Guardians of the Galactic Sentinel 1: The Deimos Artifact (26 page)

Chapter 30.
Symbolic Logic.

Voltaire Crater, Deimos, July 15, 2676.

After a good night's sleep and a decent breakfast it was time to get back to work. Arnold headed down to engineering to get Cliff's help retrieving the artifact while the others reconvened in the
Capri's
meeting room. Kathryn and the Professor picked up on their examination of the projected images of the topless pyramid taken from inside the nearby cavern.

"I noticed last night that it appears as if the top row of symbols on all three sides of the pyramid in the cavern have been cut off," she said, pointing to the viewscreen.

"This is pure speculation again," said the Professor, "but I wonder if the missing portions of that top row of symbols might be on the bottom edges of our artifact?"

Arnold came in with Cliff and the artifact a few minutes later, the two men lugging the storage box that contained the artifact between them. They set the box on the floor and Arnold stood back as Cliff worked the latches. As they had done before, Cliff and Zack removed the inner package and set it up on the table. They then freed the inner display case from the protective padding. Sitting dormant inside the case, the artifact displayed only smooth, featureless facets.

"I can see why whoever it was that removed this pyramid from the location back on Earth was tempted to do so," said the Professor, "It really is exquisitely beautiful, in its own way, and has the added virtue of being somewhat portable. It surely looks as though it would have to be of great value to someone."

"You say the markings showed up after you touched the artifact?" asked Kathryn.

"You could see them come into view as it got warmer," said Zack, "and then they faded out as it cooled back down. Do we dare try touching it again?"

"At this juncture, I don't know that we have much choice," said the Professor, "Besides, it didn't seem to do any particular damage to anything last time you touched it, did it?"

"How about we just remove the top of the display case and leave
it
inside," ventured Zack, "We should be able to see just fine through the transparent sides of the case."

"That might not be a bad idea," said the Professor.

Cliff removed the top panel of the cubic display case and Zack reached in with his bare hand and cupped one of the sloped edges of the little pyramid. After a few seconds, the object began to warm up from his touch. As it got warmer, the surface markings began to reappear...

{...Responding to a new burst of signals being generated by another partial activation of the Sentinel Key, the Morpheus Omnicast module that had been placed in the Sol system immediately ratchets up the intensity of the dream induction program to the highest level. Using faster than light communications technology far more advanced than the primitive TacRad systems employed by Humans, the module begins bombarding the Sol system with a new and even more powerful stimulus. Within a matter of a few minutes, the new instructions are communicated to the entire Omnicast network. All of Human space is about to be treated to new round of visions, far more powerful than any experienced so far...}

...Arnold, leaning against the wall behind them, innocently watching the proceedings from that vantage point, suddenly went rigid, staring off into space with his mouth wide open. The others, their attention riveted to the now glowing artifact, failed to notice.

"Is anyone recording this," asked Zack, still touching the steadily warming artifact.

"I am," said Ariane, holding her tablet in front of her to capture the detail.

"This thing is getting warmer," said Zack.

"Hold on a little longer," said Ariane, scooting around Zack to capture the writing on another side of the artifact. To Zack's relief, the little pyramid seemed to level off at a temperature that was somewhat warmer than he found comfortable but not hot enough to actually burn him. Ariane maneuvered around and captured the images from the third and final side of the object.

"Okay, you can let go if you want," she said, "I think I've got everything."

Zack released his grip on the artifact. As the group watched, the symbols and markings rapidly faded back into the original hard, featureless surface.

Ariane, first to turn her attention away from the artifact, was also the first to notice that all was not well with Arnold. "Arnold?" she said, "Arnold? What's the matter?"

As the artifact cooled back down to its resting temperature and the symbols faded from view, Arnold seemed to snap out of his trance. He shook his head again to clear it and was only able to keep from collapsing to the floor by catching himself on the back of the nearest chair with both hands. The normally smooth brown skin of his face was at least a couple of shades lighter.

"Arnold?" asked Ariane, for the third time, "What happened?"

"I...I was looking at the artifact and... suddenly I was in the middle of another of the visions."

"What did you see?" asked the Professor.

"Armies, battles, enemies! None of them human!" he shook his head as if to clear it, "So clear, so powerful. I'm sorry, it sounds fantastic, even nonsensical, but that's what I saw. It was...terrifying!" Arnold fumbled the chair that was holding him up out from under the table and collapsed ungracefully into it.

"What do you suppose this means?" asked the Professor of no one in particular.

"I don't know how the rest of you feel," said Zack, "but I personally don't think we need any further proof that the mass visions are connected to this artifact. We touched it, the lettering appeared and Arnold had a vision. What more do you want?"

"Please warn me if you're going to touch it again," said Arnold, "I almost fell down!"

"I say we avoid touching it any further for the time being," said MacPherson, "but we desperately needed the information on the artifact. Now we can get back to work. Are you going to be alright, Arnold?"

"I...I think so, Professor, though I might sit for a while yet."

"Let us know if you feel another one of those episodes coming on."

"I certainly will, if I can," replied Arnold, "This last one didn't give me much warning."

The excitement over, Ariane fiddled with her tablet for a moment and shared the images she'd captured with Kathryn who projected the new images on the wall viewscreen. The images of the pyramid from the cavern were still on display, so the symbologist arrayed the new set of images above them. She then fiddled some more with her tablet to adjust the scale of the new images to approximate that of the images taken of the pyramid from the cave.

During this process, Kathryn had already made some observations, "Just as you said, Dr. MacPherson, it looks like the bottom row of symbols on the artifact
do
complete the top row of symbols on the pyramid in the cave. You'll also note that each side is unique."

"Does that mean that there is only one proper alignment of the artifact relative to the rest of the pyramid?" asked Arnold, still sitting down.

"It would appear so," said the Professor, "any idea what any of these symbols mean?"

Kathryn was silent for a moment. Then she began to manipulate the images, aligning the appropriate sides of the artifact with those of the chopped-off pyramid. She stared intently at the results of her work for several long moments.

"That's makes a lot more sense," she said, nodding her head.

"What do you mean?" asked Zack.

"The symbols appear to be arranged in slanted columns from top to bottom," she replied.

Zack took a closer look at the projections. Indeed the symbols did seem to be arranged in a series of long, though not perfectly vertical columns. The size of the symbols within each column also appeared to get larger as they went from top to bottom. The symbols within the artifact itself were no more than a centimeter in width and height while those on the bottom edge of the larger pyramid had grown to about three times as wide, with a corresponding increase in height. The longest column of symbols on each facet ran down the left side of the facet at an angle parallel to that of the left vertex. The adjacent columns ran parallel to the long column and grew progressively shorter until the one on the extreme right contained but a single symbol.

Zack noticed a figure in one of the facets of the new pyramid from the cavern. A small version of the same ovoid-bodied, crown-headed, four-armed god depicted in the wall painting from one of Zack's photographs was delineated inside its own circle in the center of the facet. "That looks like the same deity that was on the wall painting in the photograph. The...ah, scarab wasn't it? Was that creature in your vision, Arnold?"

"No..., not that I remember," said Arnold, "I wish I could find out more about that particular version of the scarab. I have an exhaustive list of references loaded onto my tablet, but none of them seem to have information on any kind of scarab deity."

Kathryn continued, "It looks like the artifact contains the introduction to each of the 'sentences,' -- for lack of a better term -- in each of the vertical columns. You need the very first set of symbols contained in our artifact to make sense of the rest of the symbols in each of the columns on the larger pyramid. I think you're right, Professor, whoever made these constructs intended for us to be able to decipher these inscriptions! However, we need both of the pieces of the puzzle to do so."

"Can you?" asked the Professor.

"I'll need some more time, but I don't see why not. This, for instance...," she pointed to a symbol in one of the center columns of the projection, "...this looks a lot like the Old Earth Egyptian symbol for "men" or "mankind." This one here could be "sun" or "dawn" depending on the context." She continued to concentrate on the projections while she nodded her head in understanding, "As before, these symbols are all somewhat stylized compared to the classical symbols from the historical records but that hasn't caused any problems so far."

"Do you need some help?" asked the Professor.

"I surely wouldn't turn it down," replied Kathryn.

"Why don't the rest of you find something constructive to do while we have a good hard look at these writings?" said the Professor.

No one had any particular argument, so the rest of the group left Kathryn, Arnold and the Professor in the meeting room to work on a translation of all the new material they had just discovered. To the relief of all of them, Arnold seemed to be perking up some after the trauma of his vision. He was still a little wobbly as he got up to give the other two scientists a hand, but his color had improved and he appeared eager to go back to work.

***

Out in the Sol System alpha hyperlink zone, the
Murmansk
translated back into normal space. After the obligatory interval to allow the crew to recover their equilibrium, Sergei Popov gave the order to move out.

"Set course for the fourth planet," he said to his navigator. "Our destination is the smaller of the two moons orbiting that planet."

The navigator made a series of inputs to his console, "Course for the fourth planet laid in and ready, Sir."

"Engage reaction drives, all ahead three quarters."

Ahead three quarters was now near the maximum thrust that the ship could sustain due to the lower capacity replacement thruster that Sergei had been forced to install. Within five minutes after he had given the order, the
Murmansk
was hailed by another ship.

"Unidentified ship? This is
Viking Warbird Six.
Be informed that you are in Viking space. Stand down and prepare to be boarded for inspection."

"Ignore that hail," said Sergei. Instead, he punched the button for the ship's intercom, "All hands to battle stations! Shields at maximum! Charge weapons! Your target is that enemy ship. Prepare to fire on my order!"

The unsuspecting Viking scout repeated his hail, calling for the
Murmansk
to stand down and prepare for boarding. With his ship now ready for just about anything, Sergei finally contacted the Viking raider, "
Viking Warbird Six
, this is Soviet People's Ship
Murmansk
. We do not recognize the sovereignty of anything called 'Viking Space.' Be advised that we will defend ourselves against any aggressive measures on your part."

The Captain of the little Viking scout took another look at the ship that he was challenging and immediately realized that he was badly overmatched.
Warbird Six
was little more than a small police craft, lightly armed and lightly armored. Her somewhat modest firepower and protection were usually more than adequate for the little scout, as most of the ships she challenged were slow, vulnerable cargo craft or smugglers less heavily armed than she was.

The current situation was considerably different, however, as the ship she was confronting was a thoroughly modern and well-armed Soviet courier. The weapons it carried were far more powerful than anything on the little scout ship. Even if the
Murmansk
did not return fire, her shields were powerful enough to easily shrug off anything that
Warbird Six
could throw at her.