When the Gods Aren't Gods: Book Two of The Theogony (15 page)

“You are very perceptive,” said Einstein. “
This was where we tried to build the tools of war to defend ourselves, but it was too late, far too late. Perhaps we will discuss it at another time. If my society has been destroyed, I owe it to them to tell their story. But not today. And not here.”

They reached the wall and a door. It looked like any terrestrial door that Calvin had ever walked through.
It was about 6.5’ high and three feet wide, with a handle right about where it should be. “Kind of old-fashioned isn’t it?” asked Calvin. “Did you put this here just for us?”

“What do you mean?” asked Rafaeli.

“Don’t you think it’s interesting that their door looks exactly like a door on Earth?” asked Calvin in reply. “It’s the same shape and size, and it has the same kind of handle.”

“Maybe they built it for us,” replied the WSO.

“I’m sure they did,” said Calvin. “It gives us no information about their size or shape. It tells us nothing about them, except the fact that they are able to do it.”

“Again, that is very perceptive,” said Einstein. He waved his hand
, and the door vanished, along with several feet of wall on either side of the door. An alcove was revealed that was about 10 feet wide, deep and tall. Sitting on the floor in the center of the room was a short rod. As they walked up to it, Calvin could see that it was about two feet long and four inches in diameter. Black in color, it looked like it was made of some sort of metal. Einstein stopped next to it and extended a hand toward it. “This is for you,” he said. “It will only work for you.”

Calvin reached down to pick it up. As he lifted it, the rod glowed softly where his fingers touched it. It felt warm for a couple of s
econds, and then the glow faded, and the rod cooled. Calvin saw that the surface of the rod was smooth, except for one small button that had been hidden from him earlier by the way it was lying. “Thank you,” said Calvin, before adding, “I think.”

“You are welcome,” replied Einstein. “If you know where one marker is, you know where they all are.
”

“What does that mean?” asked Calvin.

“You will know when it is time,” answered Einstein. “It wouldn’t be much of a test if I gave you the answer at the start. Now, it is time for you to go. I wish you the best of luck.” With that, he disappeared.

“Hey!” yelled Calvin, “I’ve got a few questions!”

In the distance, the lights started going out.

“Einstein, could you please come back?” Calvin yelled.

“Um, maybe we should be going,” said Rafaeli, watching the lights going out, “or we’re going to be in the dark.”

Calvin looked at the lights and judged the rate versus the distance they had to travel. “Not only do we need to go,” he said, “we need to
run
.” The two started running, the extra gravity dragging them down.

“
This...sucks...” gasped Rafaeli. “I need to...exercise...more.”

“Less talking,” said Calvin, only a little less winded. “More running.” He could see that they weren’t going to make it. He was right. They were still 50 yards from the ramp when the last set of light
s went out. The planet’s star must have been low on the horizon by now and not providing much light; they could barely see in the gloom. They slowed down to a quick walk, catching their breaths as they carefully crossed the remaining distance.

They made it to the ramp
, and Calvin stopped to yell into the blackness. “Einstein!” he yelled. “Could I please talk to you?” There was no answer.

With a clang, the ramp started up. Calvin had the choice to jump off and hope that Einstein
would come back or to ride up with the ramp. He sighed. Even if he jumped off, he didn’t have any way to ‘make’ the avatar do what he wanted, and it appeared that the avatar had told him everything that it was going to.

“Well, shit,” he said. “I guess that’s all we’re going to get. Let’s go.” He started walking up the ramp.

Rafaeli shrugged, “Sounds good to me,” she said. “This place gives me the creeps.”

“So, that’s it?” asked Captain Griffin. “Go find these markers, do something and then come back?”

“Yes ma’am,” said Calvin. The trip back to the ship had been uneventful. The shuttle’s systems had worked when they turned them on, and nothing had interfered with them on the journey to the
Vella Gulf
. “I tried to get more information on what, how and where, but Einstein pretty much just kicked us out and said, ‘Go do it, then.’”

“But you don’t have any idea what you’re supposed to do?” asked Captain Griffin.

“Not a clue,” replied Calvin.

“OK, Steropes,” said Captain Griffin, turning toward the Psiclops. “Give.”

“I’m sorry,” replied Steropes. “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” said Captain Griffin, “that you guys haven’t said a word about this civilization the whole time,
and just played along like you didn’t know anything. I find that incredibly hard to believe.
What do you know?
”

There was a pause as the three Psiclopes looked at each other
, and the Terrans knew that they were having a telepathic conversation on what to tell them. Or not tell them, as the case might be.

“What is there to discuss, dam
n it?” asked Calvin, frustrated at having been given a task to complete that came with almost no instructions on how to accomplish it. “Why can’t you just tell us what you know?”

“Well, no one really ‘knows’ anything about them,”
Arges replied. “We
have
found evidence of ancient civilizations on other planets, but they were so old that we weren’t able to tell anything for sure. We knew that there was a civilization, and that for some reason it ceased to exist. But that is all we knew. Since all of our information is based on guesswork, we didn’t want to cloud your contact with them with conjecture.”

“
Your civilization is the only one that has actually had contact with them,” Brontes added.  “Terrans now know more about the ancients’ civilization than any of the alliance members.”

“
What do you think that was all about?” Captain Griffin asked. After the meeting in the conference room, she had privately commed the XO and Calvin to come to her cabin.

“Do you mean the Psiclopes
, and why they were so secretive?” Calvin asked.

“Yes,”
Captain Griffin said, “that is exactly what I mean. They were obviously hiding something. They must know more about the ancients than what they said.”

“They do,”
Calvin stated. “I’ve been around them more than anyone, and I’ve gotten to be pretty good about telling when they’re lying. The whole time Arges was talking, he was either lying or not telling the whole truth.”

“What do you think it is?” the XO
asked.

“I don’t know,” Calvin
said, “but they know more than what they’re telling us. At this stage of the game, I have no idea why they’re not telling us everything; all I know is that they are not.”

“
Captain Griffin, Ensign Sommers,
” Sara commed the CO.

“
Go ahead Sara,
” Captain Griffin replied.

“
Captain Griffin, you’re never going to guess what just happened!
” Sara said.

“
The stargate just came back?
” Captain Griffin asked.

“
How did you know?
” Sara asked, disappointment heavy in her voice.

“
There’s no reason for them to keep us here any longer,
” replied Captain Griffin. “
Have the helmsman proceed to the stargate at full speed. I’d like to get out of here as soon as possible.
”

* * * * *

“All of you have done amazing work,” said Captain Griffin, looking around at the Terrans who had been living on Domus since the end of the first mission to the stars. “I really mean that.”
She smiled at the two queens sitting next to her. The planet of Domus had both a humanoid civilization and a race of therapods called the kuji, which looked uncomfortably like five to six-feet tall tyrannosaurus rex dinosaurs. The queens of both civilizations had flown up to the Gulf on the planet’s own shuttle. “And I am particularly amazed at how far your societies have come, just since the last time we came through here.”

She looked at the Terran ambassador to Domus, Sir Henry Flowers. “It is
also incredible how much you’ve been able to complete in such a short time. You have not only united the two societies on this planet, you’ve brought them into an alliance with Terra.”

“It is amazing how much two groups can work together when the
y find out that an aggressive species that wants to eat them is close by,” the ambassador replied. “It tends to focus the mind wonderfully.”

Captain Griffin smiled. “Well, you won’t have to do everything by yourself much longer.
On our next trip, I know that we will be bringing more advisors to help organize the society and the production effort; additionally, we’ve got some things on this trip that will help make your life a little easier.”

Captain Griffin indicated an officer
, sitting near the end of the table. “Lieutenant Colonel Luiz Ordonez will be staying here when we leave. He is a logistics specialist, whose job it will be to make sure that the replicator we are also leaving with you is run efficiently. For the last several months he has studied under Andrew Brown, the person who is running our biggest replicator, and he is as experienced as anyone we have at replicator operations.”

“Hi sir,” said Colonel Ordonez. “I have a suggested start-up list for things to make with the replicator
to get us going, as well as a supply of some of the metals we’ll need. The first thing we are going to want to make is a medibot and a bunch of implants. The sooner we can get everyone running as effectively and efficiently as possible, the easier things will be. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time needed to replicate an operational medibot to bring down with us, but it won’t take too long to get one put together. I will talk with you more once we get down to the planet.”

“In addition to Colonel Ordonez,” Captain Griffin said, “we will also be leaving
Staff Sergeant Jim Chang when we come back through to help coordinate the military training. He has been acting as one of Lieutenant Commander Hobbs’ squad leaders, and I know he is very proficient with the new technology and how the platoon conducts operations. He will help coordinate the efforts of the men already in place training your soldiers.

“Thank you,” said Queen Risst, the therapod queen
. “The more people we have, the faster we can bring our troops up to standards.”

“Absolutely,” agreed the human queen, Queen Glina. “Now that we have a replicator, we can make our own weapons. That
will help speed up the process too.”

“Is there anything else we can do for you before we depart on our mission?” asked Captain Griffin.

“No,” replied Queen Glina, “but we do want you to stop here on your way back through. We have a delegation that we would like to send to Earth.”

“We will,” agreed Captain Griffin. “In that case, Calvin, could you see about getting them a shuttle down to the planet? We
need to get back to accomplishing our mission.”

“Yes ma’am,” replied Calvin
. He consulted the crew via implant. “The shuttle is on standby to take the leaders back to the planet,” he said. “They should be ready to go in 10 minutes.”

* * * * *

Bridge, TSS
Vella Gulf
, Keppler-22 System, August 11, 2020

“System stabilizing
,” said Steropes. After leaving the Epsilon Eridani system, the Terrans had transited through the WASP-18 system, which had two stargates that had not been explored on the
Vella Gulf’s
first mission. The system they were exploring was on the other side of one of these unexplored stargates. “Probes launching,” Steropes added.

A
long pause followed, where nothing else was heard from the science station. On the viewer, a medium-sized yellow star glowed softly. It was obvious to the crew that the stargate was much closer to the star in this system than in any of the other ones they had entered. Usually the star only appeared as a small dot on the viewer.

After a couple of minutes, Captain Griffin
started tapping her foot. When that had no effect (and her foot got tired), she finally asked, “Is there something I should know about this star system?”

“Oh! Sorry,” said Steropes. “I got distracted.
The stargate is normally on the periphery of the system. This one is much closer to the star; in fact, it is the closest to the star that I have ever entered a system, and I was going to make some initial measurements on it.”

“We’re aware of that,” replied Captain Griffin.

“Really?” asked Steropes. He looked up. Captain Griffin looked pointedly at the front viewer.

“Oh, yes, I see,” said Steropes.
“We are also fairly close to a planet around that star. The planet is a little more than double the size of Earth and...”

“
Are there any indications of enemy activity in this system?
” yelled Captain Griffin, interrupting Steropes.

“Umm, just a second,” replied Steropes. “Sorry, we’ve never come
through a stargate this close to a planet, either, and I just automatically started doing the survey...

“I said,
are there any indications of enemy activity in this system?
” yelled Captain Griffin, interrupting Steropes again.

“Umm, no, there are no indications of ship activity in this system,” replied Steropes. “Hmm...I am receiving indications of power usage from the planet. There is some s
ort of power plant in operation. It seems to be an antimatter plant.”

“Get on it and figure out what we’re dealing with here, Steropes,” ordered Captain Griffin. “That’s the first priority. Unless there is something that appears to directly threaten the ship, I want to know what is happening on that planet. I especially want to know of
any offensive or defensive positions. Am I clear on that?”

“Yes ma’am,” replied a very humble Steropes. “I’m on it.”

Bridge, TSS
Vella Gulf
, In Orbit Around Keppler-22 ‘b,’ August 11, 2020

“I’m ready to give you my
preliminary report,” said Steropes.

“Not half as ready as I am to get it,” replied Captain Griffin.

“Uhhh,” mumbled Steropes, not sure how to answer that.

Captain Griffin sighed. “Never mind,” she said. “Go ahead with your report.”

“Yes ma’am,” replied Steropes. “This system is the Kepler-22 system. We are about 600 light years away from Earth in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan. As you could already guess from the viewer, Keppler-22 is a yellow star that is about 25% less luminous than the Sun.”

“
The system has two planets that orbit the star,” he continued. “The first planet is a Jupiter-sized giant that orbits the star at a distance of only 750,000 miles. It is so close to the star that it completes an orbit in just over 10 hours. It is currently on the other side of the star, but when it is visible, you can see that the planet has a magnetic field that traps charged particles from the star. It has a glowing aurora-like ring around each of its poles.”

“Does that help us in some way?” asked Captain Griffin.

“Umm, no it doesn’t,” said Steropes. “As close as it is to the star, the planet is far too hot to be useful to us.” He paused. “We are currently orbiting the other planet, Kepler-22 ‘b,’” Steropes continued. “It is a super-Earth type world that is almost two and a half times larger than Earth and orbits Kepler-22 at a distance of 79 million miles. At this distance, its year is about 290 days long. The planet’s surface is about 90% water, and its atmosphere is very close to Earth’s, with an average surface temperature of 22°C (72°F). Life appears to exist both on land and in the ocean.”

“You’re coming to the part where you tell us about the inhabitants that have an antimatter power plant
, and you’re coming to it
soon
,” interjected Captain Griffin. “Right, Steropes?”

“Uh, yes ma’am,” replied Steropes. “I’m almost there.” He paused to collect himself and then continued, “As I noted, t
he planet is mostly water, with a few island chains scattered around its surface. The islands appear to be volcanic in nature, although they have been extinct so long that their central cones are not much more than elevated highlands.”

He brought a diagram of the planet onto the front view screens and focused in
on a chain of islands near the equator. There was a large island in the center with several more to the east and west. “The power plant is located on this island,” he said. “The island is about 4,000 square miles in area, or about the size of the big island in Hawaii. I’ve done a cursory study of the island, and I have not been able to find any sign of civilization around the beaches; all of the habitation seems to be inland. When I aligned the cameras with the power source, I found this.” He zoomed in with the camera and refocused it to show...a pyramid.

“That is not fortuitous,”
Arges said.

“What
is it?” asked Captain Griffin.

“It looks like an Aztec pyramid,” said Calvin.

“Mayan, actually,” answered Steropes. “It looks just like the Mayan pyramids of Mexico and Central America. Unfortunately, the presence of such a pyramid is usually indicative of coatls.”

“Coatls?”
asked Captain Griffin.

“Yes,
” replied Steropes. “Coatls. Flying snakes. I’m sure they have a name for themselves in their own language, but I can’t pronounce it, any more than one of you can talk with a snake on your planet.”

“Flying
snakes and pyramids,” Calvin said. “Coatls. Do you mean coatls like Quetzalcoatl? Wasn’t that like the god of the Incans or something like that?”

“
Quetzalcoatl was actually worshiped by the Mayan Indians,” answered Steropes, “and somewhat also by the Aztecs. Unfortunately, that is exactly what I mean. Coatls are biological parasites that live off of other species. A nest of them made it to your planet during the Mayan era. If you remember seeing pictures of priests cutting out victims’ still-beating hearts on top of Central American pyramids, that was their inspiration. They were big believers in human sacrifice; not only did they like the taste of human flesh, but they also liked the psychic rush they got from inspiring fear in others.”

“Wait,” said Captain
Griffin, “those things really exist?”

“Yes,” answered
Steropes, “they really exist, and they love to infest pre-technic humanoid civilizations. They use their advanced technology and proclaim themselves to be gods, especially of learning and knowledge. They
do
give the civilization knowledge, but it comes at a tremendous cost in blood. If there is an infestation here, we
have
to get rid of it.”

“Are there other people living down there?” asked Calvin.

“I haven’t actually seen any of the coatls on the island,” replied Steropes, “but there is definitely a civilization down there. It is impossible to tell with complete certainty from orbit, but the inhabitants seem to be humanoid in appearance, although possibly a bit smaller and darker in complexion than you are.”

“How sure are you that there are coatls here with this civilization?” asked the ambassador. “It would seem to me that if they are sacrificing members of that society, they may be grateful if we
could get rid of the coatls.”

“I am positive that there are coatls there,” replied Steropes. He changed the view on the camera so that the whole town could be seen
. All of the structures were pyramids. They were also all painted blood red in color, giving the scene a very ominous feel. “This layout is like the pyramid complexes the coatls had the Mayans build on Earth; in fact, it is nearly identical to the complex at Chacchoben in present-day Mexico.” He used a laser pointer to indicate a cluster of buildings on the southern end of the city. “There is a large pyramid here that is probably used as the palace and administration structure. It is surrounded by a group of smaller pyramids. These are residential structures where the nobles and priests live.”

“I thought the pyramids were made of stones,” said Calvin. “
The surfaces of these pyramids all look smooth.”

“They
are
made of stones,” said Arges. “They just have plaster on them to make them look flat and smooth. The ones on Earth were completed similarly, but the plaster rotted over time so that all you see now is just the stones.”

“
North of this cluster of buildings is a large courtyard with a ball court on one side of it,” continued Steropes. “The ball court is this long narrow playing alley that has sloping walls on both sides of it.” Like the pyramids, its walls were plastered and painted bright red. “The playing alley has closed end zones,” noted Steropes, “giving the structure an I-shape. The largest playing field on Earth was the Great Ball Court at Chichen Itza, which was 96.5 meters long; this one measures 105 meters.”

“Wow,” said Calvin, “that’s a big field.”

“Indeed,” replied Steropes. “North of the courtyard and ball court is the main temple.”

“Where?” asked the ambassador. “On the other side of that hill?”

“No,” said Steropes, “that hill
is
the temple.”

“Damn,” muttered Calvin
in awe. “That thing is
huge
.”

“Yes, it is,” agreed Steropes. “I estimate that
the pyramid is about a 1,350’ square that stands nearly 350’ high. The temple sits on a 2,000’ square man-made plateau that is about 40’ higher than the rest of the area. There is one staircase that goes up to the temple level at the top of the pyramid. It is on the side that faces the rest of the city.”

“The plateau is 40’ high and 2,000’ on a side?” asked Captain Griffin. “How did they
do that? I thought you said they were pre-technic. Do they have excavation equipment?”

Steropes shook his head. “No,” he said. “No power equipment was used to make the plateau. If it was formed the same way as the ones on
Earth; it was built by the city’s inhabitants, moving dirt by hand.”

Several swear words and expressions of disbelief filled the bridge.

“The antimatter power source is located in this temple,” said Steropes. “It is the only sign of civilization on the planet. There is no way that the inhabitants of this city developed an antimatter plant. None. The coatls are here, and they are in this temple.
And they must be destroyed!
” 

“Wow,” said Captain Griffin. “
It sounds like you feel strongly about that.”

“
They are an affront to everything that I believe in,” replied Steropes. “I’m normally against killing, but I make an exception for coatls.
They must be destroyed.
”

“OK,” said Captain Griffin. “I get it.
You’re not big on them.”

“Wait a minute,” interrupted the ambassador. “We
’re supposed to make new friends, not commit genocide on the new civilizations we find. How does that make us any better than the Drakuls or the lizards you faced on your first mission?”

“I didn’t say to destroy the whole civilization,” said Steropes. “I said that the coatls must be
destroyed. We need to go to the surface of the planet and throw off the yoke that the coatls have on these people. If we do that, you would have access to the resources on the planet.”

“How powerful are the coatls?”
Calvin asked. “Can we beat them with the weapons we have?”

“Absolutely,”
Steropes said. “With your suits and lasers, you will make short work of them. They are not that strong, but they are poisonous if you let them get in close. I have never heard of them using weapons; they normally use less advanced societies to do their dirty work. They also don’t have hands, which makes it hard for them to hold most weapons.”

“Well,
if the things I remember about Mayan human sacrifice are true,” Captain Griffin said, “and the coatls are behind it, then we need to do something about them. We could also use the resources here, which will require going to the planet.” She paused, considering, then turned to Calvin. “Why don’t you take a squad down there and make contact with the locals. Once you’ve established relations with them, we will send down the ambassador to talk to the leaders of their civilization.”