elstrom99 | The Communicator, Chapter 5

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Chirrup! Chirrup!

Brevix looked up from his desk with an annoyed expression. This day had started poorly, and seemed intent on interrupting every task he set himself to.

Chirrup! Chirrup!

"Yeah, I heard you the first time! Come in."

The door swung open to reveal Chief Investigator Nautewlus and what appeared to be one of the local sapients, a human. But its uniform identified him as one of his crew. CI Nautewlus approached his desk and waived the human to follow.

"Skipper, this is 04CI31549. He's the fourth Investiagor clone that hatched. We're calling him Charlie."

"Charlie?" Brevix looked confused at the strange sounding name.

"Yes sir, Charlie. It's a common name among the culture we are working in. It helps him to fit in. Except, he doesn't go out in that uniform. The locals would find it strange."

"Uh huh. And you want to see me because?"

"Well, yes sir. Charlie found some information on his last foray outside the ship. He was down at the local library. And, well, I'll let him tell you."

"Please." Brevix ran a hand down the back of his head, tryint to ease the headache that was trying to ruin the remainder of the day.

"Skipper Brevix. Yesterday I departed the 'Mustafir" shortly after the sun rose. My mission was to access the computer system at the local library to search for the names of the missing Drragh." He paused long enough that Brevix grew restless.

"And?"

"Sir, one of the names I searched for was Ghranklonhg."

"Impressive!"

"Sir? Impressive to look for this name?" The clone was clearly confused.

"Impressive that you pronounced it correctly! I know the pronunuciation, and I can't pronounce it!"

"Oh. Yes sir. Well, anyhow, I did a search for this name, and of course I didn't find anything with that name. I did, however, find a story from three thousand years ago from the culture called 'Chinese'. They speak of a dragon named Gonggong."

"A reasonable similarity, I assume."

"Indeed sir. Actually sir, there are several stories of Gonggong. The Chinese believed this dragon to be male, sir, whereas Ghranklonhg was... or is... neither male nor female. In these..."

"You say is. Does this mean Ghranklonhg might still be alive?"

"Well, sir, in these stories Ghranklonhg sometimes is killed, and sometimes is sent off into exile by the gods."

"The... gods."

"Supreme beings, sir, divine."

"Ah, ok... go on. Why killed, why exiled?"

"Apparently Gonggong or Ghranklonhg, whichever, was rather destructive sir. They faulted him for changes in their climate."

"So, why do you think this Gonggong is Ghranklonhg?"

"Well, depictions of him do slightly resemble the images of the Drragh that CI Nautewlus showed us in our preliminary briefings, and be..."

"They have photographs?"

"Uh, no sir. They have paintings and drawings."

"Art." Brevix looked disdainfully at Nautewlus and Charlie.

"Art, sir... but there's another reason."

Brevix ran his hand down the back of his head again. His headache was worsening. "Go on."

"Skipper Brevix, Gonggong was frequently in the company of a second dragon. This other dragon appeared to have a subordinate named Xiangliu."

Brevix stared blankly at Charlie.

"One of the members of the lost Drragh crew was named Chganglungh."

Brevix's head threatened to explode and he buried his face in his hands and scrubbed. "I'm sorry. I don't..."

Charlie looked from Brevix to his immediate superior who nodded at him.

"Sir, there is a resemblance in the sound of the name, if you disregard the spelling differences. On Earth sir, there's a system called Soundex. It encodes words in a way to assist us in finding similarities. It is proving usefull in our search."

"And Chganglungh sounds like..."

"Xiangliu."

"I see. Okay, I do see the significance of this. But, can you find them?"

"Unclear sir. The stories say they were killed or exiled. But they do not say where they might be exiled to. We do know about where the two were last reported... or at least according to the story I read last."

"Then we shall go there. Get me the coordinates."

Charlie poked his tablet and immediately a chirp emitted from Brevix communicator.

"Now, please get out. My head is killing me."

The door swung shut as the two hastily retreated. Brevix stood and rubbed his head. Where, he wondered, was Hourna?

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