Earth Before Man

by Allan E Petersen

  ***

  Back up on the edge of the field, Yesin was on his stomach sound asleep with the binoculars on the ground beside his head. At least he was sound asleep until feeling a great pain in his ribs. After a gasp and flipping over, he saw Inspector Buruk standing over him not looking happy. It was a very gruff and demanding question,

  “Where is the Professor?”

  Snapping his attention back to the slope, Yesin scanned the rocks and to his great dismay, discovered there was no Professor. Jumping to his feet he pointed with one hand, saluted with the other and reported,

  “He disappeared. I swear he was down there just a second ago.”

  Both scanned the rocky slope all the way down to the lake but there was no Professor in sight.

  Chapter 48

  Henrik was still recovering from the shock of seeing a black spirit running out of the exploding dust. He wanted to convince Pia that he was a ‘smart crazy’ but looking down and seeing her dubious stare, he understood the futility of even trying. Defeated and humiliated once again for being different and trying to convince people that he really was normal, he flopped back onto the cot, sat beside her and stared out into the emptiness of the cave. All he ever wished for was normal people to see what he could see.

  When the dust settled, Maria was the first to see past the swirling dusty obstruction and into the cave. To her bitter disappointment, there was nothing to see. However, she was only briefly overcome by disappointment. It quickly came to her that because they were already in an Anannaki fortress, there was no way there was ‘nothing’ in a hidden chamber. There had to be something.

  She turned around to Henrik and Pia who were still sitting over on the cot. She wondered why Henrik looked so forlorn, as if he had lost his best friend. She was going to yell at him to retrieve the flashlights when suddenly a bright light from inside the newly discovered chamber cut through the settling dust. Thinking that Santo already had a flashlight she snapped around to see that, like the lights in this cave, the lights in this newer area were obviously also motion activated. Both Santo and Kirk had ventured into the darkness and suddenly there was light. What was there to do but follow?

  Just as she stepped into the lingering dusty curtain, to avoid getting dust on her, she inadvertently brushed against the edge of the wall. To her surprise, even though it was only a slight nudge, a small section of it moved just like nudging an open door. After a brief investigation, she realized that was exactly what it was, the remaining part of a pivoting thick stone door not blown away. Putting her hand on it, she gently pushed and a massive stone barrier easily swung aside. It quickly came to her that Santo had tried to gain entry to the chamber by pushing on the wrong section of the wall. She decided to pick a better time to tell him that.

  As she turned to look into the chamber, her grin quickly became an open mouth gape. She stood stunned, and speechless. One of the many mysteries of what she and Kirk had first discovered was now realized. At first, when dropping down the vertical shaft on pogo sticks and seeing the main cave, they discovered medical equipment and an operating table. It was an obvious conclusion that during the Great Earth War this was a secret Anannaki field hospital.

  That conclusion quickly changed when discovering the other chamber filled with different alien crafts including ancient Great Gray D-wings. That posed the question, what was a field hospital doing inside an alien armory? Clearly, the chamber must have been a hive of noise and activity with technicians and mechanics running in all directions. It certainly could not have been a sterile environment. What she now saw plainly explained that it was not a medical hospital for the wounded.

  This cave was massive and challenged the size of the main one. It was illuminated by the same mystery as the other two, light simply being there with no obvious source. She thought she was looking at a long row of missiles on tables looking almost like the ones strapped under the alien craft back in the other chamber. She did not count them but by a rough estimate, she thought there might be twenty stretching all the way to the end of the cavern. Clearly, this chamber was an armory, a storage place for air to ground missiles. She saw Kirk and Santo standing there inspecting the one closest to her. She thought the attention they were paying to it was curious. It was just a large rocket, maybe two meters long. What was the curiosity?

  It was not until Santo looked up at her that she thought something might be wrong with her assumption. As if seeing a ghost, his eyes were wide and below them was an expression of shock. A nod of his head indicated for her to come over and have a look. Not knowing whether to approach him cautiously or run to him in anticipation, she opted for guarded steps. As she got closer, it still looked like a large metallic missile. Now standing by his side and looking down at it she, like Santo and Kirk, realized that it was not a warhead at all. There was a degree of accuracy in her stunned expression.

  “Oh my god.”

  Curiosity had gotten Pia and Henrik off their feet and to the entrance of the newly discovered cavern. Pia was the first to take brave steps and walk up to Maria. Because Henrik had seen a ghost walk through solid rock into this cave and later when the wall was blown, one run out of it, he was not as eager to enter where it might live, or worse where there might be others. Frozen feet kept him at the entrance. What he considered brave was simply standing there and looking into it. Because he knew what he saw, this was a good place to stand.

  Pia joined them at the mysterious cylinder and all four stood in stunned silence looking down at it. The shell casing looked metallic but Maria thought it also resembled the same material as the alien crafts over in the other chamber. All the cylinders reflected a metallic sheen that appeared scaly, like scales on a fish. Clearly it was a material not recognized and to be examined, but later. What was in the cylinder was her greatest concern and to be examined right away. Although most of the cylinder was solid, one end, the end she was staring into was a clear material resembling glass or some other synthetic material. To be more accurate, what they were looking at resembled a coffin with a clear view to half of the body inside.

  True to the ancient Sumerian’s description of who they thought were gods from the stars, this specimen sprouted a full beard. His hands were crossed over his chest as if in a death pose and on each wrist was a band that current archeologists interpreted from the Sumerian drawings as resembling a wristwatch. However, Maria accepted Zak Zander’s rational explanation as simply wristbands denoting a name or clan symbol. After all, why would anybody have a wristwatch on both wrists?

  There was no doubt in her mind that she was looking at a perfectly preserved cryogenically suspended body of an Anannaki. Blinking pin sized lights on a panel off to the side of his head was a fair indication that whatever the artificial suspension system was, it was still active and keeping him alive. However, alive or dead, he was an Anannaki and in his body was what she needed to preserve the Divine creation of man. She was ecstatic. Finally, after all these years she had located Anannaki DNA. She took a step back and scrutinized the shell of the container wondering how to get it open. Before a solution presented itself, she heard Santo call out,

  “Come and look at this one.”

  She did not want to be torn away from what she obviously thought was the discovery of the century. What could possibly be more exciting than this? However, the thought of seeing another Anannaki warrior in suspended animation in the other container slowly moved one foot away. She looked to Pia and said,

  “See if you can get this thing open.”

  Santo was looking at the same type of scaly canister as the one she had just left. Half of the top was also clear plastic giving a good view of the suspended body inside. When looking down at it she was greatly surprised. Was there no end to the astonishment of this cavern? The body inside the container was not that of an Anannaki but rather a perfectly preserved body of a Great Gray. Of the few records available describing the Great Earth War, they were translated to mean that the Anannaki and Great Grays were en
emies. She now questioned that. Why would the Anannaki want to preserve the body of a Great Gray? It did not make sense until once again Santo called her over to another cylinder.

  The amazement and bewilderment went all the way down the line of the other capsules. There were nineteen in all and each held preserved bodies of nineteen different alien species. Everything Zak Zander believed and proposed as the true history of the world was now evident in this cave. Clearly this planet was home to many species of aliens before humans became the dominate species. Questions came to her so fast that it was impossible to grab just one. The biggest question that kept repeating was what happened to the alien civilizations on Earth? They could not all have left this planet after the Great Earth War.

  After viewing the containers, Maria yelled over to Henrik who still had not gathered the courage to step into what his mind now pretty well established was akin to hell.

  “Henrik, run over to the D-wing and get me the camera.”

  Very glad to be taking hurried steps away, he snapped around and ran to the D-wing. With camera in hand, he returned to the entrance and slammed on the brakes. It was a dilemma. His feet refused to enter the cavern. Pia, seeing fear in his expression shook her head in disgust, walked over and snapped the camera from his hand. Again, he wanted to defend himself saying, ‘I am a smart crazy,’ but no words came out of his mouth.

  With camera in hand, Maria got busy snapping pictures of the poor souls trapped in the capsules. After a picture of the Anannaki and the Great Gray, Santo came up to her and voiced a viable observation.

  “I don’t think they are in suspended animation. I think they are all dead and the capsules are just preserving the bodies.”

  It was something she had not considered but did not deter her from the elation of finding an Anannaki. If it still meant getting the DNA, she will accept either perfectly preserved or dead, it made no difference to her.

  She then moved down to the next capsule or if Santo was correct, coffin. The body in the next container had slightly tinted blue skin. His hair was done up in a tight bun and there was a strange red marking on his forehead. There was no doubt in her mind that he was a Rama warrior from the wars related in the history of the Mahabharata.

  The next container produced a gasp and great feeling of sorrow. She had to struggle to hold the camera steady and get a proper focus. The tribe of the Sky People had gone through enough sorrow on this Earth. They lost their planet, indeed their whole solar system to encroaching anti-matter and came to this planet with every intention to survive and live in peace. The Sky People developed the great Inca Empire. However, because they were different and feared by the Conquistadors, they were hunted practically to extinction. The only survivors made it to the Amazon jungle. Now this, captured and put into a coffin. She hoped the last survivors of the Sky People, Liana and Quastima would never see this humiliation.

  Although both Santo and Maria had experience with the Wandjina tribe in Australia, they had never seen one. They were the aliens who taught the aboriginals how to live within the protection of nature. There was no doubt in her mind that she was now focusing the camera on a Wandjina. The white body paint on its torso and head greatly resembled the body painting of the current aboriginals. Its large eyes stared straight up at her.

  She had also never seen a Dropa alien but according to the drawing she saw in the Tibetan Highlands of a short squat body with unpleasant features looking much like a garden gnome, there was no doubt the next capsule contained one of them. When the Dropa first landed in Tibet, because of their hideous features they too were greatly feared. It was not until years later that the people started to understand they were friendly. Whatever happened to them is unknown. Some think they simply went back to their own planet. Now seeing one encased in this capsule, she wondered if they too were not a victim of the Great Earth War.

  There was no doubt about the species in the next capsule. People of the Americas called them the Ant People for a good reason. Although hominoid and bipedal, there was a slight but definite insect appearance in their skinny arms and legs. The eyes were predominately larger and unnervingly black. This species helped the Navajo develop a great culture in the area now referred to as the Four Corners.

  As she focused the camera on the next capsule, Santo came and stood next to her. She did not recognize the alien but Santo did. Except for inordinately large eyes and asymmetrical facial features, it could have been human. Knowing that she did not recognize it, he said,

  “They call themselves Snow Monks and live in unbelievably cold conditions high in the Southern Alps.”

  She gave him that ‘how do you know’ look and he seemed proud to say,

  “Hey, I get around you know. I’m not sure what the connection is but for some reason they are a trusted species of the Vatican.”

  The next, as Santo claimed, ‘coffin’ contained another deceptively human-like alien and Maria wondered why it was here in this assembly of aliens. It was the first alien she had seen bearing the sign of injury. There was a patch over his right eye with what she thought was a Viking design on it.

  The rest of the capsules were photographed and now ready to be entered into her archive of aliens on Earth. Now she would have not only their DNA but photographs to back up her DNA identification program. Where Santo saw a menagerie of alien lifeforms, Maria only saw a wealth of DNA. She thought she had died and gone to heaven.

  Looking down the long row of capsules, she now had a good idea what they contained. It was overwhelming. She hoped that one of the unidentified aliens in one of the capsules would turn out to be the species associated with the great Atlantis tribe. It was the last capsule that shocked her the most. The specimen in there was a human male. There was no comfort in thinking that the Anannaki considered humans to be aliens.

  She now better understood Zak Zander and his compassion in studying aliens on Earth before man somehow became the dominate species. It was also clear to her that some of these so-called aliens were hominoid enough to mingle with the mixed bag of the human race. She wondered how many of them lived among us today and was not aware of their alien heritage. She had now gathered enough work in her genetics lab for two lifetimes.

  It was as Zak had said, there was a time on Earth when humans were not the predominate species. For whatever reason, perhaps the dominate foreigner to the planet was the Anannaki and they saw fit to take for their own purpose a specimen of each species. Perhaps the humans were not their first choice for a Passive Genetic Recolonization scheme.

  Chapter 49

  Kirk had finished inspecting the cavern and now approached the ecstatic Maria. She was still taking pictures of everything and anything. He said,

  “It will take a while but we can eventually move all these things back to your lab. I guess there is enough work here to keep you busy for a while huh?”

  She was practically at a loss for words. Practically. Excitement exploded and she blurted out.

  “Kirk, do you have any idea what this means to my work? This is like finding Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and getting DNA from them. If the Anannaki DNA is disintegrating on their home planet, it means their species must be over a million years old. I can learn so much from DNA like that. I will be able to determine a breakdown rate in our own species for instance. Can you imagine all this?”

  No, he could not but it was clear by her excitement that it was important to her and maybe all of humankind. It was not often he saw bubbly and uninhibited joy in his boss.

  It was then that something caught his eye. Henrik was still glued to the entrance of the cave but this time he was not standing still and refusing to come in with them. He was jumping up and down pointing and struggling to yell something through a muted mouth. Confused, Kirk pointed and asked Maria,

  “What’s wrong with him?”

  As Maria quizzically looked over her shoulder, he finally found his voice. He was frantic.

  “There! Don’t tell me you don’t see that!”<
br />
  Everybody, Santo, Kirk, Pia and Maria snapped around to where he was pointing. This time everybody saw it.

  In Henrik’s mind what he saw was a ghost but everybody else saw a dark shadow of a tall man coming out of the wall and casually walking up to the farthest capsule. Like a true shadow, all they saw were arms and legs. There were no body features and most discerning of all, no facial features. Because Edward, told Santo about the Anannaki’s ability to manipulate dimensional barriers with the help of ‘transmission posts’, Santo

  knew what he was seeing. He knew it was an Anannaki existing in half of this reality and half in his own dimension. Because of what he saw on the security tapes in Zak Zander’s office he also knew that despite only being shadows they still had strange powers.