Cretaceous Conspiracy #3 and Ancient Ice Apocalypse #4(on kindle)

Taylor could only shake his head as they landed back at the hanger two miles from Ezra and Davin’s compound. Jon had tried to explain to he and Kars what Daisy thought the energy readings and the ruins meant Atlantis. From Jon’s incoherent ramblings, all Taylor had figured was that Daisy theorized Karstien’s people and the time machine were from the mythological Atlantis, but it was too incredible to be believed. Karstien of Adamos himself wasn’t something Taylor would have believed, but he had spent his whole life dealing with things that didn’t make sense.

He remembered a quote from his Sherlock Holmes collection, “Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.”

Those strange things had lead him to Damien and Karstien, who were near immortals, and Davin and Ezra who brought back dinosaurs. He suddenly felt he was caught in an episode of the X-files and it was Daisy’s fault, but then again Daisy herself created a similarly bizarre reality. She was an emotionless, super genius one moment and an unstable, obsessive-compulsive savant the next. He wondered why he had let her fixate on Karstien’s origins and had to admit that it was because he wanted to know too. He knew she would get the answer for him, she always did, but Atlantis!?!

Kars carefully lifted Daisy out of the back of the helicopter like she was made of glass. She had lost a lot of blood and hadn’t woke yet. His worry was clear on his face. Taylor wondered momentarily if there was more between them than friendship, then he rolled his eyes at the thought because he knew them both better than that. Both kept themselves single for the same reason, both had buried too many that they loved to risk falling in love again.

Back at the compound in their rebuilt home, Fianna had tended Kars and Daisy’s injuries before she returned to finishing Kars’s birthday cake. She didn’t mind cake decorating at home, she loved being able to make special things for their family and friends. She had done a lot of baking since her cafe was destroyed when Seacove was overrun by carnivores. She missed her shop and the business of baking and serving customers, but she was a mother now and had to think about her and Ezra’s baby boy.

‘Dinner is going to be late,’ she thought as she put the last flourish on the chocolate mousse and ganache filled layer cake. Then the oven timer hummed, and Fianna smiled, ‘But not very late.’

Meara had already started putting the plates and flatware on the kitchen island where they usually had their meals. “It looks and smells great, sis.”

“Thanks, sissy, can you get the others?”

Meara went into the pantry and shouted down the stairs into the secret bunker, “Come and eat!”

While they ate, Taylor and Kars recounted what happened, and Jon tried to explain what Daisy thought they found to Davin, Fianna, and Ezra. Meara’s observation that it was all ‘so cool’ wasn’t echoed by the adults.

“So, she just jumped out of the helicopter into the ocean, no gear or anything? She’s so crazy!” Ezra announced.

“No, no, no! She’s magnificent,” Jon defended her, “She can think faster than my supercomputer. She knows things from raw data that would take weeks to extrapolate. She figured it all out before the computer finished the sims.”

“We know she’s brilliant, Jon, but that’s not the point,” Davin interrupted. “She could have died today and gotten Kars killed again.”

“Not that it would matter,” Ezra taunted, but then grinned at Kars.

“I hate you,” Kars retorted flatly, making a face at his old friend, as he finished his dinner. He went to the sink and rinsed his plate. “But I still don’t know how she...”

From upstairs, there came a frustrated scream, followed by a shout of indignance, “Uncuff me this instant!”

“It’s for your own good, Daisy!” Taylor yelled back, then he looked around the table at the shocked faces, “Wait for it...”

Ezra stifled a laugh. A very few minutes later, a limping Daisy huffed downstairs in PJs and a bathrobe. She threw the handcuffs on the table in front of Taylor.

“I despise you,” she hissed at him.

“Calm down, Daisy,” Davin started, but Taylor held up his hand.

“Daisy, you are injured and need rest. The data can wait until tomorrow,” Taylor insisted.

“But we aren’t celebrating Kars’ birthday tomorrow, and I have to give him the results today. Jon, were you able to recover my data? Enhance the images?” Daisy demanded in a pleading voice.

“Yes, yes, it’s downstairs but...” Jon started to answer.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you Jon!” She shouted excitedly, and suddenly she seemed manic again. She limped toward the pantry access to the basement.

“Daisy...” Taylor warned. “You need to eat. Sit down!” He ordered.

She glared at him, as she limped back. Still standing, she stuffed half a slice of cake in her mouth. She wiped her face and hand on a kitchen towel, before she grabbed the coffee pot. But instead of pouring herself a cup, she just dumped the entire sugar bowl into it. She carried it into the pantry and limped down to the computer room. They all stared after her for a minute. Her behavior was bizarre even for Daisy, only Taylor and Kars had seen her like this, and both dreaded the next hours. Whatever she found it would change everything, it always did. Taylor pulled off his glasses and rubbed his face and the beard he didn’t have anymore. He should have stayed retired and docked his sailboat as far from Daisy as he could, but it’s too late now.

“What the freak are we going to do with her?” Ezra asked, disgusted.

Taylor cursed under his breath, “Well, she won’t stop till it’s figured out. I guess we are just going to have to go along for the ride. Next stop, Atlantis.” To Kars, he said sarcastically, “Kars, I am so glad I came home for your birthday.”

"Me too. Thanks." Kars smiles and started to follow her downstairs, holding his empty mug and a second slice of cake, “Let's go, I want a refill.”

Davin started laughing as he joined him, “Kars, man, your birthdays are never boring.”

Fianna grinned at him too, “Looks like it’s dinner, dessert, and a show for your birthday, Kars.”

Karstien chuckled, he couldn’t help it. The eldest of the Mazonis reminded him so much of Milady, with her ability to see the bright side of any situation. He was so glad she and Ezra found each other. He was also glad she was a baker like her many great-grandmothers.

As they all carried their cake downstairs, Ezra sighed, asking Taylor, “Are you sure there wasn’t some kind of ancient crazy juice on those arrows?”

Taylor barked a laugh, snorting, then answered, “She’s never needed crazy juice, Ezra . She’s always been this way. She doesn’t stop. It’s what makes her the best at what she does and the worst at the rest of life.”

The old general thought about the day he met her. He had just made colonel and his father called him to say they had found Weizmann’s mystery protegee. He thought about all those moments over the years. ‘Yes, she has always been this way. It is what has made Daisy so good at any job pushed her way and bad at simple day to day living.’

Daisy always found the answer. She never gave up. He almost felt sorry for Kars and what she was about to put him through. Karstien’s birthday definitely hadn’t been boring and it was about to get ‘really interesting’ as Jon would say.

Taylor thought about the day he had found her nearly dead in her late mentor’s house, she had figured out how to build his new defense detection system within the power supply restrictions. He hadn’t believed his father’s warning about her behavior till he saw it himself. Daisy could not be left unsupervised when she was on a project. He was surprised she had managed to take care of herself while hunting Damien. He needed to have a sit down with Ezra, Kars, and Davin, if anyone could manage their resident mad genius, it was the two scientists and the immortal.

In the computer room, Daisy was busily arranging files and images onto the projection screens. There were calculations, images of the time machine and its energy patterns, images from the underwater temple and from the stone tablets Ezra and Davin had found in the tomb. Daisy was sitting down at the computer desk and drinking straight from the coffee pot. Her fingers were flying over the keys. A partial hologram of the underwater temple rises from the holo desktop. She didn’t even notice they came in until Kars set the rest of her cake next to her, she stared at it for a moment like she didn’t know what it is or what it’s for.

“Eat,” Kars said sternly, handing her a fork.

“But...” Daisy started.

Kars scowled so she unceremoniously stuffed the other half of the cake in her mouth in three bites. She almost choked, as she wiped the crumbs on her sleeve. He smirked as she shoved the empty plate at him.

She glared at him. He was always making her do things she didn’t have time for, like eat or sleep, and claiming it was his job as her best friend, but if it wasn’t his birthday she would tell him off for being a bully.

After the others sat down, Daisy started, “This is a partial scan of the temple layout before my tablet went down...”

“You mean was shot,” Taylor corrected her.

She frowned at the old general, then continued, “We followed the resonance of the time machine’s energy signature to find this location, the degradation of the signature indicates the energy there is at least 10,000 years old real time but the distortions give the resonance illusions of millions of years. These are images from a wall that I believe surrounds the entire temple, we only got a few and some are..”

“Blurry because you got shot,” Taylor interrupted.

“What is your problem?” Daisy snapped, turning her chair to face Taylor. Her lavender eyes flashed defiantly.

“You, Daisy, you’re my problem! You went into an unsecured area with no body armor or weapon. You were trained better than that. My father would be ashamed of you. You could have been killed,” Taylor stated gruffly.

“But I had Kars,” she retorted as if surprised that he didn’t account for it, like Taylor should know Karstien would protect her. She knew Taylor had wanted answers too and she found them, but what was he so angry about.

“And he could have been killed too. It may not be permanent, but it still hurts him. It hurts him a lot. Did you want to hurt him?” Taylor almost snarled at her and she felt guilty for putting Kars at risk, when she remembered that it hurt him for days to revive.

“I didn’t mean to hurt him or put him at risk, I just found... I mean, I...” she stammered.

“I know, Daisy, you found an answer, but you know you can’t take these kinds of risks, you’re too valuable. You must be more careful,” Taylor’s tone was softer and concerned.

“But we weren’t killed,” she wavered, “and he’s okay now... I’m sorry.” She hated it when people showed concern for her, it made her feel weak and vulnerable. It reminded her how much she cared for them and how fragile life was.

“This time.” Taylor’s voice was low, “And yes, Kars always comes back, but if you get killed, you won’t. And as much as you may want that, I believe your family wouldn’t want that for you. You still have a life to live. Problems to solve that no one else can.”

Daisy wrapped her arms around herself and started shaking, she looked like she was about to cry. But she didn’t, instead she just became very still with her head bowed as only a single tear ran down her cheek. Ezra reached for Fianna’s hand; they had talked about how they couldn’t imagine the pain Daisy must be feeling every moment of every day. She had lost everyone she had ever loved, including her twin boy toddlers.

Kars knelt beside her and hugged her, “I won’t let anyone, or anything hurt you again, I promise. But Taylor is right, you’re special, and special people have to be careful.”

Sniffling, Daisy whispered, “Okay.”

Kars tipped her head up and wiped away her tear, silver eyes met lavender ones, then she put her head on his shoulder.

It was quiet for a few minutes, Fianna glanced meaningfully across the table prompting Davin to speak, “So Daisy... Jon says you found Atlantis.”

Daisy turned away from Kars, suddenly the fragile Daisy who buried her family and friends was gone, and Daisy the manic analyst was back. She sounded completely changed, looked different, excited fingers flying across the keyboard.

“Almost... it is more like pre-Atlantis. The language is a root language older than the one Karstien learned as a child, older than the language from the tomb tablets. This image shows something called ‘the Tear of Heaven’s Hope’. It says that The Tear carried the children to a New Hope, and it fell into the tears the waters, that part means the ocean I think.”

“A new hope?” asked Fianna, “Is that a place?”

Daisy shrugged, “I am not sure yet, but yes maybe. The word is at-lan-tia meaning at place that is a new hope or brought new hope?” Daisy tapped her cheek thoughtfully, “The Tear was a ship of some kind, I believe it might have been a spaceship. In this one, the children of The Tear, grew up and married the people from the land, and their children were heroes OR monsterous shadows.”

“That sounds like something from the bible,” Taylor said, frowning.

Daisy nodded, continuing, “Genesis 6 and about dozen other places in most of the oldest myths of the world. But it is the wording that is strange. It indicates an ‘either-or’ correlation verses the ‘and’ correlation more common to the other versions. This one is too blurry to read, it said something about time waiting for a light to rise, and the seeing stone leading the children home. I need a better image.” She shook her head, “But the next one clearly says a shadowed king had come, corrupting time, bringing eternal winter. The whole world grows old from the ice.”

“Grows old from the ice?” Davin looked horrified and confused. “Present tense?”

“It is similar to one of the tomb tablets. I think the energy signatures I’ve been tracking indicates some kind of a time bomb, and by that, I mean a bomb made of time energy itself. A bomb that affected the flow of time over whole world, trapping it in a pocket of strange time that may still be wearing off. If I am right, our world is much younger than we think,” she announced. “Millions instead of billions. Things we carbon date as billions of years old may only be thousands of years old.”

As Daisy rambled on about the math behind her ‘time bomb and young world’ theory, Taylor sighed inwardly, and here it is, the thing that changed everything he ever believed.

He swallowed and thought of Sherlock Holmes, ’Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.’

He watched her intently as she stood and limped back and forth in front of the boards looking at them closely, completely unaware that her leg wound was bleeding through her PJs.

“How’s that possible?” Ezra and Davin asked at the same moment.

Daisy shrugged, “I don’t have enough data yet.” She paused to drink more coffee from the pot she was carrying, and then set the pot next to Karstien, who was leaning against the table. After he poured some into his cup, he holds the pot out to Ezra who shakes his head, but Davin held out his cup. Davin’s eyes followed Daisy stalking back and forth in front of the displays, almost ranting about how time could be corrupted and used to age their world. He looked awed.

“This last one is going to be very familiar to all of you. So, I want to tell you the translation before I show you... A Lost Prince defeated the shadowed king, using something called the Flame of the Celestial People, ending the corrupt ice and returning warmth and light to the world.”

The image appeared. Everyone gasped as it came up, except Jon who only nodded because he had already seen it. Two stone tablets, side by side, different versions of the same image of Karstien standing on top of a temple surrounded by archways of different colors, magical energy streaming from his hands and facing a golden figure. One image was from the tombs painted by Milady and the other image from the underwater temple.

“The tomb tablet says, the Dark Lord will be defeated by the Lord of Light, ending the corrupt winter of time,” Daisy finished brightly. They were speechless.

“Happy birthday, Karstien, you’re a Prince!” She smiled triumphantly and bowed to him. “So, who wants to time travel? I can have the math done in a week.”

“What the freak!” Davin exclaimed.

“Uh,” Karstien’s mouth hung open.

“Oh, heck NO!” Ezra refused, slamming his mug down, “NO way!”

“Seriously, Daisy!?!” Taylor asked gruffly. “This is why the tomb tablets never made sense. They aren’t events that happen one after the other. They are predictions of two different timeline events ten thousand years apart?”

“Well, more like three. They do happen to us, one after the other, in the order I suggested. Just not in that order in the actual timeline. And it isn’t technically ten thousand years, I have to do the math but is more like... well, I can’t guess the exact number now but soon...” She swayed a little as she nodded. They could see her strength draining away now that her analysis was done. “Yes, I believe so and I think... I think I am going to faint again,” and she did.

Kars caught her this time.

Fianna was the first to speak, “Well, that was expected.”

Davin just rubbed his forehead while Ezra grumbled, “No freaking way. We’re not doing this again.”

Kars sighed but said nothing as he carried her back up to her room. Daisy had found his answers.

Fianna laid her hand on her husband's arm. "But Ezra, when Damien held you and Kars captive, he told Kars, he wouldn't be defeated a fourth time but Kars only remembers three wars. Damien's followers stole his sarcophagus and took him to Atlantis or Atlantia, whatever.t's the fourth war. You will go because you already did go."

They stared at her, then all three men muttered curses.