Tomb Raiding PHD

by Martha Carr

He skipped a few background paragraphs discussing the heavy occult influence on many of the high-ranking members of the Nazi regime, along with a history of darker forces on Oriceran.

  A few years ago, a previously undiscovered journal of Werhner von Braun was found in Berlin. The controversial German scientist was the father of the guided ballistic missile that was used heavily as a terror weapon against England during World War II, but post-war he was a critical part of NASA’s Apollo program. The Saturn V rocket that took men to the moon was designed with his aid and under his direction.

  Although the journal hasn’t been fully authenticated, it details attempts by von Braun to progress in anti-gravity research inspired by Hindu legends of vimanas with the aid of shadowy forces he refers to only as “the Dark Valkyries.”

  The journal describes these Dark Valkyries as displaying magical abilities that are fully consistent with what we know of wizards, witches, and Oriceran magical beings. Interestingly enough, the various Earth-based magical beings who did provide aid to the Nazi Regime don’t seem to be associated with the anti-gravity project, which strongly implies that the Dark Valkyries were Oriceran in origin, even though thus far any contact between an Oriceran group and the Nazi Regime has been strongly denied by official Oriceran representatives from several races.

  Although von Braun’s journal isn’t specific as to the technical or magical details of what he was working on, he did explain that the key to the project was a “powerful contained-fusion reaction that would rely on specialized air sorcery provided by the Dark Valkyries and would potentially give the Luftwaffe the ability to strike the foes of Germany from the heavens themselves.”

  Interestingly, von Braun spends more time in the journal later describing the implications of using the technology to colonize other planets and even says the war is “a mere trifle, a testing ground. A spaceship has already been born in our rockets, but they are primitive. They [the Dark Valkyries] will grant humanity dominion over the stars themselves, as is our God-given right.”

  Questions linger about the authenticity and provenance of the journal given that von Braun’s later work at NASA didn’t involve similar projects, but many scholars have argued that if von Braun were aware of magic, he might also have been aware of the strict rules concerning magic and once denied the aid of the Dark Valkyries, he didn’t want to risk the wrath of organizations such as the Silver Griffins, who were previously responsible for magical control on Earth.

  “What’s got you so interested?” someone asked.

  Peyton jumped out of his seat and spun, startled. Had Randy finally come to get him?

  Shay stood in the doorway of the office with her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised. “You’re jumpy.” She nodded. “Maybe that’s a good thing. Never get too comfortable.”

  He sighed and dropped back into his seat. His heart was still galloping. “Just…was thinking really hard.”

  “Be careful not to break anything.”

  Peyton rolled his eyes. “Very funny.” He nodded toward the screen. “I think my girlfriend is helping do computer simulation testing work for modern vimanas.”

  Shay blinked. “Seriously?”

  He nodded. “Yes. I mean, she’s really on the outside of the project in a support role, but some of the stuff she described earlier lines up with some things I’ve read about World War II German research into vimanas.”

  Shay shrugged. “Guess it’s inevitable that a lot of the wonders of the past start getting reproduced. Probably only a narrow window to make a good living as a tomb raider. In a few decades, Earth might be as choked with magic as Oriceran.”

  “Maybe. Just weird to think about.”

  Shay gave Peyton a funny look. “Huh.”

  “What?”

  She grinned. “Just wondering if your girlfriend might actually prove to be useful beyond booty calls.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  Shay shrugged. “If she’s doing a lot of work with these magical research projects, she might end up having insight into something that could be useful for me down the line.”

  “I’m so glad you’re already thinking of ways to exploit my girlfriend, Shay.”

  The tomb raider grinned. “Come on, you know me. I’m always looking for an angle on everyone.”

  12

  The next day at lunch, Bella eyed Shay with a smirk on her face, like she was watching the most hilarious thing she’d ever seen.

  The tomb raider put down her huge pastrami sandwich with a frown. “What? Something I need to know?”

  Her gaze flicked to the windows. Nothing but normal passersby. Despite all the times Shay had gone out to eat with her friends, none of them had recognized that she refused to sit with her back to the window. She wasn’t sure what she would tell them if they finally noticed and asked.

  Bella shrugged. “It’s just a very big sandwich.”

  “Langer’s is famous for their pastrami, and after running all those stairs, I think we could eat every scrap of food in this place and be okay. I know I’m hungry as a starving horse in the desert.”

  Janelle and Kara both laughed.

  Bella smiled and downed a forkful of her kasha. “You do have a point, and it’s not like you have an ounce of fat on you. Sometimes I think after you’re done working out with us, you go to the college and just spend the rest of the day working out. Shay Carson, super-athlete.”

  The university’s gym is nothing compared to what I have in Warehouse One, but yeah, you’re closer to the truth than you realize.

  Shay smirked. “I do dabble in a little bit of extra exercise now and again. Nothing wrong with that.”

  Janelle took a bite of her modestly-sized turkey sandwich. “Are you addicted to exercise, Shay?”

  “I’m not addicted. I just like to keep fit. I need it for work.”

  Shay managed not to wince. All these months, and she still screwed things up by saying too much at times.

  “Don’t you mostly dig up stuff very slowly with very tiny shovels and brushes?” Janelle looked at Kara, who gave her a quick nod. “Don’t have to be that fit, I’d think. Sounds like something you could do as an old woman.” She waved a hand. “If this is you worrying about your man, you don’t need a man who’ll start looking for someone new the second you gain a few pounds. Trust me. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Kicked his ass to the curb, girlfriend.”

  Shay considered that for a moment. Whatever James’ faults, he didn’t strike her as the kind of man who’d lose interest in her so casually. In everything, he was slow to start, but intense, unyielding, and difficult to stop once he did. Maybe they were more alike than she thought in that sense.

  Fuck opposites attract.

  Shay shrugged. She needed to paper over this with a good lie. “My fitness is just something I need. I’ve been in…strange situations on the job. You never know when you might need to hike out of a desert and your phone isn’t working.”

  “That’s happened to you?”

  The tomb raider nodded.

  Janelle chuckled. “Archaeology is more dangerous than I would have thought.”

  “You’d be surprised.”

  A young woman stepped into the deli. She looked Shay’s way, and her face lit up with recognition. It took Shay a few seconds to recognize her as a student from her lecture the other day, Mary.

  The girl waved to Shay and hurried over to the table, delight lingering on her face.

  Shay tensed, then let out a breath. She had no reason to be nervous. Students showing up was perfectly consistent with what she’d told her friends about her life. If anything, this would only reinforce the lie of her public cover.

  Mary smiled as she arrived at the table. “It’s funny to see you here, Professor Carson. I didn’t know you ate here.”

  Shay shrugged. “Not a lot, but yeah, I do.”

  The student waved to the others at the table. “I’m Mary. I’m studying archaeology and revised history at UCLA. I love Professo
r Carson’s lectures. They are so interesting.” She frowned. “They are non-credit, too, so it’s not like I’m just saying that to suck up to her.”

  Everyone snickered as they looked Shay’s way. The tomb raider shrugged and forced a smile on her face as some of her discomfort returned.

  “Revised history?” Bella asked. “What’s that, exactly? How is it different than archaeology?”

  Mary pulled a seat from another table over and sat.

  Thanks for asking, but sure. Go ahead and join us.

  Shay cleared her throat. “Well, there are plenty of standard history classes and courses, but revised history specifically tries to focus on areas where normal history was wrong before we knew about Oriceran. It tries to explore both the truth of what occurred in the past and why it was covered up or misunderstood, whereas a lot of times in normal history, they’ll just focus on the actual events and the general impact and less about the how and why of the secrecy.”

  Bella nodded. “Oh, that makes sense. I’m not that much into history, so I guess I don’t think about how all this stuff has to be changed now that we know about Oriceran.”

  Mary’s eyes widened. “Oh, oh, oh. I have thought of so many questions since your lecture the other day. Like, how are we so sure they are dwarven, you know? The ancient tunnels you talked about.”

  Shay shrugged. “Most of that is based off dwarven artifacts recovered from the lower tunnels, along with documentation found by Oriceran scholars and passed along to human academics.”

  “But Oriceran doesn’t quite have the same academic standards as we do. I get that they have ancient records and gnomes and other guys who keep stuff for thousands of years, but it’s not like they’ve been concerned about absolute truth in the way we have been.”

  Shay’s friends continued sipping their drinks and nibbling their food and watching in silence, but with obvious interest.

  This is kind of weird. I’ve got to turn on my Professor Carson persona. Will my friends think it’s fake because I don’t even talk the same way I tend to talk to them? Ugh.

  “You do have a point, Mary.” Shay smiled. “I’m glad you’re thinking, and you’re right. One problem even with modern revised archaeology and revised history, or related fields such as the history of extra-dimensional engineering, is that a lot of times we’re relying on cross-referencing information with the Oricerans, who have a very different frame of reference than human societies do. There are still many questions even on Earth about how the best way is to approach history and what frameworks to use.

  “Every historian brings their own biases, even if they are literally just reporting what has been found in primary sources. The sources a person chooses to examine and the methods they use to support them, whether archaeological or historical, heavily influences this in the end.”

  Mary frowned. “So the Oricerans might be lying?”

  “In some cases, yes. Although things like the Great Treaty are masterpieces of diplomacy, the simple reality is that despite the use of magic and the diversity of intelligent species, Oricerans aren’t so different from humans. Some are good, some bad. A lot of them have motivations that the average human might not understand, but Oriceran is hardly a utopia.” Shay sighed. “The other thing to remember is that it could just be as simple as a perspective difference. An Oriceran scholar or official might not understand the implications of a particular question. They might leave out a piece of information they find irrelevant where as to an Earth historian or archaeologist it’d be considered vitally important.”

  “I never thought of that.” Mary bit her lip and frowned as she pondered the information. “You make it sound like we can never know the truth.”

  Shay chuckled. “Well, that’s not new. Without some omniscience spell, no one can totally know the truth. All we can do is continue to collect evidence and see the general direction it points.”

  “That’s kind of depressing, though.” The girl sighed.

  “No, if anything, it’s the opposite.”

  Mary tilted her head. “How do you figure?”

  Shay pointed to her cup of coffee. “There could be something at the bottom of this coffee that you can’t see, or there could be nothing. Just have to keep drinking until we know for sure, but the fact that there’s a mystery means it’s exciting. I’m interested in the truth, but the hunt itself is exciting.”

  Janelle, Kara, and Bella all clapped lightly, and Shay’s head snapped their way. She’d completely forgotten her friends were there.

  Her cheeks heated. Embarrassment. That was rare.

  Mary stood. “Oh, I’m being rude. You’re here with your friends. I was just stopping by to say hi anyway. I’ll see you at your next lecture.” She waved.

  “I look forward to it,” Shay replied.

  The student wandered off, and the tomb raider picked up her coffee cup to take a sip and hide behind it.

  Why the fuck am I embarrassed? Because I let my friends see there’s actually something I care about? It’s called having a passion.

  Kara grinned. “Your job’s way more interesting than I thought.” She gasped and put a hand over her mouth. “I’m so sorry. That came out so rude.”

  Bella and Janelle laughed.

  Shay shrugged. “Figured it was just me digging up pots?”

  Kara nodded. “Actually, yeah. I mean, I’ve seen those old Indiana Jones films, the Tomb Raider ones, and of course all the Caleb Rodriguez stuff, but I figured that’s just movies. Not that my job is exciting, but you’re exploring all this weird ancient stuff. Even just reading about it is fascinating.”

  The other two women nodded.

  Just reading about it?

  “You have no idea,” Shay offered with a smile. “It does…keep me on my toes.”

  Her friends all smiled as they returned to their lunches.

  As Shay’s excitement from discussing the past faded, tension suffused her body. She’d been existing in a compartmentalized world: her friends, her parkour group, her tomb raiding, James, and her semi-faux college career. It was easy. It was safe.

  Now two parts of her life had collided. Neutral parts that didn’t contradict anything she’d told the relevant people, but it didn’t change the fact that even in a city as large as Los Angeles, she couldn’t depend on obscurity to protect her forever.

  Shay kept a smile on her face as she finished her sandwich. The next time it might not be a college student. It might be a Demon General, or someone from the old days.

  How can I be careful and still have a life?

  As Shay pushed through the throng of people at the mall, her thoughts lingered on the encounter at lunch. There was no question that she was a different person than she had been when she’d started tomb raiding, but she wasn’t sure whether that meant she was losing her edge or even if that was a bad thing.

  Could someone sneak up on me in this crowd and take me down? Do I even need to be that paranoid when I’m not on a job anymore?

  Shay frowned. Yes, she did. She might be an adjunct professor, but that was a hobby. Her main job was still very dangerous. If she ever forgot that she could get herself killed, and possibly Peyton, James, Alison, or Lily.

  A little bit of defensive seating and the addition of a few new team members might not save her life. Her friends didn’t have to worry about things like that, but if she continued as a tomb raider, it’d only become more important.

  I can only compartmentalize so much.

  Yulia could have killed Shay and Lily in Antarctica. Someone had screwed with her in Switzerland. The government’s lapdog, Durand, knew she was looking into alien artifacts that Project Nephilim and Project Ragnarok sought. Every tomb raid seemed to bring a new potentially lethal enemy.

  Not like I ever thought the job would be easy. People don’t pay other people millions of dollars for easy jobs.

  Shay shook her head and focused on pushing through the crowd toward Prophecy Gaming. The glamour seemed easier to pierce on some vis
its than others, but she didn’t know if that was reflective of her mindset or Tubal-Cain’s doing.

  She wouldn’t put it past the gnome to screw with her for amusement or as some kind of test. Sometimes when she talked with him he sounded like an ancient being who had been forced to lower himself to deal with a mere mortal, and other times he came off like a petty asshole who was more interested in fucking with her than being clear.

  What would I do after centuries to keep things fresh? Wait, what the fuck?

  Shay blinked. She had spotted the shop, but the sign had been replaced. Prophecy Gaming was now Prophecy Affiliates.

  Shay stepped inside. Several soft leather couches decorated the room, along with soft, dim lighting and low oak tables. Various colored crystals floated above the tables and soft string music played in the background, but the harmonies were off to the tomb raider’s human ear. Oriceran music, she assumed.

  A desk sat along the wall, and rather than a gnome, an overweight, frowning pixie wearing cat’s-eye glasses sat there in a tiny chair.

  “Do you need something?” the pixie snapped. Her voice was so deep and gravelly that she might be mistaken for James over the phone. The contrast with her tiny size only made her voice stand out more.

  Shay looked around, further taking in the startlingly different shop. “Uh, this place is still run by Tubal-Cain, right?”

  “Yes. And who are you, and why should I care?”

  Shay rolled her eyes. She could punt the pixie across the room, but the gnome would probably have an issue with it. He might be frustrating at times, but he was a good magical contact. She couldn’t risk that even for an annoying little bitch of a pixie.

  “Shay Carson. I do jobs for Tubal-Cain. Sometimes he makes things for me in return. It’s all very useful to both of us, just so you know.”

  The pixie nodded. “Oh, yeah, you’re the tomb raider. He told me you might stop by.”

  “Who are you? And where’s the gnome?”

  The pixie arched a brow. “Me? I’m Madge. I’m Tubal-Cain’s new secretary.”

  “Madge? Seriously?”