Tomb of Atlantis

by Petersen, Christopher David

  Sophocles put his hand on Zotikos’ shoulder and replied, “There will be more.”

  Atlantis - Chapter 2

  Jack’s eyelids were heavy with exhaustion. Staring out through tiny slits, he could barely make out the images on the TV that faded in and out of focus. He drew his eyes in closer, moving from the TV to the coffee table in front of him as he searched for the remote control.

  Fumbling for the power button, the TV roared to life as Jack’s clumsy fingers mistakenly brushed the volume. Instantly, his eyes snapped open and the TV rang out in loud conversation. As he scrambled to position his thumb over the volume control, an announcement caught his attention on the TV's Late Night News.

  "Up next, ancient tablets found in Egypt. Dr. Burton Samuelson, world renowned archeologist, has once again stunned the world with his latest discovery of ancient engraved tablets believed to be the oldest on record. We'll be right back with this breaking story..."

  "Ancient tablets? What’d they find, another ten commandments?" he muttered under his breath as he shut off the TV.

  Jack stood up and threw the remote onto the couch. Turning away, he heard the sound of the TV switch on.

  “What the…?” he called out in surprise. “TV’s got a mind of its own.”

  As he reached for the remote once more, he heard the newscaster begin her next segment of the program:

  “I'm standing here with Dr. Burton Samuelson, world renowned archaeologist and discoverer of the El-Harra desert tablets. Dating back several thousand years, their age makes these the oldest recorded word on record,” announced the female reporter, Sara Nguyen.

  “Having been analyzed, Doctor, could you please confirm their age for our listeners?” she continued.

  Young and attractive, Sara stood confidently next to Dr. Samuelson and readied the microphone for his next response.

  From the edge of a large office conference table, Dr. Samuelson pointed out his discovery: twelve rectangular stone tablets, each measuring nearly three feet long by two feet wide and engraved with mysterious hieroglyphics.

  “Certainly,” Dr. Samuelson replied, as he cleared his voice before continuing. “We’ve analyzed these tablets and are convinced that they are at least seven thousand years old, making them the oldest documents and the oldest recorded word in history. The significance of this cannot be understated. Prior to this find, the oldest documents were the Dead Seas Scrolls, about twenty-two hundred years old. We are looking at documents that are at least three times older than the Dead Seas Scrolls. Absolutely amazing!” he finished enthusiastically.

  “Incredible,” Sara Nguyen replied, then continued, “Doctor, you're the leading archaeologist in the field of ancient languages. Have you been able to extract any information from the tablets so far?”

  “Very little, unfortunately. The language on the tablets is the oldest written word in recorded history. We have no other language to relate it to. The next oldest written word would be that of the Dead Seas Scrolls, dating back to about 250 BC, though some experts dispute the precise date. Because of the tremendous time interval between the two languages, there are almost no similarities between them. Right now, we are in uncharted waters,” Dr. Samuelson said.

  He paused for a moment to collect his thoughts, then continued. “This new language is made up almost entirely from hieroglyphics. I've been able to count nearly five thousand different symbols… quite advanced I must say,” Dr. Samuelson remarked as he pointed to some of the symbols on one of the scrolls.

  Turning back to the camera, he smiled and continued, “Now, with any language, there are common building blocks such as conjunctions, pronouns, and prepositions that are consistently used throughout all languages, words like: and, or, he and she, as well as many others. I've been able to identify quite a few of these in the tablets.”

  Pointing to one of the symbols, he continued, “Take this symbol, for instance. It has the appearance of a half circle. It appears consistently between groups of words. I’m quite certain that this is the symbol for the word 'and.'”

  “Huh, that really is interesting, doctor,” Sara replied with genuine sincerity as she scanned the tablets for more symbols.

  “Excuse me, Dr. Samuelson, I think I found another,” she shouted out enthusiastically, pointing to a symbol further down the tablet.

  “Yes, very good,” Dr. Samuelson replied. “Maybe I should hire you on as my assistant,” he joked.

  Momentarily losing herself, Sara scanned for more symbols as the doctor continued his impromptu lecture. “I can't be certain, but from what I've seen so far, my gut feeling is these tablets are a chronicle of an Egyptian tribe’s rise to greatness,” Dr. Samuelson related.

  “How can you tell that? Is there a sign for ‘Egypt’ somewhere in here?” Sara asked, still captivated by the ancient artifacts.

  Dr. Samuelson pointed to a hieroglyphic near the top of the tablet. The symbol was that of a raven standing in profile rising out a nest. As the doctor pointed, the cameraman zoomed up on the image.

  “Now, take a closer look at the image of this raven. He’s standing over his home. I believe this represents a king standing guard over his kingdom. This symbol is used commonly throughout the scrolls. At times I'm seeing it used with implements of war, such as spears and clubs, so I’m assuming that this nation had fought a great war with someone,” Dr. Samuelson theorized.

  “Do you have any ideas who that someone might have been?” Sara asked.

  Pointing to another symbol, he continued. “Right here, there’s a symbol of a great pyramid with an all-seeing eye suspended above it. I'm pretty sure that this represents the other nation due to the frequency that the two appear together with those weapons I mentioned earlier.”

  “Dr. Samuelson, what do you think the significance of the all-seeing eye is? I’m sure if someone went to the trouble to add an eyeball to the top of the pyramid, it must have represented something important,” Sara inquired.

  “Absolutely, Sara. I’m assuming that the all-seeing eye represented a nation with far reaching powers, much the same way the Roman Empire had spread its influence across Europe and Northern Africa,” Dr. Samuelson said.

  As the camera zoomed up for a closer look, the lens moved in and out of focus due to the reflections off the glass that covered the tablets. Jack watched the TV in frustration as he strained to see the blurred images on the screen.

  “Hey Bud, stop moving the camera around and adjust the focus already,” he yelled to the TV in frustration. “What the hell are they payin' ya for?” he added, now fully entranced by the program’s topic.

  Suddenly, a familiarity came over him. The blurry image of the pyramid began to register in his mind. He had seen it somewhere before, but the exact memory of it escaped him. As he stared intensely at the fuzzy picture on the TV, the camera readjusted and the image slowly came back into focus. He stared at the symbol of the pyramid, his intense focus drowning out the sound of Dr. Samuelson's voice.

  “Huh, I've seen that somewhere. I know I have,” he said under his breath.

  As he stared at the pyramid, the camera zoomed out and was now following the pointing finger of Dr. Samuelson. Jack watched as the pyramid slipped out of view and centered on other unrecognizable symbols. Like a nagging sore, the buried memory he was trying to recall, stung with frustration. He couldn't get the previous image out of his mind.

  As Dr. Samuelson explained more symbols, Jack's mind continued to search for the mystery of the familiar symbol.

  “Sara, if we look further, you’ll see a symbol of a man and what I think is a spear or a pitch fork. It's very peculiar because nowhere else is this man's actual image depicted,” Dr. Samuelson said. He paused a moment, then continued. "What makes this symbol so significant is its relationship to the pyramid. If you recall, the pyramid has typically been associated with the all-seeing eye, but this new symbol shows the pyramid associated with the man. The fact that this man was singled out must imply a great enemy.”
>
  Jack lay back on the couch. He was no longer listening to the interview. Lost in thought, he let his mind wander in search of the mystery symbol. Over and over, he waded through distant memories, working to overcome his mental block. As exhaustion battled interest, Jack's heavy eyes cast the deciding blow that ended the evening’s conflict. Hidden behind closed eyes, Jack's mind reluctantly gave up on its quest as he slowly drifted off to sleep.

  ----- ----- ----- -----

  "Holy Crap!"

  Jack's eyes snapped open and he sprung to a seated position on the couch. Nearly two hours had passed since he’d fallen asleep. In that time, his mind and dreams kept working the puzzle until the answer was eventually extracted from his sub-conscious.

  Jack leaned forward, grabbed the remote, and turned off the TV. He felt a bit bewildered, as well as exhausted. The answer he'd been looking for seemed so far out, that he began to question his reasoning and judgment.

  "It can't be. What’re the odds?" Jack whispered out loud.

  Quickly, he stood and made his way over to the computer. While waiting for it to boot up, he searched through a box of DVD's stored in the desktop shelf above the monitor.

  "Hmm, I think this is it," Jack said out loud, nodding his head in approval.

  He inserted the DVD and waited impatiently for the program to start. As the menu popped up on the screen, he quickly used a search bar on the viewing program and skipped to the approximate location for which he was searching. He hit the “play” button and focused intently on the images.

  As the DVD began to play, the sound of an airplane engine roared to life. Jack watched the images intently, taking particular notice of the landscape through the windscreen of his old Zenair CH-701 floatplane.

  As the video played, Jack began to reflect on the Peruvian adventure he had undertaken several years before while he was still attending college. Just above his computer, mounted in a frame, was the picture of a snowcapped mountain. He stared longingly at it, and for a moment, lost himself in the memory of the trip.

  Massive, dangerous, and beautiful, he had discovered the mountain in the back of a climbing magazine and made up his mind to climb it. After much research, Jack found its location to be extremely remote and largely inaccessible. Undaunted, he built himself a plane and flew to Peru, where he was then able to land at the base of the mountain. The climb took several days and nearly cost him his life on more than one occasion. With great determination and courage, he had made the summit and returned home to tell the tale. It truly was the trip of a lifetime.

  Staring at the photo, Jack heard the sound of the engine change in his plane, immediately snapping him back into focus.

  His trip to the Andes Mountains was mostly captured by two cameras he installed: one inside the cockpit and the other on the wing of the plane. After his return home, he had taken all the data from that trip and assembled it onto a single DVD, making his search fairly straightforward.

  Watching the video, straight away he noticed the mountainous terrain outside the plane and realized this was the portion of the trip where he was flying home, away from the Andes, somewhere over South America. Realizing he wasn't far enough along in the video, he moved the search bar ahead and analyzed the next set of images that appeared on the computer screen. With anticipation building, he was now looking at the Caribbean Sea and his stomach started to churn as he drew closer to the point in the footage he was seeking.

  Jack knew the area of interest was close to Caicos Island and would take at least two hours if he sat through the flight on real time. With a click of a button, he advanced the speed to 32X, allowing him to quickly advance the footage and still be able to make out the images. He chuckled to himself as he watched his movements in the cockpit moving at accelerated speeds.

  With each passing minute, miles of ocean were crossed. He'd forgotten how barren the open ocean looked. Maybe it was due to the passage of time, maybe he was too busy during the flight to remember, but he hadn't realized just how remote and isolated this stretch of ocean really was.

  Suddenly, while still in fast forward, Jack watched as the plane made several erratic maneuvers, straightened out, then landed in the ocean. This was it. This was the spot he was looking for. He stopped the DVD and rewound the disk to just before the moment the plane made its water landing. He hit the play button and watched the next sequence carefully.

  In creating the video, Jack had spliced together footage from both cameras. The next minute of footage came from the camera on the wing. As the plane touched down and slowed nearly to a stop, he could see a glint of light shining up through the water. This was it.

  The next video clip was taken with a handheld camera. Jack slowed the video and watched as a bright light appeared on the computer screen. The camera’s focus faded in and out, as it struggled to overcome distortion caused by reflecting light off the ocean’s surface. The years that passed had faded his memory. As he watched the next sequence, he remembered the frustration he felt as he worked to video the next shot.

  “Come on, I know you can do better than that,” he called out, now becoming anxious with each frame that passed.

  For a split second, the camera’s focus sharpened, then quickly blurred once more. Jack stopped the DVD, went back and played it back, frame by frame. With each click of the mouse button, the computer’s image seemed to become more refined.

  "This can't be. It just can't be," he said under his breath.

  Suddenly, he stopped clicking. There on the computer screen was the object in question. Clear and distinct, a pyramid shined in front of him.

  Jack saved the picture off the DVD and loaded it into his photo processing software. He finished making his fine adjustments, then began to zoom up on the image. Little by little, he moved in closer until the object became unrecognizable. With a few clicks of his mouse, he zoomed out to the optimum setting that gave the sharpest picture.

  Jack recoiled back in his chair in surprise, mesmerized by the image on the screen.

  “Holy Crap! That’s it!” he yelled loudly. “It’s the all-seeing eye. It has to be.”

  Jack examined the picture closely. His heart nearly dropped to his stomach as he began to realize his discovery.

  "I knew it. Holy Shit, this is big," he blurted loudly.

  He sat for a while and stared at the screen. It was all he could do. He then pressed the printer button and sent the image off to the printer. In seconds, Jack had his proof in hand.

  "Wow, where do I go from here?" he questioned softly, his mind twisting through various tangents as he struggled to make sense of his newfound discovery.

  "Well, first things first... Dr. Burton Samuelson," he finished with a wily smile. "This should prove entertaining."

  ONE MONTH LATER:

  Jack stared at his watch in frustration. He noted the date and resigned himself to the possibility of rejection. He pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and reached for the phone. Standing in his kitchen, he nervously dialed the overseas number and listened to the strange sounding tone characteristic of that country – Egypt.

  “Good morning, Dr. Samuelson's office,” Jack heard in his earpiece.

  The receptionist voice was soft and delicate, with a slight Egyptian accent. Jack's heart started to race as he searched his memory for the rehearsed introduction he'd been practicing since he mailed off the photo to the doctor's temporary office in Egypt. He had tracked down Dr. Samuelson's office with some degree of difficulty, at one point disguising himself as a fellow archaeologist in order to gain their confidence and information.

  "Good morning, my name is Jack Roberts. I recently sent Dr. Samuelson a photocopy of an artifact relating to his recent discovery of ancient scrolls and was wondering if he had a chance to review it?" Jack started nervously.

  "Jack who?" inquired the receptionist.

  "Roberts. That's Jack Roberts. I'm from the U.S. About a month ago I sent Dr. Samuelson a photocopy of an artifact that looks exactly like o
ne of the symbols on his Egyptian scrolls," Jack replied, feeling a bit put off. "Do you know if he received the package I sent?"

  "Jack Roberts, you say?" she replied. Before he had a chance to respond, the receptionist announced, "Please hold."

  Silence echoed through the earpiece, cutting Jack off in mid-thought. He felt somewhat frustrated that his inquiry was severed so quickly, but resigned himself to the fact that he carried no clout and that his picture alone was probably not enough to incite enthusiasm.

  This might prove more difficult than I estimated, he thought.

  He heard a slight click through the earpiece and then, "Samuelson here. How can I help you?"

  Jack felt stunned for a moment. He hadn't anticipated the doctor picking up so quickly. Knowing the next few words would be the difference between success and failure, he searched his mind for the right wording.

  "Hi, I'm Jack Roberts," he responded quickly. "Doctor, I recently sent you a photocopy of something I photographed. I believe it’s the same symbol as one on the ancient scrolls you found. Have you had a chance to review the photo?"

  "Jack Roberts you say? Stand by..." Dr. Samuelson replied.

  Jack heard the unmistakable sound of the phone being dropped, then some shuffling of papers. Moments later, Dr. Samuelson retrieved the phone and continued.

  "Ok..., Jack Roberts...Ah yes, I have the photograph right here," he started. "Jack, this photograph is very fuzzy. Not a lot of detail. I can see the basic shape of the pyramid as you described in your letter and I can make out some kind of circle above the pyramid, but honestly, I just don't see the all-seeing eye in that photo."

  Jack's heart sank. He had hoped for a more positive response. He knew he was losing the doctor's interest. Quickly, he added, "Doctor, I understand that the photograph isn't as clear as we'd both like it to be but let me tell you, I know what I saw. From my vantage point, that circle above the pyramid contained far more detail than that picture alludes to. I'm not one prone to wild fantasy or distortions of truth. I’m certain of what I saw and I believe what I saw was the eye above the pyramid."