The Tomb Raider (lara) wrote in shipslog, @ 2017-08-11 03:34:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ network post, daniel jackson | stargate, lara croft | tomb raider |
The Fornaxians don't seem to have much in the way of collected history. They're a nomadic people and don't have a concept of museums, nor do they have many ruins to study their ancestors. But I did find an elder who has been attempting to preserve many of their oral histories, traditions and stories. They have good memories, and I'm told the stories are relatively unchanged through time.
She told me several, and granted me permission to record them, and keep copies for both myself and to give to Starfleet.
Many of the stories are folklore, which are interesting in and of themselves, but there's one about a woman's ingenuity I find particularly interesting. The story is beautifully told, but I'll rephrase it for brevity's sake. The full tale is logged into the ship's computer for anyone interested. I really recommend it.
There was a woman named Aly'wane Carnt, who they say tamed the sun. She was born in the southern plains, where it's a little cooler and a little more humid than in the north. Her father repaired the wagons, and she apprenticed to him to continue the trade. One day, while they were in the midlands, she noticed how crystalline structures in the canyons would retain the sun's heat by day. This was generally known to the tribes that frequently passed through the area. Even in the winter, they would remain warm enough that they were often used as heat sources.
For years, she studied the crystals, day in and day out. Broke them down, tested them, even melted them into glass. The crystals, she discovered, were an energy source. When made into glass, they absorbed the sun's energy, which could then be reused for nearly any purpose. By taming the sun, she allowed her tribe to store its energy. Heating in the winter became less of an issue, as did cooling in the summer. Her discovery helped spare livestock from pulling the wagons, so that they could instead provide nourishment. In the decades following this discovery, the Fornaxians developed a series of way stations, where crops were farmed, livestock raised, and tribes could rest for days or weeks, to repair damaged wagons and equipment and to mingle with each other. And eventually, her invention would take her people to the stars.
Most of these way stations no longer exist, but were the precursors to the three colonies.
It's fascinating! There's a direct line between the panels Carnt lined her tribe's wagons with, and the first warp ship the Fornaxians built a century ago. All because one woman questioned why a crystal could hold energy.
I wonder where they'll be in another hundred years. I can't imagine that a people as nomadic as the Fornaxians wouldn't rove the stars, too. Imagine a small fleet of ship, with waystations on distant moons.