by Phil Wheeler
Chapter 44
“I hope we haven't erred by telling Dylan as much as we have.” Tomiko and her father were setting in an office at Samuelson Ltd and she was wondering out loud if they had not made a mistake.
“I don't believe that we had a choice, he was growing aware on his own and any attempt to repair the damage after the fact would have been much more difficult. In this way we appear to be forth coming rather than secretive. We have also prevented his discovery of our true intentions. I don't believe that he would help us if he knew.”
Tomiko looked at her father. “Wouldn't it have been easier to just refuse him access to the video? That way I could have continued in my role as confidant, and control would have been much simpler.”
“I don't believe that it would have been possible to get his help if we didn't let him see the video. He already was having a difficult time with me in my role as Donald Mason, and I think that he would have refused me out of hand.”
“I believe that I could have continued controlling him.”, Tomiko said with some pettiness, “Why risk him finding out? I am sure that I could have deflected him, stopped him seeing the complete video.”
He contemplated what she said, but still believed that he was right in his chosen course of action for any other choice would have led to more questions and inevitable discovery. “I was able to remove the information from the video and alter the manuscript without arousing his suspicion. I know that you would have preferred to continue in your role as his lover, but I believe that it was unavoidable.” He softened a little, and said, “You like him, don't you?”
She thought for a moment. There was a certain naivety about Dylan that she did find attractive. He was kind and caring, and his emotions were real, his love unconditional. She had to say that she did have feelings for him, but she had to put them aside for the greater good. “Yes, he was nice, but there are more important considerations. How do we know that he will do as we ask?”
“His desire to create a working cold fusion power supply on the order of magnitude I have requested will help to drive him forward. He views this as a challenge, he also believes me when I say that all we wish is to leave this planet and return to our home. The truth, in this instance, will serve us well.”
“Still, there is so much at stake, I wish that we were more sure of our control over him.”
“What about the child? Wouldn't that increase his desire to work with us?”, he asked.
“No, I believe that it would be counterproductive. He doesn't want to think about a child, and the thought might serve to weaken our hold.”
He was curious. “How so?”
“Dylan is very sentimental and he wants a family, but he refuses to consider leaving with us. If he starts to think about a child he may not want it to leave. As of right now, his feelings for me are keeping him from thinking about the possibility of my carrying his baby.”
“Yes”, he said, “but, might just the opposite be true? Would a child not facilitate his desire to stay with us?”
“I don't believe so, his mind is so firmly set against us, he wants no part of our plans.”
“Then you don't intend to raise the existence of the child and have no plans for seeing him again?”
“That won't be necessary”, She smiled sadly, “I don't believe that he will ever want to see me again. She looked away from her father, hiding her emotions and surprised by the depth of her feelings. She had never let someone get so close before, but she would just have to deal with it.
Chapter 45
It had taken almost a month. The work had proceeded at a fast pace with Dylan working 12 to 16 hours each day. Little time had been given to rest or food and he'd driven himself unmercifully, but his plans for the power supply were finished and it would not be very long before the blueprints were sent out to the manufacturing plant to become a reality. The integrated circuit boards, various connecting pieces, and all of the hardware needed to complete the device would not be assembled until they were taken aboard the ship. Lights and power for the various tools, plus heating and the other amenities would not be a problem; a power supply existed on the ship and would provide initial power and life support so that the work to be done would be possible. During all this time he'd continued to resist going to the site, but was not being successful. Mason argued that he was needed because he was the only one with the personal experience to match the existing equipment with the new application being created. Dylan argued that the two doctors could do it. Back and forth they went, but he soon realized the truth – Mason was right, and he had to go. Just the thought made him weak in the knees. The first dive was scheduled for the next morning.
Chapter 46
The boat to take them to the site was ready, even if Dylan was not. Climbing on board at the dock, he looked at all the diving gear and a familiar feeling started to manifest itself in the pit of his stomach. Dr. Yamato was an accomplished diver and would be helping Dylan prepare, but he couldn't help this feeling that was coming over him, Dylan felt sick. He tried to listen to Dr. Yamato talking about the legends surrounding the site. “In Okinawan folk-lore, there are tales of traditional gods and a land of the gods called Nirai Kanai, an unknown faraway land from where happiness is brought.”
It was all very interesting, but it wasn't helping him remain calm. “That's nice.”, Dylan said, “is this going to be complicated? I've never done this before.”
Dr. Yamato continued as if nothing had been said. “Yonaguni Island is the last island in the Okinawa archipelago at the tip of Japan. It has been a dive destination for many years because of the enormous schools of hammerhead sharks which arrive in February and March. Unfortunately, the site where our ancient temple was located during the last ice age was found by divers, and it has become something of a worldwide sensation. The control ship has not been found, but the rest of the temple has now been explored.”
Mason came to stand next to him. Tomiko was there, but she avoided even eye contact. They had not seen each other much over the last few weeks and when they did talk their conversation was strained. Mason tried to make small talk, “Before the end of the last ice age the islands of present day Japan were a single land mass, and a land bridge between what is now Japan and south-east Asia existed. The sea of Japan did not exist as it is today. Our people used this land bridge as a doorway to the rest of Asia, and then to the Mediterranean.”
It wasn't helping. He could feel the panic beginning to rise in him. He couldn't do this. He turned to Mason, and said, “This isn't going to work. I can't.”
Mason grabbed his shoulders and looked him in the eye “You can do this, and you will do this. I will be with you all the way, I will not let you go.”
Dylan felt relief rush over him, and knew what was happening. Mason was attempting to calm him. Ordinarily, he would have resisted, but this time he allowed the comforting feelings to rush over him, smoothing his jangled nerves. Mason helped him on with scuba gear, and asked him if he was ready.
“Hell no.”, he said with a weak smile, but the calming effect from Mason was helping, and it was do our die time. Bad choice of words, Dylan thought, then said, “Let's do this.”
He stepped to the back of the boat where a low diving platform made it easy to enter the water. All he needed to do was step off the edge. Looking down he was surprise at the clarity of the water, he could see down 50 feet with no problem. He steeled himself, took a breath, and tried to step off the edge. He couldn't. A hand was at his shoulder, and he was falling. The water shot over his head, and his heart felt as if it would burst out of his chest. His vision began to tunnel in and he was five years old again and he was drowning. His skinny arms and legs kicked for the surface, but it was as if something was holding him under, and he knew that he wasn't going to make it. His father was not going to grab him and pull him to safety. He didn't know it, but he was hyperventilating, so afraid of not being able to
breath that he was sucking in oxygen way too fast. He felt the taste of bile rising in his throat, he was panicking. Suddenly, someone was reaching out to him – his father was there and he was safe in his arms. His vision began to clear, and he looked into his father’s face, but it wasn't his father – it was Mason who held him. Dylan kept his eyes on Mason's face as he continued to calm down. He actually started to realize that he could breathe, and his heart began to slow its pounding rate. He was able to look around, and the water was incredibly blue. Visibility was more than 100 feet and he was amazed at how beautiful everything looked under water.
Mason looked into his eyes, and gave him a questioning thumbs up. He returned it with a smile that showed through the breather. He was OK. The weight belt gave him neutral buoyancy, and he floated in the clear blue sea. It was an incredible feeling. His breathing returned to normal and his heart no longer threatened to burst in his chest. He would have never believed that he could do this. Looking around he saw the monument site. They had told him the it was more than 2,000 feet in length, but it looked even longer, stretching as far as his eyes could see before disappearing in the distance. Mason motioned to him to follow, and they started to descend. He couldn't believe his euphoria, he wasn't afraid at all. They swam down to the monument, and started along what Mason had called The Loop Road, a 16 foot wide ledge encircling the base of the formation on three sides. He could see the top surface clearly. It consisted of a complex series of terraces and broad steps bounded by near vertical walls. Swimming east they passed by what looked like a pool, a triangular depression with two large holes at its edge. They made for the edge of the monolith, past what Mason had described as a sacred place, and started down the side into deeper water, entering a small tunnel through some rocks about 35 feet down. The clarity of the water made the sight seem almost unreal. Dylan reached out and touched one of the columns, feeling its encrusted exterior as if he expected it to give me some kind of answer as to how it got there. They swam a short distance to a rock face, and took out flashlights. Illuminated in the strong beams Dylan could clearly see some sort of writing. Two columns were present in the rock and he knew immediately what this was, Robert's Rosetta Stone. One column was foreign to him, but the other column was obviously script of the same type as that of the Voynich Manuscript.
Mason approached the wall and starting at the top he brushed aside thousands of years of growth. He kept working around the middle, and soon found what he was looking for. He cleared away the debris with renewed vigor to reveal what had been hidden for over 30,000 years. A circle with a dot in the center was clearly revealed under the growth. Dylan recognized the symbol immediately, it was a circumpunct. In Egyptian lore, it represented the sun, and a sun god called Ra. In modern times it was the symbol used in the new age movement to stand for the creative spark of divine consciousness within people the linked everyone to the creative mind of a universal god. Here, it was the lock to a long-closed door into another world. Mason pushed hard on the center dot with his finger. Suddenly, and with no warning, the wall started to slide back and swing to the left, revealing the entrance to a large chamber. They entered the chamber and could see that the walls inside were clean, no growth penetrated this far. Mason swam to the wall on the far side, and he shone his flashlight across it. More symbols adorned it and another circumpunct dominated the middle. Again, Mason pressed the dot, and the outer wall closed behind them. Except for the flashlights, there was no light in the chamber. With a suddenness that startled them all, the water began to flow out and in minutes the chamber was empty. Another wall opened in front of them. They all stood up and looked at Mason, who gingerly removed his air breather and took a breath. There was oxygen. They removed their masks and inhaled air that proved to be a little stale, but breathable nonetheless. Mason looked around, then said, “The text was right. The life support power came on when the outer door was opened, and it was enough to clear this chamber of water and provide air.”
They entered the main section of the ship, and as they moved through it the lights started to come on ahead of them. Dylan looked around at what seemed to be a control room, and was amazed at how the equipment seemed so familiar. It was almost like watching an old episode of Star Trek. The layout, the consoles, the screens on the walls, everything looked like it was from a late 60's science fiction movie. The inescapable conclusion was that aliens had influenced this world and that somebody knew more about them then the general public realized. He remembered what Mason had said about the Brookings Report, and it was obvious that much had been kept secret from mankind.
Mason walked to a door at the other end of the control room, and pressed a switch on the wall, and the door slide back without a sound. Dylan joined him in exploring this ancient ship. They passed down a hallway leading to a T, with hallways extending down to the right and left. Along each, doors were spaced at even intervals. Proceeding down the left hand corridor they came to the first door and Mason hit the button to open it. The door slide back to reveal some sort of storage room. They continued on, entering each room, discovering the various usage for each. Some were obviously crew quarters, some contained instruments of sorts, and some looked empty. Finally, the hallway ended at a door. Pressing the button revealed what looked like an elevator, and they entered it. On the right side wall next to the door was a panel containing a variety of characters. Mason had studied enough of the translation text to know that the symbols were numbers, and he pressed symbols that represented a number three in the old language of the Draconians. The elevator started down, and very quickly came to a stop; opening into another hallway. They proceeded down to the far end and Mason opened the door. Inside, they found what they were looking for – the power room. This was the room which contained the old power supply, and would contain the new one. The old equipment would need to be removed, but there would be plenty of room for the new one. In fact, the new supply would not take up even a small fraction of the space now being occupied by the old system.
Chapter 47
Over the next few days, supplies, equipment, and personnel arrived. The ship was filling rapidly with everything that was needed to make it functional again. Dylan supervised the removal of the old equipment and the delivery of the equipment for his power supply. It was being brought to the engine room and when everything was accounted for he would begin to assemble it. Before that could happen, though, he needed to spend some time reviewing the translated Voynich Manuscript. It contained the data needed to properly hook up his supply. He didn't know how long it would take, there were a lot of different connections to make to various control panels and they must be done in the correct order.
Chapter 48
Sitting in the control room and reading through the section covering the power supply he could not help but think about what he was doing – this was a space ship from another world. The manuscript called it Loou-nai Ra. There had been no translation of the word, and Dylan assumed it to be the name of the ship. He thought it might have something to do with the sun god Ra, but he had no way of knowing for he was no linguist. The manuscript also talked about the other craft joining with the mother ship using some kind of control system that needed no pilots – they were automated. Even the power for these craft would come from this ship via some kind of microwave technology. These had to be the ships for the people that Mason mentioned were waiting to join with the main ship. It was funny, but Dylan didn't see how over 100,000 people were going to fit on this ship. He'd seen most all of it and it didn't appear to be large enough. Perhaps the smaller crafts would attach somehow to the main ship and serve as crew quarters? He gave no more thought to it, he had other things occupying his mind. But for whatever reason, though, it continued to bother him in the dark recesses of his sub-conscience.
He headed back to his cabin for the evening, closing the door behind him he sat down at the small desk containing his laptop
. It was the same one that he'd brought with him from the States, and had been moved here for him. He opened the video file sent to him by Robert, and watched it again for what seemed like the 100th time. He knew he was missing some important fact, but what? He looked at the properties of the file, it was a simple .mv file, nothing unusual there. What was it that he was missing? Then, he noticed it. The file size, it was different than he remembered originally, it was smaller.
He sat back in his chair. Had Mason intentionally modified the file? The more he thought about it the more he was convinced of it. Dylan clicked on the start icon to get into his programs, and finally on the icon for his data recovery program. He'd had to use it occasionally in the past to recover files he'd accidentally deleted. He knew from experience that when a file is deleted from a computer, its contents aren’t immediately destroyed; Windows simply marks the hard drive space as being available for use by other programs by changing one character in the file table so that the file entry wasn’t displayed. If you manage to start an undelete process before Windows used that part of the hard drive to write a new file all you had to do is set that flag back to on at the proper location and you get the file. Fortunately, his hard drive was well-planned, with the data and program files on their own separate partitions and Windows start up or shutdown would not have touched it.