2040 Revelations (49 page)

Steiner hesitated before proceeding and looked up to see if his captors approached. Satisfied, he carried on. ‘Richard, I appreciate this will be a lot for you to take in and I hope you can accept my apologies for not telling you previously. My hands were firmly tied, as they have been for many years. You may be wondering why I ordered the evacuation of Steadfast and why Joiner sought to prevent me from doing so. I realised Steadfast had to be abandoned after I gleaned some sensitive information from General Ellwood, information our beloved Director of Intelligence sorely wanted to keep secret, even from me.

‘What I discovered was that one of the asteroids due in 2042 will impact in the immediate vicinity of Steadfast. Such a strike will significantly damage, if not completely destroy, the whole base. At the very least, all subterranean to surface shafts will be catastrophically damaged, ensuring the entombment of everyone below. Joiner must have realised that I had found out about his cover up and launched a pre-emptive strike to head off an evacuation to Sanctuary, the only base with the capacity to take that many people. His reasons I can only guess at, but the man’s paranoia and lack of human compassion leads me to think that he didn’t want to risk exposure of the GMRC’s subterranean program to the public, even though this threat would have been negligible.

‘Once he’d launched his attack on the Command Centre my hand was forced, so I issued the evacuation alert in the hope that I could save as many people as possible. It is also my belief that our gifted Steadfast personnel will be able to provide Sanctuary with an excellent pool of workers from which to draw for the good of the base. In my opinion, they will also increase Sanctuary’s odds for long term success.’

A noise sounded in the background and the image went dark, accompanied by a rustling noise as Steiner must have slipped the computer phone into his pocket. Some muffled voices could be heard for a while and then the phone was taken back out again and Professor Steiner reappeared in view.

‘Sorry about that, one of my guards checking up on me. Anyway, where was I? Sanctuary – right, by now you will have realised that Sanctuary isn’t like Steadfast or any other project the GMRC operates. Unbelievably, it has long been known by certain powers in Europe that humanity wasn’t the first species to forge an advanced civilisation on Earth. A human cousin had evolved long before us, over nine hundred thousand years ago. The reason this fact is unheard of is mainly due to work carried out by the Catholic Church who, for over a millennia, sought to accrue, destroy and hide all evidence of this ancient dynasty. Why? To preserve their religious doctrine and to retain their power over the masses.

‘Their job had been done well. The known sites for this race were located primarily in Europe and South America. Those finds that were outside of these areas were minimal and either discredited or destroyed by nefarious means. To this day, we would have been none the wiser except for a phenomenal discovery made in the United States in the seventeen hundreds. An ancient tomb was found in the Nevada desert, by happenstance. Word spread and it was eventually looked into and covered up by the government of the day. Many years later, one of our presidents stumbled across the secret and decided to set up a special team to investigate the site further. Many more artefacts, bones and structures were unearthed, culminating in the greatest discovery in the history of mankind, Sanctuary itself. Make no mistake, the base in which you now stand is but a tiny part of an underground complex that reaches for well over two hundred miles in length, one hundred miles in width and perhaps twenty miles in depth. Due to its size, over ninety-eight per cent of it is still uncharted.

‘What we know about this race is that they were far more advanced than us in many ways. They were also physically much larger and yet their numbers on the surface as far as we can tell were not great. Many mysteries about them remain unanswered, including why they died out. One thing we do know, however, is that our human ancestors knew of their existence. Some speculate that there may have even been direct contact with these human cousins.

‘While the Vatican tried to destroy all knowledge of these
giants
they were unable to wipe them completely from history. Myths and legends woven into our culture live on and even the Bible itself has references to this most ancient of races. Other cultures, including the Egyptians, Babylonians and Mayans, amongst others, also hint at the existence of this lost ancestor. There are scientific and many other names given to this race, although perhaps with more than a little irony we refer to them as they were known in the Bible, the Anakim. Obviously all this information is known by only a select few outside of Sanctuary itself. The existence of the ancient underground structure has also not been disclosed to any other government, including that of Mexico, which believes the base is merely a manmade expansion of a naturally occurring cave system.’

Steiner paused for breath and then continued once more. ‘I imagine you will watch this message more than once, as I would, too, in your position; please ensure, though, that no one else sees it, as this information is extremely powerful and dangerous in the wrong hands.’ Steiner looked around his small room. ‘Considering my current position and Joiner’s quest for power, it appears I may not see you again or be able to help progress Sanctuary in the future; this job I now leave up to you. You must try to gain control of the base or at least be included in its management and direction. I have long admired your expertise and management skills, but what I prize most highly is your duty of care to those who you work to protect. Sanctuary, much to my disapproval, is run by the U.S. military and that means Joiner will essentially have control; this status quo cannot be left to stand and civilian governance must be established, as humanity’s future may very well rest upon it.’

Steiner looked up from the camera once more and then back again. ‘I must go, Richard. Be careful, good luck and Godspeed.’

And then the display went black. A blue screen followed and the writing
END OF VIDEO
appeared. Goodwin stared at the blue image for a long time before eventually pressing the replay button.

Epilogue

Sarah Morgan struggled against the two U.S. soldiers marching her down a long corridor lined on both sides with reinforced metal doors.

‘Where are you taking me?!’ she said, unable to keep the fear from her voice.

The sound of their echoing footsteps was her only answer as the men remained tight-lipped.

‘Where are my friends?!’ Sarah lent back against their grasp, forcing them to slow.

One of her captors gave a growl and she was hauled forwards.

‘I’m a British citizen; you have no right to do this!’ Terrified, Sarah fought to escape, but the soldiers dragged her on, their powerful grips tightening around her arms.

They finally reached the end of the corridor and a heavy metal door was opened.

Sarah looked into the tiny cell in horror and planted her feet in desperation as they forced her forward. She jammed her foot against the door jamb, stopping her momentum, but a heavy shod boot kicked it away and she was thrown inside.

Sarah staggered forward, then spun round and surged back to the opening just as the door to the cell slammed shut with a resounding boom!

The sound of keys rattling, a lock clicking and metal bolts sliding into place preceded two sets of receding footsteps as the men retreated back the way they’d come.

Sarah screamed and hammered on the door. ‘NO!! Where are you going?! You can’t do this, I have rights! YOU CAN’T DO THIS!!

Outside the cell door her screams and shouts fell on deaf ears as the soldiers disappeared around the far end of the now empty corridor.

Sarah Morgan’s quest was at an end, and only her despairing cries for freedom echoing along the desolate halls of a top-secret facility, hidden deep underground, were testament to her ever having existed at all.

‘NO! Let me out!!’

The further down the hallway, the quieter her calls became.

‘You can’t do this … where are my friends … where are you going?! LET ME OUT!!!’

♦

‘Are the other two secure?’

The corporal gave a nod.

‘And their belongings?’

The second soldier handed a transparent plastic bag to his commanding officer.

The sergeant emptied the contents into a cardboard carton and peered inside, then poked around at the different items on display, the most interesting of which included a metallic tablet, parchments and a couple of pentagonal pendants.

He dismissed his colleagues and then sealed the box with red tape before writing some numbers on a white label on its side, and the words
FOR ANALYSIS
on the lid with a black marker pen.

He passed through an office, opened a door at the back of the room and entered a huge unlit storage facility containing row upon row of shelving housing boxes similar to the one he held. Under the dim light streaming in through the now open doorway, he walked down one of the aisles, his footfalls tip-tapping through the deserted area. Eventually he stopped and pulled across a ladder connected to a set of rails, then climbed up to the fifth level of ten and slid the box into an empty space alongside its fellows. Having deposited his cargo, he climbed back down and returned to his office, the sounds of his passage fading away to silence before he closed the door behind him, plunging the warehouse back into darkness.

♦   ♦   ♦

High in Earth’s orbit a large mirrored oval structure glided through space. Located on the side of its control module was a large NASA insignia and the letters D.S.D.A., and underneath these letters were the words
Deep Space Detection Array
.

Inside the white hull of the satellite, a brightly lit screen operated. In one corner red words reading
Transmitting Telemetry Data
blinked on and off. In the centre of the screen a small circle indicated Earth’s location, and spiralling out from this circle was a single line, which eventually came into contact with six red dots. Each dot had a small black window attached to it with the words
Tracking
at the top and a continuous flow of spooling data underneath.

Far out into space, the immense black asteroids under surveillance rotated slowly, glinting in the magnificence of the Sun, their momentum undiminished as they continued their inexorable, and unstoppable advance towards Earth …

Continued in …

2041: Sanctuary

Part 1: Dark Descent

(Book Two, Part One of
Ancient Origins
)

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