Authors: G.F. Schreader
Tags: #Fiction, #Science Fiction, #Action & Adventure, #FICTION / Science Fiction / Adventure
Abbott looked at him. “I respect that, Mike.”
“I respect what you do, Marsh,” Ruger replied. “If that’s what you’ve chosen for yourself, I’ll be the last to interfere. You’ve got my support. But this shroud of mystery about top secret missions and security clearances has no meaning in this part of the world. Don’t let it interfere with what we have to do down there to survive.” Ruger gestured out the tiny window at the white desolation below.
“We’re going to get along just fine,” Abbott responded, slapping him on the shoulder.
“I’m certain,” Ruger replied.
After a moment’s pause, Abbott said, quite seriously, “They’re out there, Mike. There are visitors from other worlds all over this planet. I only hope they’re not down there waiting to greet us.”
Ruger looked at the seriousness on his face. “You really believe that, don’t you?”
But Abbott only responded by saying, “So, tell me a little more about the crevasse. Can we set up camp at it?”
“Near it. At least within a mile. Can’t get too close. I’ll have to check it out first. Things change in a matter of days out here. Sometimes hours even.”
“Of course.”
“The plane won’t be able to get any closer than…say, three, four miles. We’ll have to drag everything up the glacier.”
Abbott asked, “And I presume you brought along gear to repel down the crevasse?”
“Yeah. No problem. Equipment, that is. It’s dangerous as hell, though. Ever do it?”
“Once. Crevasse wasn’t too deep, actually. How far down is this one?”
“I’ve no idea,” Ruger responded. “I wasn’t able to tell. Some of them go down a few hundred. This one’s at a higher elevation on the glacier, though. Shouldn’t be that deep. But still, you never know.”
“How long for us to set up camp?”
“Two hours to do it right.”
“You got it,” Abbott said. “Let’s go over and I’ll get you better acquainted with the others.” Before he turned, Abbott added, “Al Lisk is my man, Mike. If anything happens to me…” He left the sentence unfinished. Ruger realized Lisk was subordinate to one of the others. Military bullshit.
“Can I ask you a question?’ Ruger said.
“Of course.”
“Colonel Prall and…Major?…Monroe. What are
their
roles in all this?”
Abbott paused. “Advisors, Mike. Military advisors. They’re along to protect Uncle Sam’s interests. And protect us, too.”
“From whom?” Ruger asked.
Abbott smiled. “Aliens, Mike,” he replied. “What else?”
For some reason, Ruger was almost beginning to believe him.
FEBRUARY 9, 20--
PROJECT COMMAND CENTER
GAITHERSBURG, MARYLAND
9:30 A.M. EST
“D
id anybody photograph it?”
“No.”
Bill Korbett stared at the reports with some level of disbelief, not because he doubted their validity, but rather because this particular incident was something
anybody
would have trouble believing. Particularly many of his contemporaries, some of whom didn’t subscribe to the
visitor
side of the theory of the UFO phenomenon in the first place despite all the physical evidence for it. Not Ted Payne and his staff, though. They’d come across a lot of strangeness during some of the projects, but none recently, and not one so strange and biblical in proportions like this one, as Darbury had put it.
Korbett glanced again at the summary of the other reports, all from the Antarctic continent, which paled in comparison:
January 31
—a French research team at Dumont d’Urville reports a formation of five cube-shaped objects that come in from the direction of the Indian Ocean, then turn ninety degrees to follow the coastline; French team immediately contacts the Russian team down the coast at Leningradskaya which, within a minute (indicating tremendous speed), witnesses the same formation as it “hovers” in the distance for over five minutes before accelerating at a tremendous speed again heading toward the Transantarctic Mountains.February 1 —
Russian team at Vostok reports that one of its photographic surveillance planes is “buzzed” by a conical shaped UFO as the airplane traverses the area around the Beardmore Glacier.February 3
—five New Zealanders conducting research in the Dry Valleys area near Vanda Station witness what they think was the destruction of an odd-looking aircraft in the sky; a single brightly lit object passed overhead, zoomed to a higher altitude over the mountain peaks in the distance, then seemed to self-destruct as the object burst into five or six separate glowing objects which plunged downward into the earth behind the mountains; subsequent aircraft surveillance of the area failed to substantiate any debris or evidence of the presence of any downed craft.February 4
—The Australian team at Davis, a Chinese team at Zhongshan, and another Russian team at Progress—three research stations within close proximity of each other—simultaneously report that a huge object shaped like “a giant cigar with blue and green strobing lights” passed overhead at an estimated altitude of 40,000 feet, descended to about 20,000 feet, turned, then headed inland in the general direction of the Ross Ice Shelf across the continent.February 4
—a Japanese fishing vessel working the waters off the Drygalski Ice Tongue reports a strange triangular object with red lights at each apex that circles the ship once at an estimated distance of two miles, and then plunges into the depths of the Ross Sea; the vessel searches the area for debris but finds no evidence of ditching; weather was clear, unlimited visibility, yet the object did not register on ship’s radar.
There were six additional sighting reports between February 4 and February 6. The twelfth report of February 7 by the NSF vessel
Penguin Princess
was the grand encounter, the one which Korbett still stared at with disbelief despite his convictions about alien strangeness.
Maislin broke Korbett’s train of thought. “…however, they have documentation…including other photographs, but not of the craft…that this actually happened.”
Korbett looked up. “What about this twenty foot crocodile?”
“According to the follow-up…let’s see,” Maislin flipped through the papers, “…they’ve got the poor bugger well-preserved. Seems the animal was damn near blast frozen when the blue beam deposited the thing on the deck. They’ve got it on ice. No pun intended.”
“It had to have come from…where? The Nile River area most likely,” Vandergrif commented rhetorically.
“No,” Darbury responded. “Not really. There are a variety of crocodiles that inhabit Malaysia and parts of the Indian Ocean. Around the Bay of Bengal, if my memory serves me correct. Northern Australia, too. They call them saltwater crocodiles. Very appropriate.”
“Jesus…” Maislin replied, shaking his head in disbelief. “The summary report says that over a ton of tropical fish and sea snakes were dumped on the deck from the net.”
“Did they analyze the water they brought in from the haul?” Koslovsky asked.
“Why?” Korbett asked.
“The water…” she replied. “Was the water tropical or was it Antarctic water?”
Maislin flipped through the report. “Doesn’t say.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Darbury broke in. “I think we can assume the logistical probability of the alien agenda. I’m sure we’ll find that the chemical content of the water matches that of tropical waters. I think we need to concentrate on explaining why.”
There was a moment of silence.
“Willard is right,” Korbett said. “They’ve obviously put on this elaborate display for some reason, but why? To get our attention?”
“More appropriately,
putting
on,” Koslovsky said. “Don’t think for a moment these are all the reports we’re going to receive.”
“Is there any commonality to the sighting reports?” Vandergrif asked.
Maislin studied the summary report.
“Let’s plug it into Vallee’s chart,” Darbury said, jumping up quickly and walking over to the large grease board hanging on the wall. Picking up a grease marker, Darbury drew the familiar chart on the board.
The chart that Willard Darbury drew was commonly known throughout the UFO research community. The original version, which actually wasn’t a chart but rather a classification system, was developed by the late Dr. J. Allen Hynek back in the early 1970’s. It had gained widespread acceptance for its simplicity. It was Hynek’s famous system for classifying
close encounters
, designated CE I through CE IV. Dr. Jacques Vallee later fine-tuned the system by expanding the categories to include Anomalies (AN), Fly-Bys (FB), and Maneuvers (MB), while retaining CE as a separate category. Each of the four basic categories has five “degrees”, or levels, of complication. The finished product was a usable chart to categorize UFO events.
“We’ve got what?…twelve event reports here since January 31?” Darbury inquired.
“Yes,” Maislin replied. “Actually, thirteen if you want to count the one from January 31 as two events.”
“Let’s count it as one. Same craft,” Darbury said.
“Twelve, then.”
“Would the number ‘twelve’ have any significance?” Vandergrif offered. “There are twelve artifacts.”
“No,” Darbury quickly responded. “Like Rula said, they’re putting on a show, but I think the number of reports we’ve got at the moment is purely coincidental.”
“That’s true,” Korbett replied. “There could be a hundred more sightings across the continent that we haven’t even heard about yet.”
“Or haven’t even occurred yet,” Maislin added.
“Right. And so far we’ve no reports beyond February seventh,” Koslovsky pointed out.
“That only leaves yesterday, not counting today,” Korbett said.
“Maybe yesterday’s didn’t make the headlines yet,” Vandergrif replied.
“Maybe not.”
“January 31…MA1,” Darbury said, and everyone concurred as he marked a chit in the appropriate box. This
Maneuver
category of level one complication meant the object remained at a far distance and executed abrupt changes in trajectory, like right-angle turns or rapid acceleration or deceleration. He continued, “February 1…MA1. February 3…MA1. Let’s see…both events on February 4 are also MA1.”
The group went through each event and concluded that each one was in the
MA1
category. “Almost as if they’re toying with the classification system,” Maislin commented aside.
“However,” Darbury continued, “the
Penguin Princess
incident changes the pattern. “We jump right into the
CE
box. Level two, if you have to categorize somewhere.” As opposed to the
Fly-By
and
Maneuver
categories, which were sightings from a distance, the
Close Encounter
category was one of proximity, within five hundred feet being the designated line of demarcation. Level two was an encounter associated with physical effects. The craft that had hovered over the
Penguin Princess
was certainly a viable close encounter with an unknown object under the control of
some
entity. The physical effects were incontrovertible. Or so it seemed at the moment.
They all nodded agreement. Darbury resumed his seat at the table. “Now, what does it all mean?” he commented aside, leaning back in his chair and cupping his hands behind his head.
There was a minute of silence as the group digested the situation. Finally, Korbett leaned forward on his elbows, placing folded hands up to his mustache. He said, “Now…can we equate these events to the artifacts?”
“It would seem so obvious…” Koslovsky’s thoughts trailed off as she said what all of the others were also thinking. It could be construed as obvious—it
should
be construed as obvious—but the group dealt in facts. That was their mission, their job. Their conclusions could not be drawn on presumptions or speculation. And at the moment, a UFO
flap
did not constitute enough substantive evidence to conclude that the discovery of these artifacts had attracted attention from extraterrestrial entities. And they all knew it. But how to prove that it did?
“Well,” Korbett continued, “where do we go from here?”
“How far away did these events occur?” Vandergrif asked.
“From where? The glacier?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s see…” Maislin again flipped through the reports.
Darbury jumped up again and went to the wall map of the Antarctic continent. Fumbling through the table drawer, he retrieved a handful of push-pins. He stuck a big red one into the Mulock Glacier. Next, he stuck blue ones into the approximate sites of the sightings. “What were the last known headings?” he asked Maislin.
Maislin sorted through the data, called them out. Using his finger as a pointer, Darbury illustrated his point. The last known headings reported in all the events were all in the general direction of the Mulock Glacier.
“Very interesting,” Darbury commented as he backed away from the wall chart.
“Here’s another thought, William,” Koslovsky said. “When we jump to the
close encounter
category, the event occurs with the people…the organization, as you will…who are associated with the retrieval of the artifacts.” She was implying the National Science Foundation and its personnel.
“But what do we have so far to substantiate a connection?” Korbett asked the group. There was a moment of contemplation.
“Nothing.”
“Exactly,” Korbett replied.
“You know,” Koslovsky said, “mass sightings of this nature all seem to have
one
thing in common. As we’ve shown in the chart, there is no concrete evidence from any of the events.”
“I think a twenty foot tropical crocodile bears enough testament to
this
event,” Vandergrif answered. “That certainly qualifies the event as extraordinary.”
“Not really,” Darbury replied. “What Rula means is, the croc…all the creatures…they’re after-effects from
our
world. They’re nothing more than earthly
props
, so to speak. You could even argue against connecting them directly to the UFO. They’re nothing more than residuals of what we are construing as an extraordinary occurrence. Not necessarily extraterrestrial.”
Vandergrif and Maislin disagreed. “They
witnessed
a UFO. It doesn’t get any more substantive than that.”
Darbury responded, “We’re talking about
physical
effects, not visual. You take one of those fish and hand it to someone who has no knowledge of the event, and that person could not equate the two. It’s a residual effect, not proof of UFO’s.”
“There’s the tropical location indigenous to…” Maislin continued to argue, but Korbett cut them off.
“In any event…,” Korbett said, not about to referee an inconsequential discussion that was brewing between the two.
“In any event,” Koslovsky interjected, “it
does
seem quite evident that the people on the ship were being manipulated by being brought out onto the deck to witness the occurrence. It’s not uncommon for this to happen. We all know that. Think about it. Nobody had the presence of mind to photograph the object. Why? Because the entities, once again, showed that they are in control of every situation.”
“She’s absolutely right,” Darbury replied. “For whatever the reason,
again
they didn’t want a major encounter photographed. They only wanted it to be documented from memory, and we all know how fickle the human memory is. And to make their presence even more tantalizing, they’re playing with our minds by defying human logic, that being our accepted scientific knowledge that tropical fish and saltwater crocodiles do not live, and cannot live, in Antarctic waters. But I still conclude that we actually have
no
physical effects.”
Again, the group was silent as they contemplated the extraordinary events.
Korbett got up from the table and poured himself another cup of coffee. Emmy would have a fit if she knew how much he was consuming since this project began. “Willard?” Korbett said, then paused to contemplate his thoughts. By the tone of his voice everyone could tell he had something else new on his mind.
Darbury sat fully attentive while they all waited.
“Willard, did you compile a database report solely for the Antarctic continent?” Korbett asked.