by M. Shaunessy
Chapter 13
Uno’s Temple
For a while, they did not say anything as Uno was in mourning for the planet Earth he then thought of his family.
“Well, then is my brother still alive? Ganu?” He asked.
“Ganu?” Mike said as Tygla and Justin looked to him in interest, “I haven’t talk to him in years.” For the first time in fifteen years, he thought about Ganu. At first, he really hated him for what he did, and then realized it was not really his fault. “I suppose he’s ok.”
Uno smiled, “Well at least some of my family survived.”
Mike smiled a bit then looked back to Uno. He realized that they must get off the planet and stop Drax.
“There must be a way to escape,” he said hopefully.
Uno then chuckled lightly, “Well, there are sometimes, when there rainstorms that block the sun, I do get some electric energy from my batteries but I only get about two volts from them. Barely enough to light a florescent lamp.
“Anyways, I have surveyed the entire planet and found an astonishing discovery. Not too far away, I found some ancient ruins. My finding shows that there was a civilization there a long, long time ago. I estimate it about a million earth years.”
“A million earth years? What happened to them?” Tygla inquired.
Uno replied shrugging, “Just like Mayans, they vanished into thin air. They did leave some hieroglyphics that I’ve tried to decipher, but it’s nearly impossible. Their language is something I never has seen before.”
“Hieroglyphics, as in Egyptian hieroglyphics?” Mike wondered.
“You think? Do you recall something called the Rosetta stone? You know that ancient Earth tablet that supposed to decipher hieroglyphics to Hebrew to Chinese. It is the same in that temple except it’s more complicated.”
“How so?” Mike asked
Uno replied, “It looks like its jumbled. I couldn’t make heads or tails out of it.”
Mike then wondered and he was curious to explore the temple, “Can you take us there?”
Uno thought for a moment then replied, “I suppose we could do that, but I don’t know what you’ll find there. As a professional archeologist myself, I could not find much. Maybe on how they lived, but that’s about it. Why?”
“I don’t know but, I’ve just have a feeling that temple could be our ticket off this planet,” Mike replied.
Uno laughed, “Good luck. I don’t how though, so forget it. You are stuck here with me.”
The three looked at each other not believing his words, and then back to Uno and Tylga said, “You can’t be serious? I don’t know about you, but I got family too you know, that’s waiting for me. We have to try.”
“Try?” Uno started as he stood, “Miss, I have been trying for five years, and believe me it’s useless.”
He then turned and started to walk to his tent when Mike said to him, “So, you given up? I thought archeologists look for every possible solution, even though the problem is impossible to solve. Some explorer you are.” Uno sighed at that remark knowing he was right, “You know, my father gave me information of your flight plan before he died.” He took out the memory stick as Uno turned to see it. “It showed some schematics that I could not understand. Maybe the missing piece to this puzzle is in here, unfortunately its encrypted.”
“A lot that going do us here,” Uno replied, “But I am sure that there is more on that stick then my flight plan. Keep it. You know, your father loved you so much. I am not surprised that he would get you to come to this planet. It’s funny huh? My employer’s son is now stuck here with me.
He then came back and continued, “The government officials of that time thought your dad was insane when he brought up the expedition idea, and they suggested locking him up. Your father was smart, brave and companionate about his projects, you should be proud of him. He died to save your life.”
Mike looked at the memory stick and realized that he was right. He was proud of him and though one day he could be as great as he was.
“I’ll tell you what,” Uno said, “I’ll take you to the ruins, and if you find something I have over looked, that might help us get off this planet, take me with you.”
Mike and his friend smiled.
It has been three hours and twenty miles and Drax’s patients were growing thin. His team led him through endless terrain of woods. Tila was getting tired and begged Drax to make camp. Drax however did not want to rest, but he did not want his men to grow restless. They found a small opening large enough to set up camp. The Xatu soldiers and Tila sat down on log stumps and fallen trunks while Drax stood looking about. He wanted to continue. He wasted all this time walking aimlessly through the deep forest. He could not wait to get to the temple and feel the pure energy force again.
“Sir, why don’t you sit down, you look tired,” Tila suggested.
Drax glanced at her for a moment then replied, “I will not rest until we get to that energy source.”
“The temple? How do you know that’s the true energy source? And if it is, how do we even know how to siphon it?”
“Instincts lieutenant,” He just said, “Instincts.”
Tila looked at him. She wondered if he was going mad, but then she never question authority, especially Lord Drax. She admired him as an idol and would, one day, be just like him. Drax how ever appreciate her loyalty, but her patients need work.
“Instincts, what kind of instincts?” Tila inquired.
He did not look at her, but replied, “When you work ten years in the service lieutenant you will learn what kind of instincts I am talking about.” For a moment he did not speak, and then he said commandingly, “Your break is over, let’s keep on moving.”
Tila and the others sighed, stood and followed Drax back in the thickness. They did not know what Drax is leading then even though his sergeant was, suppose to scout ahead. Drax already knew where he was going.
Since the planet had drained all of their weapons of power, Uno had made primitive weapons out of sticks, vines, and sharp stone. It reminded Mike the kind of weapons Earth cave men had in the Stone Age that he read in his books. Uno gave the trio spears, bow and arrows, and slings. Tygla was not completely comfortable using the spear, but she no choice. Uno told them that the beasts they had encountered before are babies compared to the real monsters that are out there.
“How far are away is this temple?” Mike asked Uno.
“About two hours. So, this Xatu Empire is here also?” Mike nodded, as Uno said, “and they think this planet has unlimited power?” He then laughed, “Come on, we got a long trek.”
“So there no unlimited energy here?” Tygla asked?
“I have looked on this entire planet, and found the only source of energy is fire.” He then looked at a weird twisting tree and said, “Except the wood I’ve been burning for warmth lasts extremely longer than the ones on any other planet. Must be the soil.”
Uno led them back in to the woods. He led them along a leaf made path that headed northwards. Uno had with him an old compass that that John had given him before he had left and strangely enough, it still worked on this planet. Uno pointed out the strange plant life that he had discovered and gave them all names. They passed another weird tall twisted tree that had purple like flowers grown all over them. Tygla was about to touch it when Uno grabbed her hand and stopped her.
“Don’t. They’re poisonous. I once tried to touch it and was sick for two weeks.”
“Oh, My!” She said frightfully.
“Come on we have long walk.”
They walked for two hours until they came to a man made Rope Bridge. It extended over a long and deep trench that fell over a mile. They looked down and they saw nothing but dense fog covering the valley below. Mike wondered who would make something like this. It seemed old but sturdy. Uno said a previous civilization made the bridge. The rope they used came from the bark of a grey tr
ee. He said the bark is a strong as steel rope, but he cautioned to them that the rope is about hundred thousand of years old and did not know if the rope kept its strength for that period of time. He warned them to cross one at a time. He did not know how much weight the bridge could take. The Lizzian explorer started to cross first. Justin went second, as Mike and Tygla looked on. The bridge creaked a bit and Tygla was worried if it would hold. When he got on the other side, Mike asked Tygla to go next. She looked at the structure a bit and hesitated.
“It’s ok hon., I’m sure it’s safe,” Mike said surely.
Tygla shrugged, “I don’t know, it just, my feline senses is warning me of danger,” she turned to him, “I’m afraid that something might happen.”
“Alright, would you feel better if I went first then?” Mike asked her.
“No I’ll go,” she said bravely.
She took her first step on the wooden plank and gripped the rope. She walked very slowly. She was not afraid of heights. So looking down to the fog and wondered how deep it was as did not bother her. She was halfway across when she heard a faint moaning sound. She did not know what that was as she paused for a moment. She did not want to stop, but it scared her a bit. Her instincts grew true and then she just darted across. The bridge swayed from side to side. Some of the boards gave away and fell. Mike then knew that it was not safe to cross. He looked at the other side as his friends got worried and wondered if he will make it. Mike sighed and knew that he had to cross it very carefully. Like Tygla, he took small baby like steps. The bridge creaked like old stairs that you find in a haunted house.
Suddenly Mike’s friends saw a large long slimy tentacle rise up from the fog. It wrapped itself around the middle of the bridge and pulled it down as the bridge snapped in to two. Mike instantly tried to grasp one of the planks as the torn bridge collided with side of the cliff.
“Michael! No!” Tygla shouted frightfully.
Justin’s heart as well as Tygla’s jumped through their throat and stopped. Justin ran over to the cliff’s edge. He could only see the bridge’s boards form a ladder leading down the cliff into the fog.
“Mike!” He shouted nervously, “Mike, can you hear me? You alright?”
He hoped that his friend would be still alive hanging on one of the boards and not falling to his death. As he looked over more, he saw Mike’s hand climbing out from the fog onto the next plank. Tygla started to laugh in relief to see her boyfriend holding on for dear life. They then saw his head pop out.
Mike looked up to them and said, “Could use a little help here.”
Justin dropped a rope down to him and both he and Tygla pulled was about to pull him up to safety, but they heard the moaning sound as the fog got inhaled by a ferocious giant cephalopod creature with sharp razor like teeth ready to eat Mike. Tygla gasped as it saw its sharp man-eating mouth. It grabbed Mike once more on his leg and pulled him down. It was a tug of war as Justin and Uno pulled with all of their strength. Tygla frowned not liking this. She took her spear, aimed it at the creature’s mouth and threw it. The sharp spear impaled deep within the monster’s mouth and screamed wildly as it let go of Mike. It descended back down into the dense fog. Once Mike got to solid ground Tygla hugged him and kissed him affectionately. She was never so happy to see him, alive and all right. Mike expressed the same and told her that he will never ignore her instincts ever again.
“Now you know why we must be cautious,” Uno said.
The trio continued on. They then came to a small opening, which was previous cut. Mike saw over grown vines and giant jungle leaves on the forest’s floor. As they passed the opening, Mike then saw a huge stone-like temple covered in vines. It reminded him of Aztecs temples of old Earth he had read in his history books, but this one had a more of a pyramid-like form to it. He thought it was like the Egypt’s pyramids, but then it may also look like Mayans too, especially at different angles. Mike counted and it had ten large levels. He also looked around the temple and saw old remains of stone buildings of the old civilization crumbling away from time.
This was it. Uno discovered this temple. Uno lead them around as he pointed out some of the things he discovered. He told them that the alien civilization was not different from ours. They had an adequate food storage system, buildings where they kept old books or scrolls, but as Uno lectured, Mike did not notice any barracks he asked him about it, but Uno did not know as well.
“What do you think happened to them?” Tygla asked Uno.
Uno turned to her and replied, “I wish I knew. My best guess is, that there was must have been a time when the winters came, sort of like the ice age we had on Earth. They must have frozen to death, and then thousand of year of erosion buried them. Then again it’s the only logical explanation I have.”
“I thought you said there were no winters here,” Tygla said.
“Well, not while I was here. My theory is that the sun is a huge super giant, and this planet’s orbit it not truly elliptical. I am sure at one time there was an ice age here on this planet long ago, maybe eons.”
Their interest then turned to the temple, as they entered, with their torches lit destroying the darkness and illuminating their way, they proceeded. They went down a long corridor until they stumbled to a hall that split left and right. Uno led the way and turned left down the hall. They then went around a corner and entered a huge ceremonial hall of some kind. Mike noted that they could be in the center of the ancient temple. A light shown down from a skylight above and it was bright enough that they did not need their torches.
“Well, this is it,” Uno said.
Mike saw that in the middle of the large room was a stone altar with faint carving on it that resembles the animals that they had encountered. Tygla looked around and saw six pillars, three on each side. All of them had weird alien carvings written all over. Justin saw the same writings on the walls and one pictograph. The drawing was of an alien that was somewhat familiar to him. Their bodies where skinnier and their heads was egg shaped, their eyes were big and black.
Roswell, Justin thought, “Hey guys take a look at this.”
The others went over to Justin and stared at the wall paining of the alien.
Uno nodded, “The alien civilization I told you about. When I saw this painting, I had another theory about them. But involves flying saucers, and to my search, these people did not have any advanced technology.”
Mike took a closer look on the writings around the figure and Uno was right. It was some sort of combined languages of old Earth. The writings looked like they were randomly smashed on top of each other. It looked like garbled symbols. He would wish he knew how to read it. The stories that would tell fascinated Mike. Justin was not impressed, he just wanted to get off this planet, but he was not the only one.
Somewhere in the thick jungle, a band of small commandoes led by Lord Drax himself, search desperately then one of the Xatu soldiers named Ackdik knelt down and found several foot prints embedded on a patch of soft dirt.
“Sir, I found some tracks.”
Drax’s mood then changed for his better end as he went over to see what his officer has found. He knelt down and examined them.
“A group of four it seems,” he said, “And they go that way,” he pointed a northeastern area. “It looks like we are not the only ones here. Follow me.”
Meanwhile, the light in the temple was growing dim as Uno suggested to either head back or camp for the night. Mike wanted to stay. As a kid, he always loved solving puzzles. He remembered one time in class at the orphanage he had to solve a word-coding problem. He did it less than thirty seconds, which impress his teacher. She said that Mike possessed a unique skill and said that it could be useful in his future career. Years later, he was obsessed with word puzzles such as cryptograms and logic puzzles. Then it hit him. He stepped back to get a better view of the writings. He studied them more, now that he got a bet
ter perspective. It was nothing more than a huge cryptogram puzzle. He saw some symbols repeating itself then he smiled.
“I think I could solve it,” he said.
“What do you mean you can solve it?” Justin wondered glancing at Mike then to the carvings.
“It’s like a cryptogram puzzle,” Mike replied.
Tygla then said with a bit of excitement, “Oh I love doing those.”
Mike looked at her with astonishment as she looked back and smiled at him. Mike smiled gracefully at her as if she was the perfect woman for him. She loved his interests in archeology. For a moment he thought what his life would be if he had married her. Waking up every morning to see her beautiful face gave Mike a warmth feeling. That did it. As soon as they were off this planet, he will ask her hand in marriage. He did not care of the rules of royalty. He loved her more than any kingdom in the known galaxy.
“Good, cause I’m gonna need some help,” Mike said to her, “Anybody bring some paper and a something to write on?”
“I did,” Uno replied as he rambled through his bag. He took out a notebook and an old ratted chewed pencil and handed it to Mike.
She turned to him, “You know, this is kind of fun. I can see why you enjoy doing it.”
“Thanks,” Mike said smiling at her.
Justin walked over to Mike and said, “Mike, correct me if I’m wrong, but this isn’t like temple on Mota. These writings are completely different, they’re not even written in any language we know. How are you going to translate it?”
“Because, I believe these people were once like us.” Mike replied, “These writings are combined languages of old Earth. Right Uno?”
“Yes, and you could be right.” Uno said. “The oldest language on Earth was sand script. And these symbols here,” Uno pointed to three squiggly lines that were on a slanted angle and arrows point downward on top of it, “Has to mean a hunting area. I know because they look like the same as the hieroglyphics and Sioux Indian symbols. Michael could be on the right track.”
Mike nodded proudly and started to work. He sat down on some steps as Tygla sat next to him. Mike and Tygla studied it more and found that it was not letters but words, which made it tougher for Mike.”
He tapped the pencil on the blank sheet as Tygla wondered, “What’s wrong?”
“I was just wondering if these people had a schooling or maybe or some type of alphabet. Something we can use to help us. Uno, you said you found a building that held books or scrolls. Are there any in there?”
Uno shook his head, “No, only tiny bits of paper. Not enough to find out if it was a some sort of library.” He looked at them and replied, “You know, before there were schools, it was the priest’s job to do the teachings. They even used temples like this to house the schools. Maybe the building I discovered was a storage area.”
Justin added, “Hey, maybe this alphabet is still here. I mean if they knew that their civilization wasn’t going to make it they had to leave something behind.”
“I’m not too sure about that Justin.” Uno said unsurely, “I have searched every wall, and have found nothing.”
An hour has passed and Justin gathered some wood, twigs and stones from outside as he and Uno lit a fire inside the temple. Mike continued to stare at the wall only to fill in a few words. He sighed and knew that this was I bit harder than he realized. Tygla felt tired and laid back, gazing at the ceiling. It was first time that she actually looked at it, and her eyes widened a bit at the beauty as the glow from the fire danced along the colorful paintings. It was the stars on one side and the blue sky and clouds on the other. The only thing that separated them was the circle skylight opening. The aliens panted the edging like the sun’s rays and there was a symbol that continued to circle around the painting. The symbol was a small pictograph of a human, but it was not. It had three faces of a bird, a human, and a monster. It was something Tygla never saw before.
“Hon?” Tygla started.
“Yeah Tygla?”
“Come look at this with me,” she replied as Mike looked at her. He then followed her gaze the ceiling. Mike guessed he could use the break. He lay down next to Tygla and looked up. “Isn’t it beautiful?”
“Yeah I guess,” he replied.
Tygla glanced to him knowing that he was not impressed, but perhaps he will be once she pointed the symbols she found. “Look, by the skylight. I bet that symbol means sun or something.”
Mike looked at the creature and suddenly realized that all three faces were of ancient gods of Earth. Recognize one of them as, “Ra.”
“What?” Tygla asked.
“That face that looks like a bird,” he said as he pointed, “I bet you fifty thousand that Ra’s face.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive, Ra was an old sun god of the Egyptians, but why would he be in a face with two other gods, unless?”
Uno walked over gazing upwards at the ceiling to and smiled, “Ah I see you found the Gods’ sun, three Earth gods, Ra, Brahms and Tepeu. It’s amazing, that this planet’s civilization is not different from Earths. I mean this pyramid-like temple, has the same design as the Hindu, Mayans and the Egyptians all put together. Amazing isn’t it?”
“Wait a minute,” Mike said pondering, “There all combined…Hidden in the symbols.”
“What are you talking about?” Tygla asked curiously.
Mike sat back up, grabbed his pad and pencil and started to write. Uno and Tygla looked at each other confused then they looked at Mike. Justin peeked over wondering what was going on as Mike explained.
“This planet must have been the central point to all of Earth’s civilizations, The Hindus, the Mayans, The Egyptians, and maybe the Babylonians. All these symbols are mixed. Latin, Hieroglyphics, and even sand script they are all together all the same. We may be standing in the origin of our planet. All I got to do is to separate and retranslate.” Mike looked to Uno, “I’m surprised you didn’t see that.”
Uno took a closer look and said surprisingly, “My gods, you are right,” he then looked to Mike, “You are like your father. You can discover the most difficult aspects of life’s mysteries.”
Mike smiled at that thought, “I wish he was here to see this.”
“He would’ve been proud,” Uno stated.
“He would be prouder if we could finish translating this, and maybe find a way to get off this planet,” Mike said.
