One by one, the scientists gathered at TISR in Dallas for their meeting at 2:00 p.m. Professor Siegfried Nolf had arrived the night before. Nolf was a typical Aryan, with blond hair and blue eyes. He sported a scraggly beard that appeared not to have been trimmed for over a month and spoke pretty good English with a heavy German accent. Miller learned quickly to stand back several feet when talking to Nolf; Professor Nolf had the unfortunate habit of spitting when he spoke, no matter whether he spoke English or German. According to Dolores Clark, Nolf had the reputation of being more than a little eccentric. Although he came from one of the most prestigious universities in Europe, he acted like he was from a third-world university. Conference organizers always tried to avoid Nolf because he always tried to hit them up for travel funds. At one conference, Nolf reportedly resided in a tent next to the conference center. After a few days, Nolf began to develop a ripe “camping out” smell that caused conference delegates to back off even a few more paces when they talked to him. However, no matter how far these people retreated, Nolf was always in their face. He was one of those people that felt that they needed to be as close as possible to talk to them. Fortunately, Miller and Gary had enough research funds to pay for Nolf’s accommodations during his stay in Dallas.
Everyone expected Brigadier General Maxwell to appear in Air Force blue. Instead, he was dressed quite informally in a colorful Hawaiian sport shirt and khaki cargo slacks. Even so, the general was an impressive figure over six feet tall. His gray hair was closely cropped and contrasted with his deep blue eyes. His face looked like it had been chiseled out of stone; it featured a prominent straight nose, well-developed cheek bones, and a square, jutting chin. Maxwell was one of the few military officers who had a PhD in Geology. His dissertation had focused on using satellite imagery to interpret the geology of Mars. Subsequently, he was assigned, for some reason only known to his superiors in the Air Force, to keeping track of UFO sightings.
About the time when the two o'clock meeting was about to start, Gary said, “I have more news that is pretty scary in light of our investigations of the Apocalypse Calendar. There has been a major volcanic eruption of Mount Scenery comprising most of the island of Saba in the northern part of the Lesser Antilles. The whole island itself is nothing more than a volcanic peak sticking out of the ocean. A cloud of volcanic ash towers nearly thirty-five thousand feet high, and volcanic projectiles a foot or so in size have landed nearly twenty-five miles away. All local inhabitants have been annihilated. Unfortunately, most of the people lived in the crater of the volcano; this was an accident waiting to happen. To make matters worse, volcanologists indicate that the Lesser Antilles La Soufriére Volcano in Guadalupe is about to erupt. These eruptions suggest that the Atlantic Plate is being actively subducted under the Caribbean Plate to a depth where melting is occurring. I believe this is a direct reflection of the increase in mantle convection and sea floor spreading along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.”
Miller said, “It looks like tectonic processes are speeding up. My grandson really did a trick on us all when he turned the magic knob on the Apocalypse Calendar. By the way, I brought the device here to the meeting room—General Maxwell and Professor Nolf have never seen it before.” Miller placed the lead box containing the Apocalypse Calendar in the corner of the meeting room. “The first thing you guys can see is the green flashing light. We have determined that the light consists of some sort of low-level ultraviolet rays that are apparently harmless. I believe you all have copies of our report on the device. Let me take the disk out of its original stone container. Dr. Nolf, you have seen photos of Mayan inscriptions both on the stone box and on the alien device. However, I gather that it would be better for you to see the actual glyphs on these objects rather than just looking at the pictures.”
Nolf said, “This might be helpful. It will take me a few hours to examine the glyphs. I’ll do this after the meeting today. I have never seen anything like this before. What kind of metal is this thing made of?”
Herman said, “All we know is that it consists of the same kind of titanium-rich metal that we have encountered in other alien devices that we have studied at NASA. General Maxwell has examined much of the same alien hardware that I have. The two of us have cooperated in our investigations. The clear green stone emitting the flashing light is alien and consists of elements that are totally unknown in our solar system. It would appear that the Apocalypse Calendar is some sort of device designed by the visiting aliens to control what’s happening in the guts of planet earth. We know that both seismic and volcanic activity increased dramatically after Frank’s grandson turned the stone knob in the center of the disk. As you can readily see, we have experienced an even greater acceleration in tectonic activity over the past several days.”
Nolf said, “I understand from Dolores that when Dr. Miller’s grandson turned the magic knob, there was a major change in the frequency of light pulsations. I gather you people think these pulsations may represent some sort of code. It would appear that the aliens are trying to warn either other aliens or a more advanced civilization of people on Earth sometime in the distant future. They knew that the Indians could not comprehend what might happen.”
Miller said, with a facial expression that was somewhere between a smile and a grimace brought about by getting too close to Nolf, “Siegfried, you are very perceptive.”
He then said as he wiped off his glasses, “I have a few points to make. To start with, we all need to agree to keep our investigations of the Apocalypse Calendar confined to our own inner circle. Even Herman’s computer technicians have no real idea what’s up—although by now, they may be getting a little suspicious. As I’ve already told Dolores, Gary, and Herman, we will eventually have to warn the President. However, we don’t want to get the press involved; this would cause panic that might be unwarranted.”
Nolf said, “Are tectonic events like we are experiencing very unusual if viewed in light of total Earth history? I apologize for asking such a question, but I don’t know much about geology.”
Miller said, “Yes, events like this have occurred numerous times in the geologic past. The most dramatic would probably be the breakup of the supercontinent, Pangea, during the Middle Jurassic. As I always tell my students, we are just passengers on Mother Earth. She can flick us off like a bunch of fleas!”
“We now need to focus on contingency plans for a possible Apocalypse,” Miller said. “What are the major issues? As I see it, one of the most pressing problems that we are facing is the possible occurrence of huge tidal waves perhaps five hundred feet high. It is going to be important for all members of our Apocalypse Calendar group to reside at locations that are at least five hundred feet above sea level. For example, if a five-hundred-foot tidal wave hit the Gulf Coast, Houston, New Orleans, Miami, and other coastal cities would be totally wiped out. The shoreline would be a bit south of Dallas here in this part of Texas. As a consequence, Herman, I would suggest that you take residence with General Maxwell at NORAD. Everyone else should be pretty safe.
“Siegfried,” Miller said with a friendly smile, “you might have trouble flying back to Germany because of the volcanic eruptions in the Atlantic and Caribbean. With the Arctic polar ice cap melting, even travel to Europe by ship might also be dangerous. There are going to be a lot of huge icebergs forming. You are welcome to stay with us. I’m sure my wife wouldn’t object.
We should be able to set you up here at TISR as a visiting professor or research scientist. There should be enough research funds lying around to provide you with a salaried position for a year.”
Nolf said to a retreating Miller, “Thanks for your offer, Frank. Since I am not married, I should be able to pull up my roots for a while. I’ll notify Tübingen about my change in plans. I’m sure they can find someone to take over the graduate courses that I am teaching in Mayan archaeology. This will give me a chance to study the Mayan glyphs a bit more.”
Gary said, “I believe we need to consider where we need to go from here; that is, let’s set some objectives. Herman and General Maxwell need to keep trying to decipher the alien inscriptions on the Apocalypse Calendar. We still don’t know whether the sets of numbers that the computer jocks found represent GPS-type numbers. We also need to know whether the alien inscriptions provide us a date for the Apocalypse. The Mayan glyphs on both the stone box and on the disk point to either December 21, 2012 or December 21, 2013. Perhaps some of the numbers that Stanley and Herman have found on the alien inscriptions represent a date.
“I would suggest that Dolores, Siegfried, Herman, and Stanley work together on trying to tie all of this together; we’re still missing something. The fact that both the alien and Mayan inscriptions seem to be giving us a warning of some sort is pretty scary. Frank and I will try to keep track of tectonic events that are occurring worldwide and see if we can find some sort of discernable pattern that will allow us to predict what’s going to happen next.”
Miller said, “I think if another major tectonic event occurs, we are going to have to notify the President. The problem with this, of course, is that the Feds are going to want to confiscate the Apocalypse Calendar and study it themselves. This is really a big problem. I believe that we need to make sure that the Calendar stays in our hands. I suggest that we move it to the NORAD Operations Center at Cheyenne Mountain near Colorado Springs, Colorado. Most of the NORAD command has been moved to nearby Peterson Air Force Base. The Cheyenne Mountain facility is mainly used as a backup when there is an emergency. A lot of this facility is now vacant.”
Stanley said, “Herman and I will arrange to have the Calendar moved to Cheyenne Mountain after this meeting. We’d better move it during the day; at night, anyone who sees it is going to think it’s an UFO. It would be a hell of a sight to see the plane carrying it emitting flashing rays of green light! Hopefully, Herman and I can make the move without any questions being asked by the military or civilian press.”
Miller said, “I believe we have to consider some other worst-scenario contingencies. One would be tied in part to the melting of the Arctic ice cap and a marked increase in volcanic activity. Gary and I have discussed this to some degree. We think that the increase in mantle upwelling along oceanic ridges throughout the world could raise the temperature of the oceans and greatly affect ocean currents. If this is the case, El Niño weather patterns might look like sissies. Whatever the case, the heating up of the ocean floor along ocean ridges, coupled with volcanic ash being carried up into the Earth’s atmosphere, will cause the environmentalists to wet their pants with newfound anxiety. They will probably blame the increase in mantle activity on the Deep Sea Drilling Program. Another worst-case scenario is the decoupling of the North American Plate from the Atlantic Plate and the initiation of subduction along the East Coast of the United States and Canada. Although this scenario seems pretty far out, it’s not when viewed through the prism of earth history.”
Herman said, “I hope you guys are wrong. This would be the Apocalypse! Millions of people would die throughout the world. How do you guys manage to come up with these wild ideas?”
“If you’re a good geologist, you look at all the data and come up with some viable hypotheses. When you look at the history of the earth, you have to look at the big picture. Shortly after Gary and I found the Apocalypse Calendar, we started having premonitions about the earth’s future and the dangers that we might be facing. Perhaps thought waves are being transmitted to us from the alien device.”
Nolf said half-jokingly, “Maybe we should find someone who is a psychic or has strong ESP vibes to examine the disk.”
Herman said, “Siegfried, you may have a good idea, even though you were probably joking. Let’s see who we can round up!”
Miller said with a victorious look, “I have the answer. My wife, Jane, has unbelievable ESP. She can walk up to a row of slot machines and say ‘I have a feeling about this one,’ and, sure enough, she hits the jackpot. Jane can sense when somebody she cares about is flying overhead. One time she said, ‘There’s going to be a large earthquake in Southern California or northern Mexico.’ The next day, an earthquake occurred near Tijuana. Since Jane already knows about the Apocalypse Calendar, she would be ideal. I’ll give her a call and tell to come over to the Institute.”
Herman said, “I think most women have more ESP than men. There must be an ESP gene tied into motherhood. God only knows, to be a good mother you need ESP to figure out what your kids are going to do next!”
After a short wait, Herman said, “Here comes Jane; let’s test her ESP powers. Open up the Calendar case. Let her spend some time with it. I suggest that everyone leave the room but Frank and Dolores. They can witness what goes on and, if necessary, take notes.”
Jane placed her hands all over the disk and carefully studied it, but she was careful not to touch Alfred’s knob. She had a feeling that the disk was trying to communicate with her; it was a strange, eerie feeling that was almost impossible to describe. After less than sixty seconds, Jane said in a strange voice that was not her own, “We built this disk to protect your planet from the horror of earthquakes, tidal waves, volcanic eruptions, and other unforeseen processes that may be tied into them. Never turn the knob at the center of the disk; if you do, tectonic activity will speed up inside of your planet.”
At that point, a student barged into the room, and Jane’s communication with the Calendar was broken and could not be recovered. Miller said, “I guess we should have had enough sense to lock the door.”
The group of scientists reconvened briefly to discuss what Frank’s wife had learned from the alien object.
Herman said, “I guess Stanley and I need to take the calendar to NORAD before something else happens. It is obvious, as we suspected, that Alfred’s knob-twisting has speeded up tectonic activity. I’m afraid we’re in for it. We’ll head for the NORAD Cheyenne Mountain facility on the first military flight that we can catch out of Dallas. I think, between trying to translate the Mayan and alien inscriptions on the disk and on its stone container and trying to get the computer people to make some sense out of the pulses of green light, we may come up with some good answers. I’ll try to round up my resident psychic. We’ve used her before in examining UFOs. General Maxwell and I will try to set up a secure hotline between Cheyenne Mountain and TISR. If things get really bad, I want all of you safely housed at NORAD.”
Miller said, “It might be a good idea if I took you guys and the Apocalypse Calendar to DFW or whatever airport you choose to go to. We can take one of the Institute’s vans; at least they look semiofficial.”
General Maxwell said, “Thanks for the offer, Frank. I think we’ll take you up on it. I’ll arrange for an Air Force jet to pick us up at DFW. My credentials should get us right to the hangar.”
Miller responded with a smile, “At least this way, nobody will ask us about your flashing cargo. The people at DFW are used to seeing strange things in Institute vans. Before 9/11, we carried everything from dynamite for seismic work to portable drills for coring rocks.”
General Maxwell said, “Meet us at the hotel around six o'clock tomorrow morning. I’ll treat you to breakfast, and then we’ll go to the airport.”