θ 28 [Treasure Hunt]

[bit_impossible]

[after messaging Oliver to meet him in the Enviro-dome post haste, he and his friend walk through the tail end of a rather noisy marketplace. he's not sure about Oliver, but he's actually being buffeted around, the smells from the stalls assaulting his nose. if he wasn't in such a hurry, he'd actually stop and use some of that money they'd procured on the way in to buy a kabob or two.]

You know Ollie, nothing about this place is actually right! The marketplace shouldn't be here; it should be to the south! And here we are coming in from the west! It's like everything's been rotated right aroun--ohhh, now that shouldn't be here for at least another two hundred and thirty-seven years! [points at a particularly large statue of Rameses II.]

And that! [pauses for a second, an eyebrow arching on his face as he looks at another statue.] Well, I'm not exactly certain why Akhenaten--try to say that five times fast--has a statue here at all. The capitol city was moved when he began his reign.

[continues right on, not letting poor Oliver get a word in edgewise.] Never mind that now! Let's see that library should be--Ah! There it is! [begins to run towards it, not caring ]

Now, d'you remember what I was saying earlier? About my old friend, the grammarian who lived in Egypt? Well, he actually lived in Thebes. Wonderful little chap, taught all over the place. Had to help him out when the Library of Alexandria showed up four hundred years after it supposedly burned down. Wouldn't leave and I had to knock him out and make it all seem like the library's appearance was nothing more than heat exhaustion. [doesn't say who was actually behind it, though]

However, I mention him now because--[stops and stands in front of the library, a grin on his face.]--the man's name was Orion of Thebes.

[turns to Ollie and nods with his head towards the entrance] Allons-y!

Comments

[oliverplus]

Orion as in...you think he's got something to do with the mixed up message?

[bit_impossible]

He put an awful lot of effort into interrupting the Captain's message--even piggy-backed on some of the information as well, knowing we'd be listening to it--so why not?

[oliverplus]

Yeah, but what's Orion of Thebes got to do with him? Outside of the name, anyway. Or maybe that's the important part.

What do you think he meant by uh...what was it...pulse package transmission?

[bit_impossible]

That would be the important part, yes.

Now, a pulse package transmission...[trails off for a moment, wandering around columns as he thinks, heading towards the nearest shelf] I'm not exactly certain, but I can hazard a guess.

[oliverplus]

[follows him curiously] Okay, so what's the guess?

[bit_impossible]

[pulls the nearest scroll off the shelf]

It's a method of sending information or a small object. The word "package" is in there, so I'd imagine an object of some kind contains what we're looking for.

And since old Ori' was a grammarian, might as well check the scrolls first. [grins and waves the scroll he has in his hand, and then opens it.]

[oliverplus]

That's...a lot of scrolls to check. [grabs one off a shelf] How are we going to be able to tell?

[bit_impossible]

Well, I'd suspect something not written in hieroglyphs would be the first clue...

[oliverplus]

Good place to start! [grabs another scroll] But this is a rather wild shot in the dark. Aren't there a million places a package like that could be?

[bit_impossible]

Seeing as there's many a shelf to put scrolls, I'd say that'd be a pretty close estimate, yes, but look! [waves another one around] It's not crumbling, so we don't have to be terribly delicate with them either. Now, if we really were in the real library, I wouldn't be doing this.

[oliverplus]

[is grabbing more scrolls] That's still a lot of time spent on scrolls. What if it's somewhere else?

[bit_impossible]

[let's out a loud breath, the task of opening every scroll seeming rather daunting and boring to him now.] Always a possibility. Not like Orion had a chance to tell us where he'd sent it. Or what it could be disguised as right now.

...This is an awful lot like trying to find the TARDIS when her chameleon circuits actually worked.

[oliverplus]

Chameleon? Like...she was invisible?

[bit_impossible]

No, she blended in with the environment, became like...well! If she were in here, with a proper functioning chameleon circuit, she could mask herself as one of the columns and no one would be the wise.

Unless you stood and counted them and discovered an extra there, of course, but why would you be counting in a library when you'd be reading instead?

[oliverplus]

That's awesome! But she could definitely be hard to find that way...

[is being a bit haphazard with scrolls to save time; he wants to be able to help this time!]

[bit_impossible]

Yeah...after a while, I just stopped trying to fix it... [shrugs and puts the scrolls back. then he pulls out his glasses, and scrutinizes the scrolls more, looking for signs of disturbances--other than the ones he'd just caused.]

Ollie...[narrows his eyes a bit, something else coming to mind] What else do you remember about Orion? Not the Commander and not the grammarian. Let's put that noggin of yours to use.

[oliverplus]

Orion? Well, he's a constellation, but I'm sure you know all about that. A hunter in Greek mythology. Which has got nothing to do with Egypt, really. Although... [scratches his head] I have studied Egyptian mythology some...

[bit_impossible]

Ohhh, so you were able to do some studying with Chloe around. [smiles cheekily at him]

Well, go on then! Tell me what you've learned.

[oliverplus]

Heey!

Okay, well, the Egyptians associated the stars with gods, too. And Orion being such a big obvious one, it must've been something. Just can't quite remember what...

[bit_impossible]

[rubs his chin thoughtfully] Well, there's the Orion Correlation Theory--not exactly proven to be fact, not by human archaeologists and egyptologists, anyway, but that was more about the location of Giza's largest pyramids in relation to the stars on Orion's belt.

But that's not what we're going for, is it? There isn't a pyramid within miles of here! No...[smiles] Think, Ollie. Big ol' obvious god. Begins with an "O" too.

[oliverplus]

[blinks, then grins] Osiris! [frowns] But what's Osiris got to do with Thebes?

[bit_impossible]

[runs a hand through his hair after he puts back yet another scroll]

Ohhh, what's Osiris got to do with Thebes, indeed! Ollie, what besides cats, sand, and pyramids is plentiful in ancient civilisations like this one?

[oliverplus]

Uh... [thinks for a moment] Wait. On the way in, what was that temple you started going on about?

[bit_impossible]

Well, there were quite a few temples we passed before we got to the marketplace. I just didn't point all of them out. [wags a finger but stops mid-wag.]

Hold on a mo'... There was a Temple to Osiris that we passed earlier! Thought it was an odd place for it at the time.

[oliverplus]

[sets down his scroll] I'm searching there!

[bit_impossible]

Oh sure, abandon me here in the dust! [sounds offended, but he's smiling all the same]

Go on then. [nods with his head back towards the entrance.]

[oliverplus]

Okay, I'll meet you back here after! Or we'll talk on the spheres. [is getting way too excited about this, sorry, Doctor, he's already headed out the door!]

[bit_impossible]

[opens his mouth to say something more but for once, he doesn't get a chance to. mutters to himself, amused] Well, nothing like being too eager to leave, eh Ollie?

[shakes his head and goes back to searching through scrolls]