by Aer-ki Jyr
“Why can’t you hack the door locks?” Greg asked. “I know we haven’t got a grasp on their crystal tech, but shouldn’t you be able to physically interrupt the command path and send your own?”
“Tried and failed,” Davis admitted. “I know I didn’t put this in the reports, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the stone is more than stone and has processing power of its own, so there’s no way to isolate the physical aspects from the computerized ones, because they’re one and the same…or so my theory goes, anyway. We haven’t been able to confirm or deny that yet,” he said, stopping as they passed through an atrium that held a wide set of stone-like doors. “Case in point.”
Paul knew from the pyramid schematics, which they’d all memorized, that this door let to one of the missing sections on the map.
“Coloration is different,” Greg said, frowning. “I don’t remember seeing that on the photos.”
“Neither do I,” Jason added, noting the almost phosphorescent ring around the doors.
“What do you mean?” Davis asked.
“The bright ring and symbols,” Greg explained. “Those weren’t included in the research data you sent us.”
Davis squinted. “I don’t see any…wait, yes I do now. Strange, I hadn’t noticed that before,” he said, walking over and rubbing a finger along the glowing ring. “It’s faint, but we shouldn’t have missed that. Sloppy,” he pronounced, but intrigued at the same time.
Paul and Jason exchanged glances.
“Faint?” Jason asked. “They’re glowing.”
Davis frowned. “I can barely make them out.”
“Can you see the symbols?” Greg asked.
“Where?”
“On the doors,” he said, walking forward and pointing. “I’ve seen this before. It’s the Human marker, but this is new,” he noted, swinging his finger over to the second symbol and brushing it up against the weird red color that almost made his eyes hurt for its intensity.
Suddenly the white ring around the door changed color to match the symbols and the doors pulled open, with Greg flinching backwards in surprise.
“I thought these were locked?” he said, looking inside as another hallway was made available to them.
“Hold on a second,” Davis said, his brow furrowed in concentration. “I could barely see the ring, and I didn’t see any symbols. I take it that’s not the case for you three?”
“Bright as can be,” Greg attested.
“Son of a bitch,” Davis muttered. “I should have seen this sooner.”
“The ambrosia,” Jason commented, catching on. “You copied it exactly?”
Davis nodded. “I always thought it was too complex to be just a nutritional supplement. What are your current dosage levels?”
“7.5,” Jason said, starring at the now red ring around the open doors.
“6.7,” Greg added.
“5.9,” Paul said, a little miffed at being the lightest of the three.
“I’m at .3,” Davis noted, nodding emphatically. “Last time I was here was before I started taking the ambrosia, and I believe that the most any of the research staff take is 1 deci every other day. If the concentration has to be high enough to enable us to see hidden markings and open sealed doors…”
“Then it’s a good thing you finally decided to bring us all down here,” Greg pointed out.
“Is that an ‘I told you so?’”
“It is,” Greg said without animosity.
“I stand corrected then…but you know my reasons.”
“Why allow computer access to those without ambrosia?” Paul wondered aloud, thinking ahead a bit.
“Internal caste structure?” Greg asked, looking to Davis.
“A good question…and a better one is will we get additional computer access if you’re the ones using the equipment?”
Greg glanced at the newly opened hallway. “Let’s organize this, then we can go on an Easter Egg hunt.”
“Agreed,” Davis said, throwing a quick glance at the now open door that had been sealed to them for the better part of a century. “I’ll take you to the command deck.”
The ‘command deck’ was the largest room in the pyramid, or rather chasm might have been a more appropriate term. Davis and his original exploration team had stumbled upon it early on, finding many dinosaur skeletons laying around, but they hadn’t glimpsed the true magnitude until months later when they’d finally found the ‘switch’ for the interior lights.
The room was oddly square, much like the exterior of the pyramid but foreign to the interior motif of curves which filled the nearly mile wide chamber. Circular pedestals made of resistant cushioning popped up across the landscape in irregular patterns, some were even elongated into wide arcs that the dinosaurs would rest upon, with the intervening spaces being that of the warm stone floor separating the upraised islands in a truly awe inspiring sight from the ground.
More than half of the pedestals had Human access stairs that led to control consoles on top of the pads, each of which could hold many dinosaurs. On top of these pads had been the skeletal remains of the former owners, but had since been cleared away and replaced by prefabricated structures of Star Force make, giving the research teams direct access to the sites rather than requiring them to make the long walks to and from the entrances scattered around the perimeter.
“Wow,” Jason commented as they climbed through the enormous doorway and up onto the command deck. The ceiling was high above, but not so high that it appeared distant, for compared to the side reaching expanses it was relatively low, though several hundred meters overhead.
“You said it,” Paul echoed as Davis led them along one of several color-coded lines that had been painted on the floor to help with navigation. Everything was so oversized that it was hard to get one’s bearings, so the research team had created their own ‘highways’ through the liberal use of paint on the otherwise pristine green/black stone floor.
“As the reports said, we believe this was the command center for the pyramid, and perhaps even the planet,” Davis offered as he glanced around for the off chance of finding an unused transport, then began the long walk out to the nearest of the pedestal pads. “We’re fairly sure that each of these islands held significance within the V’kit’no’sat’s political structure, though the dynamics of that we haven’t been able to define. There are what look like Human-only areas in the four corners of the deck, denoting the lowest ranking members, with two large banks in the center that you can almost make out from here that we guess mark the location of the more dominant races.”
“Below this level the various chambers appear to be split up according to race, but this area seems to have been communal. I would guess these are workstations more than seats, but we have no video records of activities in these areas to study. There is technology on the islands that does not appear to be designed for Human usage, but we haven’t been able to get it even remotely functional. Everything we have is from the Human perspective…which now appears to be the lower ranking Human perspective.”
“Have you been able to find out any more about the Human societal structure?” Greg asked as they followed a white line on the floor.
“Hints only, references to orders and such. This new ambrosia link suggests a much greater division, however.”
Paul raised an eyebrow. “You don’t think they were all on ambrosia?”
“We have access to the computer systems because of our genetics…I’m sure about that. I’m guessing that the ambrosia offers a second tier security function for more higher ranking Humans. I could barely see the ring around the doors but I couldn’t make out the symbols. It is possible that the level of access is determined by the concentration of the ambrosia…or perhaps something it leaves behind in the body, or an alteration that it makes.”
“If we can leave each other messages that only we can see…” Jason pointed out.
“Oh, I like that,” Greg said, thinking of all the applications they cou
ld use it for within Star Force.
“So,” Paul said, rubbing his hands together in exaggerated anticipation. “Where’s the secret paint?”
“It’s probably beyond our ability to produce, if it’s part of the construction of the stone,” Davis said, cracking a smile, “but I’ll have the research team look into it.”
“The other versions of ambrosia?” Jason inquired.
Davis turned back to look at the Archon and nodded. “Good point.”
“That won’t help if the doors are also genetically locked,” Greg added, referring to the dinosaur-only versions, which were constructed from different formulas than that of the Human-based ambrosia.
“True, but if we’re ever able to hack our way around the genetic locks it could be useful…if the theory is correct.”
“Director!” one of the research staff yelled down to him as they approached the bottom of the staircase that led up to the top of the nearest pedestal. “We have new computer access! I don’t know how, but the Archon was able to get further into the system!”
“More than that,” Davis said evenly as he took the stairs two at a time, “they can unlock some of the sealed doors. I think it has to do with the concentration of ambrosia within their systems,” he said, hurrying over to the nearest terminal where Sam and Ryan were standing, their eyes glued to a holographic display as they flipped through previously untouched portions of the pyramid’s database.
Suddenly the two Archons smiled and fist bumped, then turned back to look at the newcomers.
“What did you find?” Greg asked, knowing those smiles meant something big.
Ryan laughed once, then answered for the pair. “The pyramid has weapons.”
3
“Weapons?” Jason asked, jumping up the last three stairs.
“Oh yeah,” Ryan said, pointing to a holographic display floating over the control console he and Sam were using. “At’se bellet.”
Jason looked at the alien script that read ‘primary weapon’ at the top of a long list of other systems, most of the vocabulary he didn’t recognize. “Schematics?”
Ryan tapped the solid holographic words and a 3d diagram of the pyramid manifested itself in place of the list with the top tier of the pyramid highlighted and connected by several root-like shafts reaching down and around the command deck to the power generation systems below.
“Wait a minute,” Sam said, looking at the diagram. “That’s bigger than it should be.”
“30 tiers,” Paul counted. “Our map only has 18.”
“Looks like we’ve got a lot more doors to unlock,” Greg commented, coming up and placing a hand on Ryan’s shoulder. “We think the ambrosia acts as a security key. One of the permanently sealed doors opened up for us, and we were able to see secret markings on the walls that the research team couldn’t.”
“That’s probably how we got access then,” Sam said, nodding to the console. “We were running through the databanks and followed a link to the main system inventory, something he said they’d never been able to access.”
“Sam, what are you looking at now?” Davis asked, walking up beside him and the other Archons while the tech hovered around behind them, trying to get a better view.
“It seems to be a large weapon mounted atop the pyramid,” he said, pointing to the highlighted spot.
“Interesting…because I don’t see anything at the end of your finger.”
Paul glanced at Davis, then back at the hologram. “Invisible holograms too?”
Sam frowned. “You mean you can’t see the pyramid here?”
“No, it looks like the hologram isn’t even turned on. You said there are 30 tiers?”
Sam recounted. “Yep.”
Davis turned to the tech and pointed a thumb over his shoulder to the prefab structure sitting off a few meters to their right. “Get the word out that I want all the Archons to rendezvous back here and I want all the staff to do likewise.”
“It’ll take some time,” the man said, knowing how spread out the teams were. They’d actually had to set up base camps on the various levels, the pyramid was so vast.
“I know,” Davis said, with the tech nodding and heading to the door to access their comm equipment.
“If I’m reading this right,” Ryan said, pulling up some additional text, “it’s some form of energy weapon with an insane range.”
“That can’t be right,” Jason said, doing the mental math.
“Past Luna?” Sam asked for confirmation.
“That’s how I’m reading it. Paul?”
“Same here. And those power levels are nuts.”
“Would someone mind translating?” Davis asked.
“Sorry,” Paul offered. “There are statistics with the diagram, and the primary weapon seems to be for orbital defense, with a firing range of half a million kilometers.”
“You said it was located where?”
“At the summit.”
Davis nodded. “There is a large dead zone there that we’ve never been able to access.”
“Time out a second,” Sam said, with the other trailblazers turning their attention away from the hologram. “I thought all the V’kit’no’sat took ambrosia. Who is this meant to be hidden from?”
“An excellent question,” Davis acknowledged, still annoyed at not being able to see the new data. “These systems were clearly designed for Human use, but the ambrosia…if it really is the ambrosia…suggests that not all Humans were trusted with the same level of access, both to the computer systems and to certain regions of the pyramid. If there are another 12 missing tiers that’s a huge area being blocked off, considering how each progressive tier gets larger the further down you go. What we find there should give us some answers.”
“Unless those are dino-only regions,” Greg noted.
“That’s a possibility,” Davis admitted. “But we know we at least have access to at least one new area up top.”
“What’s up?” Sara asked as she hopped up the stairs with Jace and Zak in tow, followed by a couple of scientists.
“We’re going to split up into search teams,” Greg said, walking a few steps away to fill everyone in as they arrived while the others kept digging into the computer system.
“Where’s ground level supposed to be,” Jason asked, fiddling with the controls.
“Here,” Ryan said, hitting a few keys on the control board. Suddenly surveillance footage of the exterior popped up around and replacing the diagram, showing a tropical rainforest. “Ok, that’s not exactly what I expected.”
“Timestamp,” Paul pointed out, floating above the pyramid. It took him a moment to translate the date, given that the V’kit’no’sat didn’t base their measurement system off of Earth’s orbital length, but rather had a standard system used throughout their empire. “100,000ish years ago?”
“No way,” Sam said, slightly nudging Ryan aside. “He reached down and touched the base of the hologram with two fingers and pulled them apart, enlarging the map until several burnt out tracks of forest were visible. He looked around for the time controls, but didn’t see any floating in mid air so he tried the keys.
“Battle scars?” Ryan guessed, looking at the damage to the forest…then suddenly the damage disappeared, replaced by full grown trees as Sam found the skip/rewind button. After several minutes of experimenting and learning how to dial down the sensitivity of the time jumps he brought it to the point where the trees had gone missing.
“What kind of weapon is that?” Ryan asked as a wave of what looked like slow moving, neon blue/green water spilled down from overhead and disintegrated the vegetation.
“Can you run that in real time?” Jason asked.
“That is real time,” Sam said, checking once again anyway.
“What’s that?” Paul said, pointing to the center of the destruction. The neon ‘water’ collected on the surface, slowly dissipating while it spread out and revealed three objects beneath that had been undamaged in the atta
ck, protected beneath some kind of invisible dome that was keeping the ‘water’ at bay around their thick feet.
Suddenly one of the three spike-topped aliens let loose a cascade of energy, apparently emitting from its spikes, into the forest ahead, targeting some unseen attacker as tiny bolts of green energy amassed in droves from elsewhere in the forest.
All four Archons fell silent for a long moment, watching the battle take place. The three Hjar’at held their position while the blue goo disappeared, then a wave of tiny metallic-looking chickens broke through the brush and leapt at them. Two were caught in mid air by another spike-generated energy blast, but there were too many to stop. Four more slipped alongside the centermost Hjar’at and fired at its neck with their tiny weapons, pumping round after round into what, upon a closer zoom of the recording, appeared to be heavy battle armor that the dinosaur was wearing.
Sam paused the footage, zooming in again and finding that the camera view could rotate and spin about, as if the entire battle had been recorded in 3d. The camera view he had moved into the gap between the center and left Hjar’at, then he flew it in up close to where the ‘chickens’ were attacking its neck.
“Rit’ko’sor,” Paul identified the ‘chickens.’
“They’re both wearing armor,” Jason added, referring to the Raptors and Stegosauruses.
“I don’t know what’s recording this, but there are dead zones,” Sam said, pointing to the visible underside of the central Hjar’at, where only a wireframe connected the left and right side of the beast. He spun the camera around a bit and noticed that the trees near the pyramid were also wireframe only, save for the canopy which appeared in full visual view.
“Backtrack to that big weapon hit,” Jason said, “and zoom out. Let’s see where it came from.”
Sam worked the controls, now getting more familiar with the feel of them, and brought them back to the impact of the neon ‘water,’ then zoomed out, revealing that it came from a point on the third tier of the pyramid.
