The Encounter

by Donal Myrick

  “It is a ‘hoverbarrow’. How cool is that? Exactly how much can it lift?”

  Xyllio replied, “It should hold something your size.”

  To test that notion, Jim sat down in the bucket, and he felt it strain under the weight. “I believe that I’m right at its capacity. This little hoverbarrow, if I may call it that, may be useful in helping us block the passage somewhere, but we will need something much more powerful, like explosives to do the job.”

  Again, Ted, who had been quiet during this discussion, pointed out, “Whatever blockage we put in place will need to look like it occurred accidentally; otherwise, force will be brought to defeat the blockage. Back near our base camp is a narrowing, and plenty of boulders are already strewn around that area. I believe that is the best place to block the passage.”

  Jim was thinking out loud, “What we really need is about five hundred pounds of ANFO. We could blast the passage shut, then Xyllio and his friends could, using this little tractor to finish the job in case the blast doesn’t do the job.”

  Ted added, “I would also suggest that the rock melting device be used for welding some of the boulders together so they can’t be easily moved. The welding would, of course, need to be discrete; otherwise, it will be obvious that it is a non-natural construct.”

  Jim asked Xyllio, “Do you have the capability to manufacture ammonium nitrate?”

  “Yes, but it takes time. We manufacture a variety of chemicals needed by our crops to grow.”

  “Time, unfortunately, is not something we have. We will have to arrange to import the requisite ammonium nitrate and diesel to make this work. We will also need a cover story as to why we are blasting.”

  Peggy said, “The cover story is easy. We have all encountered situations where we would have liked to use dynamite to open up a passage. Only in this case, we will have tried but failed miserably. Instead of opening a passage, we will end up inextricably closing the passage to further exploration.”

  “So, ladies, it looks like you have an additional tasking. While we are gone, you need to teach our new friends how to climb and rappel. I think time is not in our favor now; hence we had better get to our tasks.”

  Bufford said, “Since Jim and I are about the same size, I can leave my climbing gear here, and Jim and I can share his. I’m sure they have the capability to modify it to fit their smaller bodies.”

  Jim agreed, “That should work.”

  The men left all of their supplies with the women so as to give them an extra day before they had to make a trip back to base camp. It took the men about six hours to make it back to base camp. Of necessity, they took with them the three ropes that were tied together to make the backup rope. While Jim and Bufford re-rigged the route back down to the original base camp near the bottom of the pit, Ted and Max began the process of ferrying the girl’s personal gear and all the remaining provisions back to the crack so it could be lowered down to the girls. Max figured that this would save Spider and Peggy from having to make an unnecessary trip up to the base camp.

  Jim and Bufford completed the re-rigging expeditiously. When they were both again on the bottom, they proceeded to the original base camp just a short distance from the pit. When they were in range of the shield, Jim flipped on the com system in his helmet and said, “Anybody up top listening?”

  After a short pause, Bufford remarked with some concern, “I don’t hear anything, not even any noise. Something is not right.”

  As they approached the shield, which was securely tied down, they immediately noticed that the NMI rope was slack. It should have been very taut. “Oh, crap!” muttered Jim as they both raced towards the bottom of the pit. They quickly grabbed and donned a poncho and entered the pit where they were greeted by a torrent of rain and a huge surprise. There before them lying in a pile was three thousand feet of NMI rope.

  “What the HELL!!,” exclaimed Bufford as he looked up into the falling water and darkness of the pit as though he expected to find an explanation emanating from above.

  The only thing coming from Jim’s mouth was a repetition of “Holy shits! This is not good!” After a moment of disbelief in what they were seeing, they spotted the bag hanging from the provisions rope. They quickly made their way over the breakdown to the bag and observed along the way the large number of water bottles wrapped in duct tape with numbers written on them. They disconnected the bag and together dragged it down into the dryer passage. As Jim began to dig into the provisions bag, Bufford made his way back to the pit to retrieve some of the water bottles. After gathering up a half dozen numbered bottles, he returned to the dry passage where Jim had just found a written message enclosed in the provisions bag. Jim read out loud the message which detailed all of the events that had transpired on the surface. The message did not convey the impression that Scott and crew had regarding how the NMI rope ended up at the bottom of the pit.

  Jim said, “Well, this is certainly a fine can of worms. There is obviously a lot that they are not telling us.”

  “Maybe that’s what all these bottles are about. They look like they have messages inside.”

  “Let’s see what you have there.”

  “I’ve got numbers one, three, four, five, and seven.”

  The messages in the bottles explained the paucity of information that was in the provisions bag. The bottle messages explained that their every move was being watched very carefully and that anything sent down or up via the provisions bag would likely be known to the Russians. Whereas messages placed in a water bottle and tossed into the Churún River would remain secure and secret. They were warned to expect more bottles.

  CHAPTER 22

  Toss Another Bottle

  At the top of the pit, both the Americans and Russians were keeping a 24/7 watch. At this particular moment, Félix was doing watch duty for the Americans. He sat hanging from the ceiling in his modified Swiss seat right next to the winch for the provisions rope. He whiled away the time listening to music on his pod as he watched the tell-tale that he had attached to the rope. When the tell-tale began bobbing up and down, it shook him back to the reality of the present.

  He shouted excitedly into his com set using his best broken English, “Hola, hola, Sam, you here?”

  Sam replied calmly, “Yes, Félix, what’s up?”

  “Go tell senor Scott, we got a bite on the rope!”

  “Okay, Félix, hang tight while I go and let Scott know.”

  The Russians noticed Félix’s sudden surge in activity, but because of the noise of the cascade, they could not hear what he said. They did, however, let their superiors know that something was happening.

  Scott, Geraldo, Dr. Fred, and Miguel were all sitting around a table in Miguel’s diner tent along with several of the Venezuelan cavers when Sam came running over and said, “They are back.”

  Scott said, “Well, it’s about time, I was beginning to wonder if something had happened. Leave it to Max to push it to the limit. I’m sure that they were blown away when they saw the rope on the bottom. Let’s give them thirty minutes or so to read their messages before we send an update bottle. They will need some time to digest all that has happened, and I am sure Max will have an opinion.”

  Sam said, “I’d like to be a fly on the wall down there now. I’ll bet they are in a bit of a panic I don’t care how cool Max normally is.”

  “Yes, we need for them to understand that things are not as bad as they might seem and that we might be able to use this situation to our advantage. I am sure that they all understand that we have a strong backup plan. Prepare another bottle to let them know about Kuznetsov’s proposal.”

  Geraldo cautioned, “It is still light; we probably should wait till after dark so our actions won’t be observed. We don’t want the Russians to see us tossing bottles into the river.”

  Dr. Fred opined, “We need to think things through up here and try to anticipate all of our options so we can present them to Max and crew as choices since they will have limi
ted ability to communicate their thoughts to us until we get the rope back.”

  “Obviously, we need to get the NMI rope back up, but until then, communications are basically one way. Tell them that when they are ready to send anything back up, they need to yank real hard on the rope five times.”

  Geraldo offered, “Maybe we should tell them to yank seven or eight times if they are including a message that is for our eyes only.”

  Scott agreed, “That is a good idea.”

  Sam suggested, “Also, maybe they should yank two, pause, three, pause then four times if their message is deceptive but for public consumption.”

  Scott said, “I think we are getting way ahead of ourselves. Let’s keep it simple. Two signals should be enough. Geraldo, how about you and Sam relieve Félix. Actually, don’t relieve him; keep Félix with you. That way, he can help you and Sam manage the rope when you haul the NMI back up and reestablish our communications with the bottom. When we get the NMI rope re-connected, we won’t need any secret signals.”

  “Can do, boss. We are on it. Let’s do the bottle. I’ll sneak it into the river when no one is looking.”

  CHAPTER 23

  Getting Back in Touch

  Back at the bottom, Jim and Bufford were mulling over the messages, wondering if anything important was in the two missing bottles. Jim said, “Looks like Max and Ted are about here, I see their lights coming down the breakdown pile.”

  As Max and Ted approached, they could not help but notice that things were amiss. Picking up his pace, Max hurried over to where Jim and Bufford were sorting through the messages.

  “Okay, what is going on?” he asked. “What disaster has befallen us? What the hell has happened to the rope?”

  “Well,” Jim started off saying, “a lot has obviously happened. As to whether or not it is a disaster is yet to be seen. These are messages from Scott. He explains that Kuznetsov dumped our NMI rope. He says that they don’t think it was an accident and that relations with the Russians are now at an all-time low. Other than that, not much. They did send some more provisions down. Not a whole lot, we are going to need a lot more.”

  With a note of worry in his voice, Max asked, “Have you checked out the rope yet? Did you notice any damage?”

  Bufford said, “I took a look at it, and fortunately, I didn’t see any damage. It should be okay; I’m sure that it had a soft landing.”

  “Good, let’s find the end and send it back to the top.”

  Jim said, “Let’s see if we can find any more message bottles.” With that said, they set off towards the pit.

  Max and Ted grabbed and donned their ponchos and joined Jim and Bufford at the end of the tunnel leading into the pit. Just then, another bottle came bouncing towards them. Jim managed to grab it before it disappeared into the re-coalescing Churún River. Bufford said, “That’s probably what happened to two and six. They ended up in the creek.” They all scurried back into the drier tunnel to see what was in the message.

  “It looks like Kuznetsov has made us a proposal and we need to come up with a response. There is no way we can let them know what we have found down here. We need to buy some time so we can see what options we have and come up with a plan.”

  “Right,” Bufford remarked. “We need to get com established, more provisions back to the girls, and a cover story worked up.”

  Max agreed, “And then, I need to get topside. However, before I go up, I need to talk with the girls to get their latest input from our new friends. I’m going to head back there and get briefed. Meanwhile, see if you can get the NMI headed back to the top, and by-the-way, send a message to drop more supplies and that I want to come up.”

  It took almost four hours to haul the three hundred plus pound wet NMI rope up, thread it into the communicator, secure it to its main and backup anchor, and get several friction loops around the winch drum. However, when all was done, they were rewarded with a grateful “Can you hear me yet?” from the bottom.

  As everyone’s com gear came online, a relieved “hooray” was heard by all who were tuned in.

  Sam said, “Guys, I don’t think you have met the latest additions to our team. Say hi to Geraldo and Félix. These guys are Venezuelan spelunkers, and they have more skills than we could have ever hoped for. When Glen Neely put out the word, these two highly experienced guys and about a dozen more like them showed up to help.”

  Jim said, “I don’t think you can understand just how glad I am to meet you. We have all been worried about how we were going to manage with so few of us and so many tasks that have to be done. Welcome aboard. Sam, you need to get a full crew in there to help you, because as soon as Max gets back here, I’m sure that he is going to want for you to haul him up.”

  “Where is Max now?” Sam asked. Jim tried to ad-lib a bit. He felt that he needed to buy some time. He also wanted everyone to be on stand-by for when Max returned, but he had no firm idea as to how long that would be. He also didn’t want to tell too much about what they had been doing in case the Russians had found a way to eavesdrop.

  “He is back in the passage where the girls are. And, that is a long way back. It will probably take him a good six hours to get back here. The passages are really nasty, almost all belly crawling. The girls have been leading the way because they are smaller and a lot more limber than us guys. Let’s reconvene back here in six hours. Maybe you can get more supplies ready to send down, and in the meanwhile, we will ferry the stuff that you just sent back to our base camp. ”

  “Roger that. We are all interested in what, if anything, you all have found. Over and out.” With that, they turned off their communicators so that their conversations would remain confidential.

  Jim whined, “Why does everything have to be so complicated? Why can’t the Russians mind their own business? It seems that all of our plans are simply baselines from which to deviate.”

  Ted said, “It is a good thing that Max is a lawyer. He is going to have to do some fancy footwork in deciding whom to tell what, when, and how much.”

  CHAPTER 24

  Beacon of Hope

  It took the better part of three days to establish the route with fixed ropes back to the crack leading down into the Alien’s huge chamber, but Max, traveling alone with only his climbing gear, made it back to the crack in a mere fifty minutes. He donned his Swiss seat, clipped in his rappel rack, slithered down through the narrow crevice, and began the four hundred foot rappel to the bottom. There he doffed his gear and started down the path to meet the girls. He had not gone more than a few steps before he was greeted by Xyllio. “Welcome back, Max, we were expecting you.”

  “I’m glad to be back, but there have been developments, and I don’t think we have much time.”

  “What sort of developments?”

  “The Russians have escalated the rift in our relations, and have interfered with our equipment. They dropped our ascent and descent rope to the bottom of the pit. That is something we can easily deal with, but what it did do was to cut our communications. Fortunately, as I left, we were in the process of restoring everything. Now, it also seems that the Russians want us to do their bidding down here, and I suspect that it will only be a matter of time before they send their own crew to the bottom. We are going to do our best to slow them down, but I don’t know how much time we can buy.”

  “That is terrible news. We cannot let them discover us. They will, with certainty, destroy us.”

  “What if we could arrange for you to be protected under the aegis of our government?”

  “How could we be certain that they wouldn’t do the same? We must find a way to identify who may be our friends and also who has the power to protect us, and who likely are our enemies that were programmed a long time ago to hunt us down and kill us.”

  “I have no idea how to identify either. It will probably be easier to identify the GMO’s than potential friendlies. The only thing I can think of to do is when we finally have to vacate from down here, that we seal
the passage as permanently as possible to give us time to figure things out. Unfortunately, with today’s technology, nothing we do will really be permanent.”

  “There are several things we will need for you to do. We have a device, a beacon, if you will, that you can activate. If any of our kind is still present on this planet, they or their emissaries will come to check out the beacon. If they come, you can confide in them regarding our situation. If no one comes to the beacon, it will mean that all of our kind have either left the planet or else they have been killed. If that is the case, then our only hope is to send a signal to our kind to come to our aid. Sending that signal will have its own set of complications, and also, unfortunately, that signal will require several hundred years to reach the closest of our bases. We are a very long-lived species, so the time element is not a problem. Surviving discovery by our adversaries in the meanwhile is the problem. So, the more permanent the passage is sealed, the better.”

  “There has to be a better solution than leaving you sealed up down here for another three or four hundred years. Like I said, we just need to buy some time to get this figured out.”

  Together they walked on to the central meeting area where they found Peggy and her companion Allaria. Peggy said, “You are back sooner than I had expected. Any news?”

  “More news than you want to hear. Where is Spider?”

  “She is over in that hovel over there,” Peggy said, pointing to a small domed building. “She has been holding class there ever since you left.”

  “Well, let’s get her over here so I won’t have to repeat myself too many times. I have a tendency to leave something out when I go over and over the same thing.”

  “Before you give us your news, I’ve got some news for you that you are going to like.”

  “I could use some good news, tell me, tell me.”

  “Allaria and I have been surveying this cavern, and it is huge! It is over a mile long, and for the most part, the ceiling is about four to five hundred feet up. Like I said, for the most part, about fifteen hundred feet to the east, the ceiling opens up into a canyon that goes up for at least twelve hundred feet. It goes up further, but there are twists and turns that block the laser from seeing how far. I flew Charlie up to where it started getting narrow. I am baselining that flight now, so if I lose contact with Charlie, he can find his way back. On my next flight, I’ll see how high I can go.” This got Max’s attention. Another thing,” Peggy added, “the air is really moving up there. That is where all of the airflow is going. There is no air moving on the east end of this room, it is all going up there. So, if we are going to find another entrance, it is going to be up there.” Max’s mind was racing. He could hardly control his excitement with this news. This was indeed good news.