“These aren’t just designs this is writing. I’ve seen it before.”
Ashlyn turned to him; a disbelieving expression blanketed her face.
“Where?” Mark demanded.
“In Guatemala, it’s Mayan.”
“No way—” she looked more closely at it “—I think he’s right Mark.”
“He is”—Kathleen interjected—“or close to it, but it would be more accurate to say that the Mayan’s wrote in a derivative of Atlantean.”
They all turned, and she continued, “That’s the reason that we’ve been able to translate so many of their writings. In fact, it’s the reason I’m here. I worked on Mayan ruins prior to this job.”
They were silent waiting for her to continue.
“We couldn’t make any sense of it until the last couple of decades as we began deciphering the written language on the Mayan Pyramids. We used their work to begin translating these.”
Stewart smiled broadly, “Again, I’m the one with the answers.”
“You, my friend—” Mark put his hand on Stewart’s shoulder “—are going to get a swollen head.”
“Me?—” he laughed “—at least then I won’t be the odd man out between the three of us.”
“Hey”—Ashlyn cut in jokingly—“watch the insults.”
Mark went back to studying the walls. Suddenly, he asked, “Ashlyn, can you read this?”
“Why would I be able to?"
“You speak lots of languages.”
“Mark, why would an assassin ever need to be able to read ancient Mayan writing?”
Kathleen cringed. Stewart noticed her expression. He quietly whispered the answer to her unspoken question, “Ashlyn isn’t an assassin, just Dierdra.”
Ashlyn heard the interchange, and realized how bad that must have sounded. She turned to Kathleen.
“I was trained how to be an assassin—” Ashlyn spoke hesitantly “—but I’m not an assassin.”
“I’m sorry for my reaction—” Kathleen said “—Stewart already explained it to me. You just look so much like …I’m sorry; she looks so much like you. I never knew what she did for the admiral until last night. I haven’t adjusted to the thought.”
Ashlyn bit her lower lip slightly, and shot Stewart a look that clearly said—stop telling people about my personal life!
He opened his mouth for a second, but nothing came out and he swallowed hard.
Mark stepped closer and gently touched her arm. “I suppose—” he was trying to break the tension “—the Atlanteans taught the Mayans how to build pyramids. What do you think?”
“How should I know?” Ashlyn walked away and pretended to look at something else.
“Yes they did”—Kathleen answered his question—“they taught the Mayans as well as the Egyptians.”
Mark was no longer paying attention. He was watching Ashlyn.
Stewart turned to Kathleen and said, “But the Egyptians didn’t build the pyramids until long after you said that Atlantis arrived here.”
“They were quite adept at building ships,” she answered.
Mark left the conversation and joined Ashlyn. She was facing away from him. He didn’t ask her to turn; instead, he walked to the other side of her.
“I’m going to check on my team,” Kathleen announced to everyone. It was obvious that she was trying to escape the awkward situation.
“Hey, mind if I tag along,” Stewart asked her.
“Don’t you think you should stay with them—” she said very softly “—I think I’m the problem here.”
Stewart shook his head, and whispered, “No, I am, but right now, I think I should let Mark take care of it. I will apologize later.”
When Mark and Ashlyn were alone, he stepped closer to her, and gently lifted her chin so that she was looking up at him. Tears glistened in her eyes, but none had escaped.
“He didn’t mean to hurt you, sweetheart.”
“I know”—she whispered—“it’s just so hard to …I just don’t want the part of me I hate the most to be public knowledge.”
“I will talk to him, and—”
“No, when we get back I will. I’m fine really. I just didn’t expect that to happen the way it did.”
“—alright, but—” he pulled her closely to him “—remember that I love you.”
“I know”—she whispered—“I love you too. I just want to go back to the yacht. This place …It’s the admiral’s domain. I’m having a hard time with …”
He met her eyes. “I understand. Stewart doesn’t know the connection to your childhood.”
“Will you do me a favor?”
“Anything,” Mark answered.
She shook her head. “Don’t tell him.”
He looked surprised, but he didn’t ask any questions, “All right. I won’t.”
After a short while, she and Mark went in search of Stewart. He was busily conversing with Kathleen.
When Mark and Ashlyn saw him, she turned to him and said, “I’m sensing a theme here.”
He turned to her. “What are you referring to?”
“Nick seems—” she curled up one side of her mouth “—how shall I say this …smitten.”
“You think?”
“Good—” Ashlyn interrupted them “—we found you.”
Stewart began, “Ashlyn I’m—”
“Don’t worry about it—” she cut him off “—I’m a little touchy over little things right now.”
“—just the same, I’m truly sorry.”
She forced herself to smile, and changed the subject. “So, is there anything in there about that 2012 Mayan calendar disaster stuff?”
“Why would that matter?—” Mark asked “—2012 has come and gone.
“Well”—she said uncomfortably—“some scholars believe that it wasn’t saying the disaster would happen then. They have said all along that 2012 would only be the beginning of a change, which would build up into a series of disasters.”
“Yes as a matter-of-fact it does—” Kathleen interjected “—and that is exactly what it says.”
The three of them looked at her in surprise and Stewart blurted out, “You have got to be kidding!—” He shook his head “—doomsday stuff?”
“You did just tell me last night that the United States has been practically wiped out—” she eyed him strangely “—didn’t you?”
A pall filled the air, and then Mark asked seriously, “Do you really think that the date has something to do with that?”
“The Atlanteans were great astronomers. We found one of their telescopes—” she opened her arms expansively “—it was several miles long with a diameter as large as a skyscraper.”
“How would they …” Stewart trailed off. “Never mind, I know, nanotechnology.”
“I don’t understand—” Ashlyn turned to Mark “—how does nanotechnology answer all these questions? I think I understand how nanotechnology can be used to build small objects but …How does it explain huge things?”
“Just because we are talking about small machines doesn’t mean they can only build small things. The machines, or more accurately miniature robots, would be self-replicating. They could build virtually anything out of any material lying around. Take the dome for instance. It is made of diamond-like fibers.”
Ashlyn nodded before he went on.
“That’s just carbon rearranged. Because there is an unlimited supply of atoms, there is an unlimited supply of building materials—” he waited to let that sink in “— just program the design in, and the robots would build it from the atomic level. Kind of like the food replicators in Star Trek, they just tell the computer what they want to eat, and it gets made on the spot.”
“Oh”—Stewart chimed in—“that’s how those things are supposed to work. Maybe that explains the Holodeck too?”
“Alright—” Mark made a time out motion “—reality check, that’s science fiction. Don’t even let me get started on that.”
“I liked the Holodeck idea.” Stewart scowled.
“I don’t get how that solves the size issue”—Ashlyn went on—“wouldn’t it take forever to build anything one atom at a time?”
“No—” Mark twisted his lips “—in the real world if you want to build a house out of ten thousand bricks and you have ten guys to do it, they would each have to move one thousand bricks, right? It would be very time consuming. However, if you had a thousand men to move ten thousand bricks, it would be much faster. In theory, things would be manufactured at incredible speeds—exponential even.”
“Okay, I get it”—she said—“unlimited building materials, unlimited labor force.”
“I have a question—” Mark turned to Kathleen “—being made of diamond fibers of some sort, wouldn’t that dome have to be incredibly thick in order to hold back that amount of water? In spite of that, it’s clear.
“Yes it’s clear, but no, it’s not thick.”
“I just can’t imagine—” he looked up as though he could see it through the top of the pyramid “—how is that possible?”
“I’m not entirely sure”—she took a deep breath—“there are descriptions of it in their writings, but I’m not that kind of scientist. It says something like it’s made of layers sandwiched in between other layers, which consist of very thin areas of vacuum space. The internal spaces are separated by gaps only ten nanometers wide.”
He nodded.
“It says something about the angular spin momentum of the electrons—” she shrugged “—and some kind of phosphorescent gas between the top and bottom boundaries that are supposed to negate the impact of the photons on the vacuum space. It was to force the light to bend around it, or …something like that. I’m not sure that the translation is entirely accurate.”
“That makes sense.”
“Really—” she said excitedly “—I haven’t been able to make any sense of it myself. I don’t see any phosphorescent anything up there, so I thought I was reading it wrong.”
“I can’t say for sure”—he said excitedly—“but phosphorescent is not the same as fluorescent. That is when we are talking about quantum physics. A phosphorescent medium can absorb radiation, or light, at one level of energy, and then re-release it at a different intensity. Sometimes it even stores it temporarily. Maybe it is somehow preventing the passing light from disturbing the vacuum space.”
The others stared at him blankly.
“You told Stewart”—Mark went on ignoring their confusion—“that the dome had a strong magnetic field?”
“It does—” Kathleen replied “—but only the outer layer comes directly in contact with the water. I think, from what I understand that they are using the Casimir effect, or zero-point energy.”
He nodded his understanding, so she went on, “Depending upon the spin of the electrons, the force can repulse or attract; in this case, I’m thinking repulse. Each ten nanometer layer then could have the force of one atmosphere, which is directly related to the pressure of water at depth.”
“Mark—” Ashlyn interjected “—we don’t want you to explain that.”
“All right—” he sounded slightly disappointed “—Kathleen, you were telling us that the Atlanteans were great astronomers before we got off on the nano-tangent.”
“Yes”—she went on—“they taught the other cultures to build pyramids. The entire continent of Atlantis moved across the world in one day.”
“Yeah—” Ashlyn interrupted “—that’s the cookie thing; you don’t need to explain it.”
Kathleen stared at her bemused for a moment before continuing.
“It didn’t take long for the Atlanteans to realize that the continent had gone through a wormhole, they just didn’t know why. Through their research, they found that naturally occurring electromagnetic forces occasionally caused wormholes to materialize. Apparently there were a lot of other strange events, but it was only the beginning.”
Mark encouraged her to go on, in spite of the glazed-over expressions the others were giving her.
“I’m won’t go into details now—” she gestured with her hands “—but they took core samples all over the Earth and studied the stars in comparison with what they had learned. They realized that the Earth has cycles much like the sun does. It happens about every 5,125 years, causing dramatic and cataclysmic events, and yes, according to their research, 2012 would be the beginning of strange events, including what they call time storms.”
“What is a time storm?” Ashlyn asked.
“It seems to be caused by the increased activity in the electromagnetic field. It causes things—” Kathleen hesitated “—people, and even places, to travel in space or time.”
Mark and Ashlyn looked at each other meaningfully but didn’t say anything about their experience.
“Wait a minute—” he held up his hand “—Atlantis was supposed to have been around nine or ten thousand years ago, so you’re talking about that happening two cycles ago. If that’s the case, then what happened during the last one? We do have some recorded history back that far.”
“I guess you aren’t a Bible scholar,” Kathleen said.
“What does the Bible have to do with it?”
“The biblical account has the date a few hundred years off, but every culture has a record of a great deluge, and the common consensus among the various cultures puts it at about 5,125 years ago.”
“Are you suggesting that the Flood, Noah’s Flood, is what happened the last time there was this change?” he asked incredulously.
“According to their records”—she nodded—“some of the Atlanteans were still living at the time of the Flood. It sounds as if it was caused by a pole-flip in the earth’s magnetic field. They stayed right here under this dome to wait it out.”
“How would a pole-flip cause that,” Stewart asked.
“Some scientists think”—she shrugged—“that pole-flips happen fast and cause the crust of the earth to slide over the liquid mantel. There is actually a lot of evidence of that. Flash frozen plants and animals under the Antarctic ice sheet. If the crust slid, the water from all the oceans could flood the whole earth, temporarily.”
They were all silent until Ashlyn asked, “I still don’t get why a pole-flip would cause the crust to slip.”
Mark answered, “The inside of the earth is a solid magnetic core. Imagine a gigantic magnet floating in liquid. A strong electrical field from changes in the sun or …something we don’t know about could cause it to flip. Magnets usually rock a little at first, but when they flip, it happens suddenly. It’s possible that it could cause the rotation of the liquid core to change directions. The sudden reversal would cause the crust to slip. It would be like being in a car accident. When the car stops suddenly, the occupants don’t. That’s why we have seat belts.
Kathleen smiled, and said, “I couldn’t have explained that better. Anyway, after the Flood was over and the surviving people began to rebuild, the Atlanteans came out of the refuge here, and taught the other cultures how to build pyramids.”
“Why would they want to build pyramids?” Ashlyn asked.
“The pyramids are calendars to keep a record of the time and information about the stars. These pyramids would stand the test of time and maybe help prepare the people of the future for the next set of cataclysms. They passed all of their knowledge on, except nanotechnology, which is why the Mayan pyramids are made of limestone rather than this.” She motioned around the room at the alabaster, glowing, seamless, glass-like walls.
Mark rubbed his eyes. “You’re saying all of the pyramids, all over the world are connected to the Atlanteans?”
“Absolutely, in fact, all the pyramids, including the Egyptian, the Mayan, and the others found in Mesoamerica, are calendars. They were all built to align with the star cluster Pleiades during the next great galactic alignment. The Atlanteans and the Mayans called the center of the Milky Way Hunab Ku.”
None of them said anything, but it w
as obvious from the expression on Ashlyn and Stewart’s faces that they needed a break.
“I have one more question—” Mark asked seriously “—where did the Atlanteans go?”
“According to their records, a great plague killed most of them. Enough died that they were not able to maintain a culture. The few still alive mixed in among the other peoples of the world and remained for the duration of their lives as great teachers.”
Ashlyn took a deep breath and rubbed her eyes. “I don’t mean to complain, but my brain needs a rest and I’m getting hungry too. Is there anywhere to eat around here, or do we need to go back to the main building?”
“What, do you think there is a Burger King? We are six thousand feet underwater Ashlyn,” Stewart teased.
She rolled her eyes at him, and then looked pleadingly at Mark.
“Yeah”—Mark agreed—“we need to eat something and rest our brains.”
“I’m afraid you will have to go back to the main building”—Kathleen smiled and tossed her hair a bit—“Stewart’s right, no Burger King.”
At that, a tiny smile turned up just the corner of Ashlyn’s lips ever so slightly.
“Before you go—” Kathleen said “—let me just show you one more thing.”
The three of them followed her into a much larger room.
“Do you see that?” Ashlyn asked Mark.
She pointed at a large block of limestone that had to weigh at least a couple of tons. It looked as if it was floating just off the ground. Mark tilted his head as if to discover what was holding it up. Apparently, the block was what Kathleen had planned to show them. She walked over to it and pushed it gently. It moved easily.
“Just like an air hockey puck,” Stewart speculated.
“But there’s no air blowing out the bottom, or up from the floor,” Mark pointed out.
“I didn’t mean it had air—” Stewart explained “—I just meant …I’m not sure what I meant.”
“It’s not really that different,” Kathleen said.
Stewart smiled and stood up a little straighter. Ashlyn looked down, and scratched her eyebrow to cover another smile. She gave Mark a sideways glance.
Time Storm Shockwave Page 18
