Star Trek Hunter
Episode 13: The 15,000 Cities of Cun Ling

Scene 12: The Painted Specter by General Suk Sin Soor

13.12

The Painted Specter by General Suk Sin Soor

“…was I sought, never a key, always the lightning that revealed itself the wraith I chased. Chased to obliteration the wraith or myself."

Commander David Pepper was in the captain's chair on the bridge of the U.S.S. Hunter, reciting poetry from memory:

“Although there was my love and there would be my heirs, I never sought th’Istel. It was…

“…painted specter I followed, followed I thought to the end of my days.

“Followed ever south with my dreams. Tracked through den and valley. Tracked through burning wastes and…"

2nd Lt. T'Lon, Investigator Shran and the rest of the Hunter's hunting party were seated at a table in the Trantor Underground, listening intently for clues:

“…woke screaming from this…

“….that revealed this phantom I had for so long chased until south I could go no more and only when…

“…only look to the north. All my dreams were north. My eyes could only see north. North I only could go.

“But the painted specter had me in its grasp along with all the treasures it foretold

“Deep underground, the ice, the cold, the walls lined with precious southern stones

“More wonderful to behold than all the fleshly beauty I had dreamed to touch in my youth

“And there my lust exhausted itself finally in a cold southern cavern of marble and cascades of precious stones

“A cavern made for mad lords to lust to own but could not be owned

“The stones could not be taken north

"The marble floor could not be reaped

“The lust lingering beauty of cold stone and lifeless

“And at long last I caught glimpse of the painted specter I had given my life to capture

“Its beauty, its evil, its cold heartless face

“And I reached out to grasp it and cut my hands on the sharp edges of ice

“As the mirror shattered and I and the specter shattered with it

“At th’Istel, at the end of my dreams

“But at long…”

“That’s all there is to it?” asked Investigator Lynhart Shran after several seconds of silence.

“That is all there is to it,” Commander Pepper replied. 

The U.S.S. Hunter’s hunting party were seated at a workman’s lunch station in the Trantor Underground, at which they were enjoying a surprisingly tasty, if suspiciously greasy lunch along with nearly a hundred machine workers and wranglers. Flight Engineer Thomas Hobbs had recommended this place and had secured a reasonably private booth for the Hunter’s crew – he still had a few friends who worked in the underground and apparently a relative who managed this food court.

The crew members had all heard Pep reciting the fragments of the only poem known to be penned by General Suk Sin Soor. Many other works had been attributed to the legendary andorian general, but The Painted Specter was the only one that could be authenticated and none of the disputed works came close to matching the general’s command of Lak, an antique andorian language. 

“You should hear it in the original Lak,” Pep continued. “The language ripples and shimmers, particularly the long, unbroken fragment at the end.”

“Another time,” said T’Lon. “This poetic fragment sounds like very little to base a lost city on.”

“It is the progenitor of the legend,” Pep replied. “The oldest known reference to it and many scholars believe General Soor was writing not about an actual underground city, but an inner struggle. Of the many aphorisms attributed to him, the one that is probably most well authenticated is: ‘To conquer the world you must first conquer yourself.’ So th’Istel became, in legend, a holy place. A place to rid yourself of inner demons, conquer the soul, and emerge a true warrior, ready to serve the andorian people and the andorian state selflessly. That poem launched a literary and cultural movement that has lasted nearly 3,000 years.”

“It sounds like he’s describing being at the South Pole,” observed Lt. Tauk, who was monitoring this conversation from the Hunter’s ground operations center, along with Belo Cantys. “‘Followed ever south with my dreams…  My eyes could only see north. North I only could go’…” Tauk quoted.

“And that is probably what our andorian friends think as well if they have gotten this far,” said Pep. “Unless they have a scholar of the literary classics with them who has actually looked at the original work. General Suk Sin Soor was a boustrophedonic writer.”

“A what?” asked Shran.

“Meaning he wrote every other line backward,” said Tauk.

“And the lines he wrote in reverse are always the lines that contain the words ‘north’ and ‘south’ or ‘southern’,” said Pep. “Meaning that if our andorian friends are digging for the lost city under the South Pole…”

“They’re digging in the wrong place,” said Shran, Tauk, T’Lon, Hobbs and Buttans in unison.

“I will need to provide this information to Agent Canada,” said Agent Lynarr.

“Of course, Anana,” said Pep. “So T’Lon, Lenny, what would you like to do next? Fancy a trip to the North Pole of Cun Ling?”

“Not just yet,” Shran said. He glanced at T’Lon, who displayed no discernible expression.

“Why is that, Lynhart?” Tauk asked.

“It’s just… too easy,” Shran concluded. “We aren’t the first people to go looking for th’Istel and if it were that easy to find, it would have been found by now, literary scholar or no. We need to consider the other clues... Like the precious gems that could not be removed from the walls…”

“You’re not going to find that anywhere on this planet,” remarked Hobbs. “It takes certain conditions for gems to grow – millions of years – and Cun Ling is less than 300 years old.”

“An andorian would have less than no use for such baubles,” said Tali Shae, who had been listening in from the bridge of the U.S.S. Hunter. 

“Precious stones in the Lak language does not refer to what you think of as gem stones,” said Pep. “A better translation would be stones that contain high amounts of ore – iron, zinc, bauxite, copper…”

“Iron and marble that cannot be removed…” mused Hobbs, his Scottish brogue just a little thicker than normal.

“What are you thinking, Tommy?” Pep asked.

“th’Istel might be closer than we think,” Hobbs said. “Most cities on Cun Ling were built on a single asteroid – a large body. But Trantor is built on eight of them. And you may have noticed the really tall skyscrapers – the ones that reach so far up into the atmosphere they need their own solar shielding and have the upper floors pressurized – they’re located on the north and south ends of the city. If they were built anywhere else, the city would be perpetually in their shadow…”

“The asteroids those buildings are anchored to…” T’Lon started.

“Lumps of solid iron embedded in marble,” Hobbs said. “Nothing else could hold them. And there is iron that cannot be removed and marble that cannot be reaped. Right under the north and south poles of this city…”

Lynhart Shran turned toward Agent Anana Lynarr from the Trantor Police Intelligence Division. “I’m sure our scanners won’t be able to penetrate the city’s shielding. Think you can get us some maps of Trantor Underground – with particular details about the north end?”

Before Lynarr could answer, Dih Terri spoke up. “It won’t be as accurate as the maps from the Trantor Mining Consortium. My father had details from those maps all over the walls of his office.”

“Turns out you were useful after all,” Shran said with a smile. “Think dear old dad will forward the maps to you that we need?”

- * -

“They want Lieutenant Commander Dolphin? Why him?” 

At the same time that Pep was reciting ancient andorian poetry to the hunting party, Justice Minerva Irons and Kenny Dolphin were in the captain’s office, having a conversation with Johnny Canada, who was at a precinct station near the Trantor Underground Market. Canada had already arranged for Tolon’s excised left thumbnail to be beamed up to the Hunter’s medical bay, where Ensign Chrissiana Trei and Dr. Jazz Sam Sinder were analyzing it.

Johnny Canada was speaking from somebody else's office. A portrait of a tellerite in highly decorated Trantor Police uniform hung on the wall behind him. “Andoria First suffered a major blow – 37 dead andorians in the streets of Trantor. They need a big win to even the score. According to my sources – and they are usually reliable – it appears the commander of the I.G.V. Ravonnelle lost her command during the battle over Rings. The story goes that her first officer stunned her with a phaser, assumed command and warped out of the way of Lieutenant Commander Dolphin’s attack at the last second. She escaped from her own brig, commandeered a shuttle and made it to an Andoria First enclave. Apparently the entire Andoria First movement has taken the incident personally and they really want your director of flight operations. They would see it as a symbolic victory because of his notoriety both as a philosopher and as a pilot. My sources would be the go-between in this swap of Dr. Dolphin in exchange for Tolon, Chin, Jarrong and the Belo siblings.”

“Can you negotiate the exchange on our behalf, Agent Canada?” Justice Irons asked.

“I strongly advise against trying to make this exchange.”

“I’m just playing for time,” Irons said...

“That is a very dangerous game,” Canada said.

“What would you recommend?”

“Bargain for his life, for a fair trial." Canada's expression was grim. "If you do that, you might get another fingernail or two before they start sending you mutilated bodies, which is what you will probably get if you give in too easily. We have to make this appear to be real – and they know you are looking for them. They won’t give you many chances.” 

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