Project Solaris 2: Hero Rising (8 page)

Kali aimed her hands at something out of sight, and a torrent of white-hot flame poured in that direction. I heard a panicked scream, then cursing in Spanish. Janaki was already moving. She dove over another wall, landing out of sight. I heard a choked male yell, then the power that had been absent came surging back. I could feel signals again.

"Marcus, deal with the crystal girl," I said, kneeling on the ground and placing both hands against the hot stone. "Jillian, cloak us."

We faded from sight even as more rocks poured from the ruined Sphinx's paw. They crashed down on the girl, covering her body, and possibly ending her life. I felt a moment's remorse, but brutally repressed it. We were at war, and I needed to protect my people.

I focused on the ground beneath me, extending my senses. A faint signal emanated from the ground beneath me. This was the spot. "Everyone, gather on me. Jillian, I need you to phase us straight down about a dozen meters. I think I've found the Hall of Records."

"What about Kali?" Jillian shot back, shading her eyes with one hand while she studied the area above the enclosure. We could still hear sounds of combat, but had no idea what was going on.

"Damn it," I snapped, rising to my feet. It was an impossible dilemma. Summers could be dying, and the super Dick was using to dampen our powers could return at any moment. The smart thing to do was flee. "Give me a minute."

I closed my eyes, extending my senses as I felt for the minds around me. There were still quite a few, though most of the tourists had fled. That made it easier, and I located Janaki before too long. Her mind was full of concern, and, to my surprise, affection for Kali. She was crouched behind a wall, out of breath and unsure what to do.

Janaki, it's David. I need to you grab Kali, and get down to us in the enclosure. Can you do that?

"How are you...?" she started, then trailed off as she evidently answered her own question. "Yes, I'll be right there."

I released her mind, returning to my own body. Searching like that was risky. I didn't know what Dick could do if he caught me projecting, but I knew it wouldn't be good. A moment later, there was a lapping of cloth as Janaki landed a few feet away. The force of her landing sent up a fresh cloud of dust, but I could see that she was cradling a figure. When the dust cleared, I could make out Kali's face.

"She's safe. Get us down to the hall, Jillian."

Chapter 14- The Hall of Records

I floated slowly down through the rock, instinctively holding my breath. The passage lasted forever, giving me all the time in the world to contemplate the terrible ways we could die. What if Dick's super suppressed Jillian's power while we were phasing through rock? What if she ran out of juice before we reached the hall? I knew such thoughts were pointless, but the terrified eight-year-old in me wouldn't be quiet.

We finally dropped through a floor into a pitch-black room. Jillian guided us gently to a stone floor, and I felt myself return to solidity. "Everyone all right? Sound off."

"Here," Marcus said from a few feet to my right. There was a catch in his voice when he spoke again. "Summers is here too, but she's unconscious. Maybe worse."

"We're here," Kali said. 

"I think she means me, when she says we," Janaki chimed in a moment later. 

"That took a lot out of me," Jillian said, a little to my right. 

"I'm here as well," Steve finally said. His voice was shaky with adrenaline. "What the hell just happened? What I witnessed out there should be impossible."

"Later, Steve. We don't know how long we have until Dick and his goons find a way down here. Cover your eyes. I'm going to see where we are," I said, reaching into my pack and withdrawing Mom's memory crystal. I willed it to activate and Mom's now-familiar holographic form appeared. 

She cast ghostly shadows on the walls, providing just enough illumination to make out a little of our surroundings. The group were mostly shielding their faces from the sudden light, though Steve simply stood there staring. I'd forgotten that he'd never seen grey man tech, and Mom's form would be another impossibility he'd have to reconcile. Honestly? I didn't care. I had bigger problems to deal with.

"David, where are we?" Mom asked, peering around her in wonder. It was a wonder I shared.

The ceiling was fifteen feet high, and we were in a wide chamber lined with granite cubbies that had been carved into the rock. Each shelf contained a row of books that glinted in the light. Glinted gold. A granite pedestal sat in the center of the room, with a single scarlet crystal sitting atop it. The crystal was twin to Mom's memory crystal--the same pyramid shape, and precisely the same size.

"How are we able to breathe?" Kali asked.

"What do you mean?" Marcus said, glancing up from Summers' prone form. Marcus had deposited her gently on the stone floor, and was cradling her head on his lap.

"She's right," Steve broke in, his voice stronger now. "If this place were completely sealed, then the air would have been stale. It isn't. That means there's some kind of air flow, some way that this place connects to the surface."

"That hardly seems important just yet," Jillian broke in. She'd moved to one of the shelves and was studying the spine of one of the books. "We can just teleport out when we're ready to leave."

"It's important because it means that this place isn't perfectly preserved. If we're right about the age of this room, then any paper or wood will long since have disintegrated." Steve's tone suggested Jillian was an idiot, and I winced a little at the venomous glance she shot his way. He moved to stand next to her, leaning closer to examine the spine of a book. "Assuming these are pure gold, they should have a thin layer of corrosion, but they don't."

"Does gold tarnish?" I asked. It certainly didn't seem to in the movies I'd seen, whatever that was worth.

"No," Janaki said. She blushed when we turned to face her. "Gold is very common in India. We use it a lot in decorations, and especially for weddings. A lot of that gold goes back generations. Gold is one of the least reactive metals, and doesn't interact with oxygen."

"It can still corrode slightly over time," Steve broke in, clearly annoyed at having been contradicted. "That corrosion manifests as a sort of muting effect, and is easy to remove. I've seen it in a half-dozen tombs during my time as an archaeologist. I'm telling you these books should have that, but they don't."

"I'm more wondering why they're books at all," I said, finally walking to one of the cubbies. I picked up one of the books. It was heavy enough that it took both arms to lift. I opened it to the first page, which was lined with hundreds of unfamiliar hieroglyphs. "Shouldn't these be scrolls? Or at least written on papyrus."

"You're right," Mom's hologram said. Steve jumped when she spoke, turning a wide gaze her way. "Aren't books a much more modern invention?"

"Yes, a much more recent invention. The first examples we can confirm came from India a few hundred years before Christ. This place, if we're right, is much, much older," Steve confirmed. He licked his lips, still staring at Mom's hologram. "Listen, I realize we're in a hurry, but will someone tell me what
she
is? And what happened back there?"

"She's a memory crystal," I said, replacing the book on the shelf. I moved to stand beside Mom. "My mother imprinted herself, so this is essentially a copy of her."

"Nice to meet you," Mom said, giving Steve a warm smile. "So you're an archaeologist? Maybe you can tell me where we are, since no one has seen fit to just yet."

I was aware of the gentle rebuke in her tone, and wished I had a bit more time to bring her up to speed. 

"Steve, I know you have a lot of questions. Mom, I know you do, too. Here are the relevant facts. We're in the Hall of Records, and we're being pursued by Dick and his goons. Since I called in the mothership to drop off Kali and Janaki, it's a good bet the grey men now know we're here. We have no idea how long it will be before they find a way down here, so we need to learn whatever we can and get the hell out," I explained. 

Mom's eyes lit up when I mentioned the Hall, and I wasn't surprised. She'd loved legends of Atlantis, and the Hall had been a frequent topic of discussion on her favorite conspiracy radio show.

"What are we hoping to learn here?" Mom asked, blinking in holographic green.

"That's what I'd certainly like to know," Steve broke in. "Mohn Corp told me to help find this place, but they've provided precious little in the way of information. What I've witnessed today is impossible, and it confirms that there
is
a culture far older than anything on record. You people clearly know a lot more about what's going on than I do. Why are we here? What are you hoping to learn? And who are these grey men you mentioned?"

Jillian met my gaze, raising a quizzical eyebrow. I shook my head. I wasn't ready to spill all our secrets yet, and we were pressed for time. "For now, we want to know what this place is. Steve, is there any chance you can read those books?"

"I seriously doubt it," Steve said, heaving a long-suffering sigh. "It took decades to translate the Mayan language, and we only learned ancient Egyptian because of the Rosetta stone. The glyphs in these books are somewhat similar to Egyptian, but more advanced."

"All right then, everyone stand back," I said, turning to the pedestal in the center of the room. Everyone had at least glanced at the gem, but no one had mentioned it. "I'm going to activate this memory crystal."

"Assuming that's even what it is," Jillian said. "Are you sure, David?"

"We need answers, and we need them quickly. I'm willing to take the risk," I said, extending a hand and brushing the warm crystal with my fingertips. A moment later, the stone pulsed, and a beam of red light shot into the space near where Mom had appeared. A ruby hologram of a man appeared. He had a broad nose and long neck, and his style of dress was closer to African tribes I'd seen in
National Geographic
than to Egypt. He glanced around the room at each of us, then his gaze settled on Mom's hologram.

"
Hokoko con butu
," he said in a deep voice, delivering a deep bow to Mom. She blinked at him, then looked at me. The figure stood waiting, raising a holographic eyebrow when Mom didn't respond.

"Professor Galk, do you have any idea how we can communicate with this thing?" Jillian asked. 

He shook his head slowly, eyes wide and fixed on the ruby figure.

"I might," I said, extending my senses toward the stone. Its base code was similar to Mom's, and it worked a lot like a human mind. I figured I could read minds, so reading the crystal might work. I concentrated on its code, sensing confusion and excitement.

Those emotions were layered atop something deeper, so I explored a little further. To my surprise and delight, I realized I was sensing thoughts. The way those thoughts interacted with one another was governed by the crystal, and the crystal's matrix was easy enough to understand. 

"Mom, I'm going to try something, all right?" I asked.

"What are you going to do?" she replied, eyeing me dubiously.

"I'm going to link your crystal to this one. You should be able to translate for whoever this guy is," I said, almost certain it would work. "Are you okay with that?"

"If you're sure you know what you're doing," she said in a way that made it clear I didn't.

"It's a risk, but like I said, we're pressed for time. This guy has answers we need." I didn't wait for her to reply. I concentrated on Mom's crystal, specifically the area where her thoughts were generated. Then I did the same for the red crystal. I'm not exactly sure how I did it, but I formed a link between the two.

Mom's eyes widened, as did the strange man's. They locked gazes, and a pulse shot between their two crystals. When it faded, both holograms had become multicolored, part red and part green.

"I can feel his thoughts," Mom said, looking at her counterpart in wonder. "He can feel mine as well. He's learning about our world, and I'm learning about his."

"What can you tell us about his world? When is he from? How long has he been here?" Steve asked, eyes alight with greed for the knowledge.

"He doesn't know how long he's been here, but he's been asleep since this place was sealed away," Mom said, cocking her head to the right. "Apparently, he's a mirror of a deity who ruled this land for millennia. That deity was overthrown, and this place was sealed away."

"Ra," I said, suddenly understanding. "This thing is a mirror of the original Ra, the one Osiris told us about."

"
Ootak
," Ra said, pointing at the wall opposite us. 

I withdrew my cellphone, and used it as a flashlight. The entire wall was dominated with a mural, one with intricate detail. The colors were incredibly vivid, so much so that it could have been painted yesterday. I was cognizant of Steve's revelation that things should have decayed here, and this was more proof that they hadn't.

The image showed a gigantic, stone lion, one that looked curiously like the Sphinx directly above us. The chief difference was the head--instead of that of a pharaoh, it was a massive, male lion. That was interesting, but the structure dominating the rest of the image was far more so. A massive, jet-black pyramid sat behind the Sphinx. The Sphinx provided scale, and if it was accurate, that black monstrosity was over a thousand feet tall. It was two or three times the size of the stone pyramids we'd just seen an hour ago.