By Jon Flaskamp <flashman@camelot.bradley.edu>
“Cuanto Cuesta?” asked Dr. Catherwood as he slowly paged
through the June 1, 1998 Ocixeman newspaper. “Tres pesos, Senor,”
replied the smiling clerk, gold teeth sparkling in the bright sun.
Dr. Catherwood casually tossed a five peso coin on the counter of the small
newsstand and remarked, “Keep the change amigo.” This drew another
large grin from the clerk. Dr. Catherwood strolled away, contemplating
his upcoming expedition.
He had just arrived in Ocixem earlier by plane. Dr. Catherwood
was on sabbatical from his position as an anthropology professor from Harvard
University in Acirema. He had a meeting at a local cafe in an hour
with Dr. Ortiz, his Ocixeman colleague from the Mayan Institute.
Just the other day, Dr. Ortiz had telephoned him in his office claiming
he had made an incredible discovery. After the second Scientific
Revolution, people didn’t keep scientific secrets from the world, so he
was quite intrigued. It was considered high treason to keep a discovery
from the World Government as a part of their anti-terrorist policy.
Wondering why he would take such a risk in guarding his discovery, Dr.
Catherwood promised to join his friend immediately in Ocixem.
Dr. Catherwood was early, so he took a seat in the outdoor cafe
and ordered a cold lemonade. The humid jungle air condensed on his
glass as the beads of sweat did on his head. He suddenly appreciated
the fact that he was from the colder climate of Acirema. Little did
he know that Dr. Ortiz’s discovery would have wide ranging applications
to his thoughts.
Doctor Ortiz suddenly appeared, rushing over to sit across from
Dr. Catherwood. “Sorry to keep you waiting,” he exclaimed,
“but I was finalizing our travel preparations.”
“Travel preparations?” asked Dr. Catherwood.
Dr. Ortiz explained that for the past two years, he had been
working amongst the ruins of the ancient Mayan civilization and had begun
to decipher many of their hieroglyphics. He was focusing on how such
a large and successful society could nearly vanish from the face of the
earth. Some scientists theorized that the Mayans were assimilated
into other cultures and disappeared that way. Although descendants
of the Mayans can be recognized in present day Ocixem by their short stature,
hawk noses, and flat foreheads, Dr. Ortiz believed there were other factors
involved in their disappearance. Over the last few years, besides
deciphering the ruins, he had been interviewing many of these descendants,
who called themselves “Los ninos del viento” or the weather children.
All of their stories of their ancestors had mentioned that their society
had been peacefully run until white ghosts had forced their way into a
sacred temple. From several accounts, Dr. Ortiz had developed an
outline of the end of the Mayan civilization. The Mayans claimed
that their gods had enacted a severe punishment on them for allowing the
ghosts to enter into and steal from the temple. Only Mayan high priests
were allowed inside to ask the blessings of the gods for a fruitful harvest.
Within hours after the ghosts entered the temple, the gods became angry
and destroyed their cities with flood, fire, and wind. Only a few
survived to pass this closely guarded story down to their ancestors.
Dr. Ortiz was fortunate to have some Mayan blood in him, so they spoke
freely with him.
“So what does this all have to do with us?” asked Dr. Catherwood?”
Dr. Ortiz glanced around to be sure no one was watching, leaned
very closely to Dr. Catherwood and whispered into his ear, “I have found
the temple.”
Dr. Catherwood was taken aback by this statement. He immediately
understood why Dr. Ortiz was being so secretive. This discovery,
if the Mayan stories had been truthful, had the potential to destroy civilizations
with power of Biblical proportions. The destruction of Sodom and
Gomorra by fire and brimstone, and the tale of Noah’s Arc came into his
mind. Dr. Catherwood had always been a man of science and tended
to dismiss concepts founded on faith rather than evidence. He could
not help it, since all of society had grown up the same way in Acirema.
Evolution was taught in schools and only a small segment of the population
still used the Bible as anything other than a historical reference text.
Despite the risk of being arrested for treason, Dr. Catherwood understood
the connotations of this discovery and knew that he was now a part of it.
With the increased security against terrorists and fanatics as the millennium
approached, and scrutiny of scientific discoveries that the World Government
was establishing, the risk was even greater.
Had Dr. Ortiz believed that his new knowledge would be used for
the betterment of society, he would have gladly turned his discovery over
to the World Review Board; however, he had learned of several cases recently
where a scientist had brought his discovery before the board and
had turned up dead a few days later. In the world society where information,
rather than money, meant power, someone high in the World Government was
corrupt and using these scientific discoveries as a means of tightening
his stranglehold on the world. Ortiz only hoped they could keep his
discovery out of the wrong hands.
Dr. Ortiz picked up the check and led Dr. Catherwood to the jeep
he had arranged. Soon the two anthropologists were bumping along
the small mud path, trees and foliage whipping by inches away from the
jeep. Dr. Catherwood was glad the Jeep was four wheel drive when
they encountered some treacherous sections, where he couldn’t even discern
a road. All of a sudden, the jungle opened up and several ancient
buildings stood magnificently in the clearing.
“Which one is it?” exclaimed Dr. Catherwood, giving in to his
excitement.
“This small one over here,” replied Dr. Ortiz. He pulled
alongside an ordinary looking hut.
He took out a light from the jeep’s tool box, and led Dr. Catherwood
inside. What appeared to be a hut, was merely the opening to a tunnel.
They walked for about 50 feet through the tunnel until it opened into a
large room. It was too dark to see any detail, but Dr. Catherwood
noticed that the walls were covered with brilliant colors. As he
stood there in amazement, Dr. Ortiz went into the corner and turned on
the portable generator that ran the lights he had positioned all around
the room. The room was suddenly flooded with light, and all the detail
of the hieroglyphs stood out as brilliant as the day they were painted.
The airtight room had preserved them for centuries until Dr. Ortiz had
come across them.
“They look exactly like the instructions for some sort of device!”
Dr. Catherwood shouted with exhilaration. “Although it seems too
advanced to be the work of the Ancient Mayans. Even the characters
appear alien!”
“That they do,” answered Dr. Ortiz, grinning largely. He
knew he may have stumbled onto the largest discovery of the 20th century.
“Are you ready for another surprise?”
“I suppose this will be a big one,” Dr. Catherwood answered,
still in disbelief.
“I have found the device,” whispered Dr. Ortiz.
“Have you tried it yet?” asked Dr. Catherwood, afraid of the
answer.
“Yes I have, and it works exactly as the hieroglyphics describe,
only on a much larger scale than I had ever imagined it would,” said Dr.
Ortiz. “The other day, I made it snow over half of South Acirema.”
Dr. Catherwood had read about the bizarre tropical snowstorm
in the newspaper he had bought at the newsstand and was in disbelief that
a device could cause that. He suddenly understood the extreme danger
they were in. Before he could finish his thoughts, several World
Government agents with guns drawn came flooding into the room. They
handcuffed the two colleagues and explained that they were under arrest
for conspiracy to overthrow the government. Their crime was withholding
scientific research without approval of the World Review Board. From
weather data the agents had determined that the ruins were the source of
the signal that caused the snowstorm and had staked out the area to capture
the perpetrators. The two anthropologists were taken to the world
headquarters to stand trial before the Council of Leaders.
The weather device was entered into the file of evidence against
the scientists. There was no doubt that the men were guilty of withholding
their discovery from the World Review Board, so their trial was swift,
and they were found guilty. Their punishment was life imprisonment.
Dr. Catherwood and Dr. Ortiz were not worried about their sentence
for two reasons. First of all, they knew that they had accomplished
their life’s goal of explaining the disappearance of the Mayans.
The weather device was used by the Mayan priests to bring rain or sun when
needed to the Mayan people’s crops. The device, wrongly used by the
“white ghosts” had eliminated this society. Also from the hieroglyphs,
they had determined that this same alien device had been the cause of the
demise of several other civilizations throughout the world’s history, as
well as the determining factor in several wars. Secondly, a fact
they failed to mention to the World Committee, was that the device had
an unstoppable timing sequence that the alien civilization who had built
it had installed. It was sent to Earth long ago to prepare the planet
for their arrival in the year 2000. This answered the question why
the Mayan calendar stops at the same year. All the millennium doomsday
predictions would be correct, much to the scientist’s amazement.
After a year and a half of imprisonment, the anthropologists
were the only people on the planet who were prepared for what occurred
on January 1, 2000. A series of cataclysmic weather events destroyed
every civilization in the world. Humans, like the dinosaurs before
them were no more. The vicious cycle had completed.