VICINITY TOWN OF KATHERINE, NORTHERN TERRITORY. LT O'HENRY, 14TH SIGNAL COMPANY, FILED A MIJI REPORT AS FOLLOWS:
UNIT: 14TH SIG/CO. ALPHA: (REPORT NUMBER): 6/8/45-12.
BRAVO: (POSITION OF TRANSMITTER/RECEIVER): 23 MILES SOUTHEAST,
KATHERINE, NORTHERN TERRITORY, GRID RKH238165, MAP SHEET RUS354.
CHARLIE: (AZIMUTH OF INTERFERENCE): 113 DEGREES.
DELTA: (DATE AND TIME OF INTERFERENCE): 6AU645/8823.
ECHO: (DURATION OF INTERFERENCE): 16 MINUTES.
FOXTROT: (TYPE OF INTERFERENCE): BROADBAND.
GOLF: (COMMENTS): ALL TRANSMISSION AND RECEPTION CAPABILITY WAS OVERWHELMED FOR DURATION OF INTERFERENCE.
Levy leaned back in her seat and stared at the screen, then began typing again, doing the same search, only this time for 9 August 1945. When she had that information she quickly scanned it, then left her computer and looked at the atlas. She flipped open to Australia and made a few calculations before announcing, "I have something interesting here."
The other three members paused in their work and looked at her.
"I've found two military reports of similar radio disturbances of great power. When I draw a line along the azimuths from the two reports, the lines intersect at Ayers Rock."
"So this wasn't the first transmission out of the Rock?" Fran asked.
"Apparently not," Levy replied.
"When did these two disturbances occur?" Hawkins asked.
"Six August 1945 and nine August 1945."
"Nineteen forty-five!" Hawkins repeated. "Are you sure?"
"It's in the computer," Levy said
"But-" Batson shook his head. "I don't get it. Why then and now?"
Fran was looking at Levy intently. "What were those dates again?"
Levy repeated them.
"You know what happened on those dates, don't you?"
Levy nodded. "On six August 1945 the United States dropped an atomic weapon on Hiroshima, followed by a second bomb on Nagasaki on nine August. In each instance, approximately three hours after the explosion, a very powerful radio transmission overwhelmed all military radio receivers within eight hundred miles of Ayers Rock."
A long silence ensued, finally broken by Hawkins. "That's almost fifty years ago. Surely…" He paused and shook his head. "Are there any other records of transmissions out of Ayers Rock?"
"Those are the only two I could find," Levy said. "There might be more. I went specifically to those two dates."
"Why?" Hawkins asked.
"Because it occurred to me that maybe the arrows you drew on that diagram were correct, and, if so, the nuclear explosion under Vredefort Dome might have precipitated the transmission. I decided to check the only other time in history where man has used nuclear weapons against humans."
"What about all the nuclear testing that's gone on over the last fifty years?" Fran asked. "Have there been transmissions after each of those?"
In response Levy sat down at the computer. "I'll check."
The sound of her fingers hitting keys lasted for five minutes, then she looked up. "I can't find any other indications of transmissions out of Ayers Rock, but you have to remember that we're accessing only U.S. records. The only other time we had troops present here was during World War II."
"What about this station?" Batson asked. "It's been here since the fifties. Surely it would have picked up any other broadcasts."
Levy looked at her screen. "The one three days ago was the only one recorded here."
"If whatever is in the Rock transmitted right after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki explosions, then it's been in there for fifty years and it had the same capability that long ago. If it is a touchstone," he said, looking at Levy, "then it's been activated before."
"Yes, but we never knew it was activated," Levy noted. "And we never tried digging down to it."
Hawkins thought of the chill he'd felt looking down the shaft, into the darkness. What were they uncovering here?
"For God's sake, let's not get paranoid," Batson said.
"I'm not paranoid," Levy said calmly. "I'm just looking at the facts as they exist."
Hawkins held up both hands. "We need to-" He paused as the flap to the tent opened and Lamb walked in, followed by an old woman leaning on a cane.
PENCAK
Fran forced herself not to let her shock show as Dr. Pencak was introduced by Lamb. They'd been briefed that the older woman had been severely injured as a teenager in a car accident, but Fran had never seen anyone so scarred. Surely modern plastic surgery could have corrected some of the deformities, Fran thought as she viewed the older woman.
Pencak took a seat and her single gray eye took in each of them, one by one, betraying no emotion. She laid her finely engraved cane with a large silver handle across her knees. "So. You went through quite a bit of trouble to get me here. What do you wish to know?"
"You were briefed on the transmission?" Hawkins asked.
"Yes. But my name was not among those on the message. So why am I here?"
A voice snapped across the room. "You know why." Fran was surprised at Batson's testiness. He seemed uneasy with Pencak, and the information Levy had uncovered just prior to Pencak's entrance had upset him. "One of the reception sites was very close to, or actually in, Meteor Crater."
Hawkins stood and gestured at the geologist, trying to calm things down a little. "Don says you're the world's foremost expert on Meteor Crater. Is there something there like what we have discovered so far in Ayers Rock?"
"From what I've been briefed, you haven't discovered anything in Ayers Rock yet," Pencak replied calmly. "All you have is a radio transmission and sonar and EM reading of an anomaly in the Rock indicating there may be an open space down there."
She waved her withered hand as Hawkins started to reply. "No, no, young man. Don't get all excited. You have a problem and you are approaching it in the manner almost everyone in the population approaches problems. That's by butting the top of their head against the wall they perceive the problem to be and hoping that sooner or later they will break through and the solution will be on the other side."
She graced Hawkins with a twisted smile. "But that's not the way it should be. You need to use what's inside your head. Let me see your analysis of the reception sites."
Lamb put the overlay on the overhead projector and turned it on. Pencak looked at it for a moment and then picked up an alcohol pen. She circled the site in North America.
"Meteor Crater. My home. You have all the numbers about size and depth and all that gobbledygook. All I can tell you is that there is nothing in the crater to receive the transmission from Ayers Rock. Nothing at present in the crater, that is. The bottom has been extensively swept over with various types of sensing devices-all searching for the core of the meteor that supposedly made the crater. It has never been found. Nor has anything like what you think you have in Ayers Rock."
She waved the dead hand again, once more cutting off Hawkins. She tapped the projector. "Despite its name it is not certain that Meteor Crater was created by a meteorite hitting the earth. That is simply the most widely accepted theory. There are others."
She circled the site in South America. "Campo del Cielo, Argentina. Actually, there are several craters there. All very close together. The theory is that several meteors hit, or one broke apart prior to impact and produced the same effect.
"Ah-Ries Basin." She put an X over the site in Europe. "Very interesting. Very large. Diameter almost fourteen miles. They've found boulders over thirty-five miles away that were ejected from that crater. Some think Ries was formed by volcanic action. Others by multiple meteor strikes." Pencak idly rubbed the dead side of her face. "People are so secure nowadays. They think it has all been solved. All the riddles of the world. Many even think most of the puzzles of space have also been solved."