The Ancient cities of Silik

T’Laan(a1), Venar(a2), Lett(a3)

Received: stardate 959.4
Published: pending

Abstract

Silik, currently inhabited by a faction of the Suliban people, has had at least two prior races resident upon it. One race lived approximately 70 million standard years ago constructed towering buildings which survive intact until today. The second, dating to around 9 million years ago, came from elsewhere and settled upon Silik, taking up residence in the existing buildings and making minor modifications to them. Very little is known about either race, no biological evidence of the first race has been found to date, nor have any writings or artifacts other than the buildings and a single statue. Of the second race, trace biological evidence has been recovered as well as a single example of their writing, however no buildings or artifacts can be attributed to them at this point in time. In this paper we discuss the details known, what we can extrapolate from these details and present a number of hypotheses on the origin and fate of these races.

 

Occupation

Chief Engineer’s Personal Log
Stardate 953.2

 

Again I find myself asking the question ‘Why?’. On the surface, the takeover of Fairydale could be seen as a way to acquire the colony’s production, however the effort to which those behind the plot went to challenges that. Someone on Fairydale beforehand to get a transporter lock on the governor. Two Orion ships. The individual to impersonate the governor. The equipment necessary to impersonate the governor. The recruiting of people for the militia who would go along without question.

Then the utter callousness of the way they covered their tracks, at a point when they couldn’t have known whether they’d been discovered or not. The bomb in the communications centre could have killed everyone in the capital, and the fallout devastated a good part of the continent. The device they dropped in front of our ship was powerful enough to destroy a small starbase.

What was their end goal? And who was behind it all?

So much strangeness

Chief Engineer’s Personal Log
Stardate 949.2

 

Silik is an enigma in a number of ways. So far we have found seventy million year old buildings, three different species of Earth dinosaurs, a <redacted> belonging to the Suliban Cabal, a piece of dilithium with illium incursions in a pattern that I have never seen before, and evidence that at least one other sentient race occupied the abandoned buildings before the Suliban arrived.

The dilithium is… strange. The position of the incursions suggests a prolonged period exposed to two subspace fields which were interfering with each other, but the only model which even remotely fits has the two sources more than half a light-day apart, and to produce the observed incursions with that kind of distance requires an incredibly powerful, and large, field. I’m not aware of anything which could generate a field which matches those criteria.

The <redacted> was unfortunately destroyed when the lower decks of the space station collapsed. If there were any records remaining within it, they are now lost. Is it possible, I wonder, if this is why the Denobulan ship was found in this system? Like calling to like perhaps. We know so little of <redacted> physics, without both devices it is impossible to tell. Without either, no more than guesswork is possible.

The second race, that they lived in the cities is a certainty, although little more can be determined. They were not from Silik. They arrived at some point after the original race either left or was destroyed. The carving in the collapsed tower suggests destroyed. They themselves either left or were destroyed approximately 9 million years ago. The carving again suggests destroyed and destroyed by the same phenomenon as destroyed the original race. How did they know? Did they know? And, if they did, what phenomenon can destroy two space-faring races millions of years apart? Perhaps if we can decode the writing it will give us more insight.