"We'll go as fast as we can," said Zack. "Ariane?"
"Yes?"
"I think you should very carefully hold your palm against the rock somewhere inside the outline."
"Will do."
Ariane reached out to the bedrock wall and, at shoulder height, carefully placed her palm flat against the rock surface within the borders of the green outline and held it there. Nothing happened for a long moment. Then, over the next few seconds, the wall became warm to the touch and the rock within the outline morphed into a green force curtain, exactly like the ones they had encountered between chambers on Deimos.
"I touched the wall and a green force screen appeared," said Ariane. "I'm going in."
"Hold on," said Zack. "I'll go in with you."
"Roger that."
Chapter 57. Little Gray Box.
Earth, Smithsonian Ruins, October 16, 2676.
Zack made his way down the tunnel, up the side branch and stopped next to Ariane.
"It does look just like the doorways up on Deimos," he said, when he got his first look at the force screen.
"Here goes." Ariane slipped gingerly through the force curtain. On the other side of the curtain was an eerily familiar-looking scene. The arched doorway opened into a hemispherical chamber, just like the ones containing the Sentinel devices back on Deimos. This chamber was considerably smaller though, having only about a four-meter radius. As she stepped into the chamber, soft, green lighting flared gently up, illuminating a pedestal in the center of the small, domed space.
The triangular theme characterizing all of the structures in the chambers on Deimos was repeated here. The flat-topped pedestal was triangular in shape and terminated about a meter above the floor. The three sides of the triangle were each about a meter in length as well.
On the flat top of the pedestal was a flat, dull gray, rectangular box lying on its side. It was about half a meter long, maybe a third of a meter wide and about ten centimeters thick. It looked to be made from a dull, non-reflective substance of some kind, very much like the Deimos artifact had been before it was activated. Like the artifact, the box looked like it was carved out of stone, but the material could just as easily have been an exotic metal or even some kind of composite.
"There's a pedestal with a flat box on it in the middle of the room," said Ariane. "I'm getting video, but I think you should come in here." There was no response. As had been the case on Deimos, this force screen also blocked radio waves. She went back over to the doorway and pushed her helmet through the force screen.
"I think you need to see this too," she said. She pulled her head back into the chamber and stepped away from the portal. Zack emerged through the curtain a couple of seconds later. She could tell by the awed look on his face that his reaction to the chamber and its contents was very much the same as hers had been.
"Wow!" he said.
"Yeah," she said as she watched him move around the prize to view it from all sides. "This has to be it. Any suggestions on what we should do next?"
"Might as well touch it and see what happens," said Zack.
She carefully reached out and placed her palm on top of the box. Over the space of three seconds, the edges of the box became outlined in the same strange, but familiar green light. Within another three seconds, the opaque surfaces became transparent. Zack and Ariane were immediately reminded of the transparent cube that had contained the Sentinel key.
"There's something inside..." said Ariane.
Within the now-transparent box was a long, flat object. From the side, it looked like a stack of thin plates some five centimeters thick. The "book," which is what it looked like, measured about two centimeters less than the container in every dimension. The cover plate of the book looked to be wrapped in old-fashioned fabric or maybe something more durable, considering the probable age of the thing. The stack was bound together by three evenly-spaced D-shaped loops piercing the plates along the left side of the spine. The loops looked like they were made of the same dull gray material the box had been made of before it became transparent.
The book looked a lot like one of the ancient codices Ariane had seen in holos and, like many of those artifacts, the top cover was decorated with ornate inscriptions and elaborate, colorful symbols of some kind. She was not surprised the inscriptions made absolutely no sense and realized the symbologists would have to decipher these writings before any of them could read what was contained in the codex.
"What do you think it is?" asked Zack.
"Looks like a book of some kind."
"I suppose we ought to try and pick it up and take it with us?"
"It's what we're here for," said Ariane.
Without another word, she leaned out over the pedestal, grasped one of the long sides of the box in either hand and picked it up. As she lifted it off the pedestal, she was surprised at how light it was, belying the appearance the box was made of some kind of stone. The container reverted back to the original dull, opaque, grey color three seconds after it was no longer in contact with the pedestal.
"It turned solid again," said Zack. "What do you suppose that means?"
"Probably that we need to get it out of here and take it back to Deimos."
"Can't argue that. Can you can handle it by yourself?"
"Shouldn't be any problem," she replied. "It's a lot lighter than it looks."
Zack performed a quick scan around the chamber and could readily see there was nothing else to be concerned with, the now-vacant pedestal was the only thing remaining.
"Good," said Zack. "Let's go."
As soon as they both negotiated the portal, the force curtain faded back into nothing, leaving only the solid stone wall.
"So, that's it?" asked Zack as they emerged from the access tunnel. "Just a box with a book in it?"
"I think it's more than that," said Ariane. "It looks like an ancient type of book called a 'codex.'"
"A codex?"
"Yeah. They were a bridge technology between ancient scrolls and modern books. It looks like the book Arnold described in his last vision."
"How come you know so much about scrolls and such?
"You do know who my father is, right?" Zack nodded, and Ariane continued, "Since I was a little girl, he wanted me to follow in his footsteps. I had a lot of information crammed into my head before I realized archeology wasn't really what I wanted to do. I did get a minor in it at University, but I still don't know if he'll ever forgive me."
"I can understand that. You sure you don't want me to carry it?"
"No, it's okay. I should be able to hold it under one arm without any trouble. Besides, you're a better shot with a pulse rifle than I'll ever be."
"Whatever you say," replied Zack. "Let's get out of here. Erik? We're coming back up."
"You had me worried sick," replied Erik. "We lost contact with you for about five minutes."
"Sorry about that. I didn't think Ariane should go into that access tunnel alone, so I went in with her."
"Did you get what we came for?"
"Sure looks like it. We'll tell you more when we get back topside."
"Try to make it snappy," said Erik. "I don't like the feel of it up here. There's more and more activity going on all around us. I'm getting nervous, something's up."
"On our way," said Zack.
Chapter 58. Back Topside.
Earth, Smithsonian Ruins October 16, 2676.
Zack and Ariane picked their way across the littered floor to the stairwell and zig-zagged their way back up the five flights of rubble-strewn stairs before emerging on the ground floor and heading through the exit back out into the open air. Erik, who had taken up station just outside the building, took a quick glance up and down the lane before coming over to examine the box.
"So that's it?" he said, maintaining a grip on his pulse rifle with his left hand while reaching out to touch the box with his right. "It doesn't look like much."
"Not right now," said Ariane, "but the edges lit up, and the sides went
transparent the first time I touched it. Looks like there's an old book of some kind inside."
"What did that look like?"
"It has some inscriptions and some drawings on the cover, but nothing I could read. When I took the box off the pedestal, it switched from transparent back to what it looks like now."
"Sounds like more work for your father and his team," said Erik. He again looked nervously up and down the street. "We can't stay here any longer. The movement out in the ruins has gotten more intense, especially over the last five minutes. The natives must be cooking up something we aren't going to like. We got what we came for, let's get back to Keeling's compound, now."
"Right behind you," said Ariane.
"We've got about five and a half kilometers to go. Are you okay with carrying that thing?"
"I should be fine."
"Okay, let's go. The sergeant and I'll take lead. Zack, you keep an eye on our six. Keep your guard up people, there's no telling what these locals might do."
Erik and Zlotnik took the lead, one to the right of the group and the other to the left. The other two Soviets, Pasternak and Yashkin, took up positions flanking Ariane, with Zack at the rear. Using the mapping capabilities of their armor, the members of the expedition then began to pick their way as rapidly and as carefully as they could through the maze of ruined buildings and partially-blocked streets back towards Roosevelt Island.
The team made pretty good progress at first, but with danger potentially around every corner, all of them were understandably tense. At each intersection, Erik stopped and looked carefully up and down the streets before motioning to the others it was okay to go forward. By this time, they had covered about half the distance to their goal and had even gotten a few glimpses of the bridge leading over the river to Keeling's compound.
They had just turned onto a street leading to the bridge and over to the safety of Keeling's island when trouble struck. Erik was in the lead and to the left of the loose formation when he was hit by a pulse bolt fired by a hidden enemy. The bolt impacted his armor and was deflected harmlessly away. At almost the same time, another bolt from a different source zinged off Zlotnik's armor. It was hard to make out how many enemy there were, but it was immediately obvious the intersection ahead was guarded by several natives, possibly a whole tribe of them.
Erik consulted the homing map in the head's up display of his armor and said, "That way." He pointed down a street to their right. From the map, it looked like the street ran perpendicular to several others that were parallel to the one they were leaving behind, each of which would still take them to Keeling's compound.
There was, of course, the strong likelihood the other streets were similarly blocked, thought Zack grimly but, like Erik, he judged the detour worth the chance. As he moved into the comparative safety of the side street, he was struck by a disturbing thought: What if they were being herded in to something worse than a few scattered natives?
Sure enough, the group was assailed from both sides and from the rear at the next intersection, forcing them to continue forward down the same street. Once the natives had them traveling in the desired direction, the firing behind them ceased. Zack, tasked with keeping an eye on the vulnerable rear of their team, found himself walking backwards, his pulse rifle at the ready, all the time growing more and more disturbed by the situation. Within two more minutes, they were approaching another intersection containing a street that could take them to their destination.
Erik held up his hand. "This is the last street we can use before we'll have to do some backtracking. Heads up everybody, I don't like the smell of this setup one bit!" He led the team toward the intersection, this time even more cautiously than before. Again, the rest of the group remained in position with Ariane still in the center of the loose, roughly diamond-shaped formation and Zack bringing up the rear. The ancient concrete of the street was cracked in many places and crumbly in others, making their footing treacherous and unsure.
Erik was edging slowly ahead when the kind of attack they'd been fearing erupted. The natives had gone through the trouble of throwing together a fairly well-organized ambush, and they'd chosen this key, four-way intersection in which to stage it.
Fortunately for the team, one of the attackers was overeager and sprung the trap a moment too soon, before all of the expedition members had been lured into position for the ambush to have maximum effect. Without warning, a single pulse bolt came out of the shadows, flashing past and just missing Ariane's helmet to her right. The initial shot was followed by a hail of pulse bolts, emanating from all four directions. The firing was mostly inaccurate, though Ariane's armor did safely absorb four or five pulses before she managed to stumble over to cover within a low pile of rubble left behind by a collapsed facade.
Zack quickly took down a half-dozen of the attackers behind them, and the hostile activity from that direction eased, for the time being. He realized immediately that in addition to those coming from ground level, some of the pulses were coming from the roofs and higher floors of the adjacent buildings. He noted where several of the bolts were originating before quickly and efficiently taking out the sources. Two more of the elevated snipers made the mistake of revealing their positions and quickly paid the price. The aerial assault ceased as Zack had either taken out all of the attackers or those remaining were now keeping their heads down, not wanting to suffer the same fate as their brethren.
Surprisingly, none of the snipers had been shooting at him.
With a shock, Zack came to the horrifying conclusion that Ariane was the main target of this assault! The enemy must somehow know that what she was carrying was important, and they were making her the focus of the attack. He hunkered down and zig-zagged through the rubble in an effort to get closer to her, to provide what protection he could.
Though there probably wasn't much they could have done about it, the expedition had been herded into a very effective trap and found themselves completely surrounded. After the initial ill-timed shot, which alerted the team to the danger and sent everyone scurrying for some kind of cover, the enemy's fire became more deliberate but, fortunately, not much more accurate. The military-grade armor the expedition members were wearing had, so far, proved adequate to protect them from the low percentage of well-aimed shots, but it was only a matter of time before one of them got injured or killed. As good as it was, the armor couldn't protect the wearer from a continuous and concentrated assault.
Chapter 59. On the Defensive.
Earth, Washington DC Ruins, October 16, 2676.
Zack ducked into the entryway of a semi-intact building, probably the best cover he could hope for under the current circumstances. He efficiently took out three attackers advancing on the team from the rear and another sniper before he had a moment to think. Ariane was about five meters ahead of him and perhaps ten to the right. The shallow pile of rubble she was in provided only meager protection and her armor had been struck by two or three more pulses within the last thirty seconds. Even as he watched, she was struck by another. He needed to get her to better cover.
He was desperately attempting to form a plan when, ahead of them, the natives suddenly launched a foolhardy and haphazardous two-pronged attack. Employing a reckless, crude, and suicidal tactic, two barely-organized knots of attackers, one from each of the side streets, rushed the expedition from opposite sides, shouting insanely and firing their weapons wildly. It was exactly the kind of all-out attack Erik had warned them about!
Erik popped out from his own store-front sanctuary and, in a single fluid motion, went to one knee while bringing his pulse rifle up to his shoulder. He opened up with deadly fire on the charging, screaming mob to the left of them. Within seconds, he had severely blunted the attack by taking down four attackers, causing those behind to stumble in confusion over the fallen. He swung around to concentrate fire on the gang to the right, again to deadly effect. In his relatively exposed position, his modified Viking armor absorbed or deflected multiple puls
e bolts though none of them had inflicted any damage.
Zlotnik concentrated his fire on the group to the right, the side where he'd been taking point. The two Soviets behind him proceeded to provide accurate and deadly fire as soon as the ill-advised assault began. In their relatively less-exposed positions, they could afford to be more deliberate in their target selection. The weapons and the training of Erik and the three Soviet marines were indeed a formidable force. Within minutes, it was obvious the attack had been blunted. The two mobs appeared to be losing their resolve and were on the verge of turning tail and running.
Several meters behind Ariane, following battle-honed combat instincts, Zack zig-zagged his way towards her, his eyes seeking out a place from where he could provide effective cover and allow her to flee to a more secure position. With the now cumbersome box clutched under one arm, she couldn't use her pulse rifle, but she'd shifted the awkward burden to her left arm and was using her free right hand to wield her pulse pistol. She remained crouched within her meager cover, firing sporadic pulse bursts towards the enemy with the pistol. It was clear she had no idea what to do next.
Zack hunkered down and scurried forward to a waist-high pile of rubble just a few meters behind her position. From there, he quickly assessed the tactical situation and, like Erik, rose up to one knee while he brought his weapon into firing position and began firing with deadly effect, quickly taking down three more attackers. He was searching for more targets when his attention was drawn to movement at twelve o'clock, between the two now disorganized and largely decimated mobs.
What he saw shocked him to the core.
The assailant advancing deliberately towards them was obviously not human. The creature, which appeared to be clad in some kind of its own battle armor, was about a meter and half tall, with an ovoid body topped by a small crown-shaped head. It was carrying a formidable-looking weapon of some kind in two of its four claw-like hands.
The Archeon Codex: Guardians of the Galactic Sentinel Book 2 Page 30
