The Black Sun

"Has Dr. Wyse discovered what it was?"

"No. He said he needs to find the source of that substance. He said it came from a peculiar Toltec statue."

"Is it at the museum?"

"No. A so-called exorcist was brought in because of paranormal activity happening at the museum after they brought in the statue. She told them to return the statue, and they did. After it was returned to its temple, things stopped flying off the walls and museum goers stopped being harassed by the invisible."

"Well, ain't that crazy!"

"Yep. But guess what? I don't believe a single one of those stories because I've never seen those happen."

"We can't rely on our eyes all the time, friend. We are scientists, and we know there are things that can't be observed with the naked eye." 

"Don't lecture me on things I already know. I didn't get a bachelor's in physics for nothing."

"Regardless, we are merely helpers of Dr. Wyse. His dedication to finding the source particle is pretty intense; he has been researching it since he was four."

"What a prodigy."

"It might be more than his parents. I've spoken with his wife; she said that he remembered everything since infancy, even from inside the womb."

"His wife, huh… don't you go around stealing other men's women, you hear me?"

"I have better things to do," Rudolph laughed.

"I have a wife too, so you better stay away with your crazy stories." Craven wagged a jokingly menacing finger at him. Turning somber again, he murmured, "I don't understand why he is so obsessed with finding 'the source particle.'"

"Well, if he found it, he would find the answer to the very question that has plagued scientists since the beginning of time: what was there before the Big Bang and before the singularity?"

The door of the lab opened. A tall, well-built man in a white lab coat and shaggy white hair, an equally shaggy white beard, and round glasses walked in the room. "Good afternoon, gentlemen," he greeted. The two assistants were immediately soothed by the calm ambience that fell over the room when Dr. Wyse came in. The doctor went to his table and set a bulging manila envelope on top of it. He turned around to face Rudolph and Craven.

"We are going to Mexico in two days," he announced.

Craven and Rudolph gawked, speechless at this sudden proclamation.

"Seriously? In two days, doctor?" Craven blurted. 

"Yes," the doctor replied calmly. "We're going to Tula, a village that belonged to the Toltecs. The origin of the ziode is located on the engravings of the statue called 'the Black Sun Disk.' It was utilized as paint on the engravings, and considering how the statue was carbon dated to be thirty thousand years old, it is a wonder that it still retains a glossy seaweed-green appearance separate from the statue's stone gray texture. Although I do suspect it used to appear almost like gold."

"This is a most exciting venture, Dr. Wyse! But may I interject that this barely gives me enough time to pack sufficiently for a trip that might require much for comfort?" Rudolph pleaded hesitantly.

"Nonsense, Rudolph. You can buy what you need when you get there," Dr. Wyse smiled.

Craven grumbled. "This is too much for me, Dr. Wyse. But I will go considering I received a hefty bonus yesterday. This will be my thanks."

Dr. Wyse smiled, his pearly whites glinting. "Fantastic! The trip should be nice and smooth; I'm getting us first class seats. Even when we're there, we have everything provided for us, because a team near Tula also has scientific interest in the remnants of an ancient temple located there. That is where our prized statue is, and it is also where we will find the answer to everything."

"Umm… everything, doctor?" Rudolph murmured.

"Yes… everything."

*****

It was a hot, sunny day in the middle of July when the three scientists finally reached the temple in Tula by an RV van. The beige RV pulled up on the dirt road right next to a tree on the side of the temple. The scientists came out, stumbling from the tiny rocks that crushed under their feet. The sandy dust stirred by the van that wafted in the air parted for them as they trudged toward the temple. Two cameramen tagged along, their cameras rolling. Dr. Wyse spoke into the video as they walked.

Past the ziggurat and into the inner chambers of the temple, the statue sat like a royal figure on a pedestal in the center of a large engraved circle on the floor. It was a dark gray circular stone disk with wings on the sides reminiscent of Egyptian and Mesopotamian artifice. Around its diameter is an ancient script of letters yet to be decoded. The letters were seaweed-green, and it's the same color as the symbol at the core of the circle. 

Dr. Wyse and his entourage reached the inner sanctum, where the disk was, after passing through a few rooms and a labyrinth. The enraptured doctor held the Black Sun disk in his hand and ran his fingers over the markings. The team watched as he bowed down in the center of the circle and muttered something indiscernible. When he came back to them, they asked what he was doing.

"Asking permission from their god to study the disk," he replied matter-of-factly.

They returned outside and split up. Dr. Wyse, a fellow scientist named Dr. Tour, and a cameraman returned to the RV to study the disk. The rest of the entourage left to explore the area. Rudolph and Craven found a bar in a nearby village and lounged there.

"Let me tell you, Rudolph, I would never have come here if it weren't for this job." Craven chugged his beer. "I wouldn't have had any reason to."

"Exploring foreign countries is pretty nice. Especially ones with a rich background to them," Rudolph mused.

Craven burped. "The only background a country needs is me."

"Craven, sometimes you don't sound like a scientist," Rudolph remarked. 

"I'm a fucking assistant, Rudolph! You're not any higher up than the doctor either! Your master's degree cannot compare to his PhD!"

"The title is not as important to me as the work that I do, Craven. Plus, aren't you curious to see what Dr. Wyse will unveil once he completes his research? This could change the way we view reality, for all we know!"

"I don't need to change my view of reality," Craven bellowed. "I need a change of glass. Waitress! Give me another glass of beer!"

"Listen, Craven," Rudolph implored. "Where do you think the ancient Toltecs got the ingenuity to build the large ziggurats that they have here? Or the Egyptians with their pyramids? These structures are more advanced, more magnificent, and far more difficult to create than modern day buildings!"

"I'd say it's because we need modern day buildings to be easy to make, so we can make a lot of them." Craven burped.

"That is besides the point. You are thinking from a smaller perspective, Craven."

"A smaller perspective! I'm thinking in terms of practicality."

"There are so many ancient structures that astound me with their size and complexity. The science behind them is mind-blowing. Did you know that the structure of the pyramid can harness energy and concentrate it in the Earth through its base? Do you think early humans were capable of such genius?"

"We're not in Egypt, Rudolph."

"The point of the matter is," Rudolph asserted, "I don't think we are alone in the universe. And to be honest with you, I don't think Dr. Wyse is from here."

"Yeah, I know. Obviously, he is from Wisconsin."

"I mean from here ..." he paused. "From this planet."

The waitress returned with Craven's fourth glass of beer and set it in front of him. "Here you go," she grinned. "Enjoy, gentlemen."

Craven raised an eyebrow at Rudolph. "What do you know about this man that I don't, Rudolph?"

****

Back in the RV, Dr. Wyse presented a sample of the seaweed-green substance taken from the engravings on the Black Sun disk before the lens of the camera. "This, my friends, is the ziode."

He put the substance in a petri dish and placed the dish under a microscope. He beckoned the cameraman over, who bent over to put the lens of the camera over the eye piece. The microscopic vision was displayed for both doctors to see on a laptop placed beside the lab items.

"It is the most complex crystalline structure known to man as of yet. Found in the writings of an ancient artifact, this substance is speculated to hold terabytes of information within just a millimeter of it … and is able to transmit that information to the brain by shining concentrated light through it and directing it to the optical nerve," Dr. Wyse explained as the molecular formation of the ziode appeared on the camera's monitor.

"This is the most fascinating substance I have ever seen, Dr. Wyse," Dr. Tour breathed. "We have been talking about this over the phone and on skype, trying to replicate it in our labs … but to finally see this in its purest form is a totally different matter."

"Indeed." Dr. Wyse looked toward the flashlight on the table. "And I cannot wait to see what information has been stored in this artifact for thousands of years."

"You think it contains information intentionally stored inside, Doctor?" Dr. Tour was surprised.

"Of course. Why else was such an advanced artifact made?"

"I'm under the impression that you see this not as an invention accidentally discovered by early homo sapiens, but as a relic left behind by a more advanced civilization." 

Dr. Wyse turned to look at him. "Has there ever been any doubt as to where humans came from, Dr. Tour?"

"Until now, I'm not so sure, Doctor."

"Right. There are so many conflicting origin stories, after all. There's the scientific worldview and there is the religious worldview. But really, both of them have a part of the truth and both are missing the other piece," Dr. Wyse said. He lifted a teacup to his lips and sipped his coffee. He set it back down on the table with a satisfied sigh. "The answer to our origins may very well be found in this substance. The source particle … is within our reach."

"I'm quite curious to see how this substance will indeed contribute to our search for the source particle," Dr. Tour agreed, perplexed by Dr. Wyse's demeanor.

"Indeed, Dr. Tour," Dr. Wyse said, eyeing the substance through the microscope and licking his lips. "Now if you don't mind, I must shine the light through this specimen and into my eye. I've been waiting for so long, and went through so many obstacles."

In the monitor, the molecules shifted inward noticeably, only to revert back to normal.

Dr. Wyse's eyelids lowered as if in a trance. He picked up the flashlight in one hand, and the specimen on the other. "It's about time I reunite with my memories."

Dr. Tour looked at him, puzzled.

****

"I met Dr. Wyse in a small town in Wisconsin," Rudolph began. "Back then, he wasn't a doctor yet. He was Orville Wyse, and we were both in high school. He used to be bullied often, for his obsession with science experiments. He has gotten so many science fair awards, I can't even count. But anyway… whenever we talked, he would often go on and on about things I didn't understand at the time. I wasn't as passionate about research back then as I am now; I was kind of more like a basketball player."

"Relevant, but go on," Craven grumbled.

"Anyways, he would make these little remote-controlled flying saucers made out of aluminum foil and pieces of wire taken from the dumpster. And do you know what he would say? 'I used to make bigger versions of these.' Then he would send one flying through the air and into peoples' backyard like it was nobody's business.

Sometimes, he would stray away from scientific talk and would tell me that he remembers his past lives. He would describe himself: tall, gray eyes, and blue skin. I found what he said amusing and laughed at the time. But he would say, 'Go ahead and laugh if you want, but if one day you see my kin, don't say I didn't tell you so.' And he told me his mom is not into earthly men."

Craven's eyes widened. "What? She's not into humans?"

"I thought he was joking too. He also said his dad is in outer space," Rudolph added. "I asked if he was an astronaut or anything related to it, and he said 'sort of.' I wanted to see a picture of his dad, but he got defensive and said I wouldn't want to see it. After further probing, he relented that he didn't have a picture. Although it baffled me that he didn't say that in the first place."

"Weird," Craven muttered.

I saw a picture of him when he was five," Rudolph continued. "He was so tiny. Like, the size of a puppy. And the top of his head was kind of elongated."

"Let's search him up on Facebook," Craven interrupted. 

"Why?"

"To see pictures of him, dumbass." He pulled out his phone and opened Facebook. Scrolling through the doctor's pictures, it's clear to see why he intentionally kept his hair pretty long and shaggy. There was a family photo he was tagged in that showed his hair when it was significantly shorter; the elongated skull was definitely obvious. It was a marked difference from his mom's small round face.

"No way," Craven gasped.

"And hear this," Rudolph added, his voice lowering to a whisper. "There was a time when we were playing basketball when he stopped moving for a brief three seconds and just stared at me. No kidding, I almost shit myself… his normally blue eyes turned black as fuck. I started to scream when his eyes turned back to normal and he looked at me asking what was the matter. I told him what happened, and he said not to worry. He said he got lost in a daydream. I thought I hallucinated. During our basketball game, he accidentally sent the ball flying through the window and broke it. We got in trouble that time, which is why I probably forgot all about this but… when I was about to leave his house, he was muttering something about his dad calling him at the wrong time. The dad who was never there."

Craven was looking at Rudolph with his fist to his mouth, bemused. His fourth glass of beer was only halfway done. Finally, he gathered his thoughts and spoke, "why don't we go back to the van and observe him?"

****

Back in the RV, the symbol in the center of the Black Sun Disk started to glow.

Dr. Tour looked at it, and looked at Dr. Wyse as he shined the flashlight through the ziode, illuminating it into his left eye. It was a strange five seconds, and Dr. Tour wondered not just about the ziode, but about the man standing before him. Passionate curiosity is the mark of a true scientist, but Dr. Wyse seems to know much more than he lets on.

Dr. Tour looked at him intently. Dr. Wyse's irises turned black for a brief moment, as if his pupils expanded to cover his irises. His eyes went back to normal in a second,  and the way it happened was reminiscent of a cat's eyes when its pupils shrink after being dilated.

Dr. Wyse put the flashlight down and put the petri dish back under the microscope.

"Well? What did you see?" Dr. Tour probed.

Dr. Wyse turned to stare at him. His countenance had changed, and Dr. Tour felt a chill in his bones.

"I remember now," he said, his eyes wide-eyed yet hard to read. "My father created this a long time ago. He was … a god."

"Pardon?"

"My father was not only from another planet … but he was also a god. And he created this disk so we could penetrate into the inner worlds." 

"What do you mean … inner worlds?" 

"Other dimensions. As you will see, this substance can open wormholes. The words around it hold an incantation that opens a portal to other worlds. The portal opens from the symbol in the center; it is called the sigil."

Dr. Tour looked at where the sigil is supposed to be. It was a geometrically arranged pattern of circles dancing within a bigger circle. At the center lies a small triangle.

"May I show you how this works?" Dr. Wyse asked.

"Go ahead," Dr. Tour consented.

Dr. Wyse leaned his head back and grotesque sounds escaped from his mouth. The words around the disk began to glow, and then the sigil in the center followed suit. Dr. Tour, whose skepticism had turned into horror, screamed as he was sucked into the symbol like dust into a vacuum. There was nothing left behind … no blood, no ashes … nothing.

At that moment, Craven and Rudolph had barged in the RV in time to see the last remnants of Dr. Tour disappear into the disk like a hologram receding back to its source. They could not fathom what just happened. All they did was stare in terror.

Dr. Wyse turned to look at them and smiled. "Do you want to know where he is?"

Craven started to scream.

"W-where is he, doctor?" Rudolph stammered.

Dr. Wyse looked at both of them. "You seem afraid. Don't be. He is merely in a place that we have all been at some point or another, and will all return to. In the dimension where there is nothing but being. A world beyond causality."