers that…we need to tell them about the stories.”

After staring for a moment at the large stone megalith complex the Defense Secretary stood and made for the side hatch of the speeder truck, “Agreed.”

As the duo approached the base camp set up just in front of the entrance to the complex, they were met not only by Lieutenant Lotharys, who had been leading the research team, but also by Lieutenant Commander K’lev.  The Orion stepped forward, extending a hand and introducing himself.  “We appreciate you making the trip out this way,” he said.  “May I introduce Lieutenant Lotharys, my executive officer and chief science officer?  She’s been leading the expedition teams for the site.”

“Pleasure to meet both of you. It looks like some of our historians were correct in surmising that there was a larger complex built around this structure.” Boul said as he nodded to both of the Starfleeters, Barka stood at his side and gazed about the multi acre sized complex.

Lotharys nodded; as the subject-matter expert, this was her briefing to lead, and so K’lev stayed off to the side.  “Yes, Secretary Boul.  Our examination suggests that this complex was built over an extended period of time, ranging from just under 12,000 years ago to just over 9,000 years ago.  The oldest areas are those closest to the spire.  Elements of the design suggests that the complex may have been built by your ancestors, but at the same time many of the details are also consistent with known suspected Vezda ruin sites around this region of space.”  Here she paused, letting the news sink in, knowing the Dergans were only on the cusp of discovering warp travel.

“I see, and these Vezda? Are they, eyeless monsters who possess the bodies of hosts and rule through their subject through a form of mind control and psychic manipulation?” The DefSec asked. He had read up on all the ancient mysteries and myths from their history. The end date of the timeline that the Lt had described, did roughly correspond with a period in their history termed the “Re-awakening” that happened after a long period of subjugation at the hands of what they knew only as “the Rulers”.

Lotharys nodded once more.  “They are,” she said, accepting a pair of PADDs from a crewman who had stepped over and offering one each to Boul and Barka; the PADDs contained the team’s research data, along with all non-classified information Starfleet had on the Vezda.  “There’s a lot we still don’t know about the Vezda, but what we do know suggests that they may be the origin of, or inspiration for, the evil figures in the mythologies of many societies across the galaxy.”

“Hmm. And what’s that hole? Is there a subterranean component of this complex as well then?” Barka asked as he pointed at one of the hallways shown on a map of the complex included with the notes.

Lotharys and K’lev shared a look, not furtive but more of ‘here we go’.  The Orion lieutenant commander took this question.  “Yes, we did find a subterranean tunnel network running beneath the complex.  Which brings me to a difficult subject: one of our researchers, a crewman named Xoritsa, went missing in those tunnels, and we have been unable to find him.  Unfortunately, we believe that he may have been taken by someone; a team that went looking for him found some recent footprints in the dirt on the tunnel floors, inconsistent with Starfleet-issue boots.  These footprints were deep enough to have been someone carrying a heavy load – possibly a person – yet regular enough to show that whoever left them wasn’t struggling under the weight of who- or whatever they carried.”  He ran a hand over his face.  “We’re relative strangers here, so there’s a lot we don’t know; have you heard anything in the past of people going missing?”

Barka and the DefSec shared a frowning glance with each other.