[PART 23]

THE DISCOVERY AND ‘MYSTERY’ OF MACHU PICCHU

“It seemed like an unbelievable dream. What could this place be?”

Hiram Bingham III

As part of a Committee resource development team from Directorate J, 1911 found 35-year-old archaeologist Hiram Bingham III from Yale University exploring the hills and valleys of Peru. On an early cold July day the young archaeologist and his team led by Melchor Arteaga, stumbled across a hilltop refuge (later known as a temple citadel) around 50 miles northwest of Cuzco, Peru, amongst the low hanging clouds in the mountains of the Peruvian Andes. It was a natural area for a fortress and an area thought by the locals to be the home of spirits of the dead. This manmade ‘fortress’ perched on top of a narrow ridge some 6,750 feet above sea level was Machu Picchu (named Vilcapampa by the Incas who had built it) thought by the locals to have been the last occupied stronghold of the Incas. 2000 feet below the ridge flows the Urubamba River.

Few of the locals had ever gone to see this high citadel for themselves. Fewer still could have imagined any connections to beings from Mars.

Having been told of a dramatic ruin in the mountains the assistant professor of Latin American history found himself on his hands and knees crawling up a wet and dangerous mountain slope. One false step and he would become a sad footnote. On the way up Bingham and his two companions came into contact with a group of farmers who had moved their families to the 2000 foot level “to avoid the local government men.” These men assured the now quite weary archaeologist that the ruin did indeed exist farther up the mountain. They sent along a young man to lead the way that seemed to become even more difficult a climb the higher they went.

When he finally reached Machu Picchu (meaning old mountain or peak in the language of the local Inca) the sight took his breath away. Out of the thick undergrowth rose handmade terraces, stone walls using no connecting mortar for the granite blocks, paved streets and homes of an Inca ghost town. The ruin seemed so remarkable that it defied explanation. He would later remark, “It seemed like an unbelievable dream. What could this place be? Who could have built this magnificent place? Why had no one given us any idea of it?”

He would soon have crews clearing the entire area of over-growth as well as completing a full photographic survey of the site. He would also ship thousands of samples of the grounds, buildings and artifacts used by the people who had lived there to the Peabody Museum of Natural History as well as thousands of other artifacts to the offices of the Committee. These even included silver plates that had been used by the people of Machu Picchu. More than a few of these artifacts could not initially be identified as anything matching Inca items.

It soon became clear that Machu Picchu had been abandoned for hundreds of years (since at least the 15^th century). In fact it had been so long since anyone had occupied the mountain redoubt that even the local natives could not remember who had occupied it when it was flourishing. All they could say was that the site had been “visited by the gods and having been angered they had destroyed the small fortress by the great light of the gods.” Only the great spirits remained. Not unexpectedly, considering recent events, the first thought that came to Bingham’s mind was – Martians!

The stone walls, so finely made one could not fit a thin blade between the individual white granite stones, were now mere skeletons of their former selves. But it would be to the stones that these investigations would find much of the final ‘words’ this silent destroyed city could tell. Certainly much of the stone work showed that a great fire had consumed this small city of the clouds. The stones that had fallen during the conflagration that had consumed this community were cracked by the heat, but it was not the cracked stones that told the true story of this destruction. On the southern wall that had bordered the city from the terraced hills used to cultivate the foods the team found an incredible sight. Even after hundreds of years the evidence was crystal clear. At this entrance point the walls had not been burnt in any traditional or familiar way, some had been melted and had flowed like new lava down and over the stones that had held the terraces. Nothing in man’s history or of a natural origin could account for this melting of stone. However, there was another history that could account for such finely directed heat and destruction – Mars!

In every city on Earth where the Martians had attacked with their Heat-Rays inevitably one finds walls that had been melted – flowing like lava. For whatever reason, the peoples of Machu Picchu had endured the wrath of the Martians hundreds of years ago. We would later discover several possible ancient examples of the same destruction by Martians. Perhaps they refused to be taken as we know many people had in the past or perhaps this was simply a test of the Martian’s power and control. Whatever the reason for the destruction we needed to investigate so the Committee soon allocated funds for a full archaeological excavation. We needed to understand the reason why the Martians choose this out of the way location to attack mankind. Why had this small city in the clouds so angered or perhaps terrified the Martians it had to be completely destroyed? In the end, when human remains were discovered none were of healthy people. The few remains that were found were of crippled or very old individuals. There were no remains of healthy people or any children. We could only surmise the children and healthy adults had been taken by the Martians. (It was a guess at the time but a pretty good one.) The Committee would be able to later confirm several large abductions in the historic record including the mysterious circumstances related to the so-called “Lost Colony of Roanoke” in 1587 as well as the group of men who had been lost in the same area a year earlier in what would become the American State of North Carolina.

It seemed the only practical method of investigation would be to completely survey the site graphically as well as photographically, draw up site plans and then clear away as much debris as possible in order to re-construct the small ‘city’ to as much of its former grandeur as could be built. Using local labor would not only speed up the work it put valuable funds into the local economy for the years the work would take. In the end, the hard work paid off. We would find many of our answers. And as it seemed to be more and more the case, the answers were mostly underground. The people of Machu Picchu had themselves built underground passages. In time we would clear these passages and learn a good deal more about the people who built these ruins and the off-world enemies they faced 400 years ago.

It did not take long to fully appreciate the great skill needed to construct this Incan outpost. The rugged setting between mountain peaks and the use of simple wooden, stone and a few bronze tools attests to the massive efforts it must have taken to build this place. In time we would discover that at least half of the work involved the preparation of the site before the major building could begin, which included foundations across the ‘city,’ tunnels and a complete drainage system that allowed the draining of massive rain storms that frequent the area. The massive stone retaining walls held for a while even under Martian attack and many are still in place today next to the steep staircase-like terraces used to produce the local food supplies.

We would soon be building a rail line linking the area to Cuzco as well as constructing a newly cut 5-mile long highway directly to the base of the site and on up to the close approach of the citadel.

As the teams worked we all wondered why the Martian interest in this out of the way site. One reason for the Martian’s interest may be found in the people who lived there. Committee anthropologists and biologists set up a research center in the small nearby village of Nunoa. It is located high in the Andes, which provided a natural laboratory to test a theory. The theory was these people had physically changed and adapted to colder thinner air and had become a new so-called “high altitude people.” It was soon clear that to a man their chests were larger which allowed far greater lung capacity and their blood actually carries more oxygen to their oversized hearts than average humans. It seems this localized population over thousands of generations had gradually adapted to these conditions which selected out those traits not well adapted to these rugged conditions. Somehow the Martians seemed to have discovered these people who would be able to adapt even perhaps to conditions on Mars. Perhaps the Martians saw themselves thousands of years before adapting in this very same way. Was this perhaps a Martian laboratory on Earth? Our research would continue. In the meantime other areas would command our attention.

THE ‘ROCK’ FROM MARS

It was almost as if the heavens above were sending us a message, and one of which I must say we could not at first understand. Nevertheless, in late 1911 a meteorite fell to Earth in El-Nakhla, Alexandria, Egypt, which amazed all who read of the event including myself. It was not so much that a 10kg meteorite had come to Earth, for surely this was a rather common event, even more so as we had by now a very keen interest in things from outer space and were becoming accustom to such astronomical reports. (It seemed, if you asked anyone just about everybody was a Mars expert by now.) No, the fact that a meteorite had landed was not of great general interest, however, where this particular meteorite had originated from was and where it fell most certainly was. The meteorite, soon known as the ‘Nakhla Fall,’ had been blasted off the surface of Mars by the impact of a large asteroid or comet! (Newly developed spectral analysis would later show the same, or rather a similar, ‘signature’ as had been obtained from the surface of Mars. Even then we were only able to obtain that data about the surface of Mars due to our continuing back-engineering efforts on Martian technology.) It was even more amazing to realize that of all the places it could have fallen it ‘chose’ to land in Alexandria, Egypt, an area of Earth that had once been a center of great interest by the Martians. It was well that we had several teams in the area to recover this find or it may have been lost forever.

Close study of this Martian sample showed it to be rich in augite crystals, cooled at formation in a basaltic magma, possibly, as we were to later discover to our amazement, some 600 million years ago. Scientists were soon suggesting it had been blasted off Mars’ surface around 10 million years ago from Tharsis Elysuim or Syrtis Major Planum. This was based on how old those formations were thought to be on Mars (not that we had any real data on their age) and estimates of how long it would take such a rock to travel to Earth after being blasted off of Mars in an ever decaying orbit of the Sun. Once again we were guessing, but it seems scientists need to do something with their spare time.

There was of course no danger to anyone due to this ‘gift’ from Mars (it was not ‘radioactive’), yet it did serve to remind all of us of just how close we were to our Martian neighbors and how very connected our two planets and our histories really were. It would seem our two planets have been “exchanging planetary materials” for a very long time, perhaps as long as they have existed. Perhaps the idea of panspermia – the scattering of life’s agents from planet to planet is right after all. By the time the Martians returned for a second go at Earth, scientists had discovered some 46 Martian ‘rock’ samples, and not all of them were discovered just lying about some desert. Some of these rocks had been sitting on museum shelves or in drawers for years before they were correctly identified.

I could not help but wonder if any Earth rocks had found their way to Mars and if the Martians had found any of them? And if they did would they display them or simply keep them in some collection point held with little interest? Even after ten years of intense constant study there was much we did not know about our very hostile stellar neighbors, and so much more we desperately needed to learn.

The New London Times – 2 December 1911

METEORITE FALLS TO EARTH FROM MARS

Discovery found at El-Nakhla, Alexandria, Egypt.

ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT – Scientists working with the Committee along with National exploration teams in Egypt had discovered a dark red 10kg meteorite in the desert of El-Nakhla several months ago. This discovery, recently made public, proved to be of volcanic origin of a basaltic nature and clearly from the Planet Mars. Speculation by team members is that the rock now known as the ‘Nakhla Fall’ was blasted off of the surface of Mars by either a comet or asteroid impact possibly as long ago as 10 million years. How long this meteorite has laid on the desert is not known, but scientists who discovered the sample made it clear it could not have been on Earth longer than a few years or possibly only a few months as the impact site appears reasonably fresh.

Further study is underway, but it is known those working on the sample believe it could have originated from any one of several impact craters on Mars in the Syrtis Major Planum or Tharsis Elysuim regions. Scientists are eager to compare this sample to other possible Martian rock samples in order to better understand the geography and geology of Mars. It is also reported at some future time this sample will be displayed for the general public.

Late 1911 also found miners working the Lovelock Cave in south/west Nevada near the small town of Lovelock. After unloading several car loads of debris they broke into a small side section where they found a few Indian relics. This was not unusual however they also found a mummy of a seven foot tall red-haired man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. The local Paiute Indians informed the miners that what they had discovered was an old enemy of the “Paiute people who had come from the stars and had lived with the war god Mars!” The mummy was soon on its way to Lower-New York City for further study. Later work showed it to have been a hybrid from the planet Mars.

CAIG MOST-SECRET

CAIG 11-50    CAIG WEEKLY ACTIVITY REPORT (STAR BRIGHT) 17 December 1911

Historic reports: CAIG historical files number 609 at this time.

1284, 26 June – Hameln, Germany reports 130 missing children who “walked off with a pied piper” reported to be of gray in color. None of the children were ever seen again.

1406, 15 February – Above the village of Rosetta, Egypt, three bright lights are seen to hover over the north-west section of the village around sunset. The “bluish-white lights were motionless for quarter of an hour before moving as a group further north of the village to land on the sands.” As several villages attempted to run towards the light an extremely bright light flashed towards them and “a shock was felt by all who then fell to the ground.” When the villagers recovered their senses the lights were gone along with several sheep.

1638, 21 October – An eight-foot-diameter sphere of great light was reported in Widecombe-in-the-Moor, Devon, England. The sphere entered a small church killing four people and injuring sixty-four. After doing a good deal of damage the sphere left through a hole in the roof and vanished at great speed to a great height.

Recent reports: During the past week ending 16 December CAIG has recorded 301 unexplained aerial reports over the northern hemisphere. Selected sighting briefs below.

10 December – Several large unidentified aerial craft flew over the Giza Plateau at 10:19 p.m. Beams of light were seen emanating from several of these craft reported to be “150 feet long and made of metal.” At one low pass by one of the craft at 11:45 p.m. several guards at the site fired their weapons at the object to no effect. No missing persons have been associated with this sighting.

11 December – Three bright lights in the sky were reported above Wardenclyffe, New York, at 4 a.m. As one of the bluish lights came close to the ground all electrical power in the area failed. At this point the light closest to the ground began to emit a low humming sound and the object now seen as a large round metallic sphere perhaps 50-feet in diameter also began emitting a blue fog covering the object and an area some 200-feet in diameter. Later examination showed the vegetation in the ‘landing site’ to be either dead or dying. Four milk cows were found on the site, also quite dead.

13 December – Increased activity at several mountain sites around the area of Western Europe have been noted. Areas with high fresh water sites have been especially active with many reports of Martian water craft being reported at those locations. Local radar reports confirmed some of these eyewitness accounts.

14 December – In Tautavel, France, farmers are reporting large areas (100 or more square feet) of their winter crop fields have been dug up and are now missing down to a level of two feet. All soil and plant matter in those areas is missing. As of this report 14 farmers have reported such losses. Some of these farmers have also reported horses and cows are also missing. No missing persons have been reported.

15 December – Residents of Moscow, Russia, report “a landing just outside of the city at 11:00 p.m. of a silver craft which came out of a dark cloud.” Five residents who went out to investigate this landing have gone missing.

16 December – A large explosion has been reported over Windsor, Canada, just south of the Detroit River at around noon. The flash of light and clap of thunder was heard for miles around. No damage other than broken widows has been reported and no wreckage has yet been found. A possible unidentified object may have been sited at the same time as the “clap of thunder”. This was very close to our Essex facility!

o It is recommended that ‘spotters’ (CAIG personal only) be sent to various locations where activity is greatest in order to capture still as well as moving-pictures of some of these objects, which would allow for extended study and evaluation. With a large enough team on site it may be possible to capture one or more of the operators of these craft.

CAIG MOST-SECRET

JUST A SHADOW

1912 began with a startling observation by a team of astronomers working in close contact with the Committee and one which could have become a major problem for our planet’s recovery and it did not occur on Earth. A vast shadow was seen crossing the luminated face of our moon. And even though it was only a shadow (at least that was all any of the witnesses could see) the possible consequences of this sighting was truly staggering.

Dr. F. B. Harris who had been working at the Mars Observation Program Office had been spending some of his time observing the moon. He and several others felt that the moon should not be neglected for observation even though a good deal of their time was naturally consumed with Martian observations. It was after all a very large and very close object in astronomical terms and one that any ‘visitor’ to our planet could hardly miss. He reported his team’s sighting at a most-secret closed door meeting to several members of the Magic Twelve and their senior staff.

“About 10:30 Eastern time I was surprised to see the left cusp showing the presence of an intensely black body about 250 miles long and fifty wide, allowing 2000 miles from tip of cusp to cusp and it was moving. The appearance was fully as black comparatively as marks on this paper, and in the shape like a crow poised. Of course dark places are here and there on the lunar surface, but not like this. And of course they don’t move. Not to be tedious I will say that every effort was made to eliminate any error of vision or other mistake. The moon is very tricky and it is very unlikely that anything of this character will be seen in many years or hundreds of years even. I cannot but think that a very interesting and curious phenomenon happening.”

Needless to say, such a large object near the vicinity of the moon has deep significance to all the people of Earth. Mankind cannot hope to build such a craft of this measure for centuries which is a good reference as to how far advanced the builders must be. No one in the room believed such an object, much larger than even the moons of Mars could have been built and flown by the Martians either. And yet having said that, who or what were these so-called ‘others’ and what did they want or possibly need from our planet? Since there were no follow-up sightings for the next few years all we could do was keep a close eye on our moon and the skies above and hope for the best. If others did indeed make contact with our planet we certainly would be defenseless if they proved to have hostile intentions. Our attentions were soon drawn to matters a bit closer to home.

A MEETING OF THE NATIONS

(January 1912)

Ancient America Indian proverb

Towards the end of 1911, after a decade of struggle and rebuilding, it was clear the general recovery of the Earth was certainly progressing well even though there was still a great deal more work to be done especially in the area of planetary defense, now the primary focus of the Committee. With this in mind the Magic Twelve sent representatives to some 40 nations asking for a “Meeting of the Nations” to be held in New London starting in mid-January of 1912. Even with the advent of the “Magic Cabinet” the Committee wanted the leadership from as many nations as possible into the group to bring input into the problems they were tackling. This scheduled eight week long gathering/workshop would enable those nations to bring ideas, proposals and even complaints in order to make Committee operations as wide open as possible – to a point.

Due to continuing unrest south of the United States border those in control of the Mexican area had been taken off the invitation list as rebel forces of Francisco Medaro had recently overthrown the provisional government of Porphelo Diaz over strong objections of several nations and Committee headquarters. Once again the bodies were starting to pile up in the Mexican area. It was a very close thing that the Committee did not send United States and Committee military forces into the Mexican area to enforce some type of martial law, at least in the remains of major cities. What to do about the Mexican area in the long term was still being debated as violence continued to spiral out of control. It did not take long for newspapers around the world to take close notice of American and Committee forces preparing for a possible local war.

The Los Angeles Times – 11 April 1912

ARMY AND NAVY ORDERED TO BE READY TO INVADE MEXICO

President Taft and Advisers Convinced That Intervention Is Inevitable. Instructed to Prepare for Action.

New Washington Center (April 10) – [Exclusive Dispatch] President Taft and his advisers are convinced that intervention in Mexico by the United States is inevitable.

No announcement to this effect has been made at either the White House or the State Department, but it became known today that secret orders have been issued to the various corps of the army to get ready for an invasion.

To the navy divisions orders have been issued directing that supplies for men and ships be assembled at various naval stores. The Atlantic and Pacific fleets are ready for war in other respects.

The orders sent to the various corps of the army were to get ready. The ordnance department since that order was issued has been working at top speed finishing field guns and mounts, getting small arms in shape, manufacturing ammunition and purchasing considerable of the latter from the manufacturers.

The railroads have been communicated with a number of times regarding the transportation of troops to the Mexican border. The mobile army in the United States is being reinforced by the sending home of four regiments from the Philippines. Two of these regiments have been ordered to the Department of Texas.

No More Wanton Killing

It became known at the White House today that President Taft will not tolerate any longer the wanton killing of Americans and the destroying of their property. He has demanded their protection from both combatants in Mexico, and now he intends to see that this is carried out.

President to meet with executives of the Committee of Twelve to work out Committee support for any military action deemed necessary by mutual agreement. The Committee has ordered up 12,000 reserve troops to be prepared for any eventuality along the US/MLZ border.

Committee representatives reported on their way to Mexico.

It was not long before those in control of the Mexican territory realized they were on the brink of an invasion that would surely end badly for them. Things soon calmed down – for now!

It is interesting to note even though the invitations were sent by the Magic Twelve none of the Directors would be named and during the conference the Twelve were attending only as members of the Committee and the conference chairman was a member of the senior staff and not one of the Directors. Once again my friend Winston was in the mix as he had recently been named First Lord of the Admiralty for the British. This was also his cover for attending the meeting.

Two special security protocols would be in place for the meeting. First, all invitations were sent out by Committee messengers who would give a verbal invitation as would be the replies. Secondly, the meetings would be held in the new auditorium and Committee offices in Lower-London. No meetings would be held above ground and all participants would be housed in one of Lower-London’s new housing areas. An entire area had been sealed off near the auditorium in order to maximize our abilities to protect the participants. Naturally the area had several pubs, restaurants, theaters and ‘other’ entertainment! We were taking no chances on a Martian or Brotherhood attack. We had learned a lot since 1901. The Committee soon issued a third protocol requesting the participants arrive in London at different times spread out across a one week period so as not to have any large groups arrive at the same time and same place, and they were to come to London from various directions in small groups met by Committee forces before they got to London. Staff members were to be kept to no more than five individuals per country team. Welcome ceremonies would be held underground and under intense security.

Adding to the security Directory L radioed false invitations to nations indicating a time and place for a meeting to be held in Manchester, England, three weeks after the actual meeting in Lower-London. If the Martians were “tuned in”, as we fully expected they would be, it was hoped they would attack the fake Manchester meeting reportedly being held in an old castle and not the real one – if they attacked at all. This ‘trick’ would test our abilities to confuse the Martians and at the same time confirm they were not only tuning in but were fully prepared to take advantage of any opportunity to attack. And even though the false message was in code we fully expected the Martians to be able to decipher the message.

For this important meeting dubbed the World Conference of Nations, London became more of an armed camp than a city still recovering from a devastating war. We were on a wartime footing and we would be prepared to battle whatever came our way (at least that’s what we told ourselves). There were no indications of an impending massive Martian attack, but a small one was always possible as were attacks by hybrids. During the conference the city could boast that it played host to the largest air force the world had ever seen (other than Martian that is) with some 162 new twin winged fighters based at 12 runways (including the new underground runway just south of London). At any one time during the conference at least 60 aircraft were in the air, fully armed. There were also upwards of 18,000 troops in three rings around the city, which included some 3100 cavalry troops with another 3000 additional infantry soldiers based inside Lower-London guarding every conceivable entrance and then some. Armed patrols constantly drove around Upper-London in no particular pattern and walked all of the streets in Lower-London again in a random manner. Many of these troops had recently returned from overseas deployments and had been anticipating a bit of a rest before being assigned to their next assignments. However, those plans were placed on hold until after the conference.

We knew with all of the activity the Martian Brotherhood group based in or near London must have known something big was afoot, but with so much manpower in the area, both above and below ground we had confidence that even if they attempted to put on a terrorist attack we would be ready for it. In fact, we had planned a rather nasty surprise for them if they made an appearance (burned to death by newly developed hand held flame throwers). As cover and as a distraction the local New London and Lower-London governments put on a rather loud show of parades and ‘events’ for the cities’ residents. Featured were speeches, shows and military exhibits, all cover for the events at the most-secret conference going on below their feet.

I for one would be chairing one of the conferences on ‘Document Recovery and Records Security’. We would also be putting together even more files on those who attended the meeting. These files were getting quite large with access to them strictly confined to those working on them and top Committee executives. They were all under my direction.

At the opening of events the Committee took the opportunity of this world conference to announce the completion of the new Pacific Cable, which linked the west coast of America to Hawaii and on to Japan, China and then all the way to Australia. The assembled members were sent a message of welcome from Lower-Sydney which had crossed the Pacific Cable, over land across Canada by wire, to London by Atlantic Cable, and then on to the conference room in Lower-London. The message was:

We send warmest greetings to all conference members from Sydney as you meet in London. We are one in our efforts for peace and planetary preparation. May all of your works be successful.

It was then announced several other cable links were being planned around the world as back-ups to the three primary cables. These would link-up much of Asia and South America with Africa and the sub-continent of India. This was to be a truly world-wide system. As expected, many of the representatives at the meeting were elated to learn they too would become part of this world-wide cable system. The announcement was partially for propaganda purposes as it would take another 15 to 20 years to complete this medium priority project. However, the program was real and if in place before any large-scale Martian war broke out the new cables could indeed prove their worth. They also knew the primary system would be wireless and many areas were already set up with this new system. We were truly wiring the entire world.

Among those at the meeting were men who had or would become leaders of their respective nations in the near future included Lloyd George from Great Britain, Georges Clemenceau of France and Vittorio Orlando from Italy. Despite the meeting and general good will shown on the surface, there was a restless undercurrent as these men continued to vie for power and control over large areas of Europe, Asia and Africa. As we danced to Irving Berlin’s Alexander’s Ragtime Band whispers of conflict in the near future could be heard and these were whispers not of Martians, but of men.

Food, fuel production, shipping, manpower as well as reconstruction programs were also on top of many attendees’ lists. Naturally, many were looking for increased funding for their nation’s needs.

It was at this conference that Mr. Edison gave a demonstration of his new recording device he called his ‘omphlegraph’ meaning “voice writer.” He would later settle on the “Business Phonograph.” We would later use this device to record messages from front line troops to field headquarters.

After the main conference was adjourned a small group of national leaders led by the United States, Great Britain and France held a private conference to discuss some of the problems developing in Mexico, Germany and Russia. The aggressive moves by these and other governments was of great concern to the Committee and we needed to find ways to continue to work with them to build up their defenses while at the same time finding ways to lessen their local aggressiveness on their ‘Earth’ neighbors. This would prove to be a very difficult proposition and one we never fully solved. In point of fact, we failed!

As for the Manchester decoy, we got our answer on 4 February even as we continued our work in Lower-London, when Manchester castle was attacked at 2:09 p.m. by no fewer than three Martian Flying Machines which came in to attack so fast the spotters we had placed in the area to record just such a possibility barely had time to begin filming before the attack had ended. The Martians had come from three different directions in an attack that was pure precision. The short film showed that all three craft fired at the castle hitting it within one half second of each other and it was completely destroyed in a single white hot flash that was so intense it burned out a portion of the film used to record it. The entire attack took no more than 15 seconds with the Martians soon well on their way heading north. No system on Earth could have tracked these machines and certainly no gun crew could have hit them with any type of ordinance.

The Martians were getting even better at their murderous craft. (They did not attack at tea time.) But we were getting better at predicting where they might be and when. This flaw in their thinking would come in very handy in the future. For now we could take pleasure in knowing this time we had beaten them at their deadly game of cat-and-mouse. We were becoming better at our propaganda craft. They were not invincible. We had made it clear in cable reports we knew would find their way to Martian “hands” we had suffered great losses during the attack and we had no idea the Martians were on their way. In truth we sustained no casualties (other than a group of cows which had been unlucky enough to have been grazing near the castle at the time), and even though we had not seen them coming we were able to track them after the attack for some time with our improved radar sets as they headed north.

One interesting set of facts of a business nature came to the attention of the attendees just as the conference was about to begin. For reasons not well understood an American Congressional committee that had been investigating American business practices reported that banking institutions operated by J. P. Morgan and William Rockefeller, both very high placed Committee members, held some 341 controlling directorships in shipping companies, insurance agencies and railroads valued at $22 Billion. This caused U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to remark, “The great monopoly in this country is the money monopoly.” Nevertheless, a visit by President Wilson and two other unnamed Committee members soon closed out any “inappropriate investigation of Morgan and Rockefeller.” The Committee was much more interested in cutting unnecessary competition which would take up valuable resources needed for continued recovery and improvements in just about every manufacturing area one may name. We needed as much mass production at low prices as we could develop as fast as we could go. Pure, unfetter capitalism would need to stand aside at least for the time-being. It was a concern but we still had a planet to save.

THE TABULATING MACHINE

One device that had been discussed at the meeting, but not displayed, was a new tabulating machine. It had not been ready for a demonstration at the time and since it was rather large all the attendees could do to see it was to visit the machine in one of the lower level labs for a “look see.” As far back as the late 1880s Herman Hollerith had developed a punch card ‘reading’ machine designed to tabulate the results of the United States 1890 Census. He had gotten the idea from watching train conductors use holes punched into different areas on railway tickets to record details of travel destinations. Young Hollerith decided he could use standard punch cards with 12 rows and 24 columns to record data by which holes were punched out. When the punched out cards were passed through a machine of his design a set of wires, spring loaded, would be lowered to ‘read’ the card. Any wire that passed through a punched hole would dip into a shallow pool of mercury causing an electric contact that could be counted. The original cards were punched for gender, age and state of residence for the Census, which due to his machine caused the work to be completed far under its budget and months ahead of the projected schedule. The tabulating machine was born.

By 1912 the Committee was looking for ways to store large amounts of data as well as methods to calculate and control remote devices. Dr. Tesla had shown remote control devices, ‘wireless,’ were certainly feasible, but only by direct sight. We needed to control these new machines remotely with a device onboard and a computing device would be the only way to accomplish that task when our machines were no longer within sight of the human controller. That was the great task ahead, and it would take years to accomplish that goal.

Seven years earlier Hollerith had developed an automatic feed tabulator that could process around 150 cards a minute. It was suitable for data collection and easy computations, but it was much too bulky and much too slow for controlling remote devices. We needed to develop a machine that could read a pre-punched card or a series of cards in the proper sequence and be small enough and fast enough to operate in an aircraft or even a rocket.

In mid 1912 Dr. Hollerith joined the Committee and with the Tesla team began working on just such a device. With a new 50 man ‘computation’ team now in place we could expect the work to progress with much greater speed. The team was also looking into the possibility of developing such a device from Martian technology. The development of what would soon be termed a “computer” would become the most important advancement of all the work done after the first Martian War and to be sure we would not have gotten as far as we have without the years of Martian back engineering work done by thousands of people in labs around the world.

In a somewhat related development the Committee teams had finally been able to build and test a new tunneling machine both on the surface at Panama and underground at Lower-New York City to great success. It did not take long for the teams to put together a proper machine assembly line that would eventually be able to produce one new machine every 45 days. Two facilities were built to construct these new marvels with a third in the planning stages. Within nine months these new machines were hard at work in all three major underground cities and would soon be working at just about every underground Committee facility in the world. We expected to have them soon deployed to cities around the world.

The conference was also used to announce the publication of J.H. Breasted’s new work The Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt. As with earlier works this book took a hard look at possible Martian influences on ancient Egypt.

RMS TITANIC LOST

As it turned out the conference would go on for better than two and a half months ending on 14 April 1912. The day after the members ended their work we heard the news the RMS Titanic had gone down in the North Atlantic off of Newfoundland with great loss of life. A wireless operator at Cape Race, a Marconi employee named David Sarnoff, heard the first news from the stricken ship. The primitive spark-generated wireless sounds of dots and dashes would signal: “Have struck an iceberg; we are badly damaged; rush aid.” Sarnoff would alert ships in the area of Titanic’s critical situation. More reports came in by wireless. “At 10:25 last night the steamship Titanic called ‘C.Q.D.’ (S.O.S.) and reported having struck an iceberg.” From the Allan Liner Virginian was wired “Titanic says she is badly damaged as result of striking an iceberg. She demands immediate assistance and we are rushing to her help.” First reports in the New York Times stated, “The ship itself, it was confidently asserted, was unsinkable, and inquires were informed that she would reach port, under her own steam probably…”

It was only by luck several meeting delegates had not left on the Titanic when the meetings went much longer than anyone had anticipated. One Committee member who was on board was Major Archibald W. Butt the military aide to American President and Committee ‘Prince’ Taft. When the President was informed of the disaster and Major Butt’s presence on the stricken ship he immediately ordered the Scout Cruiser Salem to make full speed to meet the Carpathia for news of Major Butt.

The Titanic at 882.5 feet long was the largest moving object built by man in this new century. At 46,000 tons the $7-1/2 million ship was said to be unsinkable and billed as the “safest ocean liner in history.” The ship however, did not have enough lifeboats (24 when it could have held 64) and that cost the lives of 1500 people in the 28^o waters of the North Atlantic. “…the most terrible shipwreck in history.” Later investigators discovered the White Star Line did not wish to spend the money on extra life boats for an “unsinkable ship.” It was also related that the extra life boats on deck would have “cluttered up the deck for the first class passengers!”

Boston American – 16 April 1912

1500 DROWNED

LINER TITANIC SINKS;

866 PASSENGERS SAVED

New York, April 16 – Between 1200 and 1500 persons, passengers and crew perished when the “Unsinkable” Titanic, the $10,000,000 White Star Liner went to the bottom of the sea, so report the steamers which, in answer to the Titanic’s wireless calls for help, rushed to her aid. There is little hope that the dread report is not true. Of the 2,200 souls who were aboard the once mighty ship, but 866 were saved. Military aid to President Taft among the missing, feared lost.

The Titanic, the largest, most luxurious – vaunted as the safest – steamer that ever sailed the seas, collided with an iceberg at 10:45 p.m. Sunday, in about latitude 41:46 north, and longitude 50:14 west. That is, the ill-fated boat was about 1200 miles east of Sandy Hook and about 900 miles southeast of Halifax, N.S. She sank at 2:20 a.m. Monday.

Wireless Station, Camperdown, N.S. April 16 – Messages filtering through here indicates that the passengers in the lifeboats from the Titanic had thrilling experiences. “In several cases the ice was so heavy that the boats could not force their way through it. As a result many of them became widely separated. Many of the passengers in the lifeboats were scantily clad, having been hurried out of their berths in the dead of night and ordered into the boats. The transfer of the passengers to the lifeboats was attended by much excitement and panic. While it is impossible to form any estimate of the loss of life, it is believed that it will be enormous.”

We would eventually learn that Major Butt had stepped aside to give up his place on a life boat to a lady; said to have been the first to do so. He later stood watch with a revolver in his hand holding frantic men at bay as the women got into the life boats. When American President Taft heard of his aide’s heroic last deeds he said, “I knew that Major Butt had gone down; he was a soldier and was on deck, where he belonged.”

After the Titanic disaster all large ships at sea were required to man shipboard radio stations 24 hours a day. It was felt that had this maritime rule been in effect before the Titanic disaster many, if not most, of the lives onboard could have been saved. Investigators also checked to see if this event had any Martian connections and it was soon shown the Martians had no part in the disaster. This had been a fully man-made folly. Nevertheless, it was soon to become a maritime rule that all unknown aerial sightings at sea were to be reported by shipboard radio anytime they were spotted. We were expanding our “eyes in the skies” program to the world’s oceans.

And although the Martians had no involvement in the Titanic disaster, they were certainly involved with geologic efforts in the cold north of the Alaskan Territory.

[END PART 23]

Copyright © R. Michael Gordon, 2020

[NEXT WEEK: PART 24: EARTH RUMBLES AS WAR CLOUDS CONTINUE TO GATHER.]