The Encounter

by Donal Myrick

  Once the final explosive charges were emplaced and the electrical detonation wires run back to the bottom of the pit, Max checked in with Sam for the last time.

  “Sam, are there any new developments since the last time we talked?” Max asked.

  Sam replied, “Not really. They look like they have completed the installation of the new winch. They have placed it about a hundred feet back from the top of the pit. They are sinking some serious bolts into the ceiling as we speak. I am pretty sure they are to hold a big pulley. I would say they are on schedule to attempt a descent day after tomorrow. They still have to get their diving bell back here and rigged in.”

  “Roger that. I want the girls and Ted and Bufford to start up early tomorrow morning. Can you have your crew standing by to help in the ascent?”

  “Absolutely. I figure if all goes right, each ascent will require about an hour, maybe an hour and a half. So after they are all up, we will stand by to get you and Jim.”

  “Perfect. We will have to do a quick survey to make sure that the passage gets ‘opened’ before we come up.”

  “Understood. We will be standing by in the morning. Over and out.”

  With that part of the plan settled, Max and Jim began their trek back to the alien’s chamber, hopefully for the last time via this passage. They were met on the bottom by Xyllio and Klario.

  “Is there any news from our climbers yet?” Max asked.

  “Not yet. It has been quite a few hours since we had any communications with them. Apparently, they have had some difficulties. In their last communication, they indicated that they were having to cut the NMI rope and relocate somewhere. We haven’t heard anything since then.”

  “Well, at least that means that they haven’t come to a dead-end yet,” remarked Jim.

  Max said, “Let’s try to remain optimistic. Let’s go back to the bottom of the climb and wait for them to call down. We need to start making preparations for leaving in the morning.”

  Xyllio said with some obvious concern, “What if they haven’t found an upper entrance?”

  Max replied, sounding much more confidently that he actually felt, “Then soon, we will have to dig down from the top. They obviously must be fairly close to the surface by now. One way or another, we will establish an upper entrance.”

  As they made their way back to the bottom of the climb, they were joined by the other aliens. When they arrived, they looked up into the darkness of the ceiling high above and saw nothing.

  Max said, “All we can do now is wait.” And wait is what they did for another two hours, then from high above they could see the faint glimmer of a light.

  Twenty minutes later, Peggy came zinging down the wall in a fast rappel.

  As she unclipped from the rappel line, she turned to Max, gave him a hug, and said, “I’ve got something to show you.”

  She slipped her backpack off and reached inside and pulled out the small bouquet of flowers that she had picked. Max was stunned.

  He stammered, “Holy cow, you made it to the top, didn’t you!”

  He didn’t wait for a reply, but instead turned and shouted to the others, “They found an upper entrance! They found an upper entrance! Look what Peggy brought us. Man, have you ever seen anything so beautiful! Wow, this is extremely good news. This is good news for everyone.” Max turned back to Peggy and gave her another hug.

  Jim asked excitedly, “Where are the others?”

  “They are coming. We had to rig the climb in multiple pitches, so coming down, only one of us can be on any one pitch at a time. Spider is right behind me, I think I can see her light up there now.”

  Once everyone was down, and the hugs and handshakes were completed, Peggy said, “This calls for a celebration. What do we have to drink?”

  Bufford replied sadly, “I think we are down to energy drinks and water.”

  Max lamented, “Why didn’t I tell Sam to send a case of ice-cold beer down when I talked with him earlier?”

  “Yes, why didn’t you?” chided Peggy.

  “Well, I have to admit, earlier, I was very pessimistic about our chances. So, it didn’t cross my mind that we would have a cause to celebrate.”

  “I would have preferred a beer, but I’m so hyped up over this outcome,” said Jim, “I think I’ll just settle for water. By-the-way Spider, that climb has to be a first.”

  “Yeah, and it’s too bad we can’t tell anybody.”

  Max said, “One good thing is now we don’t have to feel regret about plugging the passage, and the alien’s presence can be concealed a bit longer. The new entrance has bought us some precious time. We will have to make the most of it. The next thing is in the morning, we will begin our evacuation. I told Sam that we would send the girls up first, then Bufford and Ted. After you all are up, Jim and I will position ourselves a couple of hundred feet off the bottom of the pit, and then set off the explosion. We should be completely safe at that height. After the explosion, we will do a quick survey of its effectiveness. Hopefully, we won’t need to do anything further. Then we will come up.”

  Xyllio asked, “What if the explosion doesn’t seal off the passage? What then?”

  “I’m sure that the explosion will block off the passage. That is not the question. The question is whether or not it will be a permanent blockage or just a temporary inconvenience. I guess that since we now have another entrance, if the blockage isn’t permanent, we could bring additional explosives in and finish the job. It’s great that now we have options.”

  Max continued, “Let’s get something to eat, then let’s go over our plans to make sure we have everything covered. Xyllio, I’m still a bit unsure about how to enter your spaceship, assuming we ever find it.”

  “I have provided you with detailed instructions that I am sure you will find adequate,” Xyllio reassured him.

  Ted was thinking ahead as to how the Russians were going to react when they hear the explosion. He said, “I think there is going to be hell to pay when they find that the passage has been blocked. We need to have a planned response.”

  Max said, “I’m sure they will throw one hell of a tantrum and try to get us thrown off the site. We are going to be leaving anyway, so it is all going to be after the fact. ‘We tried to open the passage; we failed’. End of story, move on. Hopefully, we are going to close the door on their finding anything here. We will need to get them to focus their attention elsewhere. I’ve got an idea. What if after we leave this site, we activate the beacon somewhere remote from here? If we appear to abandon all of our efforts here, maybe they will also since there will be no place for them to explore beyond the bottom of the pit. If we are not here, and Miguel closes up his shop, I’ll bet they will close shop here also, and chase the beacon.”

  Ted said, “I love it! I wouldn’t be surprised to see some Russians losing their jobs over this. I’m sure some of their superiors will view all this as a debacle. Also, if everyone leaves, it will be easier for us to maintain contact with our friends here, undetected.”

  Jim cautioned, “We will still have to be very careful because they will probably maintain satellite surveillance of this area for some time.”

  “That is true. We can disguise our activities to appear as park personnel doing routine inspections. Once we get under the jungle canopy, our activities will be very difficult to track. Also, if we don’t arouse any suspicions, there will be little impetus to track us anyway.”

  Bufford interjected, “Let’s sleep on it. Tomorrow we can blow this place, pun intended.”

  CHAPTER 40

  Ka-Boom

  That night no one was able to sleep hardly at all, so they were up very early the next morning. After they said their goodbyes, they made their way back to the bottom of the pit. Sam and his crew were awaiting their arrival. Sam said, “Let’s get started, the Russians are lowering their diving bell down to the raft. In a couple of hours, they will be starting to move it back to here. So, who is going to be first?”

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p; Max said, “Peggy will be coming up first. She will be ready as soon as she gets her wet suit on. We have the shield ready, so as soon as she is clipped in, hoist her up. Be careful, she has some precious cargo.”

  “Don’t worry, Max; she will be in good hands.”

  As soon as Peggy was clipped in, Sam began the hoist. After all that they had been through the past several weeks, the trauma of the hoisting seemed rather anticlimactic. Peggy survived the bumpy ride with flying colors and soon was safely at the top, and the shield and NMI rope were on the way back down.

  Bufford asked Spider, “Are you sure that you don’t want me to go up first?”

  “Actually,” Spider said, “I think I would like for you to go first.”

  Bufford knew that Spider would prefer for him to be at the top. Should anything go wrong, being at the top would be where he would need to be. It would be like he was belaying her from the top.

  Over the next three hours, Bufford, Spider, and Ted were hoisted to the top of the pit. Then it was time for Max and Jim to set off the explosive charge. Jim clipped his climbing gear onto the supply line rope and began his climb to a safe altitude. Once he was up about two hundred feet, he pulled the portion of the rope that was under him up so it wouldn’t get damaged. Meanwhile, Max clipped in under the shield and told Sam to begin slowly hoisting him up. As he rose off the bottom, he unrolled the detonation wires beneath him. When he caught up with Jim, he told Sam to stop the hoist. Now that Jim was only a few feet away from the shield, his com was active so he could communicate with Sam and Max.

  Max said, “Is everyone ready?”

  Back came the reply, “Yes.”

  Max said, “I’m connecting the wires to the detonator terminals. Here we go, three, two, one.”

  Max flipped the switch. There was a slight pause, and then an ominous roar could be heard above the noise of the falling water. They could see the walls shake, but because they were suspended in midair, they didn’t feel the shaking immediately. Suddenly, the bottom of the pit was filled with dust, which was quickly washed down by the falling water. The roar and shaking continued for over a minute, and then the ropes began bouncing. A few rocks dislodge from above came whizzing by their heads. It was then that Max realized that they probably should have used a timer to set off the explosion. He didn’t anticipate the possibility of falling rocks. That could have been and nearly was a fatal mistake.

  After the shaking stopped, Jim switched over to his rack and rappelled back to the bottom, and Sam began lowering Max. What Jim saw when he reached the bottom was that the passage leading out of the pit was completely filled with breakdown, and the bottom of the pit was covered with a few additional feet of debris. When Max reached the bottom, they agreed that the blast was a complete success.

  Max said, “Beam me up, Sam.”

  Jim said, “Let me clip in under you, and we can both get out of here at the same time.”

  By the time that Max and Jim reached the top, Peggy, Spider, Bufford, and Ted were already on their way out of the cave, and several of the Russians were converging on Sam to find out what had just occurred. They were in the process of floating their diving bell back when the explosion occurred. They thought an earthquake had happened, and tied off the raft about halfway back to the pit. Sam lied and said that he didn’t know what had happened, but that he was pulling his equipment out of the pit.

  True to his word, Sam had a full contingent of help lined up to manage things at the top of the pit. They already had the supply line pulled up and were busy braiding it so it could be transported out of the cave. A second team was doubling and redoubling the NMI as it came up so it could be braided. Jim and Max joined the effort and began taking down the master communications controller that interfaced with the NMI and the shield. Max and Jim took on the task of taking the master controller out of the cave and left Sam and his crew to deal with the rest of the equipment. Max told Sam not to worry about the winches or the generators that powered them. If time permitted, they would come back for them later. Right now, they wanted to get off the mountain as soon as they could.

  At first, the Russians assumed that there had been a small earthquake, nothing large enough to be concerned about. But sooner or later, they were going to put two and two together and realize that the recent flurry of activity coupled with the Americans leaving the mountain and the earthquake were somehow connected. That sooner or later would be the next day when they lowered their diving bell with two of their scientists aboard and discovered that the bottom of the pit was covered with twenty feet of water, and the passage out of the pit was totally blocked. They rightly concluded that this was no coincidence, and were demanding an explanation from the Americans.

  By this time, the Americans had loaded as much of their gear on the Director’s truck as it could hold and were preparing to send it on its two days drive down to Canaima Camp. They left no doubt that they were leaving the mountain. A complete breakdown of their camp would fill two trucks, so they had to prioritize what was packed up first, what could wait for the second truck, and what was to be left for Miguel to store.

  Everyone was in high spirits, including those who were not fully briefed on all that had transpired. Miguel was preparing one of his Caracas Cuisine special meals for the entire crew, and Carlos had recently replenished Miguel’s beer supply.

  While everyone else was busy packing, Max pulled Geraldo aside and told him of his plan to convince the Russians that they were permanently leaving the site and that he wanted to direct their attention elsewhere. He asked Geraldo, “How freely can Félix and his associates travel between different countries in South America?”

  Geraldo replied, “People with legitimate business or enough money can travel pretty much as they please.”

  “Do you think one of them could get the beacon and smuggle it into Peru, take it to Machu Picchu, then hide and activate it? Could they do that and not get caught?”

  “That would be a piece of cake for my special ops guys.”

  “Could they travel under assumed names so that their visit couldn’t be traced back to you or us?”

  “Like I implied earlier, with a little money, anything is possible.”

  “Put that action into motion.”

  “Consider it done. Is there a required timeline?”

  “As quickly as possible, but take all the time necessary to do it right. Also, we need to let all of the cavers that came to help us know that we are shutting down our operations and that they can return to their home. We must let them know how much we appreciate their support, and that Scott will have a little bonus for them. I know some of them are anxious to get home.”

  “Consider that also done.”

  Just then, Dr. Kuznetsov and two of his lieutenants drove up in their Russian jeep and stopped in front of Miguel’s tent. As Max and Geraldo went over to meet them, Max said, “I was wondering how long it was going to take them. Be prepared for a tantrum.”

  Kuznetsov wasted no time on niceties as he loudly demanded to know, “What have you done? I know that you did it! We saw your people carrying all those explosives into the cave. What are you hiding? You have destroyed all the evidence, haven’t you?”

  Max calmly replied, “What are you talking about? What evidence?”

  “Admit it; you set off an explosion down there, didn’t you?”

  “Well, yes, we set off an explosion, but we weren’t trying to hide anything.”

  “Then why did you do it?” Kuznetsov demanded.

  “Well,” Max explained, “We have been trying for weeks to push through a mountain of breakdown rubble, hoping to find a large passage on the other side. There was lots of air movement, so we knew there must be more passage somewhere. We pushed a lot of leads, but totally without success. They all were blocked by those boulders. We were completely frustrated, and out of other options. So, we resorted to trying an explosive excavation. We felt that we had nothing to lose. We knew that we would either open the passag
e or make the blockage worse than it already was. I’m sorry, but it looks like we made it worse. So, we are giving it up. We will soon be out of here. We are headed home.”

  Kuznetsov was so mad he was sputtering. He could not tell if Max was telling the truth or not, but it didn’t matter. He yelled, “You don’t realize what you have done! This is an important archeological site, and you have destroyed it! You had no right to do it. Your actions are completely irresponsible and unauthorized. There are consequences for your careless and criminal actions.”

  Max took umbrage with Kuznetsov’s acquisitions and replied, “Hey, nobody told us this was an archeological site, and besides, if there was something down there, it is still there. You are free to go get whatever is down there. And, by-the-way, the Park Director gave us permission to try blasting the passage open. So, while our actions were unsuccessful, they were neither careless nor criminal.”

  Kuznetsov knew Max was not telling him the whole truth. Still visibly angry, he turned to leave and said, “I promise you, I will find out what you are hiding.”

  CHAPTER 41

  We Are All In

  That evening after Kuznetsov had left, the whole American crew plus Miguel, Geraldo, and Félix were sitting around the dining tent discussing the events of the day, and especially Kuznetsov’s visit.

  Max was looking for an opportunity to broach a subject that had been bothering him ever since he had met with Sergei. He tapped on his beer bottle and said, “Hey, everybody, listen up. There is something that I want to discuss, and since this is the first time we have all been together without some pending disaster facing us or some Sword of Damocles deadline hanging over our heads, this may be the best opportunity I’ll have to talk to everyone.”

  Everyone quieted down and turned their attention to Max, and then Sam said, “What’s up, boss?”

  “I believe that we are at a major decision point in this adventure. It has, as I am sure we can all agree, turned out very different from anything we could have possibly imagined when we started out. We just wanted to be the first to bounce the world’s deepest pit. Now, look at us. Here we are embroiled in an interstellar drama, of which even the barest knowledge means our very lives are at risk. You will have to admit that all of what has transpired was totally unexpected. We sitting here are the only people on this planet who are aware that there are sixty live aliens from a distant star system trapped three thousand feet underground not far from here. Although they have been trapped there safely for two thousand years, their continued existence is now dependent on us. For surely, given time, the Russians will discover them, and that would be disastrous for both them and the world. It must not happen. Some of you may be asking, ‘What is in it for us that we should continue protecting and aiding them at the risk of our own lives?’ I, for one, feel an obligation to do just that since we are the ones who have potentially exposed them and put them at risk. But, there is more to it than that. They represent an unbelievably huge opportunity for major scientific, technological, and sociological leaps for humanity if they can survive the forces that would destroy them or, worse, exploit them for evil purposes. Just think, these guys genetically modified some plants to become a food source that allowed them to survive trapped down there for two millennia. Their knowledge could help relieve world hunger. The power source in their ship is clean, renewable, and inexhaustible. It is obvious that the world could use that, and interstellar travel. Well, we are on the brink of that on our own, but our programs could use a big boost. All their stuff is good, but some of their technology, actually a lot of their technology, could also be used for weapons or political bullying, social engineering, or countless other less than moral purposes. That is not good. So how should we proceed? My personal feeling is that we should work to find a way to harmonize their introduction into our current world in a way that is universally beneficial and protects them as well. That won’t be easy, and most likely will be highly dangerous as well. I want each of you to know that if you feel that it is in your personal best interest to walk away, you should do so.”