Timelines

by Bob Blink

  Bill jumped in with more explanation. “We think the display on the screen is to aid the operator so he knows what set of inputs has been selected. We also suspect that many of the input settings are like function keys, but are tied specifically to applications.”

  Before I could put voice to the question that had formed in my mind, Cindy jumped in with further explanation. “We have been able to activate a number of functions that are stored on the system. Under different ‘programs’ for lack of a better term, the keys on some of the twelve positions are different than they are on other ‘programs’. This would give the operator easy access to functions specific to an application program, with keys that are automatically labeled with the function. It might also explain why so many of the symbols don’t readily translate into English. There may be no word to describe the functions.”

  “You said you have been able to activate some of the programs on the computer?” I asked hopefully.

  Cindy smiled, and reached toward the keyboard, tapping the center key to get the set of symbols she wanted. Then, touching one of the keys, she activated another button on the audio playback, causing another burst of the grunting sounds. The center screen cleared, and a graphic appeared, showing a number of symbols connected with several different colors of lines. Two of the symbols in the top row were slowly flashing, and one in the lower row. The lower row showed one of the symbols in blue, whereas all the others were in green. “This is the computer network shown symbolically,” she indicated. Pointing as she explained she said. “The blue symbol is this machine. The flashing symbol in the same row represents the computer in front of you. It is flashing because the computer is activated. Notice that the three other computers are shown, but are a solid color. That seems to indicate they are recognized, but are not currently activated, or in use.”

  I had noticed that the connecting lines seemed to go to places where symbols might appear, but didn’t. “And these?” I asked curious.

  “Those are stations where computers can be connected, but aren’t.” She pointed to the two locations across the room. “If you look closely at the two tables over there, you will find the interfaces. We will show you that in a minute.”

  John reached over and pointed at the two flashing symbols in the top row. “These, of course, represent the computers in the control room. The two that are currently operating and controlling the formation of the new tunnels. The no flashing symbols are the other computers in the other room. We have other graphics that allow us to look at all the other equipment in the facility. I suspect we have the ability to control at least some of the equipment from here, possibly all. Maybe it’s just a monitor position, we still don’t know. We have found a lot about our ability to look into the other equipment, but don’t want to disturb those computers as yet.”

  “Let me show you something else,” Cindy suggested. She repeated the button and sound controls with another select and the central screen changed. A few more manipulations and what appeared to be a list appeared on the screen. “Surprisingly similar to our own structure,” she said with grin. “This is one of the storage directories on this computer. These are files, with the equivalent of creation dates and titles. We haven’t gotten too far with the directory structure, but they seem to have extensive records stored here.”

  “And these files can be processed by our software?”

  “We have tried a few,” offered John. “The symbols are all clear and perfectly formed, so the recognition goes quickly. There are still missing symbols in our database, but it looks like we will be able to convert most of these without difficulty. It all depends on how much manpower we can dedicate. For now, we have been spending most of our effort learning the system.”

  I was impressed and said so.

  “You’ve just seen the basics,” John responded. “Cindy showed you the files on the computer in front of you, but we have found that we can access the equivalent of a server, as well as any of the other machines on the network. We have tried to copy files across, even creating our own directory for the storage. We can copy everything on the entire system onto any of the machines. I don’t know how much memory these devices have, but it appears to be impressive. Bill, show him the best part.”

  Cindy stepped back to make room for Bill, who slid his somewhat overweight frame onto the chair. He reached over and tapped the central key with another verbal command. “We figured this one out by accident,” he added. In response to his command, the computer screen went dark, and a small glowing square appeared on the top of the unit. Bill reached over and touched the square. A second later we heard a small click, and Bill was able to simply lift the inactive computer unit away from the top of the console. He placed it on the table located behind us, and grabbed one of the small units I had seen in the storage room so long ago. The unit he had in his hand was considerably smaller than the unit that he had just removed. He turned it over and showed me the bottom, pointing to three stubby ‘feet’ spaced in a roughly triangular layout.

  “We thought these were simply supports for the unit to sit on,” he said. “However, after we were able to remove couple of the units we looked closer. All of the units have exactly the same spacing.” He turned the unit over and placed it over the bench where the other computer had sat a few moments before. He pushed it down, and again we heard a small click.

  Going through the same start-up procedure, Bill soon had the smaller unit on-line. He was able to bring up the same network screens, and access any of the information on the system.

  John picked up the conversation. “Each of these smaller units interfaces into the system exactly the same way. We have found they also have the capacity to download all of the system files onto any one of the units. The best part, is the smaller units are designed to operate stand alone.”

  This was incredible progress. “You mean we can make a copy of all of the information stored in the complex by copying it onto one of the smaller units, then take that unit with us and access the information at our leisure wherever we want?”

  John nodded. “We have already loaded up four of the small computers and shipped them off to each of the backup sites. This means we really have all of the data now spread through the system. Cindy has been organizing teams with different assignments to focus on, so that each site will specialize in one aspect of the investigation, allowing independent effort, while reducing duplication of effort. As long as we are able to coordinate periodically, which will be Cindy and Bill’s key responsibility, we will be almost as effective as we were when everyone was located at the base.”

  “What about hard copy?” I asked. “Or the ability to load files directly into our systems?”

  “We haven’t found anything here that acts like a printer,” Bill informed me, “and we haven’t worked out the interface protocols, or even the signal format as yet. We have a couple of hardware types looking at those aspects of the system, but in the meantime, we have set up an advanced screen capture system using some of the equipment Carol brought back to us. The system can rapidly capture anything on the screen and import it into our character recognition program for translation.”

  “The database of symbols is quite extensive now, so the translations should move along fairly quickly,” John added. “We were hindered before trying to interpret the equivalent of handwriting, but everything coming off the system here is crisp computer formed symbols. The software is quick to find a match if we have one. As we process more, refinements are being made in the interpretations and grammar translation. I think we will be overwhelmed with material in a couple of days. Then we are going to need to find a way to sort through for the most relevant materials.”

  “Have you found anything that shows details on this facility?” I asked hopefully. “There may be information that tells us how it operates and what is on the other side of the locked door?”

  John shook his head. “I suspect the material exists somewhere on the system, but it is going to take time to sort
through the material and find it. We have downloaded everything on the entire system, so if it exists we have it. From the interface to the control room computers we have extracted the data for active files and have made them a priority. We have hopes of being able to find something that gives an estimate when the tunnel will be complete. I suspect there is also something that will tell us the periods in history they are being opened into. All of their logs seem to be good about maintaining both a reference to their time system and one that references our date system. We just need to find it.”

  That would be one of the most useful outputs we could get right now. It had been more than a week since the aliens started the new tunnels, and they looked unchanged from the first day. If progress was being made toward their completion, it wasn’t obvious visually. That left us no clues about how much time we might have before they returned. Each day was approached as if this might be the one.

  Bill identified one of the key advantages of interfacing to their system. “If we could transfer their files in bulk to our system, we could allow the character identification system to build up a directory with files names and dates in English. That would allow us to scan through the material and select items for processing much more intelligently.”

  “Any other good news?” I asked. “Has Carol seen any of this?”

  “We haven’t been able to brief anyone but you,” John answered. “Carol and Naiya have been away for the last couple of days. I thought Carol would be back yesterday, but something changed.”

  “She was supposed to be back, but when I talked with her she had decided to stay a uptime a while longer. She was a little vague about why, but is supposed to be back tomorrow night,” I informed them. “Naiya will also be back tomorrow, so you should bring them both up to speed. I will probably be in Canada for a couple of days.”

  “We have one other little project in work we have great hopes for,” Cindy added. “You can see that accessing their system with the manual and verbal commands is cumbersome. One of the younger techs is working on an interface that would have a computer controlled mechanical overlay to their keyboard. Then we could type in our desired command in English to the control computer, which would provide the corresponding mechanical and audio outputs to their system. If it works, it would greatly increase the efficiency of getting through their system.”

  The progress they had made in just a few days was more than could have been hoped for and I told them so. John agreed to chase down Carol and Naiya as soon as they passed through. We both wondered if Carol could find anything uptime that might help with the interface problem. Mike sent a tech indicating he wanted to see me, so I let John and his team get back to work while I headed off to see what he needed.

  Chapter 33

  Time Complex

  Effective Date: Saturday, 16 September 2006

  Mike had gone downtime briefly and rather than wait for his return I headed down the ramp to the tunnel room and started towards the tunnel that would take me to the base. I noted in passing that all of the alien flying devices had disappeared, having been removed and hidden during the past couple of days. If any of the aliens made it to the tunnel room and out through one of the tunnels, we would at least be on equal ground transportation-wise. We also had people examining the devices to see if there was any way they could be adapted to our use. I made a mental note to ask John to pass on anything he could find in the system relating to the devices. The visitation had certainly opened up the system to us. If only we had the time to exploit what we were learning. It was unfortunate that we were now suddenly in a situation where everything had become time critical.

  Mike looked up as I entered his office. “I’m sorry, Jim,” he said. “I no sooner sent the tech looking for you than I had to come back for something.” One of the advantages of the base over any of the other facilities was the fact the tunnels entrance was only a couple hundred yards from the base facilities.

  “No worries,” I responded. “What’s up?”

  “Jeff Cohen. He is frustrated sitting around, and wants to help.”

  I had expected something like this. Jeff had been more than cooperative, even helpful, since we had brought him to the base. Now, with a pending crisis, he had become more of a problem than I had anticipated. Especially after his revelation the other day about his true background. How much could we trust him I wondered? I thought back to the conversation that he and I had shared the other day when I found him after the meeting.

  Jeff had left the meeting with everyone else, and was back in the work area talking with a couple of the techs with whom he had become friendly. He had seen me coming, and broke free of his conversation and walked in my direction to greet me.

  “Military intelligence?” I asked, wincing a bit at the often joked about contradiction in terms, although I knew the implied insult was often far from the truth. Over the years I had found that some very sharp people had chosen military careers, and more often than not the stupidity associated with the military was the result of bungling on the part of the politicians who were ultimately their bosses. I hadn’t even thought of the possibility he might be other than a junior agent during the few interactions I had had with the man over the previous weeks.

  He grinned sheepishly and said, “I couldn’t see where telling you earlier was going to help my situation any.”

  “Why now?” I asked curious. “And why would you support us when you come from the very group we are trying to keep out of the loop?”

  “Actually, I don’t think you are so much against the military being involved as you fear the consequences of letting our fearless political leadership get their hands on your little secret.”

  He hadn’t answered the question, but he wasn’t finished yet. “But the simple truth is, you are right about the need to prepare immediately, and the delays that would be associated with coming forward with this whole situation right now. You can’t afford to wait and spent the resources to try and get official backing right now.”

  “You would have me believe you think we are doing the right thing?” The doubt was clear in my voice and it wasn’t lost on him.

  “I think I would restrict my observation to say you are trying to do the expedient thing for the moment. I’m not sure if it is ultimately the right thing. I think you should be looking at a way to get the military behind you because you were most likely correct when you warned everyone that the first encounter wouldn’t be the last. And anyone, or anything, that can build that complex isn’t going to be easy to handle if they decide you have become a problem for them.”

  “So what do you suggest?” I asked, curious to see what path he would try to follow.

  “You need to start thinking about a parallel approach, one that involves military backing. Once this thing breaks, you will be in the same situation, and time might be even more critical. You have to start making the contacts and proving your case now. It isn’t going to be an easy sell.”

  “You haven’t been too hard to convince,” I countered, “and you must have alerted your superiors that something unusual was up in reports you made to them.”

  He was shaking his head. “I never submitted anything officially beyond status reports on the investigation.”

  I didn’t believe that and said so.

  “I was assigned to do a review of the investigation when it became clear that the NSG, FBI, and the other federal groups involved were planning on dropping the investigation surrounding the Morris disappearance. He had been associated with several upcoming major programs for the military, and there was a lot of concern what information might have been obtained by whoever took him. Before the case was closed officially, I was to get with the agent in charge, review everything that had been learned, and determine if there was any more than might be done.”

  “That’s how you became assigned to Agent Williams?”

  He nodded. “And he didn’t like it. He had reached the point where the case had become personal. At first I thought
the decision to shut down the investigation might be related to the concern his superiors were showing about his obsessive behavior. After a while I could see there simply were no leads.” He looked over at me. “You were just lucky. So many things could have gone differently that would have provided leads to your people. His own secrecy, and then walking in on your facility on the spur of the moment, without planning and without telling any of his people, meant he made tracking what happened impossible.”

  “What about the gun with its history, and some of the other items you found?”

  “I was tempted to report it, but that kind of sci-fi type of story doesn’t sit well with some of my superiors. As I mentioned, ever since the Air Force got burned on the flying saucer investigations, the military has been reluctant to appear as if they put any credulity in such stories.”

  “But you felt there was some truth to the story,” I insisted. “I could tell you were intrigued the first day you came and confronted me.”

  “Yeah,” he admitted. “I have always been a serious fan of science fiction. When we discovered the hidden basement, and what looked like a break in the case started to fall apart, I was still fascinated by the documentation Morris had on some of the items. As I told you, I looked closely at that gun. I knew there was a story there, and not the one you were feeding us.”

  “But you didn’t pass it on?” I insisted.