Place of Silence
Posted on Sun Sep 14, 2025 @ 5:03am by Civilian Nyla Thane
Edited on on Wed Oct 8, 2025 @ 12:18am
927 words; about a 5 minute read
Mission:
Time After Time
Location: DS5 - Cafe
Timeline: MD16 - afternoon
Nyla sat in one of station's cafes. The scent of freshly grounded beans and something faintly sweet drifted through the air. She found it comforting. Her gaze swept across the quiet bustle of the seating area.
Two days had passed since her arrival on the station. Her meeting with Commander Wells had gone well, and she was eager to head down to the planet. However, until the commander was ready, she had little to do but wait.
This morning she had decided to leave her quarters and explore. This cafe was her first stop. She sat quietly waiting for her order.
As her coffee was sat down on the table, Nyla heard one of the traders at the next table snap. "You must be joking…”
They had been quiet until now. But suddenly the rise in the volume, and sharp edge of irritation in his voice caught her attention. “They’re self-sealing stem bolts, not platinum-plated.”
Nyla’s brow twitched. Self-sealing stem bolts. Of course. What space station wasn’t running into some kind of petty trade skirmish over those?
Nyla picked up her cup and leaned back in her seat just as the second trader, a human woman, replied. “And they seal themselves. That’s worth something. Besides, where else are you going to find them this far out without waiting three or four weeks on a Ferengi transport?”
Nyla took a sip of her drink. She wasn't eavesdropping, at least not intentionally.
"I could wait...or maybe call in a favor....."
The woman didn't let him finish. "And when they arrived, and aren't calibrated to Federation specs, who are you going to blame when regulator ruptures mid-cycle?"
Nyla hset her cup down, and reached for her PADD. She launched her AstroMail app when out of the corner of her eye she saw the two trades shake hands. Apparently, they had struck a deal. Nyla gave a quiet sigh. She had missed the most interesting part. It was probably for the best.
Nyla settled back into her seat, and began skimming through new messages. There were a few, some with subject lines vague enough to be junk, others midly intresting but none were what she was searching for. Her eyes moved steadily down the list. Scanning sender after sender until she was nearly at the bottom.
There it was. A message from Elyra Norwood.
FROM: Elyra Norwood
SUBJECT: Need your eyes on something—ASAP
PRIORITY: High
Sorry for the delay. Weather’s been unpredictable down here, swept in fast, had to take cover before I could get proper scans. Finally caught a break this morning and got the images and video attached. I think you'll want to see them.
I came across something about half a klick from the village I’ve been working near—Perth’s Crossing. Small place, maybe two dozen homes, mostly agrarian settlers. They’re not native to this world, just second-wave colonists. The locals said it’s always been there, but no one knows who built it or what it’s for. It’s partially buried. Looked like a stone vault or tomb at first, but I’m not so sure.
Symbols, Nyla. Faint, but they’re there. Carved around the archway and partially down one side. I didn’t want to risk disturbing anything yet. Figured you’d want to weigh in before we go poking around.
The structure’s maybe six, seven meters tall—what’s visible, anyway. Hard to say how deep it goes. The stonework doesn’t match anything I’ve catalogued from this system. It’s too precise. Too old. And the composition… it’s not local. I ran a surface scan and the material has trace elements I can’t identify. Not even the older settlers here have seen anything like it.
I spoke with a few of the elders in the village. One of them remembered his grandfather calling it a ‘place of silence.’ Creepy, right? They all avoid it. Say the birds don’t sing near it, animals won’t go close. Could be superstition. Or maybe not.
I didn’t go inside, assuming there even is an inside but there’s an opening that looks deliberate. Like an entryway sealed long ago. If this is what I think it is, it could predate the first wave of human colonization in this region by centuries. Maybe millennia.
I know we’ve talked about myths and migration patterns before, but this… this might be something else entirely. I’ve attached stills and a short clip. The quality’s a bit rough. The wind kicked up some dust, but you’ll get the idea.
Let me know what you think.
— E.
Nyla’s eyes lingered on the screen. She reread the message, slower this time. A structure with no known origin, a phrase like place of silence it was vague, but enough to catch her interest.
She tapped the screen, ready to open the attachments.
Nyla opened the list of attachments...images, a few short video files, and a scanned field report. She was just about to tap on the first one when a group of Starfleet officers entered the establishment, their conversation echoing louder than necessary through the space.
She glanced up, taking in the sudden shift in the atmosphere. She took the last sip of her coffee, gathered her things, and slipped out quietly in search of somewhere quieter.
A post by
Dr. Nyla Thane
Deputy Director of Science, Exploration, and Archaeology
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