Pyramid of the Ancients Read online

  To my two adventurers, Alejandro and Sebastian.

  I pray that my fictional stories will inspire you to dig deeper into your earthly father’s faith and help you realize that science and religion are not at odds with each other.

  Contents

  The Pyramids of the Ancients: Map

  Prologue

  1. Rebecca’s Arrival

  2. Reunions

  3. The Pyramid

  4. Test and Trial

  5. Invasion

  6. Liftoff

  7. Goliath and Hercules

  8. Serpent-birds

  9. Natives

  10. Mack’s Escape Plan

  11. Explanations and Theories

  12. Separation

  13. Conversations and Convictions

  14. Rebecca’s Theory

  15. Research

  16. Tales from Corinth

  17. Landing

  18. Ice and Wind

  19. Cavemen

  20. Prisoners

  21. The Patriarch

  22. Fleeing the Ice Age

  23. The Sacred Scrolls

  24. The Puzzle of Ancient Man

  25. Goliath’s Plan

  26. The Tower

  27. The Library

  28. Guardians of the Tower

  29. Nimrod

  30. Babel

  31. Doc’s Conclusions

  32. Stranded

  Afterword

  Suggested Materials

  Endnotes

  Acknowledgments

  Other Novels by Keith A. Robinson

  About the Author

  Prologue

  The shaft of light pierced through the blackness of the chamber like a ray of morning sunlight breaking through a dense canopy of storm clouds, its brilliance accompanied by the rumble of stone grating against stone. As the artificial thunder intensified, the shaft widened and grew until the brightness revealed the full outline of a doorway. The large stone door came to a grinding halt with a loud boom that echoed throughout the chamber beyond.

  Slowly and gracefully, an odd-shaped object floated into the opening, its cylindrical torso momentarily framed by the radiance from the chamber beyond. Two pinpricks of light hovered over the torso like a pair of disembodied eyes, while beneath it, three legs spaced apart in a triangular formation kept it aloft on cushions of air. The gentle whir that accompanied the intruder as it entered the chamber was joined by the sound of metallic gears as two spindly arms rose up from the sides of the torso.

  The soft blue glow being emitted from the spinning disks on the circular ends of the legs was suddenly overpowered by a beam of iridescent light that shone forth from just above the beady eyes, its rays causing a ring of dim white to suddenly appear on the far wall of the chamber more than forty feet away. Slowly and methodically, the beam began to probe around the room, steadily sweeping the area in a counterclockwise motion.

  “Incredible. Absolutely incredible.”

  Behind the droid, a yellowish, spherical lantern flared to life, held by a figure dressed in a solid black T-shirt and blue jeans. The shirt fit snugly to the person’s body, revealing a form that, while not overly muscular, was one that had spent at least a few hours in the gym. The man had a medium build and slightly above-average height, and carried himself with an air of confidence. The light from the glowing sphere held in his left hand reflected off his tanned skin as his intelligent eyes swept over his surroundings. Stepping carefully into the room, the man raked his right hand through his shoulder-length, dark brown hair in amazement and let out a low whistle. “Jerome, come on in. Dr. Eisenberg, are you guys getting this?”

  “That’s an affirmative,” came a reply. “The picture is crystal clear.”

  A moment later, the figure of a tall man passed through the open doorway, his own lantern preceding him into the room. His forest green polo and khaki pants were damp from perspiration, and his dark skin glistened with sweat. Reaching up with his free hand to wipe his brow on the back of his glove, he moved farther into the chamber and joined in the examination. “Jeffrey, what is this place? This chamber looks as if it hasn’t been disturbed for hundreds of years.”

  “Probably much longer than that,” his companion replied. “The masonry and stonework are definitely the same as the antechamber, but it’s too early yet to make any guesses as to what this room was used for.”

  “Ugh! What an incredible smell you've discovered,” a third voice commented from the doorway. “It smells worse in here than a Hutt's backside. Whoa, would ya look at the workmanship on this door frame? And this engraving is flawless,” the man stated in awe, his lantern held inches from the wall as his gloved right hand caressed the markings etched into the rock. Setting his spherical lantern down, he grabbed the bill of his baseball cap and took it off, revealing a mop of wavy black hair. Using his right sleeve as a handkerchief, he wiped beads of sweat from his brow. His unkempt hair was matched by a pair of dirty jeans and a wrinkled brown T-shirt that looked as if it had spent one too many nights in a heap on the floor. Replacing the cap on his head so that it faced backward, he leaned closer to the wall and resumed his inspection of the door.

  A fourth person, a woman, brushed past him, nearly knocking him over as she stepped into the room. The newcomer, tall and dark-skinned, held her lantern high, adding noticeably to the brightness fending off the encroaching darkness. With a nearly six-foot frame, she was dressed in a sleeveless gray, one-piece jumpsuit cinched at the waist with a black belt. Her ebony hair, pulled back tightly into a ponytail, combined with her high cheekbones and chiseled features to make her seem like an ancient obsidian statue that had somehow been imbued with life.

  The droid, seemingly oblivious to the entrance of the others, continued to scan the room with its searchlight as the four humans fanned out behind it. As they walked, their boots kicked up small clouds of dust that covered every inch of the smooth stone walls and floors.

  “Elmer, give us a report on da dimensions of da room,” Akwen commanded the droid, her voice thick with the heavy Cameroonian accent of her heritage. As she spoke, she worked her way across the room toward some objects on the floor several feet in front of her.

  The droid responded even as its searchlight continued sweeping the room, its clear tenor voice echoing off the nearby walls. “The main portion of the chamber is a perfect forty-five feet square, and the additional back portion of the room measures twenty-seven feet wide by fifteen feet. The ceiling is a uniform fifteen feet in height. Two doors are set into the northeast and northwest corners of the main chamber.”

  “There is a lot of debris on the ground,” Jerome said once the droid had finished its report. Circling around a four-foot wooden table lying on its side, he stooped down and picked up one of the many smaller items strewn across the floor. “What are these things?” he asked, his brow furrowing. “They look like pieces of machinery. And there are broken glass, tools of various kinds, and containers everywhere. Here’s one that still has some kind of liquid in it.”

  Akwen bent down to examine the jar in Jerome’s hand, but she suddenly stood and turned to face the droid, which had ceased to probe the room with its searchlight. “What is wrong? Have you found someting, Elmer?”

  The circular disk on the droid’s rear left leg angled outwards slightly, propelling it at a forty-five degree angle towards the eastern wall. All four humans stood frozen in place like marble statues as the droid stopped in front of what appeared to be a large table set against the wall. In its usual calm voice, the droid replied, “It seems I may have found one of the former occupants of this chamber.”

  Like sprinters just released by the crack of the starting pistol, the humans moved simultaneously toward the droid and it
s discovery. As the others approached, Elmer floated up and to the side to make room for them. In the light shining down from the droid, they saw a large, hooded form slumped over in the chair, its upper torso resting face down on the tabletop.

  “Look at the size of that thing!” Mack said in awe as he moved in closer for a better look. “It’s as big as a Wookiee! It’s gotta be seven feet tall, at least.”

  Withdrawing a large brush from a bag hanging from his shoulder, Jeffrey began removing the dust from the still form. “Have any of you ever seen cloth like this?” Without waiting for a reply, he removed his right glove and ran his hand along the corpse’s back where he had brushed off the dust. “It feels as soft as silk. And watch how it shimmers in the light. The whole robe appears to be the same.”

  Growing excited, he looked up at each of the others. “Cloth that is made out of an unknown material, masonry unlike anything we’ve seen before, the book we found in the antechamber written in a language no one’s ever heard of—”

  “—although it has similarities to Hebrew,” Mack chimed in, interrupting Jeffrey.

  “—and most importantly,” Jeffrey said, without skipping a beat, “it contained instructions on how to build technology we’ve never seen before. Lady and gentlemen, I think we may be looking at the real thing here.” Even in the yellowish light of the glowing spheres, his brown eyes sparkled with passion and exhilaration.

  Jerome looked up from the body to stare at Jeffrey, his own excitement evident in his face. “Its body shape looks human, but—wait. Look at the hands!”

  “Those definitely don’t belong to any human,” Jeffrey said. Leaning over the table, he used his brush once again to dust off the portion of the corpse’s hand not covered by the sleeve of its robe.

  “I don’t know,” Mack said with a smirk, “you obviously haven’t met my Uncle Joe! He’s the hairiest man I’ve ever seen.”

  “Okay, so other than your Uncle Joe, I don’t think there are any other humans with that amount of hair on their hands,” Jeffrey replied with a chuckle. “But even that aside, these hands look like animal claws, except that most animals I know don’t take time to trim their nails.”

  Akwen, standing on the right side of the body, pulled a file and small container from her satchel and took a sample of skin and hair from the right hand. “If dis chamber has been sealed for tousands of years, den why hasn’t da skin rotted away?”

  Jeffrey shrugged. “That outer anti-gravity seal we had to break through must have also kept the chamber vacuum sealed. Brace yourselves, everyone. We’re about to get our first look at an extraterrestrial. Dr. Eisenberg, are you still with us?”

  “Yes. Elmer’s feeds are still coming through crystal clear,” came the reply from the commlink on Jeffrey’s wrist. “Are you ready to make history, Jeffrey?”

  “Oh yeah,” Jeffery replied with a grin. “Here we go. Ready, Jerome? Let’s tilt the chair back. On three. One, two, three!”

  On cue, they pushed the body backward, causing the ancient marble chair to tip. With Mack holding on to the back of the chair, the four of them lowered it and its occupant to the floor. However, the stiffness of the body—combined with the odd angle at which it had been resting—caused it to fall sideways to the left, toward Jeffrey. Instinctively, he reached out to try to catch it. As his right arm reached around the shoulder to cradle the head, his fingers tangled in the hood, pulling it back from the corpse’s face. The sightless eyes and monstrous features that stared back at him became the source of nightmares for months to follow.

  The figure’s facial structure was unmistakably human-like. However, its large brows, deep-set eyes, sharp teeth, and cranial shape seemed much more suited to that of an ape-like animal. Coarse, brown hair lined the sides of the face and swooped low over the massive forehead, but was notably absent from around the eyes, mouth, and cheeks.

  Stumbling backwards in shock, Jeffrey released his hold on the corpse and let it fall to the dust-covered floor of the chamber with a dull thud. The body fell onto its left side and lay still, lifeless eyes staring up at Jeffrey as if mocking his lack of nerve.

  “Okay, I’m officially weirded out!” Mack said, nervousness still apparent in his voice. As he looked at Jeffrey, a smirk slowly crept across his features. “Man, you moved faster than a greased pig being chased by the butcher on Christmas Eve!”

  Jeffrey let out a tense chuckle. “Yeah, and I bet you’ll make sure I don’t live it down anytime soon,” he said, recovering his voice. His initial fear having dissipated, he leaned closer to the corpse to examine the face in more detail. “Is it just me, or does this thing look familiar? What does it remind you of?”

  Crouching next to him, Jerome studied the still form intently. “It kind of looks like those artists’ sketches of Neanderthals, except this thing is hairier, and a little more ape-like. Do you think there’s a connection?”

  “Sure!” Mack chimed in excitedly before Jeffrey could respond. He stood to his feet and began gesturing with his hands as he spoke. “I mean, aren’t they always saying that aliens might have placed life here on earth and then helped with evolution? Maybe they took some of their own DNA to begin the process. Or maybe after humans were evolved enough, they began reproducing with our ancestors to produce the Neanderthals!”

  “Has anyone ever told you that you watch way too many sci-fi movies?” Jeffrey asked dryly.

  “Don’t knock ’em. Many times, reality copies fiction. I mean, just look at our flying Swiss army knife over here,” he said, pointing to the hovering droid, which had begun moving about the room once again to continue its search. As it floated overhead, the blue light from its gravity control outputs revealed the outline of an open book near the right edge of the table.

  “Hey, what’s that?” Mack asked, rushing over to the table. Like a mother picking up a newborn, he gently lifted the ancient manuscript and caressed the worn leather spine. It was as if he expected his very touch to be sufficient to pierce the binding and absorb the treasured contents within. Jeffrey, Jerome, and Akwen gathered behind Mack, looking over his shoulder as he studied the book by the light of his lantern, which now rested on the table.

  “So, are you going to open it or just stand there petting it?” Jerome asked impatiently.

  “Sorry,” Mack said, as if snapping out of a trance. Reverently, he grabbed the corner of the dark metallic blue cover and opened it. He began leafing slowly through the pages, examining their contents.

  “Can you read it?” Jeffrey asked, his voice just above a whisper. “Is it in the same language as the one we found in the antechamber?”

  “Yes!” Mack replied, his voice quivering in excitement. “And it seems to contain more diagrams, schematics, and instructions on how to build…something. I can’t quite tell yet.”

  “Do you tink dis creature could have written bot’ books?” Akwen asked quietly, glancing back at the corpse resting on the floor behind them. “If so, why? Was dis place some kind of workshop or laboratory?”

  “Maybe,” Jeffrey said. “It would certainly explain the tools on the floor and some of the other objects. But what was he building, and why? Let’s finish checking out the rest of the chamber before we start jumping to conclusions. Mack, you joining us?”

  Mack was so intent on studying the ancient book that it took Jeffrey several tries to get his attention. Finally, Mack looked up and shook his head. “No. You guys go on. This stuff is amazing. I feel like a caveman who just discovered fire! From the looks of it, this could be the find of the millennium! I mean, if the technology in here is anything like what was in the other book, then it could change the course of human history! It may be too early to say, but I think these are plans to build a spaceship far faster than any of our shuttles!”

  “Are you sure that isn’t just wishful thinking?” Jeffrey asked.

  Mack gave him a serious look that left no doubt that, for once, he wasn’t exaggerating. “Okay,” Jeffrey continued, “call us if you discover any
thing revolutionary.” Moving away from the table, Jeffrey, Akwen, and Jerome headed over to join Elmer near the door in the northeastern corner of the chamber.

  As they approached, the droid’s head rotated 180 degrees to face them. “The door in the northwest corner led to a storage room that was almost completely empty. There were traces of oil and grease on the floors and walls, and several pieces of strange metal and ceramics were scattered around the room.”

  “—More confirmation that this was some kind of workshop,” Jeffrey said, looking at Jerome. “Well, let’s see what’s behind door number two.” Expecting the door to be stuck from countless years of nonuse, Jeffrey grabbed the plain metal door handle in both hands and pulled hard. To his surprise it opened easily, nearly causing him to hit himself in the head with the edge of the door. Stepping to the side, he pushed it the rest of the way open and held up his lantern to illuminate the interior of the room.

  The onlookers’ hearts, already beating rapidly from excitement, went careening into high gear in response to what they now saw before them. Filling the center of the nine-by-fifteen-foot room was an enormous, hairy monstrosity. The dead creature lay sprawled on its back with its feet closest to the door. From where they stood, its head seemed tilted to the left at a sharp angle, as if broken. Its oversized limbs lay straight, giving Jeffrey the distinct impression that it had been dragged into this closet. The massive arms were complemented by claw-like hands that looked capable of ripping a small animal in half with a simple twist.