Question and...Question?

Posted on Sat Apr 5th, 2025 @ 5:05pm by Lieutenant Commander Tarian Aloria
Edited on on Sun Apr 6th, 2025 @ 11:13pm

1,129 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Like Sands Through The Hourglass
Location: Holodeck One - Deck 5 - USS Herodotus
Timeline: MD002 1800 hrs

Tarian sat in his office as he finished up the last bit of paperwork before calling it quits for the day. Since coming onboard, Tarian hadn't had much chance to actually learn more about the Bajoran art that he helped to uncover several months prior.

Tarian had been on the Bajoran homeworld earlier in the year as he worked with the DTI on some temporal issues with the Bajoran wormhole that was affecting the entire Bajoran system. While working the case, Tarian and a few of his colleagues ended up helping to unearth a former Bajoran temple site that appeared to house several art pieces from the century before the Cardassian occupation of Bajor.

However, Tarian didn't get to stay long and see ALL of what was uncovered due to his team figuring everything out with the Bajoran wormhole and needing to move onto the next assignment. Since he had a little bit of time now though, Tarian thought that he would go onto the holodeck and take a little bit of time to see what more the Bajoran and Federation teams had uncovered since he left.

Tarian put everything away in his office and turned off his terminal before heading out of his office and towards the nearest turbolift. It took mere moments for the turbolift to deposit Tarian onto the correct deck not far from the holodeck. Tarian checked to make sure that it wasn't reserved to anyone and made sure that nobody was actually in the holodeck currently before calling up the computer on the holodeck terminal.

"Computer, pull up recent information about the dig sites on Bajor. Has there been any updated information or artwork from the site at the Bajoran City of Tarn Velor?" Tarian asked. The computer did some digging and came back with, "There have been over 500 pieces of artwork that have been found at the dig site of Tarn Velor. Would you like to recreate the site?"

Tarian replied, "Yes, please let me see the site with the most up-to-date information that you got from Bajor."

It didn't take long for the computer to recreate the updated dig site for Tarn Velor. Once the program was up and running, the computer said, "Tarn Velor site is up and running with most up-to-date information and relics. Enter when ready."

Tarian stepped aside and allowed for the holodeck doors to open wide. Once they were and Tarian started to walk inside, he was excite to see all the new Bajoran relics that the two teams were able to uncover. The holodeck doors shut behind Tarian as he slowly took everything in.

Tarian loved Bajoran artwork, especially in the century before the Federation came in to help after the Bajoran occupation. Slowly, Tarian made his way around the main part of what appeared to be the main entrance to the old temple. Much of the main entrance had been cleared out and allowed for anyone visiting to see how massive the space truly was. However, the teams on Bajor had found even more artwork since Tarian had been there months prior.

500 or so bits of artwork, most of which were still intact and you could see the true beauty within them. Tarian believed that out of all the modern artists of more modern Bajor, the artists of their Second Republic were some of the best. Several of them still employed ancient techniques from the time of B'hala, which had vanished over 20,000 years before Benjamin Sisko found it.

However, one bit of artwork really caught Tarian's eye and made him do a double take before moving onto the rest. Halor Etram appeared to have worked within this site, as several of his paintings had been unearthed here. Halor Etram was born around the turn of the 23rd century and had a small collection that remained in the Bajoran Cultural Archives. He was known for his hyper realistic depictions of the various spiritual leaders of Bajor of the time and most of his paintings were thought to have been lost during the occupation.

It wasn't a surprise that some of his paintings would have been found at this site, as it used to be a Bajoran temple. But, it was still a bit of a shock, since so little of his work remained and Tarian was glad that they were able to recovery several of his pieces to be able to add to the rest.

Yet, it wasn't just the fact that some of his artwork had been found. It was one painting in particular that Tarian was now standing in front of that shook him a bit more. It appeared to be any random Vedek or Kai, but the person painted appeared to have a strong resemblance to Anara, a spiritual leader and "Storyteller" of a Bajoran City that Tarian visited once during the early part of the 24th century.

Anara was the storyteller of a City called Dal'Rok, where there was a supposed creature that would haunt the town for five days out of every year. The storytellers would help to tell stories to repel these creatures. Tarian had come to Bajor around 2318, several years after his posting with the DTI, in order to make sure that the Dal'Rok wasn't some temporal traveler that was causing havoc on a poor little town on Bajor.

Luckily, or unluckily, enough, the creature didn't show and scans showed that time travel wasn't happening. So, Tarian left Bajor and reported back to the DTI. Yet, now seeing this picture of a storyteller by a painter that lived almost a century or so apart had Tarian wondering. Could the Dal'Rok phenomenon be related in some way to this temple or the artist that painted this portrait?

Tarian hated not knowing and wanted to make sure that something temporally wasn't happening. So, he said, "Computer, save this painting to my personal database and remind me in the next few days to look it over." The computer did as he instructed and replied, "Task completed and reminder added to your calendar."

Tarian simply shook his head and said to himself, "You learn a little something new everyday, even if it adds more questions than answers. Computer, save program and end."

With that, the holodeck recreation of the dig site disappeared around Tarian. He walked out the holodeck doors and decided to get a bite to eat in the Mess Hall before retiring to his quarters. Yet, Tarian knew this was going to eat at him for a little bit. At least until he knew more than he did now.

A Post By

Lieutenant Commander Tarian Aloria
Chief Temporal Operations Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656

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