Alice told us they had covered the rest of the short tunnels on this side. “Some were empty; some were full of strange stuff that M2 photographed. Maybe we should work the other side. There were no signs of a generating station, so the power for the lights is still a mystery.”
We began at the flying saucer end and worked our way back towards the entrance. Most of the rooms were empty, but seven were full of weird stuff. One had a variety of copper wound magnets, but the cores were flat bars shaped into a Mobius strip. They had to be hand wound, but there were no clues about their use. There was also a large bell-shaped object with a strange blue glow deep inside. Another room had tiny machines. They were much too small for manipulation without special equipment. Nowhere did we see anything that looked like the bar of soap.
Back at the map room, we retired to the area with the bunks. Harry volunteered to keep watch. “I’ll wake you up in six hours.”
With many thanks, we turned in. We were still snoozing when Harry shook us awake. “Carl has arrived at the airport,” he said, “and Fritz has just picked him up. I’ll go topside now.”
First, the girls visited the latrine then the boys had their turn. When we got to the kitchen, we smelled real coffee.
“They have an electric stove that works great,” Alice said, “Amy is fixing canned bacon and I’ll mix up the powdered eggs. We’ll have us an omelet.”
“Under the present circumstances,” I said, “this is as good as the Silver Diner and Amy reminds me of Miss Magic.”
The boys agreed. Both girls were curious about the Silver diner so, over breakfast, I told the tale.
As we were finishing our meal, Harry showed up with an excited Carl in tow.
As he handed the crank to me he said, “I’m grateful to you all for allowing me to come here. I hope that I can see this through to the end.”
“You just might,” Alice said. “Without you, this never would have happened.”
“Everyone’s here,” M1 said. “Let’s go to the vault.”
I resumed my seat in front of the dials. The new crank snapped into the dial socket. I gave it one full turn and the big door silently eased open under its own power.
“Got your Geiger counter?” I asked Alice.
She pulled the small unit out of her back pocket, played it around the door edge and pronounced it free from radiation.
CHAPTER 10
We stood at the entrance to a large chamber with rough stone walls rising fifteen feet to the ceiling. There were only two objects and one of them dominated the room.
After a few moments, M1 hazarded a guess. “Betcha that big thing is what the Nazis found on that platform in front of the pyramid.”
“I agree,” Alice said, “but what the fudge is it? Looks like a giant gravestone, except the face is smooth and sort of a misty dark green.”
The other object appeared to be a stand-up console with a shiny black top. Its main features were two horizontal rows of six white rings about the size of a grapefruit—not raised, just rings colored a dull white. There was a single, larger white circle set off to the left. No lights were blinking and no bells were ringing. Everything was still and silent.
“What to do? What to do?” Alice sighed. “Oh, James, where are you?”
“Best we don’t touch anything just yet,” I said, while walking up to the green fog.
I couldn’t really focus my eyes on the surface so I tried looking at an angle with the same result. The only thing we could think of was to start touching things so I volunteered. I gingerly touched it with the tip of a finger. My finger stopped, but I could feel no texture. The sensation of touch was missing and when I pressed harder my finger just slid to one side.
“Since I don’t know what the hell I’m doing with whatever the hell this is,” I said, “I think I’d like to tackle the console.”
There were no knobs or switches, so I placed my hand flat on one of the circles. “I think the battery is dead.”
Amy was standing next to me in front of the large circle. She hesitantly extended her hand and looked my way. I shrugged and told her to go ahead. She might have the magic touch. As she placed her hand flat in the middle of the large circle, the console lit up. The giant gravestone did not exactly glow, but it took on a pearl like luster.
Amy jumped back along with the rest of us. I watched and listened, but there was no noise or movement. After a cautious minute or two, we went back to the console for a closer look. The big circle was still empty, but the twelve smaller circles displayed faint gray images in each one.
“Hieroglyphics,” Alice exclaimed. “Damn, I thought we finished with Egypt.”
“Some of these look familiar,” I said. “M2, can you get your hands on any pictures you took of the images on the front of that platform in the tomb?”
“I have them right here,” he said.
He did a quick thumb dance and handed the camera to me. There it was, the same twelve hieroglyphs carved in the stone.
“Let me make a test,” I said.
I found the first matching image on the console and pressed my hand on the white circle. No, this machine had zero interest in doing business with James. I asked Amy to do what I did. She touched the circle with the first hieroglyph shown on M2’s camera and it went from faint gray to bright white.
“I don’t know why,” I said, “but Amy, you da man.”
“Whoa! Heads up everyone,” Harry called out. “The bank vault is closing.”
Before we could react, the massive door clunked shut. It sealed us inside. I heard some loud breathing.
“Oh, shit!” Alice exclaimed. “I guess one of us should have stayed outside.
“Just stand still,” M1 said. “Let’s see what else happens. Alice, can you see if your phone is working?”
We held our breath. She tried. It wasn’t.
“Maybe,” M2 said, “the door has to be closed before the gravestone can do whatever it does.”
“That’s a good guess,” M1 said, “but first let’s see if Amy can turn the thing off and open the door. Amy, go ahead and touch the small circle.” The instant she touched it the light dimmed and the vault door began to open. “Touch the small circle again,” he said.
She did and the circle brightened. The vault door reversed its motion and closed again.
“I think we’re okay,” M1 said. “James, carry on with your operation.”
I showed Amy the other hieroglyphs in sequence and they each obediently lit up at her touch. We stopped for a pow-wow after number eleven.
“I expect that after Amy touches the last circle, something will happen,” M1 said. “Can we do anything to prepare? Alice, do you want to call the Director?”
“What would I tell him?” she replied.
M1 made the decision. “I’ll stay here with Amy while the rest of you back up as far as you can and watch. We have to go ahead.”
When we were all at our assigned stations, M1 moved much closer to Amy and held her shoulders.
She turned her head to look up at him. “I’m okay, Don, ah, M1.”
Don? Amy called him Don. I glanced at Alice and she gave me the bug eye.
“Do it, kiddo,” Don, ah, M1 said.
Amy was the smallest of our party and reminded me a little of Alice in Wonderland as she reached to place her hand on the last circle. It occurred so quietly that we almost missed the first bit. The gravestone surface parted in the middle like the curtain on a stage followed by a gust of air. The monument had sucked in several cubic feet of the chamber air.
“My ears just popped,” Alice said. “Could we be oxygen deprived?”
“I don’t think it’s too severe,” M1 said. “I’ve felt more reduced pressure while skydiving.”
Whoever made the thing had not bothered to make a set for that strange stage now before us. We were looking at a possibly gray colored nothing. There was no surface on which to focus, but we could not look away. As our eyes swam around that empty area looking for an
ything at all, a small golden dot appeared in the exact center. It pushed its way through and soon we were looking at half of a volleyball-sized globe. The gold surface was a featureless mirror. It hung there for perhaps ten full seconds then withdrew and winked out.
We all just looked at each other in shock until Amy spoke up. “I had no idea my Egyptian ancestry was important.”
We had no response. None of us knew of her ancestry and even if we did, I couldn’t imagine how it would apply here. While I was wondering why she said that, little Alice in Wonderland spoke again. “You all must wait here. I’ll be back very soon.”
With that, she walked to and through the gray nothing and was gone. The green curtain closed silently.
“What the hell!” M1 exploded. He took two steps toward the gravestone, then turned to face us. He was the picture of concern and frustration. I began to wonder about his feelings toward Amy, but perhaps it was just the reaction of a responsible leader. I didn’t glance at Alice.
“I’ve seen that in a movie,” M2 said, with wonder in his voice. “This guy walked through a wall the same as she just did.”
“I remind you,” the real Alice said, “that appearing through walls is one of her specialties, but this ain’t the Roxie and there’s no popcorn or Milk Duds.”
Harry puffed out his cheeks. “My sense of self-preservation tells me to turn and run like hell, but we can’t leave her here—or in there.”
“Hang on,” Alice said, while she dug into her pack.
She pulled out some papers. “This is our latest office pool. I think it’s time to see who won. Yours is on the bottom, James. I’ll read it last.” After some shuffling she reported, “I have one ET and the rest say Alien. Not at all bad. Now I’ll read James’s guess.” She read what I had written, took a big breath and said, “Stargate.”
Although it was strange under the circumstances, I received a big round of applause.
“M1 deserves the credit,” I said. “Remember that on our first trip here he had us watch for a pile of Kryptonite and a Stargate, but I really had my doubts. It was wishful thinking.”
I had been checking my Ralex every few seconds. Just as I passed the three-minute mark, the green curtains opened and Amy walked back intact, smiling and holding a small glass cup in one hand.
M1 practically ran to her and grabbed both of her arms. “Are you okay?”
“Gosh, yes,” she answered. “This is incredible piled on fantastic.”
They locked eyes for a moment, then she said, “I think you can let go now.”
He dropped his arms and stepped back. Amy went to Alice and handed her the glass cup.
“Pass this around and have everyone spit. YDRII needs to pattern you all so you can come with me to see Moses, but I must ask you to consent to the patterning. If, for example, you are Italian, you are consenting for any human that has your racial characteristics. It was able to communicate with me because my Egyptian pattern was on file.”
“Come on, kiddo,” Alice wailed. “Have a heart. Spit? Why-dee-are-too? Moses? Is that all you can say?”
“All right, calm down,” Amy said, while giving Alice a hug. “The spit is for DNA. YDRII is a big floating Aspirin capsule that reminds me of R2D2. I had to call it something so I have named it the letters Y and D and R with the numeral II at the end. It’s short for You Dirty Rat II. I can’t describe it, but you’ll see when we get there. Moses is the boss. YDRII showed me an image, but I didn’t meet him because he is dormant and YDRII needs to revive him. When you meet, you’ll understand why I call him Moses. YDRII is some sort of extension of Moses, but I’m not at all clear on that. I can tell you a little bit more, but I don’t know too much.” She pointed at the giant gravestone and said, “Inorganic and dead organics can pass through this thing easily. It’s a portal, but it has a block for anything alive unless YDRII has a pattern and Moses approves. Its only patterns for a human were from the Egyptians way back when and the Germans. I guess it goes by race although I’m not sure.”
“German huh?” Alice said. “Was your Aspirin capsule in league with the Nazis?”
“Say,” Harry said, “this thing could be the Entity mentioned in the diary.
“I think so,” Amy said. “YDRII said that when Moses learned what the Nazis were doing, he ended his contact, but for us YDRII thinks he will make an exception.
“The last thing YDRII told me is that Moses is in great need of our help, but it didn’t say why. We’ll have to assign YDRII a sex though, because something that intelligent is not an it and that makes conversation awkward.” The spit cup had its deposits and Harry handed it to her. She hesitated before the portal and turned with the impish look. “Aren’t you curious about where I was?” she asked in a coquettish manner.
“YES!” we all shouted.
The imp smile grew as she turned to the portal and just as she entered, we heard her say, “Jupiter.”
All was quiet as we tried to digest this latest event.
“That globe in the map room,” Alice exclaimed, “it’s not a cloud covered earth—it’s Jupiter.”
“I hope she comes back sooner than the last time,” M2 said. “This waiting is a bitch.”
“While we have the time,” M1 said, “and since things are happening so fast, why don’t I take a vote. All in favor of going say ‘Captain Kirk’.”
The good Captain’s name rang throughout the chamber.
“You going to report this to the Director?” I asked Alice.
“Not just yet,” she replied. “Remember, he’s in Washington and all of this is on his head. I can’t really give him the complete picture and he may order us to back off or slow down. I’ll call him, sure, but not just now.”
Like a child waiting on a playground for a chance to play, Carl spoke up in a worried voice. “Can I go too?”
“Did you spit?”
“No, but I’m German.”
M1 called for another vote. “All in favor of Carl going along, say ‘Spock’.”
Carl won the vote.
“We’ve been in freefall on this since day one,” Alice observed.
“Sometime you’ll have to tell me how this all began,” Harry said. “I came in a little late.”
While Harry was talking, Amy popped back and said, “All set. We can go now. By the way, we don’t actually go to Jupiter. We’ll be on Ganymede, but I saw a super view of the big planet.”
“Look, Amy,” M2 asked, “how does it work? Do we rocket through a spinning vortex? What?”
“None of that stuff,” she said. “You just walk through and you’re there. YDRII will explain. Now come on—or do you need me to hold your hand?”
M2 said nothing, but went into his muscle man stance.
The floor on the other side,” Amy continued, “is at the same level. Just step over the frame and be aware of the lower gravity. On my first trip I bounced almost six feet in the air—which is breathable and warm by the way.”
With that, she turned and left on her third trip. The rest of us lined up back to back. M1 was in the lead, followed by Alice, then M2, then Harry, then Carl and finally me.
“Just keep walking,” M1 said, “and stand clear on the other side. We want to make a graceful entrance.”
One last equipment check and M1 waved us on. “Hup, two, three, four, just avoid the big moon’s core.”
CHAPTER 11
Amy was right. There was no sensation. I blinked as my face approached the dark green surface and when my eyes opened, I was in another place. Two seconds later, we were there in a tight group, holding on to each other. Amy didn’t exaggerate when she said it felt a little like being on a trampoline. Our little girl was standing silently nearby to give us a chance to look around and regain our equilibrium. We were in a small compartment with but one exit door and a console with a single white circle.
“This is a sealed chamber,” Amy said. “This is a safeguard against large pressure differences. This outer door won’t open unless th
e pressures are close to equal.” She opened the door. “Follow me.”
The new place had a shape similar to a Quonset hut. I saw rounded and seamless angles where the roof joined the end walls and where it met the floor. The color was a glowing dusty pink. Our portal chamber was one of three lined up along one side.
“Watch this,” Amy said, as she hopped up about three feet and floated down to stand on the tip of her boot. “I think I’ll give dance classes to the Dance Band.”
“This is a lot like swimming,” Alice said, “except there’s no water resistance.”
As we began to test our gravity control, we also began to relax. Just possibly, we might survive the trip.
“Ready for your next treat?” Amy asked, the impish smile on full display. “It’s a stunner.”
The group drew closer and linked arms. “Like we haven’t been stunned already,” Alice said, dryly “but go ahead.”
She pressed a button on a small cube she was holding. “Lady and gentlemen,” she said, with a dramatic wave of her arm. “I give you—Jupiter!”
The pink stuff in the ceiling dissolved with a rolling, cloud-like motion and the whole dome became completely transparent. We were standing, totally exposed, on an icy, rugged surface that curved away at an alarming rate. The stunner was the huge globe looming overhead, gobbling the entire sky, giving me a moment of vertigo. I knew that, with our eyes, we could not detect the ponderous motion of that vast globe. Nevertheless, my spine told me we were falling toward the big ball. To stop it I lowered my head and looked straight out over the landscape of Ganymede. There I could see the black of space. None of the Band said a single word and soon the pink clouds rolled back and the Quonset hut returned.
“Was that not the most super sight ever?” Amy squeaked. “I just about freaked out when I first saw it. Are you all okay? James, you look a little green, but you’re smiling, so I guess you’ll survive. It’s time to go meet YDRII and Moses. Come gather around me. I’m standing on a down elevator. YDRII told me that gravity will increase to Earth normal as we descend.”
LOST AND FORGOTTEN: Book 2 The Secret Path Page 7