“I can’t definitively prove to you that all of the details I’m sharing about my people—or the Olympians—are true, but at some point, you need to…trust your gut. We haven’t lied, we’ll continue to bring advancements to your society, and we revealed the existence of extraterrestrial life that was viewing you as their experiment. I don’t know how else to convince you.”
Emilia spoke up before the other two men could. “You have shown good will towards Earth—we don’t doubt that—but between the multiple broadcasts that have come from Africa detailing you all as liars and the heavy force that was hiding behind the moon, there is some doubt as to whether humans are being told the whole story.
“Moreover, it’s still not clear which alien force on Earth—you or these Olympians— have been responsible for the death of multiple humans.”
“That has absolutely not been us. We have strict orders against any such action.”
“Are you sure? We know whoever is moving through Africa has left a death toll in their wake, presumably an Olympian based on what they’ve been broadcasting, but we also have audio evidence of a being claiming to be an extraterrestrial murdering two young Peruvian men in an underground…facility of sorts, in Bandurria.
“Speaking of which, this facility in Peru was not something you have been forthcoming about. Are there others?”
“Yes, many. Starting our contact with you by discussing the ancient research facilities would have been dangerous for both Earth and us. We aren’t sure what’s still in those research labs, but it’s something we’re happy to help you explore.
“You mentioned the recording of the murder of two humans, may I listen to it?” Sigyn asked with a slight strain in her voice. Please don’t be Loki.
“Perhaps, but we have more questions. How many of your kind are on Earth and why did you only reach out to two specific humans prior to our meeting?”
“Three Aesir, including myself, and we believe there are at least two Olympians on Earth right now.
“We only reached out to Lugh and Wen Shi because they are what we refer to as ‘Descendants.’ Early in Earth’s history, the civilizations performing research on humans modified various bloodlines to optimize specific characteristics. Eventually, those bloodlines were disabled or destroyed. We were seeking individuals that still had that latent DNA.
“Lugh and Wen Shi are the only two we have found so far, but there are undoubtedly others. We have already unlocked their DNA and, beyond making their bodies and brains healthier, their blood will help us understand how to provide all humans with such advancements.” Sigyn again detected curiosity in Heinrich’s countenance. “Yes, in addition to mechanical technological advancements we plan on accelerating human evolution through biotechnology.” Even when addressing questions by other speakers, Sigyn found herself speaking directly to Heinrich. Although relatively primitive, Sigyn found the only other scientist in the room to be the easiest to communicate with.
“That’s—” Heinrich said before Emilia interrupted him. “—very interesting. But that requires an even higher level of trust.” She looked over at Heinrich. “We can tackle the technological questions later.” Turning back to Sigyn and Lugh, she continued. “You mentioned experimentation has been occurring on this planet for a long time, and you call these extraterrestrial races by names like ‘Olympians’ and ‘Aesir’—are we to understand that your civilizations are the basis for ancient myths on Earth? How much truth is there to those myths?”
Sigyn briefly looked over at Lugh, not confident she knew the answer to that question. “That’s…hard to say. I only became aware of Aesir mythology on Earth after arriving. Lugh explained to me what he knew and I did some research myself; almost nothing about it is true other than names and locations. I can only assume the Olympians planted those myths, but as to why, I’m unsure.”
“Are you aware that, while the stories from both corpuses aren’t particularly paragons of morality, the Olympian myths are viewed in a more favorable light? The society that worshipped the Olympians is actually the basis for much of our modern political and philosophical thought in the Western world.”
“No, and why does any of that matter if they are all myths anyway?” Sigyn asked. That’s such an irrelevant question.
“Just curious,” Emilia replied. “It’s not important.” Emilia shifted in her seat and pulled out a list from her pocket. “I have a list of questions submitted by COPUOS that are much more pressing.
“To begin, we’d like to know the nature of the experiments the Olympians are allegedly conducting on humans today.”
Sigyn took a deep breath. Allegedly? There are battles occurring above your atmosphere and multiple destroyed research facilities floating throughout your solar system, and you still aren’t convinced experiments were occurring? Why the hell would we make any of this up? “We aren’t sure to be honest. We know it involves a lot of observation and very minor interference. The Olympians have kept their operations out here covert. Even their own public is unaware of the research conducted on Earth—they believe that Earth simply hasn’t advanced far enough yet to reach out to the broader universe.”
Heinrich cut in. “That’s very odd—what’s so important out here that they’d need to lie to their public about it?” General Peterson gave him a scowl and spoke up. “Assuming any of this is true, professor.”
Sigyn interrupted their side-bar. “I’m not sure what else I can do to prove the veracity of my claims, but my commander may have something.” Her voice softened at having thought of him. Will he need my help with Atlas? What help would I be, anyway? She pulled out the phone Lugh had given her and noticed she had a voicemail. “Please give me a moment,” Sigyn said as she got up and moved to the kitchen. She wanted to listen to the voicemail without eavesdroppers.
“Atlas is approaching your ship. If I don’t contact you by the end of the day then assume I’m dead. Keep your phone on and near you.”
Sigyn gasped and looked over at Lugh, instantly flooded with concern. I can’t wait that long to find out what happens to Vili.
“Emilia, can we get live feed of the Krysuvikurberg Cliffs in Iceland?” Sigyn asked, panic leaking into her voice.
“Uh, we—” Emilia looked at John for help. “Why do you need that?” General Peterson asked, stern but curious.
“If you want to see what the humans are up against, and what they could be with augmentations, then you’ll want to see what’s happening on the Krysuvikurberg Cliffs.”
Act III, Chapter 3
Last Chance
Location: Saqqara, Egypt
Athena progressed through northern Africa toward Egypt and sent messages when she could. She continued to refer to the Aesir as liars, in addition to slowly concocting a story that the intruders on Earth were trying to sabotage the human race. She warned Earth that the seemingly good intentions of the Aesir were really a way to influence the humans to act irrationally and enter into a conflict with the Olympians, a guaranteed way to make sure the Aesir wouldn’t have to share space with the rapidly progressing humans.
It was all made up of course, but it seemed to be working. Earth was beginning to fracture in a way similar to when the humans uncovered incontrovertible proof of alien life. Chaos seeped through the secure and calming grip COPUOS held over the population. Various countries began to deal with protesters demanding more transparency and involvement in COPUOS’ discussions; others called for their country to pull out of COPUOS entirely.
Nations that had already experienced tragedy at the hand of the alien forces became the locus for a global unrest. Their public was outraged that civilians were dying and only vague information was being shared about their deaths. Athena added to the death toll here and there, only killing when humans got in her way. She understood by now COPUOS would deduce she was behind the deaths, but that wasn’t of any great concern: her goal was chaos.
By the time noticeable turmoil surfaced she had already reached Egypt. She marched throug
h the burning sands of Egypt until she reached Saqqara—able to see the Pyramid of Djoser over the horizon.
The pyramid was part of a large courtyard, measuring over a kilometer long and 100 meters wide. The courtyard was surrounded by both a tan-brown limestone wall stretching nearly 3 stories high and a deep, wide trench. Behind the protective wall sat the pyramid, alongside a myriad of other buildings and temples. Most of the construction in this area occurred more than 4,500 years ago, giving nature ample time to erode significant portions of the outer wall and grind down the buildings until they stood in complete ruins.
Under the cover of night, Athena broke into a run and, in one single leap, cleared the towering wall. She landed silently, rolled, and continued to sprint toward an opening in the step pyramid. Unlike many of the other famous pyramids scattered throughout Egypt, the pyramid of Djoser lacked a smooth surface and sharp apex; the structure more closely resembled the pyramids scattered throughout South America.
Thankfully, Athena knew there would be no surprises like the ones in Peru: she cleaned this research base out herself. At the start of the Fracturing, she led multiple missions across this region to purge the facilities of any lingering Primordials, mostly Anunnaki. Moreover, she collected any information deemed valuable before laying waste to the rest of the work done. To the best of her knowledge, this particular facility still had the equipment intact to broadcast powerful radio waves across Earth. This will be the last message I send.
As she entered the pyramid she slowed her sprint to a brisk walk. She continued down the narrow and familiar faceless rock tunnels that led underneath the pyramid. Winding deeper into the structure, the walls abruptly erupted with hieroglyphic carvings. Occasionally, Athena saw references to the Egyptians’ early contact with the Anunnaki.
Eventually, she reached a room with décor that broke from the rest of the pyramid: an area covered in blue tiles. The entrance. Athena used her brute strength to move large stone blocks, disguised to look as if they represented a wall. They haven’t been moved in a millennium…I don’t think the humans know what’s down here.
She entered the secret room behind the tiles and closed the passage behind her. Detecting her presence, the walls of this room began to glow a bluish-yellow. The four walls surrounding her were etched with intricate carvings by the ancient Egyptians. Each portrayed a humanoid with some additions, such as wings or a bird’s head, engaged in activity with the local population; these humanoids were the humans’ perception of the Anunnaki.
Unlike Athena and the rest of the Olympians, the Anunnaki reveled in the opportunity to interact with Earth’s burgeoning intelligent life. They portrayed themselves as gods, guiding the humans and outright teaching them advances in mathematics, engineering, science, medicine, agriculture, and architecture. Why would a Primordial obtain so much joy from the adulation of animals? It’s understandable for the humans, or even the Aesir, to keep pets, but why would a Primordial race act so primitively?
The carvings on the four walls exhibited scenes of Anunnaki receiving gifts, overseeing labor forces, educating the population, and what appeared to be their first contact with the locals. Athena traced a continuous pattern across the carving representing the labor force and then sent a gentle gravitational wave at the wall.
The stone pulled away in five asymmetrical sections, revealing a completely lit hallway that led to the communications station. The hall itself was a mixture of stone and steel; like their genetics, Anunnaki built structures with unique hybrids of materials that they had access to at the time. Their cities and lives lacked consistency, which is what made them so hard for Olympians to understand during the Fracturing.
Athena moved down the metallic-rock hall and came to egg-shaped opening stretching one story above her and around ten below. Platforms extended from various section of the inner wall. Some containing the remnants of scientific tools and others appeared to be for lounging. Again, the room mimicked the species that built it: no clear pattern emerged as to the purpose nor positioning for the majority of the daises.
Luckily, Athena didn’t need to worry about any of that; she knew where to find the communication console. She leapt to an oval-shaped platform below her. It contained a floating cube with numerous images on each of its sides.
Although far from impossible, given her skill with languages, Athena knew that sending her message would not be a simple matter. Because the Anunnaki could vary wildly when it came to their appendages and voice—if they even had vocal chords—neither of those were useful for communicating in person, let alone through technology. The Anunnaki instead relied on one part of their anatomy that wasn’t subject to variation: receptors saturating their skin. Even though Anunnaki varied widely in form, they always retained nerves embedded in their exterior skin that were used for communication.
The Anunnaki’s ancient ancestors originally evolved to communicate via pheromones; they would automatically emit “scents” to communicate their feelings—from fear to euphoria—to their kind. Over time, these creatures gained the ability to control the release of these chemicals—that would bind to the receptors in the skin of their kin—instead of releasing them automatically. Eventually, the discharge and interpretation of compounds was replaced with the ability to emit and decode subtle gravitational waves.
While this form of communication had its benefits, drawbacks, and quirks, it suited their society well. However, when the Anunnaki discovered other creatures that communicated via audio stimulation, they had trouble coming up with a system that worked for translation.
Initially, they shared their writing, but that was too complex for others to follow. Later, they developed a system based on representative pictures that they used to set baseline communications with new societies. These pictures then increased in complexity on Earth until they resembled Egyptian hieroglyphics. While useful in some contexts, writing to communicate wasn’t always an option.
Ultimately, the Anunnaki developed a system that could both broadcast human sounding voices in the vicinity of the pyramids and transmit radio waves to be broadcast elsewhere in the world. Athena sat before the controls that would perform both of those tasks.
She began to interact with a floating cube, which was balanced between multiple magnets. It allowed full rotation and had 840 mechanical characters on each side, totaling 5,040. As characters were selected, they were displayed on a large screen behind the cube. The screen showed the message in both Anunnaki and the phonetic representation of ancient Egyptian. Athena wasn’t planning on sending the message in its perfect Anunnaki form; instead, she wanted to modify the Anunnaki characters to represent a phonetic form that would allow the Aesir to understand.
This took a non-trivial understanding of the Anunnaki language and its detailed translations to ancient Egyptian, as well as the mental capacity to map the phonetics of ancient Egyptian to modern Aesirian. She began to spin and activate various characters, testing their auditory output, and then modifying her representation on the screen. After about an hour, she was ready to send the message.
She looked down at a large blue tile beneath the cube and stomped on it.
“The traitorous Aesir deserve no place in Olympia. Meet me at the Anunnaki’s first research site or I’ll come find you. This ends now.”
Act III, Chapter 4
Confrontation
Location: Krysuvikurberg Cliffs, Iceland
Vili looked out across the turbulent ocean, his hair whipping in the strong winds. He closed his eyes and listened to the gusts. His ears strained to hear the voices in the gale. He perceived soft tones and stunted noises that progressed into phrases directed at him. Encouraging murmurs from long-dead predecessors bolstered his confidence for the oncoming fight, reminding him of his adamant and feeding him strength. He thought back to his first use of the hammer, the powerful blows shredding Olympian armor and defenses. The ease in which Mjolnir could be called back, simply by allowing a current to flow to the adamant particles sitt
ing in his right hand. Even Atlas won’t have an answer for it.
He spent the prior day or so monitoring the skies in the Hod ship he initially flew to Iceland. He piloted around the ocean and country—keeping his eyes glued to his radar—but never ventured too far from Sigyn’s landing spot. It was likely at least one of the Olympians would find a way to track her ship and it was only a matter of time until Atlas—or the other Olympian—arrived in Iceland. It’s going to be Atlas.
The cliffs were flat and desolate, leaving little opportunity to set an ambush. Still, Vili ruminated on the situation until he came up with a plan. He left Sigyn’s ship out in the open, hoping to draw attention from the pursuing Olympian. He stayed hidden off the edge of the cliff, in a natural crevice that opened up on the side of the land.
Vili had already programmed Sigyn’s Linter to turn and fly directly opposite from anything larger than one and half meters that got within five meters of it. He hoped this would cause some heat damage to whichever Olympian approached it, as well as a distraction for him to ambush. In the event of failure, Vili had no escape. He considered leaving his own ship’s engines ignited and ready to take off should he need to retreat, but the closest hiding spot was many kilometers away, making it impractical. I won’t be defeated. Atlas will pay for his indifference—and at times encouragement—of the Aesirian slaughter.
Vili continued to stay crouched in the crevice off the side of the cliff, only his eyes peaking around a corner of the rock. From far over the horizon he saw a thin trail of a rapidly dissipating infrared signature. He’s here. Vili immediately receded back behind the rock and pulled out his burner phone to call Sigyn. Pick up, Sigyn! Without an answer, he was forced to leave a quick voice message. “Atlas is approaching your ship. If I don’t contact you by the end of the day then assume I’m dead. Keep your phone on and near you.”
The Gods Who Chose Us Page 30
