Defenders of Destiny, book one, the Discovery of Astrolaris by Brenton Barwick
Chapter Ten
The Black Obelisk
As they approached, the shadow became a tall, four-sided pillar with each side tapering to a point at the top.
“It’s a tower!” cried Mom. “No! It’s an…obelisk?”
“It’s huge!” exclaimed Joseph.
Suddenly, they saw a lander next to it, and then another, and another. They looked extremely small next to the giant black obelisk.
“That one is American, see the flag on the side,” called out Sharianna.
“And that one has the same flag as the Russian rover,” observed Dad.
They drew closer and they could read the writing on the side of one of the landers.
“There’s Apollo 12. Is that Neil Armstrong’s lander?”
“No, it was Apollo 11,” answered Dad.
“Wow, it’s still cool,” replied Joseph.
As they drew closer, the words on the side of another Ameri-can lander became readable. “There it is!” exclaimed Sophia: “Apollo 11. There is a plaque on the side of it but I can’t read it, we’re still too far away.”
Sharianna landed the robot between the American landers and the giant obelisk.
“It must be at least 1,000 feet tall,” speculated Dad, as he gazed up at the shiny, black spire, “and it must be 150 feet wide at the base.”
“There is no way they brought that from earth,” stated Mom emphatically.
“Look, there is writing near the bottom of it,” observed Joseph.
“Get closer, Sharianna,” directed Mom.
Sharianna took a few steps closer with the robot. “I thought you wanted to see Neil Armstrong’s footprints.”
“Yeah, later,” Mom replied, as her heart pounded with excitement as she realized that they must have found an alien monument.
“I guess we’ll leave our own footprints,” laughed Joseph.
“Yeah, huge robot-prints,” added Sharianna.
Mom grabbed Dad’s notepad and began copying the row of strange symbols they could now clearly see on the obelisk.
“Can you read that language?” asked Joseph.
“No, I read ancient, dead languages—not alien.”
Suddenly, Sharianna remembered, “I brought my camera.”
“Really?” replied Mom, as she put the notepad down.
“Yeah, I’ll get it.” Sharianna flipped the switch to Joseph’s chair, “You take over Joseph,” she said, as she ran back to the cargo bay. Returning, she handed the camera to Mom, who took a picture of the hieroglyphic writing.
“What is it?” queried Sharianna, motioning to the obelisk.
“Any ideas?” inquired Dad.
“It looks like a monument, like the Washington monument—it’s an obelisk. The Egyptians built obelisks too,” stated Sharianna.
“Maybe it has some kind of function, like a communication tower,” suggested Joseph.
“Communicating to whom?” questioned Mom.
“Was it put here before or after the moon landings, and who put it here?” pondered Dad. “If it was before, then maybe they could see it from earth and that is why they wanted to come here so bad.”
“Maybe they met the aliens who built it.” Joseph gazed up at the silhouette of the spire against the background of the earth, contemplating the possibilities.
“Some of the arguments for the fake moon landings could be explained if there was a second ship–like the strange shadows seen in the pictures,” mused Dad. “Perhaps that’s why NASA does not strenuously refute the allegations of fake moon landings. They would rather have some people believe that they were fake than for everyone to know the real truth.”
“But Dad, didn’t you know that they already proved that the moon landings were real and that the shadows were normal?” argued Joseph.
“I know, but it doesn’t preclude the possibility of another ship, does it?”
“I like Joseph’s idea of a communication tower,” said Mom. “Let’s fly up and look at the top.”
Mom sat down in Sharianna’s chair and flipped the switch that transferred control of the robot from the right control chair to the left, and flew the robot up very slowly. There were no visible joints or seams in the glistening black obsidian-like surface of the obelisk.
“It looks as sharp as a needle,” observed Sharianna, when they reached the apex of the spire.
“I guess it could be an antenna,” acknowledged Dad.
“Hey, let’s see if there are any alien footprints,” suggested Joseph.
Mom landed the robot in almost the same spot.
“Pretty good flying,” praised Dad, as Mom bent the robot down to look at the dust around the base of the obelisk.
“It is easier than you make it look,” she teased, with her beautiful smile.
“Thanks…I think,” he replied, a little disconsolately.
“The astronauts’ footprints are still here! Unless aliens were wearing spacesuits with the same tread as the astronauts,” Sophia exclaimed excitedly, as she looked at the footprints around the base of the monolith. “Too bad we don’t have spacesuits – to walk in the same footprints as Neil Armstrong,” she mused quietly. She had always dreamed of becoming an astronaut.
Joseph and Sharianna looked at each other.