The Cydonia Objective (Morpheus Initiative 03)

by David Sakmyster

  Phoebe woke with a start. Something wasn't right.

  She stifled a yawn then lifted up the window shade, expecting to see they were still over the desert. Instead she was greeted with a majestic view of snow-peaked mountains, one in particular: a massive peak, level with their plane, appearing to be their destination.

  Someone was in the seat next to her, and it took a moment for Phoebe to clear out the debris of her cluttered dreams and remember the events of the last day. The girl, the Hummingbird. Aria was sitting on her knees beside her, big blue eyes wide open and trembling.

  "Don't be afraid," she whispered, laying a hand on Phoebe's arm. Behind her, Orlando's neck was bent awkwardly, his forehead pressed into a flight pillow and a little blanket bunched up around his ear.

  "What's wrong?" Phoebe's heart fluttered. Pieces of the dream came back to her: The night sky was falling, the stars tumbling down upon her. And books, thousands of books, millions, crying out in pain…

  "Your brother is safe."

  Phoebe put a finger to her lips. "Alexander too?"

  Aria nodded, just as the cabin door opened and Temple emerged. His ashen face told a story Phoebe didn't want to read.

  He reached for the TV's power button. "No easy way to say this." On the screen emerged a scene of devastation. Phoebe leaned over and shook Orlando, who only grunted and pressed his face farther into the pillow.

  "Alexandria was hit today with a seismic event."

  "An earthquake?" Phoebe whispered.

  "Seven-point-three magnitude. But…" Temple muted the TV as the camera zoomed in on a section of twisted iron framework that had once supported part of the glass dome. "…it only hit the library complex. Concentrated in that one area… Destroying it completely."

  "Oh my God."

  "Over a hundred dead, so far. Three hundred more injured. Some buried and calling for help. Some..."

  "...farther down." Phoebe was only dimly aware that Aria was holding her hand, squeezing it and whispering, "They're okay."

  "We need to RV them, see if Caleb and Alexander were there!"

  "Already done," Temple said. "As soon as we got the news. My team relayed information quickly back here that they saw the vault. It's damaged badly. And several of the Keepers are dead, but your brother and your nephew appear to be unhurt. Although trapped."

  "We've got to get to them." She scowled over at Orlando, who still hadn't stirred.

  Temple shook his head. "Won't make it before they do."

  "What? Why not? Can't you get the Egyptian authorities to control the site, keep out Calderon's people?"

  "Sorry, Calderon's inserted himself and his people into high-level positions at major disaster-relief agencies. We'd been puzzled by that for several months, trying to work out his motives. But now it's obvious. If they're testing some sort of weapon, then they need to have control, feet on the ground so to speak. Believe me, if this was him, and we're ninety-nine percent sure, then it's too late. They're already tunneling down there. They've got their own psychics–"

  "The twins."

  "–who will tell them where to dig, and how to retrieve the artifacts they need." Temple let the news run a few more seconds, before the feed shifted from scenes of destruction and tragedy to interviews with survivors.

  Phoebe squeezed the girl's hand gently. "So there's no hope?"

  Aria squeezed back and answered first. "Always hope."

  "She's right," Temple agreed. "And right now, I hate to say it, but we need you focused on the bigger picture."

  "Which is?"

  "Mars," said another voice. Orlando, his eyes still closed, but flickering rapidly. "And… something else…" His eyes flashed open and he sat up straight. And Phoebe realized he hadn't been sleeping, not exactly. Dreaming, deep in a trance, focusing his inner sight on what Temple intended for them.

  "Damn," said the colonel. "This is why it's so hard to work with psychics. I can never do things according to my own timeline."

  "Stow it," Orlando said, almost under his breath. "We need to know what this is about, now. What's up there? How much do you guys really know, and why is it you need us to remote-view something on…" he cocked his head, squinting, trying to recapture the vision.

  "…the dark side of the Moon?"

  2.

  After wandering in the darkness, a black so pervasive he couldn't see anything in front of his face, not even knowing which direction was up, Alexander shifted his perspective. Looking in a direction he at first insisted was down, his brain finally perceived the tiny lights above as stars and not reflective coins in the depths of some bottomless sea. A moment later, realization set in and he understood he was either dreaming or remote viewing.

  This wasn't the vault in Alexandria, where he was surely still pinned beneath that table and the body of one of the Keepers—Rashi, who had thrown herself over him at the last instant before the ceiling collapsed.

  This was somewhere else. A vast, black surface that suddenly wasn't so perfectly dark, as if his eyes were adjusting, filtering and refining the starlight so he could see…

  He was standing inside a shallow crater. Impossibly shallow, and more like a trench ripped through the shale, and in every direction he could see the rough outlines of bizarre geology: ridges sharply-protruding peaks, rocky hills thrust out of the land, dust and debris laying in their ancient poses, and suddenly…

  His consciousness shot upward, and then skidded around the horizon, until the darkness abruptly merged with light, and around the lip of the orb—the familiar cratered surface—he was greeted with the gleaming blue-green hues of the Earth.

  #

  "Alexander…"

  His dad's voice. Weak, like it was spoken from the other end of a massive tunnel. Alexander shook his head, and was relieved to find he could do it. No broken neck or spine at least. But everything was dark, so dark…

  He tried to sit up, but found someone was laying on top of him.

  At first, with a choking sob, he thought: Mom? But then memories flitted back, descending into their respective pockets where they belonged, and everything fit right once again. The cave-in. The earthquake or whatever it was. Rashi… oh, Rashi…

  He felt around her back, but could only move his hands so far before reaching something hard and cold like steel. Then he felt something wet and warm over her back.

  "Rashi?"

  Nothing.

  Then again he thought he heard his father calling his name, but he shut it out for a minute, trying to see, really see. He relaxed, willed his mind to focus, and slipped back-

  -to this very room, only minutes ago. Rashi looking up, alarm on her face as dust fell. Dad yelling, reaching for him, and then the ceiling dropping, the dome shattering down the middle. Huge chunks of masonry shorn into pieces, tumbling, crashing onto the table, pummeling the servers, an enormous beam, trailing sparks, slamming toward him. Then Rashi was there, throwing herself onto him just as she grunted and the lights went out.

  But Alexander could still see, this time from a higher vantage point, in the gaping crater's hole, looking down as the walls crumbled and car-sized boulders tumbled free, raining into the hole, piling onto the carnage. But somehow, the beam and several larger pieces of bedrock formed a jutting triangular incline that protected part of the chamber from total destruction. Just enough, he saw in a hazy night-vision light, to crawl out and be able to stand, maybe reach the terminals. But his father…

  His vision skirted over the barrier, the wall of debris in the center of the Keeper sanctuary. There was Caleb, trying to lift an enormous slab with a metal bar. Sparks were flying from the ceiling, dancing around the alcoves where the scrolls hid like frightened children behind cracked windows.

  "Dad," Alexander whispered, ending the vision and returning to darkness. Then louder: "Dad!" He shifted, reached up and felt Rashi's neck.

  No pulse, nothing.

  Revulsion gave way to utter fear as the darkness reclaimed him. Shifting sounds in the room.
The floor shuddering, beams groaning still. Please no aftershocks.

  "Hideki? Belarus? Anyone? Can anyone hear me?"

  "Alexander?" again, his father. A little stronger.

  "Dad, I hear you!"

  Silence, then: "Oh, thank God. Are you hurt?"

  "I don't know. I'm trapped." Under poor, poor Rashi.

  "I know," he said. "I saw. Rashi protected you. I saw you were pinned and not moving, but I didn't know…"

  "I'm okay." He squirmed and was grateful for his natural skinniness when he found he could pull away gradually and slide out from under her. The beam shifted and dust and pebbles fell onto his face. Covering his eyes, he waited, not moving. Feel like I'm playing 'Operation'. One wrong move and it's game over.

  "Can you see anything?"

  "No," Alexander shouted back. "At least, not with my normal eyes. But I RV'd and saw... I know I can't get out of here on my own. I'm sorry, I can't even get to you."

  He heard the metal bar drop. "I know, Alexander. I'm sorry. I saw that the floor collapsed, but the good news is that a lot of material ejected out of the crater."

  "How's that good news?"

  "Well, the stuff above you isn't solid, and air's getting in."

  Alexander took a deep breath, relishing the taste, however dusty. "So I won't suffocate." He pulled himself out farther, until only his left leg was still caught. Then it was free, and it felt good to be out. He stretched his legs, wiggled his toes. Then tried to sit up.

  "Alexander?"

  "Fine!" he shouted back, wincing through the effort. "Although everything feels bruised. I'm glad it's dark, Dad. I don't want to see-"

  "Don't think about it, not now Alexander."

  He nodded. Once again, face to face with death, but asked not to face it.

  "Listen, son. You have to be strong, and you have to do something for me."

  Alexander got to his knees and reached above him, trying to see how much room there was, and whether he could stand.

  "Are you listening?"

  "Yes, Dad. And I know what you're going to say."

  "You do?"

  "Yeah. I've seen it. The computer terminal, the servers."

  "That's right. Now, there should be a flashlight somewhere, in the computer desk if it's still in one piece.

  After a long minute of fumbling and searching, scraping his fingers on sharp rocks and jagged pieces of masonry, banging his head on something, he touched a flat metal surface. Followed it around to locate a cold handle. Pulled it, reached inside, among a stack of papers, staplers, magnifying glasses.

  "There it is."

  The light was painful and almost surreal, bringing into focus a twisted scene of incomprehensible shapes, angles and obstacles. Nothing that Alexander could recognize immediately; it was as if he'd been teleported to some alien prison cell.

  "Alexander, do you have it? Can you see?"

  "Yep, got it. Now what?"

  "The computer . Is it…?"

  "Here…" Alexander found the laptop, on its side, the top dented. He opened it and was relieved to see the screen saver functioning. Moved the mouse, and the password prompt appeared. "Working!"

  "Okay, you remember the password?"

  "Yeah." Alexander smiled. He secured the flashlight under his chin, and angled his head so it was pointing at the screen. "Sostratus."

  He typed it in and he gained access.

  "Good," said his father. His voice seemed weaker, tired. Resigned. "Now, listen carefully. They're going to be here soon. And they're going to get what they really want-"

  Alexander touched the charms around his neck. "The Keys. But maybe I could…"

  "Save your energy. Your brothers will just RV the keys, and there's no place you can hide them where they won't be seen."

  Alexander sighed. He set the flashlight down, pointing straight up and casting freakish shadows around the crushed alcoves, revealing the shattered scroll casings, the shredded documents and tablets. He forced his attention back to the computer screen, where there were six icons, and an open file.

  "But you can still help."

  "How?"

  "Rashi was on to something. She wouldn't tell me everything, but I knew… The Keepers found clues in the ancient documents. Something that could help. Hideki was working on it too, scanning portions into the computer. There should be a file, or a series of files, excerpts translated from the original sources."

  Alexander called up the first open file, scrolled down past the scanned cuneiform script and glanced at the translation. "I see it. This first one has something about…"

  "Just read it," Caleb called. "And remember what you can. Read everything she saved out there—then, before they come for you, delete it all. And smash the computer."

  Alexander smiled. "That'll be fun."

  "Remember it, and you'll get a chance to tell me—or Phoebe, soon. And hopefully it'll be enough to stop this."

  "What about you?" Alexander shined the light back to the wall of debris over the smashed conference table, waving the beam back and forth, looking for even a slight crack to look through and see him. But no, if that was possible, he could fit the keystones through and Caleb could try to protect them.

  "There's a hidden exit back this way. Robert showed it to me once, after I said I was concerned about escape if the surface was compromised. A descending passageway that turns at a right angle and tunnels to the harbor. A huge bank-safe kind of door, opened only from the inside, one that then leads down to the harbor. Of course, there's scuba gear…"

  "Oh." Alexander thought of how his dad didn't have the best experiences with scuba, and nearly died in that harbor while searching for the Pharos. "I'm sorry."

  "Yeah, well, it's got to be done. I'll get out, and get help. I'll find a way to save you. But you… Alexander, listen to me. You have to be strong. You're a Keeper now."

  "But…" Alexander looked around at the shattered walls, the broken alcoves. "All the scrolls…"

  "We'll save what we can," Caleb said solemnly. "But remember, all of it—the whole collection—was scanned and uploaded to remote servers."

  Alexander had asked his mother about those servers one day, while they were at a café outside the library. He still recalled the glint in her green eyes as she leaned in and whispered: "A lot of places. A cave system in the Himalayas. Another in the Andes. A bunker in Mount Shasta, Washington."

  "It's all still there," his father's voice now. "If only in a different form. The scrolls wouldn't have lasted forever anyway."

  Alexander knew he was right, but still—the original copies. So priceless. To have averted the doom Sostratus originally foresaw for them, only to be destroyed only a few years after rediscovery…

  "I've got to go now, they're coming soon. Remember…"

  "Yes, I know. I'm a Keeper now. I'll do what has to be done." A little hesitation. "I'll see you soon?"

  "That's a promise. I'm proud of you, Alexander. Goodbye."

  Alexander stood and raised his head, shining the light into the crevices and nooks, surveying what was left of his domain, the vault that had been built to survive for millennia. He allowed himself a moment to grieve for all this, for Rashi and Hideki. And for his mother.

  And then he sat down and got to work.

  3.

  Xavier Montross waited alone in the limousine and didn't bother trying the doors. He knew they'd be locked. In the back trunk rested an iron box more than five thousand years old that potentially held the greatest of secrets. And somewhere down there in that monstrous fissure, were the only keys that could open the box.

  The keys and my nephew, he thought, imagining the boy's terror, his sudden thrust into responsibility. We're not so different. I was even a little younger when it happened to me.

  Out the tinted windows he could see the crowd of fire engines, ambulances, vans and relief workers. Three helicopters overhead. People surging around the perimeter, spectators pushed back by armed police, keeping everyone at a distance f
rom ground zero.

  Xavier closed his eyes and for a moment, pictured his childhood room as it was for years, up until the accident that killed his mother and his foster father: the bedroom walls covered with drawings, visions that made the transition from mind to paper. He recalled one in particular: a deep hole bored into the earth, with tiny forms clinging to the sides, smoke rising from below.

  He had seen this all before. Didn't know what it was at the time, but now there was no mistaking it.

  Just like there was no mistaking what he'd have to do next. He knew it was coming. Dreaded it, but at the same time found himself intensely curious. But first he allowed himself a moment.

  A moment to think. About her.

  A soaring flight over sandstone towers, deep ravines and striated cliff walls. Her breath on his neck, her arms fiercely encircling his chest. The intensity of adventure, the thrill of discovery…

  And then he was back, and her scent left his lungs with the next breath, replaced by the stinging heat and flavor of death.

  Mason Calderon slid into the seat facing Xavier, then shut the door. He had on a lavender silk shirt, sleeves rolled up, his white tie slightly loosened around his collar. A slight cough was his only indication of experiencing anything personally from the destruction outside. He brushed off his pant legs, then combed his fingers through his wavy gray hair.

  "So, Xavier. We finally get to chat." Calderon held a thin leather briefcase on his lap, tapping it gently.

  Xavier's head felt lighter suddenly, and the car seemed to spin. "The Tablet."

  Calderon smiled, his palms now flat against the leather case. "I know you can feel it too." His eyes were large, Xavier thought, the pupils expanded like a focused cat's. They blinked, then glanced out the window. His smile never wavered as he shook his head. "Such loss. But still, it was a valuable test. And a warning."

  "A warning to whom?"

  Calderon's gaze swept back to Xavier. "Don't you know?"

  "I know a lot of things. Maybe you should be more specific." If this was how it was going to be, Xavier was going to have to figure a way to just get in position to kick the senator in the face and shut him up. He knew the next minutes were going to be crucial. Everything he believed in was going to be put to the test. Something was coming, some revelation he hadn't accounted for. This was the grand meeting between dramatic adversaries, and Xavier, believing himself now thrust completely into the hero's role, wasn't going to be fooled.