Earth Before Man

by Allan E Petersen

Kirk replied,

  “She eventually will but right now stubbornness will not accept defeat.”

  Maria understood and said,

  “So she is stubborn is she?”

  “Oh yeah!”

  Standing at the mouth of the newly discovered cave, Maria stood stunned to the core with eyes wide. Kirk said,

  “Amazing isn’t it?’

  After a deep recovery breath, she said,

  “I guess this place is much more than just a military hospital isn’t it?”

  Kirk nodded and said,

  “Yup, my guess is that it’s probably one of many fortifications scattered throughout what was then the Anannaki war zone.”

  She asked,

  “How many are there?”

  “Nine.”

  “Do you know how they operate?”

  “No, but I called in an expert on that sort of thing. He is in there somewhere.”

  As she stepped into the adjoining cave, she said,

  “We could sure use some of these babies in our arsenal.”

  She was looking at nine space ships lined up as if for an inspection. Three were much larger than their D-wings and she wondered how they could have gotten them in here. She said,

  “They are much too large to get through the entry water tunnel. We really must find that other entry point.

  Kirk responded,

  “No. We did some laser measuring and found that although a tight squeeze, the larger ones could really fit into the tunnel.”

  “Are they equipped with a camouflage program?”

  “We don’t know yet, our resident expert on that sort of thing is still trying to figure it out. However, as you can see the three larger ones are fully armed with what we presume are guided missiles.”

  Looking around the cave, she saw the standard paraphernalia associated with the maintenance of an airborne fleet. Hoses were dangling overhead suspended by a lattice of steel beams. The floor was crowded with steel carts filled with strange tools. Not seeing what she was really looking for, she asked,

  “Where is this alien technology expert? I would like a chat with him.”

  Kirk then yelled out a name she did not want to hear. True, he was an expert in gravity waves and field modulations pertaining to their D-wings and clearly the right man to figure out this new technology. She was just hoping that it might have been somebody else. He stepped out between two crafts, looked around and with a snarky tone yelled,

  “Who is calling me? I’m a busy man.”

  Approaching, he looked at Maria and then to Kirk. It was a gruff question,

  “Who is this woman?”

  She decided now would be a good time for a lesson in the House of the Nazarene hierarchy. She looked to Kirk and said,

  “Why don’t you tell him who I am?”

  Kirk seemed please to enlighten the argumentative and cantankerous old man. However, before starting, he remembered that she did not like to be introduced by her full title of Professor Espinoza. Instead he pointed and said,

  “This is your boss, Maria Espinoza, head of the House of the Nazarene. By her good graces, she is the one who funds your Swiss laboratory.”

  It did not seem to work. Maintaining his snippy airs, keeping his piercing eyes on Kirk, he shrugged his shoulders and said,

  “I’m still a busy man. What do you want?”

  Not wanting to get into a pissing contest with him, Maria ignored a personality he probably could not control anyway and politely said,

  “I would like you to walk me through the space crafts. Tell me why there are three different types and sizes here.”

  He seemed to have settled somewhat, sounding more civilized. Perhaps he was starting to understand the politics of needing to be nice to those who control the funding. He said,

  “They are not all Anannaki ships.”

  She cut in,

  “So, have we established that this is an Anannaki stronghold?”

  Because she still needed Anannaki DNA, she was hoping the answer was going to be affirmative. However,

  “No. I simply referred to them in that manner because everybody around here wants to believe it is.”

  Kirk was kinder to her hopes, adding,

  “It is all circumstantial but yes, everything points to it.”

  She pointed to the space crafts and said to Dr. Marls,

  “Why don’t you tell me what you have learned so far?”

  As she walked past him and to the first craft, she curtly added,

  “And don’t tell me you are a busy man again.”

  At the first one in line, one of the bigger ones, Dr. Marls pointed and said,

  “As you can see, this particular type is larger than the others. If indeed this were an Anannaki stronghold, then yes, this would belong to them. I’m calculating that on the size of the tables out in the main cave against the volume inside the cockpit.”

  She saw a metallic craft in composition and color looking more like a giant silver egg. It was very reminiscent of Zak Zanders description of what the Mahabharata described as vimanas or flying machines of the Great Earth War. The Mahabharata reported that vimanas could fire lightning bolts from the clouds to the ground. Judging from the ordnances hanging underneath she understood the possibility of them being the weapons of war belonging to the Anannaki.

  Pointing to the missiles she asked,

  “Are they active?”

  Dr. Marls responded,

  “Caution is being exercised although we don’t know for sure yet, I suspect they are.”

  She added,

  “The Mahabharata report on these things was that they are atomic bombs. Get equipment in here that can register the radiation levels.”

  Dr. Marls tried to sound pleasant but he was not good at it. He said,

  “I already did. They will be here soon.”

  Marching over to three different ones, she asked,

  “And these strange looking ones?”

  She was looking at three metallic cigar shaped spacecraft. There were no windows and no apparent doors, just one large single piece of a metallic looking cigar.

  For the first time Dr. Marls looked like he might have some softness to him after all. He sounded overcome.

  “Well, we don’t really know what they are. They are so different from the others that I wonder why they are here in a hangar filled with space crafts.”

  Kirk reached over to one of the nearby tables and took hold of a long steel rod. He said,

  “What he is trying to say is that they do not belong to anything we might consider appropriate to our physical laws.”

  Dr. Marls again found his snarky ways and rudely interjected,

  “I just said that.”

  With steel rod in hand, Kirk walked up to the odd spacecraft and poked at what appeared to be the shell of the craft. Maria was surprised to see the steel tip sink into the shell as if it were jelly. Reaction waves rippled through the shell from stem to stern. Suddenly the steel rod was ripped from his hand and quickly pulled into the craft to disappear into goodness knows what other world. Maria stood stunned. Just before he poked it with the steel rod, she was going to reach out and touch it. She voiced the obvious,

  “I guess we better not go anywhere near whatever these things are till we figure them out huh?”

  Kirk nodded his approval of a good suggestion.

  Standing back and pondering the mystery, it soon enough came to her that there was no way conventional science was going to figure this out, at least right now. She turned to Kirk and ordered,

  “Put a rope around these three. Nobody is to come near them until we bring in proper people to look at it.”

  He nodded and left to obey. When she turned back to Dr. Marls, she saw that he had taken a dangerous step closer to the still rippling shell, his nose only a foot or so away from it. He seemed mesmerized by the mystery. Afraid that curiosity would get the best of him, she snapped,

  “I told you to get away from that thing
.”

  It was a slow compliance of the order, almost as if he was questioning the value of it. It was only when she punctuated the order with a stern “Now!” that he started to slowly back away. As if to deter what he thought was going to be a severe reprimand, he quickly pointed to the base of the craft and changed the subject.

  “Notice they are floating. None are touching the floor. They seem to be out of phase, perhaps interdimensional crafts.”

  Just then, as if saved by the bell, Kirk returned with rope and got busy roping off a danger zone.

  The other three spacecraft were easy to identify. They were old models of their D-wings. Clearly, the Great Grays must have somehow been involved with the Great Earth War as either allies or enemies of the Anannaki. They were either here to be armed or perhaps captured crafts. It was only then that she realized, like most wars, there were probably allies and enemies. Many alien tribes probably took sides for reasons of ideology or survival. Because the Age of Aliens on Earth seemed to end after the Great Earth War, she realized there was probably no winner to this one. Whatever the result, it was clear that at least the Anannaki and Great Grays survived. Clearly, the Sky People did not.

  She pointed to one of the antiquated D-wings and said to Kirk,

  “That one has an open cockpit, see if it is operational?”

  Only too glad to respond, he enthusiastically jumped in. Like their Great Gray D-wings, these three were testimony to the Grays being a diminutive race. As Kirk climbed in, it was a snug fit. He yelled out to her,

  “The controls are the same.”

  He then activated the anti-matter power unit and everything lit up. Gentle at the controls, he slowly lifted it off the ground. Putting it back down, he reported,

  “It looks operational.”

  She then said,

  “We need them in our diminished fleet.”

  As Kirk jumped out, she continued,

  “Transfer our updated programs into this computer and have Otto fly them to our laboratory in Switzerland for a refit.”

  Dr. Marls added,

  “And get them to download the Events Program. I want to see where they have been and maybe what the Anannaki were doing with them.”

  Still upset with him, she did not want to commend him on a great idea, instead she only nodded her approval of the suggestion to Kirk.

  Back in the main cave, Maria called Kirk to her side and whispered,

  “I have an important mission for you and Jessika. Can you two tear yourselves away from here for maybe just a couple of hours later on?”

  Although failing to understand what could be more important than this, she sounded serious and so he nodded.

  “Good,” she said, “both of you come to the mansion at 17:30.”

  She then added,

  “I have to go now and prepare for the meeting so get one of your pilots to give me a lift back and returned for your use.”

  After seeing Maria and the D-wing slip into the watery tube, Kirk walked over to Jessika and told her what Maria had said about an important mission. She swiped a disobedient strand from her eyes and said,

  “Yes I know, we have to be at the mansion at 5:30.”

  Still confused, he asked a most natural question. “Why?”

  “Oh, did I forget to tell you? It’s Belle’s birthday and we have been invited.”

  She saw his stunned expression and thought it was for the wrong reason. Hoping to clear it up, she added,

  “Don’t worry about a present. I already got her one.”

  With Maria sitting in the passenger seat, Henrik Anderson, their Flight Controller, steered the D-wing out of the tube and into the lake. She looked to him and said,

  “So you have been promoted to a shuttle service now have you?”

  Clearly he was not happy with what he deemed a demotion and said,

  “Yes, I guess so. With all this activity, flying back and forth transporting scientists in and out of here, there is a shortage of D-wings.”

  She tried to sound consolatory,

  “Well, with any luck we will soon have more D-wings for you to look after.”

  As they splashed out of the lake, sending a plume of water high, Professor Barton Asker put his binoculars down and reached for his notepad. Across the field, Adem put his binoculars down and reached for his notepad. Again, identical times were entered in different notepads. Although the House of the Nazarene rule was for all D-wings to be camouflaged when in close proximity to human habitation, none of the pilots had yet to figure out the flaw in what they thought to be an invisible entry and exit from the lake. Adem crossed the field and approached Inspector Buruk who was still swearing at his Russian cigarettes.

  Chapter 39

  Leaving Liana and Quastima to their argument of who was chewing on sugar root and fibbing the most, Santo climbed back into his D-wing and set the co-ordinates for Bulgaria and the House of the Nazarene. As he cleared the Amazon jungle just approaching the Atlantic Ocean, he had to shake his head at those two. Somehow it was reassuring to discover that even though they were the last Sky People on this planet and possibly in the universe, they were not that much different than those struggling to maintain a relationship anywhere else. Perhaps there is hope after all.

  Now over the Atlantic, there was another reason to feel that it had been a good day for accomplishments. He was returning with information needed to erase the intrusive code in human DNA mysteriously deleted from what Zak referred to as the Great Gray Rosetta book. Now, all Maria needed to save humanity was a comparative DNA from the illusive Anannaki. He felt good because he knew where to get that.

  ***

  Edward was a representative of the mysterious House of the Second Creation, a secret organization more powerful than the House of the Nazarene even before the attack. It was their contention that after the first creation of Adam and Eve and their following descendants, God was not pleased with the results. It was time to start anew. After the flood, which was a cleansing of sorts of the first creation, God again created man, a better man.

  Those of the second creation greatly feared the few savage survivors of the purging. They were feared for their willingness and desire to settle disputes and arguments by killing. The great love of war and multiple gods were just some of the reasons the peace loving Second Creation hid from them. Because the Second Creation lived by the rules of God, they became superior to the barbarians.

  Through the following generations, those of the Second Creation took it upon themselves to protect and conceal other creations feared and discriminated against by the first creation. Two years ago, Edward, along with the House of the Second Creation became cautious allies of the House of the Nazarene when Maria and Santo went to great lengths, indeed risking their lives to help the House of the Second Creation. A short time after that, Edward took it upon himself to hide Maria and her family from the wrath of the Duchess. Santo and Maria discovered that the House of the Second Creation was also sheltering giants and fairies.

  Although not wanting to merge with the House of the Nazarene, Edward saw advantages in associating with Santo and Maria. Regardless of differing principles, two leaders of two powerful organizations were tolerant enough of each other to be trusted friends.

  ***

  As Santo continued flying over the middle of the Atlantic, he reached over to the passenger seat for his backpack. Ignoring his security blanket, the holstered AK BASIC handgun, he instead opened a flap and pulled out a strange looking coin. As testimony to the technological advancement of the Second Creation and their secret ways, the coin was a sophisticated communication device. Santo activated it according to Edward’s instructions by squeezing it tight between thumb and forefinger.

  After rubbing it again, he grew confused about why there was no response. The few other times that he contacted the House of the Second Creation, Edward responded right away. Finally, after another excessively hard rub, he heard,

  “Yes Captain, I heard you the first
time. You will have to forgive the delay. Things are a little chaotic here. Are you calling me to report an incident with black spirits?”

  Black spirits? Stunned to silence, Santo did not know how to respond. Because of his delay, Edward came back saying,

  “I gather that you have no idea what I am talking about and by that I assume you have not been cyber attacked.”

  Still confused, Santo confessed,

  “Yes we have. Just the other day we had important data erased in the most unusual manner. Looking at my security tape I saw ---,”

  Edward abruptly stopped him, saying,

  “This is a conversation for face to face. My tracker shows you flying over the mid-Atlantic. Is that correct?”

  His reply was bland, of course it was correct.

  “You know it is.”

  “Yes of course we know. I will send you a GPS location in Greece. I will meet you there in a few minutes and then we can talk freely.”

  Through the power of the House of the Second Creation, a new location was entered into Santo’s D-wing computer. He then directed it to accept the new course. After a subtle change in direction, he was now on his way to meet with Edward somewhere in Greece. Because the communication link between them was of the highest security level, Santo knew something of a grave matter was up. The D-wing communication system was routed through three mini-satellites and filtered through three random alternating channels. He had no idea of the House of the Second Creation secure channels but he had to believe that it had something to do with their Universal Vibration Processors. Who on Earth was Edward so afraid of that he would not discuss an important matter through a secure communication link unequaled on this planet?