And as the storm seemed to take note and surge in their direction, the ferocity of the icy wind was dulled by the heat in her touch. Caleb moaned, his legs went weak and his mind evaporated into her insistent caress, supplying visions of complete clarity, plucked from a short distance away.
A face in the snowstorm, only a face as the body is covered in a gossamer gown the color of the snow. Her hair, untouched by the flakes, and her eyes: deep green, lush like a forest of sweet-smelling pine.
Lydia.
It’s like she’s watching, but there’s no hint of jealousy. Closer and closer she comes, and now her breath exudes crystalline steam, so close as her eyes melt with emotion, with a mix of pity and urgency, as she speaks.
“Let go, Caleb.”
The viewpoint shudders. Flickers, and Nina’s appearance superimposes over Lydia’s.
The response floats over the howling wind. “I can’t.”
“Let go, and forgive.”
“Forgive her? Never!”
A hand raises and soft, warm fingers touch his frozen cheek. “Not just her.”
Another shudder, Nina and Lydia joining, two sets of matching green eyes boring into his mind. “Forgive…”
“… myself?”
Lydia-Nina smile. Fingertips linger on his cheek, brush his lips… Eyes shine once more as they retreat… then are lost in the swirling, screaming storm.
And the kiss is broken.
Nina pulled away, fighting a look of shock and dismay. “What was that?”
But Caleb closed the gap, not thinking, reacting only on gut emotion. Forgive, forgive. Accept what’s been there all along.
He locked his numb hands around the back of Nina’s head, dropped one to her side, and pulled her close. Before she could react, other than to say “What the f—” , he pressed his lips hard against hers.
Their eyes closed, bodies pressed tight and suddenly becoming rigid, locked in an unbreakable embrace as the visions unraveled, then coagulated and shot through them both simultaneously:
An ancient battlefield, something out of an expensive CGI movie: war machines squaring off amid hundreds of thousands of foot soldiers. Cannons firing energy particle shells of some kind, ripping up the earth, decimating entire battalions. A purple-crimson sky, roiling with smoke scattered by brutal winds. Mushroom clouds appear painted on the horizon in a grotesque caricature of Armageddon.
On one of the futuristic tank-like vehicles: a man with a jackal-headed Egyptian-like helmet roars a battle cry and raises a long-handled weapon with a familiar spear point at its tip. A lance that dazzles with its own light, as if reflecting the brilliance of an unseen star. Lightning rips from its tip, scattering the enemy soldiers ahead, as they roar forward—
—toward a huge pyramid set amidst a burning jungle.
Caleb winced, tried to pull away, but now Nina was latched on tight, her mouth open, tongue entwined with his, two snakes hungrily devouring and sharing each other’s every thought.
The stars…
And the small green and blue neighbor, just clearing the eastern rim of this lunar landscape. Cratered, desolate. Except for a structure. A ziggurat shape, bordered with massive columns and an arched entrance. The hint of emerald stairs leading up into mystery. Somber Ibis-headed statues on either side, welcoming the elusive, non-corporeal visitors.
—who move forward, reverently bowing, then ascending.
At the stairs’ apex, a near-blinding light. Then, features that resolve into enormous shelves. Stacks upon stacks of metallic-looking scrolls with oddly-familiar symbols forming titles. Shelves that stretch on and on into the darkness.
All this fades as the light explodes, pinwheeling into kaleidoscopic swirls. And then they’re back on a snowy field. The white dims, forms appear: giant beams of metal on stands, like giant fans. Turning, aiming into the sky.
Exploding light, pinwheels.
And now, a red clay surface. A desert stretching, unbroken until a large cliff, and what appear to be a series of triangular structures aligned before it. The cliff shakes, shedding boulders and the dust from millennia. The pyramids tremble, then shatter like toy clay pieces. A side of the cliff collapses, turns this way, revealing a giant EYE, cracking, splitting, tumbling a mile down into a pile of rubble.
Another explosion of light and then a single chair appears. A machine. Wires and tubes and consoles hooked to it.
And three young boys stand before it. The youngest is hesitant, but he moves forward on trembling legs as if this is his destiny.
But the other takes a weapon from behind his back. A familiar ancient spear point. Raises it above the younger one’s head—
And then, finally, the vision ripped apart.
And Caleb pulled away from Nina.
The wind and the stinging snow slapped at their faces, but still the heat between them refused to waver.
“What the hell?” Nina shouted.
“I don’t know!” Caleb looked down and saw that their hands were still together, holding each other the way kids used to at a sixth grade dance.
“A library on the Moon? Some ancient battle with the Spear?” Nina tried to shake the images from her head. “And was that Isaac, with the spear?”
Caleb nodded grimly. “He was going to kill Alexander.”
Nina’s eyes darkened. “Then let’s stop him. The hell with the subtle plan. We go in fast and hard.”
Inside the Jeep, Caleb found himself in the passenger seat, trying to warm up as Nina started the engine. He thought of something. “That’s a good plan, but we can improve our odds a bit.”
“How?”
“Still got your untraceable satellite phone?”
“Yeah, back there. Next to the half-a-billion-year-old snow globe.”
Caleb turned and looked down, where they’d secured the ancient gift from Montross, the thing that had been obscuring their location from all psychics, his sister included. He reached back and picked up the phone.
“What are you thinking?” Nina asked as she revved the engine, then tore ahead.
“Thinking we could get Temple to supply a little distraction. Some air support, or at least a fly-by to distract them while we come in fast through the back door.”
Nina grinned at him, then licked her lips as if re-tasting him. “Good idea.”
Caleb dialed, keeping his eyes on Nina. Forgive her?
She glanced at him as she sped the Jeep over the ridge and into the air before it struck ground and dug in. He turned away, phone to his ear; and in the windshield’s reflection, against the nearly impenetrable blanket of snow, he saw his own face staring back at him.
First things first.
8.
Mount Shasta
Phoebe held on for dear life as the tram raced at top speed. Still, at the halfway point, she managed to free a hand and reach out to Orlando’s, clasping it tight. They shared a look of fear and confusion. She knew he was as blind as she was. Too much adrenaline, too much shouting, yelling and chaos. And… fear for the girl.
The Hummingbird, strapped in beside her father, clutching him tight. And Diana, on the other side, eyes wide, glancing out the windows as if expecting to observe a half-remembered face from her past somewhere in the darkness and flashing lights.
Temple yelled over the screeching metal, “Do you see anything? Any psychic intel? How close is it?”
“You mean, are we going to make it?” Phoebe asked, focusing the question.
Orlando shook his head, lost, unable to concentrate. “Can’t see a thing!”
Suddenly, something rocked the tram. Everyone jolted in their seats. Windows shattered, rocks pounded the ceiling. The mountain trembled. Aria screamed. Out the windows, the tunnel’s lights blinked off, then on, then off.
And they plunged into darkness.
#
Orlando tightened his grip on Phoebe and held onto one thought. That bald dude didn’t save me down there just so I could get flattened in this tin can on the way out
. “I think we’re going to make it.”
“You think?” Temple shouted from the front, looking out over the driver’s shoulder. “Or you know?”
Orlando shrugged. “Just a—”
“Don’t say ‘hunch’.”
“—hunch.”
Temple shook his head.
“Just the same,” Diana called out from the back, “I hope the others made it out.”
Temple nodded. “One tram evacuated before us, and there were two teams of psychics in the field, and one in town on a training mission. At least they’ll be okay.”
“Yeah,” Orlando said dryly. “Stargate will live on!”
“No one will live on,” Phoebe countered. “Unless Caleb can find and stop Calderon.”
She dug her nails into Orlando’s hand. He was about to tell her to chill and enjoy the ride when the tram rocked violently. The driver screamed just before they impacted something and the car jumped the tracks.
“Oh, shi—”
It flipped, slammed off the walls, then careened forward, sparks roaring like the Fourth of July behind them, bounced again, and then, like in an underground rollercoaster, it simply dropped.
Down a huge incline where the rock floor had been, gliding on its belly until finally, slamming head-first into a barrier, punching through rocks and grinding to a stop.
#
“Everyone ok?” Orlando helped Phoebe up. He wanted to make sure neither of them had any broken bones before verifying the condition of the others, but she was already up and rushing for Aria.
“She’s okay,” Diana said, stepping in the way. Orlando couldn’t see around her in the blinking overhead lights and the sparks still flying from the smashed equipment, but he thought he saw the little girl leaning over her father.
“Give her a minute,” Diana whispered, shaking her head sadly.
Phoebe squeezed Orlando’s hand tighter. “Oh no…”
Someone behind them cleared his throat. Temple, limping, bleeding from half-dozen cuts on his face and neck. “Sorry, and I know this is no place for something like this, but we don’t have a minute.”
“Sir,” Diana pleaded. “She saw him die. She—”
“She’ll be fine,” Aria said, and they all turned to see her form in the shadows. Aria laid a gentle kiss on her father’s forehead, then backed away, head bowed. Then she turned and with eyes brimming with tears, she nodded. “And I know, we can’t take him with us.”
Phoebe gasped. “There’s got to be a way.”
“No,” said Aria, climbing over wrecked seats and broken glass. “There isn’t. Just like there isn’t time to climb back up and run to the exit.”
Temple let her pass, but shielded her from the cockpit, where another casualty lay impaled under a pile of granite. “Then?”
“We need to go ahead.”
Phoebe looked ahead, following the beam of light that Temple just turned on.
Aria’s little feet crunched as she moved ahead. “Into their place.”
Orlando swallowed with anticipation, and after another step he realized the hand he was holding was now smaller. Aria was between them, holding Phoebe’s hand as well as his, urging them forward.
Orlando blinked as she squeezed his fingers and he gasped, the same time as Phoebe.
“How did you do that?” She whispered, then looked over to Orlando. “Did you see it?”
He nodded, just as the flashlight beam fanned back to them, highlighting Aria’s grim but determined expression.
“See what?” Temple asked as Diana moved around and took the beam from him, then turned it off. And their eyes immediately picked up the local lighting, soft and ambient, revealing a widening chamber, largely undamaged except for a few cracks in the ceiling and walls.
“Oh,” Temple said. “This.”
Aria nodded, still leading Phoebe and Orlando, heading toward a rounded marble staircase that ascended to a second level. “I’ve seen this before,” Orlando said. “It’s where the UFO-things returned from outside.”
Temple looked doubtful. “But they all left, hightailed it out of here.”
“They did,” Phoebe agreed, “but not all their crafts left with them.”
“There,” Diana pointed, toward the second alcove from the right on the upper level. Something multi-hued, transparent. And inside…
“Room for four?” Orlando wondered, but Diana was already running up the stairs, leading Temple and Aria.
“Let’s hope,” she called back. “And let’s hope I can figure out how to fly it!”
“If anyone can,” Temple said. “It’s you.”
Orlando was about to race up after them when Phoebe held him back. He stopped and saw that her attention was riveted on the side wall. “What is that? Artwork? A mural?”
“A map, I’d say” Phoebe’s eyes bounced around from the colored circles to the elliptical lines drawn around the center object—a bright orange sun.
“There’s Saturn,” Orlando said, pointed to a striped, ringed circle. “But what’s that symbol over the smaller dot next to it? And there, the same thing on other dots.”
“They’re moons, idiot.” Phoebe smiled, looking at them all, taking in the whole scope. She was aware of Aria on the second level, watching them with interest while Diana and Temple tinkered with the craft’s controls. She hoped they could gain some insight without psychic intervention, and in time. But for now, she was engrossed with the map.
“Tell me,” said Orlando, “it’s not another Pharos-like door. Some kind of devilish test or code to break.”
Phoebe shook her head, her eyes shining, even as the room shook again and dust fell on them. “No code. No test. Just a map.”
“Of what?”
“Look closer at the symbols on those moons, Orlando.” She stepped closer as well, just to be certain her theory was correct. “Oh, if I’m right, big brother is going to be so jealous I figured this out without him.”
Orlando grinned, then peered closer under the ringed planet. “So, if I remember my astronomy class, this would be Saturn’s largest moon. Almost the size of the Earth itself. Titan.” Looked even closer, and brushed away some dust from the raised symbol. “A book?”
Phoebe nodded, tracing the same symbol not only on the Earth itself, but on its satellite. Specifically on the shaded side. “Wisdom,” she whispered, and closed her eyes.
“What does it mean?” Orlando frowned. He noted the book symbol elsewhere. “It’s also on Pluto’s moon. What was that one, Charon? And here, closer, on Phobos, for Mars.”
“And look out beyond Pluto,” Phoebe said. “At the edge of the wall.”
“Another one?” Orlando scampered there, then looked back on the five feet of emptiness, just black tiles. “What the hell’s out here? And this is one big ass book, twice as large as the others. And it’s just one dark planet.”
Phoebe shook her head slowly, still staring at the Earth and the Moon. “I can only guess about that, but for those closer to home, I’d say everything is a learning plan.”
“A what?”
Another rumble, and the floor cracked. The stairway split and three steps crumbled.
“Hurry, people!” Temple shouted. “Get up here.”
“Not ready yet!” Diana yelled back, sounding like she was in a tight position, perhaps trying to jump start the craft.
“On our way!” Orlando yelled, glancing at Phoebe. “We are, aren’t we?”
Phoebe nodded, giving the map a long last look, memorizing it. “We are.”
“Learning plan?” Orlando said as they ran for the stairs.
“Libraries,” she said. “It has to be. Repositories of wisdom, starting with the one on Earth.”
“In the Pharos Vault.”
“Originally, yes.” They gingerly took the steps, careful where they placed their feet. “And maybe the others are similar, just copies of everything we—our ancestors—once knew.”
“Ancestors, or aliens?”
“Ha
lf-dozen of one, six of the other.”
“Okay,” Orlando said, jumping over a gap, then helping Phoebe. “I guess. But you think it’s more?”
“Just by the sequence and distance.” She caught her breath before the second level. “I’m sure the other lunar locations—probably well-fortified like the Pharos—contain similar wisdom so that if anything should happen on Earth…”
“Like what happened to the dinosaurs.”
“Right, then if there were time and some of humanity made it out safely, they could start again.”
“But on another planet or moon? Without oxygen, or hell, even an atmosphere?”
“That’s not necessarily true,” Diana’s voice interrupted Phoebe’s response. They approached the end of the walkway where Diana was standing beside Temple, just behind the spherical violet field. Behind them, rounded seating zones, capable of holding a dozen of them.
“Tell them on the way,” Temple snapped, motioning Phoebe and Orlando inside. But it wasn’t until Aria ran through the sparkling field and grabbed their hands that they overcame their fear and passed through, inside the UFO.
“It tickles,” Orlando said, and then he was through and taking a seat beside Phoebe, next to Aria.
“No seat belts?” Phoebe asked, but Diana only shrugged as she stood in front of a pedestal and what looked like a flat podium-style presenter.
“That’ll be the least of my violations, right after driving one of these without a license. Or a clue.”
The mountain rumbled again, the floor pitched and gave way, cracking into chunks that fell out of sight. But the sphere remained, even as the rocks crumbled around them, bouncing off the field.
“If you’re going to try something,” Temple urged, “now would be a good time.”
Aria sighed, leaning against Orlando. She looked down and whispered, “Goodbye, Daddy.”
And Diana touched something on the screen, then sent her index finger sliding outward against the surface.
The craft moved instantly, and lurched them all forward, through the disintegrating layers of rock—
—and out into the night sky.
While behind them, the mountainside fell in chunks, pulverized and blasted outward by an invisible drill that bore deeper and deeper, annihilating everything in its path.
The Cydonia Objective mi-3 Page 26
