“Lens cap,” he mumbled.
“Pete, don’t you and Sarah have a team on level fifteen you are supervising?” Virginia asked.
“Wait, please.” Carmichael Rothman was looking at Pete intently. “Young man, did you say ‘lens cap’?”
Pete looked up from the plate and pushed his glasses back up his nose. “Yes,” he said, trying to focus on the older man.
“Pete, I appreciate you help here, but this is not a clamshell aperture,” said an exasperated engineer. “The edges fit too perfectly. Look.” He produced a small jeweler’s screwdriver, placed the tip on one of the eight line etchings, and probed around it. He tried to push in and lift, but the small screwdriver could find no place to wedge against for advantage in prying the section apart. “You see, it would have to have been engineered on a modern CNC machinist tool.”
Pete looked from the engineer to Sarah, who was just getting ready to pull the tired computer man from the lab. She did not try, though, as Pete shook his head.
“The symbols on the front are not duplicated on the back. The only things on the reverse side are the clamshell—or sun, if you prefer—and the two small points sticking out of the lower corners of the plate.”
“We noticed the points of bronze. They are possibly casting marks from when the plate was forged,” the same engineer said as he looked at the others for support. He received nods of agreement from everyone.
“I’m sorry, I don’t believe those two points are casting marks from a mold. They do resemble something I work with quite often, though.”
“What is that, young man?” Martha asked.
Pete looked around the lab until he found what he was looking for. He smiled uneasily as he unplugged a handheld buffer and then looked at the electrical cord. Then he cut the three-pronged plug off with an exacto knife. Then he split the black cord in two, one positive and one negative. Then he attached one end to the lower-left piece of bronze and then repeated the process on the right. He wrapped the wire around them several times.
“I cut the plug off because I don’t want to fry what’s inside … if anything. So …” Pete looked around and saw what he wanted. “Young lady, can you pass me the battery from that digital recorder, please?”
The technician removed the back of the recorder and handed Pete a double-A battery.
“Most kind, thank you. This may be enough, but I’m not sure.” Pete placed one end of the wire on the positive side of the battery. Then he looked up at the men and women around him. “Okay, here we go,” he said, as he placed the other end of the split wire onto the negative post.
As all eyes focused on the plate, nothing happened. Pete adjusted the wires on the battery for a better connection and … still nothing.
The man from mechanical engineering who was closest to the plate smiled. “It’s all right, Pete; at least you eliminated the idea from future consideration. The lines are just lines and not separate sections.” He tapped the bulge in the plate. “They are too precise to—”
A small swish came from the plate and several people actually gasped in surprise. The small clamshell spun in a circle from right to left and opened, revealing a crystal protuberance front and back.
“Well, in a way you were right—the engineering did not allow for the sections to separate, but it did allow for them to expand and open. Huh!” Pete said as he stepped closer to the plate and looked.
“I’ll be damned,” the engineer said.
“Don’t feel bad—your tapping the aperture may have freed it. After all, it has probably been fifteen thousand years since it was last opened.”
Sarah looked from Pete to Virginia. They both smiled as they realized that sometimes experts could be too close to the objects they studied, while an outsider could come in and see something they could not. Pete Golding, though, was not an outsider; he was a man who had a brain that could think far faster than most. He was almost on a level with Niles Compton.
Pete released the electrical cord and the clamshell remained open. Then he stepped to the front of the plate and examined it again.
“These symbols don’t match any other in the history archives and not even those hieroglyphs we studied direct from the scrolls we uncovered?” He turned to face the two Atlanteans. “And these symbols mean nothing to either of you?”
“We are not familiar with them, no.”
The professor of ancient languages, who had spent several hours with Carmichael and Martha learning the basics of the dead tongue of Atlantis and who had used a combination of written words and hieroglyphs to make it easier to study the written language of the scrolls, turned back to the plate and pushed his hand through his hair.
“We’re stumped, Pete.”
Pete walked up to the plate and ran his fingers first over the symbols and then slowly over the center hole, where the sandwiched crystal protruded. The other technicians looked at him and shook their heads, thinking that the computer wiz was only in the way. His fingers slowly felt the deep lines of the symbols and then he stepped back and looked at them.
“Okay, Virginia has explained we’re extremely short on time. Therefore, we must find the closest examples of what they are through other means. First, let us concentrate our … excuse me … you must concentrate your efforts on the crystal inside. The bulge at the center, front and back, is key. We now know that, since the clamshell aperture was there for protecting. My guess is that it is a lens of some sort.” He looked around, hoping that the other scientists were not taking offense.
“Keep going, Pete, you seem to be on a roll,” Virginia said from her seat.
“Europa, query,” he said as he straightened up and examined the 3-D virtual reality projected on the screen. “Analysis of x-ray of crystal between the two bronze halves, please.”
“Exact number of crystal flaws found in five separate depths of crystal is seven billion fifty-two thousand.”
“Explain depths analysis, please.”
“Flaws found at 1.7, 1.8, 2.7, 2.9, and 3.1 centimeters of plate crystal depth and 1.9, 2.1, 2.5, 2.8, and 3.2 centimeters in width.”
“This can’t be,” Sarah said from her position in front of the projection. “If the crystal is flawed with natural fractures or formation abnormalities, they wouldn’t be located at exact depths and would be far more random in the width; they would be throughout the crystal and certainly not at certain depths only.”
Pete Golding listened to Sarah’s expert geological explanation but did not comment. Instead, he examined the flaws as seen from the front and the side projections as sent through Europa from an electron microscope and x-ray imager.
“Gentlemen and ladies, let’s return our efforts now to the symbols one last time. As I said before, we will find their closest relations in the linguistics family from other languages and symbols from the ancient world.”
Several members of Ancient Languages Department looked from one to another, but they stepped aside in deference to Pete’s genius for thinking beyond the norm.
“Europa, query: the three symbols arrayed at the bottom of the plate below the exposed crystal at the center.” Pete removed a small penlight from his many pens and pencils in their plastic holder in his shirt and clicked it on and shone the bright beam through the center hole, producing nothing but regular light on the other side. “You stated in your report earlier that there is no reference in the linguistics historical record for any word, symbol, or hieroglyphs known, is that correct?”
“Correct, Dr. Golding.”
“Query: what are the closest hieroglyph or symbol matches to the three symbols as taken from all known civilizations throughout history, preferably the earliest examples?”
“Formulating,” answered the womanly voice of Europa.
Sarah walked over to stand next to Martha and Carmichael and looked at them with a questioning glance. They both shrugged, but were also curious as to where Pete was going with this.
“There is only one familiar symbol recognizable i
n the historical-linguistic record. The centerline symbol designated number two bears resemblance to ancient Sumerian symbol for ‘storm,’ as taken from hieroglyph discovered outside presentday Iraq in 1971.”
Pete ran the word repeatedly in his mind as he paced in front of the image on the screen. Then he walked over and shone his penlight through the hole once more. Then he smiled and stood straight and looked at Sarah.
“There’s no way those flaws could have been a fluke of nature and just happened to be formed naturally?”
“Impossible. I couldn’t even begin to calculate the odds of their being at five exact depths.”
“This is impossible,” Pete said, smiling. “Europa, query: at current magnification level of electron microscope, is there any indication of any other flaws in the sandwiched crystal?”
“None, Dr. Golding.”
“Please order the electron microscope to repeat the side scan of the interior crystal and raise the magnification power on each pass and continue side scan until a flaw in its thickness is detected. Continue until magnification power hits its limit.”
“Pete, you’re losing me and everyone else here,” Sarah said, but as she looked from Pete to the smiling couple next to her, she became aware that all three were thinking the same thing.
“Microscopic scan complete. Five distinct engineered sections found at setting one million times power.”
“What?” one of the engineers exclaimed. “That’s impossible. We’re not even capable of this today!”
Sarah and most of the others were confused by all this.
“Europa, enlighten our audience as to the sections mentioned.”
“Five sections, engineered as separate crystal shavings, placed together as one flat surface, indicating that earlier flaws are not flaws as previously reported, but surface symbols etched onto the five separate crystal plates.”
The projection changed and Europa produced an animated image showing the sides of five separate crystal surfaces being placed together to form one flat, almost-solid crystal plate. The image rotated and they saw what they had once thought were flaws inside the sandwiched crystal plates at the depths had Europa reported.
“That is impossible. Even today, we cannot get two surfaces that flush without major separation throughout each of the joining surfaces. The engineering is impossible!”
Pete was looking at the rotating image and smiling. “Nonetheless, there it is.” He turned and looked at Martha and Carmichael. “An amazing race of people, to be sure.”
“But why do this? What in the hell is this thing?” the head of Linguistics asked.
“I believe what we’re looking at is an ancient visual disk. Just like what we use today in the computer center,” Pete said. “Can we get some electrical leads and attach them to the bronze connection at the back of the plate, please.”
As the engineers rolled over a large box that supplied twenty-five thousand volts of mobile electricity, Pete tried his best to explain his theory.
“The middle symbol that Europa said has a resemblance to an ancient Sumerian hieroglyph for ‘storm’ … Well, if you see what I see, it becomes apparent. The rounded objects that look like hills or mountains are actually clouds; thus, Europa saw the “storm’ of Sumerian origin. However, the zigzagging line beneath is a stumper. I believe that it’s not just any storm, but an electrical storm. Lightning, if you will. And this line here,” he pointed to the thin line with two dots on the front and the back, “we didn’t recognize it because it’s a view from the side of this very bronze plate before us. See here, in the center of the plate are the two crystal protuberances. Ladies and gentlemen, what those are is a lens, pure and simple.”
“A projector?” Sara asked.
“Not only have we a projector but also video disk inside the projector, dear Sarah. And not only that—I believe, rudimentarily speaking, of course people who invented this were using a rough form of electrical power.”
Several people started saying things like impossible and no way, but Pete only smiled while looking around the room.
“Can we also bring the portable laser over, please,” he asked the mechanical engineers, who did as he asked. “Europa, remove the current images from the screen, please.” The images of the plate vanished. “Could we dim the lights? I really don’t know how efficient this will be.”
The lights lowered and Pete attached the two electrical leads to the sides of the large plate. “What we are doing is supplying electricity to the conduit of the device—in this case, bronze, highly conductive and efficient, more so than our small battery. By doing this, I believe, we are exciting something that was placed on what we thought were small scratches or flaws on each of the crystal plates that are meshed together. Now we will place the laser and shine it through the aperture of the centerline crystal, or what the Ancients used as a lens.”
Pete turned on the electrical power and then maneuvered the laser head close to the plate and centered it on the lens. On the other side, a very blurry light appeared on the screen. Pete first pulled the laser back from the hole and the projection worsened. Then he adjusted again, this time bringing the laser head up until it almost touched the crystal protrusion. Suddenly the image cleared and about twenty schematic drawings appeared. Map locations and what looked like numbers and more symbols. However, as the images solidified, they could clearly see that the center of the picture was an exact duplicate of the ancient map recovered from Westchester, New York. The Mediterranean was there, and located in its exact center were the ringed islands of Atlantis.
“Can we bring up the electrical power, please, by say, oh, five thousand volts?”
Suddenly they heard a low swishing sound and the lens turned in its plate, swirling outward and simultaneously becoming more concave. Then the green and blue images rounded and the pictures seemed to leave the projector screen altogether and form a three-dimensional hologram. The gathered scientists were stunned as locations in Africa, Spain, and then Atlantis itself floated in front of their eyes. They could even make out a huge aqueduct that rose a thousand feet above the sands of the Nile Delta and stretched across the Mediterranean to the island.
“The billions of microscopic scratches inside the sandwiched crystals—when put together, they form these holographic images. When separate, they are flat and meaningless. The lens must be layered in differing thicknesses to create the hologram. The mathematics involved in that alone are purely in the realm of Einstein. Their crafting of crystals is one of the keys to their civilization.”
One of the four mathematicians clapped once and actually stepped inside the huge hologram.
“What do you see, Professor Stein?” Virginia asked.
“When Pete mentioned Einstein, it struck me. These symbols at the bottom of the hologram—I believe it is a key to their mathematics system. It’s very close to the system we have today. You won’t believe this, but I think these here …” He pointed to the symbols in the center of the floating hologram and then suddenly pulled back as he felt foolish thinking that he could touch the image. “Anyway, I will swear on my PhD that these symbols are their prime numbers. The same as ours as demonstrated by Euclid in 300 BCE—two, three, five, seven, eleven, thirteen, seventeen, nineteen, twenty-three, twenty-nine, and so on.”
“And these numbers dead center of the map in the Med, and these two sets, one in Egypt, one in Ethiopia, and one other on the outermost eastern ring of Atlantis … this is where Crete would be today?” Pete asked.
“I don’t know yet, but I think we can figure this out rather quickly. These were brilliant and advanced people, but now that we know they used the same prime numbers as us, we can crack this thing rather quickly.”
Virginia walked up to the hologram and ran her hand through the green and blue images. Then she focused on two areas of the Atlantis map.
“This area looks like it could be the only remaining part of Atlantis above water; you’re right, it could only be Crete.” Then she moved he
r hand and indicated the area that Stein had indicated in Egypt. “I’m sure—no, positive that these are coordinates. Moreover, Professor, you are right, they do use the same prime-numbers system as our own. These are longitude and latitude.”
“You’re right, young Virginia. If I read this right, it’s 25.44 north and 32.40 south. Europa, can you verify location of coordinates, please.”
“The indicated coordinates 25.44 N, 32.40 S, is location in southern valley in the nation of Egypt, valley is named on local and world maps as Valley of the Kings, named so for the—”
“The Valley of the Kings,” Martha said from her chair, cutting short Europa’s lengthy answer.
With so many images emanating from the ancient disk, the one that took up the largest space was the giant depiction of the ringed continent. The great center of it was the capital, and far below it—miles down, it looked to be—were great caverns with a multitude of tunnels and passages.
Sarah saw something that caught her attention.
She put her hand through the projected image of Egypt, then stepped to her left and looked at the symbols surrounding modern-day Crete and the Valley of the Kings. Another image showed what looked like giant stairways spiraling down into the earth, and at the bottom of these, one in Crete, one in Egypt, were great tunnels running to the centermost island of Atlantis. No, she corrected herself, running under Atlantis.
“What in the hell are we looking at here, Sarah?” Pete asked.
“From the scrolls that we’ve deciphered thus far, we have learned that slaves were abducted in many countries, mysteriously disappearing from time to time. Now look at this, the Valley of the Kings, where the pharaohs were laid to rest before their trip to the underworld. Now, I think we may have found the front and back door to that underworld—doors to a city and civilization that sank almost fifteen thousand years ago.”
Virginia was not listening. She once more ran her hand through the floating hologram, this time through the terrain of Africa.
“For the moment, everything outside of the scrolls must be placed on hold. I need the exact coordinates for this location here. My guess is it’s Ethiopia,” Virginia said as she turned to face the others. “Pete, thank you for leading us through this. You can poke your nose in anywhere you want from now on.”
Ancients: An Event Group Thriller Page 30