Allan Ashinoff - The Vostok Revelation

“You are absolutely right, Commander,” Babanin replied professionally. “But surely we have thirty minutes or more before the helicopter will be ready for departure? There is no sense wasting what time I have here. I will continue to work until I’m told that the helicopter is ready to depart.”

“Not a moment longer, Ms. Babanin,” the intercom clicked to end the conversation.

“He’s pissed.” Stephan told the mechanical engineer and her staff.

“He’ll get over it,” Elena replied absently as she guided the drone to move the sonar hit to the center of her screen.

Several seconds passed, the sonar hit grew larger on the laptop display.

“Look!” Losif exclaimed, his finger pointing to a stack of numbers in a rectangular window on the screen, “The arm receptors are recording a .001 degree centigrade increase in water temperature. Whatever that is, it is giving off heat.”

“Five meters,” Elena said absently, “Switching on the lights and the cameras. Recording.”

The primary window on the laptop display instantly changed to a deep black background with a square white dot at its center.

“That is not a mountain crest.” Losif whispered in amazement.

Elena leveled the drone and allowed it to slowly descend beside the object. A dozen ten millimeter LED lights illuminated the four meters surrounding the drone.

“Tha… Tha… That looks like an… an… antenna.” Anton stammered in disbelief. ”How can an antenna be at the bottom of a lake that hasn’t seen daylight in more than twenty million years?”

“Very simple,” Elena said, “It is not an antenna. It is likely just stone formation that has been eroded by the lake current.”

“No, this is not natural,” Losif replied. “Erosion doesn’t shape squared objects. Whatever that is, it was made by someone.”

The three could only look on in wonder as the drone continued its descent. The side view of the shaft now made up three quarters of the display width. The object was a nearly 22 centimeters wide and still possessed its sharp edges.

“Ms. Babanin,” The Commander called out through the intercom box. “We are prepared to depart. You and your people need to report to the heli-pad at once.”

Elena, still in a daze, pressed the intercom button, “Commander, I think you should see this.”

“This is not a game, Ms. Babanin. The storm we have been tracking is headed our way. There is a fair chance it will develop into a category-one storm. You need—”

“Commander, get down here now!” Elena released the intercom button and returned her attention to the screen.

A few minutes later a very annoyed Commander Lebedev with five of his personnel in tow stormed up behind Elena Babanin. Before he could vent his anger the image on the screen captured his eye.

“Wh… What is that?” The Commander leaned closer to the display.

“It looks like an antenna,” Anton said.

“Impossible,” the Commander replied.

“Whatever it is, it appears to be manufactured.” Elena added.

“I read once that the Nazi’s may have created a secret bunker in Antarctica at the end of World War Two,” Artur offered from behind everyone.

“You always believe the craziest things,” Commander Lebedev said over his shoulder.

“Is that so? Tell me then, what are we looking at?” Artur replied as he wedged himself through the crowd toward the Commander. “That sure looks like an antenna to me. If Hitler didn’t create it, then who did? Space people?”

“Enough!” The Commander said impatiently with a wave of his hand over his shoulder. “The lake has been beneath kilometers of ice since the Aquitanian Stage of Miocene Epoch, which is 20 to 23 million years ago. Whatever that is down there, no matter what it looks like on that screen, is something natural.” Commander Lebedev fixed his eyes on Elena, “Take a sample of the object, set the drone on automatic and let us get out of here. If this storm strikes we could become stranded here. You can analyze the composition of whatever it is from Argentina.”

“I didn’t think it wise to make contact. The object is giving off heat.”

“Heat?”

“Yes. The drone is registering a .001 degree increase in the water temperature surrounding the object.”

“.001? That could be a temperature variation caused by its mineral composition and proximity to a hydrothermal vent.” The Commander said. “This storm will soon be upon us. No matter how compelling, there is simply no time to study this object. Either take a sample or set the drone on auto and get yourself and your people to the helicopter.”

All eyes were fixed on Elena.

She stood there, eyes riveted to the screen as she weighed her ambition and curiosity against her safety. Could she leave on the cusp of a monumental discovery that could reshape history?

“I will take a scraping and then set the drone to begin its mapping,” Elena told the Commander.

Elena maneuvered the drone closer to the object and dipped its nose slightly, hoping to locate an optimal place to take a scraping. The brilliance of a dozen LED lights caused several meters of the structure to boldly contrast its environment. In plain view, just above the camera’s primary focus, a raised diamond-shaped area housed a recessed lightning bolt arrow pointing down.

“Holy shit!” Commander Lebedev placed a hand on Elena’s shoulder. “What have you found?”

“It’s a Nazi radio tower!” Artur called out triumphantly.

This time no one made reply.

“Bartnev!” Commander Lebedev barked, “Take Ms. Babanin to the communications center and connect her to the Academy.” He then turned to Elena, “Ms. Babanin, please follow Victor to report your find and to learn how they’d like you to proceed.”

“Emperor Bharata,” A turbaned man wrapped in clean white tunic said as he knelt down and placing his elbows and forehead near, but not on, his master’s opulent black and red checkered floor.

Xi Bharata contemptuously studied the prostrate man several feet below his feet. A purple sash with gold bars? Noting the material tied around the man’s waist. A science advisor, astrology division. Bharata examined the man’s posture for several seconds. Satisfied that none of the advisor’s unclean flesh had sullied the glorious crystalline floor of his audience chamber, he finally spoke, “Yes, what have you for me today science adviser?”

“A message, my Emperor. A transmission has been received from Kawkab El Ard.”

“Kawkab El Ard?” The Emperor’s awkward pronunciation echoed in the vast chamber. Without the slightest change of expression, his mind ran through the names of all the off-world mining facilities, orbiting stations, moons, planets and suns in his possession. He could not recollect ever giving anything such an unsavory and guttural name. Cradling his jaw between his left thumb and index finger, he softly spoke Kawkab El Ard into his jewel encrusted bracer. A second later, his companion, the electronic brain built into his bracelet, retrieved the information and answered discretely through the gold rings dangling from the Emperor’s ears.

“Vasundhara?” Bharata, his face still expressionless, was intrigued to receive confirmation that one of his oldest memories was, in fact, real. “I have received a transmission from Vasundhara?”

“Yes, Emperor. Va… cin… duh… era.” The adviser, now petrified to be talking directly to his master, struggled with the high-caste pronunciation.

“Interesting,” the Emperors eyes fixed on the mural of the blue planet, only one of the many planets, painted on the domed ceiling of his throne room. Unlike the vast majority of his eleven billion subjects, he had known from Day One that Vasundhara had existed. The only surprise to Xi Baharata was in discovering that anything had survived the Anatarnhas, the rain of meteorites predicted to strike Vasundhara, trigger global volcanic eruptions, worldwide flooding, and tectonic shifting. Such planetary upheaval, as the Ancestors knew, would annihilate every living thing on the entire planet. It was with this foreknowledge that the Ancestors created scores of automated craft engineered to traverse the stars and prepare a new world where humanity could again flourish. It was because of this pending catastrophe, sensing what humankind would need to become in order to survive on a new world, that Xi Bharata, Emperor of Ories, Supreme Ruler of all humankind and, two-million rebirths ago, Chief Scientist of Vasunhara’s governing council, became Vasundhara’s only warlord in nearly five thousand Chandra.