Abraxis Complex 1: Origin of Prometheus Read online

  Origin of Prometheus

  Book One of

  The Abraxis Complex

  By Ben Winston

  Copyright © 2015 Ben Winston

  Published by Blue Space Publications, LLC.

  Contents

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Disclaimer

  Origin of Prometheus

  About the Author

  Connect with the author or Blue Space Publications, LLC.

  Books Published by Blue Space Publications, LLC.

  Dedication

  To my wife, Lori, without whom I would have surely never finished this book

  To my brother Michael, without whom this work would never have been published

  And to my mother, may she rest in peace, who taught me it’s alright to dream.

  Disclaimer

  This story contains fiction people as well as fictional places. Any resemblance to actual people of places is purely coincidental. It is not my intent to imply that any nation's intelligence service is bad or evil. This work is not a political commentary. I simply needed the fictional versions of those agencies to be bad for the story to work the way I needed it too. In other words, this is a work of fiction, written for the enjoyment of an audience. It is not intended to be taken as truthful in any way.

  Origin of Prometheus

  Book One of

  The Abraxis Complex

  Shermandale, Utah

  North American Continent

  Earth, Sol System

  Bella and Jolene were excited about the arrival of their friends. It had been a long time since the four friends had seen each other. Bella and Jolene grew up together as best friends, as did their friends, Greg Albrecht and Mandi Adams. However, Greg and Mandi had gone to school in Colorado. Although the quartet had been friends for years, they had always wished they could be closer to each other.

  Today, that wish was being granted, although the circumstances had been terrible. During their graduation rehearsal, Mederos High School, the school Greg and Mandi attended, had reportedly been destroyed by a reported gas leak. Many people had lost their lives in the explosion, but Mandi and Greg had survived - much to Bella and Jolene’s relief.

  A newer Chevy sedan with Colorado plates pulled into Bella’s driveway. “They’re here Bella!" Jolene called, excitedly.

  The four friends first met at a regional academic fair, as opponents and had immediately became friends. They had stayed in contact via the internet ever since. They had all commented on how close their friendship had become even though it was over a computer. It was almost like they were all brother and sisters, and missed each other badly while they had been separated.

  Greg and Mandi hadn’t been related until their respective parents got married two months ago. Now, they were half-siblings and had joked that they would have to start arguing a lot more. Then, last week, during the rehearsal for their graduation ceremony, their school was turned into a vision from hell. The official records report the incident at Mederos High as the result of a leak in the gas main for the school heating system. Since the rehearsal had taken place on a cool spring day, the old, large gas boiler tried to ignite to warm up the buildings.

  However, both Greg and Mandi knew differently. Although the friends had told their parents about the incident, and what they had witnessed, they had not told their friends. Mandi’s Dad told them both that they couldn’t tell anyone about the incident, not even Bella and Jolene. His reason was that social media and cell phones where not private, and could very well be monitored.

  Shortly after the incident, Greg and Mandi’s parents told them they would be moving to the same town as their friends, to get them away from the bad memories. Both of the newlyweds had jobs that had them travel extensively, so where they lived really didn’t matter. They said that by moving to the small town in Utah, Greg and Mandi would have friends they could visit that hadn’t been involved in the incident, while the parents were gone. Although it seemed like a pretty thin excuse, neither of them questioned it.

  Bella and Jolene ran out the front of the house to greet their friends. Now that they all lived in the same town, they would be able to see each other a lot more often and they were excited about it.

  After all the initial greetings were over, Greg looked at the two ‘new’ young ladies. “Can we go see your 'bunker’? There is something we’ve really been wanting to talk to you both about.”

  “Uh, sure Greg, there are a few things we want to tell you guys about, too,” Jolene replied, losing most of her smile.

  Jolene and Bella had convinced Jolene’s parents to let the girls have the old bomb shelter in their back yard. The girls had left most of the survival gear, but had made the bunker a safe getaway.

  Bella’s father, a computer control systems engineer, had made sure that the Bunker wasn’t dark in any way. Not only had he made sure that the lights would always work, the new, state-of-the-art generator and battery system would make sure that they had lights and even computers during power outages. In fact, the parents could communicate with the kids via the messaging systems of the computers in the bunker.

  Both Jolene and Bella’s parents worked at the same place. StealthCon was a government funded think-tank that was basically the only reason that the small town remained afloat, making the town a military parasite town without the presence and accompanying hassles of the military.

  Going back through Jolene’s house, the quartet headed for the girls’ hide-a-way.

  'The Bunker'

  Blane Residence

  Shermandale, Utah

  North American Continent

  Earth, Sol System

  When they reached the shelter, and closed the door, Bella spoke out loud. “We’re home! Who’s online today?”

  “I am, sweetheart,” a male voice said from the walls.

  “Hi Daddy!” Bella replied cheerfully. “This is Greg Albrecht and Amanda Adams. Our friends from Mederos that we told you about." Smiling at Greg and Mandi, Bella continued the introduction. “Greg, Mandi, the disembodied voice you hear is my Daddy, Jon, talking from his office over at StealthCon.”

  “Nice to meet you, Sir.” Greg said. Mandi smiled and simply said 'Hello’. When the group had entered the bunker, one of the many computer’s mouse had been moved, and cleared the screen saver. The contents of the monitor immediately caught Mandi’s attention.

  “Jolene, this is wrong. According to this math, you’ve got the object pulling forty-three gees; even with a mercury-gyro anti-gravity unit that would be touchy even for a UAV,(Unmanned Aerial Vehicle)” Mandi said, pulling out a calculator to double check her math.

  “Bella, please allow visual,” Jon asked.

  Bella typed a few things on one of the computers, and a big screen mounted one of the walls, came to life with a picture of a man sitting behind a desk in an office.

  Jolene had moved over beside Mandi. “I know. I’m trying to explain how that could have happened. Not how to make it happen.”

  “That data is supposed to be classified, young lady. If General Hollister had been in here, I could have been in huge trouble!” Jon said.

  “I’m sorry, Mr. G! I thought I had cleared that off. It won’t happen again, I promise!" Jolene replied looking hurt because she'd let him down.

  “Don’t worry about it, Honey, just don’t let it happen again,” Jon said. “Now, Miss Adams, would you like to take a stab at the question that has all the scientists that are cleared to know of it stumped?”

  “The only answers I can think of Sir, are that either the craft was unmanned, or it had technology that we cannot currently reproduce. Hell, even unmanned I thi
nk we’d be hard pressed to duplicate this.” Mandi said. “May I ask where this data is from?”

  “Uh, yeah, that’s kinda what we wanted to tell you two about,” Bella said. “We know the truth about what happened at your school.”

  Jon cleared his throat. “Kids, what she is about to tell you, and show you is classified ‘Top Secret’ by the United States Government. I know you already promised your parents not to talk about it, but this is official. People get shot to keep secrets like this.”

  “Hold it, what are you folks talking about?” Greg said, suddenly feeling protective of the girls. “If this is something we don't need to know, then we shouldn’t know it.”

  “I’m afraid that can’t be helped at this point, son,” Jon replied. "You’ve been in the center of this since it began.”

  Jolene picked up the explanation. “This information was taken from a UAP (Unknown Aerial Phenomenon) that preceded the events at Mederos High School in Colorado. Shortly after this was tracked over the western slope of the Rockies, the Mederos High School exploded taking the lives of thirty nine students, five teachers, and two janitors," Jon said.

  “Damn! Mr. Rodriguez died? I really liked him. He cared about the kids,” Greg said, sadly. “But how would you know what we promised our parents?"

  “You mean, you people know it wasn’t a gas leak?” Mandi asked accusingly. "Why didn’t the freakin’ government do something? I had friends blown apart by those assholes!”

  “Whoa, Sweetie, hold up!” he raised his hands palm out in front of himself. “They didn’t do anything because they didn’t get the chance! The Air Force scrambled fighters out of Peterson Air Force Base and even a couple of bases no one is supposed to know about. They simply couldn’t get there in time, but even if they had, what do you think would have happened to them?" Jon explained. Seeing she was in a better frame of mind. He sighed and continued. “Are you sure there were three ships? We only tracked one, and that was with a pretty high resolution system.”

  Mandi nodded. “The three ships I observed did not use thrusters for any obvious form of propulsion as we know it. Their movements and actions do indicate precision control of gravity in a controlled area. I would be very tempted to say they were not from around here since I don’t know of anyone that has this level of gravity control yet.”

  Greg nodded confirming Mandi’s story. “There were three of them, Sir. Although they didn’t land, they did come to a hover three to four feet off the ground and moved slowly through the wreckage, like they were searching for something.”

  “Any idea what they were looking for?” Jon asked.

  “No, but if I had to venture a guess, I think they were looking for bodies. I saw someone trying to dig themselves out, and before I could get to them, one of those ships turned and blasted them,” Greg said, angrily. “I just wish we could have done something to stop them!”

  “Bella, Jolene, maybe you should fill them in on everything going on here. I’ll work on getting them a clearance. Of course, they probably already have one because of their parents,” Jon said.

  “Greg’s mom works for Adelson’s Supramart. She’s like, a Vice President or something,” Mandi said, confused. “My Dad’s some kind of project troubleshooter for a tech company out of California."

  “You’re parents are troubleshooters alright, but not for the companies you think. They work for ‘The Company’ - the same ‘company’ most of us work for. It was initially believed that the Mederos attack was intended to kill them, so they were moved here,” Jon replied.

  “Daddy! I thought you wanted us to tell them? Don’t you need to go impress Uncle Carl with your new information?” Bella asked.

  “Oh! Right! Uh, Carl might want to talk to you two himself, are you okay with that?” Jon asked.

  Greg shrugged, “As long as the parents are okay with it, and we’re home before dinner.”

  Jon grinned and nodded before saying his goodbyes to the girls, and telling Greg and Mandi that it was nice to finally meet them. When he finally killed the video from his end, Jolene shut off the video link. She typed a bit more, and nodded to Bella.

  “Jolly just made sure all the listening devices in here are either turned off or blocked,” Bella said. “A few years ago, at a dinner party, Dad bragged to Uncle Carl about how unusually smart Jolene and I were.”

  Jolene picked up the story. “Uncle Carl, a.k.a. General Hollister, thought Mr. G only had a massive case of ‘Proud Papa Syndrome’ and was about to blow him off when my father opened his laptop, and brought up a couple of the physics problems that had stumped them at work.”

  “Uncle Carl laughed and told Daddy to go ahead. We solved both problems in a little less than an hour. Of course, Uncle Carl accused them of having us memorize the answers just to show him as entertainment,” Bella replied.

  “Then Uncle Carl suggested that they show us a problem that they had yet to solve, and we did. He no longer thought the whole thing was very funny,” Jolene said. “When our mothers told him that we had unusually good hand-eye coordination, he told our fathers to bring us to the lab for testing.”

  “We took the tests they gave us, and smoked everything they wanted us to do. That is, until Uncle Carl very quietly told us to start failing because we had gotten the attention of certain scary agencies that had spies in the labs. You know, the ones that make people disappear and make up some lame excuse no one believes,” Bella said.

  “With the help of our testers, we quietly established a pattern of losses that showed us as not actually super-human, just very good normal humans. However, it was clear to both ourselves and our testers that we exceeded the established performance profile for humans, even gifted ones," Jolene explained. “We’re not telling you both this in order to brag, because from your grades, we believe you are like us. We both think Mandi is actually smarter than we are, which will make Uncle Carl freak out."

  “Are we sure it’s wise to tell him then? If he freaks too much, will he turn Mandi over to those spooks?” Greg asked, instinctively moving to protect his longtime friend.

  “No, because if he turned her in, he’d be turning us in as well. No, he may freak-out, but he’ll accept it, he doesn’t really have much of a choice,” Bella said as if the matter had been decided.

  Mandi saw a small circular object, that she thought looked cool as hell. “Jolly, what’s this?” she asked, holding the device up. “Sorry, I don’t mean to change the subject, but my ADD is kicking me.”

  “I have no idea, we found it just outside the bunker door a few days ago. Since then, I haven’t been able to find any references for the symbols, or runes on it. They resemble ancient Sumerian the most, but it isn’t. I was thinking about taking it to a professor friend of my father’s that specializes in ancient languages. I kept getting sidetracked by something else. I’m actually a little hesitant to show it to anyone,” Jolene replied.

  “Why?” Mandi asked.

  “Well, for one thing, the crystal in the center glows blue when I touch the device. It glows green when Bella touches it. As far as I know, we’re the only two that it does anything for. You’ll notice it didn’t glow for you?” Jolene said.

  Since Bella and Greg were watching, she tossed it to Greg. As soon as it hit his hand, the crystal flared and glowed a bright, pulsing red. Greg hastily sat it down. The pulsing glow immediately stopped.

  “That’s really odd. Any clue why it was pulsing like that?” Mandi asked.

  Bella shook her head, but didn’t take her eyes off the large medallion-looking object. The other two looked equally as clueless. Mandi snorted softly in frustration; she really hated things she couldn’t explain. Then a thought struck her.

  “Wait a sec ...” She reached over and picked up the device again, and studied the surface intently. “I have no idea who they belong to, but these three glyphs ......” she pointed to the three she meant. “Look like signs for Water, Earth, and Fire. But that doesn’t make sense; what about Air?”


  “I think that might be a question only the person who designed it can answer. My question is why does the crystal glow when we touch it? What’s with the different colors?” Bella asked.

  Mandi looked at her as if she was slow. “Blue is for Water, Green for Earth, and Red for Fire. You three need to touch it at the same time.”

  As one, the three other young people reached out and touched the medallion. The crystal began pulsing a bright white. Jolene pulled her hand back and the intensity dropped by a third.

  “Are we sure it’s safe to do this? I mean, we don’t know where it came from. I mean, it could be some outer-space, alien booby-trap or something!" Jolene said, hesitantly.

  “If it was something like that, it would have exploded already,” Mandi said offhandedly.

  “So it took all three of us to produce a white pulsing light? What for? Is it supposed to be a beacon of some kind?” Bella asked.

  “I don’t think so, it would have been a lot brighter if it were something like that,” Mandi said, and then noticed that Bella had her finger on the symbol for water, and Greg had been touching Earth.

  “I got it!” Mandi said and turned the Medallion, then put Greg’s finger on the Fire Symbol, and Bella’s on the Symbol for Earth. Jolene, was hesitant, but closed her eyes and put her finger on the Water symbol.

  For a moment nothing happened, not even the flare of bright white light like before, then a voice issuing from thin air made the kids jump.

  “Stand by; stabilizing link and assimilating log files. You may remove your fingers, Rangers.”

  'The Bunker'

  Blane Residence

  Shermandale, Utah

  North American Continent

  Earth, Sol System

  Confused, the three teens pulled their hands back. However, before they could frame any of their questions. It spoke again.

  “Assimilation complete. Thank you, young Fixer, for figuring out the puzzle. It is now imperative that we speak.” A small hologram formed over the now glowing crystal. The hologram was a middle-aged man, wearing a hood-less robe. He had brown hair, a neatly trimmed beard, and appeared to be human.