Lt Rima Saell, the Mente’s Chief Science officer, knelt on the cool stone of the east cloister, reading the ‘hymn lines’ though the stone underfoot on her tricorder. The sound of the miraline’s water echoing across the open space. She looked up across the circle of lantern at Lt. Cdr T’Lenar who was stood calmly listening to the sound around her.

“There’s a second ‘song’,” Sael said quietly to her. “Not the bells, something…. Older. We’ve not detected it before. Maybe something was bocking it before the dam broke.”

“Location?” T’Lenar replied.

Saell tapped a few of the buttons on her tricorder, while monitoring the readout. She studied the lattice of the energy readings, what the Caelari called the hymn lines. “There,” she said “below the city, a chamber, crystalline, it’s not a natural formation.”

“Vezda?” Counsellor Sora Venn asked from where she sat nearby, crossed legged and barefoot as usual.

Saell pulled a face and breathed out through her nose, “Originally, yes. But something has changed them. Maybe the Caelari or someone changed them since.”

“An echo vault,” T’Lenar said, naming it. “If it was once used to impose emotion, the Caelari may have repurposed it to hold and reflect their communal song.”

“Or someone is about to try to make it impose again,” Sora replied.

T’Lenar tapped her combadge. “Away team to the San Clemente, we have a sub-surface chamber approximately 100 meters below the intake terraces, permission to investigate?”

“Granted” replied Captain Traven “Captain L’rena of the Y’tem will likely want in on this, I’ll liaise with them. Await their arrival”

“Music to my ears” Sora murmured and received a raised eyebrow from T’Lenar.

“Understood Captain,” T’lenar replied “away team out.”

—–

The team crossed the terrace, heading toward the lower galleries. Starfleet and Klingons together. It was a rare sight in the rest of the Galaxy but here on Caelari, the locals not used to outsiders, saw both as one.

“Security teams take point,” T’Lenar said gaining a look from the Klingon First officer. “We do not know who is down there, it is prudent for us to protect ourselves.”

“As you wish,” Tal’kor replied and nodded toward Sh’rol the andorian security officer.

Saell joined the lead with her tricorder out, scanning the way ahead. Her tricorder showing a cavity beyond an access grate ahead. “there, that way,” she said pointing toward it.

“This has been opened recently” Ka’rella, one of the Klingon security officers pointed out. “Not by any of us though, it looks forced by those not knowing what they’re doing.”

T’Lenar knelt next to the grate and pulled it open. The passage below expending into the darknness.

Sora paused, “There are memories here, old.”

“Echoes?” Saell said. “The vault is waking up?”

“Or because someone already woke it” Sh’rol replied.

The reached a lower gallery which ceiling arched into darkness. The architecture was similar to that of the Caelari but there were differences. Something older. At the far end of the chamber the old stone gave way to a crystal lattice. Its translucent ribs caught the light and reflected it across the room.

“It’s…. beautiful” Sora whispered.

Saell moved closer, tricorder extended toward it. “Crystalline quartz, laced with… yes. It’s Vezda, a power conduit. But the nodes, they’re newer, likely Caelari in origin. It looks like the lattice was retuned.”

Ka’rella’s voice came low, she was stood near the entrance where they entered. “We have company.”

Three figures in grey robes stepped out from behind a pillar and bowed. The eldest with long silver hair stepped forward, “High Luminary Serad has sent us as stewards,”

T’Lenar returned the bow, “Indeed, we are here to secure the vault from misuse.”

“Then we keep the same book” the steward replied, “we will not interrupt, but will remain if you require us.”

The three retired toward the entrance and watched clamly. The security officers from both sides didn’t take their eyes off the, “restraint did not mean trusting others foolishly” Ka’rella thought to herself.

Saell continued to scan the lattice with her tricorder. “It seems to respond to biological voices as opposed to machinery, it was modified by someone to care, but was not meant for this”

“it was for a prison and they adapted it for a choir,” Sora said eyeing the oldest parts of the lattice.

The air inside the chamber suddenly shifted. Saell’s tricorder beeped loudly.

“That’s not from us” Saell said in alarm. “Whatever has caused this is from the surface.”

T’Lenar tapped her combadge, “Mente, we have an active attempt to modulate the prayer lattice, track the source.”

“incoming” Ka’rella said, her warrior instincts hearing them approach before anyone else.

The Children of the First Light entered the chamber.  They saw the officers assembled and froze for a moment.

“You cannot own the Radiance,” the oldest of the group called toward them.

Tal’kor, Ka’rella and Sh’rol moved quickly. Disarming the group and nocked a handheld device from the leader but not before he clicked one final command.

The air in the chamber suddenly felt heavy. Sora suddenly tasted blood, the emotions in the room overwhelming her empathic abilities. Saell snapped her gaze to the lattice, the oldest Vezda part now glowing ever brighter.

“now” T’Lenar said over the comms to the Mente waiting for the command.

The San Clemente’s main deflector dish coming online and sending mirco waves toward the spire. High Luminary Serad was stood with Traven, watching on the bridge as the modulations she’s shown them in the old texts came into effect.  The city answered.

The lattice shivered and then softened again.

The Zealot who’d been clutching the device looked at it in confusion. “you are arresting us for worship” he shouted.

“No” Sora replied, “we are just borrowing your device.”

None of the zealots fought while kar’ella put them in cuffs, much to the disappointment of the Klingon warrior, but “a victory is a victory” she thought to herself.

The three grey robed stewards bowed to both crews, “you did not let our sacred vaults be used as a whip, for that we thank you.” The elder said as he returned upright.

—–

The crews assisted the Caelari workers from Orran fit modern security to the camber and the ancient lattice. No longer will zealots of either side of the Caelari religion will be able to use it as a weapon against their own people.

The day following High Luminary Serad spoke to the assembled masses near the spire, the transmission was broadcast across the Caelari system, from the farmlands of Tiyrn to the industrious cities of Orran, the people found out the truth.

They did not hunt the Children of the First Light that Day and they did not disturb the gathering. The High Liminary and both Starfleet and the Klingons knew they would come again. This was not the end of their meddling into the Caelari way of life.

Far above the planet the USS San Clemente adjusted her orbit a degree, the Y’tem prowled at the edge of the system and the Caelari ship Edict held her station.

Under the Miraline, in a room once made to make people kneel, the vault hummed. It remembered the songs that people were proud to have sung and forgot the ones no one asked it to remember.