Dr. Langer claimed that a Paleontological Archeologist was a person who studied structures that were built in prehistoric times. Usually, the structure would be attributed to whatever population may have been in that area at that time.
For instance, nobody actually knows who built Stonehenge, but most people attribute Stonehenge to the Druids. The problem with that assumption is that Stonehenge is now estimated to be at least ten thousand years old, and there is no reason to believe that there were any druids around at that time.
"So, who built Stonehenge?" Oscar asked.
"Nobody really knows," Dr. Langer admitted, "but there are hundreds of structures built at about that time, which was roughly the end of the last glacial period. There are hundreds of cities beneath 200 to 400 feet of water around every continent. We can now assume that the melting of the ice sheets at the end of the ice age submerged a lot of coastal cities about ten thousand years BC."
"I asked you to come here to tell me if there is evidence of alien civilizations on Earth," said Oscar. "Is there any chance that these structures were made by aliens?"
"For structures built during and after the ice age," the doctor continued, "they seem to have been of human origin, but they may very well have been influenced by aliens. For possible alien settlements, we have to go much deeper into the past.
The world is full of anomalous metal artifacts and impossible constructions. There are axes and tools in strata laid down millions of years ago. Even the more recent structure almost certainly required non-human tools, since even now, there is considerable doubt that humanity could build the pyramids and other mega-stone structures using modern equipment and tools. Considering what a small percentage of biological matter is ever fossilized, and how short a time is required to degrade almost any modern object made by man, the world could have hosted hundreds of different alien civilizations with populations in the millions, deep in the past, and we might never get the needed confirming evidence."
"You are basically admitting that aliens probably lived on Earth in the past," Oscar said, "so creatures could have lived here in the past that were similar to the descriptions of the Old Ones in the Cthulhu Mythos."
"I do not know how to answer that assumption," Langer answered earnestly. "There are so many tales of ancient gods that sound alien, and so much evidence in our biology that we humans are a science project that was never quite finished. There are endless clues that point to the existence of human-like creatures several million years ago.
If you accept the arguments of Sitchin or Von Daniken, it is almost a given that there has been a human civilization on this planet much longer than is generally accepted, and there were alien civilizations on this planet for millions of years before humanity came along."
Oscar carried on the conversation with Dr. Langer for another hour, taking notes carefully on items of interest. When he decided that he had finally mined all of the information from this source that would be forthcoming, he repaid the visit by showing the man the exploits of the alien fungus thing.
Even without knowing the murder-connected facts associated with the fungus, Dr. Langer looked extremely troubled by the existence of the fungus. He noted that it reminded him of the fungi that were probably responsible for the deaths that kept alive the legend of the curse of the Pharaohs.
Once show and tell was finally over, Cyril Langer shook hands goodbye with Oscar, turned his collar up, and prepped his umbrella to shield him from the elements. He wandered off into the misty day, allowing Oscar to finish his chores for the day, and prepare to go to Starlight's End at five, as they had agreed.
Ian at the bar Thursday 4/11/2019 at 4:30 PM
Breakfast was long over, and the strips of bacon and golden eggs long ago consumed. They were well on their way to whatever heaven such things can aspire to after a short life as an edible item. Ian was busy watching the television news while sipping a never-ending cup of coffee.
A news report by a nearby Longview station was reporting on a Holden mystery at the home of the long-established McClelan family. Nobody knew what to make of the situation in the home.
" Judith Amsley, a family friend, and neighbor of Helen McClelan went to visit her at her home this morning at 10 AM," the pert brunette eye-candy reported. "What she discovered was terrifying and strange. Something in the house had killed three of the family members, and spread their body parts around several rooms, as though it was playing with the parts like a cat.
She is not available to verify her account because she EMTs took her to the hospital to be treated for extreme shock. After discovering the bodies, she wisely left the house, and returned to her own home to call the police."
"The police responded to her call within ten minutes," the reporter continued. "What they discovered seemed to be beyond comprehension. There was something still in the house, something that attacked the police when they arrived, wounding two of them before the police were able to kill it."
"The Thing the Police killed defies description," the reporter continued. "It looked like it may have once been human, with two legs, two arms, and a head. No one could call it human now. There were arms and legs distributed over the thing's body, at least one of the limbs ended in a claw like that of a lobster. The hair, and possibly the more hidden parts of the body had multiple tentacles just like those of a squid or an octopus."
"Three of the family members are known to be dead and dismembered, but three others are still missing," she reported. "Is this monster, which looks as though it once was human, one of the missing family members, changed in some unknown way into the creature? If so, could the additional legs and arms be the limbs of the two other missing family members, somehow transferred to the monster's body?"
"We will report on this story as soon as any new information comes to light," she concluded. "Lea Darius, CBS news. Now back to you, Susan."
Susan reported on the growing list of persons missing from the local area, and from around the world. Many of the ones who were left suffered from what the news reporters were referring to as 'an epidemic of insanity.'
Freya orbited Ian throughout the day, making sure that he was doing okay. No one else was in the bar, so she had the time to dote on Ian, and he didn't mind it at all.
Jonny, Oscar, and Garret came through the bar's door at 5:15 PM. For the small town of Holden, this was what known as 'fashionably late.' At least, it was only a matter of minutes late. In other places, they would have been considered early.
The boys settled down beside Ian, and the conversation soon migrated to the subject of the fearful and depressing mystery that seemed to have the town wrapped in a blanket of Fate. Everyone felt disquieted by the recent events, but they all were feeling a small tingle of defiance, and they all felt the resolve to see the danger through.
10 old ones
Thursday 11, 2019 @ 6:30 PM
Garret, Jonny, and Oscar had just finished their first big carafe of beer and was working on the second one when Wilber finally graced them with his presence. Traveling in his wake was a smallish, bespeckled and bookish appearing man.
"Hey, everybody, I would like you to meet Ira Stone," Wilber introduced. "Ira is an Occult Historian, which is a fancy way of saying he knows about occult practices of the past."
"Happy to meet you, Mr. Stone," Oscar said. "Maybe you can shed some light on what is happening. At this point, the supernatural is an acceptable explanation."
"That would be Dr. Stone," Ira corrected, "and yes, I have some ideas that might explain what is happening here and around the world."
"If you guarantee that you will keep what we tell you confidentially," Garret began, "we will give you the unabridged version of events, in exchange for your best insights into what is going on."
Garret went on to fill Ira in on the odd natures of the murder scenes, and the general degeneration of the town's inhabitants. He even mentioned the octopus substitutions and the fungus, concluding that they would be required information for a
ny informed interpretation of events.
"Between what the murder scenes contained, and the odd dream that we all have every night," Ian explained, "and how things are going downhill, we think that the killers are trying to bring Yog-Sothoth into our world."
"That might be hard," Jonny added, "considering that this Yog-Sothoth is fictitious."
"Don't be too sure that the Old Ones are fiction," Ira corrected. "Although H.P. wrote about them as fiction, the idea of them, or something like them, is a long-standing Archetype of our species."
"You are saying that the demonic entities are real?" Ian asked, "even though Lovecraft didn't know that they were real?"
"That about sums it up," Ira admitted. "The thing is, we don't really just know about the past. We also know about things that are happening now but far away, and we know about things that will happen sometime in the future, in some dark little corner of our minds.
You see, time is really not a linear thing. If you believe in parallel universes, then even identifying which timeline past is your past is difficult. You can't know a future event as an event in your absolute future because every event splits the worldlines into two or more possible worldlines. Which version of your future self will experience that future event? If the worldline splits, each of the worldlines will have a version of you. Are they both you?
The past and the future are not as certain as we believe. There are future events that are of much higher probability than others as the future outcome of most past worldlines along the same branch of parallel universes.
If one of these probable event outcomes in a future timeline is supremely dangerous, fearsome, or just plain terrifying, then that future event could traumatize the past. If you remember the miniseries CHILDHOOD'S END, the alien caretakers were linked to the end of the species, and so, their appearance was seen as the face of evil, and their form became the standard form of the devil.
Now, imagine that an even greater and fearsome entity arrives here that has the ability to change the very fabric of reality. This trauma could be translated back through eons, and manifest itself as a sort of shadow, or weaker doppelganger, of the original future entity."
"You are saying that Yog-Sothoth could be a real entity from the future," Oscar exclaimed, "and that there were actual creatures that were 'dimmer' versions of Yog-Sothoth that existed in the deep past here on Earth."
"That is correct," Ira said. "My best guess is that they would have manifested during the Ediacaran period on Earth, from about 635 to 541 million years ago. I suspect that the Old Ones, even though they were just a manifestation of a future entity, still forced the fabric of reality to change and to force certain types of changes to the organisms on Earth.
Whenever they appeared, they persisted until sometime in the early Cambrian era. During the later Ediacaran and the early Cambrian, the phylum of Mollusks appeared, and the cephalopods were one branch of them. We all know the qualities of snails and Octopi, but what you might not know is that they are the branch of life forms that are distinguished as the only Earthly organisms that use copper as the transporter of oxygen in their blood instead of iron.
At any rate, the Old Ones were probably responsible for the origin of multi-cellular animal life on Earth, including the Cephalopods. In theory, true plants existed before the Ediacaran, but there was significant advancement during the period.
Before they appeared, the life forms on this planet were 'sort of plants' and bacteria, and while they were here, the animal like organisms which were probably not animals or plants, but something in between, became primitive animals. In short order, they exploded into thousands of species.
If we take what Lovecraft wrote as true, then we have some alien colonists here on Earth to thank for restraining the Old Ones from holding the planet in an iron tentacle for all eternity. Even though the Old Ones were a pale copy of the future intruder, still they would not have allowed humans to become dominant on the planet if they were around.
I think that Lovecraft was reporting more of the truth than he realized. I believe that Sitchin's conclusion that the Anunnaki were aliens that ruled the prehistoric world of man is also true, and may be a similar sort of future event reflection, or it may have just been a past event.
So, yes, I think that the Lurker at the Gate that you all feel is actually real, and threatens our world. These creatures are spreaders of chaos and madness, so assume those qualities will get worse and worse in the world, until either the beast is defeated, or he defeats us."
Ian felt both validated, and alarmed, by the direction in which the conversation seemed to be heading. If you read between the lines, it did not sound like they had much of a chance.
The conversation continued for a good long while, during which time the group went through a significant quantity of beer. Along about 11:15 PM, Wilber and Ira prepared to go to the station to do the show.
Wilber and Ira had both agreed more than once to conduct the conversation in such a way that the audience would be well informed, in case they believed it, and it made any difference. They also agreed not to divulge any of the information pertinent to the cases. Garret was not entirely confident that they would keep their word, but at this late date, it probably did not matter.
Shortly after the talk-show participants left the bar, the rest of the group decided to call it a night as well. Since they had no other customers left in the bar, Freya decided that she could close the bar down early, and then she would continue her budding romance with Ian, by spending as much of every day as she could around him. She definitely planned to go home with him again tonight.
By 11:30, the unmotorized individuals had caught rides with the motorized people, and all were headed home.
11 time, love, and darkness
Friday 12, 2019 @ 7:30 AM
I dream of a shallow sea of gray waters and matted green moss-like plants in the tranquil surf and hugging the rocky beach tightly. The air is fetid with the smells of rich decay, that odor that speaks of short-lived generations of life.
Protruding from the foaming waters are the reddened summits of stromatolites, doing their part to pump life-giving and life-destroying oxygen into the air. Crab formed creatures scuttle in the shallow waters, and here and there insect formed things pick their way to unknown destinations. Of the things that crawl and swim within the seas, the most familiar are the trilobites.
The land is barren, for the world is yet millions of years too young for land dwelling animals to develop. It has only been a handful of mega years since the first true animals separated themselves from things that were not yet animals. The dry lands are all rocks and dust formed by the first lichens leaching nutrients from the face of the stones.
Beyond the stromatolites, some structures soar above the waters. In the shallow seas are gleaming black towers of obsidian that stand at least a thousand feet tall, like primeval archetypes of mortal attempts to reach the gods.
Once these must have been the bustling center of a great metropolis, but now, all is silence. A tendril of curiosity pulls me at great speed into the nearest of these towers.
The black walls of gleaming stone are covered in places with thick layers of primitive algae, and some ancient fungi lived upon the green remains. Nowhere can I see any sign of habitation, but only the despair of the tomb.
All is dead within these walls, but even the dead leave traces, the screams of pain, the sense of loss, all of these things endure after death. They have soaked into the stones of this place, and the voices of the dead are deafening.
I understand that once a species lived in these towers that sought to learn all things and to ascend to a greater existence beyond the mortal coil. I feel without seeing that some Thing reached down from another place, and touched this noble people with the rotting touch of decay and madness. The mere touch of this dark power made animals of this great species and created great things of nightmare to consume the last morsels of their essence.
The despair and th
e pain overwhelm me, even though they are but the smallest echo of that remembered time only half a Gigayear ago. They overwhelm me, and I feel myself becoming unmade before the darkness rises up and takes me, and I know no more.
Ian opened his eyes and found that he was secure in bed at home, with the sleeping form of Freya at his side. He felt a smile crack his face, as he thought how lucky he was, even in the face of this unknown horror that he knew was drawing near.
He took a moment to breathe the scent of her perfume in deep, before he slipped out from under the bed sheets, and padded to the kitchen to start a breakfast for them. This time, she could take it easy while he burned the bacon.
He decided to cook bacon and skip the eggs, going straight to making a plate of pancakes. He mixed the batter and cooked the bacon. He griddled the pancakes with butter, using an iron skillet. He had just completed the task when Freya breezed into the kitchen, like a breath of fresh air.
She gave him a peck on the lips. She also gave him that 'hurry up and serve' look that only loved ones and puppy dogs can muster.
"Looking good," she said as she poured herself a cup of coffee. "There is nothing like a good sleep to give a girl an appetite." She smiled as she sat down at the breakfast table.
"How do you feel about company today?" Ian asked. "I am getting used to having you around."
"Yeah, but isn't that having you around me?" Freya protested with a smile. "I demand my full measure of protection and adoration!"
"It is all yours," Ian agreed amicably. "The only good things about our current apocalypse are that I get to hang around you, and everyone is effectively on vacation until this all blows over."
"Here is hoping," she replied, apparently referring to the 'blowing over' part. "We should probably walk to the bar right after we finish eating."
Beyond The Chaos Gate: Lovecraftian Horror Page 6
