by Abhishek Roy
Immediately many things happened at the same time. The strange craft, that seemed to sense our presence, responded to the glow in the amulet and a hairline crack appeared. This crack traced out an oblong shape on the curved surface. This part of the capsule was pushed out automatically and the thick door lowered to our feet. When it did so, the surface of the door hovered above the stone floor, bridging the gap. We stepped onto the door and walked into the capsule. The door retracted back into place and we studied our surroundings. I kept wondering on how many occasions my exotic amulet would come to the rescue!
The inside of the strange capsule had an array of gauges and buttons near the windshield through which we could see the inky darkness of the tunnel. Except those, there was nothing else. Although the capsule looked like some transportation device, it didn’t have any seats and we could barely stand upright.
I walked up to the control desk and observed that all the keys and gears were labelled in ancient Viking language. I found I could read what every button was meant for.
I held the throttle and looked back at the bewildered faces of Ram and Vivek.
“Are you ready?”
“Where do you think it’ll lead us?” Ram asked.
“Maybe to a church,” I offered.
“Why?” asked Vivek.
“It’s the only part of the poem in the Japanese mirror hilt left to be found out.” I answered.
“And the man of Bor-nu,” Ram added, smiling gleefully.
A pause ensued. I took a deep breath and slowly pushed the throttle. However, nothing happened. I pushed the throttle to its limit but the capsule didn’t budge.
“Well, this seems to be pretty useless. I suppose it has drained out of power. This looks like advanced but old technology.”
The three of us pondered about this for a while.
“I think I have something that might power it up,” said Vivek.
“What?”
Vivek smiled and produced the same matte black, box-like fuel cell with a silver output tube that was inside my bag. I stared at it with a gaping mouth and Vivek noticed me with a grin.
“What is that?” asked Ram.
“I thought you only had one cell and you kept it in your room in India!” I cried. “How did you...“
“While packing my bag I took one of the two fuel cells under my bed and kept it neatly inside, concealed within all my clothes. I thought that we might need this during some emergency. Guess I was correct!” replied Vivek in glee. Although I didn’t know about the twin fuel cell, I sighed in relief since Vivek was still unaware of the second one in my bag.
“Where is the fuel input of this capsule?”
I looked for a button or a key and found the one labelled Fuel in Ancient Viking. I pressed it and a soft whirring sound came from the backside of the capsule. We followed the sound and found another hairline crack appear on one of the walls, right at the other side. A small square was traced and the piece of metal retracted away into the body of the pod.
“There you go.”
Vivek attached the fuel cell with some connectors and pushed it into a receptacle. Immediately, the capsule fired up and the buttons came to life. A light source illuminated a short distance of the tunnel in front of us. A mechanical sound from the belly of the capsule indicated that it had woken up from its slumber from a long time.
All of us braced ourselves as I slowly pushed the throttle. The movement was rough but the capsule responded immediately. It started moving. I pushed on the throttle a little more and it speeded up pretty fast. I waited for some time before pushing it even more. The ragged walls of the tunnel blurred while the craft, not touching any surface, whizzed forward at a good speed.
We didn’t do anything for some more time.
“The tunnel is pretty straight. I think I should push the throttle to maximum. Otherwise, this will take forever.”
Vivek thought about it and agreed. I pushed the throttle and grabbed the desk to avoid falling as the capsule took up a phenomenal speed. The walls of the cave became grey streaks. Ram and Vivek fell down but sat on the floor to remain stable.
“This is so cool!” I said but suddenly, the tunnel dipped almost vertically.
“Aarrgghh!” All of us screamed while we faced some zero gravity. Our stomachs turned upside down and we floated past one another for a few seconds before the capsule levelled again and we fell down with a thud!
I tried going to the throttle and turning it down when another curve came up. This time, we were pushed on the right side wall. Then on the left side. Then we climbed steeply and levelled out for a second before our roller coaster ride resumed.
We shouted every time we fell and during one of the falls, I saw Ram float beside me, unconscious. He had passed out and a small blob of vomit hovered next to him which splattered on the floor with us when the capsule straightened.
Kapittel 41
Mathias’s story
DEEP UNDERGROUND
March 14, 2017, Tuesday, 1745 hours EEST
The capsule started slowing down.
Our perception of time was thoroughly disoriented and it felt like forever since we entered the small craft. It must have covered a very large distance, in the process making us feel nauseated and fuzzy. As it came to a stop, we felt dizzy again, and I am sure I had passed out for a little while.
When I came to, I found Vivek and Ram sitting up, and too groggy to speak. Despite his early sickness, Ram recovered the first, and spoke up.
“We must have gone into something. I heard a grating noise.”
“Are we still underground?” asked Vivek.
“Looks like it. There is no sign of anybody but us here.”
We stood up and looked outside through the glass. It was pitch dark, with a little glow of the glow worms visible. That meant we were definitely still underground. But we were probably very far from Derinkuyu now.
“I have a feeling we are more than four hundred kilometres away from Derinkuyu,” said Ram. “If so, we must be near old churches, possible under the Church of Hatay now.“
I managed to disengage the controls and open the door of the craft. As we stepped out, it looked like the craft had flown all the way to get beautifully docked in an ancient wood and brass doorway. The carvings on the doorway were ancient but artistic, not very intricate but seemed to be crudely fashioned with tools. The familiar Raido sign was there on the door, inviting us to come in. The doorway was actually open, possibly opened by the tremendous force of the craft coming and getting embedded into it through some algorithm in its controls which were beyond me. The interior of whatever was inside had the faint glow of the algae. Our clothes had completely dried out by now due to the force of the motion.
As we stepped out, unsteadily at first but finding our feet, we were first greeted with a peculiar smell. It was not unpleasant but totally unfamiliar, somewhat like a mixture of honey, tar and mint. As we moved into the cavern, the glow of the worms was suddenly enhanced by a diffused green light, and I was surprised to see it emanating from my amulet. Clearly the amulet was getting activated by whatever was here, and we used the light to navigate forward across a very rough floor and came closer to what was appearing to be a large structure.
Close to it, the structure came into view, partly from the amulet light and partly from the glow worms around.
“Wow!” said Vivek. “This is amazing! This looks like a ship!”
“Yeah,” I remarked, intrigued and completely oblivious to our physical exhaustion. As the ship came into view, it looked oddly familiar, but I could not put my finger on it. It was small by ship’s standards, not more than 150 feet long. It had a single porthole and seemed to have many levels. It was odd in shape, more like a zeppelin, conical in the front and with some rudder like devices jutting out of many portions. There was a curious looking protrusion at the front, shaped a little like a corkscrew and seemed totally out of place in a ship.
Ram was oddly silent. I found his brow fu
rrowed and his eyes glazed as he looked at the ship. He continued to mutter under his breath and I caught the words “— cannot be this small -” and “— far from the mountain -“, and a little later, as we entered the ship “— unsteady -“.
Inside the ship we found a control area but instead of spending time there we went exploring the other areas. Vivek was the first to spot it.
“Hey,” he called out. “Come here, the two of you. There seems to be rows and rows of shelves on the wall. The shelves are full too.“
We went over to see what resembled a vast chemical laboratory. Rows of shelves on the walls and some working benches with lots of exotic devices, and tubes. There were literally thousands of equipment on the counters and glass containers which resembled beakers. Tubes and pipes were everywhere and opened containers strewn all around. There were some closed containers which were sealed with leather and wax and filled with biological specimens.
As we went in further, we found ourselves in a vast room with pillars which was lined with large cages all around. The cages were rusted, lying open, and looked very carefully built inside, almost customer built to varying specifications.
“This is uncanny, guys,” said Ram. “I probably know what this is, but I am too afraid to say it out loud. Many people have claimed to have discovered this, but finally failed to prove it.“
“What are you talking about? Have we discovered Atlantis?” asked Vivek.
“Not Atlantis, that is too small. This is way bigger than that.”
“So what is it?” I could not hold back my curiosity.
“Wait.... I can see some light,” said Ram. “Let us get over there and see.“
Sure enough, there was a shaft of light coming through in front. Uncanny as though it seemed inside the underground cavern, it seemed that a bright ray of sunlight actually entered inside. As we went ahead, we spotted the source of the light, an oculus.
I made my way to the oculus in the roof and spotted a set of chiselled handholds in the wall. Using them, I climbed up twenty feet. When on top, I caught the ledge jutting out from the oculus’s side and pulled up onto a flight of spiral steps, just like the one in Badrinath. We climbed up the steps to the level above, and found the source of the light. A thin ray of sunlight coming from a crystal which was carefully placed in a pedestal to capture the light. There must have been a very long borehole made of some very sturdy material to be able to withstand the passage of time.
“Let’s get ahead,” said Vivek and led us through a door cut into the structure. We turned right and walked up a long corridor, exhausted, hungry and too awestruck to talk.
“There wasn’t any door in the other side of the first corridor, no?” asked Vivek.
“I don’t think I saw one.” I answered.
“Walk along then.” he replied and we followed him.
As we walked through the dark and musty corridor, I felt my heartbeat accelerate. This was probably the final portion of our journey and I could not wait to behold the answers to those cryptic poems. This ship was clearly made by a civilisation which was really advanced. I could see the stamp of Asr Gawa. I couldn’t wait to find the tele porter and use the key we found in Japan, to get to Asr-Gawa. I felt as if the proximity to the door ahead was inversely proportional to my heart rate.
Eventually, we reached the door. The door was short but looked very strong, with no handle and therefore no way for us to open it. There was only a shallow groove cut into the front with no hand holds.
“How do we move forward now?” I was confused.
“The key!” exclaimed Vivek, and brought the Kofun Mirror out. The mirror handle came out smoothly this time, and as we expected, the handle fit snugly into the groove and as he slid the key in the groove, the door creaked and swung open on its hinges. The Key to the Window had done its job!
In the middle of the room was a large altar supporting a skeleton of a man. He must have been above six feet tall. His clothes were gone and his bones too were decaying, suggesting that he was really old. Right next to him was kept a wooden staff as long as me. It was an ordinary wooden staff with a swollen head. Emblazoned on the swollen head was a rainbow coloured square. However, what struck me most was though the staff would have been as old as the body, it had not decayed like it, nor had the seven vibgyor colours faded away. Apart from the staff, on the ground next to him was a large and ancient tome, and a round disc like a shield, with parallel circular grooves cut into it at around the midway mark. The shield had some carvings at four equidistant points, one of whom seemed very familiar in the dim light reflected from another crystal placed inside.
“Is that the man from Bor...” Vivek said when all of a sudden, both Ram and I cried out loud.
“Oh my God!” I shouted, much to Vivek’s dismay.
“What happened?” Vivek asked.
I jogged to the skeleton. After briefly looking at it and the staff, I jumped back in amazement.
“Guys! Now I know who the man from Bor-nu is. You see, I had been thinking about it for a while and now that.” I stopped, barely able to talk.
“I think I know too. In fact I have known in for quite some time, from the time we walked into this ship like structure.” Ram said quietly.
“Oh...,” I continued excitedly. “You see, Bor-nu means ‘Land of Gold’. However, there have been various other theories about the place. Theories that are mind-boggling. So, the region in Northern Nigeria is also known as Bor-no which can be literally translated to ‘Land of Noah’!” I yelled.
“So, are you sayin...” Vivek asked, slowly, unable to believe.
“Yes! We have found Noah! The man of Bor-no!” I replied in utter amazement.
“You are right,” said Ram, unusually quietly. “And we are standing inside the famous Noah’s Ark.“
Kapittel 42
Mathias’s story
DEEP UNDERGROUND
March 14, 2017, Tuesday, 1900 hours EEST
“The Covenant of the Rainbow! Genesis 6:13 to 6:22! King James Bible!” I explained to Vivek.
“When God was speaking to Noah and telling his sons to multiply and telling that every beast he saved had his dread in it, he said that Noah and his family could eat flesh, even plants but not flesh with blood.
“After that, he says to them that he was establishing his covenant with them and all the creatures that came out of his ark. A covenant that there wouldn’t be any devastating flood again. ‘And God said, this is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations. I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. ‘. That’s what he said! The rainbow would pass every time in the cloud which made him remember about his covenant! And that is the rainbow!” I said, pointing towards the swollen head of the staff with the rainbow square emblem at its head.
“Now it all makes sense!” I yelled.
Ram walked over to the carcass in shock and stood near it, gazing at the staff.
“It does. It does. But why would the entire thing, the poem, the secret waterway all lead us here to the place where he was consecrated...” he mused over it when his face lit up like a bulb. “Ohh, so the passageway got us straight to the Ark, which is beneath the Church which started it all ! The Man of Bor-nu, Consecrated under the Church that started it all! The sunlight must be coming in from an orifice in the church grounds. I wonder how old this church would be but if I recall correctly, then Turkey had a very, very old church in its south eastern portion. I seem to recall a name of a church hundreds of miles from Derinkuyu which was very old. I think it was called the Church of Hatay,” he told us.
“Nice. We don’t need to think about the Jargantaans now,” Vivek sighed.
“What’s that book?” Ram asked himself. He bent over and picked up the heavy tome, “This is really heavy and extremely old,” he said, dusting the top leather cover that was now shrivelled and gave it the look of an old magical
book.
“I think that will hold the answers to many more of our unanswered questions,” I pointed out.
The three of us sat down in a circle near the carcass so old, even the putrid smell of dead bodies had evaded it.
We kept the book in the middle and opened to the first page. The page had turned yellow and brown. The ink had mostly faded but it was still legible.
“It’s written in Norwegian. That probably indicates that Noah had a Nordic or Asurian origin!” Ram said in surprise. “You have no idea how valuable this book and that staff would be.“
“I can’t imagine,” said Vivek as he stared at the script on the opening page, “How are we going to read this. We can’t click a picture and use the translator here. We don’t have any signal!“
“I think I can try to read,” I offered.
The two nodded. I started.
“This is my book of confessions. I figured that save my family, I didn’t quite have a lot of friends here on Mandagaar whom I could talk to. Therefore, I write all the thoughts of my diverse mind here in this tome in order to preserve them.” I looked up at them, ”Mandagaar, Huh.” I smiled, realising different things that would definitely be answered by this book. I turned to the next page and started reading the book.
“This point from where I start writing, I am in a land far away from where my immense floating refuge had landed as the water had dried up. This floating refuge, I call the ark.
Here in this land, this world has grown lush green vegetation and the land is perfectly suitable for life. The animals that have now grown, frolic about in this land. The place where my ship had landed and the place where I am now. These were the two places I chose for beginning life from.“
“This seems to make sense.” Ram said, “Noah’s ark is said to have landed on Mount Ararat, here in Turkey. Life as we know it has been theorised to have started from Central Asia and Africa, holding that Noah is talking about Chad as the place far away from his ark.“
“Hhhmm. Mathias, keep reading.” said Vivek.
