Phoebe scratched at the goosebumps on her arms. She offered a wan smile to Aria who still seemed lost and bored, playing now with her water glass.
“So we went there,” Diana continued, “but found it wasn’t quite… deserted. Something kept tabs on our mission. Followed, observed. But refused to acknowledge repeated attempts at communication. Radio signals didn’t work. Then we tried light. That was the deal with the mirrors. Light pulses aimed with larger mirror arrays. Kind of a Morse Code. But no response. Imagine the buildup, the suspense, and then… to be ignored.”
“Like a nerd trying to get the attention of the head cheerleader,” Orlando said, trying to smile at Phoebe and lighten the mood. “Disheartening.”
“Next, in following missions, NASA had their team try to investigate some of these unusual sites up close. My guess is they hoped to discover something, some leftover technology perhaps that could be used. A lot of areas could be accessed, where we got to explore ancient walls, towers and cathedral-like ruins, all empty. But some areas, it seemed, were off limits. Especially in areas where there were entrances. Tunnels, caves, openings in the deeper craters. The lunar modules would break down, equipment would just stop when they got to a certain distance. Nothing worked. Cameras included.”
“Just like…” Phoebe pointed back behind them. “The door?”
Temple nodded. “Go on, Diana.”
She took another sip of water. “So we were left with the conclusion that there is a remnant of an advanced race out there, either living as some suggest, or possibly artificial…”
“Robots?” Orlando asked. “Makes sense. Ruled by logic commands. Maybe only to observe and document, but not interact?”
Diana nodded. “That’s a thought. Or else it’s a small contingent of the former civilization, staying behind to protect something. And apparently… to watch. NASA even took to calling them the Watchers. They’re observing us, that much is clear… but not much else. Possibly, if the anecdotal evidence is to be believed, they may abduct our citizens covertly, experiment on them…”
“And on cows,” Orlando added. “Don’t forget the poor cows.”
“And monitor our technological advances,” Diana said. “Strange lights and un-trackable objects have been seen in greater abundance over military installations and nuclear facilities.”
“As if,” said Temple, “they’re gauging our strength, growing more interested as we come closer to the ability to destroy ourselves and our world.”
Phoebe scratched her head. “Ok, I’m still not sure I believe all this, but what’s the status quo? That a secret group among our leaders really know and are keeping the truth from the rest of us? That ETs are here, but their motives are totally unknown, and they don’t seem hostile, that they’re just a bunch of voyeurs?”
Diana smiled. “Not far off. We know we can’t touch them technologically yet. But that has only fueled research like you wouldn’t believe. Look at all the advances in technology and weaponry since the sixties. SDI—Star Wars—being the latest.”
“I thought we all learned Star Wars was a big waste of money,” Orlando said. “That it couldn’t shoot down any missiles effectively.”
“What if,” asked Diana, “its name was actually spot-on? What if its purpose wasn’t as defense against a terrestrial enemy?”
Orlando blinked at her, then nodded. “So what, the Russians pretended to be all angry about it, but really they were on board, trying to help create some sort of defense?”
“Against an inscrutable and unpredictable enemy that could attack and wipe us out at any moment. Yes.”
“But it was scrapped…” Orlando said.
Temple smiled. “More like replaced. And in secret, with a new technology.” Then his face fell. “A technology that we recently learned, may have been subverted to other uses.”
He let that hang in the air. Orlando was rubbing his temples, trying to massage away the confusion. “Wait, back on Star Wars, if I recall correctly, many of the scientists who worked on it wound up dying mysteriously.”
“That,” said Temple, “was when we learned of the Black Lodge. Of Senator Calderon and his Marduk cult.”
“How do they fit in?” Phoebe asked.
“In Nazi Germany, Hitler sought out legends of an advanced race living inside the earth, a race of supermen with great longevity and heightened psychic abilities. Missions were sent to the Arctic and Antarctica looking for a way inside the earth at the poles. Teams went to Tibet, trying to find the mystical home of these… Custodians.”
Phoebe gasped. “I heard that name. In Afghanistan, the tunnels. I saw… I thought I saw a city. And a robed man who called it…”
Temple’s eyes widened. “Shamballa?”
Phoebe nodded. “What does all that have to do with the Moon, and ETs and…”
“And Mars,” Orlando said. “This all started with Mars, or have we all forgotten that? What about the Face? I’m assuming NASA did some cover-up job there too, and wasn’t too happy about all the attention.”
Diana smiled. “That almost blew everything wide open. Fortunately they were able to airbrush and doctor later photos to try to dissuade everyone, but still… there were too many other anomalous structures in the Cydonia vicinity. Pyramids, walls, geometric angles and ratios between the enormous constructions.”
“So what’s there?” Phoebe asked. “Same deal as the moon—ancient ruins, nobody home?”
Diana shook her head. “Oh no, it’s a little more complicated than that. Whatever’s there is different. More aggressive and defensive. We’ve lost probe after probe. The Russians had their mission blown out of orbit as it neared the moon, Phobos. A craft-like object was seen streaking out of a crater and heading for the probe right before it was lost.” She sighed. “Investigators have repeatedly asked why we don’t just send a lander down to Cydonia to answer the question of the Face and pyramids once and for all, and NASA has cleverly dodged such requests by stressing their process, and looking for water in other areas, and throwing off attention by all that fuss about microbes in a Martian meteorite, but the truth is—we can’t go back to the Cydonia region because they won’t let us.”
Temple stood up, looking grim. “And this is where it all comes together. Where you fit in, why we need you. Calderon and his team… they’re the inheritors of Hitler’s Black Lodge. They found what Hitler had been looking for. Made contact with these Custodians—or one branch of them. What appears to have happened is that whatever great war raged in the heavens millions of years ago, the most recent was waged between bases on the Moon and Mars.”
“Thoth and Marduk,” Phoebe said. “The moon was Thoth’s…”
Temple nodded. “And Mars belonged to Azazel, Marduk, Apollo. Call him what you will. What we’re talking about here is more likely a group of beings rather than an individual. Factions with a common purpose. But yet, that was our conclusion too, that the faction most concerned with humanity, the ones who believed—according to all the myths—that we could aspire to their level, they’re the ones on the Moon. And some are here, apparently, in Tibet and possibly we hope, here in Shasta. They’re the Watchers. Watching over us but not really getting involved.”
“The Custodians,” Phoebe whispered. “But… the one I saw… he said they needed us. To save them.”
“The war has begun again,” Temple said. “If it ever really ended. Many times before, Marduk’s followers have attempted to wipe out humanity. The Flood. The Tower of Babel. I’m sure if we keep looking, other disasters might be pinned to them.”
“The Black Plague,” said Orlando, then shrugged. “Just a thought.”
Temple nodded. “And each time, apparently at the last moment, these Watchers intervened. Giving Noah warning, saving a select few here and there. Secreting away knowledge of the world—astronomy, farming, maybe even genetic material. All so they would be able to restart civilization in new places after the devastation had subsided.”