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    Portal Wars #1: Portal Wars, #1
    Portal Wars #1: Portal Wars, #1
    Portal Wars #1: Portal Wars, #1
    Ebook128 pages1 hour

    Portal Wars #1: Portal Wars, #1

    By Travis Hill

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    About this ebook

    When an archaeological dig in the desert of Arizona turns up a mysterious object, the military arrives and swiftly removes it to Area 51. As the object is being tested deep underground, it lets out a brief burst of light at the same moment the United States Military's secure network is overloaded.

    Within days, a new test at CERN near Geneva results in a terrifying conclusion: a strange portal opens underground and massive, deadly mechs begin coming through. Soon the entire world is in a panic as the advanced machines begin to open other portals all around the planet.

    Portal Wars #1 is the first novella in a new science fiction serial from Travis Hill.

    28,500 words / 90 pages
    Adult language / violence / mature themes

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTravis Hill
    Release dateFeb 9, 2016
    ISBN9781524257026
    Portal Wars #1: Portal Wars, #1
    Author

    Travis Hill

    I'm an author in the Pacific Northwest. I live with my five completely worthless but awesome cats. I write stories I want to read that no one else is writing. My mailing list: https://www.angrygames.com Writes: Science Fiction / Fantasy / Horror / Adult Fiction / Drama / Humor

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      Book preview

      Portal Wars #1 - Travis Hill

      Portal Wars #1

      By Travis Hill

      Copyright 2015

      Cover art by: Keith Draws

      http://keithdraws.wordpress.com/

      CHAPTER ONE - DISCOVERY

      Monument Valley, Arizona

      Alanna picked her way over the red rocks, doing her best to hustle without breaking her ankle. Phil’s voice had been almost frantic on the two-way radio, with Galae shouting in the background, her Farsi melodic compared to Phil’s high-pitched English. Alanna caught sight of the black carapace of a scorpion off to her right, far enough away to keep her fear at bay, which kept her from breaking into a sprint over the rocky terrain. She glanced back after passing it by, her feet picking up the pace when she watched it scuttle under a rock in her direction.

      Dr. Travis! Phil shouted the instant he saw her come over the rise. Alanna waved to her students. Phil trotted toward her, pivoting and matching her step as she approached the grid. Dr. Travis, we don’t know what it is. It’s supposed to be a pre-Anasazi village or outpost, so the artifacts are supposed to be… you know.

      Phil had trouble talking to his professor for more than a minute before becoming almost too embarrassed to continue. Alanna knew the awkward grad student was infatuated with her, and she did her best to always be professional, never more than academically friendly with him. She nodded her head for him to go on, but they’d reached the edge of the grid that divided the dig site into one meter squares.

      Good morning, Dr. Travis, Galae said, her accent always musical in Alanna’s ears.

      Good morning, Galae. What’s up? Did you find something interesting?

      More than interesting, Phil said, his face becoming an unnatural shade of red when his professor turned to him.

      Galae sighed. Phil was a great partner on the digs and in the lab unless Dr. Travis was around. Galae recognized the striking beauty of her professor, but couldn’t see herself turning into a love-struck teenage girl around the woman.

      "We’ve found something interesting all right, Mika Klopnik, Alanna’s assistant said, removing her gloves and dusting off her shorts. Better take a look."

      Alanna gave Mika a curious look. Her assistant shrugged and walked around the edge of the grid until they were at the far end. Alanna glanced at her again, but Mika only pointed to a gray object half-buried in E-12. Alanna checked the two grids in front of E-12 before stepping into each. She knelt down at the edge and stared at the artifact, pinning the string separating the two zones under her knee. Alanna wasn’t sure whether it was an artifact or a joke at first. A brush was dropped into her palm when she held out her hand without taking her eyes off the object.

      After twenty seconds of brushing, she saw the smooth lines of a corner and the beginnings of a raised edge, the rest buried in the packed clay. Alanna wanted to do nothing more than continue digging around the object to reveal it, but it made her afraid. She had been under the impression that the team had uncovered something incredibly rare, possibly even an artifact that had never been found before, one that could create a major link in the chain of the ancient peoples of the Southwest. She’d almost caught her foot between two large rocks on her way up the small mesa while daydreaming about the paper she’d write, the grants she’d secure, the book she’d author.

      We need to get Miles up here, ASAP, she told Mika, who spoke into the two-way radio strapped to the shoulder of her tank top. The rest of you, get all the gear we’ll need. Phil, make sure the cameras are charged. She watched everyone scurry away, then turned back to the artifact.

      Dr. Kendrick will be here in ten minutes, Mika said.

      Alanna waved in her general direction to let her know she’d been heard. Dr. Travis was unable to take her eyes from whatever it was buried a third of a meter below the surface of a low-rise Arizona mesa.

      ***

      What do you make of it? Miles Kendrick asked his partner.

      I don’t want to say, Alanna answered, looking embarrassed.

      Come on, I know what you’re going to say. Looks like an alien artifact. She glared at him. Well, it’s true. That’s what it looks like to me. What else could it be?

      It just sounds stupid.

      It might sound stupid, but it looks like an alien artifact.

      They both looked back to the gray metal object on the table. Mika entered the tent, giving the artifact a frown. Dr. Linderman is on her way. She wants to keep everything hush-hush until we get a good look at it, catalog it.

      You mean get as much evidence as we can stashed away before the suits show up and threaten us all into silence? Alanna asked.

      She’s pretty freaked out, Mika said. Walker and Brown are coming with her. They all want a look at it. It’s only a matter of time before they have to alert the Feds.

      Hopefully some of that silence money will be a nice fat grant for our program. The two women stared at him. What? We’re not going to get any publicity out of this. No alumni, not even the NSF is going to get a whiff of this, so no kudos from them. No kudos equals no dollars.

      This is more important than money, Miles, Alanna said.

      "Come on, Doctor Travis. Our program is scrambling for funding each year. Our digs get closer and closer to home. In two more years, we’ll be digging up flower beds in front of the dorms."

      Alanna had nothing to counter with. Mika shrugged, gave the artifact another wary glance, then exited the tent. Alanna scowled at her colleague then began to study the artifact again. She noted that it was perfectly smooth, almost reflective, like an old hubcap might be after some polishing. It was a mostly square shape except for one side, which had a raised rectangle that jutted out from the surface of the object for five centimeters all the way around. Miles had guessed it was some sort of cover, and that when the box opened, if that’s what its purpose was, the metal front of the rectangle would fold or slide away somehow. She’d laughed at him then, but wasn’t so sure now.

      Miles, look at this, she said, pulling down one of the lighted magnifiers. Her fingers traced along the lines that covered the rectangle’s face. Do you remember these being here when we pulled it from the ground?

      Miles bent over the table and looked through the magnifier. He grunted and stood up. I don’t remember. I thought it was smooth all over when we were working on it, but now it seems as if they were always there.

      But we studied it, stared at it for half an hour or more after we brought it out. Hell, we stared at it for the three hours it took us to excavate it.

      "Do you remember the markings?" he asked.

      No. Yes. I don’t know.

      Where’s the camera? We’ll look at the pictures we took of it.

      Alanna called Mika on the two-way and asked her to bring one of the cameras they’d used at the grid. Her assistant arrived two minutes later with two expensive DSLR cameras. After the cameras were plugged into Alanna’s laptop, she began to pull up images. The first thirteen were timestamped images of the grid from a distance. She cycled through the next three dozen, all mundane pictures showing each grid section becoming deeper, some containing a few unimportant artifacts or possible clues as to what might be buried further down. She clicked the next button and the screen showed a dark gray blur. Alanna frowned and kept clicking forward, each image nothing more than a grainy, gray blur that held zero detail, as if the camera had been placed in front of a tank full of dirty gray water.

      Mika grunted and pulled the USB cable from the camera, plugging it into the second DSLR. As before, the first four dozen images showed scenes from around the site and a few minor artifacts. As soon as the pictures of the strange object came onto the screen, they saw the same blurry, gray images as the other camera held.

      What the hell? Mika said, pulling the cable from the camera. She cycled through the images via the LCD screen on the camera’s rear. Same thing. Hold on.

      She put one camera on the table, then pointed the other at the object and began to take pictures. After the DSLR clicked six times, she switched the function to the LCD screen and walked backwards through the images. Mika glanced at the two professors. She turned the camera around so they could see for themselves. The first five pictures were blurry and gray, the sixth had captured Dr. Kendrick’s work boots in perfect one hundred megapixel detail.

      ***

      Well… was all that Dr. Justine Linderman, director of the Arizona State University School of Human Evolution and Social Change, had to say.

      Exactly, Justine, Miles said from the other side of the table.

      What do we do? Who do we call? Alanna asked.

      She hated the thought that the government would lock the artifact up in a secret warehouse, maybe Area 51 or some other black site that no one, probably not even the president, knew about. She understood there was no alternative. Her fear was that it only took about ten minutes to get within mobile phone range, and within thirty seconds after that, social

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