Ancients

either of you?'

'We are not familiar with them, no.'

The professor of ancient languages, who had spent several hours with Carmichael and Martha learning the basics of the dead tongue of Atlantis and who had used a combination of written words and hieroglyphs to make it easier to study the written language of the scrolls, turned back to the plate and pushed his hand through his hair.

'We're stumped, Pete.'

Pete walked up to the plate and ran his fingers first over the symbols and then slowly over the center hole, where the sandwiched crystal protruded. The other technicians looked at him and shook their heads, thinking that the computer wiz was only in the way. His fingers slowly felt the deep lines of the symbols and then he stepped back and looked at them.

'Okay, Virginia has explained we're extremely short on time. Therefore, we must find the closest examples of what they are through other means. First, let us concentrate our ... excuse me ... you must concentrate your efforts on the crystal inside. The bulge at the center, front and back, is key. We now know that, since the clamshell aperture was there for protecting. My guess is that it is a lens of some sort.' He looked around, hoping that the other scientists were not taking offense.

'Keep going, Pete, you seem to be on a roll,' Virginia said from her seat.

'Europa, query,' he said as he straightened up and examined the 3-D virtual reality projected on the screen. 'Analysis of x-ray of crystal between the two bronze halves, please.'

'Exact number of crystal flaws found in five separate depths of crystal is seven billion fifty-two thousand.'

'Explain depths analysis, please.'

'Flaws found at 1.7, 1.8, 2.7, 2.9, and 3.1 centimeters of plate crystal depth and 1.9, 2.1, 2.5, 2.8, and 3.2 centimeters in width.'

'This can't be,' Sarah said from her position in front of the projection. 'If the crystal is flawed with natural fractures or formation abnormalities, they wouldn't be located at exact depths and would be far more random in the width; they would be throughout the crystal and certainly not at certain depths only.'

Pete Golding listened to Sarah's expert geological explanation but did not comment. Instead, he examined the flaws as seen from the front and the side projections as sent through Europa from an electron microscope and x-ray imager.

'Gentlemen and ladies, let's return our efforts now to the symbols one last time. As I said before, we will find their closest relations in the linguistics family from other languages and symbols from the ancient world.'

Several members of Ancient Languages Department looked from one to another, but they stepped aside in deference to Pete's genius for thinking beyond the norm.

'Europa, query: the three symbols arrayed at the bottom of the plate below the exposed crystal at the center.' Pete removed a small penlight from his many pens and pencils in their plastic holder in his shirt and clicked it on and shone the bright beam through the center hole, producing nothing but regular light on the other side. 'You stated in your report earlier that there is no reference in the linguistics historical record for any word, symbol, or hieroglyphs known, is that correct?'

'Correct, Dr. Golding.'

'Query: what are the closest hieroglyph or symbol matches to the three symbols as taken from all known civilizations throughout history, preferably the earliest examples?'

'Formulating,' answered the womanly voice of Europa.

Sarah walked over to stand next to Martha and Carmichael and looked at them with a questioning glance. They both shrugged, but were also curious as to where Pete was going with this.

'There is only one familiar symbol recognizable in the historical-linguistic record. The centerline symbol designated number two bears resemblance to ancient Sumerian symbol for 'storm,' as taken from hieroglyph discovered outside presentday Iraq in 1971.'

Pete ran the word repeatedly in his mind as he paced in front of the image on the screen. Then he walked over and shone his penlight through the hole once more. Then he smiled and stood straight and looked at Sarah.

'There's no way those flaws could have been a fluke of nature and just happened to be formed naturally?'

'Impossible. I couldn't even begin to calculate the odds of their being at five exact depths.'

'This is impossible,' Pete said, smiling. 'Europa, query: at current magnification level of electron microscope, is there any indication of any other flaws in the sandwiched crystal?'

'None, Dr. Golding.'

'Please order the electron microscope to repeat the side scan of the interior crystal and raise the magnification power on each pass and continue side scan until a flaw in its thickness is detected. Continue until magnification power hits its limit.'

'Pete, you're losing me and everyone else here,' Sarah said, but as she looked from Pete to the smiling couple next to her, she became aware that all three were thinking the same thing.

'Microscopic scan complete. Five distinct engineered sections found at setting one million times power.'

'What?' one of the engineers exclaimed. 'That's impossible. We're not even capable of this today!'

Sarah and most of the others were confused by all this.

'Europa, enlighten our audience as to the sections mentioned.'

'Five sections, engineered as separate crystal shavings, placed together as one flat surface, indicating that earlier flaws are not flaws as previously reported, but surface symbols etched onto the five separate crystal plates.'

The projection changed and Europa produced an animated image showing the sides of five separate crystal surfaces being placed together to form one flat, almost-solid crystal plate. The image rotated and they saw what they had once thought were flaws inside the sandwiched crystal plates at the depths had Europa reported.

'That is impossible. Even today, we cannot get two surfaces that flush without major separation throughout each of the joining surfaces. The engineering is impossible!'

Pete was looking at the rotating image and smiling. 'Nonetheless, there it is.' He turned and looked at Martha and Carmichael. 'An amazing race of people, to be sure.'

'But why do this? What in the hell is this thing?' the head of Linguistics asked.

'I believe what we're looking at is an ancient visual disk. Just like what we use today in the computer center,' Pete said. 'Can we get some electrical leads and attach them to the bronze connection at the back of the plate, please.'

As the engineers rolled over a large box that supplied twenty-five thousand volts of mobile electricity, Pete tried his best to explain his theory.

'The middle symbol that Europa said has a resemblance to an ancient Sumerian hieroglyph for 'storm' ... Well, if you see what I see, it becomes apparent. The rounded objects that look like hills or mountains are actually clouds; thus, Europa saw the 'storm' of Sumerian origin. However, the zigzagging line beneath is a stumper. I believe that it's not just any storm, but an electrical storm. Lightning, if you will. And this line here,' he pointed to the thin line with two dots on the front and the back, 'we didn't recognize it because it's a view from the side of this very bronze plate before us. See here, in the center of the plate are the two crystal protuberances. Ladies and gentlemen, what those are is a lens, pure and simple.'

'A projector?' Sara asked.

'Not only have we a projector but also video disk inside the projector, dear Sarah. And not only that--I believe, rudimentarily speaking, of course people who invented this were using a rough form of electrical power.'

Several people started saying things like impossible and no way, but Pete only smiled while looking around the room.

'Can we also bring the portable laser over, please,' he asked the mechanical engineers, who did as he asked. 'Europa, remove the current images from the screen, please.' The images of the plate vanished. 'Could we dim the lights? I really don't know how efficient this will be.'