“Right?”
Maria nodded her approval of the basic story.
“Yes,” she said, “God was not pleased that the humans turned out to be pagans and therefore was going to destroy the first creation. However, God was pleased with the animals and wanted them saved. Also, because Noah and his family were not heathens, they too were to be saved. The ark was intended to save all the animals and Noah against the coming flood. ”
Santo nodded and added,
“Yeah, that’s what Edward and the Second Creation was all about.”
“Yes, that is the biblical version of the event. However, we all know that most stories in the Old Testament are loose interpretations of even older legends from other cultures. Many other legends talk of a creation, a flood and saving all the creatures and so on.”
Confused, for he didn’t know where she was going with this, he looked down at what was in her hand. Holding the plastic chip to his confused face, she boldly announced a fantastic speculation.
“Embedded in this crystal is a DNA code. I’m willing to bet that all the other millions of chips in this satellite are DNA codes of all living things on this planet from the dinosaurs up to the time this satellite was put into orbit. Not only hominid DNA but I’m betting all plants and insects are encoded in the rest of the crystals as well.”
She then stepped back, waved her hand around and excitedly added
“This satellite is a DNA depository and the original Noah’s Ark.”
A startled Santo again scanned a room filled with millions of chips. He suddenly realized that because Maria was a DNA profile specialist as well as an expert on alien DNA identification that she would want this whole room of treasures transferred to her laboratory. To her, it was the discovery of a lifetime and it showed in her excitement. He asked,
“Are you sure?”
“Look at me. Do I not look like I’m sure?”
He had to concede that fact.
Listening to the conversation, Pia suddenly thought she could add to the excitement level of the room. What Maria was holding in her hand and claiming was encoded with DNA was the same type of odd crystal shape she had seen over at the strange control panel. Thinking that there might be a connection, she returned to the panel and inspected the irregular shaped crystal more closely. Holding up to the light, she thought she saw something. Turning around, she called out to Maria.
“Professor, I think I might have something like that here for you as well.”
Chapter 20
Back in the secret chamber under the castle, hoping to pull Belle out of the mysterious cloud that had engulfed her, Robert dove after her. In the thick of the cloud he somehow found her hand and grabbed tight. Even with zero visibility Belle knew that they were in a freefall and plummeting to goodness knows where. It didn’t take Robert long to realize that he too was falling. Both were screaming in terror and it was about to get worse.
They suddenly plunged out of the cloud and into daylight. Both now saw what was really happening to them and the screaming intensified. From high in the sky they plunged out of the thick cloud and far below both saw green land and forests. If both had parachutes, it would have been an exhilarating tumble, except they didn’t have anything to break their deadly fall.
Beyond the terror of what was about to happen to them in a few seconds, Belle was the first to notice an impossible irregularity. Despite flowing hair and gushing wind against her face, she found enough composure to realize that they were not falling fast. She remembered what her dad had told her about parachuting. To control your fall, arc your back and go into what was referred to by experienced sky divers as a ‘spread eagle’. As she did, she yelled at Robert to stretch out his arms and legs as well. He knew it wouldn’t help but obeyed anyway. But it did help and for the first time Belle understood that they were not on Planet Earth anymore.
As they arched their back and spread their arms, they started to softly float downward. Like a swan coming in for a clumsy landing, both awkwardly landed on their feet. Belle was the first to regain composure. She stood in the middle of what could be a pasture and looked up at the cloud they had fallen out off. Strangely, it was not as high in the sky as she thought. Clearly it was a low level cloud and the only one in the blue sky. Confusion reigned supreme. Robert was not as composed as Belle. He ran around in frantic circles hysterically demanding to know what had just happened.
Although Belle had pretty well figured it out, she was slowed from explaining it to him because of laboured breathing. It took extra strength to suck in the thick air. At first she thought they were going to suffocate from struggling to inhale oxygen. It hurt both chest and lungs to gulp the air. However, after a few more frantic gulps, breathing became less labored.
Suddenly she understood why they were not killed by the fall and said to him,
“Will you settle down and stop running around like a headless chicken.”
But he couldn’t. Still filled with adrenaline he spurted out,
“I can’t breathe.”
“Calm down and it will get easier.”
When it became easier, he settled somewhat. After a thought, he announced,
“We should have died from the fall.”
He then suddenly stopped, looked intently at her and asked a calm and poignant question.
“Why didn’t we die?”
And then,
“Are we dead?”
As she looked around their new surroundings, lacking strong conviction she said,
“When you were running around, did you not see how high you were leaping off the ground? Obviously wherever we are, there is less gravity here. It’s almost like we are on the moon or something.”
Confused, he looked around and voiced the obvious.
“But this isn’t the moon.”
“No, but it still has less gravity. And the air is thick, almost the viscosity of water. We didn’t fall to the ground. We floated to it like sinking through water.”
After looking around at his strange surroundings he asked a calm question.
“We aren’t in Kansas anymore are we?”
She heard enough of her parent’s stories about dimensional gates to grasp what had just happened to them. Maria told her how they were once in what became known as Earth Tunnels, where they could go anywhere on Earth in the matter of just a few steps. She also remembered how they were once trapped in the dimension of the Sky People for what they thought was just a few hours but turned out to be two years of Earth time. Her slow reply to Robert’s question about Kansas rang true.
“No, I don’t think we are.”
As they turned to survey their new world, seeing only serene pasture land as far as the eye could see, she asked,
“While we were falling did you notice a community or maybe any sign of habitation?”
Not wanting to admit that it was hard to see anything with tightly closed eyes, he slowly shook his head. As they walked through the pasture she looked up at the lone cloud in the sky and hoped that it was not the only dimensional gate leading back to Earth.
After what could have been a few minutes of walking aimlessly through the pasture, the only sign of other life they saw was a flock of birds flying high overhead. Robert was the first to notice that although there was a sun in the sky, it was cold. As they made their way through the field both started to shiver. Because it was cold, Belle reached into her back pack and pulled out her red jacket. It was only then that she was glad mom insisted she pack it just in case. Seeing this, Robert also put on his red jacket.
While walking up a small incline through tall grass, neither noticed that anxiety had caused each to seek mutual comfort by walking side by side and holding hands. In the short distance they had covered, exhaustion caused frantic gasping for breath. They stopped at the crest of the knoll and looked out over the landscape to see miles into the distance. If they needed more proof that they were not in Kansas anymore, there it was far ahead.
About a mi
le away they were looking at a vast complex of tall buildings and streets. Not knowing what they would find down there but knowing it was better than where they were, exhausted, they struggled down the incline to what they hoped was a rescue and perhaps even a way back to Earth. However, the closer they got to the outskirts of the city, the more they realized hope of a rescue was fading. From what they could see, it was a city in ruins.
Steel frames and eroded concrete stood as skeletal ribs allowing visibility through what was left of them. At the base of each building was broken glass and crumbling concrete slabs piled high. It was a scene that went on for blocks and blocks. Grass, bushes and a few trees had broken through the streets making for a long straight forest. Still gasping for air, Belle commented,
“Wow, this place must have died hundreds of years ago.”
Robert asked,
“Where are all the people?”
Her reply was not reassuring.
“They must have died hundreds of years ago as well.”
Looking up into the sky, Belle saw another large flock of birds flying overhead. They were so plentiful that the sky darkened. It took minutes for the impossibly large flock to pass. Despite standing in sunshine, Robert shivered and said,
“I’m freezing. Let’s try to find some shelter or something.”
She looked at the position of the sun and understood that it would soon disappear over the horizon and get even colder. Nodding her approval of the suggestion, they soon found a small building on the outskirts of town and settled into it. The only thing left of the building was three walls and a small section of roof not yet crumbled to the ground. They huddled together for heat in what they hoped would be a safe corner under the roof. This was one of the few times that Belle was glad that she listened to her mom telling her to bring a jacket, it might get cold. Robert had removed his back pack and was holding it tight to his chest. Thinking that it was a good idea, she did the same with hers.
It was then that her instincts kicked into survival mode. She asked,
“Did your mom pack some sandwiches for lunch?”
He nodded and she added,
“Are you hungry?”
His reply was typical.
“I’m always hungry.”
“Okay, but we should save what little we have for when we get really hungry okay.”
He didn’t like it but knew it was the right thing to do.
When the sun went down, she expected the cold to invade the crumbling building but strangely, the deeper into the night it got, the warmer it got. In what could have been ten at night, if there was such a time on this planet, it was so hot that they released their grip on the back packs. Now in a sweat, Robert asked,
“How come it’s getting warmer? Without the sun, it should be getting colder.”
Belle had no idea. That and how they floated down to the ground was just one of the strange things they had encountered on this planet, or as she understood it, in this dimension. When walking through the field, the air was so thick that it felt like they were struggling to walk under water. No wonder they were exhausted. It was then that a small piece of the puzzle flickered into her. Maybe getting back to the cloud was not an impossible task after all. Rather than give false hope to Robert, she kept that small possibility to herself.
A few minutes later Robert’s hopeful question cut through the dark.
“We should be home for supper by now. Do you think mom and dad will come looking for us?”
There was sarcasm in her reply.
“Did you tell your mom and dad that we would be opening a secret door to a tunnel deep under the castle?”
It was a weak reply.
“No, you told me to keep it a secret.”
Then he hopefully added,
“But we have GPS transponders embedded in our shoes. They can track us with them right?”
“GPS tracking is done by satellites orbiting the Earth and clearly we are not on our planet anymore. No, I’m afraid that will not help us here at all.”
Chapter 21
Back in the Black Knight satellite, or as Maria understood it, the original Noah’s Ark, she came over to see what Pia had said about maybe another alien DNA strand encoded in a crystal. She took the irregularly shaped crystal from Pia and held it up to the light. Upon inspection she had to agree that although not sure, it certainly looked like there was a coded DNA strand encased in it. She looked down at the eleven others on the control panel and drew a very speculative conclusion. Granted it came from somebody who should know.
“This is an alien DNA code. It looks similar to one of the patterns I already know, that of the Great Grays.”
Knowing that they were not human genetics, she inspected another. This time and with a great deal of confidence she announced,
“This one is Sky People DNA. I recognize it from Liana and Quastima’s code.”
Suddenly understanding what she was really looking at, although pure speculation, she was once again correct. She waved her hand over the twelve crystals and said,
“These are all the DNA codes of the twelve alien tribes that once inhabited this planet.”
Both Santo and Pia were stunned to disbelief.
Filled with the explosion of what she had discovered, with the attitude of a strict Drill Sargent, Maria abruptly and loudly commanded,
“I want all twelve pieces brought over to our ship immediately.”
Santo understood her excitement. For years, this was what she had been searching for, DNA of all the alien inhabitants of this planet. Understanding her excitement, he forgave her uncharacteristic and strict command. Looking to the stunned Pia, he winked and said to her,
“I think we better do as the boss commands.”
As each piece was diligently taken off the slots in the panel, it was again Pia who noticed it. Although not aware of what had happened back on Earth in the castle library with a matching picture laid on a floor tile, what she held in her hand reminded her of a piece of picture puzzle. Looking down at the twelve irregular indentations on the panel and then back at what she was holding, she paused and knowingly nodded. Seeing that something was up, Maria, still excited beyond control and afraid something terrible might happen if not acted upon immediately snapped,
“Now! Get them on the ship now.”
Santo, guessing that Pia might be on to something took control and calmly asked,
“What is it Pia? What are you thinking?”
Holding the crystal over the control panel she explained,
“I’m a picture puzzle addict. I have this sense about what fits where and what does not. This strange shape will fit perfectly into the slot on that panel.”
She pointed to the indentation on the panel. Although Maria was still excited about the discovery of a lifetime, she snapped out of it and understood what Pia had said.
Adjacent to the different shapes were written unrecognizable characters. Maria understood correctly that it was a language of the builders of this ship and the DNA depository. She pointed to what she assumed were DNA tags identifying the twelve alien species. She then pointed to Santo who understood the silent command to photograph them. She gently took from Pia the piece she was holding and placed it into the matching pattern. All three expected something to happen and so stared intently at it. That’s why they did not notice what was happening in mid-air right in front of them.
In mid-air, it started as a speck of light no more than a hole a needle might make. While they were all still staring at the crystal and expecting something to happen, the pin hole expanded to become the size of a baseball. That’s when Santo noticed it. Seconds later all three were held spellbound by an expanding aperture of light only a few feet in front of them. In unison, all three took a precautionary backward step. The expanding circle of light now twisted and contorted to become what appeared to be a common door to any house. Peering into it, an image appeared looking much like Earth’s North Pole. Because of a red and yellow sun low on the
horizon, Maria and Santo knew they were looking through a dimensional portal at a planet of ice and howling wind. If somebody had once lived there it was thousands of years ago.
It only took Maria a second to realize that the DNA code in the crystal acted like a combination code opening up this specific portal. She also understood that this planet belonged to a species of this code now living on Earth. Pia and Santo did not understand her pensive mumbling,
“Who on earth would want to live on such an inhospitable planet of permanent ice and gale force winds. No wonder they came here.”
Santo’s eyes lit up. He knew who would want to live on such a planet. He remembered meeting the Snow Monks hiding in the Alps of northern Italy.
Her thought that the various DNA codes were a key to another dimension proved correct when removing the crystal and the image disappeared. She handed it to Santo and pointed to another one that Pia handed to her. After doing the same thing, inserting the irregular shape in the appropriate indentation, again a small light appeared to eventually become a gapping doorway. This time it was the image of an asteroid belt orbiting in an unknown solar system. Although not knowing the species of this DNA, she understood that whoever it was, they had lost their planet to a solar system catastrophe. It was not a farfetched stretch of imagination for her to realize all twelve alien species that once inhabited Earth had at one time lost their planet to whatever terrible circumstance and come here to continue their species. She played with the thought that the lost tribes in the Bible might have been a reference to the mystery of what had become of those twelve alien tribes.
The Noah Satellite Page 9
