Star Raiders and the Lost Expidition (25 page)

“
What do you think happened to them?” Tygla asked Uno.

Uno turned to her and replied, “I wish I knew. My best guess is, that there was must have been a time when the winters came, sort of like the ice age we had on Earth. They must have frozen to death, and then thousand of year of erosion buried them. Then again it’s the only logical explanation I have.”

“
I thought you said there were no winters here,” Tygla said.

“
Well, not while I was here. My theory is that the sun is a huge super giant, and this planet’s orbit it not truly elliptical. I am sure at one time there was an ice age here on this planet long ago, maybe eons.”

Their interest then turned to the temple, as they entered, with their torches lit destroying the darkness and illuminating their way, they proceeded. They went down a long corridor until they stumbled to a hall that split left and right. Uno led the way and turned left down the hall. They then went around a corner and entered a huge ceremonial hall of some kind. Mike noted that they could be in the center of the ancient temple. A light shown down from a skylight above and it was bright enough that they did not need their torches.

“
Well, this is it,” Uno said.

Mike saw that in the middle of the large room was a stone altar with faint carving on it that resembles the animals that they had encountered. Tygla looked around and saw six pillars, three on each side. All of them had weird alien carvings written all over. Justin saw the same writings on the walls and one pictograph. The drawing was of an alien that was somewhat familiar to him. Their bodies where skinnier and their heads was egg shaped, their eyes were big and black.

Roswell,
Justin thought, “Hey guys take a look at this.”

The others went over to Justin and stared at the wall paining of the alien.

Uno nodded, “The alien civilization I told you about. When I saw this painting, I had another theory about them. But involves flying saucers, and to my search, these people did not have any advanced technology.”

Mike took a closer look on the writings around the figure and Uno was right. It was some sort of combined languages of old Earth. The writings looked like they were randomly smashed on top of each other. It looked like garbled symbols. He would wish he knew how to read it. The stories that would tell fascinated Mike. Justin was not impressed, he just wanted to get off this planet, but he was not the only one.

Somewhere in the thick jungle, a band of small commandoes led by Lord Drax himself, search desperately then one of the Xatu soldiers named Ackdik knelt down and found several foot prints embedded on a patch of soft dirt.

“
Sir, I found some tracks.”

Drax’s mood then changed for his better end as he went over to see what his officer has found. He knelt down and examined them.

“
A group of four it seems,” he said, “And they go that way,” he pointed a northeastern area. “It looks like we are not the only ones here. Follow me.”

Meanwhile, the light in the temple was growing dim as Uno suggested to either head back or camp for the night. Mike wanted to stay. As a kid, he always loved solving puzzles. He remembered one time in class at the orphanage he had to solve a word-coding problem. He did it less than thirty seconds, which impress his teacher. She said that Mike possessed a unique skill and said that it could be useful in his future career. Years later, he was obsessed with word puzzles such as cryptograms and logic puzzles. Then it hit him. He stepped back to get a better view of the writings. He studied them more, now that he got a better perspective. It was nothing more than a huge cryptogram puzzle. He saw some symbols repeating itself then he smiled.

“
I think I could solve it,” he said.

“
What do you mean you can solve it?” Justin wondered glancing at Mike then to the carvings.

“
It’s like a cryptogram puzzle,” Mike replied.

Tygla then said with a bit of excitement, “Oh I love doing those.”

Mike looked at her with astonishment as she looked back and smiled at him. Mike smiled gracefully at her as if she was the perfect woman for him. She loved his interests in archeology. For a moment he thought what his life would be if he had married her. Waking up every morning to see her beautiful face gave Mike a warmth feeling. That did it. As soon as they were off this planet, he will ask her hand in marriage. He did not care of the rules of royalty. He loved her more than any kingdom in the known galaxy.

“
Good, cause I’m gonna need some help,” Mike said to her, “Anybody bring some paper and a something to write on?”

“
I did,” Uno replied as he rambled through his bag. He took out a notebook and an old ratted chewed pencil and handed it to Mike.

She turned to him, “You know, this is kind of fun. I can see why you enjoy doing it.”

“
Thanks,” Mike said smiling at her.

Justin walked over to Mike and said, “Mike, correct me if I’m wrong, but this isn’t like temple on Mota. These writings are completely different, they’re not even written in any language we know. How are you going to translate it?”

“
Because, I believe these people were once like us.” Mike replied, “These writings are combined languages of old Earth. Right Uno?”

“
Yes, and you could be right.” Uno said. “The oldest language on Earth was sand script. And these symbols here,” Uno pointed to three squiggly lines that were on a slanted angle and arrows point downward on top of it, “Has to mean a hunting area. I know because they look like the same as the hieroglyphics and Sioux Indian symbols. Michael could be on the right track.”

Mike nodded proudly and started to work. He sat down on some steps as Tygla sat next to him. Mike and Tygla studied it more and found that it was not letters but words, which made it tougher for Mike.”

He tapped the pencil on the blank sheet as Tygla wondered, “What’s wrong?”

“
I was just wondering if these people had a schooling or maybe or some type of alphabet. Something we can use to help us. Uno, you said you found a building that held books or scrolls. Are there any in there?”

Uno shook his head, “No, only tiny bits of paper. Not enough to find out if it was a some sort of library.” He looked at them and replied, “You know, before there were schools, it was the priest’s job to do the teachings. They even used temples like this to house the schools. Maybe the building I discovered was a storage area.”

Justin added, “Hey, maybe this alphabet is still here. I mean if they knew that their civilization wasn’t going to make it they had to leave something behind.”

“
I’m not too sure about that Justin.” Uno said unsurely, “I have searched every wall, and have found nothing.”

An hour has passed and Justin gathered some wood, twigs and stones from outside as he and Uno lit a fire inside the temple. Mike continued to stare at the wall only to fill in a few words. He sighed and knew that this was I bit harder than he realized. Tygla felt tired and laid back, gazing at the ceiling. It was first time that she actually looked at it, and her eyes widened a bit at the beauty as the glow from the fire danced along the colorful paintings. It was the stars on one side and the blue sky and clouds on the other. The only thing that separated them was the circle skylight opening. The aliens panted the edging like the sun’s rays and there was a symbol that continued to circle around the painting. The symbol was a small pictograph of a human, but it was not. It had three faces of a bird, a human, and a monster. It was something Tygla never saw before.

“
Hon?” Tygla started.

“
Yeah Tygla?”

“
Come look at this with me,” she replied as Mike looked at her. He then followed her gaze the ceiling. Mike guessed he could use the break. He lay down next to Tygla and looked up. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

“
Yeah I guess,” he replied.

Tygla glanced to him knowing that he was not impressed, but perhaps he will be once she pointed the symbols she found. “Look, by the skylight. I bet that symbol means sun or something.”

Mike looked at the creature and suddenly realized that all three faces were of ancient gods of Earth. Recognize one of them as, “Ra.”

“
What?” Tygla asked.

“
That face that looks like a bird,” he said as he pointed, “I bet you fifty thousand that Ra’s face.”

“
Are you sure?”

“
Positive, Ra was an old sun god of the Egyptians, but why would he be in a face with two other gods, unless?”

Uno walked over gazing upwards at the ceiling to and smiled, “Ah I see you found the Gods’ sun, three Earth gods, Ra, Brahms and Tepeu. It’s amazing, that this planet’s civilization is not different from Earths. I mean this pyramid-like temple, has the same design as the Hindu, Mayans and the Egyptians all put together. Amazing isn’t it?”

“
Wait a minute,” Mike said pondering, “There all combined…Hidden in the symbols.”

“
What are you talking about?” Tygla asked curiously.

Mike sat back up, grabbed his pad and pencil and started to write. Uno and Tygla looked at each other confused then they looked at Mike. Justin peeked over wondering what was going on as Mike explained.

“
This planet must have been the central point to all of Earth’s civilizations, The Hindus, the Mayans, The Egyptians, and maybe the Babylonians. All these symbols are mixed. Latin, Hieroglyphics, and even sand script they are all together all the same. We may be standing in the origin of our planet. All I got to do is to separate and retranslate.” Mike looked to Uno, “I’m surprised you didn’t see that.”

Uno took a closer look and said surprisingly, “My gods, you are right,” he then looked to Mike, “You are like your father. You can discover the most difficult aspects of life’s mysteries.”

Mike smiled at that thought, “I wish he was here to see this.”

“
He would’ve been proud,” Uno stated.

“
He would be prouder if we could finish translating this, and maybe find a way to get off this planet,” Mike said.

Chapter 14

The Sacrifice

Drax, Tila and the 2 Xatu soldiers continued to follow the track that led them through the thick jungle. He almost killed Ackdik for losing the trail. It was close to nighttime and without a moon high above them, they were force to make camp. Drax did not want to camp, but Ackdik told him that he still got their tracks. Drax wondered who these people were. Ackdik also told him that these people were from of modern times. He also deuced that one of them was female. Drax pondered this and wondered even more. He thought, if these were the Star Raiders he heard so much about, and the female was probably Princess Tygla. His thoughts turned from grim to devious, as he would finally capture them.

“
Lieutenant,” Drax finally said, “Is all of our weapons operational?”

She looked to him and said, “I just finished recalibrating them,” she tossed her gun to him.

Drax looked at it like, as if it was his first gun he had ever owned. He aimed it at a tree trunk and pulled the trigger. The gun did not emit anything out of it, but he heard a reverse laser sound, and in seconds, the trunk had a huge hole in it. The tree itself could not hold the weight, so it cracked and fell over away from them.

Drax smiled and said, “Excellent.”

The night passed very quickly and the party did not get a full night’s rest. It amazed Drax that the days are shorter than he expected. The next morning as the dim sun tried to beam down its rays, but it blocked them by an over cast of clouds. The dew spread over the dead leaves that surrounded a deserted camp as Drax and his men continued the pursuit.

As the fire dimmed down, only Tygla, Justin and Uno had been tired and slept through the short night while Mike continued to translate the writings. He only gotten to half of their alphabet and realized that it was the language of all ancient civilizations. Tired as he was, he was too excited to sleep. He looked down on his pad, and read the partly message to himself that was hiding for thousands of years. As far as he gotten to, Mike discovered that their civilization was called Q’Et’Orans. The Q’Et’Orans were a simple peaceful race. Like any other ancient civilizations, they believe and served one, unnamed god, called The Creator.