by Sesh Heri
This was the last voice transmission of Amelia Earhart’s that was picked up by the Itasca that morning of July 2nd, 1937. At 9:00 am Commander Warner K. Thompson of the Itasca assumed that Earhart’s fuel supply had run out and that she had crashed in the ocean. This launched the largest sea-and-air rescue in history. At one “need-to-know” level, all appeared to be going according to a carefully prepared script. Earhart had transmitted messages of confusion and desperation and had then failed to land on Howland Island. The implication was obvious to all uninformed observers: Amelia Earhart had become lost above the South Pacific, run out of fuel, and had crashed into the sea. At a higher, informed level of knowledge, the implications of Earhart’s actions were very different: she had not become lost, but had secretly landed on an aircraft carrier positioned north of Howland Island. At yet a higher, above-top secret level of knowledge there were no implications, only direct, indisputable knowledge: something had gone terribly wrong.
Only aboard the U.S.S. Cosmos, positioned in synchronous orbit 100 miles above the Hawaiian Islands, did anyone know what was actually happening to Amelia Earhart that morning of July 2nd, 1937.
At 4:24 am that morning, the radioman aboard the U.S.S. Cosmos received the following voice transmission from Amelia Earhart on the Tesla 2160 kilo-pulse waveband: “Passing over Jaluit Atoll, wearing nightvision. Large naval installation. We’re circling for photographs. Many warships. Will transmit again if we encounter any further ships on 2610 kilo-pulses.” Then at 8:48 am, only four minutes after sending her last radio message to the Itasca, Earhart’s voice crackled over the speakers of the U.S.S. Cosmos once again: “Japanese fighters approaching us from behind. We’re 200 miles from Howland Island, going into a cloud up ahead. See flashes of lightning inside of it.”
On board the U.S.S. Cosmos Nikola Tesla studied a map of the South Pacific appearing on a television screen. Glowing green lines on the screen represented concentrations of electromagnetic energy on the surface of the earth. A number of green lines were flashing back and forth across the South Pacific, all of them converging into an intersection at a point 200 miles northwest of Howland Island.
“That cloud she’s flying into,” Tesla said, “it’s not natural. It’s being created by a concentration of electrical energy being projected from two points: the island of Guadalcanal and southern Germany.”
“The Germans are on to us,” Admiral Nimitz said.
“They are,” Tesla said. “I fear they may destroy the Electra before the Japanese have a chance to shoot it down.”
“We read you on the cloud,” Admiral Nimitz said into the microphone, speaking to Amelia Earhart. “Don’t go into it. Repeat. Do not fly into the cloud. It is artificial.”
“We’re already inside,” Earhart’s voice said on the speaker next to Nimitz. “It’s lit up like noon in here. Such colors. They’re all spinning.”
“It’s an electro-gravitic torsion field,” Tesla said. “Tell her to fly away from it.”
“Fly out of the damned cloud! That’s an order!” Admiral Nimitz barked into the microphone.
“I can’t,” Amelia Earhart’s voice rose through a sudden rush of static. “I can’t turn the plane. All the controls are jammed.”
“Switch to anti-gravity!” Admiral Nimitz ordered.
“I’m already in the anti-grav mode,” Earhart replied, the static nearly drowning her voice. “We’re headed straight toward a pinwheel of light. We’re going into its center. We’re in it. We’re in a tunnel— a tunnel of light! I see…I see…another plane ahead. I’m approaching it. It’s…it’s an Electra model. It’s below. I can see its identification number. It reads NR16020— it’s a duplicate of our plane with the same number! Exactly like our plane!”
“What’s happening?” Admiral Nimitz snapped to Tesla.
“She’s entered a tear in the fabric of etheric space,” Tesla said. “That plane she is seeing is in a parallel space-time dimension. That other plane is the Electra— the Electra of another, separate universe.”
“The other plane is turning away to the north,” Earhart’s voice cracked over the speaker as the background static grew to a roar. “Now it just flew straight through the tunnel of light! I no longer see it— only a wall of light…and ahead…ahead I see… no…no…I don’t believe it! It can’t be! I see….”
Suddenly the interior of the U.S.S. Cosmos was struck with a thundering boom from the airship’s speakers— followed by complete silence. On the television screen, the point of light on the map indicating the position of the Electra northwest of Howland Island disappeared.
“Electra! Electra! Come in!” Admiral Nimitz shouted. There was no sound on the speakers. Admiral Nimitz looked up at Tesla.
“I think,” Tesla said, “that Amelia Earhart and her navigator have passed into another dimension— or perhaps have been converted into another form of energy.”
“Blown to vapor,” Nimitz said.
“Possibly,” Tesla replied.
“What about the second plane?” Admiral Nimitz asked.
Tesla said, “I am sure that the second plane is a parallel version of the Electra— our Electra— with a duplicate Earhart and Noonan aboard.”
“The duplicates are in our dimension now?” Admiral Nimitz asked.
Tesla nodded.
“Admiral!” one of the radiomen exclaimed. “All of the Guadalcanal data we received from the Electra has just disappeared from our computer’s memory banks. Look!”
Tesla and Admiral Nimitz went over to the computer console and peered over the radioman’s shoulder. On the television screen glowed the words: GUADALCANAL FILE DELETED.
“How— how could this have happened?” Admiral Nimitz asked.
“There was a constant wave link with the ship’s computer and the Electra’s transmitter,” Tesla said. “When the Electra entered the torsion field it sent a time-reversed wave back to the Cosmos that must have erased all the information in the computer.”
“Then we’ve lost all the data on Guadalcanal,” Admiral Nimitz said.
“All of it,” Tesla said. “and we won’t get it back until we get back our own Electra.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Her Empty Room Is Cold and Still
“The sound of her silk skirt has stopped.
On the marble pavement dust grows.
Her empty room is cold and still.
Fallen leaves are piled against the doors.
Longing for the lovely lady
How can I bring my aching heart to rest?”
Han Wu-ti, 157-87 B.C.
Sixth Emperor of the
Han dynasty
During the next four days after Amelia Earhart’s last radio transmission to the Coast Guard ship Itasca, Earhart continued to broadcast SOS signals that were picked up by radio operators throughout the world. But unknown to all but a few in the Majestic Seven organization, this Amelia Earhart who had continued to broadcast messages was a duplicate Earhart who had entered earth’s time and space through the eye of an electro-gravitic torsion field rotating in the skies two hundred miles northwest of Howland Island. The real Amelia Earhart had disappeared into the of the torsion field, producing an immense thunderclap of electro-gravitic energy. That wave of energy traveled faster than light, reached the U.S.S. Cosmos floating above the Hawaiian Islands, and there instantly erased the memory banks of the onboard computers. The airship had to be flown manually back to its secret base beneath Johnston Island for repairs. Tesla and several other key personnel were then flown aboard anti-gravity saucer craft back to Montauk Point on Long Island.
The duplicate Amelia Earhart from a parallel universe had emerged from the cloud containing the torsion field only to immediately confront the Japanese fighter planes. According to orders given to the Amelia Earhart of this universe, she was, upon encountering Japanese fighter planes, to jettison all classified equipment on board the Electra. This equipment was designed to drop from hinged bay doors camouflaged in the belly o
f the plane. The equipment included the Tesla pulse radio, the cameras, and top-secret components of the anti-gravity drive. After jettisoning all of this equipment, Earhart had been ordered to surrender to the Japanese, landing her plane, if possible, and maintaining her cover story that she was on a peaceful scientific expedition.
But the Amelia Earhart from a parallel universe did none of these things. Instead, she began a series of evasive maneuvers in and out of the clouds, trying to outdistance the Japanese fighter planes. One of the Japanese fighters began firing on the Electra, and before the duplicate Earhart could engage the Electra’s anti-gravity force field, the Electra’s left wing was ripped by machine gun fire. The damage to the left wing disabled the anti-gravity drive on the left side of the plane and threatened Earhart’s ability to control the plane in the conventional air supported flight mode. The duplicate Earhart began looking for a place to land. It was only now that she jettisoned the classified equipment into the sea. The Japanese fighters were close enough to see a trail of black specks drop from the belly of the Electra.
The duplicate Earhart was now flying from southeast to northwest away from Howland Island. In a moment, an atoll came into view far below on the horizon. The parallel Earhart made a circling descent toward the lone scrap of land rising above the sea. The Japanese fighter pilots, seeing the spiraling descent of the Electra, noted its position and flew off to report it to their command officers.
Down below, the duplicate Amelia Earhart brought in her Electra to the beach of the atoll, a long stretch of flat sand. As she made the final descent in her emergency landing, the duplicate Earhart glanced over to her left and saw that her left wing was flapping like the wing of a bird. She knew she only had seconds before the wing would snap off the plane. She looked back toward the beach ahead of her. The ground was coming up fast. She pulled up the Electra’s nose and felt the landing gear hit the sand. The duplicates of Earhart and Noonan were shaken inside the plane, but the duplicate Earhart held tight to the control yoke.
The beach was clear for three hundred yards ahead, but she was using that all up rapidly. The clear stretch of beach terminated with a tangle of rocks and palm trees.
The duplicate Earhart slowed the plane, her hand gripping tight the control yoke, her eyes riveted to the ground before her. Then her view started to turn to the right. She flashed a glance to the left and saw that her left wing was gone; she could just see a blurred view of the ground rushing by. Back to the front she glanced to see the ocean coming up at her.
The duplicate Electra jolted back, and then a wave of water struck the plane. The duplicate Earhart had just landed her plane in a sweeping emergency maneuver on the beach of the atoll. The last two hundred feet of the landing had been made with only the right wing, turning the plane toward the ocean at a right angle to the beach. The left wing had snapped away in the last moments of the landing and now lay back up on the beach crumpled and bullet-riddled near the water’s edge.
The duplicate Earhart was uninjured. She climbed over the fuel tanks and found the duplicate Fred Noonan bleeding from a bullet wound. She applied first aid to him and then began transmitting emergency messages on the conventional Hertzian 6210 and 3105 kilocycles: “SOS…SOS…SOS…SOS…northwest unknown island 177 longitude…quite down, but radio still working…battery very weak…don’t know how long we can hold out…we are O.K. but a little wet…calling 3105 kilocycles…. Give me a long call KHAQQ…. Plane on cay northwest Howland Island…both O.K. one wing broken. Bearing 337…58 minutes above equator L.A.T…. Island 133 acres…must be a new one.”
The “island 133 acres” was a code to Majestic Seven which signified that all of the classified equipment aboard the Electra had been jettisoned into the sea.
The duplicate Amelia Earhart continued to broadcast from her downed plane for the next four days, utilizing both dash signals and voice. Her messages were received by numerous radio operators around the world, but kept secret through the censorship of the western allied governments accompanied with public denials and the suppressive force of ridicule. Neither the Americans nor the Japanese governments wanted the greater world to know that Amelia Earhart was alive and that her position had been located. The airships of the United States Space Force, under Presidential orders, kept clear of the South Pacific. FDR did not want an escalation in conflict with German at this time.
On July 5th, 1937, a Japanese shore patrol boat from the seaplane tender Kamoi approached the beach where the duplicates of Earhart and Noonan waited in their Electra. As the shore patrol boat approached, the duplicate Earhart watched it through binoculars and described it in detail. She described the officer in command of the boat, how his many decorations flashed in the sun. “He must at least be an admiral,” the duplicate Earhart observed. These were the last words broadcast over radio by the duplicate Amelia Earhart.
On this same day of July 5th, 1937, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt convened a Majestic Seven conference in the Map Room of the White House. During this conference, it was decided that the search for Amelia Earhart would continue and that they would maintain diplomatic silence concerning Earhart’s capture by the Japanese. Knowledge that the Japanese had captured a duplicate Earhart from a parallel dimension was given the highest level of security classification. The one limit in the extent of the search in the Pacific was the stipulation that all ships and planes were to stay well out of the Marshall Islands. It was determined that some intelligence value could be salvaged out of Project Electra, but it was realized that the Project was now only a shadow of the intelligence gathering that had been expected by the Seven. Bernard Baruch was particularly glum sitting at the conference table, for he had taken a personal interest in Amelia Earhart, and had high hopes for her, but now those hopes were dashed. A duplicate Earhart from a parallel universe could never be trusted and utilized as the real Amelia Earhart had been. Majestic Seven’s policy position was that Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan and their plane Electra had disappeared without a trace. Majestic Seven formulated a response to any informal high-level inquiry into the real fate of Amelia Earhart. They decided that should any of Earhart’s family or friends press for information concerning her, the President’s cabinet would intimate that Earhart had disobeyed orders, and that it was best, for the sake of her reputation, to not release any information about what had really happened to her. As in all Majestic Seven actions, this policy position was a sophisticated integration of fact and falsehood. While the real Amelia Earhart had not disobeyed orders, the duplicate Earhart from a parallel universe had. That is, the duplicate Earhart had disobeyed the command orders issued in this universe. It was unclear to Majestic Seven whether the duplicate Earhart disobeyed her own orders or was following different orders given to her by her commanders in her own universe. In any case, the appearance of disobedience was enough to give credibility to Majestic Seven’s claims. Disobedience of orders was a plausible explanation— and an explanation that would guarantee the silence of all her family and friends.
But Nikola Tesla knew the full truth. He knew that the real Amelia Earhart had flown into an electro-gravitic torsion field and had been swallowed up in it. Could anyone survive such a catastrophe? Several scientists, including Albert Einstein, attempted to calculate the result of entering the center of a torsion field. While certain variables in the equations were uncertain, such as the level of electrical power at the center of the field, the general consensus was that no one could survive such a thing. Tesla, however, reminded everyone that Earhart had described something like a tunnel, an eye in the electrical hurricane. Tesla asked: If that eye persisted long enough, could humans in an airplane fly all the way through it before it collapsed? Apparently, the duplicate Electra had done this very thing in entering this universe. Could the real Electra have done the same thing— flown into a parallel universe— before the tunnel closed? This question no one could answer with certainty.
There the matter rested for many days.
On the sixteenth day of the search for Amelia Earhart, only minutes before it was to be called off, Nikola Tesla, sitting in his laboratory at the Hotel New Yorker, picked up a voice transmission on the 2160 kilopulse longitudinal waveband. The voice belonged to Amelia Earhart:
“SOS…SOS…SOS…SOS…calling 2160 kilopulses…I am just out of the tunnel of light…I see land below…brilliantly lit…no sea…no water…sky is brilliant blue…a circular cloud keeps pace with us…surrounds us… it is…”
Earhart’s voice faded into a haze of static and then cut off.
“Earhart from Tesla…Tesla calling NR16020…I read you on 2160 kilopulses…come in…can you transmit your position?”
The speaker emitted only static. Tesla waited several hours by the receiving set until he fell asleep in his chair.
The next morning Tesla awoke to the continued sound of static. He reached over and switched off the receiver. He then rose, and went out of his apartment and saw that his newspaper, usually left in front of his door, had not yet been delivered. He went down the hall, down the elevator, out into the lobby, and out on to the sidewalk in front of his building.