Before I proceed with the story any farther, I think it’s only appropriate for me to give a brief description of original Greek manuscripts on the behalf of those of you who have never seen one. The written Greek language began with the writings of Homer around 800 B.C, as long as you don’t count the earlier Mycenaean language which was very different. The oldest documents that we have around today date back to several centuries B.C, and are written in what is called Uncial Style Greek. It is very difficult to read. Not only is every letter capitalized, but all the words are jammed together without punctuation. THERESULTISSOMETHINGLIKETHIS! Now imagine the previous sentence, except a thousand times as long, running on from one page to the next with absolutely no breaks, written in a dead language that no living people-group speaks any more. That is what a classical Greek manuscript looks like.

Fortunately the SkyPath scroll did not look anything like this. To be honest, it wasn’t a scroll at all. It was actually a codex. A codex is a compilation of pieces of parchment placed chronologically on top of each other like a modern-day book. Everyone at the school mistakenly referred to the SkyPath Codex as a scroll because they didn’t know any better, and because “scroll” sounded a whole lot cooler. For the past 24 chapters I’ve been purposefully overlooking this error on their part because I didn’t have time to explain this technicality.

The SkyPath “Codex” was written in a style of Greek called “miniscule.” All that means is that it had mostly lower-case letters with lots of punctuation and spaces between the words. This was a lot easier to read than the ridiculous uncial style. The SkyPath “Codex” was written at about 1200 A.D., a time when writers were switching over from traditional parchment (animal skin) to modern-day paper. The SkyPath Crusade, fortunately, was written on old-school parchment, which is a lot more durable. The SkyPath Crusade was also “illuminated” which meant it occasionally had pictures. It was the 13^th century equivalent of animated entertainment. This made reading it a lot more fun.

I was feverish with delight when I finally got my hands (indirectly) on the ancient codex and opened it cautiously to the first page. I was so careful when I used the forceps that I couldn’t hear the rustle of the page or anything else above the sound of my own voice breathing through the respirator. My eyes seemed to grow out of their sockets as light from the first letters of the historic document was transmitted through the plastic lens. I felt an electrical surge go through my body as the realization hit me that I was now part of a limited group of scholars who had been entrusted with the noble task of reading the ancient writings of famous dead people. I took a step back and readjusted the video camera so that Dr. Krauss and the others would get a perfect view of the page. Then I looked down at the time-darkened parchment and transcribed the first line of it on a note-pad. This is roughly what it said:

“hmeras ekeinas ote andres hlqon oi paides”

I finished writing the sentence down quickly and immediately moved on to the next one. I noticed that each of the lines was not the exact same length, which led me to believe that they were written as individual units of poetry, rather than paragraph-style prose. The beauty of the penmanship was so amazing that I felt embarrassed to be transcribing it clumsily on lined note paper with an erasable pencil. Nevertheless I recognized that speed was more important for me right now than beauty.

For the next three hours I worked as hard as I could, trying to get as much as possible done before I would finally be ordered to stop. The call came through the radio at 8:00 PM after I just finished chapter six, that I had to close up the manuscript and come back out. I groaned inwardly despite that fact that I was hot and thirsty. I had been secretly hoping that the president would lose track of time.

As I closed up the book for one last time, I managed to get a glimpse of the following page. I hadn’t quite gotten that far yet, but it fluttered precariously between leaves as I brought the back of the codex up vertically. I noticed something that completely surprised me in every way possible. The entire next page appeared to be written in a completely different style and had nothing to do with the rest of the epic. It was an unexplainable interruption between chapters 6 and 7. And in addition to this, it was written in modern English!

“What the heck is that all about?” I wondered as the letters slipped before my eyes. I wanted to read it, but I knew I couldn’t do that right now with the professors watching everything on camera. I was lucky enough to have seen it between pages before accidentally revealing it to them. If I looked at it now they would want me to show them the whole thing. I wanted to find out what it said myself before I decided whether or not to tell them about it. I would wait until a later date when I got a chance to look at it alone.

So I decided to finish closing the book and come out of the chamber right away. By that time I was extremely sweaty. There was so much moisture on my skin that salt-water was beginning to drip out in-between the duct tape that closed over the seam near my wrists between my chemical suit and my gloves.

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