Ascendant Saga Collection: Sci-Fi Fantasy Techno Thriller Page 3

  A large screen, more monstrous and advanced than NASA’s Mission Control Center, loomed high above the diligent workers and their computer stations. That too was holographic. More like a stage than a screen. A close-up holographic image of Jupiter appeared on one portion of the stage and on another were Jupiter’s surrounding moons, all labeled. The name Callisto highlighted in red with an arrow pointed to a grayish-white moon. The other moons were labeled in blue; Europa, Ganymede, Himalia, and more.

  Jaxx had no idea Jupiter had so many moons. “Why is Jupiter and its moons…”

  Slade walked in the other direction.

  Jaxx took off after him and quickly caught up. “Hey, why—”

  Slade put his hand up to shush Jaxx.

  They rounded a corner and Jaxx’s mouth gaped. Underfoot Black seemed to go on forever.

  Plants and trees grew throughout the facility. They rose from round holes full of dark, healthy soil. Passing several operational hubs and private offices, Jaxx found himself following Slade like a well-trained dog. Yet, he didn’t care. He currently experienced something out of Star Wars or the Twilight Zone. Soaking it all up was an understatement. Even though they were underground, everything glowed, even the walls, giving ample light for vegetation and the people working there.

  They walked through a tunnel and into an area that opened to another large dome. A greenhouse against a far wall—a hundred yards long, fifty yards wide. Did these people live here? Was this a self-sustaining operation?

  Through a second tunnel, they made their way to a second, larger dome with jets lined in rows. Jaxx gawked at the hardware. The jets resembled stealth fighters, though more rounded, like sleek flying saucers. Sounds of metal against metal and drills filled the room as men and women worked under the bellies and in the cockpits.

  Slade picked up speed, and snapped his fingers. “Did you hear me?”

  “No, what did you say?” Jaxx walked faster, doing his best to keep pace.

  “Those are F-44 Dragons. The next generation.” He cleared his throat. “Some of these get reported as UFO’s.”

  “I’d be reporting them too if I saw these things flying around.”

  “They’ve been around you on many occasions. Seeing them is one thing, but hearing them is another. Their name, Dragons, is a misnomer. They are as silent as a purring kitten.” He turned down a corridor. “Almost there.”

  “Almost where?”

  “Like I said, you’ll see.”

  Walking through another tunnel, Jaxx found himself in a place similar to a hotel lobby. People sat on couches, studying some type of clear pad in their hands. Others busied themselves, and came and went from the lobby.

  Slade grabbed Jaxx by the arm and ushered him into a large office. He shut the door. “This is where you’ll be working for now. Welcome to the greatest discovery of all time.”

  He scanned the space, once, twice, three times. He could see…what? The office held a dozen people and typing on computers. Large computer screens covered the walls and a hefty table sat in the middle of the room. From the table, spun a holographic image.

  Kaden unconsciously let out a, “Whoa.”

  The image from the desk comprised three pyramids cased in white stone with gold capstones.

  Jaxx lowered his eyes, doing everything he could to tamp down his excitement. Wouldn’t do well to break the dork-o-meter on his first day, by being gauche and overly-enthusiastic. “Did you just say I’m working here?”

  Slade cupped his hands behind his back, standing straighter. “You’ll be bunking in your own room. It has a kitchen, a bathroom, and a bedroom. Your food and beverage will be supplied for you at no cost. You will be paid $10,850 a month for your services.”

  More than Jaxx made in three months. “Are you shitting me?”

  “The military is not shitting you, Jaxx. The military does not shit.” Slade snorted at his own joke.

  “How long will I be working here?”

  “For as long as it takes. Is the salary reasonable?”

  “I...uh...yes.” He paused. Was he part of some weird-ass experiment? He surveyed the room, seeing pictures of structures he’d never seen before. His archaeologist radar scanned uncontrollably like some B-movie Sci-Fi transceiver. Maybe these structures were found in a remote place on Earth? But, why would they need his expertise? They had enough people assembled to decode a couple archaeological sites at one time.

  $10,850 month would solve a lot of problems. He did his best to remain neutral. “I need to let the University know.”

  “Done.”

  “What do you mean, done?”

  “We’ve already contacted them and they have complied with our wishes.”

  “They are fine with me taking some time off?”

  “They sounded almost glad that you won’t be back with them.”

  “What do you mean, I won’t be back with them?”

  Slade flared his nostrils. He spoke slow and confident, though with enough energy to capsize a cruise liner. “An echo pisses me off. Do not repeat me.”

  Anger rose from Jaxx’s belly, hot and swift. He wanted to tell the guy to shove off. Anyone in Jaxx’s position would ask these pertinent questions. They’d do their best to figure out the predicament they landed in. He could say whatever he wanted. He wasn’t military and didn’t take orders. About to give a sharp retort, his eyes swept over Slade’s biceps. He changed his mind. It wasn’t like this was a public place. Chances were, no one in the facility would report any illegal activity if Slade started to knock him around, especially in a facility called “Underfoot Black.” He bit his tongue. “You got me fired from my job?”

  “Yes, and you have a new one.” He slapped Jaxx on the shoulder and squeezed. “Make me proud.”

  Jaxx shoved his hands deep into his pockets. “I need my job. Do you know how hard I’ve been working? Do you know how hard it was to land that job? They were the only ones who even considered me.”

  “Well, apparently they weren’t too attached.”

  Jaxx’s heart sank. “Shit.”

  “As I said, this facility is known as Underfoot Black. We are a top-secret installation for the Global Safety Administration headed by me. I report directly to the President of the United States.”

  Jaxx pursed his lips. Was he supposed to be impressed? “Okay.”

  “That’s all you can say?”

  “I’m at a loss as to who you are, what the Global whatcha-ma-call-it is, and Underfoot Black? Could you pick any more of a sketchy name?”

  “Good. It’s unfamiliar to you, as it should be.” Slade clasped Jaxx’s forearm, pulling him forward. “Scientists, attention please.”

  The room quieted and everyone stopped their work.

  “This is Kaden Jaxx. He will be helping us with research and investigation.”

  A few of them gave nods, most scowled. They went back to their tasks.

  Jaxx lowered his gaze. Only just got here and I’m already the least-popular member of the group. He touched the desk in the center of the room. The pyramids spun. “How do you stop the image from moving?”

  Slade touched a button on the desk. “Easy.”

  Jaxx grimaced and shook his head. He examined the image. “Are these real?”

  “Yes.”

  The colonel was serious. “If these pyramids are real, they are untouched by modern man. The casing is nearly perfect. It’s capped in gold. Robbers would have chipped away at them centuries ago. Where are these pyramids located?”

  “Callisto.”

  Callisto? Why does that sound so familiar? A memory popped in his mind, and his head slightly jerked back. On the Mission Control Center-like screen when he walked into Underfoot Black. A moon around Jupiter? It couldn’t be. They were testing him. The entire tour through “Underfoot Black” was an elaborate ruse. He was no dummy. He wasn’t going to fall for their nonsense. Pyramids on Jupiter’s moon, my ass. “Is Callisto a territory on Antarctica?”

  A few scienti
sts chuckled.

  Slade shot them a look. They went back to what they were doing. That was unusual enough to give him pause. Scientists were usually a mouthy bunch, ready to give their opinions. Either Slade payed them silly money to keep quiet, or the gun at his hip had served its purpose. Either way, Jaxx needed to tread carefully. He’d already lost his job at the University; he couldn’t afford to lose this one before it had begun.

  Jaxx pointed to a symbol on the largest pyramid, his finger going through the hologram. Unmistakable. His heart beat faster. He wanted to run to the hills and shout at the rooftops. If this pyramid was real, then to Jaxx this symbol was undeniable proof that Atlanteans were the source of the majority of pyramid construction throughout the world. “Is that symbol on any other structure in the vicinity of these pyramids? Or is this just it?”

  Slade looped his fingers through his belt. “We haven’t found any other symbol that resembles that one.”

  Jaxx’s mind was always dialed in on the archaeological channel and even though he was in a foreign place, it did not fail him today. “Okay, two circles inside a larger circle, looking like a target. A cross in the middle. One line of the cross extends the length of the target and the other line extends the width. Do you know what that means?”

  Slade clenched his jaw. “That’s why you’re here, Jaxx, so you can dazzle me with your brilliance.”

  “It’s something I’ve been saying for decades. The three circles serve as a reminder of a lost continent, a lost island, and a lost city. Most importantly, it’s a map of what the island was before it sank 12,500 hundred years ago. The island had an outer water ring, which is represented by the symbol’s biggest circle. Inside the bigger circle are two small circles, which also reminds us that the island had two more inner water rings around the main city. The symbol’s cross are the canals that went the length of the island and the width.”

  Jaxx paused. The room dove into silence. He didn’t want to say the name of the mythological place he spoke about in fear he’d be laughed out of the room. Nonetheless, to keep his mouth shut for too long caused more pain than not.

  With everyone’s ear, he continued to educate them. “Looking at the pyramids in this image, you see that the land these pyramids sit upon is higher than the land surrounding them. This tells me who built these pyramids, but the symbol is the dead giveaway. I guarantee that if you follow the exact latitude to the other side of the Earth to where these pyramids sit, you’ll see that at almost exactly one-hundred-eighty degrees there will be a large mountain or a volcano.”

  Slade cocked his head to the side. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying that the majority of the large pyramidal-structures in our world are here to terraform the land by raising the water and mineral table, raising the land, and raising the land on the other side of the Earth. Not every pyramid does this, but most do.”

  Slade shrugged. The man didn’t seem like an idiot, but perhaps he was more of a visual learner. Jaxx raced through his hypothesis, boiling it down to the basics; something most people could follow. He drew a sphere in the air with his hands. “This is Earth.” He made a tent-like structure on one side of the sphere. “On this side, we have a volcano.” He ran his other hand over the dome of the imaginary sphere and formed a triangle with his thumb and forefinger on the other side of his fictional Earth. “On the other side—at precisely one-hundred and eighty degrees from the unstable Earth object—we have a pyramid.” He glanced around the room. He couldn’t read the faces of his colleagues, but he at least had Slade’s attention. “You understand what I am saying?”

  Slade shook his head. “You lost me at volcano.”

  “These pyramids, along with the majority of the pyramids built on Earth, have been strategically placed to lessen the impact of Earth changes, while simultaneously lengthening the time between magnetic pole swaps. It’s all about gravity.”

  A scientist—all scraggly beard and lank hair—scoffed, then shook his head. “Here we go.”

  A titter went through the ranks. The assembled scientists obviously read Jaxx’s research papers, articles, and maybe a few pages of his books. Jaxx had been ridiculed before and it hurt every time. He hoped someday he’d get over it, but his research was his baby. A criticism of his work was like tossing his baby off a cliff.

  The guy with the scraggly beard smirked. “Can you tell all of my colleagues which culture you think built these pyramids?”

  Jaxx could tell that the man already knew the answer. The leading question a dead giveaway. A flush swept across Jaxx’s cheeks. He took a deep breath. “These structures are built by those who created Atlantis. They are Atlantean. That’s why pyramids are so similar throughout the world. They were created by the Atlanteans with the help of other cultures.”

  Slade placed both hands on the desk and leaned forward. “I see.” He scanned the scientists around the room. “None of these scientists believe you. If you want their respect, prove your theory right and without a shred of doubt, because right now, I’m even doubting you. Atlantean or not, I want you to figure out everything about these pyramids. Such as, how they got there. How they were built. And, most importantly, why these specific pyramids are there.”

  “You need me to decipher symbols and translate them to English?”

  Slade nodded, then tapped the desk. “Do you even know where Callisto is?”

  “I don’t. I can only speculate that it’s a region on Earth I’ve never been to or heard about. That’s why I said Antarctica.”

  “Callisto is a moon around Jupiter. Satellite images reveal a lot more than just these pyramids. Nonetheless, you’re supposed to be an expert on this stuff, so this is what you’ll be focusing on along with the rest of this team here. So get to know these scientists well.”

  Jaxx stepped back. The pyramids were off-world? That opened a crap load of questions. He gathered himself. “I don’t think I’m hearing you correctly. Are you saying these are on a moon orbiting Jupiter right now? Not a region called Jupiter with a city named Callisto. You’re saying the actual planet and the actual moon?”

  “Yes.”

  Jaxx’s world imploded, threw him in a blender, and pressed the high button. He froze, planted his feet firmly on the ground, and willed the spinning to stop. “I’m here to study off-planet pyramids?”

  “You and the rest of the scientists here.”

  Jaxx’s mind went on the fritz for a moment and the world stood still. Everything blanketed in silence. He huffed. If he wanted to be part of the biggest discovery of his life, perhaps the biggest discovery of all time, then he’d better center himself. Be professional, Jaxx, and calm your shit down. “Do we have any up-close shots of the pyramids? I see hieroglyphs on these but I can’t quite make them out.”

  “When you get there, you’ll be up close and personal. But, to answer your question, we can zoom in and out on these images. We have hundreds upon hundreds of photos, all at different angles.”

  Jaxx tutted. It took him a moment to find the right words. “You said when I get there?”

  The scientists’ talk died down. All eyes targeted him. This information regarding Jaxx getting there was new to them as well.

  Jaxx dared not concentrate on the scientists. Were they jealous? Did they despise him even more? He worked alone for a reason.

  Slade touched his fingertips together.

  Ironic, he’s making pyramid hands. Jaxx racked focus. Couldn’t be making lame-ass jokes right now.

  “I’ve been told you’ve written about pyramid power and the possibility that pyramids act as a giant power station, along with this nonsense that they are Atlantean constructions. I’ve also been told that you’ve drawn blueprints in your books of how a pyramid takes power from gravity, the Earth, the moon, and other such things. But more importantly, I’ve also been briefed that if a pyramid is fully functioning, unlike any pyramid on Earth, then you understand how to hook into their power.”

  Jaxx fidgeted with his sh
irt. “I’m pretty sure they were used to power entire cities when we were in a more technological age. That wisdom has been lost.”

  “But, not lost to you.”

  “I…don’t know.”

  “Screw ‘I don’t know.’ You know. You wouldn’t have spent the last 20 years writing books and having these jackasses sneer at you if you didn’t think you were onto something. If there was someone who knew more, I’d take them, but as it is, you’re what we’ve got. You’re our Atlantean-Pyramid expert. I don’t want you stepping on your dick and falling flat on your face. Translate what you can here and when the time comes, you’re going with me and my crew.”

  “I’m going with your crew to where?”

  “On a starship to Callisto.”

  “A starship? Wha—”

  “Damn echoes. You have to stop this parroting shit, Jaxx.” Slade cracked his knuckles, then walked out of the room.

  As soon as the door closed, Jaxx’s colleagues burst out laughing. There were pyramids in space and the assholes thought they had time to ridicule him. Jaxx grinned. Might as well let them believe they had the upper hand. You always learn more when you fly below the radar anyhow. He straightened his spine and squared his shoulders. I’ll be laughing up the other side of my face when I get on that ship, and you don’t.

  3

  May 23rd

  Underfoot Black, Grenada

  Jaxx yawned and pushed the sheets off. He rubbed his eyes and sat up. It had been a long night. He slept in a hotel-like room in Underfoot Black. Yesterday sucked. Slade sucked. The scientists looked at his work and dismissed his ideas as mere stupidity. He sloshed out of bed and went into the bathroom. Jaxx looked in the mirror. Puffy, blood-shot eyes stared back at him. He had tossed and turned all night. With everything that had happened the day before, he slept little.