Project Atlantis (Ascendant Chronicles Book 1)

by Brandon Ellis

  “I’m going with your crew to where?”

  “On a starship to Callisto.”

  “A starship? Wha – ”

  “Fucking echoes. You have to stop this parroting shit, Jaxx.” Slade cracked his knuckles, then walked out of the room.

  As soon as the door closed, Jaxx’s colleagues busted out laughing. There were pyramids in space and the assholes thought they had time to ridicule him. Jaxx grinned. Might as well let them believe they had the upper hand. You always learn more when you fly below the radar, anyhow. He straightened his spine and squared his shoulders. I’ll be laughing up the other side of my face when I get on that ship, and you don’t.

  3

  May 23rd, 2018

  Underfoot Black, Grenada

  Jaxx yawned and pushed the sheets off. He rubbed his eyes and sat up, yawning again. It had been a long night. He was in his hotel room in Underfoot Black. Yesterday sucked. Slade sucked. The scientists looked at his work and dismissed his ideas as mere stupidity. He went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror–puffy, blood-shot eyes. He had tossed and turned all night. Little sleep.

  He leaned over and splashed water over his face. “Pyramids on a Jupiter moon? It has got to be real. Why else would they take the time to find me in Peru in a private chopper? They wouldn’t.” His stomach churned. “This shit only happens in movies.”

  Clothes on, he hurried down the hall to the Research and Investigation Operation Underfoot Team’s room. RIOUT for short.

  He opened the door and all heads turned his way.

  Slade leaned forward, squinting at him. Everything the man did was menacing to the max. “You’re late, Jaxx.”

  A clock on the wall displayed five past seven. In the morning. Not the evening, the morning; practically dawn. He took a few steps toward Slade then stopped, stunned at what was on the screen just behind Slade.

  “The Lady of Atlantis?”

  Slade turned nonchalantly and crossed his arms over his belly. “That’s not the Lady of Atlantis.”

  Jaxx walked up next to him to get a closer view, mouth open. “That’s sure as rain Lady of Atlantis. A limestone statue found in 1897 at L’Alcudia, an archaeological site on some private estate in Spain. I know that statue. I’ve studied it for years. The giveaway is the wheel-like coils covering her ears. It’s a device of some sort with symbols etched in the stone that I still haven’t been able to decipher.”

  Slade sniffed at Jaxx’s clothes. “Ever thought of taking a shower, Jaxx?” His affect was flat; totally unnerving. “We know what the Lady of Atlantis is. That may look just like her, but it’s not the same one.”

  “Jaxx,” a man interjected. “You’re thinking of the Lady of Elche.” He held out his hand. “Dr. Jon Shaughnessy.” The man was short and pudgy, with a receding hairline. His glasses were two sizes bigger than they needed to be, and he seemed to be the only scientist that didn’t look Jaxx up and down with disdain. He adjusted his glasses for longer than was necessary. A nervous tick, perhaps. Jaxx sympathized. This “Underfoot Black” cave-office-research-room gave him the creeps, too.

  Jaxx shook his hand. “I’m sorry, but the official name is inaccurate. Mainstream archeology claims that the statue was created in the 4th century BC. It doesn’t match up with any other artifacts dating back to that era, especially given the location it was found. The clothing is completely different, along with the way this statue was created. It’s chiseled in almost pinpoint perfection, as if a laser was used to carve it.”

  Slade gestured over his shoulder toward the scientists who were huddled over their computers, assiduously ignoring Jaxx, Slade, and Shaugnessy. “They’ve nicknamed the statue Princess Leia.”

  Jaxx shook his head. “Those huge hair spools on each side of the woman’s head aren’t what you first perceive. It’s not hair. It’s headgear that connects all the way around to the back of the head. I believe it’s some type of technology.”

  Slade nodded. “It’s not Lady of Atlantis, or Lady of Elche, or whatever the fuck you want to call it. This one is the size of the Statue of Liberty.”

  Shaugnessy patted Jaxx on the shoulder. “Well, nice to meet you. Love your work. Gotta go. I’m on the clock.” He gave Slade a half-ass salute. “Aye-aye, Colonel man.” He walked back to his computer station, to study the hieroglyphs on his screen.

  Slade ignored the Doctor, keeping his arms crossed, staring directly into Jaxx’s eyes. “This statue is also on Callisto.” He pointed at the images displayed on the screens throughout the room, taking the entire array in with a sweep of his arm. “Everything here is on Callisto. So, look at them with fresh eyes.”

  That couldn’t be. To Jaxx, they were clearly human made. A human-looking statue? Man designed these structures. To make things more confusing, if what he was looking at was real, it was a never-before touched archaeological site. The only way such structures could be so pristine was if man hadn’t scraped away at it for years or weather elements were such that it was rarely touched by wind or rain.

  Slade made his way to the door. “Also, Jaxx, Shaugnessy will be your partner on this project. He’s the only one who can stomach your theories.” Slade let the door slam behind him.

  Jaxx turned and watched Jon Shaugnessy comb over ancient symbols.

  Jaxx glanced at his new colleagues. What the hell was he supposed to be doing. None of them gave him any hints, nor any direction.

  “Mr. Jaxx, over here.” It was Shaugnessy, his pasty face engulfed in a smile. “You can take my place.” He stood up and slapped his seat, then waived Jaxx over. “Just help me with this, will you? Do you know mdju netjer?”

  Jaxx took his seat, brushing a laptop under the desk with his foot. It was powered on, connected via a USB cord, obviously collecting data from the computer Jon was just using. Smart to have a back up. “That’s the language of the Gods, attributed to Thoth.”

  Shaugnessy stood to Jaxx’s side, leaning in to get a better view of the computer screen.

  “Exactly. I’m learning as I go, but I have no clue what I’m looking at here. Deciphering it is a bitch. Half of these symbols aren’t in the dictionary we’ve been given.”

  “It’s because half of these aren’t ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Where are these located...on Callisto?” It was almost too ridiculous to say.

  “On a domed structure, next to the pyramids.”

  Jaxx studied the glyphs and symbols.

  Jon rubbed his chin. “What languages am I looking at, then?”

  “Half mdju netjer or Atlantean, which many Egyptologists have dubbed Egyptian, the other half are Sumerian symbols.”

  “You can read them?”

  Jaxx stomach tensed. Once again, he did not want to answer the question. He gazed up at Shaugnessy, but glad to see his new lab partner was curious rather than skeptical. “I know a bit of it. It’s part of my job. I can’t research if I don’t understand the language I’m researching.”

  Jon motioned to the screen. “What does it say?”

  Jaxx perused the symbols and glyphs, whispering the translations to himself. When he was done, he held his hands out, then shrugged. “I have no idea what they’re trying to spell out. Kuruka mwezi?”

  “What’s that mean?”

  “Moon fly or fly moon?”

  “An insect?”

  “No. Fly, the verb. As in flying somewhere.”

  “Like, in a plane or a spaceship?”

  “Yeah,” Jaxx said under his breath, examining the words more closely. “Roketi? Rocket. That’s strange. Unless...”

  He scrolled down, seeing a glyph that resembled a jet fighter. “It’s showing Atlantean technology.”

  “What does it say?”

  Jaxx put his hand up. “Hold on.” He read some more. “Kipengele? Element.” He scrolled down. “They have hundreds of atomic elements etched here.” Jaxx took a deep breath, then exhaled loudly. “No, that can’t be it.”

  “What can’t be it?”

  “Nothing.�
� He gave a dismissive hand. “Just ignore me. This is how I work.”

  “Got it, boss. But, those aren’t neutral atoms that we’re looking at. You can see eight protons are in the middle, seven electrons around it on that one. The next one has seven protons, eight electrons. It’s ions to be more accurate and – ”

  “And, with the group of atomic elements here, we have polyatomic ions.” Jaxx had yet another “I want to scream my excitement to the entire world” moment, but managed to contain himself.

  “Yes.”

  Jaxx looked over his shoulder at Shaugnessy. “Why didn’t you see this before?”

  Shaugnessy shrugged. “I hadn’t scrolled down that far. I was still trying to figure out the first several symbols.”

  “With all of these mixed Sumerian symbols with Atlantean symbols, it’s getting a little confusing. Can we lose the Atlantean?”

  “Sure, why?”

  “They are just repeating words. My Sumerian is better than my Atlantean.” He blushed. How appalling to have to admit that his area of specialization was lacking.

  Shaugnessy shrugged.

  “I’ve had more practice with Sumerian. It’s a more recent language – if you can call Sumerian recent. In any case, the Atlantean symbol is saying what the Sumerian symbol is.”

  Shaugnessy pressed a couple of keys on the keyboard, then double clicked the mouse. The Atlantean symbols disappeared and the Sumerian symbols moved side by side.

  Jaxx bit his fingernail, examining the glyphs. He grabbed a pen and paper and started drawing ion after ion. “All of these are adding and removing, but in a specific sequence. Add, remove, add, remove.” He stood, eyes wide. “Nah, can’t be.”

  “It can be. It is,” said Shaugnessy.

  “You see it too?”

  “It’s advanced plasma propulsion. It’s an ion propulsion formula that creates an electric charge. It’s so simple.”

  “The symbol for ‘Sumaku’ is underneath it,” Jaxx replied. “It’s calling for magnets to be added.”

  “Well, yeah. That’s how NASA propels its probes, by using extra-strength magnets to prevent the electrons from reaching the discharge channel walls. You don’t want an ionizing event in space.”

  “This is how the Atlanteans flew to Callisto.”

  “What?”

  “Look at all the atomic elements even lower on the screen. It’s like an instruction manual.”

  “Holy shit, Jaxx.”

  “See those symbols?” Jaxx pointed to symbols at the end of what seemed to be a couple hundred atomic elements. “It says Siku kumi Kuruka mwezi, essentially meaning to fly to the moon in ten days. It’s a fucking blueprint for advanced ion-propulsion systems. It’s either meant for the Atlanteans’ own scientists or they had hoped a future society would come across their structures long after their culture had vanished. It also bolsters my theory that the Atlanteans had a presence in Eastern Africa. They don’t call it the Cradle of Civilization for nothing.”

  “Are you saying they flew from Mozambique to Callisto in ten days?”

  “Well,” Jaxx nodded, shook his head, then nodded again. “I can’t say where they set off from, but yes, they were highly advanced and if I can convince Slade – ”

  “If you can get Slade to get this to tech,” Jon interrupted. “Then you’ve just advanced us by hundreds of years.”

  Jaxx grinned. How freaking awesome would it be if he’d been right all along?

  4

  May 24th, 2018

  Underfoot Black, Grenada

  “We did what you asked and sent the information to tech,” Slade said, lips down turned.

  Was the guy ever happy?

  Jaxx, standing near Shaugnessy’s computer station, rubbed his hands together. “What other structures are you hiding from me? I can decode whatever you need.” He was excited and wanted it all. In a way, Jaxx was in archaeological Disneyland. If he could just tell the other scientists to leave so he could pore over these images, symbols, and structures on his own, then he’d practically orgasm. His eyes were among the first to see what had taken place on a moon millions, if not billions, of miles away. It would tell him a story, a way of life on that moon, and how the Atlanteans terraformed the moon to make it a liveable, breathable object in the solar system.

  “You’re not seeing any more images until we deem your translations of the atomic elements correct,” Slade said.

  “What do I do then? Go back to my room?”

  Slade walked toward the door. “You’re coming with me. We’re going to hypnotherapy.”

  Jaxx gave a double take. “What?”

  “We have found that when a scientist has a discovery, and if we take them to a hypnotherapy session, we uncover information the subconscious mind hasn’t brought forth to the conscious mind yet. In other words, there are things that you may have seen and over looked. We aren’t in the mood to have scientists sleep on things in order for the memory of another great discovery within the greater discovery to come to the surface. That can take days to weeks. We don’t have that much time.”

  Time for what? Jaxx lifted his gaze. “Am I going to hypnotherapy now?”

  “Yes, we’re late. I’ll be watching your session, so feel fucking honored.”

  ∞

  A few days earlier, Jaxx had been content doing field research. Well, not really. Content wasn’t the correct word, but he had liked it better than what he was going through at the moment. He was lying on a couch, eyes closed, being forced into a subconscious state by an old dude named Donny, whose long white beard matched his lab coat.

  Slade was in the room as well, sitting on a chair and watching intently. Not the most relaxing menage. Still, Donny’s voice lured him deeper and deeper. Down the escalator, through the fields of grain, and across the languid seas until he was in a place both familiar and unfamiliar, but profoundly relaxing. Massive screens hung from invisible wires while a series of glyphs flashed and danced and winked at him.

  “What do you see?” Donny asked.

  Jaxx spoke in a whisper. “The glyphs on the screen. They are in English. They weren’t in English yesterday.”

  “It is safe to speak up, Mr. Jaxx. Your subconscious mind is seeing the symbols the easiest way it can. What do the words say in English?”

  “They say – ” Jaxx went silent. His view went from the screen to another image altogether. “I’m not on Earth anymore.”

  “Where are you?”

  “I don’t know. I was shipped here. They sent me without any training. No, that’s wrong. I was trained, but I don’t believe that I’ve been trained well.”

  “Who are they?”

  “The Secret Space Program.”

  Slade writhed in his chair.

  “Where exactly are you?” Donny inquired.

  A shift occurred. The in-between state, where patient and hypnotherapist could talk together, moved from being in two worlds into one. Donny was there, but not there. His voice hung in the air, like a phantasm. “It’s okay to let us know, in words, where you have found yourself, Kaden. We’re all friends, here.”

  Jaxx was strapped in a starfighter, waiting for the go-ahead to launch out of a star carrier’s bay. The smell of new upholstery filled the cockpit. Was he in a brand new starfighter?

  He knew that there was a ninety-nine percent chance he’d die today. He didn’t want to be in a starfighter. He didn’t want to be in space. Well, he did, but not under these conditions. He didn’t want to die.

  Both hands were on his starfighter’s control stick. He was shaking, squeezing his grip tighter and tighter as he waited for the starfighters in front of him to blast out of the amber glowing launch tubes.

  He was next.

  His comm line came alive.

  “You ready?” It was a woman’s voice. He gave a sideways glance out of his cockpit window, eyeing another starfighter waiting alongside him in the launch queue. The pilot gave a thumbs up.

  “No, I’m not.” Truth was, he felt
like throwing up. Bile filled his throat and he had to swallow hard to get the evil liquid to subside. No one wants barf inside their helmet as they are being shot into space.

  “Well, they’re in full force today. When you exit the launch tube, push your control stick forward and you’ll head straight down. Their cannons may miss you.”

  Jaxx gasped and closed his eyes as the star carrier was pummeled by enemy fire. Everything around him shuddered violently. They’d been surrounded for hours. He didn’t know how they were going to survive this onslaught. Why did they usher him into combat? He’d gone through a few simulations and basic star pilot training. That was it. He wondered if they were running out of pilots.

  His launch tube opened.

  The comm line blared again. “Starfighter 117, this is Mission Control. Lieutenant Kaden Jaxx, you’re ready for launch. Proceed forward.”

  They say death comes swiftly out here. The war had been long, decades in fact. Jaxx was a newbie. Green as green could be. They shipped him to this quadrant a few days ago – a quadrant within the Sagittarius arm, between two planets with no names.

  Screw those planets.

  He was perspiring. He went to dab his face. His visor was in the way. No time. He had to go.

  He moved the craft forward and his cockpit glowed a deep, vibrant amber as he entered the launch tube. The tube’s doors closed behind him, signaling that his time to flee the cockpit had ended. He could no longer jump out of his craft and run out of the launch bay and into the ship’s main lobby.

  He wanted to. Boy did he want to. Now there was no turning back.

  The tube’s exit doors opened and Jaxx experienced weightlessness, his cockpit restraints the only thing fastening him to his seat. He saw stars out in front of him at the end of the long tube, along with a gray planet.