Guardians of the Galactic Sentinel 1: The Deimos Artifact (27 page)

Besides, Holger Tvedt didn't like risking his precious ships in situations where there was a good chance that they would get blown out of space. The recent attack by the Jovian Hegemony, which had caused considerable damage to one of their ships, had made all of the Vikings a lot more cautious. The captain of
Warbird Six
broke off the altercation, as he knew his Boss would have wanted him to.

"Proceed,
Murmansk
. Be advised that we will be watching you."

Sergei ignored the last comment and continued on his way. It was only after the
Murmansk
was well out of range of the little scout ship and was ready to shift into sublight that he ordered everyone to stand down from battle stations and he allowed the ship and crew to return to normal operational readiness. After his own wake-up call in the form of their nearly disastrous altercation with the
Capri
, Sergei was taking no more unnecessary chances.

Warbird Six
reported the contact over TachRad, "
Warbird Six
calling
Warbird One
.
Warbird Six
calling
Warbird One
."

The commander of
Warbird One
relayed the communication down to the shuttle on the moon's surface.

"Holger, here. What can I do for you
Six
?"

"Looks like you're about to get some company, Sir."

"What do you mean?"

"I just had a minor standoff with a Soviet Courier ship calling herself the
Murmansk
. It looks like she's heading in your direction."

"A Soviet courier, eh? It was wise of you to let him go. Those buggers are pretty tough. We can probably handle him with
Warbird One
, but I know damned well we'd take some casualties. Thanks for the info,
Six.
"

"Happy to be of service,
One.
"

Holger immediately contacted his headquarters on
Midgard
.

"Send
Warbirds Four
and
Five
over here to join us," said Holger to his crew on the Viking colony, "It looks like we may need to make a little demonstration of force."

"Roger,
Warbird One. Warbirds Four
and
Five
will be on their way within the hour."

"Thank you," replied Holger. After signing off, he wore a troubled look as he absently stroked his short beard.

Chapter 31.
Partially Decoded.

Voltaire Crater, Deimos, July 15, 2676.

Meanwhile Kathryn, Arnold and the Professor continued to work on deciphering the combined writings from what they were now convinced were the upper and lower portions of the same pyramid. Sometime around mid-morning, Ariane came in with a tray.

"Anybody want some coffee or tea?"

"No thanks," said Arnold, back to sitting and still looking a little peaked from his earlier episode, "I'm good for now."

MacPherson, standing in front of the video screen, tore his attention away from the projections with an obvious effort. He and the others had been concentrating on the inscriptions non-stop for several hours. A short break was probably a good idea. He blinked repeatedly as he stretched his neck from side to side and arched his back.

"I surely could use a cup of something," he replied. "Tea for me please. Kathryn?"

MacPherson's female colleague, also standing front of the screen, looked back over her shoulder briefly, "I'll have some coffee," she said, "Two sugars please." She immediately re-immersed herself in the work while Ariane served up coffees for herself and Kathryn and tea for her father. After dropping two sugar tabs in one of the cups and giving the brew a stir, she handed the cup to Kathryn who absently took a sip and then held the cup in both hands while continuing to study the symbols.

"Any progress?" asked Ariane, taking a sip from her own cup.

"Some," replied the Professor, stirring his tea while he continued to concentrate on the projections, "From what we were able to ascertain earlier with the information from the photograph, we deduced that the symbols are similar to some of the Egyptian hieroglyphs from Old Earth, from right here in the Sol system." He stopped stirring and took a sip of his tea, "Ah, perfect! Thank you, My Dear." Ariane nodded and he continued his explanation, "Many of the symbols associated with the artifact seem to correspond with some of the earliest known inscriptions from the ancient civilizations on Earth. In fact, it appears that these writings might actually contain symbolic elements that were used way back in 3000-2500 BC. Our translations have been rendered a little more difficult because the overall style of the inscriptions on the artifact and the pyramid in the cavern is somewhat unusual."

"Unusual how?"

"Those old writings were all done laboriously by hand. Granted, the people who chiseled them out would certainly have been some of the master craftsmen of their day but our symbols appeared to have been etched into the lower part of the pyramid with a very precise device of some kind."

"How can you tell?" asked Ariane.

"Every one of the symbols on that pyramid is absolutely perfect. There are no tool marks anywhere to be seen. I can't even begin to explain how they managed to create the disappearing symbols on our artifact. That technology would appear to be beyond even our current level of science."

"So you agree with Zack? You think these are probably some kind of alien artifacts?"

"We're finding it hard to draw any other conclusion," replied the Professor, "but they seem to be written in a symbolic language that is intended to be deciphered by us even though these symbols haven't been used by Mankind for thousands of years."

"Could these two pyramids be that old?"

"Difficult to say for certain, but it is certainly possible."

"And they were placed on earth and out here inside one of the moons of Mars at around that time?"

"It would appear so," said the Professor tentatively.

"How could they not be of some kind of alien origin?"

"The arguments are pretty compelling, I must admit," replied the Professor, "Though I am still reluctant to fully embrace that theory as yet. Even with the evidence we are uncovering, it remains a very difficult concept to swallow. That, and there is always the outside chance that someone decided to stage an elaborate joke."

"That sounds a bit far-fetched," said Ariane, "Remember, there were no footprints or anything out here on Deimos."

"Pretty hard to fake, I know," said the Professor. "But believe me, such things have happened before. The science of Archeology has had no shortage of hoaxes and frauds and outright lies throughout a long and checkered history."

"I agree with Harold," said Kathryn, "we need to proceed cautiously before we declare these to be alien artifacts. Members of the scientific establishment can be unreasonably difficult to convince of something new, especially if they have their collective minds made up. They can also be quite vindictive if new theories are too disruptive or too fantastic. Violating a well-established dogma is always fraught with professional risks. But..." She stopped here and shook her head, "...if you ask me, this writing was almost certainly created by some kind of alien civilization. Look at this symbol here..."

Kathryn made a gesture on her tablet that zoomed the view in on one of the symbols.

"There are a number of quasi-familiar symbols in these writings," said Kathryn. "This one appears several times and, from what I can tell from the context, it looks like the symbol for 'ship', but it has this little circle above it that is missing from its ancient counterpart and the usage is a little strange."

To Ariane, the symbol looked a lot like all of the others, but she nodded her head as if she understood anyway.

Kathryn continued, "If you combine our new symbol with this one..." she zoomed in on another symbol, "...which means 'planet' or maybe 'star,' you get 'planet-ship' or 'starship.' If you accept my somewhat tentative interpretations, these writings might very well be references to space travel. If that is true and the pieces of this pyramid are as old as we think they are, I don't see how they could be anything other than alien creations of some kind."

"I fully understand our need to be cautious," said Arnold, "but I, for one, am absolutely convinced that aliens are involved in this somehow. My last vision left no doubt."

The other three people in the room looked at him, but no one commented. Arnold shrugged.

"What does it all mean?" asked Ariane, breaking the somewhat awkward silence.

"At this juncture," said MacPherson, "Your guess is as good as mine."

Kathryn was a little more optimistic, "To me the inscriptions look like some kind of an announcement or...maybe a warning of some kind."

"That would make sense," said Ariane, "since the pyramid appears to be marking or guarding the entrance to some sort of inner chamber."

"Indeed," said Kathryn, "Makes you wonder what might be in that inner chamber."

"I...don't suppose you two could speed things up a little?" ventured Ariane.

"I don't see how," answered the Professor. "Why?"

"Holger just informed us that a Soviet ship -- probably the same one that chased us out by Haven -- entered this system about a half hour ago. They seem to be heading this way."

"The Soviets?" said the Professor, "They've had an interest in this business for as long as I've been involved in it. I wonder what they know that we don't?"

"Holger sent for two more of his
Warbirds,
" said Ariane, "I don't know that we have to worry too much about having to fight them again or anything, but what it is they want remains to be seen."

"I expect they will be reluctant to take on Holger's forces," said MacPherson, "Perhaps we can talk with them, exchange information. I'll bet they've had people working on these inscriptions for at least as long as we have. Probably longer."

"That may be true," said Kathryn, "But you can be absolutely sure that they've never had access to the symbols on these two pyramids like we have."

"That would likely be our main bargaining chip," said the Professor.

"It'll take them at least half a day to get here," said Ariane, "Does it make any sense to go in there and put the artifact on top of that pyramid, where it looks like it's supposed to fit, and find out what happens before they arrive?"

MacPherson thought her suggestion over for a long moment before replying, "Very tempting," he said finally, "but unless we can get more information from these inscriptions, I would declare that course of action to be way too risky. There is still so much that we don't know."

"We are in agreement that our artifact is the key though, aren't we?" asked Kathryn.

"It certainly appears so but there are still a great many unknowns," said the Professor, "Do you really want to go in there and put our artifact on top of that pyramid, Ariane?"

"No, I don't," replied Ariane, "Not yet anyway, but I certainly would if I had to. What if solving this mystery means that we unlock the secrets to some kind of highly advanced technology? The disappearing inscriptions on our artifact may be only the start. In any case, whatever else might be in that cavern belongs to all Mankind. The Soviets would only exploit it to expand their stranglehold on more territory and their domination over more people. We can't allow that to happen!"

"I couldn't agree more," My Dear, said the Professor, "We'll just have to get to work in earnest on deciphering these writings."

"I'll leave you to it, then," said Ariane.

The Professor and his two brilliant colleagues went back to work on the inscriptions. Ariane loaded up the tray with the now empty cups and left for the galley. After taking a few minutes to clean-up the cups and spoons and get the service items put away, she headed back up to the bridge. There she found Gertrude at the pilot's station gazing intently at something on her tablet and Zack sitting in the first mate's chair, frowning in concentration as he consulted his own tablet. Neither of them looked up as she came in.

"Looks like some pretty deep thinking going on in here," said Ariane.

"Sorry," said Zack, "I was just trying to find out if there's more information in my uncle's notes that could help us solve this mystery."

"My dad isn't ready to admit it, but he and Kathryn are pretty sure that the artifact and the pyramid were created and placed by an alien civilization of some kind," said Ariane.

"If that's so, for what purpose?" asked Gertrude, looking up from her tablet.

"That's what they're trying to work out," Ariane replied, "Because of his visions, Arnold is convinced that aliens are involved. He had another one just a little while ago when Zack touched the artifact to get it to display the inscriptions. And still my dad isn't convinced that the visions are connected." Ariane had a sudden thought, "Gertrude? Yesterday you said one of your people was having visions too. What was her name again?"

"It was my daughter, Helga," replied Gertrude.

"It looked like Arnold's vision was triggered by Zack touching the pyramid," said Ariane, "If your daughter had another vision at the same time that Arnold did, we'd have our best evidence yet that the visions are connected to the pyramid."

"I'll have Holger call
Midgard
and find out," said Gertrude. She immediately contacted Holger on the shuttle next door, explaining what she needed to know and why.

"I'll have
Warbird One
contact Midgard right away,"
replied Holger.

Gertrude turned her attention back to her companions on the
Capri
, "We should be hearing back within ten minutes or so. My daughter is in class right now and they'll need a little time to track her down."

While the three of them waited for Holger to get back to them, they continued to speculate on the purpose of the artifact.

Ariane picked up where she left off, "Kathryn thinks it's an announcement or..."

"Or what?" asked Zack.

"...or a warning of some kind."

"What do you think?" asked Zack.

"I'm not the expert. Based on the style of the symbols that they're working with, Kathryn estimates that the artifact and the pyramid could be somewhere between five and seven thousand years old."

"From around the time that people were beginning to develop writing systems and put up buildings that were something more than just stones piled on top of each other," said Gertrude.

Her two companions looked at her as though she'd sprouted a set of Viking horns. Gertrude clarified the situation for them, "I'm student of Earth history," she said.

"Student?" said Zack.

"I'm working on a Master's degree in Old Earth history from Central University," she explained, "Correspondence courses."

"Why aren't you helping them with the inscriptions?"

"I said I was a historian, not a symbologist."

"Well, what do you think, Gertrude?" asked Ariane, "If it were some kind of alien civilization that placed these things, it would mean that aliens have been monitoring us for a very long time."

"I suppose it's possible," replied Gertrude.

"Yeah," said Zack, "and they left an announcement or a warning of some kind that they thought we'd be able to read after we discovered this little shrine out here on one of the moons of Mars."

"Yes, it was almost like they expected us to develop space travel and eventually find the...shrine, or whatever it is, out here," mused Gertrude.