Brian Sadler Archaeology 03 - The Strangest Thing

by Bill Thompson

  Ultimately Thomas Newton Torrance was proven correct in his assessment about Cory Spencer’s discovery of what appeared to be an extraterrestrial craft. The scientific community discounted it completely, calling it an elaborate hoax. Senior academicians at Sussex University pulled Cory aside and advised him to stop talking about it. The implication was that Cory’s future as an archaeologist was in jeopardy so long as he continued to rant and rave about aliens. At least for now Cory Spencer wasn’t becoming famous as a result of the most amazing discovery in the world. He was saying nothing about it.

  In hopes of finding the way Torrance escaped, both the American and Mexican authorities carefully examined every inch of the artifact chamber, the cavern and the passageway between the two. Although several side caves and short dead-end passages were found, there were no more artifacts and no sign of the British entrepreneur. He had vanished.

  Ancient astronaut theorists were having a field day – for them there finally was proof that aliens have visited our planet. For now nobody could come up with a rational, levelheaded scientific idea what the things were or what the glyphs meant. History International and Discovery were already sparring to win the contract for exclusive broadcast rights. This drama would unfold over years, not days or months, but each network wanted to be a part of it every step of the way. This would be one of the biggest stories ever. Every fan of the books of Erich von Daniken, Graham Hancock or David Hatcher Childress would be in seventh heaven. This was exciting for those who believed that others had visited Earth.

  On the scientific side, a team of experts was already being assembled to examine the discovery in the cavern below King Pakal’s tomb. They would look at the metal strut the team originally found, the glyphs, the two “egg pod” pieces and the capsule things inside the pods. No one would speculate whether a reasonable explanation would ever be forthcoming. This was just too bizarre, too different and unusual.

  As the financier and benefactor of the Palenque project, Thomas Newton Torrance should have had significant input into how all this played out but he was nowhere to be found. He had no direct heirs and his executor was his old mentor from the early days of TNT’s wheeling and dealing.

  But was Torrance dead? Nobody knew. To further complicate things, the man had been residing in the USA, was a citizen of the UK and went missing in Mexico. In the USA and the UK a missing person can be declared dead by a court after seven years. The law in Mexico wasn’t as clear.

  A warrant was issued for his arrest on a charge of attempted murder but Thomas Newton Torrance would never be found. It would take years and many court battles before he was declared dead and his affairs wound up. Notwithstanding the ten million dollars he had put into the Palenque project and despite the incredible discovery there, Torrance’s estate did not profit from it, nor was he given credit as a discoverer. Cory Spencer sued the estate for a portion of the proceeds and a court awarded him a million dollars.

  Dr. Ortiz had profited by more than twenty thousand dollars thanks to the cash TNT provided him in exchange for information. Ortiz dreamed he might become the next Zahi Hawass – like the famous Egyptian archaeologist, Ortiz believed he could emerge as the spokesperson for archaeology all over Mexico and Central America. Sadly, without either the personality or connections of Dr. Hawass, Ortiz was destined to fade into history. He was noted as having been present when the artifacts were found but his negligible contribution was not considered meaningful. He started a book about the discoveries at Palenque but never finished it.

  At the President’s request Brian stayed on site at Palenque for several days after Chapman’s body was removed, acting as a representative of the U.S. government. Sussex University issued a recall for its remaining team members after the Mexican authorities revoked its permit to dig. The Mexican government would henceforth manage further exploration of the artifact chamber, cavern and the mysterious objects. For the moment everything was halted and the Temple of the Inscriptions remained closed to the public.

  Because Harry Harrison asked Brian to remain in Palenque the plans for a trip to Cancun had to be cancelled. “We’ll get it done, Nicole,” he had said after she expressed her disappointment. “Just give me a little time and we’ll do it right.”

  Two weeks later Brian Sadler and Nicole Farber were invited to the White House for a private dinner with the Harrisons. They declined. “Give us a rain check, Harry,” Brian had told his old roommate. “We have a side trip to take first.”

  -----

  Three weeks after the events in Palenque Nicole and Brian sat on lounge chairs in the sun. They had carved out the time for their trip to Cancun and now sat on a sandy beach ten feet from the ocean. They were at Manana Beach Resort on the Playa del Carmen, the place Nicole had picked out for them. A gentle breeze blew and waves cascaded into shore with a soothing sound. It was as peaceful and calming as either of them could imagine.

  A waiter came by and they ordered another round of Margaritas. “It’s getting easier,” Nicole said lazily.

  “What’s getting easier?”

  “It’s getting easier to sit here naked and order drinks from a waiter. I have to tell you, I had a little concern whether I could do this. I wondered if the waiter would look me over while I placed my order. And sure enough, he does! But I think it’s the most exhilarating thing I’ve ever experienced. I feel free! It’s so much fun not to have any clothes on!”

  “And you can get a tan with no tan lines.”

  “Yep. That too. So can you. Don’t burn anything I might need later.” She smiled at him mischievously.

  “Dinner’s at seven. What are you wearing? The black outfit or the blue one?”

  Nicole smiled and thought for a moment. “I think I’ll wear the fleshtone outfit. I know you’ve seen me in it a lot the last couple of days but I like it.”

  “Damn right. I like it too. It’s the best outfit you have!”

  “This old thing? It’s been around awhile.” She lay back in the lounge chair and ran her hand up and down her leg.

  “Not nearly long enough for me.” Brian leaned over and kissed her. Her nipple brushed against his arm and he kissed her again, more deeply.

  She glanced at him. “Better be careful raising that flagpole out here on the beach, Mister Sadler!”

  So they decided to take a break and run back up to their suite. That interlude lasted all afternoon and ended with a dip in the Jacuzzi situated in their bedroom by the front door. They opened the curtains and the sliding doors so they could lounge in the tub and watch the ocean. People walked by on the sidewalk ten feet in front of their room but took no notice of their nudity. Of course they didn’t – this was Manana Beach, after all.

  Later they sat in the dining room and sipped martinis as they perused the menu. They laughed at how different it felt to be in traditional social settings such as a dining room full of other couples with no one wearing anything at all.

  During their vacation they spent long hours talking through their situation. Nothing long-term was worked out. Brian couldn’t move and neither could Nicole. When they were together they were as close as two people could be. And they vowed to keep the spark alive when they were apart. Even though the “see other people” plan was still in place, Brian just wanted to see more of this one.

  Epilogue

  Sixty-five million years ago an asteroid six miles in diameter, the size of a small town, slammed into what is now the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Travelling tens of thousands of miles an hour, it was possibly the most catastrophic impact the earth ever experienced and it left a crater over a hundred miles wide. The force of the collision caused dramatic changes on our planet.

  Massive volumes of ash and smoke erupted into the atmosphere of the earth and mega-tsunamis engulfed much of the land. Scientists theorize that the abrupt extinction of the dinosaurs happened because of this event. Most of those creatures, the remains of which were often found with food still in their stomachs, died suddenly. Many experts
believe this asteroid impact is the reason.

  For perhaps a decade the skies of the entire planet were covered with a blanket of ash. Almost no plants or animals survived. Evolutionists think the ones that did, the smallest of species, arose from the ashes and ultimately repopulated Earth, resulting in the plethora of living things we know today.

  There was one other species on our planet when the asteroid struck. Fifteen of these creatures were here –close to the Yucatan, less than three hundred miles from the impact site. They were the most intelligent things on Earth at the time the cataclysm occurred. Others of their type watched helplessly from ten thousand miles above the planet as their compatriots calmly gathered in the pod that had brought them to Earth. They had no emotions – there was no sorrow, no grief. They merely registered the loss of their fellow beings when the catastrophe happened.

  For years these creatures had struggled in vain to restart the propulsion device on the craft that might have taken them off the planet. But they had crash-landed only a few hundred years ago in Earth-time. After numerous attempts the creatures had failed to get the oval spacecraft repaired. One of the struts had been ripped off the vehicle and severely damaged in the crash and the beings could not reattach it. Without the fourth strut the propulsion mechanism would not generate power because the craft had to be level for its sophisticated systems to start.

  The strut was made from the strongest, densest metal in the universe. Similar to iridium, it had not previously been seen on Earth. Due to its density the eight-foot-long strut weighed nearly ten thousand pounds.

  Once they gave up trying to reattach the strut, the tiny capsule-like beings moved it out of their way to a stone altar they constructed using the technique of levitation. Multi-ton rocks moved where the beings directed them, without the use of tools. Same for the strut itself. They merely raised it into the air and shifted it over to the altar.

  The creatures also created two glyphs in the walls of a passageway leading from the large area where their craft lay. One glyph depicted the fifteen beings and their spacecraft. The other was intended to tell others in the future where they had come from – a binary star system four light years, or twenty-four trillion miles, away from Earth.

  The twenty-foot long egg-shaped vehicle, which had reliably brought these small beings to our solar system and the third planet from the sun, had started its journey on a planet orbiting the double star Alpha Centauri. Its system had fifteen planets and theirs was fourth from their binary sun. Their craft had traveled for nearly two thousand years. The goal was to reach our solar system and to investigate whether it had a planet that could support their form of life. Nothing was wrong with the place from which they had come. It was merely logic that required the creatures to plan for every possible outcome. Their requirements for a new home were few – primarily they required a temperate climate free from poisons and caustic chemicals in the atmosphere. Earth turned out to be the perfect place.

  The creatures were far different from the plants and animals that would eventually populate Earth. They were alive in one sense of the word but they were not living things. They were eight-inch long sophisticated machines with artificial intelligence – they were computers that looked like little capsules. Each one had four antennae with knobs on the ends – those resembled hands and feet but they had a different use – they mined data for the beings.

  After Earth’s impact with the asteroid the creatures that had watched the scene from space returned to the Alpha Centauri system. They knew it would be a very long time before this green planet could again be of use to them. The atmosphere had to clear. The climate had to warm up.

  This advanced civilization of machines had no measure of time – they simply had no use for the concept. Therefore they waited to revisit Earth until it was necessary. At last their planet began to lose its mild climate. The huge double suns pulsated from time to time. As the fluctuations became more frequent the planet these robotic creatures inhabited began to warm. Soon it would be too hot for their sophisticated circuitry. These machines sent another mission to Earth. The goal was to determine if the planet was ready for them.

  Sixty-five million years had passed since the previous group of these beings had lain dormant on the earth during the asteroid cataclysm. The second mission arrived around 5000 B.C. as people on Earth measured time. It returned to the site of the previous crash and hovered several miles above the planet.

  The place where the ship had crashed was now covered. Ash and debris from the asteroid impact had solidified to form caves. The ruined spacecraft that held fifteen of their fellow creatures was now in an underground cavern.

  The beings noted much activity on the planet. It was different than their last visit when enormous dinosaurs roamed the forests. Their imaging systems showed that a variety of things lived here – plants, animals, even humans. Although they had never previously encountered the species homo sapiens, they quickly determined these creatures that walked upright on two appendages were apparently the most intelligent things on the planet. That wasn’t saying much – the level of logical thinking of which these machine creatures were capable was exponentially greater than that of the human beings.

  Egyptians, the Aztec, Maya and Incas, and others around the world – the people who built massive structures – pyramids, temples, multi-story buildings, virtual skyscrapers – learned those techniques from these interplanetary travelers. They were taught principles of construction, basic physics and geometry and mathematics. They mastered astronomy and strange things like levitation, hypnotism and mummification.

  The beings spent over six thousand years on Earth during their second visit. Their time here stretched from the building of the pyramids in Egypt to the middle of the sixteenth century A.D. Then it was time to return to their solar system, to advise their people that Earth was ready for colonization. Around 1550 as humans measure time, they left for the four thousand year round trip to Alpha Centauri.

  The craft that had crashed sixty-five million years ago remained hidden in the jungles of what is now southern Mexico. It contained fifteen beings – fifteen little capsules.

  Until Thomas Newton Torrance fell into the pod, that is. Now there were sixteen.

  Table of Contents

  The Strangest Thing

  Dedication

  Historical Prelude