by JC Ryan
She couldn’t help but wish things were back the way they were before JR had joined the Marines. He had a bit of a brotherly crush on her, which caused him to forgive her for whipping him regularly at billiards. He’d been so sweet. She could hardly relate the sullen, angry and irresponsible man of today with the boy she’d first met.
It wasn't uncommon for Daniel to receive a phone call from a sympathetic police officer asking him to meet them somewhere and take JR home himself rather than booking him on a drunk and disorderly or disturbing the peace charge. Not for the first time, Daniel thanked his lucky stars that pleasing Sarah by locating their foundation in a relatively small town was working to JR's advantage. But, even Daniel had to admit that JR could cause them real and serious problems.
At the end of that day, Daniel was very grateful when Sarah dropped by his office to tell him it was time to go home. She dropped a kiss on the top of his head, and gave him a flirtatious look. Even after four years of marriage, her smile never failed to set the butterflies in his stomach aflutter.
"Anyone around here want to go home with me and get jiggy?" She said.
"Jiggy?" Daniel repeated. "What does that even mean?" Sarah gave him a slow wink and pretended to pull her top down over her shoulder, which she rotated like a 1920s flapper. Daniel's eyes lit up.
"That's the best offer I've had all day," he said.
Sarah immediately gave him her most severe schoolmarm look. "And who else has been offering?" she asked, pretending anger.
"Oh, you know, the usual. Groupies, women who think I'm devastatingly good-looking, news anchors, random homeless people,” he said with a smirk.
"Then I've got no competition," Sarah laughed.
"You knew that."
On the way home, Daniel related Luke's call, and then told Sarah that he had invited Luke and Sally to dinner on Sunday.
"I thought we'd have just your family, your mom and dad and Luke and Sally. Does that sound okay?"
Sarah leaned over to kiss his cheek. "Did I ever tell you I love you?"
"Hmmm, I don't remember," Daniel said, making a comical puzzled face.
Sarah smiled. "I guess I'll have to make it more memorable tonight," she said.
"Sounds good, babe," Daniel breathed. "But don't get me fantasizing while I'm driving. We'll have a wreck."
His mood brightened even more when he heard her giggle. It had been a typical Monday, but going home with his Sarah to spend a quiet evening together would put his world back on an even keel. He reached for her hand and squeezed.
Chapter 5 –The Ninth Cycle
The next time JR presented himself in Charles's office, Charles was ready for him with a number of research requests. Until the new map was available, Charles had determined, with a little help from Sinclair, that he himself would continue to look through the history section, but he would give JR the responsibility for finding anything he could that mentioned geography. After Daniel's talk with him, Charles was unsure that JR would be able to do a thorough job, but Sinclair put his mind at ease.
"The boy's actually brilliant," Sinclair had said. "I'm friends with his grandpa, so I know how well he did in archaeology as an undergraduate. In fact, his marks were good enough to allow him to receive credit for the courses he was taking when he flew off the handle and joined the Marines. Don't take my word for it, talk to Nick himself. He's still hoping that JR will go back for his advanced degrees and make something of himself."
"That will actually be very helpful. I'm glad you told me." Charles said. He did remember that Daniel had said JR had an archaeology background, but he didn’t think the brilliance had been mentioned. Only JR’s problems.
Charles made sure to describe his research requests to JR in a way that conveyed their importance to his project. He was gratified, therefore, when JR came back with several references at the end of the day.
"Excellent work, JR. Tomorrow, I'd like you to pull the narratives and read them. That will probably take you the rest of the week, but if you'll give me a synopsis of each reference at the end of each day, it will save me a tremendous amount of time. This way, I won't have to go through anything that doesn't actually forward my project."
"What exactly are you looking for?" JR said. Daniel had asked the same question, but by now Charles had solidified his original theory. If JR were to be a real help, he would need to know what Charles was thinking.
"While I was researching for my doctoral thesis, I came across the mention of a map drawn in 1513, called the Piri Reis map. Some researchers had discovered it in a Turkish archive in 1929. They were startled to see a representation of what appeared to be a continent at the South Pole. The kicker was, nobody saw that land until three centuries later, or if they did, they didn't leave historical record to say so. I've been thinking about that map for over a decade. The researchers who found it in 1929 speculated that it was drawn from even earlier sources. I'd like to find those sources, and I have a hunch that they might have survived from the 10th Cycle."
"How?" JR began. "Wouldn't anything that a map would be drawn on have been destroyed in the 10th Cycle calamity?"
"As an archaeology student, haven't you ever wondered why all the pyramids that we know of are lined up along meridian lines? Haven't you ever wondered about Stonehenge? Everyone else in the world has. Who's to say that a map of the world from the 10th Cycle perspective didn't exist on stone or some more permanent material than our maps today? How would we know? The Sahara desert was once a lush valley. We still don't know everything that's under tons of sand. Besides, we know that some people must have survived each calamity, or the first one would have left the Earth as lacking in people as the moon. Why couldn’t a map have been preserved and handed down at some point?"
JR was rapt as Charles spoke. It had been several years since the curiosity that had interested him in archaeology as a boy had made an appearance. For a moment, excitement made his blood dance, before he realized that he had blown his chance at an archaeology career when he joined the Marines. Still, this project sounded like it might be fun for a while.
"Okay, boss. I'll start on that tomorrow. So, what you want me looking for is any mention of a durable map or globe of the world?"
"Yes, that or anything that you see that strikes you as out of the ordinary. I'd rather see too much than too little."
With a mocking half salute, JR made his exit. Charles thought, the kid could actually be an asset. Maybe everyone was being a little too hard on him. He seemed fine, not at all like the brooding veterans Charles had seen on street corners, with signs pathetically and pitifully declaring, 'Homeless. Hungry. Veteran. Please help.'
By Friday, Charles had read three days' worth of JR's surprisingly well-written synopses of the sections of the records that he'd identified. It was only late in the afternoon when he discovered something that he would have thought JR would bring to his attention immediately.
It was an account of an expedition to map or survey all the landmasses in the world, about 1,000 years before the 10th Cycle calamity, as nearly as Charles could identify the time line. Maybe 10,000 years ago, or a little less? Several teams of cartographers and archaeologists had been dispatched to the four corners of the earth. One of the reports electrified Charles, and he knew that he could not wait throughout the weekend to see the original for himself.
Recognizing that he might already be too late to catch Sinclair in his office, Charles nevertheless jogged down the hall and into the translation department. There he found the second shift working, having startled all of them by bursting through the doors in his headlong race to catch Sinclair. Charles paused to catch his breath. He addressed the room in general, asking if Sinclair was still in.
"I'm sorry, sir," one of the young translators answered. "Sinclair has gone to Rhode Island for the weekend. Is there anything we can help you with?"
"I'm not sure. Do you have access to the translation database? I have a reference here, and I'd like to read the full text."<
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The translator who had offered her help nodded once, beckoning Charles to follow her. She let him into a server room that had several carrels with workstation monitors in each.
"If you have a pass that allows access, you can swipe it on the card reader here," she said, showing him the device on the back of the monitor. Charles picked up his ID on a lanyard around his neck and held it up with a questioning look.
"Yes, that's the one. If you have rights to access the data, it will be recorded in the security strip," she said.
Charles swiped his card, holding his breath. To his delight, the screen came to life with a search field highlighted, and the caption 'Index Reference' blinking under it. He quickly typed in the reference that JR had noted. The translator forgotten, Charles avidly read what was on the screen. It was even better than he had hoped. Noting a print icon, he clicked on it, only then remembering that he had company.
"Where do I pick up the hard copy?" He asked.
"I'll show you," she said.
Charles left with a couple hundred pages to read over the weekend. Unless he missed his guess, he had just found the key he had been hoping to find in the 10th Cycle Library.
On Monday, Charles arrived at the Rossler Foundation building at eight am... What he had read over the weekend was groundbreaking information. Not only would he have a scholarly article for the Foundation Journal; if he could get funding, he would instigate an archaeological expedition that would rock the academic community. He might even get a book deal out of it. First, he would set JR to following every strand of information from the reference in question, to try to narrow down where in Antarctica they should focus their search.
Charles was hard at work by 8:30, making notes on what he needed to do next, and waiting for JR, when Daniel stuck his head in the office.
"Just checking in with you," he said. "Is JR working out?"
"Great timing! I've got something here that looks significant, thanks to JR. I've not heard of anything similar in any of the translations I've read about."
"Is that so? What have you found?" Daniel asked, his heart speeding up as it had done many times before when his team was on the verge of a breakthrough.
"Unless I'm misinterpreting what I'm seeing here, it seems that the 10th Cyclers knew of some of the remnants of the 9th Cycle that either survived their calamity, or perhaps it was just their records that survived."
Every nerve in Daniel's body fired at once as a surge of adrenaline swept through him. "My God, that's the first I've heard mention that the 10th Cyclers knew any specifics about the previous cycles. Everything I've seen indicates that they were merely leaving a record of their own accomplishments in the library. Where exactly did you find this reference?"
Charles had not been thinking of it in that way, though now that Daniel voiced it, he could see why it would be so exciting. But, because he was focused on the history of the frozen southern continent, it was the mention of a ruin or abandoned city on Antarctica that had caught his interest. As far as anyone from the current cycle was aware, Antarctica had never been inhabited prior to the modern exploration bases being planted there.
"Daniel, what I'm thinking is that this is going to require an expedition. Is there any chance that the Foundation would consider funding it?"
"I'm sure we'd consider it. I can't make any promises on my own, but if you'll get a proposal together, I have no problem presenting it to the Board," said Daniel.
"We have no time to waste, you know," said Charles. "The optimum time for expeditions to Antarctica is between October and February. Getting an expedition together this year is going to take some doing, since it’s already March."
"Then let's get the proposal before the board by the end of next week," Daniel said. "I'll call a special meeting to consider it. Can you have a presentation ready by then?"
"I'll do my best."
Daniel left, only a few minutes before JR's arrival. JR looked as if he had had a late night. His eyes were bloodshot, and he had apparently forgotten to comb his hair. Charles ignored his appearance as he rose from his chair and rushed around the desk to embrace the other man. He stopped short of his goal when JR flinched.
"Oh, sorry. I guess you shouldn't rush at a combat veteran unexpectedly," Charles said.
JR gave him a hard look and, without a word, whirled and rushed out of the room. Charles mentally kicked himself. He had needed JR's assistance, and now it appeared he could forget about it, at least for today. Instead of dwelling on his blunder, Charles went back to his lists and notes.
He was relieved when JR came back after only a couple of hours, wearing a forbidding frown. Charles would have liked to apologize, but a look at JR's face persuaded him that now was not the time.
"Hi, JR. Ready for a new assignment?" He asked, pretending that the incident had never happened. JR's face smoothed and he nodded. Charles handed him the printout of the notes he'd made for the tasks he had laid out for JR. He didn't know whether JR had a good grasp of PowerPoint, so he had to ask.
"Yeah, I guess," JR responded, without much enthusiasm. Charles decided to take him into his confidence, reasoning that if they were to work together, he had to trust the young man.
"JR, I want you to know that it was your excellent work last week that has put this in motion. One of the references you found indicates that the 10th Cyclers had knowledge of a 9th Cycle civilization on Antarctica. Do you understand what that means?"
JR shrugged. "I thought Antarctica was uninhabited," he said with disinterest.
"Everyone did. What you found was a record of a civilization we've never suspected. I'm putting together a proposal for the Foundation to send us on an expedition to find the ruins."
"Us?" JR repeated.
"Well, me. Of course, I'll have to have a team, but I haven't worked out who all we might need. All that needs to be decided within the next few weeks. I'm going to need your help to organize it."
"Okay, boss. So, you want this PowerPoint to present to the Board, I guess?"
"Exactly. Can I count on you?"
"As long as I don't have to go to that deep-freeze with you," JR said.
"Oh, I doubt that we’d take you," Charles said, unaware that he had just uttered an insult to the sensitive man.
The rest of the week was hectic for both of them, as well as for Sinclair's and Nick's departments, both. Less urgent lines of inquiry were dropped, as everyone lent a hand to finding every last scrap of information that would be of use to the expedition. JR had more than a decent grasp of PowerPoint, it turned out. When he set his mind to it, JR could master virtually any software for which he understood the purpose. It was a knack that most of the generation growing up in the computer age shared.
Given an important role in the planning of the expedition, JR, to Sinclair's appreciation, stayed out of the translation department and out of the panties of the translators. He even refrained from drinking himself into a stupor during the week nights.
Too soon, the board meeting was upon them, and they had to convince themselves that the presentation was in order.
Chapter 6 - Let’s Go And Find It
Most of the board members, along with Nicolas Rossler, Sinclair O’Reilly and Raj Sankaran were on hand for the presentation. After virtually-free electrical power and the cure for most types of cancer, this was the most explosive discovery to come out of the pyramid material since its discovery. That an expedition would be approved was almost a foregone conclusion. Only the details and the funding remained to be sorted out. By unanimous vote, the Board approved the expedition, along with the request that the money be raised through subscription by the various countries that claimed any sort of interest in Antarctica.
There were a few dissenting discussions. The cost would be prohibitive, as all the exploration equipment would have to be acquired, adapted for the harsh conditions, and then transported. Furthermore, their time constraints would make each phase even more expensive due to the rush. There hadn’
t been time to establish the budget, so some members of the Board felt that they were signing a blank check.
Dr. Summers’ conclusions regarding the origin of the information that informed the drawing of the Piri Reis map were questioned. Was it not possible that the earlier maps upon which it depended were in fact early 11th Cycle maps, not necessarily 10th Cycle? What confirmatory research had he done on the 10th Cycle exploratory expeditions? Did any of them mention a great southern continent? Other than the cities, how was it described? After all, it was known that the western part of Antarctica had broken away from Australia…had that happened already by the 10th Cycle, and if so, where was Australia on the 10th Cycle map?
Dr. Summers fielded all the questions he could, and allowed Nicholas or Sinclair to answer some that he couldn’t. The fact was that no one was certain of the nature of the 10th Cycle calamity. That had of necessity been left out of the library, as it destroyed the civilization that built it. And no one knew for certain that the current cycle was the eleventh, though it was assumed so because of the resemblance of the languages and the assumption that there would have been more change if one or more cycles had intervened. Nevertheless, that was all speculation, until more study could establish the historic timeline within the geologic record.
His arguments in favor of the expedition were few and simple. The benefits that Dr. Summers presented were convincing; now that it was known that other civilizations had flourished and then died in world-shattering calamities, anything that could be gleaned from previous cycles might help the current civilization prevent its own calamity, widely thought to be frighteningly close to occurring.
Even if our own calamity was many centuries in the future, an understanding of human history and origins was always beneficial. And finally, if the 9th Cycle city known to the 10th Cyclers could be found, would it contain records just as important to us as those the 10th Cyclers left? It couldn’t be known without the expedition.