Return To The Center Of The Earth

by Return To The Center Of The Earth (epub)

  Another time, he thought, as this place was an expedition all in itself.

  Alistair hopped from fallen column to broken wall, as Penny scaled behind him. Mike turned slowly, holding his flashlight out straight. There were tumbled blocks the size of cars, and boulders of shattered crystal with everything having a coating of moss and lichen giving it a patina of Verdi Gris. It looked as ancient as it really was.

  “I can’t believe the beings that created this magnificence might have devolved into those things in the caves above us.” Jane pushed slick hair back off her face.

  “Not all of them I hope.” Mike then cringed and shook his head when he heard Alistair lifting and toppling rocks to see what was underneath them.

  Ally scolded him for the noise that bounced around in the gargantuan cavern for many seconds.

  “Got a body here. Well, a skeleton anyway.” Alistair crouched beside a fallen slab.

  “Saknussov? Let’s check it out,” Mike said. Jane held out a hand, and Mike quickly grabbed it to help her up on a fallen plinth.

  “Jane.” He held onto her hand.

  She stopped and turned.

  “I wanted to say I’m sorry.” He gave her a broken smile. “About you being here. About me not calling you.” He shrugged. “I wanted to, but…” He trailed off, not sure how to say what he wanted.

  She squeezed his hand back and smiled. Then nodded. But that was all. “Come on.” She dragged him toward Alistair, Penny, and Ally.

  “Poor little guy was crushed. He was male, and young.” Penny pointed to a large flat stone that Alistair had lifted off the body. “He was alive for a while.” The figure’s hip was crushed in several pieces and the thighbone was also shattered.

  “Poor guy.” Mike crouched. “Looks like he didn’t make the exodus.”

  “Is that a weapon?” Alistair reached for the footlong clear rod in its hand. He held it up. “Is it crystal?”

  Mike took it from him and then frowned and held his light closer. He snorted softly. “No, I think it’s diamond. And it’s no weapon; looks more like a key.”

  The end was sharp: no wonder that Alistair had thought it a weapon. But it was four-pronged, and the other end had a loop, perhaps to hang on something.

  “Was he running to open something, or running away after already locking it?” Mike handed it to Jane.

  “Must be worth a fortune,” Ally said, looking down over their shoulders.

  Jane took it and used a thumb to rub some of the moss from it. “They might not have valued diamonds as we do. Down here they might be abundant and no more interesting than river stones.” She weighed it in her hand. “But this thing had other value; it was strong and near invulnerable to time and weathering. It was meant to open something big and enduring.”

  Mike stood and shone his light around for a moment and then back to the small skeleton. “By the angle he’s lying, he was headed that way, but came from back there.” He pointed into the darker recesses of the cave.

  “Thirty minutes, people,” Harris yelled to them.

  “Which way?” Mike asked, knowing they probably wouldn’t have the time to explore both unless they split up which he didn’t want to do.

  “Well, if whatever it was, was unlocked, then we can expect it to have been already raided thousands of years ago.” Jane looked to where the small being had been running from. “And if he did manage to seal and lock it, and he had the only key, then…” she handed him the key.

  Mike took it and grinned. “It might still be sealed.” He held up the key, looking for a keyhole that looked like a plus sign. “Could be in a door, wall, or the floor. Let’s spread out. You too, Ally.”

  “Sure, Mikey.” She nodded at the diamond key. “But if there’s any more of those, I’m having one.”

  The small group spread in a line and walked back through the ruins in the direction they thought the small person had been fleeing from.

  They quickly burned ten minutes and Mike knew Harris would be on at them again to return. If they didn’t find something soon, or anything they could use to buy more time, they’d never know if something had been hidden here that was a real clue to what these people valued enough to die for.

  They soon came to a once-mighty collapsed building and all that remained standing was a huge wall, or rather single slab of white stone that was covered in writing.

  “Their language,” Alistair said, walking forward.

  “It reminds me of Egyptian hieroglyphics.” Penny shone her light along the rows of characters. “Pictures as well as symbols.”

  Alistair frowned. “Yes, but it’s weird: to me like there’s two styles of writing; the first is more stylized and then the lower form seems more rushed. You know, I think one was done earlier, and the lower script much later.” He turned. “And in a damn hurry.”

  “I don’t suppose your language skills extend to hieroglyphics?” Penny asked.

  Alistair grinned. “This is not Egyptian, even though some of it is a similar pictoglyph style. But…” He blew air through his pressed lips. “It’s possible to draw out its meaning by doing a quick count of the different signs.”

  “Signs?” Mike frowned. “You mean symbols?”

  “Something like that.” Alistair lifted an arm to point and then moved his finger along the rows. “You see some writing systems with less than forty different signs may be alphabetic. And then, a writing system with one or two hundred signs may be syllabary, in which each sign stands for a syllable.” He turned. “Get it?”

  “Sort of,” Mike replied.

  “But some writing systems are logographic, with thousands of different signs, and each sign might represent a single word or even an entire sentence. It’s also useful to look out for strings or signs that repeat, as these may be names of things.”

  “That sounds promising,” Jane said.

  “Don’t get your hopes up too much. There are still some ancient languages that have never been deciphered to this day, even by experts. An example is the Indus Valley script that is still a mystery. I heard that not even the great Professor Matt Kearns of Harvard has unlocked that one.” Alistair clicked his tongue in his cheek. “A Rosetta stone would really help right now.”

  “Hurry it up here, people,” Ally said.

  Alistair ignored her. “I can only give an impression of what I think it might say. But to fully translate it, you’d need a specialist forensic linguist trained in ancient languages. Oh, and probably a few years.”

  He backed up and began to shine his light around. “Do we move on?”

  “Yes, we do,” Ally said.

  Mike shone his light down at the ground. “Not yet, we were led here; this is a path. And it ends at this wall.”

  “So maybe it doesn’t end at all,” Jane said.

  Mike nodded. “That’s what I think. It might be some sort of doorway.”

  “Okay.” Alistair turned back. He pointed to the top of the wall. “This major symbol is repeated, so I’ll assume it’s a place name. Maybe the name for this city or kingdom or the land.”

  “Call it Lemuria; the lost continent,” Jane said. “It’s what Katya called it.”

  “Lemuria it is then. Okay, bear in mind I’m doing little more than providing an educated guess.” Alistair began. “Lemuria, the blessed land of three monarchs. Those that tamed the jungle, something, something, and protect us from the… something that might say: hard-shells or skins.” He turned and flicked his eyebrows up. He turned back and then pointed to a small image of a being with multiple arms and what looked like feelers. “Your shelled friends?” asked Jane and Mike.

  Alistair’s lips moved silently as he tried to draw out the meaning. Occasionally he shook his head or his brows knitted. “There’s a name here and a reference to something that might be god or deity, or even master, and some sort of worship.”

  He stood back. “There’s pieces missing, but then down here the new writing starts. “The war goes on, but we have ended or lost. Somet
hing else I can’t understand and then: we must choose our way or choose to go forward.”

  “They were at war, and were losing,” Mike said. “Their choice was to stay and fight, or maybe it was to flee, and then which way to go: the sea, the jungle, or the caves?”

  “The three monarchs each chose their own path,” Jane said.

  “Time’s up.” The roar came from down in the cave depths.

  “Okay guys, the boss calls. We’re done here,” Ally said.

  “That’s all,” Alistair said and quickly rubbed his hand over the stone, causing a shower of fine particles to rain down. He was about to stand back when he stopped, and then stepped forward again. He dusted away some more of the loose grains and stuck his finger in a hole.

  “Hey, you said the keyhole would look like a plus sign, right?” He stood aside. “Like this?”

  Jane grinned. “Exactly like that.” She turned to Mike “Go on, quick, try it.”

  Mike held out the key and eased it into the hole. “It fits.” He gently turned it. Nothing happened.

  “Soldier, get those people down here now.” Harris’ voice was rising to an incendiary level.

  “Sir.” Ally turned back to the group. “You’re gonna have to park this for another time.” She grabbed at Alistair and pulled him back. She did the same to Penny.

  Mike frowned and placed his hand on the turned key. He then pressed it. It sank in another few inches, and then there was a deep clunk from inside the stone.

  “Something’s happening,” Mike breathed.

  “I’m coming up.” Harris bounded up and across the ancient, tumbled architecture.

  There was a grinding that they felt right through the soles of their feet, and just as Harris arrived, a huge portion of the wall in front of them swung inward on some sort of pivot.

  “What did you do?” Harris demanded.

  A gust of foul air blasted out at them.

  “Stand back.” Mike stood in front of Jane. “The air inside might be rotten. Let’s give it a minute.” He turned to Harris and grinned. “I think you’ll allow us a few more minutes now, right?”

  “A few,” Harris said, his gaze flat. “We’re not on a damn treasure hunt.”

  After a few more moments they crept forward, and with the illumination of multiple lights, saw steps leading downward.

  “They’re clear; no debris. This place has been sealed since whatever happened here all those millennia ago.” Alistair chuckled. “There’s a light down below… hey, it’s blue.” He turned and his eyes gleamed. “Some of your glowing crystals.”

  “Seems not all of them were taken after all,” Jane said.

  They came to the bottom of several dozen steps and began to fan out.

  “Stay in sight,” Harris said.

  “Beneath the gaze of the god,” Mike said softly as he stared up at the huge idol carved into one wall.

  The single statue was fifty feet tall, with blue glowing eyes. In its hand it held a staff, and the other was outstretched as though offering something.

  “Human,” Jane said.

  The face had normal human features, and there was no sign of any extra limbs or carapace plating. It was also painted a deep red.

  “Ah, damn.” Penny shook her head. “This is what our fleeing guard must have been protecting.” She pointed. “Their children.”

  They crossed to Penny who stood before several mounds. Tangled together were dozens of skeletons, tiny, some no more than a few feet tall. They looked as if they were hugging each other.

  “Children, babies, their most prized possessions. They locked them in, and probably hoped to come back for them when the attack was over.” Penny sighed. “Damn.”

  “They never came back. So the children just waited here until they died.” Jane’s mouth set in a hard line. “Terrible.”

  Harris grunted and turned. “We’re finished here. Let’s go.” He spoke over his shoulder. “Grab some of those crystals; we may need them.”

  The group gathered a few of the smaller glowing rods, and Alistair pushed the lid off a stone receptacle. He peered in.

  “Looks like ashes,” Alistair said.

  Mike pocketed some of the crystals and also looked inside. “More like old paper. Might have been books or some sort of written texts: unreadable, long turned to dust.”

  Alistair groaned. “We’re too late. For everything.”

  “Almost but not quite.” Jane looked up at one of the walls.

  There were mostly carved alcoves with small statues depicting aspects of the life of these Lemurian people, but one wall was totally flat for several dozen feet.

  “A map.”

  Harris stopped at the bottom of the steps. “Say what?” he turned back.

  “Has to be,” Jane said.

  They gathered in front of the huge image; it was like an ancient mariner’s drawing where the world was spread flat. There were seas, jungles, and mountains. All had the Lemurian script across different areas.

  Mike pointed to a circle at the bottom. “That must be us, here. And look, the huge column mountain containing the gravity well is depicted.”

  Sure enough there was a column drawn with a dark stripe up in its center.

  “They always knew about the wells,” Jane said.

  “If that’s true, then they’ve picked out others.” Harris stepped forward. “So, they knew about all of them.”

  Mike pointed again. “Across the ocean and back through the jungle, there’s another. Might be the one we came in through: the Krubera.”

  “There are others; good to know.” Harris nodded. He pointed to Ally. “Take some pictures. This will be very useful.”

  “Yes, yes,” Alistair agreed. “Close in on the writing as well.”

  “And also get a picture of that.” Jane turned to Mike. “Any ideas?”

  “Holy crap.” Mike felt his scalp prickle. “I don’t…”

  He lifted his light closer as Jane also held her light on the far section of the map. If an artist could take every nightmarish creature imaginable to meld them all together, it might come close to the depiction on the edge of the land and water that was in one quadrant. There was a monstrous, hulking beast with blazing red eyes, a face hanging with tendrils or tentacles cascading down over lumped shoulders, and with muscular, scaled arms ending in clawed hands.

  “Could it be real?” Penny whispered.

  “A nightmare!” Mike stared.

  “I dreamed this thing,” Jane said.

  “I think there’s a name for the city in the shadow of the monster.” Alistair mouthed the words for a moment, attempting to pronounce it. “It says something like…” He chuckled. “No idea. But if I had to guess, I’d say Y’ha-nthlei.”

  “That name rings a bell.” Jane turned to Mike. “Did Katya mention that?”

  Mike shook his head.

  “Y’ha-nthlei; home of the deep, old ones.” Alistair’s eyes narrowed.

  Mike turned. “The what?”

  “You know what I think?” Alistair’s eyebrows went up. “Ever read any Lovecraft?” he asked.

  Mike frowned. “No, but I’ve heard of him.”

  Alistair turned back to the image. “He wrote of a huge ancient god, or elder being called DAGON, ‘one of the great dreamers from the beyond’. It was said to slumber in the depths in the city of Y’ha-nthlei. Everyone assumed it meant the depths of the ocean. But what if…” he thumbed toward the map.

  “They meant the depths of the planet,” Mike finished.

  “Coincidence,” Jane said. “How could he know?”

  “Because this elder god was supposed to haunt the dreams of certain people who were sensitive to it, like Howard P. Lovecraft apparently was. And maybe you are too.” Alistair looked back up at the titan. “We just don’t know much about our world prior to the Theia impact event when a large celestial body slammed into the Earth and the moon was created. But there was about a billion years of lost Earth time we know nothing about that somet
hing could have evolved and lived that bore no resemblance to what exists today.”

  “Maybe it is the god-king of the crustacean people. They’re Y’ha-nthleians.” Alistair raised his brows.

  “Sounds like bullshit,” Harris announced. “You do remember that ancient mariner’s maps contained images of sea dragons, as in ‘there be monsters’ right?” he snorted. “Probably the same thing.” He turned away, but paused. He turned back, his face split by a grin. “But we’ll try and avoid that quadrant, just in case.” He chuckled and waved them on. “We’re out of here.”

  Jane turned to follow and Mike noticed she hugged herself, perhaps feeling gloomy about the children’s bodies. He saw her stop, look down and then bend to retrieve something. She held it flat on her hand as she stared.

  “What have you got?” Mike asked.

  She held her hand out. On it were two coins, gold, and on one side a head, human male, regal-looking but with three faces, and when she flipped one, the other had an image of the monstrous beast from the map.

  “Keep them,” Mike said.

  She nodded and stuck them in her pocket.

  Harris led them back up the steps, and at the top, Mike lifted the diamond key. “What’ll we do with this?”

  “Bring it,” Jane said. “Close the door, and let’s keep it as well. This place was sealed to keep the arthropod creatures out. Let’s make sure it stays that way.”

  Mike stuck the key back in the lock, pulled it and then turned it back the other way. With a deep grinding the door swung shut. He placed the key in his pack.

  “There’s so much more to learn,” Alistair whispered.

  Mike nodded. “Another time,” he replied, and then followed Jane and the others down through the ruins.

  *****

  Ray Harris led them out to the mouth of the colossal cave. He checked his long-range comms device and saw he had an answer. He quickly read it: message received. He snorted softly; nice to hear from you too, he thought.