The Prize
"In the early 2200s, the United Planets Cruiser C-57D is sent to the planet Altair IV in the Altair star system to find out what happened to the Bellerophon expedition, sent out some twenty years earlier. The Krell are the long-extinct natives of the planet Altair IV. They had possessed a technology far in advance of that of the humans, but had all died 200,000 years before in one mysterious night of destruction.
The underground Krell facilities includes an underground machine in the shape of a cube 20 miles square, powered by 9200 thermonuclear reactors. The huge machine was designed to let the Krell materialize anything they wanted at a mere thought."
"But the Krell forgot one thing - Monsters John! Monsters from the id!"
Though the Krell considered themselves civilized, their subconscious minds were unleashed by the almost limitless power of the Machine. With this information, the Commander deduces that the race was wiped out in a single night of frenzied destruction, as the machine acted out their darkest urges.
In Lord of the Rings, the Dwarves of Mooria dug too deep, and found something - which unleashed the Balrog. Did the dwarves discover the Krellian cube, and was the Balrog the manifestation of their subconscious demons?
Babylon 5: "It was the dawn of the third age of mankind"
"Epsilon III served as home not only to Babylon 5, but also to an enigmatic race of ancients, whose name is still unknown (Nephilim?). They departed the planet long before Babylon 5 was built, but they left their machines behind. The "Great Machine" is the name for a subterranean mechanism which has enormous power. This machine has been observed not only defending the planet with powerful energy weapons, but also allowing users to remotely view far away locations such as star systems, as well as creating and controlling time fields. The machine was thought to be able to destroy the entire planet if it destabilized. Additionally, the machine is controlled by a single individual, who is bonded to it both physically and mentally."
Hello, is there an echo in here?
"The plot of the novel Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco revolves around search for the Ombilicus Mundi (Latin: The Navel of the World), the mystic Center of The Earth which is supposed to be a certain point from were a person could control the energies and shapes of the earth thus reforming it at will. The novel takes this even further by suggesting that monuments like the Eiffel Tower are nothing more than giant antenna to catalyze these energies."
To sum up: A great underground cuboid machine of primordial alien origin that turns a man into a god, commanding (nearly) unlimited energy, manifesting thought into reality, controlling even time itself. The price of this pearl keeps growing! The power comes from the great polar energy torus (Telluric currents) surrounding a planetary "body" (Gaia, Isis, Mother Earth). The machine (the sword in the stone) can be operated only by one "pure of heart", because otherwise, the id monsters descend. You'd have to be practically perfect!
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. --Matthew 5:48
What DID the Templars find, digging around beneath the ruined temple? Was it a piece of the mechanism, with perhaps an encoded map and/or operations manual? Perhaps they became pirates and explorers in order to find their "buried treasure" - X marks the spot. Maybe they became versed in all manner of scientific and arcane knowledge, to create the technology that would make the machine function. And maybe, to keep their secret, they shrouded the artifact in romantic allusion.
In the bible, Jesus is called "the bridegroom", and I'm starting to think, he is the one betrothed to the Cube. The Second Morning Star, Lucifer's replacement. He "plugs" in and becomes the Light of the World. Unfortunately, the Neo-Templars have another light bulb planned for that socket, their Once and Future King. Destruction of Atlantis, take 3! Roll 'em!
But when ye see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not (let him that readeth understand), then let them that are in Judaea flee unto the mountains --Mark 13:14