Chapter One, Discovery
It is the year 2030.
In northern Canada, a group of geologists were sent on a search for new sites to drill for oil and natural gas. Moving through the cold frosted land, a shallow canyon was stumbled upon. Carved by glacier water over hundreds of years. In a moment of carelessness one of the geologist, new on the job, fell into the canyon.
"Ouch," Thomas groaned as he got to his feet. It was a good thing he had his thick jacket on to soften the fall. That was not to say it still didn't hurt a lot. The simple fact that he was able to stand told him he didn't break a leg. It didn't feel like anything else was broken either. You got lucky this time, he told himself.
"HELP!" he cried out, his voice echoing many times after he had spoke. He could probably just wander down the canyon till he came to a way out. But his fellow workers were not far and would easily be able to hear his cry for help.
Not a moment later his call was replied with two of his coworker peering over the ledge down at him.
"What are you doing down there?" one asked almost laughing.
"I slipped and fell Adrian," answered Thomas like it was obvious. "So don't stand too close to the edge."
"Okay," replied Adrian and took a step back so he was no longer visible to Thomas.
"Are you alright?" asked the other.
"I'm a little bruised, but otherwise fine. Would either of you be able to help me out of here?" asked Thomas more than a little agitated. "It's bloody cold out here."
"We'll go back to the truck and see if we got any rope," said the other man. "You might have to use the ice pick to climb out though."
"Well be quick, my nuts are ready to fall off."Steve didn't answer just laughed as he walked away. After a moment Thomas could hear him saying something about newbies.
With them gone, Thomas could only stand around waiting for them to return. Because it hurt to much to constantly look up at the ledge he let his gaze fall on the ice covered wall that had caused him to be stuck down there. It was always fascinating to look at how the water froze when dripping down the wall. While examining the ice, he started to notice a pattern underneath it. Now that was not natural.
Thomas took out his ice pick and began to chip away at the ice, no longer thinking about the fact he was stuck in the trench. The ice was thick and hard, but his arm was strong and pick sharp. Before long, he had cleared a hole large enough the examine the pattern he saw. It surprised him a bit for it was typical stones he saw, however they were cut into triangles fitted perfectly to form what could only be a wall. Whatever it was, it was not natural. This had to be man made.
It was at this time a rope came down followed by a shout from above. "Found a rope, grab on."
Ignoring the rope Thomas called up without looking away from the triangular stones. "Hey guys, you should really come down here and see this."
"Seriously? You're doing this?" asked Steve.
"For real," replied Thomas. "You've got to see this."
With some grumbling Adrian and Steve secured the rope then slid down to join him.
"What is so important you have to stay down here?" asked Adrian. "We're done here, we can go home."
"Look," answered Thomas. "I think I just found something."
The other two looked in the hole he had carved away. Adrian seemed unconcerned, though Steve's mouth went slack.
"A stone jigsaw puzzle," he said with little interest. "Maybe an old burial site. It could be something, but not likely. We'll use our equipment to get what readings we can then give the information to our superiors and let them make the call on what to do with this."
The others agreed and climbed out of the trench. Once back on the surface they took out their specialized surveying equipment and sent shockwaves into the ground. Their tools were designed to search for pockets of oil, but were effective enough for the situation.
Looking at the readings it looked like there was a pocket of air, possible a structure of some kind. With that information, they packed up and headed back. Each one working in their head how to fill out the report.
After their return, they sent in a report to their superiors with everything they found found. It included ever detail of the survey. Interested, the company sent out a proper team to do an official scan of the area. When the structure was confirmed to be real interest was raised even higher and the wheels of politics started to role.
Many meetings and many more graphs followed after that. In due time a big corporation, Reverstone Financial, was contacted and they quickly took control of the project and financed a full and proper expedition into this discovery.
With Reverstone leading the operation, a top team was put together and work to uncover its secrets was started in short time. Things quickly unfolded after the first few days under the new management. The building that had been discovered was oval-shaped. There was only the one structure though many more had begun to be suspected. As far as the seismographs and underground laser graphics available could tell, it seemed about a two-hundred and fifty feet long, two-hundred feet at its widest and close to twenty feet high. It seemed made of what the Incas and Aztecs built their temples with, solid rock, cut into triangles, all fitting to each other precisely for greater strength.
At the start all the workers and equipment had to be brought in by helicopter for there were no roads, though a basic trail for jeeps was soon put in. While several choice men were put to work surveying the surrounding land for any more possible hidden structures using the finest graphic equipment. Reverstone had men working around the clock digging out the structure. It took nearly two weeks to dig down before they had found an entrance and make a shaft big enough to be able to transport people and machinery down to it. Once they could get inside, the researchers could not believe what they had found. As the studies began, they found that the building was not just some sort of burial ground from perhaps an ancient human civilization as previously thought, but that it had beyond-current time technology and circuitry.
Due to the mystery and perhaps technological innovation possibilities of the operation, Reverstone and the Canadian government did not want to have this new discovery to go global. So officially the site just became another natural gas exploration project that had a great potential to continue to grow Canada's economy, as stated by the prime minister. The area got called New Canada Explorations, or NCE as it happened to be shortened to.
Our story begins with five people involved in the project of discovering what this place was, did and could do, who built it and why?
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Athyyah
Science FictionWhen a group of scientists discover an ancient facility, an accident send them to a far off world. It it unlike anything any of them could have imagined and even their main goal to return home will be put into question.