Señor Corzo was not to know that they were more than pleased with this find, and that the Society of the Book knew far more about this building than any archeologist did. This was, to date, the greatest achievement for the Society. The carvings and mural, in time, could help them find the other sites, and if this one worked they could leave Earth if they chose to. “We thank you and your team for your work. We’re going to stay for a while and take some photos in the afternoon light.”
They watched Señor Corzo’s team pack up the last of their surveying and photography equipment and head down the jungle path to the road and their van. Nick wasn’t waiting for the afternoon light; he was ensuring there would be no witnesses. He put his backpack on, grabbed his walking stick in his right hand, with the thick end down, and moved onto the mural, stopping at the center of the large yellow stone at the center of the floor. The walking stick was one of the original ones owned by the Society, and had an intertwining vine pattern except for a center band of small symbols.
“Dave, your job is to tell the Chairman exactly what I did and what happened. If I can, I’ll come back to Earth in a few days and fly to New York.”
Dave just nodded, waiting outside the ruins on the grass, hopefully out of range of what might happen.
Nick confidently followed the steps set out in the Book, a book only seen by a few, even in the Society. Something even Dave could not yet be told about.
Dave watched Nick disappear. He hadn't really believed it would happen! It took a few minutes to absorb the reality of what this meant.
He took a different jungle path that would avoid any chance of bumping into Senor Corzo and his team. The archeologists hadn’t noticed that the carvings on Nick’s staff were similar to the carvings on the remnants of the stone walls; they might have asked a lot more questions if they had.
* * *
There was a brief yellow flash, then darkness again, and then Amy found herself looking at a huge fern in bright daylight. Many ferns! The Mexican jungle was gone! The ferns were crowded together so tightly that nothing bigger than a cat would get through, and reached out over the stone platform they were on, cutting out much of the sky. What happened? Where was she?
“You can let go now,” said Paul gently.
“Yes, sorry,” answered Amy, distracted by the change in everything around her. She was standing on a square platform made of large square stone slabs. Beneath her feet was a yellow stone that looked similar, maybe pinker, to the one in the ruins. “Where are we?”
Paul answered quietly, “I don’t know, but I want to find out.”
Amy felt the change in humidity and temperature. Her tee-shirt was stuck to her back. The air smelled strange, musty. Thick ferns surrounded them, and there were clouds in the sky, when there had been no clouds before. “Frank, where are we?”
Frank was looking at the sky, “This is awesome! It isn’t Mexico. There were no clouds in Mexico. See, the clouds are a sort of pink or beige. And look where the sun is. Behind the clouds, but it’s close to setting. It was morning in Mexico.” Frank pulled out his camera. He always had it with him. He wandered around the platform taking pictures. He suddenly looked back, “I thought we were going to a basement?”
“Some basement!” said Paul looking at the ferns and the clouds.
“Paul, where’s Simon’s campsite?” Amy asked as she looked around the platform.
“It’s behind those ferns, or whatever they are,” Paul pointed. “Follow me.” He led them around the stone platform and the carved large circle where the edge of the dome appeared. They didn’t know what would happen if they were in the circle when someone came, so they avoided it. He stopped at a patch of rock and sand that looked ordinary except it was a pinky yellow. Amy noticed that the clouds made the sun look a little orange. Following the rocky path between the ferns, Paul led them to a clearing composed of rock, sand, and patches of long grass. In the clearing Amy saw a large canvas tent, some boxes, a clothesline, a crude table built from many odd pieces of lumber, and a firepit lined with rocks.
* * *
Colonel Dan Richards was looking over the Sergeant’s shoulder at the computer screen. The top corner of the screen showed the acronym GASP, which Dan ignored. Their program was officially called the Gravitational Anomaly Satellite Program, but the acronym GASP was discouraged as not being respectful of the public investment. Fat chance! The more GASP was discouraged, the more staff used it!
The Corporal called out, “General Hardisty on line 2, Sir.”
Dan picked up the phone, “Colonel Richards, Sir”
“Colonel, what do you have?”
“We’re looking at the data now, Sir. The pulses are the same as the single gravitational pulses we’ve recorded since we put up the satellite a year ago.” Dan Richards was first a scientist, and second a Colonel in the U.S. Army. There were many Earth based sources of gravitational pulses, including nuclear detonations and lab experiments. They all showed up differently from a star exploding in a distant galaxy, which was the civilian purpose of the satellite. “The type is the same, unknown, but it’s not a nuclear explosion.”
“Location?”
“Just a second, Sir. The computer’s still calculating. The satellite worked as expected, moving the sensors between each pulse.” The computer data finished scrolling and the Sergeant hit a key to bring up a globe map of the Earth. Three large circles were displayed on the map, overlapping, with shading from green to red. “General, with three pulses the source area shown in red covers the Gulf Coast of the US, Central America, and the western Caribbean. We’ll send you the map and the data.”
“Can’t you narrow that down?” General Hardisty was not impressed.
Dan answered, careful not to push any buttons with this rancorous General, “We’re working on that, Sir. The design of the sensors priorized the civilian applications, but we’re fine tuning the control and sensor software to get better data, and a more precise location.”
“Inform me as soon as there’s any progress. I don’t have to remind you that this could be a threat against the United States, and I expect you to continue to make this your first priority.”
* * *
Amy took a closer look at the tent; it was made of a heavy canvas that looked hand woven rather than machine made, it felt waxy, and smelled faintly like rancid fat. Probably to waterproof it, she thought. Strips of leather tied the tent flaps together. Inside the tent was a wooden bed frame lashed together with rope. On the bed were blankets and a leather bag. “I’ve found Simon’s bag.” She put it on the table and opened it up.
Paul moved to the other side of the table. “Should we do that?”
Amy stopped for a second. “There’s no sense in coming here and not going back with the right stuff. I need to find the phone number or address of his school.” Amy placed five books on the table.
Two of them were student notebooks you could buy in Mexico. The other three had hand bound leather covers, and handmade paper pages. She opened one. Each page was made of something that looked like expensive handmade paper, the type with the seeds and stems still in it that her mother sometimes bought her. Then Amy looked at the writing. Every page was covered with columns of symbols and short lines of text, all in black ink. She passed the books to Frank who was trying to read the writing. “What kind of writing is this, Frank? I can't see any address, most of it is nonsense. And where are we?”
Frank paused for a couple of seconds. “On where we are, it’s just a guess. I don’t know for certain.”
Amy was starting to understand Frank; he hated to say anything that wasn’t exactly right. “We understand, so just guess. Tell us where you ‘guess’ we are.”
Frank thought for a second, “The sun was high in the sky when we left Mexico, but now it’s setting. The sky was clear in Mexico, and here we’re under thick beige colored clouds. I don’t know why they’re beige, maybe there’s a volcano around here. In Mexico it was dry and hot, here it’s
really humid.”
Paul asked, “So what does that mean?”
Frank was looking at the books. “We’re not in Mexico.”
Amy, knowing Frank was reluctant to guess, asked and pleaded, “We’re not in Kansas either. So where would you guess we are? Just a guess.”
“You understand this is just a guess, I need more facts. Somehow that yellow stone moved us seven or eight hours east. To get a humid climate like this puts us somewhere in at least east Africa, maybe further east.”
* * *
Dan was working with the data on his computer. A fourth pulse had been detected. The map now showed a fourth circle. It didn’t change the result much, but the data, providing shading in red on the map, made Central America more likely. Dan picked up the phone, “Get me General Hardisty.”
* * *
Frank’s statement shocked her, but it was obvious that this wasn’t Mexico. She joined Paul as he explored around the campsite. Frank continued to study Simon’s journals. As it got darker, Amy and Paul started a fire using a disposable lighter they'd found in Simon’s supplies. The trunk of fallen ferns was brittle and seemed to burn well. Paul went out to collect more before it became completely dark, reaching into the ferns to pull out the debris.
A wind she couldn’t feel in the clearing was moving the tops of the ferns, it started as the sun set. The air smelled different now, drier, and her tee-shirt no longer stuck to her back. The clouds were evaporating away. A few stars appeared through gaps in the clouds. There was no moon in the sky. Should there be? Amy saw that Frank had closed the books and was looking at the sky as well. “Finished Frank?”
“As much as I can in firelight. Three journals are hand-made and have the symbols in sets of short lines filling the pages, but these two have Spanish and English words alongside symbols. They’re a dictionary of some kind, but what the third language is, or how you pronounce it, I don’t know. I do know that some of the characters are in cuneiform.”
“What’s cuneiform?” asked Paul not knowing that English word.
“It’s like marks made from scratching a stick in wet clay, except here it’s done with a small brush and ink. It was the earliest writing on Earth.” Frank put the books back in Simon’s bag. Pointing up at the sky, “Do you see that constellation?” He was pointing at a gap in the clouds. “Those two stars and then those four stars in a sideways question mark?”
Amy looked at where Frank was pointing. “Yes, I do. Does that tell you where we are?” Paul was standing behind Frank, looking up to where he was pointing.
Frank didn’t answer the question directly. “That constellation is called Canis Major. If you look about 15 degrees to the right you’ll see a constellation called Centaurus, or the centaur.” Frank pointed out the constellation, “You can see the sword there, the body, and the legs.”
Amy, after a few attempts, saw the shape Frank was describing in the stars. “So do the constellations help tell where we are?”
“In a way,” answered Frank, “it tells me my first guess was wrong.” Frank was oblivious to their frustration. “If you look at Canis Major, between those two stars there should be a third star. I have a telescope at home and I’ve seen it, it’s called Sirius. It isn’t there, and there’s no clouds in the way. Now look at Centaurus again, at the bottom of the leg there’s the star called Hadar, and below that should be another star. It isn’t there either.”
Amy could see that Paul was getting frustrated with Frank’s rambling. Paul murmured, “So what does that mean, Frank? What does that tell us?”
Frank answered distractedly, “The other star is called Alpha Centauri. Both Alpha Centauri and Sirius are stars close to Earth. There’s only one way they can be missing. We’re not on Earth!”
Chapter 4 – Theory Confirmed
Amy eyes widened, and the blood drained from her face, “What do you mean, not on Earth?”
“It’s the only explanation. One of my hobbies is astronomy. We look at Sirius all the time, but Alpha Centauri is in the southern sky. I know my star charts. Sirius is a double star about nine light years away. Alpha Centauri as a triple star only four light years away. Because they’re so close to Earth they’re brighter in the sky.”
“But how does that prove it?” asked Amy her voice shaking. She was scared; thinking that they’d traveled to Africa had been bad enough.
Frank picked up a long glassy greenish stone and a few small white stones from the ground and put them on the table. “This green stone is our sun, and these other stones are stars nearby and far away. Now if you were looking from Earth, these three stars would look like they were in a line. Even though two of them are far away.”
Amy moved around the table so she could look from behind the green stone that Frank was using to represent Earth. It did look like the other three stones formed a line. Paul looked and asked, “And?”
Seeing that Amy and Paul understood this, Frank continued; he pointed at one of the stones, the closest of the stones that formed the line. “Now if we left Earth, and went to this star here. When we look into space the stars that are far away would still be in the same place. This stone that was the closest of the three seems to have moved. It’s now nowhere near the other two stars from this new viewpoint. That’s my theory on what’s happened, and why I think we’re not on Earth.”
Paul was skeptical. “Theory? How do you prove this theory?”
Amy picked up the green stone, looked at it curiously, and then put it in her pocket.
Frank looked up at the sky. “I can take pictures of the constellations; the brightest stars should come out with my camera. Then we compare those pictures with star charts I can access on the internet. If the local stars are missing, or moved, then we’re not on Earth.” Frank started to take his pictures of the sky.
Amy closed up the tent flaps, and showed Paul the leather ties and the strange fabric, “This fabric is not like anything I’ve seen before.”
Paul agreed, “I’ve never seen anything like it either.”
While Paul put out the fire using some sand, Amy picked up Simon’s bag of journals, putting them back inside Simon’s pack. Paul picked up Simon’s staff. With only the stars in the sky, all Amy could see was the outline of the ferns around the clearing. “How do we find the way back? Does anyone have a flashlight?”
Paul clicked on the lighter. “There’s candles in the box next to the tent.” The flame from the lighter was surprisingly bright, lighting up the whole area around the table. Paul found the box and pulled out two candles. Lighting them he gave one to Amy, and put the lighter in his pocket.
“Shouldn’t we leave the lighter here?” asked Amy.
“If the wind blows out the candles we’re going to need it,” Paul answered. “We can give it back to Simon, but we need to be able to relight the candles.”
Amy nodded, and then realizing that Paul probably couldn’t see her, she said, “That makes sense; we can put it in his bag.”
Paul said, pointing, “We go straight out this way, and then we’ll find the platform.” Paul moved off, looking for the pathway between the ferns.
Amy came last, holding the candle up to give more light. She couldn’t remember being out on a night as dark as this. Fern branches kept threatening to brush the candle flame out. She was forced to lower the candle and keep her other hand in front of it. This cut down the candlelight but there seemed to be no other way to do it. They stumbled on the rough path, unable to see the rocks in the path in the flickering candlelight. They finally found the stone platform where they’d arrived. The two candles lit the platform for some distance, and they quickly found the yellow stone.
Amy and Frank stepped outside of the carved larger circle so that Paul could go first to check that the coast was clear. It was a little spooky waiting in the dark huddled around a single candle, even though Frank was there.
Paul was back in less than a minute. Amy and Frank joined Paul, standing near the yellow stone. There was no te
asing this time; there were other things to think about. Amy held up her candle while Paul read the paper and tapped the sequence, as his candle had blown out.
* * *
The bright sunlight of Mexico blinded her! Amy nearly dropped her candle, “Jeez!”
“Sorry! I forgot to warn you!” Paul’s sunglasses were on his head, he slid them down with a shake of his head.
“You’re not kidding!” exclaimed Frank. “That’s like having someone set off a flash in your eyes.”
Amy pulled out her sunglasses, “We’d better wear our sunglasses next time.”
Amy waited while Paul and Frank picked up their backpacks and Frank’s camcorder which had been left on the wall. Amy was still carrying Simon’s bag inside her backpack.
Paul and Frank appeared to be as excited and exhausted by their adventure as she was. They spent the first part of the walk discussing the events of the morning; it already seemed unreal to Amy. Could they have gone to another planet? The conversation eventually died as each of them retreated to their own thoughts.
When they could just see their resort down the road, Frank broke the silence, asking, “Did you see a yellow flash? I saw it the first time, but thought it could be caused by going from bright sunlight to dark. It was there on the way back, so that’s not it.”
Both Amy and Paul confirmed that they’d seen it as well, but none of them could guess what it could be.
Paul asked the question on Amy’s mind, “Now what? We didn't find an address.”
Amy agreed, “No, but I have a lot of questions. I think we’ve got to keep this a secret; we promised Simon. Anyway, either our parents would create a fuss, think us crazy, or try to forbid us to go back to the ruins. Besides, do any of us want to get into the ‘you’re an adult now, but’ conversations; no one wins!” They all understood the word ‘parents’ to include Frank’s aunt and uncle. Frank’s parents had died when he was a child and his father’s brother and his wife had taken care of him since then.