Treasure Through Time

Chapter 1

“Dr. Roach look here, I think I found it! It looks old enough and the inscription on the cover looks right.”

“Easy Geoffrey easy, let me see that book.” The old man reached out his hand and took the book from his student.

The book looked at least a thousand years old, the pages were of old cypress paper. The binding was of corroded metal and worn leather straps. The cover itself appeared to be of a leather of some kind. On the front was an emblem of a triangle with three circles, one at each point and in the center was a silver lightning bolt.

“But Doctor it has to be it!” Geoffrey exclaimed. “We didn’t travel thousands of miles all over God’s green Earth to this run down flat in Milan and not be The One we are looking for!”

“Bite your tongue boy!” The Doctor scolded him. Geoffrey took a step back in surprise. The Doctor had never raised his voice or spoke to him ever in that way.

The Doctor cleared of a table of dust and old books and set the book next to the oil lamp. He thumbed through the pages carefully and quickly till at last he slumped down in his chair and sighed.

“It’s not it, it’s a damn fake!” He threw the book across the room at the wall in anger. The book punched a hole into the wall of the library they were in. Geoffrey got up with curiosity and on closer inspection there appeared to be another room. Geoffrey shown his penlight into the hole to examine it better.

From what Geoffrey could see through the small opening made from the book the room appeared to be large, but he couldn’t see any walls.

“Doctor come look at this it’s another room!” he exclaimed.

The Doctor came closer to inspect. He leaned closer his head barely small enough to look inside. As soon as he did it felt like the air was being sucked out of him. He quickly pulled his head back out and looked around the room. His eyes stopped on his satchel as he remembered about the lantern he carried in there during his travels. He ran to the bag and pulled out the lantern and struck a match to it. He proceeded back to the hole in the wall and watched the flame flicker a bit than get brighter. His next action surprised his student as he started kicking and punching at the wall making the opening even bigger.

“Get over here and give me a hand! We need to get in there now!” He exclaimed.

Geoffrey started yanking pieces of plaster and wood from the wall and before long they were able to step through and into the next room. The air was stifling and he could barely breathe, the air was heavy and cold. As the lantern shown brighter and they moved to the middle of the room Geoffrey could see a large shaped podium. As they stepped closer he could make out a very large book laid closed upon it. A few more steps and he could see that on the cover of the book was the same symbol as the fake book they found earlier.

The Doctor walked up to the podium and tried to open the book. As hard as he might, he could not open the book.

“Geoffrey you give it a try. Maybe there’s a trick to opening this blasted thing!”

Geoffrey walked over and gave it his best shot, but try as he might, he was unable to do so either.

“Doctor how about for now we take this back with us and try again when we get home?”

“Fine, I’ll concede to that plan, but you get to pack that damn thing around.” He demanded.

Geoffrey shrugged his shoulders and with a look of displeasure he picked up the book from its resting place. Just than the room started shaking and pieces of the ceiling started falling all around them.

“Hurry get out of here before the damn room comes crashing down on us and we are killed!” Exclaimed the Doctor as he tried to make it for the opening in the wall. Geoffrey made it first, but as the Doctor was scrambling to make his escape a piece of the ceiling fell and knocked him unconscious. Geoffrey dropped the book and ran to the Doctor. He had a gash on the left side of his head and was out cold. He threw the Doctor over his shoulder and made a run for it in fear that another piece of the ceiling would fall and be the end of them.

As soon as he got them out and back into the library the shaking ceased. Geoffrey was still in a daze from all the excitement, but managed to find the large book and sit with the Doctor till he woke up.

Somehow the Doctor and Geoffrey made it back to London without any further complications.

After a good night’s rest and a meal in their stomachs they tried once again to open the book.

“There has to be some way to open this damn book!” Exclaimed the Doctor. “I haven’t spent the past fourteen years tracking this thing down to be outdone by a thousand year old lock.”

“What about Dr. Gallagher? You and he studied together at Cambridge right? Maybe he might have some insight on how to open this thing.” Geoffrey questioned him.

Dr. Roach looked at him and sighed, “Maybe you’re right. He has been studying about this organization a lot longer than me.” He replied.

“Give him a call, he is in Dublin right now attending a conference and I am sure he would like to hear from you and help you out with this especially when it comes to this book. In the meantime tell me more about this organization and why this book is so important.”

“There have been others that have been searching for this book and have thought it to be an organization, but Dr. Gallagher and myself have a different theory…. We believe they are another race and not of this world.”

“What do you mean not of this world?” Geoffrey said with his head cocked to one side in confusion.

“Well others found artifacts with strange writing on them and believed that they were coded messages like you would find in secret societies or organizations. We, on the other hand have inspected the writings and the objects from which they were written on and you wouldn’t believe what we found out.” The Doctor said with enjoyment gleaming in his eyes.

“First off the symbols were written on objects believed to be of our world, but what no one else bothered to do was take a sample and analyze what they actually had in their possession. There were three objects found total; one was a tablet with a composition similar to clay that had two unknown minerals. Another was a metal plate that was most definitely not from our planet, because it took three diamond tipped cutting blades to cut through a millimeter squared piece of the metal so we could examine it. The last object was a sheet of papyrus that had a story inscribed on it that had been passed down. The story was more of a treasure map with the right knowledge. Using clues from the story it laid out a pretty good map of a special location which until recently we couldn’t figure out where the starting point was. That is why this book is so important, it has in it the location of the starting point.”

Geoffrey sat there in disbelief, was this all true or was the Doctor just mad in the head.

“Does he really think we are looking at an alien civilization that just happened upon our planet years ago and just disappeared?” He thought to himself.

“I can see the look in your eye, you do not believe a word of what I am saying do you?”

“With the utmost respect sir, but this is just a bit much to swallow. I don’t know what to believe, unlike you I need concrete proof of what you are saying. Aliens just seem a bit farfetched in my book.”

“Come here boy and look for yourself I have the items here with me, I don’t trust leaving these particular items at home, because I believe they will help us on our quest.”

Geoffrey sat next to the Doctor and examine the items himself one by one. The first thing he picked up was the piece of metal with the symbols scribed into it. He turned it over noticing how light it felt in his hands almost like holding a piece of paper. He tried to bend the metal plate with his hands and found that it was as hard as steel and there was no way with his strength was going to do any damage to this item. What was even odder was that right now the room temperature was pretty brisk and even gave him a chill now that the sun was setting below the horizon, but the metal plate in his hands seemed to have a warmth to it. He set the plate down and reached for the tablet. It seemed like an old tablet that had seen many years of weather and wear. He examined the symbols closer with his pocket magnifying glass and noticed that the symbols didn’t appear to be chipped into the stone. They appeared too straight, too precise. It’s like someone had etched them in there with a modern day laser.

“Doctor, did you notice the symbols and how precise and clean these marks are? It’s like they were cut into this table by a laser.” He exclaimed.

“So you noticed that too, that there were no chisel markings but very clean cuts into the material. No matter how good a mason scribe you are you can’t remove all your cut marks. You see that there was the first red flag for me. At first I thought it was fake like someone had used a laser etcher on it and then hid the tablet. That is why I had it examined closer. That is why I had the clay itself tested and that is when we found the two unknown elements.”

Geoffrey leaned over to grab the papyrus when he cut his hand on one of the small digging tools in the Doctors bag.

“Oh My God that hurt!” he exclaimed pulling his hand back sharply.

His hand started to bleed and trickle slowly, dripping down his palm onto his tote bag. He reached into his bag to pull out a rag and knocked the ancient book out of his bag and onto the ground next to him in the process. Some of his blood dropped onto the locking clasp of the book and began to smoke. There was a slight sizzling sound as if something was burning and then a click and the clasp sprung open. The Doctor and Geoffrey looked at each other in amazement and disbelief. The Doctor sprung up from his chair like he was in his twenties just to have his sixty year old legs laugh at him and cause him to collapse and fall with his hand grasping for the book. He crawled to the book, picked it up and sat crossed legged as he started scanning through the book.

He started flipping through the pages carefully one after the other, blank page after blank page.

“What in the world?” he said with a confused look on his face.

“What is it Sir? What is wrong?”

“The pages, they’re… They’re blank, every single one of them. The pages are old and worn out, but there isn’t a single word, symbol or mark of any kind.”

“What does this mean?” Said Geoffrey with a disheartened look.

“I’m not sure, this book should be filled with writings and symbols, but every page is blank.”

“What do we do know sir? I mean if there isn’t anything there how is it going to tell us where to start?”

“Hmmm I wonder.” The Doctor said under his breath as he examined the locking clasp. “Give me your penknife.” He said with a stern voice.

Geoffrey reached into his pocket and pulled out his old Boy Scout pocket knife that he has carried around with him since he was 13 years old. It showed the age of time, a bit worn out with a little rust on the handle, but when he flipped it open the blade was as sharp as when it was new. He flipped it around and handed to him handle side first careful not to cut himself again with the blade.

The Doctor took the blade and with slight pressure cut into his palm till crimson blood seeped from the freshly cut wound. Being careful he squeezed his palm till a drop a blood fell from his form fist and dropped onto a page of the book. As if by magic the pages clouded up and started to come into focus bringing with it symbols and pictures.

Geoffrey’s jaw just about dropped to the ground as he sat there in amazement watching what was happening in front of him. He couldn’t believe his eyes.

“As I thought,” said the Doctor. “With what your blood did to the lock I was hoping there was some connection to the pages as well.”

“Okay so now what? Can you decipher the words and symbols so we can figure out where we need to start?”

“I’m afraid not, I need Dr. Gallagher’s help with this. He knows the key to unlocking the text and the symbols. He was the one teaching me about this race, but before he could teach me more he was sent off to work on a dig and we lost touch for a quite a few years.”

Chapter 2

The airplane touched down shortly after 2pm local time. The Doctor and Geoffrey were making their way down the arrival gate to meet Dr. Gallagher.

“Sir why is it we can never fly first class? Coach is always so cramped and uncomfortable. I’m sure the Institute would pay the extra fair to fly us.” Geoffrey complained as they entered the arrival area.

“Not this time, this one is on my dime and the Institute has no idea we are here in Ireland. I want as few people knowing of this as I can. I trust Dr. Gallagher, he is the one you trusted me with this knowledge in the first place. You on the other hand are still earning my trust, plus I need someone to carry my bags.” He added with a smile.

“Dr. Roach, Geoffrey, welcome to beautiful Ireland. I trust your trip was pleasant?”

Dr. Roach and Geoffrey looked up to see Dr. Gallagher waving his arms in the air trying to get their attention, as well as the rest of the airport.

“Dr. Gallagher so nice to see you!” The Dr. said with much enthusiasm.

“Thank you for seeing us on such short notice and for picking us up. You didn’t have to go out of your way to do that. We would have been happy to take a cab to come see you.”

“Don’t be silly, I haven’t seen you in ages and plus if what you told me over the phone was true I can’t wait to see this book.”

“Well, as excited as you may be I could really could go for a good Irish beer after that flight.” Dr. Roach said with a surly tone in his voice.

“Well than I know of this great pub off route 127 that has a great Irish Red Ale!”

Just then a 67’ Chevy Impala gloss black with a red pin stripe running down the side and a vanity plate that read SPRNTRL came to a roaring stop in front of them. Dr. Gallagher smiled and said, “I love American T.V.!”

Geoffrey looked at the Dr. and then back at the car. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing and looking at how old the Dr. was, hoping he wasn’t the one driving. The driver stayed behind the wheel as the Dr. got into the passenger seat. Geoffrey sighed a breath of fresh air and smiled.

“That was a close call.” He whispered under his breath.

“What was that?” Dr. Roach looking over to him with a confused look on his face.

“Nothing at all sir, I caught my pant leg and almost tore my favorite pair of jeans.” He replied very quickly.

Dr. Roach turned back muttering under his breath as Geoffrey smiled to himself.

Moments later they were at the pub and Dr. Gallagher ushered them to a back corner of the pub where the lighting was a bit dimmer and less inhabited by patrons. A waitress came to their table and they proceeded to order a round of beers.

“Irish Red for the table lass and some privacy please.”

The waitress nodded and went about her way taking other orders and chatting with the bartender.

“Okay now, spill it Charles! Tell me what you can of this book. Do you think this is the book we have been looking for all these years? Does it give us the key to the location of the start point?”

“I believe it is, the only problem is I can’t read the text or symbols in the book. I only have one question for you my friend and that is