Chapter 3.

Unknown Planet

Day 29

IPX Designation Alpha Omega IV

It was hard to guess how long the tomb had remained untouched, certainly for a quite a few millenia at the very least. The weight of years hung heavy on its walls, ancient dust and dirt lined the floor and the stale unmoving air lingered as a curtain of inactivity throughout its cavernous interior. It was a snapshot, as constant and unchanging as the rocks themselves slumbering in peace without disturbance.

At least it was until Earth Force showed up and blew up the door.

The demolition charges were set to crumble the door in on itself rather than simply blast it apart and throw chunks of masonry across the potentially priceless relics in the tomb. The sequential explosion turned the door into pebbles and dust and shook loose dirt through the tomb, a cloud of tan coloured smoke drifting slowly from the entry point.

"Subtle." Eilerson raised an eyebrow. "Think we woke the dead with that one?"

"Lets hope not." Morito said with a hint of concern. "I'm not exactly thrilled at meeting a goddess who just got woken up after a thousand year beauty sleep."

"Woken by us blowing the front off her tomb." Eilerson added with a slight smile.

The cloud of dust began to disperse, falling back to earth or getting caught in the breeze and swept to some far corner of the planet. The way cleared, the phantasms of the past retreating back into obscurity offering a view of this sacred and hidden edifice.

"The construction here isn't as refined as the temple ruins." Eilerson nodded critically. "Maybe a bit hasty in its construction, made with simpler tools and a different type of stone."

"A work of man rather than gods." Morito guessed.

"Could be." Eilerson nodded. "Maybe there weren't any gods left by the time this was built, wiped out or driven off by whatever happened here."

"Not real gods of course though." Morito quickly corrected.

"No, of course not." Eilerson smiled. "After you then, Doctor Morito."

With hesitation the expedition leader peeked inside, scanning with torchlight and examining the inside of the tomb. Very slowly he stepped inside, checking the floor and walls as he did so. It was with much trepidation that he proceeded, wary of every bump and sound. He was on edge, tense, and when a hand thumped on his shoulder he couldn't help but emit a squeak of surprise.

"Come on Morito!" Eilerson slapped him on the shoulder. "This isn't the Temple of Doom!"

The younger expert stepped confidently around Morito and shone his light back and forth. Most prominent in the room were a set of beautifully carved statues so well preserved they could have been made yesterday.

"I don't understand, what an odd set of statues. Humans and animals."

"It's absolutely incredible." Eilerson smiled. "Don't you see?"

"I see some people, and then a fish, Lion, Goat even…"

"Or to give them their actual names, Pisces, Leo and Capricorn." Eilerson informed. "Along with Gemini, Virgo, Scorpio. It's the Zodiac, visual representations of the Zodiac."

Morito laughed. "This is Earth Force playing a prank on us! They sent a ship here before us and left this!"

"I don't think so, and neither do you."

"But its impossible, the Zodiac originated in ancient Babylon! This place predates Babylonian civilization by thousands of years!"

"And a hell of a lot of lightyears too." Eilerson added. "Yet here it is."

"They were made as images of constellations visible from Earth! No where else can the stars be seen the same! How could they know?"

"We wanted to find something special, here it is." Eilerson grinned widely. "The implications of this are amazing."

"It could overturn everything we know about human civilization."

"Yes, it really could." Eilerson agreed. "Imagine the lecture fees..."

"Just wait a second, before we get carried away." Morito held up his hands. "The human remains here are old, but don't predate humanity on Earth, so we know that we are still native to our own planet."

"Correct."

"But the civilization here predates what is accepted on Earth?"

"More or less."

"But they have cultural motifs from Classical Greece which is supposed to have come later?"

"Yes."

"Good, I just wanted to make sure that I was really, really confused. And guess what, I am!"

"Keep looking, look for some writing or pictographs."

The two scientists started scrutinizing the chamber.

"This gets more and more disturbing." Morito grumbled

"The Zodiac?" Eilerson asked. "Maybe not, a lot of primitive societies worshipped the sky and the stars, looked up to the heavens and saw gods. What you see here may be a precursor to the Ancient Greek beliefs, just like the architecture."

"That would mean that whoever lived here came back to Earth."

"Yes, it would wouldn't it?" Eilerson smiled. "Distant origin."

Morito scoffed. "That's just dumb."

"Well I doubt our new President would be fond of the idea, but never mind."

"We evolved on Earth."

"Biologically, yes. But as for our culture, well just look at this and tell me it doesn't overturn everything we thought we knew about the classical era."

"Depends which came first, this place or our own Ancient civilizations." Morito considered.

"We'll see what the more precise dating turns up."

Eilerson paused, his light catching something. "Bingo."

"What is it? What do you have?"

"An inscription, a long one." Eilerson informed. "Same language as before, definite variation on classical Greek."

"Can you read it?"

Eilerson gave him a condescending look. "Please, it's me you are talking to."

He turned back and squinted at the text, mentally forming the words.

"Here is the account of the last days." Eilerson quoted. "Of the flight from Kobol and the sundering of the Thirteen."

"Kobol?"

"Must be the name of this place." Eilerson said. "Interesting, the word has its roots in eastern religion, one more cultural precursor."

"So what else does it say?"

"For many lives the Children of the gods made their home here. The Thirteen Tribes formed thirteen city states, and would gather at the temple of Athena each year to give thanks."

"The temple on the hill side we are excavating?" Morito asked.

"I would think so." Eilerson agreed.

"What else?"

"Under the protection of the gods we prospered. Then came a time when the gods quarrelled and a great sorrow befell us. Many were slain as fire rained from heavens and the gods battled each other in their star chariots with sun rays and star bursts."

"Sounds like a description of a space battle."

"You think?" Eilerson answered drolly. "The great cities fell to dust and ruin and the Thirteen Tribes were ravaged by flame and cloud. Those who lived despaired, for the end of days seemed near."

"That would account for what happened here." Morito observed. "A major conflict and invasion."

"But then, hope." Eilerson read. "The great goddess Hera presented us a series of ships prepared for us. Chariots of the gods commanded to take us to our new home, a sanctuary long prepared by the gods for such a disaster. She raised her eyes to the brightest star in the sky and told us we would be safe there, we could prosper in the new garden, and we rejoiced."

Morito said nothing, fascinated by the unfold implication.

"But of the tribes the Thirteenth did not choose to follow. They had departed earlier, turning away from the Promised Land given by the gods. They had set their hearts on a legend, they desired to return to the cradle, to the long forgotten birth place our tales spoke of. They desired to return to Gaia." "Eilerson paused. "Earth."

"Holy…" Morito felt his words fail him, the magnitude of the inscription growing every second.

"Now I end this account, for I too must leave." Eilerson finished the inscription. "May the gods return to us one day, and may our new home be a sanctuary forever."

"This is… it's just… I mean…."

"I couldn't agree more." Eilerson stepped back. "Follow the pattern. These presumed gods take primitive humans and bring them here. They teach them the basics of civilization, philosophy, art, science. Then something goes wrong, an attack, and the humans flee. But some come back to Earth, create their own civilization and teach the humans left behind all they know. And so begins true civilization on Earth based on this model."

"It can't be, there'd be records…"

"There is a record, Ancient Greece." Eilerson said. "Maybe more, one of the other digs found what could be Egyptian style architecture. We could be stood at the epicentre of human civilization!"

"I don't believe it." Morito shook his head. "This is too big."

"It gets better, you missed the most important part." Eilerson grinned. "Where are the other Twelve Tribes?"

Morito blinked. "Of course, they fled!"

"And we know where they went, a star visible from here." Eilerson replied. "We just need to wait until it gets dark, go outside, find the star that matches and have the Cortez plot a course."

"You actually think they made it?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Either way we have no choice but to investigate." The scientist grinned widely. "Exploring the past to create the future, that is what IPX does. We have a chance to unravel the story of how humanity dawned. We have to follow this lead."

"This is too big for me, I'm going to have to get permission from the Chief Executive, and I bet he has to go right to the President."

"Then I suggest you make the call fast, sooner the better."

"This might be the biggest discovery in history. You were right."

"I'm always right." Eilerson chuckled. "You better go, I'll stay here and keep looking."

"What for?"

"A dead goddess of course." He shrugged. "Should be a first."

Eilerson let Morito go before continuing. In his opinion the project leader was more of a politician than a scientist or businessman. He was a reasonable enough a choice for a project leader, a good organiser and a man willing to accept the opinions of people smarter than himself, like Eilerson considered himself to be, but personally Morito didn't really have what it took.

Eilerson could name two people whom he considered worthy to lead this mission. The first naturally was himself, he had the knowledge and acumen to do the job and well, but didn't have the connections in places of power. At least, not yet. Hopefully this dig would be his big break, he'd already uncovered massively valuable artefacts and information, in theory he should be made for life.

The other was Professor Chang. A first rate scientist and leader who had unfortunately died aboard the Icarus. Officially anyway, but rumours running around IPX cast doubt on the official story of an accident. Eilerson himself had been on the short list for that job, but had lost to another linguist called Morden. By all rights Morden was a much inferior linguist to Eilerson but as with most successful people he likely had the right friends in the right places. Of course it turned out to be an unexpected bonus for Eilerson after what happened next.

The Icarus was still a name to be wary of, like the Flying Dutchman or Babylon 4, a cursed name rapidly gaining something of a cult status in IPX circles. Eilerson had known a lot of those people, either directly or those associated with them, and indeed it had just turned out that the husband of doctor Anna Sheridan took command of the military escort. He had to admit to be feeling a little safer knowing there were heavy weight warships in orbit, led by the greatest living soldier in EarthForce, the legendary John Sheridan. But he still had concerns. Based on the power of whoever attacked this world even a destroyer group would probably be badly outmatched.

Still, it was better than nothing and might buy him the time to run for his life.

First things first though. He clicked on the flashlight again and began scanning the walls, looking for further information about these people and who they were. The nature of the humans who had been here was of great concern, but the biggest question on Eilersons mind were who or what these gods had been?

Then there was the mistery of this place. It was a tomb but offered no indication of a coffin or sarcophagus. It was possible the coffin was hidden but the structure gave the impression of something built hastily, something that would not have well planned out ante chambers and pit falls.

His mind therefore went to graverobbers. If the coffin had been well decorated with precious items then it could have simply been stolen. On Earth it was a thing common enough, but out here there was no evidence of any visitors at all. The tomb looked undisturbed, and the remaining statues in the chamber were untouched and intact. Graverobbers would have certainly stolen them as well.

With that ruled out he went onto the next progression, was this Athena even buried here? That was less certain to answer, the tomb could have been prepared for her but never actually occupied. Maybe they were forced to flee early or maybe something happened to the body before it was interred here. It was possible, but they had still sealed the door from the outside which would be odd in an empty tomb.

He had one more thought, Athena was buried here, but did not stay dead. It seemed a bit outlandish but Eilerson had learned not to take anything for granted, especially when dealing with completely unknown races. Nobody knew a think about these alien gods or their abilities. This Athena might just have been hibernating for all Eilerson knew, or the people who buried her.

Whatever the answer this place was a mystery to be solved. Eilerson reached into his toolbelt and took out a small scanner, proceeding on his survey by the book. His first task was to look for residual energy signatures that might show left over technology. There had been some indication of semi-active technology when the mission first landed, hopefully this tomb held some of it.

"I sent the message." Morito walked back in. "But EarthForce refuses to send it via comm for security reasons, the Cortez will carry it once it departs in three days."

"So six weeks for the trip home, and another six to get back here... Assuming EarthGov is quick about it." Eilerson responded. "Anyway, we've got plenty to keep us busy here. Come look at this."

Morito walked over and looked at the scanner Eilerson was holding.

"Energy signature."

"Pretty faint, but there is something in here." Said the scientist. "Something dormant I'd guess."

"Can you tell where?"

Eilerson moved the scanner back and forth a little, searching for the strongest signal. "Above us, in the roof. Actually, just there."

He went and stood beneath a section of the ceiling, looking like plain rock. He stretched up and tapped it with the scanner.

"Sounds hollow." Morito remarked.

"Doesn't it?" Eilerson agreed, lowering the scanner and searching for another tool.

"Might be worth trying to cut through, maybe…"

There was a loud crunch as Eilerson slammed a crowbar into the roof, shattering the thin ceiling and clattering clay to the ground.

"Bloody hell Max! What in…"

"Relax Morito." Eilerson stepped back. "It was hollow remember, plenty of space for a little tap."

"If you've damaged…"

"I said relax, look."

Morito followed Eilersons stare to the roof and into a cavity opened within. Nestled there was some sort of alien device, silver and radial looking wholly out of place in the tomb. It had a small light in the centre which was slowly blinking on and off.

"Jackpot." Eilerson grinned widely.

Both men looked more closely at the device.

"What is it?"

"I haven't got a clue." Eilerson was still grinning. "Lot of transparent material on the edge, could be a receiver or transmitter of some kind. Maybe a projector. We should activate it."

"Let's just catalogue it first shall we?"

"Where's your sense of adventure?" Eilerson mocked jokingly. "Anyway, that central light, it's just screaming 'press me' don't you think?"

"Eilerson, don't even…"

Too late. He reached up and pushed the red light, making it recede into the alien device and change colour to green.

"Basic green and red colour scheme. Lets hope this is where the safe and danger associations with those colours came from, or we just might be in for trouble."

There was a loud click, and then behind them a section of wall began to sink into the ground with a grinding scrape.

"I knew it! Secret passage." Eilerson beamed. "I'm never wrong! Hah!"

Behind the opening wall lights flickered on illuminating a straight and smooth corridor beyond.

"Fresh power readings." Morito confirmed. "We must have switched something else on."

"Lets go have a look."

"Now wait, we should bring along some armed guards, or at least more people!" Morito cautioned. "At least report back on where we are!"

But Eilerson was already in the corridor and proceeding on, and with a sigh Morito followed.

"Can you feel that?" Eilerson ran his hands along the corridor walls. "metal. The humans here had no capacity to forge metal of this quality. Whatever this is it was built by the aliens who settled our ancient ancestors on this planet."

"If it's still operational after all this time, that's one hell of a long term power source." Morito said. "Better than the Minbari one we acquired."

Eilerson stopped. "You found a Minbari power source?"

"Well, not exactly found." Morito admitted. "I don't know why or how, but the chief of security on Babylon 5 had a motorbike, and somehow he managed to convince one of the Minbari staff to make it run on a Minbari power cell."

"How the hell did he do that?"

"I don't know, but he did, couple of months ago." Morito said. "When we learned a member of EarthForce had some Minbari tech we… errr…"

"Broke in and stole the bike?"

"Yeah. But he was in a coma at the time. I think he still is, at least was when we left Earth space for here."

"He's gonna be pissed when he wakes up and finds his bike gone."

"Hopefully it'll never be mentioned ever again." Morito shrugged. "Like it never happened and the Minbari never just handed over what is probably classified tech to their rivals."

"Bet the warrior caste would be pissed." Eilerson grinned. "Good."

They proceeded on several hundred yards and turning a few corners until the space began to open up ahead.

"Well at least by the corridor size we know the aliens are roughly human sized." Eilerson considered. "But I'm betting we're the only humans to actually see this side of the tomb."

The moved further, and came to the end of the corridor. The narrow walls opened up into a wider circular chamber, well lit and smooth. Only one object sat in the room, a blocky square construct right in the middle.

"For my money," Eilerson pointed. "I'd call that a tomb."

"I'd think you are right." Morito agreed.

The two men entered the chamber carefully, looking for any sign of danger or decay in the structure. It was as strong and intact as if it had been built just yesterday. The block in the middle of the room was some nine feet long and four tall, fairly standard dimensions for a tomb. It was made of the same metallic material that lined the walls.

"Amazing." Eilerson ran his hand over the top.

"What does that writing say?" Morito pointed to an inscription on the tomb.

"It just says „Athena"." Eilerson answered. "This must be it."

They stood in silence for what could have been a minute, just contemplating the object before them.

"An ancient burial site." Eilerson smiled.

"Resting place of a goddess." Morito said quietly.

"Wonder how much this metal is worth?"

"You think she's inside?"

Eilerson shrugged. "I know a good way to find out."

"Wait a minute, do we really want to do this?"

"Do we what?"

"Should we open it?"

"It's our job Morito, it's why we are here."

"We don't really know what we're dealing with."

"Something that died about ten thousand years ago." Eilerson grunted. "Now if you could move out of my way?"

Hesitantly the senior scientist did so, and Eilerson wedged his crowbar under the lip of the tomb.

"This isn't a horror vid." Eilerson said. "It's just science."

The lid popped open, and with a squeal Eilerson forced it off, dropping it to the floor with an echoing boom. Nothing happened, no ghosts, no vampires, no spectral hand shooting into the air. Nothing.

Slowly and carefully Eilerson advanced, peering over the edge of the tomb with the curiosity of a schoolboy. Morito, unable to resist, joined him and looked inside.

"A skeleton!" Morito exclaimed.

"What were you expecting exactly?" Eilerson returned.

"A human skeleton!"

"Yes, a female as well." Eilerson confirmed. "Healthy, pretty young too I guess. Hello, Athena."

"So she was just a normal person?"

"Normal people don't get buried in chambers like this." Eilerson remarked. "I doubt even the normal rulers of the humans on the surface did. I think there is more to it."

Eilerson took a device from his belt and scanned the skull. A moment later a three dimensional hologram of it was projected from the device. As they watched computerised muscles and flesh were added to the skull, a computer extrapolation based on the bone structure of the skeleton to create a face.

"Quite pretty." Eilerson said as the image resolved.

"Could be Greek." Morito agreed. "Racial features suggest Mediterranean or Asia Minor."

"Very human." Eilerson said.

"Not alien." Morito confirmed.

"So why is she here?"

Morito considered the question. "Could the natives have considered her an avatar of Athena? Not unheard of in human culture."

"Maybe, but she wasn't buried by the tribes, she was buried by the aliens in here. Why bury a human hidden away like this?"

"I just don't know." Morito admitted.

"We need to get some forensic biologists down here. Crack her DNA." Eilerson said. "We need to examine these bones more carefully, something just doesn't fit."

He looked at the skeleton, some of the bones still draped in jewellery.

"There's definitely more to this, a lot, lot more."

-

"May you live in interesting times", went the ancient Chinese curse.

Ancient, and yet so very, very true.

Months, years, even decades could pass in one's life with nothing of any significance occurring.

Depending on one's point of view, this could be either good, or bad – some preferred the safety of repeatability and predictability, the day-after day-after day pattern, while others would be suffocated by it's monotony.

Come to think of it, change seemed a natural part of life, while the lack thereof was a sign of stagnation and atrophy.

Lothair I, grandson to Charlemagne, probably said it best - "Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis" - "The times change, and we change with them".

But philosophical musings were one thing, and the harsh reality another.

John Sheridan had seen and experienced much, both during his years of service and his life in general, but this here... this was something else.

He could still remember the tide of "all-time-high" enthusiasm that came after the victory over the Dilgar.

Back then it seemed there wasn't a single thing outside of Earth's reach or capacity, and

Earth briefly experienced what the Centauri called the "Glory days of the Republic" - even if only for a decade.

And then came the cold shower of the Earth-Minbari war, with the bitter betrayal of the League of Non-Aligned worlds.

The war that uprooted Earth's self-perception of it's place in the Universe, in the Greater Scheme of Things.

Until this War, Earth believed itself to be atop the totem pole, only to be cast down to the very bottom after it.

It was then that the previous elation evaporated before the relentless Minbari onslaught, and became replaced by desperation.

And anger.

Anger that was still there.

Not officially, Earth depended on interstellar trade too much, but there were those who still remembered...

They remembered the flat out refusal of the League to honour it's mutual defence treaties with Earth, as they remembered the mercenary practices of the Narns, ripping Earth off in it's hour of need.

Those actions were neither forgotten nor forgiven.

John could still remember how embittered his father became in those bleak days, more and more each time Earth's desperate plea for help was turned down by the League.

The very same League that owed it's continued existence to Earth, and having once hailed Humans as their saviours turned it's back on them when the time came to return the favour.

So no, nothing was forgotten, and nothing was forgiven.

Most certainly not by him.

Yet... all that paled, indeed was completely insignificant, when compared to the planet below.

The impact of the discovery... would be impossible to predict or evaluate precisely.

One thing was certain though, once "it" came out, Earth would never be the same again.

The sheer gall the aliens responsible for all this had... Claiming to be not only gods, but actually creators of all Humanity, engineering an entire religion around themselves... According to the reports he read, those poor souls on the planet below were required to believe mankind was created by the "gods" making figurines of clay and breathing life into them – literally.

Which led him to an unsettling thouht – the religion of Ancient Greece was now clearly a product of, for the lack of a better term, "religious engineering". However, just about every major religion on Earth had elements that could well be explained as cases of highly advanced technology, used in front of, pretty much, primitives – given the times they hailed from.

As a 20th century author and inventor, Arthur C. Clarke, once stated, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Because what else, if not divine wrath, could a thermonuclear explosion be to ancient Hebrews from the tales of the Old Testament ?

Speculations were running rampant, on alien meddling in Earth's history and development.

Circulating among the crews were books by a 20th century writer, one Erich von Daniken, who claimed that „gods" were actually advanced aliens, and many key achievements of ancient cultures were made possible only because of alien help. In his days, the man was highly controversial, he was believed by some, while ridiculed by others.

Yet from the current perspective, it appeared his theories were in fact disturbingly correct.

Another unsettling fact, the IPX had corrected it's „timetable" of this displaced Human culture – apparently a simple hardware flaw caused the initial carbon dating to be off.

The current figures stated the planet below was abandoned not five, but no less then ten thousand years ago, and had been settled at least another five thousand years before that.

History books would need to be rewritten, even more so then expected, with the Human civilization being far older then ever assumed.

All sorts of crazy theories were in circulation, about possible links between the displaced culture below and legendary long-lost civilizations, like the one of Atlantis.

The key question on everyone's mind – just how far did the alien tinkering with Humanity reach ?

The president was certainly right to keep this issue tightly wrapped up and classified, until proper precautions could be taken.

But that wasn't for him to worry about. His job was to secure the excavation site on the planet, and the local solar system per extension.

After four weeks of back-breaking work since the day of their arrival, they were finished. At least as far their local presence in terms of space-based installations was concerned.

The marvel of components designed with rapid assembly in mind made it possible for a "trademark" doughnut-shaped station to be placed in the geo-stationary orbit above the dig site, going on-line just three days ago. The station was accompanied by half a dozed Global Orbital Defence platforms for extra „convincing power" in close proximity, and supported by dozens upon dozens of sensor buoys seeded throughout the system, just to keep an eye on the 'hood.

With the next haul, another two space stations would arrive, along with an extra dozen GODs. Plus even more troops and supplies, and maybe even a few extra destroyers – the planet was to become Earth's key stronghold in the area, and a springboard for future exploration and expansion. And of course, the displaced Humans needed to be located, and the potential threat of the alien „gods" needed to be assessed.

But for now, engineering crews were working around the clock on the surface. A large plateau had been chosen, rising around two kilometers above sea level, and about thirty kilometers distant from the main excavation site. With the plant life cleared, first thing to be completed was a small spaceport, and currently bunkers were being dug in, along with hardened fuel and munition depots. Defense grid with surface-to-air and surface-to-orbit weapons would be next, expected to be completed in two weeks. The base under construction would eventually grow into one of Earth's biggest military installations, a key supply facility to support EarthForce this far away from home.

But for now, whatever IPX had managed to pry loose, and a lot of it would make R&D people pull triple shifts, was being loaded onto the Cortez, soon to be shipped back home. This included the corpse of „goddess Athena", the recovery of which had brought the speculation frenzy to an all-time high. It was a good thing so few people worshipped the Greek Pantheon theese days, for had they found a „Jesus Christ" or a „Mohhamed"... That certainly would have made as much of an impact as the Centauri making First Contact.

But for now... There was still a lot of work to be done.