Charger the Soldier (28 page)

Andy smiled and waited for the rebuttals. The
three graduate students had developed a fast friendship at New
Denver University, and they all liked arguing.

After a short pause, Mark added, "There was
also the work done by that British fellow, I forget his name. The
guy who thought that the works of Stonehenge had something to do
with the Atlantis myth."

"I remember him," Andy said. "Still, without
the keystone he insists has to be real, the true combination of
elements and their order will never be known. So far, we've
determined only that mercury, manganese, gold, rhenium and bismuth
are the base elements listed in the old writings. The keystone
element meant to activate the entire stone acropolis may never be
found."

"But we do know that the thirteen stone
circles buried 10,000 years ago at Gobekli Tepe had nothing to do
with religious beliefs," Mark added firmly, as if no one could
possibly doubt his words. "Instead, they seemed to be an attempt to
communicate with departed humans. What scientists are now
suggesting is that by digging up these ancient sites found by
ground-penetrating radar, we might at last find the keystone."

Andy decided he'd had enough of standing
around, and led the other two down the University hall to a small
room called the Bat Cave. The walls were adorned with posters
depicting ancient societies and science fiction battles in space.
The men flopped into their usual seats with more soda and the last
bag of potato chips from the vending machine. After a few minutes
of munching, Mickey offered a suggestion.

"Maybe they evolved a culture that didn't
believe in a god. Without any religious influence, they might have
invented things that allowed them to attain space flight quickly.
If the church hadn't forbidden knowledge discovered by the
scientists of long ago, our society would certainly be further
along in its evolution. Discoveries by Socrates, Aristotle, Plato,
Galileo, Newton, Darwin, and many others, were suppressed.
Otherwise humanity might have landed on the moon in the 1600s."
Mickey took a breath. "Remember, it took barely a hundred years to
go from horse and buggy to space flight, and that happened only
because mankind threw off religious dogma."

Mark shifted in his seat but Mickey beat him
to the imaginary podium again. "These people may have created a
thriving society 15,000 years back and developed the technology for
space travel in order to escape the oncoming ice age. Those not
deemed worthy to leave, or who were too stubborn or stupid to go,
remained behind to fall into the first dark age. Consider removing
the heavy fur covering of Neanderthals, or
Homo
heidelbergensis
, and replacing it with modern clothing."

Mickey grabbed the nearly empty potato chip
bag out of Andy's lap. "Maybe they were more intelligent than we
tend to think, with our superior sense of self-worth. It's only
because we find fossils scattered around in areas of sparse
vegetation that we perceive them as less intelligent. They may just
have been the fools left behind, fighting to survive with the tools
they could make by hand. Small brain size does not always mean
lesser intelligence. We are still not sure of all the areas mapped
out in our own brains, and the relevance of the unused areas."

Mark's expression became intense. "If humans
were created that long ago, it only stands to reason that some
great unseen force must have been responsible for our existence. In
our travel to space, we've so far only found one world populated
with different humans. I put it to you that we will never find
aliens, for man has been the only creation of God."

Mickey spoke up, his tone respectful but
firm. He was an anthropology student, grounded deeply in the roots
of hard-core science. He often found it difficult to converse with
people who wandered from the facts, but because of his long-time
friendship with Mark, he always went the extra mile in
tolerance.

"There were old cultures addicted to a type
of LSD made from wheat that creates paranoia but does not diminish
intelligence," Mickey said. "The group that left Earth were maybe
elitists, like the old Heaven's Gate cult, who believed they were
actually extra-terrestrials chosen for eternal survival. The planet
this group found was a rogue planet, drifting into the path of
their spaceship, a carbon-rich planet with frozen ice reserves
found in caves. Bacteria-ridden ice created mutations in the human
genome, creating the so-called aliens that invaded Earth. Hardly
seems like the work of a guiding hand."

Mark licked potato chip salt off his fingers.
"Well, think about this. The universe is too immense for the
average mind to truly understand its size. The distance from one
side to the other of the visible universe is estimated to be about
one hundred billion light years. A light year is equal to 186,000
miles per second of speed, and a spaceship would need to travel at
the speed of light for one year to cross the universe. The universe
is still expanding, too, so for every second of our human life, the
visible edge of the known universe is moving away from us at an
incredible speed."

Andy decided not to interrupt.

"Imagine someone pulls the pin of a hand
grenade and the explosion sends metal fragments outward in all
directions," Mark said, warming to his argument. "Imagine we live
on one of those fragments going south, and another life form is on
another fragment going west. We will never meet. That's the basic
principle of the Big Bang theory, but it is more incredible then
just that."

He took a deep breath. "As those fragments
travel away from the starting point of the explosion, the starting
point is left empty and that's a problem. Nothing in our universe
is ever empty, God has seen to that. Hence the terms 'dark matter'
and 'missing mass.' The universe may be filled with rogue black
planets, which would mean that our spaceships need strong
headlights to prevent us from crashing into things we can't
see."

He paced to the door and back again. "Or,
beyond the rim of the visible known universe, there's another
universe, an anti-universe that is being sucked into the empty
space at the center of our universe to fill the void that is the
result of the original explosion. There is evidence for this in the
form of antimatter, which is a scientific fact. I ask you both, how
could all that be designed to work, except by a God with a divine
purpose?"

"Arrggh! Mark, you always do that!" Mickey
said, his tone betraying irritation. "You use science to prove one
thing, in the broadest strokes possible. It's like a game with you,
your team has to be right, has to win, no matter the cost. You use
science when it suits your personal needs, to better your team's
chances of winning, and reject science when it contradicts what you
believe in. Science that disagrees with your team's position is
disregarded. It's like having only half an argument."

"But don't you see, Mickey, that's exactly
how I feel when you disregard God as a possibility, you're doing
only half an argument," Mark said, his tone almost pleading.

"There you go again, playing the sympathy
card. It's your typical game, like I said. I might as well suggest
that blue monkeys crap out golden pigeons in the forest, which then
fly off and start forest fires with their acidic urine. Science
exists for the betterment of knowledge, no matter what the cost to
our own personal beliefs. When a theory is proven wrong in science,
it is summarily dismissed. Not so in religion; you twist things
until they fit your beliefs."

Andy could see that Mickey had lost patience
with Mark's 'dogma,' but they'd resolve the argument. They always
did.

"I am entitled to believe in whatever fits
with my personal needs," Mark said firmly. "I would also suggest
that the missing keystone we never seem to find might actually be
humans, in our belief."

"What, are you crazy? Have you finally lost
it?" Mickey said in a teasing way. "So we all hold hands and sing
Kumbaya around Stonehenge?"

Andy finally decided to add his thoughts.
"Mark might be onto something. He might be right, but for the wrong
reasons. I don't think a god would design a keystone of humans, but
a man might. What if the missing keystone is some type of human DNA
fragment to activate the thing? What if the lost human culture from
so long ago used personal DNA typology in the activation of their
computers?"

"There, Mark, you see that!" Mickey's words
were gleeful. He jumped up from his chair, pointed at Andy and
waved his arms dramatically. "That's a theory, a truly crazy and
terrible nut-bar type theory, but a theory nonetheless. It proves
that our friend Andy has been watching those old library videos of
spacemen traveling the galaxy in tight leather suits. He can now
take his DNA and mix it into the dissimilar metals that have been
proven to be the main ingredients needed, and presto, the
combination will result in Andy losing the respect of any logical,
thinking human on the planet." Mickey laughed. "Wait, wait, it gets
better! Andy can just piss in the cosmic mixing bowl, activating
Stonehenge in a bid to communicate with your buddy, god."

"So you're saying it's a bit out there?" Andy
asked, trying to look serious.

The room was quiet for a moment, then Mickey
burst out laughing. The other two joined in and the small Bat Cave
rang with the laughter these three men often shared.

Mark finally said, "Okay, we've got to stop
doing this daily exploration into the workings of logic. I'm
getting tired of always being the religious guy. Maybe Andy should
be the religious guy for a while and I can do the science thing.
That leaves Mickey as the 'Aliens were god' guy."

"Oh no!" Mickey exclaimed. "I did the 'Aliens
were god' guy all last week. It has to be someone else's turn."

Andy held up his hand for silence. "Since I
am the leader of this little society, I get to decide that.
Remember, we can never truly understand all facets of an argument
until we have fully been immersed in each part. We don't do this to
be assholes; we do this to fully adhere to the basic principles of
a fair and even debate. To do justice to an argument, we need to be
able to distinguish truth and reasoning from emotion and
belief."

Andy rose. "Besides, Mark, I don't get the
feeling of a truly religious understanding from you. You need to do
more research on the topic, to create more robust and complex
arguments. Also, Mickey, you need to tone down the snide comments
and refocus your thinking in a more logical manner. You're adding
too many emotions to the process."

"Yes, I guess you're right," Mickey said,
looking sober now. "I'll try to tone it down in the future."

Andy knew, and so did the other two, that
they could never hope to find the answer of the missing keystone.
But they could contribute to a full understanding of the topic,
given enough time. After all, their thesis papers for graduation
depended on it.

The door to the Bat Cave burst open and a
young pimple-faced kid stuck his head in, saying, "They did it,
they got it, they figured out the keystone, it's on the vid, you
got to come see this!"

Mark tripped over Andy in a rush to get out
the door, as Mickey, falling out of his chair, gathered himself up
off the floor. They raced down the hall to a large, crowded room
where several other students huddled around different monitors, all
talking and pointing in disbelief at what they saw.

There, on the video, was the image of
Stonehenge, fully rebuilt to its original historic condition.
Flashes and arcs of brilliant violet light mixed with sprays of
blackened sparks emanated from the stones and launched themselves
into the air in random patterns.

The cameramen at the site fought to keep
their footing, for the very ground seemed to heave and shudder.
Dark green clouds formed in the skies above the area, with thunder
echoing from them. Scientists close to the calamity were
retreating.

The blue stones of the circle began to emit a
faint glow, like an electrical wire short-circuiting. Someone near
a mike gasped that the air was foul and hard to breathe. All around
the stone circle, grass spontaneously caught fire. A few of the
expedition team members standing too close also burst into flames.
The scene was chaotic, with people yelling, or scrambling for
cover, or trying to render aid.

Suddenly, the center of the stone circle
burst to life. A huge white beam of blazing hot light shot from the
ground straight up into space. Several violent blasts of air
exploded out from the ring, sending those nearby flying through the
air like rag dolls, knocking instruments and light stands down
everywhere.

"This is impossible! This can't be
happening!" Andy bellowed.

"I'd agree with you Andy, but shit… there it
is!" replied a bewildered Mark. "I think the keystone to the
creation of man has been found!"

>>>

Dart speaks to Reader:

Andy was right. It was impossible. No amount
of dissimilar metals mixed with rocks in any configuration could
possibly have been responsible for this.

And it wasn't.

But deep below Stonehenge, below any
investigations with ground penetrating radar, lay the remains of
one of the first technological cities of the old world's culture. A
city that tapped the very center of Earth for power, a city built
by the first humans who left Earth eons ago as pure energy. A city
now revived to life with the aid of the stone ring. A city built by
people descended from the First Ones, with stories and forgotten
technologies based on the transmission of power through wireless
means.

Yes, Reader, Tesla had been right.

Far below the stone ring, a city stirred to
life, sending a signal back to the surface. For several days the
light beam blazed from the center of the stone ring into space as
the planet rotated, then weakened, and finally shut down.