"How did you do that?" She whispered, then looked over to Orlando. "Did you see it?"
He nodded, just as the flashlight beam fanned back to them, highlighting Aria's grim but determined expression.
"See what?" Temple asked as Diana moved around and took the beam from him, then turned it off. And their eyes immediately picked up the local lighting, soft and ambient, revealing a widening chamber, largely undamaged except for a few cracks in the ceiling and walls.
"Oh," Temple said. "This."
Aria nodded, still leading Phoebe and Orlando, heading toward a rounded marble staircase that ascended to a second level. "I've seen this before," Orlando said. "It's where the UFO-things returned from outside."
Temple looked doubtful. "But they all left, hightailed it out of here."
"They did," Phoebe agreed, "but not all their crafts left with them."
"There," Diana pointed, toward the second alcove from the right on the upper level. Something multi-hued, transparent. And inside…
"Room for four?" Orlando wondered, but Diana was already running up the stairs, leading Temple and Aria.
"Let's hope," she called back. "And let's hope I can figure out how to fly it!"
"If anyone can," Temple said. "It's you."
Orlando was about to race up after them when Phoebe held him back. He stopped and saw that her attention was riveted on the side wall. "What is that? Artwork? A mural?"
"A map, I'd say" Phoebe's eyes bounced around from the colored circles to the elliptical lines drawn around the center object—a bright orange sun.
"There's Saturn," Orlando said, pointed to a striped, ringed circle. "But what's that symbol over the smaller dot next to it? And there, the same thing on other dots."
"They're moons, idiot." Phoebe smiled, looking at them all, taking in the whole scope. She was aware of Aria on the second level, watching them with interest while Diana and Temple tinkered with the craft's controls. She hoped they could gain some insight without psychic intervention, and in time. But for now, she was engrossed with the map.
"Tell me," said Orlando, "it's not another Pharos-like door. Some kind of devilish test or code to break."
Phoebe shook her head, her eyes shining, even as the room shook again and dust fell on them. "No code. No test. Just a map."
"Of what?"
"Look closer at the symbols on those moons, Orlando." She stepped closer as well, just to be certain her theory was correct. "Oh, if I'm right, big brother is going to be so jealous I figured this out without him."
Orlando grinned, then peered closer under the ringed planet. "So, if I remember my astronomy class, this would be Saturn's largest moon. Almost the size of the Earth itself. Titan." Looked even closer, and brushed away some dust from the raised symbol. "A book?"
Phoebe nodded, tracing the same symbol not only on the Earth itself, but on its satellite. Specifically on the shaded side. "Wisdom," she whispered, and closed her eyes.
"What does it mean?" Orlando frowned. He noted the book symbol elsewhere. "It's also on Pluto's moon. What was that one, Charon? And here, closer, on Phobos, for Mars."
"And look out beyond Pluto," Phoebe said. "At the edge of the wall."
"Another one?" Orlando scampered there, then looked back on the five feet of emptiness, just black tiles. "What the hell's out here? And this is one big ass book, twice as large as the others. And it's just one dark planet."
Phoebe shook her head slowly, still staring at the Earth and the Moon. "I can only guess about that, but for those closer to home, I'd say everything is a learning plan."
"A what?"
Another rumble, and the floor cracked. The stairway split and three steps crumbled.
"Hurry, people!" Temple shouted. "Get up here."
"Not ready yet!" Diana yelled back, sounding like she was in a tight position, perhaps trying to jump start the craft.
"On our way!" Orlando yelled, glancing at Phoebe. "We are, aren't we?"
Phoebe nodded, giving the map a long last look, memorizing it. "We are."
"Learning plan?" Orlando said as they ran for the stairs.
"Libraries," she said. "It has to be. Repositories of wisdom, starting with the one on Earth."
"In the Pharos Vault."
"Originally, yes." They gingerly took the steps, careful where they placed their feet. "And maybe the others are similar, just copies of everything we—our ancestors—once knew."
"Ancestors, or aliens?"
"Half-dozen of one, six of the other."
"Okay," Orlando said, jumping over a gap, then helping Phoebe. "I guess. But you think it's more?"
"Just by the sequence and distance." She caught her breath before the second level. "I'm sure the other lunar locations—probably well-fortified like the Pharos—contain similar wisdom so that if anything should happen on Earth..."
"Like what happened to the dinosaurs."
"Right, then if there were time and some of humanity made it out safely, they could start again."
"But on another planet or moon? Without oxygen, or hell, even an atmosphere?"
"That's not necessarily true," Diana's voice interrupted Phoebe's response. They approached the end of the walkway where Diana was standing beside Temple, just behind the spherical violet field. Behind them, rounded seating zones, capable of holding a dozen of them.
"Tell them on the way," Temple snapped, motioning Phoebe and Orlando inside. But it wasn't until Aria ran through the sparkling field and grabbed their hands that they overcame their fear and passed through, inside the UFO.
"It tickles," Orlando said, and then he was through and taking a seat beside Phoebe, next to Aria.
"No seat belts?" Phoebe asked, but Diana only shrugged as she stood in front of a pedestal and what looked like a flat podium-style presenter.
"That'll be the least of my violations, right after driving one of these without a license. Or a clue."
The mountain rumbled again, the floor pitched and gave way, cracking into chunks that fell out of sight. But the sphere remained, even as the rocks crumbled around them, bouncing off the field.
"If you're going to try something," Temple urged, "now would be a good time."
Aria sighed, leaning against Orlando. She looked down and whispered, "Goodbye, Daddy."
And Diana touched something on the screen, then sent her index finger sliding outward against the surface.
The craft moved instantly, and lurched them all forward, through the disintegrating layers of rock—
—and out into the night sky.
While behind them, the mountainside fell in chunks, pulverized and blasted outward by an invisible drill that bore deeper and deeper, annihilating everything in its path.
"I can't control it much longer," Diana whispered, sweating, leaning over the screen.
"You're doing great," said Temple. "Just try to take us down."
"Gently," Orlando offered, gripping Phoebe and Aria a little too tightly.
"Yeah," said Phoebe. "What he said. And then, when we land, how about telling us what you know, or think you know, about the lunar sites."
"That whole ‘not exactly' comment about oxygen up there."
Temple made a throaty sound. "I can answer that. What she means is that there have been reports, scientific analysis of trace oxygen levels given off on the Moon and on Mars and Phobos, around certain locations, that indicate the venting of breathable air. Somewhere down there. Most likely a contained facility, a habitat structure."
"Damn," Orlando said. "So..."
"So that's what they're planning," Phoebe said, eyes wide. "Calderon and his Marduk cult. Destroy the earth, but save themselves by jumping to the next station. A community all ready for them."
"And all the wisdom they'd need to keep going."
"And build on that knowledge," Phoebe said. "That's what I suspect. That, as you get farther out in the solar system, you're rewarded for your skill in reaching those places by receiving better information, more k
nowledge."
Orlando closed his eyes, seeing that last dark planet and the huge book. "Until the ultimate prize."
She nodded just as her stomach did a back flip and they dropped precipitously fast.
"Sorry!" Diana yelled over Aria's cry of surprise, which then turned to a giggle as she realized they were on the ground, and the sphere was rolling around them, yet keeping them upright inside it.
"Stop, stop," Diana hissed, sliding her finger backwards repeatedly. "Brake?"
Finally, they ground to a stop, lurching against one another. Diana tapped a section of the pad.
And the sphere vanished and she fell out on the soft earth in the middle of a pine forest. Behind them, trees were smoking, scattered in their wake.
Phoebe glanced back, gasping at the shadowy, stooped form of Mt. Shasta, looking grotesquely mutated, half-formed and still losing cohesion. The sound was building, near deafening. So much so that she didn't hear Orlando crying out until several moments later.
And then, it was just to hear a recap of his vision.
"The shield! It's gone!"
"What shield?" Temple asked, righting himself from the dirt. His voice was barely audible.
"Mars!" Orlando yelled. "The Martian shield is gone. Well, not yet, but it's their whole facility... bodies in tanks. Robotic-looking caretakers." His wide eyes fixed on Phoebe. "It's being attacked!"
"What? Who's doing it?" Temple yelled over the rumbling destruction, even as a cloud of dust rolling from the mountain obscured the stars and the bright red speck of light in the eastern sky.
Orlando shook his head, but Aria started clapping.
She fixed her bright blue eyes on Temple, then on Diana, and smiled.
9.
HAARP
As Calderon stood up and smugly left the chamber, his work done and Stargate destroyed, Alexander briefly shut his eyes and tried to picture his father.
Repelled by an undulating, unscalable wall of blue, more powerful and unyielding than anything he had encountered before, Alexander withdrew, feeling like he bounced off entirely. And landed—
Inside of a huge snow-capped mountain, Phoebe and Orlando race into what looks like a floating globe, then soar outside in an exhilarating rush before half the mountain collapses around them.
And then he returned, wiping the grin off his face just as Jacob noticed, and Isaac turned around sharply. "What do you think he saw, brother?"
Jacob shrugged. "A happy childhood memory?"
Isaac laughed. "Couldn't have been happier than ours. What with the hunting, the remote-viewing, the killing."
"Everything we ever wanted," Jacob said glumly.
Alexander shook his head. "You aren't my brothers. I don't care anymore. You're nothing like my father."
"And you," Isaac spat, "are too much like your mother." He grinned and raised his hand for a high-five with Jacob, who let it hang there.
Alexander felt his blood boiling. Fists clenched, he was about to advance on Isaac when he saw the boy still carried the sword-cane in his other hand behind his back. And Alexander noted the body laying beside the chair. Montross, bleeding out still, his blood pooling onto the polished floor.
Bleeding. That means he's still alive.
"Isaac. Jacob," Calderon stepped between them. Reached over and held out his hand. "Ah, there it is. My cane, please."
Isaac handed it over with a slight bow, never taking his eyes off Alexander.
Jacob cleared his throat sheepishly as he glanced up to the engineers. "So, is it over?"
Calderon spun his cane, keeping his eye on Alexander. "Why don't you boys tell me? I know I brought the mountain down around those Stargate fools, but I don't know if any are still alive under all that rubble."
"Let's get us a look-see then," said Isaac. "Seems to be all we're good for."
Jacob managed a grin. "Found us our brother in Alexander, we did."
"And wait a sec. Hold the phone, he never thanked us for that, did he?"
"Boys!" Calderon snapped. "Enough. Now we have to prepare. It's time."
Jacob and Isaac smiled and closed their eyes, their training kicking in. "Time," they both whispered.
"Time to shed these skins. Leave our bodies and travel the path of the Great Ones to the Red Land..."
"...where we'll be reborn," Isaac and Jacob said in unison.
"...and from our new home, with new eyes, we'll observe the death throes of this planet and imagine the suffering as the world is purged. First, I will follow the instructions on the Tablet, and I will let it guide me from this flesh and into the machine, where only pure matter can interact with the Emerald Tablet's true form."
Isaac clapped his hands slowly, picturing it.
"We'll set the target as the earth's very core, and send the scalar energy waves at a direct path through the pole..."
Calderon approached the device, about to retrieve the Emerald Tablet, when a call came in over the speakers from the techs upstairs. He glanced up, and two men in lab coats rushed out of the room and leaned over the railing.
"What is it now?" Calderon snapped. "You should be powering down and resetting the arrays before we—"
"But that's it, sir. We can't power down!"
"What?"
Alexander perked up. His attention turned to the chair-device, where for just a moment he thought he saw an outline, like an afterimage of Calderon sitting there.
Except, that wasn't Calderon.
"We can't power down! It's not letting us, not responding."
Same build and posture, but one thing different...
Calderon fumed. "Then what's it doing?"
...red hair!
"It's firing, Sir."
#
Calderon fumed. Firing without my guidance? "All right, so it's still blasting Mount Shasta. Just turn the damn thing off already, that's taken care of."
"It's not aimed at Mount Shasta anymore."
Swearing, Calderon started toward the chair. I can't wait until we're free of this damned world. Just a few more hours. "All right, then where is it aiming?"
The technicians looked at each other, whispering, then pointing back. One of them ran inside the control room as the other raised up a hand to wait.
"Oh for heaven's sake." Calderon took another step toward the machine, which was still humming, still throwing off waves of photo luminescent energy, then stopped as one of the boys wasn't standing still any longer.
Alexander had slipped by on the right, and was kneeling by Montross. Leaning over, whispering something as he tried to apply pressure to the stab wound.
Montross?
Calderon spun his head back around to the device, and for a glimmering instant, saw him: the flaming red hair, the shining blue eyes. Everything scintillating in an emerald radiance.
Montross! Sitting like an emperor on his throne. Like Loki after usurping Odin. Like Lucifer on the throne of Heaven, or just like Thoth, imagining he could usurp the rule of Marduk.
"Where is it aiming!?"
"Sir," came the voice from above. "Nowhere right now. Just up in a straight line towards the east." The tech's voice cracked. "But in three hours and twelve minutes, after the scalar wave of destruction has traveled a distance of two hundred and fifty million miles..."
Calderon closed his eyes. "No."
"...entering into the path, will be the planet Mars."
"I assume," Calderon said in a dull voice, "You've calculated the precise point on the surface that will be affected?"
"We have." Another pause. "Cydonia."
Throwing down his cane in frustration, Calderon dropped to his knees. Basking before the Emerald Tablet's glow, he prepared himself.
"He's got you," Alexander whispered, glaring at him from his uncle's side.
"Shut up."
"Tricked you good."
"Shut him up!" Calderon pointed and the guards moved in, past Isaac and Jacob, who were still standing, open-jawed, unsure of what just happened. "And if the
dead man stirs, shoot him!"
"Father?" Isaac was at his side.
"Be quiet, and be ready. I'm going to stop the traitor. Beat him at his own game."
"But has the pulse already fired?"
"Not long enough," shouted the tech above. "Another thirty seconds and the power level of the scalar wave will be sufficient to penetrate the depth of the Cydonia installation, smash the barriers and reinforced supports, and—"
But Calderon had tuned him out. Or, more appropriately, he no longer had ears with which to hear.
He stood on gossamer legs, his form shimmering with plasma-like sparks.
Everything was as he had foreseen.
Freed from flesh, he was power.
Freed from all restrictions, he was invincible.
He was a god.
And his enemy sat before him, startled at his sudden appearance. And unable to extract himself from the machine. Unable to defend himself.
Thirty seconds, Calderon thought.
Plenty of time.
10.
Ten minutes earlier, while three F-16 Fighting Falcons roared overhead, dispatched from Eielson Air Force Base, the Jeep Cherokee rammed through the chain wire fence at the southwest edge of the facility.
"Think it'll work?" Caleb shouted over the tortured metal-on-metal collision that sent them rocketing off-road for a moment. The tires dug into the fresh snow, spun, then Nina got the Jeep back on the old service road and accelerated for the dimly-visible supply center, adjacent to the office buildings.
"Well, we heard the jets but I'm sure their security people picked them up on radar long before that. Their attention has got to be on the sky."
"Temple said he ordered radio silence, too. So if they tried contact, they'd get nothing. Which would have to scare them a bit."
"And the scalar weapon, I imagine, isn't good for knocking out fast-moving aircraft, only motionless enemy sites."
Caleb cringed, thinking about the Library of Alexandria, the devastation and loss of life, not to mention the original copies of all that wisdom.
As the snow and ice slapped the windshield, keeping the wipers working in hyperspeed, Nina shifted and threw caution out the window. "Wish our boys weren't in there, otherwise we could have had them just level the damn place. Napalm it up."
The Cydonia Objective (Morpheus Initiative 03) Page 26