“Anyway… let me just mention its nervous system briefly. I have made a pretty extensive examination here and… well, I think I can safely say that this creature was almost certainly intelligent. Possibly far in advance of ourselves. I don’t want to bore you with anatomy, but I want you to understand a few things. Now, the human brain is double-lobed, as you I’m sure know, left and right hemispheres controlling a variety of functions, depending on whether you are left or right handed. These hemispheres communicate via bundles of axons. Now, let me say that our creature… we have, as yet, no good name for it… has a five-lobed brain which hints at an incredible level of neurophysiologic sophistication. Whereas our brains have but two main types of cells, the creature’s brain has no less than five. Microscopic examination of its neurons, brain cells, also indicate a staggering degree of neural specialization and complexity. Human neurons are basically made up of a central cell body, the soma, and branched fibers called dendrites and axons. Neurons share information with other neurons via electrical impulses gathered by the dendrites at connection points which are called synapses. This information is processed by the soma and its output travels down the axons to the synapses of other neurons. Boring? I suppose it is. Regardless, I tell you this only in comparison for the creature’s neurons are totally alien, though, I would assume, operate in roughly the same manner. You see, the creatures’ neurons are not made up of a single cell body, but a sort of triple soma connected to a highly sophisticated network of dendrites, axons, and a mysterious third plexus of branching fibers that has us simply baffled.
“Why do I tell you all this?” Gates smiled thinly, then frowned. “Because you need to understand the nature of what we’re dealing with here, the level of intellect this creature must have possessed in life which must have been limitless. I doubt the human brain will be anywhere near this level of development for several million years. Maybe not even then. So now you know… this creature was possessed of something of a hyper-intellect and appears to have sensory adaptations that hint at senses beyond the normal five.”
Hayes looked over at Sharkey and she whistled silently. Which was pretty much what he’d been doing in his head. Sure, some of what Gates said was a little heady, but the impact of it was shocking. What he was saying was that these creatures — apparently million of years gone — were intellectually above man as man was above your average toad. Jesus, it was enough to suck the wind out of you.
Gates took a drink of water. “Now I know that there’s been a lot of talk about our mummies… I’m not sure if that word even applies such is the state of their preservation… and a lot of it has been pretty wild. What I keep hearing is that people are saying these creatures might be alien, as in extraterrestrial. I won’t even hazard a guess as to that, but I will say that, given their level of development and culture, I suppose it’s not impossible. We won’t even be able to speculate much on things like that until we begin a comprehensive analysis of the creatures’ DNA and proteins. As you know, I’m sure, all life on Earth shares the same DNA… we’re only different from a spider or a fungus because of how our DNA synthesizes and replicates proteins. If, say, the DNA breakdown of the creature was to show marked irregularities from our own… or even a completely alien structure… then, my friends, we would have some very tough questions to ask ourselves.”
Hayes wasn’t liking any of this.
Gates wasn’t definitively saying that those things were from Mars or Altair-6, but he sure as hell wasn’t ruling it out either. Christ, Rutkowski and the boys were going to have a field day with this.
Gates took another drink of water. “Okay, time for your history lesson now that you’ve had your biology lecture.” There were a few stifled laughs at that. “Aliens. It’s sort of a word that’s pretty much been worn out, but it’s one you hear about from time to time if you’ve spent any time down here in Antarctica. For years there’s been crazy stories circulating about some great pre-human civilization under the ice. I’m sure most of you vets have heard your share of horror stories. But how did all that start? Well, I’ll tell you — the Pabodie Expedition and the Starkweather-Moore Expedition. Ah, I saw a few eyes light up at the mention of those names. Some of you might be familiar with them…”
He went on to say that both of these expeditions had taken on the characteristics of urban myths over the years to such an extent that most people — even most scientists — were of the mind neither expedition had ever taken place, that it was all some great hoax dredged up by conspiracists and Antarctic field workers with too much damn time on their hands. But, in truth, the expeditions had not only been very real, but serious in intent and staffed by some very bright people. It was all a matter of historical fact.
“The Pabodie expedition of 1930-31 was the first,” Gates said. “It was led by William Dyer, a geology professor from Miskatonic University… where, heh, heh, I did my undergrad work. Anyway, the purpose of the expedition was to do coring work with a newly-designed drill and shed a little light on the geologic and paleontologic history of the Antarctic continent. Well, the results, at first, were mixed. Then the team’s biologist, a fellow named Lake, discovered what appeared to be fossilized prints in Precambrian rock that Lake surmised was from the Archeozoic era…”
As it turned out, Gates said, it was the beginning of the end. More prints were discovered and Lake had no doubt by that point that what he was seeing was the fossil evidence of some unknown, but apparently advanced organism that walked upright eons before such a thing could have been possible. It was startling. The fossil record was implicit on the fact that nothing beyond simple algae or very rudimentary worms were extant at the time, roughly 700 million years ago.
Then, drilling northwest of the main camp, Lake and his associates broke into a subterranean cave.
“Now, people, this is where things get strange. Lake discovered the remains of creatures that were, yes, exactly like the ones my team has uncovered. He broadcast some fairly detailed information back to Dyer at the main camp, telling Dyer that he had found more fossilized prints and that he was of the opinion that the specimens he found were, in fact, the individuals that had made those prints. Fascinating stuff…”
Through the years, he explained, the controversy surrounding Lake’s discoveries had become something of a battleground for scientists. No actual specimens were taken back for further study, so all they had was Lake’s word on it and some corroborative testimony from Dyer, a few blurry snapshots that were not exactly undeniable proof of anything.
“It seems that at this point, things went bad for the Pabodie Expedition. After they had not heard from Lake for several days, Dyer and a few others flew up into the mountains to Lake’s temporary camp. What they found was utter destruction… tents flattened, machinery destroyed, sleds gone, and, worse, all eleven men were missing. As were the specimens Lake had found. Curious. Anyway, this is the point where most people believe that Dyer and his people went mad, dementia Antarctica, they called it, that he imagined all the awful things that he later freely admitted to…”
Dyer apparently radioed back to the world a censored version of what he saw at the devastated camp, saying that a freak wind storm had wiped out the entire party. But he wrote a completely different version that was pretty much kept from the public at large and with good reason. For it wasn’t a wind storm, he claimed, that destroyed that camp but something much worse. Something Gates wouldn’t even comment on.