“Yes, yes,” Nabinger said. “But there is just enough of a common root for me to decipher some of this text. This is—”
Turcotte placed a large hand on Nabinger’s shoulder.
“Professor. It’s late. We all need to get some sleep. But before we sleep we need to decide what we’re going to do next. To do that we need to know what you have, as good as you have been able to get it.”
Nabinger nodded. “All right. There were two main stones set up in the cavern. Those are the two I have spent all my time on. There are others I will have to get to tomorrow. But here is what I do have.
“Please note where I have question marks after certain parts. That means that I am not quite certain of what—”
“Just show it to us!” Turcotte said.
Nabinger slid the first page under the small dome light.
THE CHIEF(?) SHIP/CRAFT NEGATIVE(?) FLY ENGINE/POWER(?) DANGEROUS
ALL SIGNS NEGATIVE/BAD(?) AND MUST BE NEGATIVE/STOPPED(?)
MUST BE SOON
“That must refer to the mothership,” Von Seeckt said. “The negative with the question mark in the first sentence — you don’t know for sure what that word is?”
“A verb,” Nabinger said. “It might be cannot or should not or will not.”
“Makes a bit of difference,” Turcotte noted. “I mean, what if the damn thing just broke? That would cover the old won’t, wouldn’t it? What if these aliens got stuck and their triple A plan didn’t cover Earth? And maybe that’s why that thing shouldn’t get cranked.”
Kelly put an arm on Turcotte’s shoulder. “See? You said ‘shouldn’t.’”
“Hard, isn’t it?” Nabinger said.
Turcotte rubbed the stubble of his beard. “Yeah, I get it. All right, go on.”
“THE OTHER (A)???? NOT WANT TO STAY BE GONE BEFORE ARRIVAL OF (B)???? (C)???? STANDS FIRM
NO CONTAMINATION/INTERFERENCE(?) WITH (WORD EQUALING HUMANS)
NATURAL COURSE MUST BE ALLOWED”
“No idea what was arriving?” Kelly asked. Her hand was still on Turcotte’s shoulder.
“It was a special symbol. One that I had never seen before,” Nabinger said. “From the basic set of the symbol I would say it represented a proper noun: a specific name. I’ve designated each unidentified symbol by a different letter before the question marks to show that they aren’t the same. As you will see on the next page, one of the noun symbols does repeat.”
“So they decided to leave us alone?” Kelly said.
“But obviously that didn’t happen,” Von Seeckt said.
“That bomb had to get into the pyramid somehow.”
“Yes,” Nabinger agreed. “And the high runes all over the planet. Somehow humans picked up some of that.”
“Probably because it didn’t work out the way they had planned. Apparently everyone didn’t go along so easily with getting stuck on Earth.” Nabinger turned over the last page.
DECISION MADE BY MEETING
(C)???? PREPARES TO IMPLEMENT DISAGREEMENT
BATTLE
OTHERS (D)???? FLEE FIGHT CHANGE HAS ARRIVED
IT IS OVER
DUTY IS (E)????
“So they fought among themselves?” Kelly said.
“Looks like it,” Nabinger said.
“And in the end they did their duty,” Turcotte said.
“But not perfectly,” Von Seeckt said. “We are still dealing with the repercussions.”
“I’ve got a stupid question,” Turcotte said. “Why would the people who built the mothership leave their messages on stone tablets?”
“Because that’s what whoever was left there had to work with,” Nabinger said. “This is big,” Kelly said. “Bigger than what they have at Area 51. This means history is not at all what we think it is. Hell evolution is not what we think. Do you know how that will affect people? Think about religion? About—”
“No “ Von Seeckt disagreed. “It is not bigger than what happening at Area 51. That is the first problem. Because in just under three days they are going to try to fly the mothership, and the marker left by the people who abandoned the mothership says don’t do it. We’ve got to stop it.”
“I’ve got another stupid question,” Turcotte said.
The other three waited.
“Why is Gullick in such a goddamn rush to fly the mothership? That’s bugged me from the very beginning.”
“I do not know,” Von Seeckt said. “It troubled me ever since he came up with the countdown to fly it. It was ridiculous. He wanted to fly it before we even ran a basic series of tests on it.”
Turcotte felt a pounding on the right side of his head.
“Something isn’t right about all this.”
“Ever since they went to Dulce early this year,” Von Seeckt said, “it all changed.”
Turcotte thought of the pyramid, the vats, the golden glow. The small orb that had destroyed the helicopter he was on in Nebraska. Too many pieces that didn’t fit. The only thing he knew for sure was that this was bigger than him right now.
“Let’s get a little sleep first,” Turcotte suggested. “We’re all tired and we’ll be able to think better with a couple of hours of rest. We’ll decide what to do in the morning. We still have forty-eight hours.”
CHAPTER 28
Major Quinn blinked hard, trying to keep his eyes open against the lack of sleep. He pulled the collar of his Gore-Tex parka tighter around his neck and shivered. It was cold in the desert at night, and the wind whipping in the open windows of the humvee did not help. They had left Hangar One ten minutes ago and were racing around the base of Groom Mountain, General Gullick at the wheel and Quinn in the passenger seat. He wondered why the general had had to choose the single vehicle from the motor pool that had no top to it, instead of one of the others, but he knew better than to ask.
There was no road. There never had been one. Roads showed up in satellite photos. They had stayed on the runway most of the distance, until they turned off and headed directly for the mountainside. Now they rolled across the desert floor, the suspension of the vehicle easily handling the rough terrain. Gullick leaned over and checked their GPS, ground positioning system, linked in to satellites overhead. It gave their location to within five feet, even on the move. The headlights on the jeep-like vehicle were off, and Gullick was using night vision goggles, allowing them to travel unseen to the naked eye. The outer security net was tight: no unwanted watchers on White Sides Mountain this evening. And the skies were being carefully watched with the invisible fingers of radar to keep out unwanted overflights. Helicopter gunships were ready on the flight line outside Hangar One.
Still, Gullick wanted to take no chances. He braked as a figure stepped out of the darkness. The man walked up to the humvee, weapon at the ready. The man snapped to attention when he recognized General Gullick. Despite the night vision goggles there was no mistaking the general’s presence.
“Sir! The engineers are just ahead, under that camouflage net.”
Gullick accelerated. Quinn was grateful when they finally stopped near several trucks parked under a desert camouflage net. An officer walked up to the humvee and smartly saluted.
“Sir, Captain Henson, Forty-Fifth Engineers.”
Gullick returned the salute and stepped out, Quinn following. “What’s your status?” Gullick asked.
“All charges are in place. We’re completing the final wiring now. We’ll be all set by dawn.” He held up a remote detonator the size of a cellular phone. “Then all it will take is a simple command on this. It’s linked into the computer that controls the sequence of firing.” Henson led the way to a humvee parked under the camouflage net and showed the general a laptop. “The sequence is critical to get the rock in the outside wall to come down in a controlled manner. Very similar to what happens when they demolish tall buildings in a built-up area — making the rubble come down on itself but not hit the ship.”