Vagrosian Ruins

The planet must have played a vital role in the Vagrosian society. Early into the excavations, it has become clear that much of the infrastructure was centered around administrative work, the city potentially serving as a hub for communications. There was no shortage of places for those in leadership to gather, and several public squares of truly massive proportions have already been uncovered.

Thanks to the fortunate discovery of an underground vault, Keides has not slept for days. He is convinced that this place holds the key to his existence.

Deep within the vault, he discovered row upon row of cryostasis pods, all of them empty. Circuits integrated in the floor led to a larger structure: a throne-like pedestal at the very center of the vault.

Against the protestations of the science team, Keides made the decision to sit upon the throne-like machine.

No sooner had he sat down, he lost consciousness.

Even as his expression slackened, his body was wracked by convulsions. No amount of effort from the science team was able to free him from the throne. Hours passed. Finally, just when it seemed his young body could bear no more, Keides awoke. His report is forthcoming.

Keides saw a public square. Packed inside it were thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people.

Faces turned to the sky, they watched as a massive ship descended from the upper atmosphere. At once a single voice boomed out.

'Attend,' it said. 'For the time of judgment is at hand. The Keys will be taken. Here you shall remain, until the end of all things.'

The cries of the people were deafening. In the midst of his vision, Keides understood that his world had been abandoned. Their masters, an off-world species of unimaginable power, had found his people lacking. The Keys (and the stable wormholes they produced) were all that connected his world to the wider galaxy. Cut off from galactic trade, the foundation of his people's prosperity was suddenly, and irretrievably, lost.

As a mercy, the Vagrosians were given a month to yield all Keys and related materials. In truth, it was more insult than mercy and not nearly sufficient to save themselves. As an administrative world, the planet did not have the means to sustain its vast population. The best they could hope for was to ration what they had, delaying the time of their starvation. Their off-world masters were well aware of this.

However, even in their despair, the planet's leaders hatched a plan. Recent forays into advanced cryopreservation and genomics had afforded them an unlikely opportunity.

As the Vagrosian survival plan was set into motion, the pod containing their would-be 'Scion' Keides was launched into space - and with it, a fragment of their last Key, broken into four pieces and sent across the galaxy to avoid detection. Keides was born without parents, the product of genetic engineering. Encoded within his very DNA lay the memories of his people. Upon his maturity, contact with the Key would allow him to access these memories in the form of visions.

Alongside this plan, the planet's leaders ordered the construction of thousands of cryostasis pods and the giant underground space to house them. There, the brightest Vagrosian minds could sleep, awaiting the Scion's return. And so they had, until the cryostasis could no longer support their bodies. Minds reduced to data, they waited for their Scion inside his throne.

So as not to squander their sacrifice, Keides once more sat upon the Scion's throne. This time it proved a shorter and less dramatic affair. The memories of his people entered him with the tranquility of a flowing stream.

With his ancestors' knowledge and memories in hand, the excavation was shortly concluded. Keides's next course of action is to process all the obtained data and then report back.