The Mojave Heathen, Robert F. Clifton [beginner reading books for adults .TXT] 📗

Our discovery. To respond to your thought, I’m at a stage that the entire world should know what we have found. Our find, answers the questions of is there life some place other than earth and have they visited us.”

“True, but it doesn’t answer the questions when they come are they peaceful or warlike? If warlike, can any nation on earth stop them? Right now just it being here indicates, at least to me that their technology is superior to ours.”

“ I see your point. Nonetheless, I need you to help me get it out of the box and on to a long table,” said Ben.

“Right now I’m busy. Sunday is good for me,” said Edith.

“Fine, I still have to buy the table,” Ben replied.

 

On the following Sunday Ben and Edith entered the storage unit and while Edith stood inside, Ben removed a long, folding table from the trunk of Edith’s automobile. He set the table down, closed the trunk lid and carried the table inside the unit.

“All I can do is smell the odor of now what seems like wet ashes,” said Edith.

Ben closed the overhead door and locked it. After setting up the table he and Edith put on rubber gloves then moved to where the wooden tool box containing the alien body sat on the floor. “I’ll get my hands under his head and shoulders. You get its legs and feet. When I tell you to lift, we’ll lift together,” said Ben.

“Then, let’s get it over with. The smell is nauseating”

“Alright, are you under its legs?”

“Yes.”

“OK, lift!”, said Ben.

Together the two of them moved the mummified remains to the table.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Seven

Colonel James French

 

At ten thirty AM on a Wednesday morning Ben Cortland

sat in front of Edith’s computer monitor. He was engrossed in writing his report on the achievement that he and Edith had in discovering the remains of a dinosauroid. As he worked his thoughts went occasionally to wondering how the world would react to his information and seeing the mummified remains of

an actual extraterrestrial. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the doorbell.

Ben got up and went to the front door. When he opened it he was surprised to see a uniformed, United States Air Force officer who stood holding a brief case. “Doctor Cortland?”, asked the officer.

“Yes,?” Ben asked.

“I am Colonel James French. If I may, I’d like to ask you a few questions.”

“About what?”

“May I come in. Your front porch is no place to hold a conversation,” said French.

“Oh, certainly. Please come in. Forgive me. I was trying to determine what business I would have with the Air Force,” said Ben leading the officer into the living room.

“May I sit?’, asked French.

“Of course. Of course. Sit wherever you want.”

Colonel French took a place on the sofa. Ben sat down in an upholstered chair across from him. “Doctor Cortland, it has been brought to our attention that you recently requested an analysis of an object you sent to Consolidated Mineral Examination Laboratory Inc. Is that correct?”, asked French

“Yes, I requested information on a piece of material I found

recently in the Mojave Desert.”

“Did you receive any report, written or verbal from the lab?”

“Not as yet.”

“Well, then let me enlighten you,” said French as he opened his brief case and removed a file. Opening the folder he selected

one page of a report and began to read. “ Examination of the material submitted by Doctor Benjamin Cortland produced the following results: Fabric which at this time is unidentified contained chondules. Do you happen to know what chondules are, doctor?”

“No. I’m an anthropologist. I have a very limited knowledge of geology or chemistry.”

“Very well. I appreciate your honesty. Nonetheless, chondules are clumps of small, glassy, particles usually found in meteorites and are made up of mostly, olivine and pyroxene caused by textural and chemical relationship. they’re created by extreme high temperatures in outer space. Outer space Doctor. Mention the word outer space and the United States Air force becomes, shall we say, all ears.”

“Then I take it that what I found in the desert came in contact with or is a sample of a meteorite that crashed on earth some time past.”

“Or, it could be a sample taken from some other source. Say an extraterrestrial,”said French.

“Possibly. I wouldn’t know,” Ben lied.

“I see. Oh, there is one more thing. That unidentified material also held something else.”

“And, what would that be?”

“A microscoptic piece of a scale. The type of scale that could be associated with anything reptilian.”

“That’s no surprise. There are many snakes and lizards in the desert.”

“Yes. Yes there are. Well Doctor, it’s been nice talking to you. I hope that what I’ve told you about the lab report was beneficial. However, allow me to give you some advice. The United States government does not like secrets kept in relation to outer space. As I have said, outer space subjects fall under the scrutiny of the Air Force.”

“I thought that Project Blue Book had been closed,” said Ben.

“It has. That doesn’t mean another book hasn’t been opened.

Be careful Doctor. You might be stepping on the wrong toes. Thank you for your time.”

When Edith came home from the university Ben told her of Colonel French’s visit. “Don’t you think he knows something?”, asked Edith.

“Know? Not really. I’d say he suspects something. He put two and two together, but he still hasn’t come up with four. However, he’s getting close. He has the chondules from outer space and the partial scale identified as reptilian. Off hand I’d say we’re either being watched or soon will be.”

“That means one of two things,” said Edith..

“What?”

“Either turn over the alien to the government or stop going to the storage unit.”

“I’m not going to give up the body. We worked too hard to recover it.”

“Then I suggest when the time is right you move it and hide it someplace else. They’re bound to find the storage unit simply by simple deduction of places available to hold the body.’

“I agree, but where?”

**************

George Bingham sat bare chested on an examination table in his physicians office. “Besides the nagging cough you complain about. Is there any other discomfort?’, asked the doctor.

“Nausea. Vomiting at times. No appetite. Suddenly, I’m weak and tired,” said Bingham.

“ I see. Anything else?”

“Not that I can remember.”

“Alright George. I’m going to conduct some more tests on you. We’ll see what’s wrong and I’ll get you back on your feet in no time.”

“Good, I feel terrible.”

After arriving home Bingham made his way to the master bedroom. As he walked on weak legs he used one hand placed against the wall of the room to keep from falling. When he reach the bed he lowered himself and then laid prone on the mattress.

The room was dark. The drapes drawn. The dark room seemed to help with the constant headaches. “Sleep. Maybe sleep will help,” he reasoned. Just before he closed his eyes he looked once more to the open, velveteen jewelery case that he kept on the nightstand next to his bed. He enjoyed looking at the blue, pulsating, glowing light that came from the box.

Back home, Cortland sat again using the computer. Edith entered the room from the kitchen and said, “Have you found anything?”

“ Nothing alarming. However, NASSA once asked Doctor Russel about the possibility of life on other planets. It seems that Doctor Russel’s theory that the Troodon, a bird like dinosaur of the Cretaceous period had a larger brain than most other dinosaurs at the same time. He speculated that the Troodon would have a toothless beak. Our specimen has a beak, and teeth.

Here’s where it gets interesting. First, the large eyes resulted in binocular vision. The genitalia is internal and if indeed a dinosauroid, it would have a naval, because a placenta aids in the develop of a large brain case. Since it was a bird like reptile

there would be no mammary glands. Russel therefore, suggests that the dinosauroid young were fed like birds with regurgitated food from their parents.

The thought is that because of the extinction of dinosaurs on earth the Troodon’s evolving into dinosauroid’s was halted.

Now, let’s go back to NAASA and it’s question of life on other planets. Suppose on some other planet in our solar system there is or was life equal to that on Earth. Now, speculate that on that planet dinosaurs did not become extinct and as Doctor Russel suggests evolved into dinosauroids. However, not just reptile men, but humanoids with large brains, highly intelligent, with the ability to leave their planet and come to ours. On top of that they have been doing this for thousands of years,” said Ben.

“I have a question,” said Edith.

“What?”

“What did they eat?”

“Mammals.’

“We’re mammals.”

“I know. Kinda spooky isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then you should know that Troodon is thought to have been omnivorous, meaning he liked a salad with his steak,”

said Ben.

Colonel French at the invitation of General Nathaniel

Von Hayden took a seat in a chair directly in from of the generals desk. “Well, how did you make out?”, asked Von Hayden.

“So, so. Naturally, Doctor Cortland knows something.

How much he knows I can’t determine right now. Of course he has no idea that the Consolidated Mineral Examination Laboratory Inc. is really operated by the United States Government”, said French.

“Does he know that the material he submitted is radio-active?”, asked Van Hayden.

“No, fortunately for him over the years there has been quite a bit of nuclear decay. We know this by radiometric dating.”

“Then, he showed no signs of radiation poisoning?”

“No sir.”

“What else?”

“ I suggest that we increase our investigation on Edith Shipley.”

“Why?”

“She was the project director of the site in Death Valley.

From what we’ve learned she’s also romantically involved with

Cortland. Anything he knows or anything that he found he would let her know about it,” said French.

“Very well. Investigate her in depth.

“Yes sir.”

“Now, what about the four college students?”, asked Von Hayden.

“There’s absolutely nothing there. They were assigned continually at the old prospector’s camp site. All they found was a few relics from what they determined was the garbage pit of the old man.”

“You’re sure.”

“Yes sir.”

“Good. Do you have someone looking into the activities of

Doctor William Ross and Doctor Gary Bennington?”

“Yes sir. As you know, Benson is a geologist. We don’t know for certain what his role in this matter could be. It is possible that Cortland contacted him for let’s say, determining the age of soil conditions he found. Ross, on the other hand is a physicist.

He could be of interest for several things. Space, nuclear energy,

and of course, radiation,” said French.

“Very well. Stay with it and keep me informed,” Van Hayden replied.

*******************

At ten AM on a Saturday morning. Ben Cortland parted the Venetian Blinds that adorned the large picture window in he living room. Through the narrow slit of an opening he watched a man get out of a florist delivery truck. The man carried a long white box, the type that would hold long stem roses.

“We’re being watched,” said Ben.

“Watched ? By who?”, asked Edith.

“The Air Force, F.B. I., C.I.A., The Boy Scouts Of America, or all of the above,” said Ben.

“What makes you think so?”

“The guy who was suppose to be delivering flowers to the house across the street had to stop twice to take a better grip on the box that evidently was too heavy for him. I’m willing to bet that what he was actually delivering was some type of surveillance equipment.”

“That house has been for rent for months. Now, all of a sudden there’s activity there,” said Edith.

“Yesterday, two guys surveyed the street. Funny that they had to do it in front of your place,” said Ben.

“Why us?”, she asked.

“Because of what we found.”

“All they could possibly know from the lab report is that you discovered material from a meteorite.”

“That caused them to become curious and interested. They’re waiting for us to make a move and when we do they’re hoping that we’ll lead them to something. Right now I’m guessing that they don’t know what that something is, but they want to