The Apocalypse Calendar (12 page)

Herman said, “I guess Stanley and I need to take the calendar to NORAD before something else happens. It is obvious, as we suspected, that Alfred’s knob-twisting has speeded up tectonic activity. I’m afraid we’re in for it. We’ll head for the NORAD Cheyenne Mountain facility on the first military flight that we can catch out of Dallas. I think, between trying to translate the Mayan and alien inscriptions on the disk and on its stone container and trying to get the computer people to make some sense out of the pulses of green light, we may come up with some good answers. I’ll try to round up my resident psychic. We’ve used her before in examining UFOs. General Maxwell and I will try to set up a secure hotline between Cheyenne Mountain and TISR. If things get really bad, I want all of you safely housed at NORAD.”

Miller said, “It might be a good idea if I took you guys and the Apocalypse Calendar to DFW or whatever airport you choose to go to. We can take one of the Institute’s vans; at least they look semiofficial.”

General Maxwell said, “Thanks for the offer, Frank. I think we’ll take you up on it. I’ll arrange for an Air Force jet to pick us up at DFW. My credentials should get us right to the hangar.”

Miller responded with a smile, “At least this way, nobody will ask us about your flashing cargo. The people at DFW are used to seeing strange things in Institute vans. Before 9/11, we carried everything from dynamite for seismic work to portable drills for coring rocks.”

General Maxwell said, “Meet us at the hotel around six o'clock tomorrow morning. I’ll treat you to breakfast, and then we’ll go to the airport.”

After picking up Stanley and Herman
at the hotel, Miller said, “Did you guys hear the news this morning?”

Herman said, “No, what’s up?”

Miller said with a noticeable frown, “Mount Shasta, at the north end of the Sacramento Valley, is getting closer and closer to a major eruption. It’s been a prime candidate for an eruption for years. An eruption is long overdue. I also just heard that Mount Lassen, just to the southeast of Mount Shasta, may blow as well. I wouldn’t be surprised to see other major volcanoes in the Cascades erupt. Flying in and out of both the East and West coasts is going to be pretty hairy for the foreseeable future.”

Herman said, “I’ll escort Stanley and the Calendar to NORAD just to make sure we get it stowed away from prying eyes. Then, I need to fly back to Houston to pick up my clothes and take care of personal business. I plan to tell NASA that I will be with General Maxwell studying a UFO that’s been put into our hands. Since UFOs are my specialty at NASA, nobody will be overly surprised. I am going to ask my secretary, Gloria Milano, to pack up all of my UFO files and send them to me at NORAD. A lot of this stuff is digitized, so it’s not that big a job. Since some of these files are top secret, I will get her to fly up with files on an Air Force jet. I plan to have her stay with us until we get over this crisis. Gloria will be handy to have around. She’s been dealing with UFOs with me for fifteen years.”

Stanley said, “If things get really grim, I would like our whole research group, including spouses and children, to join Herman and me at NORAD.”

Miller said, “I’ll remind the others of your offer. I hope there is no need for this, but we need to be prepared. Mother Earth is acting up! I’m afraid that things are going to get worse over the next six months or so. When you get set up at your end, let me know.”

Stanley said, “We will call you when we get the Apocalypse Calendar ensconced in a granite-walled room that is lined with steel or whatever we can find to block the transmission of light rays out of the room.”

Miller watched the military cargo jet take off carrying the Calendar. Even at higher altitudes, he could see the familiar flashes of green light. Fortunately, by now, the sun was well up and nobody would think twice about seeing a military plane with flashing green lights. He had a feeling of sadness and apprehension about the Calendar leaving his presence. However, he knew that housing the alien device at Cheyenne Mountain was the best way to care for it in the foreseeable future.

Miller was in the process of
grading final exams for several of his courses when Gary burst into his office and said, “I’ve graded the term papers for the workshop, Frank; do you want to look them over too?”

Miller said, “Okay, I guess I’d better. I’m sure there won’t be any grade changes. Give me your impression of how you thought each of the students did in class. This should include their class presentations as well as their participation in class discussions. Anyhow, just give me a number from one to ten, ten being the highest and one being the lowest. I’ll come up with a similar list myself. I’ll send in our joint grade report to the registrar’s office as soon as I get the information from you.”

Gary responded, “Okay. It won’t take me long. I’ll be back in about fifteen minutes, unless I get interrupted by a student. By the way, I just heard that Mount Shasta totally blew its stack. A huge
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hot gas explosion moved down slope at a speed of over one hundred miles per hour carrying large volcanic boulders in its lower layer and volcanic ash in its upper layer. Literally everything was flattened or buried in its path, including buildings and giant pine trees. I gather they are likening this explosion to that which occurred at Mount Pelée in Martinique in 1902. I heard that Shasta Dam was badly damaged and lava flows have blocked the headwaters of the Sacramento River upstream from the dam. Apparently, the towns of Mount Shasta City, McCloud, and Dunsmuir were totally destroyed. It is not clear how many residents, if any, survived. The estimated death toll is around sixty thousand. To make matters worse, Mount Lassen is acting up to the southeast.”

Miller and Gary were startled when the phone rang in Miller’s office. It was Stanley Maxwell. Maxwell said, “We’ve got the Calendar safely stashed in Cheyenne Mountain.”

Miller asked, “Did you hear about Mount Shasta blowing its stack? Thousands of people are believed to be dead in neighboring towns.”

Stanley said, “No, we’ve been too busy entombing the Apocalypse Calendar to listen to the news. Herman will be off to Houston tomorrow. I’ll call you when he gets back.”

Miller finally turned in the grades
to the registrar’s office. It was good to be free for a little while. His wife had a two-week visit to see the grandkids planned. Although he enjoyed visiting his son, the grandkids could be a real pain in the ass at times. Fortunately, he did not have very far to travel. His son worked for Fox Television in Oklahoma City. At least his family would be on high ground if a major Calendar event occurred.

As he was closing the office door, the phone rang. It seemed the phone always rang when he was in the process of locking the door to go home, or when he was off to class with a stack of books in his hands.

Miller picked up the phone and heard, “Frank, this is Stanley Maxwell. I’m afraid I have some terrible news. Herman’s plane crashed on the way back up here. He piloted the plane himself. He was a good pilot. No one knows what happened. We suspect it was equipment failure. Herman is going to be missed. Not only was he a great guy, but he was also the world’s leading expert on UFOs. I just got word of this from Gloria, his secretary. In spite of Herman’s death, she’s still going to bring his UFO files up to Cheyenne Mountain and join our group.”

“Is there going to be a funeral service?”

“Nothing is planned yet. Herman didn’t have many relatives. His former wife died of a stroke. I’ve decided that we’ll have the funeral service here. Herman was perhaps better known at NORAD than he was at NASA. I’ll keep you posted on this. Maybe it would be a good idea anyway to bring our whole Calendar group up to NORAD for Herman’s service.”

Miller said, “I am beginning to think that the Apocalypse Calendar carries some sort of curse on it. Every time one of us moves the Calendar, he dies. Probably the Aztec war chief that we found draped over the stone box containing the Calendar was one of the first casualties. After Gary, Arturo, Felipe, and I moved the Calendar from the Canyon of the Río Vinasco, we had nothing but bad luck. There were numerous problems with the Institute van out in the middle of nowhere at San Pedro del Gallo. At first, we blamed all of this on the Institute garage. We also blamed our bad luck on our visit to a hill north of the cemetery that we named ‘Voodoo Hill.’ There were doll heads on the gateposts. In addition, there were life-sized scarecrows on the hillside dressed in men’s and women’s clothes and straw hats. It was almost like the scarecrows were the guardians to the gates of hell. Every damn one of us had weird dreams that night. I dreamed that my former wife arose from her grave in her bridal dress and beckoned me to come with her. After awakening from that nightmare, I had a dream about how the Aztec war chief met his demise in the Canyon of the Río Vinasco. Within the next several years, both Arturo and Felipe died. Perhaps this is just a coincidence, but in light of what happened to Herman, I am beginning to think that it isn’t. The Calendar must have some sort of curse on it, and I doubt the aliens did this. I suspect that some powerful Mayan shaman did the job.”

“Frank, your curse hypothesis is interesting. I’ve heard some pretty scary stories about curses in my travels in the Caribbean and Mexico. These sorts of things defy scientific logic, but they may be true. Back to Herman’s memorial service: I am going to send an Air Force jet down to Love Field to pick you guys up. If you want, you can bring your son’s family along too. Your grandkids, especially Alfred, will get a big kick out of seeing the old NORAD Cheyenne Mountain Complex, but there is no way I am going to let your grandson get anywhere near the Apocalypse Calendar.”

“Thanks for your offer. I should mention that Nolf wanted to have a séance with the Calendar anyhow. Although he took additional photos of the Mayan inscriptions on the alien device, the reflections from the metal make it difficult to read all of the inscriptions. Just a few squiggles here and there can make a big difference in the translation.

“While we were talking, I had some afterthoughts about Gary and me traveling to the Cheyenne Mountain. As you know, only two of us are now left of the original four that collected the Calendar. I am inclined to think that Gary should stay behind. If there is a real curse on the alien object, I believe that one of us is likely to die. In the past the deaths of Arturo, Felipe, and now Herman, all occurred at different times. Two people were never killed at once. The fact that you and Herman were able to move the Calendar to Cheyenne Mountain successfully without being wiped out seems to support this hypothesis.

“I’ll attend the service, and Gary can stay here. Dolores can fly in from Pittsburgh.”

The trip to Cheyenne Mountain was
uneventful. Miller and his family, as well as Nolf and Dolores Clark, were given the royal tour of the facility after they arrived. Miller’s grandsons flipped out over all the chambers full of neat-looking equipment with flashing lights. General Maxwell was careful to keep them away from any important buttons, knobs, and switches.

The service for Herman Swartz was at four p.m. As it turned out, Herman probably had a lot friends at NORAD. He had spent a lot of time with General Maxwell examining UFOs that had been confiscated by the Air Force, as well as space debris and photos.

Miller, among others, was asked to say a few words about Herman. Miller talked about Herman’s great energy, intellectual curiosity, and childlike enthusiasm. He said that Herman always displayed these characteristics when he talked about UFOs or anything scientific. He observed that Herman smoked like a chimney. When Herman was involved in conversation with his peers, the ash of his cigarette got so long that it bent at right angles. Miller said that after a while, he became so distracted by the cigarette ash that he failed to listen to what Herman was saying. Many great scientists had these attributes.

After the service, Miller said to General Maxwell, “Stanley, we’re not going to be here very long. Our flight back to Dallas is at three p.m. tomorrow. There are two things that I believe we need to do while we are still here. To begin with, we need to get Siegfried Nolf to reexamine the Mayan inscriptions on the alien device. These differ somewhat from those on the limestone box that contains it. I believe he wants to take better photos. The ones he took before, as well as the ones that we sent to him in Germany, have some blurry spots. I also think that as long as we have Jane here, we should get her to try communicating with the Apocalypse Calendar again.”

Stanley said, “When do you want to do this?”

“After dinner, I think, would be as good a time as any. We’ll let Nolf do his thing first and then let Jane have at it. I suggest that only the two of us be present when Jane examines the disk. You’d better set up some TV cameras and record all of this. This time we don’t want to be interrupted.”

Stanley said, “Can do! I’ll post some guards at both ends of the hallway. I don’t think the flashing green lights that they’ll see coming out of the room will make them too suspicions.”

Nolf managed to take enough photos of the glyphs to take care of his needs. Miller asked, “Siegfried, can you find out whether there is anything in these inscriptions about a curse?”

“I haven’t seen any indication of this sort of thing so far on either the limestone box or the alien device. I doubt if there is anything on the Apocalypse Calendar about a curse. This Mayan inscription was etched onto the disk by the aliens themselves. If there is a mention of a curse, it’s going to be on the lid of the limestone box.”

With that, Jane, Stanley, and Miller entered the room. Stanley had all the recording equipment set up and ready to go.

Stanley said, “Jane, let’s see if you can communicate with the Calendar.”

“I’ll try to bleed some more information out of our shiny friend—though I think, in the future, you need to find yourselves somebody with well-documented ESP abilities.”

Stanley said, “As I mentioned before, I’ve used a psychic that was recommended by a parapsychology lab at a prominent eastern university. We’ll go with her again. Fortunately, she lives in Colorado Springs.”

Jane gave the Calendar an almost loving caress. As she rubbed her hands over the disk, she said in a strange voice, “When we discovered the sixty-five-million-year-old spacecraft, we found that the only working piece of equipment was the Clock of the Universe. This clock accurately predicts all events in the universe. We discovered that your planet will be in extreme danger about two thousand and twelve years or so after the birth of what some people call the Messiah. A series of huge earthquakes and volcanic eruptions will threaten all life on your planet. The skies will become dark as night as the eruptions become more frequent. Cities will be wiped out by huge waves from the oceans. To stop this tragic event from occurring, we rigged up the device that you see before you.
Never turn the green stone knob in the center of the disk
. If you do, unseen forces will be released and will be difficult to stop. You must—” Abruptly, Jane passed out.

Stanley said, “I hope she is alright.”

Miller rushed to Jane’s side to examine her and said with a tone of concern, “I think so. Her pulse is racing. Obviously, this sort of communication with the alien device is hard for a human to take. Next time, we’re going to have to round up your psychic.”

About this time, Jane popped up and asked, “How did things go? Frank, what in the world am I doing on the floor?”

Miller said, “You fainted! How do you feel?”

“I don’t remember a thing. I feel as if I went on a long journey through time. Did I communicate with the Calendar?”

“Yes, you did a fantastic job! If you feel alright, I’ll gather up Siegfried and Dolores. I want everyone to view your ESP session with the Calendar. Maybe we’ll see or hear something that we missed before.”

Stanley said, “Great idea. I’ll tell Dolores and Nolf to get over here. Gloria, Herman’s secretary, is also here. Herman briefed her earlier about what was going on. She’s quite familiar with UFO investigations. I suggest that we invite her too.”

Miller said, “Okay. Sounds good.”

When the group had gathered, General Maxwell said, “Is everybody ready? If so, I’ll turn on the recording of Jane’s encounter with the alien device. Gloria, why don’t you try to transcribe everything that is said by the aliens as well as us?”

The soundtrack was virtually the same as that heard by Stanley and Miller earlier. Jane had no idea what the words were that came out of her mouth in a strange voice that was not her own. Siegfried and Dolores practically fell out of their chairs when the recording started. For that matter, so did Miller and Stanley. What they saw wasn’t just a picture of Jane touching the Calendar; it also was a series of pictures generated by the alien device over two thousand years ago.

The scientists saw the landing of a huge cylindrical spacecraft in the jungle of Yucatán. The spacecraft was probably ten miles long. The creatures that came from the spacecraft seemed to be human. They were dressed in silver spacesuits. When one of them took off his helmet, he seemed to be fair-complexioned with blond hair. There was a brief glimpse of the control room of the spacecraft. There were massive banks of computers lining the walls, all with multicolored flashing lights. Another view showed the aliens digging huge vertical shafts into the earth. There were also views of the ancient spacecraft that crashed into the shallow Cretaceous seas over Yucatán over sixty-five million years ago. Finally, there were pictures of the Mayan Indians who helped the aliens with their work. The aliens were shown teaching the Mayans better methods of farming and how to build pyramids. The aliens installed some sort of sophisticated equipment inside each of the pyramids that the Mayans built.

The pictures and the soundtrack stopped at the time when Jane passed out.

General Maxwell said, “Frank, there is probably more to this. Do you suppose we could find this alien spacecraft in Yucatán?”

Miller said, “In 1979, Alvarez and Alvarez claimed that a giant meteorite or bolide hit the earth about sixty-five million years ago. In 1991, Hildebrand and others provided evidence to suggest that a meteor crater about ten miles in diameter occurs near Chicxulub in Yucatán. Subsequently, in 1992, Smit and others found evidence of meteorite impact in sedimentary strata at Arroyo Mimbral and other localities in the Sierra Tamaulipas. The alien scientists also thought that the sixty-some-million-year-old spacecraft was a giant meteor that crashed near Chicxulub in Yucatán. It would take years to dig shafts deep enough to reach the ancient alien spacecraft. I suppose the best bet would be to try and find the shafts that the Calendar alien scientists dug. This would help us a lot. Some of the geologic literature mentions that there are allegedly vertical sinkholes along the perimeter of the Chicxulub Crater. Perhaps these represent the shafts that the Calendar aliens dug.”

Stanley said, “Maybe we could start the alien spacecraft and let it blast its way through the cover of sedimentary rock.”

Miller said, “You know more about this sort of thing than I do. Have you ever restarted UFO engines before?”

“Yes, we were able to do this with several small UFOs that were gathered up. It might be worth a try.”

Nolf and Dolores Clark were in a total state of shock, not only by the view of the spacecraft, but also by the views of the early Mayan Indians being taught how to farm more efficiently and build pyramids.

Miller said, “I think we’re all going to have a difficult time sleeping tonight.”

Dolores said, “At least we’re well-protected in Cheyenne Mountain. I guess I’ll be dreaming about the early Mayan Indians; I’ll be wondering how they spoke and how their culture differed from those of the Indian tribes near Tamazunchale.

“My thoughts of Tamazunchale trigger thoughts about the Apocalypse Calendar. When my colleagues and I met Frank, Gary, Arturo, and Felipe, we believed the symbols present in the caves at Cruillas and Tamazunchale pointed to Moctezuma’s Treasure. We’ve all overlooked this point in our recent discussions. If Emperor Moctezuma did have the Calendar in his possession, he may have experienced the curse put on the disk by a powerful Mayan shaman. His empire fell apart with the invasion of Cortés. Did he send his war chief to the Río Vinasco at the time of the Spanish conquest? Is the Apocalypse Calendar also Moctezuma’s Treasure? These are questions that can perhaps be answered by another person with strong ESP vibes.”

Miller said, “Dolores, you really raised some interesting questions. The dream that I had after our visit to Voodoo Hill at San Pedro del Gallo may be a partial answer to your question about Moctezuma’s Treasure. The Apocalypse Calendar was with us in the vehicle when we visited this hill by the cemetery. We attributed some of the bad dreams that we had to local voodoo, but the dream that I had, about the Aztec war chief and his warriors being annihilated by the local Indians, may have been induced by the Apocalypse Calendar itself. In my dream, I saw the chief fight his way to the cave where we found his skeleton draped over the limestone box containing the alien disk.”

Nolf said, “This is getting pretty scary. I think I’d better see if I can find something about a curse in the Mayan glyphs on the stone box.”

The phone rang. General Maxwell picked it up and said, “Oh, my God! They’ve just informed me that there has been a series of huge earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in the Red Sea. As Frank knows, this is a rift zone formed by the early phases of a spreading center. Africa is moving away from the Arabian Peninsula. They’re bringing me a dispatch from Air Force Combat Command at Al Udeid Air Force Base in Qatar. Apparently, there is even more to it than this! All hell is breaking loose. I am afraid we are going to have to let the President in on our little secret. I will have to get the dispatch from the guard in the hall. I won’t be gone long.”

Miller said after Stanley left, “The President is going to freak out when he sees the Apocalypse Calendar. We all knew that this day was bound to come. However, I wish we had more time to keep going with our own research. When Washington gets involved, everything gets screwed up!”

Miller was interrupted when Stanley returned with the dispatch.

Stanley said, “There has been tremendous damage to all of the oilfields in Saudi Arabia. There are quite a few fires. We don’t have all the details yet. I understand also that Mount Etna in Sicily literally blew its stack. The whole town of Catana is being wiped out by lava flows as well as
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explosions. Much of Catana is situated on the side of the mountain. My wife and I stayed at a hotel there years ago. We arrived late at night. When we woke up in the morning, we were shocked to find out that the hotel was situated smack dab in the middle of a series of lava flows. Etna was another accident waiting to happen!”

Miller said, “General, when do you plan to call the President?”

Stanley responded, “I’ll call him tomorrow morning.”

“We have to make sure the President understands that the Calendar should not be moved from its resting place at Cheyenne Mountain. I would suggest that the President and his top scientific adviser come visit the Apocalypse Calendar. Maybe he can bring along the head of the National Academy of Sciences. Absolutely no press should accompany the President. I’ll stay at Cheyenne Mountain with you; everyone else can return home tomorrow. We’ll keep you informed by e-mail.”