"Immortals", Part 2

Posted on Wed Jan 13th, 2021 @ 5:08pm by Lieutenant Commander Adonudo Tlanuwa

793 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Where do we go from here?
Location: Counselor's Quarters

__***"Immortals", Part 2***__
Duty Log of Lt. Cmdr. Adonudo Tlanuwa
SD 202101.13

. Lt. Cmdr. Adonudo Tlanuwa's body lay on the floor of his quarters even as his spirit, his consciousness, flew with his Spirit Guide, Hawk. He'd just been reminded of the tales of the Jumlin, the horrible demon that fed on the flesh and blood of its victims, raping and pillaging from village to village.
. That image had surely come from witnessing two of his shipmates consuming human blood. But, there had to be something else, right? Hawk's visions always gave insight, not just memories. What else was Hawk trying to show him?
. They flew on, Adon riding behind Hawk's eyes, upward and upward through the skies. Adon could feel the cold now seeping into his bones. The air was thin. Adon wondered how Hawk could continue to fly so high, even as they left the atmosphere and entered space itself. Hawk was a Spirit Guide, not a flesh-and-blood bird, and could fly even through the empty vacuum. And Adon flew with him.
. Then Adon saw the ship. It was a long, thin cylinder, with two great spinning wheels perpendicular to the central cylinder. Adon remembered that ship. It was the generational ship that his forefathers had used to escape Earth and seek their new home. He was born there and spent the first decade of his life aboard that ship.
. The ship had launched in 2170 and took 180 years before finally settling into orbit over Dorvan V. As a young boy, Adon had not been part of the decision-making process that had accepted that particular planet as their home. All he knew was that shuttles were sent down and within a moon's time, there were several small villages established and their life in space was over. As far as he knew, no-one ever went back to the ship. In fact, he'd heard that the ship had been dismantled to provide the materials to build their first settlement.
. Hawk followed one of the shuttles down to the planet, following one particular man. Adon recognized the man. There were statues honoring him in several of the villages. In fact, it was near one of those statues where Adon took his own oath to be an Honored Elder, a member of the Tribal Council. The man was known only as Agatanahi Unegu Asgaya, the "Wise White Man".
. Wise White Man was said to be one of only a handful of non-Native Americans on the generational ship when it landed, and there had been rumors he might have been a Nunnehi.
. The word "Nunnehi" is often translated into Federation Standard as "The People Who Live Forever", or simply "The Immortals". The Native Americans who made up the vast majority of the inhabitants of the generational ship believed the Nunnehi to be a type of supernatural human being, completely distinct from ghosts and nature spirits, as well as from gods, a race of Spirit People.
. Some Nunnehi were said to be able to level mountains and raise up hills, to make water flow from boulders, even to give life to men and animals. With all that, they were not gods, only People. People with ulanigidu nuwoti, "powerful medicine".
. Adon remembered that some people claimed it was the Nunnehi that had told them to pack up their belongings and leave the Earth! It was the Nunnehi that led them to Dorvan V and told them this would be their new world. There were rumors that there were Nunnehi among the people on the ship when they boarded in 2170 that were still alive in 2350 when the ship arrived at Dorvan V, appearing to have not aged a day in that 180 years.
. Looking back at those stories, Adon considered. A race of people capable of leveling whole mountains and raising up new hills. Modern phasers and heavy machinery could do that today. People who could make water flow from boulders. Adon had seen wells dug alongside cliff faces that brought water into the desert. And giving life to men and animals? Adon had brought back many men who had appeared to be dead and lifeless. All these "miracles" of the Nunnehi could have just been technology advanced beyond what the people understood.
. But immortal? People who lived for hundreds of years? Adon remembered Dr. Leonard McCoy inspecting the Enterprise-A in 2364. He was 137 years old even then. Adon knew he'd lived to be 160. Modern medicine had extended human lifespans well beyond what the ancients knew. Who knew what could be possible as technology improved?
. Adon flinched and his body twitched on the floor of his quarters. What was it Heather had said? She was Atlantean? And something about nanites in their blood? Could that be the origin of the Nunnehi? Atlantis?

=== END LOG ===

 

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