by Donal Myrick
“I’m here at the pit by myself. The others are busy. Can you put it into hundred-pound packages so I can handle it by myself from the pit bottom to a dry place?”
“Sure, but it may be necessary to make more than four deliveries.”
“That’s okay. I’ll be waiting.”
“Another thing, all this activity is going to be noticed.”
“That can’t be helped. Just try to be as discrete as possible. And Scott, get Sam, Miguel and Dr. Fred fully briefed in. Geraldo can help you because you are probably going to get some grief for not telling them everything sooner.”
Sam said, “I knew something was going on.”
Max said, “Sam, it is big, bigger than you could ever imagine, and we must keep it completely secret. Absolutely top secret. Our lives depend on it, and I am not kidding about that. That is why we have been so tight-lipped and why we absolutely must continue to keep it that way. We also have to limit the number of people who know because everyone who knows will have a target on their back.”
“Holy crap! You have my attention now.”
Max continued, “But for right now, we need to get that ANFO down here. There is no time to waste.”
For the rest of the day, everyone who could carry a fifty-pound pack on their back while Tarzaning made repeated trips back to the pit where Sam loaded the waterproofed bags into special waterproof nylon duffle bags and lowered them to the bottom. The ‘everyone’ turned out to be Geraldo, Félix, and his two climbing companions. Unfortunately, out of all the gear that Scott had purchased for the expedition, there were only three of those special nylon bags that Scott trusted to be used to lower the ANFO. That created a logistic problem requiring Sam to wait for Max to unload each bag and carry its contents to the dry area before the bag could be returned to the top to be reloaded and another sent on its the way down.
While this supply operation was in progress, the Russians had their own project in motion. One crew of Russians was busy stringing electric wires from topside back to the pit. It was obvious that this was to power the new heavy-duty winch that had been offloaded. Several other crews were busy establishing stations which Scott correctly surmised were to control a raft or barge of some sort in the river. The diving bell that the Russians had brought was much too heavy to be carried back to the pit along their bridge, hence the need for the barge. Scott thought it was going to be interesting watching them float that hunk of iron back to the pit. Scott also realized that if they lost control of the barge, it would be flushed down the pit, and it would pose an extreme hazard to those on the bottom.
Max needed to be appraised of this situation, but that could wait for a day. That evening, Scott held a meeting at the edge of the escarpment to watch the sunset, and a very weary Max made his way back to the Aliens’ chamber to report and to get some much-needed rest.
CHAPTER 37
Prepare to Blow
Peggy was a light sleeper. She woke up early and prepared a fresh pot of coffee. Max, on the other hand, slept so soundly that in the morning, Peggy was reluctant to wake him. But, based upon what he had told her the previous evening, she realized that time was indeed of the essence, so she nudged him gently and said, “Time to wake up and smell the coffee.”
Max stirred slowly and sat up, cross-legged in his bedroll, and said, “Morning.” Then, when he realized that Peggy had been up for a while said, “Thanks for letting me sleep late. I really needed it.”
“I could tell. Here is your coffee.” Then after a short pause, she asked, “How are you going to handle today?”
Max sipped his hot coffee and thought for a while. “Today may be our last day down here. Tomorrow for sure. Tomorrow is a possibility, but the next day for sure, the Russians will attempt a descent of the pit. That means that tomorrow we will have to blow the passage shut. That also means that we have to make the most of today. I think what will work best will be for you and Ted to support Spider and Bufford on the climb. I’ll take Jim, and we will rig the charges. That shouldn’t take us all day, so after we finish, Jim can join you on the climb, and I want to spend a little more time with Xyllio on what to do after we find their spaceship or else verify that it is not there. Will you be okay with that? It’s a long climb up there.”
“I’m fresh and rested. It won’t be a problem. Would you like a couple of energy bars to go with your coffee?”
“Need you ask? I could eat the whole case of them. You should down several of them yourself; it’s going to be a long day, and you are going to need the calories.”
Peggy giggled, “That is something no guy ever said to a girl, ‘You need to eat more calories!’.”
“You know what I meant. Besides, you are a tall skinny broad, and you could use more meat on your bones. You know how I like fat chicks.”
“You do NOT! And if you call me skinny again, I’ll whack you upside the head.”
Feigning fear and laughing, Max said, “I’m sorry, don’t hurt me. I was just kidding.” Then he said, “Let’s see if anyone is listening up there this morning.”
Max flipped on his helmet com and said, “Is anyone listening?”
Back came an immediate reply from Ted, “We were wondering if you two were ever going to wake up down there. We are making great progress up here. Spider is pushing through twenty-three hundred as we speak. Spider said that the passage has narrowed considerably, and in some places, it is no wider than thirty inches, but the air movement is still really strong. With the passage being so narrow, she has been able to move up really fast. Jim is having trouble keeping up with her and Bufford. But so far, he is managing to keep the NMI right up there. We continue to be excited about the possibilities. So, what are your plans for today?”
“Well, I need to steal Jim to help me down here. Peggy will be on her way up soon. You and she will need to take over for Jim.”
“We can do that. Fortunately, the higher we go, the lighter the rope that we have to pull up gets. Is there anything we need to know before I sign off and go help Jim?”
“No, Peggy will fill you all in on the latest when she gets up there. Meanwhile, tell Jim he needs to rappel down here as soon as he can. He and I have a lot we need to get done today.”
“Roger that.”
As Peggy clipped into the NMI rope to begin her climb up to support Ted, Max set off to find Xyllio. He didn’t have to look far because the entire alien crew was on the way to meet them and monitor the climb. Max had learned to sense nuances in their behavior, and he could tell that they were very excited. After exchanging greetings, Max brought them up to date, and he explained that they were going to seal the passage no later than tomorrow. He explained to Xyllio that after the explosion, they would need to inspect the blockage from this side to make sure there were no holes left unsealed. If there were, they would have to find a way to complete the job. Max also relayed the optimism that the climbing crew had expressed in regard to finding an upper entrance.
While they waited for Jim to rappel down, Max went on to explain that he needed for Xyllio to provide him with detailed instructions on how to enter the space ship when they found it, how, and what systems to activate. Any and everything he needed to be cautious of not touching or activating, and most importantly, how to activate the communications console. Finally, he needed guidance on what to say. Max thought Xyllio needed to record something in their native language that he could playback because there was no reason to expect whoever received the message to be able to understand English. Xyllio agreed that this would probably be the case and that he would have a detailed package ready for him by the end of the day. One of the items in the package would be one of their translators so they could speak freely into the communications system.
When Jim arrived on the bottom, he and Max headed out to the pit where Max had stashed the ANFO materials. They had a hard day’s work ahead of them, transporting the seven hundred pounds of explosives up a four hundred foot stack of unstable breakdown boulders, packing the explo
sives in suitable holes and crevices, placing the C-4 charges, wiring the detonators, and stringing the detonation wire all the way back to the pit.
When they arrived back at the pit bottom, Max checked in with Sam, who was manning communications at the top.
Max clicked on his helmet com and said, “Is anyone home at the top?”
Sam replied back immediately, “About time you checked in, we were beginning to worry. Is everything okay?”
In case there were unwanted ears listening, Max replied cryptically, “Jim and I are here. We are going to be placing the recently delivered supplies in the appropriate locations for later use. Actually, we intend to use them soon, so we hope to get everything in place and ready to go today.”
Jim joined the conversation and pointed out that that pushing the new lead was progressing exceptionally well.
Max asked, “Are there any developments topside that we need to be aware of?”
Sam said, “Yes, indeed. As we speak, our friends are in the process of rafting some big winches back to here. It is quite the show. However, it appears to all of us to be very risky. They have the large winch loaded on a big rubber raft, the kind you would use to run whitewater rapids. They have stations set up all along their bridge to control the raft as it floats back to here. If they lose control of it, it will quickly be on the way to visit you down there. You need to minimize your time in the pit because if it gets away from them, there will be very little time to give you a warning. If they are successful, then they will get it installed sometime today. That means they could try a descent as early as tomorrow.”
“Depending on how things go today, it may be appropriate for four of us to come topside tomorrow as late as possible. I want to give our crew as much time as possible to push their lead. We really think they are on the right track.”
“I take it that you don’t want any of our crew down there when the Russians attempt their descent. Am I correct?”
“You are correct. We want to abandon our efforts before they arrive. They will have to figure things out on their own.”
“Understood, I’ll relay your message to Scott.”
“Okay. Jim and I have work to do. We will check in periodically during the day. We will talk with you later.”
The rest of their day was spent laboriously placing and rigging the explosives.
CHAPTER 38
The Race Is On
By the time Peggy caught up with Ted, Spider was pushing towards twenty-seven hundred feet.
Ted said, “You didn’t have to come up here. It actually would have been easier if you had stayed on the bottom. I can manage the hauling of the NMI up by myself.”
“I know. Remember, I’ve had to get off the NMI each time you signaled that you needed to make a haul.”
“Right. So what is the plan?”
“Max wants us to push as hard as we can today, and if necessary, some more tomorrow morning. Then, we either have success, or we get as accurate a position as we can of our highest point, and then we begin evacuation.”
“Man! We are so close, I can feel it. I wish that we had more time.”
Bufford hollered down, “Spider says that she is in some horizontal passage now. We all need to climb on up.”
The horizontal passage the Spider had climbed into was a narrow crack, the floor of which was simply breakdown boulders wedged into the bottom of the crack. The passage led off to the east for at least several hundred feet. The floor had occasional holes that appeared to drop all the way to the bottom of the alien’s cavern.
When all four were assembled together tightly in the passage, Bufford and Ted pulled up the remainder of the NMI rope and tied it off securely to a pair of bolt anchors, and a jam nut.
Ted said, “It looks like we have a little less than three hundred feet of rope left.”
“That is a problem,” observed Bufford. “We are going to have to go down this passage for who knows how far before we can find a place to start climbing upward again. We are going to run out of rope again.”
Ted suggested, “Since we are going to have to have rope, why don’t we cut the NMI here, and take the remainder with us down the passage. I know it cuts off communication with the bottom, but what other choice do we have?”
“You are right, that is our only choice.”
“So, that gives us two hundred and eighty plus or minus and our one fifty climbing rope. I hope we are close to the top. At least, the air movement is still strong, so I think we are still in the game.”
The group began moving carefully down the passage laboriously climbing over boulder after boulder. After some five hundred feet of slow progress, Bufford said, “Is this passage ever going to open up?”
Peggy remarked, “It has to some time. Have you noticed that the walls are all wet now? I don’t know whether that is a good sign or a bad sign, but it indicates that things are changing.”
Spider, who was in the lead, said, “I think you are right, Peggy. It looks like the ceiling is getting higher and starting to open up and look, there is a small waterfall up ahead.”
The water was flowing down the wall from a small opening in the ceiling. Spider said, “Well, it looks like this is where we start going up again. The passage in front of us looks like it pinches off. Get ready to get wet, this is going to be messy.”
For Spider, the climb up the waterfall was fairly easy as was squeezing through the small hole. She continued up the chimney for forty feet before hollering down, “Good news, it opens up some up here.”
She found a good crack and inserted a jam nut, clipped in, and began to belay the others up. Since Spider wasn’t carrying any of the climbing gear or ropes, she squeezed through the small hole with ease. It was not so easy for Bufford or Jim. It was a major struggle for both of them. But finally, with the expenditure of much effort and equal amounts of cursing and grunting, they made it through.
When Spider said that it opened up a bit, she was being overly generous with the meaning of the word ‘open’. For her, it meant she could quickly skitter up the narrow chimney, but for the long-legged guys, it was still a struggle. Actually, it did open up. The width of the chimney remained about the same, but the crack expanded horizontally in both directions, so the crack became more of a canyon.
At the top of each pitch, their excitement increased. After several pitches, Bufford said, “There is no way this doesn’t open to the surface. Look over there at all that water streaming down the wall. That doesn’t smell like it’s been filtered. That is surface water! We have to be getting close.”
Ted said, “You better be right. We are at the end of the NMI. It looks like we have about ten feet left, so we might as well tie it off here. So, all we have left is the one fifty, if we don’t find the surface soon, then we are toast.”
Spider was not going to be defeated. If there was an entrance up above, she was going to find it. Up she went stopping every twenty to twenty-five feet to belay Bufford up and to set a chock for safety. After four pitches, Spider shouted, “I can see daylight!!”
Everybody let out a big whoop! “Way to go, Spider!”
With the sighting of daylight, the end was near, and a huge wave of relief swept over everyone.
Spider said, “We need to shift everything to the right about fifty feet, I can’t get through here.”
The shift required backtracking a hundred and fifty feet and moving the anchors for the NMI over to the right. The time required to do this was painful because everyone was extremely anxious to complete the journey to the surface. However, once the anchors were reset, Spider was soon crawling through a small muddy hole into daylight. She pulled the belay line over and tied it to a nearby tree then shouted down to everyone to come on up.
Once everyone was on the surface, despite being muddy and wet, there was much jubilation. This was a mega-accomplishment with huge significance. Ted said, “Spider, Bufford, this is probably one of the most historical accomplishments in vertical caving history, and un
fortunately, you can’t tell anyone about it, at least for now. I want you to know that I feel fortunate in that I have played a small part in your accomplishment.”
Peggy added, “Ted is right. Spider, you are an amazing climber, and we all recognize that some of your confidence stems from the fact that you know Bufford has your back. Together, the two of you make an amazing team. You know that this whole adventure that we have been on for the past several weeks could not have been accomplished without you two.”
Spider replied, “Thanks for the kudos, but you also know that this is what Bufford and I live for, and we know this has been a team effort all along. We wouldn’t and couldn’t be here without all of you. This is our accomplishment, and who cares if we can’t tell anybody about it. We are proud to be part of such an amazing team.”
After their short celebration, reality set in again. Peggy pulled out the mapper and synced up the GPS. This entrance location was now known within a few centimeters.
Ted said, “Let’s explore around some to be sure we aren’t close to something that might enable the Russians to find this place.”
Ted noted, “This place appears to have a slight indentation, probably the boundary where the walls slammed together.”
Peggy noted the presence of some beautiful orchid-like flowers growing on the bark of some of the large trees that formed a dense canopy over this area. She decided to take a few with her to show the others. After about ten minutes of exploring, they concluded that indeed they were in the middle of the jungle with no roads or trails nearby and that the dense jungle canopy hid this area from aerial surveillance. It was late in the afternoon, and the sun was near setting. It was time to begin the long trek back to the bottom of the alien’s chamber. They were happy finally to be the harbingers of very good news.
CHAPTER 39
Daylight Comes Late