Dr. Holmes couldn’t hide his surprise. There are many questions one might expect to hear at an introductory meeting: are you married, how long have you been practicing psychiatry, or even something off the wall like where a nice vacation spot might be? A question about the origins of human civilization? Jeffrey paused for a few seconds to regroup his thoughts and seriously ponder the question.
“Well I’m not a historian by any means, but I believe that particular phenomenon is explained through the development of agriculture,” Dr. Holmes finally answered. “It allowed people to take up a permanent residence since they could now grow the food they needed rather than following the roaming herds. Since the entire community was no longer needed to produce food, this led to specialization of labor.
“Tool making, writing, art and so on were just a natural byproduct of this development. When you think about it, there’s not a whole lot to the concept of agriculture. It’s simply observed in nature - every spring seeds take root in the soil. I don’t find it particularly mysterious how three separate civilizations could have developed the process at nearly the same time.”
“Now it’s my turn to concede a well reasoned response,” Hastelloy said with a nod of approval. “Perhaps that particular development can be explained, but when you look through human history it can be shown that there was some knowledge obtained in each era that didn’t fit the time period. This untimely information propelled mankind to new heights. The process of refining raw metals into sturdy tools, the wheel to increase mobility, the compass that allowed sea navigation are good examples. The theory of democracy gave rise to the greatest civilizations, the combustion engine, the assembly line, flight, computers, rocketry, harnessing the power of the atom, the Internet, need I go on? All of these and many more social and technological advancements were way ahead of their time.”
“This is certainly an interesting debate Hastelloy, but what does this have to do with your being here seeking help?” Jeffrey asked with a concerned expression beginning to cross his face. Years spent as a psychiatrist interviewing patients was beginning to send him warnings that something big, unpleasant, and completely insane was about to be revealed.
With a sudden move, Hastelloy leaned forward in his chair and stared straight through Dr. Holmes. It was not a look of anger or hatred, but it did carry the weight of complete sincerity. “It’s of profound relevance because we were there for all of it. From the construction of the great pyramid of Egypt to this very moment we’ve existed among you. I watched man go from wooden twigs and grunting sounds to the stars. To me it’s been a lifetime. To you it’s been the entire existence of human civilization.”
And there it was, the insanity laid out plain as day. Usually this degree of communication took months to develop. Yet here they were five minutes into the conversation, and they were already getting to the heart of the matter. Jeffrey was hardly expecting to reach this critical therapeutic moment so soon.
As crazy as Hastelloy’s claim was, it was real to him. Dr. Holmes knew better than to directly challenge his belief. Doing that would cause the patient to feel threatened, insulted and ultimately retreat within himself. The appropriate way forward was to talk with the patient as if he believed the outlandish story but with skepticism. He would eventually build upon that skepticism until Hastelloy himself saw the error in his logic.
“Just to make sure I understand what you just shared with me,” Jeffrey said as diplomatically as possible. “You believe your life began during the time of ancient Egypt and you’ve lived through the ages to participate in significant events in human development. Do I understand you correctly?”
“I’m afraid you don’t understand me at all my dear Holmes,” Hastelloy challenged. “I used the word ‘we’ for a reason. There were five of us in all, plus a few extra visitors along the way.”
Hastelloy paused before continuing, “Did you notice the clue I just gave in my prior statement?”
“I did. You said ‘visitors’ which leads me to believe you are an extra terrestrial,” Jeffrey responded with care.
“Extra terrestrial, alien, off worlder, whatever you prefer. Yes, that is who we are, and I noticed you made an extra effort to emphasize you ‘believe’ me,” Hastelloy said letting the good doctor know he was onto his mind games. “I appreciate the gesture, but I’m under no delusion you believe me in the slightest. Who in their right mind would?
“As we talk I would just ask you to refer back to the pledge I made earlier. From here on out everything I say will be the god’s honest truth; no games of any kind. You will find as we converse that above all else I am a man of my word.”
Dr. Holmes became a bit unnerved, thinking he really had his work cut out for him with this patient. He was smart, aware, and otherwise perfectly well except for this delusion of being an alien from another planet who lived for thousands of years. Jeffrey couldn’t wait to hear this man’s story. He opened his notebook.
“Hastelloy, would you do me a favor and tell your story, starting from the interesting part this time. You mentioned it all began in ancient Egypt, right?” Jeffrey prompted.
“I did mention Egypt, but my story gets interesting far earlier than that. If you’ll indulge me, I’ll begin my story out among the stars,” Hastelloy said as he eased back into his chair and settled in for the story to come.
Chapter 4: Am I Seeing Things?
Professor Russell had been excited to see the sonic density mapping results of the second and third pyramids, but neither turned up any new discoveries. His disappointment only lasted a moment though. All Brian needed to send his spirits back into the stratosphere was glance back at the first digital map and marvel at the four newly discovered chambers.
“Just for good measure, let’s have a look at the Sphinx. I doubt we’ll find anything since it’s well documented the sphinx was carved out of an existing rock formation rather than built from the ground up like the pyramids. We’ve already had four surprises today though so why not try for five?” Professor Russell chuckled.
The results of the study were already beyond anything he could have imagined. Finding just one chamber would have been a magnificent discovery, but four was completely off the charts. It dwarfed even Howard Carter’s unearthing of King Tut’s tomb in 1922.
As the computer generated a relief map of the Sphinx the professor’s jaw dropped open with amazement. Had he been a cartoon character, his tongue would have rolled out across the floor for a passerby to trip over. There was a large 10-foot by 30 foot room right in the middle of the monolith’s body. Not only that, there was a tunnel leading to the chamber. The mysterious passage went down about three hundred feet and then moved in a straight line toward Cairo’s city center.
“Please tell me I’m not the only one seeing this. Another room, and a way into it,” the professor stammered. “Can . . . can the helicopter follow that tunnel to its source without ground receptors in place?”
After what seemed like an eternity, Alex finally snapped out of her trance. “Yes. It can track the density difference, but it can’t create an image.”
“Who cares about a computer picture of the thing, I want to know where to find the entrance so I can get in there and see it for myself. My God, this is incredible!” Professor Russell exclaimed.
“Frank, track that density differential to its source,” Alex ordered into the microphone.
“All right, let me hang a bed sheet out the window so the wind can catch it and turn me in the right direction,” Frank responded over the radio. “I swear to God this airship must have been built by the Vikings . . . Hail Mary mother of grace . . .” Frank’s voice crackled and trailed off into the background as he continued his complaining.
While they waited for Frank to follow the tunnel, Professor Russell stood and faced the observer from the Egyptian Organization of Antiquities. The usually talkative old man had remained eerily silent for the past half hour and it concerned Brian. Was the director suffering from a state o
f shock?
“Dr. Andre. Are you all right?” Professor Russell asked. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“You will have to excuse me professor,” Dr. Andre finally managed. “I have been at this a very, very long time and I never thought this day would come.”
The almost distressed look on the good doctor’s face soon morphed into a bright smile. The transformation was completed with an enthusiastic clap of the hands. “I have never been so happy to be proven so wrong. Congratulations to both of you. How long do you think until we hear back from Frank?”
“Not long,” Alex replied.
Ten painfully slow minutes passed before Frank radioed back. “I’ve pinpointed where the differential ends. The entrance is about three miles from the pyramids in the Garden City district of Cairo. It’s nestled somewhere among a cluster of warehouses.”
Alex immediately reached for the keys to the truck. “I’m driving.”
“Shotgun,” Professor Russell called.
“Now hold on just a minute,” Dr. Andre cautioned. “People own those warehouses. You cannot just go breaking into their property because you are curious. There are laws and procedures that need to be followed. There are people who must be notified.”
“You’re right. Professor Russell and I can’t do it alone, but the three of us could.” Alex suggested.
Before Dr. Andre could protest the professor added his thoughts on the matter. “We’re not necessarily talking about trespassing here. If it’s in the open we’re good to go. If the tunnel entrance is inside a building we can simply make up a story and ask the occupants if we can have a look around.”
“And what if they do not buy this hypothetical cover story?” Dr. Andre challenged. “If the occupant knows their building conceals a secret entrance to a tunnel that has been hidden for who knows how long, I am quite certain they will not be receptive to random visitors.”
“It doesn’t hurt to drive three miles to find out,” the professor concluded. Dr. Andre could only nod in agreement. “To be frank though, if we’re told to get lost I am not above trespassing.
Dr. Andre seemed upset at Professor Russell’s criminal side and was about to vocalize his feelings when Alex jumped back into the conversation. “Going through official channels could take months or years. That’d give whoever owns that entrance time to block us. For all we know they’re connected well enough in the government to fend off our requests indefinitely. We need to act now before any adversaries have time to prepare. This is too important.”
Professor Russell didn’t wait for further discussion. He grabbed the microphone off the desk. “Frank. I need you to document the precise coordinates of the tunnel entrance and transmit them to my GPS device. Oh, and we don’t want to draw too much attention to this just yet so return to the airstrip once we have the coordinates. Nothing says we’re onto you like a hovering helicopter overhead.”
“By God those are the sweetest words I have ever heard spoken. Forget kissing the ground when I land, I am going full out make love to it.” Frank proclaimed.
Considering the plan a go, Professor Russell and Alex walked toward the tent door. “Now let’s gather some tools and get in the truck - quickly.”
Dr. Andre stood motionless for a few seconds. The distressed look on his face was back. “I concede your point that we need to act fast and keep this information confined to a limited circle; however, what if something happens to us over there? This discovery might be lost.”
“Frank will know and be able to tell the story.”
“Right. Well as much as I love having that foulmouthed clown as my backup plan I am afraid my answer is still no,” Dr Andre challenged.
All was silent in the tent for a set of heartbeats before Alex piped up with a compromise. “Here’s how I see it. The professor and I are concerned about not letting anyone else know about the chamber just yet. Your concern is someone needs to know in case anything bad happens. Right?”
“Right,” Dr. Andre and the professor responded in stereo.
“How about this,” Alex continued as she pointed toward Dr. Andre. “Your boss is out of town until next week. Why don’t you leave him a voice mail detailing what we’ve found? If the three of us are successful today, there’ll be no harm done. Otherwise the information will reach your organization when he returns to the office.”
“That will be satisfactory,” Dr. Andre said as he flipped open his cell phone and began dialing.
Professor Russell leaned into his assistant so only she could hear. “I think you just earned that pay raise you’ve been asking me about.”
Chapter 5: Betrayal
Dr. Holmes sat across from his patient waiting for the man to begin his delusional tale. He resisted the urge to tap the eraser end of his pencil against the note pad as the silent seconds dragged on. The story would come when the patient was ready.
“First things first,” Hastelloy finally began, “I believe I owe you an honest introduction. I am Hastelloy, Captain of the star ship Lazarus or at least I was until our crash landing on this planet over 4,000 years ago. My home world is located approximately 26,000 light years from earth, and resides very close to the center of the Milky Way galaxy.”
“Wow, you don’t waste any time do you,” Jeffrey said trying to buy himself some time to process the dump truck load of information that just clobbered him over the head.
“You indicated earlier your time was valuable, I was just trying to be considerate.”
“Let me start off by asking how you wound up on Earth?” Jeffrey enquired. “What could possibly be so interesting about our planet that brings you half way across the galaxy to see it?”
“Answering how we got here is a lesson in technological advancement,” Hastelloy began. “My people, the Novi, took to the stars 50,000 years ago. At first they did it much the same way humans have over the last 100 years, using rudimentary rockets and liquid hydrogen fuel.
“Regrettably, I wasn’t alive to witness those heroic days of first flight for my people,” Hastelloy said with a solemn voice. His tone perked up noticeably as he continued. “Gratefully, my time here on earth gave me a second chance. The bravery that your first astronauts displayed was almost beyond comprehension, especially the Apollo flights.
“I took for granted our technology of using self contained gravity fields to lift off from a planet’s surface and break free into outer space. The first humans into space had to; quite literally, strap themselves to a fifteen-story building loaded to the bulkheads with highly explosive fuel. Then they set the fuel ablaze and hoped the explosive reaction could be directed properly to propel the rocket hundreds of miles vertically. Then they entered a place devoid of even the most basic elements needed to sustain life; namely oxygen. It’s been an honor and a privilege to witness such valor.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Jeffrey said. “I read somewhere the computers used to run the Apollo moon landing missions had about as much computing capability as your typical microwave oven does today. Remarkable,” Dr. Holmes added while shaking his head in disbelief.
“As time passed the Novi got better at space travel,” Hastelloy continued. “The ships grew bigger, safer and, most importantly, faster. Eventually it was concluded the Novi needed to explore beyond our solar system. At first we launched small probes that left the system at crawling speeds.
“Twenty thousand years later we pushed out with ships traveling near light speed velocity. The travelers passed up the probes launched in the early days and kept on going. Colony ships were sent out soon after.”
“So earth is to eventually become a colony for the Novi?” Jeffrey asked, trying to feign mild alarm with his question to show belief in the story. The doubting look on the patient’s face let him know he failed miserably in the attempt.
“No, not at all,” Hastelloy said fighting back a chuckle at Jeffrey’s poor acting ability. “Any sentient species we discover are cataloged and left alone to develop on their own. T
here are strict rules against cultural contamination. Not just rules, they are unbreakable regulations created through hard lessons learned during first contact with the Alpha.”
“Who are the Alpha?” Jeffrey asked. “Do they have a cousin named Omega to round off the Greek Alphabet?”
“You really think the Greeks came up with that on their own,” Hastelloy challenged with a soft smile before continuing. “My crew stumbled upon your planet completely by accident after a battle with the Alpha, so they are probably the best place to start my story.”
The patient lifted his hands above his head and extended his fingers. “In all, ten colony worlds were founded.” He lowered his left hand and closed his right fist with the exception of his index finger still pointing upward.
“One of those early ships was commanded by Captain Diaz, and events didn’t unfold as they should have causing tragic consequences for countless worlds,” Hastelloy said as he lowered his hand to rest lazily on his lap.
Dr. Holmes shifted to the side in his seat but was careful to keep eye contact with the patient. The story was going to be complete nonsense of course, but it would be interesting at least. He made sure to take meticulous notes to use when contradictions invariably surfaced.
**********
“Why are they called the Alpha?” Ensign Tomen asked his commanding officer.
“Because they were the first sentient race the Novi discovered,” Lieutenant Scoren replied in a lazy voice. “Since then the council has alphabetically named each species discovered.
“How long has it been since we detected the last transmission from their world?” Tomen went on.
Fighting back a yawn Scoren replied nonchalantly, “Over 1,000 years, why do you ask?”
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