Free Charger the Soldier by Lea Tassie Page A

from his face. "The carved figures on the
upright stones have nothing to do with religious behavior, such as
depicting animals chosen for the mythical Ark, nor do they
represent domesticated livestock. Instead, celestial navigation
seems to be the design. The lack of tools in the area suggests that
the site was finished, cleaned up, and then used in some practical
way."
    "The problem reminds me of the Shirgir Idol
that I studied in Russia," the Soviet student remarked. "It dates
to 11,000 years ago, nearly as ancient as the upright stones we see
every day. Amazing to think it's twice as old as the Egyptian
pyramids."
    "Has anyone discovered the meaning of the
symbols carved on it?" Opinhimmer asked. "Apparently scientists
believe the runes are a code, possibly about the origins of the
universe. Although the code could be about almost anything."
    The Soviet student shook his head. "It's
still a mystery, the last I heard."
    Opinhimmer fell silent for a time, gathering
his thoughts. The students who spent their summer holidays helping
him remove the soil covering ancient stones were some of the
brightest and best from all over the world. The dig site was hot
and dusty and plagued by flies, and the protestors made the job
very frustrating. However, the work was considered to be of value
to humanity, and so, every year for the past ten years, students
from universities made their way to Turkey to dig up a site that
seemed to have been deliberately buried 12,000 years before by
primitive cave-dwelling humans.
    He went on. "The construction dates back to
the end of the ice age. I must remind you that as the glaciers
retreated, they left the area wet and fertile. It would have been a
good hunting place, covered with trees, wild fruits and berries. In
this knowledge lies the problem. These peoples had no agriculture;
they were hunter-gatherers. Learning about the equinoxes through
celestial study would have served no function. Hence the
possibility does exist that this site was designed with or by
aliens."
    The East Indian student rubbed her temples
and asked, "So one group of people believes our work here is of
religious significance and another group believes it's a site
dedicated to aliens?"
    "It's much worse than that." Opinhimmer's
tone was heavy. "The north site you were working on the other day,
where I called you to stop? There was a reason I did that." The
silence lasted for a moment. "We found something there, something
that suggests the mythical city of Atlantis might not be such a
myth."
    The students looked disbelieving. He could
have heard a pin drop.
    "The map of a city is carved on one of the
stone monoliths. It is portrayed as being on a large land mass,
with roads and waterways clearly defined, but on a scale that was
epic compared to the size and shape we think of as Atlantis." He
reached for the atlas that lay at the end of the table. "The map
suggests that this was the world of Atlantis..." he pointed his
finger "...here, from Athens across the water to Izmir in Turkey
and back across to the island of Crete. History has been looking
for an island with a city, but these stones suggest that it was a
huge land mass, ringed by mountains, not water, cutting the rest of
the world off from contact except for a few river pathways out.
There is only one city from history which matches that description.
Plato's Atlantis. So, I ask you, was this place buried 12,000 years
ago, or 2,000 years ago?"
    "You think the church buried it?" asked a
student.
    "When I researched this site many years ago,
I found that it had been dismissed as a burial area, and the
university told to abandon it." Dr. Opinhimmer leaned back again.
"Imagine a world where a great race of people existed, long before
the last ice age had even started. Imagine that they were far
advanced in technology and understood space travel. Let us also say
they knew the ice age was fast approaching. They launched
themselves from their cities into space to find a safe new