The Keepers of the Rose

by DJ Dalasta

  “Religion,” Wallace spit out. “It’s that simple.”

  “I guess it makes sense,” Rock replied. “Predict something easy like an eclipse and claim you did it, and early peoples would fall in line like dominos. At that point you have control of what they do.”

  Wallace grinned and slapped his knee. “And that’s how they did it. They went around the world and gained control through religion or supposed mystic powers, and then had the ears of those tribes and peoples. From there, they taught them rudimentary architecture and physics and math. They gave them keys to unlock advanced astronomy and handed over knowledge that took them thousands of years to acquire. Of course the people couldn’t understand it, not then. But to pass along the needed information, they had them build the mega structures of old and works unchanged by time like the famous I-ching not to mention laying the foundation for mythic stories that eventually would make it into works like the bible.”

  Rock jumped on board. “That’s where Stonehenge and the carnac stones and Easter island and the pyramids and all the lost temples of the ancient world come into play.”

  “Yes, yes,” Wallace said. “They all tell the same story, they all tell of the event unfolding right now, each structure or work gives us a precise date, precise time and most of all where to be when that time occurs.”

  “They tell us where to go?”

  “Yes and no. Each piece only gives a single location of safety, according to the book, and that is the place closest to where that civilization lived. At this time we still haven’t been able to decipher on how to retrieve that information from most all of the structures.” Wallace stroked his beard, thinking of his next point. “You know, another important point is to know that the people we call Atlantians thought it wrong to give the whole key to any single culture for fear the most powerful civilization would destroy the others for the land. As a result each emissary gave only one safe location to one peoples. That is except for one.”

  “The Mayans.” Rock finished.

  “Right. Although they weren’t the Mayan’s yet when the emissary arrived. But you’re right Rock, Kukulkan gave them the entire work. It says here he fell in love with the people and a woman in particular, and thought they were worthy enough and responsible enough to be given everything. He left them to return to Egypt to tell the others what he had done and then planned on returning to live with the Mayans for the rest of his days. But he never came back.”

  Rock knew what that meant. Such a serious infraction of a task wouldn’t sit well with the rest of his peers. “My guess is they didn’t like Kukulcan too much for what he did. I wouldn’t be surprised if they killed him.” He paused a moment to try and think if there could be any proof to this or was it all speculation. As far as he noted, everything so far was just an elaborate theory. “This is a great story, but the proof, Wallace, I don’t see it. Good theory, but I base my opinions and ideas on facts not hearsay, not tales, not well fitting stories.”

  Wallace rocked in his seat. “Within the book you brought, there have already sprouted mathematical equations that were only just recently discovered. Also, charts of astronomy showing a greater understanding than what we have today. And, what I feel is on those missing pages you are searching for is the actual numbers and equations to give us what is actually happening on December 21st, where its coming from and the equations to show us where to be, over the whole of the planet.”

  “That’s quite a prediction, I didn’t take you for one who believed the hype of the coming date.”

  “I didn’t, until now. I think this civilization that had these measurements knew more than us in some fields and I think one of those was the universe and its movements. Their equations could be right on. Their calendar is more accurate, there’s something to be said for that.”

  “That is impressive,” he agreed.

  “You know Rock, most equations are simple and elegant when they are revealed. I have a feeling this will be no different. Those people left every culture with a chance to move forward, the only fair way to do it. But nobody put it together, nobody saw any of it for what it really is.”

  Wallace snorted and coughed. But he was too worked up to stop talking. “The Mayan calendar pointed to this date on purpose, derived by the math given to them by an emissary. My guess is the I-ching is another piece of mathematical genius given to the Chinese culture by an emissary. Perhaps the infamous work of Terrance McKenna and his time-wave zero theory isn’t a mere coincidence. The pyramids and Stonehenge were also giant calendars pointing to this date though have fallen into ruin and much of their information has probably been lost. Or, we just haven’t looked in the right place.”

  Rock held up his hand to stop Wallace. The old man frowned. “Wallace, now you’re going into more of these off the beaten path crazy theories. You’re losing me, like what the hell is time-wave zero.”

  “Look it up Rock, I can’t explain it well. Basically he took the I-ching format of hexagrams, which is based upon the golden ratio and used their ratios and factors of 64, which is the number of complete hexagrams the work uses for its predictions, to mathematically plot a wave-from graph. By analyzing this graph he concluded that instances of novelty and change were increasing so fast that at some point it would conclude in a singular moment when everything could happen at one time thus changing the nature of time for conscious thought all together. He plotted his graph based on its relevance of known events, more to the point the Hiroshima bomb. And from there his graph seemed to fall in place, its peaks and troughs corresponding with major events in history for the last billion years. His graph comes to its end, or singularity on the same date as the Mayan calendar.”

  “Funky,” Rock grinned. “Someone actually reverse engineered a theory probably starting with that date and working backwards. You can make numbers do anything you want with enough time and brute force.”

  “He came up with this independently of knowing about the Mayan calendar.”

  “And M. Night Shyamalan wrote The Village independently of reading Running Out of Time, I suppose,” Rock interrupted. Wallace stared blankly, not understanding his reference. “Never mind.”

  Wallace nodded. “It’s a hokey theory but there are dozens like it and all of them can’t be coincidence. I mean the mega-structures and literary works from ancient times could be remnants of their emissaries doing by whatever means possible to pass along the information. That message was to warn us of this date and to tell us where to go so as to move forward without loss of culture, or knowledge. If we can keep all of our knowledge to this point and stave off this loss, then they would have been successful and our civilization can move forward. But truthfully Rock, I think we found this too late.”

  “It sounds to me like you’re convinced.” Rock wasn’t. “This still sounds silly and I think you just might want to believe this too much, where’s your scientific skepticism.”

  “It’s just too convenient, it solves almost every ancient mystery we have. We’ve even dated the book, Rock. It’s authentic. It’s old, over 2000 years old. And it says it is an exact copy from what Kukulcan had written when he first arrived. What you found is from the Mayans, but the words predate even them. And if they knew how to implement everything that’s in this book, even 2000 years ago, we’d be living in a very different world.”

  “I guess we’ll know when I find those missing pages and if you’re right, we better start thinking on what we do then. That’s a responsibility I don’t know if I want.” Rock had grappled with this very thought for a while now. He didn’t believe all of it. But what if he was wrong, what if everyone else was right? What if he did indeed have the only copy of something that could save billions of lives? Who was he to hold that responsibility? He didn’t know if he even would want that.

  Wallace’s smile faded. His brow furrowed and Rock could tell he hadn’t thought that far ahead either. “You bring up a good q
uestion,” he pursed his lips. “I need to think on that.” He grabbed the phone next to him and started to punch numbers.

  “Who are you calling?” Rock snapped. “Maybe you should have Skylar drive you into town and use a payphone.”

  “I’m just dialing Mickey, you remember him. I need him to get some numbers from my office. I might need my contacts in Washington. We may need to run things by them. But Rock,” he stared at him intently. “I do trust your judgment and when you get those pages, I wouldn’t be disappointed if it came to the point where you made the call.”

  Rock couldn’t help but smile. He was touched at the amount of faith Wallace put in him. It felt almost fatherly. “Be careful what you wish for my friend,” he responded. “Every choice has consequences for the one that makes it.” Rock took another sip of coffee but the effects couldn’t counteract his sleepiness. “I’m sure you didn’t give me all the information,” he said. “But my body is telling me it’s time to get some rest, we can discuss more when I get up.”

  Wallace nodded and grunted, the usual end to their conversations.

  Chapter 31

  Florida, August 2012