Time Spike: The Mysterious Mesa by Garrett W. Vance

Author:Garrett W. Vance [Vance, Garrett W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Alternate history
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Part Three: Jacob's Ladder

The mesa's cliffs were as smooth and shiny as glass and perfectly straight, as if cut by a fine saw.

The four men felt awed by the massive structure towering above them at least a thousand feet high. They paused to marvel for a while, all feeling a tinge of fear that the whole thing might suddenly topple over on them. Eventually, each man had to look away, dizzy, their senses overcome by the mesa's unnatural, imposing presence.

"I've never seen anything quite like this. Makes the City of the Pyramids look like an ant hill," Nate said, his voice low in the silence of the Drained Sea's sandy flats. He reached out to run his hand across the glassy surface. "It reminds me of the Rattlesnake Priest's chopped off pyramid. The same thing must have happened here, on an even bigger scale."

"I don't think it was The Lord's hand who created this," Gonzalo replied, stroking his pointy black beard thoughtfully as he stared at the anomalous walls.

"Yeah, doesn't look much like God's handiwork to me, either. It's too straight, too smooth. It's just not natural."

"Just so. But, if not Him, then who? Or, what?"

Ni-T'o began to speak, his soft baritone filled with reverence. Gonzalo translated for Nate, although Nate was beginning to catch more and more of their tribesman friend's native tongue.

"He says that we have left the land of the demons and that this must be the home of the gods."

"Well, I guess we'll never know unless we find a way up there. Let's poke around a bit more before it gets dark on us."

They had arrived at the tip of the mesa, about a mile away from the shore of the wide sea that, to their surprise, occupied the middle of the continent in this primeval epoch. The far end of the formation was now becoming obscured by an evening mist rolling in off the water. The walls were concave on this side, a gentle, but distinct curve. A short ride around its nearly razor-sharp, pointed tip revealed that the backside was curved outward, the overall shape forming that of a fat, crescent moon. Although it was hard to tell when standing just above sea level, judging by what they had observed from the cliffs the other day the far end lay well beyond the horizon, reaching some sixty miles in length. They surmised that it would be a bit over half that at its widest point, if the shape held along the entire structure. They would have to walk its length to know for sure.

"Well, we best make camp," Nate said, appraising their options with his scout's sharp eyes. "There's a rise just over there, some big sand dunes. Let's get on top of those for whatever protection the higher ground can provide."

Drawing closer, the dunes proved to be even larger than they had thought, around a hundred feet high. They were pleased to find a natural basin had formed where the tops of several

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