The Empty Eggs of Burning Light

The Empty Eggs of Burning Light

Book Three of the Ancients of Earth Series

by:

Lucian Randolph

© 2012

Inside cover

In 32 hours, the world as we know it will end…

The magnetic field of the earth is about to fail because of a series of gigantic solar storms, which come in a 26,000 year cycle. When that happens, solar radiation will cause widespread infertility among all land animals, including us. As the storms begin causing dramatic destruction that could lead to the downfall of our technological civilization, a mysterious clue about the danger appears on an ancient artifact. While the countdown continues, major characters start coming together for the first time, building dark intrigue, ancient prophesy and cutting-edge high-technology into a series of connected events leading to the end of the world – unless it can be stopped. A mysterious consciousness and presence inside the only clue about what is happening may be the only means of preventing the coming disaster. But time is running out, and the chaos has already begun.

THE EMPTY EGGS OF BURNING LIGHT continues the exciting saga from THE HOLE IN THE MAGIC SHIELD. A hard science fiction tale so real some readers can’t tell it’s fiction, the third fast-paced thriller picks up the minute the last one stopped. The next 8.25 hours, out of only 32 hours left in the world, begin to add new characters and plots as events trigger a cascade of cause and effect. The hour-by-hour style of the modern timeline combines with larger than life characters and historical fact in a story you can’t put down. The twisted mystery continues to dig deeper until a cliff-hanger ending guaranteed to make readers scream in anticipation for the next installment. But the story is only half over…

The Empty Eggs of Burning Light

Lucian Randolph

Published by McDonald Press at Smashwords

Copyright © 2012 Lucian Randolph

eBook Edition 1b

All rights reserved.

ISBN-13: 978-0-9836091-3-1

Book design by: McPress

McDonald Press Publishing Co.

Cover Design by: Marie Relta

Copyright © 2011, Marie Relta

Paid Image Credits: www.canstockphoto.com

Magnificent Sun © Can Stock Photo Inc. / Somatuscani

Atmospheric Nude © Can Stock Photo Inc. / Neotakezo

eBook Edition: 1b

THE ANCIENTS OF EARTH

An Action Science Fiction Series

by Lucian Randolph

Available now at all major online booksellers.

Book One - THE GOD IN THE CLEAR ROCK

Book Two - THE HOLE IN THE MAGIC SHIELD

Book Three - THE EMPTY EGGS OF BURNING LIGHT

Book Four - THE WRATH OF THE INVISIBLE SWORD

Book Five - THE FINAL FIRE OF BRIGHT SKIES

And Coming Soon…

Book Six (the final book) - THE SEED OF THE SUN’S HEART

Find the latest information about Lucian at:

LucianRandolph.com

And circle Lucian on Google Plus:

https://plus.google.com/+LucianRandolph

Or follow Lucian on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/LucianRandolph

A Quick Note from the Author

This story is not real. Any resemblance to any person or thing, living or dead, business or company, place or location, character or personality, event or incident is entirely coincidental or is used in a creative and fictitious manner by the author and is fueled solely by his imagination. That’s why it’s called fiction.

Sincerely,

Lucian Randolph

PS - Be sure to pay close attention to the opening time label and location description at the beginning of each chapter. This book covers a little over 8 hours of the 32 hour countdown, and the modern storyline unfolds chronologically. The different historical storylines and their timelines can be a little confusing as the chapters jump across the years. All of the current storyline chapters are marked in a Greenwich Mean Time or GMT, and these are the basis of the 41 hour countdown. This is a standard time that is universal across the globe and makes it easy to follow current events as they unfold in different time zones but only minutes apart.

CHAPTER ONE

78,000 Years Ago

Alpha Site on the Yucatan Peninsula

Six minutes Post Event Time (PET)

00:06 PET

• • • • •

The alarm continued to scream in the background as the last of the science team left the Control Room. The only two who remained in the top floor apex were Dokor M’aaren, the Chief Scientist of the pyramid-shaped science fort in the Yucatan jungle, and T’horte. Neither had moved from their workstations, and now that the room was empty, they both stared intently at one another. Unlike a couple of minutes earlier, this time T’horte did not back down. For a few long moments, the two watched each other across the distance between the elevated central station in the middle of the Control Room and the computer console where T’horte defiantly stood. M’aaren finally broke the tension.

Do you wish to speak to me, T’horte? The deep baritone of his voice resonated off the walls from vocal cords sized for the giant that he was.

What do you intend to do? The question from T’horte was measured and deliberate but still carried the emotional undertone of his earlier outburst and reverberated in the same low resonance that was characteristic of their entire race.

After a short pause, M’aaren answered. "The emergency survival protocol must be initiated. We are all in danger now. The computer simulations predict a massive chuynwa displacement wave will reach the station in just over a hexa-day of time. Does that satisfy your query?" M’aaren knew that it didn’t from the look on T’horte’s face.

And after that?

Since we have so little time, we must attempt to secure the station as quickly as possible. Then we will take the needed equipment for the Great Plan, in addition to everything else that we can carry, and we will leave. This time, M’aaren lifted his eyebrows and used his large blue eyes as a method of asking T’horte if he had finished.

T’horte obliged him by walking toward the elevated central workstation while asking his next question. Where do you intend to go? He stopped beside the counter surrounding the central command station and continued before M’aaren could answer, but T’horte looked at him with a startling posture that M’aaren had never seen before. And by what authority do you claim leadership now? His face was a complete blank of emotion when he said this. But his eyes and body language were intense with aggression.

This caught M’aaren off guard. In all of his conflicts with him, T’horte had never threatened aggression, neither directly nor indirectly. But this move was a clear act of aggression and T’horte knew it. His posture and his words were physically and literally threatening like a challenge to an alpha male in a wolf pack. M’aaren hesitated for just a moment and T’horte sensed an opening. He began to step toward the walkway up into the command station where M’aaren still sat at his desk when both of them heard H’kcuta at the door.

Dokor. We are ready to begin the procedures. The protocol requires that you, as Dokor, must go first. Do you need assistance finishing here? H’kcuta was not only a giant, he was built like a Clydesdale stallion. By far the largest of the team members, he towered over the next tallest scientist, who was taller than most of the others, by almost a half meter and an equal ratio in width and strength. Barefoot he stretched to almost four meters or a little over thirteen feet. With his massive work boots, he was even taller. His silhouette took up much of the double wide doorway which was barely tall enough not to require him to duck under it.

T’horte stopped moving immediately when he saw H’kcuta. M’aaren looked back to the exit and smiled at his old friend who always seemed to show up when he needed him most. Then he looked back to T’horte and his smiled dissipated.

Are we finished here?

T’horte nodded his head but thought to himself, ‘Not yet, we aren’t.’

Then you must join the others in the medical lab. M’aaren did not make it a request and his tone verified the order.

T’horte silently turned and walked out of the control room past H’kcuta then headed toward the medical lab.

Behind him, M’aaren gathered his crystal tablet from the desk and began toward the exit. As he approached his large friend, he looked up and smiled again. Then his expression got serious.

I believe there is something wrong with T’horte. He has begun acting strangely. He just asked me on whose ‘authority’ my leadership is based. I believe the trauma of seeing… M’aaren suddenly found a lump in his throat as he quickly remembered personally seeing the loss of their island home and everyone they knew, including his mate and their only m’hua who was so young. He quickly swallowed and continued as best he could. I believe the grief may have affected him deeply. We should have the Medicals take a look at him when they perform the emergency procedure. It’s important that each of us stay as healthy as possible from this point forward. The full protocol and plan will take every one of us.

H’kcuta was very big, but he was also very smart. He was a leading scientist in his field, after all, to have been chosen as part of the science team. He knew what his boss and friend was telling him was true. He nodded his head to M’aaren and then turned and pointed his large arm down the hallway toward the medical lab.

We must go now. His deep voice rumbled through the empty Command Room.

M’aaren nodded back and quickly walked past him into the long corridor while the sirens continued to wail across the entire pyramid shaped building.

• • •

The giant geometric shaped structure resembled an enormous step-sided pyramid. It had multiple levels of open terraces on all four sides of the slanted walls reaching all the way up to the apex which was over six-hundred and fifty feet tall. The outside terraces contained park-sized topiaries and food gardens that were connected to the interior by large mezzanines leading into the superstructure of the pyramid shaped science fort. Made from metal and stone composite materials stronger than anything found in nature, it was designed to last for ten thousand years and was completely self-contained as a life habitat when in the open functioning configuration with the gardens in full growth. But now, the outside terraces were being enclosed by long hardened doors rotated into place on gigantic metal robotic arms. When they finished enclosing the numerous floors of outside gardens, open air spaces and laboratories, the giant building looked like a normal smooth sided pyramid associated with our time, only on a much grander scale. Although the science station was only two hundred and fifty feet taller than the four hundred foot tall Great Pyramid which would be built in Giza seventy-three millennia in the future, the ratio size of true pyramids meant the base was almost twice as wide. Set side-by-side, the science station would dwarf the Great Pyramid on a much larger scale than the Great Pyramid does over all the other pyramids on the Egyptian plateau.

As the last of the great doors closed shut and began to seal, M’aaren made it down to the medical lab in the central core of the bottom floor. When he got there, all one-hundred and fifty-three members of his team were present including himself. The Medicals had arranged the groups into lines behind a series of tables and surgical gurney chairs in the large open space and they were awaiting his arrival. As he and H’kcuta walked into the room, the few low conversations stopped. M’aaren quickly glanced around the room and made an effort to surreptitiously locate T’horte. After another glance around the silent room, he spoke.

As I am sure everyone is now aware, a terrible tragedy has destroyed our home and all who were on it. He intentionally looked at T’horte for a long beat, then looked away and continued. Each of you knows what that means and what the declared and designated protocol for this occurrence is. We have long prepared for the possibility that something unknown could represent a threat to the survival of our people. The Great Plan was created for just this possibility. He paused here and motioned for the Head of the Medicals to approach with her instruments then continued. Our duty is clear and our vows were a sacred oath to fulfill this new obligation. As Dokor, I will submit to the procedure first.

With that, the Chief Medical of the science station stepped up and placed her hand on M’aaren’s shoulder. For his part, M’aaren turned and walked the few steps to a surgical gurney designed as a chair device that you stepped forward into. M’aaren’s form fitting coveralls stretched easily as he straddled the central support and sat down on the forward inclined bench. Then he leaned forward against the soft and wide chest support, sliding his arms into the molded rests curved around the front. Finally, he placed his head against the padded and open face shelf. When he stopped moving and was comfortable, Chief Medical Y’naaru stepped beside him and placed an aero-syringe against his neck then quickly injected him with the first round of anesthetizing nano-bots that would be placed inside his body. As Y’naaru stepped back and handed the first injection unit back to her assistant, the other Medicals began the same procedure on the other two dozen tables and upright surgical gurneys around the room.

M’aaren barely felt the first injection, but after a few moments his neck and shoulders began to get numb as the targeted nano-devices reached designated nerves and interrupted their signal transmission to the brain. He didn’t feel when Chief Medical Y’naaru reached out and used the molecular separator to unzip the coverall material down across his back until he felt the cool air against his lower lumbar area. Y’naaru grabbed another device from the table next to her and waved it over the area from the top of his neck down to between his huge shoulder blades. A bright yellow light scanned over the area and then switched to a bright blue light. After a moment more, Y’naaru replaced the sterilization scanner. Then she grabbed a long flexible device with arms sticking out from the sides like legs on a centipede. She took one last close look at the unit then slowly placed it against M’aaren’s neck starting just below his giant skull. Then she laid the rest of the device down his entire neck and in between his shoulder blades. As she adjusted the device against M’aaren’s bare back, the arms on the centipede unit flexed outward on both sides and penetrated into his skin with microprobes.

Y’naaru pulled her arms back and grabbed another small tubular device about four inches long and two inches in diameter from the table. When she removed her hands from the centipede surgical spreader, the device clamped onto the skin over M’aaren’s spine using air suction. A small laser light, tuned to the specific cells in hominid skin, shot out from the device and cleanly opened a surgical incision from one end of the unit to the other. Small nano robotic arms quickly reached out and grabbed the smooth cut sides of the incision and held them in place. Slowly the unit began to separate down the middle like it was splitting in half. The nano robotic skin clamps pulled the skin apart evenly and cleanly from the underlying tissue, using small bursts from their lasers to separate it from the fascia as it opened. When the skin was pulled apart, a small burst of blue light from the laser head sterilized the field and then created a shield of laser light above the open tissue. Y’naaru took the small cylindrical unit in her hand and placed it near the mechanized spreader unit on M’aaren’s back. When it got close enough, the centipede unit reached out two mechanical arms and grabbed the cylinder. Then it began to rotate the tube around as several laser heads scanned and disinfected its surface.

After several full scans and radiation baths, the centipede unit slowly pulled the cylinder into the surgical opening. The laser shield protecting the exposed spine of M’aaren provided one last disinfecting bath as the tubular device was lowered into the cavity and placed directly against the point where his neck joined his spine. When the unit was in place, the centipede pulled back its arms and the laser scanned the entire surgical field once more. Then the unit against his spine began to open up and extend small arms from the outside edges into the tissue surrounding the bones and his spinal cord. A small tail like device extended out of the bottom and snaked down his back toward his feet. After a few inches, it stopped and pulled away from the skin before diving back into the tissue. It wormed under his back and began to wrap tentacles around his spine leading from the open surgical area down to his lower back, which was also numb now.

The main body of the spider implant began to extend small flexible tentacles into his back and they wrapped inside and around his spine and up into his neck. After a few moments, the unit was completely embedded into the back tissue surrounding M’aaren’s spine and was interfaced with his nervous system at the molecular level. Y’naaru took another instrument and held it over the device on his back. The screen on the instrument verified that the unit was integrated properly. Y’naaru touched a key-spot on the instrument screen and the fusion power unit started up on M’aaren’s back. After a few more moments, the instrument in Y’naaru’s hand opened up a new screen filled with status readings coming from the surgically implanted power supply that was the first step in the emergency medical nano-bot system she was about to implant into M’aaren.

When she was sure that everything was functioning properly she reached back onto the surgical side table and retrieved a long glass walled cylinder about one foot long and four inches in diameter. The vial had metal ends and was filled with a silverly viscous liquid. Just as she did with the fusion power supply unit, she examined the tubular container first. As she did this, the entire group of Medicals around the two dozen other surgical tables followed suit. Y’naaru moved the vial of nano-robots designed to augment and repair their bodies from the inside near the centipede unit and the arms reached out and grabbed it from her hands once again. It then began a similar laser disinfecting scan, turning the shiny tube through the killing coherent light stream several times before finally lifting it above the open unit on M’aaren’s upper spine. But instead of fully inserting the tube into the surgical field below the centipede’s laser shield, the unit was lowered by one end only. Once that end penetrated the laser shield over the powered implant, a small tube extended up and docked with the end of the long tube like a syringe needle.

Y’naaru checked readings on her tablet to ensure that everything was normal, then looked around the room as the the remainder of the twenty-five nano implant stations were doing the same. When she looked back to the unit on M’aaren’s back, the silverly thick liquid was almost gone from the cylinder. As the nano-robots passed through the control system and power unit on his back, they were activated and began to spread through his body as fast as either the blood stream or the endocrine system could take them to their intended destinations. Y’naaru switched screens to a full scan of his body and watched as the new masters of his immune system swarmed into M’aaren’s torso and spread out to his limbs. Within only two minutes, the scan showed the distribution of the nano-bots throughout his entire physiology.

M’aaren suddenly felt a sensation that he could not describe if someone were to ask him. Hundreds of different types of specific nano-robots were beginning to interface themselves at the cellular level of his body. Programmed and manipulated by a fusion powered computer embedded in the magnetic control unit along his upper spine, the ultra small mechanical systems were individually matched to the specific body function they were intended to enhance, augment, protect and repair. Fully integrated into all of his systems including his nervous and skeletal systems, the medical nano-bot system would now function like a brand new immune system.

The system was designed to maintain the physiology of the host at the perfect optimal condition as determined at the time of original implant. As an emergency life-saving measure, it was guaranteed to save the life of any member of the science team that may have been accidentally injured or even killed if used within a few minutes of death. The nano-robots were capable of repairing any type of damage although complete replacement of body parts or tissue took a longer time than the time to revive or repair.

The centipede unit finished installing the medical nano-bots and the small tube disconnected from the end of the loading cylinder. The surgical unit then removed the cylinder from the sterile field and extended it away toward Y’naaru. She grabbed the unit and placed it back on the surgical side-table. When she turned back around, the tablet in her hand switched views automatically and the centipede monitor came back on. She stepped closer and took one final visual inspection of the system and then stepped back as she gave the command to close the surgery by tapping on the tablet again. The centipede promptly began to pull the skin back over M’aaren’s open back and the machinery now implanted between his massive and wide shoulder blades. As the skin was gently pulled together, the centipede unit seemed to relax and began to squeeze the side walls of the surgical spreader back toward the midline of his spine. The laser continuously scanned the entire area, disinfecting and stimulating the tissue for healing as it went.

After a few more moments, the unit came together and the walls of the skin were brought within a few micrometers by the first two robotic grabbers. Y’naaru’s monitor began to zoom into the open wound at the molecular level. As the image got close to the tips of the micro sized robotic fingers, the tissue seemed to jump into the small gap between the two walls of the incision. The medical nano-bots used carbon scaffolding to connect the walls of the incision and then shuttled in the cells and material to rebuild the damaged areas separated by the original low-temperature laser cut. The smooth incision began to close up leaving skin that was slightly lighter than the deep brown skin of his back but without any visible scar tissue. As the melanin in the new skin normalized over the next few hours, the light color would fade and the incision would not be detectable with bare eyes.

The small new hump over his spine and the extended tentacles that reach down toward his hips and up into his brain would be clearly visible, however.

The emergency system was not meant to be used for extended periods of time although no one had ever determined the exact dangers associated with long-term use. As M’aaren felt the subtle sense of power spreading through him, the centipede unit finished zipping closed the skin and tissue on his back. Then it began another movement. This time, it retrieved the small robotic fingers into itself and then finally retracted into the slim flexible unit that Y’naaru originally placed against M’aaren’s back. She handed the tablet to her assistant and the Medical took it before moving the surgical side-table away from the chair that M’aaren was lying forward in. Y’naaru stepped up and grabbed the centipede then waited as the suction cups disconnected from his skin. When she pulled the unit away from his back, only the dozens of circular suction spots and the thin lighter brown line remained. She stepped away and then handed the unit to her assistant for recharging. Then she looked around the room to make sure that all of the two dozen remaining teams were fully successful. Everyone seemed to be at the same stage, meaning there were no errors or difficulties in activation of the systems.

This also meant that the first twenty-five of the one-hundred and fifty-three scientist here were now safely protected for their upcoming role in the great plan.

Y’naaru stepped back up to M’aaren and used the laser molecular separator in reverse to reattach the two sides of his coveralls by zipping them up from his lower back to his neck. When the garment was reassembled as before, she placed a palm on M’aaren’s back and leaned around to see his face.

Dokor, the procedure is finished. You may stand now. Her voice was deep like all of the giants, but it had the feminine tones of a cello as opposed to the baritone bass of the males.

M’aaren pushed himself up effortlessly and stood upright next to the surgical chair gurney. Instead of any type of post operation soreness or sense of pain, he felt incredible. He nodded at the Chief Medical before stepping away from the area to allow the next person onto the unit. Around the room, the other stations were finishing with their patients and each of them was standing and stretching their limbs as M’aaren surveyed the group. At the far end near the main computer core, M’aaren saw T’horte rising up from the last medical gurney chair. T’horte stood up and flexed his shoulders back before looking up and making eye-contact with M’aaren. But instead of continuing to stare, T’horte quickly looked back and moved away from the gurney for the next in line. M’aaren relaxed slightly and then looked back at the table next to him.

His sister, X’eiron, was standing next to the gurney, but she was waiting to look at her older brother and the Chief Scientist of the station. When their eyes met, she visibly relaxed and then smiled enigmatically before she turned and stepped into the surgical gurney which was robotically shrinking the appropriate difference in their respective body sizes. When it fully adjusted to her and she relaxed, the assistant to the Chief Medical wheeled a recharged medical side-table next to the gurney. Around the room, the remaining twenty-four tables began loading the next group to be fitted with the emergency nano-systems. Y’naaru grabbed a new centipede unit and walked up to the gurney. As she got closer, X’eiron called out.

M’aaren, please come where I can see you.

He knew that his sister was nervous about the nano-robot procedure. No one had ever done with it what they were all about to do. He stepped around the front of the unit and looked down at her hands on the arm rests. M’aaren reached out and placed his large hand gently on her hand and he could feel her relax at his touch. Just as he was about to nod to Y’naaru to begin the procedure he heard H’kcuta from behind him.

T’horte! What are you doing?

M’aaren twisted around with new found fast reflexes and could see where H’kcuta was standing on the far side of the room near the main computer core. As he scanned in the direction of his large companion’s stare, he could see T’horte with a small box standing next to the power junction for the station and the computer core. He tossed the package at the base of the power unit control system and then began running impossibly fast toward H’kcuta. As he got closer, he pulled out a huge metal rod and swung it back over his head. H’kcuta reacted faster than anyone could see and stepped to the side of T’horte as he swung down with the pipe and it sparked against the concrete floor. The nano-bot system in H’kcuta responded to his natural surge of adrenaline and super-charged the response. As he was naturally stronger and faster than T’horte, who was also responding to an augmented flow of fight hormones,