Dusk (62 page)

Darius looked to the floor, a hollow gaze in
his eyes, as if he were in deep thought, “Well, the pyramids, or at
least this one on Asha, have both an inherent function and symbolic
relevance in their design, correct?”

“Yeah,” Jang answered, unsure if the others
knew the rhetorical questions the avatar posed were an algorithm
within the complex-conditional parser used to mimic the ability of
humans to form false conclusions—an ability that was at once
responsible for the greatest achievements and worst atrocities of
human existence—but an ability which no computer could sincerely
possess, and therefore, the question, as rhetorical as it may have
been, still required answering for the dialectic to continue.

Darius was still distant, seemingly
enthralled by his own thoughts as he spoke, “So perhaps the designs
of all the structures are as symbolic as they are functional.”

There was an awkward pause, and then Cyrus
spoke up, “That makes sense.”

In response, Darius rubbed his beard, but
took less time to collect his thoughts. He walked over to the
holomonitor and accessed it, eliciting a grumble from Milliken. A
holographic blueprint of the complex they were in appeared in the
center of the floor and rotated. “This is the layout of
this
facility,” Darius turned and pointed to the three-dimensional map
as it rotated in the center of the floor before them.

Tanner moved forward, his mouth half open in
stunned recognition. “Oh my,” he said as it rotated and ad showed
ten circles—three circles to the right, four in the center, and
three on the left—all interlinked with passageways. “The Tree of
Life,” Tanner said more to himself than everyone else.

“We are here,” Darius said as he walked
toward the image and pointed to the only circle that could be
called the center, “and Plato’s Cave is here,” he added pointing to
the last circular room in the middle row of four that rested the
furthest from the others.

“What about the Hunab Ku?” Tanner asked, awe
still evident in his voice. Darius returned to the holomonitor and
the image of the complex retreated and settled in a top-down view
in front of them, resembling a drawing. As Darius pretended to
type, a miniaturized diagram of the city appeared next to the ten
linked circles and then rotated and zoomed to resemble a drawing of
the Mayan symbol.

Darius turned and clasped his hands behind
his back. “Hunab Ku is both the name of the head of the Mayan
pantheon, and the symbol we see before us.”

Torvald could not hold his confusion any
longer. “So what is the significance of this Tree of Life?”

Darius turned and indicated Tanner, allowing
him to answer, which Jang knew he would do. The avatar only filled
in the blanks that the user did not have, or corrected the user
when he was unequivocally wrong. It was a magnificently designed
program, but it was still just that, and its unwillingness to be
fallible was its worst flaw.

“It’s a Kabalistic symbol representing the
flow of energy throughout all aspects of the universe. Each circle,
called a sephiroth, represents an aspect of existence. The topmost
sephiroth, where Plato’s Cave is, represents the unknowable
godhead. As a term, the Tree of Life relates to the tree in the
Garden of Eden that Adam and Eve were separated from when they ate
from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.” Tanner still seemed
bewildered, as if the pieces that were beginning to come together
made
less
sense.

“What about the Hunab Ku?” Davidson asked,
looking between Darius and Tanner. This time, also as Jang
expected, Darius stepped forward to give the explanation, “Hunab Ku
was the father of the Mayan gods. According to Mayan myth, he
created the world and destroyed it three times with floods. The
first world was inhabited by a race of dwarves, the second by a
defiant race of beings called the Dzolob, and the last was created
for the Maya themselves, or rather humanity as we know it. The
symbol represents an idea of oneness, a blending of opposing forces
in the universe to find harmony very similar to the yin and yang of
the Taoists. Its name also implies that same oneness brings one
closer to the godhead, as Tanner put it earlier.”

“So we have three symbols that represent the
harmony of energy within the universe.” Cyrus stated.

“Well, wouldn’t the pyramid be a symbol of
death, or the afterlife?” Milliken presented.

“Well, there was never any conclusive
evidence that the primary function of Giza pyramids was to serve as
tombs as no mummified king was ever found within them,” Darius
chimed in, exactly as he should. As unnerving as the situation
before them all was, Jang’s chest swelled with a warm pride as he
watched the marriage of his own programming and the ingenuity of
Cyrus’s son play out before them.

“Besides,” Torvald added, “haven’t we already
established that at least the pyramid here is designed to collect
the ambient energy of the universe? Seems like an accurate enough
analogy for me.”

“Okay, so we have three different symbols of
universal symbiosis, but what does it mean?” Davidson asked, as
equally perplexed by Tanner.

“Creation,” Cyrus said and then let the words
hang in the air before explaining, “Hunab Ku was the creator god of
the Mayans, and the Tree of Life relates to the Biblical creation…”
Cyrus paused to gather his thoughts, but Davidson interrupted.

“But weren’t the pyramids related to Osiris,
the god of the afterlife?”

Darius interjected again, “Actually the
association with Osiris is due to references to The Book of the
Dead on the walls of the Great Pyramid, and is reinforced by the
somewhat troubled assumption that they were tombs, however there
have been theories throughout history that the pyramids were
related to the sun god Ra, or the sky god Horus. But even the
connection with Osiris would be valid because Osiris not only
received the dead, but also decided which beings would enter the
world.”

“There’s also a more concrete relationship,”
Cyrus stepped forward, enlivened by some revelation, “This
particular pyramid collects the energy from the CMB. The CMB is the
microwave residue left over from the Big Bang and would therefore
relate the pyramid symbol even more directly to the creation of the
universe.”

The scientists all nodded, except Tanner, who
seemed to be struggling with something elusive in his own mind.
After a moment, he lifted his hand and spoke, “We’re missing one
other connection—the societies from which each of these
civilizations originate. The Tree of Life is a Kabalistic symbol,
but pieces of the Garden of Eden story can be traced back to the
ancient Babylonians. The Babylonians, Mayans, and Ancient Egyptians
all have one thing in common; they all possessed technology and a
level of civilization that seemed to come from out of nowhere.”

There was grumbling and confusion in their
midst, so Tanner continued, “They all have civilizations they can
trace their origins to. The Babylonians, earlier Mesopotamians, the
Maya, the Olmecs, and the Egyptians, the nomadic tribes of the Nile
delta, but each of these civilizations either gained their
knowledge directly from the previous culture, as is the case with
the Maya and the Olmecs, or there is little direct correlation
between these civilizations’ predecessors and the aspects that make
the cultures noteworthy.”

“What does that mean?” Milliken seemed
lost.

“I’ll give you an example, we can trace
Commonspeak back to American and British English, and those
languages we can trace back to the Germanic tribes and various
French, Roman, Spanish, and Greek influences. We can even trace the
Roman writing backward and see its logical progression. There are
stratifications in how the Egyptians built tombs, but if you go on
the assumption that the pyramids are
not
tombs, that
distinction is loose at best. It’s like a group of people show up
with a language no one has ever heard of, that isn’t related to any
other language on the planet. Basically, with the Maya, the
Egyptians, and the Babylonians, despite their differences, you have
civilizations that suddenly developed complex knowledge of the
stars and the sky that western civilization did not quite master
until the nineteenth century at the earliest.”

“Well, what does it mean then?” Milliken
repeated, visibly frustrated.

“Well, if a student doesn’t know anything in
class and then suddenly aces a take-home deck exam, what do you
assume?” Tanner asked.

Tanner did not have to wait for the answer.
Davidson and Milliken both answered in unison before he had fully
inflected the question mark. “Someone told him the answers.”

Tanner continued, “Exactly, but we know the
Mayans learned from the Olmecs, but where did the Olmecs learn it?
There is very little record of anything pertaining to where they
came from or where they went. Why did all these civilizations
develop complex calendars? They had a need to know the seasons, but
not to the extent that they did. The Mayan calendar has three
thousand-year periods, the pyramids suggest time periods ten
thousand years apart. But there is no record of them building up to
the knowledge. It’s like they showed up to the examination and
suddenly had all the answers without ever registering for the
class.”

“So are you suggesting there was some sort of
teacher
that gave these civilizations a cheat sheet?”
Davidson challenged.

Cyrus chimed in with the retort, “Given the
age of the links we found here on Asha, is it really so hard to
believe? The presence of these things here, if our assessment of
their connection is correct, implies that either advanced humans or
some other race of beings created these edifices and then taught
these Earth civilizations their trade secrets. Ockham’s razor cuts
deeply on this one.”

“But what’s the connection,” Milliken
posited, “the real connection between all three cultures? Even if
the kid cheats on his exam, he has to get the answers from
somewhere. And the where is usually the exact size, shape, and
color of the Razor’s blade.”

And then Darius surprised Jang as well as all
the other scientists, “Atlantis.” It seemed so much like an
unfounded logical leap that it even took Jang off-guard. After the
verbal expressions of doubt and disapproval subsided, Darius
continued. “The most likely connection is Atlantis. Plato wrote
about it in two works as if it were an actual place. It exists on
more than one ancient map in some capacity. And if it did exist, it
should be fairly obvious how time itself could obfuscate its
existence.”

“How is that?” Torvald asked.

“The destruction of the Library of
Alexandria, the burning of indigenous South American relics,
artifacts, and tomes by zealous Catholics, the destruction of the
first and second temple in Israel, the uncountable wars, conquests,
and religious inquisitions throughout human history have all
undoubtedly ruined vast amounts of ancient knowledge. Look at how
easy it was here. Even if the pyramid and the city here were
uncovered tomorrow, the majority of the Ashan populace would have
little inkling to their relevance. So to say that something cannot
exist because we know nothing about it is like taking Schrödinger’s
cat literally—sure some of you may see the philosophical relevance,
but would any of you volunteer to take the cat’s place, even if
guaranteed no one would ever open the box?”

The avatar’s conjecture amazed Jang beyond
words, but he searched his mind for explanations. The real Darius,
in his numerous days before he modified the prompting engine, must
have used such an analogy.

“So let’s look at this conjecture indirectly.
If we assume Atlantis
must
exist, then where would it have
been, where did it go?” Cyrus mediated.

There was a short pause until Milliken spoke
up, “There are large landmasses that we know precious little about
due to them being covered by miles of ice.”

“Greenland and Antarctica,” Darius added.

“If beings that provided Milliken’s cheat
sheet really did exist, wouldn’t they most likely spread whatever
knowledge they did at approximately the same time?” Torvald chimed
in.

“Well there are theories that the sphinx is
around ten thousand years old—possibly the pyramids as well. There
is also some evidence that Olmec civilization thrived around that
time,” Darius was pacing between the scientists and the images of
the city and the complex that still floated in the center of the
circular room.

“There are Sumerian and Judaic myths that
claim advanced knowledge was given to humans by a god or offspring
of divine beings and humans, but I’m not sure about the South
Americans.” Tanner added.

“Viracocha,” Darius added, “was a civilizer
that taught men to not act like beasts, and a form of him exists in
many South and Middle American myths. He was pale-skinned and wore
glistening fish scales, which was what enabled Pizarro and Cortez
to so efficiently molest the people of Middle America.”

“Noah was also pale-skinned, and his father
was disturbed, but he took council with Enoch, his grandfather, who
was enlightened and told the father not to worry. In Sumerian myth,
Utnapashtim, who is analogous to Noah, received knowledge from Ea,
the god of water who sympathized with the humans,” Tanner
added.

Darius looked enthusiastic now. “Viracocha
also means ‘one that came from the water.’”

“In Greek mythology, Poseidon, who if I
recall correctly was the patron deity of Atlantis, had his country
destroyed because of a dispute with Zeus and Athena,” Tanner shot
back. They were rolling now. “There is also Oannes, a Babylonian
god credited with giving knowledge to mankind, and who also had the
body of a fish.”

“There is also debate as to Plato’s dating of
the existence of Atlantis. He says it existed about nine thousand
years before his own writing in the
Timeus
, but historians
find that date hard to accept,” Darius continued.