She stared back at him. “You don’t see it, do you?”
“Not at all,” he said. “But I can tell you there are a few more of these maps along the walls.”
Christine then looked at a different map as she descended down the steps further into the cave. Murph attempted to shine his light on them but had noticed the further they walked, the dimmer it grew until the flashlight was rendered completely useless.
“Is this supposed to be Antarctica, too?” Murph asked, looking at the rectangular etching.
“I don’t think so,” Christine said. “However, these lass masses along each side look similar to North America and Europe. The large island in the center isn’t anything I can identify.”
Murph shook his head. “If those shapes look like North America and Europe to you, I’m wondering how hard you were hit on the head when the museum collapsed.”
Maybe it was her imagination, but surely their contours were more than just a coincidence. Though such features as The Great Lakes and Mediterranean Sea were not visible, the similarities could not be denied.
Christine went to another map and shook her head in disbelief. There was a different landmass in the middle of what looked like the Pacific Ocean between North America and Asia.
“I think these are supposed to be ancient maps of the Earth,” she then concluded. “I mean, what else would they be?”
“I don’t know,” Murph acknowledged. “What I do know is that this place is giving me the creeps. The further we walk, the more I feel as if bugs are crawling all over me. Plus, I can’t figure where this light is coming from. It seems as if the rocks simply glow in the dark.”
The two continued to walk, examining the etched maps as they passed. Murph’s interest in them quickly dwindled as each one looked similar to the last.
The stairwell ended, and they both walked into a large circular room with a dome at the top. Their bodies tingled and their hair stood on end when they entered. Christine was in awe at the sight. This is amazing!
“It sure is,” Murph responded.
“But I didn’t say anything,” Christine responded.
“I heard you say ‘This is amazing.’”
Christine turned her head away from him and thought, Can you hear me?
“Of course, I can hear you,” Murph said. “You are right next to me.”
Wide-eyed, Christine turned back to him and explained that they were somehow connected telepathically. After a few attempts at communicating with only his mind, Murph’s disbelief vanished.
“Who do you think made this room?” Murph asked.
“And why?” Christine added.
The two were almost afraid to walk any further. Instead, they both stood at the entrance, taking in the entire area before proceeding.
In the center of the room, silver liquid slowly spiraled clockwise in a large circular pool in the floor. It made no sound, swirling as if in perpetual motion.
“What is that?” Murph asked, looking at the pool. “This whole place gets spookier the further we go.”
Christine cautiously walked into the room and approached the pool of silver liquid. The closer she drew, the lighter she felt. It was almost like an out-of-body experience, as if her soul was about to escape its mortal confines.
Before she reached the pool, Christine noted writing etched around it on the marble floor. The silver liquid filled grooves of the characters and seemed to undulate as if it had a mind of its own. Though she had seen both cuneiform and hieroglyphics, this writing seemed to be a hybrid of the two.
Was this some sort of prototype language? she thought. Or maybe the writing of a lost civilization?
“I don’t know,” Murph responded, now exploring on his own.
Christine was amused by their telepathic link and for the first time in days let out a small chuckle. She remembered how the Egyptian culture and writing seemed to spring out of nowhere; no precursor society or any ancestors could ever be identified in the archeological record. Maybe this writing was a clue.
Christine then knelt down and slowly lowered her hand to the pool. The liquid seemed to respond to her presence and gently swirled around her fingers, picking up speed the closer they approached.
Murph walked around the room. Along its perimeter, pedestals in the shape of bulls’ heads each supported a baseball-sized crystal slightly levitating and rotating in the air. As he approached one, the crystal spun faster and its glow radiated brighter.
Along the walls there were other maps etched into the stone. These, however, displayed more topographical information and were confined to smaller localities as opposed to the entire planet. Murph looked at each one, attempting to make sense out of any of them.
As he continued to walk, one crystal in particular reacted to his presence. Its glow outshined all the others in the room and seemed to draw him closer. Placing his hand nearer to it, the crystal levitated higher and sparkled with amazing brilliance as if it were a massive, perfectly carved diamond. Its radiance seemed to hypnotize him as light flickered off it in a methodical and soothing manner.
With both hands, Murph reached out for the crystal.
“Don’t touch it!” Christine yelled, telepathically realizing what he was about to do.
Just as she stood up and began to run towards him, Murph grabbed the crystal. It was as if everything began to slow down. The crystals along the walls decelerated their rotational spin to a stop while her own movements diminished in speed until she was frozen in the air.
Christine tried to scream but nothing came out. It was like a dream, but she knew that she was awake.
Her mind began to fade as all sensation within her body slowly dwindled away.
Chapter 9
Chapter_9
Instinctively, Jules thrust himself to the side. His survival skills enabled him to act almost without thought. Subconsciously, he somehow knew that his only possible means of further existence would be to hide behind the Achilles Shield. Though most of what his lead scientist Drew had discussed about this artifact up to this moment was inconsequential, he suddenly remembered the fact that this shield was supposedly indestructible.
With his eyes still intently focused on the projectile, Jules took cover behind the shield and in doing so landed on the WOG holding it out in front of him on the ground. The shock wave of the blast struck before the sound. The soldiers next to him died upon impact.
Jules could both hear their bodies sizzle and smell the odor of rotting leather exuding from their corpses.
Bio-ordinances, Jules concluded.
One of the most lethal weapons in combat, upon detonation this weapon could instantaneously denature all proteins within a lethal radius. Plus, it would leave no collateral damage, preventing the area from being otherwise marred by the destruction of war.
Other bio-ordinances and explosions rocked the entire Pumapunku area. Heliocrafts came crashing down to earth while hover-rams burst into flames. Bodies of dead WOGs, archeologists, hostiles, and even tourists now littered the area.
Jules rolled off the WOG and took aim at the hostiles around the megalithic stone. He then fired out a few more shots towards the giant sandstone slab in front of him as his WOG attack force descended upon their aggressors.
Despite the massive barrage of fire, the megalithic stone block barely seemed to shrink in the process.
A loud, monotonous hum could be heard over the battlefield. Jules knew that it was not one of their weapons or anything else that he could have ordered. It was almost as if a band of monks had begun to chant, and the chant slowly increased in volume and intensity.
Jules sprang to his feet and began to run towards the stone block, but its appearance began to blur as it started to levitate. At first Jules thought it may simply be an illusion or even a possible side effect of the bio-ordinance that had detonated next to him; however, the closer he and the WOGs around him approached, the more undeniably obvious the fact became that the stone block was rising in the air.
Just before it came crashing to the ground, Jules noted a few of the aggressors leaping underneath it. Four were shot either by a rail gun round or an atomic disruptor blast and never made it to the stone. Two managed to find safety.
Jules reached the stone just as it came crashing back to the earth with a massive thud. The loud humming sound ceased in the process, leaving his ears ringing. The brown earth around the megalithic stone was soaked in blood. Dead and dismembered bodies cluttered the area and piled up on top of each other in certain places.
“Mr. Windsor,” a voiced sounded in his auricular chip, “we have secured our position and subdued the enemy.”
“Hold your fire!” Jules announced. “Inspect the hostiles to see if they hold a clue about what just happened here.” He then placed his hands on the side of his ear. “Colonel Manfry, I want a full casualty report. And make sure the wounded are tended to ASAP.”
“Yes, sir!”
Jules walked over to the rock and placed his hands on it. Making sure it was not some makeshift façade, he pushed the massive stone, testing to see if it would actually move.
“What are you doing?” a voice asked from behind him. He turned back and saw that Drew had emerged from the stratoskimmer. Now personally holding the shield, Drew said, “That stone block weighs over 100 tons.”
“Well then, it should be no surprise that I couldn’t move it,” Jules said. Appreciative of Drew’s help and the valuable information he had already provided, Jules added, “Glad you decided to join me on my little adventure here in South America.”
It’s not like I really had an option, Drew thought.
“Colonel,” Jules said. “I want this stone block moved, immediately. I need to see what’s under here.”
“We have nothing to move it, Mr. Windsor,” the colonel responded. “No heavy machinery was brought on this assault. Plus, even if I attached the biggest electromagnetic decoupling engine we have, I am sure we could still not budge it.”
Jules stared at the stone block in amazement. What a magnificent bit of lost technology!
“I can certainly blow it to smithereens,” the colonel commented. “But it would create one hell of a crater in its wake!”
“That won’t do,” Jules responded. He took a deep breath, assessing his options. After replaying the battle scenario over and over in his head, one thing about it stuck out the longer he thought.
“That hum,” Jules said aloud. “There was this hum sound I certainly heard as the rock began to levitate. It must be of some significance.”
“Tibetan monks,” Drew said, “have been rumored to levitate heavy objects through chant and prayer.”
“We don’t have monks,” Jules noted, “but we can most certainly replicate the frequency of the sound.” He placed his hand on his ear, “Colonel, bring over the amplifier you use for crowd control.”
“Yes, sir. Right away.”
He looked at Drew, “Check our stratoskimmer’s logs, and have that sound’s frequency and waveforms replicated. We must be precise with this.”
“Already completed,” Drew responded, as his fingers swirled through a holograph above his wrist. “I’ve also transferred the sound bite directly to the amplifier.”
The colonel brought over the amplifier. Shaped no larger than the palm of the hand, this rectangular device was as light as it was small. Jules placed the speaker portion directly onto the rock and took two steps backwards. Drew then touched a button on the holographic readout to activate it.
The sound and clarity of the amplifier were both crisp and robust even though it directly faced the rock. “That’s it,” Jules said with great anticipation. “Now slowly increase the volume.”
The hum echoed throughout the area. Jules felt the sound pulsate throughout his whole body; even his teeth were vibrating. “Keep going… a little more.”
Nothing.
The rock did not move or even vibrate. “Enough,” Jules finally said, waving his hand in the air. “This is simply not going to work. There had to be more than just sound that levitated the rock.” But what?
Jules scratched his chin, attempting to solve the millennia-old mystery.
“There is a theory I’ve been working on,” Drew spoke up while examining the digital holographic readouts in front of him, “of how the Achilles Shield was able to levitate, and it may apply here.”
“Go on,” Jules said.
“Have you ever heard of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle?”
“Have I?” Jules scoffed. “My boy, the theory of reflexivity is based upon this principle. The more you observe a given situation, the more you can directly influence its outcome. Just like in stocks. The more you advertise and publicize a business, the more its price will theoretically rise. I’ve made a fortune off of good old Heisenberg.”
“Yes,” Drew agreed, “but on a mathematical level the formula itself theoretically quantitates the fundamental energy which creates the basic fabric of the universe. It’s what makes atoms spin. It creates the entirety of all space-time. It’s also the energy that allows helium to remain in liquid form at absolute zero when theoretically all elements should be solid at this temperature.”
“The point of this is?” Jules said impatiently.
“Zero-point energy,” Drew responded. “When you take Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and plug in the temperature at absolute zero, there is still energy in any given system. We call this energy zero-point energy, and it directly equals half Plank’s constant times the frequency.”
“Can you harness this zero-point energy?” Jules asked.
“Just like how the shield levitates in certain electromagnetic fields,” Drew conjectured, “somehow we have to replicate the process on this rock.” He thought a second. “But the process might prove painstakingly long as there are so many different variables here to consider.”
“Think simple,” Jules implored. “What could the Tibetan monks of today use? What could have been a simple method, God only knows how long ago, to move thousands of these massive stone blocks all around the world?”
A holographic image of a ceramic pot appeared above Drew’s wrist.
“This may be the answer,” Drew said.
Jules looked closer, unable to determine the significance of the simple clay jar.
“It’s called the Bagdad battery,” Drew explained, “and can generate an electric charge of two Volts. To this day, no one knows its purpose, and many speculate as to its previous use. Maybe the quartz in this sandstone block requires an electrical charge in order to extract its zero-point energy and create a negative gravitational field?”
“I like the way you think,” Jules applauded.
Drew grabbed a handheld rectangular gadget from his lab coat pocket and pulled out a small, silver, circular disc. He then placed it on the rock and took a few steps back. Turning towards Jules, he asked, “Are you ready?”
“Colonel,” Jules said, “if Drew somehow manages to levitate this stone block, I want you and two of your finest to accompany me down to wherever the hostiles are hiding. On my command.”
“Yes, Mr. Windsor,” he responded, signaling two WOGS to his side.
“I’ll take that,” Jules said to Drew, grabbing the shield levitating next to him. “On three,” he went on to say before Drew could offer a rebuttal.
“One, two, three.”
Drew pressed a button in the holographic display. Slowly, a humming tone began to reverberate throughout the area, intensifying by the second. At first nothing occurred. But as the scientist manipulated the electric field and increased its intensity, the rock began to visibly vibrate.
“Good show!” Jules said.
Gradually the stone began to levitate. The ancient megalithic mystery had been solved. Placing his hand once again on the rock, Jules set the shield to the side and gave the stone one large shove. As if pushing a two-pound baby carriage, the massive rock moved with little effort, revealing a stairwell underneath it.
With their weapons drawn, the colonel and two WOGs stormed down the stairs. With the shield in one hand and a rail gun in the other, Jules followed. Anticipation pulsed through his veins.
Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, three men holding spears blocked their path. The two who were dressed in dark pants and long overcoats, Jules surmised, must have been the ones who escaped the fire fight. The third, wearing a more ceremonial gown embroidered with ancient symbols and writing, must have already been hiding under the stone.
The WOGs and colonel took aim and began to fire, but, when they pulled the trigger there was no response. Their weapons were useless. Jules also attempted to fire a few shots to no avail. Just like out in the Atlantic, he thought, our modern technology is rendered useless.
The three men with spears charged their position. The colonel dodged the first hostile’s attack while his two companions were not as lucky. One was pierced through the throat by one of the hostiles, while the other took a weapon directly to the chest; his protective body armor fortunately prevented the tip from entering.
Jules grabbed the shaft of the spear the colonel had dodged and used his foe’s momentum to his own advantage. Yanking the spear to his left, the hostile lost his balance and fell forward. As he collapsed, Jules delivered a powerful roundhouse kick to the side of the man’s head. The metal-tipped boot smashed into his skull, rendering him unconscious on the floor. Blood pooled out of his ear.
The colonel grabbed a knife from his belt and thrust it up below the center of a different attacker’s rib cage. The weapon tore through his ceremonial gown and punctured the man’s heart. As the man gasped for air, the colonel then punched him squarely between the eyes. The hostile dropped flat onto his back with a thud. He lay unconscious, gasping instinctively for air, life draining from him.
The colonel then bent down and removed the knife from his attacker’s chest and hurled it towards the one remaining foe. Before the hostile could remove the spear from the WOG’s neck, the knife pierced his back.
Still with a spear in hand, Jules reversed its direction and rammed it through the front of the man’s chest and out his back. The hostile’s eye’s opened widely as he coughed up blood. Feebly attempting to remove the spear, he fell to the ground and slowly stopped moving. Jules then placed his foot on the hostile’s chest and yanked the spear from it.
The Final Reality (Alex Pella, #3) Page 8