times nemesis sample chapters 1-3

8/14/2019 Times Nemesis Sample Chapters 1-3

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Times NemesisCopyright 2009

Forward

Time Ive been forced to think a lot about the notion. Most ofeveryday life is brimming with references. Im out of time, Theresnot much time, Youre late, How much time will it take? and myfavorite Time will tell.

Weve been forced from childhood to tell time. What the hell doesthat mean? You look at a clock, see the little hand pointing to the twoand the big hand pointing to thirty-three. Great its 2:33. Wait, gottalook outside. I see the sun, so it must be 2:33 PM you know,afternoon. Thats when the sun has been out for a while. A digital clock

that reads 2:33 PM makes this a bunch easier.

A child learns that time runs in a clockwise direction. (So maybetime is circular?) The hands could run from left to right, but seeing aswe read from left to right, it sort of makes sense. The clock reads 12two times a day kind of confusing, but if you look out the window,its either dark or light. Pretty simple.

In the modern era we could no longer say things like: be there atsunrise, work till dusk or shoot out at high noon and be sure theexact same reference to time would be used by someone else. Weneeded a more precise way to do things if you had to be at work by8:30 or a doctors appointment at 3:15. The concept of before or afterthe meridian came neatly into play. The highest point of the sun in thesky or meridian defines AM and PM. At work by 8:30 AM, with adoctors appointment at 3:15 PM cool.

Some really smart people started using the twenty-four hour cycle fortime keeps that old element of confusion down to a minimum whensaying things like: initiate attack at 0530. No doubt he means 5:30in the morning, if it were afternoon, he would have said 1730 hours.

When navigating the vast oceans of the world we needed a new form ofaccuracy. You said it was 0730 great. But where? Well, right here.Uhhh, where is here? Hmmmm. If it was 7:30 AM in New York, it was4:30 in the morning in LA I dont know about you, but I dont want a4:30 AM phone call. Better to have a consistent means for telling timeno matter where you are.

The British sailors of the 1800s adopted this convention as an aid in


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navigation. The longitude of any ship on the worlds oceans could becalibrated from the ships time piece set to the suns passing of theGreenwich meridian at high noon Greenwich Mean Time. It provedso useful in coordinating the far-flung activities of the British Empirethat it became a modern part of life known as GMT, UTC or Zulu

time.

Astronomers who came from different cultures, religions and continentsapplied a more exacting definition with the use of Julian Days and aJulian Date. An astronomical event in the past or future could be given aprecise definition of time no matter where, what type of calendar orwhat language.

All this is very good we can now define time with a precision thatwas only dreamed of once. But what about the core concept? Are we apart of time? Is it a part of us? Does time define us or do we define it?

Someone once told me that time was simply a parameter by which wemeasure our existence and not a true dimension. A look at our lives by aperson outside of the constraints of time would see a long pink worm(or brown... or yellow... you get the drift). Pretty weird concept.

The ancients were great observers. They saw the sun, moon and starsrise and set. They noticed patterns. The sun came over the horizon atdifferent places during different seasons of the year. At regular intervalsit disappeared over here and then reappeared over there. The time itwas overhead; the time it was absent; and the differing times of theyear were all part of a cycle.

They designed Sundials, obelisks and temples sighted to the sunrise onspecific days. They cataloged the dances of the heavens or theharmony of the spheres and made events in the sky a part of life on theground. Stone Henge in England, the El Caracol at Chichen Itza inMexico and the Pyramids in Egypt are magnificent examples of thisengineering prowess.

This cycle was a part of life and death. It told of seasons when toplant, when to gather wood for the coming winter or when to travel tothe best hunting or fishing grounds. It also allowed the observant andcurious forbearer to notice a different kind of cycle. Eclipses, themovement of planets and even stars. Some heavenly bodies moved ingreat cycles of time. 72 years for a one-degree change in the position ofa constellation. The complete cycle of star field motion or precession of25,772 years was deduced. If not through the direct observation, thenenough to extrapolate the rest pretty impressive for stone age man.


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Very early humans had neither written language nor clocks, butpossessed a notion of time that was as sophisticated as our own. Theyhad observations of past events that were handed down in verbal formthese were memorized. The exacting and meticulous nature of thesememories is beyond our grasp today. They simply used a portion of the

brain that atrophied once knowledge was conveyed and stored bywriting.

The dust, decay and erosion of ancient knowledge hide the fact thattheir concepts were both simplistic and awe-inspiring. They included anotion of time that was in sync with everyday life and the cosmos.They created a living harmony. It is possible that those memories evenincluded events that threatened our very existence.


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Part One

Mayan Calendar Date - 13.0.0.0.0

Modern Calendar Date - October 15, 13,364 BC

Western Pacific Ocean

The rising sun burned like a coal just below the horizon, giving a hint

of the glory of the coming day. Anapu faced the amber early morning

light and wearily rubbed the sleep from his salt encrusted eyes. His

strong dark hands massaged his broad shoulder, briefly relieving the

stiffness. His mahogany gaze swept downwind confirming the departure

of the blue-black clouds.

Day blended into night as the crew of the deep-sea sailing raft fought

the rage of the typhoon. Its winds had driven the rain in a blinding sheet

and whipped the massive waves on the ocean's surface into froth.

Mountains of water had caused them to reluctantly rise andprecipitously slide on the massive slopes.

The crisp clear air now smelled of rain kissed freshness as he filled his

lungs with the scrubbed atmosphere. The morning sun shone through the

spray as the craft danced across the waves and made small rainbows as

it crested their peaks.

As the storm began to clear the previous night, he had a brief

opportunity to sight the pole star. Anapu used a precisely spaced,

knotted cord held in his teeth to measure the positions of the moon and

stars. The conclusion allowed him to determine that almost 3 days of

drifting had driven them south of their desired course.

Splashing the crisp deep blue seawater on his face, he praised the god

of the sea for merciful treatment. The 33-year-old Master Navigator and

leader of the trans-Pacific voyage moved to the bow of his craft. With a

strong breeze at his back, the wood under his feet now surged through

the ocean as if alive.

The design of the large sailing raft was one that allowed the ocean to

"wash through" like water in a giant sieve, allowing the fragile looking

craft to ride the monster waves in an almost stately fashion. The last few

days had proven the design of his ancestors and given Anapu a feeing of

stability in the jaws of the raging late season storm.

After almost 2 months at sea, Anapu knew they had but a few days left

on their journey from the great trading center in the land of the Star

Masters and longed for the comfort of his home. His wife Fanui would

have begun the preparations for a great feast. He would celebrate with


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his family and the village after he and his cargo were secured.

The Star Masters had created the Sky School and taught many Master

Navigators the finer points of celestial navigation. They also had

records of millennia of sky watching. This knowledge base allowed them

to predict many occurrences through the repetition found in theiraccumulated observations.

His visit with the Teachers and their Star Masters at The Sky School

had been brief this trip. He had brushed up on his knowledge of the sky

patterns by using the large stones at the Sky School. These immense

granite spheres had been arranged to align with rising and setting star

clusters and other predictable sky phenomena to facilitate in the

instructing of celestial navigators and aid In the Keeping of Time.

There had been an uneasy quiet among the Masters. His sense was one

of great danger. They had assembled a late night council and seemed toargue over the meaning of their observations. He had never seen the

Star Masters so disturbed by their interpretation of celestial events.

Their deliberations had gone late into the evening and he had left early

the next morning discarding his intuitions.

The span at sea had provided him with plenty of time to reflect and the

issue nagged at him. He had learned to trust these internal voices. There

was something here that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up,

but the clarity that usually came in dreams eluded him now.

The sun scorched its way over the horizon, promising a clear, sunny

day for sailing. As Anapu turned to leave the bow of his vessel a cry of

terror arose from one of his crew. In following Kamppi's outstretched

arm he was frozen in place by the scene unfolding before his eyes.

The stars had left their home in the sky and turned into serpents

scorching, hissing and tearing their way toward earth. There were tens,

no hundreds of them. Their heads were fiery balls and their ghostly

bodies began to stretch across the sky as they raced to the earth. The

largest of them had disappeared from view in its travel, but where it had

been headed was now starting to glow.

It seemed as though a second sun had risen in the North Western sky.

His brain refused to process the image. As the specter burned into his

retina, the seas seemed to rise on the horizon and leap towards his craft.

The last conscious thought Anapu was able to register was one of

complete and utter bewilderment.


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Chapter One

Mayan Calendar Date -12.19.19.15.15 | 11 Men 18 Zac

UTC 08:43:17 - 2012311 | Julian Day Number - 2456238

Local Time - 4:43 PM Tuesday November 6, 2012Spratly Islands, South China Sea

Daniel Compton wiped at the stinging stream of sweat that poured intohis eyes and cursed the unshakeable headache that seemed to resonatelike a huge gong. The dilemma he now faced required his full attentionand all his acquired knowledge. The drill bit had bound and broken forthe second time today. His riggers had barely set up for anotherexploratory well shaft and were now out of action again. Thepounding inside his head was not helping one little bit.

What the hell, Sal? Do we have a blockage in the flow line or injectionsystem? He asked.

Everything checks out flow lines standpipe Kelly hose. Ivechecked all the pressure lines, pump shit, you got me. The drillingrig foreman Sal Molina responded as he wiped a dripping face.

The floating drilling platform he was currently assigned was drivingexploratory wells in relatively shallow water. The last project had beenin over 2000 feet of ocean. This was a relative piece of cake. Off therecord he had his doubts, but the current thinking was that, at the rightdepth, a fortune lay waiting. Daniels employer was a huge consortiumof oil interests bent on acquiring the drilling rights in areas of the SouthChina Sea. Usually it was first find - first serve. The mounting tensionsand posturing amongst the major powers over the resources thought tobe found in these waters made it a very problematic exercise.

I dont need this crap were behind schedule as it is Daniel saidtrying to blink back the pounding in his head.

He was prospecting in the Spratly Islands, a scattered and desolatechain off the coast of the Philippines. His bosses had been promised thatlarge oil deposits lay lurking there, but t. They also represented some ofthe most hotly contested real estate on the planet. China's claims datefrom the 15th century, Vietnam's from the 17th. Brunei, Malaysia,Thailand, and Cambodia all had differing claims as well. The UNs Lawof The Sea Treaty had made it even worse. It gave countries borderingoceans up to 200 nautical miles to define their territory. Great if anisland was off the coast of North Carolina, but not so good if the area inquestion closely bordered competing nations. It got even more tangled if


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that area held rich fishing grounds or potential petroleum deposits.

All in all... pretty treacherous waters once the pirate activity was addedin. To top it all off, the United States kept a large portion of the PacificFleet in the waters surrounding nearby Taiwan. All this powder keg

needed was a spark. The fact that all these naval assets could avoidrunning into each other constantly amazed him.

We could try again but Im pretty sure its not in the rig. Maybe itsfaulty carbide Sal grinned not at the broken tri-cone carbide tippeddrill head, but his companions discomfort.

The residue on the shattered drill bit puzzled the geologist.Theoretically, it should not be there. The drill head held evidence of abattle it had lost with granite. Granite he thought... this area was largelyancient reef, shell deposits and sandstone. You should not encounter

granite until the earth's crust, over 1500 feet deeper. This was only 278feet.

"No fucking way", Daniel Compton exclaimed out loud.

Mayan Calendar Date -12.19.19.15.14 | 10 Ix 17 Zac

UTC 08:44:22 - 2012311 | Julian Day Number - 2456238Local Time - 10:44 PM Monday November 5, 2012

Big Island, Hawaii

Dr. Anna Choi was about to begin her 6-hour time slot on the Pan-STARRS digital telescope operating under the auspices of NASA, theUS Air Force, and the University of Hawaii. The observatory perchedatop the summit of Mauna Kea, a 4200 meter, dormant, provided aperfect place to observe the stars.

She was a bit distracted this evening as her favorite cat, Mrs. Beasley,had not eaten for 24 hours and seemed lethargic. Used to periodic felinedisorders, she was keeping a wary eye on her, but as yet, not alarmed.

She had obtained her arcane doctorate at The Institute for Astronomy atthe University of Hawaii. Her degree was in Astronomy, specializing inMeteoric and Cometary Trajectories. Luckily, she had obtained aresearch grant from the Spaceguard program that provided her with amodest income. Her task at hand was to verify any known trajectories aswell as attempt to discover any new phenomenon with a potential forearth crossing orbits. Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) were comets, asteroidsor meteors that have orbits that allow them to enter the Earth'sneighborhood and a possible risk of collision. The discovery of these


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stealthy and deadly threats were the object of her endeavor.

Her attention had been in the lower quadrant of the night sky for theprevious week and a half. Tonight was the scheduled shift of herobservations to the next area for a thorough search of the heavens and

any new NEO's. Dr. Choi was also to confirm the trajectory models ofseveral dozen known earth-crossing asteroids and comets.

As she prepared to manipulate the computerized targeting controlmotors for the large telescope, she made a mental note to check on thenew seeds for her garden that she had ordered last week from an onlinestore. She enjoyed gardening and found it to be almost spiritual. It alsoallowed a sense of control in a very disorderly world.

The images from the telescopes four mirrors were recorded via digitalcameras onto massive hard drives that allowed for terabytes of data

collection and extremely fine resolution. The older equipment she hadgone through school with used photographic film. Analysis oftenrequired overlapping shots to follow a fast moving object... very timeconsuming. The advent of the new technology allowed for near real-timeanalysis and allowed for motion playback if needed.

As the huge telescope moved through the heavens towards its newmonitoring coordinates, it continued to record data. This data, like allothers was to be stored and a program run against it to "look" for anyanomalies that might represent previously undiscovered objects in thesky. This program, or electronic "ferret", was saving incalculable time indata analysis, and with the new equipment could be run later, after thedata was acquired, conserving computing power.

The hard drive was automatically doing its job and recording the datathe telescope took in. Anna would backup the data and run the "ferret"program later as usual. Unknown to her was the presence of a long blurracing into the telescopes field of vision.


UTC 09:45:04 - 2012311 | Julian Day Number - 2456238Local Time 3:47 AM Tuesday November 6, 2012

Peten Rain Forest, Guatemala

The painstakingly unearthed find represented a dilemma... how in theworld was he going to explain this. Dr. Olexander Krotova cradled thefront of his head in his hands. This was either a mean spirited hoax or anartifact that would change the way textbooks were written.


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He sighed, straightened and gingerly placed the artifact in an airtightplastic canister for protection. The archeological site deep in the junglesof Guatemala seemed like a steam bath and protocol required the use ofenvironmental isolation canisters... a fancy term for the largeTupperware like containers.

Dr. Krotova grabbed the blossoming tire around his middle and sighed.How he could gain weight in this climate while sweating like he did stillconfounded him. He looked in the small shaving mirror in his tent andgrunted at the balding, tired face that stared back at him from darklycircled eyes.

He and his team of graduate students had been laboring in the steamyjungles to uncover and record an ancient city just recently discovered.This ancient site was proving itself to be extremely difficult to date. Thecurrent wisdom was that it was a Mayan center and therefore 1500-3000

years old. The deeper and therefore older layers of this area seemed topredate the Maya by a large margin, and that was the problem.

Most standard dating techniques used the Carbon 14 dating system thathad proven itself to be quite accurate over time. Finds were unearthed instratigraphic layers of deposits that represented time like the rings of atree. Material was taken from the layer and this material was dated usingthe Carbon 14 system. This allowed the layer from which it was taken tobe dated.

The rub was that many sites were occupied by subsequent peoples,rebuilt, and often the layers were disturbed. This practice made the datesdeceptive. To make matters more difficult, rock could often not bereliably dated. The fossils, bones, plant matter or other organismsaround the rock could be dated, but not the rock itself. Charcoal foundnear the rocks could be dated... but not the rock. Although the newradioisotopic dating systems (measuring the rock's natural tendency tosuffer nuclear decay) proved promising, many accepted dates were oftenthose that fit into a certain paradigm or belief regarding the possible ageof a site. Any evidence indicating otherwise was often considered ananomaly or "out of context" and summarily discarded.

Dr. Krotova pondered this conundrum. "Why can't this be straightforward?", he quizzed himself. If one of his students had come to suchan absurd conclusion, he would have deemed that student unreliablefrom a scientific point of view. If this artifact was what he thought itwas, the world's view of ancient history and the migration of ancientman were going to change... radically.

Dating the copper itself was possible using the new lead isotope


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method, but he would need to date the artifacts surrounding locationusing the Carbon 14 method if possible. He would then attempt to datethe rocks themselves using the new radioisotopic dating system,although he had his doubts as to its veracity.

Dr. Krotova would also need to gain the opinion of someone highlyrespected in the field of ancient man's study of the heavens or Archeo-Astronomy before he went public with this. Anything less would subjecthim to the ridicule of his peers and affect his position.

He had labored hard to become the Senior Research Scientist for theInstitute of Archaeology, Department of The Stone Age, at the NationalAcademy of Sciences in the Ukraine. He was a well-respected expert inCentral American archeology and Meso-American societies, but a rashpronouncement could lay all that to waste.


UTC 10:52:41 - 2012311 | Julian Day Number - 2456238Local Time 11:52 AM Tuesday November 6, 2012

Goseck, Germany

This was the most famous of over 250 known complexes that hadrecently been identified by the broader archeological community, andArcheo-Astronomers in particular, as astronomical observation sites.What was really puzzling to Dr. Jack Reese was not only the number ofthese sites, but their striking similarities, and in particular, their ages.There were a lot of them. They were spread all over Europe. They werepretty much all alike. And they were all really old.

Dotted across the European countryside were stockade like enclosuresthat resembled a wooden version of Stonehenge. The well-knownexample of astronomical construction had originally been thought to bean extravagant ceremonial center. It was now proven to be so muchmore. It never ceased to amaze Dr. Reese that so many peopleconsidered ancient man to be just plain dumb.

"Why construct something that would not provide a credible defense,coral animals, or provide an enclosed living space?" he speculated to noone in particular.

Many "experts" had simply called them "ceremonial centers" as if thateven had a hope in hell of explaining the effort the ancients had gone toin building these edifices. It was obvious to him that these wereastronomically aligned and built for watching the movement of theheavens. "But why?", he wondered.


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He was considered a "go to guy" in his field. He had earned his

Master's and PhD Degrees at the University of Texas in the new Archeo-Astronomy department and his bachelors at the University ofPennsylvania. Ken's specialty was in European and Central/South

American studies of suspected astronomical sites.

He liked the intellectual challenge of evaluating ancient sites for theirpotential astronomical implications. He saw alignments in sites thatoften eluded others and his brilliance was only matched by hismeticulous recording of data. He was tired of being belittled and foundhard evidence, accurately recorded, to be an excellent way of shutting upacademic hecklers.

Dr. Reese we need you on the far side, a student said, slightly out ofbreath.

Jack Reese felt like he was getting old. He was now 49, but lookedyears younger. His 6 foot 2 inch frame carried no extra weight. Hestayed in good shape, exercising, and eating right, but age was catchingup with him nonetheless. 15 years ago his body could take a lot morepunishment and recover a lot faster.

Dr. Reese's sky blue eyes scanned the area his students were workingand brushed his graying sandy blonde hair back into his baseball cap. Hehad been divorced now for almost 3 years and stayed focused on hiswork. His wife had always said he was married to his work... what thehell.

Be right there Sandy he replied.

The rolling German countryside was picture postcard material. Goseckwas less than 20 miles from the bustling center of Liepzig, home once toBach, Goethe, and Mendelssohn to mention a few. Leipzig'sinternational trade fair in the north of the city reflected the heritage ofcontinental merchantry that the area had come to be a symbol for. Thetrade fair had its origin in the 1100's and over the course of centuriesmade it a hub of European commerce. On a clear night he could see thefaint glow of the city lights from the Goseck complex.

The more he studied these sites the more convinced he became thatsome master plan was in effect. The alignments were dead on for thesummer and winter sun risings and settings according to his compass,but there seemed to be more at work here. He surmised that the stars,maybe the planets were the real objects of these celestial observationcenters. Only a thorough nighttime observation study would offer any


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hope of deciphering that. Dr. Reeses hunch would have to wait untilthen.



Local Time 6:53 PM Tuesday November 6, 2012USS Freedom, Straits of Taiwan

Captain Terrance Hawkins rolled with the pitch of the ship and lookedout through the high power binoculars. He scowled. That damn Chinesetrawler was still trying to dog him. Its electronic signature sure as helldidn't match a normal fishing boat. Although he was not supposed toinitiate the new weapon system test until well after dark, he would stilllike to lose this guy if at all possible.

Come to One Nine Zero, maintain speed, he barked. He did not want

to give away any information about the speed or overall capabilities ofhis ship. The trip through the Taiwan Straits was bound to attractattention, but this was ridiculous.

He had argued for staying farther out to sea and sailing through theeastern waters off Taiwan to limit visual sightings, but had been overridden by fleet command. Rear Admiral Taft had advised the CINC toshow the flag with his deployment. The Rear Admiral was serving asliaison with the other elements of the US Pacific Command deployingthe new weapon system.

Captain Hawkins was the commander of the newly commissioned USSFreedom. It was the first of the new class of naval stealth destroyerstermed the "Zumwalt" class or DDG-1000. These had the world's naviesand especially the Chinese Navy going ape shit.

"Itll be night soon buddy You can't hit what you can't see", he saidto the crew on deck, smiling for the first time that day.

The USS Freedom, like the stealth aircraft before it, was not trulyinvisible - it simply had a radar return that looked like it might be asmall motorboat. The software of most systems was not programmed to"look" for small returns. They were set up to find and acquire certainprofiles and usually would simply not "see" his ship. In addition to itsradar signature the ship boasted a revolutionary new combat radarsystem, and a space age integrated electronic propulsion system. Makingthe ship both quiet and deadly.

The Captain's stern countenance demanded attention and his boomingvoice often rattled cages. He naturally projected what the instructors at


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the Naval Academy described as "a Command Presence". TerranceHawkins was black, 41, married, with 2 children and considered himselfto be a sailors sailor. He had played linebacker at the naval academy andstill had the physical stature that could generate images of pain. His wifeDarla was a good navy wife and had done a fine job raising their kids

under the sometimes-stressful circumstances and constant moves.Terrance had worked extra hard to be given a combat command such asthis one, and aimed to make the most of the opportunity. The fact thathis vessel was a new generation of ship for the navy was icing on thecake.

His orders were to take up station off the coast of Taiwan where he wasto begin sea trials of the revolutionary new system. His position wouldallow testing of sea, as well as land and air based components of the newsystem and to work out any glitches in the targeting components.

He knew his ship and crew were ready. All in all, this was one badassaddition to the US arsenal. Captain Hawkins had some reservationsabout the software used in targeting the new weapon, but figured thatwas what tests were for. "Bring it on", he thought.


UTC 10:56:34 - 2012311 | Julian Day Number - 2456238Local Time 6:56 PM Tuesday November 6, 2012US Aircraft Carrier George HW Bush, Off the Coast of Taiwan

Sometimes the "good old boy" bullshit was just too much. Lt. GraceWelkins was extremely annoyed with the latest round of pranks. She hadfound an electronic sex toy in her bunk.

Although when back in Miramar, CA for 6 months of her rotation, thejoke might have amused her, now she was just plain pissed. She was 3months into her deployment aboard the carrier and in no mood for thiscrap. She was all business. A woman had to be really on the ball here.This remained a man's world, and the condescending attitudes still got toher.

The Lieutenant brushed her shoulder length strawberry blonde hair. Asshe glanced at her profile in the mirror, she straightened her back andran a finger through the strap of her sports bra. She often had wished asa high school student for larger breasts but was glad she had never hadimplants. All in all she was fairly attractive... as if she had time for aman in her career now anyway.

Grace Welkins was 27, single, and really smart. She had graduated


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number 4 in her class at the Naval Academy and among the top 5 in herflight school. She had led the pack at Top Gun and was on the navy's"fast track". Her selection as one of the pilots to test the new weaponsystem being deployed really jolted some of her peers, but she felt shehad earned it. She still had Gen. Colin Powell's quote up on her mirror,

"I worked like a dog, and luck noticed." That quote summed up herattitude and work ethic.

The carrier battle group, of which the USS George HW Bush formedthe core, had recently replaced the aging USS Kitty Hawk and was theonly permanently forward deployed aircraft carrier in the fleet. Boastingmany new enhancements and still smelling like the inside of a new car;she was the pride of America's navy.

Like a small floating city, this ship was home to almost 6000 sailors. Itwas the last of the massive Nimitz class aircraft carriers. The ship was

over 20 stories tall, almost 1100 feet long and displaced over 100,000tons. Designed with nuclear propulsion that should last 20 years,outfitted with enough food and supplies to go 90 days, she was asindependent as a ship could be.

The USS George HW Bush was also sporting the latest in the Navy'shigh tech toy bag. She had been fitted with the new bulbous underwaterbow design to reduce drag, automated flight line enhancements and thenavy's new battle space integrated radar systems.

Lt. Welkins was due to test the newly fitted weapon system on herrecently deployed naval version of the armed forces Joint Strike Fighter.The F-35 Lightning II or JSF was the newest version of a multi forceaircraft that boasted stealth attributes, the latest in electronics, and newweapons capabilities.

She was using the late afternoon down time to read up on the specs andguidelines one last time. "This thing is really going to give the Chineseulcers", she speculated grimly. Things were tense enough as it was, butthe decision to deploy the new system went way above her pay grade.


UTC 10:57:05 - 2012311 | Julian Day Number - 2456238Local Time 6:57 PM Tuesday November 6, 2012

Taiwan Straits - South Sea Fleet

Peoples Liberation Army/Navy (PLAN)

Vice Admiral Jun Shan looked out over the busy shipping lanes of thewaters between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland. He was in command


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of the Chinese Naval Squadron shadowing the US Fleet's operations inthe area. His ship, a Luyang class multirole missile destroyer was a realthorn in the capitalist side 5 years ago, but now he feared they were allbeing obviated by the new stealth warship program and its firstdeployment.

His capabilities included the new super sonic anti-ship cruise missilesthat so worried the American sailors aboard the larger ships. Especiallythe aircraft carriers. Hopefully they would never find out. Vice AdmiralShan feared that his country's insistence on regaining control of Taiwanmeant that it was not a matter of if, but a matter of when.

Looking at the print out of the data collected by his spy ship so far onthe American stealth vessel, he cringed. "This cursed ship is almostinvisible", he groaned inwardly. How was he supposed to track a ghost,much less hit it. The initial reports his government had obtained through

the diligent patience of its spies in and around San Diego were rightthis was truly a menace.

He looked at the sea charts and mentally figured the track of theAmerican ship over the next 12 hours. He would position his Squadronto the south of Taiwanese waters and hopefully be able to keep the shipunder observation.

Vice Admiral Shan used his small frame and voice to his advantage. Heoften spoke softly forcing others to listen more carefully and many timeswas able to linger in the shadows, observing with out being noticed.Issuing commands to change course and speed, he could not escape thefeeling of dread he was experiencing.


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Chapter Two



Local Time 7:58 PM Tuesday November 6, 2012Palawan Island, Philippines, South China Sea

Daniel Compton was back in his coastal bungalow after a scorching,frustrating day on the oil exploration rig. He had taken the dailyferryboat after it had unloaded fresh provisions for the crew. He wouldnormally have stayed aboard the drilling barge for the rest of the week.He usually worked from sunrise to sunset like the crew, eating in themess area and sleeping in cramped quarters. Skipping the 75-minutecommute each way over water allowed for more sleep, but hisseismographic charts and computer data on stratigraphic research had

been left behind.

He threw open the windows to air the perpetually musty smell from histemporary quarters. The sun was beginning its majestic slide into theocean, insinuating the sunset to be. He loved this time of day, butreluctantly turned and left his veranda overlooking the lagoon. Glad forthe respite, he shoveled aside some personal papers to make room on therugged wood table for his charts of the area.

Daniel had been right. There was no hint of anything denser thansandstone in this area. Even that was not possible for roughly another300 feet. He shook his head. "This is a real pain in the ass", hecomplained. Drilling through granite required more time and a differentdrill head design. It was on order, but as they would not need it foranother week or two, he had not pushed the logistics people for anexpedited delivery.

This little glitch was costing the consortium over $45,000 per day... notto mention the time delay. And that could be priceless. Even if he hadthe granite drill head, that still did not solve this little dilemma. "Why thehell am I running into granite?", he quizzed himself exasperatingly.

Daniel's degree was in Plate Tectonics and GeodynamicsGeochemistry, with a minor in Mineralogy and Petrology. What thatreally meant was that he majored in a discipline that offered onlydoctoral potential and a teaching career and minored in the skills thatearned him a living.

He went over to the wall of the great room whose wall held a mapshowing ocean depths for the area as well as land elevations. It took a


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little getting used to, but the idea was the same as a topographical map.This rendering indicated 50-foot deviations in elevation, or in the case ofoceans, depressions. It just made no sense... water in this area was amere 70 feet. His drill heads had broken repeatedly at a depth thatshould have been a cakewalk.

This was worse than he thought. He had barely made it through theseabed when the drill head had broken. The pounding in his head hadsubsided, making his thoughts clearer. This was simply not possible."Son of a bitch!", he exclaimed.


UTC 12:02:48 - 2012311 | Julian Day Number - 2456238Local Time 6:02 AM Tuesday November 6, 2012Peten Rain Forest, Guatemala

Dr. Krotova arched his back and groaned. He had fallen into a troubledsleep while still at his desk. His shoulders ached and his legs were stiffenough to prevent a quick exit from the chair. His expeditionaccommodations were luxurious by some standards... crude by others.His tent hung like a wet rag in the oppressive early hours, waiting tobecome a sauna in the daylight.

His last conscious thoughts had concerned the course of action hewould need to take in order to initially substantiate the validity of hisfindings. The artifact was at the center, but the astronomical aspectswere crucial as well and needed to be confirmed. The overall dates ofthe major levels of construction also would have to be verified. He knewthis would be controversial, so Dr. Krotova wanted the core elements,upon which he was basing his conclusions, to be beyond reproach.

The dating could be done off site by respected labs. He merely had tometiculously document the stratigraphic location of his samples andrecord the "in situ" or undisturbed nature of his finds.

The dicey area was the astronomical potential of the ancient city. Thelayout and design of the buildings were interesting, but altogether notunique. It was the acres and acres of massive stone spheres thatrepresented a startling and unique aspect of the discovery. They weresomething else entirely.

There was only one person who reflected the integrity acknowledgedby the archeological community as well as the hands on field experiencehe would require.


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Local Time 2:07 AM Tuesday November 6, 2012Big Island, Hawaii

Dr. Anna Choi was nearing the end of the shift allocated for herresearch and its required telescope use. The Japanese team from theuniversity was already flooding in to the observation dome next door.They were working on a study of quasars, normally studied using adifferent type of equipment. They had required the use of the X-rayequipment provided by one of Mauna Kea's telescopes to wrap up theirresearch and had only been here for 2 weeks.

"The geek squad...", she softly murmured. She was just glad they lefther alone. They probably looked down on her, westerner and a womanto boot. "Good thing they don't speak English," she decided. Her idea ofwhat men were good for advocated a deaf-mute status.

She had always been somewhat of a night owl anyway. Anna oftenslept only 5-6 hours and when confronted with this lifestyle, would drylyrespond, "I'm too busy to sleep, I'll have plenty of time for rest when I'mdead."

Her current time slot was perfect. Bracketed around the midnight hour,it was quiet and the majority of her targeted search area was a goodways off the horizon and less susceptible to light pollution or earth bornbogies.

Although the observatory's high speed fiber optic lines were connectedto the internet allowing a real time feed to the university computers, Dr.Choi still followed the old regimen to make sure the data maintainedintegrity in case of corruption.

As usual she would load the data onto a ultra high capacity portabledrive for processing later. Dr. Choi would also retrieve the session backup tapes for redundancy. The terabytes of data were the only drawbackto the new system. This regimen provided her work with a large measureof protection against data loss. The procedure also allowed forindependent validation of any results, if required.

As she began to wrap up her session and squeeze the last few minutesfrom her schedule, a feeling of apprehension overcame her. "I'm goingto take Twinkles to the vet when I wake up." she brooded. Dr. Choi had


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no children, so her animals had become surrogate children of a furrynature.

They were always glad to see her and never became teenagers. Thatthought made her smile. The feeling of disquiet she was experiencing

probably concerned her cat Mrs. Beasley, so she shrugged it off.



Goseck, Germany

Dr. Jack Reese had left 2 of his students behind to finish the layout andcompass directional drawings of the observation enclosure. Thisparticular enclosure lay on a ridge with open fields to the south and a

forest line 50 feet lower to the north. "A perfect place to view thehorizons", he judged and looked out over the landscape.

A thorough review of this site might take several more months, but hehad already come to some preliminary conclusions. Well take care ofthis professor. Have a good evening, the head of his under-graduateteam said.

First, the sites all bore the same design influence. Second, they were alot more sophisticated than simple farming requirements would dictate.And last, but most certainly not least, these sites were all over 5000years old... maybe even as old as 7000 years. That one simple fact was areal brain bender. These were supposed to be primitive farmers... notsophisticated astronomers.

The more he played with this line of thinking, the more curious he got.They were not supposed to be the kind of people to have an organizedculture, much less a disciplined science. There was doubt as to acommon language. It was as though a distributed, concerted, intelligenteffort was being made to observe the sky in great detail. "But why?" Hewondered.

Shaken from his postulating by the annoying ring tone that alerted himto an unknown phone number calling his cell phone, Dr. Jack Reeseglanced at the display to see a number that could only be off thecontinent. He announced simply, "Reese."

The voice on the other end of the phone asked with a heavy foreignaccent, "Dr. Jack Reese?"


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He replied curtly, "Yes."

"I'm so glad I caught you. I was afraid I might miss you... you know thetime difference and all. My name is Dr. Olexander Krotova and I needyour help."



USS Freedom, Straits of Taiwan

The dying red glow of an absolutely spectacular sunset was still on hismind as Captain Terrance Hawkins wished his wife had been here. Sheadored sunsets and it made her horny. That and the feeling he touchher half a planet away had become one of the reasons he loved the deep

blue oceans of the world.

Time sir his XO said.

He quickly returned his attention to the task at hand. The crew wasmethodically preparing the recently fitted weapon for their first set ofsea trials using their checklists. Civilian technicians monitored and insome cases assisted their progress. They had arrived with top-secretsecurity clearances once the ship was ready for her long journey acrossthe Pacific. The techies needed those clearances for their work on theweapon, but also just to step foot on his ship.

Among the ultra secret enhancements his ship now boasted, was theunder sea detection and warfare capabilities. They were quite simply themost advanced anti submarine combat systems ever installed on asurface ship.

Cruise and guided missile systems, guided and standard gun systems,helicopter and UAV capabilities made this a truly formidable adversary.The ship had been designed for both open ocean warfare and coastalsupport of an attacking land force.

With a crew of only 95, his ship needed almost 1/3 the personnelrequired to crew his sister ships in the DDG-1000's or Arleigh Burkeclass destroyers. His aging cousins sported the AEGIS air defense radarsystems as well as guided missiles. Even though the AN/SPY-1DPhased Array Radar upgrades had proven their merit, his newcapabilities were so secret that he could not even brag about them at theOfficer's Club in San Diego.


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Although the ship's delivery and deployment timetables had slipped, thewait was worth it. The addition of the new weapon had delayed hisdeployment by 6 months, but the crew loved it. They enjoyed the homelife of a landlubber and made the most of it.

The new system had replaced one of the standard gun emplacementsthat was normally recessed in the deck. The guns were designed toremain obscure until combat or training conditions required their use.The mount for the new weapon was on an automated lift, like a smallelevator, that when recessed, preserved the radar silhouette of the ship'sdesign, The stealth technology was a combination of shape and materialswhich had achieved the minimal cross section.

Lets lose this guy gentleman. Increase speed to thirty knots on aheading of six five, Captain Terrance Hawkins barked.

He glanced at the bridge timepiece; it indicated he still had over 3 hoursto prepare for the test firing of the system. His adrenalin surged as theprospect of the first operational test of the new weapon gripped hisimagination.



US Aircraft Carrier George HW Bush, Off the Coast of Taiwan

She must have nodded off for a moment. This was not the time. Shehad awoken on her bunk, "I've had bathrooms bigger than this cabin",she ruefully thought. It might be small, but at least she didn't have toshare her space with anyone. It was one of the few concessions of herphysical difference she tolerated no even welcomed.

Lt. Grace Welkins shook off the cobwebs and took one last look at thetechnical sheets. She already knew them by heart, but skimmed themonce again out of nervousness.

This was a huge moment for her. All the male jocks were green withenvy. She had been chosen not only for her flight capabilities, but hersmarts as well. That made all the pranks seem worth it... well, almost.Her pre-flight briefing was still over an hour away, "Got time for ashower", she thought as she rose to her feet.

As one of over 54,000 naval women in the service of her nation, GraceWelkins was not alone. Although she was part of a minority in terms ofoverall population, she was truly a rare breed in naval aviation.


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Eating alone in his cabin, Vice Admiral Jun Shan contemplated theday's events and its revelations. The PLAN had benefited greatly fromthe technology acquired by the Chinese agents. Some was open source,

some were considered "dual use technologies" acquired through dummyfront companies, but the real jewels were stolen. Out and out espionage,he surmised.

"Those damn Americans, clever for barbarians", he contemplated. Theracist view of the Chinese was simple. When he grew up in Nanjing,blood was blood. You were Chinese first no matter where you foundyourself. Of course that view had moderated as the influx from the westturned into a tidal wave. In many respects the isolation of the Chineseempire was impossible, but that made the impurity of western ideas andcultural norms no more palatable.

As Vice Admiral Shan savored the exquisite aroma of his shark's finsoup, a delicacy prepared exclusively for him by the ship's chef, hepondered the strategic and tactical implications of the new Americanvessel. It represented a clear threat to China's goal of local areadominance of the seas or even parity with America's deep-water fleet.On a tactical level it was a nightmare.

The ship could not be detected by even the most sensitive of their radarsystems without re-calibration that would turn every fishing boat withina 100-mile radius into a potential threat. If he was its captain, all hewould have to do is match the speed of the average fisherman and hidein plain sight.

The submarine shadowing the stealth destroyer had used her buoycommunications equipment to report that although the American ship'sacoustic signature was distinctive, it was so slight as to be lost in the"white noise" of the busy shipping lanes. Slipping in and out ofdetection, it had proven difficult to track, even in the tight confines of


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the Taiwan Straits.

Tomorrow would be a new day... if only he could hold on to his quarrythat long.


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Chapter Three



Local Time 11:23 PM Tuesday November 6, 2012USS Freedom, Taiwan Straits

The CIC or Combat Information Center took a few moments to getused to. Captain Terrance Hawkins let his eyes adjust from the well-lighted internal environment of the ship to the low light levels of theCIC. The Center was the tactical heart of his warship. It containedcommunications apparatus, radar displays, weapons control andtargeting consoles, as well as tracking information and related displays.

There was a low level hum from the fans of computer systems overlaid

by the constant chatter from inbound and outbound communications. Hestood next to his weapons officer and observed the computer terminalthat reflected the status of the new weapon.

Power cycling. Done. Cooling system AOK. Lt. Jeffers wasdiscussing the next level of readiness with Petty Officer Gilson chargedwith weapon system status. The displays were all connected to the CICsatellite uplinks and being monitored in real time by senior staff at PearlHarbor and the Pentagon.

It was almost show time. The last of the indicators changed to a "go"status and Captain Hawkins felt the adrenalin begin to flow. The test forthis evening involved the tracking and targeting of an old version of theUAV's he now had aboard. It had out lived its operational life and hadbeen converted to a very expensive target. It was already on remotecontrol and the support vessel had cleared from the area deemed a targetrange.

The USS Freedom possessed classified next generation radar and newtarget recognition algorithms. Capable of taking feeds from othersources, including satellite data, it incorporated the best of the JointTactical Information Distribution System used by the US armedservices. The new hardware and its software allowed it to slave otherremotely located weapon systems as well provide targeting informationto them.

The software used data that had been gathered and was analyzed forknown target attributes such as size, speed or electronic emissions. Avirtual reality image of the target could then be rendered for the warfighter. Whether in an airplane, ship, tank, or even the proposed visor


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displays for infantry, the image could then be analyzed further ortargeting information fed into weapon systems.

State of the art UAV's or unmanned aircraft were also at his disposaland extended the ship's role to air dominance as well as land and

maritime attack capabilities. The idea of a stealth destroyer was badenough for the Chinese.

"This new gadget will really make them crap themselves", hepronounced to the crew. Tonight's test involved an airborne componentin addition to his ship. The USS Freedom was to provide targetinginformation for all involved. The revolutionary, top secret, newlydeployed weapon... was a solid-state battle laser.

Unlike the common depiction of lasers in movies, the beam of this newsolid-state battle laser was invisible when activated. The largest problem

to be overcome in the development of lasers as a weapon had been in thepower or energy delivered by the beam. The limited power of the earlytest weapons required that the unit be the size of a boxcar. The smallestlaser for anti-ballistic missile defense tests had to be mounted in thefuselage of a C-130 Hercules aircraft.

In addition to size and weight, the other consideration was temperature.The early weapons had to be cooled down before they could be recycledor fired again. The scientists had come up with an old answer to a newproblem. Like an old Gattling gun with a rotating barrel, the laser usedrotating apertures. As one slab cools, the laser fires using the other slab,then automatically swaps slabs so the second can cool.

The main block to deployment of lasers as a mobile tactical weaponhad been size and weight as a function of power. The advent of newmaterials had aided the designs, but the real advantages had been in"pumping" and power supply. The laser was achieving bursts on theorder of 600 to 800 times per second and the power output exceededeven the wildest theoretical limits of several years ago. These allowedthe beams to achieve energy levels that became truly devastating.

This technique also allowed the first bursts to blaze a path for thefollowing beams and increase both distance and the ability to firethrough cloud layers, mist and fog. The new focusing designs had keptthe beam's power from dissipating over a distance of almost 250 milesand thus achieved the truly revolutionary leap.

The electrical power generating units of the USS Freedom had provenmore than capable of supplying the high-energy needs of the newweapon. The unit's main apparatus had been engineered to fit into the


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space designed for a standard gun system. This allowed the ship tomaintain its exterior profile, thus concealing its presence from pryingeyes and maintaining the stealth silhouette.

Mayan Calendar Date -12.19.19.15.15 | 11 Men 18 ZacUTC 15:26:52 - 2012311 | Julian Day Number - 2456238Local Time 11:26 PM Tuesday November 6, 2012

US Aircraft Carrier George HW Bush, South China Sea

Lt. Grace Welkins sat nervously in her naval version of the Joint StrikeFighter or F-35. She was waiting for the crew in green colored shirtsswarming around her plane on pre-launch preparations to complete theirtask.

Systems green. Jason Four ready for shooter. She replied. The Air

Boss was exhibiting a patience level not known to exist.

Roger Jason Four. The officer replied from PriFly (Primary FlightControl) in the carriers super structure.

For the elite of the free worlds military forces, the F-35 Lightningrepresented the future. It was a new family of affordable, stealthycombat aircraft designed to meet twenty-first-century requirements. TheUS Navy had specified and procured a unique version of the craft.Carrier operations accounted for most of the differences between theNavy version and the other JSF variants.

In order to meet naval criteria the aircraft had required larger wing andtail control surfaces to better manage low-speed approaches. Theinternal structure of the Navy variant was strengthened to handle theloads associated with catapult launches and arrested landings. Theaircraft had also required a carrier-suitable tail hook and its landing gearwas designed with a longer stroke and higher load capacity.

Lt Welkin's aircraft came with almost twice the range of the US Navy'sworkhorse, the F-18C, on internal fuel. To her comfort the design wasalso optimized for survivability. Integral to the aircrafts low-observableequation is the large internal-weapons bay. When stealth is not required,the F-35 also can carry wingtip air-to-air missiles and up to 15,000pounds of external ordnance mounted on under the wing pylons.

The only visible difference was a small retractable turret under thefuselage that housed the lasing device optics. This unit descended whenpreparing to fire and recessed again when complete. The turret wasslaved to the detection and targeting software; it was equipped with a


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low level tracking laser that acquired and locked on the target. Oncelocked on, the laser could dwell or stay on target for the time required todestroy or damage the intended victim.

The internal weapons bay had been converted to hold the guts of the

airborne version of the solid state laser weapon. Powered by the F-35'sengines, the designers had been able to achieve almost twice theexpected punch given the payload of the F-35.

The heat generated by the laser had been one of the greatest concernswhen engineering the integration of the design. A stealth design was nolonger stealthy if the laser generated heat that made it trackable. Tocounter this dilemma, the engineers at Lockheed had integrated thecooling system of the laser with the fuel tanks. It was an elegantsolution. Like a large car radiator the fuel tanks in the wings were usedto dissipate the large amount of heat generated when cycling the

weapon.

The real genius and radical advancement of the weapon lay not only inits power, but in its ability to track and target a moving object. A singleplane or missile was a challenge, but the meticulousness required inholding the laser onto a precise spot of a moving target was breathtaking.

Jason Four you are clear to launch. The magic words sounded in herhelmet.

She was waiting for the catapult officer to give her the signal that allwas ready and prepare for the acceleration and its crushing forces of herlaunch from the carrier's deck. As she received the signal of all readyfrom the figure in the yellow shirt worn by the catapult officer, shebraced herself and saluted.


UTC 15:49:55- 2012311 | Julian Day Number - 2456238Local Time 11:49 PM Tuesday November 6, 2012



Vice Admiral Jun Shan had reports of an older model UAV beinglaunched from the decks of one of the American task force's ships. Thisparticular UAV was easy to track and posed no wartime threat to hisships, so he pondered the possible meaning of this development.

The American stealth ship was now out from under any direct line of


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sight observation. The two submarines reporting to him had failed todiscern her acoustic signature amidst the noisy background of TheTaiwan Straits Only the electronic emissions being picked up by the spytrawler gave him any indication of its presence and possible location.

"A ghost ship indeed...", he muttered under his breath. Satellitesurveillance had shown that the American aircraft carrier group was inproximity, but centered over 250 miles to the East.

"What are they up to?" He pondered. The midnight hour was fastapproaching, but the presence of the UAV nagged at his tired brain.

times nemesis sample chapters 1-3

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