“So, what does that have to do with this thing here?” asked Zach.
Jason shrugged and looked at Mueller.
“Just one of many questions we don’t have an answer to,” said the site’s chief scientist.
“All very interesting, I’m sure,” said Harold, “but I’m not convinced about this levitation. Can I examine the twine? Stage magicians can make almost anything seem real if they set things up.”
“Yeah,” said Ralph. “Me, too. Examine the twine, I mean.”
Andrew sneered. “You really think a two-star general is going to bring us all up here to put on a charade?”
Zach laughed. “My impression is that generals have a very limited sense of humor.” He looked at Sinclair. “No offense intended.”
Sinclair only nodded.
Harold and Ralph took the twine from Zach and Willie and carefully examined its length, trying to find seams or anything to indicate how a trick could have been used to fake the gap between the object and the ground. When that failed, they repeated Zach and Willie’s dragging the string under the object—with the same result.
When they finished, Ralph’s face was pale. “If you’re not shitting us for some reason, and that’s a BIG if, this is either a totally unknown physical phenomenon or an artifact of a technology so advanced I can’t wrap my head around it.”
CHAPTER 13
DISCOVERY
“Trust me,” said Mueller. “If you’re feeling a bit confused, welcome to an exclusive club whose members know of the object’s existence. By the way, that’s what we call this thing. ‘The Object.’ That’s a clue to our level of understanding of what’s in the middle of this room and the focus of everything going on here.
“It was found twenty years ago during a joint Canadian/American Arctic military maneuver. Most of the maneuver took place farther south, but some aerial surveys of this part of Ellesmere Island had recorded unusual magnetic phenomena. In addition, and unbeknownst to the Canadians, the Americans were looking for a potential listening site for spying on the Russians. Site 23 is located at one of the more favorable locations for reception, though its distance from a coast made construction and supplying a major negative.
“However, a small team of civilian scientists who had accompanied the military maneuver had already finished surveying the more promising listening sites near the coast. There were also rumors of fossils in this area, and one of the scientists wanted to take a look. He convinced the captain commanding the American contingent of the maneuver to allow a couple of days’ excursion farther to the north of the maneuvering area. There were three of them in the party, two scientists and a lieutenant who would accompany them to keep them from getting lost or eaten by a polar bear. At the time, almost nothing was known about bear territories.
“Anyway . . . on the morning of the second day, they arrived where we are right now today. They came around that small hill just east of us and found the Object you see here.” Mueller gestured toward the middle of the room.
“Now, you can imagine their surprise when they stumbled upon something clearly not natural after walking through this barren landscape. Their first thought was a piece of a downed airplane. But it didn’t take more than a second look to discard the possibility. So, what was it?
“There are many instances where an area previously believed to be unexplored was found to contain signs of past habitation. That was their second speculation, but what happened next showed something else was going on. One of the scientists attempted to examine the Object up close. When he got within approximately twenty-five feet, he started noticing what he initially interpreted as increased nervousness. With every step, his anxiety got worse, and when he was within about fifteen feet of the Object, it was as if every ounce of his being screamed, ‘Panic and run!’ And that’s exactly what he did—turned and ran straight past the startled other men. He must’ve run sixty to seventy yards before stopping and turning back to face the Object and his two amazed companions. The feeling of panic was gone. After a few moments, he shamefacedly returned to the other two. When they asked what had happened, he couldn’t tell them—just that for some unknown reason he became overwhelmed with panic when he got near the Object. The young officer was somewhat skeptical but ordered the two scientists to stay put, and he slowly approached the Object.
“What happened to him was similar but not identical as had happened to the first person. The closer he got to the Object, his feelings of fear rose until he was forced to turn back. They completed the experiment by having the third man repeat what the first two had done. While the first two reported either panic or fear, the third man said he felt sadness almost to the point of deep despair.
“Out of curiosity, the young officer threw a few pebbles at the Object, and they simply bounced off harmlessly. One scientist suggested that the Object somehow elicited subconscious emotional responses by emitting low-frequency sound below detection by the human ear. It’s known this can affect emotions. To measure this, they needed equipment that was back at the main camp.
“The first scientist suggested he call back to camp and have the other civilian scientists bring some equipment. He went to the officer’s pack, which carried the radio they were required to take with them. As soon as he held it to his left ear and hit the send button, the radio and the headset ignited, fusing the internal components. He ended up losing part of his ear and being severely burned on the side of his face.”
Mueller stopped talking and turned his head to the right, then brushed back the hair on the left side to reveal a distorted ear and burn scars down his neck.
“Oh, Lord,” said Jill, “that scientist was you?”
“Yes, twenty years ago,” said Mueller.
“The officer gave me first aid on the spot, and the three of us returned to the base camp. The burns were painful but not life threatening. The officer dropped us off at a medic tent with strict orders not to discuss anything we’d seen until he reported to the commanding officer, a major.”
Mueller paused and smiled. “I’ll let that officer continue with the next part.” He took a slight step back and nodded to General Sinclair.
“Yes, and that was me. When I reported, the captain didn’t know what to make of it, but he didn’t consider me prone to exaggeration. Plus, we had the injury to Howard here. Whatever was going on, he felt he needed to see for himself. We had access to a helicopter from a Navy ship off the coast. The captain requisitioned it, and the four of us flew to within a mile of the Object. The crew stayed with the copter while we hiked the rest of the way.
“The captain’s initial skepticism left him after seeing the Object and trying his hand at a close approach. He had no more success than the others.”
“Actually,” said Mueller, “of the four of us, General Sinclair got closer than the rest—eight or nine feet away. The next experiment was to reproduce what happened when we tried to radio transmit. Not having an infinite supply of radios or ears, we brought along a short-range walkie-talkie set. We set it against a rock and tried transmitting, starting at two hundred yards from the Object.”
Mueller chuckled. “We used a tent stake to push the squelch button—with no effect. We progressively moved closer and closer to the Object. When we got to perhaps a hundred yards from the Object, instead of the normal squelch sound we got erratic static. As we move closer, the static increased until at about fifty yards the walkie-talkie ceased to function. We opened the casing and inspected the innards. Everything looked normal. It had simply stopped functioning. Finally, to confirm what had happened to the radio, we tried the walkie-talkie at the distance where the radio had ignited. Sure enough, the same thing happened as with the radio—all the innards had fused into one solid mass.”
“Now that we had some idea of the range of whatever this effect was, we made a series of readings using equipment we’d brought back from the base camp. They didn’t tell us a lot. We could only confirm the Object was extraordinarily strange.
“The captain swore me to secrecy and sort of bribed me and the other scientist by assuring us we would be part of the group that studied the Object as long as we kept our mouths shut.
“That ended the first phase of our work, or should I say contact, with the Object. We returned to the maneuver base camp, carried out the remainder of the maneuvers, which lasted about a week, and then returned to the U.S. without alerting the Canadians.”
“I later questioned that decision,” said Sinclair, “but by then it was evidently too late. Upon returning to the U.S., the captain reported what we’d found to his immediate superior, who passed it up the command chain. We were told we’d have to wait for decisions from higher authority, and we should consider this a highly classified piece of information and to wait for further contact.”
Sinclair shook his head. “I expected that we’d hear back. Time passed, and we all resumed our regular lives. By the time a year had gone by, I’d made a couple of queries about the report, and it was suggested to me that the report was being taken seriously and looked into, although I would have no future part in the investigation.” Sinclair shrugged. “I figure that was military language for shut up and forget it.”
“My experience was similar,” said Mueller. “When I inquired, I got mixed messages—either the person I talked to couldn’t find any information about the report or the Object or said it was being investigated. I’d been working for the Pentagon for several years and had a young family. I quit asking, for fear of losing my job. Shortly thereafter, I got reassigned to work in Germany.”
“That accounts for two of the original four who knew about the Object, but what about the other two?” asked Ralph.
Sinclair answered, “The other scientist was named Robert Townsley. He died six years ago. Heart attack.”
“The captain went on with his career. I had occasional contact with him over the years and twice even served under him. We wondered about the Object a couple of times, but you know . . . life moves on, and we knew once the system shut you out, inquiring further wouldn’t help anyone.
“This is where things stood for about eighteen years until NASA put up a satellite to carry out a magnetic survey of the Earth. It recorded an elevated reading, albeit a small one, over the southwest portion of Ellesmere. But what set off red flags was that on two successive passes of the satellite, the readings went off the charts at this location, but then returned to the same levels as before and after those two passes. A report about these readings might normally have disappeared into the Pentagon vacuum, except for an ongoing attempt to digitize all reports. By pure chance, an analyst happened to find the original report on the Object. Since the Object’s position matched the satellite reading spikes, the analyst decided to pass the coincidence up the line. Who to contact was made easier when he noted that the current head of special operations was the captain who’d made the original report. Over the intervening years, he had risen to four-star general in command of all U.S. special operations—General Justin Hardesty. I was still out of the picture at this point, so I’ll let Howard continue.”
“And yes,” said Mueller, “this is where I came back on the scene. I was a university physics faculty member when a man came visiting. I didn’t need much convincing to take leave and join a team revisiting the Ellesmere site. Our excuse for being on Ellesmere was for a potential listening post to Russia. We told the Canadians the U.S. might be interested in setting up a highly secret facility. If so, the U.S. would pay for it, and the Canadians could help staff the base and share any intelligence. It wasn’t all that hard to sell it to the Canadians—they’re happy for the U.S. to foot the bill, especially if they think they’re part of the ‘in’ crowd on intelligence. We never told the Canadians about confirming the Object’s existence and how it might connect to the odd magnetic readings.
“It was the second time we didn’t tell the Canadians the real reason for our interest. At that time, we still had no clue what was to come. I suspect we didn’t tell the Canadians the truth about our interest because we’d need to explain why they weren’t told about the Object in the first place. You know . . . one of those little secrets that kept getting bigger. The more we concealed, the worse would be the fallout when all the facts came out. Anyway . . . we continued with the subterfuge.
“Like the first Ellesmere visit, we established a base camp about twelve miles from the Object. As part of the ‘training’ aspects, we parachuted twenty rangers nearby to check out a potential landing field. From the previous maneuver, we knew of a flat barren area that might be sufficient for rugged aircraft. The rangers confirmed the spot’s usability and cleaned it up—meaning they threw the larger rocks and pebbles off to the side. A C-130 turboprop cargo plane flew in with more personnel, supplies, and equipment. I arranged a scouting schedule, supposedly looking for a listening site, to keep the Canadians and most of the U.S. personnel oblivious to the real purpose of this visit. Then Dr. Charles Adams and I returned the site of the Object. Lo and behold, it sat right where we’d left it, along with the fused radio—we hadn’t been sure how to explain what happened to it. After confirming the experiments on both approaching the Object and attempting to transmit near it, we got the same results.
“We hoped to get some spectrographic readings to at least tell us what the surface of the Object was made of. We also used laser range finders to get precise measurements of the size of the Object. The readings went okay, but we were shocked when we focused the laser on the Object. At the first laser pulse, the Object pulsed back.”
Startled, Harold blurted out, “Pulsed back? What do you mean pulsed back?”
“As far as we can tell, from that time and from subsequent experiments, the Object emitted a uniform laser pulse of the same wavelength and in all directions. We repeated the tests several times to confirm and got exactly the same result.”
“When you say a pulse, just how energetic a pulse?” asked Jason.
“Energetic enough that we were fortunate neither of us happened to be staring directly at the Object when it happened. Otherwise, there’s a high probability we would have had major retinal damage. Naturally, in subsequent tests we avoided looking directly at the Object when we initiated the laser pulse.
“This raised the situation to an entirely new level. As much as we could try and explain the previous phenomena related to the Object, this was something Charles and I agreed went beyond our current technology. It was also the first time we admitted serious thoughts about dealing with something not of human origin.”
Silence from the new arrivals met the last statement, followed by gasps and deep breaths.
“Not of human manufacture?” said Ralph softly. “Holy shit. Aliens?”
“Oh, my God,” exclaimed Jill. “Real aliens, like the movies Contact or Independence Day?”
“Well,” said Mueller, “let’s hope it’s like Contact—where the aliens were friendly.”
He resumed. “I got on a secure channel to General Justin Hardesty who had arranged the expedition. I wasn’t personally involved in what followed, but I’m assuming he went straight to the president. I’m a little surprised, but somehow he managed to convince the president this was real. I’ve often wondered if we were lucky we had a president with some imagination—something that doesn’t always happen. Anyway, the president authorized Hardesty to set up a permanent camp to study the Object.
“The decision included continuing to not bring in the Canadians. Whether this was the right thing to do, I can’t answer, but I think the president didn’t trust the Canadians to keep this to themselves. Rightly or wrongly, they feared the Canadians or at least some factions in the Canadian government would want this to be turned over to the UN. The decision was made to keep the knowledge at only the highest level of the U.S. for the time being. Obviously, there were real security and political reasons for this. Who could tell what technology might come from studying the Object? And let’s be honest, there was the sentiment ‘Why share this with
anyone else?’ In addition, there’s the uncertainty about exactly what the Object’s impact would be on the world in general. You’ll hear more about the potential impact in a later briefing.”
Mueller paused for a moment, then continued. “I’ve also suspected the president worried it was all a hoax or a mistake, and he didn’t want to be embarrassed if that became public.
“Anyway, we started off with a small staff studying the Object—five individuals at first, though the numbers slowly increased. As a cover story, they proceeded with a functional radar and weather station to distract anyone’s deeper curiosity. That’s what we call Level 1. To keep the Canadians in the dark, we had a second set of staff supposedly listening in on Russian and Chinese communications, and this was Level 2. We told the Canadians there were some technologies we were testing out and for security reasons needed to keep at a higher security level with a small staff, which has grown to eleven of us studying the Object in Level 3.
“And no, this is several orders of magnitude from the number there should be, but that’s beyond our control.”
“By that time,” said Sinclair, “I was retired a few years after commanding a brigade of the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Collins, Colorado. I was home when I got a call that led me to be bribed with a second star, and I took command of Site 23’s development. You can imagine how I wondered why a retired brigadier general would get pulled back for a highly classified posting. I honestly think the people in charge believed I was the right person, but I’m sure my previous experience with discovering the Object made the choice easier.”
Harbinger (The Janus Harbinger Book 1) Page 16
