Alien Portals: A SciFi Alien Multiverse Romance Novel Page 4

  Chapter Six

  Galadriel braced herself as her hands came into contact with the wood of the barrier. Ty had forced her to watch enough action and adventure films in their friendship for her to be afraid that the red sign was just part of a much more complex system meant to keep out people who might think that sneaking into the site was a good idea. She was waiting for an electrified cage to drop over her or the ground to open up beneath her and swallow her into archeology jail.

  Fortunately, neither happened, and after several seconds just to make sure, she swung herself over the top and landed on the other side. There was really no reason that she had had to do that. The wooden gate only blocked off the road. She could have simply walked around either side of it. The thought of invisible fences, laser beams, and other security technology that would have been completely out of place in the desert – but never far from her mind – had convinced Galadriel that the only way that she could get beyond the barrier was to go over it. Even with her dramatic entrance, though, it had been so simple – too simple – for her to really feel like she had accomplished anything. That only fueled her to press on.

  She glanced behind her to make sure that no one else was walking up the path toward the gate. The minutes were ticking by, bringing her closer to the time when the first tour would depart. She had to be out of sight before the tour guide or any of the participants showed up. Just thinking about those minutes slipping past her brought her mind back to her conversation with Rick. He had completely changed her perception of time and what it meant. Now it was as though she could feel the moments that were moving around her. She felt like she could perceive the streams that he had described and wondered what was occurring in each of them. It made her incredibly aware of the space around her, and she wondered if there was another existence – another perception of that moment happening just to either side of her. The thought made a shiver of excitement roll through her body.

  Pulling her bag higher up on her shoulder, Galadriel started to run down the road. The air around her was dry and thin. It had been cool when she first arrived, but with each passing step, it seemed to grow warmer as the sun had a chance to heat up the desert and take away the chill that settled over it at night and often startled visitors who thought that these open, sandy expanses were always searing. As she ran, the increasing temperature seemed to steal the air from her lungs. Around her, the desert was still and silent, and the only sound in her ears was her gasping, ragged breaths. She had been running for a few minutes when the landscape around her seemed to come alive.

  Rather than the open, empty space that she had been running through, she was suddenly seeing the traces of excavations and mobile research stations. Large white tents rose up from the shimmering sand, their flaps moving in the slight breeze. Wooden stakes and twine created grids across segments of the sand to allow the researchers to focus in on the specific areas more closely so that they wouldn’t miss anything. Large wooden crates awaited the discoveries the researchers would tuck into their padded interiors to carefully transport to museums and research facilities. Though there was no one around, the entire area seemed to buzz with energy as if the potential that was waiting just beneath the layers of sand and dirt was radiating and calling out to those lucky few who would have the opportunity to explore and discover.

  Galadriel reached into her bag and pulled out her notes. She scanned through them, hoping that she would be able to use the description of the excavation or the pictures of the wall when it was first discovered to direct her toward the excavation site. Even though there had been hours before the first scheduled tour when she first arrived at the site, now that she was actually in the restricted area, she felt like the time was going by faster, and she was even more aware of the possibility that someone was going to show up and find her. The thought of being caught was terrifying, not because of the possibility that she would end up being arrested for trespassing and possibly have to call Ty to get her bailed out of jail, but because she knew that they would take her away from the excavation site, and she would lose her only opportunity to find out more about the wall.

  She took some of the pictures out and scanned them, lifting her eyes to gaze around the desert to orient herself according to where the wall was positioned when they found it. The problem was that the setup of the tents and excavation grids was different now than it had been when they first found the wall and when they took the follow-up pictures for the books they wrote about the discovery. With the consistent, almost generic appearance of the desert surrounding the excavation site, it was extremely difficult to figure out where the person taking the picture had been standing, or where they might have been looking when they took the pictures. She could be close to the original site, or still a long walk away. With the group tour growing ever closer and the threat of being found looming larger with every breath, she had to figure out what to do as quickly as possible.

  Galadriel tucked the pictures back into her bag and pulled out her phone. She scrolled through her recent calls to find Rick's number and called him, counting the rings as they passed to keep her mind focused. She worried that it was still too early back home for him to actually answer and that she would be left on her own again. After five rings, Rick's voice came through the line.

  "Galadriel?"

  She realized that he must have saved her number on his phone after their first call and couldn’t determine if she found it reassuring that he was committed to helping her understand what was happening, or felt like her connection to the wall was threatened even further by his closeness. She reminded herself that it was not an uncommon practice to save a number when planning to meet with someone, but it felt strangely uncomfortable. Pushing aside the possessive feelings, she pulled the pictures back out of her bag.

  "Rick?"

  "Yes. It's me. Is something wrong? Did you find something new?"

  "Not yet. I need your help."

  "Alright. Are you up at the museum? Is it even open yet?"

  "No, no. I'm not at the museum. I'm…" she hesitated, wondering if he was going to have the same reaction to her coming to the desert that Ty had, "…well, I'm in the desert."

  "You went to the excavation site?" he asked.

  The tone of his voice was surprised, but also excited, and Galadriel continued.

  "Yeah. I decided that the only way that I'm really going to find out everything that I can about the wall is to see where they found it in the first place. I don't know. Maybe there's something here that no one else has noticed or that I'll see differently because of all the time that I have spent with the wall. I know that sounds crazy since there have been hundreds of researchers scouring the site for years, but–"

  "You can't help but try. You never know what you might be able to find out. Your connection to the wall is special. You knew things about it that even I didn't, and that has to mean something."

  Galadriel let out a long breath. Rick's words were comforting and reassuring to her. Even though she was fully committed to what she had planned, knowing that there was someone else who understood what she was doing and shared her urge to learn more about the mysterious and entrancing wall seemed to validate her and give her further motivation.

  "The problem that I'm having is that I don't know where to look for the original site."

  "What do you mean?"

  "I came to the excavation site, but I don't know where to look for the actual spot where they found the wall. I want to be able to see where they found it, and I can't figure out where to look."

  "Aren't you on a tour? The tours go by the site. They don't get close to it, but it would be as close as you would be able to get to it."

  "You would think," Galadriel said, looking around at the excavation that was surely going to be full of researchers soon.

  "What does that mean?"

  "I'm going to have to ask you to pretend that you didn't hear what I'm about to tell you," she said.

  "Alri
ght," Rick said, sounding intrigued but also a bit suspicious.

  "I didn't really think this all the way through. I just kind of got on a plane and came. When I got here, I found out that the site is blocked off except for authorized personnel and tour groups. The first tour isn't until 10. Well, I didn't want to wait, and like you said, the tour probably only goes but so close to the site. I wouldn’t get any opportunity to actually get close to it and look around as much as I need to."

  "Are you trying to tell me that you are currently trespassing?"

  "Technically, yes, I guess that's what I'm doing."

  "What do you mean 'technically?' Are you trespassing or aren't you?"

  "I am, but I don't really know you that well, and I wasn't really at the place yet where I wanted to admit to you that I am breaking a few major laws by jumping over a barrier and wandering through a closed excavation site," Galadriel snapped.

  Rick chuckled. The jovial sound was strange coming out of the stern, almost aggressive man.

  "So what is it that you need? How can I help you from here?"

  "Like I said, I can't figure out where to find the site. I'm sure that the researchers are going to be here fairly soon, and I don't want them to find me just wandering around. The site is different than it was in the pictures, though, so I can't use them to orient myself. I was hoping that you might know something that would help me figure out where to go."

  "Look around you, and see if you can find a ridge in the distance. It will look kind of like a mountain, but shorter and no point on top."

  Galadriel slowly turned around a few times, examining the horizon until she saw the hazy outline of a ridge in the distance.

  "I found it."

  "Good. Okay, walk toward it. You're going to want to move a little bit away from the rest of the excavation. Remember that it moves each time that they finish exploring a specific area, so you want to get closer to the sections that they've already excavated. Look for flags in the sand. When you get closer to the ridge, you should see where they did the excavation, and there will be a marker to show you where they found the wall. You should be able to recognize it once you get closer. Keep your back to the main excavation, and pay attention to where you're walking. You never know what you might find out there."

  Rick's words sounded ominous, but Galadriel wasn't sure why.

  "Thank you," she said.

  "Call me if you find anything. Be careful."

  "I will."

  Galadriel ended the call and dropped the phone back into her bag. She felt a chill roll down her spine as she looked up at the ridge again. This was the most decisive moment of her life. Everything that she wanted to know could be waiting in the distance, but she didn't know what else was there. She could turn back at that moment. She could simply turn around, run back to the parking lot, and wait in the car for the tour group to come. She could join them, walk through the excavation site, get a glimpse of where they found the wall, and just use whatever information that she could glean from that experience to help her with her own research. Galadriel took a breath and glanced over her shoulder once more.

  She knew that she couldn’t do that. She had come this far already. She was already feeling the pull within her of being away from the wall for as long as she had been, and she felt like she owed it not just to herself, but to the wall itself and whatever force was making it change the way that it did, to keep going and do what she had intended to do.

  Chapter Seven

  The sand beneath her feet became looser as Galadriel walked further toward the ridge in the distance. She had made her way through the main excavation site and then continued on for several yards until she could see signs of the older excavation. Tiny flags indicated places where they had found items that needed further investigation, and some sections of the sand were flatter and smoother than others, suggesting that those were the places where tents and tables had been set up when they were researching that particular area. The desert rarely saw anything more than a light breeze, allowing the sand to remain largely in place even after years of sitting dormant after the excavation in that particular area was over.

  Galadriel glanced up at the ridge again and saw that its shape against the horizon had become more distinct. Anticipation was starting to build in her stomach. It wasn't quite excitement like the joy and giddiness that she always felt when she was looking forward to Christmas or a vacation, or even after not being near the wall for a day and knowing that she was going to be able to see it soon. Instead, it was more like there was a part of her that already knew what was awaiting her, even if she couldn't bring that knowledge into conscious thought. It was as if something within her knew that when she got to the ridge she would be complete.

  The heat of the morning had burned through the slight chill that had been there when she first arrived, and now it was stinging the back of her neck. Galadriel pulled her half-empty bottle of water out of her bag and took a long sip of it, forcing herself to stop before draining the entire bottle. She didn't know how long it would be until she had access to fresh water again, and she didn't want to find herself out here in the desert with nothing to drink.

  Suddenly, she saw a small sign ahead of her. She got closer and noticed that there were more wooden stakes buried in the sand. Chains stretched between the stakes, roping off a section of the sand much like the grids created in the excavation area. As she stepped up to the chains, however, she noticed that there was no grid pattern created in the section of the sand. Instead, there was a deep indention. Galadriel's heart began to flutter, and she drew in a breath before turning to the sign.

  "Discovery site of HM-1313 wall segment," she read softly.

  The feelings in her chest surged, becoming an excitement that was almost tangible. It was an incredible feeling, knowing that she was so close to the exact spot where the wall had rested for so long. She still couldn’t understand her intense attachment to the segment of dark stone, but not being able to explain the emotions didn't stop them from filling her mind and controlling her thoughts and actions. Standing this close to the site allowed her to envision the section of wall nestled in the sand, with only the small section standing out so that it could be seen by those who would discover it and reintroduce it into the world.

  Galadriel looked around and saw the small access road to one side of the site. It came up to a short chain fence several yards away, which Galadriel assumed would allow the tour groups to get a glimpse, but little more. That reaffirmed that she had done what she needed to do by sneaking into the excavation site. She couldn’t imagine how frustrating it would have been for her to be that far away from the site and told that she could get no closer.

  She lowered her bag to the sand and carefully stepped over the chain that separated her from the actual site. She sank down to her knees and rested her hands in the indentation in the sand where the wall had been. After a few moments, she sat up straight and looked around. Even though it was close to the stone ridge, this location was not hidden by any means. It would have been readily obvious to anyone who was excavating in the area. It made more sense now as to why the researchers had been confused when they realized they had overlooked the wall segment in their first excavation. It didn't make any sense that they would have somehow missed it if they were excavating anywhere near it. Especially in the early days of the excavation, they would have likely spread out and done a cursory look over the entire area to determine where they should start their research. To have missed something as massive as the segment of wall was almost unfathomable.

  Walking back over to the edge of the roped-off section, she reached under the chain and pulled her phone out of her bag again. She dialed Rick and glanced around as she waited for him to answer.

  "Did you find it?" he asked without any form of greeting.

  "I did," Galadriel said. "Did they ever have any explanation as to why they didn't see the wall during the early part of their excavation?"

&nbs
p; "No, not as far as I know. The original researchers had already spent a considerable amount of time going over that area by the time that the segment was found."

  "That's what I thought. And there was no way that it could have been covered up by sand and then something happened to uncover it? Like a massive windstorm or something?"

  "I really don’t think so. First, that wall segment is not a small artifact. The amount of sand that would be necessary to cover it up completely so that it wouldn't be in sight would be massive. The mound that it would create would be huge. There would be no way of not noticing it. On top of that, if there had been a windstorm that was strong enough to move that much sand out of the way, the other elements of the excavation would have moved, too. The excavators would have noticed that there was sand everywhere from being blown up off of the ground, their equipment would be moved, and everything would have been impacted by a storm like that. No, the wall wasn't hidden when they first walked through that area."

  "Then what? How is it possible that a section of a wall that big just went unnoticed by that many people?"

  There was silence on the other end of the line and then the sound of a long, burdened sigh.

  "I don't know. Have you seen anything that's strange other than the fact that the site is so obvious?" he asked.

  Galadriel looked around again.

  "No." Suddenly, something on the front surface of the ridge caught her eye. "Wait."

  "What is it?"