Weapon of Atlantis (10 page)

“Interesting. If I’m guessing r
ight, whatever’s down there is “U” shaped,” Maj. Deravic said, now greatly curious.

“Yes Sir, a
nd appears to be roughly ten feet high too,” Lt. Jarvis added excitedly.

“If it really is our spacecraft, it seems there’s barely enou
gh room to stand in,” Javi said, shaking his head, puzzled.

“Zeus and Poseidon weren’t small men. They both stood over six feet tall. If you think about how thick the walls have to be for space travel, that craft does seem ridiculously sma
ll, doesn’t it?” Jack responded equally puzzled.

“Maybe it’s not a spacecraft. Maybe it’s just a big boulder down there or maybe even another ore deposit,” the
major speculated.

“No
Sir, it’s definitely not an ore deposit. It’s sitting on top of the ground, beneath the ice. Also, a large boulder of that size would have a consistent density throughout its mass. Whatever’s down there, doesn’t. It has varying densities, as if there’re voids inside it,” the lieutenant responded.

“Voids, as in the cockpit of a spacec
raft?” Javi asked in hopeful tone.

“Only
one way to find out,” Jack said smiling knowingly.

Maj. Deravic nodded. “I’m guessing the next step is flying in some heavy equipment.”

“Thankfully, most of it is just a short hop away at Zeus’ pyramid. Probably shouldn’t take more than a couple of days to start the excavation,” Jack responded.

“What about the plane wreckage? I’m sure the crash investigators will be here for weeks, studying the scene. We might have to wait until they’ve completed their work before we can start,” Javi warned.

Jack shook his head.

“
Bjørn Ipsen is Greenland’s attaché to the Department of Tourism. He was instrumental in getting us back into Zeus’ pyramid soon than we expected, after it became a crime scene. With Greenland’s plan on developing all of this into a major tourist attraction, I’m certain they’ll make allowances for us once we inform them we might have found the spacecraft.”

“Do you still have his number?” Javi grinned.

Jack shook his head. “Not on me. It’s on my computer, back at the trailer at Zeus’ pyramid.” Turning to Maj. Deravic, he smiled and said, “Care to give us a lift?”

Extending his hand toward the distant helicopter, he replied, “Your chariot awaits, Sir.”

----- ----- ----- -----

With support from the United State Army, two
twin-rotor CH-47 Chinook helicopters were flown into Greenland to help with the excavation. Ferrying equipment and supplies from the site of Zeus’ golden pyramid forty miles away, they made short work of the otherwise extensive undertaking. Within a week, teams of men were able to assemble the new excavation site, setting up utility trailers and moving several pieces of heavy equipment into place, ready to begin their task.

Javi and Jack stood just beyond two large industrial excavators and watched them begin to remove the top layer of ice and snow that covered the buried object. As the teeth of the metal bucket imbedded the ground, the top surface exploded into large blocks that were scooped up and placed into a waiting dump truck and carried away.

With every two feet of material removed, Javi and Jack inspected the cavity, insuring no damage was coming to anything that lay hidden beneath. After the first day, a cavity measuring a hundred feet square and ten feet deep was created around the target.

Javi and Jack entered the large pit by access ramp carved in the ice and assembled their ground radar equipment at the center. Two hours later, they completed their study. As the
y stood back and reexamined their spray painted marks on the ice, the shape of the object became ever clearer.

“Definitely “U” shaped,” Javi said. “The propulsion system must be along the flat edge of the “U”,” he continued, now pointing.

“Interesting,” Jack said, his eyes seemingly staring through the ice. “The round front is facing toward the sea cliff. Really makes you wonder, doesn’t it?”

“
About what?”

“Were they using the sea cliff as a launch pad, sort of like launching off an aircraft carrier?
” Jack speculated. He surveyed the land around him and continued. “And why land here? Why not near the pyramid? Something just seems strange to me about this location.”

“First, I’m sure a spacecraft as advance as theirs didn’t need a runway to launch from… and second, this location seven thousand years ago, might have been the best spot to land and depart from. The reason it’s here might simply be a malfunction with their propulsion system that they couldn’t fix or worse, they crash landed here. The fact is, we probably will never know why the
y picked this spot for landing,” Javi realized.

Jack nodded, then joked, “Unless, of course, Zeus or Poseidon left a tidy little d
iary of their exploits… you know, something like: “June sixth, five thousand B.C.; went for pizza, lost keys to spacecraft in the parking lot; stranded forever on Earth.”

Javi stared momentarily, then smirked.

“Yes, Jack. Something like that would be most helpful,” he said sarcastically.

“Now, if
we could just find those damn keys, we might actually be able to start it ourselves,” he joked further.

“I’ll tell you what. Right after we excavate the object, if it does turn out to be the spacecraft, you can be in charge of finding them,” Javi teased.

“A righteous assignment,” he stated proudly.

“Yeah, right up there with cleaning toilets,” Javi joked.

----- ----- ----- -----

The following day…

Once again, the team of workers swarmed over the excavation site. As the excavators dug deeper, they no longer had the ability to raise the material out of the hole. An overhead crane was assembled and a large bucket lowered
was into the pit. Workers inside, placed blocks of ice and snow into the crane’s container and were lifted out and then deposited into a waiting dump truck. The task was slow and tedious, but with the summer light now staying longer than eighteen hours a day, they were able to remove another five feet of material from the deepening cavity.

Within three days’ time, a darkened shadow began to emerge from under the ice. Twenty feet below the surface, its shape left little doubt of its content. The object was indeed the spacecraft.

Excitement of the reality sent the men’s adrenaline surging, driving greater efforts into their work. Too close for the use of heavy excavators, teams of men with axes and shovels now chopped away at the ice by hand.

By the end of the fourth day, Jack and Javi watched anxiously as the men now came within
a few inches of the top of the spacecraft. Although the ice distorted their view, the ships features were now evident. Measuring just over thirty-four feet long and seventeen feet wide, the overall rectangular shape seemed strangely foreign to the space and airship designs of humans. Although the front of the ship appeared rounded in “U” shape, Jack noticed a five-foot wide flat edge at the very front, a puzzling feature that greatly diminished the aerodynamic capabilities of the craft.

“Aside from the semi-rounded front, it’s like a flying shoebox,” Jack remarked. “I sure hope
there’re some wings down there below the ice.”

“It really
is
puzzling, but then again, aerodynamics aren’t really a factor in space travel,” Javi responded.

“Maybe not in space, but they are here on Earth,” Jack shot back. “How’d this thing fly around in our atmosphere?”

“I’m guessing it doesn’t fly,” he responded cryptically.

Jack
shot Javi a puzzled stare.

“You think their propulsion system is some type of anti-gravity device?”

“If this block of metal isn’t sitting on a pair of wings, how else would it get around?” he replied.

The two stared at each other in amazement, the mere sound of their exchange sending shivers throughout their bodies. They turned back to the workers and watched as a dozen men
worked delicately at removing the last inch of ice from the forward end of the craft. Using small picks and scrapers, and handheld industrial dryers that pumped heat onto the ice, the men continued on for the next hour. Suddenly, an excited shout was heard from one of the men.

“Mr. Arista, we’ve broken through. We can see inside the spacecraft.”

Javi and Jack darted to the man’s position. Working through the crowd of men huddled around the opening, vying for a chance to see inside, they reached the three-foot in diameter hole in the ice that exposed a small section of the spacecraft.

Javi and Jack got down on their hands and knees and wiped away the bits of debris that appeared to be
lying across a surface of glass. Looking in, both stared with anticipation at the darkness that lay inside.

“Anyone
have a flashlight,” Javi asked excitedly.

Instantly,
several men stepped forward and handed him their key chains that held mini-lights fastened them.

He smiled at Jack and joked, “Ask and you shall receive.”

Jack grinned, then snatched one from a worker’s hand. He squeezed the round plastic device and shined a beam down into the blackness. Javi did the same. Staring in awe, they could just make out what appeared to be two control panels that seemed to wrap around two open areas separated by a narrow isle. They moved their lights around to the front and sides of the craft and noticed more glass.

“This is definitely the cockpit, but where did they sit? There’s no chairs,” Javi remarked.

“Yeah, it’s conspicuously empty. I’m certain they weren’t standing the whole time they flew. So where did the seats go?” Jack asked.

“Maybe they ejected when they crashed?” a worker shouted in speculation.

Javi stared at Jack momentarily. The reality of the words slowly sinking in.

“He’s right,” Javi responded, his face filled with the thrill of discovery. “It all makes sense now. The reason they
didn’t
leave is because they
couldn’t
leave. They must have ejected out of this craft during a crash.”

“Which explains the reason for the Zeus’ golden pyramid. The inverse design really
was
intended as a signal beacon,” Jack said in amazement.

Javi shook his head as he considered the details of
the crash.

“
They must have lost power over land. It looks like they were heading toward the sea, so I’m guessing they had intended on ditching, but came up short and landed on land instead. That must have been one harrowing crash with the sea cliffs rushing up at them just a few hundred feet ahead.”

“I’m sure they needed a change of underbritches after that one,” Jack joked.

“So where’s there cockpit seats? They must be close by, I’m guessing,” Javi asked, looking around the sunken cavity as if in search of them.

“Unless we have some kind of extreme luck, I’m sure we won’t find them. They’d be like searching for that needle in a haystack… nearly impo
ssible to find,” Jack responded in disappointed tone.

The two conti
nued to shine their lights through the glass. Looking rearward, they notice the isle pass through a bulkhead and vanish into darkness. On the bulkhead, they could see banks of what appeared to be tiny bulbs with hieroglyphic characters etched below them.

“That bank of lights looks like some kind of indic
ator assembly. I can’t read the inscriptions below the lighting but I’m sure it’s all for monitoring their systems,” Jack said, pointing.

Javi only nodded, then shined his light back on the control panel.