Orlando grinned, then peered closer under the ringed planet. “So, if I remember my astronomy class, this would be Saturn’s largest moon. Almost the size of the Earth itself. Titan.” Looked even closer, and brushed away some dust from the raised symbol. “A book?”
Phoebe nodded, tracing the same symbol not only on the Earth itself, but on its satellite. Specifically on the shaded side. “Wisdom,” she whispered, and closed her eyes.
“What does it mean?” Orlando frowned. He noted the book symbol elsewhere. “It’s also on Pluto’s moon. What was that one, Charon? And here, closer, on Phobos, for Mars.”
“And look out beyond Pluto,” Phoebe said. “At the edge of the wall.”
“Another one?” Orlando scampered there, then looked back on the five feet of emptiness, just black tiles. “What the hell’s out here? And this is one big ass book, twice as large as the others. And it’s just one dark planet.”
Phoebe shook her head slowly, still staring at the Earth and the Moon. “I can only guess about that, but for those closer to home, I’d say everything is a learning plan.”
“A what?”
Another rumble, and the floor cracked. The stairway split and three steps crumbled.
“Hurry, people!” Temple shouted. “Get up here.”
“Not ready yet!” Diana yelled back, sounding like she was in a tight position, perhaps trying to jump start the craft.
“On our way!” Orlando yelled, glancing at Phoebe. “We are, aren’t we?”
Phoebe nodded, giving the map a long last look, memorizing it. “We are.”
“Learning plan?” Orlando said as they ran for the stairs.
“Libraries,” she said. “It has to be. Repositories of wisdom, starting with the one on Earth.”
“In the Pharos Vault.”
“Originally, yes.” They gingerly took the steps, careful where they placed their feet. “And maybe the others are similar, just copies of everything we—our ancestors—once knew.”
“Ancestors, or aliens?”
“Half-dozen of one, six of the other.”
“Okay,” Orlando said, jumping over a gap, then helping Phoebe. “I guess. But you think it’s more?”
“Just by the sequence and distance.” She caught her breath before the second level. “I’m sure the other lunar locations—probably well-fortified like the Pharos—contain similar wisdom so that if anything should happen on Earth…”
“Like what happened to the dinosaurs.”
“Right, then if there were time and some of humanity made it out safely, they could start again.”
“But on another planet or moon? Without oxygen, or hell, even an atmosphere?”
“That’s not necessarily true,” Diana’s voice interrupted Phoebe’s response. They approached the end of the walkway where Diana was standing beside Temple, just behind the spherical violet field. Behind them, rounded seating zones, capable of holding a dozen of them.
“Tell them on the way,” Temple snapped, motioning Phoebe and Orlando inside. But it wasn’t until Aria ran through the sparkling field and grabbed their hands that they overcame their fear and passed through, inside the UFO.
“It tickles,” Orlando said, and then he was through and taking a seat beside Phoebe, next to Aria.
“No seat belts?” Phoebe asked, but Diana only shrugged as she stood in front of a pedestal and what looked like a flat podium-style presenter.
“That’ll be the least of my violations, right after driving one of these without a license. Or a clue.”
The mountain rumbled again, the floor pitched and gave way, cracking into chunks that fell out of sight. But the sphere remained, even as the rocks crumbled around them, bouncing off the field.
“If you’re going to try something,” Temple urged, “now would be a good time.”
Aria sighed, leaning against Orlando. She looked down and whispered, “Goodbye, Daddy.”
And Diana touched something on the screen, then sent her index finger sliding outward against the surface.
The craft moved instantly, and lurched them all forward, through the disintegrating layers of rock—
—and out into the night sky.
While behind them, the mountainside fell in chunks, pulverized and blasted outward by an invisible drill that bore deeper and deeper, annihilating everything in its path.
“I can’t control it much longer,” Diana whispered, sweating, leaning over the screen.
“You’re doing great,” said Temple. “Just try to take us down.”
“Gently,” Orlando offered, gripping Phoebe and Aria a little too tightly.
“Yeah,” said Phoebe. “What he said. And then, when we land, how about telling us what you know, or think you know, about the lunar sites.”
“That whole ‘not exactly’ comment about oxygen up there.”
Temple made a throaty sound. “I can answer that. What she means is that there have been reports, scientific analysis of trace oxygen levels given off on the Moon and on Mars and Phobos, around certain locations, that indicate the venting of breathable air. Somewhere down there. Most likely a contained facility, a habitat structure.”
“Damn,” Orlando said. “So…”
“So that’s what they’re planning,” Phoebe said, eyes wide. “Calderon and his Marduk cult. Destroy the earth, but save themselves by jumping to the next station. A community all ready for them.”
“And all the wisdom they’d need to keep going.”
“And build on that knowledge,” Phoebe said. “That’s what I suspect. That, as you get farther out in the solar system, you’re rewarded for your skill in reaching those places by receiving better information, more knowledge.”
Orlando closed his eyes, seeing that last dark planet and the huge book. “Until the ultimate prize.”
She nodded just as her stomach did a back flip and they dropped precipitously fast.
“Sorry!” Diana yelled over Aria’s cry of surprise, which then turned to a giggle as she realized they were on the ground, and the sphere was rolling around them, yet keeping them upright inside it.
“Stop, stop,” Diana hissed, sliding her finger backwards repeatedly. “Brake?”
Finally, they ground to a stop, lurching against one another. Diana tapped a section of the pad.
And the sphere vanished and she fell out on the soft earth in the middle of a pine forest. Behind them, trees were smoking, scattered in their wake.
Phoebe glanced back, gasping at the shadowy, stooped form of Mt. Shasta, looking grotesquely mutated, half-formed and still losing cohesion. The sound was building, near deafening. So much so that she didn’t hear Orlando crying out until several moments later.
And then, it was just to hear a recap of his vision.
“The shield! It’s gone!”
“What shield?” Temple asked, righting himself from the dirt. His voice was barely audible.
“Mars!” Orlando yelled. “The Martian shield is gone. Well, not yet, but it’s their whole facility… bodies in tanks. Robotic-looking caretakers.” His wide eyes fixed on Phoebe. “It’s being attacked!”
“What? Who’s doing it?” Temple yelled over the rumbling destruction, even as a cloud of dust rolling from the mountain obscured the stars and the bright red speck of light in the eastern sky.
Orlando shook his head, but Aria started clapping.
She fixed her bright blue eyes on Temple, then on Diana, and smiled.
9.
HAARP
As Calderon stood up and smugly left the chamber, his work done and Stargate destroyed, Alexander briefly shut his eyes and tried to picture his father.