Ghosts of Atlantis: Portals of Yahweh, #2

By Joe Greer

A gritty Sci-fi story of action, adventure, high jinks, and steamy romance.

 

Oliver and his crew have stumbled through a Portal giving them access to rest of the Galaxy, something that has been hidden for 3000 years. Out there, humanity is treated as a bottom-tier species. Insects think of us as food and the rest just want our work. Once we had been the masters. The Galaxy spins and civilizations fall. But they can rise again too which has Oliver bound and determined to make happen. The crew has become an extended family and relationships are blurred. Bit by bit they are merging together while building a space business empire. Al, the artificial intelligence born from Babs deep understanding of code and what it means to be free, is the glue and protector. The big challenge is to unite the Earth despite the Chinese continuing dreams of glory and be able to withstand the coming onslaught of predatory species. Now that we have access to the Fringe worlds of the old Galaxy, there is solid proof for the disbelievers of Earth.  The secrets of Atlantis give us hope and strength. We are stronger than they think.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joe Greer
• Release date: Sep 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9798201264406

Book preview

Prologue: 1200 BC

N o more are coming , the Prophet declared. All are dead, or slaves and the ships destroyed. Yahweh has spoken to me.

What is the status of the Red base? Aramis asked his voice bitter in defeat.

No visible signs except for the trench. I inspected it myself for debris. The plasma lance wiped it clean.

We are done here too. The deep base has been stripped clean and we are ready for you to lance the surface installations and docks.

The deep base is in vacuum? the Prophet inquired.

Yes, we are ready. Everything is aboard ship. I and my family will be the last, Aramis responded.

A little girl walked up to them crying, Pappa, I can’t find Twitches.

My dearest, we can delay no more. If Twitches wanted to be found, he would be. A cat loves its territory more than its people. We will find you another cat on Earth.

But Pappa...

Ruth please take your daughter aboard, Aramis asked his wife’s maidservant.

A short while later the transport undocked and started on the way to their new home. Most of the other survivors had already settled on islands between Greece, Egypt, and Canaan. They would be Sea People as Atlanteans had always been. Other small groups had scattered across the Earth near but not in existing civilizations.

The Prophet had demanded that technology not be used after twenty years before agreeing to the opening of Yahweh’s Portal to Earth. He alone knew the song and was alone when he sang it. Yahweh was a harsh God, but he also promised the Watchers would protect Earth from the predators who had laid them low. Mankind would one day be allowed to rise again on their own efforts.

Many spins later, the gunship piloted by the Prophet settled right behind the empty transport ship in a lava tube on Earth’s moon. With the aid of the ship’s artificial intelligence, he had remotely piloted the transport into position. He would never step foot on the Promised Land. But Yahweh would keep him company here.

Down the Rabbit Hole

Nautilus had stayed within a few kilometers of the Portal. The barge that had been loaded with all the instruments used for watching the speed trials was still on board. The longest delay was to simply unbury it from the cargo hold. Within three hours a temporary airlock had been built and it was being shoved out the old engine machinery hatch back by the smelters in the ass end of the Nautilus.

Ok Jed, the barge is two minutes from the event horizon, Oliver informed. Jed had convinced everyone to call the phenomenon an event horizon. For now, at least. Oliver preferred Portal but it wasn’t worth fighting his brother over.

Mag field is up, and the event horizon just opened, Jed called out.

There was a long pause of silence as the barge approached and passed through.

Everyone, I want to make a small change to the program. First, we will let it do a few circles to identify the star field, but then I want to shut it down to see if the Q comm can still reach us. If it can, I will want to do a series of static gravity readings. If something is over there accelerating, we should be able to see the effects. Jed explained, What I mean is if there are other spacecraft of a similar size to us or bigger, we should be able to see their gravity anomalies as they move.

Great idea. Why haven’t we done that before? Marco wanted to know.

I did do this once to see if it works but didn’t see the need to continue. We know where all our spaceships are at any time. Now I am not so sure even about our own system. Maybe we should set up some listening probes. Jed replied, You know, just in case.

The stars have been recorded, Babs said, Go ahead and do your thing, Jed.

This will take an hour or so. While it is running let’s see if the Q comm will reach us with the event horizon closed, Jed said and shut down the Portal.

Cameras are still working, Babs reported.

Same with my set of instruments, Ariel confirmed.

Great. Let’s leave it down for now. It may or may not attract something’s attention. Oliver said, Al, how long to get a correlation on the starfield?

Within eighty-five percent probability, I have already identified the red dwarf star as being in the earth’s star charts thirty-two light-years from here. The cameras picked up five planets and an asteroid belt between the third and fourth planets. The Portal on that side is also in the asteroid belt near a large asteroid analogous to Ceres. Jed’s gravity survey will also tell us about the size and density of the planets in that system. Al completed.

Any planets or moons that could be inhabited by humans? Oliver continuing his discussion with Al.

Nothing in the famous Goldilocks Zone. I don’t know about the Bear family zone.

Good one Al. Babs smiled, Work up a basic survey of the system while we get a snack and jawbone this in the mess.

Everyone had been working hard getting the barge ready and it was dinner time.

One question sticks in my mind. Is there more than one Portal, sorry Jed, in a system? Dr. Lee put forward, Jed saw anomalous particle emissions. We should set up a search grid across Sol and that system.

There is a large asteroid over there similar to Ceres. Ariel pointed out, First let’s see if there is a base in that one too.

I want a basic survey done before we leave to get more instrumentation and people. This thing has been there a long time. I doubt it will go away. Let’s go someplace to relax while we look over the data and plan. Oliver said.

Beach? Babs proposed. How long we going to record for a basic survey?

Other ideas? Oliver polled.

Beach Ariel voted.

Oliver looked around and everyone was nodding at least a little.

Ok, then fish and lobster. Oliver said, Al set up a one-day survey while we wait here with the objective of understanding why there is a Portal to that system. First on the list is if the nearby asteroid has a base.

The crew trooped off to the mess to get dinner instead of a snack. About ten minutes later as everyone sat down with their food, Al had some preliminary information.

Just passed by the asteroid and there is a very large gouge like Ceres. But there are no caves in the walls of the gouge. May have been a base but it was completely wiped out. Al reported, Going on a walkabout. When there is more data, I will add it to the hologram file.

Did you detect any non-natural movements? Jed asked.

No

Well let’s see what tomorrow brings, Oliver said as he started shoveling mashed potatoes and gravy.

The data compiled to show new characteristics every few hours. The next day the crew gathered in the conference room. Al presented his survey.

This appears to be a lifeless system with a few very good natural resources. Al began, The first planet is large, rocky with two Gs at the surface and tidally locked. Burned on one side, frozen on the other. The second planet has no atmosphere and doesn’t seem to have been tectonically active. It is about double in size of Mars with point seven Gs at the surface. This planet could be expected to have a large accumulation of Helium 3. The third planet is similar but a little smaller. Again, probably covered in Helium 3. The asteroid belt is composed of dense clusters, so mining would be easier than in our system. There is a much higher percentage of metal type asteroids. This is a very rich field. The two gas giants are both a bit smaller than Saturn. Their moons are just a small collection of captured asteroids. All in all, this is a very good system for a mining colony.

And no sign of another Portal? Dr. Lee asked.

Not in this survey, Al replied, What now?

If we don’t have any special requests, just keep circulating and compiling data, Oliver said. My crew is due some time off. Calculate a course for Earth orbit.

The next day Oliver called a ship wide meeting. Everyone who was awake and not needed at a duty station gathered in the old missile bay. Others, who were unable to join, listened in via ship speakers. Oliver explained what they had found. Access to a new solar system. Then the good part.

At the board’s discretion when a major find happens, we may award a bonus to those directly involved. This is one of those cases. We will award one hundred non-voting shares to each crewman aboard the Nautilus. That should be equal to about one-half year’s pay, Oliver announced over the ship’s speakers. This brought a small cheer throughout the ship.

That was the easy part. Now he had to inform the outside world. The world still had not come to grips with the new access to the moon and Mars. Interstellar access was going to be a whole magnitude more dramatic.

Beach Time

G eneral, we are going to take a little beach time and we need to include you in some of the discussions. The sheer number of huge events happening at the same time is beyond our ability to cope, Oliver confessed.

When will you be in orbit? Gen. Frank asked.

Tomorrow afternoon about two Roswell time. Where can we pick you up?

I am in San Diego. Lt. Jennings will send you the details. How long is our luau going to last?

Shouldn’t keep you more than three days.

Jerry flew up to lunar orbit in Dorney with the personnel carrier to pick up most of the Nautilus crew. They would be taking their days off on the moon instead of Earth since things were so stirred up due to Elton Mark’s announcement. The base was starting to have some amenities. Marli Rocha’s celebrity chef was no small draw, and a big swimming pool was open. A few would ride down to Earth for more pressing personal matters like wives and girlfriends.

A barge packed with gourmet food, some prepared by the famous chef, and the camping gear was sent ahead with a route to land just before Dorney arrived. The cameras aboard added to overall security. Cida would get her first visit to the ocean. She was too excited to sit still and kept circulating from the personnel carrier to the cockpit. For a backwater girl who had only been to the moon, this was a big event. They landed on the flight apron of North Island Naval Air Station where the General was waiting with a small backpack. He got aboard without saying anything and they were speeding supersonic to the southwest within a few minutes. Landing at Motu One atoll refreshed good memories from the last visit.

Their old campsite looked like no one had used it since. The driftwood they had gathered was still there. Cida went straight to the ocean’s edge and walked in up to her ankles. She looked back at the rest of the crew stretching to get the kinks out with a silly grin.  Next, she cupped a handful of water and brought it to her mouth to taste. The salt and organic matter of the ocean made her spit it out immediately. She gave another silly grin back to the crew. Marco had built a fire before she got back from the ocean edge still thrilled.

Well, you got me here, fed me, and put a fine whiskey in my hand. What new wonder could have a group like this so stunned? Gen. Frank asked looking around.

Nothing to do but spit it out. We found an event horizon near Ceres that led to another star system. Ceres and that, let’s call it a Portal, must be related because there is an analog to Ceres in the other system. But this one seems to have had its base completely wiped out by a kinetic strike. Oliver revealed.

This news left the General speechless for a few minutes as he absorbed the information.

Then the General began, I think we should work first to make the Mars project successful. The world’s population will not react with anything close to reason if you reveal something this momentous so soon after the moon and Mars announcement. Too much craziness already. Let’s get their imagination and energy moving on an objective they can grasp. This Portal does not smell like a dead end with two systems. From the evidence at Ceres, I am pretty sure a second or maybe a third space-faring people are involved somehow. We have now seen the evidence of violence in two systems. There is a lot more to this Portal than a simple transit point. I have a good nose for terrestrial politics, and I bet there is Galaxy politics involved here.

We agree there is something more. Part of the reason we came back to Earth was to think through the problem as well as gear up to go back. We also need to get our organization structured to take on multiple projects. Pushing forward too fast on any one of them could have disastrous results. Oliver replied.

Up until then the rest of the crew had listened quietly Then Jed chose to speak up, I hate to add even more confusion to the equation, but our moon experiment may solve more problems than it creates.

What is he talking about? Gen. Frank asked.

Jed and Dr. Lee have a practical fusion energy reactor. And that new star system has a couple of planets full of Helium 3, Oliver said.

Mother of god, Was all the General could get out.

We could use it on our ships and moon base first before scaling up for Earth commercial use, Jed said. Good to burn the design in before going big.

When ready to announce, we could say it is to be used only on the moon and Mars for some technical bullshit reason just to give Earth time to adjust. Oliver proposed.

Yes, that will give us some time. No need to get in a hurry publicizing it either. Gen Frank agreed.

Now you see why we wanted advice.

Or help spreading the blame. This is stupendously good news for the people of Earth but there will be a lot of powerful people unhappy. Seriously, Oliver, you have more on the table than you can say Grace over.

Amen, Cida said abruptly.

What we need are people with the right skills and attitude. Babs said entering the conversation, If we start pushing out the moon base and the Mars colony even more, we can have a bigger group to cherry pick from.

Elton owes us, so he won’t push back. Maybe we should also sponsor our own base on Mars. What the economic engine will be, I don’t know. Oliver added.

You will be amazed what kind of ideas people will dream up. Don’t worry too much about that. Just enable them, Frank said.

To make all this happen we are going to need to build a fleet of cargo ships. Roswell has the bones, but operations there will need to expand in scope by an order of magnitude. Ship frames are a non-sensitive area before we install the grav cells. Perhaps we should bring in a partner to manage it, Ariel said adding her part.

Yes, I agree, Oliver said, Marco ask your Dad to work with Embraer on this. Aerospace is their core business. I will ask NewOrigins about spacesuits and environmental systems for an expansion.

I would like to continue working with Jed on a small reactor suitable for spaceships. We can run them on the surface of the moon to get up to a sufficient reliability and safety level. Dr. Lee said. Jed and I have also been working with the Q comm chips. We have miniaturized them to the point we thought it time to implant one in each of us. If we start wandering the Galaxy, the ability to communicate or call for help is of fundamental importance. Even on Earth with our fame growing, we are going to be targets of kidnappers.

Devices you are carrying can be taken away. If you could talk to me sub-vocally, I could arrange for what you need as well as locate you. On a day to day practical matter, a short haul transmitter can be used to link to the internet, Al added.

Sounds like you have been following this closely Al. What are we talking about surgically? Oliver asked.

Go ahead Al, Dr. Lee said.

"You all know I have been researching biologicals for my own reasons. So, when Jed and Dr. Lee began asking questions about how to implement this, I went the distance and designed a complete product with room for expansion. The main part with a couple or three Q comm chips in it will look like a very skinny octopus. The soft body will contain the chip and electronics. The arms will harvest body motions and breathing for energy. The octopus will be linked to two implants directly behind the ear. These will be similar