Suddenly, a thought burst into her mind, and she sat upright in bed. The world around her was buzzing, and she felt intensely energized, despite not having slept. Throwing back the covers, she jumped out of bed and rushed for her computer, climbing back in against the pillows and covering her lap with the blankets before opening the screen. She typed a few search terms in and waited as the screen populated with results. Clicking through some of the images, she pulled up the one that looked the clearest and leaned forward to examine it closer. She reached beside her and took the imprint of the wall off of her bedside table and held it in the glow of the computer.
Just as it had been in the museum that day, the image of the plaque on the computer didn't match the imprint that she had made. She clicked through a few more images and then typed more words into the search bar. This time, it was pictures of the wall segment itself that filled the screen. She selected one that focused in on the engraved words and looked over them, occasionally glancing at her imprint as she went. She pulled up another image and did the same thing. Finally, she opened an article that was written when they first discovered the wall and scanned through it.
"Though archeologists and historians are currently unsure of the language of the engravings," she read, "they note that there are some marked similarities between some of the symbols and those of languages from other, more recent cultures than they suspect crafted this wall. They do not know the significance of this yet and say that they are planning far more extensive examinations of the wall and its engravings to determine its true meaning. Below is an artist's recreation of the symbols in the stone and the partial translation ascertained from the symbols."
Galadriel looked at the image on the screen and felt her heart beating faster. She held her imprint up against the side of the screen so that she could look at them side-by-side, and her breath caught in her throat. They were not the same.
Chapter Three
"Leo!" Galadriel called, as she jogged across the lobby of the museum the next morning.
"Shhh, Galadriel," the guard scolded, "there's a seminar going on right now."
"I'm sorry," she said, reaching out to grab Leo by the arm so that he would look at her. "Can you come with me for a minute?"
Leo nodded, and she started along the familiar route toward the exhibit. He gave an exasperated sigh when he saw where they were going, but she ignored him and continued until they got to the wall.
"This wall," she said. "What do you know about it?"
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"You were telling me yesterday that the archeologists knew that there were symbols on it from another language. That isn't on the plaque. How did you know that?"
"I guess it's just something that I picked up."
"Alright, but do you know if this is the only wall like it? Is there another one like this somewhere else? Maybe one that they found close by this one, but is in another museum?"
"No," Leo said. "This is the only one. That was what was so strange about the discovery. It's in this exhibit because it seems to fit in with this time period better than any other, but they don't really believe that it belongs to these people. It is far older, and the language on it doesn't perfectly match what is on the other artifacts. If they are right, then this is the only remnant that they have found of that other culture."
"How do you know all of that?" she asked carefully.
Leo looked at her and shook his head.
"I was here when it arrived. I was on the detail of guarding the actual transfer of custody. I heard them talking about it."
"So you are absolutely sure that this is the wall that they found in the desert and that it is the only one like it?"
"Yes. What is this all about?"
Galadriel shook her head and forced a smile to mask the strange emotions that were flooding her.
"Nothing," she said. "Just more of my obsession, I guess. Thanks, Leo."
He nodded at her and turned away, leaving her alone in the exhibit. As soon as he was gone, Galadriel dropped her bag to the floor and pulled out the imprint from the day before. She compared it to the wall and saw that it was the same. Just as she had remembered, however, the symbols were not the same as the ones on the plaque. She pulled her camera out and snapped several pictures of the plaque, making sure to focus in on the sections that were different and their translation at the bottom. Even though she felt like she could sit down on the floor and stare at the wall for the rest of the day, she knew that there was more that she needed to do.
It felt like she was tearing herself from the wall’s grip as she turned and walked away from it toward the front door of the museum. She nearly turned back to it, but she reminded herself of what she intended to do and pushed forward until she had stepped out of the door and into the bright sun of the morning. She drew in a cold breath, letting it seep into her lungs and give her the jolt of energy that she always got from being out in chilly weather. Adjusting her bag on her shoulder, she walked down the block. She didn't get into her car where it was parked in its usual spot. Instead, she rushed past it and turned around the corner and across the street before bounding up the stairs to the library.
The woman at the front desk looked startled when she appeared, and Galadriel took a moment to smooth the pieces of her hair that had escaped their braid and offered a reassuring smile.
"I need to do some research," she said.
"There are computers upstairs," the woman said, "and we have an extensive collection of microfilm. If you're interested in looking at any of the slides, just let me know, and I will get you set up."
"Thank you," Galadriel said, and started up the stairs toward the bank of small, cubicle-like offices along the far wall.
Each office contained a computer and printer, and she chose the one at the very end of the line to minimize the chances of anyone disturbing her. She took her place in the cushioned rolling chair in front of the computer and pulled out her legal pad, a pen, and the imprint from her bag. Tucking the bag out of the way in front of her feet, she accessed the search engine and started typing. She went through the same searches that she had the night before to confirm that what she had seen then was accurate. Swiping her credit card through the slot on the printer, she printed out several of the images from the image search. Then, she went back to the search results and skipped back a few pages.
Many people had considered her time in college more of a flight of fancy than anything else, but during those years, she had learned something very valuable. When looking for something obscure that most people either did not know, or did not want to know, skip past the first few pages of the search results. This will get beyond the most conventional results, and instead give the ones that contain information considered too outlandish or controversial to be considered worthy of first-page billing, and those were exactly the results that she wanted.
Just as she had hoped, Galadriel soon came to a page that described the discovery of the wall and the investigation of the language on it. She pulled out her legal pad and jotted down a few notes, particularly the titles of a few books on the culture that the archeologists had used as the basis for their translation of the few symbols they could decipher.
"Of particular note in the fascinating story of this discovery," she read under her breath, "is that the area in which this segment of the wall was found had already been thoroughly excavated several years prior. The focus of a deeper exploration of the original Gylex settlement, this area of the desert had been extensively documented, including digs in the exact location of this extraordinary find. Though there were initial claims of a hoax, thorough examinations of the wall itself, as well as the surrounding dirt and ground layers, have confirmed its authenticity. There is still no clear explanation as to how the original team missed this piece or what it means for the findings of that original expedition."
Galadriel pulled up another page.
"The biggest question that I have about this
wall is, how – if the archeologists do not know anything about this culture that supposedly made it – they know that it is a wall at all, much less the wall of a ceremonial building. I know that they have used certain contextual clues that link some of the symbols and other details to those of the Gylex culture that appeared later, but it seems that making the leap that it is a partial wall of an important central building is too much of an assumption at this time. I would like more of an explanation as to why they missed this segment in the first place, and what else could be there that could tell us what it actually is and who built it."
Galadriel gave a deep sigh. She completely agreed. She pulled up another page and found a detailed evaluation of the carvings and the translation that the archeologists had presented. The person making the evaluation had strong suspicions about the translation, not because the symbols were inaccurate, but because he, too, had noticed that they were different from what was on the plaque and also from what was in the original depictions of the wall. This all had to mean something more than what was on the surface. Just like the other objects hiding away in the museum, there had to be more to these words and what they may or may not mean. It was as if she already knew what that something was, as if it already existed within her and she simply had to figure it out how to reach it again.
"I'm not the only one who has noticed," Galadriel muttered to herself. "How is that possible, though? How could there not be any news about it?"
She flipped through several more pages of results but found nothing that noted the disparities between the original inscription on the wall and what was there now. Finally, she returned to the page with the evaluation and wrote down the creator's contact information, adding it to the page where she had already written the exact location that the wall was discovered. She shoved everything back into her bag and rushed out of the cubicle toward the stacks.
An hour later, she was speed-walking down the steps of the library toward her car, the books on the Gylex culture tucked under her arm, and her phone held to her ear as she left a message for the person who had created that website.
"Hello. My name is Galadriel Marcus. I just read your website about the HM-1313 wall, and I would very much like to talk to you about your thoughts on it. I will be available for the rest of the day, so please call me whenever you get this message. Thank you."
****
By the time that her phone rang that evening, Galadriel had already read through most of the first book, and her dining room table was covered with papers that were filled with notes and sketches. She grabbed the phone and answered it without looking at the screen to see who it was.
"Hello?"
"Galadriel Marcus?" an unfamiliar voice said from the other end of the line.
"Yes?"
"This is Rick Abernathy. From the website about the wall."
"Oh! Yes. Thank you for calling me, Mr. Abernathy."
"Rick."
"Rick, and I'm Galadriel. I really appreciate you calling."
"What is it that you want to talk about?" he asked.
She tried to gauge his voice, determining the emotion that was in it – whether he was intrigued by another person who wanted to know more about the wall, or if she was aggravating him, and he was calling primarily to humor her so that she would then leave him alone. So far, he had sounded fairly neutral, so she continued on.
"Is there somewhere that we can meet so that we can talk? I want to show you a few things that I have found and see what you think about them."
There was a pause on the other end of the line, and Galadriel braced herself for rejection. She had hoped that of all people this man might be the one who would be able to understand where she was coming from. She hoped that he would share her passion and not see her in the same way that everyone else seemed to. Now, though, she worried that he was merely another researcher and the journey with him was going to end before it even began.
"What did you find?"
"It's a bit more complicated than what I think I could properly explain over the phone. Let's just suffice it to say that I am very familiar with that wall, and I've noticed something that has me very intrigued. You seem to be the only other person who I can find that I think would even come close to understanding what I'm thinking about all this."
"Alright," he said. "How close do you live to the museum?"
"I can be there in ten minutes."
"I'll meet you there."
Chapter Four
Galadriel found herself feeling nervous as she waited in the exhibit hall for Rick to arrive. It felt as though she were preparing to allow someone into her private space. Even though she was aware that the museum was open to the public and was sure that other people did, on occasion, wander into the exhibit, it still felt like her domain – a place for her to be at a distance from the world around her. Now, she was waiting for someone else to not only come into the exhibit with her, but to interact with the wall with which she had become so incredibly attached. The thought made her uncomfortable, and she couldn't stop pacing as she waited.
Finally, a tall, thin man appeared at the entrance to the exhibit. He paused briefly like he wasn't sure if she was who he was supposed to be meeting, and then continued forward. Galadriel extended her hand to him as he approached.
"Rick? I'm Galadriel."
"Hello," he said, taking her hand and shaking it. "So let's see what it is that you've found."
Galadriel nodded and led him back over to the wall. She glanced at his face as they stood in front of it, evaluating his expression. Though he definitely looked fascinated by the wall and its engravings, the look in his eyes certainly didn't hold the depth of attachment and draw that she knew that hers did when she looked at the marvel. She felt both oddly defeated and reassured by the difference. As much as she wanted for him to be able to give her some of the answers that she sought, or at least point her in the direction that she needed to go in order to find them, she also didn't like the thought of another person having the same connection to this piece that she did. The draw to it was growing ever stronger now, intensifying each time that she stepped into the museum. What had begun as just a fascination with the entire exhibit and gradually focused in on the wall had become a consuming obsession that she couldn't seem to push away. She didn't want to push it away. She wanted to live in it and experience it, discover everything about it, and understand it on another level.
"I have been coming here since the wall first arrived. It wasn't until just recently, though, that I noticed that the symbols on the plaque and the symbols on the wall aren't the same."
"Yes, I note that on my website."
"I know," Galadriel said with a nod. She reached down and pulled a folder out of her bag, flipping it open and taking out a few sheets to show him. "These are pictures of the wall when it was first discovered, even before it first got here, and these are ones from the opening day of the exhibit. If you look closely, you'll notice that the symbols are slightly different from the time that the wall was discovered to when it went on exhibit."
"Yes," Rick said, starting to sound annoyed. "I wrote about that as well."
Galadriel picked up her speed, not wanting to lose his concentration or encourage him to walk away and leave her just as far from the answers that she sought as she had been before she called him.
"I know that, too. But if you look at the pictures from the first day of the exhibit and these which I took just a couple hours before I called you, you'll notice that they aren't the same either."
Rick looked at her with a startled expression, and she knew that she had gotten through to him. He took the papers from her hands and looked down at them.
"They aren't," he said as if confirming it to himself rather than agreeing with her. "They are different."
"I know," Galadriel said, unsure of how else to respond. "You've never noticed that before?"
Rick shook his head, not taking his eyes away from the pictures.
"No," he said quietly. "I haven't been here to see it in several months, and when I came, it had the engravings that you see on my site – the ones that were there when it first arrived."
"Here's the thing," Galadriel said. "I noticed that they had changed between when the wall first got to the museum and when I was here a few days ago first. I noticed that it had changed between the initial discovery and when it was put here after that. My question is, how is it changing?"
"And does anyone else know that it is?"
She nodded.
"Exactly. I have been focusing so much on why the plaque is different and thinking that there might be some sort of strange archeological conspiracy going on, but what if that isn't the case at all? What if the people who found it actually did transcribe the engravings exactly as they saw them and did the translations in the best way that they could, based on their knowledge of the Gylex culture and their language, but then it changed?"
"What I don't understand is why they used the Gylex language to base their understandings on the wall at all.”
"I know. I read that on your site, too. I wanted to ask you about it. From what I understand from my research, they found the wall in a section of the desert that they had already excavated when they were researching the Gylex. It was a shock to them that they found it, because they were positive that they had already gone over that section of the land so carefully, and it just didn't make sense that they weren't able to find it the first time, but then they just happened upon it later."
Alien Portals: A SciFi Alien Multiverse Romance Novel Page 2
