Finally catching up!

Posted on Sun Mar 16th, 2025 @ 7:01am by Consul Andrinn Orin & Nicholas Mathias

Mission: Season 6 - 5.5 - Day to Day
Location: Art Gallery-Deck 4
Timeline: MD1, 1730hrs
1171 words - 2.3 OF Standard Post Measure

[ON:]

Since the crew had finally gotten some rest and relaxation approved by the Commodore and the Captain, Andrinn thought it would be a good time to finally catch up with an old friend of his. Tapping his combadge, Andrinn said, "Orin to Mathias. If you're not too busy at the moment, I'd love to meet up somewhere and catch up."

Waiting for the response, it didn't take long for Nick to reply. Coming over his combadge, Nick said, "Yeah, I actually just got off duty not too long ago. Would you like to maybe meet up in the Art Gallery on Deck 4? You know there's a new exhibit from those aliens that we made contact with recently onboard that new space station."

As he thought about it, he hadn't been down there to see the new art pieces that the new species. So, he told Nick that he would meet him up there in a few minutes before heading out of his quarters. It didn't take long for Andrinn to head up to Deck 4 and step directly out into the Art Gallery that the Elysium had. It was filled to the brim with various works of artwork from around the known realms.

Nick noticed Andrinn from across the room and waved him down. Running over to meet his friend, the two quickly embraced one another before Nick said, "Sorry, I was just admiring some of that new artwork that I was telling you about. Kind of reminds me a bit of the works of the Ancient Bajoran people, but different and unique in its own way."

Nick pointed out where the artwork was being displayed and the two men walked over to begin admiring it. Andrinn quickly realized why Nick had said what he did earlier. Going through the first section of artwork by the A'janie, Andrinn could tell there were some subtle likeness between their work and Bajoran artwork from their ancient times. While it wasn't anything to write papers about, it was still something that those who viewed the work would probably be talking about for a little bit.

However, something that made Andrinn think for a moment was whether or not Bajorans maybe introduced some of their artwork or techniques to the A'jaine. Thinking back to the other species that the Elysium had met for a moment, they had been taking members of various Alpha and Beta Quadrant species for some time. Maybe some of them were Bajoran and they might've found their way out of the first alien's grasp to find their way to the A'jaine's homeworld.

While the two men admired the paintings, Andrinn said, "Maybe there were some Bajorans that were captured from that first species we've met and made their way away from their grasp, eventually finding their way to the A'jaine homeworld. Could it be possible that their similar ways of life could have made them friendly at least, including introducing some technique for artwork? Artwork that eventually morphed into the A'jaine's own or melded with it?"

Nick stopped for a moment to think about what Andrinn just said. It wouldn't have been a far off thing, as that had happened back on Earth more than once, with music, art, language, and literature. He looked back at Andrinn for a moment before replying, "That's not a far off guess, but there would have to be some concrete evidence of something like that before I said that was that case. But, that would be a fun little mystery to figure out if we could ever look into something like that."

Andrinn didn't say anything, but simply nodded for a moment as he had become glued to one of the A'jaine paintings. It was eerily similar to a Bajoran painting he remembered seeing before he left Earth to join the crew of the Elysium several years ago. But, it was definitely something more culturally similar to the A'jaine as well, as though the two cultures had blended together for a brief moment.

"Maybe there's a way to trace it," Andrinn mused, his voice thoughtful. "If Bajorans had truly found their way here, their influence wouldn't just be in the artwork. There could be linguistic traces, cultural customs, maybe even old records if the A'jaine keep detailed historical archives."

Nick crossed his arms, his brow furrowed. "You really want to go down this rabbit hole, don’t you?" he asked, though the glint in his eyes showed he was intrigued.

Andrinn chuckled. "You know me too well. But come on, wouldn't it be fascinating if we could find a tangible connection between these two civilizations?"

Nick exhaled through his nose and looked back at the various artwork that the A'jaine had lended over to the Elysium while he crafted a reply to his old friend. Looking back at Andrinn, he replied, "Yeah, that would be fun! Plus, it might help us figure out more about those other aliens and long they might have been abducting the species from the Alpha and Beta Quadrant for. I'm sure that the Commodore and Captain wouldn't mind figuring out a little more about that, now would they?"

Andrinn slapped Nick's arm before saying, "You know, they wouldn't mind. Now, would they?"

Then, the two men headed back towards the turbolift and headed to one of the Alien Archeology and Anthropology labs that the Elysium had onboard. There were several members of the science staff working down there, but Andrinn and Nick quickly found an empty terminal in the corner where they could access the various cultural databases of the A'jaine in peace.

While Andrinn opened up the database, Nick started to get a detailed scan of the paintings down in the Art Gallery. Since they were onboard the Elysium, it wasn't hard to use the Elysium's vast sensor suites to get a detailed scan of them. Once the scans were done, the two men began accessing the database to see if there were any records about who painted the paintings.

The good news was that they were more recent paintings from artists that were lucky enough to still be alive. Nick looked Andrinn and said, "God, this person is still alive. I wonder who they learned their craft from or if it was self taught? I've got so many questions for them."

"Well, maybe I can get in contact with my A'jaine contacts to see if they'd be willing to talk to us about how they learned?" Andrinn said as he looked over the information they had gotten thus far. Nick simply nodded and replied, "Yeah, do that for me. I'd love to talk to them sometime!"

With that, the two men decided to part ways for the moment until they could figure out their next steps and see if one of the artists would be willing to talk to them. Until, they had a fun little adventure and mystery on their hands.

[OFF:]

Consul Andrinn Orin
Chief Diplomatic Officer
USS Elysium

&

Nicholas Mathias
Alien Archeologist/Anthropologist
USS Elysium