Children of the Fifth Sun by Gareth Worthington

Author:Gareth Worthington [Worthington, Gareth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: military, Mythology, adventure, Underwater, Thriller, Mayan, China, science fiction
Publisher: Vesuvian Books
Published: 2017-07-24T18:30:00+00:00

Location: A hospital in a small village, India

The haze of unconsciousness lifted. Freya was laid on an unsteady, broken, hospital gurney. Light blue sheets were tucked tightly at her sides, with only her arms remaining free. Various wires and tubes protruded from pale limbs that were bruised at the point of needle entry.

The sound of labored breathing droned in her head. For a moment, she wondered what the hell the noise was and then realized it was her own heavy exhalation into a ventilating machine. Sluggishly, she pulled at the mask, trying to pry it from her face. Kelly’s hand gently rested on hers, preventing the action. She rolled her eyes upward to see his familiar smiling face gazing back at her. He looked exhausted, drained. His usual, healthy, tanned complexion was pallid and sickly. Dark circles had formed under his now gray, dull eyes.

Kelly shook his head slowly. “Don’t try and get up. And don’t pull the mask off. You’re lucky to be alive. That was a Jerdon’s sea snake. Pretty powerful venom in those things. They cause asphyxiation through diaphragmatic paralysis. At least, that’s what the Doc says. Basically, it stops you breathing, and you suffocate.”

Freya nodded once.

“So, I hope you don’t mind, but I had to suck on your arm for a bit there to try and get rid of as much of that poison as possible.” He chuckled, but his frivolity was cut short by the onset of a coughing and wheezing fit.

She stared at him, her eyes full of concern.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” he lied. “Anyway, you’re the one in trouble this time, not me.”

Raising a spare hand to her arm, Freya felt for the fang marks. She winced as her fingers lightly skimmed across the two puncture wounds in her otherwise perfect flesh.

“Don’t worry. I don’t think it will scar.”

“Di ... did we find it? Was it a device?” Her voice was weak, each word a concerted effort to push from her lips.

“No. At least not a device that we were looking for.”

She scrunched her nose as if to ask, what?

Alejandro waltzed into the room and sat by Kelly’s side, though he did not extend the courtesy of actually acknowledging his son-in-law. He was still dressed in his linen shorts. It seemed his outfit was just as useful in India as it was in Egypt.

“What we have found, young Freya, is something that may still be of help. It’s an Antikythera mechanism.” It was the first time either Freya or Kelly had heard the old man express any kind of emotion. For it to be joy was a surprise to them both.

“What does that mean?” Freya could barely catch her breath to ask the question.

“The original Antikythera mechanism is an ancient mechanical computer, thought to be built around one-hundred years BC and designed to calculate astronomical positions. It was recovered in 1900 during a diving expedition just off the coast of the Greek island Antikythera,” began the old man. “But its significance and its complexity were not understood until many years later.

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