THe Sentinal Satellite Read online

  As she walked away, she yelled back at him,

  “And do not tamper with the House of the Nazarene accounts. There is a chance they have programmed tracer codes into them.”

  A malevolent expression contorted his face. He was an evil computer genius with an eidetic memory. Since Gustav dismissed him from the House of the Nazarene, he had memorized many complex account numbers and entry codes of numerous House accounts. Despite her order not to access Nazarene accounts, it was so easy and tempting that he had already skimmed millions from them.

  Chapter 22

  Santo and Maria left London and returned to the cave of the Three Sisters. Because both were tired, they withdrew to their suite for much needed sleep. Side by side on the bed, Santo quickly became lost to the rigours of the last few days while surviving only on naps. Maria was no better off but fought the strong desire to close her eyes. Feeling a mother’s emptiness, thoughts of Belle would not allow restful sleep.

  She slowly turned her head to look at Santo peacefully lost to the depth of the pillow. She knew she was strictly prohibited from contacting Belle but a mother’s desire for her child was now out ranking a direct military order. Somehow hoping to get away with it, she slowly snuck out of bed and tiptoed to the door. Santo’s eyes opened but he stayed in bed. Thirty minutes later, as there was work to do, he struggled out of the soft inviting bed. After a quick shower, he left the empty suite. Entering the main lobby, looking for Maria, he saw her sitting across the floor beside Jessika.

  Because it was time to get information from Zak about the second location of the defensive weapon, it was his intention to drag her away from whatever she was doing. As he started across the floor, Waldorf approached and asked,

  “Well, what did you learn in London from this gentleman you are keeping secret from me?”

  Because of his bad leg, Waldorf was struggling to keep pace so Santo had the courtesy to walk slowly. Santo contributed a tidbit of information.

  “I can tell you that his name is Edward. He is a member of a very powerful secret organization just as we are.”

  Sadly, Santo corrected himself.

  “I guess I mean, just like we used to be.”

  Suddenly Waldorf stopped, which forced Santo to turn and face him. After a stern look, Waldorf said,

  “We are a broken House and vulnerable to our enemies. This is not the time for secrets.”

  Santo knew he was right. However, he was also aware that he had been trusted with knowledge of their existence, a confidence that he dearly valued.

  Hoping that it would satisfy Waldorf, he took a deep breath and revealed only a shred.

  “I don’t think you have ever heard of them. They refer to themselves as The House of the Second Creation.”

  Waldorf’s words shocked Santo.

  “Of course I have heard of them.”

  What Waldorf said next surprised him even more.

  “They are not real, simply legends, nothing more. Folklore says that God created them after Noah’s flood to protect creatures ignored by the Bible. Fairies, elves, pixies and who knows what else only exists in fanciful legends.”

  It was very difficult for Santo not to smile and even harder to keep his mouth shut. A promise was a promise. He was not about to break that oath and expose the truth. As for Waldorf’s concern over the weakened House of the Nazarene, he knew that the House of the Second Creation could easily have destroyed the House if that was their intention. Although, in the back of his mind, Santo had not entirely dismissed a nagging suspicion that somehow the House of the Second Creation really had the ability to re-program the Sentinel Satellite.

  As they continued toward the computers, Santo attempted to convince Waldorf that the House of the Second Creation might really exist.

  “I think there might be some glimmer of truth to some legends. Zak once told me that the Greek gods on Olympus were actually misinterpreted true stories of aliens and their involvement with humans. He claimed the same for many other so-called gods, Oden of the Viking mythologies for instance as well as the Rama of the Great Earth Wars in India.”

  As they neared Jessika and Maria, Waldorf got in the last word.

  “We all know Zak is a little crazy.”

  Maria, while sitting beside Jessika felt a twinge of danger approaching and looked over her shoulder to see Santo approaching. Quick to recognize that she had disobeyed orders, she snapped back to the computer and whispered into the mike,

  “I have to go. Love you.”

  After Jessika quickly changed screens all Santo saw were confusing graphs and charts. He asked,

  “What have you two been up to?”

  His only reply was grins and guilty looks from both. Shaking it off as just another thing he did not understand about women, he looked at Maria and said,

  “Come on, we have to bother Zak and I don’t want to do it alone.”

  Zak was busy on the computer, attentive to the hunger of researching contemporary biblical and antediluvian legends. Many thought that his dislike at being disturbed was because of a broken path of concentration. Such was his intensity. However, whenever he was researching a historical timeframe, his imagination became lost to it. He was pleasantly escaping to the historical time that he was researching. That was why he hated to be disturbed. It was a cruel reminder that he lived in this timeframe and not the pleasures of the past.

  As they approached the seemingly busy Zak, Santo was wise enough to let Maria do the talking.

  “Zak, sorry to bother you but we need to learn something about an Australian Aboriginal folklore called the Wandjina.”

  When he turned around, surprisingly there was an absence of scowl about him. He said,

  “Oh, they are not folklore, they are real. Before the time of man, referring to Adam and Eve of course, the Wandjina were aliens who came to live with Australian Aboriginals. Even today, the Elders revere Wandjina secrets, holding them close to their hearts. They taught the Aboriginals the laws of nature and how to be better people by those ways.”

  After stealing chairs from another desk, both sat and intently lent ears to Zak.

  “One of the great mysteries of the Aboriginals is the use of the Boomerang, how it came into use, and how they were then able to apply aerodynamics to such a simple device. Speculation has implied it was something the Wandjina taught them. The shape of the boomerang is also thought to be the shape of the spaceship they used in those days. I have also interpreted pictographs that implied the didgeridoo is much more than simply a long hollow tube making an eerie noise. From what I can gather, if they do it right, it produces just the right frequency opening a dimensional portal to their holy locations throughout Australia.

  Santo had heard enough. Although an interesting background on the Aboriginals, nothing he had heard was beneficial in locating the second piece of the weapon. Zak explained that they needed to locate sacred places in Australia where the Wandjina might have hidden it for the Great Grays. Zak seemed disappointed that he was not able to enlighten them with a location, however, he did add,

  “You need to locate abnormal energy fields. I recovered something from the Science Department, at least what was left of it that might assist you.”

  Reaching into his desk he pulled out an instrument Maria though was some sort of remote control with LED readouts. As Santo accepted it, Zak explained,

  “It detects the energy fields of dimensional wall margins that might lead you to Wandjina and Aboriginal holy places. If you locate an energy source, just follow the reading as you would any GPS direction.”

  Not understanding, Santo asked,

  “What are dimensional wall margins?”

  Maria thought she knew, so again annoyed Zak by cutting in.

  “On the surface of the planet are geographical disturbances in gravity fields causing electromagnetic energy lines to fluctuate. There are people who can feel this energy. Through the years they have built ancient monuments on those lines.”

  San
to cut in,

  “Are you referring to sacred places like Stonehenge, the pyramids, ancient castles and churches all over the planet?”

  Pleased that he understood some scientific applications, she pointed a finger, and said,

  “Exactly. The energy of the Ley Lines supposedly contributes to the power of sacred monuments.”

  Maria proudly glanced at Zak for approval of her knowledge. She was not happy to see him scowling and shaking his head. With derision he said,

  “As usual you have it all wrong. What allows for back and forth travel between the dimensions floating around our universe is the containment of those dimensions, the Event Horizon.”

  He cast a specific eye to Maria and started his explanation with a word that greatly insulted her. She was sure that he said it on purpose.

  “Simplistically, Event Horizons can be compared to a balloon preventing pressurized air from interacting with air pressure on the outside. Within that balloon is a separate unit of time and space, a small dimension of sorts if you wish. That is how both of you lost two years of our time when only spending a few hours in the dimension of the Sky People”

  Maria shuddered when remembering they had lost two years of their lives when opening and entering the Sky People’s dimensional gate.

  Zak continued,

  “Like the universe, there are smaller Dimensional Walls or Event Horizons if you wish within the Planet’s energy fields. When you found the Earth Tunnels in Australia enabling you to walk from country to country in the matter of a few steps, like walking from room to room in a house that is what you were doing. The aliens living here before the time of man tracked those energy lines enabling them to step from one country to another.”

  This time Maria was smart enough to keep her mouth shut. Zak continued,

  “That is what I’m giving you, an instrument that locates energy lines leading to Aboriginal holy places.”

  Chapter 23

  Cave of Voices

  When selecting a D-wing for a mission it was Santo’s habit to take one of the smaller two-seaters. However, as he and Maria approached the D-wing area, he was told that no two-seater was available. The only accessible one was Waldorf’s larger four-seater armed with rapid-fire laser capability. As they stood there looking at it, Waldorf approached and said,

  “Go ahead, take it. Your smaller one is out on a search and recovery mission.”

  Maria looked at the weapon array and commented,

  “We are just going on a search mission. We really don’t need to be fully armed like this, do we?”

  The armaments may have bothered her passive nature but Santo, despite the non-combatant mission to Australia was very pleased to be fully armed and ready for any eventuality.

  Australia, directly south of their secret location in Tibet meant it was only a short hop over the Himalayas, India and the Indian Ocean. Because they started early in the morning, within an hour and a half, the GPS had directed them to the middle of Australia. Although there were many sacred sites, including the Blue Mountains, the Pinnacles, and Ayers Rock, now known as Uluru, they decided to start at Uluru. It was the third vertebrae of the Uluru dragon’s neck that almost cost Maria her life some years ago.

  As a precaution against detection, they cloaked and hovered high above the holy rock. It did not take long to realize that it was a bad time to be looking around for Dimension energy fields. They looked down and like ants on an anthill, saw hundreds of tourists milling about on top of the rock. Santo suggested,

  “Looks like night might be a better time to snoop around. We’ll come back then.”

  Surprisingly, while looking at the instrument measuring Event Horizon energy fields, Maria announced,

  “I’m getting a weak energy signal from the rock. The readings are getting stronger to the southwest. Let’s follow it and see where that Ley Line leads us.”

  Following the energy signals, a few minutes later they were hovering high above the massive rock formation known as Kata Tjuta. As Maria looked down on the strange formation, she observed,

  “It looks to be a combination of granite and sandstone peaks.”

  Santo’s information came from the onboard computer and read aloud,

  “Yes, it is the same composition as Ayers Rock. It is also considered sacred by the Aboriginals although the true reason for that is a secret known only to them. The 36 rock formation really starts at Ayers Rock ending just past Kata Tjuta. The whole formation is actually part of a thousand mile continual rock formation known locally as the legend of the Sleeping Snake or as you might remember it, the Third Vertebrae of Uluru.”

  Although it was years ago and the Earth Tunnels no longer existed, she reminisced how BASIC had removed the airplanes, submarines and flying saucers from the cave. Such things and her near death still slither around in her place of bad memories.

  Just in case anybody was around, as Santo lowered the D-wing, he again activated the camouflage program. While circling the formation, Maria scanned for an energy signature. Because of the many small cave entrances scattered throughout the formation it was a hopeless task to identify which one the energy originated from. She was forced to accept that the whole area bustled with unusually high-energy peaks.

  After a few minutes of zipping through valleys and deep gorges, Maria spotted something out of the norm. She put the scanner down, pointed and said,

  “There, on the tallest ridge. Look about halfway down.”

  Santo turned the D-wing in that direction. There, on a ridge protruding from the steep cliff sat three Aboriginals facing each other. They were painted with white chalk and seemed to be either chanting or performing some sort of sacred ritual. Santo said,

  “How the heck did they manage to get up there?”

  Maria said,

  “Get closer.”

  Still cloaked, Santo maneuvered the D-wing at the same height as the mysterious men and hovered about fifty yards away. As she watched closely, Maria said,

  “They are performing some sort of ritual at the mouth of the cave and blowing into that strange musical instrument they call a didgeridoo. Do you suppose that might be the Cave of Voices we are looking for?”

  “Well, we are supposed to be looking for anything out of the norm. I guess seeing three aboriginals sitting on a high ledge chanting in front of a cave might constitute as abnormal.”

  Santo was trying to come up with a subtle way of approaching without startling them. However, that predicament was taken care of when all three suddenly turned to look directly at the D-wing. Maria said,

  “How come they can see us?”

  “They can’t. We are ninety-nine percent invisible to the naked eye. They know we are here by other senses, perhaps a native intuition.”

  Knowing that their game of invisibility was discovered by ancient abilities, Santo switched off the cloak. The men now saw what they thought they had sensed, a spirit watching them. In an inviting manner, the eldest of the aboriginals pointed to the ledge they were standing on. Santo accepted the invitation to approach and maneuvered the D-wing an inch or so away from the ledge.

  When the cockpit dome pulled back to expose both passengers sitting there looking at the strangely composed men, the old man said something in his native tongue that was translated through the onboard decryption program as,

  “Welcome people of the stars.”

  Though it was a massive fallacy, both quickly understood it was a mistake that might serve them well. Santo noticed that despite their obvious attempt to copy the appearance of their ancient ancestors, one of them was wearing a wristwatch. Not wanting to struggle with a conversation through a translator, he hoped that they were contemporary enough to understand the language of the land, therefore said,

  “English is the preferred language of the star people. Do you speak English?”

  The old man replied in English, although in a very broken and struggling accent.

  “Welcome people of the stars.”

&nb
sp; Maria assumed that the three men were honoring or at the very least, protecting the ‘Cave of Voices’. She remembered what Zak had instructed her to say to the Lama guarding the cave of the ancients in Tibet. She took a chance and said,

  “We thank you for guarding the Cave of Voices. We have come to Earth to recover what you had hidden for us during the dream times.”

  With shuffling steps, all three moved precariously closer to the edge. It was clear to Maria that they were making room for something she did not want to do, leave the safety of the D-wing and join them on the ledge. When Santo accepted the invitation and bravely leapt from the nose of the D-wing onto the ledge, Maria was forced to follow, albeit fearing the great height. She was not comfortable standing so high up on a narrow ledge crammed with five people. Although she had no desire to step deep into the mysterious cave, she was starting to think that any place but here seemed to be a much safer place.

  As Santo gathered equipment from the D-wing Maria asked the older man,

  “What is your purpose here, why are you performing rituals at the entrance to the cave?”

  He replied,

  “It is a place of great danger. Many of our people have foolishly entered the cave never to been seen again. Our didgeridoo produces a specific tone identifying it as belonging to our clan.”