Hero Born: Project Solaris (14 page)

"Don't do this, David. We can still talk things out," he called, adopting a defensive stance.

Shit
. I grabbed Jillian and Kali by their wrists and closed my eyes. I willed the pad to take us somewhere. Even as I sent it the message to get us out of here, I realized the ramifications of such a gamble, ending up at the bottom of the ocean or inside the middle of a mountain.
 

Too late now. White light washed over us, followed by a feeling of weightlessness. Time seemed to freeze as the system explained itself to me.

There were eight possible destinations, most at far-flung corners of the world. The one in the bay was both the closest and the easiest to reach. The system took more energy the further it transported us.

Unfortunately seven of the eight destinations were blocked somehow, including the structure in the bay. I didn't know precisely why, just that Object 3 was unable to form a link. Only the eighth destination was available, something like six thousand miles away.

It was deep under the ocean, some sort of city midway between Africa and South America. I had two choices. Abort the teleport and return to the pad with Marcus and Summers, or head to this strange city.

The choice wasn't difficult.

Chapter 22- Ka

The white light intensified, enveloping the whole of Object 3, along with us, in a sea of clear, white brilliance. The air was pressed from my lungs as my body stretched impossibly thin, twisted, and turned, making me certain Object 3 had just suckered me into killing us. The brilliance faded and we found ourselves standing on another black stone platform. I clutched my gut, then patted my arms, looked down to make sure I was still all there and hadn't suffered some cataclysmic change, like a foot where my ear should be.
 

"Oh my god," Kali said, catching Jillian as she sagged to the warm golden metal at the platform's center. "Help me, David. She's bleeding everywhere."

My vision swam as I dropped down on one knee next to Jillian. "Let me see it, Jill."

She clenched her eyes shut and gritted her teeth. One hand pressed against her shoulder. Blood had soaked through her shirt and squeezed itself out from between her fingers to run down the back of her hand.
 

"Come on, Jill. Jill, look at me," I said, taking her hands in mine. She looked up, eyes glassy. "You're going to be all right."

I pried her hands apart, then tore open the shirt around the wound. I knelt closer to inspect the wound, doing what I could to smear away blood.
 

"You're just trying to get my shirt off," Jillian said, giving a laugh that turned into a cough. I couldn't help but join in when I realized what I was seeing. I sat there laughing, relief flooding me.

"What the hell is wrong with you? She's hurt," Kali said, voice rising a full octave mid-sentence as she gave me a hard shove.

"Look," I said, still smiling, as I nodded at the wound. "This must be one of her abilities."

"Oh my god," Kali said again, jaw hanging open as she stared. Jillian's flesh had knitted itself back together; a thin scab now covering the wound. "That's amazing."

"Let's keep moving," Jillian wheezed, trying to struggle back into a sitting position. I held her down. "Come on, David, we have work to do."

"You can take a minute or two to catch your breath before we start exploring," I said, shifting my gaze back to Kali. "Make sure she doesn't try to get up. Sit on her if you have to."

I finally took in the majesty around me. The fluted columns with their ornate glyphs reminded me of Egypt, though nothing outside of
Stargate
glowed with their own inner light the way these did. They ringed the landing pad, with an opening that pointed down a hallway. I guessed this was their transporter room. This one was clearly of different make, its style more simplistic. The firmware, if that was what it was, was more primitive and easier to understand. Either it had been crafted much earlier, or by something more like humans, or both.

"Be careful," Kali said, grabbing my hand as I stood. "We need you, okay?"

"I promise. Wait here and keep an eye on Jillian." I released her hand and, turning toward the hallway, I started up the black marble ramp, noting the diamond-shaped lights set into the walls every ten feet. Each flickered grudgingly to life as I approached, shedding enough light to see a little further up the hallway.

I emerged into a wide chamber with a single golden disk set in the center. It was raised about two inches off the floor, and an array of rubies, sapphires, and diamonds dotted the surface in elaborate patterns. Beyond the disk, six tunnels led off in different directions.

I glanced up. The ceiling was made of glass and glowed faintly. It revealed the dark ocean, and, as I watched, a huge shape passed over the glass. I licked my lips, my breath coming in shallow little gasps. I was only a few feet from frigid, crushing death. We were so deep that not even light penetrated, and the only reason I'd been able to see the creature swimming above was the light being reflected from the room around me.
 

"Welcome to the Nexus. I am the Ark Keeper Ka, former sentinel of the First Ark," a voice behind me said, curiously human. "You are not a Ka-Dun. Neither are you Deathless. Yet your helixes have been modified. You bear telltale markers of a master shaper. How is this possible?"

My eyes snapped back to the golden disk as the gemstones flickered to life. A figure appeared over the disk. It looked a bit like the grey men, but was tall enough to be human. The eyes were the same flat black, but the skin was the deep green of summer-cut grass. Its face showed more compassion than the grey men, though it was still very alien. The thing was translucent. A hologram, just like the version of Mom in the memory crystal.
 

I could
feel
the disk, and as I studied the hologram I realized I could understand its base code. I could see the signal that was being broadcast from the disk and I understood the technology just as easily as I did my own computer. They were similar at their cores, suggesting a troubling connection.
 

"If you're talking about my abilities, those were given to me by creatures that look a lot like you," I explained, taking a step closer. The figure didn't react. "They're shorter and their skin is grey, but they definitely look like the same species."

"Ahhh," Ka said, cocking its head a precise forty-five degrees. "Then you are likely the result of the experiments conducted by the Progeny of the Builders. This is troubling. Your presence here suggests they are close to achieving their goals."

"So you're not working with the grey men?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "What are you exactly? What do you mean by 'sentinel'? And what is an Ark Keeper?"

Ka flickered, fading a bit. I looked around and noticed that the lights had dimmed slightly as well. I glanced at the ceiling. We were still safe from the ocean's crushing weight...for now.

"Three Ark Keepers were left behind by the Builders when they departed this world in search of a new home," the construct explained. It flickered again, words a bit garbled as it continued. "We were left to monitor the Arks, to ensure that they remained in working order for the Builders' eventual return."

"What are the Arks?" I asked.
 

A second hologram appeared in the air before me. It showed Earth with seven red dots scattered across the continents. A third hologram showed a cutaway of a pyramid. It was absolutely massive; if the passageways were to scale, it was at least three miles tall.

"The Arks were created to harness the power of the sun, and to shape the earth's magnetosphere," Ka said, brightening for a moment then dimming again. Maybe it was simple age, but this thing was definitely damaged. I could sense the fragmentation of the code. "They were used as repositories for genetic patterns, and contain the helixes for nearly every species this world has seen in the past six million years. More than that, the Arks are the primary shaping tools used by the Builders to create their greatest works."

"So there's a network of giant pyramids hidden all over the world? And how the hell do you speak English?" I asked, realizing for the first time that this thing spoke
perfect
American English.

"I have been monitoring your communications for some time now. Ever since your first broadcast roughly seventy cycles ago. These communications allowed me to puzzle out the syntactic guides for a number of your languages," Ka said, flickering again as the gems on the platform dimmed. A sapphire popped and went dark, like a burnt out bulb. "Using this data I am able to render my output in a form you can understand."

I was aware of movement, and glanced over my shoulder to see Kali helping Jillian into the room. They waited near the doorway, close enough to hear but not close enough to join the conversation.

"What is this place? Are we in one of the pyramids now?" I asked, turning back to the construct.

"You are in the Nexus, deep beneath the planet's ocean. All seven Arks are connected to the Nexus, allowing travel between them. From here, you can manipulate the entire network," Ka explained. The flat black eyes conveyed little emotion, or maybe that was just the fact that this thing was apparently some sort of artificial intelligence. "Doing so requires the subject to be a master shaper. Your helixes have been modified to exhibit these traits. You can control the system."

It made sense. Different people had different abilities, but I was still the only person we'd seen who could interface with technology. I examined the hologram showing the Arks. There
was
an Ark in the center of San Francisco bay, probably fifty or sixty feet under the bottom of the bay. Exactly where Mom had drawn in her sketchbook, and where my vision had shown it.

"Could I wake up one of these Arks?" I asked, glancing back at the construct.
 

"You could attempt it, but it would be inadvisable," Ka replied, raising a four-fingered hand and offering a grand gesture. Another hologram engulfed the far side of the room. It was clearly our solar system. "The Arks are powered by the sun, but require more energy than it currently produces. The day will soon come when your sun enters its next phase, and will offer the necessary power. If you wake the Arks before then, you risk both catastrophic damage and the death of their occupants."

That explained the part of my vision showing the sun.

"Occupants?" I asked, looking back at the map of earth. "How long have these Arks been submerged?"

"Thirteen thousand years, give or take," Ka said. "Six of the seven Arks are occupied, some with more hominids than others. Nearly all of these hominids are a shaped version of your species. You would not recognize many as human, though all began that way."

I wondered what the inhabitants of these things must be like. Thirteen thousand years was a long time. How old was Egypt? Five or six thousand years? These people had gone to sleep another eight millennia before that. Wow.

"When will the sun enter this next cycle?" I asked. I'd have bet money that Usir knew it was coming, and was using Mohn to prepare for it. I'd also have bet he knew a lot about these occupants.

"The precise date is impossible to predict, but it will come soon," Ka said, offering an apologetic shrug. "Regardless, when this event occurs it will devastate your current technology. Anything that is sensitive to an electromagnetic pulse will be destroyed. Only the areas closest to the planet's equator will escape this fate."

I met Jillian's gaze and found my horror mirrored there. If the planet lost power, that would be the perfect time for the grey men to attack, assuming that was their goal. Who knew how Mohn was planning to capitalize on it? Either way, it would effectively render my powers useless, since our technology would be wiped out.

"I would also caution that this event will wake any Ark still in hibernation," Ka continued. Its mouth tightened, and if I'd had to ascribe a human emotion to it I'd have said it looked angry. "The returning Ark Lords have seeded your world with a virus. This virus alters the host into something you will not recognize as human."

"Come again?" I asked.
 

"This virus will be activated by the sun's progression into the next phase. The resulting change will introduce a new apex predator," Ka said, words clipped in a way they hadn't been before. "I do not believe the progeny of the Builders are aware of the virus."

"You've mentioned them twice. The Progeny of the Builders are the grey men, right?" I asked. That was mostly for Kali and Jillian's benefit, since they'd missed the first part of the conversation.

"Affirmative. The Builders constructed the Arks approximately six million years ago," Ka explained. "They departed this world roughly three and a half million years ago. They utilized the Arks to transmute themselves into energy, and broadcast that energy to a habitable world. I have no knowledge of their evolutionary path during the resulting interval, but it is reasonable to assume these grey-skinned creatures are their progeny."

"Why would their, uh, progeny return to earth? Why right before the sun changes? And why did they leave in the first place?" I asked.

If Ka was annoyed by my questions it certainly didn't show it. It cocked its head again. "The Builders left because the climate of the planet began to grow colder. This was the beginning of what you refer to as the Pleistocene epoch. The last great ice age. The Builders understood that this climate would persist for millions of years, so they sought a warmer home.

"It is merely speculation," Ka continued, "but I believe that they have returned now because we have entered a new epoch, the Holocene. The planet has begun to warm, a process your species has greatly accelerated. The planet is now warm enough to sustain them once more, so they have sent scouts to prepare for re-colonization."

"So what you're telling me is that the Builders started out here. They weren't aliens, they were another species on earth," I said, trying to wrap my brain around what I was hearing. "These grey-skinned creatures are true aliens, in the sense that they evolved on another world. But ultimately their ancestors are from earth?"