by Don Viecelli
“We must return to the Tekoy solar system and land some of your UN Space Marines to disarm local Yoyka troops. We also may need assistance from your wife to help Tumil, Killian and Jopar free other races still under the control of Yoyka nanomachines. Some of these enslaved races were never space travelers and their freedom from enslavement will require more Alliance services and support.”
“I will pass that request on to Jan, Vice Leader. Speaking of Killian and Jopar how are things on Qum?”
“First Chair Cleota has requested more Onutu chambers to help regenerate the Qumru people whose minds are still stored in our quantum computer centers on Holtu. Since the war is over, they wish to speed up the process of regeneration for their people.
“May I inquire how the Onutu process is being received on Mars and Earth?” Di asked.
Doug knew some of the answers to that simple question, but he wondered if Di, as a Holtu android, would fully understand all the subtleties, travails and other disruptions in political and religious beliefs the capability of Onutu was having on the human psyche. All Doug had to do was think what affects it already had on his own life, which were hard to believe even now.
“That’s not any easy question to answer right now, Di. Give humans a couple hundred years and the answers will be a lot clearer.”
Di shrugged his head as Doug smiled at his close friend. Things simply were unimaginable already.
The End Of This Trilogy!
I hope you enjoyed the series. Please post a review after reading.
Excerpt From The Guardians - Book 1
Chapter 1
Interstellar Space:
At the outer edge of Earth’s solar system, the darkness of interstellar space exploded violently into a white fireball of superheated particles moving faster than the speed of light. The immense heat and bright light formed into a halo and a small opening appeared. From within hyperspace a dark, spherical object emerged racing towards the sun. The tunnel closed behind the object as quickly as it had opened.
The ominous looking object was 10 meters in diameter, with numerous sharp pointed tips protruding from its metallic skin; reminiscent of an old World War II mine floating in an endless black sea, except this mine was now traveling at the speed of light. There were no visible signs of a propulsion system, no light escaping from inside of the object; only faint quantum energy emissions.
The unidentified object plotted a course toward the third planet orbiting the sun; a blue planet that contained the right conditions for life in a harsh universe. The object’s artificial intelligence guidance system was preprogrammed; the mission predetermined. So far, the object had detected no warning signals or signs of defensive weapon systems. The object changed course two times to avoid the first eight planets. During the entire voyage, the sphere was recording data on its progress and beaming the information back towards the outer edges of the galaxy where it would be redirected and sent via faster than light (FTL) quantum energy signals to its origination point.
The object finally slowed down as it approached Earth. It was still moving at one-tenth the speed of light when it changed its trajectory one final time. By now the object sensed detection by military defense satellite systems and ground-based radar equipment. It would not matter, for it was too late to do anything to stop the object from entering the planet’s atmosphere.
The object made one revolution around the planet moving east to west, monitoring conditions on the ground and selecting coordinates before it plunged into the upper atmosphere. There was no fireball, nor any indication of atmospheric heat buildup. The sphere’s force field protected it. Five miles above the planet, the multiple cone-shaped missile engines fired and separated from the sphere, which then instantly self-destructed. The missiles changed directions and sped to twenty-four different locations around the globe. When they were less than a quarter mile above sparsely inhabited land points over every continent, the missiles exploded with brilliant white-hot flashes releasing alien nanoparticles. Every biological organism—animal, bird, insect, microorganism and plant life—within a half-mile radius was utterly vaporized and turned into white dust. As the dust settled, the first transformation began.
Chapter 2
ISS – Day One:
“My God! Did you see that?” U.S. Flight Engineer Kate Robbins announced suddenly to the crew on board the International Space Station as she viewed Earth through one of the portholes on the left side of the cabin. There were four crewmembers manning the ISS. Two of them, U.S. Commander Scott Breen and Russian cosmonaut Flight Engineer Yuri Krikalev were working with Kate in the Zvezda Service Module. One more astronaut, U.S. Mission Specialist Lynn Hoshi, was working elsewhere in the Destiny Research Laboratory Module.
“See what, Kate?” Commander Breen responded, looking up from his computer console and spotting her staring out one of the 9-inch-diameter windows.
“Those white flashes on Earth!” Kate answered as she raised her hand to her forehead in concern. “They look like explosions— all over the place.”
“Let me check the remote sensors,” Yuri Krikalev volunteered as he flicked some switches.
“This doesn’t look good, people.” Commander Breen said as he quickly peered out another porthole on the starboard side and saw several small circles of what looked like explosions on the ground. “We better contact mission control and see what they know.”
“I’ll do it, Commander,” Kate said. She floated over to the computer console and sent a text message to NASA ground control in Houston, Texas.
“Yuri, what are the sensors picking up?”
Yuri accessed the telemetry data and replied with his usual Russian accent. “Ничего себе! (Wow!) I’m getting the data now.”
Commander Breen asked the obvious. “Are they nuclear?”
“It doesn’t look like it,” Yuri replied cautiously, studying the telemetry data. “The blast sites are relatively small. And there are no radiation emissions.”
“How many blast sites do you see?” Commander Breen asked.
“There must be a dozen explosions on this side of the planet alone. There could be more on the other side. We won’t know for sure until we make a complete revolution,” Yuri answered.
“Alright, Yuri. Keep the cameras rolling and record everything you can. Maybe Houston knows what just happened.” Commander Breen had a worried look on his face. He turned to Kate to see if she had any news yet. “What’s Houston saying, Kate?”
“They acknowledged receipt of my message. I’m waiting for a reply. Any more explosions on the ground?” she asked. Kate knew something bad had happened and wondered if her family was safe back home. No one answered her.
Commander Breen saw the concern on everyone’s face. He tried to keep calm and think through this. Every problem had a solution, or so he kept reminding himself. Clearly, something unusual had just happened on Earth. He prayed it wasn’t nuclear, but who knew. Maybe it was a terrorist attack. That was the most likely scenario. He hoped for the best.
“We’re getting something now, Commander,” Kate said as the monitor pinged a message reply.
Everyone crowded around the screen. The message was cryptic: Serious developments are occurring. Explosions have been detected around the world. No confirmation on what caused the explosions. Department Of Defense, U.S. Space Command and Homeland Security are looking into the matter. USSPC, NASA and NOAA satellite data are being analyzed. More information to follow shortly. Flight Director Sullivan will advise you of further developments in fifteen minutes via video feed. Signed, Houston.
“That doesn’t help much,” Kate responded in frustration.
“Okay, let’s keep the cameras pointed at the blast sites,” Commander Breen ordered. “Yuri, see if you can find anything on the cameras on what caused the explosions. Were they missiles or what? Kate, check all the monitors. Run a complete check on all systems. Make sure nothing is headed our way. I’ll find Lynn and bring her up to date. We’ll all m
eet here in fifteen minutes for the call from Houston.”
Everyone went to work. Captain Breen checked his watch. It was 1805 Universal Time or Greenwich Mean Time. So that meant it was five hours earlier or 1305 Central Daylight Time in Texas. He spun around and headed for the passageway to the research module to find Lynn Hoshi.
As promised, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, called fifteen minutes later. The ISS was currently positioned over the Atlantic Ocean at an altitude of 245 miles, traveling at 17,156 miles per hour. It circled the Earth every 90 minutes, so communication links had to be transferred between the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) and the ground station terminals located at NASA’s White Sands Complex in California every few minutes.
Burt Sullivan, a short, solidly built man in his early forties was the Flight Director at the Mission Control Center. He was standing in front of one of the desk consoles in the Space Shuttle flight control room. As a former U.S. Air Force astronaut, he could easily imagine what was going through Commander Breen’s mind at this moment aboard the ISS. Burt took one more look at the message from NASA headquarters in Washington, DC and pushed the transmit button that operated the console. The video signal popped up on the monitor. “Commander Breen, can you hear me?”
“Loud and clear, Burt. What’s going on down there?” Commander Breen and the rest of his crew were all in the Zvezda command-and-control module clustered around a large flat screen monitor.
“I just received a message from the NASA Administrator regarding the explosions you saw in space. The President has been notified. The country is on high-security alert. It seems there were explosions all over the planet. We don’t know what they were or where they came from. Military teams have been sent to investigate. The explosions were small in size. They were not nuclear. There is no fallout according to our detection systems. The sites are all located in desolate areas. The U.S. had two explosions—one in northern Minnesota near Duluth and another in southwest Arizona near Tucson. There are no reports of human casualties. We just don’t have enough information to tell you more yet. How are things going up there?”
“Everything is fine here. We’re just worried what’s happening down there. Maybe we can help. I’ve got Yuri and Kate checking all our monitoring systems. The cameras may have recorded something. If we find anything, we’ll send the data to your team.”
“Okay, that sounds good. Wait a minute. One of my guys just handed me another message. NASA found something from one of our satellites. It appears there was an unidentified object detected approaching Earth just before the explosions. It looked like a small asteroid at first, but it was moving too fast. And it changed course when it entered our atmosphere. I’ll send you the data. Maybe your cameras spotted…”
“Sorry to interrupt, Burt, but Yuri is waving at me. He has something.” Commander Breen looked at the piece of paper with data that Yuri had just pulled from the printer. After a moment, he commented, “Tell us what this means, Yuri.”
Yuri moved in view of the screen, “I detected an optical laser pulse originating from deep space. It shot right past us two minutes ago.”
“Optical laser pulse? What do you mean?” Burt asked.
“I mean like in SETI” Yuri added, referring to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence organization that had optical telescopes looking for alien communication throughout the galaxy; so far without any luck.
“Do you know where it came from?”
“Not yet, sir. But we know where it went.”
“Where?” demanded the flight director.
“Somewhere down in Peru!”
Chapter 3
Andes Mountains Peru:
Miguel Naldo, Professor of Archeology at the National Autonomous University of San Marcos in Lima, Peru, was standing beside an old table in a large, sand colored tent erected on top of the ruins of a great Inca imperial temple. The place was called ‘Sacsahuaman’, which is situated atop a high hill overlooking the city of Cuzco located in the Andean mountains in southern Peru. Miguel knew that Sacsahuaman was built by 20,000 Inca laborers over several generations. Sacsahuaman was originally meant to serve as a sacred temple for Inca royalty as a house of the sun, arms and war, prayer and sacrifice. It ended up serving as a fortress against the Spanish conquistadors when they attacked and defeated the Incas in 1535.
Professor Naldo’s ancestors were Spanish, but his respect for the Incas was unsurpassed. As a professor of archeology and as a local explorer, his knowledge of Inca history and its empire was legendary among his colleagues and students. Every spare moment he had, Professor Naldo traveled to old Inca cities to excavate ruins, collect artifacts and study them. Currently, he was in Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Inca Empire, which the old Inca rulers had called the ‘imperial navel of the universe’.
The vast Inca Empire was called Tahuantinsuyu, the ‘Land of the Four Quarters’ or four regions. The empire extended for more than 5,500 kilometers along the Andean mountains in South America to rule over what is now northern Chile, upland Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and southern Colombia. When Columbus landed upon the new world, Tahuantinsuyu was probably the largest nation on Earth with over ten million subjects and untold wealth. It was the search for gold and silver that brought the conquistadors. It was the thrill of discovery that brought Professor Naldo—and his latest find.
Professor Naldo was staring at the screen on his laptop that was sitting on the large wooden table in the center of the tent. He was hatless and his gray hair was receding on the top of his head. The doctor was in his early sixties, but he kept himself in excellent shape. It was warm inside the tent and drops of sweat were forming over his eyes. He took a handkerchief from his front shirt pocket and wiped his forehead. Thankfully, Professor Naldo did not need reading glasses. He took a closer look at the image on his screen. It was undeniable. There was a large room or chamber 15 meters directly below the ground he was standing on. The room measured almost 30 meters in diameter, in a perfect circle. A tunnel led outside from the room to the back of the temple to the second level of three zigzagging terraces built with retaining walls made with large stone blocks. It was obviously an entrance or exit tunnel that has been sealed off or covered up for centuries—probably around the time the Spanish conquistadors were storming the city. There is a very small chance, Professor Naldo thought, that looters have not ransacked the room. He would know shortly.
Professor Naldo and his mountain guide, Guido Hernando, had discovered the tunnel and hidden chamber under the temple on their last visit using new technology purchased from the United States. It was called a UWB (ultra-wideband) radar gun and by pointing it at the ground it could bounce signals through dense material like Earth and stone and record images up to 20 meters deep. It was the latest in ground penetration technology and Professor Naldo found it quite useful in finding open cavities in old ruins and burial chambers below ground level. The data collected on the device could then be transferred to a laptop and viewed on a monitor screen.
Professor Naldo’s exploration party, composed of local workers and several archeology students, was outside removing dirt and large stones with a pulley system to reach the entrance to the tunnel at this very moment. With a flurry, Guido Hernando entered the tent. “Professor Naldo, we have reached the tunnel!” he said in Spanish. “We’re ready to go inside!”
“Muy bueno, Guido,” Professor Naldo replied. “Do you have the equipment ready?”
“Sí, Professor.”
Professor Naldo put on his hat and led the way out of the tent to the terraced landscape that once held beautiful gardens and ritual structures for religious ceremonies. He covered his eyes for a moment to let them adjust to the bright sunlight, and then took another look at the numerous mountain peaks off in the distance. He could almost imagine what it was like five hundred years ago when the Incas ruled this land. When he lowered his eyes, he saw a small group of people standing beside a mound of dirt and several larg
e polygonal blocks of stone that were removed from one of the retaining walls near the bottom of the second terrace. The students and workers were gesturing excitedly and speaking loudly enough to be heard above.
Professor Naldo quickly descended to the terrace and saw the opening to the tunnel in the wall. It was big, almost 3 meters high and 3 meters wide. In the sunlight he could see inside for several meters. He was astonished at the craftsmanship. The ceiling, walls and floor of the tunnel were made of crafted blocks, just like the retaining walls. The stones were polished and strange inscriptions and designs were drawn on the ceiling and walls. Many were painted with various bright colors.
“Unbelievable,” Professor Naldo exclaimed. “Do you know what these look like, Guido?”
“Si, Professor. They look like Nazca drawings,” Guido replied without hesitation. “But what are they doing here?”
Professor Naldo did not have an answer. Nazca drawings or Lines were famous worldwide. They were found on the Nazca plains in the southern coast about 200 kilometers from Cuzco. The Nazca Lines were an enigma, and Professor Naldo certainly did not expect to find them here in this tunnel. “This is very unusual, Guido,” Professor Naldo said as he looked more closely at the figures. “They look Nazca in design, but on a much smaller scale.” Then he noticed something else. “Many of these are designs of beings.” He stood next to the first figure. “They must be two-and-a-half meters tall—and they are drawn in much more detail. “Guido, get pictures of these drawings before we go any further.”
“Si, Professor,” Guido replied. He directed one of the students named Carlos with a digital video mini-camcorder to take pictures. Another student set up portable lights as they entered the tunnel. It took a few more minutes before Professor Naldo, Guido, several students and a few of the local workers were ready to move forward.