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braxiatel-collection · 8 years

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After spending almost all day in the dusty archive, Benny was ready to stretch her legs. Regardless of the fact that it was almost three in the morning, she certainly needed some fresh air to reflect upon things she uncovered today. What can be better than long unhurried walk among the dark alleys of the Collection, while watching the huge eerie moon? Noticing small bench in a hidden niche, surrounded by spreading bushes, she decided that this was a perfect place to have a rest. Once Benny made herself comfortable, she heard quiet footsteps heading her way. After a few seconds, she saw Braxiatel lost in thoughts. It looked like he was so busy with his grand plans that he didn’t notice Bernice lurking in the shadows and continued his walk. As soon as he reached the next turn, he suddenly stopped, swung and looked directly at Benny. ‘Ah, Bernice. Lovely night, isn’t it?’ Benny, who didn’t avert her eyes from her employer all this time, just nodded. ‘Can you imagine, earlier today I received a collection of old maps from my friend. I thought maybe you will find them quite fascinating.’

Even though Benny wasn’t sure that she understood this hint correctly, she thought that it looked like her chance to get out of dusty archives and finally do some real archaeology. Therefore, she decided to change the subject of the conversation her way. ‘Am I right to assume that this is your veiled way of offering me an expedition?’ ‘Indeed I am offering you an expedition.’ Benny had an odd feeling, as if something was… off. From the other hand – it was Brax. It is usually something off about him. ‘So… What’s the catch?’ ‘Catch? No catch. I had a feeling that you probably would like to “do some real archaeology”. And I am always glad to make my friends happy.’ ‘Right. Of course.’ As if answering to Benny’s unasked question, Braxiatel reached to one of his inner pockets and pulled out quite thick envelope. ‘You can choose one of the locations where you would like to travel to, and I think I can arrange an expedition in the nearest future.’

***

Benny didn’t need much time to choose the destination of her new adventure. Even though underwater town Poseidon or church of the mysterious cult on a deserted planet Fall sounded more than fascinating, it was nothing in comparison with battlefields on 20th century Earth.

What was even more fascinating was that Brax promised not only to help her to reach the Earth but Earth about 500 years ago. He explained this incident of unprecedented generosity by announcing that he wanted to test some or other new time technology in some or other space with some or other parameters. Benny wasn’t really listening to all this stuff, and only grinned sarcastically as soon as she heard ‘Of course, everything is safe. I can guarantee that.’ Of course, she wasn’t really happy when Braxiatel asked her not to use any modern technologies, which meant that she wouldn’t have access to any analytical and processing equipment. Benny suspected something like that, but what is the loss of equipment in comparison with the fact that she was going to rather promising archaeological expedition? However, she couldn’t stop herself. ‘Brax, and how do you suppose I am going to carry out radiocarbon dating and other research? Praying to Gods in hope of divine inspiration? This is the middle of 21 century!’ ‘Nothing so drastic I am afraid. I made some changes for you datapad... I meant your phone. These small programmes for these new sensors should do the trick.’ ‘Oh, this is just perfect. I, Bernice Summerfield, professor of archaeology, am going to the official archaeological dig armed with some phone apps. Amazing.’ Though after close inspection of her upgraded phone she decided to change her mind. ‘Actually, you know what - it looks quite comfortable. Thanks.’

***

Brax landed his weird new experiment spacecraft not far from the biggest town nearest to the place, shown on the map. Before the very arrival, Benny had a strange feeling that colour scheme was gradually changing and at some point, she was sure that they were going to land in the middle of a lake, which on the closer look turned out to be just a field. From the other hand, they just time travelled on board of an experimental spacecraft, so there was nothing she wouldn't expect to happen. Probably choice of the landing spot was a bit strange: in the middle of a field, where on one side a prison situated and on the other side was city cemetery. Benny stood firmly on her decision to hire a team and a guide and not do everything alone. Braxiatel promised that he would join her in a couple of days, but for now, he needed to deal with some urgent business in London.

After spending a night in some strange hostel, first thing in the morning Bernice resolved to get acquainted with local historians. She wasn’t sure what she will face on the site and thought that help from the local archaeologist would be much appreciated. According to the information she had – first place to visit was local university.

Streets were almost empty, and on her way, she saw only a couple of shabby looking robots, couple of flying drones and gloomy people. She was almost sure that at night, she heard gunshots and screams, but now nothing indicated that something happened few hours earlier. The only place that looked more or less lively was the church that stood almost in the middle of the street. Huge parking lot near it was crowded with cars. Apparently, most of their owners were already inside and only a group of schoolchildren were waiting for something near the entrance. Finally, next to the church she saw the university.

A very impolite old lady at the reception agreed to let Bernice in only after a few minutes of heated argument. Benny wasn't sure what exactly did the trick: exquisite threats or really cool-looking badge from the Collection. Thankfully old ha... lady gave her very short but complex instructions about whereabouts of History and Archaeology department. Although after wandering for about an hour on endless empty corridors, without clear instructions, or a map, or human help or even consistent office numbering, she eventually found the dean's office. Quite irritated by the long walk and strange receptionist she only hoped that dean was present and that he or she happened to be a decent person. ‘Oh, Bernice Summerfield! I am so glad to see you again. Please come in. Have a seat!’ The thing is, Bernice was absolutely sure that she haven't seen this man before. Which means, that there were at least two options: either she had catastrophic memory problems or she had actually met him before. In the future. Crap. ‘Nice to see you too, professor... Suni.’ She should be really, really careful right now. After having a quick look around the dean's office, she didn’t notice much that would tell her about dean's personality. Just usual faceless room with loads of papers, a super old computer, some nameless books and picture of the president on the wall. Thank God, she had read small tablet with his name on the office door before she entered.

‘Leo, please. I thought we agreed to first-names basis last time, didn't we?’ ‘Yes, of course, Leo.’ This isn't going to be any easier, right? ‘So, what brings you here this time? I hope nothing as extraordinary when you tried to find parts of ancient mecha at the bottom of that wretched flooded mine.’ At least she didn't have to waste time explaining that she needed a crew. ‘No, I am afraid not. Though I wouldn't mind to see you in that diving suit again. This time I would like to explore this old battlefield.’ Saying that she reached the map across the table. Still smiling, dean took her map and looked closely at it. After a minute of investigation, he looked back at her almost disappointed. ‘You want to know more about this war again. Well, you know that we can't help you with this one. Though I might know someone who will be ready to help you.’ His face was lit with smile again and for a second it looked like he is going to wink at her. ‘I'll give you his number.’

***

Benny rather quickly agreed with Albert about the meeting. They were going to discuss the details of upcoming trip this evening in some fancy restaurant. Until appointed time she had some time to think about everything. She was somewhat surprised that the university didn’t want to get involved with the expedition concerning one of the biggest conflicts of the previous centuries, but was ready to spend money on some weird trip to unearth ancient mecha. Ancient mecha in mine? Seriously? There were no real mecha on Earth until the beginning of 21th century let alone ancient times. She had to admit to herself that her knowledge of local traditions was not very profound, though at least she could speak with them without problems. Six hours flew by and Benny didn’t even notice how this happened. If she thought about it, she couldn’t say what exactly she had been doing all this time.

Albert happened to be a decent looking fleshy gentleman about 40 years old. It seems that he was the head of local historical war club and had arranged quite a lot of trips to the old battlefields before. He looked genially interested in her map, because by his words, he had never visited that area and that he was always looking forward to explore new places. He promised that he would take care of equipment and team. There was nothing unusual about Albert; he was polite and attentive but at the same time quite detached. Benny was waiting for some… some move or hint from him, otherwise her conversation with professor Suni earlier today, and particularly his strange hints didn’t make much sense. After about 30 minutes of their discussion, Albert left to answer a phone call. When he returned, he happily announced that everything was ready and they could go on the trip tomorrow morning. Benny was amazed. She didn’t expect that all of the preparations would be done so fast.

Benny met her new team next morning already in the car. John and Anja, married couple. From what Albert told her she understood that both of them were taking part in lots of similar expeditions lately, because John found out that one of his distant relatives had got lost somewhere here in the woods, and they took almost any opportunity to find any traces of him. Although Albert forgot to mention that apparently John and Anja’s parents and relatives participated on the other side of that war. At first, Benny felt a little bit awkward, because of this entire situation, even though it seemed like everybody got on with each other rather well. Later, she still felt pretty awkward, because John and Anja didn’t speak local language. Albert understood them perfectly and even tried to translate some of what they were saying to Benny. The worst part of this conversation were probably jokes. For God sake, why on Earth did he try to translate jokes? Everyone knows that in some situations you can simply pretend that you know how to translate – especially if no one can check you anyway. She resorted to that technique herself more than once in the past.

After a few hours, it looked like everybody had enough of this strange conversation. John and Anja started to discuss some family matters; Benny noticed from her front seat that they opened a bottle of vodka to accompany their conversation. They offered to Benny too, but she already had a great deal of questions she wanted to ask from the driver, and preferred to keep her head clear for a time being. Of what she saw in the trunk of the car, she concluded, that they were going to drink vodka for breakfast, lunch and dinner and probably during the coffee breaks and quite likely all night. That was going to be very professional expedition.

Behind the window flashed by forest, small half-deserted villages, forest, small lakes, forest, swamps, some suspicious area surrounded with high fences and barbed wire and then more forest. The difference between what she saw in the town and what she saw now was quite astonishing. It felt like she was travelling back in time. Even more, further they went, worse the road became. After about three hours of their trip Benny started to regret that she didn’t agree to vodka. They were lost a couple of times and eventually, after 6 hours and exceptionally bumpy ride through the forest, they arrived.

***

Albert started to unload luggage and pitch their tents. John and Anja under the excuse of collecting branches for the fire went to the lake coast. Meanwhile, Benny decided to preliminary examine her future dig. Place looked like some sort of ruined labyrinth with trenches and small stone building in the middle. Probably some day it was a quite menacing fortification.

Swiping through the programmes that Brax installed for her, she accidentally noticed something called “Time Sync”. According to the short instruction, this programme was supposed to detect anything that travel through the time and isn’t supposed to be here. Right, that was really useful. Even though Bernice didn’t expect to find anything like that here – it was worth checking. And what do you think? Of course, there was something here. Something in that building. She headed to the centre of the labyrinth, cautiously passing around bushes and closely expecting floor for anything unusual. There was a possibility that the place was booby-trapped. Once near the building she checked her phone again, making sure that readings from the “TimeSync” indicated that place. The upper part of the door was broken, like someone really big and really strong tried to break through. The lower part was still in place including the lock. Bernice easily managed the rotten lock and finally had a proper look inside. Since there were no windows, it was quite dark in there. Light coming from the door wasn’t enough to see anything inside. Benny switched on the torch and almost the first thing she saw was humanoid skeleton. It lay near the entrance with torn decomposed clothes hanging from it. Benny’s first impulse was to search the body, which she immediately followed. There was a pile of papers in one of the inside pockets and some familiar looking amulet wrapped in cloth in the other. Before investigating these items more closely she decided to take a look at the surroundings in order not to miss anything before making any conclusions. However, there was not much to look at: an old wooden table, piles of rubble, dust and wooden fragments everywhere. Before she was going to scan everything with one of her useful apps, she heard someone shouting her name. Apparently, she didn’t even notice that it had already got dark outside.

Surprisingly, her investigations took more, much more time than she thought. While she was wandering around the ruined labyrinth, John, Anja and Albert pitched all the tents, cooked some food and were calling her for dinner. Albert managed to catch couple of fishes and made a delicious smelling soup out of them. ‘Albert, you are a very good cook. I can see that you are not a newbie in camping as well.’ ‘Well yes. I was working in this field for twenty years.’ ‘In this field?’ ‘Tourism. Camping. My first archaeological trip was only a year ago. Sort of archaeological trip. We were just walking around with metal detectors and shovels following some old map’s paths. That was more like a treasure hunt. At least we had great time.’ Benny wasn’t really happy to hear all that. She would have hoped for more… scientific approach to archaeology. Meanwhile Albert continued. ‘Real archaeologist as they call themselves wouldn’t even consider starting an expedition to unearth anything from earlier than 1st century and later than 18th century. Some ridiculous government policy concerning separatism, religion and whatnot. Government won’t finance such expeditions. They are not allowed to include foreign participants in expeditions. They are not allowed to include any evidence of life before 1 century in reports. This is bunch of crap and not an archaeology.’ Benny who had got used to different oppressing regimes could only listen and not interrupt.

***

After all the excitement of that day, Benny was really tired and ready to sleep. Though some thought had been nudging her for a while already. Albert was singing some sad song accompanied by the guitar. Half-asleep and quite drunk John and Anja leant on each other and were trying to join in song. Right, the amulet she found in the bunker. Taking look again at the amulet, Benny almost instantly remembered what it reminded her. Probably, it is time to call Brax. ‘Brax? Can you hear me?’ ‘Bernice? This is not the best time. What happened?’ ‘I can hardly hear you! What is going on?’ ‘Just some uprising, nothing to worry. What happened to you?’ All Benny could hear was loud shouts and roar. She could barely make out Brax’s voice. Uprising? What is going on? ‘Wait… what? Brax, I just found Tardis key in the ruins.’ Though Brax probably didn’t hear her last words because of the shouts, metal screeching and some huge animal’s roar heard from the camp. ‘It is a bear! Everyone, get closer to the fire! Try to keep together! Try to make as much noise as possible! Do not run in any circumstances!’ At the same time, from the bushes near the lake they could hear that something big and menacing was making its way to the camp. Benny didn’t think that it was a really good idea to make so much noise. She would prefer to keep calm and try to calm the bear as well. But there was no way of going back. Probably the car was their best chance for now. Thankfully, the bear was coming from the other direction. ‘Albert, where are the keys? Keys from the car?‘ ‘They are in my tent, near the bed. Be careful!’ By this time, Albert already grabbed one of the burning logs and tried to attack the bear or at least keep him off. John decided to follow his lead. Unfortunately, he wasn’t so dexterous as Albert. Benny, who had already got into the tent didn’t see as he accidentally set tent on fire. When she noticed that, it was too late. All she could do is to force her way through the burning entrance. The heat from the fire became unbearable and she couldn’t take a breath; when suddenly everything stopped. She have awoken on the bench in the Collection garden. At first, she thought that she somehow transported using the time ring or something else, as soon as her dream was so vivid. Nevertheless, it was just a dream. No burns, no smell of smoke, even the clothes was different. That was a hell of dream. Once her heart started to calm down and she could think clearly again and not just in emergency mode, Benny started to see that there were quite a lot of inconsistencies in this story. For example, time jumps and not to mention that political situation didn’t correspond to what she knew about that time period.

***

#Braxiatel_Collection://admin/logs ###log_no 14328_Ilo: project_narvin > After 322 attempts to set up transdimensional spacecraft “Narvin”, I decided to cancel the experiment. Last attempt of travel by specified coordinates had unforeseen consequences that eventually caused quite disastrous results. Nothing I cannot deal with, but these endless unpredictable errors have made me believe that I need to find another way. On the plus side, I have finally got hold of this troubling infamous fake Tardis key that caused so much trouble in the past. Now it can be found in Closed Section, GL1113. On the minus side, all my attempts to diffuse situation in London failed and I think next time I need to use my last resort. I should be more careful with these religious fanatics. I almost lost Bernice. However, I corrected her memory and there was no real damage done to her, but I need to avoid this kind of situation in the future. > Results of memory manipulation experiment (#MM15254) are uncertain. Closer surveillance on the object is required. ###end_of_log

TBC

#http://searingdestiny.tumblr.com/#braxiatel collection #object #comission

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