The Pyramid Builders
Lens of Time-Book One
Contents
Chapter One
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Chapter Two
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Chapter Three
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Chapter Four
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Chapter Five
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Chapter Six
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Chapter Seven
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Chapter Eight
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Chapter Nine
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Chapter Ten
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Chapter Eleven
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Chapter Twelve
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Chapter Thirteen
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Chapter Fourteen
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Chapter Fifteen
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Chapter Sixteen
D
r. Christopher Connor has discovered a way to view the past. His invention collects light and focuses it such that events that occurred on Earth years ago can be viewed. All one need do is travel one light year away and one can see what was happening on the planet a year earlier by capturing and focusing the reflected light that left Earth a year ago. There’s only one problem: no ship exists that can travel faster than the speed of light, so his device cannot be conclusively demonstrated to function as advertised. That’s fine with Christopher, who would much rather party and have a good time rather than defend his creation against critics and governmental bureaucrats. Besides, who would pay to view the past anyway?
Jillian Gordon, an Egyptologist with a PhD in Quantum Physics, has discovered that the survival of Earth depends on viewing what happened at the building of the Great Pyramid of Khufu five thousand years in the past. Christopher’s device would allow her to do just that and she intends to draft him into the project. Christopher is about to discover that the organization Jillian works for has engineered a starship with a faster-than-light drive, which will now allow his device to be field tested. The stardrive for that ship was developed from diagrams carved on the back of an ancient stone tablet excavated at the site of the Great Pyramid.
Life for Christopher is about to make a radical departure from his party, happy-go-lucky lifestyle. Getting Christopher to focus on what needs to be done is a problem Jillian hadn’t counted on in her quest to save humanity. The predicted destruction of Earth, which is carved on the front of the tablet, doesn’t leave her much time and Christopher isn’t cooperating.
What neither of them know is that the answer to survival is more than sixty five million light years away in light that left Earth just before the mass extinction of the dinosaurs.
C
hristopher Connor sighed heavily and looked at his attorney sitting to his immediate right. They had been sitting on the most uncomfortable bench he had ever encountered. His backside was past pain, and he knew nerve damage was not far away. He squirmed and tried to change position, but nothing worked. He was close to just walking out and forgetting about getting a patent for his invention. He wished he had more padding on his rear. He looked out from under his deep-set green eyes at the seven members of the Patent Board and saw they had padded chairs. Life just wasn’t fair.
They were discussing his invention and he thought they would never make a decision. He looked up at the round clock above the gallery and saw that only ten minutes had elapsed since they started their discussion. It felt like ten hours. The second hand seemed to take forever between each jerk to the next one. Chris stood up for a moment, which brought a disapproving glare from the Chairman of the Patent Board, so he quickly sat back down. He wished he weighed two hundred and fifty pounds instead of a hundred and eighty. He desperately needed more padding. He glanced at John and saw he wasn’t doing much better than he was. It didn’t help matters that he had worn a coat and tie for the first time in years, and his neck was uncomfortable from a collar that was a half inch too small. He looked around and saw one of his bound proposals on the corner of the table. He picked it up and sat down on it. Ahhhhh, now that’s better.
John Southerlin, Chris’ attorney and lifelong friend, shrugged and shook his head. Christopher wondered why there couldn’t be an attorney that had a background in physics or at least an understanding of some basic concepts. John was trying, but just didn’t understand the principles of his device. Chris looked back at the panel of patent directors and figured that being a successful attorney required a different skill set than what was required of a physicist. Chris looked at John, “I’ve tried to explain in basic layman’s terms what my device does.”
John whispered, “I don’t think they get it.”
Chairman Johnson Layfield turned from the board’s discussions and looked over his reading glasses, “Doctor Connor, we don’t see anything different in your device than an ordinary camera.”
Christopher stood and went to an easel and flipped the pages back to a clean sheet. “Let me try to explain this another way then. Are any of you curious about how a city was built on top of a mountain in South America, using blocks of granite weighing more than twenty tons? Those blocks were quarried more than fifty miles from the site of the city and were somehow lifted up a sheer cliff to the top of that mountain. Another interesting piece of information is the city was built before the local population had discovered metals.” Christopher paused to allow the board to consider the thought and then continued, “Also consider Puma Punku in Bolivia where stones weighing more than four hundred tons were cut and moved ten miles uphill from a quarry. Even today, we have no way to duplicate what they did. I know you must wonder how the Great Pyramid in Egypt was built.”
Johnson looked at the other seven members of the panel and said, “Of course we’d like to know. However, I don’t see how your device relates to those questions.”
Christopher took a black magic marker and drew a small circle in the center of the sheet, “All right, this is the planet Earth. Every day the sun shines on the planet and light from the sun is reflected back into space. Are we together so far?”
Johnson nodded.
“Well that reflected light leaves Earth at a speed of 186,282 miles per second. In one year’s time that light will be one light year away.” Christopher looked at Johnson with raised eyebrows and he nodded he understood. “My device, if it is taken one light year away from Earth, will collect that light and focus it into an image. You can actually view events that happened on Earth one year earlier.”
Christopher paused and said, “Every night when you look up at the stars you are viewing ancient history. The last supernova that was seen two months ago actually exploded more than two million years ago, but it took that long for the light to arrive here. We see it and think it’s happening at this moment, but the cold hard truth is that star exploded when the first humans were starting to walk erect. Yet, we see it and analyze it with our devices. We even show the progress of the explosion though it happened millions of years ago. Our most advanced telescopes can see it quite clearly as if was happening now.”
“Doctor Connor, surely by that distance the light from Earth will have been so scattered and weakened that it would be impossible to get any kind of detail in whatever you manage to collect. It also begs the question, just how are you going to get one light year away from here before the reflected light arrives?”
“Actually, the fields I use to collect the light are extremely sensitive and it is my belief that the images can be quite clear. If the weather is clear, I can even focus right down to the surface of the planet and view individual humans. As far as getting there, I’ll have to wait for future technology to develop a means of faster than light travel. However, I have experiments that confirm the device works as I’ve described.”
Johnson looked at the other seven board members and then looked back at Chris, “So for the foreseeable future, your device has no practical use?”
Chris shrugged, “Neither did the first telephone. You had to have two before it would work. Now look were we are in 2085. We communicate with implants that allow us to contact anyone on the planet. We are exploring our solar system and have colonies on Mars and the moons of Saturn. My device will answer many questions that have baffled the scientific community for centuries, but it will require the invention of a faster than light starship.”
The seven patent board members put their heads together and after ten minutes Johnson turned to Chris, “We are going to issue you a patent on your device.” Chris smiled then Johnson said, “But only as a device that can view history.”
Christopher’s smile fell faster than a bad stock market. He said, “There is also the use of the fields as a scanner to collect electronic images. That is something that it can do now.”
“You have your patent. Apply later if you want one for another use.”
Christopher started to tell the patent board what they could do with their patent but John stood and took him by the arm, “Thank you, your Honor. We appreciate your accepting Doctor Connor’s device.” He then said under his breath, “Don’t blow this. Let’s get out of here!”
Chris took a deep breath, gathered his papers, and put them in his briefcase. He glanced back at the patent board and saw Johnson talking on his communicator. He was staring directly at him, and Chris wondered what was being discussed. He sensed that Johnson’s communication was about him, but what could he do? It had taken a year just to get the viewer before the board. The long line of bureaucrats that had to be navigated to get to the board was ridiculous. Now they had rejected discussing its use as a detection device. Then he had a thought. Chris raised his hand and Johnson said, “Yes, Doctor Connor?”
“I was wondering if I could get the name of the company that made this bench.”
Johnson smiled and asked, “Why?”
“I’m going to use it in my classes for students that aren’t putting forth the effort they should. I think it will have outstanding results in getting them to change their behavior.” Johnson just smiled at Chris. Chris smiled, tilted his head, and started shaking his finger at the Chairman, “I’ll bet you have a patent on this bench. Am I right?”
Johnson chuckled and said, “Some people don’t really want a patent. They’re here to waste our time.”
“Well, twenty minutes on that bench will certainly thin the herd.”
Johnson laughed, “You can get the number of the manufacturer from our stenographer.” Chris nodded and hoped he would get the stenographer’s number as well. She was a cutie.
Thirty minutes later, Chris turned from the stenographer’s table and walked out with John. Fighting to convince dumb politicians that his device was revolutionary was getting old. He had also struck out with the cutie at the table. He sighed and called Dolly. It was Thursday and he needed to let off some steam.
The stenographer glanced as Chris left and put his number into her communicator. Tall, short brown hair, beautiful, deep set, green eyes, quick smile; yes, she would call him later. Couldn’t let the board think she was easy.
“Well, what do you think?”
An old man sitting in the gallery turned and said, “Jillian, do you really think that device will do what he says?”
“I don’t know, Arnold. But he has been considered three times for a Nobel Prize in physics and high energy fields.”
“Why didn’t he win?”
“He had an affair with a member of the selection committee’s wife during the first interview. It seems our physicist has something of a wild streak. The committee just couldn’t run the risk of him being drunk and hanging on an almost naked woman when he made his acceptance speech.”
Arnold watched the young man leave the room and took a deep breath, “If we agree to your plan, you know how much it will cost us to move forward?”
“You’ve read the tablet. Do you have a better idea?”
“I’m almost inclined to not believe what it says.”
“Everything else has proven true.”
“That’s the only thing that makes me say almost. If it’s true, the price will be irrelevant. I’m hoping that the tablet will be proven wrong.”
“There’s only one way to do that.”
Arnold paused, “Do you think he’ll agree to participate?”
“Who knows? He might have to be compelled to join us.”
“He’s no good to us if he won’t cooperate.”
“Are you willing to buy his help?”
“If it comes to that, but only if he, and you, is successful.”
“Fair enough.”
Arnold smiled and looked at Jillian, “From what I’ve just seen, he may be more than you can handle.”
“We’ll see, Dad.”
“I guess we will.”
Later that evening, Jillian exited her military skimmer and walked into a bar that was posing as a restaurant. She could feel the music from the street and saw a large crowd waiting to enter. She walked to the front of the line and flashed her badge to the doorman. He took one look and waved her in. Jillian walked into the huge room working her way through the standing room only crowd and looked around. She was wearing military camouflage fatigues and stood out like a nudist in church. She noticed that the majority weren’t wearing much at all.