[Video]

[una_persson]

[On screen: a handsome woman with chestnut-brown hair and grey eyes, wearing a tailored tweed blazer over a plain blouse. She smiles, offers a little wave in greeting; when she speaks, she has a crisp, cut-glass British accent.]

Hello. My name's Una Persson. I'm a new arrival—just accepted a post as a Travel Agent.

[A beat; her gaze flickers down for a moment.]

I've been here before, but you'll have to forgive me; my memories of that time are hazy at best. Something to do with the trans-temporal travel. [She says, as if this is somehow strange or a surprise to her, which it so very much isn't. People don't need to know everything about her.] So for all intents and purposes, you may consider me a complete newcomer.

Comments

[archeologue]

Not at all. I want you to feel most welcome here. My diggers can take care of the site for a few hours, and can always call me on the little telephone machine if something urgent arises.

[He offers her his arm.]

What would you like to see first? The resort, the village, or the ruins?

[una_persson]

[She takes his arm, politely ladylike, not too familiar.

Actually, if you don't mind, I would like to see the ruins. I've made my way around the resort a bit and seen a little of the town, but nothing of the rest.

[archeologue]

You are in luck. I dare say I know the ruins better than anyone. I spend much of my days there. It would be a pleasure to show you our little lost civilization.

[una_persson]

Wonderful. I'm not too overdressed, am I?

[The suit is the sort of thing that might be worn out on a hunt, and she's actually wearing rather sturdy boots.]

[archeologue]

Not at all. We'll only be walking by the trenches today, not digging in them. What you are wearing now is perfectly appropriate, and most becoming.

[una_persson]

Are you always so aggressively charming to ladies you've just met?

[It's said so lightly, so theatrically, that it must be a joke.]

[archeologue]

[He laughs.]

No, not always. Just those who have a certain je ne sais quoi.

[The beautiful as a rose and hard as nails ones.]

[una_persson]

I'll take that as a compliment, then.

[There's that flicker of caution again. Innocent until proven guilty, of course, but best be on guard all the same.]

So what's the easiest way to get out there?

[archeologue]

Good, because it was meant as one.

[He turns to the northwest and points.]

The fastest way there is to cut straight through the edge of town and past the museum. I usually walk; it's not very far and I find the outdoor air refreshing.

[una_persson]

Very well. Lead on, then.

[And fast-forward to when they get there?]

fast-forward sounds good!

[archeologue]

[The current dig site was in the midst of a vast spread of old excavations. Whole buildings unearthed, empty, ancient. Desolate streets. An abandoned and dead city, like Pompeii. As Belloq takes Una through the ruins, he points out items of interest here and there.]

You see the carvings above the lintels of some of the buildings, the death's head and archer's bow. We thought it was merely symbolic before, until skeletons armed with bows and arrows attacked the village a few months back. The carvings are probably apotropaic. "We respect you, now go away from my home." Or possibly invoking the creatures as guardians. "Do not rob me or may the skeletal archers get you."

[una_persson]

[The skeleton carvings give her a faint sense of déjà vu.]

The—skeletons, yes. They mentioned...

[She passes a hand over her face, and the slight dizziness subsides.]

Apotropaic?

[archeologue]

Are you all right, Una? May I call you Una?

[But whatever brief spell she has seems to pass quickly.]

Believed to have the ability to ward off evil or ill fortune. Sometimes pictures or symbols, sometimes gestures--the most famous of which, a finger gesture to ward off the evil eye, is now considered obscene, its old purpose forgotten.

[una_persson]

Yes—thank you, I'm fine. Yes.

[Answering both questions, more or less. Recovering herself, she nods at the explanation.]

Ah, of course. The concept I know well; the word was new to me. [She moves closer toward the carvings for a better look.] Are there other motifs common around here?

[archeologue]

I apologize for tossing around the obscure technical terms. It's a fairly new word for the old concept. Anthropologists decided that we should have a name for it, and once I saw it in a journal a few years back I became quite taken with it.

The skeleton motif is the most common, and was the most mysterious up until a few months ago. Spiders feature heavily, and other native animals. Interestingly, there are no depictions of warfare or fighting among anything we've found. A most unmilitaristic race. Rare, in my experience.

But the strangest icon of all was one that I saw in a temple. It was a figure, long and emaciated of limb, and burning eyes like a demon from the infernal reaches. I've never seen anything like it among the artifacts, before or since. It was terrible to behold.

[una_persson]

[She grimaces.]

It sounds dreadful. And there's been nothing like it sighted [she waves back in the general direction of the town] around here?

[archeologue]

I've never heard of any creature like it, or as much as a rumour or a whisper of one being seen in the flesh.

It may be no more than a myth, but of course that's what we thought about the skeletons.

[una_persson]

Suppose we'd better brace ourselves, then.

[A dry sort of joke.]

Have they left any written records, our mysterious precursors?

[archeologue]

None. Or if they have, it's nothing we've yet been able to recognize as writing.

I've excavated many civilizations, in many foreign lands, but none so foreign as an alien planet. I find myself making the most basic assumptions about them based on what I have always known--assuming they have two eyes, that they have male and female--and then catch myself and remember that all other mammals we've seen on this planet have four eyes and are hermaphroditic, and perhaps these people were as well. So I think we have not found any writing, but perhaps their way of writing is simply beyond my understanding and requires four eyes to see.

[una_persson]

Nothing for it but to keep looking, then.

[She wanders a bit, looking around.]

Do you need any assistance on the digs? I'm officially signed on here as a Travel Agent, but one has to have something to do when business is slow. [A little smile.]

[archeologue]

I would be very happy to have your company and assistance. Have you done much field work before? It is often hard and dirty work, but you don't look like a woman to be put off by such things.

[una_persson]

Not a bit of it, believe me. [She grins.] Digging is easier than battlefields.

[archeologue]

Were you a nurse in a war?

[Even knowing that this is an alien planet and the people are from many times and places, and that the battlefields she is talking about may not be the battlefields of the First World War, his first assumption is that a woman on a battlefield is probably a nurse.]

[una_persson]

[She shakes her head, more amused than offended by his suggestion.]

While I have nothing but admiration for the women of that sisterhood, I've never been one of them.

[archeologue]

[Her answer forces him to stretch beyond his expectations. Familiar with battlefields, but not a nurse. He knows that in other times and other cultures sometimes women fought, but it still seems rather miraculous to him.]

You were a soldier?

[Asked as if he can't quite believe the conclusion he's come to.]