A/N: I am not an expert on archaeology, so I'll be describing it in this chapter in simple and short terms here.
Chapter 2: A Precarious Discovery
Present day...
Howard Daniel was wiping some sweat from his brow and drinking some cold bottled water as his assistants continued to dig up and display several interesting findings in northern Saudi Arabia. He was an archaeologist, a dignified and popular man of middle age who enjoyed how his findings contributed to the museum he donated his artifacts to. In his philosophy, if it came from the depths of the earth from long ago, it wasn't just a piece of history, but it was also a great work of art. Even the things he found that appeared more ugly were things he valued as potential landmarks in the progress of mankind.
He watched from a position atop a small hill as his assistant, Gerald, helped the diggers with the dirty work of archaeology. Howard would have gladly helped out himself, but he couldn't; he had been promoted to supervisor, his present job, and supervisors weren't allowed to help directly with the actual digging unless there was an emergency, like if one of the more important workers received an injury or suddenly became sick. It wasn't entirely fair, he thought. He wanted to help his men with the work so they wouldn't get so worn out and stressed from working in the heat so long.
At that moment, his son, David, and daughter, Kristine, who liked to be called Krissy, came out of a nearby tent and walked towards him. David was a handsome young man of about twenty-three years old, with short brown hair, green eyes, a lean mouth, eyeglasses on his eyes, and the personality of a saint, almost, anyway. Howard admired the way David had always helped charitable causes and studied hard at college for a degree in archaeology like his dad, but David could also be somewhat quiet and lackluster in manner. Kristine, a blond, blue-eyed, pretty young lady, was very nice, and protective of her family, but wasn't always in the best of moods herself. Maybe this was due to the fact that two years after Kristine's birth, nineteen years ago, their mother, Stephanie, had cheated on Howard with another woman. Howard had been shocked by the fact that not only did she cheat on him, but she never told him she was a lesbian, and thus more attracted to women than men. Feeling betrayed, Howard had filed for divorce, and won custody of both their children. Stephanie disappeared somewhere in Canada after that, presumably with her lover.
David and Kristine reached their father. "Dad," said David, "Krissy and I were just wondering if this dig will be over soon. It's getting hotter out here, and the fan and our ice water can only help so much with that."
"Yeah, dad," said Kristine, "You know I can handle the heat pretty well, but if we don't get to somewhere where I can stop sweating and have a shower soon, I'm going to stink like a slob, and David doesn't like to smell sweat any more than I do."
"Relax, kids," said Howard reassuringly, "It's only going to go on for another fifteen minutes, then we'll shut down for the day. We've been making out like bandits here, though we can't let the Saudi Arabian natives know that, because they'll think we really are bandits if they do. Now go back to the tent, please. I promise that you can both shower soon, and then, if nothing comes up back in America, we'll play a nice game of Scrabble together on our first night home. How does that sound?"
"Sounds good to me, dad," said David, "I've always enjoyed playing Scrabble."
"Well, I can think of a few better ways I can spend my nights," said Kristine, uncertain, "But I'll do it if it means getting some quality time with you again, dad."
With that, they both returned to their tent. Howard watched them go. Like him, they were very nice people who earned the respect of most people they came across. Of course, some people made fun of the way David's full name sounded; "David Daniel" did sound a little peculiar, but Howard had named him David in homage to the biblical hero, King David.
Suddenly, his men became very excited. Two of them began shouting for him to come over and look at what they found. Howard stepped over and elbowed his way through some of them to see what they had.
They had found two gold cases, each shaped like an eight-pointed star, that looked like some kind of boxes. They were identical in every way that was visible to the naked eye. Howard stared at them in stunned disbelief.
"Whoa!" shouted one of his men, who was something of a miser, "We're rich! I bet the museum will pay triple for these perfect gold boxes!"
"Relax, man, will ya!?" said another of the men, "Shut up!"
"Well, we're rich, ain't we?" the first man insisted. He started to whoop and holler and dance about like a moron.
Howard examined both cases closely. "I've never been as greedy for money as Steve is," he said at last, "but I think he's partly right. This might go down very well with the museum. Michael will certainly want to take a look at them himself. But it isn't just the gold, or even the intricate designs, that fascinate me. Both of these boxes are sealed shut, and I don't know how to open them. At the same time, however, whatever's in these things could be dangerous in some way or other. No one besides us should know about these particular findings until I've had a chance to examine them thoroughly, and carefully. Do not let anyone have access to these artifacts until I get back to the States, and have confirmed their safety for display in the museum. Understand, everyone?" He looked them all in the eyes.
"Understood, Mr. Daniel," each man said in turn.
"Then we can all get rich!" Steve the miser hollered again, obviously eager for his payment.
"We'll see, Steve," said Howard firmly, "We'll see."
Howard, with assistance from Gerald, carried the cases, which were quite heavy considering they were made of gold, into his private tent where his recovered artifacts were stored in carrying boxes and crates. He found two thick suitcases he used for carrying top secret artifacts and put the items inside, fitting them in so they wouldn't move around in the cases and make any noise. Then he went to his children's tent and announced that the digging was over for this trip, and they would be heading home the next morning.
"Oh, good," said Kristine. "I'm dying for a shower now."
"Hey, dad," asked David, "I heard some of your men act really excited out there shortly before you quit for the day. Did you find something really valuable? Because if you did, I'd sure love to see it."
"I'd love to see it too," said Kristine, "after my shower."
"Sorry, kids," said Howard, "We did find something interesting, but it's not for other people to see just yet, not even you. I have to make sure it's safe before it can be openly revealed to anybody, even Michael the museum curator."
"Oh," said David, a little let down, "Well, we'll respect your wishes, dad. We won't deliberately look at whatever they are."
"Same here, dad," said Kristine.
"Thank you, both of you," said Howard with a smile. "Now, let's clean up camp and get to those showers!"
The flight back to the States was mostly uneventful. Howard, David and Kristine discussed the fine points of archaeology and the future of the world as they rode the jet plane, when they weren't listening to MP3 players, reading romance novels, or writing in a sudoku travel book. The Daniels were a family that looked forward to a bright future and good things for the human race, and their faith was seldom shaken by those who disagreed with them.
It was late at night when they got home in Springfield, Illinois. They took their time unpacking their stuff and sat down to relax. Howard had put his suitcases with the top secret artifacts in the basement, trusting his kids not to fool around with them. That would turn out to be a mistake.
"So dad," suggested Kristine, "How about that game of Scrabble you promised us?"
"Yeah," said David, "I'd like to have some nice, quiet fun now."
"I'd be happy to," said Howard, going to the cupboard in the living room where they kept their playing cards and board games. Suddenly, his cell phone rang. He glanced at it quickly. "Just a minute, guys," he said, "We'll play after this phone call."
"Sure dad," they both said. Howard turned on the phone and talked to the person on the other end.
"Oh, hi, Michael!" he said. "Yeah, we're all doing well. What? What was that?...How important is it? Is she going to be okay?...Yes, Michael, I'll be down there as soon as I can."
Brother and sister knew what that meant. They both looked disappointed. Evidently, this wasn't the first time they had heard their father say something like this on the phone.
Howard hung up and turned toward them. "David, Krissy, I'm sorry, I really am," he said apologetically, "but I have to go down to the university and be a substitute for Dr. Morales. She took sick immediately after supper, and her classes aren't entirely finished. They're also short-handed at the university. I need to fill in for her, possibly for a few days."
"All right, dad," said Krissy sadly, "Like we've always agreed to understand, a colleague at the college is in trouble, and taking care of her problems has to come first. Why wouldn't we understand that?"
"Well," said Howard, "I don't think you two understand as well as you think you do. Sometimes the welfare of others is more important than your own, and you have to be ready to lay down your own desires to help the needy."
"I understand, dad," David said, "I've always understood that people in trouble sometimes have to come before personal, or even family leisure. I just hope that you can do a good job as Dr. Morales' substitute, considering that you already have classes of your own to teach there."
"Yes," said Howard, "It will mean an extra workload until she recovers, and it will be stressful, but I can do it. Well," he said as he put his jacket on, "I'll be back late, probably. Don't wait up for me. You both need your sleep too, you know."
"Okay, dad," his children both agreed. He kissed them goodbye and was soon on his way.
Kristine looked at David. "So," she asked him, "what do we do now?"
"Well, we could play a little game of our own, Krissy," suggested David, "Just the two of us."
"Why don't we play Twister?" she said. "It's fun to play a physical game like that before we get too old for it."
"I think that game is in the basement," said David. "I'll go get it."
"You don't know where I left it," said Kristine, "I'll help you."
They went down to the basement together. They were about to go for the Twister game when they spotted the big suitcases.
"Hey," said Kristine, "There are those things dad didn't want us to see."
"Yeah," said David, "Can you smell it?"
Kristine sniffed the air. "Smell what?" she asked.
"Strange smells seem to be coming from both cases," said David, "and it doesn't smell like sand, dirt or dust. It's like...like there's something burning inside of them."
"Burning?" Kristine asked quizzically, "You think we should look inside them?"
"Dad said we couldn't look at the contents of these cases," said David. "And yet, I feel as if I'm almost drawn to them, like something's calling to us from them."
"You think something supernatural is in those things, David?" Kristine said skeptically. "I think the heat in Arabia got to you a bit if you believe that."
"Krissy, I don't know if there's something supernatural in there," retorted David, "There probably isn't. But maybe, if we can figure out what's in those cases, dad will be proud of us for moving a step higher in our archaeology expertise, and we may even be rewarded with a scholarship ahead of time or something."
"I'm surprised that you're the more ambitious of the two of us, brother," remarked Kristine, "But if you think we could discover something ingenious in there, I'm willing to help."
"Thanks, Krissy," said David. "Now, there are two cases, and there are two of us. You take that one," he said, pointing to a case, "and I'll take this one." He went to the other case while Kristine went to the first.
"How do we open them?" Kristine asked.
David looked around. "Hey, it looks like dad left the keys within easy reach on the table. It sounds a little careless to me, but maybe he was just too tired, so he forgot to put them away." They each used a key to unlock the cases, and opened them. What they saw inside astonished them.
Within each case was an identical, eight-pointed gold box with intricate patterns and writing etched into it. David and Kristine lifted them out carefully and put them on the table. They lit a bright lamp and took a closer look.
"Good Lord!" said David, "These boxes look like they're decorated with ancient Arabic words and patterns dating back from the ancient years of Persia, Islam, and Zoroastrianism!"
"I'll say!" agreed Kristine. "These items must have been well guarded somewhere once before they were buried in the northern lands of Saudi Arabia. Oh, if only we could open them!"
No sooner did she say that than her vision blurred for a second. David had the same feeling at exactly the same time. He wondered if something had suddenly gone wrong with his glasses. When their vision cleared again, the patterns on top of the boxes seemed to have changed. It looked as if some ingrained lines were pointing to a little button on top. Too curious for their own good, David and Kristine each picked up a pen and used the point to press down on the buttons.
Without warning, the lid of each box (for that's what they truly were) slid open in a circular pattern and left their interiors naked to the world. The siblings looked at each other in surprise, but, once again forgetting the old saying, "Curiosity killed the cat," they felt around inside the boxes. Both their fingers touched something smooth, chiseled, and warm. They pulled them out of the gold boxes and were even more astonished than before.
In his hand, David held an impossibly large, dark blue sapphire. He had never seen one so big and so beautifully carved. He also wondered why it was warm instead of cool. Part of his answer came from the fact that the fire-like smell he had detected came from the jewel.
He looked over to his sister, and saw that she was staring at an almost identical gem of impossible size and beauty, except this stone was a fire opal, and it was as red as blood.
"Oh my God," said Kristine, "I never knew they ever made jewels this big! These must be worth a fortune!"
"Neither did I," admitted David, "I think these gems deserve a good looking-at before we know for sure whether they're safe or not."
"Safe?" said Kristine, "How can a gem be unsafe?"
"I don't know," David replied, "But can you smell it now? The burning smell seems to be coming from the jewels."
Kristine breathed deeply. "Now that you mention it, David, I think I can smell it."
"And consider the fact that these jewels are also warm to the touch," continued David. "Saudi Arabia may be a hot country, but I'd think that after that long plane journey through a cold sky and sitting in this basement for a few hours, they'd feel cool instead of warm."
They both looked closer at their respective gems. David put the sapphire under the lamp and took a very close look. To his confusion, he suddenly saw what looked like something moving inside the jewel. He tapped the crystal gently a few times with his index finger and then his thumbnail. The thing inside moved again, and to his shock, he silently swore that he saw a form like an attractive human face and body. If that was a face, it looked feminine, and it was apparently looking straight at him!
Kristine, meanwhile, was doing similar things with the fire opal. She even blew on it gently, wondering if there was some kind of dust on it that wouldn't easily come off. She was just as shocked as David when something moved within it, too. Another face and body, masculine, looking a little human but much uglier, looked upwards and set its eyes on her!
In their shock, they both dropped the gems on the floor. Kristine screamed for a second.
"Did...did you see that, David?" Kristine asked, petrified.
"Well, since you saw something weird too, then yes, I did see that," replied David. "It was almost like a young woman was trapped in the sapphire!"
"The fire opal looked like it had a big, ugly monster trapped in it!" Kristine replied back.
"Evidently, these gems hold something that the modern world has never seen the likes of before," said David with trepidation.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" said Kristine.
"If you mean that we should have a professional look at these jewels first, then yes, I am," said David. "Perhaps we should do that at the first opportunity tomorrow. Rachel knows a lot about examination of gems, and her lab may be able to give us some answers."