Dewei screamed, "Fire in the hole."

Doctor Stevens couldn’t help himself, he was addicted to the adrenaline rush. He watched for the blast with gleeful anticipation. First came the intense flash that blinded him, and then came the shockwave, followed with a slight increase in temperature that he could feel on his skin. The sound of the explosion often distorted his hearing depending how far away from the blast he positioned himself. It was exhilarating. The dust particles hung in the air so thick the excavation team couldn’t see two feet in front of them. The doctor took in a big sniff of air through his paper respirator. He loved the smell of fresh dirt. This time he sensed a problem. Instead of a strong earthy smell, he got a snoot full of rot and decay. Something was amiss.

With small pieces of rock and dirt still settling, Dewei was the first to move ahead to admire his handiwork. As he scanned the debris his mind refused to digest what his eyes were telling him. The C-4 created an opening leading to a large cave, and in the middle of the open expanse, sat the artifact. “I’ll be damned,” said Dewei. "Doctor Stevens," he shouted, "come here quick. You won't believe this."

The doctor stumbled through the passageway with the excitement of a little boy that had just woken up on Christmas morning. As he stepped forward, a hand shot out from the darkness preventing him from falling.

"Careful doc,” said Dewei, “the bottom is a long drop down. We’re three miles from the surface. If someone gets hurt here, there’s no help coming."

The doctor’s eyes twinkled as the blaze from the xenon light on his helmet hit the obelisk. He couldn’t help but whistle. The sound reverberated in the large chamber.

“The hieroglyphs we found in Ningxia, were right, 10,560 cubits at an inclination of 85 degrees from the marker. This is the exact location identified in the ancient writings. We are spot on.”

The smooth glass like surface of the monolith absorbed all of the light hitting it leaving a dark void in the room. The oddly shaped onyx column stood nine feet tall, and sat atop a tall rock pedestal. The base was narrow and flared out to a top about seven feet wide.

"Dewei, have you ever seen anything absorb light so completely?"

"No doc, it’s like a black hole. I’ll bet the military would love to have this thing."

The doctor was so distracted he didn’t realize the rest of the excavation crew was standing next to him looking into the large underground chamber.

“Holy Moly,” said one of the grad students, “what is it?”

The doctor looked at the team and said, “For now lets call it the obelisk.”

“How’d it get here? Apparently we aren’t the first humans to be three miles beneath the surface of the earth,” said a dig team member.

“Maybe it wasn’t put here by humans,” said another grad student.

No one said a word as everyone reflected on the grad students comment. The portable lights turned on illuminating the entire vault for the first time. The team stared with absolute awe. Hieroglyphs covered every single inch of caverns surface, from the floor, to the walls, to the ceiling.

“These markings and those from the Ningxia marker appear to be the same,” said the Doctor Stevens.

When the stone marker was discovered on the surface, the writing was thought to be Egyptian pictographs. It didn’t take long for the experts to recognize the pictographs were much more complex then those used in the known ancient Egyptian societies. If not for the university's access to a super computer, the experts would still be trying to decipher a single scene on the hieroglyphic marker.

"Does everyone understand the significance of this find?” Said Dr. Stevens. “It means with the dating we did on the marker we found, and finding this chamber identified on that marker, I believe we are looking at an alien relic left here about two thousand years ago. No society on earth was capable of digging this deep during that time period."

"Oh man, my mom's going to wet herself when she finds out aliens exist," said one of the younger students.

"The whole world will wet themselves," said the doctor, getting a good laugh out of everyone.

"Dewei, take one of the students and drill into the obelisk to obtain cuttings to use for dating the age of the material. Instead of sending the samples to the university, use the portable mass spectrometer we borrowed from the Navy to date the cuttings, and see if you can identify the composition of the material. The rest of us will start documenting the hieroglyphs."

"Dr. Stevens, are you sure you want us drilling into the obelisk? Shouldn't we wait until we finish decoding the hieroglyphs? We have no idea what this thing is. Someone went through a lot of trouble to put the obelisk way below the earth’s surface, not to mention all this amazing writing." said Dewei.

"Cracking all these hieroglyphs may take years. Lets do what we can and hope something breaks for us."

Dewei shook his head mumbling to himself. "That’s a bad idea doc, but you're the boss. I gotta tell you, this place creeps me out. Dewei turned to face the students and said, “Sidney, you're with me. Get the high-speed drill and grab a couple diamond bits. Time to date this thing."

Doctor Stevens made the most of his time by trying to translate the hieroglyphs while sitting inside the chamber overseeing the activities of the discovery. The students were tasked with taking three-dimensional pictures of the hieroglyphs in the cave and sending them back to the computer department at the university for analysis. After spending hours using all his considerable knowledge of Egyptian hieroglyphs, Doctor Stevens remained unable to interpret a single pictograph.

The doctor pondered his dilemma and decided to request that the computer department treat the hieroglyphs as a newly discovered language instead of trying to force decryption using Egyptian hieroglyphs as a base to work from.

The effort in trying to put the hieroglyphs back together from the crumbled wall proved to be a task doomed to failure. The doctor realized some of the hieroglyphs were vaporized during the explosion and could never be recovered. Then there was Dewei’s report: Obtaining a sample of the obelisk was proving to be more difficult than first assumed.

Two days later, things took a turn for the better. A young grad student ran into the obelisk chamber. "Doctor Stevens, Doctor Stevens,” his voice quivered with excitement. “Professor Rana is on the mega loop. He wants to talk to you." She gave him a handset connected to a large triple ring antennae designed to transmit low frequencies through rock.

"Hello Alok, I’m guessing you have some news for me?"

"Yes, yes, we decoded a hieroglyph string. I will forward the file to you. It says the obelisk contains energy of worlds... can you believe your find Teddy?  It warns, it is very powerful, very powerful. Perhaps you have discovered the answer to the world’s energy problems. Now understand Teddy, this is preliminary information of course. But, I'm so excited, I couldn't wait to tell you."

"Good job Alok. Was it you that transcribed the writings?"

"No. No. It was one of my students, very bright, a very bright young woman hit on a solution. Egyptian hieroglyphs, can you believe it, are like grunting’s of pigs compared to this new language. It’s beautiful. The algorithm my student created may be the Rosetta stone we were hoping to find. I think you are right, Teddy. The language is not of earth. This is amazing, just amazing. You will be famous. The whole university will be honored."

"This is wonderful news Alok. Call me immediately if you solve more of the hieroglyphs."

"Yes, yes. I'll call. Good bye and good luck Teddy."

Dr. Stevens disconnected from the loop, set the receiver down, and went back to the chamber. He smiled at the grad students as they struggled to put together the section of the wall blown up in the explosion. With a decipher key, it might be possible to fill in missing hieroglyphs if they are part of a string.

As the adrenaline from Alok’s phone call wore off, Doctor Stevens noticed the elaborate drill stand Sydney and Dewei set up next to the obelisk. "What's wrong Dewei?"

"We're having problems getting a sample, doc. Watch this." He placed the diamond bit against the monolith and turned on the drill. Even using the drill stand, the bit slid around as if it were coated with oil. Even changing the drill speed had no impact. "This is the best diamond drill bit money can buy." He held up two bits to show the doctor and said, "I dulled both of these bits on this slick surface. I should be able to penetrate anything made on the earth."

Doctor Stevens smiled. "That’s the problem Dewei. I don't think the obelisk originated on this planet. Dr. Rana called and said his people may be close to cracking the hieroglyphs. The computer department decoded a set string of pictographs, they believe the light-absorbing pillar contains 'energy of worlds'. The stone marker called it called very powerful."

"They think this is a power source?" Asked a grad student.

"Yes. Imagine the possibilities if we could supply the entire world with energy."

"Doc, I'm even more worried about poking a hole in this thing now," said Dewei.

"I'll tell ya what, I think you’re right,” said Doctor Stevens. “We only need enough material for dating. How about if we take a gas sample instead of drilling? Use the 10 watt laser."

Dewie gave an audible sigh of relief. "Brilliant idea doc. Come on Sydney, let’s snag the laser and grab a couple of Marinelli beakers for the gas samples."

When Sydney and Dewei returned with the equipment and began to discuss how best to accomplish their task. Both agreed not to sample from the weaker bottom or too near an edge. It was decided to draw their gas sample at a location two feet down the very top, and in the center of the obelisk. This ensured the laser hit the obelisk at its thickest point. The doctor agreed with the team, this seemed the safest thing to do. Besides, the Marinelli set up from there would be a no brainer.

The chamber was cleared for the sampling evolution. Dewei, Sydney, and the doctor put on laser protective eyeglasses. They weren’t too concerned with scatter or reflection since all wavelengths of light proved to be absorbed by the obelisk. Once Sydney started the pump for the Marinelli gas sample, Dewei flipped the laser to pulse mode.

“Here we go,” said Dewei as he powered up the laser. The powerful green light hit the obelisk over and over, hundreds of times a minute for five minutes with no results. The dig team waited outside of the chamber and watched the sinister flickering green glow that came from the obelisk vault.

“Doc, it’s not working,” said Dewei.

“Try the steady beam instead of pulsed,” said Doctor Stevens.

“Come on doc, you were there when the trainers said don’t use the steady mode. I’d rather not, they warned us it generates too much focused heat.”

Doctor Stevens reached in front of Dewei and flipped the switch to steady.

Dewei stepped back. “Doc, please don’t do it, it’s too dangerous. The risk, it’s too great.”

The doctor powered up the laser, and a bright steady green beam hit the obelisk.

After forty-five seconds of the steady green laser hitting the obelisk, Dewei could see wispy traces of white smoke. “Smoke, there’s smoke. Shut the laser, shut the laser,” said Dewei.

After Doctor Stevens shut down the laser, Sydney shut the valves trapping the smoke sample inside the Marinelli beaker.

"Got it," said Sydney.

"Are you sure you got a sample?" Asked Dr. Stevens.

"I'm positive. Dewei can date the contents on the mass spectrometer. The results will prove we captured a good sample."

As Dewei and Sydney headed to the surface with the sample, the doctor began preparations to acquire another Marinelli of gas. Better to have two samples, he thought.

Topside, Dewei analyzed the Marinelli. He couldn’t believe the printout. He showed the results to Sydney and her jaw dropped. The mass spectrometer dated the substance in the obelisk to 13.8 billion years old, the same age as the universe.

“How can this be?” Asked Dewei.

BRINGGG, BRINGGG, the phone rang interrupting their conversation about the age of the sample.

“Hello. Dewei here.”

"Dewei, this is professor Rana, I have been calling for hours and no one picked up the loop.”

Dewei rolled his eyes. "Sorry professor. The receiver must be out of the cradle again. What do you need?"

"We were wrong, Dewei. We were wrong. The Ningxia hieroglyphs are a warning. The correct transcription is not 'energy of worlds', but 'destroyer of worlds' and it says the obelisk is a prison. The marker warns not to enter the chamber or to touch the prison. The writings in the chamber you sent to us appear to be some kind of binding spell as near as we can figure."

"Oh crap. We broke the wall and possibly the spell. Dr. Stevens is in the chamber with the crew. I gotta go professor."

Dewei didn’t wait for a response. He hung up the phone and hopped into the electric cart with Sydney. The little cart rocked and jumped as the two rushed to warn the doctor of the danger. After they parked the cart and began to run toward the chamber, they could hear a commotion coming toward them.

They heard the doctor yelling, "Get out, everyone out, get out now, go."

Most of the excavation crew blew by Dewei and Sydney running in the opposite direction. All of their faces were pale, their eyes were wide open, and their faces were frozen in blank stares. They could hear several of the diggers whispering the words “get out” as they ran by as if they were afraid someone would hear them.

When Sydney and Dewei arrived at the opening to the obelisk chamber, both of them instinctively took a step backwards. The impregnable onyx prison was shattered like cheap glass all over the ground. Facing the doctor and four dig team members stood a tall, dark, winged creature. They were too late.

The opening to the chamber was at the creature’s back, so it didn’t see Dewei and Sydney arrive. The strange creature rolled its head, unfurled its wings, and shook its body.

“It feels good to be out of that null dimensional prison,” said the creature. “I have a score to settle with those that locked me inside.” The creature looked up as if he was talking to someone. “I’m coming for you. Do you hear me, my brothers? I am coming for you.

A chill ran down Dewei’s back. The creature sensed his fear and turned to see who was behind it.

The creature smiled and said, “You have good reason to be afraid.” Then it turned back to face the doctor as if it had nothing to fear from Sydney, Dewei, or anyone else that might show up.

One of the females tried to move past the creature. It snared and the girl froze.

“What are you?” Asked Doctor Stevens.

“Ah, my adrenaline junkie savior. I’ll bet this is your biggest rush ever.”

The creature was right. Doctor Stevens couldn’t help but smile. The excitement was sending tremors across his body. His brains pleasure centers were lit up like a Christmas tree.

“A better question would be who am I,” said the creature.

“All right,” said the doctor, “who are you?”

 "I am Horus, Atum, Enki, Loki," the monster sneered, "but you may call me by my chosen heavenly name, Lucifer."

Dr. Stevens swallowed hard and whispered, "Oh God, no."

“You still don’t understand what you have done. It’s true . Michael and Gabriel locked me inside the null dimensional prison they created in heaven. They hid the prison from me by placing it in your universe during the period of creation. I have to admit, that was a real genius move. Releasing me my dear doctor is not your biggest problem. You see, they decided to place me inside the first seal of revelations. You have opened your own demise.”

Lucifer looked at the long face on each human and let out a gloating laugh, and then he disappeared.