Is something hiding inside?
Athena examined the rest of the room for any oddities, but when she looked back to the seemingly sentient plant it had disappeared. Squinting her eyes and staring, Athena realized the pink flowers folded themselves flat against the stem and the stems tried to hide under the other plants.
Very odd.
The vegetation, as strange as it was, had a distinct Earth-like quality to it. Obviously, the flora was genetically modified, but it was no easy task to synthetically create flora that could naturally grow on an alien planet. And even harder to make it edible to the inhabitants. This much research into flora is peculiar…it’s possible they wanted to mix seeds into the natural soil on Earth. But to what effect? It wasn’t unheard of for researchers to smuggle out subjects—maybe they needed to make sure they could feed humans on a different planet? Or the research was producing a sentient plant to act as a scout? Athena spent another few moments looking at the room from above, but didn’t see evidence it had been disturbed—other than the natural movements of the strange plant—and decided to move on.
To her left, Athena saw an underground hanger. She noted the diversity of ships. Not just in appearance, but in the level of advancement. Some seemed precursors to Earth’s planes—two wings, a tail, and a hub running down the center, closely resembling a bird. Others were standard mid-range civilian ships of the time: Linters. Cylinders approximately four meters in diameter and ten meters long, their bow contained the cockpit and tapered to a point. Tiny thrusters surrounded the outside of the hull, with one giant thruster in the aft. As she recalled, the insides were as uninspiring as the outside; they contained a cockpit, kitchen, and few small rooms with cots.
They were a cheap and efficient way for scientists to explore Earth in its antiquity. They weren’t stealthy and didn’t need to be: back then, the scientists’ research didn’t require humans to be ignorant of the galaxy around them. They routinely flew their ships in plain sight. The humans lacked any serious technology and likely couldn’t even grasp the concept of flying machines. Some humans saw, and even interacted with, Primordials and their technology thousands of years ago, but the veracity of their claims eroded over the ages to mere fairy tales and myths. A simpler time.
Athena continued to survey the vessels, some of which were completely foreign to her. Large pods with metallic, tentacle-like feelers streaming from the bottom sat next to black, spherical ships smothered with small spokes spaced equally apart. Regardless of what these vessels were, their presence meant there had to be another way into and out of the facility. Something to keep in mind.
Athena glanced behind her at a chamber that appeared to be a simple lounge area. There were many different sub sections with retractable roofs that likely acted as bedrooms, a kitchen on the far end, and some other recreational areas. Useless.
She casually turned to the room to her right and froze. Aghast and internally admonishing herself, as if she turned to find a disembodied pair of eyes that had been stalking her this whole time, Athena saw a scene that should have been registered as soon as she entered the platform. Human cadavers littered a series of beds in the center of a warehouse, while the walls were lined with glass tubes containing humanoid creatures. Most of the cadavers appeared to be female and about a quarter of them looked pregnant. A fertility room?
Descending down the ramp, Athena recalled the intensity of some of the experiments on Earth and how apathetic the Primordials were about performing them. Even the Olympians weren’t innocent in the degradation and suffering of these less sentient beings. Supposedly for the benefit of Olympians—‘some must suffer for the rest to flourish’…‘suffering in the universe is unavoidable, but containable’… questionable logic, especially when the experiments were mostly geared toward how to kill other sentient beings.
Looking out from the ground level of the “fertility lab,” it was obvious to Athena that the facility had been abandoned in a rush. Over one thousand years ago, as inter-species relations strained before snapping in the Fracturing, many non-Olympian research groups pulled out from Earth. Earth was technically in a neutral zone, but it was entirely ensconced by Olympia. Once war broke out, scientists that hadn’t already escaped did so in a scramble. Any non-Olympian scientist left behind was murdered soon after the beginning of the Fracturing.
A lot of scientific knowledge was lost. What couldn’t be brought with the other Primordials was generally destroyed during their evacuations. Undamaged facilities were a sign that the scientists either barely escaped or easily perished at the hand of Olympia. Athena recalled the direct role she played in “removing” the Anunnaki from Earth. A quick fight with no Olympian causalities and most of the Anunnaki research still intact. One of her many missions that led to accolades.
Athena continued into what she internally dubbed the “fertility room.” The cadavers spread throughout the chamber were in one of two conditions: decayed to the bone or artificially preserved. Some were still opened up and others looked like they were being prepped for dissection. Nothing abnormal. Athena looked around for any holograms, machinery, or papers that contained results or observations, but she found nothing. She decided to inspect the humanoid creatures in the tubes of liquid.
The tubes were no more than twice Athena’s height high and roughly her wingspan in diameter. They stretched along the wall from where she stood to the back of the room. What struck her immediately was that they looked like nothing else she had ever seen in the universe. “Humanoid” was a terrible description and probably only came to her mind because she was on Earth. The creatures were no more than a half of meter in size in any direction. Most were bright yellow, covered in growths, and had a varying number and type of “limbs;” some had no “limbs” at all and others had up to ten tail-like structures exuding from the lower half of their body. Athena saw other beings with beaks, and arms that ended in suction cups instead of hands. Some were covered in feathers and others were as smooth as steel. What the hell were the Huaca doing here?
She had trouble identifying where the brain—or brains, if any—were and other common shared anatomy across the Primordials. Athena did get the sense they were some form of amphibian, though. She continued on to the next section of tubes and discovered the creatures were organized according to what might be age—the life in the tubes became larger and more detailed, on average, as she looked toward the end of the room. She decided to inspect a more developed one.
Athena was now face to face with what was clearly a humanoid. The creature was one and half meters long and had the core shape of a human, but with some exceptions. Its mouth was more beak-shaped, the head was covered in two inch thick nubs that had small feathers growing out of them, and the skin glimmered with spots of gold. Staring at it, Athena still felt like she was missing something crucial about it. It seemed so familiar. Then it hit her.
The width of its shoulders, tone of its muscle, straight nose, ratio of the length of its torso to legs, extra vertebrae in its spine…these aren’t “humanoid”—they’re Olympian! This fertility lab was experimenting on Olympians?
The idea seemed too radical. There was no way this could have been done in secret. Unless the scientists here were building hybrid creatures from the ground up…Even then, I’ve never heard of scientists being able to grow entire creatures from bits of DNA of another, which should be all the Huaca had access to. Athena took a step back, from both shock and horror, and looked over the test tube abominations littering the lab. Maybe Athena was wrong; but if she wasn’t, it would mean Primordials were preparing for war years before the Fracturing started. Right under the nose of Olympia.
She pondered the possibilities while staring at the creature she had been inspecting. Am I seeing things? How did they pull this off without detection? The feathers on the nodes are a clear indication of—it’s alive! They’re…breathing? Athena sprung back. Her body flooded with adrenaline at the realization that her intel of these labs—labs safely nestled in
Olympia—was severely limited. Did the Council know about this? Her hand was clutching the meter-long weapon at her side, ready to strike if the creature made any sudden movements.
For the first time in ages she felt unqualified for the task at hand. The mysterious tapestry unraveling before her potentially contained patterns woven with the threads of biology and foresight. She wasn’t a scientist. The intruders had knowledge of the future. The Council had hidden knowledge—or was outright ignorant—of abominable experiments occurring within their own territory. Nothing made sense. Can I risk communication with Olympia over this? Should I wait until I find the intruders? Did the intruders want me to find this? No…that can’t be right…
Athena’s concentration was broken by the clamor of rubble falling into the underground facility, reverberating on the platform above her.
“Athena! We need to either get outta here now or stay hidden—civilians are closing in on this site!” Atlas yelled from the top of the ramp. “I did my best to clog the entrance you dug, but someone will eventually excavate the broken stones and discover this place.”
Athena’s mind started to spin—she had a split second to make a few crucial decisions. “Go find a working ship in the hanger. I’ll handle the entrance.” And these experiments.
Atlas’ imposing frame quickly receded toward the hanger. Athena started toward the ramp, waving her arms in a long, exaggerated motion at the tubes as she moved. Space-time ripples generated by her motion brought fatal degradation to the structural integrity of the tubes. The malformed Olympian-like souls trapped in the containers burst out, riding the milky liquid that was cascading to the floor. Writhing, screeching, and moaning—they were all dying. A tear fell down Athena’s face as she ran up the ramp.
At the top, Athena whipped around and threw her arms hard to the left and then to the right, cutting out a giant sector of the wall separating the fertility lab from the vegetation lab. The slab landed on the ground with a smack—crushing the struggling creatures beneath it. She moved to the hanger and leaned over the shallow wall, “Atlas! Have you found a working ship?”
“You asked me to, right! Hurry up!”
“Give me a minute!” Athena couldn’t permanently close off the broken entrance to the lab with the tools she had, but she could buy herself time. She pushed away the loose rubble Atlas had unskillfully filled the hole with and climbed out of the facility.
Twenty villagers were descending on the site in the dead of night. Flashes of light crawled across the ancient monument as the humans enclosed on the rubble. Athena leapt multiple meters into the air, spinning and landing near the villagers. She continued to jump and spin, moving her arms and fingers in intricate ways. Sending space-time ripples of various strengths and frequencies at the villagers gathered before her. The gravitational anomalies rolled through the villagers as if they weren’t there.
Tiny and numerous oscillations in the ubiquitous fabric cracked open the humans. Within a couple of minutes the only thing left was dust. Satisfied with her work, but not the situation, she took a moment to fix Atlas’ shoddy concealment of the facility’s make-shift entrance. Athena made the final seal once she was inside the lab again and then went to the hanger.
Atlas was waving her down. “I found another way out of the facility—I think we’ll end up exiting somewhere a few kilometers off the coast!” The walls appeared to shake in response to his low-pitched, rough bellow.
Athena ran toward him and jumped into the Linter he selected. “I bought us some time.”
“More time to hide isn’t going to stop the intruders.” Atlas replied as they sped away down the underground tunnel toward the exit.
* * *
Athena and Atlas emerged above the ocean floor, roughly three kilometers off the coast of Peru. The small thrusters on the outside of their vessel automatically engaged to prevent drift from the ebb and flow of the water.
“Where are going?” Atlas asked.
“Keep the ship underwater. I need to think.” Athena pulled up old maps of Earth in the Huacan navigation system. The language was still foreign. These experiments may be more important than the intruders. Why didn’t the Olympians sweep Earth more thoroughly before resuming observation after the Fracturing? Maybe they did and the facility wasn’t what it appeared… Athena scanned the map for additional facilities in the surrounding area. The only term I understood in that facility was ‘Pacha’…there! “We need to continue north to Pachacamac,” Athena said, her composure returning after the horrors of the fertility lab. Pachacamac appears to be surrounded by labs—maybe a central repository for the research. Hopefully, we’ll find answers there.
“Any idea why the villagers were descending on us in Bandurria?” Athena asked. I think they were chanting ‘the gods have come to deliver us from our plight.’
“No. They were reciting something in a language I didn’t understand,” Atlas replied as he piloted their ship out of the ocean.
“I heard that too.” Athena adjusted the communication system on the vessel to tune into human broadcasts that could be picked up off the coast of Peru. She found one:
“‘Well folks, it seems that some people out there are taking the message seriously! They think there is an alien walking among us.’
‘Yeah and those people are crazy. We’re being watched and some benevolent alien is here to save us? That’s ridiculous.’
‘I don’t know—stranger things have happened.’
‘No, they haven’t.’
‘Either way, let’s keep the hits rolling…’”
Athena and Atlas locked eyes in bewilderment. Athena dialed through additional frequencies until she stumbled on the message referenced by the humans.
“Push the Linter to full speed—we don’t have time to waste.” ‘I am here to defend you against them when they finish their experiments and decide to terminate you,’ there is only one intruder? That can’t be right. Is the broadcast a distraction?
The events at the Bandurria facility gave Athena an idea as to why the intruders would risk death, and ultimately war, with Olympia to penetrate Earth. She wasn’t exactly sure how to fit the new broadcast into her theory, but she had no other ideas. Maybe they’re collecting lost military and weapons research? If the other Primordials really are preparing for war then the real risk would be to let this information lay in enemy territory.
Act I, Chapter 12
Pursuit
Location: Apolo, Bolivia
Loki spotted a paved road when they exited the rainforest and followed it to the town with the airstrip: Apolo, Bolivia. They were seeking an inconspicuous aircraft to more easily pursue the Olympian traces Sigyn was continuously detecting. If necessary, Loki was confident he could figure out how to fly one of the small Earth aircraft, but that was a last resort. It would be a difficult task to steal one, as Sigyn had forbade him from harming any humans, but still, it was their backup plan.
They first were going to attempt something a bit more straight-forward: simply pay a pilot for a ride.
Loki and his fellow Aesir on Earth were operating under the assumption that humans still visited and revered ancient sites—a behavior common across almost all civilizations. It was part of the reason they landed in Nazca; the entire area was covered in large depictions of deities the local population had once worshipped. The fact that many of those designs were still intact gave a hint to the Aesirian landing party that they should be able to easily act as “tourists” and —for the right price—convince a pilot to fly them over the site.
The other reason Loki and his comrades landed in Nazca was because of the now-defunct facility that lay beneath the site. The Aesir wanted to overtly hint at the notion they were seeking out forgotten research. Before Loki could know if the plan worked he’d have to find a way to get him and Sigyn back to their landing site.
Loki’s first instinct was to find the local spots where humans got together to imbibe, as drinking fermented beverages was nearly universal fo
r sentient beings of the Olympian bloodline. Once there, he could strike up a conversation, learn more about how to socialize with humans, and then find someone willing to fly them to Nazca.
Sigyn disagreed.
“That’s a terrible idea.”
“Why?”
“You’re suggesting we waste time poking around this town to find a drunk human to fly us to Nazca?” Sigyn replied with an incredulous tone.
“Well, yeah, when you put it that way it sounds stupid, but it also gives us a chance to observe them. We’ll need a good understanding of these primates to build an army out of ‘em.” And I’m curious what their alcohol tastes like.
“We can observe them later. We don’t have time to waste. Let’s just go to the airport and use the gold we brought to convince a pilot to fly us to Nazca.”
Loki internally acknowledged Sigyn’s superior logic, but wasn’t about to share that with her. “Whatever you say, boss.”
* * *
As they pulled up to the airstrip, Sigyn realized how limited their options would be. The airstrip was painfully rudimentary, even by human standards: a single, short paved runway in the middle of nowhere. There were two planes parked in the grass near a single story, 8-by-8-meter building. Likely the only building for kilometers. Sigyn didn’t like the odds of finding a willing pilot out here. It looked like, of the two planes, only one had enough seats to accommodate her, Loki, and the pilot.
The Gods Who Chose Us Page 10
