The Elicon

by Rob Roth

  “Very brainy, Professor Larkin. There’s more to you than meets the eye,” she thought aloud. And she was quite certain it was Larkin who had been there. Dooley said Professor Larkin was out in the desert doing field work the day after the meteor was seen by witnesses. And when she asked Dooley yesterday if he had read about the meteor strike, he was unconvincing in his denial, she thought.

  Studying the crater, she saw it looked very, very similar in size to the one they found last year in Australia. Only, that one was more malformed and didn’t have the perfect parabola shape this one did.

  Something had been chipped out of the bottom of this parabolic crater… most likely a small nickel-iron meteorite she reasoned, based on the size of the hole she saw.

  “This is bummer,” Allison said to herself. “Van Dyne will not be happy to hear that none of the stardust was found in this spot. No signs at all. And Dr. Larkin had not even blinked when I mentioned dust. If it had been here, the crater would ’a been covered in blue dust, like the other. This must have been just a plain, ordinary meteor strike.”

  She smiled to herself, realizing the irony of that statement, since any impact site was extremely rare on Earth.

  “Lower me down a bit more, to the bottom of the hole,” Allison called up to the solder.

  Once she had her footing, she looked around and eventually noticed the chisel marks to her left where Larkin had climbed. She tried side-stepping left to them but soon found she couldn’t reach where he had climbed. Again, she pondered this until she hit upon the solution of kicking off to the right which then swung her left, so she could catch a rocky grip. She found some foot holds as well to support her. Looking up she could see some additional holes Larkin must have chiseled in for hands and fee. Her special forces training had included rock climbing, so she had no trouble scrambling up the side of the cliff. Larkin had done the hard work of stopping and chiseling the proper hand and foot holds.

  “I’m very impressed, Professor. That must have taken a long time. It also confirms that Dooley was not with you... of course not, he was with me at the time, as he said. Well, I thought Dooley was the one to be wary of, but I see I can’t let my guard down with either of you,” Allison commented to herself between breaths, as she scaled the canyon wall.

  Once Allison reached the top, she walked back over to her Land Rover, and returned to the perimeter to make sure the first soldier knew she was leaving.

  “By the way, mate. I couldn’t help but notice there was a lot of debris back there from what looks like a wreckage of some sort. What happened here?” Allison queried.

  “Apparently someone came here two days ago to investigate the meteor site. Unaware of that, we sent our own helicopter over as well to perform a scientific investigation. That son-of-a-bitch must have destroyed the helicopter and the four people on board, with an RPG. Believe me, we’re going to catch the bastard, and when we do, he will come back in his own body bag. I hear they may want to take him alive, but the word by the men is, that ain’t going to happen. DeMarco and the other men well-liked, and there’s definitely going to be payback.”

  Allison headed back toward Flagstaff and spent a good part of that drive thinking about Dr. Larkin. She didn’t think he was a cold-blooded killer like that soldier was describing, but then again, she didn’t realize he was as physically fit as he was, either. Regardless, she was concerned that his life could possibly be in danger. That would impact their plans for Project Stardust. She needed to contact Van Dyne tonight and see how he would like her to proceed.

  THURSDAY MORNING - HOTEL

  Jace slept in a little later than Dooley, then got up and had a light breakfast of toast, jam, and coffee downstairs. As he ate, he wondered what he should do with the blue stone.

  “That meteorite was harder than anything I’ve ever encountered, yet it split open while sitting inside the room safe. That makes no sense. Some internal mechanism must have been operating in order to open it up, because there certainly wasn’t any external force operating on it.”

  As he thought more about this, it occurred to him the outer shell of the meteorite must have merely been a protection covering the blue stone, and the important object was the blue stone itself. While the cover was fascinating and worthy of study on its own, the blue stone must be of some tremendous worth to be protected in the way it was. But why did the meteorite crack open when it did? Did some timing mechanism determine it was ready to open?

  Well, he knew what he needed to do.

  “Darn that Dooley for taking the Jeep. Now I need to go find myself a rental.”

  After making arrangements, Jace was ready to head over to NAU.

  “Hello? Dr. Adler? This is Professor Larkin again.”

  “Oh, Professor Larkin! How may we be of assistance?”

  “It appears I have need of your lab one more time. Something unusual came up. Would it be possible to find some time today to come over and use your lab to finish the testing I started yesterday?”

  “We’d be delighted to have you. We are using the lab this morning, but if you can arrange your schedule to come here after 1 pm, I’m sure we would be able to accommodate you.”

  At about 1:15 pm Jace showed up at the Northern Arizona University science building, and once again Dr. Adler escorted him to the lab, unlocked the cabinets, and departed with the promise to leave Jace with uninterrupted privacy for the next two hours. Since Jace was now working with a much smaller artifact, he simply carried it in his pocket, and had not bothered to bring a backpack. He pulled it out and held it between his thumb and index fingers, gazing into it.

  “What secrets are you hiding…?”

  Considering his options, Jace decided he better not try scratching, cutting or drilling. The blue stone, as he thought of it, looked more like a gem and he didn’t want to risk damaging it. He did not know if it would be impervious to the tools like the outer casing had been, but he couldn’t afford to take the chance it would be marred. Similarly, chemicals could have a negative effect on its appearance. Consequently, he decided to go right for the microscope.

  Jace placed the blue stone in the sample chamber, turned on the monitor, and after focusing it for a few seconds he achieved his goal of a clear image showing the surface structure on the display. Once again he was using the maximum magnification of 300,000x.

  “Fascinating…,” Jace said staring.

  “The artifact is comprised of dodecahedrons just like the outer casing. I can’t be sure they are the same material, but in appearance they are the same as far as I can tell. But the big difference is they are not aligned. The facets are not flush with one another. The points are pressing against the planes, so there are lots of visible gaps. I’m guessing the blue stone would not have the properties of strength to the degree the outer casing did. It is a good thing I didn’t try to scratch or chip it. I wonder… if the dodecahedrons were aligned, would it have the same properties as the casing…?"

  Since he was unwilling to perform any other tests that would risk damaging the beautiful blue stone, Jace wrapped up early, thanking Dr. Adler for his generosity in making his lab available, and headed back to the hotel.

  THURSDAY MID-MORNING - TUFO

  As anticipated, the initial group of operational personnel from the Pentagon arrived at TUFO mid-morning. Their two large military helicopters made quite a noisy entrance, with a lot of desert dust stirred up in the center of the site where the helicopter landed. After about twenty personnel exited, they proceeded over to Command and Control, and immediately began to take over the direction of all activities related to the unidentified aircraft and the downed helicopter.

  They met with the officers and discussed their plans to monitor for future aircraft reappearances, establish an appropriate tactical response for the downed helicopter, determine if the aircraft was related to the meteor, and locate the person or persons who had previously been at the meteorite site — the ones unofficially being blamed for the downing of the helicopter
to those not read into this Top Secret investigation. While Severs had told Colonel Steinmacher the full content of what the visitors had communicated to him through the artifact, the Pentagon still had not been informed by Steinmacher or Severs about a possible spaceship, the existence of the artifact, Severs’ alien communications, or the missing egg.

  General Heissman, a senior military official responsible for Strategic and Tactical Weapons, was the officer assigned by the Pentagon to lead the effort. Neither Steinmacher nor Severs were particularly pleased with Heissman being in charge, as the general was known to be very hawkish in his approach to any conflict, personal or military. Heissman was the general who immediately considered bringing in nukes in response to the unfortunate loss of DeMarco and team. Given his official oversight of tactical weapons, it seemed strange to Steinmacher and Severs that Heissman was the one assigned.

  “Captain, in order to avoid having Heissman start a freaking intergalactic war, I think we better keep the information about the spaceship, the artifact and the egg to ourselves,” Steinmacher told Severs as they were conferring in Steinmacher’s office.

  “I know Heissman personally,” he continued. “He would try to get the egg and use it as a bargaining chip with the visitors to obtain new weapon technologies. I was the one assigned to TUFO originally, for the purpose of establishing peaceful relations in the eventuality of discovery and communications with an extraterrestrial race. I believe I still own that mission. For the sake of our planet, I think we should get our hands on that egg before Heissman becomes aware of it. This would at least reduce tensions in the event he eventually initiated alien communications.”

  “I understand Colonel. I’ll keep the artifact secured in my office safe for now, and we won’t mention it just yet. After Heissman is set up in the Command and Control center, I understand he wants to be brought up to speed through a status meeting. I imagine his focus will be on finding out who was at the site, which is about the only lead any of us have at the moment.”

  THURSDAY AFTERNOON - TUFO

  “Good afternoon gentlemen,” began Heissman. “As directed by the Pentagon, I have now taken over operational control regarding all aspects of the investigation into the unidentified aircraft that first appeared about a week ago and was last reported as seen Monday night. I have directed the analysts to continue monitoring the air space, particularly around the Meteor Crater area and the position northwest where the helicopter was downed. Until it makes another appearance, that is about all we can do regarding the aircraft.

  "Regarding the downed helicopter, unfortunately word has somehow leaked out to the press and they intend to release the story tomorrow morning. This was probably inevitable given the perimeter we established on public land and the number of people our soldiers have turned away in plain sight of the wreckage. Fortunately, our outside cover story is holding up, and tomorrow’s paper will speculate some accident caused the helicopter crash.

  "That leaves the issue of the person or persons who climbed down the canyon to investigate the site where the meteor hit the canyon wall. Can someone provide me an update please?”

  Colonel Steinmacher nodded for Sargent Conard to respond.

  “Sir, we continue to whittle the list of potential suspects down and have eliminated all but about one hundred names. While reviewing the list of those remaining, someone of interest came up. A Professor Larkin is scheduled to speak at a conference on the Barringer crater tomorrow morning in Flagstaff. He rented a Jeep over the weekend and was in possession of it on Monday when the meteor site was apparently investigated by the as yet unidentified person. Given Larkin is a geologist and an expert on meteorites, it seems extremely plausible he was the person who investigated the site.”

  “That’s got to be our man!” Heissman said as he wrapped his knuckles on the desk for emphasis.

  "Since we know where he will be tomorrow, let’s put a small team together to take him right after he speaks. And I want the soldiers prepared for armed resistance. Larkin, or others supporting him, could potentially engage us with countermeasures, so the team must be alert and ready. Is that clear?”

  Captain Severs was somewhat stunned by the approach recommended by Heissman.

  “Sir, don’t you think that is taking matters to the extreme here? It sounds to me like Professor Larkin is just a curious scientist who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. We know for a fact the aircraft took down the helicopter, not Larkin. He wasn’t even in the area at the time of the downing of the helicopter! We can’t just …”

  “Captain Severs,” Heissman interrupted, “Your concerns have been noted. Unfortunately, you don’t have the full picture and are making assumptions without knowing the true nature of things. This is exactly why I was put in charge of this investigation — to assess the total situation and make the tough calls as needed. I expect your full support in this matter. Is that clear?”

  “Crystal sir,” Severs replied succinctly with no hint of the conflict he was feeling in his gut over the direction this investigation was headed. Severs was worried Heissman was now setting up Larkin as a scapegoat, in order to hide the destruction of the helicopter by a UFO. Larkin was about to become a sacrificial lamb for some crazy reason.

  “Good. Now let’s get back to work. Colonel Steinmacher, please assemble the team we will activate tomorrow.”

  Heissman concluded the meeting and went back to his own temporary quarters at TUFO, small but comfortable, where he sat at an office desk and placed a private call to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

  “Sir, we think we have found the one who got to the meteor site first. It was someone named Professor Larkin, an expert in geology. This fits in with what we feared. Some other organization exists outside the U.S. looking into meteor strikes to see if they can find the exotic matter. I'm guessing they are the ones who took down the helicopter.

  Hell, I don’t for one minute believe there was a spaceship, even though I’ve heard rumors that is what Severs and Steinmacher think. Whomever Larkin is working with likely has some advanced aircraft, or spoofing technology that fooled TUFO. That organization apparently showed up at the site to protect Larkin and the exotic matter and shot the helicopter down. This is a race for new technology we just can’t afford to lose, and I’m guessing they thought the same thing when they shot our helicopter down. Hell, we would have done the same to them. Tomorrow we will capture this Professor Larkin, and do whatever we need to, in order to extract the information that he has. Project Stardust must continue undisturbed. We are getting so close and are in a race now. We can’t afford roadblocks.”

  THURSDAY AFTERNOON - HOTEL

  Allison got back to the hotel, rode the elevator to her floor, entered her room and collapsed in a nice soft white chair exhausted, mostly due to the emotional conflicts of everything going on inside her. After a few minutes of relaxing and clearing her mind, a trick she learned during her training, she stood up long enough to pour herself a glass of wine and sat back down to enjoy a few minutes more of peace sipping the cabernet and contemplating the best way to present this to Van Dyne.

  Allison was growing somewhat fond of Jace and Dooley. Especially Dooley, she thought to herself. He was a challenging mark, and she suspected he may be playing her as much as she was him. But there seemed to be a mutual attraction, regardless. She knew he was an ex-U.S. special forces soldier through Van Dyne. She didn’t think Dooley knew she was Australian special forces but maybe on a subconscious level he sensed her training and skills. She enjoyed a skillful competitor, and he was rather good looking.

  And Jace was a world-renowned geologist. He seemed like a genuinely nice person. Ok, maybe there was a little Indiana Jones in him that she hadn’t expected, but he didn’t strike her as a killer, either. Van Dyne had informed her yesterday that Heissman was being put in charge of the meteorite incident. Although he was part of Project Stardust like she and Van Dyne, he was a wild card that couldn’t be trusted. His goals
were very different. Heissman wouldn’t hesitate to take whatever action he deemed necessary to extract information from Jace.

  After rehearsing these facts in her mind, she was ready to call Van Dyne. She picked up her phone and in a minute or two had him on the line.

  “G’day Mr. Van Dyne, this is Allison Trask. I was able to visit the impact site as you requested, but I did not find any signs that stardust had been there or was collected by Dr. Larkin. I also questioned him on the sly and am quite sure he was unaware of any meteoric blue dust.”

  “That is unfortunate. I had really hoped we would find enough additional quantity to permit us to complete the experiments without getting on the wrong side of Heissman. That would have made things so much simpler. I’ve just learned Heissman believes Larkin is working with some external entity also pursuing a Schrödinger gateway. For this reason, he believes the professor may have armed protectors around. The fact that Mr. Marz is travelling with Larkin, given Marz’s background and training, feeds Heissman’s paranoia. The General is planning an armed assault to capture Larkin and extract information, which I fear could result in the good professor getting killed.”

  “This is lunacy! I’ve seen no evidence of any organization backing or protecting Professor Larkin. And Marz is his best friend, not some assigned bodyguard.”

  "Allison, we can’t let anything happen to Dr. Larkin. If anyone knows about or can locate probable sites for additional sources of exotic matter, it would be Larkin or his network of associates. I understand Heissman intends to take Larkin right after he presents tomorrow at the Barringer conference. You will need to move before then.”

  “Right-o. I will come up with a plan that ensures the safety of Professor Larkin, and delivers him to you as promised,” Allison said, although, at the moment she didn’t have a clue as to how she was going to do it.