by Jeff Sims
Carank said, “We still don’t know that. We don’t truly know whether the remains were Human or had already been selectively bred into Solarian. Also, we don’t know if the beings on planet C2L2 were relocated here or whether both planets were populated with altered Humans at the same time and those on C2L2 died out for some reason.”
Lorano said, “True, but unless we missed a mass gravesite we can confidently assume the former to be our working hypothesis.”
Last time that Carank and Lorano visited this pyramid they hadn’t taken any equipment. They were expecting to simply confirm that it was a third Altian inspired energy pyramid. However, this particular pyramid had been rather poorly constructed compared to other pyramids and its overall shape and dimensions implied that it was in fact not an energy pyramid.
They had found a small entryway about ¾ of the way up the north side of the pyramid. During their previous trip, Carank had climbed in as far as possible and photographed the inside with his communication pad. They had only spotted one large room with several holes in the walls. They were able to clearly determine that this pyramid was not capable of producing energy, but they were unable to ascertain the pyramid’s true function.
This expedition was quite different. This time they were armed with hovercarts, lighting equipment, climbing gear, powerful scanners, and of course a Model 345.22.14 diagnostic computer. If something was hidden here it wasn’t going to remain hidden for long.
There was and it didn’t.
Carank set up the lights in each corner of the interior and fastened the high powered scanner to a hovercart. Lexxi started in one corner and carefully moved the scanner around the entire perimeter of the large interior room. Lorano fed the data into the diagnostic computer. Clowy helped him analyze the information.
The scan revealed two things. First, there were organized markings on one of the walls. The marks appeared to be a tally mark or a series of the number one. There were 414 total scratches. The markings were barely visible by the naked eye, even with the high powered lights shining directly at it.
There were two possibilities that immediately came to Lorano: (1) sand had somehow penetrated the inside of the pyramid and sanded the wall smooth or (2) someone power washed the wall clean. Lorano scanned the immediate area. The inside of the pyramid looked clean and dry. Therefore, someone, somewhere, at some time had wanted to cover their tracks – or perhaps remove them.
Carank walked over and ran his hand along the wall where the marks were located. The marks were in 18 even rows of 23 marks each. He continued running his hand along the wall and noted that the lines were not consistent in height, length, or width. Further, numbers 15 and 19 were significantly deeper than the others in the row that he felt. He found it extremely strange that the lines were hand carved and were so uneven,
He muttered under his breath, “I could do a better job of making the lines more consistent than whoever drew these.” He thought for a moment and added, “Even without a laser scribe.”
Clowy heard him speaking and said, “What?”
Carank replied, “Clearly the marks were meant to count something. Days perhaps? Years even?”
No one had an immediate answer to the observation.
The second thing revealed by the scan really wasn’t a thing. It could be better described as a lack of a thing or something missing. Specifically, the scan revealed that there was a gap underneath the stone floor.
Carank searched the area until he found a trapdoor. He found four pressure points, one at each corner of the door. Each of them chose a corner and pushed. The trapdoor went down about 15 cm (6 inches) below the rest of the floor and then slid to the right and out of the way.
Carank positioned one of the massive lights at the opening and everyone looked down into the small hole. There hideaway was about 30 cm deep and 30 cm on each side (1 foot cube). There were two metal flasks sitting on the floor of the small chamber.
Lorano noted that there were Altian names inscribed on the outside of the flasks. They were traditional Altian urns, designed to hold the ashes of a dead body. Urns weren’t in use today, but they were certainly in fashion 4,000 years ago.
Lorano started crying. They had once again found nothing. He had hoped that some vain Altian scientist would not have let his research be forgotten. He would have documented his findings, preserved his knowledge somehow. Lorano certainly would have found a way.
He scanned both of the urns with the diagnostic computer and verified that they did indeed contain the remains of Altians. The diagnostic computer was also able to date the bodies around 3,900 years old.
Carank summarized, “It appears that these two Altians must have brought the Humans to Solaria. They must have used their spaceship to build the settlement and lived the rest of their lives on Solaria with the original settlers.”
Lorano nodded, “And the Solarians built this pyramid as a burial chamber. Strange.”
They put the urns back in place, resealed the trap door, exited the room, and climbed down the side of the pyramid. It was almost dark by the time they finished loading all of the supplies back into the transport.
Carank said, “We need a place to spend the next two nights where we won’t be detected.”
Lorano said, “We also need to work on a plan to escape the planet undetected.”
Lexxi said, “We can’t stay at any hotels. We will be detected instantly.”
Clowy said, “It’s too bad that we can’t go visit Ella Birdsong while we are on Solaria.”
Lorano replied, “Clowy, you’re a genius. That is an excellent idea. We will hide there for a couple of days while we devise our exit strategy.”
………..…………
Crista and Victor sat in their living room in front of their abode’s main monitor. They had considered taking the hovertram to Settlers Monument and watching the senatorial debate live, but they were both tired and didn’t feel like painting themselves blue. Besides, they actually had a better view of the proceeding sitting on their couch.
They didn’t know yet which candidate they were going to choose, but they had decided that they would both vote for the same one so that they wouldn’t cancel each other out. Crista turned up the volume just as the debate was starting.
Roger: “This is Roger Duckdive and Lena Wormsilk coming to you live from Settlers Monument where we are hosting the debate between the two candidates for Imperial Senate.”
Lena: “Correction Roger; that is Alliance Senate or possibly Alliance High Council.”
Roger: “Well, Let’s get started. Amanda Catmeows, there is quite a controversy raging about your use of email. Can you tell us why you chose to use a private email server instead of the one issued by the Alliance?”
Amanda: “I only wanted to carry one communication pad. It was an error in judgement and I have apologized for it. However, I would like to point out that I did not send any confidential information on my private server.”
Lena: “Thank you for the admission Senator. However, the last statement is difficult to verify because you deleted thousands of emails from your server and destroyed your communication pad. Can you comment on why you did that?”
Amanda: “I only deleted personal emails that I no longer needed. It was part of my yearly record retention plan. There was no deception on my part. As I already stated, using a private email server was a lapse in judgement and I have apologized for it.”
Roger: “Baxter Bunnyhop, I understand that you have been married and divorced 3 times so far in your young life. Further, you have been accused of using your celebrity status to garner women’s affection. How do you respond to that?”
Baxter: “No one respects women more than I do. Women don’t even respect themselves as much as I do them.”
Lena: “Baxter, what do think about beauty pag…”
Victor turned off the monitor mid-sentence and said, “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?” Crista asked. However, she needn’t ha
ve bothered to ask because she heard it as soon as she stopped talking.
Victor stood up and said, “I think that someone is manually banging on our front door.”
“Like in the Human movies,” Crista said. “Why would anyone do that? If they wanted our attention they could just contact us via communication pad.”
Victor asked, “What do you think we should do?” His question was punctuated by yet another loud bang on the door.
Crista replied, “I suppose that we should open the door and tell whoever is on the other side to stop banging on it.”
Crista walked over, opened the door, saw who was standing on the other side, and closed it again. She said, “Wrong number.”
Victor replied, “Oh” and was about to turn back on the monitor when he heard multiple bangs, even louder this time. He looked at Crista questioningly and walked over and opened the door.
Lorano said, “May we come in? We have much to discuss.”
Victor responded, “Suit yourself, it’s a free planet.”
Clowy looked at Lorano and responded, “What? I thought you said that the Hiriculans invaded and conquered the planet.”
Lorano ignored Clowy and said, “Victor, turn off every recording device and communication pad in your apartment.”
Victor ordered the computer to stop recording and shut down their communicators. He verified that nothing was on and motioned for them to enter the living room.
He said, “Everything that matters is off or deactivated. Why do you need the secrecy?”
They entered the house and Victor closed the front door. Lorano also verified that there were no communication devices and said, “Because we need to keep our presence on this planet a secret.”
Crista looked the foursome over and said, “Welcome to our home. We weren’t expecting company.” Her tone really wasn’t that welcoming though.
Lorano looked around and said, “Your home is minimally passable; I’m surprised.”
Carank stepped politely in front of Lorano and said, “You remember Clowy from your brief time on the Sunflower.”
Clowy smiled brightly and said, “Weren’t you two blue the last time that I saw you?”
Victor said, “Yes. However, we are white now because we work in Human Town. It was easier to just get bleached than to paint ourselves white every day.”
Carank continued, “This is Lexxi. She was also an officer aboard the Sunflower. However, when you came aboard, both she and Admiral Solear were on a reconnaissance mission to photograph Old Solaria for the celebration.”
Lorano snorted when he heard the words Old Solaria.
Victor said, “Impressive, we have four of the fabulous five that discovered Old Solaria in our minimally passable home. To what do we owe the honor of a visit from such famous guests?”
Lorano said, “A few days ago we landed on Solaria to investigate the pyramids again. We used fake identification at the spaceport because we didn’t want to be recognized and treated as celebrities. Since the invasion, we haven’t activated any electronic equipment or entered any area with autonomic recording devices. It is critical that no one know that we are on this planet.”
Carank summarized, “We are living with the grid turned off.”
Clowy said, “That doesn’t make sense. We already know that we are here. What if they capture us and ask us where we are? It would be difficult to fool them a second time.”
Everyone shrugged and nodded in agreement. Answering that particular question would indeed be difficult.
Clowy wandered over to an old-fashioned looking mirror in the main hallway. She inspected herself and found a small problem area. She tried to adjust the magnification several times, but failed. She turned to Victor and said, “What’s wrong with the mirror?”
Victor responded, “It’s broken. There is one in the bathroom that you can use.”
Carank led Lexxi to a seat on the couch. Lorano walked over to Crista and said, “First, I need to inspect your control collar.”
Crista turned around and pulled her hair up over her head. Lorano pulled a small light and combination micro tool from his pocket and opened the collar’s cover. He carefully inspected the electronics for a minute. He closed the cover and joined Clowy beside the mirror.
Lorano said, “I see that you received Clowy’s message and destroyed the navigation portion of the collar. I also see that you removed the poison and lowered the pain threshold.”
Crista said, “Well, thank you for coming and checking on that. It is certainly a relief knowing that the adjustment was a success.”
Lorano really, really wanted to call her a mini-human. However, he somehow managed to refrain. Now was not the time to bait Crista into an argument about Solarians’ birthplace. Besides, he still remembered the time that she punched him.
He waved his hands inclusively of everyone in the room and responded, “We all are in danger and need to get off of this planet immediately.”
Victor didn’t know what interested him more – the fact that they were here, the fact that they needed to leave immediately, or the fact that they were in danger. He thought for a moment and suddenly added another one to the list - Lorano had implied that he and Crista were also in danger.
Victor responded, “Why are we in danger.” He stressed the ‘we’ such that it implied he was referring to Crista and he, not the all-inclusive group.
Carank replied, “The last time we were on the planet for the Solarian Celebration, Clowy and I were kidnapped. The kidnappers wanted to know the route to Earth. Fortunately, they didn’t question me. They used an illegal truth serum on Clowy and questioned her extensively. They soon realized that she didn’t know the route, but they managed to discover who does know.”
“What route?” Clowy asked. She scrunched her face in thought for a moment and said, “Who knows?”
Carank responded, “The secret route that only we know.”
Lorano said, “Fortunately the kidnappers mistook Clowy for me.”
Victor quickly multiplied two complex numbers like 2 raised to 1/3 power and 2 raised to the 2/3 power and managed to simplify the entire equation into a rational, positive number. Or simply stated, he put 2 and 2 together and got 2.
Victor, emboldened by his mental mathematics, stated, “Clowy didn’t know the route to Earth. I am guessing though that she told the kidnappers that two Solarians boarded the Sunflower and manually programmed the secret route into the ship’s navigation system. And the kidnappers also know those two Solarians were Crista and I.”
Lorano nodded in affirmation and said, “You know that the Hiriculans will eventually conquer Earth. It may take them a year or two, but they can’t leave it out of their precious new alliance. They will need the route to Earth and they know that you have it.”
Victor replied, “Well, they could just ask us. We can simply say that we no longer have it. Besides, they can’t arrest us without just cause.”
Lorano snorted and said, “They already have it. You modified the control collar. Once they find that out they can arrest Crista for violating her parole. Then you will have to cut a deal - her freedom for the path to Earth.”
Victor said, “As you saw, we destroyed the computer chip from Earth. We no longer have the secret coordinates. They can question and/or imprison Crista, but I won’t be able to recite the route to Earth. They can’t learn anything from us.”
Lorano started to say something in response, but suddenly stopped. Instead he asked, “If you were going to try to retrace the secret path to Earth, where would you begin your journey.”
Crista waved her hand dismissively and said, “Simple, I would start at the existing entryway to the Conron – Earth hyperspace lane.”
“Then what?” Lorano prodded.
Crista said, “Again simple, I would just fly around the outskirts of Conron, then Uselon, then Waylon. The first 3 steps are relatively easy.” Her face started to redden as she realized that she was probably going to become the butt o
f another one of Lorano’s jokes.
Lorano noted the change in Crista’s personality and moved closer to Clowy, gently positioning her between himself and Crista. Lorano continued, “How many jumps do you have to make from Waylon to get to Earth?”
Crista realized what he was trying to tell her. She slowly responded, “Just one jump. I don’t know the starting coordinates, but I have a pretty good idea where it is.”
Lorano responded, “We found the Earth – Waylon hyperspace lane with only 7 gravity missiles. How long do you think it will take the Hiriculans if they use thousands or even tens of thousands of missiles?”
Crista sighed and responded, “I know that too, don’t I. It will take the Hiriculans 11 hours to find the hyperspace lane – technically 110 hours with the 10 to 1 time dilation.”
Lorano had meant the question to be rhetorical, but she was technically correct. Knowing that it was an 11 hour jump between the two systems was yet another valuable piece of information that would greatly assist in the path’s detection.
Lorano said, “You can tell them where to start, the general direction to look, and the amount of time it takes. You may not have the secret coordinates in your collar anymore, but you know enough of the route to be dangerous. They could easily find Earth with that information.”
Lexxi said, “I don’t see why we care. If the Hiriculans want the route, tell them the route. Heck, draw them a star chart.” She pretended to draw a star chart in the air.
Lorano said, “If the Hiriculans find Earth, they will conquer it and impose breeding restrictions, euthanize the old and infirm, and do everything else that they did to the Neto.
Lexxi said, “Maybe that’s a good…”
Lorano interrupted her and said, “It would be terrible. The Neto put forth very little resistance when the Hiriculans started tampering with them. The Humans would never allow it. They would fight and fight and fight. The Hiriculans would resort to glassing the planet.
Lexxi argued, “No race, not even the Hiriculans, is that cruel. The Hiriculans may not have a halo around their heads, but they would never resort to destroying an entire world.”