The Pyramid Builders (13 page)

The civilization was moving out into the planets, but they did not have stardrive capability. He increased the power again and searched the system for any Alliance Ships. Nothing. He adjusted the program to search for the residue of a stardrive and again came up empty. Ummmm, could this be a sensor malfunction? He checked on the device and saw it was still two rotations out. Should he attempt to speed it up? Noooo; probably not. The adjustments would be numerous and would tie up a ship for a rotation. The fleet was busy chasing real threats to the Dynasty and this primitive civilization was not a threat.

He turned to the alarm and made a notation in the system to send three ships when it arrived to destroy the outposts scattered in the solar system. He almost changed his mind, but then another alarm went off. He glanced at his board and saw another attack on a ship. These Alliance planets were starting to become worrisome. He decided the stardrive alarm was a false reading. He turned to his board and watched the Moet ship being attacked. It didn’t need any help. He watched as it destroyed seven ships. The false read bothered him, but another alarm went off and he put it out of his mind. Twenty minutes later the Earth passed where the Cheops jumped and the residual energy was now where it could be seen. But no one was looking. A week later it disappeared.

Chris looked at the display and saw the Cheops was surrounded by a universe that was green and black. They were sitting still next to a small black bulge in space next to them. “Jillian, I thought we entered here at a high velocity.”

“We did, but speed doesn’t exist here.”

What are all these black bulges around us?”

“The closest one is the sun and the planets in our solar system.”

“But they’re bunched up almost together.”

“This space is not part of our universe. Our solar system is no larger than a basketball here.”

“How do we move on the line I was taking?”

“The ship is still pointed on that line. I just need to set how far we want to go and push the execute button.” Jillian entered 5,500 into her console and said, “The funny thing about this drive is that no matter how far you want to go, it will take almost no time to arrive. The time doesn’t vary whether it’s one or a million light years.”

“Before you push that button, I want to try something.”

“What is that?”

“I’m going to use my scanner and take a reading on the area around us. I’m going to lock that reading into the system’s memory.”

“Why?”

“Perhaps my device will be able to see this reading wherever we go in this place.”

“Ummmm. If it does, we can always come home.”

“Exactly. Let’s do this. Jump two light years and check to see if it works before we make our long jump.”

Jillian adjusted the setting and looked at Chris, “Ready?”

“I’m with you.” Jillian pushed the button.

The Cheops emerged from green space and shot forward at high velocity. Chris turned the gravity dial to zero and the ship came to an immediate stop. Chris shook his head, “Dolly was right. This thing stops us instantly. We need to make doubly sure we’re weightless whenever we’re moving at high speed. If we have any weight, we could be slammed through the bulkhead.”

“Dolly set the ships gravity to automatically go weightless if the ship is moving.”

“Give me a moment. Let’s trial the device and see if we can get a picture of Earth.”

Jillian shrugged as Chris turned the ship. “Extending sensor fields.” Eight emitters began sending an energy field out from the Cheops. It expanded at light speed and grew at a huge rate. Chris set the frequency of the light from Earth and waited. After three minutes he got a ping on his board, “Got it.” Jillian stood up and came around to look at the display. “Is there anything you want to see in particular?”

Jillian saw Earth on Chris’ display. She thought a minute and said, “The Great Pyramid.”

“Good call, and fortunately that side of the planet is in view.”

“What if it wasn’t?”

“Well, we would have to wait until it came around toward us. We can’t see what is on the other side of the planet from this angle. We took a line that light would take when it’s reflected.”Chris turned three dials and the planet grew larger. The view zoomed in until they were looking down on the Mediterranean Sea. He moved the view East over Egypt where the Nile emptied into the sea. In less than four more minutes they were looking down on the three pyramids in the complex.

“Try to get closer to the entrance to the Great Pyramid.”

The view moved over to the largest of the three pyramids and Jillian said, “Stop it there.” She stared at the display and said, “See that large green lifter?”

“Yes.”

“Move it in closer and see if you can identify anyone around it.”

The view flickered momentarily and Chris said, “Something moved through the light. It cleared up and Chris moved the view closer until he saw Jillian and her Father standing next to the truck. There was a third person hiding behind the lifter he didn’t recognize. “Who is that?”

“I don’t know. This light left in June two years ago. I know it was June because that was the only time my father visited the site. I wish I knew who that is behind the lifter. They saw the man look up at the sky and then turn away from the lifter. “Is there any way to speed this up?”

Chris smiled, “I’m glad you asked. We’ll just move forward as we collect the light and it will speed the video up.”

“You’re recording this?”

“Absolutely. Let’s see if we can see where this person goes.”

Chris nudged the thrusters and everything began moving faster. The man behind the lifter snuck away and moved through the complex to a jeep that was parked behind the Temple of the Pharaohs. They followed him until he arrived at a house in Giza. “What’s that in his hand?”

Chris froze the picture and moved in closer to the man. He was putting something in his jacket pocket. They stared as the focus began to fail, but then they saw it. Jillian took a quick breath and Chris was stunned. It was the anti-gravity device found in the tablet. “We should go back.”

“Jillian, he might be gone now. We would also have to use the stardrive in the system, and I’m worried about doing that. Let’s finish what we started and we’ll go find him later. He obviously hasn’t done anything to jeopardize the project. This was two years ago and he’s not been around.”

She shook her head, then nodded, “You’re right. I’m amazed at your invention. I would have thought the light would have been scattered as it left Earth.”

“Think about that. If light scattered from its source, then the stars at night would just be a huge glare. The vacuum of space keeps it coherent.”

“I know that, but the light from stars does not come through an atmosphere. This light does. I think what you’ve done here is miraculous.”

Chris leaned back in his chair and looked at Jillian, “What is the real reason you want to see the Pyramid being built? We already know how it was done. What are you hoping to find?”

Jillian stared at Chris for a long moment and said, “This is top security clearance. Only two people know this.”

Chris nodded.

“I want to see where the other building site was located. I believe that there was another person taught by the Sheera and that they might have also left us a message.”

“There’s got to be more than that.”

“I also want to see where the Jenze ship was destroyed. I want to see the design of that vessel.”

“How are you going to learn anything from just seeing it?”

“I’ll tell you if we find it. But until we do, I can’t.”

Chris stared at her and said, “Fair enough. Are you ready to jump to the light from five thousand years ago?”

“Yes, I am.” Jillian paused, then said, “Chris, I don’t want to give you the wrong impression, but I’m not ready for any kind of close personal relationship. I do like you a lot; I hope you understand.”

Chris took a deep breath, “You know I’ll honor your wishes. I’ll keep my distance.”

Jillian forced a smile and said, “Thank you.”

Chris turned back to his board and Jillian fought the emotions that were trying to overwhelm her. She went and sat in her command chair and looked out the viewport. Billions of stars were shining, and she knew one of them was her home. “Oh, Daniel, I miss you so much.” She saw her fiancé’s face again, then realized this kind of sorrow must be what Chris has been drinking to forget. She looked at Chris entering the data. How could he have overcome the sorrow? She looked at the stars again, but only saw Daniel’s face.

The Cheops entered the green colored space and Chris said, “Just a moment before you move.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Look in the rearview display. Do you see that line behind us?”

Jillian stared and said, “Yes, I do. What is that?”

“Give me a moment to take a reading.” Chris turned his sensors on the line and read the results. “Jillian, I think when we move through this space, we leave a trail behind us. According to my readings it is decaying and will be gone in about a week. This is good and bad news.”

“Why do you say that?”

Chris looked out at the green space surrounding them and said, “It’s good because we have a way to go back to where we started. It’s bad because we can be followed. If we see it, the Moet can see it.”

“So as long as we go back within a week, we should have a trail to follow.”

“Looks that way. Let me check one other thing.” Chris extended his scanners and waited while they collected data. “Jillian, there are green trails all through this space. Some are rather large and according to my scanners they are not decaying.”

“What do you think about that?”

“I suspect that if the same trail is used a lot, it becomes much more durable. It could also be that the trails are not visible normally, but show up in my device. There are so many things we don’t know about this place. What are we going to call it?”

Jillian thought a moment, “Most of the sci fy writers have called it things like hyperspace, null space, warp space, and so on. Let’s call it Sierra.”

Chris smiled, “That’s a great choice. I can see Dolly’s face now.” Chris pulled in his sensors and punched his board, “Ready to go?”

“We aren’t really sure of the exact date, so let’s go out six thousand light years and work our way back.”

“You’re the boss, field engagement in ten seconds.” The Cheops hung in space as Jillian checked her board and pulled the blue handle. The green field instantly appeared around the Cheops and then it disappeared. Chris saw Sierra space around them and said, “Hit it.” Jillian pushed the yellow button and the Cheops moved through the green dimensionless space. Two seconds later the Cheops broke back into normal space and Chris turned the ship a hundred and eighty degrees. “Let’s see what we’ve got.”

Jillian looked at her display, “We’re in open space here. There’s not a star near us.”

“I’m extending the screens. Let’s hope we have something.” Chris watched his display and nothing appeared. He waited as the screens expanded away from the Cheops at light speed but nothing came up on the display.

“What’s happening?”

“I’m not sure. It may be that the light was blocked by something that moved in front of it at some time in the past.”

“Do you think we’ve come too far for your machine to work?”

Chris stared at his display and shook his head, “Let’s try moving a light near perpendicular to our current position.”

Jillian shrugged and set up the board, “Do you think we can find our way back from here?”

“As long as the green trail persists, we can. Let’s jump and see what we get.”

They ended up jumping four times before the display pinged, “Got it.”

Jillian jumped out of her chair and rushed over to see the display. Earth was shining in the center of it. Chris started adjusting the knobs, and after five minutes the surface was in focus. “We’re on the wrong side of the planet. We’ll need to wait eight hours for Egypt to come around.”

“What happens then?”

“If the pyramid is there, nothing. We’ll do our recordings from here. If not, we’ll jump a hundred light years toward the light coming to us and take another look.”

“Chris, I’m concerned about finding our way back home.”

“As long as we can receive the light from Earth, we can find our way back home. If we lose it we’ll just retrace the trail in Sierra Space.”

Jillian tilted her head to the left, “I hope you’re right.”

Chris smiled, “Trust me, I’m a scientist.”

“Those are the hardest to trust.”

“Tell that to Dolly.” Chris stood and started moving toward the passageway.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to get some sleep. I don’t know how much I’ll get later.”

“You can sleep at a time like this?”

“I can sleep even when I’m awake. There’s only one thing I like more than sleeping.”

“What is that?”

Chris winked, “Sorry, that’s a secret. I’ll let you know when the situation warrants it.”

Jillian threw a ball of paper at him as he disappeared from the bridge. She walked over and picked the paper up, then looked out the view port at stars that were different from any she had seen before. After a moment she saw Chris’ face. She shook her head and the stars returned. Why Chris’ face and not Daniel’s? She sat down in her chair and leaned back. She closed her eyes and saw Chris winking at her as he left the bridge. She smiled, and after a few moments, fell asleep.

Ship Commander L’grae looked at his status board and linked to the other five ships in his squadron. He was nervous but couldn’t allow his crew to see how he felt. His sensor officer had found the track of a Moet ship in green space and it was a new track. His squadron was ordered to find a Moet ship and attack it with a new weapon that had been recently developed. The power of the new beam was hundreds of times more powerful than those used in the past, and there was hope it could destroy their target.

L’grae knew that every attack so far had ended with the Moet killing most of the attacking ships. Everything they tried failed, and he wondered what would make this attack any different. He looked around the bridge of his main battleship and saw his crew’s fear. The six ships in the squadron were following the trail of the Moet ship, and he knew in less than ten dias they would be emerging into normal space where it had traveled. He said a quick prayer to the gods of his family and looked at his status board. All sections reported in ready, and he knew his other six ships were also at station. He looked around and announced over the ship’s speakers, “Less than ten dias to normal space. As soon as we emerge, we will scan for the Moet and begin our attack. Make your shots count. Hit it and hold it in your beams. I know you’ll make me proud.”