The Lost Colony (Lost Starship Series Book 4) by Vaughn Heppner Page B
Authors: Vaughn Heppner
Ads: Link
planets. Captain Maddox had rescued her because he’d needed her services. For what she had done to help bring back Victory from the Beyond, Star Watch had pardoned her of crimes.
She had led the science team the first time in the Oort cloud studying Victory . After the professor, Dana knew more about the ancient starship than anyone else did. Because of her intellect and daring, she had uncovered old ship systems in Victory that had gone a long way to defeating the alien Destroyer in the Solar System.
Since then, she had spent many hours trying to uncover yet more deactivated Adok ship systems. Finally, having found nothing like her previous discovery, she had asked to work on the Alien Project in the Atlantic.
Star Watch had reluctantly agreed. They were much more concerned with finding solutions to present problems than reconstructing the past. But Dana had insisted on the work, and given her previous successes, Star Watch had agreed.
Dana had a different philosophy on the importance of the past than most others did. In her opinion, humanity knew too little about the Builders. Galyan had given some new data, but that had been sketchy. The mechanical people had aided the ancient Adoks against the Swarm, but the Builders had remained mysterious to them, preferring to work in the shadows. In the end, Galyan had given them more Adok legends and myths than facts about the Builders or mechanical people as the Adoks had called them.
The Builders were a mystery indeed. Surely, they could not have begun as cybernetic beings. They must have been fully biological at one time. So far, though, the evidence had proved otherwise.
From what Dana could tell, the Builders had been watchers, dabbling with the Adoks and humanity, constructing the silver pyramids but having no known planets. They had fought the ancient aliens who had made Destroyers and they seemed to have disliked the strange Swarm.
As Dana sat in the seat, she rubbed her hands in anticipation of the coming meeting. Yes, she was concerned about the greater war against the New Men. She also feared Strand, realizing he might be the greatest danger of all. Yet, like the professor, ancient aliens absorbed her intellect.
That was why she had gone to the bottom of the sea in the Mid-Atlantic to join the Atlantis Project, the renamed Alien Project.
What they had found down there…it was amazing if one looked at it the right way. Could she help convince the Star Watch oversight board that the scientists down in the Mid-Atlantic needed more funds and equipment?
***
Two hours later, Dana stood before a lectern, fingering a data chip. The oversight officers would appear soon. Over a comm, she had finally convinced them of the need for an emergency meeting.
Jotting notes on a piece of paper, she was in the process of deciding on the precise wording of her opening monologue. “Hit them between the eyes from the beginning.” Dana liked to say, “Grab them by the nose and twist if you have to.” That kept people awake no matter what they really believed.
The nose grab, in her opinion, was the Atlantis Project. Real buildings and artifacts existed down there alien in nature. She suspected the Builders had constructed an Earth base in the distant past. If the scientists could dig deeper, Dana expected to extract ancient Builder technology. That was the nose twist. In the war against the New Men, each new tech could be the piece that turned the tide of the war fully in the Commonwealth’s favor.
The similarities she’d seen down on the sea floor compared to other Builder tech she’d seen—they were very similar. Now it was true that most of the others in the Atlantis Project disagreed with her analysis, but that was because they were fools. They shied from the truth because the implications could upset their pet theories about human development.
What if humanity was a special project of the Builders? What if the world’s religions all went back to shadowy remembrances
She had led the science team the first time in the Oort cloud studying Victory . After the professor, Dana knew more about the ancient starship than anyone else did. Because of her intellect and daring, she had uncovered old ship systems in Victory that had gone a long way to defeating the alien Destroyer in the Solar System.
Since then, she had spent many hours trying to uncover yet more deactivated Adok ship systems. Finally, having found nothing like her previous discovery, she had asked to work on the Alien Project in the Atlantic.
Star Watch had reluctantly agreed. They were much more concerned with finding solutions to present problems than reconstructing the past. But Dana had insisted on the work, and given her previous successes, Star Watch had agreed.
Dana had a different philosophy on the importance of the past than most others did. In her opinion, humanity knew too little about the Builders. Galyan had given some new data, but that had been sketchy. The mechanical people had aided the ancient Adoks against the Swarm, but the Builders had remained mysterious to them, preferring to work in the shadows. In the end, Galyan had given them more Adok legends and myths than facts about the Builders or mechanical people as the Adoks had called them.
The Builders were a mystery indeed. Surely, they could not have begun as cybernetic beings. They must have been fully biological at one time. So far, though, the evidence had proved otherwise.
From what Dana could tell, the Builders had been watchers, dabbling with the Adoks and humanity, constructing the silver pyramids but having no known planets. They had fought the ancient aliens who had made Destroyers and they seemed to have disliked the strange Swarm.
As Dana sat in the seat, she rubbed her hands in anticipation of the coming meeting. Yes, she was concerned about the greater war against the New Men. She also feared Strand, realizing he might be the greatest danger of all. Yet, like the professor, ancient aliens absorbed her intellect.
That was why she had gone to the bottom of the sea in the Mid-Atlantic to join the Atlantis Project, the renamed Alien Project.
What they had found down there…it was amazing if one looked at it the right way. Could she help convince the Star Watch oversight board that the scientists down in the Mid-Atlantic needed more funds and equipment?
***
Two hours later, Dana stood before a lectern, fingering a data chip. The oversight officers would appear soon. Over a comm, she had finally convinced them of the need for an emergency meeting.
Jotting notes on a piece of paper, she was in the process of deciding on the precise wording of her opening monologue. “Hit them between the eyes from the beginning.” Dana liked to say, “Grab them by the nose and twist if you have to.” That kept people awake no matter what they really believed.
The nose grab, in her opinion, was the Atlantis Project. Real buildings and artifacts existed down there alien in nature. She suspected the Builders had constructed an Earth base in the distant past. If the scientists could dig deeper, Dana expected to extract ancient Builder technology. That was the nose twist. In the war against the New Men, each new tech could be the piece that turned the tide of the war fully in the Commonwealth’s favor.
The similarities she’d seen down on the sea floor compared to other Builder tech she’d seen—they were very similar. Now it was true that most of the others in the Atlantis Project disagreed with her analysis, but that was because they were fools. They shied from the truth because the implications could upset their pet theories about human development.
What if humanity was a special project of the Builders? What if the world’s religions all went back to shadowy remembrances
Similar Books
