Jo Schmidt examined the data source Enki had located for her, the one supposedly containing information about something called the 'Stairway To Heaven'. If her theory was correct, the Stairway, whatever form it actually took, was the method by which people from this planet had traveled to Earth several thousand years ago and influenced the ancient Mesopotamian civilizations. It was also the means by which she and everyone else could escape this place.
On her own, she would never have found this file, and judging from the thick coating of grime and dust encrusted on the casing, no one else had disturbed it for thousands, perhaps millions of years. It had been hidden atop a tall shelf unit in one of the far rear corners of the Great Library, out of sight from anyone walking past on the floor below, yet the boy Enki had threaded his way unerringly through the maze of shelves and workspaces until he stopped and pointed. 'Up there,' he had said.
He and Jo had spent the next half hour pulling and shoving a dozen heavy tables and chairs over and stacking them in a precarious makeshift ladder until Jo could clamber up and retrieve the precious file. She had wondered how the boy had known the file was there, but Enki would only say that he had had plenty of time to explore the place, then added with a clever grin that he knew lots of secrets.
Like all the other data records in the library, the one she now held in her hands was a ring of some sort of white, smooth, ceramic-like material about as thick as her thumb and five inches across. Unlike all the others she'd rummaged through until now however, this ring was not marked with Sanskrit etchings on its surface. Instead, pictograms and a completely alien alphabet adorned its otherwise smooth exterior. It was the same language in which the files themselves were recorded. At some point in the past, someone -- Jo had started thinking of them as Babylonians -- had scribed their own language on top of the alien markings, probably for their own reference, but they had missed this one.
"Do you think that's what you were looking for?" asked Enki, who had once again parked himself on a chair beside Jo. His young face betrayed his eager anticipation.
"Let's find out," replied Jo.
She took the data ring out of its dusty case, and as she had countless times since beginning her work in the library, lay the ceramic hoop into a circular indentation on the ancient computer's work surface and sat back. The holographic unit activated and began playback of the data contained in the ring. The empty air above the terminal was suddenly awash with dancing pictograms and alien text, all slowly rotating and shifting in an endless holographic parade of diagrams and technical-looking schematics. The wide-eyed faces of the two onlookers were bathed in the glow of the light show.
Jo's smile grew in steady increments until it stretched nearly from ear to ear. She had found it! The data contained on this ring were instructions for the operation of a machine called the Stairway to Heaven. She was elated! Turning to Enki, she grabbed him in an impulsive hug and exclaimed, "This is it, Enki! We found a way home! I could kiss you!" and that's just what she did, planting a big peck on the boy's cheek. Caught by surprise, Enki squirmed in Jo's embrace, like any young boy trying desperately to get away from being kissed by a girl, and finally managed to wriggle free. He immediately hopped off the chair to put some distance between himself and the crazy girl and stood wiping his cheek.
Jo laughed and turned back to watch the hologram. It would take a while to learn exactly what the information was talking about, but even this first glance told her a lot.
Somewhere on this planet was a device capable of instantaneous transport across great distances -- perhaps a wormhole generator. It was similar to the Black Gate which brought them all here and part of the same overall system, but smaller, assuming she was reading the pictograms correctly.
Behind her, Enki had finished wiping the kooties from his face and was edging closer to Jo and the holographic display again, mesmerized by the swirling, kaleidoscopic lights. "What's that?" he asked, clearly in awe.
"You're 'Stairway to Heaven'," replied Jo.
Enki sniffed diffidently. "Doesn't look like a stairway," he complained.
Jo laughed. "That's true, but it'll get us home anyway."
Suddenly, the slideshow of technical diagrams ended and the holographic field flickered as though someone was jiggling the power connection, but a few moments later it came back on. This time however, the schematics and equations were replaced by a humanoid figure. Its head was hairless, its eyes deep-set, and a simple white robe covered a vaguely female body.
Jo's eyes widened in recognition of the diminutive holographic figure hovering in the air before her. "By the Great Bird of the Galaxy...!" she whispered in surprise and wonder. She knew of this race of beings, though had never actually met one. In fact, as far as she knew, no one had encountered a member of this race for the last five billion years! Suspended in the holographic field before her was the image of an Ancient!
At her side, the young Enki was somewhat less impressed. To him the Ancient was just another bald grown-up, but of some minor interest nevertheless since Jo seemed so thrilled by its appearance. "Who's that?" he asked.
Jo was surprised at first by his question, but then remembered she was dealing with a ten-year-old. "This is an Ancient. Say hello to your distant ancestor, Enki. Billions of years ago this race flew all around the Galaxy, planting the seeds of life on millions of planets. The Ancients are long gone, but we're all their descendants, and that's why we all kind of look like one another."
The holographic Ancient began speaking. In a resonant voice, it narrated fantastic tales of wonder and mystery of the days when the universe was much younger. Jo couldn't understand a word of it, of course -- the Ancient was speaking in its own tongue -- but Jo imagined what marvelous secrets it was expounding, and she longed to be able to understand it. "Oh if I only had my tricorder or even the universal translator," she lamented, then realized something. "The Black Gate was built by the Ancients! This whole city must be an ancient Ancient city!"
"They lived here?" asked Enki dubiously. "They couldn't have been too smart then."
"Well, I'm sure it was much nicer a few billion years ago..."
After twenty minutes of talking, the Ancient's image was replaced by more of the technical diagrams and elaborate equations, though the voice continued its narration. The pictograms switched from detailing the Stairway itself to what Jo guessed was some sort of control unit.
"This must be the key to how the thing works," she muttered to herself. "No wonder no one's ever been able to leave this place!"
"Why not?" asked Enki.
"I think this data ring contains the instructions for how the Stairway works, but judging from the amount of dust and grime on the case, no one has ever found it," reasoned Jo, thinking out loud. "And no one's been able to get it to work without these instructions."
"What are you going to do?"
"Translate everything and figure it out! But first we have to tell Ereshkigal."
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