Anzashi spent a great deal of her time learning how to focus on specific people other than Awaki. In this way she identified those members in the tribe who were potentially telepathic.
She also learnt to scan continuously setting a sentinel to detect anything of interest to her. This was somewhat like listening to a group of people involved in a number of discussions, and only focusing on a specific individual when he or she spoke of something of interest to you.
She learnt to filter what she received and even to block all reception, so that she would not be drowned in everybody’s subconscious urges. She also learnt to block her thoughts, so that neither Awaki nor L’ki could detect anything.
She investigated the possibilities of reading others, either unprotected or non-telepathic, as well as invading or controlling another mind.
Once she started probing she discovered that she could see differences between the various minds she touched.
At the start they practiced in secret, so as not to disrupt the smooth working of the tribe. Slowly they mastered the powers they had identified, and perfected methods for using them.
Merodach was one of the first to approach them. He had been working on a new leather shirt when he had to answer natures call. He set his work down on a rock. When he returned he was just in time to see one of the semi wild dogs who were always to be found around the village making off with his roll of leather.
His first instinct was to throw something. The next moment there was a sharp crack, and a young tree just ahead of the dog was split asunder. “It looked as if a thunderbolt had struck it.
Afterwards, I felt a bit weak, like a fainting spell.
I don’t know what happened, or how, and frankly I am scared.
I cannot get past the thought that the lightning bolt had something to do with my wanting to throw something – in which case I am glad that I had such poor aim.
I know you, Awaki and L’ki are investigating some of the strange things that have been happening to people, so I thought, maybe you can help me.
If I really had something to do with it, I would like to know what happened and how to control it – I can’t just go about throwing lightning bolts whenever I lose my temper!”
“I’m sure we can. We have been having quite a bit of success with telepathy and telekinesis. Let’s go and find Awaki.”
“Awaki, we have a guest!”
Awaki came down from the roof where he had been working. “Hi Merodach, what have you been up to?”
“That’s exactly what I would like to know, my friend. I just scared a dog, and myself, out of half a year of growth.”
“How so?”
“I nearly fried him with a lightning bolt. Fortunately my aim was off – I zapped a tree instead.”
“Great! This is something completely new. Would you like to join our study group?”
“Sounds good, but what are you studying?”
“Us. We are learning how our heads work so we can control and use these new powers.”
“I’d like to do that. You have been talking about telepathy and so on? What are they and what do you call what I do?”
“I don’t know yet, you must be moving something to cause the lightning, but we will need to explore it further.”
“Well I’m in.”
“Welcome.”
Anzashi and Awaki merged and entered his mind.
The first thing they did was to help him to activate his control center as Anzashi had for the three of them.
Merodach was ecstatic when they addressed him with the mindspeach, and even more so the first time he managed to speak back to them. As soon as he learned to control the telepathic faculty, they turned their attention to his specific problem.
His power turned out to be a variant of teleportation. By studying him using the power they were able to identify the control center and activate it in the three of them as well.
By the time they had mastered it, he too was quite adept at using the skill.
They kept on working to expand and strengthen their capabilities.
Jalamda tripped while climbing a ladder, but caught himself – and suddenly he was flying. As he later said: “Flying is as easy as falling, just make sure you miss the ground.”
N’ke had a similar experience which she discussed with Merodach. He encouraged them to join the group. L’ki was the first to learn flying, but Anzashi and Awaki were not far behind.
Merodach couldn’t learn this new skill at all.
This was the first sign that all of them were not endowed with the same powers. As time went by they realized that the plague had left them with a spectrum of powers.
Some, like Awaki, L’ki and Anzashi had a wide spectrum of strong powers while others had one weak power or none at all.
After a couple of years, they began noticing that certain people didn’t seem to age like the others. This caused more of a differentiation. But they managed to work past the differences and form a successful and prosperous community.
Great Zimbabwe Ruins - Zimbabwe – Southern Africa, 16th April 2035
Michael
Dianna Gordon was a beautiful young woman in every way.
Short blonde hair, almost required for conditions on the typical dig, framed a face of exceptional beauty.
When I was first saw her I was struck by the fancy that she might be the original of the Greek myth of the statue that was brought to life by Athena – or maybe even the model for one of the classical goddesses.
For all her beauty she possessed an unassuming open friendliness that immediately set you at ease in her company.
Her knowledge in all areas of archaeology was exceptional, as was her general knowledge. Somehow it didn’t surprise me when I learned later that she was an avid huntress, as a matter of fact, one of the few women to qualify as an accredited professional hunter.
She fit in well with the rest of the team, all of whom were well qualified for the job, as well as possessing above average general knowledge.
Each of my new team mates also had a passion for our common interest which was hard to resist.
Joe, who had spent almost 40 years studying the Bantu, Khoi and San cultures of Southern Africa, as well as analogous cultures in North- and West Africa, was a fount of wisdom, and a stabilizing influence on our younger members.
Dianna and David were the driving force. They had an insatiable lust for knowledge which sometimes surprised even them. Left to their own devices, they would have worked 24 hours a day, and driven the rest of us to do the same.
Marianne was our steersman. She quietly settled into an efficient and well planned routine, natural to the archaeologist who had learned the hard way that sometimes the potshard was worth more than the golden vase.
I of course was happier than ever in my life. For the first time I could combine my two greatest loves in perfect harmony, helping Marianne plan and structure the operations on the dig, managing resources and tempers, (both of which tended at times to be short) on this pilot project, and guiding the brainstorming sessions during which we attempted to find ever more effective methods of detecting hidden chambers.
Slowly we settled down to become an efficient team. Although the initial findings were disappointing, we kept plugging away. Then we did a sonar scan of the hill, bouncing our signal of the bedrock, which gives a more even result. And we found it…
Approximately ten meters under the hill – a hidden chamber.
Two weeks of painstaking search led us to the entrance - under one of the famous round towers.
Chapter 3
Greater Zimbabwe – Southern Africa, 30th July 2035
The entrance was concealed beneath a massive flagstone.
It took seven men to move.
Then they discovered why the tunnel had been so difficult to find. It had been lovingly filled with pebbles, most of them between 50 and 150 mm in diameter. They started clearing the shaft, carefully removing each stone. The shaft went straight down 6
meters. Incised in the sides of the shaft were a series of hand and footholds, obviously meant to be used as a ladder.
At the bottom of the shaft they discovered two skeletons. They were accompanied by a number of accoutrements, which clearly identified them as priests of some kind. They had obviously died violently.
“Probably the king got upset with the priests – maybe they were challenging his authority.” Joe remarked. “They were probably garroted in their sleep, then brought directly here and buried with all their effects. Someone was afraid of their magic – they didn’t even remove the garrotes.”
“These are definitely ritual instruments – the garrote seems to be made of bronze wire, and the handles are gold.” added David. “Perhaps it was some sort of faction fight, and the priests supported the wrong faction.”
The skeletons and all the grave goods were carefully removed after the scene had been carefully recorded from every possible direction. Then they started clearing the tunnel leading to the underground chamber they had detected. They worked slowly and carefully, especially after they found the first trap.
“Have you noticed the finish on the walls Michael?” Marianne asked.
“Yes. I believe it is identical to that of our site in India, as well as the Great Pyramid. It is also totally out of character with the Great Zimbabwe architecture.”
“You are right. I am starting to get a creepy feeling about this.”
Two weeks after they found the tunnel, they cleared the last couple of centimeters, and stood in front of the inner door. Somehow Michael ended up in the lead, with Marianne close behind, followed by David and Dianna.
Michael experienced a feeling of Déjà vu. The highly polishes stone door was practically identical to the one he had pushed open years ago off the coast of India.
David passed him a high powered spotlight and a surgical mask.
He slipped on the mask. He pushed the door gently. As soon as it was far enough for his hand to enter he inserted a gas sampler. He took five samples at different levels, then they waited while the analyzer processed them for toxic gasses and possible biohazards.
Five minutes later the computer reported the room clear of poison gasses and known biohazards. Michael pushed the door gently but firmly. As it swung smoothly open, the spotlight stabbed through the dark.
“My God!” breathed David. “Will you look at that?”
Michael stepped slowly forward. “There’s no dust.” He felt a strange reluctance to walk through this door.
“Come on Michael, don’t you want to see what’s there?” Marianne prompted.
Michael swept his spotlight about the room. He stepped deeper into the room, moving to center. The layout was just about identical to that of the Indian site, down to the placement of the urns.
There were a couple of major differences. But the biggest was not visible at first sight.
“Fantastic!” exclaimed Joseph, staring in awe at the rows of hieroglyphics on one wall. “These seem familiar, but they are not Egyptian!”
“They look like a more primitive form, they are probably quite a bit older” Dianna agreed.
Around the room were thirteen big porcelain jars. “These are original Jomon type jars, just like the others” Marianne exclaimed. “I don’t think these fit in with the rest of this site?”
Joseph went down on one knee to inspect the jar. “This is definitely not consistent with other pottery found here. The general finds so far have all been African in nature. This I think must be older, and the style is completely wrong – more oriental.”
Michael wandered over to the central plinth. It was just like the one he remembered. In the center there was a tile-like plaque with the same hieroglyphic inscription as the one he had found years before.
.
“That one seems to be Danger,” He muttered to himself as he followed the inscription. “And here is something about a stone coupled with god – maybe there should be some sort of statue on this plinth. It looks like the normal sort of invocation – He, who disturbs the stone god, is in danger of his soul – maybe? But this piece here talks about the sleep of death – yes, the sleep of death is herald of eternity. But the rest of this doesn’t make any sense.
Let’s see; the tile in India covered a niche, maybe this one also does.”
He lifted the plaque.
Underneath was a small piece of grayish silver metallic looking rock. He lifted it out to examine it.
Marianne wandered over to him. “What have you found Michael?”
“Just a piece of stone. I would say it was some kind of ore offered to the gods.”
He passed the stone to Marianne who inspected it with interest. “I’ve never seen ore like this.” She commented. “Maybe it is some form of silver?”
“Hey you guys, take a look at this. Maybe you can tell me what it could be?”
David and Joe walked over to inspect the specimen. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.” David shook his head. Joe also responded in the negative.” the closest I’ve seen was a meteorite one of the kids in our village found in a sack of coal. But it was a lot heavier, and it wasn’t so brittle. This stuff looks a lot like honeycomb.”
Dianna had been studying the inscriptions on the wall over in over corner. She and Joe had been arguing over the possible age, and she had been following a specific series.
Hearing Marianne’s comment, she turned around towards them.
She took a step forward, then froze.
Michael, who had turned in her direction, stared in dismay - she was as pale as a ghost!
“Dianna, is something wrong?”
“I’m very much afraid so Michael!” she replied softly. “Now I know why this temple was blocked off so thoroughly!”
David came up and put his arms about her. “What has upset you so love?”
“We have made a major mistake, I’m afraid! We have wandered into something a lot bigger than we can handle. You are all in deadly danger.”
“What do you mean, Dianna?” Joseph inquired. “It isn’t as if this is a tomb or something. The air tested out clear.”
“True Joe. But what we have found makes the simple fungus infestation you are referring to look like a sixpence squib next to an atom bomb.”
“Surely it couldn’t be that bad? The jars seem to be sealed, and the only other thing we have found is this rock. I don’t think it could be radioactive, and even so we couldn’t get a large enough dose of radioactivity to be really dangerous.” David remarked.
“Unfortunately that rock is the problem, David. The reason you have never heard about anything similar, is that this is the first time in over five thousand years anyone has discovered an active sample of the Godstone.
We thought all the samples were safely stored when the temples were closed”
Michael started. “What is the Godstone? Why is that dangerous? There is a warning on the plaque but it didn’t make any sense.”
“I’ll explain as soon as I can Michael, but now we have urgent work to do.”
“What must be done? What can we do?”
As Gods Above Page 7
