The Edge of Annihilation

By Brady Helkenn

When scientists Fred Horn and Scott Freeman are caught up in a deadly mystery, and international agents Samantha (“Sam”) Hartky, Greg McCarthy, and Shawn Terrick struggle through accusations and public disapproval, they have no idea what they’re getting into. But when Fred and Scott start to unravel an intergalactic mystery, and Sam recalls a chilling prophecy, she realizes she must rescue the scientists before it’s too late; with the fate of the entire planet at stake, the clock is set and the countdown has begun.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brady Helkenn
• Release date: Nov 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9781734090918

Book preview

humanity.

PROLOGUE

1376 AD

The bright sun glared down upon the sand dunes, striking up heat waves that enveloped everything within it. Through the haze, a voice was carried upon the wind, raised in astonishment.

John! the voice rang out over the dune. Come here, quick!

John rushed over the sand dune—made harder by the large, heavy pack on his shoulders—and caught his breath. He shook his head and looked at William.

There shouldn’t be pyramids this far west, should there? John asked.

William and John were explorers fresh out of London, England, daring the long and dangerous trek across the Sahara Desert to explore Africa, at the bidding of the king, of course. They had heard rumors about the Egyptians and their famous pyramids, but, if the rumors were to be believed, the Egyptians’ pyramids were only about 300 meters high.

Wait a minute, said John. This pyramid is about a kilometer up. He left the question unsaid.

This is a great find, John. But shouldn’t we tell the king about it?

If we’re going to bring back anything on this, we need to at least scout out the entrance.

All right, said William reluctantly.

They marched up the sand dune and headed for the pyramid. However, the pyramid happened to be farther away than they thought. Before they reached it, they had to take two breaks to sip water and eat. Finally, at nightfall, the pyramid towered over them in the dusk, striking awe into the hearts of the explorers and locking their feet in place from shock.

Would you just look at that, said William.

It … just … keeps going, doesn’t it? John asked. It looks more like its 3 kilometers high.

We really need to tell the king about all of this. This is getting far too creepy already.

Oh, lighten up, William. Just think about the fame we’ll have when we return to England and tell the king about this. We’ll be rich, said John excitedly as they started up the steps at the entrance.

Then, without warning, a scarlet beam of light shot through John and expanded. For a moment, John looked as though his skeleton was showing before he became part of the sand. William yelled in panic and turned to run, but then he felt a hot, burning sensation running through his stomach, spreading like plague. Instantly, he felt a deathly cold sensation spreading, starting at his stomach, and then spreading after the burn. He looked down and was slightly curious to note that his body was vanishing. It reached his pouch of gunpowder, exploding it, causing a flash in his eyes before they too exploded.

In seconds, John and William had disappeared.

AMBUSH

2142 AD

NOVEMBER 7

11:36 P.M.

Scott Freeman and Frederick Horn were in a new Hover jeep, heading for the campsite where they would begin work the next day. They had just finished work at Harvard University, reconstructing the new holographic Tyrannosaurus rex exhibit for the local museum. The students there had ooohhhhed and aaaahhhhhed at the display, as if it were a showcase. And with good reason too. The T. rex had recently been proven to have feathers!

Scott and Fred had received praise and farewells from the scientists working there and, after three years at Harvard, they were departing to study a rather large artifact in the Sahara Desert. It was their first expedition hunt in years, and Scott was looking forward to the change in scenery.

They would be gone for up to a year for the artifact was really a newly discovered pyramid in the middle of the Sahara Desert. Their colleagues at the site knew that Scott and Fred were the most renowned archeologists in the world, and this pyramid was perplexing them since it was much, much bigger than all the Great Pyramids combined. Also, if truth be told, Scott suspected that his colleagues wanted to move to another case since they had been holed up in their camp for a month and a half with orders from Harvard to wait for Scott and Fred.

Scott looked at Fred as they drove, still lost in thought. No doubt about it, Scott and Fred were as close as brothers though their backgrounds were very different. Scott was 37, fresh from his birthday the day before. Of Irish descent with black hair, Scott was like an older brother to Fred. At 28, Fred was turning 29 in December. His brown hair and all-American demeanor contrasted against Scott. However, both were as close as friends could be.

Fred turned and spoke, stirring Scott from his own thoughts. So, what do you think about this new pyramid in the Sahara? The desert was supposed to have been searched by air decades ago.

Scott became a little puzzled. It supposedly was. However, every pilot and traveler who went through this particular region was never heard from again, kind of like the whole legend about the Bermuda Triangle. I felt a little nervous about that, so I made sure we were armed, just in case. Scott jerked his head toward the back of the jeep.

I don’t understand. Any idea of when it was first ‘discovered’?

Scott looked as though he had asked himself these questions already and replied, The history of it was hard to piece together because the Sahara was never really braved by explorers until the Renaissance. But, as far as I can tell, a pair of brothers—William and John Black—was the first to try to cross the Sahara. The rest of Europe waited for news from them for over a year. No sign. From what I know, no one took the same route as William and John did back in the 14th century, at least not until recently. The funny thing was that their path crossed the same path as the lost pilots. Right over the pyramid.

Fred felt a chill run down his back. Was there any debris from the plane crashes at least? Distress signals from surviving pilots?

Scott looked troubled and replied, No. His expression brightened slightly, and he added, At least our colleagues are keeping in touch. They said that there was only debris from the pyramid, and quite a bit of it. They think that parts of the pyramid were blasted off by explosions, collisions, or both. I want to check it out myself. Scott glanced at his watch, then at the holographic map displayed above the dashboard. He looked resigned and said, We’d better get some rest so we can work tomorrow. We’re still about 200 kilometers away. Scott indicated the blinking light that signified the beacon on the screen as the jeep neared it.

Fred looked too alert to sleep. You rest. I’ll make sure the autopilot doesn’t malfunction. It’s happened before with others.

Fred was thoughtful as he watched Scott fall asleep. He was thinking about the past few years and the reason why they hadn’t gone on an expedition for that long. He knew that he should have never dragged down Scott with him, but he had been depressed enough that he needed a friend’s support. This kind of trying time was when he needed his friend the most.

Fred’s wife Nicole, at age 26, was taken from him in the cruelest of ways: through childbirth, during labor. Fred felt responsible for her death and for her parting the world without him by her side. Fred had departed from the university because of the urgent message left for him by Nicole: She was going into labor. Wanting to see his new baby girl Sabrina and comfort his wife through her experience, Fred had dropped his work at Harvard and raced to the hospital but became stuck in traffic.

Fred closed his eyes, trying to block out the rest of it, but he couldn’t, and the vision continued to play through his head. He remembered rushing into the hospital and being whisked up to the 10th floor where Nicole was struggling. He remembered …

Finally, Fred wrenched his mind onto a different track, burying the memories deeper and deeper, out of sight, out of acknowledgment. Sleep was beckoning to him, and he thought that maybe this once he’d leave the autopilot unattended. A sudden beeping on the dashboard caught his attention, driving away any thoughts of sleep.

As his attention focused once more, all thoughts of his wife were fully driven from his mind. With those went memories of a little three-year-old girl, feverish and too-still, labored breaths punctuated by the cold and antiseptic metronome of medical equipment ...

Hey, Scott. Wake up … Scott …

Scott moaned, not moving. Fred continued to speak his name aloud, but Scott started to mutter at him to just go away. Fred wouldn’t let up, so Scott groaned again, and then rolled over and stared at him.

What do you want? We still have another 30 kilometers to go, Scott said grumpily, scooting up to look at the display console. He noticed a blinking light at the corner of the screen, but he couldn’t read it since he was so tired. He yawned, struggling hard to expel the sleepiness he was suffering from.

The beacon’s disappeared, said Fred worriedly.

What? Like it was shut off? Why would they shut off the beacon if they knew we were coming? Scott wondered.

No, it just cut off. Fred looked worried as the connection from the jeep to the beacon refused to recover.

What? All right. Computer … increase speed to 300 kilometers per hour. Set heading for 0-3-4, Scott rattled off, not feeling right at all. He realized what the blinking light in the corner of the console screen was: the override navigation system, designed to take the controls if the destination was lost. Then again, maybe his dream was affecting him somehow. He’d imagined walls surrounding him. He shook off the troubling feelings.

Look, whispered Fred, feeling awe wrap around him.

Ahead, and quickly growing larger, was the ruins of what had to be the pyramid. It soon loomed over them like a giant tomb, waiting to swallow them whole, never to let them leave. Dark, choking smoke was rising very near the pyramid where the beacon should be.

As they topped the last dune, Scott disengaged the autopilot and slowed them to a stop. What they saw chilled their bones and froze the air in their lungs.

They saw nothing. The camp had disappeared. They also saw scorch marks at the entrance to the pyramid, the remnants of what looked like an explosion. The explosion caused a wave of debris to be flung from the pyramid, nearly crumbling it in on itself. The effect of the last, very recent explosion was a kind of graveyard surrounding the ruins. The entrance of the pyramid was no more than a caved-in cubbyhole on one part of the four-sided chunk of limestone. There was no doubting what happened.

The camp’s gone, and that explosion could only be made with hi-tech equipment. They carry highly explosive chemicals, said Scott. Then he saw something in the entrance.

He parked a few hundred meters from the ruins, and they both got out. As they jogged closer, Scott stopped just outside the edge of the ruins and pointed.

Look. There are marks there that don’t fit modern technology. Looks more like a gunpowder explosion.

Fred had a strange look on his face: half-sad,