Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Merlin walked into Sally's office. A giant window overlooked a large one story metal ring. Symbols surrounded the inner layer with around nine metal triangles on one side. It looks like the symbols moved to hover under the triangles. Merlin walked closer to the window trying to get a better view.

“Now then, I should start by thanking you.” Sally said making him jump. Jeramy and Merlin had been rescued a few days, was it days, ago. They had managed to avoid the military after that whole fiasco. He is still not sure how they did. Jeramy was shipped off to the med bay as soon as they landed on this planet. So Merlin was left to fend for himself.... Again.

Merlin turned back to Sally giving up on examining the metal ring. “There is no need to thank me ma'am. Honestly it was Jeramy who caused this whole problem in the first place.” Shamelessly throwing his friend under the bus. It was Jeramy's fault.

Sally snorted. “I have no doubt. However this leaves us in a bit of a bind.” She pulled a file out and flipped through it. “Wyllt, Myrddin. Born in a Chypso settlement.” She lifted a brow at this. Which is fair. Chypso is at war with.... everything so it is difficult to keep track of people there. “26 years old. Left Chypso for the Space Charting Academy two years ago. Graduated from SP five days ago. In the process of making your way from Space Charter Academy you escaped a secure room and ran undetected halfway to the Docking Deck. At which point you encountered Jeramy, took out 20 heavily armed and trained men, and dragged Jeramy through the halls. Snuck onto a small transport ship without alerting the crew and flew out pretending you had urgent cargo. Finally you sat for three days in space waiting for rescue.”

Merlin looked everywhere but at Sally. When you put what he did in order and said it out load it did sound a bit... unbelievable, but hey Merlin wasn't your average 26 year old! Or even really 26. He has tons of experience to pull on. “All without knowing how to tell the difference between a thruster and a cloak.” Sally said giving Merlin a look. Oh, come on give a guy a break.

“Yes, well I have had an eventful life.” Sally did not look convinced, but there was nothing else to be said about this. Clearing his throat Merlin asked the one question he needed. “Are you going to teach me to fly a ship?”

Sally stared at him blankly. “Excuse me?”

“Well Jeramy said you could help me me out for saving him. I need to learn how to fly a ship. The Charters school didn't really cover it. I mean I could fly it manually for a while and set a distress beacon, but that's it. Not really pilot level. Going to that school was a bust and I don't want to have to spend years learning.”

Sally dropped her head and sighed. Deeply. She started mumbling. Merlin leaned in catching bits and peices. “Why are they all....... one normal person.... all I ask...even Tessa is....” Feeling a bit guilty he leaned back and waited for Sally to pull herself together.

Looking around the room he noticed pictures of people, no, teams on different planets. It looked like a mix of military personal and scientist. Coordinates and paths were marked out, but nothing to specific. Like what was there or the reasons to go. Sally lifted her head fixing Merlin with a stare. “... I can have someone teach you how to work a ship however you have to work for it. I can't just give it to you for free.”

“Look I already told Jeramy. I am not becoming some rebellion spy assassin or whatever you call it. It just brings back bad memories. So it can't be whatever Jeramy the shitty spy does.” Sally's eye was twitching.

“We are not a rebellion!” She hissed. Merlin was pretty sure Jeramy told him this before, but who trusts a spy that gets caught? She also didn't deny the spy assassin bit he noticed. “We are an information network! A very good information network.”

“Then why was Jeramy being chased by...” Wait! He knows this. “Never mind. So what do you want me to do in return for learning to drive that flying hunk of space metal?”

“I want information on the Star Gate.” She pointed at the rather large obnoxious metal ring.

“Star Gate? As in a Gate to the stars?” Merlin looked back at it. Those symbols look really familiar now that he thinks about it. “How does that work?”

Sally folded her hands under her chin. “You impute the coordinates of another Gate and a pathway opens up. We think that it causes a mini wormhole.”

Merlin nodded along. That sounds like a very scientific way to explain teleporting. “So what do you want to know about this metal ring of teleportation? I don't think I know anything about them.”

“Jeramy had some really great things to say about you Mr. Wyllt.” She smirked. “Apparently you are really good at learning languages. You figure out what those symbols mean and we teach you how to pilot a spaceship. We will even give you a small one to help you on your way.”

“So... Not that I don't believe you. But how long do you think learning what seems to be an unknown language without a guide line is going to take? I just said I didn't want to have to learn how to fly a ship over a couple years.” Merlin asked.

“An excellent question. Now let me ask you one in return. What makes you think we will just let you go after showing you where to find us?” Merlin stood still studying Sally. Her hair cropped short. A couple scars scattered around her face and arms. Cloths professional but still easy to move in if needed. Merlin has never seen a more assassin like information broker in his life. However she makes a fair point.

Merlin nodded. “I understand. Where will I be staying for this wonderful endeavor? I only have my Space Charters Uniform at the moment. Unfortunately was not able to bring anything with me when I was forced to make my escape.”

Sally snorted and stood. “Follow me I will show you to your room. There are a few things you should take not of. The cafeteria is always open no matter the time. We work all hours of the day. There is a training room and gym if you wish to practice or just spar with people. You will be working in the main room you saw from my office window. There are two people that will work with you on this. Their names are Flix and Rosha. They will fill you in tomorrow.”

We turned a corner down the hall to where the light were dimmer. “You have already seen where the med bay it. Try to avoid it or causing others to have to go there. I will find someone to teach you how to pilot a ship by tomorrow as well.” They stopped at door with the number 37 on it. “This will be your new room. Not far off from my office. Your job starts in 12 hours. Rest well and welcome to the team.” Sally smiled viciously and walked off leaving Merlin alone in the hall.

“Right.” He turned back to the door. There was no handle. He examined it closer looking for a button. No button. Maybe he had to push it? Merlin pushed on the door in several different places... Nothing. He slid his hands along the edges of the door looking for a latch, an indent, anything! “Fuck!” So he was stuck in the hallway until he could find someone to open the door. What the hell?

What if it was motion sensitive? Merlin has come across several doors that are. There is a problem with that if this is true. Motion sensors don't like Merlin! Merlin stood in horror outside his door just staring. “Right I forgot to give you this.” Merlin jumped as Sally just Appeared, like a ghost, at his side. She gave him a small plastic card. “Keep this on you at all times. It opens the doors.” With that she strolled off again.

“... Right, a card...” Merlin looked back at the door. There still wasn't a place for it to read. Was he just supposed to wave it around all over the place to get in? Slowly Merlin slid it all over the door waiting for some sign that it worked. After ten minutes merlin slid to the floor clutching the card. “Why? Where does this even go!” He flipped the card over trying to see if there was a difference... There wasn't.

“You know what I don't need a card to open a door. I'm Merlin for Goddess sake!” Spinning around he glared at the door calling on his magic. Eyes flashing a brilliant gold. A click sounded. Merlin froze as the door slowly slid open revealing a sparsely decorated bedroom. Stunned Merlin turned to look at his hand his magic simmering under his skin ready to obliterate the now open door. The card lay against the wall near the opening. Pulling his hand back he noticed a small green light the size of a pinpoint.

Turning to look down the hall he could see little red dots by each of the doors. “I'm going to bed.”

Chapter Text

Merlin shouted in frustration. Slamming the papers he was using to write down translation ideas. Flix glanced over at the gate. Rosha, lucky her, was on brake today. She did not get to witness the wonders of Merlin's break down. “How am I supposed to know what this is? There are no guide lines. Their not based on a language. At least one we know. They are not runes. They are not even sta...”

He stopped. Looking back down at the two small triangles on the paper in front of him. Tilting his head Merlin drew a square before looking at the symbols again. “It can't be.” He held the papers up to the light causing the triangle to look like it made up half the square.

Merlin pointed to one of the symbols on the paper. “This has to be Norma! Its the angles. Nicolas would be so disappointed in me for not seeing it sooner. It even has two! I can't believe I didn't see it.”

Flix looked at the two triangle symbol he had thrown back on the table. “Who is Nicolas?

“Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille, we argued for hours on what to name this constellation.” Merlin answer was distracted as he shifted through papers. “He wanted to name it Norma to represent the perfect carpenters angle. However I said he should have named Telescopium that because that was a perfect right angle. But no the bastard had to name that one after a telescope because it just looked like one. That guy had no naming sense I swear. Aha!”

Merlin's ramble was cut short as he slid out a paper with a V sitting over an O causing several others to fall onto the floor. “This one is Crater! They even drew the line on the bottom for the cup.” He mumbled while scribbling down information. “But why would they use these constellations? You can't even see these from here.”

Flix hummed in confused agreement. “So I take it you have figured out how to understand the symbols?” Merlin looked up from his frantic writing staring blankly at Flix. “... I will inform Director Veilia of your progress.” With a nod Merlin went back to his papers. Flix shook his head and wondered off to get the Director to deal with Myrddin.

Merlin had been in this base of not rebellion spy assassins for months! Months! He has learned how to drive a ship. Merlin would have just left when he finished learning how to pilot whether or not Sally agreed. However these symbols kept bothering him. He was sure he had seen them before. Even studied them, but he just couldn't remember. However now, now he knew what they were.

He shifted through his papers looking at another symbol. This one was Bootes. One of the largest constellations that you could have seen from Earth. What made figuring this all out difficult was that the lines where drawn differently. Merlin had to remember the placement of the stars and then connect them in different ways. Which is why it took so long for him to understand. That is until now!

Dragging out a blank sheet of paper he started drawing the symbol and writing down the name that goes with it. It had been centuries since he has studied the stars, and now he will never be able to see them from Earth again. Taking a steadying breath he looked back down at his work.

There were 39 symbols drawn out in front of him. Which means that only 39 of the 88 constellations were used, but how to tell which ones. He already new that Bootes, Carter, and Norma are 3 of these symbols. So that left him with 36 more to find. Maybe they used other big ones. Carter and Norma are quite small but surly they used the big ones more. It was as good a place to start as any.

“Flix said you found a way to translate the symbols.” Sally said as she walked up to the table collecting some papers from the floor on her way. “I'm surprised it has only been six months since you came here.” She looked at the paper Merlin was scribbling on. “My people have been struggling to read these for over three years.”

“Yes well if they new about the Milky Way then they probably would have been able to understand them. Speaking of which where did you grab that metal ring?” Merlin stopped and looked up at Sally.

She sighed and leaned on the table observing the ring over. “We picked it up in an astroid field. The belt used to be a planet but it had recently been reduced to ruble. It wasn't to hard to drag it back and set it up in the main hall. I'm glad you found a way to read it. It seems to be a piece of lost technology.”

Merlin snorted and went back to matching the symbols to constellations. “It would have been from Earth then. The symbols are actually glyphs of constellations you could see from there.” He said ignore the spike of pain at the reminder of his destroyed home. He would have to draw these glyphs into one of his notebooks. They may come in handy later. Well if he ever say another Gate.

“Hm, well I can see you are busy. I will come back later to see what you have achieved. Am I to understand that you will be leaving as soon as you finish?” She placed down a paper back onto of one of the disorganized piles.

“Yes, when I am done writing all of this down I'm out. It was nice staying here for a while, but this is already longer then I wanted it to be.” Merlin commented. The glyphs were slowly coming alone. Yes, there was Virgo if you flipped it and connected the stars more. Maybe they will have Hydra. It would make since to have the largest constellation.

Sally nodded and headed back to to her office. It was going to be a long day of puzzling out constellations via memory. It's not that Merlin had a bad memory. No, his memory was rather good, but it has been a long time since he has done this. When he was young he used to lay out in the field outside his mother's house and draw out lines in the sky.

Later he did it with the knights when on hunting trips. Arthur was never one for star gazing the pompous git. He would always use the stars and moon to travel during those times. Later on he meet several astronomers and talked about the stars theories thrown around. Most memorable was Nicolas. They had met in South Africa and argued for days about constellations. A few of them had be lost in history by that time.

Merlin turned back from his thoughts and looked back down at the paper. Well its not like this is going to solve itself.