[PART 39]
Rocket Tests at White Sands
Since 1919 Robert Goddard and his Committee team had been testing rockets in the heat of White Sands, New Mexico. By early 1923 they had made great strides in the work and the secretive Dr. Goddard had built himself a new home in nearby Roswell.
A Goddard-4 rocket had already flown to an altitude of 9000 feet, a record at the time for Earth-based experiments, but Goddard was far from satisfied. He would soon launch a 26-foot rocket from his “A-Series” which reached 17,500 feet, as well as a 28-foot rocket which flew to the unheard of altitude at the time of 19,000 feet and speeds of over 1550 miles per hour! This was his new “L-C Series” which was used to test his guidance and control features. Now it was time to press on to multi-stage rockets and achieve much greater heights over the hot blowing sands of New Mexico.
When asked to say a few words at a dinner meeting held by the locals in support of “our rocket people” Dr. Goddard recalled what he had remarked on years earlier to his fellow students.
“Just as in the sciences we have learned that we are too ignorant safely to pronounce anything impossible, so for the individual, since we cannot know just what his limitations are, we can hardly say with certainty that anything is necessarily within or beyond his grasp. Each much remember that no one can predict to what heights of wealth, fame, or usefulness he may rise until he has honestly endeavored, and he should derive courage from the fact that all sciences have been, at some time, in the same condition as he, and that it has often proved true that the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.”
Originally, Goddard’s first goal had been to build a sounding rocket which could reach such heights as to make it possible to study the upper atmosphere. He did not see a time when he felt development would be fast enough to have any effect on possible future Martian adventurism. However, when the Great Earth War came he redirected his work to develop military applications to his work including navel torpedoes, mobile rocket artillery as well as a hand held rocket launching tube later named the ‘bazooka’ from the loud noise it made upon ignition of the solid rocket. With these weapons now well established in the field Goddard could spend most of his efforts on building ever more powerful liquid-fueled rockets expected to eventually place instruments into Earth orbit and perhaps send such instruments to the moon and beyond. With that in mind possible anti-Martian use came into play.
It was time to work on the new K and L series of multi-stage rockets designed to reach very high altitudes. Higher fuel pressures, more powerful engines and lighter thin-walled fuel tanks wound with high tensile strength wire added to new gyro controls were the keys to achieving this goal.
Dr. Goddard was also able to use the new metals developed by the Tesla and Edison teams working back engineered Martian technology. These new light weight yet strong ‘composites’ as they came to be known, would soon show great promise in his work. Goddard also needed new electronic controls that could take the punishment of a violent launch and still be able to steer his new rockets not only to higher and higher levels, he needed to be able to point his new smaller rockets to first area and then point targets.
It was not long before Goddard was able to launch rockets at the rate of once every two months to heights of over ten miles. He felt that with new fuels and larger more powerful engines he would be soon able to reach as high as 50 miles, well above the sensible portion of Earth’s atmosphere. However, without electrical devices able to add a good deal of control reaching great heights would be practically meaningless. Goddard and Tesla would need to get together to solve this and other rocket problems. In the meantime, Goddard’s team began to develop methods of placing large explosive devices on the tops of his rockets in order to attack targets on the ground well beyond the capability of manmade artillery and naval guns. His first goal would be to hit a target area 25 miles away.
It would not be long before Goddard’s rockets would prove their worth in not only exploration but defense of our planet. Goddard looked towards the stars for science. The Committee viewed his work primarily as possible weapons for a future war. It goes without saying that we would continue to support his valuable work with Committee funds.
It was at this time that Committee member Hermann Oberth published a small book, which was thought by most in the public to be futuristic titled The Rocket into Interplanetary Space. In reality, Oberth, under the guidance of the Committee, was introducing the possibility that would in the years to come become fact as humans pushed as hard as they could towards launching their own spacecraft. This work would also introduce the idea of a small manned space station in Earth orbit to keep an eye open for any “visitors from space!”
Testing and building advanced rockets at underground Committee facility
A Crack in the Committee Wall
Any powerful organization has its distracters especially a secret one; that is simply human nature. It is not too difficult to understand why some if not many people would be concerned about a small group of men seemingly above any type of law (which in point of fact the members of the Magic Twelve were). This was only natural. Few people are easily led by a group of unknown powerful men who hold the fate of millions in their hands. So it came as no particular surprise to the Committee that protests and demonstrations would occur every so often against this powerful group. This was one reason why the Committee decided quite early to minimize open references to their work and to direct as much publicity to national efforts and the efforts of individuals within the Committee such as Dr. Tesla without any mention of their direct involvement as members of the Twelve.
This policy of control from a background position had worked reasonably well for over two decades and seemed to be a good policy to continue for the years to come. That was until a disgruntled member working for, but not directly with, the Committee decided to publish a small pamphlet titled “A Crack in the Committee Wall.” This 85 page pamphlet described what the writer referred to as “a secret cabal of men responsible for secret prisons, assassinations, mind control, propaganda, military adventurism, torture of prisoners and much, much more.” When one takes a hard close look at many of our Committee operations the writer was not too far off the mark. And, it was something we could not allow to continue on and be re-published if we were to move forward with our work. The hunt was on for the writer known only as “Q”.
The so-called Executive Committee of Twelve operates on a level never before known on Earth. Yet, we ask: how did they acquire such power, such control over so many lives? Taking the opportunity of the Martian War these men were able to establish themselves in a ruined London able to command what resources remained of the British Empire and mold themselves with the Americans to become the only world superpower as the Martians began to fall all over the world. With funding acquired by the “nations of the world” and kept off the books, they have established underground jails and prisons that do not exist as far as anyone will ever know. Could they in fact be worse than overt control by Martians? Have we not learned from history that as prosperity grows authoritarian societies move towards less stability not greater stability?
We all must become aware of forced labor camps set up in many areas around the world that include “re-education” for all of these Committee prisoners. And there is no need to remind anyone of the “special treatment” dished out to any and all hybrids simply because they are different from most so-called “real humans.” Q
It did not take long for Tango and other security forces within the Committee to track down who “Q” really was. Not unexpectedly “Q” turned out to be a small group of pro-Brotherhood hybrids, not part of the actual Martian Brotherhood working out of Chicago. What was rather surprising, at least at the time, was that at least four members of this small group turned out to be “full-human.”
The solution to the Q pamphlet suggested by Director L was to produce responses to every issue the pamphlet exposed and to prove to “world opinion” that it was in fact Brotherhood propaganda. Our own propaganda arm made certain to include information on several hybrid attacks, including the recent loss of the dirigible Roma in order to demonstrate how much of an enemy the Brotherhood really was and how dangerous some hybrids could be in general. A second part of the propaganda program was to emphasize how much control was being developed by individual nations and their supposed “non-Committee leadership” in their own affairs as well as what major building and recovery programs had been and were still being directed by Committee members around the world. Most emphasis was made of the efforts of the League of Nations.
Even though we would still experience protests and other anti-Committee writings in the future, for the most part the “crack in the wall” had been repaired, at least for a while. In the meantime the world was soon paying a great deal of attention to a report of a destroyed Martian city. I remember at the time one of my aids remarking that the Martians “just can’t seem to catch a break.”
A Martian City Confirmed Destroyed
14 February 1923
“One down – Three to go!”
Headline – New Sydney Times
On 14 February 1923, Professor Michael Davis published his startling report on the comet, which had impacted Mars on 8 July 1920. Most of his scientific report focused on the overall planetary effects of impact, dust and secondary effects of the comet’s impact including the fact that Mars was delivered a goodly amount of water, which had been evaporated into the thin atmosphere and was now readily available for Martian use. All-in-all it was a rather dry scientific report on things Martian. (Nevertheless, it was required reading for Committee members, as many reports are.) By now the atmosphere had cleared enough to present a generally clear view of the planet. However, the most startling portion of his report was written almost as an afterthought as he was able to note that a large amount of secondary impact debris did indeed land on or very near one of the so-called Martian domed surface cities. He noted that, “All other known Martian surface locations still show reflective light and at times internally generated artificial light.”
The city at Chryse Regio however, no longer showed either, reflective or artificial light. “It is now suspected that the city near the southern edge of Chryse Regio was completely destroyed by, and or covered over by this secondary impact debris from the comet.” Much had also been destroyed by massive volcanic activity following the impact, including the covering of several canals. These outflows of volcanic materials would continue on and off for many months at times obscuring a good deal of the planet. One of the last cities on Mars was gone probably because the protective dome had been shattered by the secondary impacts. And without displaying even reflective qualities it must have been at least partially buried by impact debris. In the report it was estimated that at least one million Martians had probably been killed with the loss of this city. This must have been a crushing blow to the Martians. At the time we could only hope that it was enough to at least push back the date of their anticipated next invasion.
It was suspected that while Chryse still showed several canals in the general area it is doubtful that they could have survived penetration by debris and were probably rendered useless at this time as well. We did not have the instrumentation needed to verify damage to the canals at the time. There was no way to tell if any underground facilities near the city had been spared, but considering the damage to the above ground city and the new impact crater, survival seemed a long-shot at best. There was after all a new rather large hole in the ground that nothing in the impact area could have survived no matter how deep the Martians had dug. The final answer would lie in whether or not these canals were eventually repaired. His team’s study also showed that the Martian atmospheric pressure seemed to have lost an additional six percent of its value in one shot! The planet was now confirmed to be a dying place, at least on its surface, as even the well-adapted Martians surely could not live on its desiccated surface for long periods of time even at the lowest elevations which held the highest atmospheric pressure. It would not be long before any type of advanced life on the surface of Mars would no longer be tenable.
Those who were now keeping a very close eye on Mars were also able to see that even in the short period of time that we humans have been keeping track of Martian activities the areas upon which lush Martian vegetation had grown was now some 20% less than our first measurements. It would seem that large areas of Mars were either purposely abandoned as a source of food or were simply unable to support Martian vegetation no matter what the Martians were doing. On Earth this massive loss of productive agricultural area would have had grave consequences. What this news meant to the Martians we could only guess. We knew they were running out of options as far as food sources were concerned. Were they finding new ways to produce the foods they needed or were they ‘trimming’ their population? My thoughts were of Martians ‘acquiring’ more humans for food from Earth as well as probably breeding many more on Mars.
The Mars Watch Program teams had done much work investigating the Chryse area including data arrived at by interpretation of Martian Electronic Documents.
Chryse Regio, recently re-named Chryse Planitia from the Greek “Golden Plain” shows a good deal of past water erosion but there is little erosion by water in this epoch. It had been the final destination for the flow of water from the local southern highlands and the Tharsis bulge. The Planitia is in fact one of the lowest areas on the surface of Mars and was once a vast ocean. Martian documents report many ancient rivers once flowed strongly into the area. It is due to this low area and matched by what the Martians refer to as “an abundance of sub-surface water” that the Martians built one of their final cities on the surface of Mars. During what have been named the Hesperian and Amazonian periods on Mars large outflow channels developed (some converted to canals) with a strong ancient shoreline said to be easily seen from low Martian orbit.
Naturally newspapers around the world covered the story. But there seemed to be a general lack of victual comments in most of the stories (but not all, most notably the New Sydney Times which headlined “BLOODY MARTIANS LOSE A CITY, One Down – Three To Go!”), which were simply published as regular news reports with very little editorial comment. One newspaper even published a letter they had received which spoke of Earth sending “aid to our solar neighbors on Mars.” How this aid was expected to be sent to the forth planet from the Sun was not explained by the writer. It was published without comment by the paper. This response to the disaster on Mars was seen by Dr. Freud and most of Directorate L as a softening of the Earth’s population to things Martian. He recommended that more reports of Martian attacks be placed into the public record to curb any softening of world opinion with a close eye on popular reaction. One writer even added, “It’s a pity they make themselves as unapproachable. It would be curious to know how they live on another planet; we might learn a thing or two.”
It seemed to be a good time to remind the general public, once again, about just how deadly our enemies on Mars could be. We were after all a full generation away from the brutal Martian War. Stories soon found their way into newspapers around the world of Martian atrocities. “News” reports of events on Mars were soon being broadcast from the small number of radio stations in operation at the time. By now there were forty-three in the United States and only fifty-six spread out over the rest of the world, mostly in Western Europe. Each one of the ‘independent’ radio stations had a Committee staff member readily available to “help direct news and commentary when called upon.” Because of the visible damage caused by the comet the Committee executive staff estimated that the anticipated invasion could not be expected any earlier than 1935. Earth it would seem had been given a bit more time to prepare. We would need just about all of it. Complacency was not something we could afford to indulge in.
Editor’s Note: As a direct result of the massive impact on Mars Prime a highest level meeting was held in the Central Leadership Committee Chamber – During this meeting of the Leadership Counsel all options were discussed concerning plans to occupy Earth and move Mars Prime to the fourth planet – Options were also discussed which would lead to a massive new effort to develop new areas beneath the surface of Mars and cancel Earth options – Although the leadership was split on the possible work to receive the greatest development it was finally commanded to end any new sub-surface works and focus all efforts on acquiring the fourth planet for Mars Prime occupation – It was further commanded that no greater than half of Mars Prime population would re-locate to Earth at the end of military operations.
THE EVER EXPANDING UNIVERSE
At the same time we were confirming the loss of a Martian surface city Professor Edwin Hubble, a much valued member of the Mars Watch Program, was able to confirm that the Universe did indeed extend well beyond the edges of the Milky Way as the Martian documents had revealed (Ref: Martian Electrical Document 227P12). Objects once thought to have been nebulous gasses within the Milky Way are now seen to be individual galaxies in their own right. The Martian Electronic Documents had also reported the fantastic possibility that the Universe is actually expanding all around us. The earlier “expanding Cosmic Egg Theory” (Ref: Martian Electrical Document 294P14). Dr. Hubble planned to look into this report and attempt to confirm its validity by measuring local galaxies and their movements using a technique known as Doppler shift. If the light from a distant object in space is shifted towards the blue end of the spectrum the object is moving towards the Earth. If however, the light is shifted to the red end of the spectrum the object is known to be moving away. The amount of such a red or blue shift should tell Dr. Hubble just how fast and how far an object is moving and in which direction.
Since all of the Martian astronomical work which can be investigated by Earth based astronomers had so far proven to be quite correct (Ref: Martian Electrical Document 227P12) he had already stated that he had no reason to disbelieve the “Martian theory of Universal Expansion”. Hubble remarked, “Eventually we reach the dim boundary – the utmost limits of our telescopes. There we measure shadows, and we search among ghostly errors of measurement for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial. The search will continue. Not until the empirical resources are exhausted need we pass on to the dreamy realms of speculation.”
We were also beginning to get some hints from other Martian documents that a good deal of what made up the universe of either energy or matter was invisible to much of their advanced astronomical devices. They seemed to be referring to nearly 95% of the material of the universe as somehow being “dark”. What this could be no one had a clue. There were also recently translated reports that the Martians could count an incredible eight billion Mars or Earth like planets in our Milky Way galaxy alone! No one, and I mean no one, believed that report, but what would it mean to mankind and our sense of self if it were true? Mankind’s quaint thought that we were unique in all of space and time, shocked by the brutal ‘hand’ of a Martian had been completely destroyed for all time.
The massive scale of the universe now glimpsed by man had now dwarfed mankind, and with it the cold reality that the rest of the universe had no interest in mankind’s survival. As far as we could ascertain, only mankind had a true stake in our survival. We were indeed alone in the vastness of space, at least locally save the brutal Martians who were just over the horizon, and watching our every move and perhaps a few ‘others’.
It seemed that we still had a great deal to learn from our Martian neighbors even though it was doubtful we would ever have the chance for any peaceful dialogue. This was a great loss to both planets as peaceful contact would undoubtedly be very productive for both species living as we are in the cold unforgiving vastness of space. To Martians, humans were like ants running around their destroyed sand piles putting back the pile of sand before the next time they came by to kick it down. I wondered who or what may be looking at the Martians and getting ready to knock over their sand pile!
What we needed was to create a situation by which we could force the Martians to see mankind as not necessarily equal, but at least as a species demanding some level of respect. In my view only by creating a powerful military force that could match the Martians on Earth and beyond would such respect ever come. Their respect had to be earned and we could not earn it by showing any weakness. Some in the Committee felt that our war upon ourselves did in fact show the Martians how brutal we could be to our own species, but would that brutality shown by man translate to any type of respect by the Martians? I had my doubts. Self destruction was not a good way to impress anyone.
MAGIC – MOST SECRET CoT
Magic Order MO-271
Immediate: Anti-Committee and anti-Magic organizations are to be formed with the purpose of “collecting” individuals who harbor ill-will against this organization or our work. This will allow monitoring and full control of these organizations. When the time comes these members will be arrested and held during any future Martian conflict. Files will be kept on all members not working directly for the Committee.
MAGIC THREE-NEW YORK
MAGIC – MOST SECRET CoT
A HYBRID TERRORIST IDENTIFIED
Reports had by now come in from American justice authorities that after several years of investigation they had identified the hybrid responsible for designing and planting the bomb used during the 16 September 1920 attack on Wall Street in Upper-New York City. They identified H-Mario Buda, an Italian national as the bomb maker. Investigators close to the case and working under young Mr. Hoover stated that Buda, a close associate of hybrid convicted murderers Sacco and Vanzetti, was identified as the bomb maker by his nephew H-Frank Maffi and further collaborated by H-Charles Poggi recently apprehended by authorities on other matters. Buda was known to be very experienced working with dynamite as well as other explosives. In the past it was reported that he had placed several explosive devices using sash weights as shrapnel as well as using other people to plant and eventually be killed by these devices. Thought to be living somewhere in Italy at this time there was now a world-wide search underway for H-Mario Buda – a known member of the Martian Brotherhood. Bureau of Investigation agents, working with Tango operatives were soon hot on the trail of the Upper-New York City bomber. He was to be taken dead or alive, with dead the much preferred option.
Earth Radio Progresses
We knew that our crude new technology (as compared to the Martians) using radio waves would not be strong enough for two-way communication with the Martians unless we on Earth built a world-wide series of large devices not only for Earth transmission, but to receive Martian transmissions. Some of our best people such as Dutch engineer Hanso Schotanus Idzerda and Argentina engineer Enrique Telemaco Susini were hard at work on the problem and had been for a good while. It was a long shot to speak to the Martians, in more ways than one – we all knew that – but the public was informed that our intentions were peaceful and that the work would continue if only to improve our own technology. What the public was unaware of was the real reason for our efforts. It was to put together a powerful series of radio monitoring devices in order to give Earth’s defense forces another system of warning in the event of any impending attack from Mars and possibly intercept for decoding any radio transmission as well as later broadcasting false messages for the Martians to pick up (Psyop). The Committee did not believe that any peace incentives would sway the Martians, but it did provide political cover for this part of the operation. The Mars Watch Program had now become both radio and optical in nature.
As back-engineered information became available from the people working on the Martian machines the teams responsible for the radio transmissions and listening stations were able to in-crease the capabilities of our radio equipment tenfold. Time and time again as new developments “came on line” we on Earth were getting better and better at tuning in on Mars. We also knew that the Martians were keeping just as good and probably better watch on Earth. With this in mind any business pertaining to the Executive Committee of Twelve or the Magic Twelve was still being sent either by fast aircraft or encoded Morse code using undersea and buried cables. No actual classified Committee information was to be sent by radio for fear of Martian interception. Only later would we develop a full propaganda program designed to send misleading radio messages expected to be intercepted by the Martians. In fact, we began sending false and misleading radio messages thought to be picked up by the Martians almost as soon as we could, but these were not part of a concentrated propaganda effort. We did however, have a section in the Committee which had the job of sending out false radio transmitters to mislead the Martians, but it was not yet a priority. That would come later as we prepared for the next expected Martian War.
It was noted during our March 1923 Committee conference on radio development that Dr. Tesla had been one of the first to pick up interplanetary radio transmissions from Mars as far back as January 1900. The signal he received was weak, but real, yet even the master electronic genius of Tesla could not confirm that the broadcast was coming directly to Earth from Mars at the time. He would later report to the Committee that, “The changes [in the signal] I noted were taking place periodically, and with such a clear suggestion of number and order that they were not traceable to any cause then known to me. It was sometime afterward (post Martian invasion) when the thought flashed upon my mind that the disturbances I had observed might be due to intelligent control. I am familiar with such electrical disturbances as are produced by the Sun, Aurora Borealis and Earth currents, and I was as sure as I could be of any fact that these variations were due to none of these causes. The nature of my experiments precluded the possibility of the changes being produced by atmospheric disturbances. Although I could not decipher their meaning, it was impossible for me to think of them as having been entirely accidental. A purpose was behind these signals; they are the results of an attempt by some beings, not our world, to speak to us by signals. I am absolutely certain that they are not caused by anything terrestrial.”
He could not have known when he first received the signal that within months Martians would be invading Earth! What Tesla had picked up were radio messages by the Martians to their Earth invasion forces. However, even if he had been able to verify that the radio messages were from Mars, at the time we had no indication that the Martians were hostile, and we had no way of deciphering the messages. Only later were we able to decipher a few sections of the integrated messages that Tesla had recorded on a crude wire recording device. Tesla had been correct. They were Martian radio transmissions.
At the time professor Garrett Serviss stepped into the discussion and stated, “So to many it has not appeared unreasonable to assume that, since it is possible to transmit electric impulses for considerable distances over the Earth’s surface by the simple propagation of a series of waves, or undulations, without connecting wires, it may also be possible for us to send impulses through the ether from planet to planet as the Martians clearly do.”
After an interview with Dr. Tesla, New York Times reporter Waldermar Kaempffert, never a fan of any type of communication with the Martians, would describe Tesla as a “medieval practitioner of black arts as vague as an oriental mystic.” He also added that those who wrote about such things “…though they could not understand what Tesla was talking about, were enthralled with his proposals to communicate with Mars and to transmit power without wires over vast distances.”
As was his way Tesla said very little to his critics, that was until a group of occultists began to spread the word that Tesla was either a Martian himself or perhaps a hybrid spy or even a Venusian who had landed on Earth by one of their spacecraft. Tesla knew that any heartfelt response he gave could easily be misinterpret by the Press so he simply stated that such claims were silly and that he had “far too much work to do to comment on such ridicules matters.”
On the civilian side of the radio equation we could report that over 500 commercial radio stations were in operation by this time in the United States alone with another 620 in operation around the rest of the world most of which were in Europe and Asia. In the still dangerous oligarchy of the Soviet Union radio was still very tightly controlled. The people were allowed to own a radio-tochka or radio-point, which could receive only a single frequency which of course was fully controlled by the Communist government. Anyone attempting to “use other frequencies” could well find themselves working a coal mine in Siberia or worse!
It was also at this time, if I recall correctly, that workers began to set up the first true computing machines using radio vacuum tubes to conduct calculations. They were crude but we were certain that future work would not only produce faster machines but much smaller ones. These first tube devices were about the size of an average office and always quite hot. Keeping them cool was a full time job. In fact they were far too hot to keep in any small underground facility no matter how well ventilated it was. We would need to find a way to do mathematical computations in a whole new manor before we could place large computer systems underground. Eventually, this problem would be solved as massive 250 ton machines would go into operation – but that development was several years away.
The 301 or Type IV “Accounting Machine” had been originally designed to use a card-controlled method which would allow for mathematical calculations but it was soon adapted to tubes which made the work move along much faster. It could make 100 calculations per minute and print out 100 cards with the information at the same time. The Committee would spend a great deal of money and time producing these machines and improving them as fast as we could.
[END PART 39]
Copyright © R. Michael Gordon, 2020
