Triangular Doorways

By Raymond Frank

As part of an experiment, George, an American fighter pilot, discovers Atlantis in an alternate universe. He finds himself imprisoned in a pyramid and escapes to find unthinkable horrors from an alien race. Luckily, he gains the help of Oliver, an alien ally, and together they discover an even greater dangera plot to destroy and enslave all mankind. Meanwhile, the Earth itself is in imminent danger due to its impending rendezvous with the center of the Milky Way Galaxy via the galactic alignment, an event that occurs once every twenty-six thousand years. With time running out, its a race to save all humanity from a ruthless alien bound on our destruction and to save the planet.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Feb 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9781466968301

Book preview

Prologue

Far to the east of the Bahamas, the US Navy’s 7 th Fleet, led by the USS Green Ridge (LCC 19) sat on the northeastern fringe of an eerily calm Sargasso Sea. The Green Ridge was an amphibious class command ship that during peacetime and conflict provided preeminent naval support for diplomatic initiatives and objectives.

Scattered across some six nautical miles of open water sat the rest of the 7th fleet. It was an impressive sight to witness. There were six Arleigh Burk-class guided-missile destroyers, one Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser, and one Aegis guided-missile cruiser.

Stationed in the center of all this activity was the pride of the 7th fleet, the USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63).

Commissioned at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in April of 1961, the Kitty Hawk was the first in its class of three super carriers. The US Navy’s oldest active warship, the Kitty Hawks homeport is in San Diego; the carrier is normally deployed and has held a strong presence along the western side of the Pacific Ocean for many years.

The world’s only forward deployed Aircraft carrier, the Kitty Hawk underwent several overhauls in its time and had been converted into a multi-mission carrier. No longer strictly an attack carrier, anti-submarine warfare had also became part of its abilities.

Patrolling in the west pacific since 1963, the carrier got to know our western pacific neighbors well. An aircraft carrier able to fight and detour submarines came in handy over the years in playing cat and mouse games with Chinese and Russian subs.

The carrier had earned the nickname ‘Battle Cat’ in 2003, reflecting on its continued strong standing in naval operations.

All the instruments of these military vessels were diligently watching the sea and air.

Waiting patiently it seemed, for something to happen.

In the center of the Kitty Hawk’s navigational bridge, Captain Philip Brown stood and watched all carefully the activity going on around him. The Officer of the Deck (OOD) had just relayed to the Lee Helmsman the latest course change.

Escort is off the flight deck sir. The Commutations officer reported. A few moments later he added, Orbiting at 20,000 feet.

Four VFA=27 Royal Mace F/A-18E Super Hornets, the Navy’s all purpose, all weather premier aircraft fell into formation, getting ready to escort their guest of honor.

What would require nearly six thousand feet of pavement, the Kitty Hawks catapult system that propelled the Super Hornets 250 ft. in two seconds that would normally require almost 6,000 feet of runway. These aircraft could reach speeds in excess of 180 mph by the time they left the flight deck.

Performing both air-to-air and air-to-ground missions as well as aerial refueling for the air-wing, the Super Hornets can carry a payload of up to 18,000 lbs.

Orbiting at 30,000 was aVAW-115 Liberty Bell E2C Hawkeye. Eyes of the Air-Wing, the electronic dome provided air intercept information, attack mission data, and offered search-and rescue assistance if needed.

The flight deck’s clear Captain.

The Harrier soon fell into formation with the four Super Hornets.

Finder One, all systems are at go. Prepare to engage. Captain Brown said, watching the jet closely on the radar screen. He then looked out the window He hoped that everything went alright with this test.

Finder one after the test starts, the computer is set to stop automatically in one minute. But remember as well Lieutenant, if you feel something is not going right, you can manually shut down the experiment yourself at any time. Good luck Lieutenant.

Roger that, activating power sequencing. Lt. Ferguson replied, snapping a couple of toggle switches into the up-word position. Finder One engaging, Lt. Ferguson said, taking a deep breath and hitting the final switch. He also whispered a silent prayer as the world around the Harrier Jump Jet began to change into thousands of spinning colors. He hoped that the multi-million dollar aircraft he was sitting in didn’t suddenly go up in smoke.

Chapter 1

Saber-toothed tigers have an ornery disposition by nature. The great cat, sitting on a small outcropping halfway down the cliff face watched the activity down below it with great interest. Two of those two-legged creatures with a horse had awoken him several moments ago. They were fixated on something ahead of them in the forest that he could not phantom.

The trio was completely oblivious to his presents there.

There was a whole tribe of the two-legged creatures a little way up ridge line living in the cave system he and his once pregnant mate had used to occupy. The creatures had killed his mate; and now these two had awoken him from a very sound sleep. He felt no fear of them; they were only two, not a great enough number like it had taken to kill his mate, to be a threat to him.

It had taken many to kill his mate. And she had been pregnant with his cubs. The angered feline wasn’t consciously aware of the concept of vengeance, but he knew that killing these two would give him great pleasure.

Although dead now for many days, the greatly displeasured beast just then confusingly noticed that his mates scent was about the pair below. The male below was covered with parts of his mate’s coat. His initial anger instantly deepened. Talons ready in anticipation, hind legs aquiver, the snarling engine of destruction sprang for the kill.

* * *

Myta and Burr were not having a good time of it. Keota, their one and only child was sick with fever, and Myta was upset that Burr did not seem to care one way or another about their little girl.

Myta thought that Burr was not a good husband, he had no real honor. But it had been her choice; she could have been the wife of Brenna, as she should have been as per the bridegroom agreement. But Burr just seemed the better choice of the two evil’s at that point in time.

Usually the males went out to gather food in small bands of three or more. For protection in numbers, as well as to assure a good take of the abundant wildlife in the area.

Too make matters worse, Burr had not brought home any food the night before either, and Myta felt that just maybe he had caught something yesterday. He had just not brought it back to their home. This was due to Burr still being so furious with her for all the nagging she had given him the night prior over their daughter.

She thought that maybe he had caught something small, and ate it himself, either too greedy or to ashamed of himself for not being able to feed them all. Sure they were able to eat; they were basically farmers after all. But her tribe did travel to different locations on an average of three times a year. Their tribe’s main focus in life was to keep the Great City supplied with foodstuffs.

But then again, maybe he didn’t catch anything, she thought. It would certainly not be the first time he had come back empty handed, and they (or at least she), had gone to sleep hungry. To make matters worse sometimes even their stock of grains and vegetables weren’t always of the best quality. It was not always possible to get the best of quality on their trading routes.

Today Myta had insisted on personally going with Burr on the hunt. That had earned him a lot of good natured ridicule from the other males in the tribe. He was not a happy camper for having to go on a hunting trip with a woman.

The dense forest was hot and humid, and Myta did not want to be out here setting snares with a very annoyed Burr. His resentment of Myta accompanying him on this hunting expedition was made very plain in the sarcasm and insults of her abilities. Not to mention him slapping her around at almost every opportunity when she came within striking distance of him.

Their tribe had recently moved to this area from the cold northern steppes, and Myta liked it here. With all the many forms of lush green vegetation, it really did add a lot of appeal to the area, in comparison to the mostly dry grasslands her tribe had recently traveled through. There was also a large body of water nearby that offered much for the tribe.

More than that, there was also a series of caves nearby, but too bad none of them were large enough to offer suitable living quarters. Their designed living area was small for three people as it was. So what if one of those three was not even a year old yet. To Myta it seemed like the child took the space of ten…

Burr had already set three snares and they were crouching down near a rock outcropping, watching them.

Their pony, of which Myta was holding onto from a short tether, was persistently getting more and more skittish.

Keep that animal silent. Burr hissed as quietly as possible. They had already made a great commotion up to this point and Burr did not want to be sitting here all day with a woman. She had caused enough embarrassment for him today already, her, and the female child.

Burr was trying to concentrate on the snare he had set about twenty yards distant, but it was hard to see through the foliage. He thought that if he could move just a few feet to the right, he’d be able to see better, and at the same time still keep an eye on the other snares. Besides, he wanted to put some distance between him and that foul pony that would not stand still. They’ll be out here all day if that horse isn’t kept quite. Myta should just take the animal and go home. Sure would make his life a lot easier.

Myta stood quietly trying to calm the animal, and Burr gestured for her to move a little way down the ridge line.

As Burr himself slowly stood to move, he sensed more than heard movement from above.

* * *

The saber-toothed tiger had watched the female and pony making their slow way along the rock face, and although he knew that the horse would make a tasty meal, all of his hatred and rage was focused on the male with the scent of his mate about him.

Burr knew he that was in trouble.

Then the snarling cat leapt, all the feline could think of was killing this hatful man thing who wore the skin of his mate.

Burr reached to pick up the spear beside him, trying in vain to protect himself, but the slashing furry of talons was already ripping into his abdomen and chest. Although Burr never did manage to reach the spear, it was still red with blood, his blood.

Making short work of the man thing, the carnivorous beast immediately turned its rage to the other two legged thing and the horse. The great cat gave chase.

Myta heard the sudden screams of Burr and beast behind her. Turning around, she saw in shock and horror that Burr was underneath the blindingly fast flesh shredding movements of orange fury. Burr’s blood was spraying all over the rock and forest floor. In mindless fright, she turned and urged the pony forward. The animal was already filled with his own terrifying fear, and gave no argument to move faster.

Myta noticed what appeared to be a cave entrance not far along the rock face, and not knowing why, aimed the pony toward it. There seemed to be a faint light coming from the rear of the cave, so Myta thought that the cave must go through to the other side of the rock out-cropping, and not a dead end. Maybe someone will be on the other side over there that can help her.

They went inside the cave entrance as fast as the little pony’s legs could carry them.

Chapter 2

"I sure hope the cameras are getting this. Lt. George Ferguson said in amazement as he looked at the sight in front of him. It looks like a damn silver and golden city."

The dumfounded Lieutenant was sitting in the cockpit of the retrofitted prototype AV-8A Series, Harrier Jump-Jet.

This particular version of the Harrier was a specialized mock-up of the T.Mk 4 two-seater for trainers. On this test flight they were not carrying a full complement of arms, but with a couple of Sea Eagle air-to-surface missiles, and fully loaded 30 mm gun pods. They did have enough ordinances to start a small war. Although that kind of scenario was very unlikely to happen since their aircraft had a fail-safe maximum time limit of 60 seconds to this test. Hopefully not enough time to get into trouble. And although the test will automatically shut down in one minute, there was a manual override in case of an emergency.

When Lt. Ferguson was initially briefed, he was told that there was a strong possibility he should expect to see some strange things… But no one would be too specific as to what kind of strange things he might see.

I see it, and I still don’t believe it. His co-pilot, 1st Lt. Johnson whispered in awe, Would you look at that. Then in a sterner voice he asked "Is that a golden Pyramid?"

The Lieutenant sure hoped that the wing tip cameras were in working order and getting a good look at all this. The sight before them was truly amazing. There, about ten miles off the coastline was what appeared to be an island.

On that island there was a large city. It looked to be mostly constructed of odd shaped silver buildings and spires. The vast majority of the structures were tall, and a good many of these were needle thin. The oddest thing that struck the Lieutenant was the massive golden Pyramid, smack dab in the center of the city.

A great number of the buildings were big, but that thing was gigantic!

Lt. Ferguson,—George to his close friends (Geo to his wife), had been to Gaza, in Egypt twice and he had seen the Great Pyramid up close and personal. But even from this high altitude, somehow this one seemed larger.

Another odd thing that started to make its self-known to his consciousness was what appeared to be some form of a big jigsaw puzzle type construction surrounding the entire island.

Concentric rings?

Lieutenant, his co-pilot called. Do you see those small aircraft at tour O’clock?

Lt. Ferguson looked to where his co-pilot had indicated and saw small craft flying at the far end of the Island. Some of the aircraft were zipping around the buildings at a good clip from what he could see.

As he tried to pinpoint just what his mind was telling him, the world around them once again turned into a dazzling swirl of colors. Automatic test parameters had been set for one minute. Once again, the harrier jump jet disappeared from sight of the Island and its strange mysteries.

The skies in front of him cleared into a fine mist, and Lt. Ferguson once again saw the familiar sight of the 7th fleet, and in the distance was the