Covert Alliance

When the moderator noted that the university auditorium had filled to capacity, she asked a technician at the back of the hall to slowly dim the lights. As she had hoped, the many loud and excited conversations in the two-hundred-person amphitheatre gradually tapered-off.

After a few minutes, when only the stage at the front and lower end of the hall were illuminated, only a few whispers could be heard. As the moderator slowly made her way down the darkened central aisle, and up the front stairs to the stage, even the whispering came to an end.

The moderator was an attractive, middle-aged woman, with olive-coloured skin, and short, curly hair that she had fashionably dyed a trendy shade of light purple.

When the moderator reached the podium, she took a few moments to look around. She smiled as she tried to survey the audience seated before her within the darkened amphitheatre. Then some people started clapping, and a few people even rose to their feet to clap loudly.

The moderator pointed and waved at a few people that were seated in the front row. She had recognised the Minister of Science and Technology, Doctor Abdul O’Shea. Then she gasped and clapped her hands above her head with a laugh when she also noted the presence of General Jorge Kepler. He was sitting with his arms crossed near Doctor O’Shea.

General Kepler had been an outspoken critic of the evening’s topic of discussion, the ‘Second Continent Pyramid Project’. No one, including the moderator, had expected to see anyone from the security forces at this elite gathering of scientists.

The moderator was pleased that she could not make out any reporters in the audience. She concluded they must either be sitting towards the back of the hall, or they had been unable to finagle a way into the hall. Members of the media had not been formally invited of course, because the government had unfortunately attached a ‘Top Secret’ classification to the university’s research project.

The moderator adjusted the height of the microphone on the podium in front of her. Then she smiled broadly, and said in a strong, clear, soprano voice, “Welcome everyone! For those who may not know me, I am Doctor Sita Mugabe, Dean of Anthropology at Abubakar University, here in First Town, Prime Continent.

“It is my honour this evening to introduce our featured speaker, and in fact our only speaker tonight, the distinguished and always controversial Professor Gunter Rabinowitz!

“Doctor Rabinowitz has recently returned from four months of intensive archaeological research in the vast and dangerous interior wilderness of Second Continent. As everyone knows, Second Continent is far away in the southern hemisphere on the other side of New Earth. A few human settlements on Second Continent have been established around the coast, however the interior region remains a true wilderness area, which is still only accessible by aircraft, or more accurately, by helicopters.

“Many of you might be surprised to hear that there was once a small native, or rather genetically-modified, hominid population on Second Continent! We believe that the infamous and alien ‘Masters’ of our antiquity had probably established one or two coastal plantations on the continent thousands of years ago. And we know that the Masters used slave labour in their otherwise very advanced agricultural and industrial endeavours.

“About one hundred and twelve years ago, with our assistance, the last remaining Second Continent hominids chose to resettle on Third Continent, that we also call North Continent. It is an arctic and sub-arctic place, but it is still very rich in wildlife. They moved there together with all of the other members of their noble species, from all over New Earth. Together, they now manage their own affairs. To protect their more primitive culture, our intercourse with them is restricted to rather infrequent, barter-based trade. But our relationship with them has always been peaceful, and we believe mutually beneficial.

“Now, to return to the topic of tonight’s lecture and discussion, we expect what you will hear will generate a lot of questions. We will be fielding those questions at the end of Doctor Rabinowitz’s presentation. So please, I ask you to let Doctor Rabinowitz speak without interruption until he tells us he is finished!

“Then, as your moderator, I will manage the question and answer session. If you raise your hand, I will point at you. Then you will tell us who you are, and then you may ask your question. You may ask only one question, as we want to give everyone here tonight a chance to directly engage with Doctor Rabinowitz.

“And now, with the introduction and administrative formalities now completed, please join me in welcoming this evening’s very special guest speaker, the renowned and greatly esteemed, Professor Gunter Rabinowitz!” The moderator then sat down on a wooden chair that was positioned about ten metres to the right of the podium, and she immediately focused her attention on the audience. During the long introduction, Doctor Rabinowitz had been impatiently pacing around in the left wing of the stage behind a curtain. As he suddenly appeared and quickly made his way over to the podium in the centre of the stage, everyone could see that he was small in stature, but obviously very fit. He looked a lot younger than his sixty-two years. He had a perpetually tanned face, a meticulously trimmed grey beard, and rather longish, very straight, grey hair that he only tied in a ponytail for formal gatherings like this one.

When the professor reached the podium, the audience responded with a mixture of polite clapping, a few cheers, a few boos and even a few obscene catcalls. Most people remained sitting, and most people were embarrassed to hear a few people high up at the back of the hall yelling their obscenities.

Doctor Rabinowitz took a moment to survey the audience just as the moderator had done. He recognised many people sitting close to the stage. He simply smiled back at everyone as the noise in the hall gradually subsided. Then he had a quick glance at his prepared notes that he had placed on the podium in front of him, and began his presentation. His voice was surprisingly deep and gravely for a relatively small man. It instantly commanded attention.

“Welcome, both fans and critics alike!” Doctor Rabinowitz yelled with a laugh, with his fists tightly clenched and his muscular arms stretched straight out from his sides. Some people at the back of the hall yelled back with fresh insults as he then repositioned his notes. Doctor Rabinowitz firmly grasped the sides of the podium in his usual manner when delivering a lecture. Then he boomed, “As you can clearly see, I’m back! And miraculously, I’m still in one piece!

“That may surprise some people. And I can sense that my obvious survival disappoints a few people here tonight, especially the rather passionate and vocal group of critics that I cannot see at the back of this fine hall.

“My critics seem to be mostly upset with the cost of my expedition, viewing it as a complete waste of intellectual talent and scarce resources. Well, perhaps we can check in with them again at the end of my presentation to see if their negative and cynical opinions have changed?

“Some of you will remember that about eight years ago, I published a paper that revealed some mysterious aspects surrounding the mammoth stone pyramid that is located in the central jungle area of Second Continent. I wrote that paper just after making my first visit to the site. I used my own funds for that venture, by the way, with only a modest endowment from the university. Tonight, I will start by reviewing some of these mysterious aspects, to help set the context for our more recent and frankly more alarming discoveries.

“We believe that the pyramid is the only ancient megalithic structure on New Earth. In fact, we have found no other prehistoric stone structures of any kind on our adopted planet, anywhere. But of course, these structures could in fact exist. They could be just hidden from our view by say a jungle, or by a covering of glacial detritus, or even by the ocean. And if so, I am sure that in time, we will find all of them. After all, we are a species driven by our curiosity!

“When I wrote the paper, only the top fifteen metres or so of the one-hundred-and five-metre-tall pyramid could be seen above the thick jungle canopy. We know now that the base of the pyramid is in fact sixteen metres below the present-day forest floor. It is set on stable bedrock, which means the pyramid itself is very stable.

“By examining and analysing the natural organic material that has accumulated around the pyramid, we estimated that it has been there for at least one hundred and twenty-four thousand New Earth years!

“The sides of the pyramid are very steep. In fact, they are at a precise sixty degree angle to the horizontal. The pyramid is also precisely oriented with its four base corners pointing to the cardinal directions relative to the axis of spin of New Earth.

“The pyramid is glossy black in colour, because it is made of a very hard, igneous and basaltic-type rock. Furthermore, the surface of the pyramid has been uniformly vitrified, also with impressive precision, using some sort of intense heat application process. It is as smooth as obsidian or volcanic glass, and the seams between the stone blocks have been fused into near invisibility. Therefore, the pyramid cannot be climbed by human beings without special equipment, such as devices that use suction cups. And to add to the many research challenges, the pyramid is in the middle of a jungle filled with very aggressive, very hungry and very successful predatory animals!

“So, it really should be no great surprise to anyone that we knew very little about this great pyramid at the time I wrote my paper! After all, we have only been on this planet for three hundred and eighty-seven years, and we have had many other priorities. I get that! I am a passionate archaeologist, but I understand priorities, like survival! Really I do!

“But on my first expedition, as my brave, small band of graduate students fended off the slobbering beasts that wanted to eat us, I managed to manoeuvre a drone around the top of the pyramid. Some video clips from these pioneering drone flights will now come up on the screen behind me as I talk further.

“As you can see, there are some peculiar aspects to the rock surface, especially towards the top of the structure. There appear to be dull-coloured sections in a number of places. We managed to land a specialised drone on one of these dull-coloured sections. That allowed us to successfully drill-up a sample of what we thought was a different form of ‘vitrified rock’.

“That was no easy feat! Most drones do not like to be tilted. That is how they manage to fly so successfully! But we eventually managed it after a few tries, and we gathered our samples for follow-up lab analyses. Those analyses showed that the powdered material we recovered was in fact a mixture of polymers, monocrystalline silicon and gallium arsenide.

“My friends, that is the stuff used to make efficient photovoltaic cells!

“An obvious scientific push-back is that just because the material we found could make a solar cell does not mean that the dull surfaces at the top of the pyramid are in fact solar cells. And we have heard that particular cynical challenge many times from our most able and distinguished colleagues, as you can well imagine!

“But we saw something else at the top of the pyramid that caught our attention. It also seemed completely out of sorts for something supposedly built by primitive, native and ancient hominids.

“Now, please look carefully at the screen behind me. Wait for it… yes, okay, here it comes… see! There is clearly a capstone on the pyramid, with an obvious seam! The capstone is about one-and-a-half metres high. That gives it a mass of over forty-three hundred kilograms, assuming it is made of a basalt-like rock, which we now know that it is.

“Our little drones certainly could not have lifted that stone out of the way to let us peer down inside the pyramid! Only a heavy-lift helicopter or a tall crane could manage that Herculean feat!

“Now, do you think the ancient builders had such sophisticated lifting devices when they installed their capstone? But let us park that rather disturbing question for now.

“Okay, now look carefully at the nature of the seam at the base of the capstone. The gap is about fifty centimetres wide. All of our drones had difficulty just approaching that seam, because there is a rush of gas coming out of it through small recessed channels! These square channels have been precisely cut, and they are all spaced at regular intervals within the gap.

“But thankfully we eventually did manage to land and park a drone directly over the seam, using some rather creative modifications. Then we successfully acquired a sample of the gas coming out of the seam for further analysis.

“‘Why did we do that?’ you probably would ask me, if our highly-disciplined moderator would let you. Why, because we desperately wanted to know what is inside this fantastic structure, of course! We thought that anything coming from inside of it, even a gas sample, might give us another clue.

“As it turned out, subsequent analyses of our gas sample just led to more questions. The gas proved to be mostly air, just like the stuff we breathe everywhere on New Earth. It comes out of the pyramid with a temperature of fifteen degrees Celsius and a relative humidity of about ninety percent.

“But incredibly, we determined that our air sample contained two viruses, and only two viruses! No other microbes, pathogens, contaminants, pollutants, organic or inorganic compounds were detected in the air sample.

“To be more precise, only two ‘Fisher Six Xenonucleotide’ viruses were detected in the air sample. These two members of an exotic and unique microbial species had never before been classified. This very peculiar type of virus is known to mutate fairly rapidly. So far, five hundred and seventeen other strains of this virus have been classified. There are undoubtedly thousands of additional strains that we just have not found yet, or bothered to classify.

“This family of viruses resembles the parasitic viruses that we unwittingly brought with us from Earth, with a protein-coat, and genetic material contained inside that protective coat. The viruses use the cells in living animals to obtain sustenance, and to propagate.

“However, instead of Earth-like DNA with its four base polymers, the genetic material contained within the Fisher family of viruses is what we call an ‘XNA’ or Xeno Nucleic Acid. It is a massive, double-helix molecule composed of six base polymers, held together by hydrogen bonds.

“I am sure that many of you here tonight are well aware of this XNA virus, and are now asking yourselves, ‘So what?’” After all, every living animal on New Earth, both native and imported, including ourselves, seems to be carrying this virus in one of its many mutated forms. We all seem to be unwitting hosts for its survival and propagation. But like every other creature we know about, this XNA virus does not seem to affect us in any appreciable way.

“To take this line of inquiry further into the realm of discomfort, all of us first learned about an aggressive, intelligent alien species, the infamous ‘Masters’, in our elementary school lessons. We know they have visited New Earth in the past, and as recently as when we first arrived on this planet. But did you know they also have six-base XNA for their genetic material?

“I ask you now, is that much more than mere coincidence?

“I propose, most emphatically, that as scientists, we must ask ourselves why two particular strains of the Fisher virus are coming out of this pyramid! Furthermore, we must ask ourselves what is the source of these two viruses!

“More specifically, are they being synthesized by some kind of very sophisticated device or machine within the pyramid? And if so, is their presence in the airflow from the pyramid somehow linked to the mysterious and horrible Masters of antiquity?

“I will now share with you one more discovery from our first expedition before we move on. We set up our tent camp in an area of new-growth vegetation beside a lake that is within walking distance of the pyramid. We had to land on this lake with a float helicopter until we had sufficiently cleared the thick vegetation away to make ourselves a proper helipad.

“The lake is remarkable! It is oval in shape, and very deep, with vertically-sheer, solid-rock sides. It did not take much in the way of sophisticated investigative work to confirm that this lake is in fact a quarry that has filled up naturally with ground water. Without any doubt, we know that this quarry was the source of the stone that was used to build the pyramid.

“Furthermore, we initially thought our camp site was located in a recent forest fire area. But we found to our horror that it was a relatively recent blast site!

“Dead trees that were lying under the thick foliage and accumulated compost were arranged in a precise radial pattern, as one would expect to find around the centre of a ground-based explosion! Furthermore, we detected unusually high background gamma radiation at our camp site, with the highest intensity noted in a shallow central crater. We gathered soil samples in that crater, and subsequent isotopic analyses confirmed a relatively low-yield thermonuclear device must have been detonated there!...