The Apocalypse Calendar (11 page)

Miller arrived at his office early
in order to set up the conference call to Herman Swartz at NASA and Dolores Clark at the University of Pittsburgh. Gary busied himself compiling a list of all the major volcanic eruptions and earthquakes that had occurred since their last conference call in March. At 2:00 o'clock., the four scientists were ready to begin their discussions.

Miller said, “Hi, everyone. I hope we have a little more data to work with. I suggest we first let Gary brief us on the tectonic data. Gary, why don’t you give us a summary of major tectonic events occurring since we last had our conversations in March.”

Gary said with a look of deep concern, “We already know enough to postulate that the dramatic increase in tectonic activity which occurred after Alfred turned the infamous knob may be governed by the Apocalypse Calendar. At any rate, there was a major eruption of the Puyehue Volcano in Chile on June 7. An ash plume extended ten kilometers high and twelve hundred kilometers southeast of the volcano across Argentina and the South Atlantic. In Iceland, the Grímsvötn volcano had its largest eruption in one hundred years and larger than the one in Eyjafjallajökul volcano last year. Volcanic ash reached a height of fifteen to eighteen kilometers.

“It’s my opinion that something big is going to happen in the North Atlantic along this spreading center. The increase in tectonic and volcanic activity certainly suggest this. A barometer for this activity may be the volcanic activity along the continuation of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge known as the Gakkel Ridge under the polar ice cap. We already know that there was volcanic activity on the Gakkel Ridge not too long ago. If rapid melting of this ice cap starts occurring here, a major increase in mantle convection would be suggested. The melting of the ice cap would cause an increase in sea level worldwide. Coastal cities such as New York and Boston would be in great danger from flooding.

“Finally, I should add there have already been eleven earthquakes with a magnitude of 7.0 to 9.0 in 2011. The last two of these occurred during the past ten days. As you may have heard, there was a 7.6-magnitude earthquake in the Kermadec Islands, about five hundred miles northeast of the North Island of New Zealand. This earthquake occurred at a site where the Pacific Plate is being subducted beneath the Australian Plate. The second earthquake was 7.0 in magnitude and occurred off the east coast of Honshu in Japan. This quake occurred in basically the same area where the other deadly earthquakes struck in recent months.”

Miller said, “Thanks for your summary, Gary. Does anyone else have anything new to discuss?”

Dolores said, “Yesterday, I received a translation of much of the Mayan inscription from an eccentric little German archaeologist by the name of Siegfried Nolf at the University of Tübingen. Nolf claims that the Mayan inscriptions on both the stone box and the disk are very ancient hieroglyphics. He indicates that the inscriptions on the disk itself were actually probably written by the aliens. The first part of both inscriptions says that an alien spacecraft landed in Yucatán in order to examine a huge meteorite that struck the earth at a time when reptiles were the dominant form of animal life on land and in the sea. Curiously, the alien scientists found that what was supposed to be a meteorite was actually a large alien spacecraft that originated from a planet in a parallel universe.”

Miller nervously pulled his mustache and Herman nearly swallowed his cigarette as they listened to Dolores. Obviously, this information shook all of the scientists to their cores.

Dolores continued, “The machinery within the ancient sixty-million-year-old spacecraft was still partly functional. Of interest, there was a clock that the aliens called the ‘Clock of the Universe.’ Apparently, this instrument was capable of predicting the future of any planet or solar system in our universe. The Clock of the Universe predicted that our planet would experience a series of huge life-threatening tectonic events in the year 2012 or 2013.”

Miller took a deep breath, which sounded like he had sucked all the air out of his office.

Dolores continued, “The aliens told the Mayans about these events, and they recorded them later in their own calendar. Most experts on the Mayan Calendar believe the Mayans thought the world would come to an end on December 21, 2012; however, another group of experts believe that the Apocalypse will occur on December 21, 2013. Alfred’s friend, the Apocalypse Calendar, was constructed by the aliens to prevent these events from happening. It’s likely that the Apocalypse Calendar controls tectonic movement in the interior of the earth. Nolf still has more work to do; however, I believe that he has distilled the essence of the Mayan inscriptions. It’s up to Herman’s computer experts to make sense of the alien inscriptions on the Apocalypse Calendar.”

Herman said, “I believe Nolf’s translations will aid the computer guys in trying to translate the alien inscriptions.”

Miller said, “Herman, you need to get your computer people to figure out what the series of numbers mean that they previously discovered. If they are indeed GPS coordinates, we need to know this as soon as possible.”

Gary asked with concern his voice, “When we will set up the next conference call? I am going to have a busy field season this summer. I would like to be around when this happens.”

Miller said, “I think we will have to play this by ear, Gary. If something really scary comes up, we may have to either have a conference call or meet in person. I feel it in my bones that something is going to happen—soon.”

Miller and Gary had just started
their 4:00 p.m. workshop class. The students had barely settled in their seats and stopped their chitchat when Mary, the Geosciences Department administrative assistant, burst through the classroom door and said, “Dr. Miller, I hate to interrupt you, but there has been an important news announcement. A huge volcanic eruption has broken through the polar ice cap north of Iceland. You told me to contact you immediately if any major earthquakes or volcanic eruptions occurred while you were tied up in class.”

Miller said, “Mary, thanks for the information. It turns out that this eruption is really important. Gary, you’d better call Herman and Dolores. It might be a good idea if we hold a meeting here in Dallas sometime this week. In the meantime, I am going to put our students to work. Who has a laptop with them?”

Ann, one of Miller’s graduate students, responded with an enthusiastic voice, “I have my new laptop with me. It’s really state of the art.”

Miller said, “Ann, why don’t you hook it up to the monitor and keyboard in the back of the room so everyone can view the screen? I then want you to find out what is going on with this eruption. I suspect there will be plenty of information. If I had to bet on the location of the eruption, I would put my money on the Gakkel Ridge. This is basically, as I am sure some of you know, a continuation of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge under the polar ice cap. There have been explosive eruptions here not too long ago. Let me know when you’ve got everything hooked up. I need to check something in my office.”

Miller took a quick look at the Apocalypse Calendar in the corner of his office. There didn’t seem to be much of a change in the pulsations of green light being emitted. However, he told Gary to play it safe and make another hour-long video of the flashes.

Miller entered the classroom adjoining his office and asked with an air of both curiosity and urgency, “Ann, what have you guys come up with?”

“Professor Miller, your Gakkel Ridge prediction was right on target. There is a major volcanic eruption taking place on the Gakkel Ridge with no sign it will stop any time in the near future. API claims that if the eruption continues at the present rate, an island five times the size of Iceland will be formed. The eruption has poked a hole in the polar ice cap twenty square miles wide. Clouds of steam coupled with volcanic ash and other volcanic debris extend to an altitude of twenty thousand feet. It is obvious that a considerable part of the Arctic ice cap is going to melt.”

Miller said with an air of concern, “I suspect that sea level along the east coast is going to rise. Cities like Boston, New York, Miami, and others are going to be affected. Probably, only that part of the ice cap north of Iceland will melt. I think we need to keep our antennae up. I want everyone to keep track of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes over the next week.”

Most of the students didn’t quite know what to make of the strange object in Miller’s office that emitted flashes of green light. There were all sorts of rumors about it. Miller never volunteered any information about his green glowing disk, but all of Miller’s students were quite curious, and Ann was no exception. She asked, “Is there any connection between what’s happening and that strange object with the flashing lights in your office?”

Before Miller could answer, there was a large crash as Gary blew into the classroom, practically knocking down the door. Miller said, “Your entrance to this classroom hasn’t changed since you were a graduate student.”

Gary said, “Sorry about that. I think we’d better dismiss the class. It is important that we talk about our meeting with Dolores and Herman. Something else has come up.”

Miller said, “Well, okay. You guys know what you have to do. We’ll try to meet next week.”

After the students left, Gary said, “Dolores indicated that we need to be careful about who knows about the Apocalypse Calendar. She told Professor Nolf to keep his findings to himself. The other Mayan glyph experts have made virtually no progress in translating the Mayan inscriptions, so she’s not too worried about them. Dolores believes that we should include Nolf in our team meeting. I took it upon myself to tell her to go ahead and invite him. Dolores decided we’d better hold the meeting on Friday. This will give Nolf more time to arrange his travel plans. I also talked to Herman. In typical Herman fashion, he’s jumping up and down with excitement down there in Houston over the new eruptions breaking through the Arctic ice cap. Herman told me that he would like to bring Brigadier General Stanley Maxwell at NORAD into our fold. Maxwell is in charge of all UFO investigations for the Air Force. He has already been instrumental in helping us break the alien code. I told Herman to invite General Maxwell to our meeting here in Dallas on Friday. Herman agrees that we definitely need to tighten up on our security, at least for the time being. If things get really bad, Herman said we’ll have to contact the President.”

Miller said with a fatherly smile, “Good job, Gary. No wonder you damn near broke down the classroom door. The meeting should be interesting. You need to finish making your recording of the light flashes from the Apocalypse Calendar.”

Gary said, “Yeah, I just about have that done. Probably fifteen more minutes will do it. I told Herman I would be e-mailing him a copy. Herman is going to forward a copy to General Maxwell for decoding. Hopefully we’ll have some new data before we have our meeting on Friday.”

The conversation was interrupted by the Geosciences administrative assistant, who said, “There is another eruption occurring on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at a place called St. Paul’s Rocks. A new volcano is being formed there. Ash clouds extend to an altitude of thirty thousand feet.”

Miller said, “Oh, my God. This is beginning to look more serious. Thanks for keeping us posted. While you are here, I need you to line us up a conference room for two p.m. on Friday. There will be six of us. I would also like you to take notes on the proceedings of the meeting. In line with our security concerns, I think we ought to include Mark Strauss from Space Sciences in the meeting, Gary. As you remember, he recommended that we contact Herman Swartz at NASA. I have already told him to keep a lid on what he knows.”

One by one, the scientists gathered
at TISR in Dallas for their meeting at 2:00 p.m. Professor Siegfried Nolf had arrived the night before. Nolf was a typical Aryan, with blond hair and blue eyes. He sported a scraggly beard that appeared not to have been trimmed for over a month and spoke pretty good English with a heavy German accent. Miller learned quickly to stand back several feet when talking to Nolf; Professor Nolf had the unfortunate habit of spitting when he spoke, no matter whether he spoke English or German. According to Dolores Clark, Nolf had the reputation of being more than a little eccentric. Although he came from one of the most prestigious universities in Europe, he acted like he was from a third-world university. Conference organizers always tried to avoid Nolf because he always tried to hit them up for travel funds. At one conference, Nolf reportedly resided in a tent next to the conference center. After a few days, Nolf began to develop a ripe “camping out” smell that caused conference delegates to back off even a few more paces when they talked to him. However, no matter how far these people retreated, Nolf was always in their face. He was one of those people that felt that they needed to be as close as possible to talk to them. Fortunately, Miller and Gary had enough research funds to pay for Nolf’s accommodations during his stay in Dallas.

Everyone expected Brigadier General Maxwell to appear in Air Force blue. Instead, he was dressed quite informally in a colorful Hawaiian sport shirt and khaki cargo slacks. Even so, the general was an impressive figure over six feet tall. His gray hair was closely cropped and contrasted with his deep blue eyes. His face looked like it had been chiseled out of stone; it featured a prominent straight nose, well-developed cheek bones, and a square, jutting chin. Maxwell was one of the few military officers who had a PhD in Geology. His dissertation had focused on using satellite imagery to interpret the geology of Mars. Subsequently, he was assigned, for some reason only known to his superiors in the Air Force, to keeping track of UFO sightings.

About the time when the two o'clock meeting was about to start, Gary said, “I have more news that is pretty scary in light of our investigations of the Apocalypse Calendar. There has been a major volcanic eruption of Mount Scenery comprising most of the island of Saba in the northern part of the Lesser Antilles. The whole island itself is nothing more than a volcanic peak sticking out of the ocean. A cloud of volcanic ash towers nearly thirty-five thousand feet high, and volcanic projectiles a foot or so in size have landed nearly twenty-five miles away. All local inhabitants have been annihilated. Unfortunately, most of the people lived in the crater of the volcano; this was an accident waiting to happen. To make matters worse, volcanologists indicate that the Lesser Antilles La Soufriére Volcano in Guadalupe is about to erupt. These eruptions suggest that the Atlantic Plate is being actively subducted under the Caribbean Plate to a depth where melting is occurring. I believe this is a direct reflection of the increase in mantle convection and sea floor spreading along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.”

Miller said, “It looks like tectonic processes are speeding up. My grandson really did a trick on us all when he turned the magic knob on the Apocalypse Calendar. By the way, I brought the device here to the meeting room—General Maxwell and Professor Nolf have never seen it before.” Miller placed the lead box containing the Apocalypse Calendar in the corner of the meeting room. “The first thing you guys can see is the green flashing light. We have determined that the light consists of some sort of low-level ultraviolet rays that are apparently harmless. I believe you all have copies of our report on the device. Let me take the disk out of its original stone container. Dr. Nolf, you have seen photos of Mayan inscriptions both on the stone box and on the alien device. However, I gather that it would be better for you to see the actual glyphs on these objects rather than just looking at the pictures.”

Nolf said, “This might be helpful. It will take me a few hours to examine the glyphs. I’ll do this after the meeting today. I have never seen anything like this before. What kind of metal is this thing made of?”

Herman said, “All we know is that it consists of the same kind of titanium-rich metal that we have encountered in other alien devices that we have studied at NASA. General Maxwell has examined much of the same alien hardware that I have. The two of us have cooperated in our investigations. The clear green stone emitting the flashing light is alien and consists of elements that are totally unknown in our solar system. It would appear that the Apocalypse Calendar is some sort of device designed by the visiting aliens to control what’s happening in the guts of planet earth. We know that both seismic and volcanic activity increased dramatically after Frank’s grandson turned the stone knob in the center of the disk. As you can readily see, we have experienced an even greater acceleration in tectonic activity over the past several days.”

Nolf said, “I understand from Dolores that when Dr. Miller’s grandson turned the magic knob, there was a major change in the frequency of light pulsations. I gather you people think these pulsations may represent some sort of code. It would appear that the aliens are trying to warn either other aliens or a more advanced civilization of people on Earth sometime in the distant future. They knew that the Indians could not comprehend what might happen.”

Miller said, with a facial expression that was somewhere between a smile and a grimace brought about by getting too close to Nolf, “Siegfried, you are very perceptive.”

He then said as he wiped off his glasses, “I have a few points to make. To start with, we all need to agree to keep our investigations of the Apocalypse Calendar confined to our own inner circle. Even Herman’s computer technicians have no real idea what’s up—although by now, they may be getting a little suspicious. As I’ve already told Dolores, Gary, and Herman, we will eventually have to warn the President. However, we don’t want to get the press involved; this would cause panic that might be unwarranted.”

Nolf said, “Are tectonic events like we are experiencing very unusual if viewed in light of total Earth history? I apologize for asking such a question, but I don’t know much about geology.”

Miller said, “Yes, events like this have occurred numerous times in the geologic past. The most dramatic would probably be the breakup of the supercontinent, Pangea, during the Middle Jurassic. As I always tell my students, we are just passengers on Mother Earth. She can flick us off like a bunch of fleas!”

“We now need to focus on contingency plans for a possible Apocalypse,” Miller said. “What are the major issues? As I see it, one of the most pressing problems that we are facing is the possible occurrence of huge tidal waves perhaps five hundred feet high. It is going to be important for all members of our Apocalypse Calendar group to reside at locations that are at least five hundred feet above sea level. For example, if a five-hundred-foot tidal wave hit the Gulf Coast, Houston, New Orleans, Miami, and other coastal cities would be totally wiped out. The shoreline would be a bit south of Dallas here in this part of Texas. As a consequence, Herman, I would suggest that you take residence with General Maxwell at NORAD. Everyone else should be pretty safe.

“Siegfried,” Miller said with a friendly smile, “you might have trouble flying back to Germany because of the volcanic eruptions in the Atlantic and Caribbean. With the Arctic polar ice cap melting, even travel to Europe by ship might also be dangerous. There are going to be a lot of huge icebergs forming. You are welcome to stay with us. I’m sure my wife wouldn’t object.

We should be able to set you up here at TISR as a visiting professor or research scientist. There should be enough research funds lying around to provide you with a salaried position for a year.”

Nolf said to a retreating Miller, “Thanks for your offer, Frank. Since I am not married, I should be able to pull up my roots for a while. I’ll notify Tübingen about my change in plans. I’m sure they can find someone to take over the graduate courses that I am teaching in Mayan archaeology. This will give me a chance to study the Mayan glyphs a bit more.”

Gary said, “I believe we need to consider where we need to go from here; that is, let’s set some objectives. Herman and General Maxwell need to keep trying to decipher the alien inscriptions on the Apocalypse Calendar. We still don’t know whether the sets of numbers that the computer jocks found represent GPS-type numbers. We also need to know whether the alien inscriptions provide us a date for the Apocalypse. The Mayan glyphs on both the stone box and on the disk point to either December 21, 2012 or December 21, 2013. Perhaps some of the numbers that Stanley and Herman have found on the alien inscriptions represent a date.

“I would suggest that Dolores, Siegfried, Herman, and Stanley work together on trying to tie all of this together; we’re still missing something. The fact that both the alien and Mayan inscriptions seem to be giving us a warning of some sort is pretty scary. Frank and I will try to keep track of tectonic events that are occurring worldwide and see if we can find some sort of discernable pattern that will allow us to predict what’s going to happen next.”

Miller said, “I think if another major tectonic event occurs, we are going to have to notify the President. The problem with this, of course, is that the Feds are going to want to confiscate the Apocalypse Calendar and study it themselves. This is really a big problem. I believe that we need to make sure that the Calendar stays in our hands. I suggest that we move it to the NORAD Operations Center at Cheyenne Mountain near Colorado Springs, Colorado. Most of the NORAD command has been moved to nearby Peterson Air Force Base. The Cheyenne Mountain facility is mainly used as a backup when there is an emergency. A lot of this facility is now vacant.”

Stanley said, “Herman and I will arrange to have the Calendar moved to Cheyenne Mountain after this meeting. We’d better move it during the day; at night, anyone who sees it is going to think it’s an UFO. It would be a hell of a sight to see the plane carrying it emitting flashing rays of green light! Hopefully, Herman and I can make the move without any questions being asked by the military or civilian press.”

Miller said, “I believe we have to consider some other worst-scenario contingencies. One would be tied in part to the melting of the Arctic ice cap and a marked increase in volcanic activity. Gary and I have discussed this to some degree. We think that the increase in mantle upwelling along oceanic ridges throughout the world could raise the temperature of the oceans and greatly affect ocean currents. If this is the case, El Niño weather patterns might look like sissies. Whatever the case, the heating up of the ocean floor along ocean ridges, coupled with volcanic ash being carried up into the Earth’s atmosphere, will cause the environmentalists to wet their pants with newfound anxiety. They will probably blame the increase in mantle activity on the Deep Sea Drilling Program. Another worst-case scenario is the decoupling of the North American Plate from the Atlantic Plate and the initiation of subduction along the East Coast of the United States and Canada. Although this scenario seems pretty far out, it’s not when viewed through the prism of earth history.”

Herman said, “I hope you guys are wrong. This
would
be the Apocalypse! Millions of people would die throughout the world. How do you guys manage to come up with these wild ideas?”

“If you’re a good geologist, you look at all the data and come up with some viable hypotheses. When you look at the history of the earth, you have to look at the big picture. Shortly after Gary and I found the Apocalypse Calendar, we started having premonitions about the earth’s future and the dangers that we might be facing. Perhaps thought waves are being transmitted to us from the alien device.”

Nolf said half-jokingly, “Maybe we should find someone who is a psychic or has strong ESP vibes to examine the disk.”

Herman said, “Siegfried, you may have a good idea, even though you were probably joking. Let’s see who we can round up!”

Miller said with a victorious look, “I have the answer. My wife, Jane, has unbelievable ESP. She can walk up to a row of slot machines and say ‘I have a feeling about this one,’ and, sure enough, she hits the jackpot. Jane can sense when somebody she cares about is flying overhead. One time she said, ‘There’s going to be a large earthquake in Southern California or northern Mexico.’ The next day, an earthquake occurred near Tijuana. Since Jane already knows about the Apocalypse Calendar, she would be ideal. I’ll give her a call and tell to come over to the Institute.”

Herman said, “I think most women have more ESP than men. There must be an ESP gene tied into motherhood. God only knows, to be a good mother you need ESP to figure out what your kids are going to do next!”

After a short wait, Herman said, “Here comes Jane; let’s test her ESP powers. Open up the Calendar case. Let her spend some time with it. I suggest that everyone leave the room but Frank and Dolores. They can witness what goes on and, if necessary, take notes.”

Jane placed her hands all over the disk and carefully studied it, but she was careful not to touch Alfred’s knob. She had a feeling that the disk was trying to communicate with her; it was a strange, eerie feeling that was almost impossible to describe. After less than sixty seconds, Jane said in a strange voice that was not her own, “We built this disk to protect your planet from the horror of earthquakes, tidal waves, volcanic eruptions, and other unforeseen processes that may be tied into them. Never turn the knob at the center of the disk; if you do, tectonic activity will speed up inside of your planet.”

At that point, a student barged into the room, and Jane’s communication with the Calendar was broken and could not be recovered. Miller said, “I guess we should have had enough sense to lock the door.”

The group of scientists reconvened briefly to discuss what Frank’s wife had learned from the alien object.