Unification: The Anunnaki Unification Book 5

by Michele Briere

“He got by Nick’s background check?” Daniel asked. “Someone has talent in creating paper-trails.”

  Jack scratched at his nose before tugging thoughtfully on it. “Barrett, find out if Coulter and a young lady named Brynn Sheely are working for the same people.”

  “The woman you tried out as a nanny?” Barrett asked.

  “Yes,” Jack nodded, not surprised that Barrett knew about it. “She’s in an Irish prison. Sam can get you the files.”

  “Jack,” Daniel began, hating the dirty tricks aspect of interrogation. He was pacing a little, his arms wrapped around himself.

  “Daniel, we need to know,” Jack said, knowing what was bothering Daniel. “If this was a simple case of stupidity, I’d let it go, but it isn’t. He’s been programmed. We need to find out what that programming is. I’m not asking you to participate, but you need to understand why it needs to be done.”

  Daniel wasn’t happy about it, but he did understand.

  “Where’s the ship?” Jack asked, giving Daniel’s shoulder a squeeze. Daniel left with Jack, leaving Coulter in Barrett’s hands, and led Jack through the underground maze to a large bay holding the ancient jumper that they had brought over from Austria.

  Scientists dressed in white suits buzzed around the ship, some writing on hand-held boards and others talking into recorders.

  “Who’s in charge?” Jack asked. Daniel looked at him. “I mean, who’s in charge when you’re not here.”

  “Dr. Frito,” Daniel said. Jack returned the look. “Don’t, please. Just Fritz. She’s over there.”

  Jack looked across the room and spotted the professor, an older woman with frizzy white hair flying away from the pins attempting to hold it captive. She absently pushed coke-bottle glasses back to the top of her nose and then pulled them down again to look over the top of them.

  “Fritz,” Daniel called, waving an arm. She blinked blankly and then smiled.

  “Where do you find them?” Jack whispered. Daniel ignored him and went across the room with Jack tagging behind.

  “Hello, Daniel,” she said. “Is the fire out?”

  “We’re good,” Daniel assured Fritz. “How’s it going with the ship?”

  She turned to the ship, tossing her arms out wide to encompass the vessel. Jack jumped out of the way of the clipboard.

  “It’s been quite fascinating,” she informed them. “I don’t believe this ship is necessarily older than the current ones, but I do believe its purpose was different than the others. Come, come….” she waved at them to follow her.

  Inside the ship, someone, or several someones, had plastered the panels and walls with sticky notes. Jack looked closely at them. Most were written in various languages, and a few had multiple languages on single pieces of paper. They reminded Jack of Daniel’s notebooks.

  “Most of this is Ancient technology,” Fritz said, stepping over feet sticking out from under a console. “There are aspects that don’t fit, however. Someone had attempted to force the crystal technology with a gaseous technology, hence the hollow tubing. The gas had long since dissipated. What’s been interesting, though, is that the main function of the ship remained.” She pushed on her glasses, waiting. Daniel pushed at his own glasses.

  “I don’t read minds, Doctor, spill it,” Jack finally said. She blinked at him, having forgotten his presence.

  “It’s a gigantic tape-recorder,” she said.

  “Excuse me?”

  “It has been the witness to our entire civilization,” she said, the clipboard once more sailing through the air. “Everything that has ever happened on this planet has been recorded. We haven’t actually been able to turn on the replay but we know it’s recording. From the amount of stored data, we estimate it has approximately ten thousand years worth of history recorded. It’s still recording.”

  Jack touched a side panel and sat on the small seat that extended. Several people looked at him, not having realized that the seat was there. He clasped his hands between his knees, looking at the floor as his mind raced. Daniel ran his hands over his face and locked his fingers behind his neck as he paced in thought.

  “Did Colonel Sheppard go over the ship?” Jack asked.

  “Just a cursory exam,” Daniel said. “Mainly to check for weapons.”

  Jack stood. “Everyone out.” The scientists paused, looking from him to Fritz. “Out. Now.” Daniel jerked his head toward the door and motioned them out. He closed the door behind them, ignoring their protests.

  “This could destroy the planet,” Jack said. Considering all the historical mysteries, past and present, secular and theistic, having facts presented to the world could ignite Armageddon.

  “I agree. Are you prepared to make this decision on your own?” Daniel asked.

  “I don’t know,” Jack admitted. “I was expecting to fight weapons, not knowledge.” He stood and paced, yanking on the back of his neck as he looked around. “We need to get this ship off the planet before I consider mentioning it to people.”

  “I think I’d like to know who did this before we do anything else,” Daniel said. “If the Ancients didn’t put it here, who did? It isn’t Furling, definitely not Nox or Asgard.”

  They opened the door and went out.

  “No one goes in there,” Jack ordered. He palmed the door shut and locked it. “I want all data sent to my office immediately. Including any secret copies that anyone was hoping to make money on. Don’t think I won’t know if anyone ‘forgets’ a piece of paper.”

  “But, General!” Fritz protested, her eyes even bigger behind the glasses. “You can’t do this!”

  “It’s done, Doctor,” he said. “Daniel, I want everyone who isn’t here, brought here. Get them out of their bath, their blow-job, their after lunch shit, I don’t care. Here. Now. Everyone should be tagged; get the Europa back here.”

  Daniel inclined his head, not arguing. Jack called Sam down and then called Michael. “Mikey, I need to ask you something,” he said when the line was answered. “If you were offered absolute, physical proof that your religion was true, or not, would you be willing to hear the answer? What if that answer wasn’t what your heart wanted to hear?” Jack waited. “I can feel your panic, Mike. No, I’m not making the offer, I’m just asking.”

  “What’s going on?” Sam asked when he hung up.

  “That jumper has been recording Earth history for about ten thousand years,” he told her. She immediately pieced together the puzzle.

  “Oh, my,” she breathed, wide-eyed. “But the analysis of the mountain puts the ship there millions of years ago.” Confusion crossed her face.

  Jack nodded. “We can work on that later; I’ve put the ship off-limits for the time being,” he told her. “Daniel is gathering up all off-duty personnel. Dr. Fritz hasn’t been able to get the replay button to work. I’m pretty sure I can.”

  He sat across from her, stretching his long legs out as he tilted his head back, staring at the ceiling.

  “I’d like your thoughts on this,” he said. “Your personal feelings.”

  She leaned back, lacing her fingers over her stomach. “Personally, it won’t bother me one way or the other,” she said. “Whatever the reality, it won’t affect my work. On a broader level, though, billions of people will feel the effect.”

  “It’s a powder keg,” Jack agreed. He palmed the door open and let Daniel back into the ship, much to the irritation of the scientists hanging around and scowling. They had tried to get the door open and succeeded only in fraying tempers.

  “Are we sure this isn’t an Ancient ship?” Jack asked.

  “We’re sure,” Daniel said. “We have a small dilemma. Enki was here about ten thousand years ago, and he didn’t notice anything happening in Europe. There really wasn’t anything to watch happening, in that time period.

  “The Neolithic Revolution - introducing village life, the cultivation of crops and the rearing of animals - arrived in Greece in about seven thousand BCE from its region of origin in the M
iddle East. It would take about three thousand years to spread to the Atlantic coast and Britain, pushing back the way of life of the hunter-gatherers at an average rate of slightly more than a mile a year. Tribes speaking Indo-European languages, and living as nomadic herdsmen, are well established by about two thousand BCE in the steppes which stretch from the Ukraine eastwards, to the regions north of the Black and the Caspian Seas.

  “Over the coming centuries they steadily infiltrate the more appealing regions to the south and west - the Caspian -occasionally in something akin to open warfare, and invariably no doubt with violence. But the process is much more gradual than our modern notions of an invading force. In Europe the first Indo-European tribes to make significant inroads are the Greeks. They move south into Greece and the Aegean from the eighteenth century BCE.” He paused and looked at them.

  “So who the hell was in Europe in eight thousand BCE?” he asked them. “We have cavemen and agronomists meeting up with…. who? The Ancients were gone by then. As a race, anyway, and the Sumerians didn’t show up in the Middle East until about four thousand BCE.”

  Sam nodded. “True,” she said. “I have a question: We know that the Ancients were escaping from something. They went from here to the Pegasus galaxy, where they accidentally created the Wraith, and back to here where they died out. So, who were they originally running from?”

  “Is this relevant to the ship?” Jack asked.

  Sam shrugged. “It might be, I don’t know. Maybe whoever they were running from put the ship in the mountain, and said mountain dates to millions of years old. Maybe whoever it belonged to timed it in and got stuck inside the mountain?”

  “Good idea,” Jack said. “It may be relevant. I’d like to discuss the information this ship quite possibly holds, anyway, and how we are to deal with it. We have three major religions that will blow up, if this box says what I think it will say. Those three major religions are pretty much in control of most of the world. Do I honor truth and let the information out, or do I leave them in ignorant peace? Such as it is, considering the state of war out there. I asked my brother how he would feel about learning facts that may not be to his liking; he pretty much had a melt-down, and I hadn’t even gotten to the good part. That’s just one man.”

  “Jack, how do you know they never existed?” Sam asked. They looked at her as she stood to watch the scientists out the front window. “Playing devil’s advocate….. Let’s ignore the question of whether or not the God of Abraham existed. Did Abraham exist? If he did, all three of those religions are still legitimate. Their message is still appropriate. All three have messages of peace and love and kindness. Granted, all three also have messages of violence, but I think that might be politics talking through the authors, not the spirit of their deity. If you decide to release the truth, can it be released in a certain manner?”

  “Kicking their crutch out from under them, any way it’s done, will still have the same effect,” Jack said. “They will fall on their asses and start blaming each other for the kick. They can’t play nice now, what makes you think they’ll play nice when they’re in full-blown panic?”

  “I think you should destroy the ship.”

  They slowly turned to Daniel.

  “Did you say something, Dr. The-Sky-Is-Falling-Save-The-Clouds?” Jack asked.

  Daniel nodded and waved a wrist. “I know, I know…..” He put his hands over his face for a moment. “You’re right, Jack; the tribes of Abraham will destroy themselves and half the planet if they find out that their God was no more and no less than any other god. Send the ship into a sun and destroy it.”

  “I have to disagree with you, Daniel,” Sam said. “Now, hear me out on this….. You have spent almost a year being open and honest with the kids. You have preached on and on about having them grow up with open minds. Now you are faced with the ultimate truth and you’re NOT going to tell them? How does that work?”

  “It would be a loving-kindness to keep this from them,” Daniel said.

  “It would be a loving-kindness for their kids to grow up in a world without war,” Sam said.

  “There is no easy answer for this one,” Jack said, breaking the silence. “We need to have a talk with this world’s religious leaders. If for no other reason then for the UW’s rule, and the UN’s laws, of self-determination.”

  “Jack, I think we need to take a look at the history before making any decision,” Daniel said. “We could be panicking for no reason.”

  Jack puffed noisily into his hands and then nodded. He turned and looked over the console, hesitantly putting out a hand. Sheppard wouldn’t have known to look for it and it was highly unlikely any of the scientists outside would have the necessary gene for it. A brief thought entered his head –he wondered if he could get his TV to work on mental power…..

  “Well, if it’s still recording, it would make sense that it’s kept up with language shifts…. World map,” Jack said mainly to himself before raising his voice slightly. The screen shifted to an image of the planet.

  “Here,” Jack said, touching the screen. The Middle East was brought into focus. “Daniel, what date are we looking at?”

  “Try two thousand BCE,” Daniel said. “To start with. Move forward from there.”

  Jack called out the date and new locations as Daniel prompted him.

  “Can we find out who killed Kennedy?” Jack asked him. The screen abruptly changed. “No, go back!” he ordered. “I wasn’t speaking to you.”

  They watched for several hours, the silence punctuated now and again by new commands from Jack. By the time he told the ship to stop, Sam was wiping her face.

  “Jack, you can’t make this decision on your own or with us,” she said, clearing her throat. Daniel handed her a paper towel from a nearby kit that was left on the floor.

  “I know,” he said quietly. “Daniel, make me a list of relevant world leaders and invite them to a very private meeting. Sam, no one goes near this ship. Collect all documentation on it and prepare to expunge all of it. Depending on the outcome of the meeting.”

  “What are we doing in the meantime?” Sam asked.

  “We will continue with our lives and deal with this tomorrow. The ship isn’t going anywhere; this doesn’t need to be done now.”

  “Jack, one more thing?” Daniel asked. “Ask the ship who created it.”

  The group waited, a little abashed that no one had thought to ask the simple question. Jack asked the ship the question.

  “Lanta’ana,” the ship said after a moment. The vocal speakers hadn’t been used in a long time..

  “Hmmm. Could be a form of Atlantean,” Daniel said. “Or Lantian, as the Atlantis team is calling them.” Sam agreed.

  “The Atlanteans are the Ancients,” Jack said. “The Ancients made the ships the Goa’uld and Jaffa have been using, so who created the hybrid form of this ship?”

  “Lanta’ana.”

  “It may have been programmed to say that,” Daniel commented. “How about asking it to show us its creators?”

  Jack asked. “Looks like an Ancient to me,” he said in thought as they stared at the screen. “Maybe the those crystal tubes and the gas were part of the recording aspect? The gas is gone, though…” His voice tapered off while thinking out loud.

  “If the ship was jumped back in time, maybe it wasn’t meant to be inside a mountain and it got there from a malfunction in equipment? We don’t know if those tubes were an original part of the ship, or if they were an attempt by the crew to get out of the mountain and it didn’t work,” Sam suggested.

  “Well,” Jack stood, “it doesn’t really matter. We know jumping is a bad idea, so we are not keeping this thing. Let’s get everything on this ship rounded up.”

  Dr. Frito was not happy upon being told to shut down the project and turn in all materials. Jack threatened to wipe her brain of all knowledge and reduce her to a sniveling toddler in droopy diapers. Dr. Frito had heard that such a device existed. The promise was given.
Jack locked the ship and had his own SF brought in to see to the shut-down.

  Chapter 56

  “Hey.”

  Jack looked up to see Mason sticking his head in the door.

  “Come in,” he said. Mason went into the work room, holding his hat in his hand.

  “Sergeant Emmerson’s house went down last night,” Mason said after greeting Sam. “Little girl’s in pretty bad shape.”

  Jack shook his head and pulled his wallet out. There were a handful of bills in it and he put them into the hat. He looked up at the others in the room and more wallets were taken out.

  “Do they know the cause?” he asked.

  “Fire chief is saying a short in a wire,” Mason said. Jack took the hat from him and put it on a table.

  “Stand on that,” Jack said, pointing at a platform sitting in the floor. Before Mason knew what hit him, several technicians had surrounded him and were helping him into a flight suit. The addition of a parachute and air tank gave him pause.

  “Open the hatch!” Jack called out as Sam gave Mason a quick tour of the control panel. Mason looked up and saw the roof retracting. He shielded his eyes from the glare of the sun.

  “Up you go,” Jack told him. The controls were almost identical to the controls in a glider, so it wasn’t too difficult to get them activated. The platform began to slowly rise from the floor and Mason quickly grabbed the small railings on the sides of the panel. Much to his surprise, he didn’t feel any movement.

  “Inertia?” he called down.

  “Same system as the ships,” Sam said. “It’s built into the control panel’s body. There is also a shield that will come up in about…..”

  Click…

  “….now.”

  Mason gave an experimental poke and found that he was indeed isolated.

  “How far up am I going?” he asked, afraid to hear the answer.

  “Take it up to the space station,” Jack said. “There’s a glider waiting for you up there to bring you back down. You’re leaving the platform up there. It’s new equipment to help with walkabouts and repairs on the satellites.”