Miller and Gary had just started their 4:00 p.m. workshop class. The students had barely settled in their seats and stopped their chitchat when Mary, the Geosciences Department administrative assistant, burst through the classroom door and said, “Dr. Miller, I hate to interrupt you, but there has been an important news announcement. A huge volcanic eruption has broken through the polar ice cap north of Iceland. You told me to contact you immediately if any major earthquakes or volcanic eruptions occurred while you were tied up in class.”
Miller said, “Mary, thanks for the information. It turns out that this eruption is really important. Gary, you’d better call Herman and Dolores. It might be a good idea if we hold a meeting here in Dallas sometime this week. In the meantime, I am going to put our students to work. Who has a laptop with them?”
Ann, one of Miller’s graduate students, responded with an enthusiastic voice, “I have my new laptop with me. It’s really state of the art.”
Miller said, “Ann, why don’t you hook it up to the monitor and keyboard in the back of the room so everyone can view the screen? I then want you to find out what is going on with this eruption. I suspect there will be plenty of information. If I had to bet on the location of the eruption, I would put my money on the Gakkel Ridge. This is basically, as I am sure some of you know, a continuation of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge under the polar ice cap. There have been explosive eruptions here not too long ago. Let me know when you’ve got everything hooked up. I need to check something in my office.”
Miller took a quick look at the Apocalypse Calendar in the corner of his office. There didn’t seem to be much of a change in the pulsations of green light being emitted. However, he told Gary to play it safe and make another hour-long video of the flashes.
Miller entered the classroom adjoining his office and asked with an air of both curiosity and urgency, “Ann, what have you guys come up with?”
“Professor Miller, your Gakkel Ridge prediction was right on target. There is a major volcanic eruption taking place on the Gakkel Ridge with no sign it will stop any time in the near future. API claims that if the eruption continues at the present rate, an island five times the size of Iceland will be formed. The eruption has poked a hole in the polar ice cap twenty square miles wide. Clouds of steam coupled with volcanic ash and other volcanic debris extend to an altitude of twenty thousand feet. It is obvious that a considerable part of the Arctic ice cap is going to melt.”
Miller said with an air of concern, “I suspect that sea level along the east coast is going to rise. Cities like Boston, New York, Miami, and others are going to be affected. Probably, only that part of the ice cap north of Iceland will melt. I think we need to keep our antennae up. I want everyone to keep track of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes over the next week.”
Most of the students didn’t quite know what to make of the strange object in Miller’s office that emitted flashes of green light. There were all sorts of rumors about it. Miller never volunteered any information about his green glowing disk, but all of Miller’s students were quite curious, and Ann was no exception. She asked, “Is there any connection between what’s happening and that strange object with the flashing lights in your office?”
Before Miller could answer, there was a large crash as Gary blew into the classroom, practically knocking down the door. Miller said, “Your entrance to this classroom hasn’t changed since you were a graduate student.”
Gary said, “Sorry about that. I think we’d better dismiss the class. It is important that we talk about our meeting with Dolores and Herman. Something else has come up.”
Miller said, “Well, okay. You guys know what you have to do. We’ll try to meet next week.”
After the students left, Gary said, “Dolores indicated that we need to be careful about who knows about the Apocalypse Calendar. She told Professor Nolf to keep his findings to himself. The other Mayan glyph experts have made virtually no progress in translating the Mayan inscriptions, so she’s not too worried about them. Dolores believes that we should include Nolf in our team meeting. I took it upon myself to tell her to go ahead and invite him. Dolores decided we’d better hold the meeting on Friday. This will give Nolf more time to arrange his travel plans. I also talked to Herman. In typical Herman fashion, he’s jumping up and down with excitement down there in Houston over the new eruptions breaking through the Arctic ice cap. Herman told me that he would like to bring Brigadier General Stanley Maxwell at NORAD into our fold. Maxwell is in charge of all UFO investigations for the Air Force. He has already been instrumental in helping us break the alien code. I told Herman to invite General Maxwell to our meeting here in Dallas on Friday. Herman agrees that we definitely need to tighten up on our security, at least for the time being. If things get really bad, Herman said we’ll have to contact the President.”
Miller said with a fatherly smile, “Good job, Gary. No wonder you damn near broke down the classroom door. The meeting should be interesting. You need to finish making your recording of the light flashes from the Apocalypse Calendar.”
Gary said, “Yeah, I just about have that done. Probably fifteen more minutes will do it. I told Herman I would be e-mailing him a copy. Herman is going to forward a copy to General Maxwell for decoding. Hopefully we’ll have some new data before we have our meeting on Friday.”
The conversation was interrupted by the Geosciences administrative assistant, who said, “There is another eruption occurring on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at a place called St. Paul’s Rocks. A new volcano is being formed there. Ash clouds extend to an altitude of thirty thousand feet.”
Miller said, “Oh, my God. This is beginning to look more serious. Thanks for keeping us posted. While you are here, I need you to line us up a conference room for two p.m. on Friday. There will be six of us. I would also like you to take notes on the proceedings of the meeting. In line with our security concerns, I think we ought to include Mark Strauss from Space Sciences in the meeting, Gary. As you remember, he recommended that we contact Herman Swartz at NASA. I have already told him to keep a lid on what he knows.”