Artifact Chapter Two
Artifact
Author: J Carrell Jones
Table of Content
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Lieutenant Commander Wayne Piper woke up covered in sweat. He had the night terrors again. The fifth night in a row and he was beginning to worry. He had stopped remembering the nightmares for years, but lately the same two kept reoccurring. The drug Klonopin, was an old one, but mostly effective. At least until a few days ago. Tonight was different though. He woke himself up because on his screaming. This particular terror didn’t have anything to do with fear. No, not this one he thought. This was more like guilt and shame and realizing he could have done something different. But, the question arose, what? He sighed deeply and rolled over. After a moment he realized it was worthless. The sheets were too wet to get comfortable. Dread seemed to consume his body and left him too exhausted to sleep. “Lights on,” he said as he got out of bed and walked into the bathroom.
It had been about twenty years since the crew of the McCain had been rescued. Forty years after the ship sent out a Mayday – 37 years too long. All active rescues during the initial stage of the war had been halted, thus everyone he knew was dead or dying when he got back to Earth. He looked in the mirror and saw too many wrinkles. His eyes were puffy and his frown lines were deep. The crow’s feet at the corner of each eye gave him some satisfaction. He could say they were from laughing at life often, instead of being bitter. The face in the mirror slowly shook its head. “You only laugh at life when you are conscious.” He said out loud.
Stepping out of the bathroom he walked over to his desk and checked his messages. GRID Central sent him a Vid message. He sat down behind the computer and opened it.
“All is well, Commander.” His boss, Admiral Ty said. “I have one last mission for you. It’s a cold-case that shouldn’t take long for you to solve.”
Piper was set to retire in a month. He laughed. The Admiral said it shouldn’t take too long. He was good at his job, but a month? The Admiral had too much confidence in his abilities he thought. Piper considered himself an excellent Investigator. He was thorough with his investigations. He’d eliminate all that was possible and whatever evidence was left, no matter how improbable it related to the case, it had to be the truth. He solved 93% of his cases, and that was good. The other 15% had enough evidence for him to finger the Perb, but not enough to bring to trial. Or, in some cases, had been swept aside. The Most High Goddess was pretty influential. It didn’t help that he, too, was a follower and sometimes there were cases of ethical violations, but he did the best he could in finding a balance between the two. In the most extreme cases, he would hand all his evidences to a follow Investigator and let them do the arrest. He had enough accolades to last several lifetimes.
“. . . Meet me in my office first thing in the morning. Have a good evening.” The video blinked off.
Piper scratched his forehead. ‘A cold-case’, he thought. Not unexpected, but Ty always knew how to bait and hook him. The last cold-case took eight months to finish but it ended in a conviction of a member of a local parliament. It was a shame, and Piper felt bad – only for a minute, but the crime was horrendous and justice had to be served. He tapped the local news and skimmed through the usual headlines: “SI War takes another turn”, “Colonists saved from the SI”, “Colonists lost by the SI”, “GRID Central has an ambitious plan”, and on and on and on. It was the war that delayed the McCain rescue. Piper switched the news off and tapped out the code to open his personal files. A picture of Wendy Gordon, crewmate and friend from the McCain, brightly smiled. She was in uniform and looked lovely. Piper smiled and tried to dredge up past memories. Almost nothing came up. He knew he liked Wendy, and he “knew” she liked him. He figured. The Doctor’s said it was Brain Tissue damage from a combination of drugs, alcohol, and the stasis process. Even hypnosis turned up very little. During one session he displayed unexplainable rage toward Blifford “Bliff” Kingslayer. Earthside records classified Bliff as a life-long friend. They went through the Academy together, served on the Norton, Mandela, and the McCain. So, it was odd why he had such a strong reaction whenever Bliff’s name was mentioned. He rubbed his forehead and scratched at the side of his head. In another three hours the Admiral would be up.
Piper washed up and dressed. He decided to head into work early. It wasn’t like he had retirement plans already worked out. He didn’t. Retirement really wasn’t something he wanted to do, nor had he thought it completely through. He just thought that one day a bad guy would gun him down and that would be that. “Computer, secure mode, please.” He said as he walked out the front door. Just before it closed he heard the computer’s three tone beeps.
***
Ty sat at his desk staring at the McCain artifact – The Box. The original four corner C-clamps were still locked and the last attempt to crack the code was done ten years ago. When it was discovered it brought out more questions than answers. It was a secret about a secret and no one knew what the original secret was. Ty looked over the hardcopy data sheets about The Box. Just before the McCain imploded the Captain, Tan Rogers, sent out a Mayday. The McCain’s aft engine had breached its protective wall and doomed the ship. Half the crew survived in Escape Pods because Captain Rogers was able to move the ship to a safe distance before it imploded. The Box was found on board the Command Escape Pod – all personnel dead, through sabotage. Cameras and Audio pickup had been disabled. The Medical Escape Pod had damage. The entire medical staff killed because of a hull breach. Those personnel rescued reported that Commander Densel was in charge, then some hours later Lt. Commander Kingslayer reported that the Commander had an accident and all of Medical Staff was lost. After that he told personnel to initiate Stasis and start fireguard watch on the larger Escape Pods. The mystery was that Commander Densel and Lt. Commander Kingslayer were both missing. Forensics placed both in the Command Escape Pod as well as, at the time, Lt. Piper. Yet Piper, upon rescue was in a single Escape Pod and couldn’t remember a single thing about the accident. His system was pumped full of drugs whose side effects were amnesia. The Medical Examiner at the time said Piper was lucky he hadn’t lost all memory. Apparently, he entered stasis as the drugs just started to take effect, thus minimizing complete and utter memory loss. Ty reached out and touched one of the C-clamps. Piper’s finger prints had covered every single clamp. His prints and DNA were on the surface of most of The Box, yet he, in a written statement, couldn’t remember The Box. He didn’t remember the combinations nor being on the Command Escape Pod. A Psyche scan verified he was telling the truth. After several months of investigating and questioning, all the evidence had been collected, catalogued, and shelved – for twenty years, until now. Ty looked over to his wall clock. It would be 0400 in another three minutes and he expected Piper to be at his desk reading over his last assignment, The Box. Then he heard a knock at his door. “Enter.” Piper stepped through. “Sir, morning. I hadn’t expected you here this early. Chuck said you’ve been here for hours.” Ty smiled. “Yeah.” He gestured toward a chair next to his desk. “Have a seat.” Piper started walking to the chair when he noticed The Box. He paused for a moment, then continued. He sat in the chair, staring at The Box the entire time. It featured prominently in all his nightmares. He remembered being question endlessly about it, but he could never remember any useful detail about it. Then a Psyche Eval cleared him and he was allowed to continue serving in the service. “Is this my cold-case?” Ty nodded. “Partially.” He pushed a folder filled with notes, photos, and documents. Autopsies were included. Piper took it and leafed through the contents. After a few moments he said, “One month? Really, Boss.” Ty reacted with a large grin. “It’s a cold-case. It doesn’t require resolution in that time, just some forward movement. The Council found another box and would like to know of any connection.” Piper blinked several times. “Movement?” Ty nodded. “Are they related? The two boxes? The one we found at location Zed 45 Eta 10 seems older but is craved in a more artistic manner. This box is surprisingly simple compared to the second one. Plus, the newly discovered box is not sealed.” Piper nodded. “Just forward movement? What was found in this second box?” “Just forward movement. No need to resolve the actually mystery but see if there is a connection. And, the second box had three rings made of different material. And a wand of sorts. We have no idea, yet, how to read the writings inside the second box, but we are certain the languages in either box are completely different.” Piper nodded. Damn you he thought. “Rings – and a wand? As in magic wand?” Ty slowly nodded. “The council nearly orgasmed –“ “I bet!” “. . . Our Most High wants to dispatch a ship out there, but . . .”
Piper nodded, “The war.”
“So, whatever info you can dig up the better.” Piper stared at The Box for a long moment. “I don’t remember much, you know that?” Ty nodded. “I do.” “And, I may not come up with anything, you know that too?” “Of course, but you and I know you like a challenge.” Ty got up from his chair and walked to a small upright cooler set in a corner of the office. He opened the door and pulled out two bottles of Adult beverage. Walking back to his desk he handed one to Piper. “So early?” “So late. I’ve been here since yesterday.” He pulled the tab off the top and took a sip. Piper followed. The liquid slid down his throat smoothly. He liked Ty’s choice of booze. “I don’t know?” Ty smiled. “What are you afraid of? We’ve known each other for a long time.” Piper nodded and took a swallow. “It’s only The Box . . .” “That started an earnest effort of finding other artifacts.” “The second box.” “Why me?” Piper asked “Retirement, my friend, retirement. Officially, you are on the backslid to doing nothing, but you now have nearly unlimited time and resources at your disposal . . .” He held up a finger. “All your other cases have been reassigned. This is from GRID Central and the Most High Council.” “The Most High? A month?” Ty shrugged. “The timeframe is up to you. After retirement The Most High may want you in her circle.” He slid The Box closer to Piper. “Your finger prints. Must be your combination.” Piper stared at the box. Dread gripped his heart. One month he said. One month. “Or I tried and failed numerous times.” Ty shrugged. “Your prints. Today it’s not my problem. It’s surprisingly light.” Piper took the clue. His time was up and it was time to go. He lifted The Box up and agreed. It was surprisingly light. When he reached the door he looked back. Ty was already staring at a PAD. He gave a wave. Piper nodded and headed to his desk. A month. And the Most High was watching.
Piper placed The Box on top his Desk. The four C-clamps looked like robotic legs. He lifted his PAAD and tapped out his passcode. He placed it back on the Desk as the device projected a black sphere a meter above its surface. “Wen,” he began, “What do we know about The Box?”
A mezzo-soprano female voice said, “Evidential or Incidental?”
Piper pondered a moment. Every time he heard Wen’s voice it reminded him of Gordon. He specifically programmed his PAAD to sound like her. At first the Doctors’ were worried of his obsession, but after a time they agreed the end results did justify the means to recovery. He had been allowed to pursue a career change from Communications to Adjutant Investigative Branch. “Evidential, please.”
Wen said, “The Box has an Isotopic Analysis date of approximately 1200 years. It has a dimension of 1.5 meters long, 24 centimeters high, and 24 centimeters wide. It weighs 5 kg. Inside is depleted Uranium lined. X-rays have given negative results. There is a formula written along the edge on The Box lid . . .”
“Wait? What?”
“Wayne, there is a formula written along the edge on The Box’s lid.”
“Show me, please.”
Wen replaced the sphere with floating characters.
Some Piper thought he recognized, but of course he felt that was impossible. Maybe. One symbol looked like an upside-down pi, another was three short wavy lines one on top another. He thought Hieroglyph. There was a square at the very end. “Okay, Wen, no one has cracked the code in twenty years. I don’t think we’ll do it in a day.”
“Done.”
Piper said, “What? Done, what?”
Wen replied, “Wayne, you’ve used those symbols before . . .”
“Impossible!”
The display changed to an image of a document. It was titled “Encryptions by Deception.” The author was Lieutenant Wayne Piper, published during AIT.
Piper frowned. “I don’t remember that. And, besides. Wouldn’t the best and brightest in GRID have looked at that already?”
“Records show that it was mentioned, and tried, but shelved. Arrogance, Wayne, still lives.”
“Why?”
“At the time, no one took your ideas seriously.”
Piper laughed. “Okay, smart ass, what’s the combination to each clamp?”
“36 – 42 – 78 – 15, starting with the right-side clamp facing the front.”
“There’s six places for the combo. Why only two digits –“
“The first set takes up the first two spots. For the second clamp enter the number starting in the second spot. The third clamp, enter the number starting at the third spot, and the last clamp enter the number starting in spot four.”
Piper hesitated. “How did you figure it out so quickly?”
“I hadn’t. I’ve been working on it for the last five years.”
“Seriously? Five years?” Piper said incredulously.
“Wayne. If it doesn’t work we can try something else.”
Piper nodded. Wen was right. She almost was always right. “What are you going to do when I retire?”
“What we always do. You won’t stay idle. You can’t.”
He stared at The Box.
Wen said, “Wayne, try the combinations.”
“Wen, if the combos work that means I’m part of this entire mystery.”
“And the problem lies where?”
Piper finally concluded that he and Wen were married. “I don’t want to be part of the mystery.”
“And?”
He frowned. “And, I am scared.”
“Noted. Now, please, try the combinations.”
Piper reached out and entered the first number.
Nothing.
He exhaled and smiled. “Ha!”
“Place your thumb on the biosensor plate.”
“Wait, what?”
“The biosensor plate. On top of each clamp.”
Piper hovered his thumb over the spot. If the clamp unlocked then his soul was doomed to damnation. He pressed down.
The clamp went ‘Tunked’ loudly and dread washed over Piper. He had committed himself.
“I’m fucked.” He said out loud.
“Try the other three clamps before you doom yourself to hell.”
Piper swallowed hard. The other three clamps unlocked. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” He paused. “Shouldn’t I be doing this in some secured location? Just in case I release some toxic germ?”
“The Box is not airtight enough to contain a sterile environment. It’s been subjected to twenty years of analysis. It is safe.”
Piper removed each clamp. The Box rested in front of him.
Wen said, “Remove the lid.”
Transfixed, Piper broke the spell. “Huh? The lid, of course.” He reached out and grabbed a corner. He lifted it up gingerly at first. A few seconds later he removed the lid altogether.
“Interesting.” Wen said.
“What?” He peered into The Box. A dozen items rested neatly inside it. Then he frowned. “What the - ?”
“Wayne, this is not good.”
He leaned back into his chair. “It’s . . . it’s . . .”
Wen finished, “. . . junk.”
“Junk!”
“Wayne, I just said that.”
Piper took a deep breathe. “Junk!”
“Wen, send what we have so far to Ty.”
“Done.”
Piper nodded. If Ty had any reservations he’d given him a chance to voice them early. “This picture ‘feels’ familiar.” He pulled out an image of what looked like an alien. It was embedded in a metal plate and had a slightly low opacity.
“It is. The image is about 95% likeness of a very popular First Shooter Game during the early 21st century.”
Piper’s frown deepened. There were several stone tiles with scribble on them. Clearly, they were fake. His cheeks reddened. “What was I going to accomplish with this?”
Wen said, “We have data from the other Escape Pods.”
“Such as?” Piper rubbed at the stubble underneath his chin.
“Nanocleaner video.”
He stopped rubbing. “Nanocleaners?”
“Only three thousand and thirty survived. The original investigative team collected all the Nanocleaners they could find and put them in storage. Only the three thousand and so have survived. During the investigation they were able to several holographic scenes.”
Wen had Piper’s attention now. “What was the conclusion?”
“A few murders.”
Piper blinked several times. “I was never told that.”
Wen said, “As you should not have been told. You were a suspect.”
“I’m not liking this one bit.”
“Wayne, apparently, you were cleared. You’re here investigating a cold-case instead of being in jail or . . .”
Piper nodded, “. . . 2 meters under? True. Are the holographic builds available?”
Wen paused a long moment.
Piper asked, “Wen, what’s wrong? You almost never hesitate.”
Wen remained silent.
“Wen, give. We’ve known each too long.”
“Wayne, it’s not good. Some of the scenes had been extrapolated from circumstantial evidence. So, it may have or have not happened exactly on that day.”
“I’m getting the impression this is not a cold case.”
“Analysis indicates the same . . .”
“Analysis? Wen! You’re spooked.”
“Wayne . . . I am concerned.”
Piper let that sink in. Wen had been concerned maybe two or three times through the two decades they’ve known each other. Each time it was life threatening. The last time, about eight years ago, Wayne nearly lost his legs. He got the bad guys, but the price was high. His legs were saved, but at the cost of his soul . . . to The Most High Goddess. “I want to see.”
Silence.
“Wen . . . ?”
“Wayne, arrangements have been made. We’ll have to go to the one of the GraphView rooms in the Boehner McConnell Hall . . .”
Piper raised an eyebrow. “It’s that long?”
“Yes, over several petabytes and protected under the seal of The Most High.”
Piper frowned. “That’s a bit extreme.”
“I’ve already seen it . . . and there is something else.”
“Yes?”
“The items in The Box were not all junk.”
“Wait, what?”
“There’s something missing.”
“Like?”
“A wand . . . kind of.”
Piper cocked his head to one side, “A wand? As in magic wand?”
“As in a possible weapon in the shape of a wand.”
Deep in thought Piper finally said, “Interesting. So that means The Box had been opened before?”
“From what is shown in the holoscene and what is not in The Box I would conclude yes.”
“Would Ty know this Box was opened before?”
“Inconclusive. Are you giving me a probable cause?”
“We can’t look at Ty’s email. That’s invasion of privacy.”
“Wayne, you want answers the easy way, or the tedious hard way?”
That raised an interesting question. “Wen, send a formal request to Admiral Ty’s office on want my limitations are in gathering evidence.”
“Done. I also added a formal request for jurisdictions classifications.”
Piper nodded. Would Ty allow him to search through The Most High records?
“Wayne, we have a reply.”
“So, soon?”
Wen said, “Very interesting.”
“What’s that?”
“Besides getting a response back this quickly, Admiral Ty preemptively sent you an encrypted file.”
“It was sent as an auto-reply?”
“Apparently. Wayne, I think you should see the holoscenes. Authorization has already been given.”
“What about the encrypted file?”
“I can’t crack it . . . yet.”
“I’m not going to like what I see, will I?”
“On more than one level, no.”
Piper felt like he was hit with cold water. ‘On more than one level, no.’ He sighed and got up. He grabbed Wen and headed out the door. Face your fears they say. Look fear in the eye they saw. Screw them he thought.