by Donal Myrick
At the top, they could hear him shouting. They could tell that he was excited about something, but they could not understand a word that he said.
Peggy was the next person on rappel, and as anticipated, she had to struggle to get Charlie’s case through the crack. But once through, she zoomed rapidly to the bottom where she was greeted by an absolutely giddy Max who couldn’t wait another minute to tell her about his find. Peggy quickly unrigged from the rope, signaled the top that she was off rope, and followed Max over to where he found the path.
“Holy Cow!” she exclaimed, “This is totally unbelievable. Who do you think made this?” she asked.
“Some ancient pre-Incan culture maybe,” he replied.
As they speculated, they could hear the ‘zing’ of Ted’s rappel rack as he rapidly descended. Ted couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the path. “Surely, this can’t be manmade,” he exclaimed,” but if it is, you know what that means, right?”
Max answered, “It means that there is or was a lower entrance down here somewhere. Man! , I can’t wait till the others get down here, and we can see where this leads.”
Peggy said, “This could be the archeological find of the century.”
“Couple that with the fact that this cave could be the geologic find of the century, together it’s the find of the millennium,” Ted asserted. Ted added, “Dr. Fred is going to have an epic fit of joy when he finds out about this discovery.”
Soon, the others were on the bottom and marveling about the new discovery. “Max said, “Let’s leave our extra stuff here, and go see where this path leads.”
“Lead on, oh Leader,” said Peggy, “we’re right behind you.”
They started off single file down the path, which soon led out of the giant room into which they had just rappelled. The path went through a low tunnel-like passage that stretched on for several hundred feet. As the neared the end of the tunnel, they could begin to see light ahead.
“It’s the lower entrance!” shouted Ted as they all hurried forward.
As they rounded a slight curve in the path, they all came to a screeching halt, for there in the middle of the path stood a figure silhouetted against the light in the background.
They looked at the figure and then looked at each other. Then they stared in disbelief at the figure again. They were stunned! They were gobsmacked! After a few speechless moments, Max made what was probably the most profound statement of his entire life. He said, “Talk about unexpected; I damn sure didn’t expect that!”
CHAPTER 20
Just Like Roswell
If the figure had been a member of the Russian Army, that would not have been too unexpected. If the figure had been a member of an unknown indigenous tribe, an ancient Mayan or Incan descendent, that would have been exciting and unexpected. If the figure had been an American or a CIA agent, that would have been surprising, but not totally beyond belief. If the figure had been a Russian soldier or a nuclear scientist in a white coat or radiation suit, that would have been consistent with recent events and would have explained a number of things. But the figure standing in front of them was not any of these.
The figure standing in front of them was about four feet tall, slender with an oval-shaped head and big bug eyes. It looked just like the pictures of the Roswell alien published in the old science fiction magazines.
To find an Alien was totally and completely unexpected. It was so unexpected that it was totally beyond the pale. Such a possibility had never risen to the level of even a momentary conscious thought.
In a very quiet voice, Spider asked, “Is it real?”
Bufford whispered back, “I don’t know.”
Max raised his hand Indian style and managed a rather unsure, “Hello.”
Then came the next surprise. The alien raised his four-digit hand and replied, “Bonus dies. Quis es? Cur tu venisti? Quo modo huc venisti?”
Max and Jim looked quizzically at each other, and Max said, “I didn’t expect that either! Did I hear that right? It sounded like Latin to me. I didn’t understand a word he said, but it sounded Latin.”
Jim whispered, “I think it was Latin too. My Mom raised me Catholic, and the priests were always saying stuff in Latin, but I never understood them either.”
Max said, “I took Latin when I was in pre-law, but that was a long time ago.”
Ted observed, “I think that thing hanging from his neck is what actually spoke. I don’t see a mouth.”
Max said, facing his colleagues, “I don’t think we can run. We could never climb the ropes fast enough to escape, so I think we are committed. Committed to what, I don’t know. Let’s introduce ourselves and see what happens next.”
With that said, Max turned towards the alien and began introducing the team. “Hello, my name is Max Meccum.” Then gesturing towards Peggy, he continued,
“This is Peggy Allen. “ He continued introducing each team member in turn. When he finished, he paused.
The alien remained silent for a moment then responded, “Salutatio. Te fuimus exspectatio.”
“Did you get any of that?” Max asked Jim.
“I think he said, ‘Salutations. You are expected.’, or something like that. I could be completely wrong, and probably am.”
“Say something to him in Spanish, it is sort of like Latin. Maybe he can understand Spanish.”
Jim, who spoke fluent Spanish, said “Buenos días. ¿Cómo estás?”
After a brief pause, the alien responded, “Ego valeo, gratias ago tibi.”
Jim said, “I think he sort of understands Spanish, but he didn’t reply in Spanish. I think ’thank you’ was in his reply somewhere.”
The alien then said, “Tu Graeca loqui?”
“He said ‘you Greek something.’”
Max said. “Tell him we don’t speak Greek.”
Jim repeated what Max said in Spanish, “No hablamos griego.”
As they grappled with overcoming their language barriers, the alien turned towards the path behind him and waved his hand in the unmistakable universal language for ‘follow me’ and said, “Placere sequere me,” and began walking away. After a few steps, he looked back and waved again for them to follow him.
Max turned to his fellow cavers with his hands up as if to say stop and said, “Guys, let’s pause for a moment and try to get our heads around this situation. Obviously, we can’t turn around and run, nor should we. But, we need to think things through as much as possible. This may be the most important event in the history of mankind, or it may be our demise. We don’t know if we have stepped into the Garden of Eden or into a hornet's nest that poses unimaginable peril. We need to try quickly to figure out which it is.”
Ted said, “You are right. If the myths are right, these entities are responsible for the abductions of people and all kinds of other weird stuff. Supposedly they can neutralize your brains, so you don’t remember anything when they transport you up into their space ships. We need to be super cautious.”
Spider sidled up a little closer to Bufford and let it be known that she was scared. Bufford said, “Well, since there is no going back at this point, let’s go forward like we own the place. Maybe that will gain us a little bit of bargaining room.” It was quickly agreed that that was probably their best strategy.
Max turned back to the alien who had been patiently waiting, and boldly said, “Lead on.”
A short distance later, they emerged into a large cavernous room. Light radiated from numerous points along the walls and from the very high ceiling of this gigantic room. It was an awesome sight for the cavers. One very important thing that they immediately observed was that this was not the lower entrance they had anticipated.
Max looked around awestruck and said, “I didn’t expect this either!”
Spider said, “Max, quit saying that. None of us expected any of this. We are all thinking the same thing that all this is frigging unbelievable!”
Ted opined, “Folks, I think that we have j
ust passed from Lil Abner land to Tomorrowland. Look at all these structures, and what kind of plants are these. We haven’t ever seen anything like these plants topside.”
As they approached a small open-air structure that appeared to be a meeting place, the host alien was joined by several other aliens, who, for all intents and purposes, appeared identical to one another except for their clothing. The host alien stopped, turned around, and the little device hanging around his neck said to the group in a voice that sounded a lot like Max’s, “Hello, my name is Xyllio.”
Max couldn’t help himself as he said, “Whoa, I didn’t expect that either!”
Spider gave him a little punch in the middle of his back as a reminder for him to stop saying that. “I’m sorry, but I’m dumbfounded by all this. Who is going to believe all this shit? We can’t go back topside and say, ‘Guess what we found? We found a bunch of aliens!’ They would say, ‘Yeah, right! Obviously what you really found was a bunch of mushrooms, and it sounds like you have been eating them.’ Then they will laugh in our faces and throw us in the looney bin. Of all the possible things I was expecting, this was not one of them.”
He went on to say, “I also think that device must be learning from our conversations. That was the voice and words of how I introduced myself to them just a few minutes ago. Aren’t you guys more than just a little bit astounded by all of this?”
Bufford piped in and said, “Yeah, Max, I think we are all totally slack-jawed, but you seem to be the only one able to express yourself. And yeah, this is beyond awesome.”
The meeting place was a sunken circular structure about twenty feet in diameter with small seats arranged in circular rows. It was obvious that the seats would be too small for the humans, so Xyllio gestured for everyone to sit down where they were. The ground was not ground, nor was it concrete. It was rock-like, obviously manufactured, and surprisingly comfortable to walk and sit upon. They sat down, took off their backpacks, and faced the aliens. It reminded Max of white men and Indians sitting down in a teepee preparing to smoke a peace pipe before starting negotiations. When they were comfortably seated, gesturing to his right, Xyllio said, “This is Klarrio,” then to each of the others in turn, “this is Allaria, this is Gharrizia, this is Tarbonio.”
Spider remarked, “I think their names indicate their gender. Did anyone else get a sense of that?” she asked.
Jim agreed, “Yes, I think that is consistent with a lot of languages.”
Ted offered his opinion, “I don’t think those are their real names. I think they are Latinized names they have given to themselves.”
Max pointed to the device hanging from Xyllio’s neck and asked both verbally and with gestures towards his mouth, “Is that a language translator? Yes?”
After a short pause, Xyllio responded, “Yes.”
Max turned to his associates and asked, “What should we talk about? This is such an incredibly momentous occasion, and we should talk about something important. I don’t think we want to come across as being just stupid humans.”
“Let’s work on teaching them English,” Spider suggested. “You know in real life when Bufford and I aren’t off climbing something, I do substitute teaching in our middle school. I have a teaching degree with a major in English, so maybe I can be useful here. Let’s assume that they already know a lot about humans, so let’s begin teaching them by learning something about them.”
“Good idea, go for it.”
Spider began using both gestures and verbiage, “We came from up there. Where did you come from?” Not receiving any response, she continued with a series of questions, “How long have you been here? Did you make these lights? What do you eat? Where do you get your food? Where do you get your energy? What do you know about us? How many of you are here?” Spider paused and looked around, trying to spot something that would prompt an intelligent question. She thought perhaps she should start with something that they must have in common. How about numbers she thought, after all, numbers should be universal. She held up one finger and said, “One.” She continued with two, three, and so on through ten. Then she held up both hands with her fingers folded into fists and said, “Zero.” She continued speaking and doing simple arithmetic using her fingers.
Spider said, “I know this is very simple stuff, but I am giving them vocabulary and context to go with the words. I assume that their translator is taking all of this in and developing a translation algorithm.”
Max said, “I think you are doing a great job. Let’s talk about things we have with us that we can show them and give them more context to work with.”
Max began digging in his backpack and talking at the same time. “This is my backpack; this is some food, this is my water. We all drink water.”
Then he pulled out the laser mapper, and when he turned it on, the aliens reacted with instant fear and scrambled for cover. Max immediately turned it off and said in a reassuring voice, “It’s okay, it’s okay. This is not a weapon.” He then turned it back on and pointed it at his hand, saying, “See, it doesn’t hurt.” He then pointed it at himself, then at the other cavers. After turning it off, he waved to the aliens to return, which they did with caution. When they were all reseated, Max offered it to Xyllio for his examination.
After Xyllio and his associates had examined the device, Max took it back and turned it on once again and activated the holographic display, which showed a three-dimensional rendering of the cave. When he did, although their facial expressions did not change, you could tell by their bodily motions that they were very excited.
Using his finger, Max pointed to a spot in the hologram and said, “We are here.” Then he pointed to the top of the cave and said, “We came from here.”
Klario pointed to the top of the cave and carefully traced with his finger the route all of the way from the top to the bottom where they were now. He indicated with his hands the question, “How far?”
Then max, using his virtual cursor, traced the route once again, and then queried the distance. The laser mapper displayed the distance digitally in feet. Max read the number out loud, “Fifteen thousand three hundred and twenty-two feet.”
He could tell that Klarrio wanted more information. Max realized that they needed context for the measure of distance. He pointed to the word feet in the display and said, “one foot,” and indicated with his hands how much one foot was. Then he said, “two feet,” and indicated how much two feet were. Then he pointed to the distance in the display. Surely, he thought to himself, these people must understand our numbering system; after all, they have been observing us for ages.
Klarrio, once again tracing out the route on the display said very clearly, “Fifteen thousand three hundred and twenty-two feet.”
Max asked, “Do you understand our numbers?”
“Yes.”
“Great, we are making rapid progress.”
With the words out of Klario’s translator, it was obvious that at least at a rudimentary level, they were beginning to communicate. Klario then asked, “Where did you get the laser mapper?” Max explained that this was a fairly standard piece of equipment used in the real estate industry and had been adapted for use in mapping caves. The technology relied on low energy lasers and fairly sophisticated computer algorithms. Max was unsure as to how much of his explanation was being understood by Klario.
Up to this point, Ted had said very little, but he was a keen observer. Ted asked quietly, “Is it me, or does anyone else get the feeling that these folks haven’t been in touch with the upper world for a very long time?”
Jim and Max both replied, “Yeah.”
Max continued, “That feeling has been coming on me for several minutes. You would think they would know all of the world’s major languages, and they shouldn’t have been surprised by the laser mapper. And, of all the language choices they should have, why in the world do they speak Latin?”
Ted said, “I think they are trapped down here, and we are the first humans they have
seen in perhaps a thousand years.”
Jim said, “Holy crap, I think you might be right, and if that is true, then it means that there is no lower entrance either. The way we came in is the only way in and out. That explains Klario’s interest in the mapper.”
Peggy opined, “Boy, do we have a lot to talk about. We need to bring them up to speed on world history and current events.”
“Not to mention, we need to understand how they got here, and what has happened to them since. I’ll bet ten dollars that their being trapped here and that explosion back in the pit are related.”
Peggy turned back towards Klarrio and Xyllio and asked, “How long have you been trapped down here?” Peggy asked her question, just assuming the validity of Ted’s speculation.
Klarrio answered, “Two thousand and twelve years.”
Max started to say that he didn’t expect that, but he caught himself just in time to avoid another punch in his ribs. Instead, he said, “I can buy that, it makes sense.”
Every time Xyllio or Klarrio spoke, their English was better, and they were able to express more complex thoughts. It was obvious that their translation devices were very excellent at parsing every word and sentence that was being spoken and inferring the appropriate meaning and grammar.
Gesturing back towards the direction from which they had come, Ted asked, “Does your being trapped down here have anything to do with a huge explosion back that direction?” Not knowing if they understood the word explosion, Ted gestured with his arms and said loudly, “KABOOM!”