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CHAPTER 51

January 16, 2100 (Earth/Proxima timeline)

Proxima b, aka Fintidier

The scientists of the exploration team had been on-site for more than three days. Before that, Commander Rogers had made the first trip with security forces only and did a forward recon of the region. At first, they completed several flyovers and then landed at the central point of the region. In the very center area, according to ground-penetrating radar, infrared and visible lidar, and acoustic vibrometry was what appeared to be a large pyramid-shaped stone temple that was as large or larger than the great pyramids on Earth. There were several smaller adjunct pyramidal structures adjacent in particular geometric patterns. The scientists were running AI pattern recognition algorithms against other known patterns such as star maps and so on. The temple was completely covered with eons of vegetation and unless you’d already looked at the location with foliage-penetrating radar and lidar there would be no way to discern it from a geological feature.

The security recon team had spread out and covered several of the burial mounds, which were overgrown so thickly that walking over them and around them was nearly impossible. Using exfoliants, fire, and several of the ATVs with ad hoc scoops added to the front of them, pathways and gathering areas were created. No permanent structures were set up and Rogers was pretty certain that in less than a couple months the area would be completely grown over, covering nearly all traces that they had been there. The jungle was that thick, alive, and encroaching in every direction. Screams of all manners of insects, reptiles, and mammals filled the twilight daytime that practically never ended, at least not for twenty-some-odd days.

For the first two Earth daytime periods the security team set up perimeter markers, makeshift barricades, and temporary shelters. A tent was set up to act as a latrine station and a thousand-gallon plastic water tank was set in place for drinking and bathing. On day three, the scientists were brought in, and they went straight to work.

“We found an entrance to the main temple,” Terrence Henry from the security force, a retired British Special Forces colonel, told Dr. Jones with excitement. “You should come see it, Doctor.”

They had used the ATVs to cut a driving path around the base of the large temple and had continued to excavate upward and inward until they had hit stone. From there they had cleared away dirt and vegetation based on ground-penetrating radar data until there were clear markings and evidence of construction methods, and that led them toward an entrance. About a hundred square meters of area up the side of the pyramid that had been covered in alien oranges, yellows, and burgundies were cleared away, revealing a large monolithic stone entrance.

“Looks like the front door to me,” Dr. Jones exclaimed. “Look how big!”

“I bet that thing weighs tens of thousands of tons. How on Earth did they get it in place amidst all of this?” Terrence asked her.

“I don’t think it was a jungle, or at least it was more manicured when they lived here,” she replied. “We need to move that rock.”

“No way the ATVs will do it,” Terrence said. “I don’t even think the OSAM would move it.”

“No, I suspect it wouldn’t.” Dr. Jones studied the entrance and looked about the stone steps and sidewalls for marking or writings that might reveal how to get in. There were markings, but the application that Dr. Oliveira-Santos had given them couldn’t translate it. “We need Maggie down here to look at this. Maybe she can figure out a way to translate some of these glyphs. They’re not similar at all to any on Earth or the AI would pick up on it.”

“Want me to get the OSAM sent back for her?”

“I don’t know. Let me think,” Jones said.

“We could get Dr. Ash over here. She’s an expert on explosives and war-machine engineering. She might have an idea,” Terrence told her. “Not sure what that stone is made of, but surely we have some ordnance that would take care of it.”

“Well, I was thinking about asking the CHENG about an idea,” she said. “Get Maggie and Dr. Ash down here. I’m going to keep looking around. And maybe call the CHENG. Can we get some more lights here also?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Terrence turned back toward the ATV, calling out to Commander Rogers on the ’net as he left her. Then he turned to one of the other security team members. “Zeke, stay with her. I’m going to talk to the boss.”

“Right.” The SEAL responded.

* * *

“No, Alma.” Dr. Maggie Oliveira-Santos shook her head in disappointment. “I don’t have a reference for these glyphs. They are a language, but not from any of the Fintidierian libraries and not of Earth. This is a different lost language. Maybe inside or somewhere else out here there might be a primer stone.”

“Okay, then, take a break, or keep at it. It’s up to you.” Dr. Jones sighed with frustration. “I’ve got a meeting with Dr. Ash. We can talk in a little while.”

* * *

“So, Carol? Do we have anything that will blow the stone up? Move it? Cut it? I dunno?” Dr. Jones was growing more and more frustrated with the lack of progress of getting inside the temple while the rest of the team had excavated one of the burial sites and discovered remains. They were bringing down a Carbon-14 dating machine on the next OSAM flight.

“Well, we might could move it with some high-ex compound, but it would probably collapse the tunnel or whatever else is on the other side,” Dr. Carol Ash, the New Zealand weapons and power expert, explained. “We might could cut it with a plasma cutter, but that would take a very long time.”

“So, ‘no go’ then?” Jones asked.

“No go.” Ash shrugged. “How the hell did ancient people move something that big?”

“I’m working on that.”

* * *

“You want me to do what with it?” Cindy Mastrano, chief engineer of the starship Samaritan, exclaimed.

“I want to take the spare WECAV and set it up here. We’d have to focus the projector in one direction and we’d need a means of tuning it to the right mechanical frequency. Mikey will explain.” Dr. Jones spoke to a virtual projection of Cindy, who was floating inside the engine room of the ship working at something. Alma directed the viewer at the large stone at the temple door. “Here is where it needs to be. Mikey?”

“Right, uh, Alma, I can explain it from here.” Dr. Michael “Mikey” James, somewhat the polymath with multiple doctorates and master’s degrees in physics, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, mathematics, and metaphysics, grabbed the virtual icon and tilted the view toward himself. “Dr. Jones has a brilliant idea here. I’ve done some ion and electron microscopy elemental analysis on this thing and you’d be surprised how crystalline it is. There’s a lot of shock quartz—how that got there who the hell knows—and there is a significant amount of various forms of granite intermingled with, get this, bismuth. I also found significant amounts of copper, yttrium, and barium. Can you believe that? Hell, I can’t.”

“You think it is superconductive?” the CHENG asked.

“No. I dunno. Probably not unless it were supercooled,” Mikey replied. “But it is very specifically chosen or constructed, whichever doesn’t matter. I think it has specific acoustic-based metamaterial properties. I think we could use the Weak Energy Condition Acoustic Violator in conjunction with a feedhorn and hit just the right resonance with this thing and reverse its mass.”

“You mean, just like the Samara Drive engine block?” The CHENG raised an eyebrow, cocked her head slightly in one direction, and then let out a large exhale. “That would be worth trying just to see what happened. I’ll have to get the captain’s permission to drop the spare WECAV box down to you.”

“Can you do that, Cindy?” Alma asked her.

“I’ll go right now. Do you need anything else from up here?”

“I don’t know. Mikey?”

“Yes, we need some sheet metal, projector acoustic tiles, and a joint melder. I’ll send you specs and a list.” Mikey started tugging away at virtual icons in front of him. Alma pulled the camera back to her.

“You might as well add a ton of duct tape to that. I have an idea that this is going to look klugey.” She laughed.

* * *

“So, this works how again?” Commander Rogers stood beside the other Mike, the smart one, watching the operation. It had taken the better part of three days to prepare the equipment, but the other Mike and Dr. Jones were very excited about what they were about to attempt.

“Uh, right, so, um, the big block of granite there is like a bell. It was discovered way back in the year 2020 by these scientists from Columbia University in New York, I think it was, that if you rang a bell in the right way, and if the bell were made of the right materials, that bell would reverse gravity or maybe shield it, or maybe become a different kind of matter that falls away from other matter. You see, all matter in the universe falls toward all other matter.”

“What goes up, must come down,” Rogers said.

“Right. Universal Law of Gravitation; Newton came up with it centuries ago. This is known to physicists as the so-called weak energy condition or WEC. Science fiction writers and scientists trying to invent star drives and antigravity machines have been trying to ‘violate’ this weak energy condition for centuries. In 1901, H.G. Wells wrote a story about a material that did this, allowing men to travel to the Moon. It wasn’t until 2020 that it was ever actually accomplished in an extremely specific and complex laboratory setting. The Russian team that invented the Samara Drive figured out a way to build a big chunk of special material that, when rang like a bell in the right way, would really change the properties of the matter and violate the shit out of the WEC.” Dr. James came up for air, it seemed, so Rogers did his best to get a word in.

“So, to make a long story short, you’re gonna try and make a Samara Drive out of this rock and lift it up from the tunnel entrance,” Commander Rogers said nonchalantly as if he’d understood all along.

“Uh, yes, Mike, that is exactly what we’re going to do.”

“Why didn’t you just say that, Doc, and avoid the college lecture?” Rogers did his best to maintain a straight face. He couldn’t tell if Mikey was stunned, hurt, nonplussed, or just didn’t care because the scientist just kept right on directing the ship techs with what had to be done.

“Pank, get me another two-meter-square sheet of ZK60 alloy here and meld it to this one. The feedhorn projector doesn’t have to be precise. Centimeter accuracy will do. We can manipulate the air flow to fine-tune the acoustic standing wave.”

“Right, Mikey. Can you hold that other end? This is a three-handed job.” Pankish Patel looked up from his welding mask and tossed a clamp at Dr. James. Rogers had to hand it to the other Mike on the ship. The guy didn’t mind getting dirty and sweaty and working his ass off.

“Anything I can do to help, Doc?” Rogers asked.

“Just stand over there looking pretty, Mike.” He laughed. “Besides, I’d rather you be watching to make sure more of those damned screeching panther things don’t jump on us.”

* * *

“Alright, Alma, here goes nothing,” Mikey James said as he activated the feedhorns to the WECAV projector system they’d constructed in the middle of an alien jungle light-years from any decent laboratory or machine shop. Mikey looked at various virtual slidebar controllers in his virtual field of view and adjusted them upward.

“The ground is shaking; do you feel that?” Pankish slowly stepped backward from the device and behind Mikey a couple of meters more. “Are you sure this is safe, Doc?”

“Don’t worry, Pank. If it kills you, it will probably be painful,” Mikey joked. “Just in case, everyone get their safety goggles and hearing protection in place now. Starting up in ten, nine, eight . . . ”

“You know, Pank,” Dr. Faruq, theoretical physicist who’d come down to help, joined in the fun, “the first team to experiment with the Samara Drive concept spent the first two months in the hospital with extreme diarrhea from the affects the acoustic signals had on their intestines.”

“Seriously?” Pankish stepped back another step or two. Commander Rogers was ten meters behind that. “Doc? Mikey? Seriously?”

“ . . . three, two . . . ”

“Odds on nothing happening?” Dr. Faruq elbowed Mikey.

“ . . . one. Dr. Jones, maybe you should stand back behind the acoustic shielding,” Mikey whispered to her. He watched the frequency spectrum of the signal coming from the monolithic stone and at first was seeing nothing but white noise, then a few spikes here and there, but once the AI saw the spikes various tracking filters zeroed in on the right frequency mix and suddenly there was a loud gong, like someone had struck a giant gong with a hammer. “I think we found it.”

“Hey, I’ve heard that on engine tests before!” Pankish shouted over the now very loud rushing noise. The air around them began to whirl about with eddies and tiny dust devils. Debris blew about almost to the point where it stung the skin.

“Alright, we’ve found the right resonance. Now we are fine-tuning it and looking for the WEC violation to start. Hopefully, we can couple enough energy into the stone!” Mikey shouted. Then suddenly the rocks started shaking violently. Several small stones of similar makeup lifted from the ground a few centimeters and then shattered like a crystal glass. Shards of granite stone and white dust flew in all directions. The large monolithic stone made a loud gong once again and then the noise dropped to almost zero decibels of detectable sound. The monolithic stone began to rise from its resting spot slowly. As it rose to about three meters from the surface it stalled, fell back about a half of a meter, and then rose again.

“Shut it down, Mikey!” Dr. Jones shouted louder than she needed to. “It worked!”

“Holy shit! Did you see that!” Dr. James exclaimed. “You should’ve taken Faruq’s bet, Pank!”

The energy dropped to zero when Mikey had all the systems shut down. He double-checked to make certain there was no energy being transmitted anywhere and then he pulled his earphones off. He turned to the rest of the team with a smile of triumph.

“We need some big-assed beams to hold that thing up or something.” Mikey shrugged. “I don’t think I’d trust walking in under that thing while the system is on.”

“Somebody must have if this is how they did it to construct the thing,” Alma said. “The rock was floating, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Could we push it with a long stick and just slide it out of the way and let it fall to the side?”

“Why the hell not?” Mikey liked the idea. Simple was always better in his mind. “Pank! Go find us a four-meter-long stick!”



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