Pyramid of the Ancients Page 5
Lying open on the desk were two strange-looking tomes, each bound in what looked to be a grayish-colored reptilian skin and measuring about a foot wide and fifteen inches in height. Mack pointed to the one on the left side of the desk as he spoke. “This was the first one Jerome and Jeffrey found in the antechamber. As you can see by the drawings, it describes how to make a gravity control device. Of course, it’s written in a language no one has ever seen before. This posed a problem, but nothing too major. Once I realized it had some similarities to ancient Hebrew, the rest was downhill.”
“Didn’t Dr. Eisenberg recognize that it was similar to Hebrew?” Rebecca asked in an attempt to deflate Mack’s bravado.
“Well, yeah,” he stammered, “but there was much more to it than that. That was just the beginning. It still took me over three months to translate, and I had to do quite a bit of research.”
“Indeed,” Jerome said, picking up the story before it became sidetracked further. “Once Mack had the book translated, NASA began working on prototype models for the gravity control device.”
“NASA has been trying to develop an anti-gravity device for years,” Rebecca said. “I bet they were as excited as kids on Christmas morning.”
“They may have been working on it for a while, but this design was completely different,” Jerome explained. “It took them in a whole new direction. And even with the instructions and diagrams, and the best minds on the planet, it still took them more than half a year to finish the prototype.”
“So it worked?” Rebecca asked excitedly.
“Like a charm,” Mack chimed in. “I take it you haven't introduced her to Elmer yet, huh Jerome?”
“No, but that’s our next stop,” he replied. “Anyway, as it turns out, we couldn’t open the door to the main chamber because—”
“Because of the invisible barrier,” Rebecca finished for him. “Dr. Eisenberg mentioned that the book also told you how to bring it down.”
“That’s right. When we entered the main chamber, we found the two bodies Lisa showed you, as well as this second book,” Jerome continued, pointing to the book on the right.
“This one took me even longer to translate,” Mack said. “Even though I was starting to get the gist of the language, it was just much more complex and, as you can see, it’s quite a bit thicker. But it was well worth it; this one tells how to build and operate the Pyramid of the Ancients!”
“The what?” Rebecca asked in confusion.
Jerome pursed his lips in mild annoyance. “‘Pyramid of the Ancients’ is the name Mack has lovingly given the ship.”
“It’s a great name, huh?” Mack asked, like a child seeking his parent’s approval. “The way I figure it, the ancients are the alien astronauts who left the ship here millions of years ago.”
“Anyway, as I started to tell you earlier,” Jerome said, taking over the narrative once again, “it turns out that the ship’s ‘boosters’ are four massive gravity control devices housed underneath the pyramid, one under each corner of the base.”
“So the core that arrived with me today—” Rebecca began.
“—is the central power supply for the ship,” Jerome finished. “NASA has been working on it since we found this book almost exactly two years ago. It’s the last piece of the puzzle. Once it’s installed, this baby should be ready for action! You arrived at the perfect time.”
Rebecca, overwhelmed, simply shook her head in amazement.
“C’mon Becky. I’ve still got to introduce you to Elmer,” Jerome said. “Thanks, Mack. We’ll see you at the test run tonight.”
“Sure, no problem,” Mack replied. “It was a distinct pleasure to meet you, Ms.…” Mack’s words trailed off as he held his hand out once again towards Rebecca.
Rebecca grasped his hand firmly in her own as she replied. “Mrs. Evans.”
Mack froze as if suddenly dropped in a vat of liquid nitrogen, his hand still holding Rebecca’s. “Evans? As in—Jeffrey Evans?” he asked, his eyes widening.
“Yes. Jeffrey is my husband,” Rebecca confirmed.
Although she didn’t think it was possible, Mack’s odd, greenish-blue eyes widened even farther, looking as if they were going to fall out of his skull at any second. He glanced at Jerome, then returned his gaze to Rebecca. After several seconds, his consciousness finally returned to reality. Realizing he was still holding Rebecca’s hand, he quickly released it and apologized.
“S-sorry ’bout that,” he said, obviously embarrassed. “It’s just that I…I…you just caught me off guard, that’s all.”
“Thanks again, Mack,” Jerome said quickly. “Becky, let’s go, shall we?”
“Sure,” Rebecca said numbly, her mind still pondering Mack’s odd reaction to her name.
As they left the kitchen and headed toward the back of the pyramid, Rebecca quickly forgot about Mack's response as her attention became focused once more on examining her surroundings. She noticed that every six feet, the inner wall turned toward the outer, western wall for another six feet, then turned back north again to repeat the process. After three of these repetitions, the pattern inverted itself as they passed the center of the pyramid and began approaching the northernmost section of the structure.
Rather than going into one of the doors in front of them, however, Jerome led her up a steep stairway that ran along the outer side of the central room’s northern wall. Based on the sounds coming from around the corner as they ascended the stairs, it appeared that the techs were still busy installing the power core.
At the top of the stairway, Rebecca and Jerome entered into a small, square room twenty-four feet on each side. The walls sloped inward towards the center of the room, indicating they were obviously in the apex of the pyramid. Where the four walls should have converged, however, was a six-foot-square gap in the ceiling. Directly below the gap, in the center of the room, was a large, square pedestal made out of a silvery material that shimmered in the fluorescent light. The pedestal was the same width as the gap, and it reached up from the floor to stop several feet shy of the opening.
Running nearly the entire length of the southern wall was a control console containing a myriad of knobs, buttons, levers, and displays, all with labels written in the same strange language as the technical journals she had seen in Mack’s office. Due to the unusual height of the console, several bar stools were placed in front of it at various intervals.
All this initially escaped Rebecca’s notice as she entered the room. For the moment her foot hit the top step, her attention had been captured by the sight of a tall African woman crouched in front of a cylindrical robot that rested on the floor next to the pedestal. The torso of the machine, which Rebecca guessed to be roughly three feet in diameter and nearly the same in height, rested on a triangular base, with smaller, eight-inch cylinders underneath each point of the triangle. The head of the droid wasn’t much more than a black cylinder with a domed top and tiny lights, which seemed to resemble beady eyes. Its vocalizer was nothing but a series of small holes in the vague shape of a mouth located just under the eyes. All in all, it was apparent that the droid was built more for function than aesthetics.
As Rebecca and Jerome approached, the woman acknowledged their arrival with barely a glance in their direction. Stepping closer to the droid, Rebecca noticed one of its front panels was open and the woman was busy adjusting some of the inner circuitry.
“Yes, Jerome? Do you need someting?” she asked in her heavy accent, her eyes never once straying from her work.
“Akwen, I’d like you to meet Rebecca. She’s Dr. Eisenberg’s new assistant. I’m just showing her around, and I wanted to introduce her to you and Elmer,” Jerome said.
Akwen looked up momentarily, judged her with a simple glance, and then summarily dismissed her as unimportant. Out of politeness, however, she replied, “Nice to meet you. As for Elmer, if you want to actually speak to him, you will have to wait a few more moments. In case you cannot tell, he is currently experie
ncing anoder glitch and I had to shut him down.”
Jerome’s brows furrowed. “That’s the third one this week, isn’t it? That can’t be good.”
“Well, dey don’t call it a prototype for noting,” she said, seeming annoyed at his comment. “Dere. I tink I got it.” Standing to her feet, she brushed off her blue NASA coveralls, removed the tie from her straight, shoulder-length hair, and proceeded to return wayward strands to their original positions. She was a beautiful woman, but her thick bones and nearly six-foot stature left no doubt in Rebecca’s mind that this was a woman you wouldn’t want to trifle with. Her hair once more firmly secured, Akwen looked down at the droid and said, “Elmer, power on.”
Immediately, the lights that served as the droid’s photoreceptors lit up and the head began to swivel around in a 360-degree circle, as if carefully analyzing its surroundings. A moment later, the cylinders on the triangular base began to emit a dark blue light accompanied by a gentle hum as the droid rose slowly into the air.
“Greetings, Dr. Nancho. How may I be of service?” it asked in a pleasant tenor voice.
Looking impatiently at Rebecca, she said, “Dis is Elmer. His official title is Multi-Function Utility Droid. He was designed to be able to perform many different tasks. Each of dese compartments around his torso contains a different tool. His entire torso rotates to give him more flexibility when trying to use a tool in tight places. What else would you like to know?”
In an effort to ward off any further ire from Akwen,Jerome decided to continue to the explanation himself. “Elmer also contains one of the first computers to use a set of the new Biomatrix information storage chips.”
“Really,” Rebecca said, impressed. “I’ve heard about those. They modeled them after the informational storage capabilities of DNA, right?”
“Yeah, and our pal Elmer here has a complete set of them,” Jerome replied. “Hook him up to a terminal and he syncs up his memory with the contents of the entire World Wide Web!”
“It’s not quick, doh,” Akwen corrected. “First you have to get him hooked up correctly, which takes awhile, den you have to leave him dere for ahlmost a week. Now, if you will bot excuse me, I need to take Elmer back to my workshop to run a full systems check. Elmer, let’s go.”
“Thanks, Akwen,” Jerome said as she nodded briefly and began heading towards the stairs, the droid following behind her like an obedient puppy.
“It was nice to meet you,” Rebecca called out as Akwen reached the steps. Her only reply was a halfhearted wave of the hand. Once Akwen and Elmer were gone, Rebecca looked over at Jerome and gave him a lopsided grin. “She seems like a real pleasure to have around, huh?”
Her companion chuckled lightly. “Yeah, about as much fun as a root canal. In case you hadn’t guessed, she has a slight prejudice against Americans. Especially American women. C’mon, I need to check in with the techs to see what the progress is on the installation of the core.”
As the two headed down the steps, Rebecca spoke. “Speaking of the core, it seems like the pedestal in the control room is a shaft that leads down into the central core room. Is that right?”
“Yes. We’re not exactly sure how it all works, but it seems that the power emitted by the core is concentrated through four conduits in the floor of the central room towards the four gravity control engines, as well as up through the shaft and out through the top gap,” Jerome answered as they reached the bottom of the steps. Turning to the right, they made their way around the northern edge of the room housing the core.
“I can understand why it would send power to the engines,” Rebecca mused, “but why send energy out the top of the ship?”
“Again, we’re not sure, but if all goes well with the test in a few hours, we should find out soon enough,” he said, stopping as they rounded the corner of the stairs. As they arrived, the last of the techs who had been installing the core were exiting the central room and closing the door behind him.
Suddenly, Rebecca caught sight of the figure of a man entering the pyramid. Instantly, she felt her face flush and her pulse quicken. It was amazing that after all these years, just the sight of his dark brown, wavy hair and chiseled features was enough to cause her heart to flutter. Although he had gained a few extra pounds over the years, his typical well-worn jeans and tucked-in, solid gray T-shirt still fit him comfortably. He may not have been the most handsome man in the world, but their history together had forged a bond that had deepened her love for him. This time, however, her excitement was mingled with uncertainty. She felt a rush of jumbled emotions crashing over her, leaving her feeling confused and disoriented.
As he rounded the corner, their eyes locked and he stopped in his tracks. Try as she might, Rebecca found it impossible to read his thoughts. His face had become an impenetrable mask, his feelings locked up securely in an emotional vault of his own making.
“Hi, Jeffrey,” she said cautiously. “Surprise.”
“I was told you were here,” he said, his voice inflectionless. “Thanks for showing her around, Jerome. Give me a few minutes here, then we need to meet to discuss a recent development.”
“Sure,” Jerome nodded, seeming eager to leave them alone. “It was great to see you again, Becky. See ya around.” Rebecca’s mind was so focused on Jeffrey that later she could only vaguely remember saying goodbye to Jerome.
As he and the last tech were exiting the pyramid, Rebecca reached up and touched the hair on Jeffrey’s chin. “I see you’re sporting a mustache and goatee now. It looks nice—”
“What are you doing here?” her husband interrupted in a forced whisper, his voice a mixture of frustration and disappointment.
His response only triggered Rebecca’s own emotions. “Gee, a simple, ‘Hi, how are you?’ might be nice. Why do you think I’m here? I came to see you. After all, I am still your wife.”
A momentary flicker of…something…crossed his face. “Becky, this is the last thing I need to deal with right now. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m in the middle of something extremely important. In just a few hours, this thing goes online. I’m sorry, but I just can’t drop everything and go out to see a movie with you.”
A kind word turns away wrath. The words echoed in her mind, their truth causing the scathing retort she had been about to unleash to catch in her throat. Taking a deep breath, she eventually reeled in her own frustration and anger. “I understand, Jeffrey. I’m not asking you to drop everything right this minute. I just wanted to be near so that when you do get a free moment, we can spend some time together. This is obviously an important day for you. I won’t get in the way. I don’t want to cause you trouble.”
As she spoke, Jeffrey’s anger began to defuse. Finally, he took a deep breath of his own, and his expression changed to one of worry. “That’s good, because I have enough trouble already.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, alarmed.
“I just got word that someone sold a copy of the technical specs for the gravity control device on the black market. To make matters worse, it turns out they were purchased by a terrorist organization.”
4
Test and Trial
True to her word, Rebecca made herself scarce during the rest of the evening, despite the fact that every fiber of her being wanted to talk to Jeffrey one on one to find out what had Dr. Eisenberg and Lisa bothered and upset. However, she knew that forcing the issue during such a critical time in Jeffrey’s work would only drive him further away. Since Dr. Eisenberg and the others were busy preparing for the testing of the ship, she decided to spend the remaining couple of hours familiarizing herself with the layout of the compound.
As 1900 hours drew closer, she decided it was time to join the rest of the techs, scientists, and military personnel gathered outside the fabricated building covering the dig to watch the progress of the test on monitor screens. Due to the uncertain outcomes that could result from the test, only those directly involved would remain inside the chamber.
 
; Rebecca scanned the crowds standing in front of the various screens set up specifically for the test in search of Jeffrey or Dr. Eisenberg. She finally spotted her husband standing next to Jerome, Lisa, and Akwen at one of the terminals to her left. She was about to head over to the group when she heard Dr. Eisenberg calling her name behind her. She turned to see him standing next to Mack, who signaled for her to join them. For a moment, she was torn as she tried to decide which way to go. She chose to work her way through the crowd to join the doctor. The last thing she wanted was to be a distraction to Jeffrey.
“They are down to the last thirty seconds,” Dr. Eisenberg said when she drew within earshot. As the final countdown began, she found herself thinking back to what Jeffrey had said a couple of hours earlier. A digital copy of the technical specs for the gravity control device had been sold to terrorists. Only someone with a fairly high level of clearance would even have access to those documents. She had been allowed to see them only because of her history with NASA and because of her relationship with Jeffrey and Dr. Eisenberg—and even then, she was not allowed access to digital copies.
That meant someone in the inner circle had sold them out.
It was bad, but it wasn’t like it was a weapon or even the ship specs…at least, as far as they knew. The military had been able to discover this breach of security, but what if there were others they hadn’t caught?
Her thoughts were brought back to the present by a firm, militaristic voice coming through the loudspeaker. “Five…four…three…two…one…initiating power sequence.”
A palpable silence fell over the onlookers as they waited…and waited…and waited. Finally, after several minutes, the loudspeaker came to life again. This time, a different voice spilled forth; the words were colored by frustration and disappointment. “Command, the ship is not powering up. We tried the sequence three times, but still nothing. It seems that we may have to go back to the drawing board.”