13CHAPTER 12: THE CITY OF GOLD
November 12st, 2112. Weyland-Yutani Corporation office at Cassiopeia station around Gas Giant HR8832h aka Cetus.
Sometimes, the arm still hurt. Konrad Volkov massaged the arm just up the prosthetic arm. Occasionally, he still has nightmares about that damn mission.
The huge explosion shook the mountain. Konrad Volkov was finishing his morning coffee when he heard it. He saw the smoke column rise from the Atrium and then the west side of the mountain collapsed in an avalanche.
The other members of the team observed as the thundering wave of snow closed in their position. They ran toward the all-terrain vehicles but Volkov knew they didn't going to make it. He instead ran toward the transport and once inside he closed the ramp. Just in time the ice wall hit the ship, turned and sent it tumbling down the slope.
Volkov woke up three hours later inside the buried vehicle, a large crate was crushing his right arm and he was bleeding. He tried to lift the crate just to pull out his trapped arm, it hurt like hell but finally he did it. His arm was broken and blood poured from a long, serrated cut. He pulled out his belt and made a crude tourniquet, that stopped the bleeding but it will not hold forever.
It took another two hours for the rescue team to find the almost unconscious doctor and take him to the nearest Weyland-Yutani medical facility.
When Volkov woke up, he was inside a Pauling 850i med pod, the successor of the 720i model invented by Sir. Peter Weyland himself. The machine reconstructed his arm tissue from the shoulder to the elbow as the same time it placed the robotic prosthetic which will replace his lost arm.
He spent almost a month recovering from his injuries. Meanwhile, Weyland-Yutani had suspended project stargazer due to the loss of personnel and equipment at mount Ebrus. Volkov was reassigned to the recently formed U.A.O.R.D. fleet whose official duty was to maintain order on the outer colonies, but their real objective was to protect the company interests, quelling rebellions before happening, discretely dispatching terrorists and carrying out corporate espionage missions.
- o –
After a long season patrolling the outer colonies and a bloody war, he was recalled to the nearest outpost in HR8832 for unknown reasons. The system was one of the first systems colonized by the company due to his 5 planets, two of them rocky super-Earth type planets and one a gas giant. The company established an outpost station around the Gas Giant Cetus for further exploitation of the rest of the system.
He passed the security check and headed for the Research & Development department where he was summoned.
-"Doctor Konrad Volkov, welcome back, please sit down" the director said.
-"Why am I here, Mr. Anderson?" Volkov asked, cutting the formalities.
-"We need you for a retrieve mission, one you're actually an expert." Anderson was a shady man, the kind of guy you don't mess up. Even Volkov was cautious on his presence.
-"And what's that?"
-"Hunter technology, no more no less" The director took a bottle from a cabin and served them two glasses.
-"Here we go again." Volkov thought. "There have been no incidents for some time, I'd fought in the bloodiest battles of the Torin Prime civil war and they didn't show up, what makes you think they came back?" Volkov exposed, actually he was searching for any hint of the hunters' involvement on the war, but there was nothing. Apparently they had vanished from human history.
-"No, this is gonna be a lot easier, actually. There is no hunter involved; some archaeologist had discovered an abandoned Hunter city in Kinnor Minor, with a complete array of their tech." Volkov opened his eyes wide "with hints of another ancient extraterrestrial civilization and suspected xenotech*"
Anderson tossed a folder to Volkov, he opened it and read: "Lost cities of Tripura and their relations with the summer triangle, by Dr. Elisabeth Diane Monygham"
Elisabeth Monygham, the woman he had known at Mount Ebrus the day he lost his arm. That time she was only a postgrad student, now she was the expedition supervisor.
-"The expedition aboard the HMS Zahi Hawass is there investigating ancient alien ruins found by the colonists and your dear Dr. Monygham stumbled upon hunter tech, or at least some of their weapons."
Volkov checked the file again and saw pictures of some of the pieces: masks, daggers, spears, a set of armor, discs.
-"A ship is being refitted for you and your team to depart in a few days. Expecting to arrive in late-2112" The Director said.
- o –
November 15th, 2112. Ancient ruins in Kinor Minor, site known as "Amaravanti"
-"What did you want me to see, Rashid?" Eli asked Nirajit Rashid, who had called earlier to one of the many6 temple chambers he had been investigating for the last months.
-"I translated part of the inscriptions on this mural." He said, pointing at a large wall filled with Proto Indo-European inscriptions.
-"Show me" Eli told him. Rashid commenced reading the story written in the basaltic stone.
-"Here, this story apparently is part of the great epic Mahabharat. It tells the part of Arjun's journey to heaven and his fight with the Asuras by order of his father Indra."
-"Mahabharat? The ancient epic you studied back in the Institute?"
-"Yes, and this is interesting. Those paragraphs relate something about the destruction of the cities, not one but two times by using the same weapon of mass destruction."
-"The Pasupata? Pandora's box?"
-"Here" Rashid started "Free from fear, set it on the Gandiva*; and, bowing unto the three-eyed Sarva [He meant Shiva] of immeasurable energy, let go [the weapon], with the object of vanquishing those foremost of the Danavas. As soon as it had been hurled, there appeared on the scene by thousands, all kind of beasts in multitudes. And on that weapon being hurled all the universe became filled with these as well as many others of various shapes. And again and again wounded by those beings, the Danavas met their destruction. And, then, in a moment I slew all those Danavas. And, seeing they deprived of life, I again bowed unto that god –the Destroyer of Tripura."
-"Destroyer of Tripura?" Eli wondered "So, this confirm Arjun had the weapon and used it once again a city, this time by the instruction of one of the gods?"
-"Yes, in the epic, Arjun did penance in order to obtain the weapon from Shiva, once he had achieved the task; Indra called him and asked him to kill some enemies he hadn't defeated. This could be interpreted as a test, Indra had promised him all the weapons cache from the gods but only if he mastered the Pasupata, a weapon of last resort no to be used against lesser enemies"
-"Much like the nuclear weapons last century" Eli agreed, Rashid nodded "Any idea where this other city was located?"
-"Just dispersed clues, there are mentions of master of the three worlds, also three cities of Tripura; three planets?" Rashid responded "Here, it says 'the wives of the Danavas cried in distress like Kurari birds', Kurari refers to Ospreys or fishing eagles"
-"Altair! The summer triangle!" Eli agreed "The asterism obviously was of great importance for ancient cultures but only if you look it from Earth. Configuration from any another system is meaningless, unless –"
-"Unless what, Eli?" Rashid asked her.
-"The summer triangle formed an almost perfect right triangle, the base for Pythagorean theorem and mathematics. It was discovered independently by Mesopotamia, Greece, India and China; or more accurately, by the cultures derived from Proto Indo-European culture!" Eli explained; archaeo-astronomy depended not only from telescopes and satellites, but mathematics and physics.
-"Math is one of the universal languages, along chemistry and music."
-"What can you tell me about that destroyed city, Rashid?"
-"City's name in the myth is called Hiranyapura, the city of Gold. It's mentioned the city was in sky, or floating, and after the destruction fell into the ocean." Rashid explained -"Gold, as with the cities of Tripura, made of iron, gold and silver. If this city is the Iron and Altair represents Gold that leaves Deneb as the city of Silver."
Eli was amazed "We need to prepare an expedition to Altair; I think a colony is being set up there. I just need to convince Gilbert Kane, now we had a better relation"
- o -
Despite their initial discrepancies, for the last days, Eli had find out Gilbert Kane; his co supervisor was a nice guy. After the party in the community center she had discovered why the Engineer had trouble with certain substances.
Two years after enrolling in Bryce-Watkins Medical School, Torin Prime civil war and due to his military instruction on Gunning Foss Military School, he was recruited in a hospital ship in orbit around the planet attending injured marines. The constant stress and lack of sleep led him to medicate himself with morphine and other drugs. It was not unusual for other doctors to do it, but Kane was not careful and almost died of embolism product of an overdose, and was expelled from school.
-"We can't set another expedition to Altair without the consent of the Institute, Eli. You know that." Kane said from the office he had in the colony's operation center.
-"But we had strong evidence something is there. Just send a message. In the meanwhile, I'll make preparations; maybe some of the colonist here wants to go, the Trenton brothers, Amelia or even the Blackburn's, the first phase colonization is complete and a ship with new inhabitants is coming here."
-"Very well; I'll do what I can but can't guarantee anything."
- o –
A/N: *Xenotech refers to alien technology, Xeno is the greek term for 'alien' or in this case 'extraterrestrial'
*Gandiva is the mythic bow of god Varuna which was given to hero Arjun for defeating his father Indra.
